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Resetting Xbox

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Re: Resetting Xbox

#901

Post by tomtheelder »

port11 wrote: post #712
PaulHoule wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It comes across to me as a really honest letter. At least they are talking about spinning out studios instead of shutting them down, I think that plays better than previous announcements. (e.g. make a hit game like Hi-Fi Rush and get shut down!)

Fair, but who told them to buy up everything? That part annoys me to no end. And the bad plays are management-related, so they’re firing a bunch of people…

Well it was Phil Spencer, who got fired. They basically cleaned house in management already.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#902

Post by tomtheelder »

righthand wrote: post #30
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…

Well this is the new Xbox boss, Aska Sharma trying to course correct her own actions after pushing out Phil Spencer (and team). Phil had a deep understanding of the game world about profit margins and how the Xbox is essentially a stake in keeping Microsoft in the minds of consumers, a place in the home. Aska has a shallow understanding and sees only the financials and wanted to increase profits. Now she is burning i…

I don't really have an opinion on Sharma since she's very green, but Phil Spencer's tenure was an unmitigated disaster. The strategy of rolling up studios and trying to grow through GamePass both completely backfired, with the studios producing few and generally unsuccessful games, and GamePass failing to convert casual players while demolishing your take from your hardcore players.

Was definitely time for major change at XBOX. Is this the right direction? I have no idea.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#903

Post by xerox13ster »

pfdietz wrote: post #890
tfigueroa wrote: post #840

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> You get efficiency by hunting down and eliminating inefficiency, redeploying the resources elsewhere

Plants do this. What’s it got to do with capitalism?

Re: Resetting Xbox

#904

Post by Jach »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #131
zitterbewegung wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Xbox around 2021 had around a 12% profit margin and the gaming industry as a whole was around 17-22% . In 2023 the target for the division was put to 30% . We see this new restructuring because the target was put this high. Microsoft really wanted Game Pass to be a steam competitor which is pretty much what everyone in the industry tries to do and fails. The push for Game Pass prices to be higher was to get the 30% m…

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…

The Xbox can't even reliably play video trailers of the games MS in theory want to sell you. They don't even require every game to have a video. They don't even require every game to have a screenshot, as I've encountered some that don't even do that! Fundamentally unserious about making a good experience.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#905

Post by tomtheelder »

WorldMaker wrote: post #49
scott_w wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just looking at Sharma’s history, she rejoined MS in 2024. Xbox was struggling long before that, so I don’t see how anyone can blame Sharma for the past 10 years…

Xbox has been profitable almost continuously since a few years into the Xbox 360. It's fascinating how "profitable but low margins" equates to "struggling" to so many.

Xbox makes an enormous amount of money from a few long running properties (the letter in question mentions Mojang and King), but basically every big move and acquisition they have made for the past 10 years has been catastrophic.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#906

Post by vouwfietsman »

pfdietz wrote: post #890
tfigueroa wrote: post #840

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> pruning off failing things is not only good, it's the core of capitalism

It's quite serious that you see "being good" as something inferior to "the core of capitalism".

Also, the core of capitalism is making money for private individuals, nothing more, nothing less. Whether that's done with or without "failing things", is really beside the point.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#907

Post by tomtheelder »

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…

You know sorta feels to me like some new physical tech would be warranted here. Something with a good amount of storage, very quick I/O, and read/writable. More like a fancy thumb drive than a disk. Let the version on it be updated by the system to stay current, gain add on content, etc.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#908

Post by vouwfietsman »

bluGill wrote: post #852
nayroclade wrote: post #772

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are not selling at a loss though. The real issue here is that businesses such as Microsoft do not exist to serve a market or make enough money to survive and pay their employees. They exist to increase the value of their owner's shares. This is predicated on an unsustainable model of continual growth, with the expectation that every market they operate in can produce high margins and endless expansion. But deman…

Maybe it isn't a loss, but as an investor (never directly in them), I consider 3% profit margin a bad sign - at that return I'd prefer a savings account: FDIC insurance means that after accounting for risks the savings account is better. I know stock returns don't directly track profit margin, but that is one input into the complex consideration of stocks.

You are right, and this is why not everything should be a stock. Whatever they will cut to avoid emitting "a bad sign", may involve:

* firing people * making services worse * sacrificing their own future

Whether it actually does involve those things is effectively arbitrary, because the consideration of the "bad sign" is also arbitrary. If there is no objective value judgement of their operation there is no objective value judgement in their streamlining either, so all bets are off.

no percentage no good

"complex consideration"

Re: Resetting Xbox

#909

Post by Hikikomori »

groundzeros2015 wrote: post #829
schnitzelstoat wrote: post #812

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's referring to this list of invited guests: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/24/peter-...

What does it have to do with Xbox? Should I be worried that people are holding conferences?

Not much to do with xbox unless their execs attends Thiels thing. Should be worried that Thiel doesn't believe we should have democracy and we should replace the government with tech CEO god kings instead.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#910

Post by TulliusCicero »

account42 wrote: post #735
TulliusCicero wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's one of those things where people only care about a small percentage of the features, but which small percentage varies. For example, I used the example of remote play together, which is very neat and a lot of people love it, but I personally don't use it. On the other hand, I make extensive use of Steam's gifting feature, including its ability to handle multiple gifts to multiple people in a single trans…

It used to be that you could get gift keys/links that worked just like any steam key you can buy outside Steam and you could gift those to people in whatever manner and on whatever schedule you wanted. I liked that a lot more than a gifting feature built into the store no matter how well designed it is.

You can still get Steam keys, I usually buy them from Loaded (formerly CDKeys.com).
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