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Resetting Xbox

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Re: Resetting Xbox

#911

Post by TulliusCicero »

account42 wrote: post #731
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…

No it means making a store that is barely acceptable. Steam itself is far from good - the competition is just even worse. The biggest problem however is network effects. Most people simply don't want to juggle multiple stores and the communities attached to them.

Steam has problems but it also has a vast feature set. The family sharing and refund policy are both seriously great, for example. Personal calendar is also really, really cool (and bad for my wallet).

Re: Resetting Xbox

#912

Post by beart »

jonhohle wrote: post #877
beart wrote: post #513

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Overwatch released in 2016, but the merger took place in 2008. I feel like overwatch was always more of an Activision game than a Blizzard game. Or at least, pre-World of Warcraft Blizzard would never have entered that genre of gaming.

I was referring to the Microsoft acquisition. That’s Blizzard canceled a bunch of their esports work. There’s definitely some Blizzard DNA in the characters and lore. I like to think it’s as close to what StarCraft Ghost could have even been.

I had completely forgot MS bought them.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#913

Post by Forgeties79 »

awakeasleep wrote: post #338
Forgeties79 wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The logic of day 1 releases, at least how it seemed to me, was that a % of those people who get gamepass just to play the game for cheaper would stick around. That’s potentially worth way more than 1x $60 (now $70-$80) sale. That didn’t happen I guess

It’s funny how a strategy like this would work on me, but I am a busy adult who doesn’t really game. Compare that to my nephews who have a lot of time for gaming, but they’re always fighting to scrounge up the money for another month of Nintendo online or Xbox online and go without it for at least half the year

Yeah i game in waves so a monthly subscription just doesn’t appeal to me even if it averages out to a decent rate over time

Re: Resetting Xbox

#914

Post by fleroviumna »

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…

[dead]

Re: Resetting Xbox

#916

Post by Keyframe »

menshiki wrote: post #622
Keyframe wrote: post #297

This reads like corporate death rattle. Microsoft never had any clue what it takes to make a console - a console. Now it seems they've also completely lost the plot on what makes a business - a business. They should've been Steam, instead they ran out of it.

> Microsoft never had any clue what it takes to make a console - a console. The 85 million people who've bought the Xbox 360 would disagree.

while impressive as a standalone number, half of it is in US. It launched a year ahead of competition at a much lower price and was when XBOX Live came about. And even with that - it couldn't make a dent in the dominance of of Sony and Nintendo in Japan, where in some cases it was fully discontinued early on and it was s series of missteps that led to where we are today. Microsoft never knew what they were doing. When it seemed like there was a success at hand, it was serendipity rather than Microsoft. Microsoft and their fundamental lack of understanding of gaming is what led to all of that.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#917

Post by pfdietz »

xerox13ster wrote: post #903
pfdietz wrote: post #890

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Error is rampant. I saw a quote saying the difference between a good business and bad one is the good one makes the right decision 60% of time, the bad one 40% of the time.

So errors abound, and have to be subsequently corrected. This correction process is as natural to capitalism as breathing is to you being alive. Without it, things would rapidly grind to a halt. We see this in sclerotic centrally planned economies where errors persist for much longer.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#918

Post by rcxdude »

MarkSweep wrote: post #506
3eb7988a1663 wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is Split Fiction easier? While I thought the platforming in It Takes Two was fairly pedestrian, it was challenging enough that I was unable to get the other half to tough it out to the end.

Split Fiction has a couple of mechanisms that make it accessible for people who are not experienced gamers. There is a general "reduce damage done by enemies" setting that make dodging attacks unnecessary. If you get stuck on something, there is a "skip to next checkpoint" button. This is very helpfully for the one or two really oboxiously hard parts. This is an improvement in accessibility over the developer's previ…

TBH, the whole of It Takes Two made me think 'these people are pretty terrible, I'm not sure I want to help them'. The stuffed toy bit was just the cherry on the cake. Good gameplay, not very good writing IMO (Split fiction is better but still... irritating at times)

Re: Resetting Xbox

#919

Post by scott_w »

WorldMaker wrote: post #900
scott_w wrote: post #872

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are pointing to treasury bonds that would give a similar rate of return with no risk at all.

Yeah, and I'm pointing out the opportunity cost of that is just silly. It's not a practical exercise in any way. Suppose there was some way for Microsoft to stop exactly on a dime, magically collect all $5bn in gross revenue for a year and managed to put that all into US treasury bonds without tanking the interest rate/market value of those by entirely eliminating their products and goods that generate that $5bn reve…

It’s not meant to be taken literally, it’s just a comparison to point out that the return isn’t really very good considering the risks inherent in game development, especially the type of AAA games that Microsoft’s acquisitions put out there.

Re: Resetting Xbox

#920

Post by teachrdan »

account42 wrote: post #662
teachrdan wrote: post #501

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

One way is developers making game for far left silicon valley ideologes when their audience is full of horny young males. I.e. the game is primarily designed to push an agenda rather than be fun.

> far left silicon valley ideologes [sic]

This is a trope that's more than a few years out of date. Silicon Valley is run by Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, Elon Musk, and many other executives who are completely devoted to the current administration; even Tim Cook bent the knee and donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration.

And what does "far left" mean in this context? Is it the abolition of private property and the creation of a communist utopia? Or are we talking about basic equal rights and a slightly more progressive tax system?

Without a bit more clarity, comments like yours come off as being uninformed at best, ignorant at worst.

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