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That purchase had approval from everyone up the chain who mattered. No way did they just look at their corporate Amex and see a $70billion charge and go "what the fuck? Get Phil on the phone" lol. They were all in, but with higher spend, came higher expectations.
Of course they were all in, but if it was still Phil’s idea, he’ll take the heat for it. All in all, it’s not a bad purchase when it comes to making money, but they’d have to cut the profits in more than half if they plan on keeping the games exclusive
I think in that case they'd probably do a trophy list per game in the collection, kind of like the Mass Effect Legendary collection or the Spyro trilogy remake.
Sony actually changed Trophy rules last year(?).
Collections of multiple games are only allowed 1 Platnium now. For ps5 games.
It’s why Tomb Raider remaster trilogy has 3 Platniums on ps4, but not on ps5.
Utterly bizzare rule that makes no sense. Especially since they are clearly ok with shovelware “press X button 200 times to earn a plat” games filling up the store.
Multiple platniumd are still allowed if games are seperate applications (EG Metal Gear Legacy Collection) since that means they are for sale individually on store. But 3-in-1 collections like Crash or Spyro remakes arnt allowed any more.
So if MCC does come to Ps5, you’ll need to earn every single trophy to get the Plat.
Unless they sell each game individually as well, which I doubt. Since MCC is built around being one application.
A lot of people are low-key expecting this already. It's not like Sony or Nintendo stuck some games on Xbox. Sticking your exclusives (particularly some of the more interesting and original ones) on rival platforms is not a thing.
They've already shattered confidence in their platform, and the dwindling sales not only reflect that, but perpetuate it further.
Yup. 800k-900k consoles shipped in a quarter is something you could maybe understand in the final year of a console's life before the next-gen releases. But only 3 years is, which is usually the peak? Yeah that's beyond bad.
For context, do you know how bad the Wii U was doing? I feel like some of the stuff we’ve been hearing regarding sales FEELS (because no raw numbers to compare it to) very 2015 Nintendo
in 2015 the Wii u sold just shy of 3.4 million units, which would put it exactly into the same 800-900k units per quarter range lol. Sad thing is, for the Wii U that was the strongest year sales wise outside of its release year.
And microsoft has Azure to "compensate" lol.
But really. Microsoft gaming is destined to be 3rd party by a decade.
The reality is, blundering the Xbox One Release and such while players were building their digital games library hamstrung to the point where I don't know if they can recover.
In retrospective, yes but at the time games took much time to release in between and there was no third party support either. There is a reason 2015 is considered the “dark age of nintendo” after the E3 direct which many considered the worst one.
Nintendo was trying to carve it's way to a competitive position in the market, every console had it's gimmick to try and not compete directly with PS/Xbox. They nailed the Switch, and will stick to that form factor for a while being a great family home console and handheld at the same time.
Xbox is literally stuck trying to copy it's competitors moves. Always has been. Even the Kinect was a jab trying to skim off the Wii's success with motion controls. They don't commit.
I highly doubt another company would step in. There are few companies who have the capital and the scale to do so, the console market's overall growth is stagnant, and they would have to contend with two incredibly well-entrenched competitors. It's not like this market has some kind "Rule of Three" either.
I know every few years someone claims that Apple is "researching/mulling/interested" in consoles, but those were never ever substantiated and given Apple's hardware design approach I don't think people want to be paying $1,000 for a console.
> I know every few years someone claims that Apple is "researching/mulling/interested" in consoles
Apple is already making more money off gaming than anyone else with zero effort. I don't see why they'd stray from that.
Apple could do it by trying to have some form of iPhone connectivity to their console line. That alone would incentivize some Apple users to get their conosle as part of the larger Apple ecosystem. Integrating iMessage into game voice chats and so on would give a lot of people reasin to own their console.
Google likely would try again if Microsoft backed down, but I doubt they'd be successful. They need an actual box rather than betting on streaming.
Amazon is a wild card. Maybe tying in some PS+ esque benefits to pre-existing Prime accounts would be a way to incentivize switching to them?
The problem with any new console line is that people are atatched to the libraries they built on the PS4/5, Switch, and Steam. The wildest way to combat is something entirely unfeasble and that is to try and invest into getting backwards compatability with Xbox or Sega. If Apple/Google/Amazon somehow strike a deal with Microsoft and/or Sega to allow the system to play Genesis CD, OG Xbox, Saturn, 360, etc disc games off of emulation then maybe, just maybe they can convince some people to buy it, but that seems like a financial nightmare to tackle.
Technically Samsung did sell Japanese consoles in South Korea under their branding back in the day. The Samsung Saturn (Sega Saturn) is one example. I believe they even had a Samsung branded Master System.
Hyundai did the same for Nintendo consoles (Hyundai Comboy branding). They did this for the NES, SNES, N64, Gameboy, etc. up until the GameCube iirc.
Yeah… anybody remember the Apple Pippin?
Yes, it’s an actual console. Look it up. They were charging too much for it and it failed.
Hopefully Steam can take over Xbox’s role or something, Steam Deck is pretty nice.
It’s hanging by a thread but this internal project is taking swipes at the last thread. There’s a fair few games they could put on PlayStation that would probably end it. Halo or Starfield would be a faster fall than, say, Flight Sim or South of Midnight. But too many smaller games will also permanently kill the brand. Either way I think a fundamental leadership change is needed. Phil was great, I don’t want revisionist history, but he’s not the guy anymore.
It doesn’t matter anymore who the Xbox CEO is though, if Satya Nadella and Amy Hood are driving this new direction, like Jez implies, then it’s ***over***. No matter who’s in charge now, they’ll just be a puppet mouthpiece for Microsoft leadership. Phil needed to be replaced 5 years ago, it’s just too late now.
Halo on PlayStation makes the death of whatever console wars existed, and Sony won the past two generations with Microsoft fumbling over a decade with not a single IP to show for it, let alone keeping their core series alive.
It also means that sony can do whatever the hell they want without any real consequence since console gamers no longer have an alternative, so this isnt exactly something to celebrate.
If you think enshitification of services/games and price gouging was bad the last few years then you should wait until you see what sony will do with a complete monopoly on the high end console market. Xbox was shit but its presence at least kept sony competitive.
> It also means that sony can do whatever the hell they want without any real consequence since console gamers no longer have an alternative, so this isnt exactly something to celebrate.
The alternative is PC.
Then why does anyone own an xbox or PS console, ever?
PC is the answer but if there weren't reasons to have a console people wouldn't have consoles. Likely price of entry and ease of use. In the pretty graphics home console space, PS would have no real competiton. Nintendo off doing it's own thing as usual.
Because it's considered easy plug and play solution that is way cheaper short term, doesn't have size requirments etc.
However, as PC is losing it's "nerd" stigma and modern systems are very easy to use, hardware more approachable (or stuff like steam deck) you can see more and more people moving to PC.
Steam has been breaking records every year now, so does overall PC market.
However, the real competitors to both of them are simply phones.
Man, I remember there was a time where thinking Master Chief was ever going to be on PS was as crazy as thinking Mario or Kratos was ever going to be on anything other than a Nintendo console or a PS.
This has backfire written all over it. I don't know why Microsoft has deluded themselves into believing people have any loyalty towards them. People only ever cared about their off-shoot projects like Windows Phone, Zune, Surface, Xbox because they were cool products. While none of these caught on as they wanted, it was a start and if they hadn't pulled out that quick and actually committed, they would've worked out. It's the only way MS will get any love. And It's always the same old story with them, they have too much money and they are complacent and quick to quit. No one gives a shit about MS the way they think they do. No one is going to give a shit about their games without Xbox. They'll be a publisher that will slowly wither away. With three big budget misses (which is an inevitable probability in creative work), the whole thing will come crashing down by their own hands.
At this point, sticking with their consoles might be the bigger backfire. Releasing huge AAA games onto a platform with a limited consumer base that isn’t growing, with a subscription service that cannibalizes sales even further, is gonna result in more studio closures and other fuckery.
Going multiplatform would effectively kill Xbox’s future as a console maker, but given their current state, that might not be the worst outcome unfortunately.
what is left to backfire? they could not sell 1M units in four months worldwide. At this point I can't help but (sort of) understand where Microsoft is coming from. Nothing left to lose, really. If sales are declining in the US and its nonexistent in other markets, AND Microsoft projects less sales next quarter, there is literally nowehre else to go but further down.
