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Microsoft Gaming CEO Gives Subtle Dig at PS5 Pro Price: ‘We’re Not Growing the Market with $1000 Consoles’

Mr.Phoenix

Member
He is not wrong. This should have been the priced at $599 tops imo.
I would like it to be priced at $99.
You are not growing the market because the gaming industry is in a state of arrested development still making games from the PS360 era. Still unable to innovate beyond the same Ubisoft open world formula. Most people look at how games have simply failed to evolve and see no reason to jump in.
I keep hearing this, but I don't think it's actually true. To assume it's true is to assume that millions of potential new gamers who have yet to play games somehow know games have remained the same since before they were even born and as such have no interest in trying it for themselves.

Thats like saying no one goes on that roller coaster ride because its the same ride that was there 10 years ago... even though they have never gone on it.

I feel the issue with gaming is (and always has been), and it's not even an "issue"; it's that gaming has a somewhat revolving audience. People get old enough to play and jump in, and people get too old or busy to play and jump out.
As the head of the biggest banking publisher, he should be giving his teams a mandate to innovate like gta3 did back in the day. But nah he’s content with putting out the same games that even the hardcore don’t feel like buying anymore let alone capture the imagination of a new audience.
I kinda agree with this, but I feel there are just a number of weird factors to consider. Innovation in gaming stifled the second games started costing significantly more to make. The production side of gaming has just become more risk adverse... and you cant really blame them.

But yeah, more innovation is needed with regard to game models and mechanics.
It’s depressing watching the half life 2 documentary because it shows how little we have changed in 20 years. It’s still the same damn game.
While on the surface this may seem like a bad thing, it really isn't. Gaming... or anything for that matter that is formulaic, will reach a point where that formula is well-known and perfected. At that point, its the implementation of said formula that will set games apart. The same can be said about movies.
 

DavidGzz

Member
I'm actually floored at this point that Phil is still in the job and still giving interviews. He has become a curse upon Xbox like a ghost in the damn attic you can't get rid of and every interview Phil gives is that brief moment he materializes and scares the absolute shit out of you.

gettyimages-2183768916-1731502030266.jpg


The guy even looks like a corpse now.

Uhh, tbh he looks better than these gobbos. But yes, stress and age will do that. He needs the gym and some sun for sure.

jRzq0d9.jpeg
 

Hohenheim

Member
This is obviously a fact. Is stating facts a dig?
And no, he's not growing the marked with their low-end offering either(Series S) so the challenge is finding the right methods outside of the consoles themselves to grow the marked.

The console space have not been growing significantly for a long time, so they obviously need to think outside the (console) box, even though that's not always (or very seldom) popular with the people already in a console eco-system.
Quite a challenge for both MS and Sony, and probably Nintendo at some point not too far into the future as well.
 
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Nankatsu

Member
He ain't wrong.

Thing is Sony is already doing that, and people are buying it.

However I would like to think Sony is aware that a mid-gen refresh is not the same as a launch console.

Launch a PS6 with PS5 Pro's price and lack of drive, and yeah, that won't go well.
 
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Three

Member
You mean the ad that just premiered days ago? You’re asking what has changed since Wednesday? 🤡

Eh. Even if they go full third party and kill hardware, it still doesn’t stop them from targeting an expanded market with their software.
No I'm asking what has changed since last year when I predicted they would do this nonsense with the xbox brand:

MS killed the Xbox brand for the gamepass strategy but now they kind of have to pretend that other things are still 'Xbox' to not make it that obvious their strategy has shrink xbox the console to the point where it's doing worse year after year, gen after gen. Wouldn't want people thinking it's been abandoned and killing all xbox sales quickly though so MS have got to tie other parts of the business like mobile and PC to the 'xbox' branding to try and create this positive buzz about it knowing full well their strategy means what was originally 'xbox' is kind of irrelevant now in the grand scheme of things.

Before they started the "every screen is an xbox" thing, before they put this ad out. You seem to think that they just thought about "expanding the market" with this dumb ad recently. I was predicting this strategy that they already were on, since 2019.
 
