Resetting Xbox • Hacker News Board

Re: Resetting Xbox

#341

Post by jm4 » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 9:27 PM UTC

rockyj wrote: post #24

This is a total mess IMHO. - The make around 5 billion in revenue per quarter - The problem according to them is profit margin - around 150-160 million So first of all, they are big! Secondly they are not at a loss. They just have a "thin, non-growing margin". So to fix all this they are trimming down, so they can "return to growth" (which I think is ridiculous). Some points - - They are huge business even now - 5 bi…

I agree with the mess part. I also feel like a reset is necessary and they are messing it up more right from the start. Fourteen layers of management? That's insane. But 3200 layoffs is a hell of a lot more than middle management cruft. Asha certainly has her hands full over there and the honeymoon period - if there even was one - is definitely over.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#342

Post by ZiiS » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 9:27 PM UTC

brikym wrote: post #326

artyom wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those metrics are hugely misleading because they account for current fiscal year revenue and margins . For Xbox being what it is today, which is mostly about the subscription and not the hardware console or the exclusives, you have to compound their acquisition frenzy of 2018-2020 or so, which totals about 75 billion+. They didn't want the developers nor the catalog. What Microsoft wanted is to change the economics a…

It seems really odd to have a Netflix consumption model for games. Generally people want to play a few favourite games for a long time and get very skilled at them. You just don't need to churn through content like movies.

Yes that is exactly why they want to switch to a Netflix model.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#343

Post by scott_w » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 9:31 PM UTC

narnarpapadaddy wrote: post #278

ChadNauseam wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't make much sense to me. How can you blame someone for a problem they didn't cause?

Because it’s their job to fix it. If they don’t, the axe falls again. Humans often think in terms of deontological ethics. Corporations operate in terms of consequentialist ethics, and the only consequence that matters is that the numbers go up.

You’re mixing “blame” and “accountability.” Sharma isn’t to blame for the problems but she’s now accountable for fixing them.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#344

Post by LunaSea » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 9:33 PM UTC

speak_plainly wrote: post #11

At some point, the games industry decided it wanted to be interactive Hollywood, and the consequences are entirely predictable. Meanwhile, Nintendo just quietly shipped 3.8 million units of Tomodachi Life in two weeks, and 4 million of Pokopia in five. They're making actual games. Sony's obsession with prestige cinematic bloat, like Xbox, has also put them in a slow-motion death spiral that's going to become painfull…

Nintendo survives on a few banger licenses. Innovation left the house a long time ago.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#345

Post by aleksiy123 » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 9:35 PM UTC

brikym wrote: post #326

artyom wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those metrics are hugely misleading because they account for current fiscal year revenue and margins . For Xbox being what it is today, which is mostly about the subscription and not the hardware console or the exclusives, you have to compound their acquisition frenzy of 2018-2020 or so, which totals about 75 billion+. They didn't want the developers nor the catalog. What Microsoft wanted is to change the economics a…

It seems really odd to have a Netflix consumption model for games. Generally people want to play a few favourite games for a long time and get very skilled at them. You just don't need to churn through content like movies.

I don’t think that’s really true.

Both exist. I would say single player games tend to content in the range of 10+ hours. Think First Light, Ghost of Yotei in recent years.

Competitive and multiplayer games will tend more towards what you are thinking. CSGO, FIFA, and of course many others.

But I feel like even that doesn’t really capture the full range of everything.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#346

Post by peyton » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 9:35 PM UTC

spenczar5 wrote: post #245

_verandaguy wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 150M at 5B revenue is not great Considered as a raw percentage in a vacuum, sure, I guess, but we're talking about... - A company which has undertaken a concerted, long-term effort to consolidate the industry under its umbrella (something they themselves call out as a problem in this post), reducing consumer choice - A company which has captured a significant chunk of the console market. They're one of the big thre…

> This is still $150M of pure gravy every single year. The issue is rate of return. They are evidently spending $4.85bn on Xbox per year. The US federal interest rate is 3.5% so if you just put that money in US bonds you would get about $175M per year of much purer simpler gravy.

