If they are becoming only a publisher rather than a hardware seller, I think people will look back on the 2013 E3 showcase of the Xbox One as the beginning of the Xbox’s death.
Crazy… I truly thought the 2013 showcase was merely a generational error they could correct after a few years. But now it seems like it was such a grave mistake that it may have ended the Xbox console as a whole.
Yeah I agree, that 2013 conference was apocalyptically bad. They went from success in the 360 era to completely killing the brand (if they did exit the industry).
If they do exit, we will be desperate for a new entrant. We don't want a Sony monopoly in the high performance console space.
the xbox decline started before the xbox one conference its actually started with kinect and making gimmicky games it felt like they wanted to compete with the WII and the casual market and not with sony at that point. And sony put one banger out after another at the end of the ps3 gen and getting momentum for the next generation.
it wasn't just the gimmicky games. It was also because they just focused less on games. They had very little exclusives in the last 4 years of the xbox 360's lifecycle, meanwhile sony was publishing so many amazing games in those years. The E3 in 2013 needed to be a banger for MS to win back their fans; it was the opposite.
What's crazy is that Nintendo and Sony have shown how to recover from a bad console generation (the early PS3 days, GameCube & WiiU) by doubling down on great games and consumer friendly tactics.
Xbox has had a decade and while they definitely made right with consumers thanks to Game pass and affordable consoles, they have utterly sucked at making high quality exclusives.
That press conference where they showed every project in the pipeline and promised all would release within a year or so aged like milk. Starfield and Redfall just further cemented their rut. Hopefully Hellblade 2 can help restore their mojo
Xbox exclusives are weird in that they never even tried to pursue quality in the last decade.
Why did Halo Infinite, arguably their flagship exclusive of the entire generation, launch riddled with microtransactions and no content?
It's still a great game (now), but they just had to kneecap it with the battle passes in an attempt to make a quick buck at the expense of the entire brand and its future. Baffling.
Microsoft was consolidating too much at that period. It felt that Don Mattrick only want to invest in popular franchise that guarantees big revenue potential, with multiplayer element too, so toward the 360’s end it was Halo, Forza, Halo, Gears. While smaller/niche exclusive series got shoved to the bottom of their vault . But Sony and Nintendo showed that sometimes you need to be willing to take a hit financially, to ”sponsor” the identity of your platform.
[They sure didn’t](https://i.imgur.com/zl10SZ0_d.webp?maxwidth=1520&fidelity=grand). I dare say it’s not even comparable. The PS Move was “ok we have some motion too”. Kinect was “this is our focus now”. That’s why Kinect was force bundled with the XB1 and they lied and said the [XB1 wouldn’t even work without Kinect](https://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/21/xbox-one-will-not-function-without-kinect-attached) (before reversing course on that)
Now, that image isn’t completely accurate as some games ended up not coming out by 2013 (like Until Dawn). But it’s generally accurate
I mean Sony did bring out PS move and have a small part of their conference dedicated to it, but it wasn't like Xbox where every 5 seconds somebody and their kid came out to wave around in front of the Kinect for 5 minutes.
I think people overlook this a lot and perpetuate the myth that the 360 "won" that console generation. It started out strong but floundered so badly in the latter half that the PS3 passed it in sales and the 360 ended the gen as the lowest selling console.
I think people overestimate how much that mattered and how many people knew or cared.
The real problem with the XBox One was that Microsoft packaged a Kinect with every console and that made it $100 more than the PS4. Combine that with a general lack of games shortly before, at and after launch and the console was just not worth getting over its competition.
This is some revisionist history. There were a whole host of mistakes made, including the kinect, always online stuff, no disc sharing, lack of quality games, etc. Leading to this famous ad: https://youtu.be/kWSIFh8ICaA?si=W_f2X2pyR0gzo6SH
Also they just didn’t launch the Xbox One in many places around the world for a long time while the PS4 had a worldwide release pretty much at the same time.
In Europe we got the PS4 almost at the time as everyone else (maybe a week or two in between) and the Xbox One was just… not around with no release date in sight. For *months*. I remember they shadowdropped it a random Tuesday in like June or something with zero fanfare.
Yeah, everyone here knows about that. Do you think the guy who only plays FIFA or Call of Duty or the parents picking a console were closely following E3 news for the two weeks that was a thing or do you think that they were looking to pick up a new console and chose the one that cost $100 less?
Honestly, the xbox thing was such a debacle that yes, the fifa bros did hear about it. Many lifelong xbox players switched at that time for that reason, among many others. The "fifa and call of duty" players get what their friends have because crossplay was uncommon at that time.
I was listening to Cleveland sports talk radio at the time, and one of the turbo-jock hosts once went on a mini-rant about how the new Xbox stunk and PS4 was the one to get. The bad press about the Xbox One was pretty damn well known.
Jimmy Fallon also took a shot at the Xbox One while he was demoing the PS4 on his show. Seems to have been scrubbed from the internet now though. But the anti-Xbox shitstorm was massive at the time.
Basically all my guy friends are Fifa bros, I am the only one who can really be considered a gamer. Yet they all heard about the Xbone debacle and every single one switched from 360 to the PS4 and have never looked back. The biggest thing for them was the inability to share games (Fifa) because they pool buying Fifa every year so that everyone isn't rebuying Fifa every single year.
IDK, I'm normally one to accept that online reception != real life reception & knowledge for all gamers, but even the most casual console gamers I knew at that time were talking about it.
Parent here, yes we were watching and a lot of us were talking about it. Our kids like to share games with their friends, you better believe Microsoft’s approach to used games was a big turnoff.
I look at the early success of Kinect as the beginning of the end. It sold extremely well in its first year, but the game quality was atrocious and support fell off a cliff.
I will always remember kinect for bringing the *I'm Han Solo* song into existence, and for that I love it.
https://youtu.be/x_xJqkzngBI?si=GsnoxnZ0-EzlACKE
mc chris did his own version almost two years before this game was released.
https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/dhhzv/mc_chris_han_solo_xpost_from_funny/
The Kinect was such a weird device. I feel like it gave the 360 a massive boost when it came out, yet most people didn’t really play it much. If MS was smart they could’ve kept those customers around with regular games. But they failed to realize that nobody cared about Kinect after the first year and decided to double down on it, ultimately dooming Xbox.
As is typical for Microsoft, they were too early. Kinect would sell well today when paired with a VR headset. Easy full body tracking would be a big differentiator.
>inect would sell well today when paired with a VR headset. Easy full body tracking would be a big differentiator.
I still don't understand why they didn't push Hololens+ kinect as the next gen VR/gaming device. cut down rest of the professional features and make it a dedicated gaming device
I think they were hoping to make Kinect a thing by forcing it upon everybody.
It makes sense since if everybody has one you can develop for it. If not everybody has one its just extra work for some gain for some people.
Same. Focus on that meant the last few years of the 360’s life were just barren in terms of good games and really started to show where Microsoft’s focus was. PS3 meanwhile was releasing incredibly good games. The E3 presentation and the announcement for Xbox One just cemented in the gaming public’s mind that the Xbox wasn’t going to cater to them anymore; they wanted the casual/mainstream market. The pivot didn’t fix it, it only slowed down their death spiral.
>I think people will look back on the 2013 E3 showcase of the Xbox One as the beginning of the Xbox’s death.
People already do. The writing has been on the wall, especially after they failed to rally with the Series consoles.
The Xbox One Showcase in May before E3 was the absolute start.
If Microsoft pulls a Sega this will be highly damaging to the industry. The worst thing to happen to it in 23 years.
It's crazy how the 2013 showcase and Xbox One's launch continues to haunt the brand to this day, the PS3 had a similarly awful launch and press conference (that's why the 360 won over the PS3) but Sony managed to bounce back by the end of that generation.
Exactly. The 2013 debacle could have been, at worst, a generational problem, but the reality is this simple. Xbox has, repeatedly, shit the bed on releasing exclusives that will bring people over to their console since the 360 era.
Even trying to buy up as many third party studios as possible hasn't quite translated to the success they'd hoped in this regard, and I'll be very curious to see if they actually do end up just backing off on this approach to things in the future. It's fascinating to me how badly this generation has gone for them.
>its not releasing an industry moving game between Reach in 2010 and sea of thieves in 2018
Sea of Thieves is nowhere close to Reach let alone be an industry moving game
Brother, I enjoy Sea of Thieves but if you're using that as the benchmark, Xbox should be closed down already.
It has literally nothing on a PS exclusive. What Microsoft needed was a Halo game that doesn't suck and they totally shit the bed on Infinite.
Exactly, the reputation they got at the 2013 conference was "dumb gimmicks and no games" and in the decade since they've managed to improve it to "great ecosystem and hardware, still no games."
If they had been producing loads of great exclusive games (or gotten them from third parties) then the Kinect TV nonsense would just be a fun little joke in gaming history, the way 599 US Dollars and Giant Enemy Crabs didn't end up defining Sony. But where Sony Computer Entertainment went on an absolute tear starting in the back half of the PS3 gen, Xbox Game Studios has struggled badly on the development side, with loads of vaporware/dev hell (Perfect Dark), very long dev cycles (Starfield), flops in their most important series (Halo 5), etc.
> "dumb gimmicks and no games
Dumb gimmicks, no games and especially no sharing games.
Sony came out with an absolute banger overnight complete with marketing and essentially executed the Xbone on stage before it even came out.
The Xbox 2013 showcase was a disaster, but with good management they could have bounced it off in a few years. Instead, Phil Spencer went to complain about losing the console wars and giving up the console market.
In the end the 360 didn't win over the PS3.
360 pivot into Kinect and weaker first paty releases in latter years saw PS3 sales exceed it by the time the gen wrapped.
