@Kaloudz I mean, Spec Ops the Line was like $30 on Xbox before it got delisted, so this isn't that surprising. That was an even more egregious example of a situation like this.
Basically, they got rid of some nudity, a few small details involving minors, and post-mortem dismemberment. You can still dismember people while they're still alive, but you can't dismember dead bodies anymore.
All this stuff honestly isn't that big of a deal IMO. There is a comment in the article I posted that says "It's not about specifics, it's a matter of principle, any amount of censorship is too much," but honestly, I disagree. So long as it doesn't significantly impact the quality of the game, I do not care about censorship that much. I am not the type of person who will boycott a game just because the devs decided to cover up some cleavage on a fictional female character or something lol. I have much more important things to worry about in real life than minor censorship issues.
The only thing I'm firmly against is major censorship, censorship that actually changes the tone of a game and makes its gameplay/plot objectively worse. That, I would have a problem with. Ready or Not is not one of those cases.
Censoring the game on PC for the console release is unfortunate, but it really isn't as bad as people are making it out to be. The game is still pretty much the same, it's not like VOID Interactive got rid of entire chunks of the game to meet censorship standards or something.
I know this is a controversial take, but the ads on the Xbox home screen don't bother me. Sure, I would like the option to get rid of them, but they don't really negatively impact my experience that much, unlike YouTube ads and Spotify ads.
My problem with the Xbox UI is not the ads, my problem is with the lack of innovation and interesting UI designs. It is so disappointing that Microsoft didn't make a new UI for the Series X/S and just used the Xbox One one all over again. The Xbox UI is utilitarian; it's functional and gets the job done, but it isn't that pleasant or amazing to look at. I would like something with a little more pizazz, like this fan-made UI.
@Medic_alert But the next Xbox also won't just be a Windows PC, like the ROG Xbox Ally is, because Microsoft has already confirmed it will be fully backwards compatible with the Series X/S. So it should be able to run games that aren't available on PC.
@Kraven I don't know why you would ever want Microsoft to abandon consoles because that would be devastating for the video game industry, for Xbox players, and consumers in general.
Microsoft is not the only one going third-party, fortunately. Sony is, as well, and we will see many more PlayStation-published games on Nintendo and Xbox consoles in the future. Not as much as Microsoft, but still a sizable amount.
@Medic_alert It's not coming to PS day-one, it'll be an Xbox exclusive at launch. Presumably because Keeper started life as a permanent Xbox exclusive and Double Fine doesn't have the resources to develop a PS5 port simultaneously for a game that won't sell particularly well anyways. They'll probably port it to PS5 and Switch 2 in 2026.
@DaveTheRave You say that as if a million copies sold of Helldivers 2 is a bad thing. That's millions of dollars of revenue that Sony would miss out on other wise, not including microtransaction revenue.
If Sony ports another game to Xbox after Helldivers 2, then it will be clear that HD2 on Xbox was a success, and that Xbox players very much do buy games.
@Artois2 And yet that's why Xbox is the only console with every singleplayer mainline FF game on it. Because Square Enix keeps porting games to a platform where FF games "hardly sell anything." They must be doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, not because they actually make any profits on Xbox ports.
@TheSimulator Agreed, the censorship isn't even that bad, it's not like they're completely removing sections of the game or something. If that was the case, then I'd be upset.
@wildcat_kickz Yep, I can understand why the PlayStation China Hero Project games are timed exclusives, since Sony helps get those indie/AA games funded.
But for AAA blockbuster games like FF16, FF7 Rebirth, and Silent Hill 2 Remake? It makes little sense for publishers to agree to those deals.
@Fiendish-Beaver I agree with pretty much everything you said. I won't lie, I was kind of in favor of the ABK deal, but only because I thought Microsoft would have stuck to its guns about being a competitor to PlayStation. If Microsoft didn't completely pivot away from its original business plan and wasn't so obsessed with AI, I think the deal could have been good for consumers to an extent. I will say, though, I never really cared about ABK games and would have much preferred at the time if Microsoft bought a smaller Japanese publisher instead, to boost Xbox's visibility in that region.
At the end of the day, the ABK deal pretty much killed Xbox as we know it. It turned Xbox into Activision, and not the other way around. We're getting Halo, Gears, and Forza on PlayStation, before a single 360-era CoD game on Game Pass. That's wild.
On a positive note, though, maybe Helldivers 2 wouldn't be coming to Xbox if the ABK deal never happened. If Microsoft was still firm on its exclusivity, then maybe Sony would have never brought the game to Xbox.
@Balaam_ Jim Ryan certainly wasn't advocating against the deal for the industry's benefit, though. He was doing it to protect Sony's interests. If he knew what would actually happen as a result of the deal (Microsoft going third-party), I think he would have been perfectly fine with Microsoft acquiring ABK
@Balaam_ Maybe you're thinking of Replaced. It has a similar name to Routine, and it looked awesome. It, too, was delayed indefinitely, though, but I don't think it's been cancelled.
@Cherrywood Name me at least three developers/franchises that stopped supporting or being released on Xbox after the introduction of Game Pass.
Most of the games that skip Xbox these days, like the ones from Falcom, NIS America, Gust, etc. were never released on Xbox at all. I can't think of many developers that stopped supporting Xbox once Game Pass was released. Instead, the opposite has happened. Atlus, RGG Studio, Level-5, Gust, MiHoYo, Bandai Namco (with franchises like Digimon Story), Hamster Corporation, Natsume, etc. are now supporting Xbox more than they ever did in the past.
Xbox is still the platform that gets the least amount of games, but it's far better now than it was compared to the Xbox One gen.
@SeaDaVie Now, as for the part you mentioned about Game Pass leading to lost sales of games that aren't on the service, I don't think there is any credible evidence out there to support that claim. And if it does impact non-Game Pass game sales, the effect must not be significant enough to deter third-party developers from porting their games to Xbox.
I've said this a lot in previous comments, but if Game Pass really did condition Xbox users to not buy games whatsoever and wait for everything to come to Game Pass, then there likely wouldn't be a lot of non-Game Pass games on Xbox. Third-party support would have deteriorated since the introduction of Game Pass in 2017, but instead, the opposite has happened.
Now, I see how your point can be applicable to some situations, like Atlus games on Xbox. Since Atlus started supporting Xbox in 2022, almost every game from the company (except Unicorn Overlord and SMT V: Vengance) has appeared on Game Pass at some point. Sometimes day-one, sometimes months later. Some Xbox gamers may be deterred from buying Atlus games because they expect most of them to come to Game Pass. In that sense, I can see where your argument holds merit.
