Xbox Business Update Podcast | Xbox Everywhere Direction Discussion

[Seanspeed]

It's suddenly becoming quite clear to me why Microsoft is doing this, in ~2020 they thought gaming is going be the next big thing, so they invested big in it, but now gaming is longer that. AI is. And Microsoft is investing so big in AI that it dwarfs everything else in their portfolio, with literally hundreds of billions being thrown in, and they are seeing palabale results in AI, they are also the leader there.

As a result? Gaming gets the short end of the stick, as Microsoft will scale back their investment there as necessary.

???? They literally just spent $75,000,000,000 of MS's corporate coffers on Xbox to buy Activision/Blizzard. And they had every opportunity to get out of that until very recently.

MS makes enough money to do all this stuff anyways.

I dont think Microsoft were caught out by AI, either way. They've absolutely been investing a lot into this for years.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

It's actually wild to say it's too hard to support so many global studios. Really makes you question why they bought them in the first place.

One reason is the big-ticket IPs. Buying Bethesda meant securing Skyrim and Fallout to be XB exclusives. The other studios were immaterial to that. Depending on business strategy, and MS having virtual infinite cash to throw at things, that can be clear method to the apparent madness. However, perpetually shifting business plans make it hard to follow why they do what they do.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Are AAA blockbusters really not viable with GP?

If the games will sell 10M each at $70, but those ten million instead have GP, you are making less money from them. Of course, if that means securing more subscribers, it might work. It's clearly a tougher calculation that the cost of hosting a dozen small titles that get the same subscribers though. A calculation that Sony crunched and determined day one release on the subscription service wasn't worth it, so it can't be a no brainer.

 

[Nisaaru]

The AAA model is kinda broken. Thanks god we have the indie games and smaller but super brilliant games to save our lives.

I don't buy that. Personally I don't waste any time with indie games even when there are highly polished ones out there.

From my personal gaming history I think the problem of AAA games is that people spend too much time in PvP/MMO games to keep them busy with a lot of meaningless activities. That limits the time to care for other games. I only play other games the last few years when I can squeeze it in which depends on my main game's current content.

My backlog of unplayed games is huge..

 

[Scott_Arm]

One reason is the big-ticket IPs. Buying Bethesda meant securing Skyrim and Fallout to be XB exclusives. The other studios were immaterial to that. Depending on business strategy, and MS having virtual infinite cash to throw at things, that can be clear method to the apparent madness. However, perpetually shifting business plans make it hard to follow why they do what they do.

I feel like they've talked so much about the need to have many studios and a wide variety of games. They even talked about slowing the COD cadence so activision people could work on other games. Now they're saying that's too hard and they need to focus on bigger games, but simultaneously another exect is saying they need more games of the type of the studios they just closed. I'm very confused and I wonder if they even know what they're doing.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

That's exactly it. They keep saying different things, and doing different things, it's hard to resolve all the info into a clear strategy. The EG article speaks at length on this. It'll be interesting to hear if anyone can offer a positive interpretation that counters what we're seeing and can explain the strategy.

 

[Cyan]

I think the problem of AAA games is that people spend too much time in PvP/MMO games to keep them busy with a lot of meaningless activities.

sometimes I wonder how gamers put up with that. Playing online is a giant source of stress for me. You can't attend a call, you can't do other things in the meantime, or you just get in an endless chat with someone.

Btw, yup, I also have a huge backlog of games.

Personally, I enjoy much more "indie" -they are just professional games made by talented people- shmups and cute 'em ups, arcade fun games, visual novels, arcade racing games, and most games with local co-op (in this sense PC gamepass is surprisingly great, my nephews really like those games).

Just to share one, for instance:

TouHou Makuka Sai ~ Fantastic Danmaku Festival Part II on Steam

Touhou Makuka Sai ~ Fantastic Danmaku Festival part II is a danmaku shooting game, which is the second part of Touhou Makuka Sai. The repeat of incident is coming again. Can the girls going to the netherworld solve the mystery?

store.steampowered.com

I started to appreciate the simple, fun things.

