An article from Bloomberg today speculates that with Ballmer leaving, there's a very real possibility that Microsoft will spin off the Xbox division sooner rather than later.
PC Magazine columnist John C. Dvorak is a proponent of busting Microsoft into four to six entities, and believes this is a good start. "Some analysts see the proposed Xbox Corporation being valued around $17 billion right out of the chute."
"When you really think about it, the Xbox is unlike anything else Microsoft does. The company stuck with this product and developed a winner by actually being patient for a change. But still, the profit margins are not there insofar as Microsoft is concerned and it might just be spun off to make the books look better."
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.
Microsoft's future in the video game space is murky right now, so let's break it all down.
Not anytime soon. But they're on that path.
One thing not mentioned in the article is Microsoft's money bags. If Sega had Microsoft's money, they would have still been around as a hardware manufacturer. Xbox as a platform only survives because of the money bags. They can continue making consoles for the core and port to PC.
The multiplatform strategy is only the result of arrogance and misguided leadership that blew up in their face. They thought gamers would jump on Xbox in droves if they knew that many of their favorite games would be only on Xbox. But that's not happening at all. Sales didn't increase. They decreased. Why? Because the dumb asses thought giving away these expensively made games in a cheap service would also turn the tide.
Gamers on other platforms are willing to buy quality. They don't need to be handed nearly free games in a service that aren't even finished and sometimes average in their development. Gamers buy Nintendo games. They buy Sony games. Microsoft groomed their base to not buy games. Even the quality ones. It has always been their plan to go digital. But most gamers still like single player gaming. Still like physical releases.
Microsoft's problem has always been that they don't produce high quality games at the same output as Nintendo and Sony. Actually, they should be producing quite a lot more because they're worth over 2 TRILLION. How they don't have more is ridiculous and no excuse. Buying publishers to take away from competition only backfired. Because it still takes millions of dollars to continue to make those games from the publishers they snatched. Their only choice was to crawl back to their competitors to help sustain those developers because Nintendo and Sony platforms were the ones buying games.
Am I sorry for Microsoft? Hell no! They deserved last place for putting in the least effort. They deserved the fallout for buying up the industry and didn't make a single blip on the radar against their competitors where they now need those same gamers they took away games from to support them. Part of it may have been to cash in on their competition. But the result is the slow death of their platform. They may go 3rd party. They may keep making hardware. I don't give a shit about them to worry about it. I only give a shit about the destructive nature of their industry moves that only negatively affect gamers. They could sell and drop out of the industry and I wouldn't blink. Probably laugh. But not blink. They deserve whatever comes to them. At least Sega put in the effort when it came to games. They just had poor leadership. Microsoft has poor leadership and barely makes memorable games. That's a killer combination. And not in a good way.
Not sure about that. It's been two decades and I still think about Power Stone, Shenmue, Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Seaman and others, but I'm not sure I'll remember Xbox Series X/S games in a few years from now... Maybe I'll remember about the franchises that the Xbox brand spawned, but I don't believe that the Xbox Series lives up to the late Dreamcast or even to the Xbox name itself. I do have great memories about the 360 with Blue Dragon, Gears 2 and Lost Odyssey though
No, Dreamcast was ahead of it's time and most still have very fond memories of it that had one. It also had some good games on it even in it's short lifespan. Xbox has none of these qualities.
Microsoft has announced the Microsoft Rewards app on Xbox will be discontinued in April and has confirmed that weekly streaks will also be coming to an end.
Interesting read. Certainly an Xbox spinoff doesn't have to be a bad thing. As PC Mag points out, a separate XBox company wouldn't have the pressure or scrutiny on their operations from inside and outside of Microsoft for not meeting the higher profit margins seen in Microsoft's other divisions. On it's own it could be viewed on it's own merits.
The drawback as I see it would be the removal of the safety net being part of the larger Microsoft company brings with it. I think being part of the larger, wildly profitable company has allowed the Xbox to take risks they wouldn't have taken on their own. I was pretty damn skeptical of the appeal Kinect brought when it was announced, but they absolutely hit a home run with the product. If not for the backing of the larger company, would an Xbox company on it's own have taken such a huge risk? I also hadn't considered what this would do the the Microsoft store as we don't have those in Canada.
Personally, it'd like to see Xbox remain part of the larger company.
They are totally discounting that Xbox is the only product that MS sells that regular people want to buy. How long will windows be relevant when most people are running to tablets and smart phones. Basic of economics, you have to build new revenue streams as your business ages or you will eventually go out of business. Something new will always come along to make your core cash business obsolete.
This could actually be a great thing for Xbox Fans....Like the article even said, by creating a separate Xbox entity, they would be more free to do what they want. I still think they should look into buying Activision, that way they could have exclusive rights to Destiny and COD
...Uh, why am I getting downvoted for this? It's about being happy about change, am I not supposed to be happy about possibilities?
Xbox need an experienced hardware company to take over the brand or its dooomed!
Cause Activision would just love to throw away all future profits for some quick cash.
Meant to be a reply.