The thing is, though, most third-party developers/publishers don't support Game Pass as frequently and as consistently as Atlus/SEGA does. Why would an Xbox gamer, for example, be conditioned to not buy Sonic games, when there have almost never been Sonic games on Game Pass?
@SeaDaVie I could be wrong about this, but I'm pretty sure Microsoft has access to all the data of each individual user who buys video games and subscribes to Game Pass.
They, for instance, would probably know if someone bought Doom Eternal and Doom (2016), but didn't buy Doom: The Dark Ages and subbed to Game Pass instead. Data like that they can probably record and definitively mark as a lost sale.
They can also probably tell if someone who plays a lot of first-person shooters decides to play all the Doom games on Game Pass instead of outright buying them.
@SeaDaVie There is some truth in that, but it isn't completely accurate. With games like CoD, it should be pretty easy for Microsoft to determine the amount of sales they lose on Xbox and PC because of Game Pass. If BO6 sold a million copies less than MW3 on Xbox and most of those million ppl played it on Game Pass instead, that's how you know you lost sales.
Now, this is harder to do with new IPs, especially those from studios that have never released a game before. At that point it does just boil down to estimates based off of similar games. But, fortunately for this case, most of Microsoft's games are based on established franchises.
Also, Microsoft doesn't share financial data for literally any of its divisions or products. They obfuscate everything, it's not just Game Pass.
People's response when Microsoft tells Dring that they determine Game Pass's profitability without factoring first-party game costs:
"I knew it! Game Pass is a failure! It's blindingly obvious that there's no way it's sustainable, and thousands of ppl's jobs were lost all because of Game Pass."
Also those same people when Dring hears from his sources that Game Pass is actually profitable, even when you factor in lost first-party game sales:
"Microsoft must be lying, what Chris Dring says isn't true."
Worth noting that Chris's latest statements don't even come from Microsoft themselves. He asked his sources at the company, so this wasn't some official PR statement or anything.
@BacklogBrad Exactly. Game Pass is sustainable, and it is profitable for Microsoft. Otherwise they would have stopped adding day-one games to the service ages ago.
The reason why you are seeing price increases and changes to the service, however, is because Game Pass isn't growing at a fast-enough rate. Microsoft was expecting to hit 100m subs by 2030, but since that obviously isn't gonna happen, they're raising the price instead.
@AverageGamer "Microsoft went into that gen already $5 billion in the hole add on another $1 billion from the 360 plus R&D. I’m not gonna mention the Kinect."
I think the Kinect was a big success for Microsoft, it was one of the best-selling console peripherals of all time back then. It sold around 35 million units as of 2017, according to Microsoft.The problem with the Kinect was the path that it ultimately led to, which we saw with the Xbox One.
"But it took was until 2008-09 for the Xbox division to finally stop being in the red.."
There was an article I found from 2008 that says the Xbox 360 finally started to make a profit that year, so yes, you are right about that.
"That number is count profit across not just PS3… But also PSP and PS2. Sony gaming profit is heavily inflated due to multiple platforms."
Since there weren't that many people buying games on PS2 in late 2010, I don't think the console factored a big role in Sony's profits at the time. In fact, the PSP and PS2 sales were already slumping in that quarter. However, let's just assume that less than half of Sony's profits came from the PS3. Let's say Sony made $400 million per quarter during the PS3's lifespan, and that that is equivalent to what Microsoft made per quarter with the 360, as well.
$400 million times 4 is, of course, $1.6 billion. Now if Microsoft made close to $1.6 billion from the 360 each year for 7 years, then they must have made around $11.2 billion in profit the entire generation. That's more than enough to cover the costs of the original Xbox and the Red Ring of Death, and that is probably close to the profits that Microsoft made with the 360. While console sales did start to slow down near the end of the generation, game sales on Xbox 360 likely didn't.
@AverageGamer As for the other stuff you mentioned, you have a point about the pressure from investors stuff. However, when it comes to cloud streaming, Microsoft is already offering a Stadia-like service with the new Stream Your Own Game feature. While you're right that none of Microsoft's first-party games are available through this manner (though they are available on GeForce Now, ironically), they could add them if they wanted to.
Also you don't have to individually buy every game that you can cloud stream via PS Plus, some of them are included in the PS Plus subscription service itself, like Game Pass.
At the end of the day, Microsoft could just get rid of day-one games, and keep the rest of Game Pass intact without switching to a Stadia model, xCloud stuff included.
@AverageGamer The Xbox 360 definitely did not just "break even," it was a success. Considering that Microsoft sold 85 million consoles that gen as well as hundreds of millions of games/DLCs, it's highly unlikely they generated only 1 billion dollars of revenue the entire gen. Microsoft didn't make any profit on the hardware, of course, but they made a lot of profit on the games.
I can't find a lot of specific revenue data from Xbox during the 360 era, but I did find an apt comparison with the PS3 that shows how unlikely it is that Microsoft only broken even with the Xbox 360. In Q4 2010, Sony sold 6.5 million PS3s, which was similar to what the Xbox 360 sold at the time. At the time, Sony reported that they had made $871.2 million in profit through games, and this was just in one quarter.
Since the Xbox 360 was doing just as well as the PS3 at the time, then it must have made billions of dollars in profit each year. In other words, it was almost certainly a big success for Microsoft.
This may be sacrilegious to say, but despite being on Xbox for many years, I haven't played most of the Halo games yet, even though I'm a fan of first-person shooters. So I don't really have a lot of fond Halo memories.
The only Halo game I've played so far is Halo: Combat Evolved (and a bit of Halo Infinite). I finished Halo: CE a few years ago, and, to be honest, I didn't like it that much. I don't know, maybe you had to be around in the 2000s to really enjoy the first Halo, but I just thought it was okay. Halo: CE is a decent game, but it didn't blow me away or anything. I don't really remember a lot from it, aside from the awesome soundtrack.
Maybe I didn't enjoy Halo: CE as much as I should have because I played it 20 years after it originally came out, but at the same time, I played games like Half Life 2 decades after their original release, and they left a far greater impression on me.
Even still, I'll get to Halo 2 and 3 eventually, as well as the other Halo games.
"Tell that to Zune, MSN Music… and all the other stuff Microsoft killed off early in the 2000s."
That's true but none of those projects managed to take off in the same way that Xbox did. Zune was around for, like, 6 years and no one cared about it. Xbox managed to take off in its 5th year with the launch of the Xbox 360. If the Xbox 360 also managed to flop like the Zune did, then Microsoft would have cut support for it.
