IllusiveMan

It’s crazy that PS5 players are getting Halo before Game Pass gets old Call of Duty’s.

@Ryu_Niiyama It’s because the user base is much smaller than other consoles and Steam, plus Xbox users tend to not buy games compared to any other platform, logically because of Game Pass, so if a game releases on every platform it just makes way, way less money on Xbox, that’s why even Microsoft themselves are porting first-party games to anywhere else.

That plus being a bit more complicated to port games to the Series S is why some major games just choose to skip the platform increasingly so, quite disappointing tbh.

@Rog-X For Nintendo is outright impossible to get a refund, Sony is very specific with each request, sometimes it’s approved but most of the time it’s denied, Microsoft is by far the best in this regard.
I bought Battlefield 1 for like $2 in December but they gave it away for free two weeks later so I submitted the request for refund and was able to redeem the free game no issues.

I’m hyped, the more they show it looks better and better, what a lineup for Xbox/Game Pass so far this year ngl

Now this is nostalgia…

@Ryu_Niiyama It’s a mix of both, in one hand they have a more strict verifications (that’s why some updates just arrive later on Xbox) but it’s also very true they’re not targeted as the PS Store or eShop are, as both of them have double or triple the users of the MS Store.

What I can’t understand is the fact that 30 million consoles sold is not a disaster, many other consoles have sold less than half of that lifetime… and yet Microsoft already gave up on exclusives plus more concerningly they might have stopped production and distribution of hardware, as there’s a growing global scarcity of both Series X and S on many markets outside the US.

If they keep making hardware on paper but it’s gonna be like Surface devices which are basically never available outside the US MS Store then they shouldn’t even bother, just move our libraries to PC at the very least.

@K1LLEGAL You make a good point but I don’t think Deathloop proved anything or was the catalyst, I think once they acquired ABK they took a look at their financials at how staggeringly more money is being made at PlayStation, specially for Call of Duty, and with the need of recouping those 80 billion spent for ABK and Zenimax, Microsoft just pivoted overnight leaving the Xbox division scrambling to even accept their new reality, what I’ll never be fine with is the blatant lies they repeatedly have said to people who have spent years and hundreds of dollars on building a library around some games we were told repeatedly would never be going to other consoles.

That’s why now I hesitate to spend any money on the Xbox store but just can’t sell my Xbox as I have 130+ games I can’t play anywhere else without having to buy them again, and now for whatever baffling reason there’s less options to buy a new console right now.

@Banjo- You think they didn’t market their games because of the FTC? Marketing has been a problem for Xbox since 2010.

The amount of lies we were told back then is honestly infuriating, all the ports being announced right now were already greenlit when Phil was saying on camera “it’s only 4 games”.

And btw, a bit off topic, there’s a growing scarcity of Xbox consoles globally, it’s become hard to get on basically every market outside the US, there’s many threads such as this one already and it’s looking as Microsoft already gave up on hardware. https://www.reddit.com/r/xbox/s/u8xVJPGq1j

I feel we’ve been told this for a decade and so far the only one that has given up is Xbox.

I’m very interested in Avowed, on paper it has everything I want but there’s something that hasn’t clicked yet, I’m hopeful this doesn’t turn out in another disappointment.

However, Microsoft, would you mind putting some marketing into your games? Barely anyone knows this game launches in 2 weeks and there hasn’t been any single push for marketing whatsoever.

@abe_hikura Exactly that I believe is the most likely outcome in a few years, they’ll say “Xbox is at the center of everything we do however we tried out best selling hardware but response from fans hasn’t been as expected” essentially blaming us for not buying it, followed by “but since Xbox is everywhere you don’t need to worry as you can still play your library on the Cloud 💀” or some other corporate BS they’ve been feeding us since 2013.

@dskatter Actually FH5 will support cross-play on launch so that’s nice, if they also support cross save I might consider buying it on PS5, now my only regret is that I bought the expansions on Xbox.

@Kaloudz In what way does it benefit the platform? By killing it?

Another user answered you perfectly in the last post, the victims are the Xbox consumers who invested hundreds if not thousands on our digital libraries that will get stuck on an unsustained platform eventually. That’s the concern.

@Fiendish-Beaver Couldn’t have said it better, my only concern around this is my digital game library which I’ve stopped investing in since last year. Not gonna sell my Series X but why would I keep spending on a platform that is doomed to fail?

You don’t see Netflix putting Squid Game or Stranger Things on Disney+ tho…

@Millionski Why are you so mad at me? I didn’t design Microsoft baffling plans, I just don’t agree with them and unlike you I’ve been saying that since the very beginning.