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RoboFu

One of the green rats
Wow talk about clueless. When you competitor is selling a console at a price slightly above your " mass market " console below your " top end " console that usually beats out your top end you really shouldn't talk about pricing.
 

Astray

Member
No I'm asking what has changed since last year when I predicted they would do this nonsense with the xbox brand:



Before they started the every screen is an xbox thing, before they put this ad out. You seem to think that they just thought about "expanding the market" with this dumb ad recently. I wad predicting this strategy from them since 2019.
Microsoft are doing a 3-card monte trick on the entire gaming audience by deliberately obfuscating the terms "Microsoft Gaming" and "Xbox".

This would ordinarily be fine, but there's a difference between the two entities: Microsoft Gaming doesn't need Xbox to make mad cash when it can coast on Minecraft and COD, but Xbox needs Microsoft Gaming to still believe in it in order to continue existing.

Wow talk about clueless. When you competitor is selling a console at a price slightly above your " mass market " console below your " top end " console that usually beats out your top end you really shouldn't talk about pricing.
He's a console warrior through and through, it's like he takes on the thoughtform of Colt Eastwood over time.
 
Supposedly demand for the standard priced Xbox Series X|S is dropping so, obviously, Microsoft would not want to sell an even more expensive Xbox. That would be doomed to instant failure in my opinion as there is no demand for a more powerful system unlike PS5 where Sony knew full well that the hardcore gamers would pay for a Pro model just to have better looking and running games. What owners of the Xbox have wanted - at least in my case - are really good exclusive games to play for the last decade! No point in having fantastic hardware if you have no first-party games to show it off.

Four years into the generation, it looks we might finally be getting the Xbox's first really great game in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle... but that's coming to PC and PS5 anyway.
 
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If you think that by launching a new console soon you are going to change something, you are very wrong, it would work even worse than the current Series S and X.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
No I'm asking what has changed since last year when I predicted they would do this nonsense with the xbox brand:



Before they started the "every screen is an xbox" thing, before they put this ad out. You seem to think that they just thought about "expanding the market" with this dumb ad recently. I was predicting this strategy that they already were on, since 2019.

Microsoft has been talking about non-console growth since before this gen started, so this has nothing to do with your ‘prediction’ 🤣

Perhaps next time don’t directly quote and respond to my comment talking about this week’s ad so we avoid any ambiguity?


Wow talk about clueless. When you competitor is selling a console at a price slightly above your " mass market " console below your " top end " console that usually beats out your top end you really shouldn't talk about pricing.

Imagine falling for Wccftech clickbait instead of reading the quote yourself.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
I'm actually floored at this point that Phil is still in the job and still giving interviews. He has become a curse upon Xbox like a ghost in the damn attic you can't get rid of and every interview Phil gives is that brief moment he materializes and scares the absolute shit out of you.

gettyimages-2183768916-1731502030266.jpg


The guy even looks like a corpse now.

This is a thoroughly unhinged response to a CEO saying “I think the industry is headed the right way by providing more affordable access to gaming”

Lmao, what the heck is going on here?
 

MarkMe2525

Gold Member
I didn't take it as such, I think this is a reach and an editorialized mischaracterization. The context was the future of Xbox. Sony isn't positioning the Pro as the future of consoles either. He was speaking to the fact that the console business has always been geared at the mass market, and to reach the mass market, one needs to provide a somewhat "affordable" device. There has also been rumblings that MS's new device would be a high priced (for consoles) PC.
 
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Yep. Very salty statement. He is also gaslighting their customers too (Pro is $700). Typical.

By the way they are selling (or are soon going to sell) a 4 years old Xbox at $600 if I am not mistaken. Pro at $700 is a compelling device with AI upscaling and RDNA4 RT (and it's a Playstation). Sony did them exactly what Apple did them with the iPhone.

They'll never learn and will always try to copy what the others are doing.
 
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Gojiira

Member
Yes Phil because YOU’RE not growing the market at all…God he’s such an insufferable cunt…Like could he get off his high horse for one moment and actually think before speaking? He criticised mid gen refreshes, but Xbox launching with 2 wildly different models was ok…He criticises pricing, but Xbox has been the most expensive console every single generation…He think Xbox is in anyway leading the industry with its tiny playerbase and zero profits…Like the hypocrisy and stupidity is mindblowing. Still stay arrogant, keep taking jabs, its a sure sign of his little dick syndrome. Must tear him up every night knowing Playstation is top.
 
