SlimySnake
Flashless at the Golden Globes
$3.5-4 billion a year. At that rate it will take ms 18-20 years to pay it off.
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Dorfdad
Gold Member
Here is how they should be running gamepass.
New Microsoft Games are released on XBOX /PC GAMEPASS 3-6 Months after initial release. The Day those titles are released on Gamepass they should be made available to Sony and or Nintendo.
This allows for initial sales and exclusives to keep selling your consoles. Gamepass will thrive because people will get the games for their subscription price (cheaper) and Sony and Nintendo will get the games for full prices on those consoles who don't want gamepass or Xbox Consoles. Xcloud games should be a completely different subscription price / tier of gamepass.
Gamepass Normal is 9.99 a month and Gamepass Plus is 14.99-20.00 and includes Xcloud gamepass games with day 1 access to digital games in the cloud only. This allows Microsoft to make some additional income from Cloud streaming which is the future. They don't have to allow normal gamepass subs access to day1 titles. This is an upscale to slowly grow the Cloud users.
New Microsoft Games are released on XBOX /PC GAMEPASS 3-6 Months after initial release. The Day those titles are released on Gamepass they should be made available to Sony and or Nintendo.
This allows for initial sales and exclusives to keep selling your consoles. Gamepass will thrive because people will get the games for their subscription price (cheaper) and Sony and Nintendo will get the games for full prices on those consoles who don't want gamepass or Xbox Consoles. Xcloud games should be a completely different subscription price / tier of gamepass.
Gamepass Normal is 9.99 a month and Gamepass Plus is 14.99-20.00 and includes Xcloud gamepass games with day 1 access to digital games in the cloud only. This allows Microsoft to make some additional income from Cloud streaming which is the future. They don't have to allow normal gamepass subs access to day1 titles. This is an upscale to slowly grow the Cloud users.
MasterCornholio
Member
Its going to be hard for them to reverse Day One releases without getting called Anticonsumer by their loyal fanbase.
Alan Wake
Member
It's a combination of things. I immediately liked the idea of Game Pass and jumped in weeks after it launched. Despite the fact that I keep buying games on discs. But I always questioned the sustainability of putting all first party games on the service day 1, and now we kind of know what the outcome was. It does in fact devalue their biggest games, there's no way around it.
But we have to remember the biggest issue here: The first party output 2013-2022 was terrible for Xbox. Apart from Forza Horizon, which has always delivered, there was very little there in the AAA department that could compete with PlayStation. They started their shopping spree in 2018 and it looked promising. But games take time, as they say, and we're still waiting for Ninja Theory and Compulsion Games to release their respective games, and The Initiative seems to be in a mess. And who knows what is happening at Rare. Studio management has been less than stellar, let's leave it at that.
But we have to remember the biggest issue here: The first party output 2013-2022 was terrible for Xbox. Apart from Forza Horizon, which has always delivered, there was very little there in the AAA department that could compete with PlayStation. They started their shopping spree in 2018 and it looked promising. But games take time, as they say, and we're still waiting for Ninja Theory and Compulsion Games to release their respective games, and The Initiative seems to be in a mess. And who knows what is happening at Rare. Studio management has been less than stellar, let's leave it at that.
Alan Wake
Member
And it would mean admitting that their model was indeed not sustainable, contrary to what Spencer's been saying all along.
Ar¢tos
Member
And that is IF they manage the IP well, and going by their history we can expect that value to be halved in a couple of years. Only Nintendo has managed to keep IPs relevant and strong for 20+ years.
Edit: 4bn is when it's being sold full price on 3 platforms. When it becomes sold full price on only 1 and rented for peanuts on the other 2, that value will take a big hit.
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MasterCornholio
Member
What
Dorfdad
was saying should have been implemented since the beginning. Trying to change it now would be a PR disaster and destroy the brands image even further. I don't even know of some of the hardcore fans would even accept this.
GHG
Member
Their loyal fanbase would tow the line just as they always have.
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Panajev2001a
GAF's Pleasant Genius
This is so important. Xbox OG was left to die when Xbox 360 came out, Xbox 360 was left to die when they launched Xbox One, and Xbox One was also kind of left to die when they launched Xbox Series X|S consoles.