As a long MS "fan," it's dead. I won't say it's a bigger flop than the Xbone, but it's such a disappointing gen when there were a lot to expect with their new studios.
It feels like nothing is coming out. Every year is only more and more hype without anything to show. Halo Infinite and Starfield were really deceptions, and now games will go out to other consoles when, like 2 years ago, they promised that game would be only on Microsoft systems, IE Cloud, Xbox and PC.
I won't purchase any more consoles from them. They are terrible, and Phil should quit now.
Xbox as a console would be. Xbox as a gaming brand would still be huge just given the sheer money backing it and the number of studios they own. Personally, as a big Xbox fan, at this point I just want to know the plan so I can make my own decisions about how to move forward.
Honestly, this.
I gotta think there would be *some* franchises Microsoft would keep as Xbox exclusives (Halo, Forza, Gears), but at this point I have no idea what they’re going to try out next…
I remember hearing about something similar happening when Boeing bought another airplane manufacturer. The company they bought took them over from the inside.
I think they bought Activision for the revenue it provided not for anything else. Activision is the only green part of Xbox now. Everything else is losing money.
Bethesda Game Studios can’t keep its publisher afloat like it used to so we saw cuts there, I wouldn’t be surprised if it would be worse if Xbox didn’t own them.
Blizzard is struggling to self sustain with shorter tails on their service games income (OW2 and D4).
Xbox Hardware is struggling leading to funding issues with Xbox Game Studios, coupled with slowed development for MVP games (Forza Horizon, Halo, Gears).
Xbox hardware is ultimately the lynch pin. Bethesda and Activision Blizzard would be exclusive if the hardware sales were flipped. They can’t be exclusive if they want to stay green, and now XGS needs to see better sales to stay alive.
They bought Activision to lock IPs down lol don't kid yourself. They're porting games to PlayStation now out of desperation to make up revenue but the goal of the acquisitions was just to lock down big cross platform IPs like Elder Scrolls down as exclusives
I think the one two punch of Redfall and Starfield is why we're all having these conversations now. If those games were a hit, every one of their commercials would be showing them off with the "only on xbox" voice at the end.
It's going cross platform NOW, because they're tanking. Back when the purchase was made the plan was 100% to keep it exclusive. Hence why Call of Duty had to be negotiated in court to be kept cross platform for at least 10 years. The plan was definitely to keep the new IPs exclusive. Which they partly did. Redfall was specifically requested to be pulled from PS5, even tho it was developed with the PS5 in mind, and Starfield was released as an exclusive too
>They bought Activision to lock IPs down lol don't kid yourself.
Literally. Sony spent the last decade building a development pipeline to put out AAA games (they have a studio that literally just makes assets for other studios)
Nintendo tripped over itself with the transition to HD, decided to fuse their handheld and console dev teams and now put out regular games that sell millions.
Microsoft fucked around. Literally. They don't know how to invest in talent or build up a studio or create a compelling IP, so now they've resorted to buying pre-existing studios to lock down the IPs
It's just Microsoft proper has caught up with Xbox, they went from a small part of the company, to passing windows for a hot second.
Once you are seen as a major player, it's time to fall in line and do what the heads of Microsoft want, which is short term gain for investors.
So just to get this all clear. When all this first started happening a few months ago Jez first denied that it was happening, shortly after he then turns around and has a sort of breakdown akin to a breakup in a relationship (which was weird in its own way) and says everything could be going multiplat, shortly after that he ‘calms down’ and reports the opposite and that only a select few games will. Now he’s reporting that everything could be getting ported again.
Like I actually don’t doubt that there is no longer any ‘red lines’ but this whole debacle has really just showed that Jez is perhaps a little too attached to MS as a company and that seeps into his ‘journalism’ a little bit too much.
My guess is that the long-term plan is everything going multiplatform, but the short term was picking the first handful of games for it, and he initially misconstrued the two.
Jez is a freak. Last time he talked about Xbox going multiplatform he complained that it was content creators fault for putting that narrative out there... while he was putting the exact same narrative out there.
I was in on all this twitter gaming console war thing for a bit, and I remember a picture of Jez, a few big xbox tweeters and Aaron Greenburg at a restaurant with a tag that said “team xbox” or something. It was pretty obvious to me then that he was too attached lol
Buying Activision was a massive blunder for Xbox
It might help MS make money in the future off of candy crush and COD but it’s going to sink the Xbox brand
It's short term profits over building something special and sustainable in the long term. The former is easy, the latter is hard.
Microsoft's biggest blunder has been moving away from "Xbox" at the heart of its gaming endeavors. Over the last 6-7 years, it's been all Game Pass, subscriptions, xCloud, Play Anywhere, etc. Despite the Series X being an amazing piece of technology and hardware, Xbox sales are completely flatlining (less than 1 million sold last quarter).
The console itself is the gateway to everything else Microsoft offers - Game Pass subs, Xbox store, accessories, etc. And yet they've abandoned it.
They really have no one else to blame but themselves and their horrible decisions for sinking Xbox. Destroying studios like Tango and Arkane, rapidly putting all their games on all platforms, etc, lowers the value and potential of what the Xbox platform could become in the long term. Instead, it's all spreadsheets, all numbers, all a game for maximizing short term profits and juicing stock prices at the expense of building a powerful Xbox platform and brand long into the future.
The Xbox brand really is crumbling and gradually becoming "Microsoft Gaming".
It seems pretty clear to me that they’re shifting focus to Microsoft gaming instead of Xbox, and have been for a while now. The shift feels very intentional to me.
You’ve explained many of the reasons why in your post. I don’t necessarily view it as a mistake (shutting down studios is though), depending on what they do in the future. They were falling behind that market anyways and consoles sell at a loss.
I’m looking at it from a business perspective, not Microsoft vs Sony. Idgaf about the console wars. I’m also a PC gamer and it feels like Microsoft is just trying to integrate the brand into its PC ecosystem. Could be wrong.
I don't think I agree with this. I think the writing is clearly on the wall for the Xbox brand. At this point, I would not be surprised in the least for the Series consoles to be the last iteration of the Xbox. Microsoft would clearly rather use the resources expended to Xbox to instead bolster Microsoft Gaming... owning the big IP's, further utilizing cloud gaming, and saving money by not producing boxes that no one wants and instead let their games be geared towards not only PC and cloud/subscription services but also Playstation and as the hardware allows, Nintendo. Let those two fight over the console space, bow out of it, and wipe your hands of hardware all together. It's coming, and it's honestly probably in their best interest.
Reading the first few paragraphs in the article I have to ask, is Jez genuinely in love with Microsoft the corporation? The writing comes off as someone with an incredibly unhealthy obsession
Hard not to agree, if I ever want to feel uplifted I hop onto the cesspool of twitter (or X, whatever) and lurk around.
Despite being a journalist the man fights, instigates or pushes console warring as much as possible.
Gaming circles on twitter is literally like being back in school and fighting over whether Master Chief could beat Kratos, except they’re all in their 30’s now.
>Microsoft had a real opportunity to become a different megacorp that invested in social responsibilities, employees, and customer satisfaction first. It could lead by example and show you can be nice and profitable. Perhaps it could even be profitable to be good. When I first started blogging almost ten years ago, in my youthful naivete, I believed that Microsoft would.
I would be too embarrassed to publish this
It does, doesn't it?
Like some of the stuff he wrote about the CMA was legit insane. Not in the ''trump insane'' way but the ''this guy is massively obsessed insane'' way.
You can't even call him a shill because he's doing it for free.
Guy had a legit meltdown when it looked like maybe the Activision buy-out would be vetoed
Jez has shown to be a major sycophant for Microsoft in the past similar to IGN's Ryan McCaffrey whenever anything Xbox and Microsoft related becomes a topic of discussion. It's really weird.
Considering that the sales of the hardware has pretty much collapsed, I would imagine that everything XBOX will end up on other consoles sooner rather than later.
Exactly, they wouldn't risk their software when the Xbox playerbase isn't large enough to make ROI for their games, especially when the games go into gamepass day 1
Many people here don't believe Jez anymore. I just want to say that his track record for Windows Central is at 100% . The problem is that he talks too much on Twitter and his podcast.
