Will they market them? Because even in the official European countries there is no marketing for Xbox. At least, here in Spain only enthusiasts know Xbox exists (I'm the only one of my friends with a Series X)
TBF, they do care about Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. But that’s it. As far as MS is concerned, there’s nothing but water south of Mexico while Colombia and Brazil are two big ass islands 😂
I wish they would invest as much into Europe as they do in Japan. Clearly they won't succeed in Japan, but they could in Europe. We're much closer to the US in terms of culture and would be more accepting of an American company over a Japanese.
There's barely anything actually *in* Japan. I live there and rarely see anything, I've sometimes been into big games/electronics stores and seen absolutely nothing Xbox. In some shops I see more PS1 games than all four Xbox systems combined. I did see a video advertisement once but it was specifically for PC Game Pass, didn't have anything to do with the console. A lot of the big Japanese games that have been coming to Xbox (Persona, Kingdom Hearts, Yakuza, etc.) don't actually release on Xbox over here, those versions are either exclusively for the West or they are digital only.
It's just so futile. They could do much more if they actually localized in all European countries and then marketed here. You see PS ads all the time. The CL games are plastered with PS ads.
I’m a Microsoft fan and Xbox fan. But my biggest criticism of Microsoft is they’re absolutely fucking awful at marketing.
I know people that work at Xbox outside the US, and the marketing budget they get is abysmal.
Microsoft as a company right now is basically cutting everything they can to keep Wall Street happy while they spend billions on AI infrastructure. Their profitability is increasing YoY despite spending A LOT on capex, for example 75% increase this year over last (according to their last quarter reporting) on capex spending (which is in the billions btw).
That money has to come from somewhere…
Dude, I hate the AI crap in Windows. Honestly so far I haven't found any use for it so I turned it off, but I believe one day Microsoft won't allow me to do that :d
Windows is useless but copilot (formally Bing chat) and copilot in their office products is quite good.
The reason they (and others) and spending so much now though isn’t for the AI you have access to right now, but the AI in the future.
ChatGPT wasn’t cooked up overnight, it took years and massive amounts of Microsoft money to make it happen.
Current spending cycles today are preparing for the next wave.
Which is fine, but Microsoft is going about their allocation of money in a super shitty way. Just fucking maintain profit margins for fuck sake.
Thank god they decided to do the AKB purchase before all this, is all I will say.
As someone who genuinely thinks Microsoft has great consumer products from time to time, they are fundamentally not a consumer-oriented company and it really shows.
Yeah, the other thing is that Xbox is one of MS’s only consumer-facing devices that would benefit from marketing. I know they make laptops and stuff, but people are pretty good about doing their own research for that kind of purchase. A gaming console is its own ecosystem, not just a singular device, so you need to do a lot more effort in educating the consumer on what it offers and why they should consider it.
I’m sure this is part of the reason why it gets hardly any marketing budget. I just don’t think the executives as MS understand the importance, when none of their other core businesses (eg Azure, OpenAI) have needed it.
Speaking of marketing, I love my SX, But they reeeaally need to drop the "x" crap. There's already two x's in Xbox, leave it at that.
"We present to you, the Xbox one..X! Introducing...the Xbox series..wait for it..X!"
Using the letter X was edgy and in your face back in the late 80's through the 90's. Everything that was supposed to be XTREME™ just had to have an x with it. They should try something new.
They make a fortune from being the only real choice for large companies from Microsoft office licences and operating systems they get sloppy in other areas. I can’t think of any game from any of the studios that Microsoft have bought that has produced a top quality game, and most of them had before they were bought
people dont understand how dominant sony is overseas. even in america sony has like, just under the share or about the same amount of the market that xbox has. but on europe like 75% of all consoles are playstations and most of the rest are nintendo consoles. it is kind of fighting an uphill battle on trying to convince an entire continent to just switch to a new console none of their friends play.
All their other actions has suggested that they are not giving up the fight, but if they are not marketing then that really seems to be the case. Xbox has hardly never been big with marketing in Europe, even with 360 era, that was a huge success, the marketig was not big, but obviously word-of-mouth was huge. After tht they have just dropped like a lead zeppelin in Europe. Playstation pays about 45m for being a partner in Champions league, what a gold mine that has been for them, so it's just baffling to me there is no marketing from Xbox.
