BeefJack: "The PlayStation Vita has “that cool factor,” says EA Sport’s Peter Moore, and he believes Sony’s “great hardware” and pricing will keep the portable gaming market an important part of the games industry – even if the 3DS is struggling at the moment."
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.
Following the release of EA Sports FC 24, the publisher seems to have removed FIFA 14 up to 22 from major digital storefronts.
“Virtual Creations” from Nike's .swoosh WEB3 Platform will be integrated into EA titles.
Nike has struck a deal with Electronic Arts that paves the way for the introduction of NFTs to the publisher’s sports games.
You gotta love EA. They've always got their finger on the pulse of the gaming community in regards to the wants and desires of the players /s
EA: We need a new way to be voted the worst company
Nike: Have you tried child slave labor? No?... well how about a Jordan NFT. We will even throw in Chinese LeBron NFTs for free!
Can they even read the room? The world wide gaming room filled with gamers. No one wants this. They know they will probably get away with putting NFTs in their sport games.
How could they not know this is the wrong ass move. If EA survive this which they will, they are seriously untouchable. Too many casuals play their games and dont know what happening or even give a dam
How is Nike still surviving?
People talk about justice this justice that but are so self absorbed that they will continue to support these companies so they can have their neat little things.
At the end of the day , everything the plebs say is all a lie.
The Vita is the Bruce Lee of Handhelds.
.
Please bring Dead Space series to Vita.
And maybe...
Battlefield / Bad Company for Vita too.
Never thought I'd see the day when Peter Moore would praise a Sony platform. ^_^
I have to agree with him, it definatly has that cool factor.
A portable Dead Space and Mirror's Edge please, EA.
I hope EA uses the transfarring tech for games such as Madden,NCAA,Fifa,NHL,etc. Also please bring a new Dead Space and Mass Effect game for the Vita not ports.
A console is only as good as its games imo. The biggest problem I am seeing with PSV is that its getting ported games rather then new games or IP's. This is part of the reason why Nintendo have owned the handheld market for so long because the dont port console games to the handhelds.
The PSV is looking like it could walk all over the 3DS in terms on what it can offer but this was the same with the PSP and DS but look what heppened there. This was all because of Games and price.
Im looking forward to getting the PSV but I can still see my self getting more games on my 3DS.