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Xbox business Showcase Announced for February 15

It's just not the smart thing to do, it's obvious the fans are being cooked slowly but for example what's the point of them announcing that Indiana Jones will be on PS5 at some point when it won't happen this year for the simple fact the port won't be ready due to previous business decisions?
I don't think it's also smart to imply Xbox will continue to have exclusives (giving Xbox fanboys hope) just to 'betray them' again down the line

Remember the ongoing Blade controversy for example. (we dont really know if its going to be exclusive or not)

At this point, I would just try to spin exclusives as a bad anti-consumer thing.
 

trikster40

Member
It just hit me: If Microsoft goes third party, that's going to remove a LOT of roadblocks during acquisitions. They'll be even more aggressive to buy up developers and publishers and take the whole pie for themselves. Could be treading on some dangerous ground.

I could be wrong, but man, it just seems like a Microsoft thing to do.
 
Among other things, also because it would be the type of hardware that could most easily and quickly be made available on the market.
- Optimization and compatibility would not be a problem.

- Neither do the support demands

- And you could announce it whenever you want as it is a differentiated product from tradicional console (XSeries). Although I wouldn't expect it for an event like Thursday's in the middle of a podcast. On Thursday I only expect a confirmation of commitment to the console hardware, a roadmap and some note of the type of products they work on. E3 evento maybe?

Who knows, maybe it could even be used to test the waters and see how a Windows+Xbox OS console/PC would work.

This in most ways is basically what I've been suggesting Microsoft could do going forward in hardware: gaming-centric PC-based devices (mini-PC NUCs, laptops, handhelds, tablets etc.) running an Xbox frontend but also having full Windows support, and able to toggle between GUI environments (and OS background services/utilities etc.) as needed, up to the user.

And the reason I suggested merging the Xbox hardware and Surface hardware teams into one, would be to cut out excess and streamline product ideas, combine the strengths of both units. The devices could be refreshed more regularly, have a base blueprint spec licensable out to 3P OEMs (if desired) with customization options and other incentives for licensees, be priced to be competitive but more in line with their PC-based device market segments, and as a bonus MS could also make models with a partially discounted cost of say 1 year's worth of Game Pass Ultimate baked into them with a specific SKU.

It'd also free up resources for the 1P dev teams since they wouldn't need to make Windows & Xbox builds of games anymore, just Windows ones (and whatever other platforms are getting the game, of course). That's a part of the Discord rumors I 100% expect to come to fruition, but yeah, they could be testing that idea out with this 'Xbox handheld'.

Whether it keeps the Xbox branding, I dunno. It might actually do better without it :/

It just hit me: If Microsoft goes third party, that's going to remove a LOT of roadblocks during acquisitions. They'll be even more aggressive to buy up developers and publishers and take the whole pie for themselves. Could be treading on some dangerous ground.

I could be wrong, but man, it just seems like a Microsoft thing to do.

No, it won't. I mean, it will make future M&As a bit easier. But regulators are still going to see things as $3 trillion Microsoft buying up big gaming publishers, which is still mass consolidation at the end of the day. You still get a lot of the same problems with labor bloat, finite funding, excessive job cuts etc. as any other, the only difference is they aren't a platform holder who may also (at the time) consider leveraging IP in foreclosure strategies against competitors.

But if it became so much easier for Microsoft to buy more 3P pubs by going the multiplat publisher route...what would stop them from using that strat as a ruse to covertly buy pubs, then turn around and 180 their entire 3P publisher strategy? Surely regulators would be cognizant of that type of ploy, hence why it wouldn't get significantly easier for MS to buy publishers. Besides, I think they're at the point where they want to produce some substantive results with what they already have, hence the likelihood they are shifting to a much wider multiplat strategy in the first place.

They'd need time to stabilize their employee pool, clean up workplace culture at various studios (especially the ABK ones), produce results, grow the results, and be on a path where recouping the almost $85 billion spent in gaming M&As (between ABK, Zenimax, and the XGS pickups in 2018) seems possible in a sensible amount of time. All of that will probably mean at least five years until they seriously look into buying another big 3P publisher...that's of course if they were being responsible and sensible about their gaming business.

However, they could definitely pick up a few smaller studios/devs along the way, depending on their size and the market worth of whatever IP they have ownership over. If for example, Embracer wants to sell Crystal Dynamics, that could be a possible pickup for Microsoft in the next 1-2 years, since CD are already doing the majority of the work on Perfect Dark reboot. Although, Amazon have the publishing rights to the next Tomb Raider game, which CD are working on, so that could complicate things.
 
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DaGwaphics

Member
It just hit me: If Microsoft goes third party, that's going to remove a LOT of roadblocks during acquisitions. They'll be even more aggressive to buy up developers and publishers and take the whole pie for themselves. Could be treading on some dangerous ground.

I could be wrong, but man, it just seems like a Microsoft thing to do.

Seems like the scrutiny the ABK deal put them under, both from regulators and maybe even within the company (with the board, etc.) would make any acquisitions of equal size unlikely in the foreseeable future.
 
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TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
XXL XXL I'll sit next to Bill and his giant sausage please.
kQZqPE3.jpg
 
It's just not the smart thing to do, it's obvious the fans are being cooked slowly but for example what's the point of them announcing that Indiana Jones will be on PS5 at some point when it won't happen this year for the simple fact the port won't be ready due to previous business decisions?
It's not the smart thing to do if having a consumer that trust what you say is important. Then again they've been caught in so many misleading and outright lies that maybe it doesn't even matter anymore.
 