@Isolte I don’t think it’s worth discussing here any further, some people refuse to listen to arguments and immediately jump to call us fanboys, I understand everyone is frustrated but if anything that frustration should be addressed to Microsoft not between users.

Honestly, I’m not even mad or disappointed anymore, it’s just sad.

@Kieduss You can do it from the website

@Kaloudz This has actually happened before and they only patch it, if you redeem it they won’t remove it from your library unlike Sony which 100% does every time some bug like this happens.

@donv2135 You missed my comments where I’ve been pretty critical of PlayStation too, in fact I said this year Xbox could’ve finally capitalized on their mistakes but they choose to shoot both their legs off, being critical of a brand doesn’t mean I’m obsessed with the other one, if I were a troll I could simply say “hehe Xbox dead no exclusives” but I keep elaborating on my frustrations on what they’re doing because I enjoy tf out of my consoles, if I didn’t have an Xbox I wouldn’t even bother to be here discussing.

@donv2135 Phil or anyone at Microsoft could say it 100 times and I wouldn’t believe it, with their track record you should know better than trusting every word they say, and it’s not even that they are lying (tho sometimes they definitely are) but mostly they don’t even know what their plans are going to be in 6 months.

@Weebleman Exactly, that’s why I’m not convinced by the pretty talk of Phil by suggesting the idea, it’d either have to be a near $1000 console considering it’d have to be more capable than a PS5 Pro or just have at it again with closed software console, imo neither option has any chance of success in this multiplatform timeline they’re now..

I’m tired chief, these numbers are quite bad, beyond hardware sales which MS seems to just have given up, they had a legit great Call of Duty launch, overall the best quarter ever for Game Pass and revenue not only didn’t grow but shrunk?

Even if GP itself grew by a tiny amount corporate MS is definitely not happy and I see why they’re turning Xbox into a third-party publisher almost overnight without caring for long-term health of the platform, they need that revenue up ASAP to justify shareholders the expense of ABK, which has now proven to be a mistake, it has put way too much pressure and scrutiny on Xbox/MS Gaming from investors that just don’t understand the gaming industry with nothing in return so far, not even most ABK games on GP or new games beyond Call of Duty, or even the same revenue compared to the same quarter last year, quite brutal.

After watching the Dev_Direct with that frankly awesome Doom TDA gameplay I finally sat down to play Doom 2016 and I’m soooo stupid for not playing it before lol, I tried several times but there was always something going on and couldn’t pass from the third mission, now I’m about to finish it and move on to Eternal but getting a bit nervous as everyone say Eternal is frustrating compared to 2016 which so far has been amazing.

@Millionski I don’t know how you want them to tell you, it’s crystal clear what their future plans are when he said there’s no red lines and he won’t put walls around any game, that quote is talking about old games that may be complicated or just not worth to port, and honestly, don’t put too much attention on Phil’s words, don’t you remember “there’s only 4 games” and “Indiana Jones isn’t going to PlayStation”?

I legit don’t understand you, you change your stance pretty much every week, one week you’re against this multiplatform push, the other you’re all for it, and now you’re negating it’s happening in the first place….

@donv2135 I’m not going to engage, that’s my opinion, that’s how I think things will work out in the future and I’d love to be wrong but this is the way Microsoft, not Xbox, does things, they’ll be a great publisher as one thing MS knows is to sell software, but as for the Xbox platform, the thing I am personally invested in I have ZERO hope anymore.

@BacklogBrad Bright for Microsoft Gaming I’d say, Xbox feels already on life support.

"64% of the above Microsoft revenue figure was spent on PlayStation platforms"

This is why there's no going back, once they had a taste of that sweet revenue they won't accept anything less, with this and what Phil said in Destin's interview it's now 100% clear, Microsoft Gaming is a publisher, ALL games are going everywhere except the very old ones not worth porting.

And at the risk of sounding exhausting (cause I am) I still believe it's a death sentence for the Xbox platform, with this 64% stat only growing and growing and Xbox' users spending dwindling ever more it's only a matter of time until Microsoft pulls the plug on the least profitable area of MS Gaming, the hardware.

The year when Xbox could finally capitalize on PlayStation having a bad look cause of massive cancellations amidst a failed strategy with an absolute killer first-party lineup they choose… to port that lineup and the biggest franchise Xbox has to PlayStation. Just baffles me.

@Prestige-worldwide Lmao the biggest Xbox franchise releasing on Xbox historic biggest competitor isn’t that big of deal? It’s ridiculous you want to excuse or minimize it like that, it’s a big deal no matter your stance is on it.

And the issue for me and many is not about who gets to play what, but the future of the platform itself, this will inevitably result is even lower sales for the consoles, one topic Phil didn’t mention is the brutal collapse in Xbox console sales, how long before they decide it’s more profitable to just publish in other platforms? With ever-dwindling sales it only makes that scenario more likely.

