CCC says: "We are repeatedly seeing that the next generation of consoles will differ radically from any before it. We’re not only looking at entirely different system architecture, heavy implementation of cloud computing and social networking, and an unprecedented level of publishing accessibility, but also a distinct lack of one element in particular: graphical improvement."
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 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.
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 love looking at pretty picture.
Saying graphics don't matter is like saying music doesn't matter or animation doesn't matter. A game doesn't have to be the best looking game ever to be good, but it's reductive thinking to say they aren't important.
Simply put, would any game be better with worse graphics? No, it's absurd.
However, I WILL say art direction is more important than pretty graphics.
Graphics are important but not as much as some might think because contrary to p(c)opular belief graphics are not the be all and end all of gaming.
Is this guy blind? The difference in graphical fidelity is massive. And since when are launch titles indicative of the graphical potential of the hardware?
Oh god can we please stop with this. Graphics are forever going to be important. They are not the whole picture, but they are decidedly a piece of the whole pie. Even if the jump in fidelity is not astronomical, it is important. Deal with it.