Xbox Business Update Podcast | Xbox Everywhere Direction Discussion

[arandomguy]

As with cloud gaming I don't feel we should be looking at GP as having to displace existing gaming to be viable much less successful. Again I will bring up mobile gaming, it's now bigger than traditional gaming but it never displaced traditional gaming at all, in fact we had again last gens most successful console being more of a direct competitor and a resurgence in interest overall for mobile gaming. GP doesn't need to make sense for everyone for it to be viable, as such just focusing on it's value for I guess "conventional" gamers over the current model is too narrow of an analysis. Mobile gaming isn't for me, GP isn't for, a lot of massively successful ventures aren't for me nor have them replaced what I currently give my business to even if they are near competitors.

The other part of this is with MS I think we need to face reality is that with them challenging the conventional model they are basically in a slow bleed against the incumbents in areas that just do to how the technology works have inherent barriers of entry in place. Whether or not MS's pivot/new approach will work in the long run is debatable, but again the reality is the existing one is just a slow bleed now over the long run. We can do all the "what ifs" we want but those ships have sailed unless they invent a time machine.

Also quite frankly we're going to have angst regardless of the disruptive approach. For those that want MS to just basically money pit (assuming they don't also run into legal issues via predatory pricing lawsuits) via funding form their other ventures well Epic had been doing this to break into the PC space with EGS, guess what we still had/have vocal contingents online complaining about that approach.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Plent of people think streaming is fine or are willing to pay for a ms game on steam or playstation.

Then MS is in great shape then and so is xCloud.

Ask an xbox fan and they would have said xbox games. Thats what I would have said at the start of this gen. Now there isn't a reason to buy new xbox hardware.

Sure there is. The best reason of all - GamePass.

You realize that lock in for these platforms is extremely important. The iphone was a failure until they put out the app store and tied itunes songs to it. Sony and nintendo are locking people in with large catalogs of purchase. Microsoft is moving everything to a disposable subscription.

That's even more locked in. Leave GP. Lose a lot of your games.

And people can do this on steam today with a single game purchase. People have been doing this for years already.

Like I have said I have talked to a lot of people prior xbox owners, current xbox owners and people who never owned an xbox. Everyone is signaling to me that there isn't a reason to buy xbox hardware.

Not everyone we talk to.

As a consumer having a company subsidize hardware costs allows you to obtain a better experience than having a company that is trying to profit on the hardware up front. That has been the core to the console gaming business since the start.

Sony profits on their hardware. So does Nintendo. Nothing new with Xbox profiting on their hardware.

I have been buying on steam for over 20 years and I can take my library wherever I go.

Wherever you go? Even onto PS or Xbox? I don't think so.

Xbox doesn't allow you to take your library with you where ever you go. I have multiple games from my original xbox and 360 that only work on that specific hardware. The same will happen with xbox one and xbox series games also. Steam solved that decades ago.

No one does. At least Xbox has Play Anywhere.

Xbox hardware sales continue to decline. So I am not sure why you believe there is a market for more xbox hardware.

It's been explained to you many times. At this point I think you're being deliberately obtuse.

My assumption for new xbox hardware is that they simply don't have a choice. They need to refresh xcloud and they have customers who are expecting new hardware.

My expectation from MS is they release one more console , annnounce there will be no more exclusives and part way through next generation when sales are half of what they are this generation they announce the end of xbox consoles. I also believe the will abandon the xbox name and it will simply be Game pass

Who cares? since the cloud is as good as you say it is.

There will always be people who want localized hardware since it will always be a better experiance.

There will, but how many when the difference between 8 ms 120 fps cloud is negligible to most people vs. $1000 hardware for 3 ms 240 fps gaming?

Game pass is $20 now and articles are already coming out about another price increase. I don't think they will stop at $30.

It depends how much value there is. I don't think Nintendo is going to stop at $90 games either. Everything is going up. Why should GP be different?

Xbox is no longer graphicly the best place to play xbox games on consoles

Marginally.

Xbox hardware is wildly expensive compared to the competition

Hardly "wildly" expensive. Sony will also raise prices. Don't be naive.

