Microsoft seeks experienced producer with "proven track record of production experience in delivering linear media" for unannounced Xbox project.
Microsoft's future in the video game space is murky right now, so let's break it all down.
Not anytime soon. But they're on that path.
One thing not mentioned in the article is Microsoft's money bags. If Sega had Microsoft's money, they would have still been around as a hardware manufacturer. Xbox as a platform only survives because of the money bags. They can continue making consoles for the core and port to PC.
The multiplatform strategy is only the result of arrogance and misguided leadership that blew up in their face. They thought gamers would jump on Xbox in droves if they knew that many of their favorite games would be only on Xbox. But that's not happening at all. Sales didn't increase. They decreased. Why? Because the dumb asses thought giving away these expensively made games in a cheap service would also turn the tide.
Gamers on other platforms are willing to buy quality. They don't need to be handed nearly free games in a service that aren't even finished and sometimes average in their development. Gamers buy Nintendo games. They buy Sony games. Microsoft groomed their base to not buy games. Even the quality ones. It has always been their plan to go digital. But most gamers still like single player gaming. Still like physical releases.
Microsoft's problem has always been that they don't produce high quality games at the same output as Nintendo and Sony. Actually, they should be producing quite a lot more because they're worth over 2 TRILLION. How they don't have more is ridiculous and no excuse. Buying publishers to take away from competition only backfired. Because it still takes millions of dollars to continue to make those games from the publishers they snatched. Their only choice was to crawl back to their competitors to help sustain those developers because Nintendo and Sony platforms were the ones buying games.
Am I sorry for Microsoft? Hell no! They deserved last place for putting in the least effort. They deserved the fallout for buying up the industry and didn't make a single blip on the radar against their competitors where they now need those same gamers they took away games from to support them. Part of it may have been to cash in on their competition. But the result is the slow death of their platform. They may go 3rd party. They may keep making hardware. I don't give a shit about them to worry about it. I only give a shit about the destructive nature of their industry moves that only negatively affect gamers. They could sell and drop out of the industry and I wouldn't blink. Probably laugh. But not blink. They deserve whatever comes to them. At least Sega put in the effort when it came to games. They just had poor leadership. Microsoft has poor leadership and barely makes memorable games. That's a killer combination. And not in a good way.
That would be an insult to Dreamcast.. it had a crazy line up of legendary critically acclaimed games.
I was thinking the same. Dreamcast had incredible games in such a short amount of time. It was truly exceptional.
...and yet all those great games were not enough to sway people from the looming release of the PS2 at the time. Sony just has that kind of brand loyalty.
Darth
I do not agree.. Sony had even better games thanks to an unprecedented 3rd party support..
DC had amazing lineup but 90% were arcade games..
@darth:
And Sony showed off "The Emotion Engine" and their real time demos that made everyone think they would miss out on REAL next gen 128bit magic if they jumped in before PS2s polygon pushing monster (and early lack of anti-aliasing with a healthy heap of shimmer + DVD playback) stepped up. PS2 was a fantastic system though with amazing games.
That's not true. Just because Microsoft has the money doesn't mean Microsoft can allow xbox to bleed entire Microsoft money. It doesn't work like they. Also SEC will be watching and investor won't allow it. Lot of reasons why Microsoft can not continue even if they wanted to. SEC regulations is expensive.
Exactly this... Microsoft is a publicly traded company, mostly owned by their shareholders (Approximately 59.24% of the company's stock is owned by Institutional Investors, 7.73% is owned by Insiders and 33.03% is owned by Public Companies and Individual Investors.). Their shareholders call the shots on the business decisions, and their shareholders want one thing and one thing only, for their stock price to go up. Losses do not make stock prices go up... so if the division continually posts losses on hardware, but shows profits on software and services (which has been the case with Xbox its entire lifespan, for over 20 years now), the shareholders are going to grow impatient and demand they stop making hardware and focus on the only thing that has ever made them money, software and services.
When Microsoft bought Blizzard and Activision for almost 100 billion, I knew that was the nail in the coffin for Xbox as a console... as the shareholders were going to expect a quick return on that investment, and when it didn't materialize, they were going to be out for blood... out to force Xbox to sell those games on as many consoles as possible, "and while you're at it, sell those first party exclusives that aren't selling well on other consoles as well... hell, just stop making consoles and sell games."
