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Rumor: Xbox Has Allegedly Canceled Its E3 Appearance Due To A Marketing Budget Cut

Thebonehead

Gold Member
goodfellas GIF
 

j.k.2021

Banned
Microsoft marketing is improving since Bethesda joined them.Bethesda had a smaller marketing budget but they still did great in marketing.Aaron Greenberg role is likely being reduced as he saw big fan events as a big deal.
 
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Poltz

Member
Xbox hardly market as it is here in the UK and in Mainland Europe anyway.
 
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ManaByte

Banned
There are what seems daily false or incorrect articles out daily about ms. This one is nonsense imo. E3 isnt 30 million dollars expensive to attend. Otherwise small exhibitors would not afford it.
Many who are making up BS for clicks aren’t old enough to remember the legend of Kentia Hall.
 

Lasha

Member
I think it's because it's old news. It's been years since Sonys last E3 conference if I'm remembering correctly.

Somebody else mentioned. I don't follow it closely. A normal journalist would include a sentence for context since the issue seems to be with E3 than any of the publishers.
 

ThaGuy

Member
Developers has mentioned before that E3 is difficult for them because not only do they have to work on their game, they have to build a separate demo just for E3 that takes resources away from the main development. I rather devs show things when they're ready imo.
 
Somebody else mentioned. I don't follow it closely. A normal journalist would include a sentence for context since the issue seems to be with E3 than any of the publishers.

I did enjoy Sonys big E3 shows in the past however with the world that we live in E3 is a little bit outdated. Shows can be done at any time and using outlets such as YouTube for example. What I do like about these new events is that they seem more straight to the point. I haven't seen an awkward flute guy or a terrible band in the longest time. Just straight up announcements and footage of games.
 

ANDS

Banned
Who needs to pay out for marketing when you can just do the internal presentations yourself. I MUCH prefer the "COVID-era" approach that I hope sticks: slick overproduced showcases that focus on the games not the event.
 

Smoke6

Member
So? Nintendo Direct style is much better. Less pressure on them and more of a surprise for us.
Man they do one stealth drop! Trust and believe that’s not gonna keep happening. Gamers want some bang for their Buck and HiFi was just this year (so far) good indie type game!

If the rumors are true about the shape of some their studios and upcoming releases, this is not gonna end well. I’ve always said they wanted to just be publishers!
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
There are what seems daily false or incorrect articles out daily about ms. This one is nonsense imo. E3 isnt 30 million dollars expensive to attend. Otherwise small exhibitors would not afford it.
Its pretty ridiculous. Never seen it this bad.
 
There's honestly zero reason for Microsoft to be spending all the money for an E3 presentation and booth right now. A lot of their games are still too far away to say much about, and the ones they have that are coming this year, they'd be much better served doing a livestream like Nintendo Direct and PlayStation State Of Play. They'll reach more people immediately, get all the gaming media attention focused on them for a few days, and generate a lot of focused hype for their titles, all while spending far less money than they would going to E3. It's a no brainer at this point.
 
Microsoft was prepared to wind down Xbox after the disaster that was XBO but Philly Boy convinced them to give it another go. He must be sweating in his socks watching to see if the Acti deal goes through.

If it doesn't I can see Phil being kicked to the curb, Xbox being shut down, and either MS becoming just a publisher or selling off their gaming assets.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Who needs to pay out for marketing when you can just do the internal presentations yourself. I MUCH prefer the "COVID-era" approach that I hope sticks: slick overproduced showcases that focus on the games not the event.

Yeah, I thought this news would be more welcome. But it's only led to more doom-posting.
 
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Elios83

Member
I doubt that's the reason, they have 70 billions to buy Activision, they can sell the hardware at a big loss during the holiday season with their usual promotions and now they cannot attend E3 because of budget restrictions...yeah :messenger_grinning_sweat:

The actual reason is that they realized that it's an outdated form of marketing with very little flexibility putting pressure on their teams and no extra marketing return compared to digital events, actually with more frequent digital events you keep yourself more in the news loop. Hence why they're now copying Sony (and Nintendo) with their equivalent of the State of Plays and main digital showcase.
 
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M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
E3 presentation of Xbox were always bad, their fan fest was where the good stuff happened, oddly enough. I think their new format with the developer showcase is way better and it NEEDS to be more often.
 
Microsoft was prepared to wind down Xbox after the disaster that was XBO but Philly Boy convinced them to give it another go. He must be sweating in his socks watching to see if the Acti deal goes through.

If it doesn't I can see Phil being kicked to the curb, Xbox being shut down, and either MS becoming just a publisher or selling off their gaming assets.

Seems wildly unlikely that Microsoft would bail on gaming. If their gambit to buy ABK is killed off, they're still in a fine place. Unlike Nintendo and Sony, what MS wants is for people to be gaming on Xbox as a universal platform. They don't care if it's on an actual piece of Xbox hardware. Considering how much they've invested in the cloud and getting all their stuff out on PC day and date, their endgame seems to be to move away from console hardware altogether, pushing Xbox as a universal platform and ecosystem that functions across many devices. Something closer to Stadia--but they'll wait until the internet catches up to those demands on the streaming front and continue to offer game downloads through both outright purchases and Gamepass.

