Xbox Business Update Podcast | Xbox Everywhere Direction Discussion

[Dominik D]

I think I addressed most of your points here in the parts of my comment you ignored.

Excluding Nintendo is fallacious. But even if you let yourself do that, it doesn't explain how Valve destroyed MS in a market in which MS does not participate in - which is what I responded to. You shifted discussion to what success is (why?) and how Nintendo is in a different league.

If the claim is that MS should have some mobile offering then, yeah, maybe. But not only is it a different discussion altogether, this claim only makes sense if you exclude Surface which sells $billions worth of products every year. I stand by what I said: you're shifting discussion from what I responded to onto something that can be defended (but it's not what I argued against). So no, you didn't address the core of the issue in the part of the comment I ignored because it didn't address what I was responding to.

 

[see colon]

You're shifting the goalpost. The claim was that Microsoft, company not in mobile market, lost to Valve - company that was outsold by Nintendo 90:1. No matter how you slice it, it was a bizarre claim and no amount of weaseling to exclude Nintendo changes that. It's some new brand of absurdity, in the same league as Switch2 obviously losing to Sony handheld that doesn't currently exist.

Did Microsoft lose to Valve, though? Do we know how the recent Windows handhelds sold? And when do we start counting? GPD has been selling a windows handheld for over 10 years, right? And there are others as well.

I'm not contesting that Steam Deck hasn't captured the mindset, but much like iPhone vs Android, iOS has the mindshare, but Android has a much larger installed base with a much wider variety of devices.

 

[Cyan]

Microsoft led the video game industry in December, with PlayStation as an unexpected ally, it's been a successful month for Redmond, driven by Call of Duty and the new multiplatform strategy

Microsoft was the No.1 games publisher in the world last month | VGC

Nearly $0.5bn was spent on Xbox games across Steam, PlayStation and Xbox in December…

www.videogameschronicle.com

 

[iroboto]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1884735559953768661

140M streaming hours per quarter on Xbox is massive. If they maintain this. That’s a lot of people playing.

 

[Cyan]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1884735559953768661

140M streaming hours per quarter on Xbox is massive. If they maintain this. That’s a lot of people playing.

really happy that PC Gamepass is growing! The games' library is getting better and better by the day, and you can also buy the games if you want to keep them whether you use the service or not.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1884735559953768661

140M streaming hours per quarter on Xbox is massive. If they maintain this. That’s a lot of people playing.

Well, do we know? That could be 70M people streaming 2 hours/quarter, or 1.4M streaming 100 hours/quarter. Depending on where one sets 'a lot', it probably is, but we've no idea of actual numbers here. The increase in PC subscriber base is definitely good, and shows the transition. Perhaps that came with a decrease in XB subscribers as players migrate? It's a pretty opaque statement in the end.

 

[cheapchips]

Well, do we know? That could be 70M people streaming 2 hours/quarter, or 1.4M streaming 100 hours/quarter. Depending on where one sets 'a lot', it probably is, but we've no idea of actual numbers here. The increase in PC subscriber base is definitely good, and shows the transition. Perhaps that came with a decrease in XB subscribers as players migrate? It's a pretty opaque statement in the end.

I tried to see if I could find something on Steam to compare to, however imperfect. The top 10 game on there will pull 2-25 million hours a day. GTA5 would be 200000 daily players playing for around 3m hours, to randomly pick one.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

More on the report:

Xbox hardware sales slump, but Game Pass is surging

Microsoft has announced mixed results for its latest financial quarter, with strong growth for Game Pass offset by the …

www.eurogamer.net

Overall, revenue for Microsoft's gaming division was down seven percent year-on-year for the three months ending 31st December 2024, with a 29 percent drop in Xbox console sales largely to blame.

But the quarter also saw a significant boost to Game Pass, which ... saw a significant uptick to its subscribers on PC. It's clear that Game Pass subscriptions will have been boosted by Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's launch in October.

Overall revenue's down. Subs up thanks to COD. Again, we're kinda waiting on a year to see how ABK and GP are shaping up post acquisition. Clearly we see content can drive subs, but that's not increasing revenue at this point. Although profits are more important; who cares if revenue is down 80% selling lossy hardware if profits are up 80% selling high-margin subscriptions?

 

[iroboto]

Well, do we know? That could be 70M people streaming 2 hours/quarter, or 1.4M streaming 100 hours/quarter. Depending on where one sets 'a lot', it probably is, but we've no idea of actual numbers here. The increase in PC subscriber base is definitely good, and shows the transition. Perhaps that came with a decrease in XB subscribers as players migrate? It's a pretty opaque statement in the end.

It’s about 1M people streaming 1Hr a day. Honestly it may not seem large, but that’s pretty big. It’s about 1/2 the peak of Google stadia without it actually being a real service.

It has a long way to go though. You can see why MS will not stop hardware, there would need to be at least 50M users streaming per month before they decide to call
Hardware quits.

 

[Cynicalking]

Forza Horizon 5 coming to PS5

https://twitter.com/x/status/1885027379099095379