It’s pretty funny to see how things work in the gaming industry. When people don’t have something, they often demand it. When they get it, they still find room for criticism. Microsoft has been target of a lot of flak for the fact that many Xbox One games didn’t reach a 1080p resolution, and now that Diablo III has touched that “magic number” on Microsoft’s new console, some are criticizing the company for somehow “forcing” Blizzard to do it.
Phil Spencer has sent a letter out to employees informing them that 650 jobs would be cut from Microsoft's gaming division.
‘Good guy Phil’?
The truth likely is that the decision was not his to make and is possibly a direct consequence of cutting costs following the ABK deal.
"Good guy Phil" is comical. You have to bleed green to see that. I'm only a matter of time until MS, that's right MS even in ages themselves from the industry.
Sad, people and even sadder and pathetic company.
If they keep this up, they won't even be able to go third party anymore after they stop making Xbox hardware.
game devs aren't being let go.
“As part of aligning our post-acquisition team structure and managing our business, we have made the decision to eliminate approximately 650 roles across Microsoft Gaming—mostly corporate and supporting functions—to organize our business for long term success.”
getting rid of some suits... now this news isnt so bad. Too many suits makes all the wrong decisions, esp the top dogs.
@darth they arent suits, they are people that work in administration, customer support and that kinda stuff
The original story is from IGN as they are the ones who got the memo.
https://www.ign.com/article...
Still sucks!
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"The day we hear that Xbox is no more is vastly approaching."
Not sure Sony is doing any better with all that money lost on GaaS and all that worldwide backlash regarding the Pro.
@obscured: “ Not sure Sony is doing any better with all that money lost on GaaS and all that worldwide backlash regarding the Pro.”
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Welcome back we missed you said no one 🤣
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I don’t remember Sony cutting over 1900 employees then Less than 7 months later get a leak for another 600 to be on the chopping board but hey let’s equate that to a few people not been happy about a mid gen system refresh price 🤦🏿.
@obscured: “
They also casually forget that Sony have been laying off thousands of people too”
Yeeesh I got a better help discount code for you
Uh, thr Pro "backlash" is hardly something that's going to tank their business. Unless you've been living under a rock, there's no question that Xbox is in the gutter.
Quit pivoting to Sony because you don't like the subject matter. Their game division isn't in the toilet.
Well Sony isn't selling more copies of their games on a rival system yet so they must be doing alright.
Vastly approaching is a weird phrase… vastly is typically used to convey the degree of some size or length or time.
Vastly approaching makes no sense.
You mean rapidly approaching.
A combined $80 billion spent on consolidating a massive part of the industry, thousands fired all to line the pockets of the already wealthy and turn the gaming industry into a rental service.
FU MS.
MS is a publicly traded company. If you have a 401K you yourself might own MS stocks.
I'm definitely not a MS fan, but CEOs need to keep returns high to keep their jobs if nothing else. They don't get to transfer the salaries to their accounts.
I blame MS for failed strategies, poor execution, lack of vision, etc.
These layoffs are just the result of those things.
That's the weakest excuse for a giant monopoly I've ever seen... also companies like MS are more likely to damage people's 401k through monopolistic practices.
"FU MS."
I love how you act all enraged and bully when it´s MS firing people.
"It´s all about the workers" at least they´re Sony´s employees, right? If they´re Sony they can go f* themselves right? It´s all justified and the blame lies elsewhere on some widespread industry problem, right? Right?
We been seeing some of Sony recent bs moves and you know what´s coming, right?
I´m expecting you to disappear the same way you do every time Sony layoff hundreds of people or get a whole studio shut down.
You´ll do anything to avoid and hold them accountable. But that's OK. You´are not biased, right?
@obscured: “ "It´s all about the workers" at least they´re Sony´s employees, right? If they´re Sony they can go f* themselves right? It´s all justified and the blame lies elsewhere on some widespread industry problem, right? Right?”
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Well Sony didn’t overreached and spend over 80 BILLION$ to acquire mayor 3rd party game developers and one MAYOR publisher the owner of the BIGGEST FPS just hoping to keeping it exclusive to their system and now having to fire thousands of employees to valance their books one more quarter.