If there is another Xbox console generation, it will definitely be the last, but I doubt there even will be one at this point. I think the Xbox division planning on it just in case, but I don't think the project has been greenlit from Microsoft itself. The rumors that they have not yet even secured the chips needed from the chip fabrication facilities ties into this.
While I usually agree with you . Alot of what was said can just also be asked before any of that.
How long will the shareholders wait? It doesn't appear long at all
I think I get your point. Like just because MS has money does not mean they are content to throw it away on a dying ecosystem. Xbox has to be profitable or “what’s the point?”
Money bags, yes, but are we ignoring that Xbox actually makes a profit on games and GamePass? Hardware is often a loss leader, and they're probably making profit 4 years into the life cycle, but games and services revenue have been very profitable while other parts of Microsoft's business is struggling. Say what you will about the quality of those games, of course, but this is kind of a reverse Dreamcast situation, where the console was dragging down the company and put it at risk of shuttering entirely. Killing that console saved the business and allowed it to continue to make games on multiple platforms. In this case, the service is very profitable, as are the games, and they're also double-dipping into Multiplatform to extend this further, while their hardware is just sort of what they believe to be the best for gamers and their own titles (whether that is the case or not...)
The issue is, they aren't selling enough hardware to make their exclusives profitable, and now that they've bought half the gaming publisher/dev industry, they have no choice but to go third party to make a profit... and that is making their shareholders take a real close look at their hardware division under the microscope... why keep making the hardware if the software is all that is making them money, and they continually, generation after generation come in dead last with hardware sales?
Look at a game like Spiderman 2... if it had been an Xbox exclusive, with the amount it cost to develop, it would have been a huge failure... simply not enough consoles out there to sell it on. They would have been lucky to break even.
@fr0sty agreed completely, which is why they're hedging by releasing other games to multiplatform, plus they have PC to make up for the difference in a lot of ways, which is why their games are not complete money pits. It brings up the question of whether or not those exclusives would drive sales of consoles, though. Let's say Spiderman 2 was an Xbox exclusive, it would certainly have pushed console sales, though who's to say how much is anyone's guess.
That's why you can't rely on just one exclusive, Sony has always delivered on a wide range of solid exclusives, even this generation (even if they haven't been strong on the first party exclusives, they've made up for it with third party). They don't rely on just one "system seller", they have a portfolio of them.
ApocalypseShadow To be honest Sony has more of a chance to go 3rd party because like you said Microsoft has money, Sony does not. Sony does not have games, Only games they have come from 3rd party. Sony has been losing money for years and you. Saying Microsoft has been putting the least effort just proves you have no idea what's been going on. All Sony has done is repeat and recycle, never innovating or doing something new. All Sony has is brand loyalty nothing else and it shows.
Not sure about that. It's been two decades and I still think about Power Stone, Shenmue, Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Seaman and others, but I'm not sure I'll remember Xbox Series X/S games in a few years from now... Maybe I'll remember about the franchises that the Xbox brand spawned, but I don't believe that the Xbox Series lives up to the late Dreamcast or even to the Xbox name itself. I do have great memories about the 360 with Blue Dragon, Gears 2 and Lost Odyssey though
No, Dreamcast was ahead of it's time and most still have very fond memories of it that had one. It also had some good games on it even in it's short lifespan. Xbox has none of these qualities.
I remember it coming out at the time in a really bad place they hit the market before the PS2 but it was during this transitional time when Sony was promoting the power of the PS2 and so many of the Dreamcast games were awesome but often third parties simply ported the PS1 version increased resolution and performance but rarely fully utilise the capabilities of the console.
I think in the end bad marketing done it in and like the GameCube so many people are fond of it now but at the time it was looked at in the lense of the day and it didn't stack up.
Personally I miss Sega in hardware they took risks that many companies won't
I never owned it, and got the PS2 right when it launched. But there were certain games it had that I was always jealous of that I didn't have access to - Sonic adventure, crazy taxi, power Stone, code Veronica, shenmue, skies of Arcadia. I always thought it was a really cool machine though. I've never heard a bad thing about it though from those that had it.