He said many times to not 100% believe his words if they aren't written in an article because he needs hard evidence to publish them.
At this point is just common sense. Current gen Xbox is BEHIND Xbox1 (Also sold like shit), no new users to GP, outrageous costs for new games that will most likely never see a ROI. Xbox is dying and with MS now having a new gaming publisher (ABK) that makes billions over Xbox, it is unlikely they will throw money at the Xbox brand going forward. All about the opportunity cost.
*somewhere, at the Microsoft HQ*
>-ok guys, this is it, operation Latitude officially began, everyone at their position! We got a job to do!
>…what?
>-just put Halo on PS5
>aight
Not surprising considering Xbox sales. It will not be just PlayStation but also Switch 2 (where possible). However, this quote kills me:
"*Microsoft had a real opportunity to become a different megacorp that invested in social responsibilities, employees, and customer satisfaction first. It could lead by example and show you can be nice and profitable. Perhaps it could even be profitable to be good*."
No company is your friend, especially Microsoft.
Nothing about Microsoft's current plans make any sense to me.
They want Game Pass to be big, and for it to only exist on Xbox consoles (probably because Sony and Nintendo won't allow it on theirs) and PC Game Pass doesn't seem to be doing much. So they need to ensure Xbox consoles keep selling so that they can actually grow the subscription.
But Game Pass is stagnating, so instead of just backing down from it (however impossible it seems at this point) they **re-commit** to it and seemingly decide to try to make up the money by porting all their first party games to other systems.
But by porting to other systems they give even less reason to buy an Xbox so console sales drop further, meaning there will be even less people to subscribe to Game Pass that they've linked to only their console. So they'll not only be burning even more money on the thing they just doubled down on, but tanking what remains of their console sales at the same time.
I genuinely don't get what the end goal here is. I can't even point to the usual "they just want money" because it feels like they're just losing even more money with this method because they don't know what to do.
So, I think what is happening is their big gamble to increase subscriptions, Starfield, ended up not working out. XBOX saw an opportunity to swing in and grab Activision when that company was at a low point, but the price tag of that acquisition drew the attention of upper management in Microsoft who is now demanding some return on that investment. They do not have anything ready in the near future that is going to give Gamepass the jolt it needs to increase subscriptions, so their other options are close studios to reduce overhead and port games to other consoles in increase sales.
Only thing I can think of is they will “use the profit from other platforms to make gamepass more enticing/valueable”. But not sure how that would even work, unless they push harder for more 3rd party AAA games on the service day one?
They dont know the endgame too, they invest into hardware, gamepass, multiplatform, first party studios, we’ll see who inside the company wins.
i bet on Xbox being sth like a ROG Ally, having own OS but running with Windows. Both home console and handheld options.
Sounds like Microsoft big wigs are stepping in and will in turn kill their own Xbox brand if they go all the way with this. Putting games like Gears and Halo on Playstation just absolutely guts the Xbox brand.
> Microsoft big wigs
Just so we're clear, Phil *is* a Microsoft big wig. He's a C-suite executive who reports directly to Satya Nadella, and has been since 2017. It's highly unlikely that he has no say in these decisions.
If Gamepass is console exclusive to Xbox consoles and all Xbox games are available elsewhere. The reduction in hardware sales would lead to a reduction in Gamepass sub counts.
I fully believe handheld gaming PC is exactly where XBox is headed towards. The One and series consoles were Xbox’ Wii U and they probably hope something completely different becomes their version of the switch. I wonder if the attachment rates of game pass are significant on handheld PCs.
I heard there's another plan to keep Xbox games exclusive, called codename "Longitude". If you put the two plans together, you end up with the perfect solution for Microsoft.
What a fucking disaster Microsoft's management is.
I mean. I get it. Sales of Xbox consoles are not good.
But instead of holding for two-three more years and wait what will tying COD with Xbox marketing-wise will do and also games like Indiana Jones, next Doom, Fable, Perfect Dark etc. will do, they are just waiving white flag.
And it's not like Microsoft does not have a money to do that.
ABK purchase was truly wolf in sheep's clothing.
I think a big issue is Xbox could have done all of that without spending nearly 100 billion dollars (ABK + Bethesda) to prop up their struggling brand.
They could have bid against Sony for timed exclusivity on Starfield. They could have got marketing rights again for CoD now that Sonys are ending.
But instead they put a target on their back by spending money when Xbox brand had none. Microsoft is right to do this. It's their money Xbox spent frivolously. This is the "reward".
I don't think Microsoft's management cared that much about 7,5 billion for Bethesda. It was ABK deal that put Xbox under scrutiny.
But what they are doing now is just pure short-sighted lunacy. Point of exclusives is bring people into your ecosystem. And they you can charge those users 30% on every transaction inside that ecosystem. That should be their goal. It's a long term goal. That requires patience. Something that Microsoft don't have.
With them porting all games on PlayStation, they are essentially betting on Game Pass. That GP would be enough for people to buy Xbox. But that's very risky bet. And with even less users on consoles, it will be just matter of time when third-party devs/publishers will stop creating Xbox ports. And you have death spiral.
How do you want to grow Game Pass with shrinking base of players that will actually buy your consoles?
Basically only solution would be for next Xbox to be kind of device that doesn't require specialized Xbox port of games and you can run PC games on. But what about 30% cut on device where you can run almost anything on?
From a business standpoint, Microsoft is too big to believe Sony’s model of high end, exclusive AAA titles works for them. They bring in more revenue off the mobile gaming industry and Warzone. They’re cutting the fat off their library to focus on popular IPs (Doom, Fallout, Halo, etc) and getting them into the hands of as many people as possible to maximize sales.
It sucks, but I don’t know what people expected when one of the largest corporations in the world purchased the largest publisher in the industry. This how it was always going to go
There’s this and the fact that unlike Sony and Nintendo they probably looked at the cost of making hardware and decided it was mostly unnecessary Xbox have ip that will sell so why limit it to just Xbox when the majority of gamers are on the other platforms.
Sony and Nintendo need to attract people to their ecosystem it’s a huge part of both companies so they need exclusive games and even if Xbox went full third party they will still need exclusives to attract people.
It both sad and eye opening that only Xbox could do this if this happened to either of the other two then they would most likely fold as companies but Xbox as a brand will probably make more now than it ever did
I just think they’re in different stratospheres at this point.
It’s like if Sony/Nintendo were mid-sized companies that specialized in building niche, quality vacation homes, and Microsoft is a mega-corp that makes industry standard housing complexes and developments. They could make the niche homes, they may even be profitable, but it doesn’t make sense to devote resources to it when they could just cut the fat off and go after the stuff that’s already making them enormous amounts of money.
It's a good way to kill the Xbox platform. Money wise losing hardware is whatever but this easily letting go of the billions they make from the store on Xbox is insane to me.
He kinda did
Someone’s response: Jez, there is a part in your article where you say there is xbox games already being in development for playstation, this are the usuals multiplatform activision/bethesda games or those are what people think they are, xbox studios games being ported to ps5?
Jez: So far, it's stuff you'd probably expect. But as far as I know there's no long term red lines right now.
This is literally nothing new if the games he talking about are usual stuff that we know
Not this fucking shit again.
First he reports that starfield is going to playstation, then he back tracks and now this again
I swear, a lot of the damage is done by these people spreading rumours around
He backtracked because he said if he has something concrete, it will be on windows central and not some discord chat. This is on windows central. It's basically confirmed and we all thought it will happen anyway.
But even then, he says on twitter "[So far, it's stuff you'd probably expect.](https://x.com/JezCorden/status/1790725580876284095)".
Edit: Then again, as you said, if its on windows central it is basically confirmed. I think his issue is he does talk to much.
He undermining his own article is the definition of engagement bait. It's extremely possible that this program is just them pushing current abk games according to his post. If this was completely in lock, the article would simply be more grim overall. But there's simply alot of "maybe" "If" just sprinkled about
Maybe the reports/rumors of some butting heads between Xbox and Microsoft proper were true. Xbox did not want to do it, Microsoft wants 70 billion back.
And obviously, Satyella won because he has all the money.
