Xbox Business Update Podcast | Xbox Everywhere Direction Discussion

[Cyan]

Philnoccio, this is how Phil behaved in the past, and what he is doing now. Just keep everyone happy, 4 games only, generation leap like never seen, and all the pr you can get

 

[Cyan]

Sarah mentioned, they will deliver "biggest power leap between console generation" Hopefully Sarah don't have on her mind biggest leap in power and price... consumption leap in third party pc pretending to be console or soon damage control podcast will be needed again. For such impossibru tasks, there are often some speak women promoted at xbox, Bonnie Ross and Shannon Loftis know something about it

we shall see the consequences of that, but Xbox fans might be happy 'cos it was less dramatic than people expected to be. They are just starting to very slowly and very smoothly smear people's backsides with honey, so nice strategy Phil. They might go all out over time. As for the power leap, Xbox had the most powerful console 1 or -arguably- 2 or 3 generations and.... you know the story. Hope Sarah doesn't become a slave of her words

 

[Karamazov]

so those "fans" selling their Xboxes last weeks, how do they feel now ?

 

[Nesh]

Btw is Steam Deck sold or was it sold at a profit since launch?

 

[cheapchips]

so those "fans" selling their Xboxes last weeks, how do they feel now ?

They'll be fine. They'll either hook onto a new Xbox fandom delusion or find some other thing to be weird over.

As for the power leap, Xbox had the most powerful console 1 or -arguably- 2 or 3 generations

It's funny how the 360 era panned out. It ended up as 'most powerful' but started with 'wall guy'. With the two X's, the power crown was one Spencer clearly wanted to win back. Bond making similar comments for next gen is playing to the fanbase. Whether they can actually deliver any meaningful visual difference in games vs PS6 will be interesting. The Series X obviously fails to.

 

[Shortbread]

Some interesting comments and tweets from yesterday, on catching those folks up who aren't in the know of recent XB events.
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Xbox business update podcast: which Microsoft games will launch on PlayStation and Switch?

Welcome to our live coverage of the big Xbox business update, where Microsoft laid out its plan to launch four first-pa…

www.eurogamer.net

Microsoft gaming boss Phil Spencer, Xbox president Sarah Bond and head of Xbox game studios Matt Booty - the company's Triforce of gaming top brass - stopped short of officially confirming the quartet of titles set to go multiplatform, but reports online suggest those titles will be Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves and Grounded.

The podcast also included a brief mention of new Xbox hardware launching later this year, and a tease for the proper next-gen Xbox - you can read all of that below.

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Microsoft: four Xbox-exclusive games are coming to PS5 and Nintendo Switch

Microsoft is starting out small but has big ambitions.

www.theverge.com

“I do have a fundamental belief that over the next five or ten years exclusive games, games that are exclusive to one piece of hardware, are going to be a smaller and smaller part of the game industry,” says Spencer on the Xbox podcast."

Microsoft is framing this move as just four games that the company can learn from, testing the waters if you will. But rumors have suggested that Microsoft’s ambitions for multiplatform games go much deeper. Starfield was rumored for PS5, and I reported earlier this month that Microsoft has been considering launching Indiana Jones on PS5 months after its Xbox launch.

“I don’t think we should as an industry ever rule out a game going to any other platform,” says Spencer in an interview with The Verge. “We’re focused on these four games and learning from the experience. We don’t have work going on, on other franchises. But for anybody to stand up and say something’s never going to happen, I think it feels like creating more certainty in a world of gaming where you really want to respond to what customers want and what our players and creators are looking for.”

I understand that Microsoft has also previously been weighing up the idea of bringing Gears of War, Microsoft Flight Simulator, and even the next Doom game to rival platforms. Final decisions haven’t been made on these other games, but there’s bound to be more than just four. As this strategy evolves, it’s clear there will be some interesting decisions being made about the future of Xbox games and exclusivity.