I only ever saw one Dreamcast, and that was one my friend owned, pity I never got to play it, I wonder what games he had for it?
It would be nice if some of those games got ported to modern systems.
Oh man sonic adventure on the Dreamcast made me so jealous as a huge sonic fan on the mega drive who also moved to PlayStation 2 I never got the chance to play it back in the day either. The Dreamcast in Australia where I am was always relegated to the smallest corner of EB Games it was kind of a strong first indicator that things were not going well at the time.
Ive been thinking about this and yeah it's possible however I think the question is more could Xbox become the next Sega rather than Dreamcast.
I can see Xbox becoming a brand still with a seperate look and feel to the parent company no one wants to see the company that makes excel publishing games so I can't see them using the Microsoft moniker on games they publish.
I see a future where Xbox is a service driven product and who knows they may still continue the hardware and make it heavily subsidised extremely powerful and low cost but require a gamepass subscription to use it so they make back their money over 4 years or so.
But I absolutely see third party publishing and cloud gaming being the sole reason for their existence.
They have far more technical experience than Sega did who we know offloaded a lot of technical expertise to vendors and it's a different time to when Dreamcast died we have cloud gaming coming up (I'm not sold on it but many appear to be).
It would have to be universally loved to be the next Dreamcast.
They forget that Sega didnt do anything wrong, it simply didnt have the coffers of MS to hold on. MS and xbox story is a bit different.
I have 2 dreamcasts, 2 Saturns. Sega did a SHIT TON wrong and they’ll be the first to tell you 😂😂😭
I played Saturn alot more then ps1 at first. My stepdads sister had one.
They had an enclosed front porch. Kept the Saturn and a TV on the front porch so the kids on the 3 house side street block could play whenever. It was all family. Literally.
Depends. They're doing another next gen console. If things don't go there way next time (though many said this gen was their last chance) they're downsizing, selling of Xbox or become 3rd party. Because the industry is just too expensive.
Though tbh I dont know what MS goals are. They said or class console sales aren't the end all be all. Is is high gamepass subscriptions? High engagement in services sales attach rate or what? The funny part is Phil recently said (again) Xbox is profitable just, slow growth.
Sounds like money hungry company wants more money, then they make said money, they want more, more and more. There is no goal just pivot after pivot and gluttony for money from what it sounds like.
Thats the thing though Phil has had to eat his words so many times over the years. Make sure you have some salt when hes talking.
I do believe ms will give the handheld thing a try. It was probably already in r and d and all.
Microsoft going the way that Sega chose I would not be surprised. I honestly would not be surprised if Microsoft rebranded Xbox as a games section and focus their studios under one branch called XBox. And have games that say developed or published by Xbox studios. But unlike Microsoft Sega actually had machines that did well and the game libraries to back these machines up.
It had more games then the XB1 and what's on the Series X and that's me defending the little white space heater.
360 sold well but gotta admit ms dipped out of that Gen about half way through. A little over halfway maybe.
Microsoft's future in the game space isn't murky at all. They've planned for a long time to drop hardware and become a multi platform publisher. For them it's much more profitable than making games purely for their own hardware. It's no coincidence that they've spent so much money on buying up some of the biggest studios with the most profitable IPs in the business. They didn't do that just to restrict the sales of those games to one single platform.
Oh yeah absolutely. Because they make more money now that they have to release on PS instead of their own hardware and give sony a 30% cut on every game sold. I am sure they planned that from the beginning.
Kill xbox and release on pc and ps. Sure all planned.
nah, xbox has Mothergoose MS behind them. Sega didnt have that kind of money.
also, sega makes fantastic games. even the dreamcast had some of my favs
This. To this day I still remember booting up Soul Caliber in 1999. There will never be another console quite like it.
the best game of all time, !!! which says a lot, as its a fighter, which never get voted.
then eventually soul caliber switched to unreal engine and ruined it, felt clunky and just like any other game, lost some of its fluidity and individuality, also too many teleporting moves. Cervantes had one jump/ teleport move, plus yoshimitsu had a few dash/teleoport, that was it.!! fast forward to ps4/xbox era and everybody teleprting around, left right and centre, the 'dance' of the fight we fell in love with, was gone,.