Microsoft may no longer make xbox consoles themselves which will mean no more subsidized consoles and that means even higher prices for xbox hardware.

I don't see xbox hardware lasting. I also don't see the oem model working either due to the same reasons above.

Lots of people have said the same to me. Game pass doesn't require xbox hardware. Game pass depending on the person and the time could be a good value or it may not. So I don't see things as sunny as you do.

That much we have established.

The problem with this is that right now game pass is $240 a year correct ? Pc games are $50-70. So I would need between 3-5 games a year on game pass that I would be willing to buy at full price each year to make it worth wild or a ton of lower priced games.

The funny thing is that the evidence is already in. 38 million people already think it's worth it, so you're flat out wrong. Gamers are voting with their wallets. It's MS' job to grow that number over time.

I'm going to tell you right now I haven't bought an $80 game. The majority of games I buy are $10-30 each year. So far this year there are only two games on game pass that I would have bought. Doom and Oblivion. so I'm waiting to see if there are anymore games . Last year there was indiana jones for me. The rest of the games I played I purchased on steam.

Good for you. Sounds like $80 games aren't a problem then.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Would love to hear about these “20 great games” that GP gets every year lol

Turns out there's 41 added since last October to the end of this Summer:

Gears of War: Reloaded
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4
DOOM: The Dark Ages
Warhammer: Vermintide 2
DREDGE
Anno 1800
Far Cry 4
Towerborne (Game Preview)
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Remastered
Grand Theft Auto V
Hunt: Showdown 1896
Blue Prince
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - Ultimate Evil Edition
EA Sports College Football 25
Mullet Madjack
Enter the Gungeon
Monster Train
Balatro
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader
Avowed
Kingdom: Two Crowns
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
Ninja Gaiden II: Black
Lonely Mountain: Snow Riders
Diablo
Hunt: Showdown 1896
Wildfrost
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
EA Sports WRC
Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled
Nine Sols
Spyro Reignited Trilogy
Starcraft: Remastered
Starcraft II: Campaign Collection
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Donut County
Inscryption
SIFU
We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie
Frostpunk 2

All of these scored over 80 on Metacritic.

 

[Cyan]

Microsoft are looking for a principal software engineer for emulation of consoles on Windows.

They finally realized that In a streamlined Windows experience that can be controlled with a gamepad and bloat is gone, Windows would shine, and also they realised how important is gaming for Windows.

Search Jobs | Microsoft Careers

jobs.careers.microsoft.com

You will work with other experienced emulation engineers to deliver high quality solutions that not only protect game content but also improve the experience of installing compatible games. You will be a key contributor to the technology solutions developed to emulate legacy games on modern platforms. This will allow you an opportunity for a broad impact across the Xbox and Windows gaming ecosystem.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

I hate to break it to you but if you havent yet noticed, Xbox isnt a console anymore, its whatever you play Xbox games on, and MS is trying to tell you lot. They are leaving the door very wide open for not making another console again. If anything they are telling their most hardcore fans this as well:

Actually, Sarah and Phil are both telling me that the next Xbox hardware will be the "biggest leap yet". Not sure where you've been.

You missed the part about local hw being significantly cheaper today than it was yesterday? The trend is its now much much cheaper to host your own cloud computing hw than before. Hyperscalers havent caught up with these trends. The hw cost alone favours a home console, and with that you get your own dedicated server(if you like) for $500 that you can use to play wherever you go as long as you have a "portal" to it. And once at home you have a dedicated machine with zero latency framerate issues that no cloud gaming solution can beat.There's no cloud computing solution today or in 10 years that can beat this technically and in terms of cost.

No way it's cheaper to make and ship a Series X then put banks of APUs in the cloud. Doesn't make sense. On top of that you only need 1/5th to 1/10th the APUs.

 

[rntongo]

Actually, Sarah and Phil are both telling me that the next Xbox hardware will be the "biggest leap yet". Not sure where you've been.

Yes it will be because everything is an Xbox. If you buy an expensive PC with an RTX 6090 its an Xbox. If you buy a PS5 pro today and play Xbox games, its an Xbox. Watch this ad again. MS is telling you like they were telling you about all Xbox games coming to Playstation day and date but y'all werent listening.

