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Forums - Microsoft Discussion - Pachter: Microsoft is preparing for life after Xbox

Microsoft IS preparing for life after xbox though. He's absolutely right.
It is a sad fact that the console has had such a...erm..challenging beginning.
It's had exclusives panned and attacked, it's undergone a 180 in strategy TWICE...its creative offerings are simply not putting up the fight that they should be...and on top of which, they've (within a year) gone down to retail promotional sales of 279$ or 329$ if you don't count a free gift card as a sale.
Even worse, it can't outsell its main competition except for during holidays, in one country.

Now MS is saying that all xb1 games are going to pc. They're unveiling a new way to play games (with hololens), they're cutting price again (for real this time). The xbox1 designer even left MS about 3 weeks ago.

I think it's pretty obvious that xb1 is going away... sooner than later. The whole point of the xbox was to recoup the livingroom from sony and reintegrate the computer as a major player. While they didn't necessarily accomplish their goal, technology and social media has undergone a change that has well, put the computer back into the livingroom.

The writing is on the walls, folks.



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wyluzuj said:
nanarchy said:

sorry I misread you then. I took it as you believing it would be from 2 generations of console earlier. basically in 2 years we should see phone chips equal to this gens consoles processing power.


So waht?

By this logic an iPhone 4, 5 and 6 (or equal Andrioid smartphones) have more processing power than the old PS3 and X360.

NOW show me the mobile games which are equivalent to console games like: TLOU, GTA V, Gears Of War, Forza Motorsport, Uncharted and so on on !

Should be not be a problem beaucse those smartphones have equal or even double power of the last-gen consoles ...

power is one thing, usage of the power (=GAMES) is the other.

And last but not least the HEAT (!) an smartphone would burn if it run a game like TLOU or Gears over several hours, it has no cooler nor fans to run at the max CPU/GPU power over a longer time.

 

@PATCHER:


Well I can play something like Real Racing 3 on my iPad for hours at a time if I want and it won't melt, lol. 

The iPhone 6 is approaching PS3/360 horsepower, the reason you don't see games that utilize that much horsepower is because developers have to make sure their games will run on the iPhone 4/5/5c etc. too, not just the 6. 

That and these games have to be sold for $1 or even free and most mobile consumers actually prefer more simplistic style/casual/arcadey games. 

I don't want a glass of wine and an apetizer when I'm in a burger joint. 

The Vita runs Killzone, and Killzone looks comparable/better than some early gen PS3/360 titles. And the Vita's chipset is ancient, it's basically an iPhone 5 chip I believe, the newer chips that Apple uses smoke the Vita processor. 



theprof00 said:
Microsoft IS preparing for life after xbox though. He's absolutely right.
It is a sad fact that the console has had such a...erm..challenging beginning.
It's had exclusives panned and attacked, it's undergone a 180 in strategy TWICE...its creative offerings are simply not putting up the fight that they should be...and on top of which, they've (within a year) gone down to retail promotional sales of 279$ or 329$ if you don't count a free gift card as a sale.
Even worse, it can't outsell its main competition except for during holidays, in one country.

Now MS is saying that all xb1 games are going to pc. They're unveiling a new way to play games (with hololens), they're cutting price again (for real this time). The xbox1 designer even left MS about 3 weeks ago.

I think it's pretty obvious that xb1 is going away... sooner than later. The whole point of the xbox was to recoup the livingroom from sony and reintegrate the computer as a major player. While they didn't necessarily accomplish their goal, technology and social media has undergone a change that has well, put the computer back into the livingroom.

The writing is on the walls, folks.

How are the "creative offerings" not there?  Because they do not come out with games of unpopular genres? 

PC and console focus are both achievable especially considering gaming is a multi billion $ business right next to the film industry.  

Focus on PC gaming isn't a bad thing...its hugely profitable unlike consoles.  But some games just play better on consoles.  People are forgetting the 360 is still doing okay as it sold the most copies of CoD:AW over the holidays.  

If you think MS console sales are bad and think they will exit the console scene because of it then shouldn't Nintendo do the same thing?  Generation is still young and even if MS doesn't catch up to Sony they can still be successful. 

Besides, if this gen last another five years PC tech will be light years ahead moreso than last gen. 



There's been lots of discussions on how this is the last generation of an actual physical "box", but I don't buy it. I'd bet money there will still be a successor to Xbox One and PS4 in 7 years or so.



I bet there were analysts who claimed that radio would die when tv came along, and that tv would die when the Internet came along. Oh analysts...you're nothing but forum fanboys with larger fonts for your threads.



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theprof00 said:
Microsoft IS preparing for life after xbox though. He's absolutely right.
It is a sad fact that the console has had such a...erm..challenging beginning.
It's had exclusives panned and attacked, it's undergone a 180 in strategy TWICE...its creative offerings are simply not putting up the fight that they should be...and on top of which, they've (within a year) gone down to retail promotional sales of 279$ or 329$ if you don't count a free gift card as a sale.
Even worse, it can't outsell its main competition except for during holidays, in one country.

