Gamespot:
The upcoming New Xbox One Experience update completely removes support for gesture-based dashboard navigation through Kinect. Microsoft's Mike Ybarra says in a new interview that the company decided to cut the feature because people barely used it at all.
Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra wanted to cut back on Diablo 4 microtransactions and reboot Overwatch.
"But, his push for these changes made him unpopular with some Blizzard employees." He was the president, should have just fired them.
I can just imagine the scene between him and Kotick being something like a scene in Simpsons with Mr Burns feigning interest while repeatedly pressing his button.
Sadly any positive changes that we as gamers thought might take place are over and done with
Are people really buying what Ybarra is selling?
Remember - this is the same guy that said he wishes you could leave a tip after buying a game.
Him saying now he wanted to *reduce* MTX is riiiiich, seems like he's using Schreier's book to try and save face now that he doesn't have to face his former employees.
Ybarra, who spent two decades at Microsoft, acknowledged concerns about the future of Xbox hardware by fans once more first-party games go multiplatform.
As an xbox guy, If porting some exclusives to sony and nintendo allows MS to continue offering gamepass day one, I'm all for it. Port them all if you need to.
Your way of thinking is why Microsoft is where they are. All they had to do was hold the line of the 360 circa 2010. Had the continued with thay strategy they would not have had to introduce gamepass which has spectacularly kneecapped them.
@hof, but then they would still be in the same position as sony, fighting for those same 150 million customers. As a publicly traded company, they still need to show growth. Once sony is day and date on PC, they will also need to find new customers, likely by embracing 3rd party. What you consider "kneecapping" I consider an incredible customer value in gamepass.
Kneecapping the xbox and pc owners are loving it I do t think u telise how popular gamepass is
They were faltering in the last year or two of the 360 era. Don't forget that they doubled down on Kinect, which might be part of the reason why they didn't have much to show going into Xbox One.
But GamePass is not MS' consolation effort; it was always the endgame! MS is all about subscription-based revenue-streams now! They have turned almost all of their businesses into software-as-a-service; only Windows remains. Stay tuned for that one in the next 5 years.
As a consumer, I really get that point of view.
As an ex dev seeing what's happened to the industry I have no doubt that GP is harming the industry I love by devaluing games, so my thoughts are little less positive about it.
I can agree with the sentiment that most of their games should be multi platform. Until they swallowed up these devs, most of the titles we are wating for would have been multi platform anyway.
@ThinkThink
"As an xbox guy, If porting some exclusives to sony and nintendo allows MS to continue offering gamepass day one, I'm all for it. Port them all if you need to."
I won´t say all, but definitely some games I wouldn´t care either as long excellence continues to be delivered to us.
If some then why not all? Think think isn't wrong, his reasoning is quite concise in that yes multi platform brings more funds to develop more games all available day 1 on gamepass, he's happy as Larry.
you keep saying continues mate, like its been happening all a long, I see on another post, you used the same word,
xbox has forza, which is a quality game, and the rest are 8/10's
they have very little 9 or 10/10s. quality bar is set lower for xbox.
also on topic, which would Playstation fans buy ported 8/10 games when they are accustomed to 9's
@Cockney
"If some then why not all?"
Because if MS wants to remain in the console, business (like they already confirmed multiple times been working on a next gen Xbox console), they would never allow all of their flagship first party games to be available on the main competitor´s console.
Yeah it's better for the games too.
Like yeah Playstation gets Doom and Call of Duty. But they have to pay 70 dollars for it or 100 dollars if you want a special edition. Meanwhile we get it for nothing extra or 30 dollars for upgrades like the Black Ops 6 Vault Edition.
If Playstation and Nintendo players are used to fund my gamepass content I'm fine with that.
It benefits the games and me as well.
I still find it funny that Microsoft is spinning its obligations that it has to releasing on other systems as if it is some noble decision. Before they bought the companies they did these games were all in development easily the last 3-5 years and had some type of standing agreement they absorbed.
People are acting like this is a dependency when in reality it’s them just trying to avoid major lawsuits. I am willing to bet any game that’s started development in the last year that would release in the next 5 will eventually be Xbox only unless in the next 5 years Xbox just fails hard.
