themightyant

I forgot about this (goes to turn off Quick Resume for Forza) thanks for the reminder.

I don't think that's true. Xbox had virtually no first-party studios when Mattrick left. Xbox was a husk.

Whereas Asha has the opposite problem, Xbox is making a lot of revenue today, but it is also too bloated, she needs to make cuts and streamline it to make it more profitable. But they have many studios now making a steady run of good games. That hard work is done.

They are different problems to solve but I think it's much easier, and should be quicker, to make cuts to Xbox to make it profitable than it was to build up all those studios again as Phil did. E.g. It took 5+ years for some of those studios to start putting out games and around a decade to get to the point today where Xbox had a steady flow of games from their studios, that was much harder work imo.

@ElectricWizard Not noticed that. But I do the short boot (as I need the power on functions for remote access) and by the time my TV boots up via HDMI-CEC I don't usually see the Xbox boot logo it's already on the Xbox dashboard or atuo-signing in.

@IllusiveMan Good post. I agree with most of it. Also tagged @BleedingDreamer @Stocksy as you both seemed interested.

However the biggest problem is that Xbox simply got too big too fast through acquisitions. Too many staff and too large a wage bill. I think Game Pass could have still worked out as it was... but not with all ABK, Zenimax and Xbox Game Studios games on it Day 1 (plus a lot of third parties). They grew too fast too soon and the number of subscribers didn't increase to meet that new wage bill.

Also regarding whether multiplatform or exclusives are "the right path". I think there's short term and long term. If exclusives were clearly the right path Xbox wouldn't have just announced all their new games, except Gears and Clock Rev, were going multiplatform. In terms of revenue, profit and loss it's clear they need multiplatform for now. As Asha said as the business gets more healthy they will look to try and do more exclusives. But effectively for now that isn't possible. Long term maybe... if the business improves.

But it feels a bit chicken and egg to me, for the business to improve they likely need more exclusives, but can't afford to do more while the business is still weak and only at a 3% accountability margin.

More widely I totally agree these CEO's are not the Messiah!

Just tried logging in plus booting up a game and have no issues, but that doesn't mean it's completely fixed.

It looks fantastic, each showing builds upon the last. Fingers crossed they pull it off.

Looks really promising and that is an excellent video highlighting it. Good job all around.

@demian She said half decade, which is how long a next gen console tales to plan, they start as soon as the current console releases. And she alluded to next gen the paragraph before when she said "and as we plan for the 2027 holiday season", that seems pretty clear she is referencing Helix there. Though some of it is deliberately vague and open to interpretation.

@TrollOfWar Could be, it's unclear, but Asha was specifically talking about hardware prices being 5x in 2027 which is when Helix is expected to launch. Hence I lean towards it being that.

Regardless of whether that was what she meant it's still all an issue.

I can possibly believe they can't hit demand because it was clear they reduced Xbox production massively over the last few years, it's not as simple as just wanting more, it takes time to ramp up again.

@Coletrain @FraserG It's not clear to me either. I did try full shutdown for a while but found some things like remote access, which I use, didn't work so switched it back to Sleep mode.

What I really wish they they would do is add the option to CHOOSE shutdown or sleep from the power off menu, and not bury it as a toggle in settings. There are times I know shutdown will be fine and other times when sleep will be better, but I am not going to search through the settings to toggle this on and off each time.

@MinervaX76 @Banjo- Tango was initially shut down by Microsoft in May 2024. As per the original company wide email from Matt Booty

Tango Gameworks will also close.

Here is Tango Gameworks announcing it on May 7th

It wasn't until later, August 2024 that Krafton acquired what remained of them, including some IP, and employed 50 of the original staff, many of the others having found new roles in between these dates.

which one would you close or sell right now if you were forced to

@Banjo- Impossible choices, I'm glad I don't have to make them! I hope they would try and offload studios to others rather than just close them - but easier said than done in the current climate.

If I had to choose one it would probably be Compulsion Games. Primarily because they have just launched a game last year, and likely won't be bringing in any large income for a while due to that. This makes it an easier choice to balance the books. It's mostly a circumstantial business decision, they would be unlucky on timing.

Double Fine have released 3 games this gen already and I believe are about half the size. But we don't know what they are all working on, or profit & loss statements etc. (Except Ninja Theory who turned a profit)

Or perhaps 343 Halo Studios! I haven't enjoyed their Halo games anything like as much as Bungie's and would rather see someone else have a crack at it and bring the series back to it's former glory. @McKeownPlayz said similar.