Now MS is saying that all xb1 games are going to pc. They're unveiling a new way to play games (with hololens), they're cutting price again (for real this time). The xbox1 designer even left MS about 3 weeks ago.

I think it's pretty obvious that xb1 is going away... sooner than later. The whole point of the xbox was to recoup the livingroom from sony and reintegrate the computer as a major player. While they didn't necessarily accomplish their goal, technology and social media has undergone a change that has well, put the computer back into the livingroom.

The writing is on the walls, folks.


The writings on the wall,

It won't go away, 

It's an an Omen..... 

 

Damn the songs stuck in my head! 



Sharpryno said:
theprof00 said:
Microsoft IS preparing for life after xbox though. He's absolutely right.
It is a sad fact that the console has had such a...erm..challenging beginning.
It's had exclusives panned and attacked, it's undergone a 180 in strategy TWICE...its creative offerings are simply not putting up the fight that they should be...and on top of which, they've (within a year) gone down to retail promotional sales of 279$ or 329$ if you don't count a free gift card as a sale.
Even worse, it can't outsell its main competition except for during holidays, in one country.

Now MS is saying that all xb1 games are going to pc. They're unveiling a new way to play games (with hololens), they're cutting price again (for real this time). The xbox1 designer even left MS about 3 weeks ago.

I think it's pretty obvious that xb1 is going away... sooner than later. The whole point of the xbox was to recoup the livingroom from sony and reintegrate the computer as a major player. While they didn't necessarily accomplish their goal, technology and social media has undergone a change that has well, put the computer back into the livingroom.

The writing is on the walls, folks.

How are the "creative offerings" not there?  Because they do not come out with games of unpopular genres? 

PC and console focus are both achievable especially considering gaming is a multi billion $ business right next to the film industry.  

Focus on PC gaming isn't a bad thing...its hugely profitable unlike consoles.  But some games just play better on consoles.  People are forgetting the 360 is still doing okay as it sold the most copies of CoD:AW over the holidays.  

If you think MS console sales are bad and think they will exit the console scene because of it then shouldn't Nintendo do the same thing?  Generation is still young and even if MS doesn't catch up to Sony they can still be successful. 

Besides, if this gen last another five years PC tech will be light years ahead moreso than last gen. 

Erm, I never said the first part. I meant the creative aspects of the system. The cool stuff like xbox fitness and snap and stuff like that. It's all there but it doesn't seem to be pushing all that much into the market. I mean, it should, but it isn't.

Here's the thing about PC and console. Microsoft is primarily a software maker. That is their forte. They have never made money on their consoles, in fact, they are still in the red over it, and its only growing. What they DO make money on however, is software. So the really natural, absolutely simple question is, why make consoles (which are red) when they can simply put software on the systems and platforms that DO exist. The one facet of their console that inherently generates money by itself is XBL Gold. And it's what, 1b in revenue a year....for a company that does 26b in a quarter? I'd say, if you can find a way to re-monetize and make the same money another way, do it.

Do you know why pc gaming is so profitable? Easy to code, massive install base, don't have to sell consoles, cheaper to make. People like consoles because they're easy to play, are generally simple pick up and play, use a different input, and can be played from your couch. But tell me, could MS be making the same money on software if they didn't have xb1? I think the answer there is yes, and I think throwing money at a console that can't keep up, is in essence taking away from a project that COULD be the next big thing....like hololens.

The difference between ms and nintendo is that nintendo is a toy company. They always have been. They generally make money on their consoles. It is an overreach on their part that they went with extremely costly screens for both the 3ds and the wiiU. However, nintendo is very good at making money as efficiently as possible, because they are a streamlined company. This is both good and bad. For consumers, we don't get all the games we want. For nintendo, it's good, because it helps give their games those godly legs. People KNOW there isn't going to be another metroid or smash within the next 5 years, so they buy the one that's available. This helps increase sales for each game, while cutting out the production costs of having to make succesive installments.

You could disagree about nintendo if you like, but there's one thing Nintendo has done that neither sony nor ms have been able to do. And that's make profit on every console generation no matter the success of the console. Nintendo is happy where they are, and they should be. They know what they're doing, because they are focusing on what they do best. Microsoft is taking their lead and focussing on what THEY do best. Software.

In the end, I can't prove it to you. I can't prove anything they are going to do, but the moves they are making, specifically putting all xb1 games onto pc, should really be a red flag to anyone who has been involved on this site. Do you know any other company that puts their games on pc? Sony doesn't. Nintendo doesn't. Sega did.



super_etecoon said:
I bet there were analysts who claimed that radio would die when tv came along, and that tv would die when the Internet came along. Oh analysts...you're nothing but forum fanboys with larger fonts for your threads.

Don't look at it like that. Look at it like this:
Tv absolutely did crush radio. Ratings are nowhere near what they used to be in its prime. However, radio evolved and has enjoyed a resurgence through new technologies and ideas. Despite this, tv killed off a lot of radio parts. Tv pretty much singlehandedly changed the way elections were ran. Tv killed off strong singers with bad presentation (unattractive, no dance moves, etc). Tv killed off radio story programs. Radio survived, but a lot of things that existed because of radio, were killed off by the evolution to tv.

