Rumour: Microsoft Reportedly Chose Buying Studios Over 'Winding Down' Xbox In 2021

Instead of putting in actual effort with the studios they did have, they chose to consolidate which is pathetic.

You can tell me how tough it is for them all you want but Nintendo and to a lesser extent Sony managed to entirely bounce back from their failings through actual effort or innovation, why can't Xbox do the same?

@TeiGekiLord yes you’re right. MS have a history of just throwing money at problems because they can.

Glad they pushed ahead. Series X has given me some of my favourite gaming memories from Xbox Game Studios

@themightyant @TeiGekiLord From what is being said, Sony's 'master plan' to make Microsoft see XBOX as a money sink and not worthwhile... was close to working.
Sony has made no illusions about how it wants the industry to go, and that it wants Microsoft out. Now, as the report says, they had a choice between making big acquisitions and winding down the entire division.
Effectively, Microsoft had the choice of letting Sony win, which would mean no more XBOX, acquiring some more companies or hoping for lightning in a bottle from what they have, which apparently wasn't coming fast enough at the time.

So, if the report is true, Microsoft went with the option where they didn't cut off their own legs to save themselves. Yes, it was risky, but not the choice Sony wanted them to make. Well, to them, what's one less competitor?

@themightyant

Mattrick left in 2014 and they started gobbling publishers in 2021.

Microsoft had more than enough developers in 2020 to easily compete with Sony and Nintendo but chose to go scorched earth and gobble up entire publishers under the illusion that outspending both Nintendo and Sony will lead them to the complete success and growth these clueless CEO envisioned.

@ValentineMeikin

I love how every single failure of Xbox's part is somehow down to Sony and not inept leadership.

Meanwhile, Phil is still large and in charge... The brand is pivoting what feels like daily, failing financially in most endeavors, and thousands of people losing their jobs, but Phil and higher management are hanging on.

I see the hyperbole train has left the station already in the comments 😂

For better or worse they are doing no different than let's say Apple or Amazon if they were in the same market. Big tech spend their way to being big tech.

But to be honest if Sony had the same spending power to do it I can't really say they wouldn't have done exactly the same thing. They have been buying studios rather than publishers as that is all they can do within their means.

@Cikajovazmaj I think Phil stopped being "in charge" a while back.

Microsoft will be lucky if they can keep the 35 million GP subs they have nonetheless triple that number by 2030? And where are these subs gonna come from…what’s that old saying “u can’t get blood from a stone”

@YeyoFairy Ultimately if they wind down on Xbox as a standalone ecosystem and put Game Pass on other platforms. That's where the numbers will come from.

Whether they go down that road time will tell.

@ValentineMeikin

That’s some weird logic.

I thought it was MS who wanted to outspend Sony, so they collapse.

Perhaps you need to reread the article, @TeiGekiLord. Clearly the choice was consolidate or fail. Attempting to cling on with the few studios they had was not an option. Indeed, just look at the state Xbox is in right now, and then try to imagine where they would be without having bought Bethesda and ABK? I'll help you out; we would not have had the current generation of Xbox because firstly, Nadella would have pulled the plug, but even if he hadn't, the generation would have died after a couple of years because there simply would not have been sufficient studios to give Xbox the much needed self-made content, and Game Pass (which is not as good as it was at the beginning of this generation) would have failed by now...

I think we have all known subscription numbers haven’t been rising in huge numbers for a few years (on either platform).

That’s why we are seeing the big push. Consoles are an afterthought and everything is trying to push GP.

@TeiGekiLord Steady on lad. I said I can't really say they wouldn't. Not that it's a fact they would. And MS certainly aren't my favourite publisher 😂 far from it.

Remember. Sucker Punch, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla Games for example were all acquisitions originally.

Microsoft have just gone to another extreme because they have the money to.

@Fiendish-Beaver

"The few developers they had" God this is so disingenous that it hurts.

1. 343
2. Coalition
3. Double Fine
4. Compulsion
5. Rare
6. The Initiative
7. InXile Entertainment
8. Mojang Studios
9. Ninja Theory
10. Obsidian
11. Playground Games
12. Turn 10
13. Undead Labs
14. World's Edge

Nintendo has 6 studios that develop games and you're SERIOUSLY telling me that Microsoft couldn't compete with what they had?

@TeiGekiLord Oh, I'm not saying there's not inept leadership. There's elements of it in all parts of the industry right now.

Sony continues to declare third-party exclusivity is the industry standard that needs to be followed, with a raft of exclusives keeping it's market share nice and safe.

Microsoft is hurting in that regard, with quite a few of it's first party studios doing f. all, for whatever reason, which led to the situation of them going full publisher or acquiring some way to improve their portfolio.

It's barely worked, but only since they have a ton of already released games making them a lot of money. If Microsoft continue to sit on the studios they own in 2025, they'll not be able to afford the full rollout on xCloud, they'll not be able to afford a successor to the XBOX Series, they'll still go under.

Sony would love for Microsoft's hail mary to flub, since they'd leverage their unstoppable position to be the console people graduate to after they leave the Switch behind. And there won't be any other choice...

@TeiGekiLord Sony has done no such thing. Nintendo on the other hand, has.

At the end of day they have many market streams coming into the Xbox business.
However these are really slowing down.
Console sales with regards sell a console sell another GP subscription.