No way it's cheaper to make and ship a Series X then put banks of APUs in the cloud. Doesn't make sense. On top of that you only need 1/5th to 1/10th the APUs.

You missed my point again for the second time. Its cheaper and more convenient for the consumer to buy their own dedicated server(console or PC) that they can play at any time regardless of some peak load. MS cant afford to build out gaming data centers equivalent to the full demand of even current gen Xbox gamers. They need to run virtualization software and sometimes lower the quality of the games (sometimes to the Series S version)in case they cant handle the peak load. There are a lot of issues with cloud gaming. Buying dedicated hw is still the thing for at least the next 10-15 years(20 years for those with bad internet access). For $500 you will always be able to have a spectacular dedicated gaming device that you can also access remotely without any of the issues of cloud gaming. The true cost of ownership is hidden with cloud gaming but you end up paying more today than if you owned your own dedicated hw. Thats what you're missing, and your projection of 2035 is off imo. Maybe 2040

 

[Cappuccino]

Turns out there's 41 added since last October to the end of this Summer:

Gears of War: Reloaded
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4
DOOM: The Dark Ages
Warhammer: Vermintide 2
DREDGE
Anno 1800
Far Cry 4
Towerborne (Game Preview)
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Remastered
Grand Theft Auto V
Hunt: Showdown 1896
Blue Prince
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - Ultimate Evil Edition
EA Sports College Football 25
Mullet Madjack
Enter the Gungeon
Monster Train
Balatro
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader
Avowed
Kingdom: Two Crowns
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
Ninja Gaiden II: Black
Lonely Mountain: Snow Riders
Diablo
Hunt: Showdown 1896
Wildfrost
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
EA Sports WRC
Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled
Nine Sols
Spyro Reignited Trilogy
Starcraft: Remastered
Starcraft II: Campaign Collection
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Donut County
Inscryption
SIFU
We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie
Frostpunk 2

All of these scored over 80 on Metacritic.

Most of these are completely irrelevant and nobody is paying $80 for most of these.

In fact most of these aren’t even new, they’re ancient games. StarCraft 2? GTAV?

 

[eastmen]

Depends on person i would say, and preferences. With GP you get whole library plus many upcoming games not only from msft.
I am paying for netflix but i watch mainly stuff i already have seen, it still has value to me. If you main focus is only new games that you havent already played and from all new games released on GP you are only intrested in 2-3 than yes, in your case it doesnt make sense to be subscriber.
I play diffrent games depends on my mood, sometimes those are day 1 releses sometime is the title 4-5 years old, still new to me. In this case the value is library.
I and i think many users are comfortable with existing library and upcoming titles. Recently i even shared my GP subscription with my friend, we both have access to GP now. For me its hard to beat it. I bought 2 games on steam last year in 2023 i think not even one. But it all depend on preferences, im old fart and get bored with games quickly i rather play 240$ per year to have access to many titles than 40,50,60 bucks for one that i may not enjoy as much as i tought i would.

It does depend on the person. With game pass you get access to roughly 400 games (half if you are pc only) the games also come and go from the platform. It isn't a great value if there isn't enough games you like on the platform. I can go on steam and for the same $240 a year I can get a hundred games that I actually want.

I'm also an old fart and the majority of the games I play are games that are on steam for $1-10. It's rare that I buy newer games and I even have gamepass for free for a few more years.

What I wrote was not specifically addressed to you, but to the average buyer, as an illustration.

We can easily name 10 games a year, or even 20, considering how much the GP offer is growing. Just look at the great games of the last six months. Again, it doesn't matter how many of them you like right now. My message is about the masses, and it is already perfectly observable that more and more people are complaining about how many good games are suddenly appearing and how they are going to play all of them at such expensive prices. It is likely that soon a significant portion of gamers will turn to the subscription service.

There are some good games on game pass. But there are just as many bombs and there are just as many old games that can be had for cheap on other platforms

That's also no sustainable business plan for the game industry to sell their AAA games at these prices. UBI is infamous for ruining their game's prices that way while Activision did the exact opposite selling ancient shit at full price.

