600°

Some publishers reportedly questioning support for Xbox amid "flatlining" sales

That’s according to GamesIndustry.biz head Chris Dring, who said his takeaway from GDC last week was that he thinks “Xbox is in real trouble as a hardware manufacturer”.

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videogameschronicle.com
MrDead32d ago (Edited 32d ago )

PlayStation will be MS's biggest console platform to publish games on. They tried the buy-up and mass ban of multiplatform games and it's just ended up with them needing Sony for sales.

KwietStorm_BLM32d ago

That's the reason they bought publishers, to profit across platforms..

MrDead32d ago (Edited 32d ago )

...why were they restricting Bethesda games then? Seems a weird thing to do if "That's the reason they bought publishers", it seems more like they bit off more then they could handle and now MS is stepping in and taking over at Xbox as they need the sales.

S2Killinit32d ago

Its so ironic! Some of these xbox fans were soooo happy that MS was going to buy up the industry and deprive others of games they all used to enjoy. They cheered MS on, now it turned out that MS will need to go multiplat to pay for the cost of the acquisitions. Karma?

Cacabunga32d ago

If at the same time PS is going back to making single player games then it will be the only console of choice

Barlos31d ago

Exactly. How can't people see that their plan was to eventually drop hardware and go multi platform - essentially becoming the biggest publisher in the industry?

The disagrees you got shows there's a lot of people in denial over it.

BlackOni18d ago (Edited 18d ago )

If I remember correctly, they stated their recent Blizzard acquisition as a way to stay competitive with Nintendo and Sony, not specifically to profit across platforms. Of course, the end goal is always profits, but they've also made a bunch of exclusives that haven't made their way to other platforms yet, with more on the way.

I imagine the other acquisitions were for the same reason, but I could be wrong. They recognize that most of their offerings aren't to the same level of quality as what the competition is doing, hence the buyouts and porting older xbox exclusives to PS and Nintendo.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 18d ago
Lightning7732d ago

Didn't know Halo, Fable, Perfect Dark Gears, Avowed was goin on PS originally.

YourMommySpoils32d ago

Dude, just give up already, just throw in that towel.

MrDead32d ago (Edited 32d ago )

Well as you guys don't buy games MS may be forced too for sales. New Halo won't be much good on such a tiny platform as Xbox, but they do have the option of PC and PS to keep their games going and hit sales targets.

ocelot0732d ago

Halo was actually suppose to be a Dreamcast exclusive. Perfect Dark started life on Nintendo, Gears at one point did have a PS3 build.

Abear2131d ago

No way those games wind up on PlayStation, sadly, they’ll be forced to run on Series S too and will be lesser games because of it.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 31d ago
Lightning7732d ago (Edited 32d ago )

There's no you guys here. As usual, here and on Twitter nobody ever makes any sense. Because internet.....

Uuh uh. Come out with new hardware only to put everything on PS and neglect their new console and forget console growth right....

Yep that makes the most sense in the world ppl. Some guy on twitter said the exact same ignorant thing. Riiight makes perfect sense....

@mommy what towel I don't work for MS? I know I make too much sense it goes over your head I know and you're frustrated because you want only one console in the market. One day you'll get it... Maybe....

BehindTheRows32d ago (Edited 32d ago )

My man, much of this dame doubt was cast upon us before those 4 games released outside of Xbox/PC and here we are yet again. Of course, Microsoft could easily put this to bed if it weren't true, but they don't. The smoke coming from whatever fire is real.

Going full 3rd party? Not quite so soon, but I'm inclined to believe the rumors of many more Xbox games coming. It makes sense as Xbox console sales have largely dried up and it would be silly to ignore the much larger userbases of Nintendo and PlayStation.

MrDead32d ago (Edited 32d ago )

Oh, er sorry you seem to be taking this news a little rough. Don't worry though PC, Nintendo and PlayStation will keep the market afloat and hopefully MS will sell enough on other platforms to make a new Halo for us all to enjoy. .. Also don't forget MS has King so you can cheer that on, lots of profit!

Cockney32d ago

As usual it's everybody else's fault

VenomUK31d ago

@Lightning78 Phil Spencer has just said in an interview that Xbox has had a ‘brand pivot’ so that it will be available on any platforms Gen Z wants to play. This interview is confirmation that Xbox games have gone full third party. It seems he wasn’t ready to say it at the Xbox event last month, now he has soft announced it.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer says multiplatform ‘brand pivot’ partly driven by Gen Z habits
https://www.videogameschron...