GP subscriptions over total, considering there are billions of other devices there are not many GP subscriptions. Low attachment rate.

The issue cloud gaming is terrible I tried on my series x at 200mb/sec and what a bloody messy picture it was. 65” tv.

Yes xbox maybe ahead of their time but they becoming so forgettable in the here and now and becoming a Jack of all trades and master of none, which can work but going on consoles sold, GP and cloud gaming up takes.
Nothing is really doing well in real numbers.

The only reason the Xbox went plus 4% last quarter is ABK deal otherwise it was down yet again.
ABK cannot continue to bale out low console sales and low GP sales and definitely won’t make GP a sustainable product going by the article numbers.

The casuals, the general public the young the old overall just don’t see or get Xbox. Xbox hasn’t done good PR has not created a gel and bond in the mass market. Xbox hasn’t got a thing that sells it to them.

Yes, @TeiGekiLord, they had studios, that wasn't my point, my point was that the last generation was an absolute disaster for Xbox. They were convincingly beaten by Sony, and people began to build their digital libraries. Libraries that people are highly unlikely to leave behind in order to switch platforms.

AAA, or even AA, third party games were less and less likely to be exclusive or timed exclusives as the One generation progressed, and now, in this generation (which extends to over 4 years now) we've seen just one game that could be considered AAA release as a timed exclusive on the Xbox (that game being S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2).

When it came to studios that Xbox already had prior to the acquisitions, it was realised that no matter how much content they put out, there was quite simply insufficient numbers of people on the Xbox to support the cost of making the games. That is why we are now seeing games being ported to the PlayStation. So it was not a question of how many games these studios put out, or indeed the quality of the games, Xbox was just not making enough money from the games to keep going. It was literally a case of stop making games and close Xbox, or buy further game companies.

Microsoft were banking on having 100 million Game Pass subscribers by 2030, and we know that they hit 30 million subscribers last year, but even then that we by using some jiggery-pokery and combining Gold with GP and forming Core. Without that, they would not have hit 30 million. Plus, since then, we've seen reports that GP subscriber numbers are falling, and indeed, GP is losing more games each month than it is gaining and the quality of those games is declining. The Service is struggling right now in terms of the number of games it is receiving, the quality of them, and in subscriber retention.

So regardless of how many Studios Xbox had prior to the acquisition, they simply were not up to the task of keeping GP and Xbox afloat. Indeed, arguably, even following the acquisition, there are real questions as to the viability of Xbox right now unless it puts its games on the PlayStation, which in itself harms brand Xbox too, so it's a double-edged sword.

The real question right now is whether Nadella will now decide that the only way forward for Xbox is as a publisher, and completely pull the plug on the console side of the business, and probably Game Pass too, unless they can put a watered-down version on the PlayStation that features first party games only...

Ugh, well I suppose the third party publisher that Xbox has become now is much more favourable to a complete extinction of Xbox.

Deja vu anyone? This is the second time Microsoft has come close to shutting down Xbox, they were having the same internal discussions last decade after the XBO launch. Makes you wonder what will happen after the launch of the next Xbox supposedly next year if it doesn’t succeed in sales… not exactly reassuring! Xbox as a multiplatform publisher will survive no doubt, but Xbox hardware could be a different story if Satya can no longer be convinced to stay the blade of execution.

It's also said, that studios are more and more turning their back to Game Pass, because it's not worth it and they want to sell their games traditionally.
And i absolutely can see why.

100 million gamepass subscribers?? That reminds me of...:

Kif: Sir? [whispering] There aren't that many human beings.
Zapp: A thought occurs: There aren't that many humans.
Lrrr: We're willing to wait a few weeks while you shore up the numbers.
Zapp: Hmm. 198 billion babies in a few weeks. We'll need an army of super-virile men scoring 'round the clock! I'll do my part. Kif, clear my schedule.

Microsoft shareholders should be encouraging more gamer babies.

I've said numerous times on this site and others, Nadella only cares about the cloud and creating as many over priced subscriptions possibly can.

Nice to see my belief always been accurate. Hopefully he steps down soon or is, some how, some way, internally ousted. He is hurting Microsoft more by the day.

Nadella has never been a fan of hardware and never will be. When he sees an opportunity to gut it, he does.

chooses between ending XBox and buying many studios

buys many studios

closes studios

Profit!

@TeiGekiLord I see you mention Nintendo there only having six studios but produce games, But you fail to mention Sony who have plenty of studios but have only been capable of producing 'One' AAA First Party exclusive game a year for Years now.

Just in case any body missed the actual story.

"As we've already mentioned, this is all rumoured and reported information at present"

Honestly, it baffles me how a trillion dollar company can be beyond incompetent, their only solutions to any problem is throw money at it or abandon it, they literally seem to not know anything else.

@TeiGekiLord That's wildly inaccurate. Nintendo has Nintendo EPD, Nintendo ST, Retro Studios, Shiver Entertainment, SRD, 1-Up Studio, Monolith Soft and Mario Club (which handles testing, QA and debugging). Plus they also farm out a lot of development to external companies; Arika, Bandai Namco Studios, Camelot, Creatures, Good-Feel, Grezzo, HAL Laboratory, Sora Ltd, Intelligent Systems, MercurySteam, to name just a few.