You’re saying that they should take the money people pay to buy Xboxes and put it in T-bills instead of delivering Xboxes? What happens when people ask where the Xbox they ordered is?

Re: Resetting Xbox

#347

Post by dom96 » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 9:36 PM UTC

mjr00 wrote: post #176

alexp2021 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really 191 players or 191k players?

No missing "k", really just 191 players. https://steamdb.info/app/3043580/

Could this be due to the games being available on Game Pass? Why would anyone buy them on Steam if they can play them on Game Pass for "free"?

Re: Resetting Xbox

#348

Post by orpheansodality » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 9:36 PM UTC

johnnyanmac wrote: post #140

mjr00 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - The make around 5 billion in revenue per quarter - The problem according to them is profit margin - around 150-160 million > So first of all, they are big! Secondly they are not at a loss. They just have a "thin, non-growing margin". So to fix all this they are trimming down, so they can "return to growth" (which I think is ridiculous). How is that profit margin distributed though? King (Candy Crush etc) and Moja…

>Double Fine (one of the studios being chopped) has released 2 games since 2021, Keeper (191 peak player count on steam) and Kiln (163 peak players); these would be flops even for a normal indie game, for a studio getting Microsoft salaries those are enormous flops. Hard to really say. Kiln and Keeper can easily be made up for by the sales of Psychonauts 2. I'm sure an indie Double Fine would not have been able to ma…

did you mean Pentiment, led by Josh Sawyer at Obsidian?

Re: Resetting Xbox

#349

Post by tancop » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 9:37 PM UTC

sylens wrote: post #313

protimewaster wrote: post #42

Xbox has an interesting opportunity going forward, that I expect they'll fumble. Interest in physical media has actually been on the upswing, and, with Sony announcing their plans to abandon physical media, it feels like MS has a chance be the "good guys" like what Sony did to MS when MS threatened to ruin physical media prior to the Xbox One release. However, I'm expecting Microsoft to simply follow Sony's path, bec…

The problem with the physical media for today's consoles is that it is the game in name only. The version on the disc is quickly outdated by launch day patches, follow-up patches, add-on content, etc. I do think there is a market for a return to an XBox 360 model where the tech behind the games is artificially constrained to allow for games to be published solely on DVDs again. No installation required, no patches re…

anyone who has the disk can download the patches and extra content. there is no way to block a specific copy or prevent transfers like with a digital purchase. the point of physical media is sharing and resale, not the piece of plastic sitting on your shelf.

i agree that mandatory downloads are a big problem (thats why willitplay is a thing) but offline installs from disk are the biggest change that made ps5 games load so much faster than ps4 and opened up a lot of new options for devs. reading data from ssd will always be faster than a blu ray. the only downside is you have to manage space a bit more but its worth it. if you want straight from disk get ready for slower uglier harder to develop games.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#350

Post by fodkodrasz » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 9:37 PM UTC

PaulHoule wrote: post #169

TulliusCicero wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being a Steam competitor involves making a store that's actually good. All the other major stores/platforms don't really seem to give a shit, to be frank. Steam has like 20x their feature set, and the gap appears to be still growing. If anything, it should be easier to make cool new features when you own the hardware side of the platform experience too, but no, it's Steam that has stuff like remote play together, not…

I don't know if I care about the features, what I do care about is the games and a lean-back experience which is not sweaty. I play games to escape the drudgery of software development and the last thing I want to do is mess with an .INI file. I love the Steam Deck because it feels like a consumer electronics device: it has the reliability of Linux but not the sweat. The Steam Deck is the only device I've seen that w…

> Steam Big Picture turns my big Windows machine at home into a game console and does the same for my Mac Mini.

Well it turned mine into a 2000s linux/wine debugfest flashback when I wanted to play GTA IV: Ballad of Gay Tony... Also don't get me started on having to keep the poweroff button pushed on the xbox controller for mouse emulation for games not having controller support in the menus. It is far from the polished experience you had, but possibly I just held it wrong.