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Resetting Xbox

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Re: Resetting Xbox

#601

Post by nananana9 »

antiframe wrote: post #593
nananana9 wrote: post #568

You've changed, Microsoft. Saving the console is trivial, they're just afraid to do it. "Minecraft and CoD are now Xbox exclusive".

If I am unable to play Minecraft any longer because I have to buy a shit ass XBOX, I will never buy another piece of software (or hardware) from them. My $5 in 2009 came with a guarantee I would have access (and free updates) to Minecraft forever. Microsoft not honoring that agreement, which they said they would, is a step too far. I already signed up for a shit ass Microsoft account to keep access, and I said to mys…

> Microsoft not honoring that agreement, which they said they would, is a step too far.

They already took that step too far - they broke ToS and closed all MC accounts that weren't linked to a MS account within the timeframe.

I'm obviously not saying I'd like them to make everything an Xbox exclusive, but it's the only play that makes sense after throwing $75B to buy Activision.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#602

Post by bni »

Go back in history, why did Microsoft create xbox at all?

It was Bill Gates fear of being overtaken by some "living room PC" or set top box that never materialized. It was an industry wild goose chase basically, with echos of past efforts (remember Philips CD-i ?)

Is this a concern Microsoft has today? xbox was a money sink from the beginning.

The sad part is they bought a bunch of very good game studios.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#603

Post by pjmlp »

sikim wrote: post #236
chrisfosterelli wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With due fairness, these are two different sets of leaders and two different strategies. A lot of the strategy you outlined -- buying all these studios, replicating netflix, giving away day one games, raising game pass -- was a strategy put in place by Phil Spencer. Phil pushed for this investment with the promise it would pay off later for MS. He's talked publicly about having to convince Nadella to put up ungodly a…

Phil and the likes were too hands-off on these studios post-acquisition. They got too complacent enjoying steady paychecks over years of delays while working on their niche games that only highlight their artistic vision over generally fun gameplay. That's where they failed. The Activision/Blizzard acquisition and GamePass fumble were just a nail on the coffin

Now with all these layoffs, most likely the numbers will change, but how many are aware that Microsoft actually owns a big chunck of well known studios?

One reason is that from the public eyes they kept their names and independence from Microsoft/XBox branding.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#604

Post by RedComet »

teachrdan wrote: post #501
corimaith wrote: post #485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mismanagement here was actually Microsoft giving studios free reign and they flopped with projects like Starfield. This needs to be understood really within the larger industry trend of quality decline of AAA, which I suspect has to do with changes in overall dev culture and discourse than corporate decisions. There hasn't been a time when developers have been more disconnected from their audience than now.

> There hasn't been a time when developers have been more disconnected from their audience than now. I'm curious what you mean by this. It seems like gamers have never been more vocal and there have never been more avenues (social media, short form video platforms, etc.) for them to voice their opinions than we have now. How exactly do you know that developers have never been more disconnected from their audience? An…

The squeaking [spare] wheel got the grease.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#605

Post by trymas »

hparadiz wrote: post #558
theturtletalks wrote: post #553

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, it seems their only way to make money is charging for online play which used to be $5/m and now $10/m for Game Pass Essential. Now that their high console prices aren't getting new players, the only play is to squeeze the existing ones and increasing the cost to play online. They actually tried this a few months back when Game Pass Ultimate went from $20/m to $30/m. I cancelled my sub and went to essential.…

I've always thought it was borderline crazy that Xbox charged a monthly fee and I never had an Xbox for that reason. It always made me wonder how many people they failed to bring into their ecosystem for that reason.

As far as I understand - that fee is not mandatory.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#606

Post by theturtletalks »

trymas wrote: post #605
hparadiz wrote: post #558

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always thought it was borderline crazy that Xbox charged a monthly fee and I never had an Xbox for that reason. It always made me wonder how many people they failed to bring into their ecosystem for that reason.

As far as I understand - that fee is not mandatory.

To play online, you do need to pay them. But for local games, no fees after buying the game.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#607

Post by petu »

Drupon wrote: post #579
mattalex wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

150M at 5B revenue is not great: that's 3% margin! The bigger issue is that console manufacturer revenue is highly cyclical. This is hard to see in e.g. Xbox and Sony since they are both part of a larger conglomerate, but really obvious for nintendo. You generally have a cycle of - "Launch": high marketing costs, low/negative HW margins - "Mid-cycle": lowering manufacturing costs, large game sales, high margin DLCs -…

>150M at 5B revenue is not great: that's 3% margin! Oy vey maybe this kind of money grubbery is not good for our society.

3% is lower than buying US Treasury bonds? Effectively zero risk zero effort return vs running a business.

https://home.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/...

Re: Resetting Xbox

#608

Post by u2rarmchair »

hbn wrote: post #16

It was pretty rich seeing armchair video game industry analysts act like the new CEO was gonna usher in a new age for Microsoft's gaming division because she got to announce the updated logo and some games that would have obviously been in development long before she became CEO. Microsoft is never going to figure out gaming. It's more art than engineering and they can barely manage the engineering with all the interv…

I mean, here you are too declaring a XBOX defeat. You are no better than those armchair industry analysts. The 10th gen hasn's even properly started, we don't even have rumors of WHEN it will be.

Not saying that I disagree. I absolutely agree. I think Xbox is downright moronic to buy Bethesday on a promise of Starfield being a massive hit, and after it hilariously fails, they throw out a bunch of studios just so they can focus on their next thing even more.

It's just, come one. You have to see how ironic and conceited your opening paragraph was.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#609

Post by Schnitz »

jrmg wrote: post #317
chrisfosterelli wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With due fairness, these are two different sets of leaders and two different strategies. A lot of the strategy you outlined -- buying all these studios, replicating netflix, giving away day one games, raising game pass -- was a strategy put in place by Phil Spencer. Phil pushed for this investment with the promise it would pay off later for MS. He's talked publicly about having to convince Nadella to put up ungodly a…

I never understood the esteem Phil Spencer was held in, seemingly both by fans and industry insiders. I never understood Phil’s strategy. Buy a plethora of studios. Pay an order of magnitude over the odds for the big ones - just to be sure you get them! ‘Rescue’ smaller ones of questionable financial value - as part of Xbox they’d somehow be successful enough to justify the price paid. Heavily manage the studio heads…

> I never understood the esteem Phil Spencer was held in

He headed things during the Xbox 360 era, which was a golden era of gaming, one of the best console generations and also peak Xbox.

Just look at this video to get an idea of how high the density of great games was at that time: https://youtu.be/w5u8jyPIrIY?is=NsTee0620BmmVbcB

Re: Resetting Xbox

#610

Post by londons_explore »

hx8 wrote: post #254
spenczar5 wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Exactly. The inflation rate is about 3%, so the people at Xbox worked very hard all year to have about the same value they put into it.

All the people were paid a salary for the work they did. And there was still money leftover .
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