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What's Xbox's strategy here?

You know Shaworma and a ton of people will get fucked the way out if Fable flops. Thats all they have, its theyre only trump card. Gears is just gears and a prequel at that, it wont move mountains, it'll do ok at best and most will forget about it in a few months. They have nothing else.
 
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Gaiff said:
Gears and Clockwork Revolution are exclusives, but a bunch of games you'd expect to be like Senua aren't. So, what's the point? Either you go all in or you don't. Seems they're half-assing it.

My guess is both those games are timed exclusives and will come to PS5 at a later date. It makes no sense to keep just two of them off PS5 and release the rest.
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Copilot, put together a "strategy deck" for XBOX! :messenger_grinning_sweat:
 
Sohurmk833 said:
They have no strategy. Never had. That's why they'll continue to fail.
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their post-360 strategy was 're-define & conquer', first with kinect, & then with game pass. both failed. they want no part of 'competing' in the nintendo/sony traditional console market. leaving them to now, after massive investment in properties, simply go full-time 3rd party publisher. & to therefore have to bring this news to their fanbase. & what they're now struggling with is not so much strategy (their options are either publish or perish), but the fact that, when it comes to creating a game console fanbase, breaking up is hard to do:
 
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This has been two Sega trailers for big multi-platform games on Xbox shows. What's up with that? :pie_thinking: Is it to get people to keep paying attention to Xbox's presentations, do you think? Because the majority of people won't be playing Stranger Than Heaven or Persona 6 on Xbox.

Or is someone at Sega a big Xbox fan?
 
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The Cockatrice said:
You know Shaworma and a ton of people will get fucked the way out if Fable flops. Thats all they have, its theyre only trump card. Gears is just gears and a prequel at that, it wont move mountains, it'll do ok at best and most will forget about it in a few months. They have nothing else.
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Fable? Forza Horizon is their biggest IP by far now
 
uncreativename said:
This has been two Sega trailers for big multi-platform games on Xbox shows. What's up with that? :pie_thinking: Is it to get people to keep paying attention to Xbox's presentations, do you think? Because the majority of people won't be playing Stranger Than Heaven or Persona 6 on Xbox.
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P6 Day 1 GamePass though right?
 
Gaiff said:
Gears and Clockwork Revolution are exclusives, but a bunch of games you'd expect to be like Senua aren't. So, what's the point? Either you go all in or you don't. Seems they're half-assing it.

My guess is both those games are timed exclusives and will come to PS5 at a later date. It makes no sense to keep just two of them off PS5 and release the rest.
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At this point, it could be anything. Gears being an Xbox exclusive makes sense as part of the franchise's legacy, but Hellblade doesn't. Whether it'll be financially viable remains to be seen.
 
We haven't even spoken about the possibility of these Xbox games failing commercially on PlayStation/Switch. That would be devastating for the iPs.
 
The main issue with Xbox right now isn't the strategy itself, but how inconsistent it feels. Some games are exclusive, some launch on multiple platforms, some come to other systems later, and some don't at all. That makes it hard to understand what the actual plan is, and it often feels like there isn't a clear one.

Microsoft also can't realistically make every major game fully exclusive anymore. A lot of Xbox players use Game Pass instead of buying games outright, so releasing titles on other platforms can make more financial sense. But then the approach shifts depending on the game, which only adds to the confusion.

If the plan is to go more multi-platform, it needs to be consistent. If exclusives still matter, there needs to be a clearer reason for why certain games are treated differently. Right now it just creates mixed messaging.

It also raises the question of who they're trying to attract this far into the generation. It's hard to imagine many people waiting six years to buy a new console just for a single game like Gears: E-Day, especially when the hardware is now more expensive than it was at launch.
 
Let's be real the majority of us here don't want a Xbox. So having games still on pc and ps5 is a win for gamers as far as im concerned.

And come on we all know both gears and cockwork will be on ps5 within a year to collect extra sales lol.

Their strategy is just timed exclusive in hope some folks who don't fuck with pc will grab a Xbox.

Also they may have outstanding agreements prior to Asha coming on board that state games won't be exclusive. Perhaps they went back to a few studios to ask and got shot down.

