Microsoft's CEO responds to concerns he might spin off the company's games division, doubling down on Microsoft's commitment to Xbox gaming.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood discussed the performance of the Xbox business, including the forecast for the current quarter.
“Never Been More Excited" About Games Lineup“
It’s like a broken record. Put up or shut up.
Not really, they still haven't "Put up" besides Hi-Fi Rush. Now we're hearing Hellblade 2 is not only digital only, but no longer than the 1st game which you can beat in like 4hrs. I'm all for quality over quantity but you would think going from Indy to backed by one of the biggest corporations in the planet would see a sizeable increase in scope or production, especially after putting this game front and center of nearly every bit of promo for the Xbox brand. But on to the next dangling carrot am I right? Until that one under delivers too, rinse repeat for another 10yrs if they're around that long.
I believe that "200 Million Monthly Active Users" includes PlayStation players of Call of Duty and PC players of World of Warcraft.
Now Microsoft has the statistics it has probably found that it is making more profits from PlayStation gamers than Xbox gamers and this will affect its decisions on platform exclusivity.
@jin
What is Sony putting up this year? What first party games are coming out this year has you excited? What games are you expecting at today's State of play?
sony has a history of over 2 decades of releasing excellent games. State of Play should help today make that point even stronger
I'm curious, do games like FF7 Rebirth, Rise of the Ronin just magically no longer count as playstation games or an advantageous release for playstation just for not being third party? Even though Sony own the former IP? And they aren't coming to Xbox as of now?
Goalposts moved and now only games directly made by first party count, even if the IP is owned and not made by a first party studio, they don't count. See how ridiculous it sounds? lol
First party games are great and everything , but ps still gets a ton of 3rd party stuff devs dont bother to make for Xbox. As a fan of jrpgs Xbox can't hang so ps is the choice.
Plus I'm sure Sony has something. You guys went over a decade without multiple decent games in a year. If Sony has a slow couple years ps owners will be alright.
I mean Rebirth is coming out in a few weeks and that's gonna blow anything Xbox releases this year out of the water.
Sony have proven enough. They have large library of in house exclusives that have been proven to be excellent games. before you ask about Sony, look at the history of xbox for the last 15 years, what have they've done last generation and so far what have they done for this generation in terms of excellent games.
Imagine writing this as if the only reason you xbox peeps have no games and really haven’t in like 8 years is because there wasn’t enough money from trillion dollar MS.
'as well as mobile, where we now, have over 200 million monthly active users alone, inclusive of Activision Blizzard King'
There's your context. They'll probably start including every playstation\switch player playing an activision game next, if they haven't already in that figure.
@raW
What do you mean? Does that also count for all the 3rd party exclusives Sony has paid for this year?
Microsoft bought ABK for a reason and it looks like it paid off. Compared to Sony's Bungie purchase, which one seems like a better buy now?🤔
@itsmebryan
What are you going on about man? All of sonys studios were built from the ground up by devs who knew no matter what they were going to make it could only be done because of the sony banner, not their talent.
Lot of emphasis on cloud streaming, didn't see any call outs on the console business.
However he did reiterate that the games covered earlier this year are slated for Xbox and not PlayStation.
Really curious on whether any of the rumors re: physical games, console future, and exclusives are true - if they are he's not signalling too much at this point.
This is how they'll justify their bonuses, I guess. Maybe it's just me, but this flex after layoffs really rubs me the wrong way.
I get that this is a financial earnings call, but it was less than a week ago we were talking about people losng their jobs. Just comes across as distasteful.
Honestly, I'd like to see some product boycotting, but if 2023's Call of Duty can still be profitable despite all of the issues, I don't have much hope.
There will always be a contingent of fans that, regardless of what happens to the workers, will embrace the products as Game Pass Day One perks. Even so, you always want to hope there's a come to Jesus moment.
There's no come to Jesus for high-level execs, really. They all have golden parachutes so even if they get canned they walk out with a ton of $. And they're usually so slick they can spin a failure like a success so they weasel their way into their next great job.
