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Tom Henderson: "Xbox baffled by the extend of rumors. Sources tell nothing set in stone for xbox ports apart from Hifi Rush and Sea of Thieves"

GHG

Member
He wont be for long

praise him steve harvey GIF
 
As I said in the "next week" thread.

Reads like the early on Sony bringing games to the PC energy.

Fast forward to today.
It ends up like those Nintendo Mario games on the smartphone; an experiment. But not the core of the company.

Xbox however, is losing its core.

As for those wondering why the meltdown for Xbox fans? That is simple to explain, it is because they had been living in denial too long and reality is now too far apart from what they thought they knew. They thought Xbox was winning or about to win, that Xbox was somehow leading the industry, that they have infinite money and thus can't lose.

And even now, they are saying "there can't be a new entrant in the gaming platform because Xbox couldn't do it, so no one else could." That is so arrogant I couldn't Even.

Xbox failed because they suck, there are smarter companies out there who have less money but better business sense. Someone else can take the place of Xbox and succeed. The whole "oh no without Xbox, Sony would be arrogant" talk is just an attempt at praising Xbox for being some mythical bastion of gamers.

Xbox is not holy, Xbox is not special, and in fact Xbox can be replaced. Xbox fans just realized that their god is mortal.
 

Kagoshima_Luke

Gold Member
Yes, I'm quite sure Phil Spencer said...

"We're listening and we hear you. We've been planning a business update event for next week, where we look forward to sharing more details with you about our vision for the future of Xbox"

... about Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves coming to Playstation.
Actually, this is exactly the type of thing Phil would say. He’s a master of blowing a lot of hot air and business speak instead of giving specifics.
 
Everyone who bought a PSVR2.
It is not anyone else's fault that someone who wants VR on a Console only really has one option. Sony didn't block Xbox from launching a headset. The fact that Xbox One was too weak to run VR is beside the point.

EDIT: It doesn't help that Series S doesn't have enough RAM to run VR either, so Xbox can't do VR in current gen too.
 
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Roberts

Member
I tend to avoid discussing rumours but I wonder about one thing: if SoT and HiFi Rush flop on PS5, how is that going to affect their strategy…
 
I tend to avoid discussing rumours but I wonder about one thing: if SoT and HiFi Rush flop on PS5, how is that going to affect their strategy…
Well that is the only thing that would halt it. Basically as one Xbox podcast said, they love HiFi Rush, but they are praying feverishly for the game to crash and burn on Playstation, purely as to end the Xbox third party plan.
 

Skifi28

Member
Well that is the only thing that would halt it. Basically as one Xbox podcast said, they love HiFi Rush, but they are praying feverishly for the game to crash and burn on Playstation, purely as to end the Xbox third party plan.
I'm going to buy it just for the lulz.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
As I said in the "next week" thread.

Reads like the early on Sony bringing games to the PC energy.

Fast forward to today.

Yeah, deffo feels like sony PC energy. A select few for the near future, 3 to 5 years and then ultimately most games. Maybe day one or not depending on how the initiative goes.
 
I think in all fairness if Gamepass is still the main focus going forward for Xbox (we will find this out next week either way) then some form of exclusivity is a requirement to help the service grow. Now that doesn't mean it has to be the same as it currently is though. In my opinion the Day 1 first-party games could be taken away and adjusted to be included within a 3 month window. That could help with initial sales and the multiplatform angle could be a 6 to 12 month window.

I'd not mind that sort of change to the Xbox business model. What I don't see is them going full third-party and bringing games Day 1 but I suppose we'll find out soon enough.
 

Goalus

Member
It is not anyone else's fault that someone who wants VR on a Console only really has one option. Sony didn't block Xbox from launching a headset. The fact that Xbox One was too weak to run VR is beside the point.

EDIT: It doesn't help that Series S doesn't have enough RAM to run VR either, so Xbox can't do VR in current gen too.
"VR on a console" sounds like an idiotic concept to be honest. Like "smartwatch on a console".
 

Astray

Gold Member
Well that is the only thing that would halt it. Basically as one Xbox podcast said, they love HiFi Rush, but they are praying feverishly for the game to crash and burn on Playstation, purely as to end the Xbox third party plan.
It won't really because a port of Sea of Thieves won't get the game into the red.

And Hifi Rush had rumors of being a financial flop to begin with, so..