Now Microsoft is beginning and going to kiss Sony dark ring and publish their “first party games “ on PlayStation. Regardless of who it is it’s wrong to do an acquisition and then fire people.
I applaud Microsoft for at least giving them a severance package and assistance getting a new job 👍👍.
Chill out kid... also why bring up Sony, have they just spent 80 billion to consolidate a massive part of the industry to the detriment of thousands of workers?
MS lines their pockets whilst firing thousands, such a shame you support this.
Gee someone here said Xbox would NEVER release 1st party games on Playstation or competing platforms again?! Never tired to see you eat crow again.
But but Sony bad...thats the normal damagecontroll from O_O. Dude its time to sing another song, this one is sounding like a broken record......
Not sure about the rest of the world, but here in Brazil we have a say that goes like this:
'May the last one to leave please turn off the lights'
What the heck is MS even doing right now?
Phil Spencer talks candidly about missing out on both Destiny and Guitar Hero
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Microsoft bought all of Zenimax Media for 7 billion, while Sony paid 4 billion for Bungie. I think Microsoft got the better deal due to acquiring Fallout, ElderScrolls and Doom.
Yeah, I thought it out. I'm not sure you did. But since we are buddy's now, you're welcome.
"Clearly your parents didn't teach you"
You know you lost, when you have to resort to this tactic.
So you're saying that Microsoft has missed out on so many huge gaming franchise in the last 25 years from GTA exclusivity to guitar hero and destiny it's just laughable they had so many misses
Yea, but they're still 100 times more wealthy than Sony. I would say it worked out well.
That isn't because of Xbox though. This is a gaming page, not an I get supplemented by father Windows page
Microsoft's money has nothing to do with Xbox.
Xbox is a money pit to them they would love to ditch but are after some ROI first.
Let's face it, Xbox is like a red headed stepchild that steals from you to buy drugs.
MIicrosoft is NOT XBOX. The current situation illustrates this. And Microsoft wants its ROI.
@Bathyj and daddy Satya has just force admitted Phil to rehab.
you know why MS has so much money, and it aint cause of the gaming xbox branch.
so lets not kid ourselves.
@PhillyDownJawn not more profitable. More revenue with ABK acquisition but them going multiplat shows they are not making much profit
That's great for Xbox gamers ain't it that Microsoft are more wealthy than Sony. Is that really a argument use are using now lol?
Imagine me in my job. Arguing with a fellow security guard at another company. Hahah well the company I work for is worth £800m the one you work for is only work £600m!
Microsoft may have more money but Sony has the talented studios and the games to back up those studios.
Plus turning down Marvel too. Spiderman is only exclusive to Playstation because of that
Best deal deal in gaming must be when Sony bought Insomniac for 229 million dollars. They made over 800 millions on Spiderman for the ps4 alone. Thats just crazy!
another Interview?
how is he the only one who loves the spotlight as much as he does lol
Let's not forget he also famously passed on Spider-man, Genshin Impact and GTA3.
However it's almost kind of cute how he can keep that sh1t-eating grin and say he's a 'no regrets' kind of guy, especially when you think how much just these 5 titles could have swung the world in Xbox's favour instead of Sonys.
How he's kept his job I don't know, he must sure be keeping Papa Nadella's shaft warm somehow.
"But, but Gamepass, he introduced that!!!"
Yes he did, and now look at Xbox, all it's exclusives are coming to Playstation now rendering the platform obsolete.
Honestly, with that kind of track record, you can't convince me Spencer hasn't eaten it from the back in the name of self preservation. Probably unwashed...and at least twice.
That aside, my interpretation of everything here is Xbox has been mismanaged a bit too much and Nadella came down from his throne. The way it is now, I don't believe for a minute the multiplatform move was Spencer's idea. I don't even think the acquisitions was Spencer's work. At this point, I reckon he's got as much power in his role as Hunter Biden at a Ukrainian energy company.