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 31d ago
ChasterMies32d ago

Not will be. Already are. Minecraft and Call of Duty already sell more on PlayStation than on Xbox.

MrNinosan32d ago

Hi-Fi Rush most likely also sold more on Playstation already.

KwietStorm_BLM32d ago

They "restricted" games to make their platform look like a good buy, knowing they could make a move at any time because they now own the IPs. But anyone who's been paying attention to even a little bit of their business model over the last handful of years has seen them moving in this direction. They've explicitly said themselves they want Xbox on as many screens as possible, Xbox being a brand, not hardware.

notachance31d ago

all their own fault

1. They trained their own costumers to wait for games to come to gamepass instead of buying from the store. I'll bet most of their customers have stopped buying games entirely since gamepass launched, with some high profile exception like Baldur's Gate 3 and Hogwarts Legacy.

2. They split their own SKUs into the weaker S and the more powerful X, particularly the weaker S needed extra effort to port games into it. With the sales flatlining there's simply not enough profit to justify the cost to do it.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 18d ago
Einhander197232d ago

Probably sooner rather than later at this rate...

Elda32d ago (Edited 32d ago )

LMAO!! Why did MS/XB even bother in the first place. Just wasted money.

Zeref32d ago

Publishing certain games on Playstation makes them more money not less. So how is it wasted money? Lol

mandf32d ago

68billion for activision will take a long time to show profit. It was a power move that backfired

Zeref32d ago (Edited 32d ago )

@mandf
Backfired how??

You think they actually thought they're gonna profit from a 68 billion dollar deal in a year? What are you talking about my guy?

mandf32d ago (Edited 32d ago )

Zeref playstation makes up the majority of buying console players for activision games. There goes that money and let's give it out free in gamepass. If you don't understand that then you will never understand business. Playstation players aren't going to leave playstation for Xbox like ms thought or delusional xbox players thought. Every single ip 99percent sold more on playstation.

Ms started to create a monopoly and for once they aren't in control and got called out. Ms is the greediest of all corporations in this world. A lot of gamers aren't blind. I wont buy any ms produced game.

You are watching ms bow out of the console business. They couldn't bully bribe or buy their way into dominance. And now ms is very shortly going to held accountable for a lost venture. The entirety of ms console has never showed a real profit. It has been subsidized by ms. Literally a waste of money. Today they are worse then where they started..

Year 3 or 4 of this gen and they still haven't reached 30million sold. Where is all this future profit coming from.

shinoff218332d ago

With ms signing that 10 year deal with call of duty. I bet they knew from the jump that they were going this route. Probably trying to figure out the best way to break it to its base. Sure 68 billion can't be made back in a year but some xbox players are jumping ship now. So what happens in 5 years when console sales dwindle to nothing. Answer the same exact thing that's happening now. You can paint rainbows and butterflies all you want but ms will be releasing even more on ps and switch. At this point it's a dud

StormSnooper31d ago

They have spent more than they have earned in 4 generations.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 31d ago
Christopher32d ago

I think Elda is referring to getting into hardware in the first place. I don't agree. We need more hardware competition, IMHO.

mandf31d ago

I respectfully disagree. Go play Nintendo switch games tell me you think they are reviewed on the same scale as ms and ps.

Now think of it this way if ms was the only console and switch and ps5 games were on xbox. The standard of reviews changes. Nintendo has some great games let's get that out the way. Zelda has no speech in this current day. If final fantasy did this they would get review bombed and gamers would riot.

Sea of thrives when it it released has 4 enemies and a kraken that has no body hit metacritic at 7. If that game wasn't exclusive if would been review bombed.

Dragons dogma 2 just released and all we here is framerate problems and let destroy the game through the internet. Name one Bethesda gamethat never had framrate problems we overlook it.

3 consoles create a corrupt and unbalanced conversations. If a company only has to produce one not 5 games they can optimize and make a better game. Game development becomes cheaper and quality becomes better if zelda was on every platform it would become a better game. Reviewers wouldn't gloss over low poly textures , no speech, no mo cap and other industry standardized game elements.

Almost every xbox game in the last 4 years has been hyped to no end. Xbox last 2 exclusive were touted as games of the generation months before release. Then reviewed and low and behold average at best go look at the disparity of the reviews 10s to 2s. That's fishy. I'm a playstation fan and I read all the reviews on godr and I heard from some reviewers was more of the same as if it was a negative . Halo nor zelda has been called out for that. If there was only one console for those 3 games. You would see the reviewers hold games to higher or the same standards.

