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[Mibu no ookami]

Sony won't be a monopoly even if they are the last custom hardware console maker.

Those days are gone - competition for gaming dollars and time has never been so fierce, and consoles are not dominant in the current overall gaming context.

Sony have next to no gaming presence outside of their consoles, unlike for example MS.

You're not entirely wrong, but you're not entirely right either.

Sony with a console monopoly will do something they've never done before, operate a high margin firm. Those high margins are going to allow them to compete in other spaces like you've never seen before.

Reduced advertising budget on consoles, no more exclusive deals that pertain only to consoles... we're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars per year, if not billions in expenditure that Sony isn't going to spend toward competing with Microsoft.

Sony developing AAA titles so that they appear on console, PC, and handheld is going to give them a MUCH higher TAM, especially being the only premium console on the market.

Their games are going to go from selling 20 million as a ceiling to 30-35 million as a ceiling. We've already seen what they've been able to accomplish with Helldivers 2... They have a unique ability to focus on quality because they know they can push average games to sell 2-5 million copies on just PlayStation alone, and good games to sell 10+ million on console and PC.

Look at titles like Detroit Becomes Human, inFamous Second Son, and Day's Gone... these would have been absolute disasters on Xbox.

 

[Shake Your Rump]

All this recent stuff really makes me wonder why they bother with hardware in general. They went out of their way to already announce the next-gen Xbox, with rumors indicating a 2026 launch. With all this stuff going on why not scrap that idea and go full software?

My guess is that it is easier to create “growth” by firing a bunch of recently acquired employees rather than entrenched internal hardware teams.

 

[K' Dash]

I like their controller better

If there was a verdion with the Dual Sense triggers and haptics, I’d buy that in a heartbeat.

 

[tommib]

Xbox has a brand problem. Strategies are futile at this point.

 

[Deerock71]

Halo, for the time being.

 

[cinnamonandgravy]

MS higher-ups need to publicly seppuku and get out of the way of the creatives theyve bought.

 

[Oppoi]

Thanks to the FTC there's no point of it's existance anymore, not even to Microsoft.

 

[SHA]

Sony won't be a monopoly even if they are the last custom hardware console maker.

Those days are gone - competition for gaming dollars and time has never been so fierce, and consoles are not dominant in the current overall gaming context.

Sony have next to no gaming presence outside of their consoles, unlike for example MS.

They're stealing from pc numbers, it's not going anywhere unless Sony no longer has it's audience.

 

[thismeinteil]

Someone's still salty about CMA's results.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

At this point I think not even Microsoft knows. It defies all logic what is happening with that company.

Playstation is an important part of Sony. I don't think Xbox carries the same weight with the mothership.

 

[IAmRei]

past years, xbox making lot of mistakes, and the recent news are not helping either. they fail so hard, and i don't know how they will recover from this.

 

[PendekarRajawali]

As an Asian I can confirm this is true.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

It's weird to think back to Kinect days. What a ride that was, when they tried to shove it into every living room.

I actually like the Wii as a unique experience, particularly social -- and the move controllers were at least good on a technical level. But Kinect felt so incredibly soulless and cynical, like everything from MS.

 

[chlorate]

Xbox was founded on innovation:

1) Halo:CE massively innovated and redefined FPS gameplay and its impact can still be felt today.

2) Halo 2 massively innovated console online multiplayer services by acting as Xbox Live’s killer app.

3) Later on, Gears of War massively innovated TPS gameplay with the notion of the cover shooter.

All three of these titles were huge paradigm shifts that built the brand. Today, there is no such innovation and the Xbox brand is stagnant.

 

[Fake]

DF Direct weekly next week will be something else.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Xbox was founded on innovation:

1) Halo:CE massively innovated and redefined FPS gameplay and its impact can still be felt today.

2) Halo 2 massively innovated console online multiplayer services by acting as Xbox Live’s killer app.

3) Later on, Gears of War massively innovated TPS gameplay with the notion of the cover shooter.

All three of these titles were huge paradigm shifts that built the brand. Today, there is no such innovation and the Xbox brand is stagnant.

drivatars

 

[Kataploom]

Budget entry point to Microsoft gaming segment

 

[Alan Wake]

I clicked the thread expecting a fluff piece and me typing a comment about how Xbox is all about investor growth and not about games. It turns out the article ancurrately addresses this!