The come to Jesus content was for gamers that continue to support them, actually. I agree, there's no moment humanity for them.
But I don't think they "weasel their way" into another great job. If anything, I think you can be catastrophic and still land at a good job based on your personality. There's a certain personality type you'll find in an exec and I suspect that matters more than actually doing a good job. But that's just me. Basic things like did they crumble under pressure when confronted by a controversy, are they willing to fire as many people as necessary for the company's bottom line regardless of the pleading from workers you face, etc.
I agree with you. What I mean by "weasel" i guess is the way they spin the truth. Like, if Phil were to leave right now to go work at... let's say the NFL as an executive. The CEO of the NFL isn't going to know the inside story on gaming and everything he did / didn't do for Xbox as a brand. Phil will say he led the company to record levels of revenue, modernized and transformed gaming by bringing in GamePass and the cloud, and created the most diverse executive lineups in the industry. Something like that. At that level, they can make almost anything smell like roses.
Starfield has passed 11 million players and has set a record of new Game Pass subscribers on its launch day as Microsoft's CEO details the performance of the Xbox business.
Starfield really is a massive success, likely the biggest new IP release for the entire gen.
Facts. I just saw earlier that the game was the #1 selling game in Canada for the month of October and even as of this moment, it is the 6th most played game on Xbox. Like I said in a previous post, You can't ever say this game was a flop. It might have underperformed critically but it has performed well commercially.
GP numbers stayed stagnant, so not a commercial success at all.
Plus day1 with GP then all of a sudden it's £35 for 1 week early access, you couldn't make this shit up and 2million sheep lapped it up 🤣😂 🐑🐑
‘Most new subscriptions on launch day’ without numerical context, actual figures, is meaningless.
Starfield had been hyper anticipated for years, the cheapest method to access and play it is with Game Pass - so that this game has a been a bigger draw than Forza Horizon 5 and the scaled back Halo Infinite is not a surprise. Halo Infinite’s launch, might’ve led to ten new subscriptions and Starfield, just eleven. Of course it won’t be as low as that but without Microsoft giving a number it raises questions as to if the number is not impressive.
11 million players needs defining. It suggest people are regular players of the game, when it likely means people who have launched the game once. If Microsoft does not include an asterisk to define what players are then that’s what it means.
Two weeks after launch 25% of players had quit before the first achievement that marks the players first trip to space. https://www.trueachievement... It’s likely more players did stop playing but the next in-game milestone meaning that it won’t be a consistent draw for people who don’t enjoy the genre.
Two weeks after its number one debut in the UK charts and it’s dropped out of the top ten. Suggesting there was built up demand and that some players wanted physical copies, however the game’s sales does not have legs.
This needs to be said, not to insult the quality of Starfield, but to understand the actual level of its success.
Fact, Spider-Man 2 is already the top selling game for October. Not so much fact as opinion, but I think 6th most played on Xbox Live is kind of a bad stat for a game with so much hype. When Halo 4 dropped out of the top 5 on Major Nelson’s Xbox Live activity report, Major Nelson stopped reporting Xbox Live activity.
@EvertonFC
Agreed man... $35 to play a new game? They could've paid $70... what a bunch of clowns 🤡! Well done sir 👏
Or maybe people would rather just buy Gamepass for a month to try it than actually paying full price for it.
How many of these, once finished will autorenew?
@itsmebryan
Nothing salty about it, just pointing out a more logical way looking at it
I get it, you're digging into "personal attack" territory because you literally have no counter argument to present
@sparky77
You make a comment, you present it as fact, someone (me) gives you an alternate take and your response is "I don't care" then you proceed to commit to it.
Wow....
@fox, if people play it for a month or a day... playing is playing. And that means engagement, and engagement means $$ to the shareholders (which none of us are so who gives a turkey).
That's why subbed for extra until Sony raised the price for 30%.
