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Dallinor on 22 September 2020
Pemalite said:
RolStoppable said:

It is strange, but Microsoft spent big on Minecraft and then released Minecraft Dungeons day and date on all consoles, all the while Minecraft getting continuously updates everywhere.

You may find the lack of coherence and logical thinking on Microsoft's part perplexing (and it is), but that's just who they are. They have no clue, but they have money.

I always find it absolutely puzzling how people claim Microsoft has "no clue".
They definitely have a clue when it comes to business... Because I can not remember a time where they were financially struggling.

In short, Microsoft definitely has a clue, their strategy has to be working for them to still be raking in cash... And yes, Sony and Nintendo are a business also and also primarily exist to grab consumers wallets. Microsoft is simply better at it.

Conflating Xbox with MS? Or looking at purely their gaming division?

I don't understand why any part of that is confusing for you.



 

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goopy20 on 22 September 2020
chakkra said:
goopy20 said:

You forgot quantity there. I subscribed for 2 months and finished Wasteland 3, Battletoads, Grounded, Ori and played enough of Flightsim to know that it's not my cup of tea. Now I'm in lockdown, bored out of my mind and staring at 200 games thinking "nope, nope, nope". It's only $10 bucks but I cancelled anyway - because people are cheap bastards like that - waiting for new big releases before I sign up again. For MS to prevent this they'll need 3 things

  • quantity so every month there are a couple of A or AA games that'll make people wonder "what's next?!"
  • GAAS games that people can play forever
  • Or just cut normal AAA games into episodic content

Adding stuff to spider man is not the same thing as what they're doing with Halo. Games like Spider Man maybe get some DLC and then we're waiting for a sequel. With Halo there will be no sequel, they went full destiny on us. Not saying that is bad, we still have to wait and see how that'll turn out. All I'm saying is that they didn't make Halo GAAS because of design choice, they made it like that because of a business decision. And they'll probably do the same thing with most of their IPs. 

If they end up offering just those three things, will you keep your subscription?

Well, yes, probably. All depends if I keep enjoying those type of games. I love Halo but I have no idea if I'll enjoy a GAAS version of Halo too. If its like Destiny then it probably won't be my thing.

That's why I would have loved to see how MS will be handling Halo Infinite before they start snatching up whole publishers with the sole purpose of growing GP subscribers.

Last edited by goopy20 - on 22 September 2020

hinch on 22 September 2020
Dallinor said:
Pemalite said:

I always find it absolutely puzzling how people claim Microsoft has "no clue".
They definitely have a clue when it comes to business... Because I can not remember a time where they were financially struggling.

In short, Microsoft definitely has a clue, their strategy has to be working for them to still be raking in cash... And yes, Sony and Nintendo are a business also and also primarily exist to grab consumers wallets. Microsoft is simply better at it.

Conflating Xbox with MS? Or looking at purely their gaming division?

I don't understand why any part of that is confusing for you.

Well yeah there are a lot of divisions in Microsoft. A lot of their stuff is successful and a lot not.

Their gaming division wasn't a big focus for them in the grand scheme of things but clearly already with this acquisition they are heavily investing in Game Pass and trying to be the Netflix of gaming. The only real rivals that can buy up studios and publishers like this is Google, Apple or Amazon. But all the others never found success in consoles or as a dedicated gaming platform.



Wyrdness on 22 September 2020

This news certainly caused a storm and social media gaming groups to implode very powerful move by MS.



LudicrousSpeed on 22 September 2020
goopy20 said:
LudicrousSpeed said:

Is the pattern a quality library of different genres? What do I win for getting it right?

Wow, lots of great games with loads of replay value across different genres, and these aren't even their big titles. Sounds terrible.

Look, we all have different tastes in games. Personally I love stuff like Wasteland 3, battletoads, Grounded as well a AAA game like TLOU2. Only thing I'm saying is that Sony and MS are going with completely different strategies and it will show in the types of games they'll be focusing on.

Sony is all about story telling and single player blockbusters. If you don't like those sort of games, you're in luck because they wouldn't work with the GP model. MS will be about quantity, smaller scale games and experiences that keep people engaged with GP over a long period of time. Elder Scrolls Online, Tell me Why... perfect games for GP. Doom Eternal, Gear 5.. not so much. 

And yet Doom and every Gears game are on GamePass. Are you sure you’ve subscribed? You claim to have been a subscriber and played all these games yet you always talk like someone who has no clue what GamePass is. 



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sales2099 on 22 September 2020

There has been a lot of debate on the exclusivity of future Bethesda titles. Frankly, releasing games day 1 on PS5 is not gonna happen. That would happen anyway if MS didn’t spend a dime on the purchase. At the very least it’s timed exclusivity (I’d guess a year for maximum impact).

The real goal is Game Pass. People will feel more and more silly spending $70 per game when Game Pass has it and more for $15 a month. 15 million subscribers generating income every month....imagine if that number goes up to 30 million. 50 million. Long term it makes more sense to keep these games fully exclusive to boost sub numbers and console sales, which are the primary vehicle for GP adoption.

I know there’s all the quotes about being broadly available, but that easily can refer to Xbox console, PC, smartphones, laptops, tablets, etc. The Xbox ecosystem is broad in itself. Getting a cut from PS5 sales is peanuts compared to growing Game Pass by millions. Worst case the big titles will be timed exclusive. MS didn’t spend 7.5 billion to treat Bethesda like any other 3rd party dev.



