Disastrous PR debacles have seen Microsoft’s Xbox One console slip well behind the PlayStation 4 in terms of sales, enthusiasm and future prospects. But Mark Butler argues that mis-judged announcements are just the tip of the iceberg.
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.
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.
Like anyone really does, we are such a strange community and we all have difference of opinion.
I've always bought PlayStation consoles so perhaps could be accused of bias, but I do agree the messaging for Xbox One has been rather dire. The launch of the console really resembles the launch of the PS3 in terms of the mistakes Microsoft are making.
Still, I'd argue the Xbox One has a stronger set of games at the moment.
Smh...
Gamers want to play games... It's no coincidence, then, that games can be played on Xbox.
I think the better statement is "MS doesn't know what gamers want to hear", and frankly, I don't either... We're such a fickle bunch, honestly.
Funny.. They kept me happy..
So either I'm not a gamer.. Or the crazy possibility that we "gamers" are not one person is true.. Lol
Arrogance seems to be a prerequisite of being a "gamer" to some people.
Gamers tastes in games and console features are incredibly diverse. I'm sure MS knows exactly what some gamers want, they're still millions buying xone over ps4. The issues is whether MS knowns what the majority of console gamers want, which it didn't.
It was the Kinect focus at the expense of hardware power and price that screwed MS this gen. Whoever is responsible for that is to blame. It's not even Kinect per se, if xone released with all the multimedia focus and kinect but was as powerful or more powerful than PS4 and cost $400, xone would likely be the top selling next-gen console at the moment. 99% of the most popular games are multiplats, PS4s more power at a lower price obviously was far more appealing.
Despite gamers seeming like fanboys for the console they own, they don't really have much brand loyalty, which is good. They'll insult and criticize the other company all day and act like people were fools not to buy the console they bought. But gamers also had no problems going from Nintendo and Sega to Playstation, to xbox, and back to Playstation. They really just want the best power/price/games ratio.
I was prepared to get the most powerful console for $500 or less. I didn't care if it was xbox or playstation. If MS would have put all the manufacturing costs into hardware power and exceeded PS4s power I'd have an xone right now instead of a PS4, even if the xone cost $500.