Justin Hebert:"Microsoft has certainly been taking its lumps these days. Between their failures in the tablet market and the Xbox One debacle, it is tempting to count them out. Yet there are a few recent events that make me hesitant to label them a dinosaur. If these seemingly random events are indeed part of a pattern or grand strategy, Microsoft’s legion of haters may soon be eating their own words."
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.
also to answer the question of article yes they should be focusing on gaming but they won't because they want Kinect 2 to be a main thing for casuals
also MS can do/say all the right things right now, what i am more worried about is how will they support us in 3-4 years? when in their minds the core market will be maxed out will we be left out again like we were with xbox360 for past 3 years?
it wasn't that long ago they were almost totally against gamers but they had to take many things back not that they actually wanted too
At this point they cant afford to concentrate on TV TV TV SPORTS SPORTS SPORTS.
Which is why i believe that if Julie (i think thats what she is called) is smart she will focus the XBOX brand on gaming more than multimedia features.
But meh since gamers are a minority i doubt that our opinions will matter.
YES. We, the core gamers, are the ones who line up to buy a console on day one. We don't do it for sh*ts and giggles! We do it to play some games! Extra social or TV TV SPORTS features and all are great, but gamers game first and foremost (well most do). Not many people (if any) are going to buy a console day one just for Netflix or to watch TV (when, you can, I don't know, watch TV like before).
The good thing is, they seem to be starting off right. They announced a lot of games. But I still think they should've taken Sony's route; they could've shown a few games at this convention, leave some more for later. But it seems they decided to go the blitz route. They're not going to have to much more to show. While Sony has like, 15 or so games left to show, 12 (11 if The Order is included) of which are new IPs? (Side note: I find it funny how just because MS showed a lot of games, some people think they have more exclusives overall. They just announced more.)
Anyway, MS just needs to keep up the momentum and keep making me want to buy that system next year. They can focus on the gamers, or try and aim for everyone, and we will respond accordingly.
I think they shouldn't avoid the "elephant" in the room and focus primarily on games while making a genuine experience.
With this new Xbox their new direction is now the entertainment system. I understand opening up and appealing to a broader spectrum but the truth is, is that what people buy an Xbox for is GAMING. We have Cable, Tv, etc. so why even shift focus and try to tackle this giant out of their range. In my opinion this just doesn't seem right.
*Edit: It's as if they're grasping for straws and hoping the cow can jump over the moon