It's been sustainable for the majority of my life and can continue to be sustainable. IT seems to be working for Sony and esp Nintendo. Nintendo is looking at selling 15m units at launch of switch 2 or roughly half of the xbox series 5 year old install base.

I don't disagree that this is the way consoles are. But the importance of these exclusives are largely overstated here. Xbox has had exclusives for generations and they were on the decline anyway. I'm waiting for Sony to announce their price increases, there's little doubt it's coming. They have a larger warehouse to not have to raise prices as quickly as xbox, but I don't see how anyone is getting around the 20% electronics tariffs on goods manufactured in China. But exclusive software is _not_ the primary reason to go into the Apple ecosystem. If this was true, you'd almost never buy Mac. PC has had a massive advantage in exclusive software over Mac for the longest time and still do with games. And yet, MacBooks continue to sell more and more

The generation that MS had the biggest and largest collection of exclusives is the generation they also sold the most about of units. The 360 had the deepest stable of xbox exclusives and timed exclusives.

I have no doubt that Sony will raise prices. But Sony is outselling MS 2:1 or greater.

Mac books have always been a fraction of the install base. Windows has over 70% market share world wide vs mac os. Mac has its own exclusives like final cut and other programs that have large followings that keep people on the platform along with now having ios apps on the platform.

.

I do realize that exclusivity of software is important if that is your only differentiating feature between 2 platforms. If MS is planning to go multi-platform, then they should be offering more value on the platform side of things change the balance of value.

Yes but if there are no exclusives for their hardware there isn't a reason to buy their hardware

Not without buying a PS5 first to remote from.

Sure but you can certainly do it and you can happily play your playstation games.

And that model is clearly changing, as price points are going up and not down, so what was previously true may not be for much longer.

You can take xbox library for the most part wherever you go. I'm not sure I understand this statement. Nearly all the titles on Xbox released today are play anywhere coded, can be accessed by xbox cloud and consoles respectively.

Your key word is today. I have had xboxs since xbox and xbox 1 , 360 , one games don't follow me. Only some first party titles are play anywhere. My steam library follows me every where.

I'm sure many people feel this way as well. But if that's the case why leave Xbox to go to PS5? If you're okay with waiting for the price of games to drop to 10-30 dollars, which I have hard time believing that they get that low in price for a AAA title, why bother with PS5? Just get a PC and you have access to both, it takes a long time for games to drop to that price point, clearly PS5 games are all coming to PC anyway, so they'll be there anyway and now you also have PC exclusive games which there are many and you have a PC that can do way more.

There are plenty of reasons to go with sony or nintendo over buying xbox. First off are the exclusives. THe majority of xbox games are now appearing on the playstatoin and MS is signalling they will be on the switch 2. But no sony or nintendo games appear on xbox platforms.

PCs can cost a lot more than a console. Nintendo games don't come to the pc and not every exclusive sony game has come to pc either and when they eventually make it to pc they have a price premium vs the playstation version.

And if you're on PC, it would be cheaper because game pass PC is cheaper. You still have to pay online for consoles, so even without gamepass you still have to pay to play. So once again, I don't see why individuals are rushing off to buying playstation here, and there hasn't truthfully been any indication of it either. PS5 has fallen behind PS4 numbers, with the super added bonus of selling during COVID in which the game industry moved up several hundred percent, so even with the added benefit of taking xbox customers and covid they still aren't converting well.

Yes and game pass pc has even less games (roughly half). With sony you pay for online but you also get 2 free games a month that are yours to keep don't you ?

PS5 is about 2 million units behind the ps4. However the ps4 had a $50 price cut in 2015 two years after launch and dropped to $300 in 2016 and $250 in 2017 and $200 in 2018. The ps4 pro launched at $400. The ps5 hasn't had any price drops and in some places has had a price increase. For Sony the ps5 is likely much more profitable than the ps4 because of that.

 

[eastmen]

Then MS is in great shape then and so is xCloud.

Sure there is. The best reason of all - GamePass.

That's even more locked in. Leave GP. Lose a lot of your games.

Not everyone we talk to.

Sony profits on their hardware. So does Nintendo. Nothing new with Xbox profiting on their hardware.

