We've been hearing this 'multimedia hub of the house' make-believe trend for a while now. It actually started in the previous generation when Sony decided that it was time to expand with their PS3 install base by making it the piece of plastic to own under your telly. Now it seems Microsoft is next to follow in its footsteps. We have a problem with that.
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.
you should apply in MS PR team buddy, I think you will do a great job in my humble opinion :)
MS: "Xbox services and content without AB up 1%, with AB up 62%. Hardware down 31%. In total a loss of 350 mill."
darthv72: "Seems about right."
MS: "Excuse m ..."
darthv72: "I don't hardly play on my consoles directly."
MS:
What he said was facts. How he plays games is no concern of you. Don't get too mad about it.
I can tell people like you are an absolute minority..
If service is up means their fans and fanboys accepted this model and subscribed to it. The near future you will see a big decline because the service is saturated.
But that's been ms for years. When things aren't going their way they try to change the way things are said. For instance console sales are down, they stop telling how many sold instead telling us how many hours spent in halo or headshots. So it makes sense console sales down just say people are playing on more devices then previous. What they won't say is how many xbox players jumped ship to ps5.
Hardware sales are so bad that Sony and Nintendo are blowing the sales off the water with their hardware.
If Xbox are losers, others aren’t..
Xbox already tried everything with Xbox live then subscriptions went down so much that they had to find something else. Their fans subscribed then reached saturation rather quickly.
Hardware and exclusive games is where it’s at! Keep gamers excited, announce decent software and people will support you
@shin
Well keep it simple Sony 's operating income is down 26% and Microsoft's is up 32%. No MS spin there, just facts. 😉
Cheers
Odd that a company that touts you dont need the hardware to play is already touting another console in the works.
They are not reliant on the HW but still want to maintain a presence (no matter how small) is a good thing. It shows commitment to the craft. It reminds me of SNK and how they made games for their own hardware (Neo Geo) while also making them for others because they knew there was a market to do so. They knew they would sell more to others but also sell to their own niche fan base.
In the last two years they've started exiting the consumer market altogether. All of the newest Surface products are business models only. They can't seem to work out what they want to do with it.
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.
Activision: "we gonna need a bigger rucksack/backpack please"
Microsoft: "why's that"
Activision: "to carry yo' weak ass'
Top brass have also wanted to start seeing returns on the 100 billion they have put into various Xbox related moves so seeing more multiplatform games is highly likely especially from abk
It's basically saying that PlayStation is the reason Xbox is afloat right now thinks to Ps5 versions of COD
The only growth MS will get out of the console industry is if it supports it's rivals platforms. Xbox is a pointless machine now. I can see them on a big push for live next, and they won't give up on trying to buy Steam.
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.
Eventually they’ll realize the value is with the employee not the company. Buying an IP means nothing if the people who contributed are let go. They’ll get it one day.
tech is different because they buy threats and then kill them. Twitter bought Vine and did nothing with it. Despite people seemingly liking it. Could've had tiktok a decade before bytedance. go figure.
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.
I don't mind my system playing dvd, cd, bluray, or Netflix. I personally don't think that is most peoples issue with the "one". the major issues stem from requiring net, used game rumors, and their lack of showing any games actually being played. e3 should fix at least 1 of those. but the net issue is probably their biggest even over the used game rumors.
If XBOX ONE succeeds then gaming WILL die.
Not only will it show manufacturers and developers that they can get away with such audacious felonies(spying), but it'll also show that most people haven't bought the system for gaming. Why? Look at the trailer. It had about 5 seconds dedicated to "real gaming" followed by some trashy TV and Skype promotions - this is a gaming console Microsoft, not a media centre. What you showed in the trailer was about 1/6th gaming.
If gaming is to continue as we know it today then either the WII U or PS4 HAVE to "win" the next generation. If anything else then the focus on gaming will diminish. Why? The WII U and PS4 are primarily focused on gaming.
In addition, the XBONE has weak specs compared to the PS4, not only will this show that specs don't matter (which may lead to poorer-quality consoles in general), but it may lead to a decrease in the overall quality of gaming consoles. This is because Microsoft will see that specs don't matter so they'll cram their low-end PC equivalent console with 'innovative', 'new' social, TV and unnecessary features. This therefore will lead to the games industry diminishing as people begin to buy the console for the Blu-ray player and internet connectivity due to heavy restrictions such as used games being restricted.
If a casual gamer bought the XBONE for films etc and tried to buy a used game then was presented with the fee I seriously doubt they'd even bother trying to game in future; thus, this leads to even less sales which may lead to even more companies being liquidated.
The XBONE is very, very bad for the games industry.
PS4/WIIU MUST win this generation if we wish for gaming to continue to be as big and expensive (With regard to the budgets of games) as it is today.
It is annoying, I doubt anybody that tuned into the reveal was interested in the multimedia features. Likely it was the gaming community wanting to see what it can do, what the games looked like so far. Instead it was literally geared towards moms, grandmas, and people who don't care about playing games so much. Voice control being a selling point? If I am going to play a game the controller is in my hands, why use voice commands? Are our thumbs to lazy now to just do it? What a waste of development time and money. They should have asked themselves who is going to buy our consoles day one, the answer is people who want to play games.
Free chicken... How is setting up a XBOX with a Kinect going to be easier than buying a laptop for $250 and using Skype? They really didn't make the process any easier so what makes that group want it more? Nothing IMO.
The entire XBOX has all these weak features. Who really cares about multitasking while watching TV. That is just silly, if i am watching TV I want to see and know whats going on. I have a tablet to look stuff up while watching the tube. I don't think anyone is going to be using these features after using them to show people than everyone will be like yeah that's "cool" now STFU nobody cares that you can talk to your TV.
Also real quick if you want one box under your TV get a HTPC, build it from scratch, it will work just fine. Cheaper than any console, more powerful, no confusing DRM, same content plus more, and it isn't being sold by someone who doesn't understand the core demographic it appeals to.