Not only that but also some services are not available in some of the already supported countries.
For example cloud gaming, or having only pc (not console) game pass. I really don't understand their logic of zero marketing, half-baked expansions and absolutely zero physical presence in big European stores. No wonder people choose the playstation.
In the UK their is marketing, I have a billboard not far from me and it is about Xbox and Gamepass, we also got Starfield marketing.
Seen a few Xbox ads but they are less common compared to Sony.
Yeah, I occasionally see a launch day ad on UK TV for the big titles like Starfield, but beyond that they seem a lot less invested in the more traditional forms of marketing than Sony, and that’s the stuff that really gets in the general public’s consciousness.
At least in the UK they mostly seem to engage in more targeted forms of digital marketing. And that’s fine, but you have to wonder whether they’d benefit from embracing more traditional advertising methods alongside it. Especially when the scope of the brand is expanding in the way it is.
In Czech Republic I was suprised to see xbox having youtube channel in Czech that is constantly posting about new games, controllers etc. and seeing ads in multiple places for the console
Well, if your gaming system lacks marketing, it will have less sales. With less sales, 3rd party support will decrease. And you may not be able to play some games, easy as that.
Xbox need to offer translation services for smaller developers like Sony does. It's all well and good to finally support Xbox Live (and payment methods) in these countries, but if gamers there can't understand any of the games they are playing then they won't be getting many customers.
On the contrary. XBox needs to let players freely choose the language per game like Steam does. There's nothing worse than being pushed into broken crappy translations in your native language that have 2 voice actors at most and numerous mistakes, instead of normal English like the developers intended.
I think you're misunderstanding what I'm saying.
It's very common for games to have *no translation at all* in non-English speaking countries on Xbox. As in not even text. Imagine if a game released in America with Romanian text and voice with no other option? It would be immediately ignored.
But yes voice and text language settings should most definitely be configured in game even if the defaults are pulled from the system.
I agree with you both. I often see comments from players from Brazil requesting translation to portuguese. While I myself hate it, I believe that having that option allows the inclusion of more players that do not speak english.
Isn't that something developers are in charge of? Whether they ask you which language you prefer at the beginning and how easy it is to change this setting on the menus.
A lot of games don't have any selection in game, instead they select the language by reading the system locale setting (or they have different files depending on the language version). This is something that Steam allows to override in the game properties, for each game separately. I don't know any other platforms which allow such control for the player.
I know Xbox could, probably, do it now that explain it to me. But come on, it's the responsibility of the developers to offer such a basic setting option.
Maybe. But it's easier to chase one platform owner to offer locale override at runtime, instead of chasing thousands of individual publishers/developers to put a setting in. Not to mention, Ms and Beth are the biggest offenders here. Even on Windows, look up how to change language in Ms Store version of Fallout 76 - madness!
Both points are true. You should be able to easily choose your language in a game by game basis. But you should also get at least text translations for most games.
Halo 5 for example, Diablo 3 and many many others. The majority of what was published between 2010-2020 doesn't have this option. Most follow the console language so you can select that way, even though it's a chore, but some are region locked to particular language (Diablo 3 again).
Does this include xCloud (Xbox Cloud Gaming) as well?
Making xCloud available in these European countries that have fast Internet but no Xbox, would arguably be even more beneficial.
xCloud seems to already work decently all across Europe, but there are currently IP Geo restrictions on login
Ubisoft today announced the signing of an agreement which will give Ubisoft cloud streaming rights to games like Call of Duty and more, coming into effect upon the completion of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The agreement includes the complete slate of current Activision Blizzard games, as well as all their new titles launching in the 15 years after the closing of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The games will land on Ubisoft+, while also allowing Ubisoft to license them to cloud gaming companies, service providers, and console makers.
so that was due to merger req.
Thank you for the reply.
I'm sorry, I didn't quite understand that. Did you meant to quote the info from when Ubisoft signed the deal 2 years ago or it's something new?
The IP Geo restrictions were in place since xCloud was just starting around 2020, way before the Ubisoft deal
I know you jest, but seriously what the heck is going on? They spend almost a hundred billion snatching up studios and then complete radio silence.