Dreamcast was a great system. Better than anything Microsoft or Sony have pumped out in years.
I honestly believe the next gen from Microsoft is going to transition to having 2/3 PC architect box boxes that run an Xbox platform along with Steam, epic or other storefronts of your choice, with one of them being a handheld akin to the steam deck. They are looking to alter the dynamic of the how the console market operates by fundamentally removing the walled gardens. PC gaming and Mobile are the only real growth sectors of gaming so why not have a product line that operates in all of them.
Dreamcast's aren't E-waste and hold a legacy, i have a modded DC hooked up to a CRT with the entire library.
Good luck having that with Xbox in 10yrs time.
I don’t know why, but the focus Xbox had on heavy shooters with an Alien/Space theme such as Gears of War and Halo never appealed to me. Those game had their audiences of course. But I remember that people who liked those type of games were big fans of Quake, Doom, Duke Nuken, etc when they were younger. Some people like gore and monsters. Sony had a more diverse selection of games. They were more adult oriented with games such as The Getaway on PS2 and Heavy Rain on PS3. They also had monster shooters. To this day, everytime I play a game that is an Xbox exclusive it really feels that it has no soul. Story writing has never been the strength of Xbox exclusive games.
The Dreamcast was better. Xbox is just a more advanced version of the Phillips CD i that turned out the be a better version of the Stadia console.
no... dreamcast was what it was due to before its time innovations... microsoft isnt interested in innovating anything but a sub fee to their gaming service.
Don't insult my precious Dreamcast like that by comparing it to modern day Xbox. 🍥
MS/Xbox is not going anywhere; whenever something shifts, people get all doom and gloom, lol. MS is making money on software and services, and hardware eventually becomes profitable. The problem is it's the same market over and over, with the lion's share going to their direct competitor, Sony. Fan loyalty is a real thing; it's almost like politics, where "your" side can't do anything wrong, and if they do, you brush it under the rug and keep cheering.
MS will release a new console; they will just open it up, make it completely like a PC, with other storefronts, and at the same time dip into the Switch/Steam Deck business with a handheld, effectively putting Xbox on every type of device. Collectively, it will create growth, even if one sector falls short. They will also continue to put games on PS and Nintendo when it makes sense...Live service games and, maybe after a year or 2, single-player games like SF and Indiana Jones; I do not see Halo, Gears, or Forza falling into that situation.
Side Note: as a Nintendo fan, I remember the many, many years of doom and gloom predictions from console loyalists lol.
The Saturn burned to many consumers in America. I loved the system, but the majority of the good titles for the system were never brought to the states. It was a shame. The Saturn was an absolute 2d powerhouse that released at a horrible time when everybody wanted blocky polygons. The Dreamcast suffered from the stigma of how Sega handled the Saturn in my opinion. I bought Dreamcast on day one and loved it until they stopped supporting it. I mean NFL 2k, and NBA 2k. Still playing NBA2k until this day, and would play NFL2k if it was possible to exist.
Microsoft is and has always been a software company first. Whatever hardware they make is (almost?) always secondary to their software. They seem to be trying to turn Xbox into a subscription service similar to Office 365 that spans across every platform you can think of. They want to push their presence everywhere basically. The Xbox console is just one place out of many. How well that strategy will turn out to be in the long run still remains to be seen. Wouldn't put too much hope in their hardware plans anymore tho. But never say never I guess. At the end of the day, their wallet is effectively a bottomless pit.
Full disclosure....I own a ps5, and a Series X....I still have a Dreamcast that I breakout to play Skies of Arcadia and Grandia 2 every once in awhile. I don't see a single game that I will be playing from this gen on the Xbox in 20 or so years. So while I know the comparison here is a hardware making solely transitioning to a software company...I can't compare the two
˙◠˙
BTW, many first gen Xbox games and great sagas like Project Gotham Racing were born in Dreamcast. Xbox was born thanks to Dreamcast.
Xbox keeps making new SKU’s! The internet says Xbox is waning but M$ keeps pumping out different console variants, it’s like, pretty sure they didn’t buy up half the industry to put out games on PC.