"Yet, Satya Nadella and Co gave Phill and Team how many years after he came in to fix the ship after the Xbox One launch? If they didn’t like long-term business strategies… Why not pivot then?"
Satya Nadella was apparently this close to shutting Xbox down after the launch of the Xbox One. It was Phil who managed to convince him to keep Xbox around by pivoting business strategies and focusing on stuff like Game Pass and day-one PC releases. Rest assured, if Satya had his way, the Xbox One would have been the last Xbox.
Lastly, Microsoft wouldn't have to axe Game Pass entirely if they want to keep xCloud around. They could just turn it into a PS Plus-like service and get rid of day-one releases.
@AverageGamer Microsoft was willing to invest in long-term business strategies in the early 2000s. The original Xbox made zero profit, and yet, Microsoft invested in it because they knew, if they could build a reputation with gamers, they could have great success in the long run. And they were right. The Xbox 360 was a massive hit, and it wouldn't have existed if Microsoft didn't invest in the original Xbox.
The Microsoft of today, however, the one run by Satya Nadella, would never do anything like the original Xbox. Satya and the Microsoft shareholders clearly only care about one thing: how to make as much money as fast as possible. They don't like long-term business strategies, hence why they immediately pivoted and went full third-party after the ABK deal instead of letting things play out as initially intended.
If Game Pass was this big money pit for Microsoft, I don't think Satya would let it remain intact for eight years. Game Pass hasn't been growing fast enough, however, which is why Microsoft has sort of deprioritized it in favor of multiplatform initiatives. I still think it's profitable, though, since they're still letting Game Pass exist. If Game Pass was really the cause of all these devastating layoffs and studio closures, then Microsoft would have no qualms in axing the service and walking back its day-one release promises. As Project Latitude has showed us, they don't really care about building trust with consumers or caring about what they think.
@Fiendish-Beaver Well, that could be part of the reason (specifically when it comes to CoD), but I'm pretty sure the primary reason to acquire ABK was because of King. Microsoft wanted to make a major leap into the mobile gaming market, and acquiring Candy Crush was their best bet. Phil Spencer even said so himself. Putting ABK games on Game Pass was more like the bonus thing on the side.
Now, I know Phil's statements often age poorly in hindsight, but I don't see why he would lie about the primary reason as to why they would buy ABK.
@Fiendish-Beaver "I really fail to understand how people can honestly believe that Game Pass is sustainable when the evidence that it is not is so plain for everyone to see (and apparently ignore)..."
I could say the same to you, because, if you noticed, Microsoft only started porting games to PlayStation after they spent $70 billion dollars on ABK, not after they introduced Game Pass. Surely, the more logical conclusion would be to think they went multiplatform because of that acquisition, and not due to Game Pass's supposed unsustainability?
@Ooccoo_Jr So let me get this straight... You're using Pure Xbox headlines to determine how many Xbox gamers care about Game Pass, and whether they buy games or not?
Not every single game on Xbox is on Game Pass. Game Pass only covers a tiny fraction of the Xbox library, and most games never come to the service. It's absurd to think that Xbox gamers don't buy games at all, and only play stuff on Game Pass. If that were really true, then no publisher would bother to bring their games to the platform. Heck, that's why we're now seeing Sony bring their games to Xbox, starting with Helldivers 2, because they know Xbox gamers do buy games.
Yes, the games being cancelled is absolutely a failure of management, but didn't you just imply that these studio closures/game cancellations were because of Game Pass?
@Ooccoo_Jr As I said in another thread, you really think Game Pass is the sole purpose of the cancellations, studio closures, and redundancies, but not the more obvious reasons, like the fact that Microsoft just spent $70 billion on ABK and is planning to spend $80 billion on generative AI? Or the fact that The Initiative, Zenimax Online, and Rare spent 7+ years on video games that're nowhere close to being finished?
I can assure you most of these people would have been laid off even if Game Pass didn't exist. This is why we are seeing mass layoffs across the entire industry the last few years.
Microsoft overhired during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the big tech boom, but now that the tech industry is no longer growing, they are laying off thousands of people.
@abe_hikura Agreed. Game Pass may not be beneficial for all games, but it's laughable to claim that it is somehow responsible for these mass layoffs and studio closures, and not - as you pointed out - Microsoft's incessant AI obsessions or developers taking forever to put out a game (Perfect Dark, Everwild, etc.).
@Ooccoo_Jr "This is why Xbox is closing studios" Last I checked, most of the games Xbox has released lately are all on PlayStation and/or Nintendo consoles, and you think Game Pass and Xbox players are to blame for these studios being closed? Maybe PlayStation players should have bought the games more.
I am willing to bet you a million dollars that Microsoft would have still laid off thousands of employees and shut down studios if Game Pass existed or not.
The reason Microsoft is laying so many people off is because of $80 billion AI investments and $70 billion gaming acquisitions. The reason Microsoft cancelled Everwild, Perfect Dark, and the Zenimax MMO is because they took 7+ years to make and were nowhere close to being finished. None of this has to do with Game Pass. You'd think if Game Pass was the root of all the industry's problems, then no company other than Microsoft would be laying off hundreds of employees and shutting down studios.
If Game Pass was unsustainable, Microsoft would have axed it years ago. There's no way you could seriously expect the Microsoft of today - a company who immediately cuts support for stuff that doesn't make profit immediately - to burn endless cash on a unprofitable subscription service for 8 years.
Game Pass is profitable, and it is sustainable. The problem is, it isn't growing at a fast-enough rate that Microsoft would like it to. Hence the price increases.
I also do kind of find it funny how Colantonio seems to pin the entire industry's issues on Game Pass, in spite of the fact that a subscription service that's exclusive to the smallest platform in the industry is not gonna have that big of an impact on the viability of games.
@themightyant The Switch 2 is better than the Series S in some respects, but there are some games on the Series S that probably wouldn't be able to run well on the Switch 2, like FF16 or GTA 6.
I also think Death Stranding 2 could be ported to the Series S, but not the Switch 2.
@Kienda Yep, Fire Emblem and Pokemon are as much of a first-party title as Helldivers 2 is. Nintendo doesn't own the companies who make the Fire Emblem and Pokemon games, yet no one considers them as third-party exclusives. Helldivers 2 is no different, since Sony owns the rights to Helldivers.
@AverageGamer I think Phil Spencer said a few years ago that Microsoft was developing their own Xbox exclusive Japanese games. He may have been referring to Hi-Fi Rush and OD.