Is there something wrong with seeing if you like a game through Gamespass or ps+ before committing to a purchase?
MSFT is betting with more studios the content will keep flowing. Now the quality needs to improve but I think Starfield is a step in the right direction.
But the game is a success and you can’t deny it. Just embrace it.
Who cares how ppl consume the game. You'll find any little opening or excuse to take jabs at the game. Instead of just saying congrats. Did you find a way to diss Spider-man 2 success? No you didn't. For once In a single year Sony, MS and Nintendo are doing great this time around. Just live with it and move the hell along.
@Darth, playing is NOT paying. The model is not sustainable. Its a failing trojan horse. Seems like people only renew to play big releases. This hurts those very releases.
MS is in a corner and they know it.
https://metro.co.uk/2023/10...
https://www.forbes.com/site...
Interesting. They just confirmed Xbox missed a 3rd straight year and also now confirmed they will no longer give out Gamepass numbers as well. Kind of like how when Xbox One was failing they stopped giving hardware numbers. So just more smoke and mirrors
Yall made this argument when gamepass was at 3 million subs and still doing it at 30 million lol at what point are yall just gonna admit GamePass is the best deal in gaming?
@sparky, ER was last year, not last gen. Plus it was on 5 platforms (crossgen). SF was on 2 (3 if you count cloud).
Starfield didn't SELL 11 million.
It got 11 million installs.
Elden Ring SOLD 12 million in 2 weeks.
FFXVI SOLD 5 million in 3 days.
Spider-Man 2 SOLD more than 2.5 million in 24 hours.
Big difference counting actual sales compared to installs from a rental service.
How much is it selling now?
People have moved on to the next big thing. If Starfield is anything like Skyrim people will be playing it for the next 10 years especially with mods.
***That's last gen I am talking about this generation only. ***
Ridiculous. Just ridiculous.
@Christopher
Yeah, I'm pretty sure Sparky forgot about Elden Ring and its success and then just didn't want to admit that he's wrong. lol
@MrNinosan
I almost wrote "sold" as "SOLD" to make that point and now I regret not doing it. :(
Yeah, there is a big difference between sales and players.
That being said, I think the sales for Starfield are still good because of the PC players. The Steam sales seem to at least 5 million. https://steamspy.com/app/17... Then most of the remaining players likely played it on GamePass.
@343
"If Starfield is anything like Skyrim people will be playing it for the next 10 years especially with mods."
SOME people still keep playing but it's not showing in the sale charts. which means just the same people already had the game playing it over and over with mods. Please don't even try to make it sound like it's doing anything impressive like GTA5 or Minecraft or MK8 which have consistently been in the charts for 10 years!
@LucasRuinedChildhood
Nah, Starfield has not sold close to 5 million on Steam.
The data for Owners you see on Steamspy has always, and will always be extremely wrong.
CyberPunk 2077 has sold 20-50 million according yo Steamspy, which we know by facts ain't the case.
Starfield has probably not reached a million on Steam.
Elden ring is also on playstation
But Starfield only on Xbox pc
Elden ring sold more than spider man 2 ?.
11million people played starfield for free on gamepass and that's classed as a success 🤣 ok guys ....ok and looking at the stats, of those 11 million , about 2 million left the first area, so that's a massive drop on people not caring to play anymore. Sounds like a massive flop and would have flopped harder if it was not on ganepass ouch
That 'new IP' bit tries to elevate this way higher than it belongs. It's pretty much a space version of their other games, but because it's called something else and isn't in an existing IP, it's good! Let's ignore that it has sold worse than the higher rated RPG from an Indie studio. It matters because it's a new IP!
Yeah, Earth in Starfield was even going to be the one from Fallout at one point. https://www.purexbox.com/ne... And the new IP I brought up (Elden Ring) is basically Dark Souls 4.
Not many new IPs in general from big studios anymore just like the film industry. It's sad.