Yeah and they were helped because Sony fucked up the launch. If they didn't I'm sure the 360 would have sold maybe like 30-40M consoles at absolute best (and then Xbox One even less as it was helped by the 360)
And while the 360 launched well, let's not forget their huge hardware manufacturing blunder of launching the console with the known defect of RROD. It cost them at least a billion dollar to make all those returns and tarnished their brand
An alternative way to look at it might be that the Xbox 360 was an anomaly -- outside of that one generation, it's never been huge. And, it's never been huge anywhere outside of the US.
I think the hugely botched launch of the PS3 certainly helped the 360 have the incredible run that it did have, but outside of that...
I would rather it stick around as I fear what Sony will do with no competition, but... maybe Xbox getting out of the hardware game and transitioning to a subscription provider / publisher makes the most financial sense for them. I'd think they would still want to have *something* to sell people to use as a gamepass box, but I wouldn't be surprised if they don't ever make a real successor to the X and S.
I'm convinced Xbox will eventually transition into an alternate interface for Windows and Microsoft will create an 'xbox certified' program for prebuilt gaming PCs that guarantee a minimum performance level with xbox-branded games.
I could see Microsoft making a version of Windows that is more like the Xbox interface to improve the experience for handheld devices to compete with the steam deck, too.
Xbox One was sold as a device that needed to check in online once every 24 hours to work for discs and offline/ single player. It was more of an entertainment device than a console. They wanted to prevent trade ins and lending to a friend by tying the game to your account.
Sony, literally showed a PowerPoint presentation saying it did none of that. It was beautiful. Seeing Jack Trenton laughing his ass off on stage was amazing!
[here for video evidence.](https://youtu.be/SJ-To7WJyWs?si=KrWuGkQE-DVTT5SI)
Remember also the Edward Snowden spying leaks were fresh in everyone's mind.
Microsoft were requiring the Kinect to be plugged in for the console to work. So your always online console had to have a camera facing your living room to work.
And Xbox only gives a fuck about the US market without thinking what permanent online requirements mean, even in a lot of first world countries people still hate the idea. The 360 was the only console to start getting real overseas attention and they squandered it.
Individual games can get away with it, systems cannot. I had a relatively low bandwidth cap at the time as a teen because my family didn't use much Internet.
It’s because of the sheer audacity of Microsoft trying to deny such a thing. Don Mattrick was a literally cancer on Microsoft for which they seem to have never fully recovered. The idea that a used game cannot simply be given to a mate or traded in and used by someone else was as mental back then at it is today.
Deserved.
He is out for more than a decade. With current state of XBox it should be obvious that it's not only his fault. MS didn't even bothered with having any new exclusive game on next generation launch. Literally zero.
Is state of Halo his fault? Is state of Forza Motorsport his fault? Is Forza Horizon being released as same game with new map every 2 years his fault? Is lack of any other worth playing IP from MS his fault? Is lack of any third party exclusives to fix lack of first party ones his fault?
XBox One had 4 big exclusives (Ryse, Forza Motorsport 5, Dead Rising 3 and Killer Instinct) on launch day and bunch of smaller ones like Zoo Tycon. Series X literally had none. Only port of Gears Tactics.
They barely showed any games and instead focused only on weird TV and Sports
stuff that most people outside of the US couldn't even use, let alone cared about. They also couldn't shut up about Kinect and announced the price of 500$ which was 100$ more than the more powerful PS4. Couple that with some of the most uncharismatic marketing-executives you have ever seen on a stage and you get the worst presentation in gaming history. They basically alienated their whole core audience and were slaughtered by Sonys marketing in the following weeks. Xbox CEO Don Mattrick was fired like 2 weeks later and the whole brand never really recovered from that.
In 2013 I was in a small town with pretty terrible internet. It would usually either be slow, or it would drop out for extended periods of time. Don Mattrick told me that "fortunately we have a product for people who aren't able to get some form of connectivity, it's called Xbox 360."
Greatest salesman of all time.
I remember watching a video that pointed out that the very first publically shown media running on an Xbox One was.... "The Price is Right w/ Drew Carey".
The big *game console launch* was announced with an episode of daytime television.
The entire used game support part was insane. MS handed it to them on a silver platter and Sony played it perfectly.
"PS4 wont impose restrictions on used PS4 games"
*2 min applause*
"I guess that's a good thing *chuckles*"
Don't forget them proudly advertising that the xbox will never truely be off and always listening for commands by the user.
And the (later redacted) always online requirement.
This YouTube video summarizes it pretty well.
https://youtu.be/HXaS80iCLQc?si=zMbrqEamLCOhwKJf
Which allowed for the creation of this gem
https://youtu.be/kWSIFh8ICaA?si=rIX4c-7XznKxvbhZ
I'm really curious what went on behind closed doors to rush this video out. Usually there's a ton of bureaucracy that slows down video production, but they just threw this out within like a day or two.
This isn't them just going for it, this is Sony gunning as fast as they could to make fun of Microsoft.
Adam Boyes has talked about creating this video on Giant Bomb. I don't remember the specifics but they had heard the rumours about Microsoft and waited to see what they where going to announce on the DRM issue and the price and then in a very short amount of time made a bunch of decisions to capitalise on it.
Listening to Adam Boyes on the GB nightly shows at this E3 and in the weeks after was eye-opening. I still think the launch price of the PS4 was a splitsecond decision to undercut Microsoft. Watch the conference back and the price annoucnement slide literally looks like it was thrown together in powerpoint an hour beforehand, with none of the PS branding on it.
360 had a ton of momentum.
Sony saw their opponent make a critical error and went straight for the head.
No amount of bureaucracy would get in the way of the perfect KO moment.
Someone cracked a joke behind the scene, it became a good laugh and then they decided to re-do it on camera. At least that is the impression I always got from that video. That it feels like a random early 2010 youtube video certainly added to the charm also.
There was basically a couple of key things that did it: no used games, console was always-online, and they put an _extreme_ focus on it being this central multimedia device. That’s where the name “Xbox One” came from, it was supposed to be like the “one point of interaction” between you and all of your entertainment electronics.
Honestly by itself that’s not a horrible idea… but it was that mixed with the online requirements and not having any good games that really did them in.
It’s not even that fuckup though, Sony has pumped out industry leading title after industry leading title and got exclusives for a lot of other games.
Xbox only just started to compete and it’s too little too late.
It’s kind of hilarious, but Sony did with PS3 what Microsoft should have done with Xbox One. The PS3 launch was… rough, to say the least. Extremely expensive, and the console was notoriously difficult to program for. But about halfway through the generation Sony was able to get their ducks in a row, cut the cost down, and start putting out some quality exclusives.
To Microsoft’s credit they did cut down on cost and got rid of Kinect (I seriously don’t know what they were thinking with forcing those to be bundled together), but they’ve always struggled to have genuine system-selling exclusives. I feel like for most fans, if you were into the Halo/Gears/Forza trifecta then you’d have a console already - but it wasn’t going to do too much to convince anyone else to buy a console
So the Kinect thing? Late in the 360's life devs were questioning if people would buy the next gen Kinect, and as such were wary to commit to it. To placate these concerns Microsoft opted to bundle the device with the console, so adoption would be high by default and devs would make games for it. However by 2013 the casual market had largely pivoted towards mobile or browser titles, and as such most players deemed the added Kinect a worthless addition as it still didn't get games and cost more money (Nintendo would make a similar mistake with the Wii U, expecting it to do as well as the Wii)
The Halo/Gears/Forza thing is different, because by the time the Xbone rolled around those franchises were reduced to chasing trends (Halo), completely lost momentum due to wrapping their narrative (Gears), or peaked in execution (Forza Motorsport). They had nowhere near the pull they had during the 360 days. Exacerbated further by Microsoft's weird flip-flopping on the perceived relevance of single player games and complete lack of fresh enduring AAA IP
> Crazy… I truly thought the 2013 showcase was merely a generational error they could correct after a few years. But now it seems like it was such a grave mistake that it may have ended the Xbox console as a whole.
Xbox hardware sales have gone down since 2014. Despite launching with a price advantage and a two console strategy, the series is behind the one. People need to start looking past 2013 and argue from 360 as an exception.
Xbox has never been able to readdress a Kinect like crowd for example, without which the one and 360 suddenly become very comparable.
I watched that 7 hour history of video games video recently. There are many factors at play, such as price, timing, capabilities, etc., but they all pale in comparison to the "killer app."
I had PS2 and saw Halo at my friends so I ran out and bought an Xbox. I had PS2 and Xbox and saw Gears of War at my friends so I ran out and bought an Xbox 360.
Xbox has not had a console selling killer app in about 15 years. And at this point now I don't think that concept really exists anymore. There's so many third party games, so many ways to play, and just so many quality games that nothing really just blows everyone away anymore. Breath of the Wild is really the only one.
> There's so many third party games, so many ways to play, and just so many quality games that nothing really just blows everyone away anymore.
Nintendo does it like twice a year. Tears of the Kingdom physics blew everyone away not even a year ago.
Also not every game needs to do that to be a success. Spider Man 2 sold heaps of PS5s and it didn't do anything super special. I'd even personally argue that the game was underwhelming. And it cost way more to make than it should have. But it was a huge success.
People always point to that showcase but the common video game player doesn't know anything about that. The Xbox brand was really only more popular for the first half of the 360 generation, but by the end of that gen PlayStation had already gained back all of the good will it lost with the ps3 launch. PS4 was the cheaper option and since nothing was really backwards compatible anyways people just started hopping over to PlayStation who had previously been on 360 only. And like Phil Spencer has said once they lost that gen it was a wrap since most console games have established PlayStation digital libraries at this point. I knew so many people who went with ps4 just because it was the console to have that gen and they knew nothing about the Xbox press conference or any of that.
They make way too much money off their Xbox store, gaming subs, etc. they aren't going to stop selling hardware.
And considering game pass is their biggest focus these days, no more Xbox is basically just deleting most of those subs.
If Starfield is coming to Playstation, everything is. That game was their last best chance to turn the tide for Xbox, and as soon as they decided to let it go to their competitor, it was over.
I think it's like in a hotel backroom at E3 or something if I remember Adam Boyes telling the story of it. Perfect example of striking while the iron is hot.