And with the new skus they released I REALLY don’t foresee them having a huge jump. When now the disc version is a HUGE luxury at 600 with them not even having a physical presence anymore it’s them killing their physical market.
It's not just about them avoiding lawsuits. It's about them trying to maximize their returns. They didn't buy multiplat publishers to become exclusive. That wouldn't make sense money wise.
The 600 dollar console is a special edition.
The regular Series X is still 500 dollars.
They just need super strong games and consistency. This showcase was the first time since the 360 era where I actually was excited for what Xbox has. I already own a paper weight Xbox Series X, but now it’s looking like it’s time to blow the 3 inch layer of dust off it and give it some loving.
What Xbox needs to do now is be consistent with the releases. Don’t let this be a one time thing and then back the the poultry exclusives and typical Forza, Halo, and whatever else they just release. If they can do that I honestly believe they can rebuild the brand and possibly get it back to how it was when the 360 was alive.
I agree with article and I believe sony will follow suit budgets to big development times to long none can sustain this forever and sony won't be able to either
I also think in 20 years we are going to look back and say "Remember when we used to have to buy a game publishers box to put under your TV in order to play their games?"
The former president of Blizzard Mike Ybarra in a statement on Twitter says Microsoft Gaming CEO is hurting just as much as anyone else following the closure of three studios under Bethesda - Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, and Alpha Dog Studios. Roundhouse Games is also joining ZeniMax Online Studios.
Yeahhh I doubt it's hurting a millionaire as much as it's hurting fans and people who lost their jobs
Mike Ybarra‘s defence of Phil Spencer is the dictionary definition of tone deaf. Even Alanah Pearce, who’s close to Aaron Greenberg and Phil called him out on it.
“Mike, I have a lot of fondness for Phil and don’t doubt he’s incredibly bummed about this, but CEOs can handle some “shots” amidst people having their lives destroyed. Your sympathetic posts should solely be directed at those who’ve lost their jobs.”
https://x.com/charalanahzar...
What makes you think these are Phil's decisions? This is likely coming from Microsoft, and not the Xbox division.
At this moment, even Xbox fanboys are starting to hate Microsoft. It's fu**up, after fu**up, after fu**up... that's the state of Microsoft gaming.
Purchasing developers left and right, then killing them off...
Phil was the worst thing that happend to Xbox. Might as well just shut down their gaming division and fu** off
Poor Phil. He must be crying into his bonus cheques. Makes your heart bleed doesn't it?
I'm sure he'll be upset that those cheques contain a small percentage of money MS is still making from the closed studios games too. Next time someone purchases High-fi Rush or Evil within all that money is now just Microsofts, just think the former devs at Tango who made Hi-fi Rush MS's most highly acclaimed game in years will get nothing more.
MS are buying these publishers for the big IP's like Elder Scrolls and Call of Duty they have little interest in the ones that don't make huge profits... and firing thousands and closing studios looks good on the next quarterly shareholder report. Gotta protect the share price.
This is all coming from the executive who thinks we should have the option to tip devs... apparently so publishers can pay devs minimum wage. Will someone think of the C-suite executives!!!
That was from a former Blizzard exec. Did Phil make a comment on that also?
edit: Oh, it wasn't Phil who said this himself.
Gott alove the tought process on that...gentlemen we need think of more ways to get money out of these..gamers...wait..what if they just gave us their money..like for free.
Yeah, the guy making $10m a year is hurting as much as those who have lost their jobs and are worrying about their future and supporting their family. /s
It takes a real lack of shame to even try put the Good Guy Phil™ spin on this. It's not going to work this time.
He's sitting around feeling sorry when he should of been doing everything in his power to get people jobs in other studios you're telling me after toys for Bob split from Activision there wasn't a opening in the call of duty mines for arkane it's just woah is me.
Yeah Kinect was pretty much useful and useless at the same time when it came to appeal but I used my Kinect only to switch to the tv really. Admittedly.
Did it even work well?
the gestures didn't work 100% of the time, neither does the voice but its around 85% while gestures was 55-60%. but i did like the ability to move around the interface like in sci-fi movies. hopefully now the voice becomes more responsive and intuitive. cant wait for cortana
I feel like my kinect has been dumber lately too commands use to work 95% of the time now it's more like 70%
xbox on and xbox turn off
are awesome voice commands but gestures
mehhhh....