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Xbox Game Studios + Bethesda + ABK |OT30| Why So Series X|S?
- Thread starter Andrei Rublev
- Start date
- Microsoft OT
man. april has been really good for game pass (for me). between manor lords, another crab's treasure, eiyuden chronicles and other stuff it's been hard to find tiem to play it all. and the only three confirmed games so far for may are games i want to play too... (little kitty, big city, hauntii and hellblade 2)
I'm at the exactly same point lol, just wondering if I buy the expansion or not.
I have played Myst and enjoyed it. I may need to give The witness another shot.
There is joke Witness game on Steam called the Looker which is quite funny as well. And free! Its still puzzle-y, but uses it in funny ways.
Yeah, people thinking they're going to make up the lost sales after this year are huffing some insane levels of hopium, it ain't happening. That being said, I do expect that they should be able to majorly slow the bleeding this holiday season and get back to sales increasing, but that doesn't stop the bleeding nor erase the fact that the Xbox has reached a dangerous state. This last quarter, this current quarter and probably next quarter too are showing that the Xbox console is no longer strong enough to sell by name alone, and that there's going to be a massive uphill battle bringing console sales back up to speed.
I'm personally hopeful that Microsoft will be able to finally get the ball rolling with consistent system selling software starting this fall which will improve the brand's momentum, but even then I'm not sure if that'll actually translate to next gen being successful at this point
If anything, I think it's just the state of the industry more than anything else. The younger generations aren't getting into consoles the same as previous generations, and on top of that, it's a handful of live service games that are sucking up a lot of that console engagement and revenue with younger audiences as well. Add that on top of the fact that the Xbox is in a rapid decline and it makes sense why they're beginning to do multiplatform releases. The game industry has gotten to a point where it doesn't make sense to artificially limit their playerbase to just Xbox and PC for some games. It's personally why I think most of the multiplatform stuff is just going to be the GAAS games but ultimately no one knows for sure, least of all me
Outer Wilds, The Witness, Unpacking, Maquette, Superliminal, Return of the Obra Dinn, Portal 1+2, Talos Principle 1+2 (I guess some of these are heavier on the puzzles so might not be as chill an experience). I'd say What Remains of Edith Finch even tho it lacks puzzle focus, there's a common feel/vibe to it (and if you have a Playstation I'd give Unfinished Swan a go as well before Edith Finch... also if you have a PS, I'd try Flower too).
EDIT: Maybe Rime as well
Oh Return to the Obra Dinn is great! I didn't even think of that as a puzzle, but I guess it is.
Yeah, fantastic game from an incredible game designer (I'm upset Mars After Midnight is Playdate exclusive lol). Obra Dinn is very unique as a puzzle game. It's more of a deduction/detective mode game with a top tier aesthetic (it's also super particular so maybe check before getting the game just to make sure you're into it), but really cool way of piecing together a story and trying to understand what happened and who's who.
View: https://twitter.com/FellowTravellr/status/1783731111979520280
seems like fellow traveler is a part of the id@xbox showcase on monday. last time they had a presence we had a montage of their games coming to game pass. they have a LOT of cool stuff cooking so i can't wait to see what is it that they are showing (reminder that nirvana noir and citizen sleeper 2 are already confirmed game pass games)
I can't remember the last time Game Pass didn't deliver. For all the talk about sales that's still something we can count on. I have gotten distracted from the service this month, because of the Fallout show making me replay some of the games, but that's given the Xbox BC program a chance to shine, with Fallout 3 looking and playing fantastically well on Series X.
Practically no loading, 4K and 60fps, just makes me wanna say thanks yet again, to the people working on the program at Xbox.
Yeah, if they had infinite time to play with, I think they would be sticking the course. But with the economy in the state that its in and the gaming industry experiencing unprecedented change and upheaval, I don't think they have the luxury of time. They are exploring possible alternatives to shore up their revenue and lay the foundation for the future. If this is the way the industry goes (which is looking likely), it will benefit them greatly as time goes on even if right now it results in uncertainty.