@betterthings You're right, I do think it's probably easier to port games to Xbox when they're already available on PC, but it doesn't change that Sony invested money into this and got one of their own first-party studios, Nixxes, some Xbox dev kits to make an Xbox port.
Many game studios have not said that it doesn't make sense to port games to Xbox without a Game Pass deal, only a few. I could probably count on one hand how many studios actually said that.
A handful of game studios have said that Game Pass has been great for their games, as well, so there's that to keep in mind.
Either way, the proof is in the pudding. You don't need dev statements to determine if it's worth porting games to Xbox or not, you just need to look at their actions. The large majority of devs have continued porting their games to Xbox, without any day-one Game Pass deals whatsoever. If this was a sentiment held by most of the industry, then there would be very few non-Game Pass games on Xbox.
You're also right about Sony targeting the whales on Xbox with Helldivers 2. Good live service games tend to do pretty well on Xbox, and most GAAS titles make most of their profit from MTX. In Helldivers 2's case, though, I imagine raw sales have also played a big role in the game's overall revenue streams.
@NishimuraX Helldivers 2 a third-party title? I saw PlayStation fans saying just a few days ago that it was a first-party game! Crazy how opinions change so quickly.
Helldivers 2 is not a third-party title, it's a first-party one (technically, second-party, but no one uses that term.) Sony may not own Arrowhead, but they own the Helldivers IP and have full control on what platforms Helldivers 2 releases on.
Need I remind you that Arrowhead themselves said that it isn't up to them to port Helldivers 2 to Xbox, but rather Sony?
This is literally no different than any other Sony first-party game coming to Xbox, because Sony willingly made the decision to bring it to the platform. No MLB-type contracts, no IP ownership changes, no excuses.
Perhaps it is, you, my friend, that is living in the make-believe world since, as I said before, Sony doesn't agree with you.
@johnedwin The Lego Horizon game was just bad, it didn't sell well on any platform I think, not even PlayStation. Helldivers 2 is at least a good game, so it does have a better chance at being successful. I bet Helldivers 2 would do really well on Switch 2
@TheGameThrifter Anecdotal evidence is not reliable evidence. If there wasn't a large contigent of people buying games on the platform, then most publishers wouldn't port most of their games to Xbox. In fact, since the introduction of Game Pass, third-party support on Xbox has improved, not declined.
Sales of games will always be better on PlayStation because they are the dominant platform. Just because only 10% of a game's sales are on Xbox doesn't mean the Xbox port isn't profitable.
I agree that there are a bunch of developers who still aren't supporting Xbox to this day, like Falcom, NIS, Aksys Games, etc., but these companies have never supported Xbox, not even during the 360 era. So at least we can say that Game Pass isn't responsible for their games skipping the platform. Most likely it's because there aren't enough Japanese Xbox gamers.
@NishimuraX That's exactly why Sony decided to invest millions of dollars into an Xbox port, because they know for a fact no one buys games on Xbox. Clearly they disagree with you.
Sony has direct information about the sales and performance of titles like MLB The Show and Destiny 2 on Xbox. If these games had done terribly on the platform, I imagine Sony wouldn't bother porting Helldivers 2 to Xbox.
I wonder if people will keep up this charade about no one buying games on Xbox when Sony, in fact, ports another game to Xbox consoles.
Comments 521
Re: John Wick Hex Is Being Permanently Delisted On The Xbox Store This Week
@Kaloudz I mean, Spec Ops the Line was like $30 on Xbox before it got delisted, so this isn't that surprising. That was an even more egregious example of a situation like this.
Re: Roundup: Here's What The 'Ready Or Not' Reviews Are Saying Ahead Of Its Xbox Release
@Kaloudz Here's a link that sums up the six things that VOID Interactive censored in Ready or Not:
https://www.thegamer.com/aready-or-not-details-censored-scenes-minors/
Basically, they got rid of some nudity, a few small details involving minors, and post-mortem dismemberment. You can still dismember people while they're still alive, but you can't dismember dead bodies anymore.
All this stuff honestly isn't that big of a deal IMO. There is a comment in the article I posted that says "It's not about specifics, it's a matter of principle, any amount of censorship is too much," but honestly, I disagree. So long as it doesn't significantly impact the quality of the game, I do not care about censorship that much. I am not the type of person who will boycott a game just because the devs decided to cover up some cleavage on a fictional female character or something lol. I have much more important things to worry about in real life than minor censorship issues.
The only thing I'm firmly against is major censorship, censorship that actually changes the tone of a game and makes its gameplay/plot objectively worse. That, I would have a problem with. Ready or Not is not one of those cases.
Re: Roundup: Here's What The 'Ready Or Not' Reviews Are Saying Ahead Of Its Xbox Release
Censoring the game on PC for the console release is unfortunate, but it really isn't as bad as people are making it out to be. The game is still pretty much the same, it's not like VOID Interactive got rid of entire chunks of the game to meet censorship standards or something.
Re: Xbox Fan Shares Fresh Dashboard Concept That Cleans Up The Home Screen
I know this is a controversial take, but the ads on the Xbox home screen don't bother me. Sure, I would like the option to get rid of them, but they don't really negatively impact my experience that much, unlike YouTube ads and Spotify ads.
My problem with the Xbox UI is not the ads, my problem is with the lack of innovation and interesting UI designs. It is so disappointing that Microsoft didn't make a new UI for the Series X/S and just used the Xbox One one all over again. The Xbox UI is utilitarian; it's functional and gets the job done, but it isn't that pleasant or amazing to look at. I would like something with a little more pizazz, like this fan-made UI.
Re: Xbox Hardware Isn't Dead But 'Big Changes' Are Coming, Says Digital Foundry
@Medic_alert But the next Xbox also won't just be a Windows PC, like the ROG Xbox Ally is, because Microsoft has already confirmed it will be fully backwards compatible with the Series X/S. So it should be able to run games that aren't available on PC.
Re: Xbox Hardware Isn't Dead But 'Big Changes' Are Coming, Says Digital Foundry
@Kraven I don't know why you would ever want Microsoft to abandon consoles because that would be devastating for the video game industry, for Xbox players, and consumers in general.
Microsoft is not the only one going third-party, fortunately. Sony is, as well, and we will see many more PlayStation-published games on Nintendo and Xbox consoles in the future. Not as much as Microsoft, but still a sizable amount.
Re: Talking Point: Are You Excited For Double Fine's Follow-Up To Psychonauts 2?