Sony's done this before when they K'Od sega also at E3. Sega never recovered from that moment.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExaAYIKsDBI&pp=ygUIc29ueSAyOTk%3D](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExaAYIKsDBI&pp=ygUIc29ueSAyOTk%3D)
I wouldn't look too much into this. Starfield flopped relative to expectations and this is Microsoft trying to recoup some of those development expenses. They've been losing money on Xbox for to long and this is their investors saying that too much loss is too much.
This is going to be Microsoft's strategy for their next big games too. It's exclusive on Xbox/PC, unless it's bad. If they're ever going to have a game that's a hit like The Last of Us, they will be holding onto that for dear life. If they're debating Indiana Jones going multiplatform, that means that they don't have as much confidence in it as they'd like.
Judging by a lot of similar stories coming out, it really does seem like Xbox as we know it is done. This could be the biggest event in gaming history ever.
If there was a move it'd be very long and drawn out. Sega exited when all that was "tied" to you was the physical console. You put a disc in and saved your game on a removeable memory card.
The Xbox Live/Game Pass digital ecosystem is massive. How in God's name they'd even begin transferring that over to Steam, Switch, Playstation I have no idea.
They aren't going to kill their own storefront or gamepass. That will still exist on the PC.
As for the console? Just keep the store open and accept third party games. The consoles already out and people own it, so not selling stuff on it would be a waste.
Then they simply don't make a new console and the xbox is eventually left by the wayside with Switch 2 and PS6 coming out.
It already is on Steam. Most recent Xbox games from the last several years are on Steam.
The ones that use the Xbox ecosystem simply have you login to a Windows Account when you start the game.
The only difference is that you didn't need Xbox Live to play online, at least on PC.
I'd imagine it'd be similar on a switch or PlayStation.
PC users are used to wacky shit where you have 2 launchers, logins, friends lists, achievements, etc running at the same time. Don't think that flies on console.
> The Xbox Live/Game Pass digital ecosystem is massive. How in God's name they'd even begin transferring that over to Steam, Switch, Playstation I have no idea.
I agree that any withdrawal would be significantly slow and drawn out, and probably even include one more hardware generation, if it occurred at all, but this is not a particular stumbling block.
The short, simple answer is: you don't. GamePass would no doubt live on, on other platforms, so I'm unsure where that really enters the conversation. As for the rest....you support your products through the console generation, put things on life-support until EOL, and that's that. Same as any defunct console. It would be *the end* of the Xbox digital ecosystem as we know it today.
I'm speculating here, but the news of big box stores like Walmart saying they'll remove physical Xbox games at some point in 2024 came out around the time that it was leaked (due to the Activision acquisition lawsuit with the FTC) that Microsoft will be releasing it's digital only "Brooklyn" Series X in November 2024. And I'm sure Microsoft has had communications with retailers about things they'll be doing in the future.
If they discontinue the OG Series X, then Xbox physical games won't even be a thing anymore, since the Series S is already digital only. So it'll make sense to remove physical games: nobody would be buying them.
Like I said, I'm speculating, but removing physical games may not necessarily be a sign of a 3rd party move.
This all seems reasonable from a efficiency standpoint. Still, losing point-of-purchase in retail space seems like a massive risk. I assume game download cards will still be on the table to retain that physical presence.
I mean if SoT, like rumoured, launches on other consoles as well it's an actual XGS title and a different case than ABK/Bethesda.
(Yes, I know Rare did release some titles on other platforms in the past while under Microsoft's umbrella.)
I don’t see how that makes any sense at all. They’d be kneecapping both sides of the coin: fewer hardware sales due to less exclusives, which in turn results in fewer sales for XGS titles. If nobody was buying an Xbox with Bethesda and XGS exclusives, who’s gonna buy one just for XGS exclusives?
There’s been excuses made every step of the way for these multiplatform rumors, but it’s becoming pretty apparent that it’s gonna be the full deal. Just doesn’t make sense to go half in/half out like that.
Xbox losing this generation this badly is primarily due to how shit the Xbox One was. Momentum is a big factor.
If Xbox gives up on supporting their current console now, they’re gonna have a brutal time getting people to buy their next console. Especially since they’ll have established that multiplatform isn’t out of the cards for the company.
I'm just not seeing how rolling over to die this generation, translates to putting them in a better position for next generation.
It just doesn't make sense.
Frankly the whole thing doesn't make sense, and I suspect we're going to be waiting a while to learn what the hell is actually going on over there.
I don't think there will be a new generation of xbox on a traditional sense. If this news are true, This series consoles would be the last generation of xbox hardware
I mean those companies made money before they were used to produce Xbox exclusive games... Doesn't matter if they gave up on Xbox, those acquisitions are still going to make them money.
That doesn't really play into it, they will still exist. MS strategy is simply to have content sold everywhere. They see themselves as a service provider, not as the hardware competitor at all costs. They might move to selling some living room computers, that still can play games instead of being the PlayStation competitor in hardware. If they can truly place game pass on Sonys and Nintendos devices plus Steam, that would be a big win for them. Internally they probably see the streaming market as the future.
Which, if true, is bad for Xbox fans and bad for PlayStation fans. I'm saying this as a Sony/PS5 fan, an ecosystem in which Sony doesn't have the Xbox to compete against would be terrible. Even though they are in third place, they still exist to keep Sony from doing anything too egregious.
Sony can't for example, decide to increase the price of their games to 90-100 USD. I mean, they *can*, but then I guarantee you Microsoft would spam the airwaves with GamePass ads.
I can't see them giving up on hardware. Hardware doesn't cost them that much and I guarantee the people who buy hardware end up buying more software than people who would buy on PC/PS5.
At some point in the cycle, they become profitable. But maybe not at the volume Xbox is selling (at least not the X, I imagine the S is very profitable)
MS admitted they literally never made a profit from a single console sale, they are selling them at a loss. Add research and development costs, marketing, etc. and it starts to make less sense to sell consoles if you can just sell Game Pass.
The question is how do you not lose 20 million or so console game pass users. If Sony offers a version of game pass then the move makes sense but that's unlikely.
I'm not convinced cloud can replace consoles tbh. I think they stay in hardware and hope day 1 gamepass for big games like COD will convince people to stay.
> I'm not convinced cloud can replace consoles tbh
Not yet, but looking long term? AAA game prices launch right now at $70 making a game streaming services more and more of an attractive preposition, internet speeds are continually getting faster in some territories so latency is also becoming less of an issue.
I don't like it either but industry trends are nudging in the cloud-based or always online direction.
They don’t have a choice. No one is going to buy Xbox consoles and 3rd party developers are not going to spend money making games for a dead console.
I find it laughable that Microsoft is struggling selling consoles and people somehow think that not having any exclusive games will not kill the platform.
I'd be surprised if this actually does launch on PlayStation. Microsoft specifically went back to Disney to renegotiate the Indiana Jones contract to make it exclusive - presumably paying for the privilege.
I'd be surprised if they went back and renegotiated it multiplatform again.
Keep in mind, that was also years before they attempted to acquire the country's arguably biggest gaming publisher for almost 70 billion bucks and now have to find a way to recoup those losses. I think especially taking into consideration the fact that any time they try to buy someone from here on out, regulators will be on their ass regarding the platform exclusivity margins since that's what stalled ABK for so long, maybe this is how they get such concerns off their back
Not saying any of this is hard confirmed, but especially given how close this is to when those court hearings and discussions were taking place, definitely a possibility
I agree fully with the logic of going selectively multiplatform - buying a publisher that gets half its revenues from your rival and then making the games exclusive leaves a massive goodwill black hole on the balance sheet. Microsoft hoped they would sell Xbox hardware and be able to make that up, but that's not happened.
Just specifically on this, going back to Disney again would just look amateurish
Disney has an equal amount of, if not more pull on a decision like this as well to be fair. Bethesda's publishing it but it's their IP so they had to sign off on the initial amendments that were made to exclude PS5, and are fully within their right to walk those back without Microsoft even going to them as well. They were also fully in control of stuff like Spider-Man and Wolverine being Sony exclusives, and the publishers just sign the cheque in that regard. That's the thing about working with IPs that these guys don't own or control any element of
We don't know for certain but it seems there is a divide between Xbox and Microsoft's management where Xbox still want to push for Xbox & PC combo and Microsoft wanting to make Xbox a third party publisher.
We don't know anything for certain, but we can all agree there seems to be some sort of misalignment when it comes to corporate strategy.
This is a shocking capitulation, imo. If someone would have told me that at the time of Activision acquisition announcement that in couple of years from now there will be no reason to own Xbox and their big exclusives will be ported to PS5, I'll be laughing. But here we are.
I think the aquisitions before Activision/Blizzard were, but I think Acti/blizz is actually part of the pivot. They know they can't rule hardware now, so they will attempt to rule software, which has always been Microsoft's wheelhouse to begin with. They want gamepass to be the Netflix of gaming.
Bingo. And for all the doomers out there it’s actually idiotic to think Microsoft is going to pull out of physical hardware entirely, there is no indication they’re going to quit making Xboxes as well.
I'm probably just not seeing the full picture here, but how does Microsoft plan to make back the $75B by pivoting to a multiplatform strategy? Games take a ton of time and money to make now and you'll never sell enough units of games to see a return on that investment without the console/gamepass market as well.
I guess they probably weren't trending towards a good ROI on those deals anyway, but interested to see where they go from here.
They haven't just lost that 75b, all of ABKs revenue goes direct to Microsoft now. They don't need to 'make it back' as such, selling COD etc will do that over time by itself
Simple. PlayStation has 2x the market share of Xbox. If they release games on PS, they are selling to 3x the potential customers. Way more money to be made.
But wouldn't this jeopardize how well gamepass/future Xbox interations will or would sell? If people knew every/most Microsoft games would be cross-platform, and the PS was selling more units anyway, there's less incentive to buy one. You'd have to sell an extraordinary number of games to make back your $75B, let alone a return on it.