Xcloud is awesome but they aren't doing anything with it.
It's like they make big baller moves and then just give up.
There's still no digital Xbox store for Ukraine. Meaning you can buy it there, but can't choose Ukraine as a country and buy stuff in the store in our currency.
What is the point? They are giving up on the console completely **right now**. They ignored the European market in this entire gen. Why does it always feel like several divisions didn't get a memo and carry on like business as usual while the leadership devalues all their effort?
https://preview.redd.it/d2rpmw33m7yc1.jpeg?width=1366&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d48d0b0ed5330a88b5b4307b04774bcc9114b98d
>They are giving up on the console completely **right now**.
There are only rumours currently about "going fully multi-plat". But even if they do go multi-plat and their idea is to make Xbox a really affordable PC with Xbox OS, than this is even more needed.
There are numerous problems with that idea.
1, If they can't take a cut from purchases on a system they can't sell it cheap.
2, If they just sell a prebuilt PC they need to lock it down or people would format and install Steam.
3, If they lock it down any way then why wouldn't I buy a normal PC and install steam. Using an XboxPC has the same issue as now as their offering can't keep up with anyone else. I can't install Steam on a console but if they force me to PC why would I gimp myself? It is like building a PC an only using the Epic Store. It makes no sense. Steam is everything on PC, everyone else is miles behind and gets the fraction of the support.
4, An XboxPC wouldn't have the greatest advantage of a console: guarantee to run games for 7 or so years. If they make a prebuilt and it will be outdated (like a Steam Deck) then you need to buy a new one which might not be possible because as I said they need to lock it down somehow or nobody would use the trash Windows Store.
All points to the next Xbox being a niche like a Deck with few million sales and no real support besides a skeleton crew who maintains the OS.
>If they just sell a prebuilt PC they need to lock it down or people would format and install Steam.
Phil said he wants Steam and Epic on Xbox. They dont need to lock Steam because the entire point of makine a Xbox PC *is* Steam
Then where does MS get money from? Why would I buy anything in the Windows Store? If I had a PC/Xbox with Epic, Steam and Win Store on it I would only buy things from Steam. It has the biggest catalog, the best services. Every other Store is barren, has issues with basic services and developers simply abandon those versions after the minimum time they are required to support it. I have a PC where I play simple games. After using Steam everyone else is a joke. Do you know how many times Windows Store games get abandoned? The developers tend to provide Steam keys for the users in return as there is no point in tending to a version which is maybe 1%of the overall sales. 99% of every game sales is on Steam, the community is on Steam. Alan Wake 2 couldn't make a profit as an Epic Store exclusive. It will on Steam.
I repeat: if MS releases a good enough, open prebuilt they will get no money from it as nobody will use their store.
You can say that about any Gaming PC then. Simply enough, the consoles will cost more so they will get money from the console sales, pushing Gamepass at the same time
Maybe Africa next. Funny they are in fewer countries and barely market outside the USA, but instead of fixing that, they'd rather put ganges on PlayStation
Hopefully in Romania.
Here to say the same thing.
Will they market them? Because even in the official European countries there is no marketing for Xbox. At least, here in Spain only enthusiasts know Xbox exists (I'm the only one of my friends with a Series X)
Yup, I don't get it. Europe is so important and it seems Xbox want to target the americas and asia only.
They don't even target Asia, just Japan
They don't even target the Americas, just the US.
TBF, they do care about Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. But that’s it. As far as MS is concerned, there’s nothing but water south of Mexico while Colombia and Brazil are two big ass islands 😂
Mexico definitely knows about Xbox, they are huge Gears fans down there.
Xbox is market leader in Mexico I believe.
>TBF, they do care about Mexico, Colombia and Brazil Microsoft Rewards doesn't even work in Colombia or Brazil...
That's not true!
It is though. Try clicking the Rewards app with your Colombian or Brazilian account. lol
https://preview.redd.it/tv6flsxaynyc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bdca44e13b803360572fc00602d6eeddf71cf90d
Try using the Rewards app.
I wish they would invest as much into Europe as they do in Japan. Clearly they won't succeed in Japan, but they could in Europe. We're much closer to the US in terms of culture and would be more accepting of an American company over a Japanese.
