Electronic Arts held its earnings conference call for investors and analysts yesterday, and Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore had quite a few comments to share about the performance of the PS4 and the Xbox One and especially their attach rate (the number of games purchased by customers per console sold). He also improved his prediction for combined sales of both consoles by the end of the FY.
It feels like the video game console is at a crossroads. With Xbox Series X and S floundering in the ‘console war’, Sony suggesting PlayStation 5 is approaching the second half of its life after missing sales targets, and uncertainty around the release of the Nintendo Switch 2, there is growing concern that the traditional video game console business could be under threat.
It's obvious that MS is leaving the console biz. MS may have tons of money, but that doesn't mean they want to keep losing money on the gaming division to prove a point. Thanks Phil
It's likely but not entirely obvious. The messaging is leaving a lot open to interpretation, and they haven't forked over their crown jewels to PS just yet.
It's POSSIBLE that the upcoming Xbox exclusives do so well they see an uptick in console sales and... change their mind??
I feel like it's way too late in the console cycle for that, by the time some of them are out we are 1 year further. I think a better bet is to maybe make them with next gen in mind and make them cross gen between this and the next as to give their next console a great launch if the games turn out well. I feel that's their best bet to stay in the console business.
You should pray they don't exit. If they do, you will see the collapse of the gaming industry.
Here we go again with that false sense of relevancy for the xbox platform.
I told you yesterday that the gaming industry was fine before MS entered the space and it will continue to do even better when they're finally gone. MS is/are not the ones keeping this industry healthy, far from it and most won't even bat an eye if they're gone.
...And Having lots of money doesn't mean success it just means you can keep failing for a long time.
They will just leave room for another competitor. Maybe someone who is more succesful at competing.
Nah. We might see some real competition again. Maybe from a company that actually loves gaming. Like Sega.
Ridiculous. Acting like MS are the linchpin holding everything down and if they let go, then gaming will be ruined and prices will soar astronomically and creativity will be stifled and thwarted at every turn. It's a fallacy. I'm not saying it's preferrable to have MS out of the console space, but I am saying that all this fearmongering over what will happen if MS were to bow out is overexaggerated and overblown.
Collapse? It was here before Xbox and it'll be here long after. What exactly do they do to benefit it? Barely any game output, theyve taken studios and made them worse and they've hurt it trying to make everyone move to streaming.
Haha.
I'm actually laughing in real life at that
Why exactly?
What are Microsoft contributing to the industry that will be missed?
They're just taking a slot that should belong to someone better.
My vote is for Valve and a Steambox.
Since you guys clearly don't understand how this all works, I won't explain it to you. You guys will simply see it if it happens, then you'll quietly sit there acting like you saw it coming.
But you can research what Pachter and the other analysts have stated...
🤷
If anything, Xbox leaving the industry is actually what will save it and make it thrive. They don't contribute anything good to the industry and if anything, any bad practices today, they're the ones responsible.
Take a time machine, go back in the past and erase Xbox from existence, you'd come back to a present where the industry is much better. Remove Sony and/or Nintendo though, there is likely not going to be anything left.
@Aloy
With competition sony has failed to deliver a diverse generation. Has shifted focus to Gaas, has put the support of their vr platform into the hands of PC, has jacked up the price of their service, is moving you into day and date on PC... Be careful what you close your eyes to. If you wish for MS to be gone, sony is heading in the same direction with less funding
@theenigma
The same can be said if not worst about Sony. Who lose $2 billion of value, lose 26% of there operating income, missed sales goal by 4 million, and has no 1st party games coming out till next year? Console sales are not helping Sony. They are a much smaller company and how long can they afford to lose so much money?
They are not losing money. They make profit. They bring in more then they spend. It's a business thing. Get a grown up to explain it to you.
You know a dropping stock price is not like that actually had to give 2 billion to someone. That didn't sell their shares. And failed to meet sales expectations? Still sold over 20 million in a year. You must be dizzy from all that spin.
Whats crazy is that when some xbox fans were cheering the acquisition of a large part of the multiplatform gaming, they didn’t realize they were cheering on what was to pave the way for xbox to leave console space.
Oh the irony. Karma?
True ^
Yup, they celebrated taking games away from others even though they weren’t getting anything they wouldn’t have got anyway. Now it turns out it was all a plan to end Xbox as a console. Heh 🤦
Exactly right everyone thinks Microsoft is willing to bankroll an underperforming division simply because they can afford it however that's not how these companies operate they might bankroll something for a year or two while not gets established however now is the time they bare expecting a return on the investment and it's clear Xbox is underperforming.
Good article and this is not a duplicate. The link that @Maximus Prime shared is just a small portion of the full interview. This post is the full interview.
