lacerz

"We just want to make sure the games are being enjoyed by gamers everywhere; consoles, PC, mobile, cloud, or TV."

And there it is.

@JumpingJackson
That was actually posted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It’s embarrassing.

So this is Microsoft’s vision for the future of Xbox? Sounds exciting. I’ll take my PlayStation.

@Balaam_

Xbox isn’t a console. It’s a brand now. A brand that is everywhere. PC, PlayStation, Nintendo, Smart TVs, etc. Microsoft buying Activision changed everything for Xbox.

PSVR2 support seals the deal. It redefines Gran Turismo 7. I can only imagine what it’ll do here

@Jenkinss The trajectory may have been set, but this accelerated it to warp speed.

As someone invested in the PlayStation ecosystem, I was more upset with the Zenimax acquisition. Those are games I’m actually interested in and enjoy, and they were being converted to Xbox exclusives. Never would I have dreamed that the Activision purchase would result in the Zenimax games pivoting back to multiplat.

And the timing…Jim Ryan’s live service push wasted years of development which is being felt now, just as Microsoft starts to release Xbox staples like Forza and Gears on PlayStation as a result of ABK.

Crazy world.

Adam Orth says hello…

“ This is the fourth mass layoff at Xbox in the last 18 months.”

Xbox acquired Activision in October 2023. 18 months back from today is January 2024, or 3 months after acquiring Activision. The ramifications keep coming.

That Activision deal keeps rearing its ugly head. My expectation is that we’ll start seeing new releases going multiplat day one so they can capture the hype. Let a game sit for six months or more and it loses its luster.

Now bring VR support to Forza Horizon 5 and Microsoft Flight Simulator! And support the PSVR 2 when you do!

I’m just curious to see how the announcements go. We were told that they’d be upfront about what consoles would be included in their release strategy. Will that hold true? Will the Xbox strategy “pivot” once again? Inquiring minds want to know!

I think the biggest winners in the Activision acquisition were PlayStation owners.

Xbox is killing it as a third party publisher!

I prefer subscriptions like GamePass. Not necessarily for me, but it opens up a previously exclusive ecosystem to allow me to choose games of my choice for the console of my choice.

It makes sense. PlayStation are the “paying” consumers while Xbox are the “lunch pass” consumers. There’s a difference when it comes to profitability, which is being demonstrated with the Indiana Jones release. GamePass subscribers are already getting the game. They need to market it to the people actually buying the game.

The shift to digital during last gen sealed the deal for me. GamePass isn’t enticing for me. I have over 800 games in my digital library, 345 of which are PS+ games. I could never buy another game again and still have a backlog until I die.

Back in the console war days when the “Xbox has no games” or “Halo, Gears, Forza” comments ran rampant I could understand this, but now that Xbox is a third party publisher it seems unnecessary. And dating back to 2020 isn’t needed. I’m interested in the future, not the past.

It is cool seeing the release schedule for upcoming games. Nice to know what to expect in the future of gaming! Especially after PlayStation’s whiff on Live Service games.

Copilot: Git gud

IMO it’d be better to incentivize a login similar to other third party publishers like Ubisoft and EA, but I understand Microsoft’s desire to bolster their “engagement” numbers for shareholders. If you’re going third party, you need money and metrics to prove it’s working. It is what it is.

@Jenkinss
Nice analysis. And I agree. The fact that Xbox still exists after Nadella took over is a testament to the work put in to keep Xbox alive.

The Activision purchase completely changed Xbox. We’re just beginning to see that change manifest. Im curious if the Xbox faithful are still happy with that purchase.

Xbox has become a PlayStation developer. PureXbox reports on Xbox. Should PureXbox ignore what Xbox has become or embrace what Xbox has become? It’s a multi-platform site now. Embrace the change.

Agree that VR is going the way of the 3D TV. But I have both and I’m happy I do!

I understand the allure of an all access, Day One game subscription service, but it doesn’t check with reality. The amount I spend on purchasing licenses on a yearly basis to “own” the games in my library is less than a year of the Standard subscription.

Of course, I have a massive backlog, don’t suffer from FOMO and prefer building my library through sales than renting games. And time. There just isn’t enough time for it to ever be a value.

And if you’re “gaming” the system, that’s fine…I do something similar with my meal delivery plans so I get discounted boxes every delivery. But that isn't really supporting the service, now is it?

The issue that damaged Xbox and put them in the situation they’re currently in was the Xbox One. The marketing was wrong. The forced Kinect was wrong. Which led to the $100 price difference, which was required but wrong. When digital libraries started becoming mainstream, the Xbox One went out and PS3’d itself.

The question becomes, would this have been Xbox’s path forward if they hadn’t acquired Activision? The logic would be the same, but Microsoft’s attention to the Xbox division spiked during the acquisition. Things have changed since that time.

This sounds like a great GamePass (or heavily discounted) game.

PlayStation and Xbox supporters have their own frustrations.

PlayStation owners in the know are cursing Jim Ryan’s live service push. Such a waste of talent, money and…most importantly…time. But at least he was honest about the direction he was moving PlayStation.

Xbox owners have been flat out lied to. Pure Xbox should put together a timeline of Philspeak to document his messaging over the past two years. I bet it would be a fascinating read.

PSVR2 support and it’ll be a Day One. I was never a Gran Turismo fan until I played 7 in VR. I tried the 3D version on the PS3 (GT5?) but wasn’t that impressed. VR changes everything!