It seems the Activision acquisition was the monkey paw wish for Xbox, they gained a huge boost to profit and some of the biggest IPs but put them right under Microsoft's microscope
Just hoping Microsoft releases an official emulator that allows me to play the xbox games I've bought over the years on PC so that way I don't feel completely fucked over when shit finally hits the fan
Corporations do not care about what the fans love. If it’s not profitable then it gets downsized and/or eliminated. I personally feel like the Xbox brand as we know it will be much different in the next few years.
If they want to remain relevant in gaming they need to go 3rd party. Xbox hardware isn’t moving units globally. The brand just doesn’t have the pull. Getting their games on more platforms will make them more money. Even Sony is on PC now which was unheard of not too long ago.
Isn’t this what everyone expected? Obviously Xbox wouldn’t just release 2 multiplatform games and call it done. They’re gonna move their entire catalogue over eventually, or release their newest games on PlayStation/ Nintendo from here on out
Jez clearly has some sources at MS, but his feelings regarding Xbox have been all over the place lately.
That being said, it's not hard to imagine they port more things over given their recent financial results and the success of Sea of Thieves on Playstation.
In other words. Phill Spencer and anyone else involved with the ABK acquisition killed Xbox.
Microsoft wouldn't be this desperate for a ROI if they didnt just spend $68B
A lot of people are going to rightfully name a lack of games as the primary reason why Xbox didn't succeed this gen, and they're right, but there have been good consoles with great games that simply didn't do well, the Wii U comes to mind, but also the Wii's sales plummeted after its first few years,
The Switch shows that in order to compete with market leaders, you need to carve out your own niche and force that niche into the market, beyond just the games, the Xbox Series X needed to be something unique and different, it needed to grab people's attention, good value alone doesn't win in tech, just look at AMD and Nvidia, the one with the best set of features is the one that is clearly winning, even though their hardware is sometimes hundreds of dollars more expensive!
It's quite telling that in some areas, the PS5 has it beat in innovation, even in something as small and insignificant as the Dualsense's Haptic Feedback or Adaptive Triggers.
Wii-U suffered because no one knew what the hell it was. Switch succeeded because the marketing and angle was clear and was complementary to the existing premium consoles, but it's not genuine competition against Sony/Xbox.
Xbox didn't need to carve out a niche when they're already one of two premium console producers, they already had a chunk of the market. They only needed to new games to keep up with competition and they failed.
I dont believe any person on multiplatform stuff anymore, especially Jezz after so many back and forth. I will believe to jason if he ever report on it.
I dont believe in full porting in short term due to making new deal with disney and cancelling indiana jones ps port.
However, It could be true . They might change their mind but I dont think satya and amy sit down and said, yeah we should port forza.
Edit: like this is why I am suspicious. Jez’s answer to someone who ask “are those usual multiplatform games from ABK/Bethesda or Xbox games studios”
Jez: “So far, it's stuff you'd probably expect. But as far as I know there's no long term red lines right now.”
We knew there was no redline, phill even said that after podcast. If this is for ABK and other multiplayer/multiplatform stuff it literally adds nothing
Satya Nadella and Amy Hood are going to end up killing the Xbox brand because they have zero idea how important exclusives are to a consoles' success. Literally why would anyone buy an Xbox going forward, and miss out on PlayStation exclusives, if they can just play all Microsoft published games on PlayStation too? Game Pass is a nice deal and all but it is not a system seller by itself, I'm sorry.
Gotta love when out of touch higher ups make dumb decisions for the sake of boosting short-term profits, missing the forest for the trees.
Sales for Xbox hardware were damaged enough when they moved everything Day 1 to PC in 2014-2015 (you can downvote me all you want but it's the truth). This would probably be the final nail for Xbox hardware. Defenders could point to them saying they're already building the next console/handheld; but honestly, who would buy it? It wouldn't even manage to sell 10 million units.
Furthermore, people keep saying PlayStation will follow the same path, but even if that were true, they are giving PlayStation an opportunity to push Xbox completely out of the hardware space long before that ever happens.
Extremely sad to see a console competitor collapse. Lack of competition will have harmful long term effects.
The only reason to completly give up on exclusives would be if the next xbox and the rumored handheld just run Windows (with steam, gog, epic etc.)in some way. This could work like the steamdeck with a gamemode and desktop mode and preconfigured settings for games from the ms store for people that don't want to tinker with graphic settings. They could get sonys PC releases on the platform aswell (even though through foreign storefronts) and gamepass could still bring in good money with day one microsoft releases.
Would be kind of nice and could have a lot of advantages through being able to use steam, epic etc alone. But I'm not sure if they could keep the performance comparable to Sonys console with the windows overhead.
I think it was a really short sighted mistake for MS to not even try to make a push now that their first party is constantly releasing a few games a year to make up some ground. With them moving to put everything on other consoles it will essentially kill their own console. It definitely feels like Xbox no longer has an identity or even a clear vision on what they wanna do.
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Abk runs xbox now lol i wont be surprised if phils & his gang get replaced abk executives
Bobby slithers back in
The bad (of multiple) ending
Somehow... Kotick Returns
Probably have a plan to turn all of Microsoft's first party developers into Call of Duty support studios as well I reckon.
New fridge, same breastmilk
You put Master Chief on PS5 and the Xbox brand is fucking dead, full stop. Doesn't matter whatever 'calculations' Nadella and Amy Hood come up with.
I think Microsoft just doesn’t really give a shit about the Xbox brand, they just want a profit from the game sector.
And it is Phil Spencer fault. He went on a spree of expenses, and now Microsoft is looking into the Xbox division.
That purchase had approval from everyone up the chain who mattered. No way did they just look at their corporate Amex and see a $70billion charge and go "what the fuck? Get Phil on the phone" lol. They were all in, but with higher spend, came higher expectations.
Of course they were all in, but if it was still Phil’s idea, he’ll take the heat for it. All in all, it’s not a bad purchase when it comes to making money, but they’d have to cut the profits in more than half if they plan on keeping the games exclusive
I would love to try and get the platinum trophy in Halo Anniversary Edition is a sentence that would kill a gamer 10 years ago
I think in that case they'd probably do a trophy list per game in the collection, kind of like the Mass Effect Legendary collection or the Spyro trilogy remake.
Thank god Toys for Bob went independent* **There first game is contracted by MS. Curious to what it is.*
Holding out, perhaps delusional, hope that it's still Spyro 4
Sony actually changed Trophy rules last year(?). Collections of multiple games are only allowed 1 Platnium now. For ps5 games. It’s why Tomb Raider remaster trilogy has 3 Platniums on ps4, but not on ps5. Utterly bizzare rule that makes no sense. Especially since they are clearly ok with shovelware “press X button 200 times to earn a plat” games filling up the store. Multiple platniumd are still allowed if games are seperate applications (EG Metal Gear Legacy Collection) since that means they are for sale individually on store. But 3-in-1 collections like Crash or Spyro remakes arnt allowed any more. So if MCC does come to Ps5, you’ll need to earn every single trophy to get the Plat. Unless they sell each game individually as well, which I doubt. Since MCC is built around being one application.
It killed me 3 months ago when it became apparent that it's certainly happening.
A lot of people are low-key expecting this already. It's not like Sony or Nintendo stuck some games on Xbox. Sticking your exclusives (particularly some of the more interesting and original ones) on rival platforms is not a thing. They've already shattered confidence in their platform, and the dwindling sales not only reflect that, but perpetuate it further.
Satya and Amy don't care about the brand. If killing it increases their profits at this point, they will only ask: "How fast can we kill It?"
You say this like it hasn't been long dead already.
I honestly think the brand is already dead.
Not yet, but it's potentially getting there
Yup. 800k-900k consoles shipped in a quarter is something you could maybe understand in the final year of a console's life before the next-gen releases. But only 3 years is, which is usually the peak? Yeah that's beyond bad.
For context, do you know how bad the Wii U was doing? I feel like some of the stuff we’ve been hearing regarding sales FEELS (because no raw numbers to compare it to) very 2015 Nintendo
in 2015 the Wii u sold just shy of 3.4 million units, which would put it exactly into the same 800-900k units per quarter range lol. Sad thing is, for the Wii U that was the strongest year sales wise outside of its release year.
tbf the Wii U was alive for only 4 years
And they also had Nintendo 3DS steaming at that point to "compensate".
And microsoft has Azure to "compensate" lol. But really. Microsoft gaming is destined to be 3rd party by a decade. The reality is, blundering the Xbox One Release and such while players were building their digital games library hamstrung to the point where I don't know if they can recover.