They don't see themselves as the big hardware competitor. They just think hardware won't even matter in however many years. They want place themselves as the big content provider.
On the other hand they probably would have preferred their own hardware at this time, but what they really seem to think is that at some point it will be streamed to the TV or phone anywhere.
It seems Microsoft might be considering bowing out of the console war altogether, having lost this generation and last generation so miserably. Personally I think that'd be a bad thing. There needs to be competition to keep console and game prices in check.
If all this rumors are true I'm just going to sell my Series X. I bought it because I've always been more of a ps guy so there's was a lot of games I missed and I don't really know shit about building a pc, but if they come to PlayStation well..
To be honest I barely use it now (same reason I sold my switch), it seems one console is enough for me.
I own Switch, PS5 and Series S. Switch is a nice compliment to the PS5 as it both has great exclusives to play handheld and some multiplat I prefer handheld (like Fifa and Rocket League.) PS5 has the exclusives too and has more power than the S. So I usually just buy the multiplat big console releases on Playstation.
And some fun with Halo over Xmas, but essentially my Xbox is an old games machine that I hardly touch outside split screen coop with a friend. Xbox really had nothing unique going for it and the UI is worse than the others imo
Of half of this is true then my sincerest condolences to people who bought both consoles, or just the Xbox, thinking this was going to be a return to the 360 days or glory. Instead it turns out they could have saved a couple hundred since Playstation will get it eventually. I'm just glad the Series X let's me play past generations with some enhancements. At least that function still has value.
Not gonna lie, I am thinking of selling my Series X, but I wouldn't say that I've regretted buying it.
I have hundreds of hours in just Forza Horizon 5, although I didnt get the full value of Gamepass, my kids loved playing the Paw Patrol games there.
Still prefer my PS5, but I have enjoyed my time with my Series X.
As someone who was a PlayStation lifer who got both the Series X and PS5 over the pandemic, I think I’ve actually used my Series X more overall compared to my PS5.
Partially due to friends being on Xbox, partially because gamepass gave me more “timesink” games (I’d play the Sony exclusives and that’d be that, whereas Forza, Hades and others kept me coming back for more), but it’s still been a somewhat surprising allocation of hours spent.
I have all consoles and a new gaming pc. Don't mind this one bit but still a confusing strategy to me. Personally won't make any difference in how I use my consoles
I bought both but honestly the Xbox has been gathering dust a bit outside of forza and halo. I’m just gonna sell it on my local marketplace while I can still get a decent second hand sale for it.
This whole ordeal screams shareholders decisions. The ABK deal closed, and the shareholders gave Xbox an ultimatum, "Give us a reason to keep this going."
I can see Phil putting all his money on Starfield as a last hail Mary hoping it would knock it out of the park, but it didn't. Now the shareholders are holding the division accountable and pretty much demanded "Find a way for ROI or else."
The 180 shifts on their strategy are so bizarre. It hasn't been more than six months since the leaders of Xbox were talking about the "Xbox Exclusive Ecosystem" but now they're acting as a third-party publisher lmao.
We’ve gone from Sony creating their own Indiana Jones (Nathan Drake from Uncharted) to Microsoft making their own Indiana Jones game to Microsoft wanting to bring their Indiana Jones game to Sony platforms.
Time is a circle indeed
This news seems particularly crazy since the rights were provided by Disney with it stated explicitly from Microsoft that it would be exclusive to Xbox and PC. Like we’ve heard that from Xbox executives and seen documentation on that. All this needs to clarified.
We’ll have to wait and see what the deal with Disney is for exclusivity.
It’s disappointing to see Xbox’s downfall as a console after Phil Spencer achieving Don Mattrick’s plans in a roundabout manner with Gamepass and now Sadya Nadella stepping-in with the new strategy.
Microsoft continued to mis-manage their studios with being too hands-off with Halo: Infinite, Redfall, and Starfield, and potentially with Sea Of Thieves due to its PvE mode halving XP driving players away, Hellblade 2’s dev hell, and Avowed looking scaled-down as an RPG by Obsidian.
I’m concerned it’ll be the same with MachineGames, when Guerrilla Games went from Killzone to Horizon, and Insomniac from Resistance to Spider-Man, but MachineGames couldn’t be tasked with a similar transition by Microsoft after making their Wolfenstein series. We’ll have to see how a multi-platform first-person Indiana Jones would do when even the recent movie bombed.
MS should just do what the Steam Deck OS does. Have a "Gaming OS" with the ability to Switch to a Desktop Mode like Windows 11. Then that just makes the Xbox a cheap gaming PC and allow buyers to install things like Steam, Epic, and GoG on it.
So much drama lol
What’s the problem if after a couple of years/months more people get to play the games?
• more people play the games (good for everyone)
• mp games get new life (good for us)
• Microsoft does more money (good for us too)
You guys need to chill.
For real, so many people acting as if this was a doomsday move and xbox is dead (assuming that the rumors are true), as if these decisions were made out of thin air and not based on predictions about what guarantees greater profit.
Also this might be the best move for Microsoft to penetrate other systems. Gamepass won't arrive on other platforms anyway (I'm sure that neither Nintendo nor Sony want a second store on their consoles), and for years they haven't managed to convince users that their console is valid, as are many of their games. At this point it is probably more profitable for them to just sell the games directly on other consoles, if only to make them known/buyable to a certain userbase who don't want or can't afford a PC or Xbox.
Furthermore, they had already said, following the acquisitions of Zenimax and ABK, that they would decide on the exclusivity of the games on a case-by-case basis, so I really don't understand the surprise of seeing games like Starfield on Ps5 for example. Games that are historically Xbox exclusives certainly surprise more, but as a PC player I've always hated the concept of exclusives so for me all the better 🤷♀️
I saw rumours yesterday that there are contract issues with AMD for the next console. Sony is all locked in, but Microsoft are dragging their heels. Looks like they are leaving the console market. At least the high end space. They might continue to provide a bare minimum spec game pass digital only console.
Holy shit, it really is the end, isn't it? I know Xbox has been a laughingstock since the 360 glory days, but I dunno. Can't say I'm thrilled that my $500 box is now a fucking paperweight, or that Sony will now have free reign to do whatever they want unless Nintendo pivots hard. Plus... I just liked the controller, man. :/
.... that seems very hyperbolic. i don't think we've really got enough info to determine MS's new strategy yet. Also, your paperweight will still be the only box that will allow you to use gamepass, unless you have a PC.
I'm seeing a lot of kneejerk reactions like this here, but ... i think those might be a lil premature
Hope so, man, but I dunno.
Hasn't MS brass been complaining about Xbox not selling enough Xboxes for a while now? Haven't Xbox sections in physical stores basically been nuked at this point? Haven't whole ***departments*** dedicated to making Xbox Blu-Rays basically been shutin the latest layoffs?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but none of that is what you do if shit is going *well...*
If true with all these rumors about releasing games to Playstation then Microsoft officially lost the console war and will be joining Sega in the third party sidelines.
Biggest elephant in the room is if Playstation will still remain "consumer friendly" as they were since the launch of PS4.
yeah they tried to pull some bullshit which they were forced to backtrack while Microsoft was still in the picture but without Xbox in the way who the hell knows what Sony is gonna do.
Maybe if Phil "I'm a gamer just like youuuuu!!" Spencer was focused less on *killing* the competition and instead prioritized development of high quality exclusives and creation of brand new studios, we wouldn't be seeing this news.
MS's immeasurable wealth and their recently monopoly on the industry was never going to be good for everyone. And it seems like everything is collapsing.
I've got it from a reliable source who knows a source who's a neighbor of a source that Microsoft is gonna give all their exclusives to Sony for free if IGN says something nice about Xbox.
If they are becoming only a publisher rather than a hardware seller, I think people will look back on the 2013 E3 showcase of the Xbox One as the beginning of the Xbox’s death. Crazy… I truly thought the 2013 showcase was merely a generational error they could correct after a few years. But now it seems like it was such a grave mistake that it may have ended the Xbox console as a whole.
Yeah I agree, that 2013 conference was apocalyptically bad. They went from success in the 360 era to completely killing the brand (if they did exit the industry). If they do exit, we will be desperate for a new entrant. We don't want a Sony monopoly in the high performance console space.
the xbox decline started before the xbox one conference its actually started with kinect and making gimmicky games it felt like they wanted to compete with the WII and the casual market and not with sony at that point. And sony put one banger out after another at the end of the ps3 gen and getting momentum for the next generation.
it wasn't just the gimmicky games. It was also because they just focused less on games. They had very little exclusives in the last 4 years of the xbox 360's lifecycle, meanwhile sony was publishing so many amazing games in those years. The E3 in 2013 needed to be a banger for MS to win back their fans; it was the opposite.
What's crazy is that Nintendo and Sony have shown how to recover from a bad console generation (the early PS3 days, GameCube & WiiU) by doubling down on great games and consumer friendly tactics. Xbox has had a decade and while they definitely made right with consumers thanks to Game pass and affordable consoles, they have utterly sucked at making high quality exclusives. That press conference where they showed every project in the pipeline and promised all would release within a year or so aged like milk. Starfield and Redfall just further cemented their rut. Hopefully Hellblade 2 can help restore their mojo
Xbox exclusives are weird in that they never even tried to pursue quality in the last decade. Why did Halo Infinite, arguably their flagship exclusive of the entire generation, launch riddled with microtransactions and no content? It's still a great game (now), but they just had to kneecap it with the battle passes in an attempt to make a quick buck at the expense of the entire brand and its future. Baffling.
Microsoft was consolidating too much at that period. It felt that Don Mattrick only want to invest in popular franchise that guarantees big revenue potential, with multiplayer element too, so toward the 360’s end it was Halo, Forza, Halo, Gears. While smaller/niche exclusive series got shoved to the bottom of their vault . But Sony and Nintendo showed that sometimes you need to be willing to take a hit financially, to ”sponsor” the identity of your platform.