Competition is good when games developers go against each with same exact standard halo trying to out do gow is better on the same console instead of console vs console.

The more consoles you have the more watered down games, reviews and standards you have.

Petebloodyonion31d ago

Quick question Chief didn't you cancel this story earlier on?
https://n4g.com/news/259203...
What makes this one valid versus the previous one that was posted this morning?
Just curious

Petebloodyonion31d ago

@Mandif
I disagree the more consoles you have = the less chance an Apple situation will happen
Tell me Do you think that if Sony or MS were alone you would have backward compatibility?
Would you get a free upgrade patch?
Do you believe that Sony or MS would try making games? Just look at Valve, Epic, or simply Meta with Quest which only produces games when potential VR competitors are around (PSVR2 and Apple).
What would stop Sony from removing your digital rights on an older platform and asking you to get the newer Playstation to keep them?
Or how about MS with DRM like 2013?

mandf31d ago (Edited 31d ago )

@pete

Yes I do. Couple thousand games from last gen is profit and is stupidity if you don't. Apple literally has a small blueprint in gaming. None of the big 3 has ever charged you backward compatability.

Digital rights are a joke and a whole other can of worms.30yrs from now none of our current software will compatible with future hardware. If it is in what form. The truest way to preserve you game collection is physical games.digital rights what a joke. Read your licensing agreement. Are you going to buy a car and pay for access to your headlights once month it's just 50cents for the radio. We already lost the war on digital rights. Physical is the way to go. Playstation gamers are buying physical games that's called demand. Gamepass has made best buy and wal mart to not sell xbox games anymore. It's a gotcha moment once it's all digital we will be renting games by the month or candy crush 5dollars for 5 lives. Digital sucks and is only going to get worse once congress start taxing gamers for high internet usage. Like I said a big can of worms. Sorry man we need a couple hours to discuss this in depth.

By the way drm and digital rights are really different my other comment is about quality of games and competition between them not quality of hardware maker

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 31d ago
wesnytsfs32d ago

They should like 2 years later like Sony does with PCX games.

Eonjay32d ago

Not exactly because Microsoft is already bringing everything to PC as well. This is about bring games to other console platforms. I would only expect Sony to release certain games on Xbox like MLB and Marathon...

GhostScholar32d ago (Edited 32d ago )

It wasn’t Sonys choice to bring the show to Xbox. The devs themselves decided not to renew the contract with Sony for exclusivity.

dumahim32d ago (Edited 32d ago )

edit: wrong thread

GamerRN32d ago

The Devs didn't decide not to renew the contract, MLB stepped in and demanded multiplatform

shinoff218331d ago

Ghostscholar , lol it wasn't the devs. The devs are sonys studio. It was the MLB.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 31d ago
XiNatsuDragnel32d ago

They're slowly becoming a 3rd party publisher.

VoiceMale31d ago (Edited 31d ago )

what'cha mean SLOWLY?
They're already a 3rd party publisher...been that way for years.
or maybe you are suggesting ONLY a 3rd party publisher...then the answer is NO
and to be fair both consoles have their IPs on PC which makes them 3rd party by definition.

Nintendo alone remains solely an ONLY for console with 1st party IPs

i know a lot of ppl will be upset at this but they have to understand the changing industry is heading towards not all 1st party content will be exclusives to a single box, some but not all, or even timed going forward.

FinalFantasyFanatic31d ago

You could see this coming from a mile away, we did hear rumours of a new Xbox, but I'll be very surprised if it actually comes to fruition, unless that's actually an Xbox/PC handheld they're developing.

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170°

Fallout 4 Next-Gen Update Has A Bugged Out Quality Mode On Xbox Series X|S

The next-gen update for Bethesda Game Studios' Fallout 4 currently has a bugged out Quality mode on Xbox Series X|S.

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twistedvoxel.com
anast7h ago

Ha! They messed up the Xbox upgrade.

GamerRN4h ago

It's not messed up. This mode runs 60fps 1440p with ultra settings. If you want to see the other modes, disable 1440p somehow.

Ironmike7h ago(Edited 7h ago)

They have and they haven't just download 60fps and ultra setting mod and gane looks great

GamerRN4h ago

And Ultra Settings ... @1440p. It's working as expected. There is a star that states in the patch notes that if 1440p is available, quality mode will stay in 60fps 1440p with ultra settings.

