Digitally Downloaded writes: "I've been writing about games for many years, and if there is one thing that has been consistent across my time sitting here watching everything unfurl around me is this; gamers fear change."
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.
Because they're people and people and people can be ignorant and closed-minded. There I wrote your article for you. Haha jk, jk. (I'm sorry but "jk" has to be the stupidest ting ever)
But really, I think it has to do with the fact the being a gamer is pretty awesome right now. People don't want that to change because it could mean that quality falls. An, "it's all downhill from here," kind of mindset.
I don't think it's change that many fear, it's the degradation of the medium or exploitation of consumers. What we have now works, and it works really well. We don't want publishers trying to mine our pocketbooks. We don't want our favorite games completely changed then sold to us as the same. We don't like being lied to. And when we don't like something we're going to make sure people know about it.
Publishers and developed are not victims, if they can't figure us out then good riddance to them. We buy what we want and want what we like, if they can't figure that out someone else will.
Gamers embrace change as long as it's improvement any perception otherwise will be picked apart mercilessly.
It's not just changes....it's bad changes.
People in general fear change.
Because "Normal" people don't like to be bent over and get it dry... fanboys on the other hand like it dry and want more!