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MacReady13
Member
Kinect started the rot. The reveal of the Xbox one took it to the next level and then the focus on Gamepass cause they were getting trounced with the Xbone was the final nail in the coffin. I’d take Microsoft from the early 360 days any day of the week. They had a grip on 3rd party exclusives. It was a sensational time for Xbox. God they’ve lost their way so bad. Fancy focusing on a rental service over releasing games and pursuing 3rd party exclusives… they have the money to do it!
You need to include the value of Activision as an asset.
II_JumPeR_I
Member
Kinect, launching games on pc day1 and the Xbone Gen basicly killed all the reputation earned during the first half of the 360 Gen.
DenchDeckard
Moderated wildly
All gaf has been talking about for the last two weeks is xbox going third party and constant port begs...where have you been?
DenchDeckard
Moderated wildly
Is that all of ABK and king or just CoD?
MasterCornholio
Member
That doesn't necessarily have to do with the future of Xbox though especially where hardware is concerned. Xbox can change into something else and those studios will still exist.
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THE DUCK
voted poster of the decade by bots
All he was saying was yes, we want engagment on all platforms out there we have gamepass on. But "no new next gen games" was not the case, they did have games ready and follow ups, they just didn't pan out as good as hoped.
The crossgen decision was purely monitary in terms of sales, just like it was for sony on the traditional sales front. The PC support was there for 15 years and had nothing to do with it.
The strategy wasn't gamepass first, it was traditional sales and gamepass combined.
As to them securing chips for cloud first, they held back a very tiny amount for only a short period. (as to not tank the service and lose more existing customers)
No but considering a ton of consoles were sold, there should have been an increase. I would disagree with the above, I would say delaying games when you are trying to hook people into a new service is the exact opposite of what you want. It attracts less new customers and potentialy loses ones you just fought hard to gain.
In addition, I've always maintined that subscrition services could in fact increase quality of games as the company knows the cash flow is there and they don't have to release garbage. Especially for smaller studios who otherwise might have had no choice.
Not a guarantee, but if managed right, there are advantages. Where as some instead argue the opposite, they would just sit back and do nothing. (which of course doesn't take into account the traditional sales that are still counted on in addition to the subscription money)
It also doesn't make a lot of sense for most proffesionals, do most NBA players sit back and do nothing once they sign for 150 million for 5 years? Nope, the vast majority work hard to accomplish things and think about the next contract. (just as the game publishers have to do)
I mean the money is just flowing in like a subscription service, they could just slow down and do nothing.......
I bet if you talk to the developers at MS, not a single one of them felt they could lift the foot off the gas due to gamepass. If anything they were (and still are) under immense pressure to deliver, and do it quickly.
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MacReady13
Member
I’m sure all those games Microsoft will fund will cost nothing.
Mr Reasonable
Completely Unreasonable
Two weeks? Man, it feels longer.
Mr Reasonable
Completely Unreasonable
A slightly weird, grasping thing to throw back. I don't think anyone thought Activision was doing some sort of sorcery or that the games are produced like golden eggs from a goose in a fairytale.
KungFucius
King Snowflake
This is why I love Gamepass. I never would have played half of the games I played on it but I get to play them now. Best part of it is that I get it on PC and not some other box that only gets used for games. My PC is the main thing hooked up to my TV and is the home entertainment center. My PS5 is hooked up too, but it is inferior in almost every way and the HDMI CEC option on it is obnoxious sometimes.
With gamepass, day 1 keeps me coming back. I have PS++ but I am not renewing because it is mainly old games. I think that if MS does better with their first party games and people try GP for that, they will start spending more time there than elsewhere. I have no clue how well the service does on PC. Clearly there are millions who would rather buy Starfield on Steam than play for a month on GP, but maybe the quality of that game will drive more people to try GP to reduce the risk of blowing 70 bucks on a middling game.
Physiognomonics
Member
Either that or an unfortunate coincidence. But I also believe coincidences are very rare.
bosnianpie
Member
I can't consider it a fall since Xbox was never really on a high.