I would say that Returnal and Hi-Fi Rush are the best new IPs this gen. Wish we got way more unique games like that from big development studios.
As far as new IPs go, I'm looking forward to Sony Santa Monica, Naughty Dog and Sony Bend's unannounced new IPs on the PlayStation side and for Clockwork Revolution and Avowed from Xbox.
Hogwarts Legacy sold 12 millions in the first two week but we all know you’re not here to actually talk about “biggest new IP this gen”
State Of Play type of event coming tomorrow also. Hopefully some good stuff and maybe a day one drop.
You and obscure observer are the laughing stock of n4g, thanks a lot for the entertainment :-)
“likely the biggest new IP release for the entire gen”
With enough caveats, anything can be a “massive success”.
Massive success based on how many people who had the subscription already clicked on it?
After being starved of games?
MS just had a leak where they reduced goal from 75% increase in gamepass subs, to not losing gamepass subs? That means they are losing more subs than they are selling consoles!
be interesting to see actual sales numbers, like hogworts rather than player counts, how many played it and moved on ? its a weird metric to look at and base success. Steam numbers are not looking good at all.
Hard to say if it was a success as you dont know the sales numbers and never will. Funny as during the 360 gen xb loved to keep telling everyone they were winnng npd over ps3, not so much last gen or this one.
Think about how much money and how many copies it would’ve sold if it wasn’t on Game Pass. They cut out a few million sales just by not being on PlayStation.
I expect Starfield to have similar sales to the PC and xbox versions of Fallout 4.
As an aside:
I think Starfield is a good game, I’m about 36 hrs in leaning towards an 8/10 score. The game isn’t as advanced as I would like. It still has stereotypical Bethesda restrictions, noticeable loading, AI systems need more development and lack of vehicles. Additionally, I find the side quests more engaging than the main quests. Graphics are nice, general gameplay is enjoyable and I like the background lore and some of the characters.
It will not get anywhere close to Fallout 4 +25M copys sold. It will be very Lucky to sell 50% of Fallout 4.
I found the background lore extremely limited. Most computers aren't accessible let alone having much to say. The books you can read are limited and at some point it's the same ones over and over. I expected skyrim fallout type of lore and it doesn't even touch those. For being a universe I felt it lacked. I'd still give it a 7.5 8 but I'm personally just gonna wait for some updates/dlc. Have about 30 hours in or so
So still no sales number?
Anyways, didn't it have 10 millions who installed the gane already after 2-3 weeks, and now, almost 2 months later, only another million installed the game.
Seems kinda low being the most anticipated game on a service that is "to good to be true" and "beat deal in gaming".
This lol. How many copies has it sold? Can we get an actual number? Yes, it does matter when we're talking about a game being a success. People playing it on gamepass does not make it successful sales wise.
right?? especially now that Sony has announced over 2.5mil units of Spidey2 sold in 24H, surely Bethesda can do better than just simply announcing "muh11mil players", RIGHT??
Microsoft stopped reporting sales numbers shortly after the launch of Xbox One, when it was clear that Xbox was losing badly to PlayStation. That was about 10 years ago.
Convenient then that Xbox just announced they'll no longer announce Gamepass subscriber numbers...
https://www.forbes.com/site...
After confirming 3rd year failing to meet targets
https://metro.co.uk/2023/10...
Watch for the 'bump'
"I also forgot another factor, that Microsoft is about to rebrand Xbox Live Gold to Game Pass Core which would “increase” Game Pass subs by tens of millions instantly, albeit in name only, so that may be a big banner headline they want to roll out."
Chevalier,that's interesting. Gives them more room to spin bs, so their fans don't jump ship.
I'm sure movie directors will be fine with box office numbers turning to "watchers"
What. Difference is you pay for box office tickets per movie. It's not a box office subscription where you movie hop the theater.