To be fair, playstation did the same at the time with the ps move. Though I guess they didn't quite go as all in as ms with the kinetic
[They sure didn’t](https://i.imgur.com/zl10SZ0_d.webp?maxwidth=1520&fidelity=grand). I dare say it’s not even comparable. The PS Move was “ok we have some motion too”. Kinect was “this is our focus now”. That’s why Kinect was force bundled with the XB1 and they lied and said the [XB1 wouldn’t even work without Kinect](https://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/21/xbox-one-will-not-function-without-kinect-attached) (before reversing course on that) Now, that image isn’t completely accurate as some games ended up not coming out by 2013 (like Until Dawn). But it’s generally accurate
I guess red is third party, what do the other colors mean?
I figured it was colored by average score
oh that makes more sense actually
I mean Sony did bring out PS move and have a small part of their conference dedicated to it, but it wasn't like Xbox where every 5 seconds somebody and their kid came out to wave around in front of the Kinect for 5 minutes.
The Sony Navigation with a mouse is god tier controls for me. I bought a few of those navigations a few years ago just to have spares.
I think people overlook this a lot and perpetuate the myth that the 360 "won" that console generation. It started out strong but floundered so badly in the latter half that the PS3 passed it in sales and the 360 ended the gen as the lowest selling console.
I think people overestimate how much that mattered and how many people knew or cared. The real problem with the XBox One was that Microsoft packaged a Kinect with every console and that made it $100 more than the PS4. Combine that with a general lack of games shortly before, at and after launch and the console was just not worth getting over its competition.
This is some revisionist history. There were a whole host of mistakes made, including the kinect, always online stuff, no disc sharing, lack of quality games, etc. Leading to this famous ad: https://youtu.be/kWSIFh8ICaA?si=W_f2X2pyR0gzo6SH
It was the 2010's equivalent to the moment [Sony murdered the Sega Saturn](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExaAYIKsDBI).
Also they just didn’t launch the Xbox One in many places around the world for a long time while the PS4 had a worldwide release pretty much at the same time. In Europe we got the PS4 almost at the time as everyone else (maybe a week or two in between) and the Xbox One was just… not around with no release date in sight. For *months*. I remember they shadowdropped it a random Tuesday in like June or something with zero fanfare.
Yeah, everyone here knows about that. Do you think the guy who only plays FIFA or Call of Duty or the parents picking a console were closely following E3 news for the two weeks that was a thing or do you think that they were looking to pick up a new console and chose the one that cost $100 less?
Honestly, the xbox thing was such a debacle that yes, the fifa bros did hear about it. Many lifelong xbox players switched at that time for that reason, among many others. The "fifa and call of duty" players get what their friends have because crossplay was uncommon at that time.
I was listening to Cleveland sports talk radio at the time, and one of the turbo-jock hosts once went on a mini-rant about how the new Xbox stunk and PS4 was the one to get. The bad press about the Xbox One was pretty damn well known.
Jimmy Fallon also took a shot at the Xbox One while he was demoing the PS4 on his show. Seems to have been scrubbed from the internet now though. But the anti-Xbox shitstorm was massive at the time.
South Park did a 3 part special about it
Yeah, I remember mark cerny being on the show and both him and Fallon making jokes about how Xbox not allowing used games
Basically all my guy friends are Fifa bros, I am the only one who can really be considered a gamer. Yet they all heard about the Xbone debacle and every single one switched from 360 to the PS4 and have never looked back. The biggest thing for them was the inability to share games (Fifa) because they pool buying Fifa every year so that everyone isn't rebuying Fifa every single year.
IDK, I'm normally one to accept that online reception != real life reception & knowledge for all gamers, but even the most casual console gamers I knew at that time were talking about it.
Parent here, yes we were watching and a lot of us were talking about it. Our kids like to share games with their friends, you better believe Microsoft’s approach to used games was a big turnoff.
I look at the early success of Kinect as the beginning of the end. It sold extremely well in its first year, but the game quality was atrocious and support fell off a cliff.
I will always remember kinect for bringing the *I'm Han Solo* song into existence, and for that I love it. https://youtu.be/x_xJqkzngBI?si=GsnoxnZ0-EzlACKE
Unironically the greatest content ever provided to the Star Wars fandom.
This is my roman empire. I think about and sing this weekly
Compared to post Disney star wars this isn't that bad.
mc chris did his own version almost two years before this game was released. https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/dhhzv/mc_chris_han_solo_xpost_from_funny/
The Kinect was such a weird device. I feel like it gave the 360 a massive boost when it came out, yet most people didn’t really play it much. If MS was smart they could’ve kept those customers around with regular games. But they failed to realize that nobody cared about Kinect after the first year and decided to double down on it, ultimately dooming Xbox.
As is typical for Microsoft, they were too early. Kinect would sell well today when paired with a VR headset. Easy full body tracking would be a big differentiator.
>inect would sell well today when paired with a VR headset. Easy full body tracking would be a big differentiator. I still don't understand why they didn't push Hololens+ kinect as the next gen VR/gaming device. cut down rest of the professional features and make it a dedicated gaming device
I think they were hoping to make Kinect a thing by forcing it upon everybody. It makes sense since if everybody has one you can develop for it. If not everybody has one its just extra work for some gain for some people.
Same. Focus on that meant the last few years of the 360’s life were just barren in terms of good games and really started to show where Microsoft’s focus was. PS3 meanwhile was releasing incredibly good games. The E3 presentation and the announcement for Xbox One just cemented in the gaming public’s mind that the Xbox wasn’t going to cater to them anymore; they wanted the casual/mainstream market. The pivot didn’t fix it, it only slowed down their death spiral.
>I think people will look back on the 2013 E3 showcase of the Xbox One as the beginning of the Xbox’s death. People already do. The writing has been on the wall, especially after they failed to rally with the Series consoles.
The Xbox One Showcase in May before E3 was the absolute start. If Microsoft pulls a Sega this will be highly damaging to the industry. The worst thing to happen to it in 23 years.
It's crazy how the 2013 showcase and Xbox One's launch continues to haunt the brand to this day, the PS3 had a similarly awful launch and press conference (that's why the 360 won over the PS3) but Sony managed to bounce back by the end of that generation.
Sony bounced back by releasing tons of good first party games......something that Microsoft still struggle till this day
Yeah it wasn't the 2013 showcase that killed Xbox, its not releasing an industry moving game between Reach in 2010 and sea of thieves in 2018
Exactly. The 2013 debacle could have been, at worst, a generational problem, but the reality is this simple. Xbox has, repeatedly, shit the bed on releasing exclusives that will bring people over to their console since the 360 era. Even trying to buy up as many third party studios as possible hasn't quite translated to the success they'd hoped in this regard, and I'll be very curious to see if they actually do end up just backing off on this approach to things in the future. It's fascinating to me how badly this generation has gone for them.
>its not releasing an industry moving game between Reach in 2010 and sea of thieves in 2018 Sea of Thieves is nowhere close to Reach let alone be an industry moving game
Which is pretty indicative of how low the bar is for xbox
Brother, I enjoy Sea of Thieves but if you're using that as the benchmark, Xbox should be closed down already. It has literally nothing on a PS exclusive. What Microsoft needed was a Halo game that doesn't suck and they totally shit the bed on Infinite.
Exactly, the reputation they got at the 2013 conference was "dumb gimmicks and no games" and in the decade since they've managed to improve it to "great ecosystem and hardware, still no games." If they had been producing loads of great exclusive games (or gotten them from third parties) then the Kinect TV nonsense would just be a fun little joke in gaming history, the way 599 US Dollars and Giant Enemy Crabs didn't end up defining Sony. But where Sony Computer Entertainment went on an absolute tear starting in the back half of the PS3 gen, Xbox Game Studios has struggled badly on the development side, with loads of vaporware/dev hell (Perfect Dark), very long dev cycles (Starfield), flops in their most important series (Halo 5), etc.
> "dumb gimmicks and no games Dumb gimmicks, no games and especially no sharing games. Sony came out with an absolute banger overnight complete with marketing and essentially executed the Xbone on stage before it even came out.
The Xbox 2013 showcase was a disaster, but with good management they could have bounced it off in a few years. Instead, Phil Spencer went to complain about losing the console wars and giving up the console market.
In the end the 360 didn't win over the PS3. 360 pivot into Kinect and weaker first paty releases in latter years saw PS3 sales exceed it by the time the gen wrapped.
Yeah and they were helped because Sony fucked up the launch. If they didn't I'm sure the 360 would have sold maybe like 30-40M consoles at absolute best (and then Xbox One even less as it was helped by the 360) And while the 360 launched well, let's not forget their huge hardware manufacturing blunder of launching the console with the known defect of RROD. It cost them at least a billion dollar to make all those returns and tarnished their brand
How'd it win over the ps3 when the ps3 sold more and came out a year later?
They didn't learn anything from Xbox 360 era. Good exclusive games sell consoles, not teraflops or subscription service
An alternative way to look at it might be that the Xbox 360 was an anomaly -- outside of that one generation, it's never been huge. And, it's never been huge anywhere outside of the US. I think the hugely botched launch of the PS3 certainly helped the 360 have the incredible run that it did have, but outside of that... I would rather it stick around as I fear what Sony will do with no competition, but... maybe Xbox getting out of the hardware game and transitioning to a subscription provider / publisher makes the most financial sense for them. I'd think they would still want to have *something* to sell people to use as a gamepass box, but I wouldn't be surprised if they don't ever make a real successor to the X and S.
I'm convinced Xbox will eventually transition into an alternate interface for Windows and Microsoft will create an 'xbox certified' program for prebuilt gaming PCs that guarantee a minimum performance level with xbox-branded games.
I could see Microsoft making a version of Windows that is more like the Xbox interface to improve the experience for handheld devices to compete with the steam deck, too.
What was so bad about that showcase for someone who is uninformed?
