EA's Peter Moore has been discussing the future of the games industry, and he predicts that all games will be free in the future, but expanded through microtransactions and premium services. Depending on your personal take, this is either the best news ever or the worst. More here.
It feels like the video game console is at a crossroads. With Xbox Series X and S floundering in the ‘console war’, Sony suggesting PlayStation 5 is approaching the second half of its life after missing sales targets, and uncertainty around the release of the Nintendo Switch 2, there is growing concern that the traditional video game console business could be under threat.
It's obvious that MS is leaving the console biz. MS may have tons of money, but that doesn't mean they want to keep losing money on the gaming division to prove a point. Thanks Phil
Good article and this is not a duplicate. The link that @Maximus Prime shared is just a small portion of the full interview. This post is the full interview.
Times are changing quick, the same ol way the industry been is changing. Where people play is changing.
“What I think Phil is doing is setting up some smoke signals that we're thinking very differently”
I’m surprised how slowly Microsoft is moving toward Xbox as a software platform. They usually don’t care so much about upsetting their customers with unpopular changes like they do with every other version of Windows.
This "console market hasn't grown narrative " is overblown. The market has grown just not as fast as say smartphones. But so what? There is still money to be made in the business and just because Microsoft has failed doesn't mean the entire industry is facing sudden collapse. Gaming will be fine, every industry has to go through periods of restructuring. AAA games are made becuase its what attracts gamers the most and is where they spend the most money. (Demand/supply) Microsoft abandoning hardware should have happened years ago, they clearly lost interest at a base level in producing games and/or paying 3rd parties to back during the tail end of the 360 generation. Tired of hearing about the future of gaming, just make great games and/or invest in one's made by other to attract people to your platform.
Peter Moore has revealed how the console wars narrative helped foster a competitive spirit at Xbox.
For money.
And because brand loyalty can help you hold onto a market share without actually having anything new to retain said share of the market.
That era was insane, might be the reason N4G even exists. I still remember Peter Moore would show off tattoos of each exclusive Xbox would steal from Playstation 3. And the N4G community was on fire, each story would get like 300 comments of fanboys fighting each other.
How come that "competitive spirit" never translated into regular production of games? Not even talking quality games just games in general.
There were like 2-3 game droughts during the 360 era alone.
From GI.biz: "As an executive at Sega, Microsoft, and then Electronic Arts, Peter Moore was unquestionably part of the games industry for the better part of two decades. Then he left for the world of sports and the chance to be CEO of his favorite childhood football team, Liverpool FC.
After three years in which Liverpool enjoyed considerable success and a Premier League championship, Moore stepped down and seemingly returned to games with an executive appointment at Unity and a board position for mobile publisher Nifty Games."
I do not want to be a part of this crap if this does ever happen. Let me control the minds of all players for a couple of months..I guarantee that we gamers would get a fair deal every time in the gaming world.
Free to play has become the new hotness but alas...it still amounts to less that epic experiences for consoles so far. Plus, lets face it... EA's free to pay model will amount to you can enter the world for free...after that you need ot pay for everything. I can see bullets in BF3 cost you only $.01 per for premium damage bullets... After you fire of 5000 rounds over a weekend you will understand just how "free" these games will be.
Lets just hope the new f2p gundam game fails.. it'd be horrible if f2p games in the future follow that model.
It's already there with Fifa Ultimate Team and other EA titles. I have a real problem with paying for an obvious advantage or stat boost. I cannot stand DLC that basically promotes "why complete the game when you can by the fully levelled character with all the weapons for 6 quid". Very annoying