Support NeoGAF

[James Sawyer Ford]

Thats not really fair because the brand was already heavily established and nothing was changed about studio who makes it. Look at how halo ,gears, fable has been managed. Internal ip's by microsoft that MS meddled with. MS didn't meddle with anything when it came to majong, they just gave the studio tons of money to expand. The brand wasn't on a downhill decline, it was already huge.



Gamepass has been around for a while now, it's only now in the past year and a half it's grown. And I would argue because of high discounted deals, bundles with the system, nvidia graphics cards. And on top of literally adding EA, and Bethesda games to it drawing a lot more attention.

No one is saying it's doomed, it's that with what is going on in other mediums like NETFLIX, it's hard not to see that netflix does not make as much as people think, and just to keep themselves relevant spend more than they make half the time. Disney plus is showing netflix how it's done. They literally have 95 Million sub-scribers some of those probably verizon subs, but a lot of those are people like me who subbed for mandalorian and now are loving it because of all the backlog films/shows on top of new releases like Wandavision.

Disney has constant quality of content, which netflix doesn't have in the same volume at any given time. There are literally 3 shows debuting this year on Disney Plus that will make me continue to watch. I binged Cobra Kai and then didn't touch netflix again for over a month. And still I see myself going back to Disney and amazon because they seem to have more exclusive new shows/movies that I want to watch.

Thats Microsoft's issue, and we can say "things take time" all we want but the thing is all of those need to be super quality to compete what others are doing. If and when Sony or Nintendo revamp or create a new service with all their first party titles, I can bet you my account the pace at which people sign up to the service will outweigh how long it took MS to have 15 Million.

Disney Plus launched like over a year ago and has almost more than half of what Netflix has world wide. And NF streaming is older than 10+ years old. Thats the thing Microsoft has against them, and with what happened to halo, it does not breed confidence in people resubbing after their subscription runs out.

It's retention of subs that matters not the total number at any given time.

You nailed it.

The biggest issue is that entertainment mediums is always going to be QUALITY over time. We all have limited free time, and have to make choices on what we choose to consume.

Microsoft could still do well with the strategy, but their studios are competing with a lot of content from everywhere else. Being merely "decent" won't really cut it.

So far their strategy of being third place every single generation seems like it isn't going to be changing anytime soon. But, we can all hope that they'll be a more relevant third this time around. The Xbox One generation was a huge black mark on the brand.

 

[SafeOrAlone]

Who knows? There will always be unpredictable elements for our theories to contend with. For now, I think Microsoft are making smart, cutthroat moves.

 

[EdGalTBR]

For every 5 dollars that PlayStation makes on games, Xbox makes 3 dollars. That's not bad by any means.

 

[supernova8]

2. Prestige development studios are overrated.

I don't think I agree with this. Depends what you're trying to say by "overrated" though.

3. Locking games onto single platforms no longer makes any sense.

- On the contrary I'd say locking games onto a single platform is one of the reasons Nintendo still exists. They cannot compete with Sony or Microsoft in terms of high-performance devices, but their exclusive IP are really unbeatable.
- Playstation also recognizes this and it's why you see a lot of people saying stuff like "Game Pass is great but in the end I want to play Gran Turismo, God of War, Last of Us, Uncharted, Ratchet & Clank" etc.

In the end, for Microsoft to poach Playstation/Nintendo users (specifically, people who don't buy multiple systems) they have to make the case that the value proposition of Game Pass is worth foregoing the ability to play Nintendo/Playstation exclusives.

 

[trikster40]

This ladies and gentleman is an excellent example of the fanboy /s

flight simulator, forza horizon, sea of thieves, ori says hi

nothing to do with being a fanboy. Just because you don’t like a specific company doesn’t mean you’re a fanboy. I’ve got a switch and PS4, I’ve never cared for the Xbox environment. I’m a not-a-fan-boy.

 

[gooner4life_uk]

Is there any scenario where Xbox beats Playstation for market share?

No, no there is not.

 

[DrAspirino]

Out earn as in making more money?

Maybe. But they still won't be number 1 in consoles sold nor have the best games.

I don't see a scenario where Microsoft becomes the best option for gaming in the next 5 years.

And they don't care. Remember: "money talks", and Microsoft's strategy makes them money... LOADS of money.

For all they care, you can play their games even on your cellphone, as long as you pay them for the subscription. Heck, they even offer Linux (yeah, THE Linux that they themselves said it was "cancer") on their Azure servers because they only care that bussinesses pay them their Azure services fee.

So yeah, their strategy works.

 

[reinking]

Define work? They are in a good position to continue to grow the Xbox brand. IMO, that means it will work. Not by being the number one console but by expanding software sales to all platforms. IMO, it is a good strategy. Keep certain titles as timed exclusives to grow their own console but it is becoming clear their console is becoming less important to them in the overall picture. Not saying it is not important but it is no longer the biggest piece of the strategy.

 

[devilNprada]

Because with game pass. Average spending per xbox user is doubling that of the PlayStation or Nintendo.

I call bullshit... Show me what you got?

To maximize their total profits Microsoft is going to have to have their gamepass everywhere, own multiple publishers that sells games on every platform and hard medium (DVD's, play store, Apple). That means making peace with Sony and Nintendo and putting catered stuff on those platforms. Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft should form a gaming network for the cloud stuff. Figure out Gacha gaming through gamepass. Gacha style is perfect for gamepass even if you don't use the whale method. It's training your customers to use your service over Netflix and a gateway to AAA properties you are trying to sale. Plus the residual sales for those that don't want to buy gamepass on Apple's, Google's, Steam, and Amazon's platform.

Microsoft's strategy is to get as many people as possible into their ecosystem. Maybe you remember their insane goal of reaching 1 billion players on their platform.

Without the kids and that parent target market they will never do it.. No matter how great GAF thinks Gamepass is...