Times are changing quick, the same ol way the industry been is changing. Where people play is changing.
“What I think Phil is doing is setting up some smoke signals that we're thinking very differently”
I’m surprised how slowly Microsoft is moving toward Xbox as a software platform. They usually don’t care so much about upsetting their customers with unpopular changes like they do with every other version of Windows.
yeah like they just very recently removed support for Android apps on W11 without much of a warning. simply because they claimed that not many are using them. Sony got a huge flak when removing OtherOS support form the PS3, I think the same should be happening to MS to for removing the apk support. such a dick move!
That is surprising, I know big companies can't move fast, but they're moving at a glacial pace, everything they've done with Xbox for the past decade has been moving at such a slow pace. I suppose they have money to burn with how big the company is.
This "console market hasn't grown narrative " is overblown. The market has grown just not as fast as say smartphones. But so what? There is still money to be made in the business and just because Microsoft has failed doesn't mean the entire industry is facing sudden collapse. Gaming will be fine, every industry has to go through periods of restructuring. AAA games are made becuase its what attracts gamers the most and is where they spend the most money. (Demand/supply) Microsoft abandoning hardware should have happened years ago, they clearly lost interest at a base level in producing games and/or paying 3rd parties to back during the tail end of the 360 generation. Tired of hearing about the future of gaming, just make great games and/or invest in one's made by other to attract people to your platform.
@derek Right! It's so obvious that all Xbox has needed to do is create great first party games like every successful console has done since the original Nintendo. It's not rocket science lol I have lost so much respect for Microsoft over the last 10 years and their rabid fanboys that do not represent their base as a whole. Literally just MAKE Great games and people will invest in your platform. It's not rocket science or excuses. It really is that simple lol
This victim mentality that Phil has instilled this generation has really turned me off the brand for good. Really enjoyed OG Xbox and, while I couldn't wholeheartedly support 360 due to that atrocious failure rate, they had some killer games and services. Ever since Gears of War judgement dropped in 2011 and they shifted completely to Kinect, it's been so bad.
It all started going down hill after Don Matrick stated "stick with the xbox 360 if your don't have any internet.
That man singlehandedly destroyed the xbox brand then jumped ship as it was sinking 😂
Ninver,
Don had the look of a sleazy businessman, but I don't understand why that moment gets a bad rep.
They were super honest in that moment, and I have to say, it sucks that this is the direction the company would take, but it was such a mask off moment that really highlights their plan.
Nowadays, you have Phil, who isn't direct but is very much still going in the same direction.
What it comes down to, at least from my observation, is Don and Phil were/are just the messengers. Don took a dive following the backlash, so they repackaged the messaging approach with a new person to make it seem like the company is taking a new approach. Nothing has really changed.
So I don't think Mattrick did anything that he wasn't asked to do by his own higher-ups.
He's like a landmark really. Just a reference to a point in time when things got bad. In reality, it was Microsoft's vision for Gen 8 going forward that destroyed them, not Mattrick.
That's my read of things, anyway.
Don was honest, Phil is sleazy! don't blame just Don for that downfall, Phil was part of the team back then too. the one announcing the price for the xbone on stage was Phil, remember?
Reminds me of when the Wii U's poor sales led to speculation that consoles are dead. It's so repetitive and annoying.
Some people act like we're all about to switch over to cloud gaming when the internet infrastructure and data caps alone would take decades to accommodate such a change.
Google Stadia was shut down and died a horrific death just 1 year ago. lol
If you are looking to something like the PS2 as the measuring stick... keep in mind that there was a percentage of units sold that were replacements for bad lasers and then you had others buy replacements because of model revisions. I'd venture a guess and say the real market saturation point is somewhere between 125-140m. And yes that includes handhelds because even those have users who invested in different variants over the coarse of their lifetime.
You can't truly use units sold as a measure of individual owners. you are right though, the market has certainly grown from something like the 8/16bit era to today, but nowhere near as quickly or as large as the smartphone/tablet market. You figure there are entire swaths of people who dont play consoles/handhelds but they do play on their phones.
Agreed. I think if you look at the number of concurrent players playing the popular games of the time, it's always breaking records, not decreasing. Sure there are ppl that play on their phones, but a crap ton of kids and adults are sitting down at their computers or consoles to play. Are they all playing the same kinds of games i used to play? not really. But that doesn't mean consoles/computers are going away - they're gonna play games.