So, why does Microsoft need to launch Xbox exclusives on rival platforms? The company talks of a need for Xbox to evolve “to ensure long-term success for both Xbox and the industry as a whole.” Microsoft’s gaming business just grew to be bigger than the Windows division thanks to the Activision Blizzard acquisition, so it’s not in trouble. The Xbox business as a whole still needs to get bigger, though. Microsoft’s Xbox Series S and X console sales lag behind Sony’s PlayStation 5, and Spencer previously admitted its Xbox Game Pass subscriptions were slowing down. Content revenue, then, could be a good source of growth.

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In an interview for journalist Stephen Totilo’s Game File newsletter, Spencer said the decision to bring four Xbox games to other consoles wasn’t intended to make its rivals follow suit.

“This is not for me, like, some kind of bartering system,” Spencer explained. “We’re doing it for the better of Xbox’s business.”

Despite this, Spencer said he would of course welcome other consoles’ games on Xbox, and noted that it would be beneficial for multiplayer games in particular, where building a large online community is important for a game’s lifespan.

“I will say, when I look at a game like Helldivers 2 – and it’s a great game, kudos to the team shipping on PC and PlayStation – I’m not exactly sure who it helps in the industry by not being on Xbox,” he said. “If you try to twist yourself to say, like, somehow that benefited somebody somewhere.
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https://twitter.com/x/status/1758244379427226003

https://twitter.com/x/status/1758303183657394211

https://twitter.com/x/status/1758230895037747229

I think this is a great move and transition for XB strategy going forward... and a win-win for PlayStation and Nintendo players who are entrenched in their respective gaming ecosystems not wanting XB hardware, but wanting certain XB games in the future.

I'm glad to see that Phil and Microsoft are living up to their recent promises on having XB games across all platforms (even the very few mentioned yesterday, and future ones to come), developing future traditional XB hardware, and potentially a handheld device.

 

[Shortbread]

so those "fans" selling their Xboxes last weeks, how do they feel now ?

These types of warriors and paid shills do nothing positive for the industry. A bunch of crybabies and zealots looking for attention, clicks, and wanting to spin a certain perception that their favorite corporate product is the second coming, when in reality it's dead, Jim.

PS and PC zealots are no better...

 

[fehu]

Of all the things that I was expecting, nothing wasn't one of them. -_-

 

[Shortbread]

Of all the things that I was expecting, nothing wasn't one of them. -_-

With all the backlash received from last week's media and gaming zealots, Microsoft wasn't going to mention any of it's tentpole titles or new exclusives coming to PS5/Switch immediately. This is going to playout like the fallout from PS games coming to PC. First, you lube them up properly, then you...

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Only way I see that working is if you lock it to windows store & GP.

Which might become illegal in the EU; that's the way we're headed.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

"Microsoft is framing this move as just four games that the company can learn from, testing the waters if you will."

But they already have cross-platform titles - Minecraft Dungeons, Psychonauts, Ori, Cuphead, et al. What water are they testing exactly?

 

[cheapchips]

What water are they testing exactly?

Muddy water?

 

[Bludd]

Of all the things that I was expecting, nothing wasn't one of them. -_-

why couldnt spencer come out with the broad strokes of this to head off all the drama that happened due to the vague stuff that was out there these last few weeks?
seems such a self-inflicted wound

weird

 

[Globalisateur]

Starfield coming to PS5 is just a question of when, not if. I think at this point PS gamers would be happy with more different games on their platform, it's not like they are currently drowned by single player games from Sony first party studios.

I'd be personnaly glad if they release some of their Rare stuff there!

 

[Cyan]

It's funny how the 360 era panned out. It ended up as 'most powerful' but started with 'wall guy'. With the two X's, the power crown was one Spencer clearly wanted to win back. Bond making similar comments for next gen is playing to the fanbase. Whether they can actually deliver any meaningful visual difference in games vs PS6 will be interesting. The Series X obviously fails to.

the announcement of a powerful Xbox hardware.... is like... something we heard before. This rumour saying that they could go with nVidia hardware sounds exciting, because in the current gen, if you told me that the PS5 is the Series X and viceversa, I coudln't tell them apart hardware wise -SSD aside-.