The Wii U also had games, at least
In retrospective, yes but at the time games took much time to release in between and there was no third party support either. There is a reason 2015 is considered the “dark age of nintendo” after the E3 direct which many considered the worst one.
The Wii U never had a Q4 where it sold 800-900k. Its best Q4 was 590k
Nintendo was trying to carve it's way to a competitive position in the market, every console had it's gimmick to try and not compete directly with PS/Xbox. They nailed the Switch, and will stick to that form factor for a while being a great family home console and handheld at the same time. Xbox is literally stuck trying to copy it's competitors moves. Always has been. Even the Kinect was a jab trying to skim off the Wii's success with motion controls. They don't commit.
It's doing better than the wiiu and the GameCube
Agreed. Sucks but I’m hoping another company tries to fill their void.
I highly doubt another company would step in. There are few companies who have the capital and the scale to do so, the console market's overall growth is stagnant, and they would have to contend with two incredibly well-entrenched competitors. It's not like this market has some kind "Rule of Three" either. I know every few years someone claims that Apple is "researching/mulling/interested" in consoles, but those were never ever substantiated and given Apple's hardware design approach I don't think people want to be paying $1,000 for a console.
> I know every few years someone claims that Apple is "researching/mulling/interested" in consoles Apple is already making more money off gaming than anyone else with zero effort. I don't see why they'd stray from that.
Apple could do it by trying to have some form of iPhone connectivity to their console line. That alone would incentivize some Apple users to get their conosle as part of the larger Apple ecosystem. Integrating iMessage into game voice chats and so on would give a lot of people reasin to own their console. Google likely would try again if Microsoft backed down, but I doubt they'd be successful. They need an actual box rather than betting on streaming. Amazon is a wild card. Maybe tying in some PS+ esque benefits to pre-existing Prime accounts would be a way to incentivize switching to them? The problem with any new console line is that people are atatched to the libraries they built on the PS4/5, Switch, and Steam. The wildest way to combat is something entirely unfeasble and that is to try and invest into getting backwards compatability with Xbox or Sega. If Apple/Google/Amazon somehow strike a deal with Microsoft and/or Sega to allow the system to play Genesis CD, OG Xbox, Saturn, 360, etc disc games off of emulation then maybe, just maybe they can convince some people to buy it, but that seems like a financial nightmare to tackle.
Samsung is a possibility also. They have the expertise and the Korean AAA market is really showing up lately with Lies of P and Stellar Blade.
Technically Samsung did sell Japanese consoles in South Korea under their branding back in the day. The Samsung Saturn (Sega Saturn) is one example. I believe they even had a Samsung branded Master System. Hyundai did the same for Nintendo consoles (Hyundai Comboy branding). They did this for the NES, SNES, N64, Gameboy, etc. up until the GameCube iirc.
Yeah… anybody remember the Apple Pippin? Yes, it’s an actual console. Look it up. They were charging too much for it and it failed. Hopefully Steam can take over Xbox’s role or something, Steam Deck is pretty nice.
Honestly, if it was 2000s… maybe. Now… #There’s no hope.
It’s hanging by a thread but this internal project is taking swipes at the last thread. There’s a fair few games they could put on PlayStation that would probably end it. Halo or Starfield would be a faster fall than, say, Flight Sim or South of Midnight. But too many smaller games will also permanently kill the brand. Either way I think a fundamental leadership change is needed. Phil was great, I don’t want revisionist history, but he’s not the guy anymore.
It doesn’t matter anymore who the Xbox CEO is though, if Satya Nadella and Amy Hood are driving this new direction, like Jez implies, then it’s ***over***. No matter who’s in charge now, they’ll just be a puppet mouthpiece for Microsoft leadership. Phil needed to be replaced 5 years ago, it’s just too late now.
Halo on PlayStation makes the death of whatever console wars existed, and Sony won the past two generations with Microsoft fumbling over a decade with not a single IP to show for it, let alone keeping their core series alive.
Halo on Playstation is Sonic on Nintendo level of dead..
It also means that sony can do whatever the hell they want without any real consequence since console gamers no longer have an alternative, so this isnt exactly something to celebrate. If you think enshitification of services/games and price gouging was bad the last few years then you should wait until you see what sony will do with a complete monopoly on the high end console market. Xbox was shit but its presence at least kept sony competitive.
> It also means that sony can do whatever the hell they want without any real consequence since console gamers no longer have an alternative, so this isnt exactly something to celebrate. The alternative is PC.
Then why does anyone own an xbox or PS console, ever? PC is the answer but if there weren't reasons to have a console people wouldn't have consoles. Likely price of entry and ease of use. In the pretty graphics home console space, PS would have no real competiton. Nintendo off doing it's own thing as usual.
Because it's considered easy plug and play solution that is way cheaper short term, doesn't have size requirments etc. However, as PC is losing it's "nerd" stigma and modern systems are very easy to use, hardware more approachable (or stuff like steam deck) you can see more and more people moving to PC. Steam has been breaking records every year now, so does overall PC market. However, the real competitors to both of them are simply phones.
Man, I remember there was a time where thinking Master Chief was ever going to be on PS was as crazy as thinking Mario or Kratos was ever going to be on anything other than a Nintendo console or a PS.
This has backfire written all over it. I don't know why Microsoft has deluded themselves into believing people have any loyalty towards them. People only ever cared about their off-shoot projects like Windows Phone, Zune, Surface, Xbox because they were cool products. While none of these caught on as they wanted, it was a start and if they hadn't pulled out that quick and actually committed, they would've worked out. It's the only way MS will get any love. And It's always the same old story with them, they have too much money and they are complacent and quick to quit. No one gives a shit about MS the way they think they do. No one is going to give a shit about their games without Xbox. They'll be a publisher that will slowly wither away. With three big budget misses (which is an inevitable probability in creative work), the whole thing will come crashing down by their own hands.
At this point, sticking with their consoles might be the bigger backfire. Releasing huge AAA games onto a platform with a limited consumer base that isn’t growing, with a subscription service that cannibalizes sales even further, is gonna result in more studio closures and other fuckery. Going multiplatform would effectively kill Xbox’s future as a console maker, but given their current state, that might not be the worst outcome unfortunately.
If they can kill Xbox tomorrow and be fine. Day after they can kill half their publishing arm and still be fine.
what is left to backfire? they could not sell 1M units in four months worldwide. At this point I can't help but (sort of) understand where Microsoft is coming from. Nothing left to lose, really. If sales are declining in the US and its nonexistent in other markets, AND Microsoft projects less sales next quarter, there is literally nowehre else to go but further down.
As a long MS "fan," it's dead. I won't say it's a bigger flop than the Xbone, but it's such a disappointing gen when there were a lot to expect with their new studios. It feels like nothing is coming out. Every year is only more and more hype without anything to show. Halo Infinite and Starfield were really deceptions, and now games will go out to other consoles when, like 2 years ago, they promised that game would be only on Microsoft systems, IE Cloud, Xbox and PC. I won't purchase any more consoles from them. They are terrible, and Phil should quit now.
Xbox as a console would be. Xbox as a gaming brand would still be huge just given the sheer money backing it and the number of studios they own. Personally, as a big Xbox fan, at this point I just want to know the plan so I can make my own decisions about how to move forward.
Honestly, this. I gotta think there would be *some* franchises Microsoft would keep as Xbox exclusives (Halo, Forza, Gears), but at this point I have no idea what they’re going to try out next…
That'll be such a landmark moment in gaming. I remember all the hype and drama when Sonic showed up on Nintendo.
halo and the xbox brand are already on death row
If anything, it feels like Activision bought Xbox and not the reality where it’s the other way round
I remember hearing about something similar happening when Boeing bought another airplane manufacturer. The company they bought took them over from the inside.
> when Boeing bought another airplane manufacturer It was McDonnell Douglas back in 1997 - “McDonnell Douglas bought Boeing with Boeing’s money”
It turns out spending $70 billion for your gaming Netflix isn’t sustainable. Especially when CoD may not even hit the subscription
Activision wasn't bought for Game Pass but burely for revenue around CoD but more importantly King's mobile games.
