Resetting Xbox • Hacker News Board

Re: Resetting Xbox

#881

Post by gunsle » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 3:49 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…

Yeah, I kind of loathe the cinematic direction Sony and others have taken. Their games aren't really innovative or fun but people lap them up for being B tier movies. It makes no sense to me. They don't bother making Bloodborne anymore, just more open world cinematic slop like Horizon.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#882

Post by xyzzy_plugh » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 3:51 PM UTC

XorNot wrote: post #621

petu wrote: post #616

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, I had a brain fart. Thank you. But doesn't that make situation even worse? They likely would be 100B+ market cap/total asset value if spun off into independent company, but not able to generate even 1B in annual profit? Activision Blizzard managed 1.5B income/20% margin by themselves before being bought by Xbox -- and somehow whole of Xbox now earns less?

Blizzard managed to so thoroughly destroy itself that I'm not sure the comparison is fair. It's a ghost of what it once was in gaming.

It didn't destroy itself, it was intentionally harvested and the husk was sold to the highest bidder. The original leadership is long gone, the shareholders got their money back long ago, and the staff has turned over significantly. The Blizzard of yore is long gone, and that's ok.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#883

Post by strix_varius » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 3:52 PM UTC

__turbobrew__ wrote: post #408

gbrindisi wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also notice the growing trend to have EM carry individual contributor duties, I thought it was mostly a consequence of using coding agents but perhaps it's not: the EM figure as we know might just be a consequence of the golden zirp times (do you remember the endless technical EM vs non-technical EM debates?)

I think non-technical EMs are fine, but they need to manage an appropriate headcount. I see EMs who manage 2-3 ICs and have no other responsibilities, those EMs need to either take on more ICs or start coding.

> 2-3 ICs

This is the real problem. If you don't have enough folks for a 4+ IC team then you don't have a team.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#884

Post by joygqz » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 3:54 PM UTC

[dead]

Re: Resetting Xbox

#885

Post by pie_flavor » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 3:56 PM UTC

dom96 wrote: post #347

mjr00 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"?

You can easily compare to the figures for other games that are also on GamePass. Another Crab's Treasure, for example, had 4.7k Steam players on launch, of a similar nicheness stratum.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#886

Post by piltdownman » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 4:00 PM UTC

lelanthran wrote: post #640

Drupon wrote: post #579

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

> Oy vey maybe this kind of money grubbery is not good for our society. No, it's a signal from the market that the product being sold is not wanted by the market. They've mismanaged all their IP pursuing that yummy subscription revenue. Turns out gamers really don't like to buy subscriptions. As a poster downthread pointed out, the games that are not always-on and subscription-based are doing fine. It's the recent AA…

It ultimately depends on what sort of Skinnerbox you're running tbh.

Players purchased roughly $6.8 billion worth of the Roblox in-game currency Robux in 2025, a massive 55% year-over-year increase.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#887

Post by ninefathom » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 4:04 PM UTC

This is a very long-winded demonstration that the shareholder-driven philosophy of "we must keep growing at all costs" is not sustainable.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#888

Post by kanwisher » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 4:05 PM UTC

kridsdale1 wrote: post #531

boca_honey wrote: post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nintendo is great for children, yes. I wish there were something like them for a more mature audience.

What does this mean exactly? Because Mature games are designed to appeal to 14 year old boys. Are you referring to some kind of David Lynch of gaming?

like story driven games that Sony is famous for. Imagine a Spiderman, a last of us, or Uncharted. Large story driven games largely for older 30-40 year old market

Re: Resetting Xbox

#889

Post by kanwisher » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 4:07 PM UTC

sunaookami wrote: post #167

bashmelek wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is encouraging, but my stock portfolio paints a different picture. Nintendo is unfortunately doing terribly this year. I still believe in their core mission, even if some of their litigiousness and anti consumer practices have put me off

Nintendo is also a Japanese company and japanese stocks aren't doing great due to their economy and the weak yen. Also, stock price does not correlate with good games or a healthy business.

Weak yen should be great for Nintendo, most of their costs are Japanese staff which are now cheaper. Maybe the local Japanese market is softer. More likely the trouble is the increasing memory pricing is eating their margins

Re: Resetting Xbox

#890

Post by pfdietz » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 4:09 PM UTC

tfigueroa wrote: post #840

pfdietz wrote: post #817

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Overall they are not selling at a loss, but parts of what they're selling are being sold at a loss. The market is telling them to slim the f- down and get rid of those money-losing parts. This is all normal and justifiable. Where is the logic that corporations need to preserve dysfunctional parts of their operations?

Corporations don’t need to, no. But they are systems, and it’s a beginner mistake to assume changing one part is going to affect the whole in some simple, predictable, logical way.

That sounds like an extremely lame excuse to preserve money losing activities.

I'll counter by saying that pruning off failing things is not only good, it's the core of capitalism. Creative destruction, as Schumpeter called it. You get efficiency by hunting down and eliminating inefficiency, redeploying the resources elsewhere.