Xbox Business Update Podcast | Xbox Everywhere Direction Discussion

[iroboto]

used my google account. Some tidbits:

This article was refuted by MS and ABK. It had a lot of awkward holes, and frankly comes across as a bit bogus.

EXCLUSIVE: Microsoft, Activision Report Regarding Financial Performance Is Missing Context

Microsoft and Activision have denied a recent report regarding the financial performance since the acquisition.

insider-gaming.com

 

[Seanspeed]

Remember when they said only a few titles were going onto Playstation and then said case by case and now nothings off the table? Gradual socialization. They are not abandoning Xbox but are taking every step to do so.

It's insane that they are moving to a fully multiplatform model while still insisting that they are fully in on the console platform.

If MS were lean and could produce a console without spending billions in R&D, maybe, MAYBE I could see them pulling off both. But at some point they're going to have to cut the cord and accept that trying to stay in hardware and be a full-on platform owner while having a console that has no real great selling points is just money down the drain, and frankly, their continually embarrassing console sales are hurting their reputation, no matter how many people try to say, "Oh well you have to consider their bigger business plans here!". People have lost faith in Xbox consoles and I cant see it being anything but a death spiral from here on out.

We can speculate about 'Xbox' going to 3rd party hardware instead with a push for an Xbox operating system or whatever, but at the very least, their own console hardware business and platform owner strategy is dying, and there's no miracle that could get them out of it at this point.

 

[see colon]

If MS were lean and could produce a console without spending billions in R&D, maybe, MAYBE I could see them pulling off both. But at some point they're going to have to cut the cord and accept that trying to stay in hardware and be a full-on platform owner while having a console that has no real great selling points is just money down the drain, and frankly, their continually embarrassing console sales are hurting their reputation, no matter how many people try to say, "Oh well you have to consider their bigger business plans here!". People have lost faith in Xbox consoles and I cant see it being anything but a death spiral from here on out.

They have to spend much of that R&D on the hardware they are going to use for cloud gaming anyway. Making a box you sell to consumers make a bunch of sense if it's just additional revenue from costs you are already committing to.

 

[Nisaaru]

when you say "the way he argues", who are you referring to within MS? I mean, are you referring to any news or article or is it just a reply to a @rntongo comment? Just curious... I mention this 'cos I didn't see the word argue in any article iirc. .

I am arguing about the Nadella decision process quoted from this article.

 

[iroboto]

Xbox made a strategy based on Google store Opening up. They likely had everything lined up to make a massive cloud play.

Then

Judge puts Google Play monopoly changes set for November on hold

Google will no longer have to make a series of Play Store changes by November 1 in response to losing the Epic lawsuit after the original judge granted a “temporary administrative stay.”

9to5google.com

The judge put it on hold and killed everyone trying to get in. And this could be on delay for years. And frankly that’s sort of bullshit that it can happen. Because companies made massive turns to be ready for a small 3 month window to get into android.

Microsoft will let you buy and play Xbox games through Android app next month

Microsoft has announced that the Xbox app on Android will allow users to buy games and play them on their phones starting in November.

9to5google.com

They tried. Had Google been forced to open up doors we could be having a very different discussion right now. A lot of what was decided here, probably banked on Apple and Google opening up here.

 

[Nisaaru]

They have to spend much of that R&D on the hardware they are going to use for cloud gaming anyway. Making a box you sell to consumers make a bunch of sense if it's just additional revenue from costs you are already committing to.

Why? That doesn't make any economic sense to me. They need R&D to get the best price performance into the mass market.
But for the Cloud with the limited amount of users/machines they can just put together a reasonable fast PC even if the machine costs more.

IMHO the Cloud stuff is just a side product of the Console R&D. Until they deal with millions of sessions I don't see that changing.

 

[see colon]

Why? That doesn't make any economic sense to me. They need R&D to get the best price performance into the mass market.
But for the Cloud with the limited amount of users/machines they can just put together a reasonable fast PC even if the machine costs more.

IMHO the Cloud stuff is just a side product of the Console R&D. Until they deal with millions of sessions I don't see that changing.

Because the cloud is the console experience, both for players and developers. They can get developers to make a custom PC version for cloud play, but it's much more simple to have a fixed platform, thet developers can optimize the experience for, and Microsoft can have a standard Xbox interface user facing.

You may see the cloud as a side product, but I don't think Microsoft does. I think they see it as the real product. And I think their actions are pointing to that. The cloud, after all, is an Xbox.

 

[iroboto]

Because the cloud is the console experience, both for players and developers. They can get developers to make a custom PC version for cloud play, but it's much more simple to have a fixed platform, thet developers can optimize the experience for, and Microsoft can have a standard Xbox interface user facing.