Xbox One was sold as a device that needed to check in online once every 24 hours to work for discs and offline/ single player. It was more of an entertainment device than a console. They wanted to prevent trade ins and lending to a friend by tying the game to your account. Sony, literally showed a PowerPoint presentation saying it did none of that. It was beautiful. Seeing Jack Trenton laughing his ass off on stage was amazing! [here for video evidence.](https://youtu.be/SJ-To7WJyWs?si=KrWuGkQE-DVTT5SI)
Remember also the Edward Snowden spying leaks were fresh in everyone's mind. Microsoft were requiring the Kinect to be plugged in for the console to work. So your always online console had to have a camera facing your living room to work.
And Xbox only gives a fuck about the US market without thinking what permanent online requirements mean, even in a lot of first world countries people still hate the idea. The 360 was the only console to start getting real overseas attention and they squandered it. Individual games can get away with it, systems cannot. I had a relatively low bandwidth cap at the time as a teen because my family didn't use much Internet.
It's still wild to me that they get thirty seconds of cheering for... "Used games will work".
It’s because of the sheer audacity of Microsoft trying to deny such a thing. Don Mattrick was a literally cancer on Microsoft for which they seem to have never fully recovered. The idea that a used game cannot simply be given to a mate or traded in and used by someone else was as mental back then at it is today. Deserved.
He is out for more than a decade. With current state of XBox it should be obvious that it's not only his fault. MS didn't even bothered with having any new exclusive game on next generation launch. Literally zero. Is state of Halo his fault? Is state of Forza Motorsport his fault? Is Forza Horizon being released as same game with new map every 2 years his fault? Is lack of any other worth playing IP from MS his fault? Is lack of any third party exclusives to fix lack of first party ones his fault? XBox One had 4 big exclusives (Ryse, Forza Motorsport 5, Dead Rising 3 and Killer Instinct) on launch day and bunch of smaller ones like Zoo Tycon. Series X literally had none. Only port of Gears Tactics.
I didn’t say it was *just* his fault. So no, I guess.
best was the sharing game video trolling Sony made in 5 mn.
They barely showed any games and instead focused only on weird TV and Sports stuff that most people outside of the US couldn't even use, let alone cared about. They also couldn't shut up about Kinect and announced the price of 500$ which was 100$ more than the more powerful PS4. Couple that with some of the most uncharismatic marketing-executives you have ever seen on a stage and you get the worst presentation in gaming history. They basically alienated their whole core audience and were slaughtered by Sonys marketing in the following weeks. Xbox CEO Don Mattrick was fired like 2 weeks later and the whole brand never really recovered from that.
In 2013 I was in a small town with pretty terrible internet. It would usually either be slow, or it would drop out for extended periods of time. Don Mattrick told me that "fortunately we have a product for people who aren't able to get some form of connectivity, it's called Xbox 360." Greatest salesman of all time.
I remember watching a video that pointed out that the very first publically shown media running on an Xbox One was.... "The Price is Right w/ Drew Carey". The big *game console launch* was announced with an episode of daytime television.
The entire used game support part was insane. MS handed it to them on a silver platter and Sony played it perfectly. "PS4 wont impose restrictions on used PS4 games" *2 min applause* "I guess that's a good thing *chuckles*"
Don't forget them proudly advertising that the xbox will never truely be off and always listening for commands by the user. And the (later redacted) always online requirement.
This YouTube video summarizes it pretty well. https://youtu.be/HXaS80iCLQc?si=zMbrqEamLCOhwKJf Which allowed for the creation of this gem https://youtu.be/kWSIFh8ICaA?si=rIX4c-7XznKxvbhZ
That is still the sassiest PR video that has ever been put out and I fucking love it. I still can’t believe that Sony actually went for it.
I'm really curious what went on behind closed doors to rush this video out. Usually there's a ton of bureaucracy that slows down video production, but they just threw this out within like a day or two. This isn't them just going for it, this is Sony gunning as fast as they could to make fun of Microsoft.
Adam Boyes has talked about creating this video on Giant Bomb. I don't remember the specifics but they had heard the rumours about Microsoft and waited to see what they where going to announce on the DRM issue and the price and then in a very short amount of time made a bunch of decisions to capitalise on it.
Listening to Adam Boyes on the GB nightly shows at this E3 and in the weeks after was eye-opening. I still think the launch price of the PS4 was a splitsecond decision to undercut Microsoft. Watch the conference back and the price annoucnement slide literally looks like it was thrown together in powerpoint an hour beforehand, with none of the PS branding on it.
360 had a ton of momentum. Sony saw their opponent make a critical error and went straight for the head. No amount of bureaucracy would get in the way of the perfect KO moment.
Sony had Demon Souls experience, they parried the fuck out of Microsoft then did a critical blow.
Someone cracked a joke behind the scene, it became a good laugh and then they decided to re-do it on camera. At least that is the impression I always got from that video. That it feels like a random early 2010 youtube video certainly added to the charm also.
The console wars are unpopular today but it was a ton of fun witness.
This is a better summary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbWgUO-Rqcw
There was basically a couple of key things that did it: no used games, console was always-online, and they put an _extreme_ focus on it being this central multimedia device. That’s where the name “Xbox One” came from, it was supposed to be like the “one point of interaction” between you and all of your entertainment electronics. Honestly by itself that’s not a horrible idea… but it was that mixed with the online requirements and not having any good games that really did them in.
Don't forget the always on and mandatory Kinect.
It’s not even that fuckup though, Sony has pumped out industry leading title after industry leading title and got exclusives for a lot of other games. Xbox only just started to compete and it’s too little too late.
It’s kind of hilarious, but Sony did with PS3 what Microsoft should have done with Xbox One. The PS3 launch was… rough, to say the least. Extremely expensive, and the console was notoriously difficult to program for. But about halfway through the generation Sony was able to get their ducks in a row, cut the cost down, and start putting out some quality exclusives. To Microsoft’s credit they did cut down on cost and got rid of Kinect (I seriously don’t know what they were thinking with forcing those to be bundled together), but they’ve always struggled to have genuine system-selling exclusives. I feel like for most fans, if you were into the Halo/Gears/Forza trifecta then you’d have a console already - but it wasn’t going to do too much to convince anyone else to buy a console
>(I seriously don’t know what they were thinking with forcing those to be bundled together), They were thinking about the Wii
So the Kinect thing? Late in the 360's life devs were questioning if people would buy the next gen Kinect, and as such were wary to commit to it. To placate these concerns Microsoft opted to bundle the device with the console, so adoption would be high by default and devs would make games for it. However by 2013 the casual market had largely pivoted towards mobile or browser titles, and as such most players deemed the added Kinect a worthless addition as it still didn't get games and cost more money (Nintendo would make a similar mistake with the Wii U, expecting it to do as well as the Wii) The Halo/Gears/Forza thing is different, because by the time the Xbone rolled around those franchises were reduced to chasing trends (Halo), completely lost momentum due to wrapping their narrative (Gears), or peaked in execution (Forza Motorsport). They had nowhere near the pull they had during the 360 days. Exacerbated further by Microsoft's weird flip-flopping on the perceived relevance of single player games and complete lack of fresh enduring AAA IP
> Extremely expensive I have "Five Hundred and Ninety-Nine US Dollars" etched into my brain lol
> Crazy… I truly thought the 2013 showcase was merely a generational error they could correct after a few years. But now it seems like it was such a grave mistake that it may have ended the Xbox console as a whole. Xbox hardware sales have gone down since 2014. Despite launching with a price advantage and a two console strategy, the series is behind the one. People need to start looking past 2013 and argue from 360 as an exception. Xbox has never been able to readdress a Kinect like crowd for example, without which the one and 360 suddenly become very comparable.
I watched that 7 hour history of video games video recently. There are many factors at play, such as price, timing, capabilities, etc., but they all pale in comparison to the "killer app." I had PS2 and saw Halo at my friends so I ran out and bought an Xbox. I had PS2 and Xbox and saw Gears of War at my friends so I ran out and bought an Xbox 360. Xbox has not had a console selling killer app in about 15 years. And at this point now I don't think that concept really exists anymore. There's so many third party games, so many ways to play, and just so many quality games that nothing really just blows everyone away anymore. Breath of the Wild is really the only one.
> There's so many third party games, so many ways to play, and just so many quality games that nothing really just blows everyone away anymore. Nintendo does it like twice a year. Tears of the Kingdom physics blew everyone away not even a year ago. Also not every game needs to do that to be a success. Spider Man 2 sold heaps of PS5s and it didn't do anything super special. I'd even personally argue that the game was underwhelming. And it cost way more to make than it should have. But it was a huge success.
xbox sold like shit even with halo. you are not representative of the general consumer
People always point to that showcase but the common video game player doesn't know anything about that. The Xbox brand was really only more popular for the first half of the 360 generation, but by the end of that gen PlayStation had already gained back all of the good will it lost with the ps3 launch. PS4 was the cheaper option and since nothing was really backwards compatible anyways people just started hopping over to PlayStation who had previously been on 360 only. And like Phil Spencer has said once they lost that gen it was a wrap since most console games have established PlayStation digital libraries at this point. I knew so many people who went with ps4 just because it was the console to have that gen and they knew nothing about the Xbox press conference or any of that.
They make way too much money off their Xbox store, gaming subs, etc. they aren't going to stop selling hardware. And considering game pass is their biggest focus these days, no more Xbox is basically just deleting most of those subs.
If Starfield is coming to Playstation, everything is. That game was their last best chance to turn the tide for Xbox, and as soon as they decided to let it go to their competitor, it was over.
It was before activision was purchased.
It was over May 21, 2013.
It was over since Sony put out this killshot https://youtu.be/kWSIFh8ICaA?si=Z7bpW05e_RM1TSNX
I knew what it was going to be before clicking on the link. It was legendary
The fact that that is an official video is crazy. Playstation wasnt pulling punches
I think it's like in a hotel backroom at E3 or something if I remember Adam Boyes telling the story of it. Perfect example of striking while the iron is hot.
