Wherever you are in the world, if you are a gamer then chances are you would have found the screen of your choice to soak up the moment that Microsoft revealed their new console Xbox One. All the familiar buzzwords were repeated, such as ‘franchise’, ‘community’, ‘immersion’ and ‘innovation’. The main reason people tuned in, however, was to find out the answers to two questions that will make them part with their hard-earned cash: what does the in-game footage look like? And how much is it going to cost me?
It’s of no surprise that we are all going to have to wait a little longer yet, as Microsoft and Sony continue their little game of cat and mouse. An interesting revelation, though, is the confirmation that gamers will have to pay an extra fee to play pre-owned games on Xbox One.“On the new Xbox, all game discs are installed to the HDD to play,” a Microsoft representative told Wired.
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.
The 2 most important questions I tuned in for have still not been adequately explained. Can I play my games without an always on connection, and can I play used games. Virtually all the comment buzz going on now is people trying to get a clear answer.
http://majornelson.com/2013...
You have to be signed into your profile to play a game without the fee. So you can't let a friend borrow a game, unless they want to pay the fee or use your gamertag.
Microsoft obviously told someone at EA that they were going to make people pay extra to play used games. Imagine the backlash if people had to pay for an online pass and give M$ even more money on top of their Gold subscription...
I'm sure the publisher (EA) will get a cut of that "Fee" anyways...
I really hope all the companies that take part of this loose lots of money.
I wonder if Sony will do the same.
I knew there was far more to the reason behind EA dropping online passes...now the other shoe dropped. EA feels MS's solution works for them to the point they dropped online passes.
NOW the big question... How is Sony dealing with this? Surely EA is putting pressure on Sony to have a similar system in place.