Sony and Nintendo is about making money too. But unlike Microsoft they have understood that the best way to make money in the games industry is to (surprise) release good games in a steady flow. If you do that you keep your loyal customers loyal, and they will spend more money than the average consumer, as well as attract new costumers who'll become interested in your platform and what it has to offer. That's more or less all you have to do. Then you can add great services and other stuff to that.

 

[yazenov]

At a certain point in time (very soon) people will ask " What is Xbox? instead of What is the point of Xbox?

 

[GHG]

DF Direct weekly next week will be something else.

 

[Goalus]

The point of Xbox is to destroy Sony

Spoiler

and the games industry.

Sony's share price tanked pretty badly over the last few days. What happened?

 

[SHA]

Sony won't be a monopoly even if they are the last custom hardware console maker.

Those days are gone - competition for gaming dollars and time has never been so fierce, and consoles are not dominant in the current overall gaming context.

Sony have next to no gaming presence outside of their consoles, unlike for example MS.

Technically yes, but it's fans still exist and won't go away at least for the next 30 years, cause it's the place for big stuff just like Texas, people go to Texas for bigger stuff, consoles will stay as long as people have those natural thoughts.

 

[SHA]

That's culture, prove me wrong.

 

[Goalus]

Technically yes, but it's fans still exist and won't go away at least for the next 30 years, cause it's the place for big stuff just like Texas, people go to Texas for bigger stuff, consoles will stay as long as people have those natural thoughts.

30 years of no meaningful growth must be an encouraging prospect for the Sony management.

 

[KungFucius]

If you have a gaming PC, having an Xbox is pointless.

If you don't have a gaming PC, then there is a point.

I'd argue that there is a point to having one if you want a second gamepass device but don't want to have a second gaming PC. I have considered one for the kids because my second PC is sucking ass and needs to be upgraded.

 

[SHA]

30 years of no meaningful growth must be an encouraging prospect for the Sony management.

AI will solve the problem, why people are so pessimistic about AI? AI will create bigger worlds, build more complex combat systems, and for future models it could interfere with dialogs and story's plot and narrative.

 

[Edgelord79]

I think the Xbox's relevance to us is the competition it forces on the other big two. While it doesn't have to be Microsoft (I would greatly prefer sega, but it's unrealistic), there needs to be another company with lots of funding and exclusives to force both Sony and Nintendo (mostly Sony) to not be too complacent.

It's the perfect time for the KFConsole to cement itself as the Playstation's new rival

They don’t provide any competition of significance though. It’s a pipe dream at this point.

 

[Spukc]

Diablo
Call of duty
Doom

Really pisses me off

 

[DeltaPolarBear]

I think any major company entering into the console gaming market would be insane. It would require a major loss-leading type philosophy that no one wants to take right now. Honestly, the only route is to go full based Gigachad, and no one has the balls to do it.

Your mistake is thinking you need a lot of money to succeed. Xbox proves that it isn't money that was the problem. Xbox is spending their way to their deaths. A better company than Xbox would achieve more with less money. Sony PlayStation only had a budget of 13 billion for 2023. That is acceptable for the likes of Apple or Amazon.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

Your mistake is thinking you need a lot of money to succeed. Xbox proves that it isn't money that was the problem. Xbox is spending their way to their deaths. A better company than Xbox would achieve more with less money. Sony PlayStation only had a budget of 13 billion for 2023. That is acceptable for the likes of Apple or Amazon.

No mistake in my thinking. Good luck competing without serious investment to shake things up. Existing libraries in a digital age are a real factor now.

 

[Allandor]

My guess would be, that Microsoft just doesn't understand that a platform also needs the smaller games like hi fi Rush. This doesn't mean that this game in particular must be a system seller, but it needs games like these.
It like features not many are using but without it, the product is always a bit incomplete.
And in the current complicated software world, managers in general forget that those features are needed to sell a product even though almost nobody mentions them. Managers only look at the quick wins but never at the long term side effects.

But we can see this behavior on every big company. Also in Sony when they close studios, but Sony is not as a big company as Ms. The bigger, the worse this problem gets.

 

[DeltaPolarBear]

No mistake in my thinking. Good luck competing without serious investment to shake things up. Existing libraries in a digital age are a real factor now.

Xbox failed. But they failed because they suck. Sony is not invincible, they make mistakes all the time, Xbox just failed more often than PlayStation.