What is Phil talking about? The PS5 pro is priced at $600. PHIL at it again...
He didn't say anything about Sony. The websites inferred it. He just made a general comment about the prices of consoles do not support a model where they are $1000+. The whole Sony part is conjecture from the article writers, what he is probably speaking to are the mass rumors of the unsubsidized console that everyone was speaking about from XBOX, but that's my conjecture 😆.
 

damidu

Member
Yes Phil because YOU’RE not growing the market at all…God he’s such an insufferable cunt…Like could he get off his high horse for one moment and actually think before speaking? He criticised mid gen refreshes, but Xbox launching with 2 wildly different models was ok…He criticises pricing, but Xbox has been the most expensive console every single generation…He think Xbox is in anyway leading the industry with its tiny playerbase and zero profits…Like the hypocrisy and stupidity is mindblowing. Still stay arrogant, keep taking jabs, its a sure sign of his little dick syndrome. Must tear him up every night knowing Playstation is top.
yeah honestly infuriating stuff.

a total moron, who started the gen with obvious console-warring intentions.
bragged to his boss after ps5 reveal about a "win", stopped all multiplatform development at bethesda on day 1.
we read his whole email box for gods sake.

now that his whole netflix of gaming project collapsed and console is doing worse than frickin xbone. tries to act like all of these are going according to grand plan lol.

you are not a visionary shaping the industry fool. nobody gives a shit about your vision, except few rats with even less brain cells

you'll go down as the idiot who spent 100 billion to kill xbox. thats your career moment.
 

rm082e

Member
When I read the Bloomberg interview, I took that comment as him sort of unofficially responding to the rumors of the next Xbox being more like a mid-tier PC.
 

Klayzer

Member
The Steve Jobs quote regarding Microsoft having no taste never rang more true.

They have attacked this by thinking lower prices in all aspects will result in success and market growth - cheaper console, and cheap subscriptions (to the extent that they were practically giving it away for free for a period if time). All while completely disregarding the aspects customers value most and get customers talking - progress, innovation and quality.

What that's resulted in is attracting a subset of consumers who have no taste, in some cases no money, and importantly no influence. And then they act all confused, pointing fingers at the competition along with the market environment, when actually it's a "problem" they created for themselves and themselves alone.
They definitely cultivated the wrong type of audience going cheap. Now, they're reaping what's been sown.
 

YeulEmeralda

Linux User
Uhm the PS5pro is targeted at the hardcore. Is the market growing with Nvidia's 4090 GPUs? No look at steam hardware surveys number 1 is the 3060.
 
He's not wrong, but as long as they have a base model cheaper w/ disc drive, and that stays for sale, then it's a moot point.

I already bought my og ps5, no need for a pro. Also own a series x , switch and pc. I do know I would of just bought a ps4 pro if the base ps5 was over $600 and no way would I pay $800 for it. I could build a dedicated big picture mode pc for that. With all the games coming to pc anyway, whats the point. Outside of Astrobot and 2nd party games, Sony's first party this gen has been shit, for me anyway.

I used to look forward to insomniac with resistance and ratchet, they went woke, so off my list.
I used to look forward to killzone (kz2 and mercenary were amazing) , they don't like kz and only do Alloy sequels and remakes, so off the list.
I used to like sucker punch but they don't do infamous or sly anymore. Got was great but unsure about this next game due to trends. Wait and see.
I used to love naughty dog ,bought all the uncharted games and tlou. Then tlou2 came out and we haven't had shit from them in what feels like forever. They also went hardcore woke with druckman douche so off the list (unless we get a new uncharted with Nathan D or Chloe frazier as main character, I am out, I don't want some daughter take over).
I used to love wipeout and motorstorm -- they don't exist
I used to love tokyo jungle, gravity rush, patapon, loco roco, ico, last guardian, --- they are cut down and still make good games like astrobot.
I used to love socom fireteam bravo (psp)games, Socom ps2/ps3, unit13, but zipper was killed.

