Xbox Business Update Podcast | Xbox Everywhere Direction Discussion

In the meantime, I was brainstorming. :) The latest Asus teaser, which is suspiciously mysterious, revealed an interesting combination in the video. The controller and a handheld. Rumors of an OEM Xbox handheld from Asus seem very real.

What if, compared to the ROG Ally already on the market, this machine will not be just a handheld anymore. The controller shown in the teaser may also indicate that this combination can be a hybrid console that can be connected to a TV or monitor and thus controlled with a controller - in other words, the concept is a handheld + eGPU pair.

Asus new eGPUs recently launched, which are specifically intended for their handhelds. It's true that these are currently dirt expensive because they contain, for example, a 4090ti mobile processor. But what if they do the same thing with, say, a rtx 5070 or even an AMD 9070xt mobile variant. In this case, a dock equipped with an eGPU for the OEM Xbox Handheld that can be launched at a much more favorable price, but it still provides excellent performance for an Xbox PC hybrid console.
 
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I guess I don't understand your comment. I think the idea is that they are releasing Indie & FH5 on PS5 to fund GP games to sell GP subs. If the multiplatform releases can even fund half their dev budget for GP games they will be laughing.

They seem to be taking the approach of only bringing critically acclaimed games over to PS5 to far. The idea is to get their rep for quality up there with Sony themselves on PS consoles. I could see them relaxing a little and bringing some low 80's metacritic games like Starfield, Hellblade 2, and Avowed over though, but I doubt you're going to see Minecraft Legends or Redfall on a PS5. :)
 
I guess I don't understand your comment. I think the idea is that they are releasing Indie & FH5 on PS5 to fund GP games to sell GP subs. If the multiplatform releases can even fund half their dev budget for GP games they will be laughing.

They seem to be taking the approach of only bringing critically acclaimed games over to PS5 to far. The idea is to get their rep for quality up there with Sony themselves on PS consoles. I could see them relaxing a little and bringing some low 80's metacritic games like Starfield, Hellblade 2, and Avowed over though, but I doubt you're going to see Minecraft Legends or Redfall on a PS5. :)
The best way to prove the value of Gamepass is to have a monetary value associated with it's content. Releasing a good game on PS5 just shows the PS5 audience what type of value Gamepass is, while generating revenue.

Here's a great clip of the Gamescom Indiana Jones date reveal, where they announced it was coming to PS5, from IGN, where one of the hosts makes an emphatic statement about waiting until it comes out for PS5. Here he is 4 minutes later remembering he has to pay for it on PS5. You can tell, even though he was so adamant he was going to wait and the reasons why, that the gears were turning in his head working out how to financially justify the purchase when he stated earlier that he already has a Series X and Gamepass. I think that's exactly the thing that Microsoft wants to happen.
 
Here's an interesting thing I discovered this generation. MS Xbox console 1st party new games:

2020 - 0
2021 - 4 (MS Flight Sim, Psychonauts 2, Forza Horizon 5, Halo Infinite)
2022 - 2 (Grounded, Pentiment)
2023 - 7 (Hi-Fi Rush, Redfall, Minecraft Legends, Starfield, AoE 4, Forza Motorsport, Diablo IV)
2024 - 5 (Hellblade 2, Age of Mythology, CoD: BO6, MS Flight Sim 2024, Indiana Jones)
2025 - 7 (Avowed, South of Midnight, Oblivion Remaster, Doom DA, Tony Hawk 3&4, CoD, Outerworlds 2)

You can see how MS is ramping up. It's probably more pronounced if you look at marquis releases:

2020 - 0
2021 - 2
2022 - 0
2023 - 3
2024 - 3
2025 - 6

I think we're headed to a situation soon where MS is releasing 8+ 1st party games every year on Xbox GP Day 1. That's without even counting the extra DLC content for things like Diablo IV, Sea of Thieves, Forza etc....
 
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The best way to prove the value of Gamepass is to have a monetary value associated with it's content. Releasing a good game on PS5 just shows the PS5 audience what type of value Gamepass is, while generating revenue.

Here's a great clip of the Gamescom Indiana Jones date reveal, where they announced it was coming to PS5, from IGN, where one of the hosts makes an emphatic statement about waiting until it comes out for PS5. Here he is 4 minutes later remembering he has to pay for it on PS5. You can tell, even though he was so adamant he was going to wait and the reasons why, that the gears were turning in his head working out how to financially justify the purchase when he stated earlier that he already has a Series X and Gamepass. I think that's exactly the thing that Microsoft wants to happen.
This is exactly their multiplatform strategy. If you like the titles Xbox is pushing out there are incentives to purchase from the Xbox store with the flexibility of choosing hardware that supports Xbox licensing.

The next generation of gamers expect to be able to play their games on any device and take their library with them everywhere.

The issue with the walled garden approach is that you’ll never get an audience to ever look at your software and platform because it’s not on their hardware ecosystem.
 
I guess I don't understand your comment. I think the idea is that they are releasing Indie & FH5 on PS5 to fund GP games to sell GP subs. If the multiplatform releases can even fund half their dev budget for GP games they will be laughing.