@Medic_alert It's not coming to PS day-one, it'll be an Xbox exclusive at launch. Presumably because Keeper started life as a permanent Xbox exclusive and Double Fine doesn't have the resources to develop a PS5 port simultaneously for a game that won't sell particularly well anyways. They'll probably port it to PS5 and Switch 2 in 2026.
Re: Two Games Are Confirmed For Xbox Game Pass In August 2025 So Far
@Fiendish-Beaver Yeah, these are literally just two PS5 ports and that's pretty much it.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (July 12-13)
@somnambulance I personally liked Mirror's Edge Catalyst a lot, just as much as the first one.
Re: Final Fantasy Dev Suggests PS5 Exclusives Are A Thing Of The Past For The Series
@DaveTheRave You say that as if a million copies sold of Helldivers 2 is a bad thing. That's millions of dollars of revenue that Sony would miss out on other wise, not including microtransaction revenue.
If Sony ports another game to Xbox after Helldivers 2, then it will be clear that HD2 on Xbox was a success, and that Xbox players very much do buy games.
Re: Final Fantasy Dev Suggests PS5 Exclusives Are A Thing Of The Past For The Series
@Artois2 And yet that's why Xbox is the only console with every singleplayer mainline FF game on it. Because Square Enix keeps porting games to a platform where FF games "hardly sell anything." They must be doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, not because they actually make any profits on Xbox ports.
Re: Ready Or Not Release Date, Release Times & Everything You Need To Know On Xbox
@TheSimulator Agreed, the censorship isn't even that bad, it's not like they're completely removing sections of the game or something. If that was the case, then I'd be upset.
Re: Final Fantasy Dev Suggests PS5 Exclusives Are A Thing Of The Past For The Series
@wildcat_kickz Yep, I can understand why the PlayStation China Hero Project games are timed exclusives, since Sony helps get those indie/AA games funded.
But for AAA blockbuster games like FF16, FF7 Rebirth, and Silent Hill 2 Remake? It makes little sense for publishers to agree to those deals.
Re: Talking Point: To Celebrate Bungie Day, What's Your Favourite Halo Memory Of All Time?
@Kilamanjaro After I check out the sequels, I'll definitely share my thoughts on this site whenever I get the chance!
Re: Talking Point: It's Been Two Years Since A Defining Moment In The History Of Xbox
@FraserG That's exactly what an AI would say...! Lol
Re: Talking Point: It's Been Two Years Since A Defining Moment In The History Of Xbox
@Fiendish-Beaver I agree with pretty much everything you said. I won't lie, I was kind of in favor of the ABK deal, but only because I thought Microsoft would have stuck to its guns about being a competitor to PlayStation. If Microsoft didn't completely pivot away from its original business plan and wasn't so obsessed with AI, I think the deal could have been good for consumers to an extent. I will say, though, I never really cared about ABK games and would have much preferred at the time if Microsoft bought a smaller Japanese publisher instead, to boost Xbox's visibility in that region.
At the end of the day, the ABK deal pretty much killed Xbox as we know it. It turned Xbox into Activision, and not the other way around. We're getting Halo, Gears, and Forza on PlayStation, before a single 360-era CoD game on Game Pass. That's wild.
On a positive note, though, maybe Helldivers 2 wouldn't be coming to Xbox if the ABK deal never happened. If Microsoft was still firm on its exclusivity, then maybe Sony would have never brought the game to Xbox.
Re: Talking Point: It's Been Two Years Since A Defining Moment In The History Of Xbox
@IOI You're right about most stuff here, but I don't see many publishers taking a step back from Game Pass. If anything, it's maybe been the opposite.
Re: Talking Point: It's Been Two Years Since A Defining Moment In The History Of Xbox
@Balaam_ Jim Ryan certainly wasn't advocating against the deal for the industry's benefit, though. He was doing it to protect Sony's interests. If he knew what would actually happen as a result of the deal (Microsoft going third-party), I think he would have been perfectly fine with Microsoft acquiring ABK
Re: Sci-Fi Horror Game 'Routine' Returns After Three Years, Coming To Xbox Game Pass
@Balaam_ Maybe you're thinking of Replaced. It has a similar name to Routine, and it looked awesome. It, too, was delayed indefinitely, though, but I don't think it's been cancelled.
Re: Xbox Reporter Addresses Game Pass Confusion, Says It's Still A Profitable Service In 2025
@Cherrywood Name me at least three developers/franchises that stopped supporting or being released on Xbox after the introduction of Game Pass.
Most of the games that skip Xbox these days, like the ones from Falcom, NIS America, Gust, etc. were never released on Xbox at all. I can't think of many developers that stopped supporting Xbox once Game Pass was released. Instead, the opposite has happened. Atlus, RGG Studio, Level-5, Gust, MiHoYo, Bandai Namco (with franchises like Digimon Story), Hamster Corporation, Natsume, etc. are now supporting Xbox more than they ever did in the past.
Xbox is still the platform that gets the least amount of games, but it's far better now than it was compared to the Xbox One gen.
Re: Xbox Reporter Addresses Game Pass Confusion, Says It's Still A Profitable Service In 2025
@SeaDaVie Now, as for the part you mentioned about Game Pass leading to lost sales of games that aren't on the service, I don't think there is any credible evidence out there to support that claim. And if it does impact non-Game Pass game sales, the effect must not be significant enough to deter third-party developers from porting their games to Xbox.
I've said this a lot in previous comments, but if Game Pass really did condition Xbox users to not buy games whatsoever and wait for everything to come to Game Pass, then there likely wouldn't be a lot of non-Game Pass games on Xbox. Third-party support would have deteriorated since the introduction of Game Pass in 2017, but instead, the opposite has happened.
Now, I see how your point can be applicable to some situations, like Atlus games on Xbox. Since Atlus started supporting Xbox in 2022, almost every game from the company (except Unicorn Overlord and SMT V: Vengance) has appeared on Game Pass at some point. Sometimes day-one, sometimes months later. Some Xbox gamers may be deterred from buying Atlus games because they expect most of them to come to Game Pass. In that sense, I can see where your argument holds merit.
The thing is, though, most third-party developers/publishers don't support Game Pass as frequently and as consistently as Atlus/SEGA does. Why would an Xbox gamer, for example, be conditioned to not buy Sonic games, when there have almost never been Sonic games on Game Pass?
Re: Xbox Reporter Addresses Game Pass Confusion, Says It's Still A Profitable Service In 2025
@SeaDaVie I could be wrong about this, but I'm pretty sure Microsoft has access to all the data of each individual user who buys video games and subscribes to Game Pass.