So outside of Astrobot studio, Polyphony, and maybe sucker punch, what is left for first party? Really nothing that appeals to me a 45 year old guy who grew up with nintendo and playstation.
Nintendo still treating me right. Sony would rather court a "modern audience" so why would i buy their expensive console again?
 
Microsoft's efforts and antics have single handedly reduced the gaming market rather than grow it.

I'm not even sure what benefit they're adding at all at this point. If not for the Activision deal; isn't it just an empty platform?
 

Three

Member
Microsoft has been talking about non-console growth since before this gen started, so this has nothing to do with your ‘prediction’ 🤣

Perhaps next time don’t directly quote and respond to my comment talking about this week’s ad so we avoid any ambiguity?
Yes but the talk of "xbox" being other devices is new and you're the one who mentioned their "new ad" and when I said it was predictable and nothing new you said it was just this Wednesday and new. I'm the one who said it was predictable and something that was obvious even last year. I said their intention isn't market growth as much as it is marketshare growth. You don't grow the market by buying third party publishers and becoming third party with their games, you grow your marketshare only. I asked you a simple question what market have they grown. Instead of coming back with something substantial to discuss you're getting hostile and posting clown emojis. You're the clown here.
 
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Ozriel

M$FT
Yes Phil because YOU’RE not growing the market at all…God he’s such an insufferable cunt…Like could he get off his high horse for one moment and actually think before speaking? He criticised mid gen refreshes, but Xbox launching with 2 wildly different models was ok…He criticises pricing, but Xbox has been the most expensive console every single generation…He think Xbox is in anyway leading the industry with its tiny playerbase and zero profits…Like the hypocrisy and stupidity is mindblowing. Still stay arrogant, keep taking jabs, its a sure sign of his little dick syndrome. Must tear him up every night knowing Playstation is top.
yeah honestly infuriating stuff.

a total moron, who started the gen with obvious console-warring intentions.
bragged to his boss after ps5 reveal about a "win", stopped all multiplatform development at bethesda on day 1.
we read his whole email box for gods sake.

now that his whole netflix of gaming project collapsed and console is doing worse than frickin xbone. tries to act like all of these are going according to grand plan lol.

you are not a visionary shaping the industry fool. nobody gives a shit about your vision, except few rats with even less brain cells

you'll go down as the idiot who spent 100 billion to kill xbox. thats your career moment.
Every time he pretends to be neutral, this fat, salty little bitch can't hide his disdain for PlayStation.

When I think of the extreme gullibility and comprehension deficit required to swallow this clickbait and interpret a statement about the general industry trend as a ‘dig at Playstation’, I have to Imagine this is being driven by extreme platform warring.

The actual quote:
I feel pretty good about where this industry is going. To reach new players, we need to be creative and adaptive of new business models, new devices, new ways of access. We’re not going to grow the market with $1,000 consoles.

He literally uses the word 'industry' because everyone* has 'easier/wider access' schemes in play.
- Xbox has their cheaper console, cloud streaming on cheap devices (fire stick) and mobile, and PC ports
- Nvidia sells expensive GPUS, but also have GeForce Now that allows people play PC games without owning powerful hardware. Geforce Now hit 25 million registered members last year!
- Sony has PC ports (albeit delayed) and are advertising on Playstation blog that you can stream some PS games on low end PCs with a PS Plus Premium subscription. The Insomniac leak also showed them gearing up to stream on browsers, mobile phones and smart TVs

Ht3j1hR.jpeg




But Wccftech says it's a 'dig at PS5 Pro' and so everyone has to disengage their brains, fall for obvious clickbait and rage on.


* I can't think of anything for Nintendo, tbh.
 

DJ12

Member
Maybe Phil a aid something in to the reporters ear, but the actual quote suggests that they know their $1000 next box is not for mass market which is why they'll grow their own business by embracing playstation and probably switch 2.

The guy even has a massive stretch to get the ps5 pro anywhere near $1000. Stopped reading when he got to about $800 lol
 
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