It’s funny bc M$ is so slow delivering any notable games the masses thinks Xbox is dead but really it’s just on life support while the games are being made—best not take them out to oven too soon this time or it will be a death sentence, not just for the Xbox brand, but all those great IP’s they bought as well.
In the last 6 years have they made more skus or more exclusive games
Honestly I’m confused.
Have they had Xbox one slim Xbox one x, Xbox series s & x, the black s 1tb edition now this new adorably digital edition, is that 6
They had starfirld redfail forza & halo infinite sea of thieves, As their big blockbusters
You could say hifi rush but that’s fishy, they would have had it anyway, even without the buyout,
I mean, I’m not good at maths but it’s not really adding up to a great scorecard in my eyes
These mfs not even tryna release games at all, they rather boast about releases that's like 3+ years away lmao then wonder why sales are low seems like there's politicians and con artist working there nowadays with all the lies and not owning up to it like a real adult
Basiic tenet of business is that you don’t keep pouring money into a loss making venture. MS has a history of cutting and running if the business venture is failing.
Microsoft has announced the Microsoft Rewards app on Xbox will be discontinued in April and has confirmed that weekly streaks will also be coming to an end.
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
It's likely but not entirely obvious. The messaging is leaving a lot open to interpretation, and they haven't forked over their crown jewels to PS just yet.
It's POSSIBLE that the upcoming Xbox exclusives do so well they see an uptick in console sales and... change their mind??
I feel like it's way too late in the console cycle for that, by the time some of them are out we are 1 year further. I think a better bet is to maybe make them with next gen in mind and make them cross gen between this and the next as to give their next console a great launch if the games turn out well. I feel that's their best bet to stay in the console business.
You should pray they don't exit. If they do, you will see the collapse of the gaming industry.
Here we go again with that false sense of relevancy for the xbox platform.
I told you yesterday that the gaming industry was fine before MS entered the space and it will continue to do even better when they're finally gone. MS is/are not the ones keeping this industry healthy, far from it and most won't even bat an eye if they're gone.
...And Having lots of money doesn't mean success it just means you can keep failing for a long time.
They will just leave room for another competitor. Maybe someone who is more succesful at competing.
Nah. We might see some real competition again. Maybe from a company that actually loves gaming. Like Sega.
Ridiculous. Acting like MS are the linchpin holding everything down and if they let go, then gaming will be ruined and prices will soar astronomically and creativity will be stifled and thwarted at every turn. It's a fallacy. I'm not saying it's preferrable to have MS out of the console space, but I am saying that all this fearmongering over what will happen if MS were to bow out is overexaggerated and overblown.
Collapse? It was here before Xbox and it'll be here long after. What exactly do they do to benefit it? Barely any game output, theyve taken studios and made them worse and they've hurt it trying to make everyone move to streaming.
Haha.
I'm actually laughing in real life at that
Why exactly?
What are Microsoft contributing to the industry that will be missed?
They're just taking a slot that should belong to someone better.
My vote is for Valve and a Steambox.
Since you guys clearly don't understand how this all works, I won't explain it to you. You guys will simply see it if it happens, then you'll quietly sit there acting like you saw it coming.
But you can research what Pachter and the other analysts have stated...
🤷
If anything, Xbox leaving the industry is actually what will save it and make it thrive. They don't contribute anything good to the industry and if anything, any bad practices today, they're the ones responsible.
Take a time machine, go back in the past and erase Xbox from existence, you'd come back to a present where the industry is much better. Remove Sony and/or Nintendo though, there is likely not going to be anything left.
@Aloy
With competition sony has failed to deliver a diverse generation. Has shifted focus to Gaas, has put the support of their vr platform into the hands of PC, has jacked up the price of their service, is moving you into day and date on PC... Be careful what you close your eyes to. If you wish for MS to be gone, sony is heading in the same direction with less funding
@theenigma
The same can be said if not worst about Sony. Who lose $2 billion of value, lose 26% of there operating income, missed sales goal by 4 million, and has no 1st party games coming out till next year? Console sales are not helping Sony. They are a much smaller company and how long can they afford to lose so much money?