Sure Phil, your track record speaks for itself.

They’re definitely trying to bridge Xbox and PC more and more but I wish they’d make it retroactive, so that all Xbox, Bethesda and Activision titles have this too, it’s the very least they can do with them disregarding the console so heavily.

I just rewatched it without the hype and it’s such a good event, much better than any State of Play this entire generation but gaming media doesn’t give enough credit to Xbox for making consistently good shows, both Dev_Directs and Showcases.

As I said in another comment, it’s just so disappointing Microsoft has given up on Xbox as a platform just at the time they’re starting to shine as a publisher.

Man, why did Microsoft had to give up on Xbox when it was getting this good!?

@Millionski That isn’t as cheap anymore, they changed conversion rates and upped the prices so even by looking for cheap codes online and conversion tricks I don’t find it worth it since there’s entire months where I don’t Game Pass, I basically only got it to save on playing day one titles as I pretty much bought every other game I liked.

Nope, I have Ultimate until 2027 but I’m gonna let it ran out and I’m not gonna renew, it’s become too expensive for my particular use case as I still tend to buy the games I like the most.

@Coletrain Yup, much louder than the Slim or the late fat models, in some 120 FPS it’s even worse than my day one PS5 which is very disappointing.

It really goes to show that the Series X hardware is top notch and imo the best built console this generation, I have a PS5 Pro and while some games do look better the build quality is noticeably worse as I have loud coil whine as my day one PS5 also had, whereas the Series X is ALWAYS dead silent.

@Nobigwoo I really, really don’t think an Xbox handheld has such success that developers will flock to the platform, for instance by then the Switch 2 will be dominating handhelds with some Xbox ported games, making it worthless to get an Xbox handheld (same thing in home consoles with the PS5), plus Xbox marketing sucks incredibly bad, if they ever do release it you just know it’s gonna have a terrible name and they won’t market it, and if Sony decides to venture in the same market it’d effectively kill any possibility of success for Xbox.

By some context the Steam Deck which is universally praised has sold little more than 5 million units, an Xbox handheld could have even lower sales.

Gotta be honest, I doubt it ever materializes, not only because Xbox is a dying mess right now but there’s a reason why Sony hasn’t done it too, game development would be a huge problem if all developers have to account for a powerful home console plus a weaker handheld, as the weaker hardware becomes the base and all development would have to be compatible with both, we’ve already seen devs struggle with the Series S and a a handheld would logically be much more limited, plus the market by then is going to be dominated by Switch 2.
And the old model of maintaining 2 separate platforms with different libraries is just not sustainable nowadays.

I think all this will end up in one third-party handheld such as the Rog Ally to be “licensed” by Microsoft and serve as an Xbox handheld after their next-console launches, so we’re talking about the Z3 generation of PC handhelds, an at this rate who knows if Xbox would even be around by then.

@Rog-X And you’re choosing to believe Microsoft words? Lmao I’m not going to repeat their lies but Phil Spencer in a rare moment of honesty clearly said there’s no “red lines” as to what will end up launching on competing consoles, I’m choosing to believe that.

Plus the leaker that claimed Halo MCC is coming to Switch 2 and PS5 just accurately predicted the reveal date for the system so at this point he has more credibility that Microsoft’s PR 🤣

Nah, they’ll heavily tease it only to try reassuring people they’re not leaving the console market while porting every game that Xbox has ever done to PS5 and Switch 2.

What a pathetic response from Microsoft, they really think of us as idiots, they know damn well that the increase in revenue has been from integrating their 70 billion buyout, if you remove ABK numbers the business has actually shrunk, plus it’s not denying anything at all, it even implies with that quote of being “all in on gaming” that they weren’t “all in” before…

Plus they repeat the exact same BS with engagement at “all-time high” which I just don’t believe anymore.

I honestly expect the decline to be even steeper this year, as the real consequences of becoming multi platform will start to show, another metric I’m expecting to decline heavily is consumer spending on consoles, meaning how much people spend on Xbox in games, MTX and subscriptions, as existing audiences will begin flock the platform and the ones who remain won’t spend a cent (my case until I rebuild my library someplace else), we probably won’t know as they’ll mask it with consumer spending on competing platforms as the ports release.

As to new audiences they’ll see the brand is already so tarnished and despised that they won’t even consider it as an option over a PS5 or even Switch 2, so once again I can’t see a path where Xbox ain’t dead.

Honestly, it baffles me how a trillion dollar company can be beyond incompetent, their only solutions to any problem is throw money at it or abandon it, they literally seem to not know anything else.