160°

Microsoft's Thompson: Our best Xmas line-up ever - MCV's interview

In an interview with MCV, Microsoft's senior regional director for the Northern Europe Entertainment and Devices Division Neil Thompson has said that his company's upcoming Q4 software offering is the best he has ever worked with.

"You never really know what's going to happen in Q4, but I've worked on Xbox since we started the project and this is probably the best Christmas line-up we've ever had from a content perspective," he stated.

"There's a whole range of product coming – the brightest thing for us this year is the breadth of range and the extension of some of our more family-based products." Thompson went on the state that he believes Xbox 360 has been the "innovative force in terms of what a next generation console should look like".

nobizlikesnowbiz6041d ago (Edited 6041d ago )

MS is gonna pull further ahead this Xmas. A lot further ahead.

Or I'll eat my shoe.

<ed.> Yea all consoles will sell. But 360 is going to do a lot better than Ps3 this Xmas, IMO. I could be totally wrong. But it's just my opinion.

PS360WII6041d ago

I hope you are wearing a tasty shoe ^^ heh I'm just fooling. No Christmas is really good for all consoles. Sure one system will always sell more than the other but really this time period is when all the consoles and game makers see their best sales.

YoMeViet6041d ago

you should never bet with your health on the line...i hear shoe leather is toxic...

nix6041d ago

but if he fries it properly and garnishes with right mixtures, he might be able to eat it without problem.

Saint Sony6041d ago

Yep. 360 will sell like boobs and beer.
This christmas season will be big for all consoles but 360 might have the biggest sales in the end. We shall see.

nix6041d ago

Thompson went on the state that he believes Xbox 360 has been the “innovative force in terms of what a next generation console should look like”.

LOL! now that cracked me up! 360 and next gen? wow... talk about blind faith. i am guessing he hasn't heard about PS3 or Wii. q:

PS360WII6041d ago

"It is important for us to still offer loyal Xbox customers exactly what they want – so it is important that Halo 3 has just arrived and GTA is coming."

Did he not get the memo that GTA has been delayed out of the christmas schedule?

jackfatal6041d ago (Edited 6041d ago )

our best line up ever for the xmas!!
but what do they have other than mass effect???
and halo 3 is not for xmas its for summer and Autumn not for xmas!

ps3 UT3,HAZE ratchet,uncharted,folklore,TG5 prologue!

EDIT
@fredy

halo 3 is an AAA title and the same goes for Bioshock but they are summers hits not xmas!! that was what i wanted to say!! read my comment properly before posting!!

fredy6041d ago

oh now it's Mass effect?

Every AAA titles that comes out PS3 fanboys jump on the next as theonly game MS has....keep on waiting.

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60°

Pacific Rim Pinball comes to Pinball FX

This could be fun as they make great tables. Go big or go extinct. Prime your senses for a neural handshake and step into the cockpit of a Jaeger. It is on you to cancel the apocalypse when Pacific Rim Pinball comes to Pinball FX on May 16.

280°

Microsoft’s Surface and Xbox hardware revenues take a big hit in Q3

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.

Read Full Story >>
theverge.com
darthv721d 6h ago

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.

solideagle17h ago

you should apply in MS PR team buddy, I think you will do a great job in my humble opinion :)

Sonic188114h ago

I thought darthv72 and Obscure_Observer already work for Microsoft 🤔

dveio14h ago

MS: "Xbox services and content without AB up 1%, with AB up 62%. Hardware down 31%. In total a loss of 350 mill."

darthv72: "Seems about right."

MS: "Excuse m ..."

darthv72: "I don't hardly play on my consoles directly."

MS:

Lightning779h ago

What he said was facts. How he plays games is no concern of you. Don't get too mad about it.

Cacabunga16h ago

I can tell people like you are an absolute minority..

If service is up means their fans and fanboys accepted this model and subscribed to it. The near future you will see a big decline because the service is saturated.

darthv722h ago

to you it may seem like the minority... but your bubble is shrinking because more and more are following suit. convenience is a hell of a drug and its also why physical sales only amount to 30% of overall game sales. times are changing, you either get with them or you get left behind.

shinoff218315h ago

But that's been ms for years. When things aren't going their way they try to change the way things are said. For instance console sales are down, they stop telling how many sold instead telling us how many hours spent in halo or headshots. So it makes sense console sales down just say people are playing on more devices then previous. What they won't say is how many xbox players jumped ship to ps5.

Cacabunga14h ago

Hardware sales are so bad that Sony and Nintendo are blowing the sales off the water with their hardware.

If Xbox are losers, others aren’t..
Xbox already tried everything with Xbox live then subscriptions went down so much that they had to find something else. Their fans subscribed then reached saturation rather quickly.

Hardware and exclusive games is where it’s at! Keep gamers excited, announce decent software and people will support you

itsmebryan10h ago

@shin
Well keep it simple Sony 's operating income is down 26% and Microsoft's is up 32%. No MS spin there, just facts. 😉
Cheers

S2Killinit3h ago

MS is after diminishing consoles as a medium. They want to destroy this market because they couldnt win. MS’s vision is to dissolve console gaming.

romulus239h ago

Odd that a company that touts you dont need the hardware to play is already touting another console in the works.

darthv729h ago

They are not reliant on the HW but still want to maintain a presence (no matter how small) is a good thing. It shows commitment to the craft. It reminds me of SNK and how they made games for their own hardware (Neo Geo) while also making them for others because they knew there was a market to do so. They knew they would sell more to others but also sell to their own niche fan base.

TheEroica3h ago(Edited 3h ago)

Perfectly reasonable post down voted by insecure corporation friendly folk.... But not gamers. Real gamer want accessibility and ease of acquisition for all.... Company shills are the only ones still telling us that hardware locking people from games is good for us.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 2h ago
purple10119h ago

Xbox hardware revenue tanks to lowest point of Xbox Series generation

Profchaos18h ago

I'm not surprised surface is struggling they aren't relevant anymore

DOMination-8h ago

In the last two years they've started exiting the consumer market altogether. All of the newest Surface products are business models only. They can't seem to work out what they want to do with it.

XBManiac18h ago

Too expensive hardware when others offer the same or more for less? Good work, Green Team.

SimpleDad17h ago(Edited 17h ago)

"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.

purple10117h ago

Activision: "we gonna need a bigger rucksack/backpack please"

Microsoft: "why's that"

Activision: "to carry yo' weak ass'

Profchaos17h ago(Edited 17h ago)

Top brass have also wanted to start seeing returns on the 100 billion they have put into various Xbox related moves so seeing more multiplatform games is highly likely especially from abk

It's basically saying that PlayStation is the reason Xbox is afloat right now thinks to Ps5 versions of COD

Kornholic15h ago

So basically PS and PC gamers' money is keeping Xbox on life support.

MrDead8h ago

The only growth MS will get out of the console industry is if it supports it's rivals platforms. Xbox is a pointless machine now. I can see them on a big push for live next, and they won't give up on trying to buy Steam.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 8h ago
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140°

Why Monopolies In Gaming Must Not Be Allowed

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.

thorstein1d 4h ago

Shouldn't be allowed in any field.

Inverno1d ago

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.

jwillj2k423h ago

Eventually they’ll realize the value is with the employee not the company. Buying an IP means nothing if the people who contributed are let go. They’ll get it one day.

MrCrimson23h ago

tech is different because they buy threats and then kill them. Twitter bought Vine and did nothing with it. Despite people seemingly liking it. Could've had tiktok a decade before bytedance. go figure.

Zenzuu1d ago

Monopolies shouldn't be allowed regardless. Not just for gaming.

MrCrimson23h ago

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" -