How to sell next-gen consoles, Marketing, Positioning, and Pricing [2020]

Because in the long run it's probably more efficient to build hardware for an industrial setting that can run on-demand round the clock than produce 50-100m units of consumer grade hardware that is sitting idle most of the time.

It's not like they make money on the consoles...

But the consumer is paying for that hardware and the electricity.
The hardware probably even makes a profit over the lifespan of a console.
 
Here are the Game Pass games announced yesterday that I could find will release this year:
  • Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - December 4, 2020
  • Halo Infinite - Holiday 2020
  • Tell Me Why - August 27, 2020
  • Grounded Preview - July 28th, 2020
  • Destiny 2 - September 2020
  • Tetris Effect: Connected - Holiday 2020
  • The Medium - Holiday 2020
  • Crossfire X - 2020
Let me know if I missed any.

I suspect there will be more announced closer to launch. Game Pass games are not usually announced months out from release.

Tommy McClain
 
Game pass is only good if the games are good
But you know the games right now and you know the games coming in the future.
And the games are good.
I could have saved myself quite a bit of money if I didn't buy games that didn't show up on game pass later.

Right now games, I didn't pay for but am playing:
a) Soul Calibur V
b) No Man's Sky
c) Killer Instinct
d) Mechwarrior Mercenaries
e) Mortal Kombat X
f) Minecraft Dungeons

Games I didn't pay for but played
  • Rise of Tomb Raider
  • FH3
  • FH4
  • Shadow of Tomb Raider
  • Gears 5
  • Sea of Thieves
  • Inside
  • Ori And the Will of the Wisps
  • Below
  • The Outer Worlds

Games I bought but shouldn't have
  • RDR 2
  • Destiny 2 + expansions
  • Wasteland 2 and Wasteland 3
  • Battletech
  • Batman Arkham Knight

Games I've tried because of gamepass
*** large list of big and small titles***
  • Edith Finch, Outer Wilds, other walking simulators

Games I look forward to play (/again)
a) Halo Infinite
b) Destiny 2
c) Everwild, Avowed, Fable, Age of Empires 4, Flight Simulator
c) Most of what I saw on that showcase.

All of this cost me 50 USD since gamepass launch and I don't need to resub until late 2021.

If I went Sony next gen
It's $240 for MM, HZD and GT7. And 2 of those titles have limited replayability because I'm not one to replay single player titles. That leaves GT7, which is amazing in my eyes, but I feel like I'm going to want to try more titles as the year goes on.

Even at full price game pass ultimate I won't hit $240 CAD per year.

Halo Infinite may have had a poor showing but that shouldn't make the argument that playing on Xbox is a terrible idea. It just makes buying Series X day one, probably not the most important thing to do if you own a One X and I'm okay with that. I'd rather drive my One X into the floor first and get Series X when it's cheaper, or if at that time I decide it's what I want, 3080TI and just forgo consoles period.

XBO and 1S owners are in for a very big treat moving to XSX.
 
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In terms of ways of delivering the content yes, but lack they lack good and extensive original content. Right now, if I had to make an analogy with the movie industry, MS is like Netflix and Sony is like Disney. Eventually Disney+ will show up tho.

I may be biased but I believe having good content is harder than having a good platform.


It all depends on the games you want to play. With gamepass i am playing more games than ever before. I have played games like moonlighter that i would never have bought and wouldn't give the time of day too. But its on game pass so i tried it out and enjoyed it.

I have Disney+ and Netflix. While its great to have those classic Disney movies at my finger tips how many times am i going to go back to the well for the old content. I've seen star wars a hundred times. Also content that appeals to you is important. You like ghost of tushima . I love gears of war. You might have loved the last of us 2. I am super excited for flight simulator and i have my joy sticks ready and waiting.

What sucks is if you want to play those games on the go you don't have an option. If you have a business trip and a major game you want to play drops then your sol unless your willing to travel with your huge ps5. I can just load the game through xcloud on my surface and play in the hotel or stream it to my tv. Heck i could just use my phone. So content you like is important , getting that content is also important.