You have to understand that this is driven by necessity to be able to keep those Studios as they are today. They crippled a lot of Bethesda's revenue when they basically made them console exclusive to the smallest user base that's all hooked up with Gamepass. If they continue like this then they will have to start cutting people in a far bigger scale.

The gaming division is 3rd on the revenue chart for MS, but their detailed financial results likely have a lot of red ink, hence this business update.
 
It won't really because a port of Sea of Thieves won't get the game into the red.

And Hifi Rush had rumors of being a financial flop to begin with, so..

You have to understand that this is driven by necessity to be able to keep those Studios as they are today. They crippled a lot of Bethesda's revenue when they basically made them console exclusive to the smallest user base that's all hooked up with Gamepass. If they continue like this then they will have to start cutting people in a far bigger scale.

The gaming division is 3rd on the revenue chart for MS, but their detailed financial results likely have a lot of red ink, hence this business update.
Well yeah. The most likely result of the 3rd Party plan not making as much money as they wanted, is Microsoft just selling the entire division piecemeal. Because if Xbox can't make it as 3rd party then there is no blackup plans left; Xbox would just be butchered and the IPs sold.
 
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Astray

Gold Member
Well yeah. The most likely result of the 3rd Party plan not making as much money as they wanted, is Microsoft just selling the entire division piecemeal. Because if Xbox can't make it as 3rd party then there is no blackup plans left; Xbox would just be butchered and the IPs sold.
It's a last gasp at survival imo, but if it works, it could create a meaningful business for Microsoft.
 
It's a last gasp at survival imo, but if it works, it could create a meaningful business for Microsoft.
Microsoft at least had experience running 3rd party game studios. And if SEGA survived this long then it can't be THAT hard.

I was just agreeing that there is no way out for those who want Xbox to go back to the way things were before ABK acquisition. That ship had sailed. This is the greatest example of Monkey Paw curse in gaming industry in my lifetime. MS got what they wanted after a massive legal battle, and then Xbox Division lost everything because of it.
 
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KungFucius

King Snowflake
then why have they been so quiet? if nothing beyond that was set in stone they could have denied it or even just put out the classic “we don’t comment on rumors and speculation”

instead they let this go rampant unchecked to the damage of their own brand 🤦🏼‍♂️
They said there will be an announcement this coming Wednesday. Putting out a no comment response would be even worse at this point.
 

Bernardougf

Gold Member
I tend to avoid discussing rumours but I wonder about one thing: if SoT and HiFi Rush flop on PS5, how is that going to affect their strategy…
Really dont think that the whole third party stratagy for MS consists of launching one AA low radar game and one really old gaas game ... but maybe ... they are that stupid
 

Astray

Gold Member
Microsoft at least had experience running 3rd party game studios. And if SEGA survived this long then it can't be THAT hard.

I was just agreeing that there is no way out for those who want Xbox to go back to the way things were before ABK acquisition. That ship had sailed. This is the greatest example of Monkey Paw curse in gaming industry in my lifetime. MS got what they wanted after a massive legal battle, and then Xbox Division lost everything because of it.
Microsoft has no experience running 3rd party studios for Profit. They are just so used to being able to defy gravity (their RROD replacement policy would have likely killed a Sega or Nintendo had they attempted something similar, and that is their best ever generation!).

Furthermore, a lot of the studios that got bought are just not what an Activision or EA would ever buy (they're the benchmarks for the modern AAA 3P Publisher, for better or worse). Do you see a Kotick or Andrew Wilson keeping Double Fine or Compulsion on their books when they are barely producing anything, and what they produce is not mass commercial in any way. The majority of XGS studios are ones you buy in order to expand into an Insomniac or a Naughty Dog. Except that too didn't happen at all.

They also have inefficiencies in their roster, Obsidian and Bethesda's games are targeting the same consumer segment, their slate is filled with a lot of studios that have a lot of overlap with each other in that way. I can see them beginning to consolidate or close some of those studios in the next 3-5 years.

Whatever happens in the business event, what's very clear to me is that Microsoft Gaming won't be able to defy gravity anymore.

They said there will be an announcement this coming Wednesday. Putting out a no comment response would be even worse at this point.
Where is Wednesday coming from? Spencer only mentioned "Next Week".
 
Microsoft has no experience running 3rd party studios for Profit. They are just so used to being able to defy gravity (their RROD replacement policy would have likely killed a Sega or Nintendo had they attempted something similar, and that is their best ever generation!).