If they go harder on exclusivity or timed ones I think will begin with the next machine.
 
Even if they decide to go all in on console exclusives, consoles are 3x more expensive than their previous generation at the time. New gen will be 2.5-3x more expensive than what PS5/series sx launched at.

Like price dictates they can't sell much more consoles anyways, whether it be this gen or next gen, same goes for Sony, whatever's been sold is likely 80-90 percent of all there is to it, so I think this strategy is too late brought on by changing execs all the time.
 
If hardware doesn't sell, Twitter will say its because they weren't enough exclusives.
Gaiff said:
You believe them? When both games fall short of sales expectations, they will get ported.

Ryan Gosling Reaction GIF
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If they delay it beyond a year, they will fail commercially. We've seen this with their recent games, as well as Sony titles on PC.
 
There's no sense in terms of immediate finances. They are restricting software sales to their own user base. For hardware, Series X is expensive and most gamers have already bought in. Some if us are already playing on better hardware with the Pro. Returning to exclusives may have made more sense with new hardware.

I can only think the strategy is to start slowly moving back to having exclusives for next-gen, and to try and keep on board their own shrinking console user base, who are probably deserting for Playstation. So it feels like a stop gap strategy. Get sales from Multiplatform most of the time, but keep a couple that were maybe not gonna sell as well to try and retain Gamepass subscribers till next gen.

I'm still amazed they are persevering with GPU. It's another discussion, but the day 1 strategy will never work, it's just not economical for buyers or devs in the niche driven gaming market.
 
I think they are going to Launch what they already announced for PS5 and then keep more game esclusive to XBOX
They have a lot of problems:
1) Making Gamepass profitable having all those studios working just for Xbox and PC
2) Next Gen is going to be a lot expensive and probably will have a lot of less adopters, they can't count only on this userbase
3) Activision Blizzard buyout was intended with MS working as a publisher for what I know, taking off studios and make them work as exclusive developer for Microsoft could be examined from anti trust (at least in Europe)

My 2 Cent - Im happy for gaming exclusives going back in XBOX but now kill Gamepass
 
Pretend to understand what people want, put things out, rely on open world racers to showcase the console, zealots and media shower them with praise. Rinse and repeat.
 
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Gaiff said:
Gears and Clockwork Revolution are exclusives, but a bunch of games you'd expect to be like Senua aren't. So, what's the point? Either you go all in or you don't. Seems they're half-assing it.

My guess is both those games are timed exclusives and will come to PS5 at a later date. It makes no sense to keep just two of them off PS5 and release the rest.
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Let's be honest, how did Xbox perform when these games were pure console exclusives?

We're still in the honeymoon phase of her tenure.

Wish her all the best, just interested to see the energy around Xbox 12-24 months from now.
 
I don't think there's any game that can meaningfully move the needle for them regardless of how well received they are, short of maybe plopping down >$50bn to buy Take Two to make GTA exclusive. Keeping one or two games a year off of Playstation to try and match Sony's exclusive big game output is just not going to make anything happen for them. The primary driver of Playstation sales aren't exclusives but third-party (mostly GaaS) games available on basically everything, Microsoft's problem isn't content per se but the ever compounding network effect of Playstation being the "default HD console" since the launch of the PS4. Even if they have 5 +90-rated exclusive games a year that's not going to change things.

I think the only way Xbox can really mount a comeback in the console space is to somehow come up with a platform strategy that radically disrupts the space.
 
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I don't think there's a strategy at all.

They are just trying to get some goodwill from xbox core gamers for next gen, so they can get some launch sales on their xbox branded pc.


Also, I doubt both these games will remain exclusive for a long time after the release.


Everything xbox is doing is confusing and erratic.
 
They need some exclusives at the end of this gen so that people will believe that them when they say 'X' is exclusive for Helix.
 
My thought was that with helix being what it is, they're pivoting towards the platform being gamepass.

As such I expected to see only available on gamepass and a release window at later point for steam.

If no-one buys stuff on Xbox due to Gamepass what's the point of console exclusive, make it gamepass exclusive.