They, for instance, would probably know if someone bought Doom Eternal and Doom (2016), but didn't buy Doom: The Dark Ages and subbed to Game Pass instead. Data like that they can probably record and definitively mark as a lost sale.
They can also probably tell if someone who plays a lot of first-person shooters decides to play all the Doom games on Game Pass instead of outright buying them.
Re: Xbox Reporter Addresses Game Pass Confusion, Says It's Still A Profitable Service In 2025
@SeaDaVie There is some truth in that, but it isn't completely accurate. With games like CoD, it should be pretty easy for Microsoft to determine the amount of sales they lose on Xbox and PC because of Game Pass. If BO6 sold a million copies less than MW3 on Xbox and most of those million ppl played it on Game Pass instead, that's how you know you lost sales.
Now, this is harder to do with new IPs, especially those from studios that have never released a game before. At that point it does just boil down to estimates based off of similar games. But, fortunately for this case, most of Microsoft's games are based on established franchises.
Also, Microsoft doesn't share financial data for literally any of its divisions or products. They obfuscate everything, it's not just Game Pass.
Re: Xbox Reporter Addresses Game Pass Confusion, Says It's Still A Profitable Service In 2025
People's response when Microsoft tells Dring that they determine Game Pass's profitability without factoring first-party game costs:
"I knew it! Game Pass is a failure! It's blindingly obvious that there's no way it's sustainable, and thousands of ppl's jobs were lost all because of Game Pass."
Also those same people when Dring hears from his sources that Game Pass is actually profitable, even when you factor in lost first-party game sales:
"Microsoft must be lying, what Chris Dring says isn't true."
Worth noting that Chris's latest statements don't even come from Microsoft themselves. He asked his sources at the company, so this wasn't some official PR statement or anything.
Re: Xbox Reporter Addresses Game Pass Confusion, Says It's Still A Profitable Service In 2025
@BacklogBrad Exactly. Game Pass is sustainable, and it is profitable for Microsoft. Otherwise they would have stopped adding day-one games to the service ages ago.
The reason why you are seeing price increases and changes to the service, however, is because Game Pass isn't growing at a fast-enough rate. Microsoft was expecting to hit 100m subs by 2030, but since that obviously isn't gonna happen, they're raising the price instead.
Re: Is Xbox Game Pass Unsustainable? Arkane Founder Sparks Huge Debate On Social Media
@AverageGamer "Microsoft went into that gen already $5 billion in the hole add on another $1 billion from the 360 plus R&D. I’m not gonna mention the Kinect."
I think the Kinect was a big success for Microsoft, it was one of the best-selling console peripherals of all time back then. It sold around 35 million units as of 2017, according to Microsoft.The problem with the Kinect was the path that it ultimately led to, which we saw with the Xbox One.
"But it took was until 2008-09 for the Xbox division to finally stop being in the red.."
There was an article I found from 2008 that says the Xbox 360 finally started to make a profit that year, so yes, you are right about that.
https://www.audioholics.com/news/microsoft-xbox-360-profits
"That number is count profit across not just PS3… But also PSP and PS2. Sony gaming profit is heavily inflated due to multiple platforms."
Since there weren't that many people buying games on PS2 in late 2010, I don't think the console factored a big role in Sony's profits at the time. In fact, the PSP and PS2 sales were already slumping in that quarter. However, let's just assume that less than half of Sony's profits came from the PS3. Let's say Sony made $400 million per quarter during the PS3's lifespan, and that that is equivalent to what Microsoft made per quarter with the 360, as well.
$400 million times 4 is, of course, $1.6 billion. Now if Microsoft made close to $1.6 billion from the 360 each year for 7 years, then they must have made around $11.2 billion in profit the entire generation. That's more than enough to cover the costs of the original Xbox and the Red Ring of Death, and that is probably close to the profits that Microsoft made with the 360. While console sales did start to slow down near the end of the generation, game sales on Xbox 360 likely didn't.
Re: Is Xbox Game Pass Unsustainable? Arkane Founder Sparks Huge Debate On Social Media
@AverageGamer As for the other stuff you mentioned, you have a point about the pressure from investors stuff. However, when it comes to cloud streaming, Microsoft is already offering a Stadia-like service with the new Stream Your Own Game feature. While you're right that none of Microsoft's first-party games are available through this manner (though they are available on GeForce Now, ironically), they could add them if they wanted to.
Also you don't have to individually buy every game that you can cloud stream via PS Plus, some of them are included in the PS Plus subscription service itself, like Game Pass.
At the end of the day, Microsoft could just get rid of day-one games, and keep the rest of Game Pass intact without switching to a Stadia model, xCloud stuff included.
Re: Is Xbox Game Pass Unsustainable? Arkane Founder Sparks Huge Debate On Social Media
@AverageGamer The Xbox 360 definitely did not just "break even," it was a success. Considering that Microsoft sold 85 million consoles that gen as well as hundreds of millions of games/DLCs, it's highly unlikely they generated only 1 billion dollars of revenue the entire gen. Microsoft didn't make any profit on the hardware, of course, but they made a lot of profit on the games.
I can't find a lot of specific revenue data from Xbox during the 360 era, but I did find an apt comparison with the PS3 that shows how unlikely it is that Microsoft only broken even with the Xbox 360. In Q4 2010, Sony sold 6.5 million PS3s, which was similar to what the Xbox 360 sold at the time. At the time, Sony reported that they had made $871.2 million in profit through games, and this was just in one quarter.
Since the Xbox 360 was doing just as well as the PS3 at the time, then it must have made billions of dollars in profit each year. In other words, it was almost certainly a big success for Microsoft.
Source: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/sony-sells-65m-ps3s-in-q4-posts-8712m-profit/1100-6249459/
Re: Talking Point: To Celebrate Bungie Day, What's Your Favourite Halo Memory Of All Time?
This may be sacrilegious to say, but despite being on Xbox for many years, I haven't played most of the Halo games yet, even though I'm a fan of first-person shooters. So I don't really have a lot of fond Halo memories.
The only Halo game I've played so far is Halo: Combat Evolved (and a bit of Halo Infinite). I finished Halo: CE a few years ago, and, to be honest, I didn't like it that much. I don't know, maybe you had to be around in the 2000s to really enjoy the first Halo, but I just thought it was okay. Halo: CE is a decent game, but it didn't blow me away or anything. I don't really remember a lot from it, aside from the awesome soundtrack.
Maybe I didn't enjoy Halo: CE as much as I should have because I played it 20 years after it originally came out, but at the same time, I played games like Half Life 2 decades after their original release, and they left a far greater impression on me.