I also saw more content at the MS event that I am into.

I loved the first 3 halos and this one looks like halo 3 to me in terms of game play. Obsidian's new rpg is also a big draw to me. I love crpgs or wrpgs i grew up playing ultima and games like that, oblivion and skyrim and the fallouts are huge time sinks for me now. Then boom fable. I can't even tell you how much time i spent with fable 1 and 2. 2 was a great game . Everwild looks really interesting to me. The medium looks messed up as hell and I can't wait for it. hellblade is big for me too. Then you have stalker 2 and warhammer .

That's the thing , for me the content that is interesting is on pc/xbox. The content I will engage with is on those platforms The pc is getting all the xbox stuff which is great for me ... but you know what there are a few games from sony i'd love to try out but wouldn't you know it one of them showed up on pc. Will more be coming in the future ? If i want to play ghost of tusima in a year or two will it appear on pc ? I dunno but I rather wait and see then pump $500 into a console i'd play one or two games on. Thats a good cpu upgrade or video upgrade
 
There was a great article titled 'The console war is over | Opinion' on gamesindustry.biz which is worth a read.

I agree 100% with it. :yep2:
From the piece: Xbox boss Phil Spencer told us earlier this month that he finds it "counter to what gaming is all about" to "force someone to buy my specific device on the day I want them to go buy it".
This might not be applicable now that some MS exclusives may not end up on the XBox One after all.
Maybe some hedging going on in Redmond on that point at least.
 
Game pass is only good if the games are good and we don't know because the games are so many years from release that they couldn't even show tech demos. Compare this to a game like the Last of Us 2 where they showed actual gameplay segments years before the game came out, and they ended up looking pretty similar tot he final release. Microsoft showed Halo Infinite looking well below the standards they set with their earlier reveals. Beyond that it was a bunch of cutscenes that could totally misrepresent the actual games. Is Everwild going to look like those scenes during gameplay? What is the actual game? Survival game? MMO? Platformer? We have no idea, because they haven't explained any of it. So if I buy an Xbox to get gamepass, it's only a great deal if I know what I'm getting, which I do not. This whole thing doesn't make sense to me. Buy gamepass and get access to all of these games ... some day. They'll be great, but we can't show you anything because they're in early development.

I look at the content on gamepass now and the content to me is great. You'd have to make the choice for yourself. But for the price of one of those ps4 games you can play a slew of games. I've been playing so many great games this year on the service that I think i've played more video games this year then i did the last 3 or 4 years just because of all the content available.

Guess what if halo infinite doesn't look great but plays great whats the issue ? I get it in my subscription anyway and I am sure everyone i know will be playing the multiplayer for months. We can say the same thing about hte other companies event. How many games did they show with actual game play segments on it ?

The great thing about game pass is that its not just microsoft games , a lot of third parties put titles up on it. People in other threads are arguing about digital vs physical and that physical games get such great sales a few months from release. For me its the same with gamepass. I wanted to play metro exodus but the reviews were meh but it showed up a few months after launch on game pass. This year I went from finishing up gears of war 5 to playing gears tactics , moonligheter , streets of rage 4 , gears tactics , no man sky , waste land 2 , astronner , disney adventures , minecraft adventures , blair witch and then my biggest time sink of the last 2 years state of decay 2 .

Those are the games this year that I played. How much would i have spent if i bought them all even used. How many would i not play because i didn't want to take a chance and pay for it.

The content exists on game pass. MS showed more first party content coming and they will keep announcing more but we get new games on game pass monthly from 3rd parties. Some games might be older sure but if its something you haven't played its still a great value

Later this month i will be playing grounded from microsoft on it and flight simulator i think is the end of the month or next month.

This fall i will play halo infinite.


Like i said there is a ton of content there to enjoy.
 
From the piece: Xbox boss Phil Spencer told us earlier this month that he finds it "counter to what gaming is all about" to "force someone to buy my specific device on the day I want them to go buy it".
This might not be applicable now that some MS exclusives may not end up on the XBox One after all.
Maybe some hedging going on in Redmond on that point at least.