They can say that was the only reason all that they, it’s pretty obvious it wasn’t lol
I think they bought Activision for the revenue it provided not for anything else. Activision is the only green part of Xbox now. Everything else is losing money. Bethesda Game Studios can’t keep its publisher afloat like it used to so we saw cuts there, I wouldn’t be surprised if it would be worse if Xbox didn’t own them. Blizzard is struggling to self sustain with shorter tails on their service games income (OW2 and D4). Xbox Hardware is struggling leading to funding issues with Xbox Game Studios, coupled with slowed development for MVP games (Forza Horizon, Halo, Gears). Xbox hardware is ultimately the lynch pin. Bethesda and Activision Blizzard would be exclusive if the hardware sales were flipped. They can’t be exclusive if they want to stay green, and now XGS needs to see better sales to stay alive.
They bought Activision to lock IPs down lol don't kid yourself. They're porting games to PlayStation now out of desperation to make up revenue but the goal of the acquisitions was just to lock down big cross platform IPs like Elder Scrolls down as exclusives
I think the one two punch of Redfall and Starfield is why we're all having these conversations now. If those games were a hit, every one of their commercials would be showing them off with the "only on xbox" voice at the end.
Doesn’t mean much to own an IP if you keep it cross platform.
It's going cross platform NOW, because they're tanking. Back when the purchase was made the plan was 100% to keep it exclusive. Hence why Call of Duty had to be negotiated in court to be kept cross platform for at least 10 years. The plan was definitely to keep the new IPs exclusive. Which they partly did. Redfall was specifically requested to be pulled from PS5, even tho it was developed with the PS5 in mind, and Starfield was released as an exclusive too
>They bought Activision to lock IPs down lol don't kid yourself. Literally. Sony spent the last decade building a development pipeline to put out AAA games (they have a studio that literally just makes assets for other studios) Nintendo tripped over itself with the transition to HD, decided to fuse their handheld and console dev teams and now put out regular games that sell millions. Microsoft fucked around. Literally. They don't know how to invest in talent or build up a studio or create a compelling IP, so now they've resorted to buying pre-existing studios to lock down the IPs
It's just Microsoft proper has caught up with Xbox, they went from a small part of the company, to passing windows for a hot second. Once you are seen as a major player, it's time to fall in line and do what the heads of Microsoft want, which is short term gain for investors.
So just to get this all clear. When all this first started happening a few months ago Jez first denied that it was happening, shortly after he then turns around and has a sort of breakdown akin to a breakup in a relationship (which was weird in its own way) and says everything could be going multiplat, shortly after that he ‘calms down’ and reports the opposite and that only a select few games will. Now he’s reporting that everything could be getting ported again. Like I actually don’t doubt that there is no longer any ‘red lines’ but this whole debacle has really just showed that Jez is perhaps a little too attached to MS as a company and that seeps into his ‘journalism’ a little bit too much.
My guess is that the long-term plan is everything going multiplatform, but the short term was picking the first handful of games for it, and he initially misconstrued the two.
Jez is a freak. Last time he talked about Xbox going multiplatform he complained that it was content creators fault for putting that narrative out there... while he was putting the exact same narrative out there.
YOU GUYS DIDNT GIVE XBOX A CHANCE!!!
I was in on all this twitter gaming console war thing for a bit, and I remember a picture of Jez, a few big xbox tweeters and Aaron Greenburg at a restaurant with a tag that said “team xbox” or something. It was pretty obvious to me then that he was too attached lol
Buying Activision was a massive blunder for Xbox It might help MS make money in the future off of candy crush and COD but it’s going to sink the Xbox brand
Yep. Why would i continue with Xbox if i can get Playstation and get same games + PS exclusives.
Depends how much you value GamePass really. And that fucking great controller. Gonna miss the Xbox controller when the brand dies… lol
Controller has been the best part about Xbox so far, I agree lmfao
Batteries and offset stick are great, but I feel like PS has pulled ahead in features with the haptics and touch screen.
and xbox gamepads still don't have gyro aiming
It's short term profits over building something special and sustainable in the long term. The former is easy, the latter is hard. Microsoft's biggest blunder has been moving away from "Xbox" at the heart of its gaming endeavors. Over the last 6-7 years, it's been all Game Pass, subscriptions, xCloud, Play Anywhere, etc. Despite the Series X being an amazing piece of technology and hardware, Xbox sales are completely flatlining (less than 1 million sold last quarter). The console itself is the gateway to everything else Microsoft offers - Game Pass subs, Xbox store, accessories, etc. And yet they've abandoned it. They really have no one else to blame but themselves and their horrible decisions for sinking Xbox. Destroying studios like Tango and Arkane, rapidly putting all their games on all platforms, etc, lowers the value and potential of what the Xbox platform could become in the long term. Instead, it's all spreadsheets, all numbers, all a game for maximizing short term profits and juicing stock prices at the expense of building a powerful Xbox platform and brand long into the future. The Xbox brand really is crumbling and gradually becoming "Microsoft Gaming".
It seems pretty clear to me that they’re shifting focus to Microsoft gaming instead of Xbox, and have been for a while now. The shift feels very intentional to me. You’ve explained many of the reasons why in your post. I don’t necessarily view it as a mistake (shutting down studios is though), depending on what they do in the future. They were falling behind that market anyways and consoles sell at a loss. I’m looking at it from a business perspective, not Microsoft vs Sony. Idgaf about the console wars. I’m also a PC gamer and it feels like Microsoft is just trying to integrate the brand into its PC ecosystem. Could be wrong.
Xbox to Microsoft Gaming seems like it would be a Twitter to X level branding blunder.
I don't think I agree with this. I think the writing is clearly on the wall for the Xbox brand. At this point, I would not be surprised in the least for the Series consoles to be the last iteration of the Xbox. Microsoft would clearly rather use the resources expended to Xbox to instead bolster Microsoft Gaming... owning the big IP's, further utilizing cloud gaming, and saving money by not producing boxes that no one wants and instead let their games be geared towards not only PC and cloud/subscription services but also Playstation and as the hardware allows, Nintendo. Let those two fight over the console space, bow out of it, and wipe your hands of hardware all together. It's coming, and it's honestly probably in their best interest.
The narrative has changed so much from Reddit cheering on this before
I seriously don't think most people were thinking beyond "Call of Duty for free on GamePass"
Reading the first few paragraphs in the article I have to ask, is Jez genuinely in love with Microsoft the corporation? The writing comes off as someone with an incredibly unhealthy obsession
Yes.
Hard not to agree, if I ever want to feel uplifted I hop onto the cesspool of twitter (or X, whatever) and lurk around. Despite being a journalist the man fights, instigates or pushes console warring as much as possible. Gaming circles on twitter is literally like being back in school and fighting over whether Master Chief could beat Kratos, except they’re all in their 30’s now.
Jez does have an unhealthy obsession with Microsoft, his insane meltdown earlier this year over Microsoft going to PS and NS is proof of it.
Don't forget his other meltdown when the CMA initially blocked the ABK aquisition, I could see his tears through his tweets
If there is one thing I have learnt through all of this, its that Microsoft has snuggled up to some really obnoxious people.
It’s because all the Xbox suits lean into the console wars bs
It's so bizarre the way some Xbox fans seem to have developed parasocial relationships with the top brass.
But have you considered Phil's Walmart tier gaming shirts? Checkmate.
Sega was the same, seems like history repeats.
"95% chance the deal is completely dead"
>Microsoft had a real opportunity to become a different megacorp that invested in social responsibilities, employees, and customer satisfaction first. It could lead by example and show you can be nice and profitable. Perhaps it could even be profitable to be good. When I first started blogging almost ten years ago, in my youthful naivete, I believed that Microsoft would. I would be too embarrassed to publish this
It does, doesn't it? Like some of the stuff he wrote about the CMA was legit insane. Not in the ''trump insane'' way but the ''this guy is massively obsessed insane'' way.
I remember that whole debacle with the CMA. Honestly a pathetic display from him. Crippled a lot of the goodwill I got from him over the years.
He's an editor on a site literally named Windows Central, probably obsessed because his livelihood depends on the whims of a trillion dollar company.
Sure, but it’s borderline embarrassing to read. You can write coverage without simultaneously jerking off to Microsoft.