They are not losing money. They make profit. They bring in more then they spend. It's a business thing. Get a grown up to explain it to you.
You know a dropping stock price is not like that actually had to give 2 billion to someone. That didn't sell their shares. And failed to meet sales expectations? Still sold over 20 million in a year. You must be dizzy from all that spin.
Whats crazy is that when some xbox fans were cheering the acquisition of a large part of the multiplatform gaming, they didn’t realize they were cheering on what was to pave the way for xbox to leave console space.
Oh the irony. Karma?
True ^
Yup, they celebrated taking games away from others even though they weren’t getting anything they wouldn’t have got anyway. Now it turns out it was all a plan to end Xbox as a console. Heh 🤦
Exactly right everyone thinks Microsoft is willing to bankroll an underperforming division simply because they can afford it however that's not how these companies operate they might bankroll something for a year or two while not gets established however now is the time they bare expecting a return on the investment and it's clear Xbox is underperforming.
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.
yeah like they just very recently removed support for Android apps on W11 without much of a warning. simply because they claimed that not many are using them. Sony got a huge flak when removing OtherOS support form the PS3, I think the same should be happening to MS to for removing the apk support. such a dick move!
That is surprising, I know big companies can't move fast, but they're moving at a glacial pace, everything they've done with Xbox for the past decade has been moving at such a slow pace. I suppose they have money to burn with how big the company is.
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.
@derek Right! It's so obvious that all Xbox has needed to do is create great first party games like every successful console has done since the original Nintendo. It's not rocket science lol I have lost so much respect for Microsoft over the last 10 years and their rabid fanboys that do not represent their base as a whole. Literally just MAKE Great games and people will invest in your platform. It's not rocket science or excuses. It really is that simple lol
This victim mentality that Phil has instilled this generation has really turned me off the brand for good. Really enjoyed OG Xbox and, while I couldn't wholeheartedly support 360 due to that atrocious failure rate, they had some killer games and services. Ever since Gears of War judgement dropped in 2011 and they shifted completely to Kinect, it's been so bad.
It all started going down hill after Don Matrick stated "stick with the xbox 360 if your don't have any internet.
That man singlehandedly destroyed the xbox brand then jumped ship as it was sinking 😂
Ninver,
Don had the look of a sleazy businessman, but I don't understand why that moment gets a bad rep.
They were super honest in that moment, and I have to say, it sucks that this is the direction the company would take, but it was such a mask off moment that really highlights their plan.
Nowadays, you have Phil, who isn't direct but is very much still going in the same direction.
What it comes down to, at least from my observation, is Don and Phil were/are just the messengers. Don took a dive following the backlash, so they repackaged the messaging approach with a new person to make it seem like the company is taking a new approach. Nothing has really changed.
So I don't think Mattrick did anything that he wasn't asked to do by his own higher-ups.
He's like a landmark really. Just a reference to a point in time when things got bad. In reality, it was Microsoft's vision for Gen 8 going forward that destroyed them, not Mattrick.
That's my read of things, anyway.
Don was honest, Phil is sleazy! don't blame just Don for that downfall, Phil was part of the team back then too. the one announcing the price for the xbone on stage was Phil, remember?
Reminds me of when the Wii U's poor sales led to speculation that consoles are dead. It's so repetitive and annoying.
Some people act like we're all about to switch over to cloud gaming when the internet infrastructure and data caps alone would take decades to accommodate such a change.
Google Stadia was shut down and died a horrific death just 1 year ago. lol
If you are looking to something like the PS2 as the measuring stick... keep in mind that there was a percentage of units sold that were replacements for bad lasers and then you had others buy replacements because of model revisions. I'd venture a guess and say the real market saturation point is somewhere between 125-140m. And yes that includes handhelds because even those have users who invested in different variants over the coarse of their lifetime.
You can't truly use units sold as a measure of individual owners. you are right though, the market has certainly grown from something like the 8/16bit era to today, but nowhere near as quickly or as large as the smartphone/tablet market. You figure there are entire swaths of people who dont play consoles/handhelds but they do play on their phones.