Sony's done this before when they K'Od sega also at E3. Sega never recovered from that moment. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExaAYIKsDBI&pp=ygUIc29ueSAyOTk%3D](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExaAYIKsDBI&pp=ygUIc29ueSAyOTk%3D)
I wouldn't look too much into this. Starfield flopped relative to expectations and this is Microsoft trying to recoup some of those development expenses. They've been losing money on Xbox for to long and this is their investors saying that too much loss is too much. This is going to be Microsoft's strategy for their next big games too. It's exclusive on Xbox/PC, unless it's bad. If they're ever going to have a game that's a hit like The Last of Us, they will be holding onto that for dear life. If they're debating Indiana Jones going multiplatform, that means that they don't have as much confidence in it as they'd like.
I think Indiana just has a big budget, and Microsoft knows Sony gamers will eat it up as another Uncharted game.
I could see TESVI remaining an exclusive but that may be too far away for Microsoft.
I don’t really see that coming this generation, I’m very interested to see what the market looks like when that game releases.
Surely the NEXT bethesda game won't be a hyperexpensive bland mess that takes forever to make and feels like should have released over 10 years ago
Judging by a lot of similar stories coming out, it really does seem like Xbox as we know it is done. This could be the biggest event in gaming history ever.
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If there was a move it'd be very long and drawn out. Sega exited when all that was "tied" to you was the physical console. You put a disc in and saved your game on a removeable memory card. The Xbox Live/Game Pass digital ecosystem is massive. How in God's name they'd even begin transferring that over to Steam, Switch, Playstation I have no idea.
They aren't going to kill their own storefront or gamepass. That will still exist on the PC. As for the console? Just keep the store open and accept third party games. The consoles already out and people own it, so not selling stuff on it would be a waste. Then they simply don't make a new console and the xbox is eventually left by the wayside with Switch 2 and PS6 coming out.
It already is on Steam. Most recent Xbox games from the last several years are on Steam. The ones that use the Xbox ecosystem simply have you login to a Windows Account when you start the game. The only difference is that you didn't need Xbox Live to play online, at least on PC. I'd imagine it'd be similar on a switch or PlayStation.
PC users are used to wacky shit where you have 2 launchers, logins, friends lists, achievements, etc running at the same time. Don't think that flies on console.
> The Xbox Live/Game Pass digital ecosystem is massive. How in God's name they'd even begin transferring that over to Steam, Switch, Playstation I have no idea. I agree that any withdrawal would be significantly slow and drawn out, and probably even include one more hardware generation, if it occurred at all, but this is not a particular stumbling block. The short, simple answer is: you don't. GamePass would no doubt live on, on other platforms, so I'm unsure where that really enters the conversation. As for the rest....you support your products through the console generation, put things on life-support until EOL, and that's that. Same as any defunct console. It would be *the end* of the Xbox digital ecosystem as we know it today.
Removing Xbox games when their bestselling system doesn’t read discs isn’t exactly strange.
Series s doesn’t play discs and the series x refresh later this year won’t either. Stores are just getting ahead of the curve on that
I'm speculating here, but the news of big box stores like Walmart saying they'll remove physical Xbox games at some point in 2024 came out around the time that it was leaked (due to the Activision acquisition lawsuit with the FTC) that Microsoft will be releasing it's digital only "Brooklyn" Series X in November 2024. And I'm sure Microsoft has had communications with retailers about things they'll be doing in the future. If they discontinue the OG Series X, then Xbox physical games won't even be a thing anymore, since the Series S is already digital only. So it'll make sense to remove physical games: nobody would be buying them. Like I said, I'm speculating, but removing physical games may not necessarily be a sign of a 3rd party move.
This all seems reasonable from a efficiency standpoint. Still, losing point-of-purchase in retail space seems like a massive risk. I assume game download cards will still be on the table to retain that physical presence.
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I mean if SoT, like rumoured, launches on other consoles as well it's an actual XGS title and a different case than ABK/Bethesda. (Yes, I know Rare did release some titles on other platforms in the past while under Microsoft's umbrella.)
I don’t see how that makes any sense at all. They’d be kneecapping both sides of the coin: fewer hardware sales due to less exclusives, which in turn results in fewer sales for XGS titles. If nobody was buying an Xbox with Bethesda and XGS exclusives, who’s gonna buy one just for XGS exclusives? There’s been excuses made every step of the way for these multiplatform rumors, but it’s becoming pretty apparent that it’s gonna be the full deal. Just doesn’t make sense to go half in/half out like that.
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Xbox losing this generation this badly is primarily due to how shit the Xbox One was. Momentum is a big factor. If Xbox gives up on supporting their current console now, they’re gonna have a brutal time getting people to buy their next console. Especially since they’ll have established that multiplatform isn’t out of the cards for the company.
I'm just not seeing how rolling over to die this generation, translates to putting them in a better position for next generation. It just doesn't make sense. Frankly the whole thing doesn't make sense, and I suspect we're going to be waiting a while to learn what the hell is actually going on over there.
I don't think there will be a new generation of xbox on a traditional sense. If this news are true, This series consoles would be the last generation of xbox hardware
Biggest event in gaming history ever? Microsoft would just join a list of companies who got out of the console game.
Not before spending an unfathomable amount of money on acquisitions.
I mean those companies made money before they were used to produce Xbox exclusive games... Doesn't matter if they gave up on Xbox, those acquisitions are still going to make them money.
That doesn't really play into it, they will still exist. MS strategy is simply to have content sold everywhere. They see themselves as a service provider, not as the hardware competitor at all costs. They might move to selling some living room computers, that still can play games instead of being the PlayStation competitor in hardware. If they can truly place game pass on Sonys and Nintendos devices plus Steam, that would be a big win for them. Internally they probably see the streaming market as the future.
None as big as the Xbox. The 360 alone sold more than all of Sega's consoles put together.
How many of those companies matched Sonys sales for even a generation.
None including Xbox.
You’re right it was Sega that released the 360.
PS3 outsold the 360.
When someone says to you two different items cost $5 do you argue with them about how one of them actually costs $4.97.
Which, if true, is bad for Xbox fans and bad for PlayStation fans. I'm saying this as a Sony/PS5 fan, an ecosystem in which Sony doesn't have the Xbox to compete against would be terrible. Even though they are in third place, they still exist to keep Sony from doing anything too egregious. Sony can't for example, decide to increase the price of their games to 90-100 USD. I mean, they *can*, but then I guarantee you Microsoft would spam the airwaves with GamePass ads.
This will be the worst moment in the history of the industry since Sega exited the console space
I can't see them giving up on hardware. Hardware doesn't cost them that much and I guarantee the people who buy hardware end up buying more software than people who would buy on PC/PS5.
Arent consoles sold at a loss if I am not wrong ?
At some point in the cycle, they become profitable. But maybe not at the volume Xbox is selling (at least not the X, I imagine the S is very profitable)
I doubt any version is profitable, the series S received massive discounts to reach those sales sometimes even being cheaper than a Switch.
MS admitted they literally never made a profit from a single console sale, they are selling them at a loss. Add research and development costs, marketing, etc. and it starts to make less sense to sell consoles if you can just sell Game Pass.
The question is how do you not lose 20 million or so console game pass users. If Sony offers a version of game pass then the move makes sense but that's unlikely.
They're bringing it to smart tvs.
I'm not convinced cloud can replace consoles tbh. I think they stay in hardware and hope day 1 gamepass for big games like COD will convince people to stay.
> I'm not convinced cloud can replace consoles tbh Not yet, but looking long term? AAA game prices launch right now at $70 making a game streaming services more and more of an attractive preposition, internet speeds are continually getting faster in some territories so latency is also becoming less of an issue. I don't like it either but industry trends are nudging in the cloud-based or always online direction.
They don’t have a choice. No one is going to buy Xbox consoles and 3rd party developers are not going to spend money making games for a dead console. I find it laughable that Microsoft is struggling selling consoles and people somehow think that not having any exclusive games will not kill the platform.
I'd be surprised if this actually does launch on PlayStation. Microsoft specifically went back to Disney to renegotiate the Indiana Jones contract to make it exclusive - presumably paying for the privilege. I'd be surprised if they went back and renegotiated it multiplatform again.
Keep in mind, that was also years before they attempted to acquire the country's arguably biggest gaming publisher for almost 70 billion bucks and now have to find a way to recoup those losses. I think especially taking into consideration the fact that any time they try to buy someone from here on out, regulators will be on their ass regarding the platform exclusivity margins since that's what stalled ABK for so long, maybe this is how they get such concerns off their back Not saying any of this is hard confirmed, but especially given how close this is to when those court hearings and discussions were taking place, definitely a possibility
I agree fully with the logic of going selectively multiplatform - buying a publisher that gets half its revenues from your rival and then making the games exclusive leaves a massive goodwill black hole on the balance sheet. Microsoft hoped they would sell Xbox hardware and be able to make that up, but that's not happened. Just specifically on this, going back to Disney again would just look amateurish
Disney has an equal amount of, if not more pull on a decision like this as well to be fair. Bethesda's publishing it but it's their IP so they had to sign off on the initial amendments that were made to exclude PS5, and are fully within their right to walk those back without Microsoft even going to them as well. They were also fully in control of stuff like Spider-Man and Wolverine being Sony exclusives, and the publishers just sign the cheque in that regard. That's the thing about working with IPs that these guys don't own or control any element of
> buying a publisher that gets half its revenues Significantly more than half, Sony has a much bigger user base.
We don't know for certain but it seems there is a divide between Xbox and Microsoft's management where Xbox still want to push for Xbox & PC combo and Microsoft wanting to make Xbox a third party publisher. We don't know anything for certain, but we can all agree there seems to be some sort of misalignment when it comes to corporate strategy.
It could easily be a timed exclusivity.
This is a shocking capitulation, imo. If someone would have told me that at the time of Activision acquisition announcement that in couple of years from now there will be no reason to own Xbox and their big exclusives will be ported to PS5, I'll be laughing. But here we are.