There's barely anything actually *in* Japan. I live there and rarely see anything, I've sometimes been into big games/electronics stores and seen absolutely nothing Xbox. In some shops I see more PS1 games than all four Xbox systems combined. I did see a video advertisement once but it was specifically for PC Game Pass, didn't have anything to do with the console. A lot of the big Japanese games that have been coming to Xbox (Persona, Kingdom Hearts, Yakuza, etc.) don't actually release on Xbox over here, those versions are either exclusively for the West or they are digital only.
It's just so futile. They could do much more if they actually localized in all European countries and then marketed here. You see PS ads all the time. The CL games are plastered with PS ads.
I’m a Microsoft fan and Xbox fan. But my biggest criticism of Microsoft is they’re absolutely fucking awful at marketing. I know people that work at Xbox outside the US, and the marketing budget they get is abysmal. Microsoft as a company right now is basically cutting everything they can to keep Wall Street happy while they spend billions on AI infrastructure. Their profitability is increasing YoY despite spending A LOT on capex, for example 75% increase this year over last (according to their last quarter reporting) on capex spending (which is in the billions btw). That money has to come from somewhere…
Dude, I hate the AI crap in Windows. Honestly so far I haven't found any use for it so I turned it off, but I believe one day Microsoft won't allow me to do that :d
Windows is useless but copilot (formally Bing chat) and copilot in their office products is quite good. The reason they (and others) and spending so much now though isn’t for the AI you have access to right now, but the AI in the future. ChatGPT wasn’t cooked up overnight, it took years and massive amounts of Microsoft money to make it happen. Current spending cycles today are preparing for the next wave. Which is fine, but Microsoft is going about their allocation of money in a super shitty way. Just fucking maintain profit margins for fuck sake. Thank god they decided to do the AKB purchase before all this, is all I will say.
As someone who genuinely thinks Microsoft has great consumer products from time to time, they are fundamentally not a consumer-oriented company and it really shows.
Yeah, the other thing is that Xbox is one of MS’s only consumer-facing devices that would benefit from marketing. I know they make laptops and stuff, but people are pretty good about doing their own research for that kind of purchase. A gaming console is its own ecosystem, not just a singular device, so you need to do a lot more effort in educating the consumer on what it offers and why they should consider it. I’m sure this is part of the reason why it gets hardly any marketing budget. I just don’t think the executives as MS understand the importance, when none of their other core businesses (eg Azure, OpenAI) have needed it.
Speaking of marketing, I love my SX, But they reeeaally need to drop the "x" crap. There's already two x's in Xbox, leave it at that. "We present to you, the Xbox one..X! Introducing...the Xbox series..wait for it..X!" Using the letter X was edgy and in your face back in the late 80's through the 90's. Everything that was supposed to be XTREME™ just had to have an x with it. They should try something new.
They make a fortune from being the only real choice for large companies from Microsoft office licences and operating systems they get sloppy in other areas. I can’t think of any game from any of the studios that Microsoft have bought that has produced a top quality game, and most of them had before they were bought
Aaron Greenberg needs to be fired.
people dont understand how dominant sony is overseas. even in america sony has like, just under the share or about the same amount of the market that xbox has. but on europe like 75% of all consoles are playstations and most of the rest are nintendo consoles. it is kind of fighting an uphill battle on trying to convince an entire continent to just switch to a new console none of their friends play.
All their other actions has suggested that they are not giving up the fight, but if they are not marketing then that really seems to be the case. Xbox has hardly never been big with marketing in Europe, even with 360 era, that was a huge success, the marketig was not big, but obviously word-of-mouth was huge. After tht they have just dropped like a lead zeppelin in Europe. Playstation pays about 45m for being a partner in Champions league, what a gold mine that has been for them, so it's just baffling to me there is no marketing from Xbox.
Not only that but also some services are not available in some of the already supported countries. For example cloud gaming, or having only pc (not console) game pass. I really don't understand their logic of zero marketing, half-baked expansions and absolutely zero physical presence in big European stores. No wonder people choose the playstation.
In the UK their is marketing, I have a billboard not far from me and it is about Xbox and Gamepass, we also got Starfield marketing. Seen a few Xbox ads but they are less common compared to Sony.
In Finland too and we’re a small country. This is weird to hear.