Xbox: Best hardware, Game Pass best value, best BC, more 1st party genres and multiplayer titles. 

 

sales2099 on 22 September 2020
goopy20 said:
chakkra said:

The thing you don't seem (or don't want) to understand is that for ANY subscription-based model to be able to keep people subscribed you need to offer two things: Quality and variety.

Variety: If they only offer GAAS as you say, people who don't like that will just go away.

Quality: If people don't like what they offer, they will just go somewhere else to find it. And no, people will not keep paying "just because is cheap." You yourself have said MULTIPLE times that you just subscribe whenever a game that interests you comes in and then unsubscribe again.

Oh, and Halo is not simply going GAAS. They have said multiple times that the single-player campaign will be "the longest yet." So I ask you, if Sony provides you a satisfying single-player campaign on the next Spiderman, but then they keep adding stuff over the years on top of it, will you see that as a bad thing?

You forgot quantity there. I subscribed for 2 months and finished Wasteland 3, Battletoads, Grounded, Ori and played enough of Flightsim to know that it's not my cup of tea. Now I'm in lockdown, bored out of my mind and staring at 200 games thinking "nope, nope, nope". It's only $10 bucks but I cancelled anyway - because people are cheap bastards like that - waiting for new big releases before I sign up again. For MS to prevent this they'll need 3 things

  • quantity so every month there are a couple of A or AA games that'll make people wonder "what's next?!"
  • GAAS games that people can play forever
  • Or just cut normal AAA games into episodic content

Adding stuff to spider man is not the same thing as what they're doing with Halo. Games like Spider Man maybe get some DLC and then we're waiting for a sequel. With Halo there will be no sequel, they went full destiny on us. Not saying that is bad, we still have to wait and see how that'll turn out. All I'm saying is that they didn't make Halo GAAS because of design choice, they made it like that because of a business decision. And they'll probably do the same thing with most of their IPs. 

Really hope the service won’t be plagued by people who just beat the games they want and immediately unsubscribe. If you do what you do you can’t act surprised that games like Sea of Thieves are GAAS and Halo Infinite multiplayer is F2P. 

And it still amuses me that you have a anti Xbox reputation but admit to playing a LOT of their 1st party games this year. It shows MS has a winning strategy of reaching people that normally wouldn’t touch Xbox. 

Last edited by sales2099 - on 22 September 2020

Xbox: Best hardware, Game Pass best value, best BC, more 1st party genres and multiplayer titles. 

 

ipumpmygun on 22 September 2020

Do you guys think Microsoft's gaming division is capable of pumping out high calibre titles like the good old days or no?

Let's hope all of these acquisitions were all for nothing



Chazore on 22 September 2020

came across this from UE and I found this particular part amusing, due to the opposite reactions to this news: 6:43

Last edited by Chazore - on 22 September 2020

Step right up come on in, feel the buzz in your veins, I'm like an chemical electrical right into your brain and I'm the one who killed the Radio, soon you'll all see

So pay up motherfuckers you belong to "V"

Pemalite on 22 September 2020
AsGryffynn said:

TES became big only when Skyrim dropped. Fallout also did the same when F3 happened. 

Oblivion sold 3~ million copies by 2007. - It has sold more copies in the last 13 years as it still accrues sales on PC.
Morrowind sold 4~ million copies by 2005. - It has also continued to accrue sales on the PC over those 15 years.

And Oblivion was the fastest selling game up to that point on 360.
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/news120406oblivion

Elder scrolls was always big, just not on console, it was a PC title first. Skyrim obviously blew up due in part to circumstance, it came out at a time where Multiplayer was the rage and focus and games were dropping single-player, so having a long single player game was a breath of fresh air for many.

Fallout is another game that always did well on PC... And I would argue Fallout 1+2 is better than the later entries into the franchise anyway from a gameplay/story perspective... But that isn't the point we are getting at.

hunter_alien said:

Also, I hate doing research for others, but just for the argument's sake here you go:

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27373587

The burden of proof generally lays on whoever makes the claim.

So if you claimed something, someone refutes it, then the onus is on you to prove it, not for them to "do research".

sales2099 said:
There has been a lot of debate on the exclusivity of future Bethesda titles. Frankly, releasing games day 1 on PS5 is not gonna happen. That would happen anyway if MS didn’t spend a dime on the purchase. At the very least it’s timed exclusivity (I’d guess a year for maximum impact).

The real goal is Game Pass. People will feel more and more silly spending $70 per game when Game Pass has it and more for $15 a month. 15 million subscribers generating income every month....imagine if that number goes up to 30 million. 50 million. Long term it makes more sense to keep these games fully exclusive to boost sub numbers and console sales, which are the primary vehicle for GP adoption.

I know there’s all the quotes about being broadly available, but that easily can refer to Xbox console, PC, smartphones, laptops, tablets, etc. The Xbox ecosystem is broad in itself. Getting a cut from PS5 sales is peanuts compared to growing Game Pass by millions. Worst case the big titles will be timed exclusive. MS didn’t spend 7.5 billion to treat Bethesda like any other 3rd party dev.

It would not bother me if they went exclusive to be honest, one of the largest criticisms of the Xbox as a brand has been the lack of exclusives, this is a way to turn that criticism around in my opinion.

But yeah, the goal is to suck people into Game Pass... I have to admit, it's getting tempting.



--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--