You act like both Xbox and PlayStation are better at their jobs than they actually do. Someone else can do better. It wouldn't be easy, it wouldn't be cheap, but it is not a herculean task. All we need is for Xbox to go off the stage so someone else can get time in the spotlight.

 

[Bond007]

It hasn't had a point since they decided exclusives weren't important- a false narrative to cover their failed exclusives or lack thereof.
The reason i own multiple consoles is so that i can dabble across the board and enjoy things individual console makers are good at and have exclusively. Without that, whats the point? I can get exclusives on a Playstation as well as everything Xbox gets and then some these days.
I also own a Switch for this reason- i cant find those games anywhere else.
You need things you cant find elsewhere- PERIOD.
This is all compounded by the fact that- with Gamepass, you dont need to buy individual games anymore. I haven't purchasedt anything for Xbox in years and i cancel Gamepass after big releases(Which is how often? Ive had Gamepass maybe 2mon in the past year). I know im not the only one either.

Sony dabbling in PC to make up for high costs is a slippery slope to their main business if you ask me. A slope Microsoft seems to have already fallen into years ago.

I buy their consoles- but ive been over this brand for a long time. They have been powerlevling themselves with unlimited funds and have lasted this long inorganically. Any other brand would have collapsed years ago and for it to be this bad for Microsoft- you know its bad right now.

 

[user friendly]

It really does feel like they are going to replace Xbox with Microsoft. Microsoft Game Studios. I don't think they like Xbox.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

To generate traffic for Eurogamer?

 

[Shake Your Rump]

Xbox was founded on innovation:

1) Halo:CE massively innovated and redefined FPS gameplay and its impact can still be felt today.

This is ironic given that Halo was developed as a Mac exclusive before Bungie was purchased by Microsoft.

Microsoft innovating via bank account for at least 25 years.

 

[MayauMiao]

 

[YeulEmeralda]

Xbox was founded on innovation:

1) Halo:CE massively innovated and redefined FPS gameplay and its impact can still be felt today.

2) Halo 2 massively innovated console online multiplayer services by acting as Xbox Live’s killer app.

3) Later on, Gears of War massively innovated TPS gameplay with the notion of the cover shooter.

All three of these titles were huge paradigm shifts that built the brand. Today, there is no such innovation and the Xbox brand is stagnant.

Now that I think about it most of the games that we associate with the fantastic 360 era were in fact third party "only on Xbox" titles.

 

[Lambogenie]

Same as ResetEra. Not much to either.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Play everything it can that PC can't.

Next question.

They share the EXACT same library.

The same thing that is killing movies\tv - producing content, instead of making art.

When you are hell bent on pushing as much content (I fucking despise what this word came to represent) as possible to keep audience engaged (another word turned into something it should not be), you do not care about quality, about art, about people working for you. Just push more of that grey goo called content, so we can sell the subscription to more people.

The point of Gamepass is that it is good for business of producing content sludge. Creators and their art are irrelevant.

Yep. There are very few genuine storytellers anymore. Most people think if they can write a script and have characters say typical dialog with shot-reverse shot, they're a creative visionary.

There's probably a lot of that same mentality in the gaming space now, too. If they can write some code or scribble on paper, some people think they're the next Shigeru Miyamoto. But most of them lack vision, and the suits funding and pushing a lot of games (through chasing market trends) are even worst.

How does that change how ABK operated? It’s like the whole idea of Microsoft to buy them was simply to continue what they were doing adding to their bottom line. We all know public companies do it to artificially inflate their growth numbers.

Because ABK's money is now Microsoft's money. Whereas before, it wasn't.

So you're half-right; it is partly to artificially inflate growth numbers. But it's also to artificially (through inorganic M&A) inflate dollar numbers, too. And if the dollar numbers increase, shareholders won't care if the MAU numbers are bullshit.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

As an Asian I can confirm this is true.

It's also true on mainland Europe

US and UK have long been the only 2 markets for Xbox

 

[Durin]

Pretty much just their controller and game pass at this point.

They innovated quite a bit in the 360 generation, but haven't done much for 2 generations now other than being another box like Sony with weaker AAA 1st party output.

Nintendo at least has the unique form factor console and exclusives that diverge so much from other AAA stuff.

The fundamental problem is 2 of these console boxes are closed ecosystem PCs with barely any unique aspects, less exclusives and more big games are coming out unfinished/broken on them which devalues the console "it just works, keep it simple" benefit. I'd rather fuss slightly more on my PC that is more powerful, has more games, more control options, no online fee and cheaper prices because of digital store competition.