Xbox was not winning the traditional war against Sony and Nintendo. So they've gone their own course rather than just be an also ran. They have the vast resources to do that, and there's no reason to believe it won't work out for them. If it doesn't, it's far less likely to be because "the market rejected Xbox" and more that "Microsoft decided to shut the division down and reinvest in other components of their business." If they fail, it's because hey choose to.
 
I always said, Xbox as a division is completely broken... They're at least 30 BILLION in the Red since the beginning if NOT 50B or more.

It's a disaster & Satya Patience is running off apparently.

1. Can you share the receipts on $30-50,000,000,000 in the red? I’d love to read them.

2. Are the higher ups losing patience or is MS buying up lots of studios? You guys have to stick to one narrative.
 
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Ansphn

Member
Clearly you haven't been paying attention.
For example, Microsoft has already announced their doing their own event in their own building across the street from E3.

The article is bullocks! Yet, people are here to jump on it like flies on shit. Crazy...
I'm not even talking about this E3 event. Xbox might be dead if this Activision deal don't go through.
 

XXL

Member
I doubt the $2 trillion company chasing an almost $70 billion acquisition is going to worry about a couple of hundred thousand dollars for E3.
Where does it say they just cut E3? It said they cancelled their E3 because of Microsoft cutting the Xbox marketing budget.

If this is true (big if) this will effect more than E3 going forward, E3 was just part of it.
 

Gavon West

Spread's Cheeks for Intrusive Ads
I'm not even talking about this E3 event. Xbox might be dead if this Activision deal don't go through.
No, dude. Just no...

Why the hell would the deal not going through be the end of the entire gaming division at Microsoft??

Maybe say that shit out loud to hear how utterly ridiculous that sounds! They aren't going to fold Xbox because of one failed acquisition. If anything, they'll go after other developers much more aggressively.
 

Sybrix

Member
What a depressing time to be an Xbox gamer right now, no E3 show, no 1st party games on the horizon.

Game Pass is the only thing keeping Xbox attractive, however if your a gamer that likes the big 1st party studio titles, why bother having an Xbox?
 
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Ansphn

Member
No, dude. Just no...

Why the hell would the deal not going through be the end of the entire gaming division at Microsoft??

Maybe say that shit out loud to hear how utterly ridiculous that sounds! They aren't going to fold Xbox because of one failed acquisition. If anything, they'll go after other developers much more aggressively.
I believe the future of Microsoft gaming is as a publisher. Xbox will go the way of Sega but less successful.
 

Orbital2060

Member
ESA isnt running E3 anymore, times have changed. Its Reedpop who somehow bought the trademark or made a licensing deal for E3 from now on. I dont know how it works - if they now own the E3 brand or its ln a yearly kind of basis. But Reedpop is a private company that owns sites like Gamesindustry.biz, Eurogamer, and PushSquare. And not a single dedicated Xbox site, for example. So I will be curious to see how the E3 news are covered here, and whether they only provide their owned sites with the news first or exclusively. And how other gaming sites have access to E3 in this context.
 
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ManaByte

Banned
So Sony has no games? Since ms has no budget and the other has no games.

It's apparently Nintendo that "has no games" to show at E3 after the release of Zelda. You know, the same Nintendo that's been doing Nintendo Directs instead of E3 for YEARS.
 

Orbital2060

Member
It's apparently Nintendo that "has no games" to show at E3 after the release of Zelda. You know, the same Nintendo that's been doing Nintendo Directs instead of E3 for YEARS.
And of course Sony who has avoided E3 for years already. But when Xbox says something its all doom and gloom. While they have still had E3 shows all up to this year, or around that time.

It sounds to me like they dont want to be part of whatever E3 has become.
 

ManaByte

Banned
And of course Sony who has avoided E3 for years already. But when Xbox says something its all doom and gloom. While they have still had E3 shows all up to this year, or around that time.

It sounds to me like they dont want to be part of whatever E3 has become.

I wouldn't be shocked if all these doom and gloom clickbait articles are coming from some staffer in the ESA who are afraid of losing their job when E3 finally dies and they want to paint the big publishers in the worst light possible.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
What a depressing time to be an Xbox gamer right now, no E3 show.

I don’t understand. Do you work for the company that runs E3? Because for gamers, MS not being at E3 2023 makes no difference. They have their own showcase


no 1st party games on the horizon.

Ah ok. You’re just trolling then. They literally had a show little over a week ago where they showed multiple first party games on the horizon. And have released TWO highly rated first party games in the past two weeks.

Game Pass is the only thing keeping Xbox attractive, however if your a gamer that likes the big 1st party studio titles, why bother having an Xbox?

Big first party titles + Gamepass is precisely why I bought an xbox series X.
 

Markio128

Gold Member
Slightly regretfully, my Series X will be helping towards my PSVR 2 purchase, purely because it will offer me more fun and entertainment in the short term. MS have done very little to convince me otherwise. No doubt I’ll pick another one up later in the year, or perhaps next year when they have finally got their shit together.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
What a depressing time to be an Xbox gamer right now, no E3 show, no 1st party games on the horizon.

Game Pass is the only thing keeping Xbox attractive, however if your a gamer that likes the big 1st party studio titles, why bother having an Xbox?

1. They're still having a showcase just like last year, they've already confirmed it.
2. They just launched a GoTY contending first party game last week with more coming in April, in May and later in summer


"negative" topics like this really do bring out the best of y'all from the deep crevices. :messenger_grinning_sweat:
 
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