Barlos4h ago(Edited 4h ago)

Surely not! Bugs with something from Bethesda? Get outta here!

80°

Metaphor: ReFantazio Protagonist Will Not Be A "Blank Slate", Details On Archetypes

The protagonist in Sega and Atlus' upcoming role-playing game, Metaphor: ReFantazio, will not be a "blank slate".

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nintendopal.com
Goodguy013h ago

I do prefer at least a little personality a silent protagonist can show. Joker was done pretty well in p5.

210°

Huge new Diablo 4 stats are super encouraging for Xbox Game Pass

Xbox Game Pass and Diablo 4 are a match made in heaven, with the hellish RPG series blazing a path for ActiBlizz’s future on the service.

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theloadout.com
Lightning771d 6h ago

“Last month we added our first Activision Blizzard title, Diablo 4, to our Game Pass service,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says during the company’s latest earnings call. “Subscribers played over 10 million hours within the first 10 days, making it one of our biggest first-party Game Pass launches ever.”

Sarah Bond announced this a few weeks back. That's the gamepass effect I suppose.

Zeke688h ago

So 1 million players tries the game for 10 hours each and quit -check on that... 🤷😉

S2Killinit8h ago

Lol but how many bullets were fired?

Lightning776h ago(Edited 6h ago)

If that was even the case since you don't know anything, let's entertain that it's no different than 1 million ppl buying a game and playing for 10 hours and quitting. Though it doesn't matter to the pub since they bought the game for 70$ they don't care if you throw your disc like Frisbee. Same with subscription, they got the money so a completion rate doesn't matter. 50% of the ppl didn't even play past the first lvl in Baldurs Gate. What does that mean?

If you troll me you get put down I don't put up with that just FYI, not sure if you're new or not I'm just letting you know.

@S2 No different than HD2 killing 1 billion bugs or whatever.

Ps5conehead2h ago

They would not be in the mess there in if they sold all those copy’s of games instead

UltimateOwnage8h ago

Guess they had to find at least one glimmer of positive news to combat the poor Xbox hardware sales trends. GamePass stats on game from a 1st party studio that they spent $70bn to acquire are kind of useless IMO, especially when other than Act/Bliz the entire XBOX division was flat. I hope that spike on Diablo 4 was worth having to the XBOX brand go multi platform for.

Lightning776h ago

You mean with out ABK they would be flat with nearly no growth.

They actually made allot of money only because of ABK. With out it they would suffer and slowly be obsolete.

Xbox Content & Services Revenue +62%

- Gaming Revenue +51%

- Revenue $61.9 billion +17%

- Operating income $27.6 billion +23%

- Net Income $21.9 Billion +20%

- Cloud Revenue $35.1 Billion +23%

- Xbox Hardware -31%

shinoff21834h ago

Without abk it was negative not flat. It's said so itself. They were negative.

jjb19818h ago

They probably all fell asleep due to severe boredom and left their consoles on overnight.

Tody_ZA8h ago(Edited 8h ago)

I really don't get the obsession with these stats. So what? Is always my response.

If 10 million people bought the game, it doesn't matter at all how long they played it for. It's irrelevant. The sale is made, the revenue is earned. The person can take a year to finish the game for all the developers care.

If 10 million played the game on a sub, what does it achieve? They could play 1 hour and delete it as quickly as they downloaded it. I've done this with games like Need for Speed Unbound or Immortals of Aveum, I just don't have the time for every single game.

Unless Games Pass generates developer and publisher revenue for every hour spent, this is meaningless.

sagapo7h ago(Edited 7h ago)

In case of a gaas game, hours played is an important indicator for the succes of the game imo. The game needs to generate money AFTER purchase (when bought) or when the game is on a sub.

Tody_ZA6h ago(Edited 6h ago)

This is a non-point, because in-game purchases generate revenue and can be tracked. Number of players is a meaningless statistic unless you're talking about a PURE multiplayer game. Otherwise you can make that point about any game that has DLC or microtransactions.

It's irrelevant how many baterangs are thrown in Arkham Knight or how many hours people spent playing The Witcher 3. A sale made five years ago or a sale made now is a sale.