Steam is a gold mine when you know where to look. Just seeing a smile on the faces of my family when they play certain apparently simple games on my computer makes me happy.

 

[Cyan]

Mat Booty is one of those useless executives big companies usually have. The reply is from Tango's CEO.

Moon Studios, the creators of Ori.

 

[Charlietus]

Mat Booty is one of those useless executives big companies usually have. The reply is from Tango's CEO.

Moon Studios, the creators of Ori.

They are talking about focusing on big games one day, needing small prestige games the other. But actions speak louder than words. With tango's closure, they are telling everyone that they will not take risks with small games anymore, and will make big games only. They killed hi-fi rush, the first game from Bethesda that I ever liked, the fuc***s.

 

[Scott_Arm]

I don't buy that. Personally I don't waste any time with indie games even when there are highly polished ones out there.

From my personal gaming history I think the problem of AAA games is that people spend too much time in PvP/MMO games to keep them busy with a lot of meaningless activities. That limits the time to care for other games. I only play other games the last few years when I can squeeze it in which depends on my main game's current content.

My backlog of unplayed games is huge..

I play multiplayer games and indie games, or smaller "AA" games. I'd say big "AAA" games have stagnated and haven't changed much since the mid-to-late PS360 era. A lot of sequels and a lot of fixed game designs that haven't changed much. There are tons of open-world fetch-quest games (Ubisoft). But that's the problem with the industry. There are a lot of tastes to cater to. I kind of wonder if hit games are even predictable and it's even more about luck than the movie industry. For all of the problems with the movie industry, the underlying technology seems stable. You can go to reliable companies for the vfx, audio, colour correction etc and you'll get consistent results assuming you give them time and money. Games can get stuck in years of technical issues which hamper development and the final product. It's just a strange beast. If you manage to get through the technical aspects you can still spend years making a game that people just don't like. It's a very tough thing. Feels even more volatile than film. You're almost reinventing 50% of the wheel every time in terms of the underlying technology, and that's before you even find out if people like your game. I think that's why so many companies are switching to UE5. Out of the box it might have limitations or might not be exactly what you need, but you know exactly what you're getting and what parts are stable.

I know Microsoft wanted the steady cash cow of COD. Just didn't expect them to be so clueless about everything else. They said all of the right things and now they've changed their tune and it's a focus on fewer bigger titles again.

Again, Mat Booty just sounds like a complete moron or totally disingenuous.

 

[Cyan]

And this is very true, but are they being forced into that lane by MS and the sheer volume of pressure they are exerting on the market with GP and multi-billion dollar deals? Sony are a much smaller, financialy, company that can really only react to MS's actions. They see the threat from MS and can only combat this if they can generate the revenue they need to survive. MS is, in a way, screwing it up for Sony as well as themselves.

I never thought I'd say this, but I agree. Sony should return to the PS1-PS2 era, imho. And MS should let Xbox die.

MS should take care of Windows, that's where the money they want is, and most gamers use that OS to play. The best moments of MS were when they bought studios like Ensemble Studios and their wonderful Age of Empires, then with the Xbox they started well but then they screwed up more and more. I never thought I'd say this, but they should abandon Xbox, and make something more attractive, with a prettier name and a little more soul.

 

[Nisaaru]

I play multiplayer games and indie games, or smaller "AA" games. I'd say big "AAA" games have stagnated and haven't changed much since the mid-to-late PS360 era. A lot of sequels and a lot of fixed game designs that haven't changed much. There are tons

To me AAA is defined by the scope of content and the game mechanics. I have zero problems with sequels if the quality is right. I care less about something "fresh" but far more on if I actually enjoy how I as a player interface with the game's environment itself. If the later isn't polished the game's other qualities need to be exceptional to accept playing.