Even still, I'll get to Halo 2 and 3 eventually, as well as the other Halo games.
Re: Is Xbox Game Pass Unsustainable? Arkane Founder Sparks Huge Debate On Social Media
@AverageGamer
"Tell that to Zune, MSN Music… and all the other stuff Microsoft killed off early in the 2000s."
That's true but none of those projects managed to take off in the same way that Xbox did. Zune was around for, like, 6 years and no one cared about it. Xbox managed to take off in its 5th year with the launch of the Xbox 360. If the Xbox 360 also managed to flop like the Zune did, then Microsoft would have cut support for it.
"Yet, Satya Nadella and Co gave Phill and Team how many years after he came in to fix the ship after the Xbox One launch? If they didn’t like long-term business strategies… Why not pivot then?"
Satya Nadella was apparently this close to shutting Xbox down after the launch of the Xbox One. It was Phil who managed to convince him to keep Xbox around by pivoting business strategies and focusing on stuff like Game Pass and day-one PC releases. Rest assured, if Satya had his way, the Xbox One would have been the last Xbox.
Lastly, Microsoft wouldn't have to axe Game Pass entirely if they want to keep xCloud around. They could just turn it into a PS Plus-like service and get rid of day-one releases.
Re: Romero Games 'Trying To Fund' Project After Sudden Loss Of Xbox Support, Says Developer
@GuyinPA75 You think the game was cancelled because of Game Pass, when it almost certainly would have been a multi-platform title?
Re: Is Xbox Game Pass Unsustainable? Arkane Founder Sparks Huge Debate On Social Media
@AverageGamer Microsoft was willing to invest in long-term business strategies in the early 2000s. The original Xbox made zero profit, and yet, Microsoft invested in it because they knew, if they could build a reputation with gamers, they could have great success in the long run. And they were right. The Xbox 360 was a massive hit, and it wouldn't have existed if Microsoft didn't invest in the original Xbox.
The Microsoft of today, however, the one run by Satya Nadella, would never do anything like the original Xbox. Satya and the Microsoft shareholders clearly only care about one thing: how to make as much money as fast as possible. They don't like long-term business strategies, hence why they immediately pivoted and went full third-party after the ABK deal instead of letting things play out as initially intended.
If Game Pass was this big money pit for Microsoft, I don't think Satya would let it remain intact for eight years. Game Pass hasn't been growing fast enough, however, which is why Microsoft has sort of deprioritized it in favor of multiplatform initiatives. I still think it's profitable, though, since they're still letting Game Pass exist. If Game Pass was really the cause of all these devastating layoffs and studio closures, then Microsoft would have no qualms in axing the service and walking back its day-one release promises. As Project Latitude has showed us, they don't really care about building trust with consumers or caring about what they think.
Re: Is Xbox Game Pass Unsustainable? Arkane Founder Sparks Huge Debate On Social Media
@Fiendish-Beaver Well, that could be part of the reason (specifically when it comes to CoD), but I'm pretty sure the primary reason to acquire ABK was because of King. Microsoft wanted to make a major leap into the mobile gaming market, and acquiring Candy Crush was their best bet. Phil Spencer even said so himself. Putting ABK games on Game Pass was more like the bonus thing on the side.
Now, I know Phil's statements often age poorly in hindsight, but I don't see why he would lie about the primary reason as to why they would buy ABK.
Re: Is Xbox Game Pass Unsustainable? Arkane Founder Sparks Huge Debate On Social Media
@Fiendish-Beaver "I really fail to understand how people can honestly believe that Game Pass is sustainable when the evidence that it is not is so plain for everyone to see (and apparently ignore)..."
I could say the same to you, because, if you noticed, Microsoft only started porting games to PlayStation after they spent $70 billion dollars on ABK, not after they introduced Game Pass. Surely, the more logical conclusion would be to think they went multiplatform because of that acquisition, and not due to Game Pass's supposed unsustainability?
Re: Poll: Helldivers 2 Isn't On Xbox Game Pass, So Will You Be Buying It?
@Ooccoo_Jr So let me get this straight... You're using Pure Xbox headlines to determine how many Xbox gamers care about Game Pass, and whether they buy games or not?
Not every single game on Xbox is on Game Pass. Game Pass only covers a tiny fraction of the Xbox library, and most games never come to the service. It's absurd to think that Xbox gamers don't buy games at all, and only play stuff on Game Pass. If that were really true, then no publisher would bother to bring their games to the platform. Heck, that's why we're now seeing Sony bring their games to Xbox, starting with Helldivers 2, because they know Xbox gamers do buy games.
Yes, the games being cancelled is absolutely a failure of management, but didn't you just imply that these studio closures/game cancellations were because of Game Pass?
Re: Is Xbox Game Pass Unsustainable? Arkane Founder Sparks Huge Debate On Social Media
@Ooccoo_Jr As I said in another thread, you really think Game Pass is the sole purpose of the cancellations, studio closures, and redundancies, but not the more obvious reasons, like the fact that Microsoft just spent $70 billion on ABK and is planning to spend $80 billion on generative AI? Or the fact that The Initiative, Zenimax Online, and Rare spent 7+ years on video games that're nowhere close to being finished?
I can assure you most of these people would have been laid off even if Game Pass didn't exist. This is why we are seeing mass layoffs across the entire industry the last few years.
Microsoft overhired during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the big tech boom, but now that the tech industry is no longer growing, they are laying off thousands of people.
Re: Is Xbox Game Pass Unsustainable? Arkane Founder Sparks Huge Debate On Social Media
@abe_hikura Agreed. Game Pass may not be beneficial for all games, but it's laughable to claim that it is somehow responsible for these mass layoffs and studio closures, and not - as you pointed out - Microsoft's incessant AI obsessions or developers taking forever to put out a game (Perfect Dark, Everwild, etc.).
Re: Poll: Helldivers 2 Isn't On Xbox Game Pass, So Will You Be Buying It?
@Ooccoo_Jr "This is why Xbox is closing studios" Last I checked, most of the games Xbox has released lately are all on PlayStation and/or Nintendo consoles, and you think Game Pass and Xbox players are to blame for these studios being closed? Maybe PlayStation players should have bought the games more.
I am willing to bet you a million dollars that Microsoft would have still laid off thousands of employees and shut down studios if Game Pass existed or not.