EDIT: Could also be one of the many ABK sub-studios making COD etc.

@TrollOfWar Re: hardware costs: I think part of the "choices we made over the last half decade" refer to Project Helix being a super-high end console / PC hybrid.

Helix might only have been a bit more expensive than the competition had is released in 2025 and potentially well received. But in 2027 / 2028 it will be SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive for the hardware alone. The leaked specs and BOM costs back this up v PS6.

And if they follow through with allowing other stores on the system - which is really it's unique selling point, fully merging console and PC - then they have less opportunity to subsidise it, only amplifying the cost gap.

Not an easy problem to solve, but not entirely of their own making, no one predicted the RAM / SSD crisis being this bad, or ongoing wars. Will be interesting to see how they try and minimise the issues.

Pretty grim reading, but that's the reality of the business today.

Things have to change to get better.

@somnambulance Timing can also be key. Studios are often at risk just after they have published a game in these situations. Whereas closing a studio that is late in development, but not quite released a game, involves not only throwing all that development money down the drain but also not getting a return when their game launches in the next year. That's where studios like Compulsion games and Double Fine might be pushed up the firing line sadly, there's less to lose on the balance sheet.

Fingers firmly crossed for them all. Either way it still sucks to know your job is on the line in the next month or two and having to wait to find out. Wishing all concerned the best.

@ZeD we heard nothing from Arkane, that would be my biggest fear. Double Fine too. Compulsion just released a game so could be in the firing line. If Senua wasn’t just showcased I’d add Ninja Theory to that list.

Not that just showcasing your game saved The Initiative… but it would be even worse PR wise to close a studio that just was part of the Showcase.

Fingers firmly crossed it’s none.

@Gabrie I don't necessarily disagree... but would you rather they closed studios and fired staff, or reduced marketing budgets. That's the sort of hard choices on offer.

Obviously it won't be one OR the other, it will be some of both, but i'd rather see marketing spend reduced than another studio closed for example.

It's linked in the article but i'd recommend reading the full Xbox Wire post as it outlines many of the issues facing Xbox, obviously with the caveat that it only says what they want to say, not the full picture.

A few highlights

• Just 3% accountability margin for the latest fiscal year
• Excluding ABK they have spent $20 billion on content, platform and hardware subsides over the last 5 years, but their annual revenue has declined nearly half a billion in that time
• Hardware was 2x more expensive in February than it was last year and is expected to be up to 5x the cost by 2027
• They're over-extended on studios / games and need to reassess the balance between investment priorities in the next 5 years.

Grim reading tbh

This has been rumoured for a while. We thought it was going to be in the Spring, but I think with Asha taking over it has been delayed. Sad to see even more job losses incoming, there have already been so many at Xbox over the last few years.

Hopefully no studios are closing this time and it isn't anywhere near the rumoured 1000 cuts. Fingers crossed.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner Exactly. Getting near 30% profit margin is mostly a pipe dream achieved by a tiny number of large gaming companies (Capcom is one) and no console platform holder comes close to that. As it stands:

• Nintendo is around 15% as of last financial report
• PlayStation has recovered to around 11% having been 6% - 9% for a while
• Xbox is reportedly 3% currently. (Unlike the other 2 they don’t break it down openly)

@Jenkinss my numbers are broadly accurate for mainline Call of Duty games NOT Call of Duty Mobile which is a different game. See here

For the mainline games around 42% - 45% PlayStation, 30% PC and 22% - 25% Xbox, note it changes slightly each entry. In fact it was even higher for BO7 where 57% of players were on PlayStation as the Game Pass experiment massively backfired. Additionally 82% of sales were on PlayStation for BO6.

COD Mobile was only used to the FTC to obfuscate the platform split of the main games to make each appear smaller. But it’s not the same game.

What was the same game across platforms was Warzone which failed on mobile as the split was around 42% PS, 28% PC. 25% Xbox & 3% Mobile see here and the mobile version was promptly cancelled.

I agree ABK was also valued what it was valued for Candy Crush, COD mobile etc. I didn’t say otherwise. But mainline COD is also a huge reason for that evaluation dropping almost half your audience isn’t good business, COD costs too much to be a loss leader, you’ll never see a ROI on it as an exclusive.

