Peter Warman for alistdaily:
On the 21st of January 2015, Microsoft revealed its ambitious plan to extend the reach of the Xbox Service beyond consoles, uniting previously disparate PC and console gamers. The Xbox app ensures that anyone running Windows 10 on a PC can enjoy the full Xbox live experience and stream Xbox One games from a console to a Windows 10 laptop, tablet or PC. Newzoo’s analysis of its consumer insights and global revenue data sizes the opportunity that Microsoft is after. Microsoft’s strategy potentially allows it to increase its share of the gaming market in two ways: by taking in a larger share of the wallet of its current user base and tapping into markets that have been out of reach until now.
Meanwhile, the two reasons why this is a smart first move for Microsoft are illustrated here:
Peter Warman for Newzoo:
To celebrate the launch of our 2014 Global Games Market Report. Newzoo CEO, Peter Warman, held a Global Games Market Webinar.During the webinar he discussed recently released graphs as well and gave exclusive preview of data and insights from the report.
Topics which were covered include:
2013 in review: the total picture
2014 global games market estimates and growth figures
Gamer and revenue forecasts 2013 to 2017
Key trends & moments shaping the market towards 2017
Focus on selected individual countries
Methodology and comparison with other sources
Forbes - One of the biggest issues heading into E3 2013 in Los Angeles remains the specifics surrounding how used games will play on Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4. And when I use the term “used games” I’m not just focusing on the estimated $2 billion global market, according to research firm Newzoo, that accounts for the trade-in and sales of games and hardware. I’m also talking about friends letting friends borrow their game (a very common occurrence) and also the rental games market (which has exploded with automated kiosks like Redbox). All of these forms of access games that you didn’t purchase would be impacted if some of the rumors are true about Xbox One. Sony has been keeping relatively quiet on this whole situation thus far.
Peter Warman, CEO of research firm Newzoo, has a few solutions that will certainly placate gamers, who, after all, are the driving force behind the growth of console games.
I don't see Sony or Microsoft ever doing what's right for the gamer, especially with lowering the prices of games.
As long as the price of games are comparable to that of PC games then yes. When I was a PC gamer used games or purchasing used games never crossed my mind. It didn't exist but the price of the games was so low I didn't care.
The culture for PC games isn't the same, I agree with you on never even thinking about sharing computer games. Cd-keys and product codes prohibited much of it. Consoles are following suit to protect profits.
PC prices are so low because unlike console platform holders, PC i.e steam and those services like them don't need to deal with retailers and they don't have the overhead needed to produce disc and ship them worldwide & R&D cost since hardware is solely up to the end-user. Not to mention Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo have to rely on retailers to sell their consoles while steam and all those other services do not have to deal with that kind of problem because they are simply a online only service.
And lose money on each game sold, selling them for less than however much it cost to make them, having to sell twice as many copies just to break even?
<I don't see Sony or Microsoft ever doing what's right for the gamer, especially with lowering the prices of games.>
I don't think they can for as long as they're reliant on retailers to sell their hardware. The last they wanna do is piss them off by undercutting them. Plus they have a rather narrow window to recoup the costs which is why games are usually set at premium price.
Right... we can just all forget about the season passes issue that arose a few years back which was in direct response to companies like EA and Ubisoft wanting to get something out of Used game sales. You are totally right...that never happened and was never raised up as a huge issue that gamers raged over.
Microsoft's approach is taking it a step further than the season passes required for online games. I was mostly referring to the Xbox One's new restrictions as the article was referring to the next generation consoles.
The problem is I do not want my consoles to be more like my PC it gives me less of a reason to own them.
How soon we forget... and this is why these kinds of issues aren't really an issue. Gamers will bitch for a year or so...then it will become like it is on PC...just accepted.
It's just their version of things Sony and Nintendo already have.