View: https://x.com/Minecraft/status/1783557809197478302
Dunno how I feel about paywalling increased Render Distance 🤔
edit: seems to not really be a thing actually
View: https://x.com/CUBL1TZ/status/1783559215979585645
I by and large don't care at all about the exclusive or hardware sales discussion (that's for Phil to worry about, not me), but at this point I do wonder what Microsoft's actual plan is. As in, I'd be fascinated to see where they want to take this thing with future hardware or how they plan to see growth. Right now I'm struggling to see what that coherent plan is. They're making next-gen hardware plans but also de-emphasizing hardware and porting games to competitors at the same time. xCloud tech has fallen behind basically everyone else. All this pivoting before their studios really had a chance to create a compelling Xbox narrative with... Clockwork, State of Decay 3, Fable, Perfect Dark, South of Midnight, Avowed, TOW2, etc. Curious, to say the least.
End of the day, all I care about are the XGS/Bethesda studios and Game Pass. That's the vast majority of my gaming right there. If I have to go to PC down the road, that's alright too as long as those studios and services continue. Right now, I'd say I'm having the most fun I've ever had with an Xbox console, and that's before the games I'm really interested in this year (HB2, System Shock, Stalker 2, Avowed, Indiana Jones, Towerborne, and Age of Mythology) release.
End of the day, all I care about are the XGS/Bethesda studios and Game Pass. That's the vast majority of my gaming right there. If I have to go to PC down the road, that's alright too as long as those studios and services continue. Right now, I'd say I'm having the most fun I've ever had with an Xbox console, and that's before the games I'm really interested in this year (HB2, System Shock, Stalker 2, Avowed, Indiana Jones, Towerborne, and Age of Mythology) release.
No it supports any bluetooth controller. It even has guides showing how to pair a DualSense/DualShock, Amazon Luna controller, etc.
A company is going to make a product as long as it is profitable, either directly or indirectly.
Does Microsoft make money on hardware sales? It sounds like very little if any (and that is before a price cut). That is due to in large part with how expensive components have gotten, and that trend probably won't reverse so I wouldn't expect Microsoft to suddenly make a much larger margin on each Xbox purchase.
Does Microsoft make enough profit off of each console user from their game purchasing habits? Well, a COD purchase on Xbox gives MS a 100% cut while a COD purchase on PlayStation or Steam only gives them 30%. The same can be said for any other first party game. Plus, Microsoft gets a 30% cut of any purchase on the Xbox store. Also, (and this is me talking with no backup so correct me if I am wrong) the vast majority of gamepass users are probably using the service on consoles more than anywhere else. By these metrics, I'd say that Microsoft is profiting from making and selling hardware.
Bottom line, as long as Xbox users are using the services and spending their money on the Xbox ecosystem on Xbox hardware, Microsoft is going to continue to make Xbox consoles. At least that is how I see it.
Does Microsoft make money on hardware sales? It sounds like very little if any (and that is before a price cut). That is due to in large part with how expensive components have gotten, and that trend probably won't reverse so I wouldn't expect Microsoft to suddenly make a much larger margin on each Xbox purchase.
Does Microsoft make enough profit off of each console user from their game purchasing habits? Well, a COD purchase on Xbox gives MS a 100% cut while a COD purchase on PlayStation or Steam only gives them 30%. The same can be said for any other first party game. Plus, Microsoft gets a 30% cut of any purchase on the Xbox store. Also, (and this is me talking with no backup so correct me if I am wrong) the vast majority of gamepass users are probably using the service on consoles more than anywhere else. By these metrics, I'd say that Microsoft is profiting from making and selling hardware.
Bottom line, as long as Xbox users are using the services and spending their money on the Xbox ecosystem on Xbox hardware, Microsoft is going to continue to make Xbox consoles. At least that is how I see it.
PS or Steam gives them more than 30. It would be 70% minimum, but these games often have special rates. Steam for example will be 80% back instead of 70% given the revenue the game makes.
I see this all the time but like, part of it just is its taken too damn long. Like, Perfect Dark seems like it's been in Dev Hell since forever. Xbox has steadily and consistently been losing ground for well over a decade now, and the narrative of "wait'll next year, they're cooking" has been around almost as long.
Like, the time to create a compelling case for Xbox was years ago, and they couldn't manage it. Consoles themselves aren't attracting newer users, and I do generally think Phil was right when he said exclusives won't meaningfully gain Xbox ground.
I don't care about numbers to much, and I agree it's unfortunate that those who do are seeing the pivot now, but the time to have bangers to prove Xbox was worth buying into was the start of this gen, if not earlier, and Xbox failed at that.