What pachter is saying is inevitable. Just the idea of streaming itself is going to revolutionize the livingroom. We are just getting into the streaming era. Things are going to change, and not everyone will be happy. But it won't matter because 'the majority will be happy'.



theprof00 said:
Sharpryno said:

-scissor-

Erm, I never said the first part. I meant the creative aspects of the system. The cool stuff like xbox fitness and snap and stuff like that. It's all there but it doesn't seem to be pushing all that much into the market. I mean, it should, but it isn't.

Here's the thing about PC and console. Microsoft is primarily a software maker. That is their forte. They have never made money on their consoles, in fact, they are still in the red over it, and its only growing. What they DO make money on however, is software. So the really natural, absolutely simple question is, why make consoles (which are red) when they can simply put software on the systems and platforms that DO exist. The one facet of their console that inherently generates money by itself is XBL Gold. And it's what, 1b in revenue a year....for a company that does 26b in a quarter? I'd say, if you can find a way to re-monetize and make the same money another way, do it.

Do you know why pc gaming is so profitable? Easy to code, massive install base, don't have to sell consoles, cheaper to make. People like consoles because they're easy to play, are generally simple pick up and play, use a different input, and can be played from your couch. But tell me, could MS be making the same money on software if they didn't have xb1? I think the answer there is yes, and I think throwing money at a console that can't keep up, is in essence taking away from a project that COULD be the next big thing....like hololens.

The difference between ms and nintendo is that nintendo is a toy company. They always have been. They generally make money on their consoles. It is an overreach on their part that they went with extremely costly screens for both the 3ds and the wiiU. However, nintendo is very good at making money as efficiently as possible, because they are a streamlined company. This is both good and bad. For consumers, we don't get all the games we want. For nintendo, it's good, because it helps give their games those godly legs. People KNOW there isn't going to be another metroid or smash within the next 5 years, so they buy the one that's available. This helps increase sales for each game, while cutting out the production costs of having to make succesive installments.

You could disagree about nintendo if you like, but there's one thing Nintendo has done that neither sony nor ms have been able to do. And that's make profit on every console generation no matter the success of the console. Nintendo is happy where they are, and they should be. They know what they're doing, because they are focusing on what they do best. Microsoft is taking their lead and focussing on what THEY do best. Software.

In the end, I can't prove it to you. I can't prove anything they are going to do, but the moves they are making, specifically putting all xb1 games onto pc, should really be a red flag to anyone who has been involved on this site. Do you know any other company that puts their games on pc? Sony doesn't. Nintendo doesn't. Sega did.


On point! Couldn't agree more.



theprof00 said:

Erm, I never said the first part. I meant the creative aspects of the system. The cool stuff like xbox fitness and snap and stuff like that. It's all there but it doesn't seem to be pushing all that much into the market. I mean, it should, but it isn't.

Here's the thing about PC and console. Microsoft is primarily a software maker. That is their forte. They have never made money on their consoles, in fact, they are still in the red over it, and its only growing. What they DO make money on however, is software. So the really natural, absolutely simple question is, why make consoles (which are red) when they can simply put software on the systems and platforms that DO exist. The one facet of their console that inherently generates money by itself is XBL Gold. And it's what, 1b in revenue a year....for a company that does 26b in a quarter? I'd say, if you can find a way to re-monetize and make the same money another way, do it.

Do you know why pc gaming is so profitable? Easy to code, massive install base, don't have to sell consoles, cheaper to make. People like consoles because they're easy to play, are generally simple pick up and play, use a different input, and can be played from your couch. But tell me, could MS be making the same money on software if they didn't have xb1? I think the answer there is yes, and I think throwing money at a console that can't keep up, is in essence taking away from a project that COULD be the next big thing....like hololens.

The difference between ms and nintendo is that nintendo is a toy company. They always have been. They generally make money on their consoles. It is an overreach on their part that they went with extremely costly screens for both the 3ds and the wiiU. However, nintendo is very good at making money as efficiently as possible, because they are a streamlined company. This is both good and bad. For consumers, we don't get all the games we want. For nintendo, it's good, because it helps give their games those godly legs. People KNOW there isn't going to be another metroid or smash within the next 5 years, so they buy the one that's available. This helps increase sales for each game, while cutting out the production costs of having to make succesive installments.

You could disagree about nintendo if you like, but there's one thing Nintendo has done that neither sony nor ms have been able to do. And that's make profit on every console generation no matter the success of the console. Nintendo is happy where they are, and they should be. They know what they're doing, because they are focusing on what they do best. Microsoft is taking their lead and focussing on what THEY do best. Software.

In the end, I can't prove it to you. I can't prove anything they are going to do, but the moves they are making, specifically putting all xb1 games onto pc, should really be a red flag to anyone who has been involved on this site. Do you know any other company that puts their games on pc? Sony doesn't. Nintendo doesn't. Sega did.

Exactly what I am thinking as well. Very well written.