It’s grown based on what. What PS console has ever hit 200 million? Even with Xbox doing poorly it’s the same customers who were already going to buy a PS console
@353, Console sales are not the end goal but the gateway they're not the only measure of growth. You sell consoles to sell games and subscriptions to your platform and that has grown substantially since the ps1/ps2 generations. Revenue and profits have grown meaning the business has grown. Sony's concern is with their margins which have shrunk recently (some from the cost of producing a ps5 not decreasing like in past cycles, some from paying off the bungie purchase, some from growing development costs). So they cut jobs and will look to were they can save on development. Not saying that decision will be proven correct but this is a normal but unfortunate part of the business cycle and its happening across tech. You're talking about the addressable market, but as Layden said if you want to attract new people to console gaming then different games will have to be made then your traditional gta, cod, GoW etc that will interest them.
Today Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson provided a look into his ideas for the use of generative AI in the company's development processes.
I wonder what the next buzz word they'll slap in front of AI to make it sound exciting next? "Generative" as if it's creating its own content. Lol.
i have a better idea .. why the whole exec team doesn't get replaced by chat bots ?
Though i agree the ai thing is already in other forms of media there have been ai translations/scripts/voice over and even full ai commercials aired on tv. Ubisoft has created a ai game creator story/vo/music except the building of the game
The new unreal engine has auto terrain creation tools
In the world of greed in which it is winning without any major blow back ai is our future.
everyone want's biden dead on the mic or a criminal instead of a woman and now we are getting ai everything because no one will stop watching/playing ai created media.
Exactly EA are just pure evil. When they are beating Bank of America to be voted the worst company to work for that’s saying a lot
Good thing I don’t buy their games day one and wait for deep deep sale years after launch (the select few games I am actually interested in)
Gaming is making so much money yet the greed of these companies is never ending
CEO’s and people on board making millions yet cutting jobs to those who are actually making the products
EA is still a shady shitty company even with or without the help of Skynet. All they will use AI for is new ways to milk loot boxes and come up with the same sports title with a different year on the label. They are one company I truly do hate with a passion. They single handedly ruined some great franchise with their death touch. ME, Dead Space, Alice Returns, Dante's Inferno.
All that is already been happening
https://www.gamespot.com/ar...
https://mobilesyrup.com/201...
https://www.ign.com/article...
https://www.spglobal.com/ma...
EA layoffs followed by 'Generative AI to Drive Monetization'
I knew it. Wonder what AI salary looks like? Nothing.
I having a feeling that most of the layoffs in the industry are based on the idea that AI will do the same job for less.
Very likely, yes.
Made worse by the fact that the execs aren't changing their compensations.
My deepest fear at this point is that we are now in the capitalism endgame.
At this point, we really should just burn AI to the ground. Executives cannot be trusted to do the right thing.
How are those people expected to support families if everything gets automated?
And take away creativity, and people's jobs as we've been seeing. Got it.
No thanks. I want my games created by people, not AI.
Exactly. If or when games start becoming more AI than people, im done with gaming. AI and companies like EA can suck donkey d***k.
Though i agree remember this is no ps3/360 era were we got up to 3 games in one generation from on developer like gears/halo/bioware/sony/ms
The people today are pro esg/sweet baby for the most part AAA gaming is imploding right now.
We should be stepping back re evaluate everything as a whole this year xmen 97 written/directed by a woman that is nuts and its also being made by a group reshaping bodies to be less sexual like wtf. A dam famous cartoon from the 90's is being rebuilt with millions spent to be worse in everyway.
Gaming/movies/tv shows made today are worse than what we had 7years ago ai won't change this but that ai is also being made by these groups so either way we are screwed.
https://www.youtube.com/wat...
Don't be of afraid of women. Sexy characters in games and movies still exist. Got my Stellar Blade on preorder!!! Everything all the time doesn't need to be sexual...that's stupid, childish and dull.
EA doesn't want to lose their title of worst gaming company ever, always trying their best to remain the champs!
What's sad is that they have so much potential to be a decent publisher.
SSX Tricky / SSX 3
Def Jam Vendetta / Fight for New York
NBA Street
NFL Steet
Mirror's Edge
Bad Company
Burnout 3 / 4 / 5
Remember when EA used to be awesome? It's all over with now. Unpolished, if not out-right broken games these days. Endless monetization and gambling in their sports games, and let's not forget wasting hours of your life trying to unlock characters or equipment using "surprise boxes!"
Gareth, Justin, and JoeyZ look at Layoff news for EA and Sony and reasons behind the downturn in the industry and more.
Maybe they should have a conference on releasing COMPLETED games you know instead of expensive flashy full retail early access titles.
Whatever though
getting mine in a week or so, can't wait!
What's up with these ea articles, since when people care about what ea says?
Attach rates around 2 games per console. And that's an average so for every person with 6 games you can expect to see 4 people that only bought a single game.
This ratio isn't unusual for the full lifecycle of the console. It really highlights that fact that the market is actually very different to how we perceive it to be.
No wonder nobody is interested in selling consoles at a loss any more.