Outside of destructible and dynamically adaptable environments maybe with some AI help I can't really see what next big thing you're looking for.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Not going to lie. I went from being a huge xbox fan during the 360 era to a more moderate fan of xbox during Xbox One before switching exclusively to PC gaming. I would have said Series X/S looked like an okay product, and I understand why people buy it. But now I actively want Microsoft to fail and hope Valve can turn Linux into a general gaming platform for desktop. Been increasingly unhappy with Windows for a while, but now I just have bad feelings about Xbox in general. What a roller coaster ride.

 

[DavidGraham]

???? They literally just spent $75,000,000,000 of MS's corporate coffers on Xbox to buy Activision/Blizzard. And they had every opportunity to get out of that until very recently.

They started the deal early Jan 2022, AI has yet to present itself as a powerful force by that time, when the deal was finalized they were neck deep into it with fierce legal battles and other commitments, so they couldn't get out of it easily.

Besides, the decision of heavily prioritizing AI must have come late 2023 or early 2024 (after the deal was finalized), they are pouring everything they have into AI now. They weren't as insanely committed to it like this before.

if anyone can offer a positive interpretation that counters what we're seeing and can explain the strategy

I can't think of anything other than the AI thing, they are scaling back gaming investment in favor of tripling or quadrupling AI investment.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

And this is very true, but are they being forced into that lane by MS and the sheer volume of pressure they are exerting on the market with GP and multi-billion dollar deals? Sony are a much smaller, financialy, company that can really only react to MS's actions. They see the threat from MS and can only combat this if they can generate the revenue they need to survive. MS is, in a way, screwing it up for Sony as well as themselves.

LOL. Now Phil will be responsible for Sony's future failures as well. Hilarious.

 

[Nisaaru]

I can't think of anything other than the AI thing, they are scaling back gaming investment in favor of tripling or quadrupling AI investment.

I wonder what will happen when they reach the point of limited returns with the current AI design framework.

Training a model with a million, a billion or more datasets to get to increase the chance of a more correct result has its limits due hw and power costs

 

[Inuhanyou]

So like I said during the acquisition situation . Corporate consolidation is bad and will not just hurt the industry at large but the companies being merged. Microsoft don't have a plan. Their plan is to throw money at something and hope eventually that solves the problem which most times it doesn't. After which the developers and labor are the ones on the hook so upper management can get a payout as "punishment" and make the stock look nice and shiny.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

I understand the reaction to all of this. The communication has been horrible from MS. Booty's comment was ridiculously tone deaf.

I still maintain that we don't really know the reasoning behind everything and it might make more sense in the end when we know more. People are jumping to conclusions and there are more rumors than real information out there right now. I might turn out to be wrong and all you doomsayers turn out to be right and I'll admit that if it turns out to be the case.

I'm betting that MS is trying to get all their negative press out of the way well before their June showcase where they hope to wow everyone with games (and possibly hardware) and that may have been a mistake.

What I don't like is that everyone around here is acting like MS closing Tango is like Sony shutting Naughty Dog down. It's ridiculous.

 

[Charlietus]

I understand the reaction to all of this. The communication has been horrible from MS. Booty's comment was ridiculously tone deaf.

I still maintain that we don't really know the reasoning behind everything and it might make more sense in the end when we know more. People are jumping to conclusions and there are more rumors than real information out there right now. I might turn out to be wrong and all you doomsayers turn out to be right and I'll admit that if it turns out to be the case.

I'm betting that MS is trying to get all their negative press out of the way well before their June showcase where they hope to wow everyone with games (and possibly hardware) and that may have been a mistake.

What I don't like is that everyone around here is acting like MS closing Tango is like Sony shutting Naughty Dog down. It's ridiculous.

Them concentrating on bigger games isn't a rumour. They marketed gamepass as this service that would have enabled studios to make smaller, more experimental games. But now, they are doing yet another u-turn.
Sony did this years ago, it was bad. Now Microsoft is doing it too.

But contrary to Microsoft, Sony would have never shut down tango after hi-fi rush. They care more about the metacritic and the player response than sales, apparently, because it brings prestige to the platform. Days gone is a good example of that. Meanwhile Microsoft shuts them down, after the best received game they had in years.

 

[Cyan]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1788414778253123985