Agreed. I think if you look at the number of concurrent players playing the popular games of the time, it's always breaking records, not decreasing. Sure there are ppl that play on their phones, but a crap ton of kids and adults are sitting down at their computers or consoles to play. Are they all playing the same kinds of games i used to play? not really. But that doesn't mean consoles/computers are going away - they're gonna play games.
It’s grown based on what. What PS console has ever hit 200 million? Even with Xbox doing poorly it’s the same customers who were already going to buy a PS console
@353, Console sales are not the end goal but the gateway they're not the only measure of growth. You sell consoles to sell games and subscriptions to your platform and that has grown substantially since the ps1/ps2 generations. Revenue and profits have grown meaning the business has grown. Sony's concern is with their margins which have shrunk recently (some from the cost of producing a ps5 not decreasing like in past cycles, some from paying off the bungie purchase, some from growing development costs). So they cut jobs and will look to were they can save on development. Not saying that decision will be proven correct but this is a normal but unfortunate part of the business cycle and its happening across tech. You're talking about the addressable market, but as Layden said if you want to attract new people to console gaming then different games will have to be made then your traditional gta, cod, GoW etc that will interest them.
Of course, there’s more money in mobile gaming, less money to put in development and much smaller scale games to a more available audience since everybody has a phone. That doesn’t necessarily mean console gaming is in a decline because it’s not.
If Microsoft does get out of the hardware business and solely focuses on software. I can see Steam coming in and making a console along with their portable.
Microsoft accumulated a lot of talent and I hope they do well with it honestly.
But Sony does need competition to help keep them aligned. PS5 as much as I love the console, it just had great moments in sputters not like in a consistent amount.. and that’s not necessarily their fault. Game development has taken a dramatic amount of time to develop for.. but this generation has been definitely limited. And if Sony has steep competition, I think it would help them find a way to be more innovative.
Imo Sony is holding a lot of major first party titles until the end of the consoles life cycle.the last 2 or 3 years they'll drop banger after banger to sell the ps 6.
Xbox needs an owner that wants to make games and add to the industry. MS has never cared about the making games side only the money, they purchased two publishers that already release games on their system thinking that would bring more people to Xbox and take them away from competition, now they need that competition back buying the games they'd banned so to keep their publishers afloat... who'd of thought removing publishers biggest revenue generator in the console market wouldn't work out, MS is a joke.
MS just needs to go far, far away from console and computer gaming and maybe focus on what seems to suit them more, mobile gaming, cheap little money grabbers that require little imagination and creativity but can be pumped out by the thousands and monetised to death.
"MS just needs to go far, far away from console and computer gaming and maybe focus on what seems to suit them more, mobile gaming, cheap little money grabbers that require little imagination and creativity but can be pumped out by the thousands and monetised to death."
And which games are they doing this with currently?
You miss the point completely. MS is a creativity bankrupt mega corp that gave up creating and are solely focusing on acquisition, when you get to the size of MS megamergers are how you effectively raise the stock price and buy market dominance. They want a premade business that just generates money and the mobile phone gaming market suits them far better, cheap money grabbers with little cost and thought that can be pumped out by the millions.
Makes no sense. How can they be "creatively bankrupt" when just 6 years ago they had 5 studios? How can you create these super amazing new IP with 5 studios? You need to buy more studios to create these games right?
I disagree with ABK that's just pure power grab tho they did let Toys For Bob go independent, again that's a pro industry move. Bethesda has been a long time partnership for over 20 years with several exclusive games or timed games So BZ makes sense. Xbox Game Studios makes even More sense from what you're talking about. You need studios to create these games. xbox games studios means more games, also means more creative games. Games like Fable wouldn't make a comeback and South Of Midnight or Clock Work Revolution wouldn't be a thing. So what "creative Bankruptcy" are you talking about.
With Phil and Sarah in charge, it's dead, they don't value system selling exclusives and don't want to put the resources or effort into making top notch 1st party games.
None of those are out though. So no one knows if they're top notch. People said the same about Redfall and Starfield. From all these studios we're still waiting for something acclaimed. Until then it's always gonna be waiting for the effort to be put in
There like a rotting toe that has got frostbite, eventually, you need to cut it off to save the body
This is Xbox and the body is Microsoft
You might need to check what you just wrote before putting that title on other people. It's called being aware.