Wherever you go? Even onto PS or Xbox? I don't think so.

No one does. At least Xbox has Play Anywhere.

It's been explained to you many times. At this point I think you're being deliberately obtuse.

Who cares? since the cloud is as good as you say it is.

There will, but how many when the difference between 8 ms 120 fps cloud is negligible to most people vs. $1000 hardware for 3 ms 240 fps gaming?

It depends how much value there is. I don't think Nintendo is going to stop at $90 games either. Everything is going up. Why should GP be different?

Marginally.

Hardly "wildly" expensive. Sony will also raise prices. Don't be naive.

That much we have established.

The funny thing is that the evidence is already in. 38 million people already think it's worth it, so you're flat out wrong. Gamers are voting with their wallets. It's MS' job to grow that number over time.

Good for you. Sounds like $80 games aren't a problem then.

MS is in a doom loop for xbox hardware.

Xbox series is selling less than the one with launch aligned numbers. 19% behind

PS5 Sales Are Outpacing PS4 in the U.S., Xbox Series X and S Lags Well Behind Xbox One - IGN

It’s a mixed picture for video game console sales in the United States, with the PlayStation 5 still outpacing its predecessor, the PlayStation 4, but the Xbox Series X and S lagging far behind the Xbox One.

www.ign.com

So hardware isn't selling

Exclusives aren't a thing for MS

Now

Developers ask why they should 'bother' making Xbox games anymore

Microsoft’s gradual abandonment of Xbox exclusives has other studios 'baffled', as a report suggest they're considering dropping support for the format.

metro.co.uk

Looks like devs are getting ready to stop supporting the platform.

So like I have been asking. Does xbox hardware survive and thrive, does game pass survive and thrive , do both crash and burn ?

IF devs stop porting to xbox it means less software for game pass also.

$80 games aren't an issue for me. That is what I grew up paying.

Actually, Sarah and Phil are both telling me that the next Xbox hardware will be the "biggest leap yet". Not sure where you've been.

No way it's cheaper to make and ship a Series X then put banks of APUs in the cloud. Doesn't make sense. On top of that you only need 1/5th to 1/10th the APUs.

Biggest leap in terms of what? When was the last time they even mentioned a new console

Also its a lot cheaper for MS to make a series x than put banks of apus in the cloud.

Its really simple

MS makes an xbox series x. It costs $500 to make and ship and the retailer to get a cut. They sell it for $500. It cost them zero dollars. Every time you load that xbox series x up it consumes your power. If the console goes bad after warrenty its up to you to replace it.

Xcloud uses series x to power xcloud. So if it costs MS $400 to make that series x and ship it to the data center sure its $100 less up front. But there is no $500 coming in all at once to cover the cost. Instead they have to make it up with subscriptions. However that full $20 a month doesn't go to them. They have to of course give money to other companies that allow their content on the platform. Then MS has to fund all the power needs , all the maintance and all the costs of repairs to keep it up.

Most of these are completely irrelevant and nobody is paying $80 for most of these.

In fact most of these aren’t even new, they’re ancient games. StarCraft 2? GTAV?

Yea Tony hawk 2/3 remaster is $50 bucks even the deluxe version is only $70 on the xbox store.

Starcraft 2 is also $50

Gta 5 is $30 (only $15.29 on steam right now)


any way sorry everyone for the two big posts. Lots of repsonses to me. I didn't want to just put one giant post

 

[iroboto]

any way sorry everyone for the two big posts. Lots of repsonses to me. I didn't want to just put one giant post

Yea, I can relate to that. Its always difficult when you have multiple people replying to you, sometimes I just have to pick one person of the group and ignore the others to keep the signal more clear.
What i'm seeing here on this discussion as I read the back and forth responses are largely correct from both perspectives, at least IMO, but we don't seem to be connecting in the middle. Replying to statements dont seem to be useful, because they come off as counter points and less so about understanding the general message trying to be conveyed.

