electrolite77

Not sure I’m too surprised at this. Microsoft were effectively giving away recurring Game Pass subscriptions and more on top. It was a hugely pro-consumer move, even giving the current Rewards points is more than they need to do. At least its actual free stuff rather than digital collectibles like Sony and Nintendo.

As somebody who bought PS4 Pro (which was pretty poor) and Xbox One X (which was excellent) last gen I have absolutely no interest in a mid-gen upgrade. I’ve made that mistake before and will learn from it.

PS5 Pro looks a similarly half-hearted upgrade to the PS4 Pro. If I really thought my PS5 and Series X were underpowered I’d fix the problem properly and buy a PC. PS5 Pro won’t make much of a dent on the mainstream at all. Xbox is better trying to make a proper generational leap in a couple of years.

This is also pretty much BS. He’s covering his own backside in classic exec style. He threw everything into stopping the merger altogether and signed a deal when he absolutely had to.

@NEStalgia

Nicely put. I’ve been a PlayStation fan since buying my first PS1 in January 1996 and Ryan has been dreadful.

It’s OK but recently I’ve found I’m queuing a lot, which I simply can’t be bothered with. Defeats the point entirely.

“we still feel like we're not 100% sure on where Xbox will be in 10, 15 years”

Nobody does 😂 There’s not a person out there who actually knows what Xbox, or the industry as a whole, will look like in 15 years. Look at how much has changed in the last 15, and the 15 before that. Time machines still aren’t a thing, and frankly who cares?!

@Ken_Kaniff

Not sure that figure is right. Even if they didn’t increase ABK’s profitability at all the profits from that bit of the business alone would cover the purchase cost within 10 years.

I think you are overreacting a bit. They answered most of the ‘questions’ fairly clearly. Thing to remember is most of these ‘questions’ were stirred up by Internet gossip and hysterical overreaction. Now it seems some are determined to keep that hysteria going.

And the ludicrous hype for next gen begins!

Believe this when I see it but the main thing is it reiterates that they’re committed to hardware.

@themightyant

I agree, it isn’t that impressive a figure if you include Gold conversions. As an aside, they had less Gold subscribers that weren’t taking Game Pass than I thought.

Interesting figures too, thanks for doing the calculations. I think long term the cost saving comes from filling up the GP library with first party content at the expense of big third party deals. Yes games are expensive to make but once made they stay in GP for years, precluding the need for different third party games every few months. They’ve obviously got the ABK library to utilise too.

While we have to keep perspective and remember it’s a really healthy number and a big business they’ve built for themselves you can see why moving some titles onto other platforms while keeping them Day 1 on Xbox/GP and on GP after publication elsewhere makes sense.

That’s not a great figure if it includes Core numbers. Not convinced of that.

As expected, all a big load of nothing. A couple of smaller games and GAAS titles going multi platform. There will probably be more, if Game Pass/multiplatform is what’s needed to fund niche titles like Pentiment so be it.

A huge disappointment for anyone who genuinely (bafflingly, to me) thought xbox was quitting hardware and putting everything multiplatform. Dont believe what you read Online people.

This is something I would love to happen. The Switch is brilliant and all, I use mine far more than my Xbox/PS Consoles, but some co petition would keep them on their toes. Handhelds have always been hugely popular with both kids and adults for obvious reasons and it’s strange to me MS have never had a go at that market.

Smaller, quirky titles this moving over after a period of exclusivity makes sense. I’d still rather try them in Game Pass myself anyway. I’d expect to see GAAS titles ported too.

“ a prime example of Chinese whispers or people just making s*** up to capitalise off the hysteria”

I rather suspect in a few days that’ll be a very accurate summary of the situation

@UltraBEAR

Out of 4 posts 2 have been you saying they’re going third party which you describe as ‘only a matter of time.’

You also posted this-

“ Most exciting time in consoles since Sega going 3rd party. I couldn’t be more on the edge of my seat. Microsoft knows that the inky way to make up for those huge investments is to go fully 3rd party. Kudos for not dragging this out.”

We can only go off the evidence in front of us, which supports what I said.

@UltraBEAR

I think you’re confusing what you want with what is likely to happen

@Valkyrian

They’ve put out one comment about how they’ll have an update next week. Thankfully they don’t respond to every hysterical fanboy panic and they have absolutely no need to.

@InterceptorAlpha

There’s very little chance of Gamepass being on PlayStation or Nintendo for that matter.

Third party licensing fees are a huge business, they’re basically free money. As much as Sony get praised for their exclusives, revenue from third party games is a much more important revenue stream for them as seen in the filings for the ABK court case.

It’s possible to make money from system hardware and peripherals which are also hardware is another revenue stream with a very high mark up.

The only times anyone has thrown in a decent Video Game hardware business has been when they’ve had to because the company is about to go under like with Sega/SNK/Atari. That’s the only time it makes sense, and MS aren’t in that position.

@Valkyrian

If companies spent their time responding to hysterical rumours on the internet they’d never get anything else done

Not as much as the hysteria suggests. A few older games going to other platforms. A general idea that most of their games will launch first on Xbox and onto Gamepass but some will only be timed exclusives on a case-by-case basis. Possibly the announcement of a streaming box.

