Gary A. Swaby of TheKoalition.com writes: The internet blew up earlier today at the official announcement that Microsoft has officially cancelled their DRM and always online policies. We all saw the cheers Sony got last week when they announced their console would be DRM free, and since then Microsoft has had a ton of negative press to deal with. Now Microsoft has announced their decision to completely change their policy.
What does this mean for next-gen? Could gamers have possibly ruined the growth of the gaming industry by forcing Microsoft to change their minds? What position does this put Sony and Nintendo in? Richard Bailey, Anthony Frasier, Jakejames Lugo and I discuss the aftermath of this shocking turn of events on The React podcast.
Let us know your thoughts on this controversial topic below.
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 always on is for the cloud servers constant updates.
i guess they saw the ps4 pre-orders go up and got scared, regardless its not going to change my decision, ps4 wii u for me next gen.
They should just release 2 versions. This current version, and another cheaper "digital" version without a disc drive. Should please everyone. But then you wouldn't have the benefit of blu-ray movies. It's a lose lose at this point in time.
They should have kept xbox one how it functioned but changed their policies. With steam you can play your games offline without constantly checking in, PC games run perfectly fine being completely digital. The issue with their old policies is it assumes everyone is illegally playing games when the vast majority of consumers do the right thing. All they had to change was trade ins, no 24 hour check instead when you do go online it may do a check. Make the OS function without the kinnect, no matter how good it is it's still a gimmick attached to the console as are PS eye and PS move etc.
Microsoft should have never had these policies in place from the start. I can see how some may support the sharing games features but the online checks were actually absurd. I'll say Microsoft finally made a a good move today but it should have come alot sooner. They also should have just admitted that Sony made them do this rather then pretend it was a change of heart type of deal on the part of their team. We already know that was never gonna be said publically though lol