Mr. Mean

Neo Member
Ryan McCaffrey says Game Pass is a console?




Come On Reaction GIF by MOODMAN

Side note: Ryan and several others are so ready for a 100% digital gaming landscape where they don't actually own a single game. It's strange that some are cheering for the loss of ownership of content. I prefer to buy my games physically and will do so for as long as possible. Laws regarding ownership of digital games and movies will have to change in favor of the customer. Ryan, for example, has been buying digital only games since the start of PS4/XOne
 
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azertydu91

Hard to Kill
If you trust all the leaks, their strategy is supposedly to release all their software on every competing platform AND continue managing their own platform.

So the average consumer has one of two choices:

1) Invest in say, a Playstation or a Switch or a PC, while ignoring the Xbox platform, and pick and choose what to buy and what to skip, which cannibalizes their hardware and pc store business.

2) Invest into Xbox, and become the proud owner of a device and library in the least successful one, while essentially beta-testing titles for your brother and sisters with other systems, a ridiculous choice that no one in their right mind will take.

Meanwhile, other devs and publishers watch as Microsoft takes their %30 on the little that gets sold on their marketplace and uses it to compete with them on the more lucrative ones, so now it's an easy choice to skip the shitty marketplace that your competitor runs and just go to Sony Steam Epic GOG and Nintendo, meaning less royalties for Microsoft.

An inherently contradictory strategy that self-cannibalizes from the get-go, just like their last strategy.
Xbox beta testing for the future...
 

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
It just hit me: If Microsoft goes third party, that's going to remove a LOT of roadblocks during acquisitions. They'll be even more aggressive to buy up developers and publishers and take the whole pie for themselves. Could be treading on some dangerous ground.

I could be wrong, but man, it just seems like a Microsoft thing to do.
Going full 3rd party and buying up publishers....okay?

If they're releasing games on PlayStation and Nintendo....go for it.

Ryan McCaffrey says Game Pass is a console?




Come On Reaction GIF by MOODMAN

The closer we get to Business Event Day...the more some ppl seem to be losing it.
 
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bitbydeath

Member
It just hit me: If Microsoft goes third party, that's going to remove a LOT of roadblocks during acquisitions. They'll be even more aggressive to buy up developers and publishers and take the whole pie for themselves. Could be treading on some dangerous ground.

I could be wrong, but man, it just seems like a Microsoft thing to do.
I don’t know if MS cares that much about gaming anymore.
 
I think expecting anything to remain completely exclusive is naive. It's over. Honestly, not launching everything on other platforms doesn't even make sense if the console is just not working out.

Xbox will become a gamepass machine and that's it. That's the exclusive. Everything will find its way to PlayStation and the Switch.

You'd want to stagger the releases so they're not competing with each other and other games for attention.
 
The reality is that eventually most Xbox games will sell better on PS5 than they do Xbox Series. Minecraft already does.

That's what Natella sees and he sees how well Activision is doing on PlayStation and its probably better Xbox is doing. So ask yourself why shutter Activision into Xbox instead of Xbox into Activision?
 

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
The reality is that eventually most Xbox games will sell better on PS5 than they do Xbox Series. Minecraft already does.

That's what Natella sees and he sees how well Activision is doing on PlayStation and its probably better Xbox is doing. So ask yourself why shutter Activision into Xbox instead of Xbox into Activision?
This is the truth, we see this with other multi platform games. A vast majority sell better on PlayStation. It is what it is. Its not about trying to sell better than PS exclusives.

MS might as well get that money.
 

AmuroChan

Member
what im saying is that, Phil and friends can't come out and say (in a PR way) that only select games will be multiplatform or trying to obfuscate the truth about their new strategy just to appease the core fanbase.

If they use any vague messaging then they may as well not do this at all. It will just create more backlash. They need to be completely clear and transparent (ie. Single-player games will be exclusive to XBox/PC for 1 year, then move to other platforms and MP games will be day and date on all platforms).
 

simpatico

Member
Xbox was born on a huge stage with Bill Gates and The Rock unveiling the glorious black box of DirectX. Now it's gonna die on a podcast? Will there be a Huel ad read in the middle of the eulogy? "Xbox is growing too vast to be constrained by it's hardware. Get ready to hear the details of our software service future. Available: everywhere. But first, I'd like to tell our listeners about a meal replacement product for regular people who game. Halo is coming to Playstation and you won't want to leave that chair! Drink Huel until you shit yourself and shit your couch into oblivion. Did I say Oblivion? Bethesda games are coming too!"
 
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Yoboman

Member
Leakers kind of suck

Imagine there were no leaks, Microsoft just announced a business update and all fans are going in expecting new games, maybe new system or even a new acquisition... Then Xbox pulls the rug and they go multiplatform

Instead leakers have ruined potentially the best surprise in gaming history
 
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reinking

Gold Member
When the Activision Sony call of duty deal runs out in a few years right as the next generation of consoles get released they’ll make cod exclusive and get back into the console wars.
You mean ten years, right? This is what MS was most likely trying to pull until the regulators saw right through the "three year" deal.
 
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