You can never tell how things will turn out if he had said yes to those games. Xbox already has access to some great IPs, however, they hardly do anything with them or fail to deliver. It's also possible their presentation wasn't good at the time, and they made sure the next presentation was better.
I believe that part of being successful is releasing things in the right place at the right time.
Many major corporations have a story similar to passing on successful business ideas. Let us look at Sony Pictures for example. Back when Marvel went bankrupt, they had the opportunity to buy the entire Marvel for only $25 Million but turned them down. An unnamed big shot at Sony reportedly claimed that “nobody gives a shit about any of the other Marvel characters,”. They ended up taking Spiderman for $10 Million instead.
https://www.avclub.com/sony...
Fast forward to today, we can see what the Marvel brand has done for Disney. Is it possible the same success would have been possible had Sony acquired those IPs. We can't say that for sure and it is possible most of those IPs that are successful today may not have been used.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer has confirmed that more Xbox exclusives will come to PS5 due to Microsoft pressures.
What did he honestly expect? He spent over 100 billion dollars on studios and publishers without really growing the Xbox Ecosystem, not to mention the millions of dollars spent on Game Pass deals, which also has not grown as rapidly as the higher ups would like.
Of all the Xbox exclusives that will make their way to PlayStation, the one that will have the greatest significance will be Halo:MCC and it will sadly be the death knell for the Xbox console in the eyes of some its staunchest fans. This is because the Master Chief for over two decades has been uniquely associated with the Xbox, and once it and it's historically biggest and best loved games go to PlayStation and Switch 2. Halo will be multi-platform and experienced by many more people and that's a great thing for the reach of the brand. But it will mean that wonderful chapter in Xbox history is permanently over.
The Master Chief would be in great company with Sonic, Crash, Spyro…
I'm hoping for a Rare Replay: Complete Edition. Something the XBO version is not and that is have all the content on a single PS5 UHD bluray. Hell, they can even do a version for the Switch. Although that one will have to have some stuff downloadable as it will not all fit on a cart.
Already given up on Xbox...they have literally made it so there is no reason to have an xbox and then forced everyone onto gamepass which isnt fo rme...and then the highest tier if you want it to be useful...xbox is steadily bleeding out and will be dead in a few years..shame
@darth
I want them to come to an agreement with Nintendo and release one with Goldeneye on with multiplayer
If it’s coming to other consoles as well as their own, I don’t see why Nintendo would be against it at that point.
Also maybe Mickey’s Speedway USA and some of the Gameboy Banjo games.
From all the leaks going around it seems likely that instead of a MCC port we will see a halo ce remake for ps5 and xsx and maybe switch 2
It makes sense as you would want to put your best foot forward when showcasing the flagship franchise.
Still the day that master chief lands on a rival console with a mainline halo is the end of Xbox in my view.
Really without halo ce it's likely the Xbox would have never made it past year 1
lol halo coming to PlayStation won’t be a death knell. Halo isn’t even relevant anymore. As long as gamepass exists xbox is fine. It’s still the best value in all of gaming even with the price hikes. People can push whatever narrative they want but Xbox isn’t even close to being dead.
@GhostScolar
A former Microsoft employee who had access to the hardware sales and growth confessed day 1 PC releases killed their momentum.
They are driving third parties away because aren’t supporting their engines or releases anymore (see MT Framework and HAAK) plus making third parties gimp their games on Series S and by failing to support third parties and forcing them to develop for an unnecessary additional SKU third parties are retaliating by bailing completely.
The death knell has already happened. It just hasn’t had the full impact yet. It isn’t just games going multiplat, it’s that Xbox is missing multiplats it shouldn’t be that even Nintendo themselves are getting
Guarantee they killed those studios with DEI.
They bought some great studios, and they’ve produced next to nothing.
Yep every cent spent will have to bring back money one day. Or it's just wasted money and a company like MS didn't become rich by wasting money like that.
The only way to get money is to bring their games where they actually sell.