The reason Microsoft is laying so many people off is because of $80 billion AI investments and $70 billion gaming acquisitions. The reason Microsoft cancelled Everwild, Perfect Dark, and the Zenimax MMO is because they took 7+ years to make and were nowhere close to being finished. None of this has to do with Game Pass. You'd think if Game Pass was the root of all the industry's problems, then no company other than Microsoft would be laying off hundreds of employees and shutting down studios.
Re: Poll: Helldivers 2 Isn't On Xbox Game Pass, So Will You Be Buying It?
@FatalBubbles I was exaggerating there tbh, it probably doesn't cost millions of dollars, but it most likely costs at least a million to do a pc port
Re: Is Xbox Game Pass Unsustainable? Arkane Founder Sparks Huge Debate On Social Media
@Agamembar $80 games will do more damage to the industry than Game Pass ever will
Re: Is Xbox Game Pass Unsustainable? Arkane Founder Sparks Huge Debate On Social Media
If Game Pass was unsustainable, Microsoft would have axed it years ago. There's no way you could seriously expect the Microsoft of today - a company who immediately cuts support for stuff that doesn't make profit immediately - to burn endless cash on a unprofitable subscription service for 8 years.
Game Pass is profitable, and it is sustainable. The problem is, it isn't growing at a fast-enough rate that Microsoft would like it to. Hence the price increases.
I also do kind of find it funny how Colantonio seems to pin the entire industry's issues on Game Pass, in spite of the fact that a subscription service that's exclusive to the smallest platform in the industry is not gonna have that big of an impact on the viability of games.
Re: Xbox Series S Is More Powerful Than Switch 2, But 60FPS Games Should 'Easily' Port Across
@themightyant The Switch 2 is better than the Series S in some respects, but there are some games on the Series S that probably wouldn't be able to run well on the Switch 2, like FF16 or GTA 6.
I also think Death Stranding 2 could be ported to the Series S, but not the Switch 2.
Re: Poll: Helldivers 2 Isn't On Xbox Game Pass, So Will You Be Buying It?
@Kienda Yep, Fire Emblem and Pokemon are as much of a first-party title as Helldivers 2 is. Nintendo doesn't own the companies who make the Fire Emblem and Pokemon games, yet no one considers them as third-party exclusives. Helldivers 2 is no different, since Sony owns the rights to Helldivers.
Re: Perfect Dark Actor Calls On Fans To 'Speak Up' And Help The Game Survive
@AverageGamer I think Phil Spencer said a few years ago that Microsoft was developing their own Xbox exclusive Japanese games. He may have been referring to Hi-Fi Rush and OD.
Re: Poll: Helldivers 2 Isn't On Xbox Game Pass, So Will You Be Buying It?
@betterthings You're right, I do think it's probably easier to port games to Xbox when they're already available on PC, but it doesn't change that Sony invested money into this and got one of their own first-party studios, Nixxes, some Xbox dev kits to make an Xbox port.
Many game studios have not said that it doesn't make sense to port games to Xbox without a Game Pass deal, only a few. I could probably count on one hand how many studios actually said that.
A handful of game studios have said that Game Pass has been great for their games, as well, so there's that to keep in mind.
Either way, the proof is in the pudding. You don't need dev statements to determine if it's worth porting games to Xbox or not, you just need to look at their actions. The large majority of devs have continued porting their games to Xbox, without any day-one Game Pass deals whatsoever. If this was a sentiment held by most of the industry, then there would be very few non-Game Pass games on Xbox.
You're also right about Sony targeting the whales on Xbox with Helldivers 2. Good live service games tend to do pretty well on Xbox, and most GAAS titles make most of their profit from MTX. In Helldivers 2's case, though, I imagine raw sales have also played a big role in the game's overall revenue streams.
Re: Poll: Helldivers 2 Isn't On Xbox Game Pass, So Will You Be Buying It?
@NishimuraX Helldivers 2 a third-party title? I saw PlayStation fans saying just a few days ago that it was a first-party game! Crazy how opinions change so quickly.
Helldivers 2 is not a third-party title, it's a first-party one (technically, second-party, but no one uses that term.) Sony may not own Arrowhead, but they own the Helldivers IP and have full control on what platforms Helldivers 2 releases on.
Need I remind you that Arrowhead themselves said that it isn't up to them to port Helldivers 2 to Xbox, but rather Sony?
https://www.purexbox.com/news/2024/10/helldivers-2-dev-says-xbox-version-isnt-up-to-us-but-it-could-happen
This is literally no different than any other Sony first-party game coming to Xbox, because Sony willingly made the decision to bring it to the platform. No MLB-type contracts, no IP ownership changes, no excuses.
Perhaps it is, you, my friend, that is living in the make-believe world since, as I said before, Sony doesn't agree with you.
Re: Poll: Helldivers 2 Isn't On Xbox Game Pass, So Will You Be Buying It?
@johnedwin The Lego Horizon game was just bad, it didn't sell well on any platform I think, not even PlayStation. Helldivers 2 is at least a good game, so it does have a better chance at being successful. I bet Helldivers 2 would do really well on Switch 2
Re: Helldivers 2 Developer Shuts Down Xbox Game Pass Rumour
@TheGameThrifter Anecdotal evidence is not reliable evidence. If there wasn't a large contigent of people buying games on the platform, then most publishers wouldn't port most of their games to Xbox. In fact, since the introduction of Game Pass, third-party support on Xbox has improved, not declined.
Sales of games will always be better on PlayStation because they are the dominant platform. Just because only 10% of a game's sales are on Xbox doesn't mean the Xbox port isn't profitable.
I agree that there are a bunch of developers who still aren't supporting Xbox to this day, like Falcom, NIS, Aksys Games, etc., but these companies have never supported Xbox, not even during the 360 era. So at least we can say that Game Pass isn't responsible for their games skipping the platform. Most likely it's because there aren't enough Japanese Xbox gamers.
Re: Poll: Helldivers 2 Isn't On Xbox Game Pass, So Will You Be Buying It?
@NishimuraX That's exactly why Sony decided to invest millions of dollars into an Xbox port, because they know for a fact no one buys games on Xbox. Clearly they disagree with you.
Sony has direct information about the sales and performance of titles like MLB The Show and Destiny 2 on Xbox. If these games had done terribly on the platform, I imagine Sony wouldn't bother porting Helldivers 2 to Xbox.
I wonder if people will keep up this charade about no one buying games on Xbox when Sony, in fact, ports another game to Xbox consoles.
Re: Xbox Series S Compared To Switch 2 In Hogwarts Legacy Analysis, And The Results Are Surprising
@NishimuraX The Series S port of Street Fighter 6 is notoriously terrible. Capcom basically used the PS4 version for the Series S.