What water are they testing exactly?

stagnant waters

 

[cheapchips]

why couldnt spencer come out with the broad strokes of this to head off all the drama that happened due to the vague stuff that was out there these last few weeks?
seems such a self-inflicted wound

weird

It depends on how sticky the damage caused by the week of chatter was? People are generally settling in to it being drama over nothing from the comments I've seen here and elsewhere?

The only thing that's changed is that the delay placed more significance on MS saying they were staying in the hardware game and there's not a mass dump of Xbox titles landing on PlayStation. They're still likely to do more after this year's four games. The talk for the remainder of the year's likely to be about that, whatever they show in June, hardware and software wise.

 

[BoardBonobo]

Considering they had a week to prepare for this, and the amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth coming from the Xbox community, and when they needed to be completely clear about their plans, they came up with a sort of mind fog of sales speech and great expectations instead. Glad that's cleared up the drama. Wonder if the social media types who dropped Xbox, cancelled their GP subscriptions (whilst telling their listeners to do the same), and sold their consoles are having second throughts after this?

 

[Cyan]

Uncle Phil talks to The Verge about the podcast.

Microsoft’s gaming chief on Xbox games coming to PS5, next-gen hardware, and more

Microsoft wants to grow Xbox in new ways.

www.theverge.com

Obviously you saw the Xbox fan reaction to some of the rumors, people worried about their digital library and the future of the console. How are you going to keep those fans, and keep the Xbox ecosystem alive?

I always take the feedback from our most ardent fans very seriously. We’re coming out of a December where we had our highest Xbox engagement ever in the history of the console, more players than we’ve ever had. I know there’s this fictitious world where people think that one exclusive game kind of kicks off the sales of a platform, but the industry just doesn’t really work that way today.

We’ve made a commitment in recognizing and respecting the library of games that people have purchased on our platform. I think we have a good track record with our backward compatibility, with Xbox Play Anywhere giving you a PC and console entitlement when you buy a game from us. When we’ve talked about future hardware that we’re going to go build, compatibility and library support is just kind of fundamental for us when we think about what our plans are. So we’re very, very committed to that.

I would put our commitment on that front, that we’ve made, up against any of the other platforms. I don’t know that other console manufacturers go out and say that the games that you’re purchasing now are going to be playable in the future. And frankly with like FPS Boost and Auto HDR, maybe even playable better than they were in their original state. That to me is a pretty fundamental brand promise for Xbox.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

MS will definitely be following up with bigger releases. It's the same as we had with Sony releasing titles on PC. It's their flagship titles, the PS exclusive that'd make you want to buy a PS. Everything MS is saying overall is they want their games on every screen, every device.

Wonder if the social media types who dropped Xbox, cancelled their GP subscriptions (whilst telling their listeners to do the same), and sold their consoles are having second throughts after this?

Did they really, or were they just blowing hot air? If they did, they need to be out of pocket for being idiots and reacting to rumours.

 

[cheapchips]

I know there’s this fictitious world where people think that one exclusive game kind of kicks off the sales of a platform, but the industry just doesn’t really work that way today.

There was a chart from a during the FTC trial which I can't fine right now. It showed the change in % split of Xbox & PS hardware sales going back several years. The impact of excludives had an dramatic impact in launch week and then not much of a tail. I though it was interesting, and it's the sort of data MS will look at (they might have commissioned it to make a point in the trial though!).

What that can't show, is if there's a persistent impact from having a range of exclusive titles available on a platform. There's still the general consensus of that being the source of Sony's lead over Xbox. It might not actually be true. Anyone posting on gaming forums isn't actually a typical console customer.