@InterceptorAlpha

It’s hard to see how that makes financial sense. Even if all they did this generation was match last gen’s nearly 60 million sales that’s a massive revenue stream to give away. Not just the hardware sales but peripherals and the licensing fees they get from every single game sold on Xbox. It could also potentially cost them a shedload of Game Pass subscribers.

@Ade117

“ Microsoft still has an audience of 50 million loyal customers as evidenced by the sales of the Xbox One even after its disastrous start.”

Exactly. Thats a huge business including third party and hardware revenues and a major (the main?) driver towards Game Pass and the ecosystem. Thats why the idea here going to ditch Consoles is very far fetched and would be extremely bad for the industry.

@UltraBEAR

That speculation is fine, it’s just internet chatter. Its still publicity that draws attention to the option to play those games now via GP/PC/Xbox.

Be interested to see what the vision is. I can see a future where they launch their big games first on Xbox/PC/GP and then launch selected titles on other platforms to pick up a few extra dollars and generate franchise awareness later. Would be a pretty smart move IMO.

@rustyduck

Absolutely no info says this

This was inevitable after the merger but that doesn’t make it any less horrible. Hopefully those affected are well looked after.

A Quake reboot in the form of the recent Doom games would be (Homer Simpsons drooling GIF)

@Tharsman @K1LLEGAL

Cool. Fingers crossed then.

This doesn’t mean they’re all this year does it?

(Falls off chair)

@CharlieChooChoo

Exactly. They especially don’t care about squealing kids on the Internet getting all upset because some more people might be able to play a game.

Got a sneaky feeling this might be Psychonauts 2 on Switch. It’s already on PlayStation anyway.

But Hi Fi Rush or Pentiment would also make sense. Word of mouth for the games to help build towards a possible sequel and more people aware of stuff they can play on Game Pass.

@somnambulance

Exactly. Just how it should be. The more games people think are worthy of GOTY the better.

@brn70121

It was voted for by the readers.

@ozkrmz

Oh grow up. People have different opinions to you. That’s how the world works.

@Tacoborn

It was voted for by the readers

Only just started on Starfield and really enjoying it.

Very strong list overall.

@HonestHick

I agree they need a 10/10. Even just one would change the narrative. Having a lot of 7 and 8 out of 10s will get them and Gamepass a long way but you still need the occasional unquestionable heavy hitter.

I agree on 75-80m Console sales being their ceiling. If they can get to that they’ll be well pleased. But even less than that is a huge business to throw away, at a level nobody except Sony and Nintendo have ever managed, and a lot of users potentially running straight to Sony.

@Titntin

That’s just the press struggling with the idea of the Console Wars not being the be all and end all.

They sold 58 million XB1’s. If Sega had shifted 58 million Dreamcasts they’d have been making Consoles a lot longer. If Sony had sold 58 million Vitas they wouldn’t have given up on it after 5 minutes etc

@Titntin

I can’t see any danger of MS getting out of the Console business. Firstly there are rumours of the Series follow up being in 2026 and we know from the ABK Court case that they’re working on one.

But even aside from that it just wouldn’t make sense. Even if sales of this gen fall short of XB1 (which I don’t believe will happen) and they sell “only” 50 million. That’s 50 million users in the ecosystem that they may lose. They’d be possibly throwing away millions of subscribers. They’d certainly be throwing away profits from peripherals and third-party software sales (basically free money). Their Gaming business is currently doing very well financially and there’s no reason for them to throw that away.

As for the gap between Xbox Consoles and Sony, it isn’t really relevant if they’re making money. Where it is relevant is MS know any consumers that leave the Xbox business if they stop making Consoles could go running straight to PlayStation.

Use it all the time. Super convenient. Still needs refining and tightening up but hopefully that will happen.

@HonestHick

Better advertising would go a long way. Looks like there’s a steady stream of first party games coming now, they just need to make sure more people know.

There was also possibly a bit of naivety about Starfield. Xbox having nothing during the peak shopping season to go up against the might of Mario Wonder and Spiderman 2 was unwise. I can understand they wanted to get it out ASAP and maybe keeping a new IP away from the other big hitters was the logic, but just having nothing brand new was a bad idea. They’d have been better off delaying it a few weeks and hyping it up a lot more.

If it’s a proper generational leap this makes a lot more sense than a mid-gen upgrade. XB1 and PS4 needed upgrading quickly but same isn’t true of the current generation. MS most successful generation sales-wise was when they got 360 out ahead of PS3 and they need to try something different.

He makes a lot of great points. Nice thread.

His last one is especially pertinent. Any game getting released is an achievement.

Unfortunately Gaming discourse these days, especially on Social Media, is awful. A large part of the community is populated by joyless, entitled, rude, over opinionated people. The replies both on Twitter and on here go to prove his point entirely.

@GamingFan4Lyf

Exactly the same. I couldn’t go dual Console until I started working in 1999 but since then I’ve always had more than one. Before that I chopped and changed between Amstrad and Amiga home Computers and Sega and Nintendo Consoles.

This generation I’ve got every system. All get lots of software. I’ve never found any pleasure in sales figure competitions, or enjoyed a game more because somebody else doesn’t get to play it. Just enjoy the games you enjoy and let others do the same.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner

It does

@GamingFan4Lyf

Winning the Console war only matters to children on the internet. Companies care about profit.

That’s pretty solid actually. Better than I expected, or what Social Media noise would have you believe.