It's a win-win for Sony cause it solidies PS as the only console to own and allows them to get that 30% commission on Xbox exclusives they didn't have access to in the past.
then release Gamepass on PS when you are at it.. this guy tries to justify everything by playing the victim every single time..
"then release Gamepass on PS when you are at it.. this guy tries to justify everything by playing the victim every single time.."
Sony would never allow that.
You gonna have to pay for every single Xbox game released on Playstation.
oh there he is, the Indiana Jones beta tester on xbox for Playstation optimized version.
xbox is ready for anything, even to wipe the floor with Spencer as long as they earn those dollar bills.
Oh and good you make it sound Sony is in position of power to say NO. We are getting there.
"Oh and good you make it sound Sony is in position of power to say NO. We are getting there."
Apparently, you lack comprehension skill so I´m gonna break it down for you:
Sony will say no to Gamepass simply because they won´t allow MS to steal PS+ subscribers.
Was it clear enough for you?
Sony would absolutely allow it if it didn't include third-party games. If it was Microsoft's own IPs, then Sony would absolutely allow it.
Wouldn't they? Couple of years ago I said it wouldn't surprise me if gamepass ends up on PS. Now imo this acquisition makes it even more of a possibility. Where's the drawbacks for Sony...Microsoft pay them for putting it on...and people are less likely to choose XB over PS as well. It'll likely never happen. But I wouldn't be overly surprised if it ever does especially with Xbox likely exiting the console market soon enough
It's business. Money talks, and gamers talk too. Look what happened with multi platform crossplay. Do you remember Sony didn't want it? We made them do it. There is a absolutely a way to bring it to PS.
There won't be a need for Gamepass because they will just release directly on Plus as 3rd party games anyways. Definitely will start seeing Xbox 1st party trickle onto Playstations service because Xbox is pretty much moving towards 3rd party.
Correct, I doubt Sony would allow gamepass on PlayStation because they have their own service, it just wouldn’t work. But, Sony is open to MS games on a case by case basis of course.
"You gonna have to pay for every single Xbox game released on Playstation."
This isn't true, as there are already Call of Duty games available on PS+. If MS sees a a way to make money on it, they're going to take it.
@Christopher
"Sony would absolutely allow it if it didn't include third-party games. If it was Microsoft's own IPs, then Sony would absolutely allow it."
I think you forgot that COD, Diablo, Minecraft, Overwatch among may others are now MS´s first party IPs which Sony makes big money from sales and MTs.
Sony would never allow such large player base on Playstation to just migrate to MS´s subscription service which would do nothing but devalue its own subscription service in return. With Gamepass on Playstation, Sony has nothing to gain / everything to lose. Period.
It's cool we can also wait and get them on sale $20 off halo gears hi fi and Forza for half the price it cost you to rent them for a yr @ obsecure_observer
@jlove4life
"It's cool we can also wait and get them on sale $20 off halo gears hi fi and Forza for half the price it cost you to rent them for a yr @ obsecure_observer"
That´s true.
The thing is; 3/4 of the games you´d mentioned, are better if you grab it while its hot, if you catch my drift.
You’re really gonna be upset when Sony starts putting its ups on other systems. That’s just the way gamjg is going. The peiole ij the know all agree on that. Sony won’t do it as quickly as Xbox but it will happen eventually. It’s leavung money on the table not too. And regardless of what the console warriors think no company cares about you lol they care about money
Why would I be upset? I'm an adult. Honestly wouldn't give a shit. Infact, bring it on, more ps games on pc gives me more reason to buy a new gpu and ditch playstation. Not that they have any games to put on pc, other than a few ps4 games everyone's played to death.
Been saying this will happen since the inception of gamepass. This was always going to happen. Only Xbox exclusives and PlayStation obviously gets a hefty cut for supporting it. It WILL happen. I don’t even care if it does or not, it will happen though. Promise.
Gamepass will not be on PlayStation.
There are already Microsoft games on PlayStation Plus, Sony would negotiate with Microsoft to put its games on PlayStation Plus.
They're not going to put Gamepass on PS, Playstation would have to willingly cannibalise their own service for that to happen, plus, it'll cannibalise some of Playstation's video game sales, they're not going to sacrifice all that money just because.