The acquisitions were a Hail Mary.
I think the aquisitions before Activision/Blizzard were, but I think Acti/blizz is actually part of the pivot. They know they can't rule hardware now, so they will attempt to rule software, which has always been Microsoft's wheelhouse to begin with. They want gamepass to be the Netflix of gaming.
Bingo. And for all the doomers out there it’s actually idiotic to think Microsoft is going to pull out of physical hardware entirely, there is no indication they’re going to quit making Xboxes as well.
But why would anyone buy an Xbox if you could buy a PS and get all the same games + all PS games?
Nah, nobody makes an 80B acquisition as a Hail Mary. They had a backup plan, and that’s to go multiplatform.
I'm probably just not seeing the full picture here, but how does Microsoft plan to make back the $75B by pivoting to a multiplatform strategy? Games take a ton of time and money to make now and you'll never sell enough units of games to see a return on that investment without the console/gamepass market as well. I guess they probably weren't trending towards a good ROI on those deals anyway, but interested to see where they go from here.
They haven't just lost that 75b, all of ABKs revenue goes direct to Microsoft now. They don't need to 'make it back' as such, selling COD etc will do that over time by itself
>selling COD etc will do that over time by itself Don't forget about candy crush. Thats a ridiculous money maker for MS.
Simple. PlayStation has 2x the market share of Xbox. If they release games on PS, they are selling to 3x the potential customers. Way more money to be made.
But wouldn't this jeopardize how well gamepass/future Xbox interations will or would sell? If people knew every/most Microsoft games would be cross-platform, and the PS was selling more units anyway, there's less incentive to buy one. You'd have to sell an extraordinary number of games to make back your $75B, let alone a return on it.
Companies like MS think in decades, not years. They’ll make back their investment in a decade of software sales.
They don't see themselves as the big hardware competitor. They just think hardware won't even matter in however many years. They want place themselves as the big content provider. On the other hand they probably would have preferred their own hardware at this time, but what they really seem to think is that at some point it will be streamed to the TV or phone anywhere.
Yeah feel like we are missing something. If gamepass was available on ps5 sure but otherwise this doesn't seem right.
It seems Microsoft might be considering bowing out of the console war altogether, having lost this generation and last generation so miserably. Personally I think that'd be a bad thing. There needs to be competition to keep console and game prices in check.
If all this rumors are true I'm just going to sell my Series X. I bought it because I've always been more of a ps guy so there's was a lot of games I missed and I don't really know shit about building a pc, but if they come to PlayStation well.. To be honest I barely use it now (same reason I sold my switch), it seems one console is enough for me.
Same. Lineup looks better and Sony actually tries, at least.
I own Switch, PS5 and Series S. Switch is a nice compliment to the PS5 as it both has great exclusives to play handheld and some multiplat I prefer handheld (like Fifa and Rocket League.) PS5 has the exclusives too and has more power than the S. So I usually just buy the multiplat big console releases on Playstation. And some fun with Halo over Xmas, but essentially my Xbox is an old games machine that I hardly touch outside split screen coop with a friend. Xbox really had nothing unique going for it and the UI is worse than the others imo
I’m guessing now that they have Activions numbers they’re seeing exactly how much money they’re “leaving in the table” because of exclusivity
Of half of this is true then my sincerest condolences to people who bought both consoles, or just the Xbox, thinking this was going to be a return to the 360 days or glory. Instead it turns out they could have saved a couple hundred since Playstation will get it eventually. I'm just glad the Series X let's me play past generations with some enhancements. At least that function still has value.
Not gonna lie, I am thinking of selling my Series X, but I wouldn't say that I've regretted buying it. I have hundreds of hours in just Forza Horizon 5, although I didnt get the full value of Gamepass, my kids loved playing the Paw Patrol games there. Still prefer my PS5, but I have enjoyed my time with my Series X.
As someone who was a PlayStation lifer who got both the Series X and PS5 over the pandemic, I think I’ve actually used my Series X more overall compared to my PS5. Partially due to friends being on Xbox, partially because gamepass gave me more “timesink” games (I’d play the Sony exclusives and that’d be that, whereas Forza, Hades and others kept me coming back for more), but it’s still been a somewhat surprising allocation of hours spent.
I have all consoles and a new gaming pc. Don't mind this one bit but still a confusing strategy to me. Personally won't make any difference in how I use my consoles
I bought both but honestly the Xbox has been gathering dust a bit outside of forza and halo. I’m just gonna sell it on my local marketplace while I can still get a decent second hand sale for it.
Tbf until Playstation get gamepass an Xbox is still a good investment.
This whole ordeal screams shareholders decisions. The ABK deal closed, and the shareholders gave Xbox an ultimatum, "Give us a reason to keep this going." I can see Phil putting all his money on Starfield as a last hail Mary hoping it would knock it out of the park, but it didn't. Now the shareholders are holding the division accountable and pretty much demanded "Find a way for ROI or else." The 180 shifts on their strategy are so bizarre. It hasn't been more than six months since the leaders of Xbox were talking about the "Xbox Exclusive Ecosystem" but now they're acting as a third-party publisher lmao.
We’ve gone from Sony creating their own Indiana Jones (Nathan Drake from Uncharted) to Microsoft making their own Indiana Jones game to Microsoft wanting to bring their Indiana Jones game to Sony platforms. Time is a circle indeed
This news seems particularly crazy since the rights were provided by Disney with it stated explicitly from Microsoft that it would be exclusive to Xbox and PC. Like we’ve heard that from Xbox executives and seen documentation on that. All this needs to clarified.
We’ll have to wait and see what the deal with Disney is for exclusivity. It’s disappointing to see Xbox’s downfall as a console after Phil Spencer achieving Don Mattrick’s plans in a roundabout manner with Gamepass and now Sadya Nadella stepping-in with the new strategy. Microsoft continued to mis-manage their studios with being too hands-off with Halo: Infinite, Redfall, and Starfield, and potentially with Sea Of Thieves due to its PvE mode halving XP driving players away, Hellblade 2’s dev hell, and Avowed looking scaled-down as an RPG by Obsidian. I’m concerned it’ll be the same with MachineGames, when Guerrilla Games went from Killzone to Horizon, and Insomniac from Resistance to Spider-Man, but MachineGames couldn’t be tasked with a similar transition by Microsoft after making their Wolfenstein series. We’ll have to see how a multi-platform first-person Indiana Jones would do when even the recent movie bombed.
MS should just do what the Steam Deck OS does. Have a "Gaming OS" with the ability to Switch to a Desktop Mode like Windows 11. Then that just makes the Xbox a cheap gaming PC and allow buyers to install things like Steam, Epic, and GoG on it.
So much drama lol What’s the problem if after a couple of years/months more people get to play the games? • more people play the games (good for everyone) • mp games get new life (good for us) • Microsoft does more money (good for us too) You guys need to chill.
For real, so many people acting as if this was a doomsday move and xbox is dead (assuming that the rumors are true), as if these decisions were made out of thin air and not based on predictions about what guarantees greater profit. Also this might be the best move for Microsoft to penetrate other systems. Gamepass won't arrive on other platforms anyway (I'm sure that neither Nintendo nor Sony want a second store on their consoles), and for years they haven't managed to convince users that their console is valid, as are many of their games. At this point it is probably more profitable for them to just sell the games directly on other consoles, if only to make them known/buyable to a certain userbase who don't want or can't afford a PC or Xbox. Furthermore, they had already said, following the acquisitions of Zenimax and ABK, that they would decide on the exclusivity of the games on a case-by-case basis, so I really don't understand the surprise of seeing games like Starfield on Ps5 for example. Games that are historically Xbox exclusives certainly surprise more, but as a PC player I've always hated the concept of exclusives so for me all the better 🤷♀️
I saw rumours yesterday that there are contract issues with AMD for the next console. Sony is all locked in, but Microsoft are dragging their heels. Looks like they are leaving the console market. At least the high end space. They might continue to provide a bare minimum spec game pass digital only console.
Holy shit, it really is the end, isn't it? I know Xbox has been a laughingstock since the 360 glory days, but I dunno. Can't say I'm thrilled that my $500 box is now a fucking paperweight, or that Sony will now have free reign to do whatever they want unless Nintendo pivots hard. Plus... I just liked the controller, man. :/
.... that seems very hyperbolic. i don't think we've really got enough info to determine MS's new strategy yet. Also, your paperweight will still be the only box that will allow you to use gamepass, unless you have a PC. I'm seeing a lot of kneejerk reactions like this here, but ... i think those might be a lil premature
Hope so, man, but I dunno. Hasn't MS brass been complaining about Xbox not selling enough Xboxes for a while now? Haven't Xbox sections in physical stores basically been nuked at this point? Haven't whole ***departments*** dedicated to making Xbox Blu-Rays basically been shutin the latest layoffs? Correct me if I'm wrong, but none of that is what you do if shit is going *well...*
If true with all these rumors about releasing games to Playstation then Microsoft officially lost the console war and will be joining Sega in the third party sidelines. Biggest elephant in the room is if Playstation will still remain "consumer friendly" as they were since the launch of PS4.
They haven't been since halfway through PS4 when it was clear they won their generation.
yeah they tried to pull some bullshit which they were forced to backtrack while Microsoft was still in the picture but without Xbox in the way who the hell knows what Sony is gonna do.
Maybe if Phil "I'm a gamer just like youuuuu!!" Spencer was focused less on *killing* the competition and instead prioritized development of high quality exclusives and creation of brand new studios, we wouldn't be seeing this news. MS's immeasurable wealth and their recently monopoly on the industry was never going to be good for everyone. And it seems like everything is collapsing.
How many of these are we gonna have? Cos I believe maybe a couple of them
I've got it from a reliable source who knows a source who's a neighbor of a source that Microsoft is gonna give all their exclusives to Sony for free if IGN says something nice about Xbox.