You're welcome.
Although I'm not a big fan of Microsoft in fact I really hate them. However I'm also not a fan of one corporation to win it all.
Just like the other business lines that Microsoft runs it will end up placing their games everywhere. While Games Pass service will be the main access point they will still produce a console but it will no longer be necessary to access games.
Ummm the CEO of Xbox said multiple times that are important and aren't going anywhere.
1. A business doesn't have to continuously grow and grow to be sustainable. In fact that's impossible you can't grow and grow eventually it has to Plateau. The industry experienced a huge boom during covid and now it's settling down hence not growing. Not growing is just Microsoft's excuse. They said it about five times during that little sit down when they told us they were going third party. All of business has to do to keep existing is to make profit, not grow forever.
2. Nintendo and PlayStation are doing fine. They're selling millions of consoles, millions of games and making loss of profit. There's only one lame duck in the console industry that car compete and that's why they've tried to buy everything up to compensate. It's okay Microsoft will continue to exist they will simply drop the platform and become full third party and they won't have the burden of trying to make a good console they will just release games made on the backs of other people's talent.
This is the future.
phils top secret plan its not difficult to decipher
xbox exclusive games are know coming to playstation
I think PC is just the future. Games nowadays are held back by consoles. Playing FF7 Rebirth right now and I'm just dying for a PC version that isn't so laggy and textures still deciding to whether they want to load or not.. I can't help but dream of this game being made entirely for PC with no console chains to hold them back.
Between the terrible decision to make Xbox Series S and the oppressive management of all the developers they basically bought and destroyed, it’s clear Microsoft has LOST the console wars. They will continue to thrive in the PC space with little first party games support.
These companies do long term forecasts going even beyond 5years. Its clear that MS Long term forecasts for hardware revenue is not painting a pretty pitcure therefore they are in a transition phase to leave the hardware business behind and focus on being a publisher where there long term forecasts is looking healthier.
MS leaving the console business in the traditional sense is nothing to be ashamed about its business and you have to go where there is maximum return on investment. All the best to MS if anything it shows good business acumen.
Microsoft giving they can profit being 3rd party publisher due to the cash you get so I'm thinking they might go publisher.
Yes it has a future. Would love to see a hybrid like Nintendo. With full hardware spec.
Sony bringing everything to PC, MS bringing everything to PC, PC doesn't charge for multiplayer, at this point why on the blue earth would anyone invest in consoles, especially next gen consoles?
Seriously, the only one left standing in terms of one place to play their games is Nintendo.
Sony isn't bringing everything to PC and have never said they are. Whether that changes for PS6 remains to be seen.
Microsoft is the only one who's games not only all come to PC, but do so day and date.
You're lieing to yourself if you don't think Sony isn't actively bringing their library to PC. Every other month we get an announcement of one of their "exclusives" being ported to PC.
you can emulate anything nintendo with ease lmao, good luck emulating anything that isn't ported to pc on modern systems.
The debate has been over for some time. They are just slow playing it and trying to ease the fans that remain into a digital rental future disguised as play anywhere.
Exactly! Soften the blow I guess although they don't really care about saving face either, MS will gladly pick up their bags and leave the console space with the flip of a switch if they have to cause they still got their golden goose aka momma Windows.
not what gamers want. if i wanted to watch a film i will watch a film but what i don't want to do is play a game filled with cutscenes, scripted events, linear gameplay and silly pathetic visual affects.
quote "VideoGamer.com previously discovered that Black Tusk's project was a "AAA core" action console game, presumed to be a shooter." great another shooter as if the eight halos weren't enough. well atleast microsoft is releasing (or planning to anyway) an exclusive that isn't halo,gears or forza again. i wonder when it will be announced and if its for the 360 or next gen xbox
Nice!!! First thing to come to mind was "Heavy Rain" and MGS. But I can hear Xbox players complaining its more film then game. Games like this get more apile on the PS3.
If it's a shooter, I really don't care. I want an adventure game. A GOOD RPG. Anything but a shooter. I've got enough shooters to last me a lifetime this generation.
Incoming Uncharted clone!
Or maybe just another Harry Potter Kinect game.