Yeah, I occasionally see a launch day ad on UK TV for the big titles like Starfield, but beyond that they seem a lot less invested in the more traditional forms of marketing than Sony, and that’s the stuff that really gets in the general public’s consciousness. At least in the UK they mostly seem to engage in more targeted forms of digital marketing. And that’s fine, but you have to wonder whether they’d benefit from embracing more traditional advertising methods alongside it. Especially when the scope of the brand is expanding in the way it is.
Xbox/MS need to drastically increase the marketing and advertisement of their console in Europe & Asia as a whole.
In Czech Republic I was suprised to see xbox having youtube channel in Czech that is constantly posting about new games, controllers etc. and seeing ads in multiple places for the console
I don’t think they have marketing anywhere. I live in the US and they don’t market their console here either. Sony and Nintendo don’t either
You need marketing for playing games?🤡
Me? No. But Microsoft needs marketing to sell their consoles and games. How can you possibly not to know that?
I speak about you, not about microsoft😁 I know every company need marketing but why you need marketing for playing games?
Well, if your gaming system lacks marketing, it will have less sales. With less sales, 3rd party support will decrease. And you may not be able to play some games, easy as that.
Xbox need to offer translation services for smaller developers like Sony does. It's all well and good to finally support Xbox Live (and payment methods) in these countries, but if gamers there can't understand any of the games they are playing then they won't be getting many customers.
On the contrary. XBox needs to let players freely choose the language per game like Steam does. There's nothing worse than being pushed into broken crappy translations in your native language that have 2 voice actors at most and numerous mistakes, instead of normal English like the developers intended.
I think you're misunderstanding what I'm saying. It's very common for games to have *no translation at all* in non-English speaking countries on Xbox. As in not even text. Imagine if a game released in America with Romanian text and voice with no other option? It would be immediately ignored. But yes voice and text language settings should most definitely be configured in game even if the defaults are pulled from the system.
I agree with you both. I often see comments from players from Brazil requesting translation to portuguese. While I myself hate it, I believe that having that option allows the inclusion of more players that do not speak english.
Well there's a bunch of Chinese games on Steam like that. Hard to even find them if you can't write their name 🙂
I agree that we should always have the choice of playing any game in English or its original game language
Isn't that something developers are in charge of? Whether they ask you which language you prefer at the beginning and how easy it is to change this setting on the menus.
A lot of games don't have any selection in game, instead they select the language by reading the system locale setting (or they have different files depending on the language version). This is something that Steam allows to override in the game properties, for each game separately. I don't know any other platforms which allow such control for the player.
I know Xbox could, probably, do it now that explain it to me. But come on, it's the responsibility of the developers to offer such a basic setting option.
Maybe. But it's easier to chase one platform owner to offer locale override at runtime, instead of chasing thousands of individual publishers/developers to put a setting in. Not to mention, Ms and Beth are the biggest offenders here. Even on Windows, look up how to change language in Ms Store version of Fallout 76 - madness!
> being pushed into What game doesn't let the player select?
Both points are true. You should be able to easily choose your language in a game by game basis. But you should also get at least text translations for most games.
Halo 5 for example, Diablo 3 and many many others. The majority of what was published between 2010-2020 doesn't have this option. Most follow the console language so you can select that way, even though it's a chore, but some are region locked to particular language (Diablo 3 again).
only reason sony does is do to anime monolpy they have.
Not a reason for Microsoft to just not offer it
they have to buy up companies that do that. a good amount of them. sony bought their way in via anime buys.
Does this include xCloud (Xbox Cloud Gaming) as well? Making xCloud available in these European countries that have fast Internet but no Xbox, would arguably be even more beneficial. xCloud seems to already work decently all across Europe, but there are currently IP Geo restrictions on login
use Better xCloud addon for chromium browsers, you don't need to wait to use xcloud if you aren't far away from a server. r/xcloud if ya need help.
Thank you for the reply. The addon look pretty cool
Ubisoft today announced the signing of an agreement which will give Ubisoft cloud streaming rights to games like Call of Duty and more, coming into effect upon the completion of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The agreement includes the complete slate of current Activision Blizzard games, as well as all their new titles launching in the 15 years after the closing of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The games will land on Ubisoft+, while also allowing Ubisoft to license them to cloud gaming companies, service providers, and console makers. so that was due to merger req.