Michiel19894h ago

why are you even comparing witcher or arkham to d4? They don't have the same business model. Your punchline "a sale is made" is cool and all, but d4 is not an offline, single player rpg. It has a battle pass, cosmetics to buy and by the look of it yearly expansions. Every 3 months the game gets changed up and they try to incentivize you to buy things because the cosmetics you can earn ingame look dogshit.

Your logic is super flawed, diablo 4 is a gaas game.

Lightning776h ago(Edited 6h ago)

"They could play 1 hour and delete it as quickly as they downloaded it. I've done this with games like Need for Speed Unbound or Immortals of Aveum, I just don't have the time for every single game."

So you just proved it doesn't matter if it's on sub or bought full price, half price whatever, you still deleted those games, allot less ppl beat or stick with games unless it's LS like Fornite, Minecraft etc you always here about a backlog of games. That's just a world we live in, doesn't matter if it's sub service or bought anymore. It's made worse with sub because you have access to many other games of course but the metrics are still not that distinguish from sub to fully own since backlogs are a growing issue regardless.

People don't beat games like they used to that's just facts.

Tody_ZA3h ago(Edited 2h ago)

Did you read my comment? Your response is literally nothing to what I wrote? I got Need for Speed Unbound and Immortals of Aveum off PS Plus, I paid nothing for them. Me playing them for an hour generated nothing for the developers. However if I had bought them, even for a dollar, my playtime would be utterly irrelevant because a sale was made. People not beating games is exactly the point - if they bought it, it doesn't matter how long they played it for. Hence, hours played is a meaningless statistic, yet Microsoft keeps peddling it.

It literally does matter if it's played off a service or bought - you're buying into Microsoft philosophy now. Game Pass monthly sub revenue goes to Microsoft, it isn't going to lead to better games unless it's a small indie studio getting a payout from MS.

On Diablo IV, if I buy it off Steam for 50% off, developers get revenue. If I download it from Game Pass and then delete it after an hour, worthless statistic and nothing else.

Diablo IV generated over $600 million in revenue from sales. Do you think MS' compensation package would match this if it was released exclusively on Games Pass and nowhere else for sale?

Tody_ZA3h ago(Edited 3h ago)

@Michiel1989 As per my comment above: "in-game purchases generate revenue and can be tracked" That aside, however, Diablo IV generated millions in revenue from sales and was a huge financial success, which is a metric that can be measured. I reiterate that the hours it was played on Games Pass means nothing. If they tell me that millions of $ was spent on in-game cosmetics, that obviously means something.

My point is little other than Microsoft repeatedly peddling worthless statistics and they've been doing it for months. They won't tell you how many Xbox units were sold (until financial results forced this), but they'll certainly tell you how many locusts were killed in Gears of War.

By the way, I'm not comparing Diablo IV and The Witcher 3 or Arkham. I'm comparing the difference between playing a title on Games Pass for some time and buying it at any point it's on sale.

I don't get why people argue this. I bought A Plague Tale: Innocence and enjoyed it. I then played A Plague Tale: Requiem on Game Pass and cancelled my sub soon after. Which scenario helped the developer? I don't see the long term sustainability of the Game Pass model, and adding all these high profile triple A games to it from mega publishers is going to come crashing down in the next few years unless Microsoft releases its games on all platforms, which they're clearly setting themselves up for.

Lightning772h ago

"I got Need for Speed Unbound and Immortals of Aveum off PS Plus, I paid nothing for them. Me playing them for an hour generated nothing for the developers. However if I had bought them, even for a dollar, my playtime would be utterly irrelevant because a sale was made."

You made no mention of getting of Plus not like it makes a difference because those games come with your subscription. Those games are part of your paid subscription, so Sony gets your money and whatever cut they're giving to Immortal and NFS devs. These things aren't for free and devs aren't going bankrupt from it either.

Plus you literally just made my point. When you said play time is irrelevant when a 70$ transaction was made. Which is 100% true.

"Hence, hours played is a meaningless statistic, yet Microsoft keeps peddling it."

Attach rate/console engagement is important to MS. Having high attach Tate means more will spend in the echo system that's why they track that. They have high console engagement but can't sell Xbox's they have to pick their battle.

"Game Pass monthly sub revenue goes to Microsoft, it isn't going to lead to better games unless it's a small indie studio getting a payout from MS."

I dunno HB2, Indy Stalker 2, Avowed look pretty good this year and they're all on gamepass this year.

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anast7h ago

A bunch people played a game for two seconds and they added up the hours.

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