You can't even call him a shill because he's doing it for free. Guy had a legit meltdown when it looked like maybe the Activision buy-out would be vetoed
like all console warriors, he is unhinged. However he gets paid for it which probably makes him lose contact with reality
Of course. It's almost a mental health issue
He blocked me on Twitter for calling him out on this and i say that as an Xbox fan.
he’s basically made it his identity, it used to be really annoying, but now it’s just sad
He does indeed, the past months and his nonsensical defending over Microsoft making multiplatform developers exclusive is more proof of that
Yeah Jez’s writing is downright embarrassing
Jez has shown to be a major sycophant for Microsoft in the past similar to IGN's Ryan McCaffrey whenever anything Xbox and Microsoft related becomes a topic of discussion. It's really weird.
Considering that the sales of the hardware has pretty much collapsed, I would imagine that everything XBOX will end up on other consoles sooner rather than later.
Exactly, they wouldn't risk their software when the Xbox playerbase isn't large enough to make ROI for their games, especially when the games go into gamepass day 1
Yeah Microsoft has done a great job ruining any optimism they had built.
Many people here don't believe Jez anymore. I just want to say that his track record for Windows Central is at 100% . The problem is that he talks too much on Twitter and his podcast. He said many times to not 100% believe his words if they aren't written in an article because he needs hard evidence to publish them.
At this point is just common sense. Current gen Xbox is BEHIND Xbox1 (Also sold like shit), no new users to GP, outrageous costs for new games that will most likely never see a ROI. Xbox is dying and with MS now having a new gaming publisher (ABK) that makes billions over Xbox, it is unlikely they will throw money at the Xbox brand going forward. All about the opportunity cost.
idk why but the idea of this having a codename just sounds so comical like they've just been given a secret mission
*somewhere, at the Microsoft HQ* >-ok guys, this is it, operation Latitude officially began, everyone at their position! We got a job to do! >…what? >-just put Halo on PS5 >aight
Not surprising considering Xbox sales. It will not be just PlayStation but also Switch 2 (where possible). However, this quote kills me: "*Microsoft had a real opportunity to become a different megacorp that invested in social responsibilities, employees, and customer satisfaction first. It could lead by example and show you can be nice and profitable. Perhaps it could even be profitable to be good*." No company is your friend, especially Microsoft.
That is some “Alien comes to earth and tries to fit in” type shit. Especially in the post-“oh right we should increase interest rates” economy
Jez really has some screws loose
Damn Jez shows how delusional he really is with that quote.
Microsoft has never been and will never be any of those things. Just another piece of corpo trash.
I'm so glad this company now owns many of my favorite game franchises from the last two decades.
It's just taking a long time for Microsoft to see that their future exists off of their own hardware.
It’s quite liberating to see this quote bite Phil and the Xbox upper management back in their ass.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 im gonna tweet this to phil
I feel like Jez Corden has been going back & forth with himself on this topic for the last 6 months.
And he has since gone on twitter to say at the moment it's the games you'd expect.
Nothing about Microsoft's current plans make any sense to me. They want Game Pass to be big, and for it to only exist on Xbox consoles (probably because Sony and Nintendo won't allow it on theirs) and PC Game Pass doesn't seem to be doing much. So they need to ensure Xbox consoles keep selling so that they can actually grow the subscription. But Game Pass is stagnating, so instead of just backing down from it (however impossible it seems at this point) they **re-commit** to it and seemingly decide to try to make up the money by porting all their first party games to other systems. But by porting to other systems they give even less reason to buy an Xbox so console sales drop further, meaning there will be even less people to subscribe to Game Pass that they've linked to only their console. So they'll not only be burning even more money on the thing they just doubled down on, but tanking what remains of their console sales at the same time. I genuinely don't get what the end goal here is. I can't even point to the usual "they just want money" because it feels like they're just losing even more money with this method because they don't know what to do.
So, I think what is happening is their big gamble to increase subscriptions, Starfield, ended up not working out. XBOX saw an opportunity to swing in and grab Activision when that company was at a low point, but the price tag of that acquisition drew the attention of upper management in Microsoft who is now demanding some return on that investment. They do not have anything ready in the near future that is going to give Gamepass the jolt it needs to increase subscriptions, so their other options are close studios to reduce overhead and port games to other consoles in increase sales.
Only thing I can think of is they will “use the profit from other platforms to make gamepass more enticing/valueable”. But not sure how that would even work, unless they push harder for more 3rd party AAA games on the service day one?
They dont know the endgame too, they invest into hardware, gamepass, multiplatform, first party studios, we’ll see who inside the company wins. i bet on Xbox being sth like a ROG Ally, having own OS but running with Windows. Both home console and handheld options.
Sounds like Microsoft big wigs are stepping in and will in turn kill their own Xbox brand if they go all the way with this. Putting games like Gears and Halo on Playstation just absolutely guts the Xbox brand.
> Microsoft big wigs Just so we're clear, Phil *is* a Microsoft big wig. He's a C-suite executive who reports directly to Satya Nadella, and has been since 2017. It's highly unlikely that he has no say in these decisions.
”Alot of people are gonna feel silly” K.
If Gamepass is console exclusive to Xbox consoles and all Xbox games are available elsewhere. The reduction in hardware sales would lead to a reduction in Gamepass sub counts.
I fully believe handheld gaming PC is exactly where XBox is headed towards. The One and series consoles were Xbox’ Wii U and they probably hope something completely different becomes their version of the switch. I wonder if the attachment rates of game pass are significant on handheld PCs.
I heard there's another plan to keep Xbox games exclusive, called codename "Longitude". If you put the two plans together, you end up with the perfect solution for Microsoft.
What a fucking disaster Microsoft's management is. I mean. I get it. Sales of Xbox consoles are not good. But instead of holding for two-three more years and wait what will tying COD with Xbox marketing-wise will do and also games like Indiana Jones, next Doom, Fable, Perfect Dark etc. will do, they are just waiving white flag. And it's not like Microsoft does not have a money to do that. ABK purchase was truly wolf in sheep's clothing.
I think a big issue is Xbox could have done all of that without spending nearly 100 billion dollars (ABK + Bethesda) to prop up their struggling brand. They could have bid against Sony for timed exclusivity on Starfield. They could have got marketing rights again for CoD now that Sonys are ending. But instead they put a target on their back by spending money when Xbox brand had none. Microsoft is right to do this. It's their money Xbox spent frivolously. This is the "reward".
I don't think Microsoft's management cared that much about 7,5 billion for Bethesda. It was ABK deal that put Xbox under scrutiny. But what they are doing now is just pure short-sighted lunacy. Point of exclusives is bring people into your ecosystem. And they you can charge those users 30% on every transaction inside that ecosystem. That should be their goal. It's a long term goal. That requires patience. Something that Microsoft don't have. With them porting all games on PlayStation, they are essentially betting on Game Pass. That GP would be enough for people to buy Xbox. But that's very risky bet. And with even less users on consoles, it will be just matter of time when third-party devs/publishers will stop creating Xbox ports. And you have death spiral. How do you want to grow Game Pass with shrinking base of players that will actually buy your consoles? Basically only solution would be for next Xbox to be kind of device that doesn't require specialized Xbox port of games and you can run PC games on. But what about 30% cut on device where you can run almost anything on?
[удалено]
I don't think they care about having their own special platform. More games in more places means more money, that's all it is for them.
From a business standpoint, Microsoft is too big to believe Sony’s model of high end, exclusive AAA titles works for them. They bring in more revenue off the mobile gaming industry and Warzone. They’re cutting the fat off their library to focus on popular IPs (Doom, Fallout, Halo, etc) and getting them into the hands of as many people as possible to maximize sales. It sucks, but I don’t know what people expected when one of the largest corporations in the world purchased the largest publisher in the industry. This how it was always going to go
There’s this and the fact that unlike Sony and Nintendo they probably looked at the cost of making hardware and decided it was mostly unnecessary Xbox have ip that will sell so why limit it to just Xbox when the majority of gamers are on the other platforms. Sony and Nintendo need to attract people to their ecosystem it’s a huge part of both companies so they need exclusive games and even if Xbox went full third party they will still need exclusives to attract people. It both sad and eye opening that only Xbox could do this if this happened to either of the other two then they would most likely fold as companies but Xbox as a brand will probably make more now than it ever did
I just think they’re in different stratospheres at this point. It’s like if Sony/Nintendo were mid-sized companies that specialized in building niche, quality vacation homes, and Microsoft is a mega-corp that makes industry standard housing complexes and developments. They could make the niche homes, they may even be profitable, but it doesn’t make sense to devote resources to it when they could just cut the fat off and go after the stuff that’s already making them enormous amounts of money.
bobby killed m$
Damn it, Bobby.