PC + Switch (or Switch 2/Super Switch next year) best combo now.

 

[onnextflix5]

it’s just gonna get worse as they close down more studios and release more games on PlayStation, can ms gaming division survive without the Xbox, that’s the big question.

 

[Humdinger]

It's embarrassing to even say your a fan of Xbox now. You can only be naive for so long.

At least some of the Xbox guys in this forum are facing reality. When I look elsewhere, I see many Xbox fans who want to be shielded from the "negativity" around Xbox. Some ask moderators to protect them from it. I picture them with their fingers in their ears, going "la la la la, I can't hear you." I respect the Xbox guys who can see what's happening, rather than live in denial about it.

 

[rodrigolfp]

They share the EXACT same library.

Like Halo 5 and all the BC games not worthy emulating yet?

 

[teraflops]

It's actually comical that last gen they rolled out an inferior machine, decided they didn't need much in the way of compelling exclusives (until the generation was basically over), and somehow thought they would be competitive with Sony. Unfortunately for them, that coincided with the rise of digital games and people started building libraries that they want to take with them through future gens. It's much harder to get someone to switch to your brand when they already have hundreds of games purchased with your competitor that they would have to leave behind.

With that being said, Microsoft does have the resources to make headway against Sony long-term if they truly want to. Much like they have done with Edge which has finally started gaining some market share from Chrome. That would entail running in the red for a while most likely while they build out their exclusives that are on consistently par with what Sony delivers and also offering better technology. They already laid the ground with the acquisitions. Will they do that? Personally I don't think so as they are hyper focused on short term profit as evidenced by their recent behavior.

Hopefully they stick it out as everyone will suffer if Sony doesn't have a competitor pushing them in the console space.

 

[locoghoul]

I can not understand how company with so many game studios & virtually infinite money cant produce quality games, NOT SINGLE GOOD GAME last 9 years.
They have one of most talented developers in gaming industry & they manage to pull off some half arsed games again & again.
Clearly it is not developer or talent problem, they need to clear out incompetent management & executives starting from top to bottom.

The real question is who keeps supporting rhis trash company??? Are you guys masochists??

 

[StereoVsn]

It's also true on mainland Europe

US and UK have long been the only 2 markets for Xbox

I thought Mexico and Brazil had pretty decent user basis for Xbox.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

It's actually comical that last gen they rolled out an inferior machine, decided they didn't need much in the way of compelling exclusives (until the generation was basically over), and somehow thought they would be competitive with Sony. Unfortunately for them, that coincided with the rise of digital games and people started building libraries that they want to take with them through future gens. It's much harder to get someone to switch to your brand when they already have hundreds of games purchased with your competitor that they would have to leave behind.

With that being said, Microsoft does have the resources to make headway against Sony long-term if they truly want to. Much like they have done with Edge which has finally started gaining some market share from Chrome. That would entail running in the red for a while most likely while they build out their exclusives that are on consistently par with what Sony delivers and also offering better technology. They already laid the ground with the acquisitions. Will they do that? Personally I don't think so as they are hyper focused on short term profit as evidenced by their recent behavior.

Hopefully they stick it out as everyone will suffer if Sony doesn't have a competitor pushing them in the console space.

It's pretty clear the execs have decided it's time for Xbox to be profitable, or be nonexistent. Not looking forward to how Sony is going to respond to this considering how poorly they've treated their fanbase over the past few years. At this rate we are going to be counting on Nintendo and Valve as the major players to keep competition going.

 

[Kssio_Aug]

I don't really think Eurogamer wants the answer to that question, since their main source of clicks are probably derivative of their clickbait articles against Xbox.

But my answer would be:

1) I like a whole bunch of their 1st party games, such as Forza Horizon, Halo and Gears of War;

2) Now that they hold Bethesda IPs, I like to be able to play them on Game Pass;

3) I like Game Pass;

4) I like the Xbox controller;

5) I like the system features such as Quick Resume and Play Anywhere;

6) I like Xcloud and I hope they soon add the possibility of playing the games I bought on the Cloud;

7) I don't really care for most Playstation 1st party games nowadays.

8) Buying a PC for me is just too expensive and too much trouble.

That being said, it's because it just works for me. It's a system that has features I like, with the games I need.