So you want them to just copy what everyone else is doing and some how people will want that console and not the ones it copied from ?
Microsoft has already accepted there's no real want for the Xbox console. Even Phil admits it when he stated, paraphrasing, no amount of highly rated games will move the needle. Again, their marketing is to meet the players where they are, and that is not on the Xbox console even based purely on their actions alone.
Listen, I used to be an Xbox whale with my disposable income. I have all the consoles and have always had an up to date gaming rig. As for Xbox, I pre-ordered an Xbox og as soon as it was available along with exclusives. I am first in line with Microsoft's hardware and software. I was an Xbox Live beta tester. I have all and played all the exclusives on the respective platforms. I own all the big games on their targeted platforms. I say all this to say I'm not tied to any one platform, and I support what's unique about every platform, even Kinect
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But Satya scorched earth everything consumer facing and Phil is doing the same song and dance with Xbox I've seen many times now when Microsoft pivots. I do not mean as in they're dropping Xbox. I mean as in dragging the customer along just long enough to pivot.
So, listening to Microsoft's marketing and observing their efforts outside of the Xbox console itself, and again with loads of experience from all their products and services, consumers like myself are also pivoting.
- As of the introduction of Game Pass, I do not purchase anything on Xbox anymore. I used the $1 trick initially, and from then on I use points to have a perpetual 3 years of Game Pass banked. So all of it, even playing online, is all free. If Xbox goes away today I lose nothing, because I no longer invest in Xbox.
- Microsoft puts everything on PC (and some for now on other consoles), again meeting the players where they are. So for now I play on both PC and Xbox just because I happen to have an Xbox. Next generation I won't have an Xbox though, because what is the incentive to own an Xbox console? Afterall, people love to say how playing on other devices has no effect on the Xbox console, and how people that say there is an effect are backward thinking fanboys. Well, looking at the sales numbers and the personal account here, I don't think the point should be handwaved away.
- A high end Xbox means nothing when it's not the development focus. Even Microsoft's own devs put out a higher polished game recently on a different platform than their own Xbox. Also if a game is just on console, it's going to be optimized for everything but Xbox due to the sheer number of consumers on other platforms, so why buy the Xbox version? There is no reason to buy the Xbox version. So again, I no longer invest in Xbox.
So I reiterate the bulleted list from my previous post. It's not about copying everyone else. It's about accepting their current predicament and operating within it by just treating Xbox as another PC configuration that requires no special console development handholding. And that's much easier to do when console barriers are removed as outlined in the previous posts bulleted list.
This is not a doom and gloom post. This acknowledges Microsoft is making tons of money by meeting the players where they are. It just also acknowledges that not an insignificant amount of those players will transition away from being Xbox console owners. You don't have to take my word for it and just look at the overall sentiment online and the cratering console sales. There's no reason to own an Xbox console.
So to get ahead of those transitioning players, and to stay in line with the marketing, it makes sense to just offer anyone that remains an "xbox" with no barriers (it looks like a console, but it's just a PC, see the list). For other consoles, just offer your wares as your starting to do more of now. And since that "xbox" is just a PC, it's just a configuration to easily scale up or down to without any barriers (see list). Everybody wins.
. Sure the Xbox One controller had feedback triggers that got ignored, and the feedback was everything needs to be no lag, pro pro pro, we turn the rumble motors off anyway because we're so pro. Only to have the PS5 (and even Switch) controller come along and be adored for their feature set that wasn't about no latency pro pro pro feedback. Surely the follow-up Xbox One controller would have had the same abilities but... they once again listened to feedback./cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23926023/acastro_STK048_02.jpg)
