Explosion.com's Dave Walsh explores the rumors of the Durango/Xbox 720 and the always on DRM feature, how it could alienate some gamers or even push them to the opposition of the PlayStation 4 or Wii U.
Microsoft just posted the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $61.9 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q3. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 20 percent.
Xbox content + services up 62% while hardware down 31%... seems about right with the way they tout you don't need the hardware to play. People can play on their phones or smart tv or other means. I don't hardly play on my consoles directly since getting devices like the logitech g-cloud and ps portal. Which is to also say I have been playing more digital than physical because of these devices.
Too expensive hardware when others offer the same or more for less? Good work, Green Team.
"Despite some early successes for Xbox games on rival platforms, Xbox hardware is down by a massive 31 percent this quarter."
"Without Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue would have actually declined this quarter."
"Xbox content and services would have only been up a single percent without Activision Blizzard..."
"It looks like next quarter is going to be a similar story for gaming at Microsoft, too."
That is crazy... so A/B/K is carrying the whole Xbox gaming.
Oh and Microsoft will be fine. Windows, Office and Cloud are growing with each pc purchase.
As part of its plans to cut 1,900 jobs, Microsoft has reportedly shut down operations at Bethesda France, letting go roughly 15 people
Bethesda France was made up of roughly 15 people... they couldn't of being doing much
Bethesda France mainly did publishing and marketing within the region
Bethesda France focused on publishing and marketing in the region. And 15 people lost their jobs as part of the closure.
I wonder if this is part of Microsoft's strategy to abandoned physical media or possibly gamepass advertising makes their roles redundant you don't need to market a game as hard when the majority of players get the game as part of a sub which already promoted upcoming games
Tbh Microsoft I think Bethesda being 3rd party same with Activision would probably more competitive than thus scenario imo
The recently purchased Activision French offices might take over all the licensing and marketing for Microsoft in France from now on.
Hanzla from eXputer inquires: "If Xbox can care about preserving its games and legacy, what exactly is wrong with Nintendo, trying to kill game preservation single-handedly?"
Ahh yes the good old game preservation of saving all your games to a removable hhd on the Xbox 360, taking it round your mates house, setting up multiple tvs to
Be met with “save data corrupted, please re download”
Or how about removing 360 games
From the store
, download them now or else, and, better hope to god that save data doesn’t corrupt, or it’s lost for ever
Nice one ☝️
This is just a scammy PR move to distract from the fact they are going digital only and trying to push streaming and subscriptions only.
No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft.
Without discs there is no preservation, preservation can't be done by the rights holders it can only be done by the consumers, anything else is a lie.
Nobody wants this. Sales or the lack of it in the case of XBOX is very telling. I wonder how the adorably all digital series X will fare. Adorably dismal perhaps?
Only time will tell, but for from someone like me suspecting that Xbox is trying to gracefully exit the console market, that "forward compatibility" team is trying to get Xbox games playing on Windows PCs. I mean, it's nice that they're not planning on exiting with a "enjoy your games while the hardware still works" message, so that's nice. They still have a brand to protect via Microsoft so probably feel obligated to have a better exit strategy.
Oh, man...how many articles formed from misinterpreted information are we going to see??
If you did carefully inspect those "leaked" documents, you would have realized that this always online thing applies to updating apps, games, etc. when it's turned off (the final version of the product in consumer hands) and that the devs that got Durango devkits required them to remain online for verification purposes (so they wouldn't sell it to the public...to avoid situations like those Durangos on sale on ebay---this feature is most likely reserved for the devs in this early stage so nothing is leaked and probably won't make it to the final consumer product) and for keeping the devs up-to-date with the latest updates for the kits as Microsoft is probably constantly updating it and want the devs to have the latest info/firmware for optimal performance.
And if you're going to disagree with me, please at least let me know why if I have made any errors reading those "leaked" documents.
but what if this is true?,
oh well just a rumour, let microsoft confirm these, right?
I might not bother with a console that enforces always on DRM, but I thought people wouldn't pay a subscription for multiplayer gameplay that you can get for free everywhere else.
And yet, Xbox Live has probably been Microsoft's greatest success.
A man doesn't believe MS would be brave enough to use always on and/or no used games. Then again they did INCREASE XBL fees even after PSN was up to snuff and didn't flinch when + started to give the consumer hundreds of dollars of awesome content and discounts for basically everything else. A man would think that since people still pay for XBL and not as many for PS+ that MS may actually be able to convince people this is somehow a good thing since their consumer seems pretty easy to fool.
Fanboy wishful thinking based on an unconfirmed rumor.