FunkMiller
Member
It goes without saying that spending a shit load of money on something does not mean you are in a good place, business-wise. In fact, a lot of the time, that kind of spending is a hail mary at the tail end of things.
MS may well make a success out of the ABK acquisition, but we're a very long way off from being able to assess that, and in the meantime Xbox is selling like dogshit because of their awful strategy over the past few years.
Mr.ODST
Member
Sony gimps on here trying to justify their purchase..
No. Just, no.
Good Lord like what is going on around here anymore. What is it with these constant panic/ doom threads. Get a grip.
On topic no, it hasnt ruined MS, they needed a different strategy
Well exactly - it didn't used to be the case but now it literally is the only reason for owning an Xbox - hence downfall..
MS gets a fraction of the money it used to from me as I never buy any of their games now and Ive never paid anywhere near full price for game pass.
Ive also subsequently sold my series X as what's the point when I have a decent PC.
Game pass is choking the Xbox platform and there is no way out for MS..
ManaByte
Gold Member
Call Of Duty has been around for 20 years.
Just CoD. King makes more than CoD does.
Ar¢tos
Member
Mario has been around for 38 years, how much longer can ATK keep COD alive under MS management?
They killed Halo, killed Gears and are now killing Forza.
ManaByte
Gold Member
Infinite is the best MP shooter on the market right now.
Kssio_Aug
Member
Only here people think that such a big acquisition is a signal of a company's downfall, instead of a huge investment in their product.
Freelance Yakuza
Member
Years after a disastrous launch and still far from the influence Halo once had
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Ar¢tos
Member
Buying Nokia did wonders for the Windows Phone, right?Only here people think that such a big acquisition is a signal of a company's downfall, instead of a huge investment in their product.
ManaByte
Gold Member
Comparing the actions of a previous CEO to the current one is pretty disingenuous.
Ar¢tos
Member
The current one hasn't done much better.
What's disingenuous is trying to associate the purchase of a publisher to the health of a hardware platform, when the publisher doesn't really require that platform to exist and thrive and the sales of the platform have gone down even with the release of 3 console exclusive games from the purchase of the previous publisher (Zenimax) . Mobile, pc, playstation and switch can justify the purchase of the publisher.
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Kssio_Aug
Member
Apples and oranges.
Nokia was a late-stage attempt to enter a market where Microsoft had little foothold and faced dominant giant competitors (Apple and Google).
Xbox, people like it or not, has been a key player in the gaming industry for years, with a solid user base and a well-established ecosystem.
Also, Activision was basically a leading company in the gaming industry, while Nokia was struggling to survive.
Furthermore, the acquisition isn't solely about selling more Xbox consoles, but about fortifying the entire Xbox ecosystem, including Game Pass and xCloud.
As I said, apples and oranges. The acquisitions here are incomparable. And MS has made other very successful acquisitions too.
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FunkMiller
Member
Only here people think that such a big acquisition is a signal of a company's downfall, instead of a huge investment in their product.
History is replete with big purchases made by successful companies looking to expand, failing companies looking to survive through investment, and all stages in between. It remains to be seen where Microsoft's investment in ABK comes out.
Kssio_Aug
Member
And the opposite is also true. I'm not saying that the acquisition is guaranteed to succeed, but it's the opposite of a signal of downfall. It's a signal of investment and betting on the success of the brand.
Freelance Yakuza
Member
Activision-Blizzard-King* was a late-stage attempt to enter a market where Microsoft had little foothold and faced dominant giant competitors (Sony* and Nintendo*).
Kssio_Aug
Member
Freelance Yakuza
Member
Yeah that's literally the only point I was making when I quoted you. There is nothing else to understand about my postAre you comparing Playstation and Nintendo to Google and Apple?
(Edit: not really)
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sigrad
Member
SMH. What a stupid take.
ManaByte
Gold Member
Are you comparing Playstation and Nintendo to Google and Apple?
Some people like to pretend the 360 generation never happened.
BouncyFrag
Member
Walls of text mumbo jumbo as far as the eye can see.
Jose92
[Membe
Thank you so much for your manners. Your parents did very well in raising you to be you.
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