Satya Nadella's performance-based pay targets were tied to overall Xbox growth in 2023 but games division fell short
I wish I could change how my compensation is decided too
On topic, the target is now Game Division Revenue growth. Pretty sure that Revenue is gonna look nice with COD added to the mix
It must get a boost now that they acquired atleast 3 infinite money machines in Candy Crush, Calld of Duty Mobile and Heartstone.
Game Pass’ success, with the present business model, depends on Xbox consoles gaining a massive user base. However if the hardware business is underperforming then MS will be squandering its new IP. Minecraft is its biggest game for revenue, if it can generate or beat that kind of profit with Call of Duty without having to invest in hardware than maybe Phil Spencer is right in claiming that MS will consider exiting the hardware business.
If you think about it, that means MS switched goal to not losing subscriptions!!
Now since they are selling consoles everyday. If the goal is not to lose subscriptions, that means they are currently dropping subscriptions faster than they are selling consoles!
Interesting. This may be over-simplifying, but this could mark a change from "push GamePass at all costs" strategy. Overall revenue will be driving decisions, so giving away crown jewels like COD on GamePass for $10/month on PC will probably not be in the cards.
Please don't say that. xbox fanatics cheering for the buyout hoping for CoD day1 on GP will be crying LOL
What is more likely is that they changed it because it was starting to plateau or because they fell so short on meeting the goal last year.
I mean... Those are two sides of the same coin.
If they expect GamePass to plateau, their strategy (reflected by goals) will be to either pivot or find some way to invigorate GamePass. The info in this article implies the former.
Xbox's revenues did not meet the 4.4% growth target, instead only growing by 0.7%.
That isn't good, but hey, wish I could change how my compensation is given out. I fear if Activision doesn't help drive growth, as much as they want, MS would use that as a reason to buy more companies and claim they need to compete. If the so called "best deal in gaming" only grew 0.7% in a year that was viewed as one of Xbox's best years, then you might have a bit of a problem
7billion on Bethesda for 0.7.
total bargain. Wow what a deal they struck, all on games they would have been getting anyway.
Can't make this sh*t up
Yep! All games they would have gotten anyway. MS paid all that money just so they could say "Day 1 on Gamepass!!"
no, Sony was buying timed exclusives though. Deathloop and Ghostwire tokyo, and potentially more.
But won't people who try to stop any new deals from happening use that against them
If buying two massive publishers along with other studios isn't getting half way to their growth then what will...buying more isn't a solution, its an excuse
Starve your competitors until people flock to you instead.
Only its going to be another year before Activision's significantly on GP, and even then, as a major money earner, COD very likely isn't going to be included.
Staya has downgraded Phil from Christmas card to lump of coal. At least good guy Bobby Kotick will have a nice Christmas.
While I'm sure execs would love exponential GamePass growth, they would probably be better served with more modest predictions. The plan must be long term. This 'overnight explosion of growth' mythos is just a fantasy.
Well unrealistic targets are supposed to motivate employees into working more.
But those targets are wayyyy too delusional lmaooo
Wow
There's already an app for that, it's called SmartGlass.
He didn't say that Xbox would be going mobile..
He said ms would be focused on cloud and mobile.. Ms has many more products and services then simply Xbox..
Tho he did say they were going to vigorously support Xbox and gamers.. Believing Xbox benefits the rest of the company
That is misquoted. Also a horrible title.
"we’re in the “infant stages” of a mobile-first world, saying that in the coming years, we’ll see significant category growth in mobile experiences “that span a variety of devices of all screen sizes"
Which is a true statement. Mobile gaming is growing rapidly and MS doesn't want to be behind.
"The single biggest digital life category, measured in both time and money spent, in a mobile-first world is gaming."
And then goes on to say:
"We Will 'Vigorously Innovate and Delight Gamers with Xbox'"
Nothing in his statement even suggested that. Also why is that even an issue. You can now buy games under the Xbox moniker on mobile already. Xbox is a brand now.
He is dedicated to keeping Xbox and will expand it. So people don't overreact as you tend to do.
Didn't Xbox mobile (WP games) fail?