Just seems weird
 
Upper upper management trying to balance costs more than likely.

But that series has always been on multiple platforms as well.
 
Danny22 said:
Even if they decide to go all in on console exclusives, consoles are 3x more expensive than their previous generation at the time. New gen will be 2.5-3x more expensive than what PS5/series sx launched at.

Like price dictates they can't sell much more consoles anyways, whether it be this gen or next gen, same goes for Sony, whatever's been sold is likely 80-90 percent of all there is to it, so I think this strategy is too late brought on by changing execs all the time.
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The real sinker for them is that they didn't have this quality from 2018-2023. Had we seen stuff of this quality back then, they very well could be in a much better spot. Instead Phil kept feeding poorly made slop like Redfall, Crackdown, and the latest Forza Motorsport title.
 
Seems like a tread about gamers crying about crap they can't control…..They are going in a new direction simple as that some games where to far to turn back and several games was not it's not that hard and if they fail so what,….
 
LordCBH said:
The real sinker for them is that they didn't have this quality from 2018-2023. Had we seen stuff of this quality back then, they very well could be in a much better spot. Instead, Phil kept feeding poorly made slop like Redfall, Crackdown, and the latest Forza Motorsport title.
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I'm not Phil's biggest fan, but all the games shown today were greenlit under his leadership. Games approved under Asha are not going to be seen for 4 or 5 years.
 
It's what some players unfortunately want.
I've always seen exclusives as competition through restricted access rather than competition through excellence.
Gaming is the only mainstream entertainment medium where consumers expect that buying one manufacturer's hardware will prevent access to a set of works in the same medium. You don't think about that when buying a new TV or stereos.

I get why the console manufacturers do that, they want to lock you into their system, so they can get their cut for every sale and charge you for services like online play. Rather than try to compete by building the best device and service with the best price, then let all content compete everywhere, they can compete by just saying "Exclusively on platform X".
They have managed to convince an entire generation of gamers into believing that this is actually very pro consumer and players will benefit greatly by games being exclusives. And that brings us here.
 
Simple. Make everything exclusive and eliminate competition, but first feed those on other platforms with the previously announced multiplatforms.

I think Asha would have made everything exclusive if the previous incompetent brigade hadn't made the upcoming games multiplatform...
 
The strategy is clear.

Clearly shit.

They're trying to let on Xbox games are exclusive again to try and give HELIX a better chance.

Great name btwr.

Because like a real HELIX things will eventually come full circle when it's sales bomb and MS suddenly started announcing all their games on PS5 again.

Meanwhile Gears will of had it's only chance of a revival sacrificed because nobody is going out of their way to buy that when it eventually comes to PS5.

SupremeJ SupremeJ
Only one problem. Absolutely everything is still on one of their biggest rivals platform, STEAM.
 
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They're obviously fumbling around, trying to find the right approach.
As long as their games is on Steam day 1 I'm happy.
 
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What do you mean what is their strategy. They brought in a new CEO and team to undo alot of damage to the brand that Sara and Phil did with their decisions. They are listening to what the Xbox community wants, but it is going to take time to undo those previous decisions.
 
Kerotan said:
The strategy is clear.

Clearly shit.

They're trying to let on Xbox games are exclusive again to try and give HELIX a better chance.

Great name btwr.

Because like a real HELIX things will eventually come full circle when it's sales bomb and MS suddenly started announcing all their games on PS5 again.

Meanwhile Gears will of had it's only chance of a revival sacrificed because nobody is going out of their way to buy that when it eventually comes to PS5.

SupremeJ SupremeJ
Only one problem. Absolutely everything is still on one of their biggest rivals platform, STEAM.
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Steam and Epic aren't rival platforms. Steam is just a way to subsidize the first/2nd party games on Gamepass.
 
Consoles need exclusives to grow as a platform. People need a reason to choose xbox and exclusives are the most obvious reason. I am primarily an Xbox player and so are my friends, I know many friends that bought a PS5 solely to play games like Spiderman, god of war, last of us. People will buy a switch solely for Mario. Hardware is expensive right now and these new Xbox games might not be to your taste but it has to start somewhere. There will be growing pains.
 
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