Darryl Linington from ITF Gaming writes: Microsoft has finally come clean regarding everything related towards DRM and second hand games. However, once reading through the confessional, one tends to realise that the lockdown on second hand games as well as having access to an internet connection may not just be a Microsoft thing.
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:
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
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
As part of its plans to cut 1,900 jobs, Microsoft has reportedly shut down operations at Bethesda France, letting go roughly 15 people
They can form a company if they want, they are just as jobless as if "Microsoft had left them as 3rd party".
"MIcrosoft leaves Bethesda do what they know how to do best" ... close! Oh the irony ....
(Citation from a week old article)
I think Microsoft and other game publishers are letting people go because they think ai will replace them. Doesn’t matter how much profit they make. They were always going to be let go.
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
that's a shame for you to say that, i'm sure Elite loves hearing what you just said.
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
It's France too, there's a high likelihood only 1-2 people on the team even had an Xbox.
Tbh Microsoft I think Bethesda being 3rd party same with Activision would probably more competitive than thus scenario imo
I think it would have been better for all parties really especially gamers
The recently purchased Activision French offices might take over all the licensing and marketing for Microsoft in France from now on.
With all the PlayStation games that are now coming to PC, is it time for Sony to release a dedicated PC launcher?
Unless they are trying to kill their recently created PC business, I would advise against opening a dedicated PC store. It's an extremely hard endeavor, and people, in general, are very comfortable with Steam. Even Epic, with their billions of dollars invested, is still struggling to find a foothold, and they have Fortnite.
Money is one thing security is another but again millions have 0 knowledge past 2020.
Epic store for years struggled with a shopping cart/account theft/credit card theft
Rockstar launcher/store to this day over 5 years later still has horrific user interface security flaws lost account's and stolen CC
Then you got that activision need phone number oh we lost it launcher
The crown jewel is the ea launcher/store ea app 3 yrs old still has hundreds of threads were people lost games/accounts/game access or just straight up crashes.
Edit" Oh ubi launcher were you buy a game that may or may not be there again or work and the launcher 5yrs old still has no 4K support if you launch it on a 4k screen there is a high chance it will just crash.
Can tell who ever put this together is not all that clued up on pc gaming.
It's just a known fact. The PC gaming community prefer Steam and Steam alone. They don't like different launchers. I personally don't mind them. But majority just stick with steam. Hence why EA and Ubisoft went back to on releasing on steam and why Microsoft release games on steam as people hated buying from the windows store.
The only other launchers that I imagine are doing ok is GOG due to being drm free and epic games due to the free games every week. Sony shouldn't release any sort of pc launcher n
It literally says in the OP that PC gamers don't like multiple launchers lol. It even mentions Steam being the go to for gamers
Title: "PlayStation Doesn't Need a Dedicated PC Store Launcher"
N4G: "Can tell who ever put this together is not all that clued up on pc gaming"
When you don't even read the headline...
I read it and had a brain fart. As read the title then this "With all the PlayStation games that are now coming to PC, is it time for Sony to release a dedicated PC launcher?"
So I hold my hands up on that mistake. Rest of my comment still stands.
Steam and GOG are highly preferred because of the rich feature set. Ubisoft, Rockstar, EA, Epic etc have all set a precedent over the years for customers to instinctively expect individual publisher launchers to be so extremely half-assed that the majority simply don't want to bother dealing with what is almost an inevitable disappointment by comparison to Steam or GOG. Those publishers and their inaction or general disinterest to improve have effectively ruined any future adoption to be taken seriously.
This is just another ridiculous double standard article.
It's like how Microsoft can spend 20 years of making nothing but gaas and live service style games to sell microtransactions, dlc and subscriptions and get praise for doing it, but if Sony wants to make a single game like that every website under the sun is writing articles saying how Sony is anti-consumer or whatever.
Yep, huge double standard look at the tortured reaction to the ps5pro, websites hyperventilating like Sony is forcing people to buy it.
Wait my xbox from 2004 has avengers gaas on it? wow your so smart
m$ Gaas started with the other companies like sony
Gamepass yes they are deep into that but its still a huge money saver sense you do not own your games then get a service like that.
Now there pc xbox launcher that is trash for years now
Sony wouldn't mess up, so I doubt the PS4 would be restricted!
Hopefully not. I think Sony is smarter as a company. If they come out in E3 and directly dispel these issues, the PS4 will easily win this generation.
"COULD" is such a big word that holds no substance until we see for our selves on the 10th.
Whatever it might be, I'm getting a PS4 day 1 baby, thank you Sony.