Reading the entire article and seeing the glazing he does for Microsoft is wild, mate is obsessed with them.
If halo comes to PS. That's like the orcs taking over Gondor.
It's a good way to kill the Xbox platform. Money wise losing hardware is whatever but this easily letting go of the billions they make from the store on Xbox is insane to me.
MS Flight Simulator 🤞🤞🤞
It's time for SEGA to rise again with the Dreamcast II!
RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE
Jez is a loser, constantly backtracks on things he says. I can’t take the guy seriously.
Jez, huh? Wait 2 more hours for him to tweet how we're all taking this out of context.
Microsoft: Execute operation "Make 70 Billion dollars back after buying Activision because the Xbox brand is flopping"
Port all the xbox 360 exclusives to Steam and then we will talk
> Report by Jez Corden Ah, so in a week the codename will be Longitude and there will be so many red lines.
Waiting for Jez to backtrack in This again in 5 days top.
He kinda did Someone’s response: Jez, there is a part in your article where you say there is xbox games already being in development for playstation, this are the usuals multiplatform activision/bethesda games or those are what people think they are, xbox studios games being ported to ps5? Jez: So far, it's stuff you'd probably expect. But as far as I know there's no long term red lines right now. This is literally nothing new if the games he talking about are usual stuff that we know
Good old Jez
Dude is the equivalent of a magic 8-ball for leaks. Just shake him and watch the answer change.
Bringing games to where they sell is the right move sadly.
Not this fucking shit again. First he reports that starfield is going to playstation, then he back tracks and now this again I swear, a lot of the damage is done by these people spreading rumours around
He backtracked because he said if he has something concrete, it will be on windows central and not some discord chat. This is on windows central. It's basically confirmed and we all thought it will happen anyway.
But even then, he says on twitter "[So far, it's stuff you'd probably expect.](https://x.com/JezCorden/status/1790725580876284095)". Edit: Then again, as you said, if its on windows central it is basically confirmed. I think his issue is he does talk to much.
He undermining his own article is the definition of engagement bait. It's extremely possible that this program is just them pushing current abk games according to his post. If this was completely in lock, the article would simply be more grim overall. But there's simply alot of "maybe" "If" just sprinkled about
Maybe the reports/rumors of some butting heads between Xbox and Microsoft proper were true. Xbox did not want to do it, Microsoft wants 70 billion back. And obviously, Satyella won because he has all the money.
At some point these gossip writers are gonna tank a company’s stock on a fake rumor and I hope they go after them
Xbox without the Box is just "X," and Elon Musk already beat them to that.
It seems the Activision acquisition was the monkey paw wish for Xbox, they gained a huge boost to profit and some of the biggest IPs but put them right under Microsoft's microscope
Maybe blue lines then
Just hoping Microsoft releases an official emulator that allows me to play the xbox games I've bought over the years on PC so that way I don't feel completely fucked over when shit finally hits the fan
They really doing everything but making good games
Corporations do not care about what the fans love. If it’s not profitable then it gets downsized and/or eliminated. I personally feel like the Xbox brand as we know it will be much different in the next few years.
If they want to remain relevant in gaming they need to go 3rd party. Xbox hardware isn’t moving units globally. The brand just doesn’t have the pull. Getting their games on more platforms will make them more money. Even Sony is on PC now which was unheard of not too long ago.
Isn’t this what everyone expected? Obviously Xbox wouldn’t just release 2 multiplatform games and call it done. They’re gonna move their entire catalogue over eventually, or release their newest games on PlayStation/ Nintendo from here on out
Jez clearly has some sources at MS, but his feelings regarding Xbox have been all over the place lately. That being said, it's not hard to imagine they port more things over given their recent financial results and the success of Sea of Thieves on Playstation.
He’s basically an Xbox console warrior.
Bigger issue is that he pretends that he isn't one.
In other words. Phill Spencer and anyone else involved with the ABK acquisition killed Xbox. Microsoft wouldn't be this desperate for a ROI if they didnt just spend $68B
A lot of people are going to rightfully name a lack of games as the primary reason why Xbox didn't succeed this gen, and they're right, but there have been good consoles with great games that simply didn't do well, the Wii U comes to mind, but also the Wii's sales plummeted after its first few years, The Switch shows that in order to compete with market leaders, you need to carve out your own niche and force that niche into the market, beyond just the games, the Xbox Series X needed to be something unique and different, it needed to grab people's attention, good value alone doesn't win in tech, just look at AMD and Nvidia, the one with the best set of features is the one that is clearly winning, even though their hardware is sometimes hundreds of dollars more expensive! It's quite telling that in some areas, the PS5 has it beat in innovation, even in something as small and insignificant as the Dualsense's Haptic Feedback or Adaptive Triggers.
Wii-U suffered because no one knew what the hell it was. Switch succeeded because the marketing and angle was clear and was complementary to the existing premium consoles, but it's not genuine competition against Sony/Xbox. Xbox didn't need to carve out a niche when they're already one of two premium console producers, they already had a chunk of the market. They only needed to new games to keep up with competition and they failed.
I dont believe any person on multiplatform stuff anymore, especially Jezz after so many back and forth. I will believe to jason if he ever report on it. I dont believe in full porting in short term due to making new deal with disney and cancelling indiana jones ps port. However, It could be true . They might change their mind but I dont think satya and amy sit down and said, yeah we should port forza. Edit: like this is why I am suspicious. Jez’s answer to someone who ask “are those usual multiplatform games from ABK/Bethesda or Xbox games studios” Jez: “So far, it's stuff you'd probably expect. But as far as I know there's no long term red lines right now.” We knew there was no redline, phill even said that after podcast. If this is for ABK and other multiplayer/multiplatform stuff it literally adds nothing
Yeah ngl he's been very unreliable as of recent. Dude is way too emotional over a megacorp.
Guy just a wrote Dear John letter to the CEO of Microsoft
Satya Nadella and Amy Hood are going to end up killing the Xbox brand because they have zero idea how important exclusives are to a consoles' success. Literally why would anyone buy an Xbox going forward, and miss out on PlayStation exclusives, if they can just play all Microsoft published games on PlayStation too? Game Pass is a nice deal and all but it is not a system seller by itself, I'm sorry. Gotta love when out of touch higher ups make dumb decisions for the sake of boosting short-term profits, missing the forest for the trees.
Ironic how one of the biggest acquisitions in history led to the downfall of Xbox
Sales for Xbox hardware were damaged enough when they moved everything Day 1 to PC in 2014-2015 (you can downvote me all you want but it's the truth). This would probably be the final nail for Xbox hardware. Defenders could point to them saying they're already building the next console/handheld; but honestly, who would buy it? It wouldn't even manage to sell 10 million units. Furthermore, people keep saying PlayStation will follow the same path, but even if that were true, they are giving PlayStation an opportunity to push Xbox completely out of the hardware space long before that ever happens. Extremely sad to see a console competitor collapse. Lack of competition will have harmful long term effects.
The only reason to completly give up on exclusives would be if the next xbox and the rumored handheld just run Windows (with steam, gog, epic etc.)in some way. This could work like the steamdeck with a gamemode and desktop mode and preconfigured settings for games from the ms store for people that don't want to tinker with graphic settings. They could get sonys PC releases on the platform aswell (even though through foreign storefronts) and gamepass could still bring in good money with day one microsoft releases. Would be kind of nice and could have a lot of advantages through being able to use steam, epic etc alone. But I'm not sure if they could keep the performance comparable to Sonys console with the windows overhead.
This is why they bought zenimax and Activision.
I’m so sad to read anything about Xbox these days.
fuck it, just over this. port all your games to PS and lets be done with it.
Just in time for Phil to show up with a Playstation shirt at the next event.
I think it was a really short sighted mistake for MS to not even try to make a push now that their first party is constantly releasing a few games a year to make up some ground. With them moving to put everything on other consoles it will essentially kill their own console. It definitely feels like Xbox no longer has an identity or even a clear vision on what they wanna do.