CheatCC Says: "These days, gamers spend as much time complaining about EA and Microsoft as they do playing video games. The two companies have grown increasingly controversial, as they've continued to push always-online DRM measures and some fairly shifty billing practices. But the two most hated companies in gaming might actually be starting to listen."
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.
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.
No.
I've yet to see the online pass system prove to be successful at changing anything, so that was removed to save money (as they're spending time coding the game to be that way, hosting it, printing cards, obtaining codes from companies, etc). That's really all that's going on here. Ideas didn't work out, so they're dropping them to save a buck.
ea listens a little microsoft doesnt because they have millions of fanbos who will lap up anything they give them. ms could say live is gonna be 20 a month service from now on with less stuff then psn and they still will be like microsoft you are awesome. thats what people who worship idol gods do. they become blindid.
Well it's hard to say, EA is just trying to make nice by removing an Online Pass system that probably wasn't very successful to begin with.
Microsoft recently has said they are looking for unique and interesting indie devs and games for XBLA, so hopefully that means they are embracing indie's as well. We don't know if DRM is something Microsoft considered, so we cant say they listened on that front, their main piece of the pie is North America, which doesn't have the most robust internet, so it would be logical to think that DRM probably didn't get too far.
The big thing people will complain about is Xbox Live, yes it's a paid service, but honestly Sony made a mistake by not charging in the beginning, now gamer's feel entitled to free online, when it actually costs a ton of money to maintain. I don't blame Microsoft as a company for charging to maintain that service, as a gamer, I can afford $35 a year, which is all I've ever paid.
So hopefully they both listen and pay attention.
Lol true