@Fiendish-Beaver Of course if it’s ready now then release it, don’t hold it back. I just don’t see the point in designing and releasing one now with a new generation on the horizon.

Of course controller tech is always improving but that isn’t when the tech is implemented, it’s implemented at the start of a generation so it makes more sense to coordinate this nearer the launch of the new console with those features, not least it gives gamers a bigger reason to buy one.

@Tasuki Xbox weren’t ever were looking to make Call of Duty exclusive, it just doesn’t make financial sense to buy something for so much and immediately devalue it by giving up on almost half your audience. ABK was only reportedly worth what’s it’s worth because between reportedly 42% - 45% of the players are on PlayStation.

As for FTC and regulators this was expected they even said that it would likely take a couple of years to completion their initial announcement. It has little to do with Sony.

I don’t really care whether it’s paid off for Microsoft, because for us Xbox gamers it certainly hasn’t. We’ve had multiple price hikes, many job losses and studios closures and in exchange how many ABK games on Game Pass? So few.

Imagine what they could have done with $69 billion to spend on anything else… or even a small fraction of that. Weak AF.

@Fiendish-Beaver of course it will work, but i expect the next gen controller to have things features like gyro controls, haptic feedback, etc that are standard on every other platform holders base controller. If elite 3 doesn’t have these it will be outdated in a year or two and it’s not cheap.

@Millionski In one sense you are right but the next gen with a new controller is expected in the next year or so.

Easy PR win this, great to see Larry back, even if it's not permanent.

@dkxcalibur 1 vs 100 was amazing and I think Xbox missed a massive opportunity not bringing it back, especially during COVID.

@Fiendish-Beaver @Millionski Does it make sense to announce an Elite Series 3 seemingly so late in the generation?

I'm assuming Helix's controller will have more features to bring it in line with every other standard controller which would make the Elite Series 3 outdated pretty soon. Likely better to wait imo.

Nope, nope and nope. Not supporting this business model.

I'll pick up the Fable DLC separately if it's good.

Crash just had a game a few years ago, it doesn't need resurrecting.

Agreed! Please bring @Banjo- back

@ZeD I agree, it's a smart strategy, but it's also limited to publishers that choose to make their games Play Anywhere, it is only a small subset of games on Xbox currently.

According to the Xbox games site it's only around 14.7% of the games on the Xbox store (2,466 of 16,739 games) - though take these numbers with a huge pinch of salt as that includes different version of the same game (e.g. Forza Horizon 6 may count as 2 or 3 games here). Xbox has previously said it's over 1,000 games but that's still a tiny proportion of all the games on Xbox.

Have they stated that anywhere? Or is that just your assumption?

Because surely this is down to the publisher not the platform holder, and if Xbox tries to mandate it then it just gives publishers a reason not to publish on the Xbox store. Of course many will be happy to do Play Anywhere, but as we see now many don't.

@Banjo- This is true. Though i'm yet to see a valid reason why most people on PC wouldn't just pick Steam over the Xbox store as they do now. How are they going to make that a compelling offering.

I don't think Play Anywhere is enough, you can already do that with handheld PC's like Steam Deck etc.

I do wonder if they have something in the works for this, it feels like they need to.

So basically IF she manages to turn it around we should expect more frequent exclusives, and if not we shouldn't. This makes perfect sense of course but doesn't inspire me with confidence either.

RIP Udo Kier, hard shoes to fill.

@Skinny-Pete No worries pal. Just thought i'd clarify!

I agree they HAVE to find a way to make next Gen Xbox cheaper than reports otherwise it's DOA, only selling to a tiny minority like me. There are many ways of going about this, Series S-like hardware is another option, but that isn't "radically different" which is why I bought up advert & partnership subsidised models which is a radical approach and something Xbox's chief strategy officer is already discussing elsewhere.

Other options like making things like Xbox All Access (pay your console off over time) are also possible and probable, but they already exist and again are not "radical".

I don't mind how they do it, but they have to make it cheaper for most somehow, i'd expect a few different approaches.

As for PS6 I believe there were only 2 consoles leaked (1 tv based, 1 handheld) but I think the third was an idea posited by Tom at Moore's Law is Dead, basically saying a TV based version of the handheld hardware running at a lower resolution could be a cheaper Series-S like entry. Though this was just his idea because of rising parts costs not an actual leak.