They seem to be taking the approach of only bringing critically acclaimed games over to PS5 to far. The idea is to get their rep for quality up there with Sony themselves on PS consoles. I could see them relaxing a little and bringing some low 80's metacritic games like Starfield, Hellblade 2, and Avowed over though, but I doubt you're going to see Minecraft Legends or Redfall on a PS5. :)
Right but still many games release very close to each other. People who don’t have GP will have to choose what to buy. Is it oblivion fh5 or indie in case of ps5 users. If they spread a bit games in time it would be better imo.
 
Right but still many games release very close to each other. People who don’t have GP will have to choose what to buy. Is it oblivion fh5 or indie in case of ps5 users. If they spread a bit games in time it would be better imo.
But this is exactly the essence of their strategy. To put as many good games as possible on the subscription service, which practically inevitably makes people realize that Game Pass is the better choice. It can already be observed on major social media sites that players on other platforms are sighing about how many good games they are releasing and how much money it would cost if they wanted to buy these games one after the other, at full price.

MS's strategy is devious. They release a significant part of their games on multiplatform, while at the same time they put these games and a bunch of (timed) exclusives into their own subscription service. The answer is right in front of everyone, it's Xbox's honey-trap strategy for GP.

The amazing thing about it all is that this strategy cannot be attacked from any side. This way everyone can be happy, because they have the opportunity to play many games on different platforms, in different ways. At the same time, from a business perspective, MS is definitely doing well, no matter what gamers decide.
 
I'm not trying to start a big fight, but common guys. MS is putting out better Day 1 games on GP in a 30 day period than Sony is planning for the PS5 the entire year, for a lot less money:

South of Midnight 77%
Expedition 33 92%
Oblivion Remaster 90%
Towerborne
Doom: Dark Ages

Keeping my fingers crossed for the last two.

Pretty good chance MS is putting out better games on PS5 than Sony is this year too. (Forza Horizon 5, Indiana Jones, Oblivion, new CoD, Outer Worlds 2)
 
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The beginning of the console-like PC era:

Minsiforum-G1-Pro-debut.jpg



One of the first possible Xbox PCs, or at least the direction of the form factor. Since it includes a desktop VGA instead of the previous pricey mobile variant, it may not be too expensive, which is why it could be interesting.

 
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The beginning of the console-like PC era:

Minsiforum-G1-Pro-debut.jpg



One of the first possible Xbox PCs, or at least the direction of the form factor. Since it includes a desktop VGA instead of the previous pricey mobile variant, it may not be too expensive, which is why it could be interesting.

a machine like that could make me return to Windows. I'm now using Linux Mint, but yeah, for gaming it looks like a very nice machine.
 
I'm not trying to start a big fight, but common guys. MS is putting out better Day 1 games on GP in a 30 day period than Sony is planning for the PS5 the entire year, for a lot less money:

South of Midnight 77%
Expedition 33 92%
Oblivion Remaster 90%
Towerborne
Doom: Dark Ages

Keeping my fingers crossed for the last two.

Pretty good chance MS is putting out better games on PS5 than Sony is this year too. (Forza Horizon 5, Indiana Jones, Oblivion, new CoD, Outer Worlds 2)
Its great output and they'll make a lot of money on the PS5 as well. It would be better if they made more money from Gamepass for some of these titles than from the PS5
 
I'm not trying to start a big fight, but common guys. MS is putting out better Day 1 games on GP in a 30 day period than Sony is planning for the PS5 the entire year, for a lot less money:

South of Midnight 77%
Expedition 33 92%
Oblivion Remaster 90%
Towerborne
Doom: Dark Ages

Keeping my fingers crossed for the last two.

Pretty good chance MS is putting out better games on PS5 than Sony is this year too. (Forza Horizon 5, Indiana Jones, Oblivion, new CoD, Outer Worlds 2)
Is there even a fight to be had? Even the strongest Sony fanboy would agree that this year Microsoft has a better lineup. This whole playstation first party gen has been thrown away, they will not recover until next gen.

Game pass is great value for people that play a lot of games, but subscription services in general remain too exploitable for the videogames medium. I can just wait until 2-3 games that I want to play get on game pass or other subscription, play those, and then cancel the sub. There is no attachment of those games to an account, the transactions are "transient" for lack of a better word, which I guess is good for the consumer, that can hop between platforms without many negatives, but not for the platform holder.
 
Is there even a fight to be had? Even the strongest Sony fanboy would agree that this year Microsoft has a better lineup.
I know one is real life. Though she seams confused at what a first party game is, because she was super excited about the Croc remaster and talked about it like it was Sony putting that together, and that title was never first party, not exclusive. She also love Subnautica and Hallow Knight.... So this might be a tough year for her.
Game pass is great value for people that play a lot of games, but subscription services in general remain too exploitable for the videogames medium. I can just wait until 2-3 games that I want to play get on game pass or other subscription, play those, and then cancel the sub. There is no attachment of those games to an account, the transactions are "transient" for lack of a better word, which I guess is good for the consumer, that can hop between platforms without many negatives, but not for the platform holder.
This isn't unlike other subscription services, though. People hop into Netflix for a month to binge a season or two of a show.
 
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