All MS exclusives will end up on xbox one via xcloud at some point.
 
From the piece: Xbox boss Phil Spencer told us earlier this month that he finds it "counter to what gaming is all about" to "force someone to buy my specific device on the day I want them to go buy it".
This might not be applicable now that some MS exclusives may not end up on the XBox One after all.
Maybe some hedging going on in Redmond on that point at least.

If they're not available launch why would they still have to buy a XSX at launch? The Medium is so far the only game coming at or near launch that will require a XSX & not the XB1. And it's a 3rd party title. So I think Phil's comments are still applicable.

Tommy McClain
 
I still don't see why as a company you would want to take the cost of the hardware and the electricity and the massive bandwidth needed away from the consumer.
By removing the hardware barrier to entry to play games, you can appeal to a much wider potential audience. All somebody needs is a device with a screen and a controller. Imagine a world where comms are super fast and you can basically take your tablet and controller anywhere, or even just the controller, and login and play your games anywhere there is a screen.
 
Right. I already pay for Netflix, Prime, and Audible services. Out of watching TV, reading, and playing games - it's gaming that I do least and they're expecting me to pay a price that's more than those other things combined.
While you may not feel like paying a price that's more than other media combined, note that gaming is a $95Billion industry iirc from one of the summergamefest videos or it was somewhere else and is from what I understand the biggest industry of the lot.

So there are many people that do play games more than any other media and I include myself in that number. The only media that currently comes close to the amount of time I spend on games is YouTube and the internet(browsing). Then TV series/movies way behind.

It works for people that game a lot at the expense of everything else.
I game a lot and won't have it any other way to be honest. I love gaming. If I am not on my PS4, then I am on my PC.
 
Right. I already pay for Netflix, Prime, and Audible services. Out of watching TV, reading, and playing games - it's gaming that I do least and they're expecting me to pay a price that's more than those other things combined.

It works for people that game a lot at the expense of everything else.
Or if you don't game a lot, so don't mind giving a game a shot where you wouldn't have bought any at all before.

But regarding this and other posts, I don't understand, you can still buy the games like normal.

They've not removed that option, their just giving people other options, and it may be what their pushing but most people think is a good deal even if it's not for them.
 
I agree that gamepass has a lot of value (I'm a suscriber myself) but if it makes financial sense I don't see why other companies can implement the same service. There is a lot of people with multiple subs to HBO, Netflix, etc. Sony and MS moving to GaaS would benefit both as most people can sink 30$ a month in two services rather than buying two consoles.
 
EA already has created their own service in similar fashion (even before GamePass), granted with some more limitations but at a cheaper price, EA Access for Xbox. I think they have a variant of it for PCs too, Origin Access Premier, and one slated for Steam called EA Access later this summer -- https://www.ea.com/news/ea-games-come-to-steam

Yeah but you had to download origin puaaag. EA and Ubi please just bend to our lord and saviors Tim and Gabe and shut down your stores.
 
By removing the hardware barrier to entry to play games, you can appeal to a much wider potential audience. All somebody needs is a device with a screen and a controller. Imagine a world where comms are super fast and you can basically take your tablet and controller anywhere, or even just the controller, and login and play your games anywhere there is a screen.

Yes it's a nice feature to have but it has limitations. Nearness to a data center, having the data cap especially mobile data if you to get the biggest benefit.

I definitely think there's a place for it but I don't think it will replace local hardware or even expand the market. I honestly think most the users of streaming services in the near future will have local hardware and use it as a convenience unless they live near a data center in a place with cheap internet.

Even if you have fibre and live in a place with cheap internet and close to a data center how will having 4 family members streaming Netflix or whatever at 4k effect your gaming experience? Remember most people have the crappy routers they get from there ISPs.
 
But you know the games right now and you know the games coming in the future.
And the games are good.
I could have saved myself quite a bit of money if I didn't buy games that didn't show up on game pass later.