Furthermore, a lot of the studios that got bought are just not what an Activision or EA would ever buy (they're the benchmarks for the modern AAA 3P Publisher, for better or worse). Do you see a Kotick or Andrew Wilson keeping Double Fine or Compulsion on their books when they are barely producing anything, and what they produce is not mass commercial in any way. The majority of XGS studios are ones you buy in order to expand into an Insomniac or a Naughty Dog. Except that too didn't happen at all.

They also have inefficiencies in their roster, Obsidian and Bethesda's games are targeting the same consumer segment, their slate is filled with a lot of studios that have a lot of overlap with each other in that way. I can see them beginning to consolidate or close some of those studios in the next 3-5 years.

Whatever happens in the business event, what's very clear to me is that Microsoft Gaming won't be able to defy gravity anymore.
I am basically talking about how Microsoft had PC game studios long before they created Xbox. Yes, currently the Xbox Division has a lot of studios that seem to make NOTHING AT ALL, and i expect many of them to be cut down. But for example, Bethesda and Obsidian making the same product isn't that bad a thing when you realize AAA games take multiple years to make now, and thus the two studios can stagger their releases just fine if they wanted to.

The optimist in me is assuming the current funk Microsoft Gaming was under, was caused by not having any pressure to perform at all. They were basically paid to exist. But hypothetically if they were told to actually make money or their ass is grass, I am hoping at least some of the studios remember how to make products.

I don't have much hope but i want to hope. I WANT a good TES6, no matter how unlikely it would be from the sorry disappointment Bethesda currently is right now.
 

Elios83

Member


Bro didn't want to go down with the ship.

Titanic_Passenger_-Emergency_Life-Vest_Movie-Prop.jpg


The usual embarrassing behaviour from these people.
I wonder if he has heard something that he doesn't like, if "not so bad" news is coming it doesn't make sense to try to avoid next week given that he went through the rest already.
Although these people are unpredictable and unstable so they can flip flop in a few hours.
 
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i wonder if ms knows it wasnt worth it to buy those studios just to send the games to fail on xbox and then lay everyone off in the studios that made them
 

Solidus_T

Member
i wonder if ms knows it wasnt worth it to buy those studios just to send the games to fail on xbox and then lay everyone off in the studios that made them
The execs likely aren't aren't thinking about that - just the increased revenue that they can report as a result of the acquisitions.
 

Megatron

Member
It is not anyone else's fault that someone who wants VR on a Console only really has one option. Sony didn't block Xbox from launching a headset. The fact that Xbox One was too weak to run VR is beside the point.

EDIT: It doesn't help that Series S doesn't have enough RAM to run VR either, so Xbox can't do VR in current gen too.
MS can’t even properly support Xbox with software, they aren’t going to try to support VR too. Sony approaches this problem by selling the hardware and then forgetting it exists.
 

FrankWza

Member
i wonder if ms knows it wasnt worth it to buy those studios just to send the games to fail on xbox and then lay everyone off in the studios that made them
It would have been if they could have made CoD exclusive like they wanted. Then Jimbo ate Phil's lunch and here we go
 

HeWhoWalks

Gold Member
It would have been if they could have made CoD exclusive like they wanted. Then Jimbo ate Phil's lunch and here we go
Eh, that probably would have been the death of the franchise. It needs PlayStation as much (if not more) than PlayStation needs it.

I don't know if that was ever Microsoft's true goal.
 
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FrankWza

Member
Eh, that probably would have been the death of the franchise. It needs PlayStation as much (if not more) than PlayStation needs it.

I don't know if that was ever Microsoft's true goal.
Maybe. Or maybe they wouldn't have stopped buying up publishers and kept on taking key 3rd party games away from PlayStation.
 

FewRope

Neo Member
Well that is the only thing that would halt it. Basically as one Xbox podcast said, they love HiFi Rush, but they are praying feverishly for the game to crash and burn on Playstation, purely as to end the Xbox third party plan.
I'm going to buy it just to make every single Xbox game multiplatform
 

HeWhoWalks

Gold Member
Sony have been paving the way for these practices for 30 years now, you can't complain at a competitor doing the same thing.
I mean, Nintendo and SEGA were also participants in stuff like this, so it certainly isn't an all-on-Sony thing. 3rd party exclusives have existed since industry origins.

Then again, only Microsoft have bought companies (pubs) and made their follow ups complete exclusives (that I'm aware), so we really can't pin that one on anyone else.
 
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