But when they zoomed in 30x I could tell the foliage edges were much smoother! Day 1!

Not.

I’m curious if a PS5 version of Starfield will be announced after Shattered Space releases in September. If I recall correctly the rumor was that it would be announced after the DLC launched, and the majority of the “take it with a grain of salt” rumors have turned out to be true.

Xbox as a brand isn’t going anywhere. If you want an actual console, you’ll need to go PlayStation or Nintendo, or both.

The last Xbox generation should be named Xbox Series One S | X.

$240 a year to not own games. $1,440 over the course of a 6 year generation…without additional price hikes.

This sounds like a unforced error that Xbox painted themselves into a corner with by saying all first party games would release on GamePass day one. This won’t bring over PlayStation owners who love COD because buying it outright will be cheaper. Same for Xbox, unless it’s someone who has GamePass and then it’s canibalizing sales, which will be reflected in earnings reports, pissing off shareholders wanting immediate returns on the Activision acquisition.

And there’s no way to make it console exclusive until the Xbox?/PS7.

Edit: Of course, there could be a shifting of goal posts as well. If Xbox restructures GamePass tiers and only makes COD available on the top tier that costs more. That would require every GamePass subscriber to pay additional money for the COD tier without the benefit of their stacked discounts. Microsoft still keep their day one promise, while requiring current GP subscribers to pay up to get access. Sony did something similar when they created the Plus tiers. I had 3 years left on my sub and had to pay the up charge for the entire remaining term.

At the rate things are going, I wouldn’t be surprised if Sony pays to make it a third party exclusive.

I’ll give this a try when released on PlayStation. It’s sounding more and more like pretty much every Xbox exclusive will be going multiplat. “No red line”

https://www.eurogamer.net/microsoft-bosses-reportedly-pushing-for-no-red-line-around-which-xbox-games-launch-on-playstation

Maybe it has something to do with the massive class action suit that would be brought if users weren’t able to access/utilize their digital library.

Price hike inbound. Up your subs now.

That Activision deal has really turned on the Xbox faithful. Xbox was humming along just fine until the $69 billion deal became headline news and got the attention of the shareholders. Now we’re seeing the repercussions.

I know CoD generates a lot of money, but if subscription growth across all subs decreased from 2% gain to 1% gain year over year, I don’t see a price increase helping that. It’d be more of a value add to just own the game.

@themightyant
That’s the thing! Hellblade released on PS4 and PC in August 2017 and Xbox One in April 2018. It didn’t hit one million copies sold until June 2018. Hi-Fi Rush had over two million players engaged (it’s all about player engagement, right?) within 3 months.

Outside of Greenberg’s comment, Todd Vaughn of Bethesda called Hi-Fi Rush “one of the most successful launches for Bethesda and Xbox in recent years” which adds more questions to the shuttering of Tango.

Now the question becomes, what does success look like?

I don’t see how you can base results on sales when it’s an Xbox exclusive offered Day One on GamePass! 2 million sounds like a nice number, but obviously not in GamePass dynamics.

Rough period for game developers everywhere.

@Banjo-
This site is getting more PlayStation interest because it has news relating to PlayStation now that Xbox has opened up to be a third party publisher. And (for me at least) it’s NBA playoffs.

@NEStalgia
Dude, outside of the supply chain constraints it’s doing just fine. It’s all in the link I provided.

PS4 Y1 - 7.6M
PS5 Y1 - 7.8M

PS4 Y2 - 14.8
PS5 Y2 - 11.5

PS4 Y3 - 17.7
PS5 Y3 - 19.1 (not a 30% decrease)

PS4 Y4 - 20.0
PS5 Q1-Q3 - 16.4 with a projection lowered from 25 to 21. Still growth year over year and definitely not another 30% reduction.

PS5 is doing just fine and growing each year. Xbox is not. The numbers don’t lie.

EDIT:
To expand on the numbers, we know Xbox was selling 1:2 against the PlayStation. So that means in 2021 Xbox sold approximately 5.75 million consoles. Reduce that by 30% for 2022 and they sold just over 4 million consoles. Reduce that another 30% for 2023 and the number drops to 2.8 million consoles.

Think about that number. Only 2.8 million consoles sold in a fiscal year. That is nuclear bad. But Xbox had 7 games in PlayStation’s top 25.

The writing is on the wall.

@NEStalgia
A cut in projected console sales doesn’t mean that Sony is underperforming. It means that they’re readjusting projections. If you go to Sony’s website it’s clear that console sales are increasing.

11.5 million console sales in fiscal year 2021 which would be on the 2022 report.
19.1 million consoles sold in fiscal year 2022.
This year is only current through the third quarter (Q3), but is sitting at 16.2 million without 3 months of data. So it’s hard to see decrease instead of growth.

Meanwhile, 30% decline and another 30% decline. Let’s be real please.

EDIT:
Forgot the link so you can see the facts.

https://sonyinteractive.com/en/our-company/business-data-sales/

Wow. I didn’t realize Xbox console revenues dropped another 30% year over year. I thought that was a big deal when they announced the 30% decrease this time in 2023, but everyone assumed it was due to the Starfield delay. Yet a year and Starfield later, they announced another 30% decrease from last year’s 30% decreased numbers. That is bad no matter how you paint it.

Just to get an idea, using simple math, let’s say Xbox console revenue in 2022 was $1 billion. A 30% decrease the next year would put the console revenue at $700 million. With another 30% decrease that would put console revenues at $490 million. That’s a steep decline.