You may see the cloud as a side product, but I don't think Microsoft does. I think they see it as the real product. And I think their actions are pointing to that. The cloud, after all, is an Xbox.

What I was eluding to earlier in my post above, for the readers not putting it together with what See Colon was stating. MS may have routed all their chips for cloud to prepare for the Xbox android store. Only to get screwed by the sudden change in the opening of android.

Now they are really down on console hardware supply (Series X is the only one affected, which is what they use for cloud, Series S is fine.), with a bunch of xcloud servers doing nothing because they can’t launch a campaign where they lose 30% margin to android.

The “this is an Xbox” campaign was likely a rapid switch to try to bring awareness to game pass ultimate games running on mobile devices, but likely the original plan probably had tons of marketing around the Xbox android store being the one stop shop for all things Xbox.

 

[egoless]

What I was eluding to earlier in my post above, for the readers not putting it together with what See Colon was stating. MS may have routed all their chips for cloud to prepare for the Xbox android store. Only to get screwed by the sudden change in the opening of android.

Now they are really down on console hardware, with a bunch of xcloud servers doing nothing because they can’t launch a campaign where they lose 30% margin to android.

The “this is an Xbox” campaign was likely a rapid switch to try to bring awareness to game pass ultimate games running on mobile devices, but likely the original plan probably had tons of marketing around the Xbox android store being the one stop shop for all things Xbox.

Interesting how Microsoft always gets roadblocked when they start gaining momentum. Speaking of legislation, what happens in the UK when Ubisoft gets sold to Tencent? Does Tencent now get Microsoft's cloud efforts without having to negotiate as Tencent? Way to go.

 

[iroboto]

Interesting how Microsoft always gets roadblocked when they start gaining momentum. Speaking of legislation, what happens in the UK when Ubisoft gets sold to Tencent? Does Tencent now get Microsoft's cloud efforts without having to negotiate as Tencent? Way to go.

Yea there may be some provisions here on what happens with this piece. Unfortunately that part isn't clear yet.

 

[cheapchips]

If MS were lean and could produce a console without spending billions in R&D

Do we know how much they spent on Series development? Billions sounds very unlikely.

 

[Nisaaru]

Do we know how much they spent on Series development? Billions sounds very unlikely.

The Xbox One "deal" was >3B back in 2013 but that probably included a fixed number of chips.

 

[Seanspeed]

Do we know how much they spent on Series development? Billions sounds very unlikely.

No we dont, but when they say they have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars just to make a new controller, I dont think they're exactly very good at keeping R&D costs reasonable when it comes to their hardware.

They have to spend much of that R&D on the hardware they are going to use for cloud gaming anyway. Making a box you sell to consumers make a bunch of sense if it's just additional revenue from costs you are already committing to.

They dont need to make custom hardware for cloud gaming necessarily, though.

 

[cheapchips]

No we dont, but when they say they have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars just to make a new controller, I dont think they're exactly very good at keeping R&D costs reasonable when it comes to their hardware.

For the Xbox One controller? That did include tooling as well. They rolled the initial statement back to 'over $100m'.

Hopefully we'll get to see more of their experiments one day. They didn't show them as part of the 20th? anniversary thing as far as I remember. They played around with all sorts, including a smell emitter.

If they resurrect smell based gameplay that 'most powerful generational leap' might have a whole context we didn't expect.

 

[Cyan]

Xbox Series X stock is at a minimum in the United Kingdom and the United States: chains such as GAME UK, Walmart or Target do not have units

https://twitter.com/x/status/1879101509566411116

 

[iroboto]

There are more Xbox coming. People need to relax

 

[Cappuccino]

There are more Xbox coming. People need to relax

This is probably nothing but it kinda speaks to their priorities if they are prolonged shortages of their main console 5 years later.

This wasn't an issue 6 months ago so something has changed recently.

 

[Potato Head]

Xbox controller supply has been tight for months. Even from Amazon I had a several week shipping time.

 

[Nisaaru]

I looked for a new Elite2 Core controller and they don't even offer a black version at the moment. Really smart product strategy.

 

[iroboto]

This is probably nothing but it kinda speaks to their priorities if they are prolonged shortages of their main console 5 years later.

This wasn't an issue 6 months ago so something has changed recently.

It is, imo, a very real possibility they likely diverted a great deal of many chips for cloud in the lead up to the android store opening up, which unfortunately didn’t.

They have a bunch of cloud hardware and campaigns that are sitting dormant, and without them knowing when the Ninth Circuit will wrap up, they have to give up their cloud plans again and focus back on traditional strategies.