Not sure how to say this other than Sony will literally never allow that.
Gamepass is one of the worst things to happen in the industry and is a destroyer of the market. Sony not only wants money, but they want to make games with decent budgets. Gamepass is the anti-crist for Sony, Microsoft and Steam. The Netflix or Spotify of gaming in the worst of ways.
I think this is their ultimate goal. All those billions spent on Zenimax and Activision want for the Xbox to get exclusive games, it was for GP to get exclusive games
If Sony would allow it it would be incredible for gamers.
For those saying there isn't a reason to own an xbox, that's fine if that's how you want to game. If you are locked into PS5 only, and want to pay $70 to only play on that platform more power to you. For my use case, I appreciate having game pass for $240 a year and having access to my games on Handheld, Console, and PC. I know not everyone games across multiple platforms. Quite honestly it doesn't bother me at all if MS wants to even release day and date on PlayStation. I will still stay in Game Pass, which PS5 doesn't have.
Everybody except those in denial said this would be the outcome. Once that Activision Blizzard purchase went through it became one of the largest dollar valued acquisitions in the States. Of course it meant that XBOX would be dragged under the microscope of the Board and investors. It was then that XBOX stopped being a pet project and now had to show its metal.
So you're saying all those in denial that were cheerleading and doing cartwheels and clinked wine glasses when the Activision deal went through, now very deeply regret it and instead wished Microsoft went the traditional route of building new IPs instead of buying up established ones that were already multiplat???
Replies(1)I dont know about the Forza, Gears or Halo but there are plenty of other exclusive games that came out to XB that could be up for grabs. Starfield makes sense (It was initially in talks with PS), flight simulator, maybe even dip into the back catalog for a new killer instinct or even a new blinx.
Don’t count it out. If these games sell a lot on PS they will smell blood and release the floodgates.
Those two games you mentioned starfield and flight simulator I would buy day one for ps5 and hopefully Flight Simulator has PSVR2 support.
...that is what im counting on as well... FS in VR2 would definitely be a buy from me.
Nah. They're all headed to Playstation sooner or later. You can stick your head in the sand, but, there's literally no reason not to. Can't ignore such a large body of paying customers
I'd take Gears or Halo, especially on PC (most Gears games aren't on PC and Halo 5 is also missing).
"and now that Diablo III has touched that “magic number” on Microsoft’s new console, some are criticizing the company for somehow “forcing” Blizzard to do it"
I don't think it;s as black and white as that, there's a key peice of info that's been left out there: the fact that they "forced" them to do it *at the expense of framerate*. Resolution should NEVER be prioritized over framerate.
On the one hand Phil is saying he didn't force them, and that it should be up to the devs to determine resolution. And on the other we have Blizzard saying that MS said it was "unacceptable" to run below 1080p. What gives? Blizzard were clearly fine with running the game at 900p @ a solid 60fps, until MS told them it was unacceptable, which completely contradicts what Phil is saying here.
900p @60fps locked or 1080p @53fps avg I would say 1080p was the right call, at least for this game. Both ps4 and xb1 versions have drops when there is lots on screen, IMO 53fps avg is not what I consider sacrificing fps for res.
A MS engineer probably noticed there was still enough overhead to achieve better, kudus for working with the developer to achieve 1080p and 60fps 99.99% of the time, with rare dips to the mid/low 50s.
Other consoles have exclusives first person shooters that run 30fps singleplayer and 45fps multiplayer dispite a 60fps multiplayer target.
Though it is unusual for a platform holder to turn to a developer and say that the resolution is unacceptable and say they need to find a way to make it better(not my words but theres).
You helped out, which is fantastic news, but you can see why people think Microsoft forced them with the language used by the developer
I am puzzled to why people keep saying Diablo 3 runs in 53 FPS. It dipped to 53 FPS, VERY rarely. The game runs in 60 FPS 99% of the time. So this group of people trying to claim 1080p somehow killed the frame rate need to stop.