To answer the title with no suspense... Yes.
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 of right now, there are no monopolies in the games industry, and for the sake of the medium as a whole, they never should either.
And yet the biggest tech companies in America are essentially that. They buy up all the small comps only to kill them off and steal what they have, and if they can't buy em they bleed them to death.
They buy IPs not talent. That's why these buyouts never work and the IPs die. Right now it's too expensive to develop games - but I expect that to shift maybe as AI tools can make it easier. The best games have been indie games for awhile as big developers fuck their ips to death with "games as a service" -
INDIE Live Expo, Japan’s premiere online digital showcase series , will debut never-before-seen games & content updates across more than 100 titles on May 25th.
PS+ filling my backlog since June 2012. Keep it coming Sony May already looks good for Europe.
PS+ is amazingly great value and M$ needs to find a way to counter it with the next Xbox. PSN has improved so much since 2006 and the PS4 appears to be improving where previously it failed (party chat, included mics).
However, PSN is simply not on the same level as Xbox Live. PS3 is good for exclusives, but no multiconsole owner would willingly choose PSN over Xbox Live. Aside from the above mentioned features, Xbox Live is an ecosystem of interactivity, where everything is streamlined and easy to use. PSN on the other hand is a work in progress.
Including mics with the console means EVERYONE can speak. On PSN too frequently it's so silent that it feels like I'm playing against bots. Party chat means you only need to talk to your friends, no strangers or pre-pubescent COD players. This features are what make Xbox Live far and away the better online system and why I'm excited for the PS4.
You have to wonder if SONY is focusing so much on catching up to Microsoft, what will M$ bring to the table to revolutionize online gaming, again?
For online multiplayer, Live is infinitely better than PSN for the reasons you stated, but i don't do too much online multiplayer as i used to, so i really appreciate the goodies with PS+(Like saving hundreds of dollars on my Vita library) PS+ is better for me right now, but PSN is crap for providing a social aspect to online gaming.
They both have their own merits in the end.
I agree arcade is dead and sony keeps invoating. There are a few games e.g COD which is still find more enjoyable on the 360 but I acrtually found battlefield much better on my ps3 so I will be getting 4 for that or ps4.
Yes, as for me.