@Skinny-Pete I think you misunderstood my comment.

Choice is good, I think having a cheaper model would a sensible way to make the console more affordable for the masses. One way to do this is with an ad-supported model, that's a radically different model.

But as I said I don't want this personally and I would hope that they retain that choice and have a premium version without more ads too.

@Weebleman @darylb24 @Coletrain @Skinny-Pete @Banjo- the ones I don’t see anyone else mentioning is advertising and partnerships. Matthew Ball, Xbox’s now head of strategy, also mentioned advertising as a major potential growth area In his last two “State of gaming” reports.

I could for example see a cheaper model subsidised by adverting and partnerships and a more expensive model without this, similar to how you have ad-supported tiers to streaming services or electronic devices like Kindles.

Personally I hate this, but I can understand how it might be necessary and as long as they have a paid option for those that can afford it, it might work to make hardware more affordable by the masses. It might also cause a huge backlash. People don’t like change.

There are MANY ways they could change the business model including

• Advertising (on dashboard and in-game)
• Partnerships to subsidise console cost
• Paid console contacts over time (like phone contracts)
• Multiple SKUs with different hardware specs
• Cloud service

Personally I don’t like most of those but I could understand why it’s necessary to make the console cheaper for the masses. As long as they keep the CHOICE to pay for not having advertising / partnerships etc. I could live with it

All of them! But if I had to pick one, Xbox. Though it's not like the old days most of Xbox's showcase is on PlayStation, many at the PlayStation conference are on Xbox etc. etc.

One things for sure it's a great time to be a gamer. Now if someone can just develop a hyperbolic time chamber, or a TARDIS, then I might be able to catch up with a few of the games already released this year before the deluge hits in August - October.

Lets not even mention the backlog. Too many games, not enough time.

@J_Mo_Money I read that, it was the "Its story has been tuned for a traditional RPG that's informed by Brave Exvius' first season with everything else built from the ground up" that didn't inspire me with confidence. But fingers firmly crossed, like I said at the top i'd LOVE nothing more than for this to be great, i'm just dubious.

@Banjo- @abe_hikura I'd love nothing more than for them to knock it out the park and this to be utterly fantastic. But building on the shaky foundations of a F2P mobile game doesn't inspire confidence. Please prove me wrong Square-Enix.

It seems that from now on, Final Fantasy games will be real-time RPGs and they made a new series for turn-based RPGs.

@Banjo- What makes you say that? It's just one game. And FF Resonance is a reimagining of a mobile F2P game, not entirely new.

@Balaam_ I think simply because Gears being exclusive will keep the fans clamouring for exclusives happier than State of Decay 3.

They did say later that they do have a plan for exclusives, but can't quite show us yet, so I hope that is true and will be revealed sooner rather than later.

Still don't understand why this "Roadmap" goes back to 2020. A roadmap is usually primarily looking ahead. It's not like they are short of games anymore. Why do it.

@Fiendish-Beaver Honestly if you can't tell the difference between 30fps and 60fps be thankful, you can buy much cheaper hardware. But for me one is horribly jerky the other is smooth enough. It's not just how it looks, but how it feels. It's like night and day.

@RadioHedgeFund @abe_hikura @RadioHedgeFund But it's still an adaptation of mobile F2P game Brave Exvius which was developed by Alim.

I get that it's a completely new version if it, not just a port, but that's not as exciting as I thought initially - I thought it was a brand new HD-2D FF from Square Enix. Not sold on it yet, but hope i'm wrong.

@abe_hikura @RadioHedgeFund Felt the same. Very excited until they said that. it could also be a Dissidia like situation. Definitely killed some of my initial hype. Need to know more.

Very average Direct for me - mostly games that are available/better elsewhere - but rescued by a few things I am really into like Xenoblade Genesis, Ocarina remake, Xenoblade 1-3 upgrades, Muramasa, Star Fox, Tales of Eternia etc. And a few I need to know more about like Final Fantasy Resonance.

@Schonks PS5 sales likely dipped a lot for one month because most people who wanted to get one but were on the fence bought the month before when they were notified the price was going up (sales went up the previous month). It's likely the sales will return more to normal next month, though obviously fewer due to higher prices. This isn't going to lead to a sudden surge in Xbox sales.