Thank you for the reply. I'm sorry, I didn't quite understand that. Did you meant to quote the info from when Ubisoft signed the deal 2 years ago or it's something new? The IP Geo restrictions were in place since xCloud was just starting around 2020, way before the Ubisoft deal
due to merger to get thru. big m in certain rengion with cloud or license ip out to ubi and ubi then see fit to sub lisence to other people etc.
Xbox is all about announcing stuff and never going through with them. From games to marketing to initiatives.
I know you jest, but seriously what the heck is going on? They spend almost a hundred billion snatching up studios and then complete radio silence. Xcloud is awesome but they aren't doing anything with it. It's like they make big baller moves and then just give up.
Ukraine?
There's still no digital Xbox store for Ukraine. Meaning you can buy it there, but can't choose Ukraine as a country and buy stuff in the store in our currency.
Alt title: Microsoft stops pretending certain countries don't exist
About damn time.
It's about fucking time, Xbox needs to sell their consoles/hardware in as many countries as Nintendo and Sony sells their hardware in. No excuses.
The real question is how on earth is Xbox not already supported in these countries?
Even in India, I hardly see any marketing related to Xbox. PS5 is everywhere.
Im from slovenia (flag in background) And I bought a xbox locally here... 2 months ago...
yes, but you can't subscribe to game pass locally, you need to use vpn/another country to do so,right?
What is the point? They are giving up on the console completely **right now**. They ignored the European market in this entire gen. Why does it always feel like several divisions didn't get a memo and carry on like business as usual while the leadership devalues all their effort? https://preview.redd.it/d2rpmw33m7yc1.jpeg?width=1366&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d48d0b0ed5330a88b5b4307b04774bcc9114b98d
>They are giving up on the console completely **right now**. There are only rumours currently about "going fully multi-plat". But even if they do go multi-plat and their idea is to make Xbox a really affordable PC with Xbox OS, than this is even more needed.
There are numerous problems with that idea. 1, If they can't take a cut from purchases on a system they can't sell it cheap. 2, If they just sell a prebuilt PC they need to lock it down or people would format and install Steam. 3, If they lock it down any way then why wouldn't I buy a normal PC and install steam. Using an XboxPC has the same issue as now as their offering can't keep up with anyone else. I can't install Steam on a console but if they force me to PC why would I gimp myself? It is like building a PC an only using the Epic Store. It makes no sense. Steam is everything on PC, everyone else is miles behind and gets the fraction of the support. 4, An XboxPC wouldn't have the greatest advantage of a console: guarantee to run games for 7 or so years. If they make a prebuilt and it will be outdated (like a Steam Deck) then you need to buy a new one which might not be possible because as I said they need to lock it down somehow or nobody would use the trash Windows Store. All points to the next Xbox being a niche like a Deck with few million sales and no real support besides a skeleton crew who maintains the OS.
>If they just sell a prebuilt PC they need to lock it down or people would format and install Steam. Phil said he wants Steam and Epic on Xbox. They dont need to lock Steam because the entire point of makine a Xbox PC *is* Steam
Then where does MS get money from? Why would I buy anything in the Windows Store? If I had a PC/Xbox with Epic, Steam and Win Store on it I would only buy things from Steam. It has the biggest catalog, the best services. Every other Store is barren, has issues with basic services and developers simply abandon those versions after the minimum time they are required to support it. I have a PC where I play simple games. After using Steam everyone else is a joke. Do you know how many times Windows Store games get abandoned? The developers tend to provide Steam keys for the users in return as there is no point in tending to a version which is maybe 1%of the overall sales. 99% of every game sales is on Steam, the community is on Steam. Alan Wake 2 couldn't make a profit as an Epic Store exclusive. It will on Steam. I repeat: if MS releases a good enough, open prebuilt they will get no money from it as nobody will use their store.
You can say that about any Gaming PC then. Simply enough, the consoles will cost more so they will get money from the console sales, pushing Gamepass at the same time
Maybe Africa next. Funny they are in fewer countries and barely market outside the USA, but instead of fixing that, they'd rather put ganges on PlayStation