GamePass in particular isn't about how many games you can play, at least, the vast majority of people that subscribe to gamepass are not using it as a game sub service in that way. People who want to play as many new day one games as possible for the cheap are the people paying for gamepass. And value comes from 3 major things (a) it's day one and you want to play the latest games (b) it's curated list of new releases are the games you want to play. (c) the cost of playing all of these titles in search of a new game you didn't know you would enjoy is a price point you're willing to pay for.

If you don't see value in those points, skip over gamepass. It is as simple as that. It doesn't stop you from buying games on xbox, but you're library will not include games you can find on PS and Nintendo.

But Xbox has to solve other problems as well, game discovery is an issue for them. If you aren't interested in Xbox, most people know little to nothing about it, then it doens't matter how many bangers they put out, exclusive or not,people won't buy them. moving their titles to multiplatform changes this dynamic for them, it makes people care about what MS is doing. But until people care about what MS is doing and discovering the games that they make, they won't be ever interested in game pass. And I think it's the first step that MS has to take to making their brand more well known worldwide because right now, I can read tons of forums and social media posts that will gloss over every single title that Xbox has under it's XGS. They'll know all the obscure indies and all the main titles from PS and Nintendo, but not a single one of these from the XGS space.

They have to solve that problem first.

Their console hardware however, they can improve the value of the console, if they are no longer willing to take a loss on the hardware. You can do things to improve the value to the customer, because the other 2 consoles, only play games. MS has a unique opportunity with heritage in windows, and x86 applications, that they can open up their hardware to do more, if they choose to. And from my knowledge of what they are working on, this has been developed and shelved a couple of times. But it's possible that, by removing exclusivity of their own first party titles, Xbox will be looking now to change the value proposition of their console to do more than just play games. I think there is potential value in seeking that, whatever may come of it.

 

[rntongo]

MS told consumers they were making acquisitions to improve their exclusives libraries and first party output, then they flipped and said they were going to bring some titles to Playstation but on a case by case basis. Then they announce they'll be putting Xbox titles on Playstation and need to change not just what it means to be an Xbox(as in no more Xbox) but an Xbox fan. I dont know how it could be more obvious whats going on here. All that talk about the largest generationall leap is just them saying you'll be able to buy an OEM device or any PC you build and or buy thats extremely powerful is also an Xbox. In fact if you buy a game made by Xbox and play it on a Playstation, thats an Xbox. Thats the current business marketing angle. Anything you play an Xbox game on is an Xbox.

 

[iroboto]

MS told consumers they were making acquisitions to improve their exclusives libraries and first party output, then they flipped and said they were going to bring some titles to Playstation but on a case by case basis. Then they announce they'll be putting Xbox titles on Playstation and need to change not just what it means to be an Xbox(as in no more Xbox) but an Xbox fan. I dont know how it could be more obvious whats going on here. All that talk about the largest generationall leap is just them saying you'll be able to buy an OEM device or any PC you build and or buy thats extremely powerful is also an Xbox. In fact if you buy a game made by Xbox and play it on a Playstation, thats an Xbox. Thats the current business marketing angle. Anything you play an Xbox game on is an Xbox.

I don’t think so.

Anywhere where you can access the Xbox platform is an Xbox. They didn’t say everything is an Xbox.

You’d have to be deliberately obtuse and trolling to have obtained that message. Sony and Nintendo would never allow it, they would have sued the hell out of MS if that was the message pushed.

 

[QPlayer]

Would love to hear about these “20 great games” that GP gets every year lol

- Ninja Gaiden B2
- Avowed
- Clair Obscure
- South of Midnight
- Towerborn
- Atomfall
- Blue Prince
- Doom DA
- Oblivion RM
- Tony Hawk's 3+4
- Wuchang
- Outer Worlds 2
- Subnautica 2
- The Alters
- Mixtape
- Silksong
- Ninja Gaiden 4
- Gears Reloaded
- COD
We can safely supplement these with 2-3 more new games that will probably be presented at this year's Showcase.

I know what the answer will be, these are not for you and are not 9.9 on metacritic and but, but, but, etc.

But the fact is, there are a lot of better and better games coming to Game Pass from now on.

 

[Sonic]

Certain big titles may be withheld from being on GP day 1 if MS finds that they'd be more profitable letting those titles stand on their own for the first 6 months to a year. So again don't be surprised if they announce something like this at a point in the next 1 to 3 years.