Right now games, I didn't pay for but am playing:
a) Soul Calibur V
b) No Man's Sky
c) Killer Instinct
d) Mechwarrior Mercenaries
e) Mortal Kombat X
f) Minecraft Dungeons

Games I didn't pay for but played
  • Rise of Tomb Raider
  • FH3
  • FH4
  • Shadow of Tomb Raider
  • Gears 5
  • Sea of Thieves
  • Inside
  • Ori And the Will of the Wisps
  • Below
  • The Outer Worlds

Games I bought but shouldn't have
  • RDR 2
  • Destiny 2 + expansions
  • Wasteland 2 and Wasteland 3
  • Battletech
  • Batman Arkham Knight

Games I've tried because of gamepass
*** large list of big and small titles***
  • Edith Finch, Outer Wilds, other walking simulators

Games I look forward to play (/again)
a) Halo Infinite
b) Destiny 2
c) Everwild, Avowed, Fable, Age of Empires 4, Flight Simulator
c) Most of what I saw on that showcase.

All of this cost me 50 USD since gamepass launch and I don't need to resub until late 2021.

If I went Sony next gen
It's $240 for MM, HZD and GT7. And 2 of those titles have limited replayability because I'm not one to replay single player titles. That leaves GT7, which is amazing in my eyes, but I feel like I'm going to want to try more titles as the year goes on.

Even at full price game pass ultimate I won't hit $240 CAD per year.

Halo Infinite may have had a poor showing but that shouldn't make the argument that playing on Xbox is a terrible idea. It just makes buying Series X day one, probably not the most important thing to do if you own a One X and I'm okay with that. I'd rather drive my One X into the floor first and get Series X when it's cheaper, or if at that time I decide it's what I want, 3080TI and just forgo consoles period.

XBO and 1S owners are in for a very big treat moving to XSX.

Wow good post. Didn't really think it through like that but it's kinda true for me too. I think the PC is more and more in a good position..... It seems that hardware itself matters less and less going forward. Even Sony is offering more in that direction too with PSnow. Hardware isn't dead as Chris1515 noted, but there is some shift atleast.
I think yesterdays MS and the last Sony showcase have shown me the PC remains the best choice, you get all the MS/Xbox games, all 3rd party/multiplat games, and a share of Sony games, more and more of that happening (no idea where that is going next gen and forward though). Atop of that, best versions for any game if you have the hardware.
You can also dynamicly upgrade things as you like, play as you want etc. HZD this summer on pc example, i want it in 60fps and some other things.
 
Or if you don't game a lot, so don't mind giving a game a shot where you wouldn't have bought any at all before.

But regarding this and other posts, I don't understand, you can still buy the games like normal.

They've not removed that option, their just giving people other options, and it may be what their pushing but most people think is a good deal even if it's not for them.

They're seemingly designing a console around a service. I'm just old school, I guess.

Happy to accept that I may not be their target audience.
 
They're seemingly designing a console around a service. I'm just old school, I guess.

Happy to accept that I may not be their target audience.
This is where i think your wrong.

If your not interested in gamepass or a service, that in no way de-values the console in the way you could use it if there was no gamepass to begin with.

Now the underlying reason you feel like that I do understand.
The reason I always was for next gen exclusives, even if early ones people may see as glorified tech demos is to show what is possible.
Rachet did that, UE5 did it, we didn't get anything like that in this show.

People keep saying MS doesn't care if you buy next gen console etc, but I think this show proves people want to see reasons to buy next gen. So once again the overall feel about the show was that it underwhelmed.
If the show was any other year that wasn't a launch year, it would've been paised as an amazing show.

They should've even done split screen comparisons with gears and horizon 4 like they did with ori.(even compared it to 1S) Just not spend lot of time on it. Or do it with couple new games to show what you're getting, maybe as separate vids after show?

Where was flight simulator? Maybe next show but this one needed it.
So their not really marketing next gen apart from hollow words.
Like the 1X marketing its the most powerful, with little in the early days that showed it.
 
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