Personally have zero issue with GP. It's just another choice given to consumers and allows a library of games to be accessed via a subscription service. That it has grown in the numbers it has despite the waning Xbox console base isn't anything to scoff at. While MS has faltered on the hardware side of things I do need to commend them, and ABK, for the software lineup they have now and going into the future. They've got a decent enough list coming up that it should at least soften the blow of any price increase that's going to happen. I think they'll be able to retain the current user base with the current lineup with increased price.

It's another revenue stream that MS sees a chance of turning into something much higher than it is over time. But certain big titles might be left to stand on their own for a bit of time if it brings in higher revenue for that time.

 

[QPlayer]

I don't think we should be worried about them putting their biggest titles on GP later. The strength of GP is that the biggest and most popular games are released on Day 1. See COD.

Just an example from a similar area. Imagine if Netflix suddenly said, "Okay, people, you've been getting all the new movies on your subscription service for a year, but then the biggest movies are coming in six months later." Well, it's easy to conclude that the result of this would be that customers would subscribe elsewhere instead of Netflix and say, "Bye bye." I understand why some people doubt that the offer is getting too good. But if we look back a few decades, using the film industry as an example, in the era of DVDs and physical video, many people would not have believed that we could access thousands of movies in excellent quality on a subscription service for a few dollars a month. A subscription service of this size should maintain its features, and even raise the bar. In today's world, this is the only way it can work.

By the way, a significant part of the Xbox division's revenue has been generated by GP revenue for years, even with the current subscriber numbers. Their goal is clearly to double or triple the number of subscribers, and for this they need attractive offers within the service.

 

[iroboto]

Certain big titles may be withheld from being on GP day 1 if MS finds that they'd be more profitable letting those titles stand on their own for the first 6 months to a year. So again don't be surprised if they announce something like this at a point in the next 1 to 3 years.

Personally have zero issue with GP. It's just another choice given to consumers and allows a library of games to be accessed via a subscription service. That it has grown in the numbers it has despite the waning Xbox console base isn't anything to scoff at. While MS has faltered on the hardware side of things I do need to commend them, and ABK, for the software lineup they have now and going into the future. They've got a decent enough list coming up that it should at least soften the blow of any price increase that's going to happen. I think they'll be able to retain the current user base with the current lineup with increased price.

It's another revenue stream that MS sees a chance of turning into something much higher than it is over time. But certain big titles might be left to stand on their own for a bit of time if it brings in higher revenue for that time.

Anything is subject to change, but the greatest value proposition of GP right now is day 1 releases which are restricted to the higher tiers of GP (note: the majority of GP subscribers are on the ultimate tier for this reason), and it works well with the service as well as the third party services that are looking for promotional support. Games don't no longer need to be exclusive to a platform (limiting their potential revenue and long term discoverability in exchange for money for exclusivity). All MS is looking for is a day 1 GamePass release, which is much less damage than platform exclusivity, with some additional benefits of driving strong word of mouth.

I'm not expecting MS to change direction anytime soon unless they are no longer interested in publishing content, at this moment their titles need more exposure than ever.

 

[iroboto]

Looks like devs are getting ready to stop supporting the platform.

So like I have been asking. Does xbox hardware survive and thrive, does game pass survive and thrive , do both crash and burn ?

IF devs stop porting to xbox it means less software for game pass also.

Apparently that line was taken out of context. Everyone loves a good negative story to publish about.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1920924025552880116

 

[Dominik D]

Releasing first Gears on PS5 is supposed to 1) make people fall in love with the franchise, and 2) sell sequels on Xbox/PC. Whether this is a valid strategy or not remains to be seen but people spelling doom because a 19 year old game got remade for competitor's console are just being silly.

 

[rntongo]

I don’t think so.

Anywhere where you can access the Xbox platform is an Xbox. They didn’t say everything is an Xbox.

You’d have to be deliberately obtuse and trolling to have obtained that message. Sony and Nintendo would never allow it, they would have sued the hell out of MS if that was the message pushed.

If thats what you got out of what I wrote then I cant do much tbh