And I always advise caution. The next big AAA game that will show everyone why you should get an Xbox could be a Halo Infinite--okay, but underwhelming for the dev time and hype, with glaring issues. It could even be another Redfall.
To be clear, I don't think anyone is saying that they will suddenly "make it up" and pull ahead of Xbox One or whatever in the last few years of this generation? It's more about finding their footing, finding the floor and stopping the bleeding.
And I've been beating the "MS should bring Game Pass to Switch" drum for far longer than their current multiplatform strategy was evident.
Ok, I'm sure that the share varies a lot on a case by case basis. I just always stuck with 30% since that seemed to be the consensus.
Luckily for most people, Gabe can afford to take a smaller cut these days.
Agreed. The biggest threat to the continued existence of Xbox consoles would be Microsoft's entire gaming business doing poorly. That is far from the case.
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It's less that he can afford to take a smaller cut and was facing some competition with EGS going with their 88/12 rate and they shifted to appease the top earners on Steam to make it down to 80/20. But that only really helps the top publishers.
COD will go back to 70/30 but I wouldn't be surprised if MS tried to negotiate strongly using all of their titles now to get a more favorable rate out of Sony, too. Though, COD is guaranteed on the platform for 10 years so it might not really matter lol
Is it been too long? All these big projects are pretty much within reason of modern AAA development timelines. Sure, some have seen setbacks, but Perfect Dark has not been in "dev hell forever". That's just misinformation. They started a brand new team to handle it, had some issues and now are co-deving with Crystal Dynamics.
The main issue is COVID and that they did not _plan_ around the considerable longer dev times going into the Xbox Series generation.
I would imagine the revenue split would have been part of their 10 year contract so it's likely fixed and agreed for that period.
Yeah, seemingly the project is in a much better state and has been for a couple of years now.
That's how I see it, too. Xbox console sales drive Game Pass subscriptions. Microsoft also seems to make really like making money on controller sales, which is why they make so many variants.
The console Xbox business is still the nucleus of the Xbox business. It's just not the only part, and Microsoft is going to try to grow the business in ways that don't require people to buy the console.
yeps, they are doing better than ever, the xbox ecosystem as a WHOLE is very strong.
Yup, Game Pass has been really fantastic. Since last year they have been on fire, i literally don't have the time to play everything i'm interested in the service alongside other PC stuff.
Even if we just say every game will release on time and will have regular release cadence... the opening years of this gen were barren, and there weren't an ton of must-play Xbone games, either. The dev hell comment might be wrong, but the point stands that potential bangers in late 2024 onwards aren't going to meaningfully build momentum enough to reverse a trend years in the making.
What was the must-have launch title for the series? I cannot recall. Halo had that widely publicized yearlong delay and still came in underbaked and bled its user base. Forza also didn't land too hot. Redfall was hilarious.
It doesn't matter if this was the earliest we could reasonably expect results, because Xbox continued to bleed marketshare and relevance. Yes, plenty is self inflicted. Some was COVID which somehow didn't stop Sony or Nintendo from releasing bangers... yes, they started from a better place with developed pipelines for GOW and SM2 and the like. But the fact there are good reasons why Sony got bangers out and Xbox couldnt doesn't change the fact Sony did, in fact have must-have releases.
Like there are good reasons for the reason it's taken this long. Good reasons don't change the fact that for Xbox to actually be competitive, it needed games years ago, and didn't have them.
I don't disagree with any of that, i was only correcting you that these games have been taking too long or are in dev hell. Most are not, and most of them are actually within pretty normal development timelines. Of course they should have planned their launch and games _around_ that, though, which is another matter.
yeah that is why their content and services have been going up when they should be down because of the lagging console sales so this really has not impacted them but probably internally this has given a big boost and why even though people here and online call for the executive team to be fired they won't because Xbox the business has been making them money or why else use us almost 80-90 billion dollars to buy two publishers. Content and why on the film and tv side they have the same problem not enough content and why netflix has been trying to produce and acquire content MS is using the same playbook except games take longer and why we have seen a lot of 3rd party indies and others on the service to supplement the main draw which has been FP content
Forza Horizon 5 is the one that's combined critical success with longterm sales/player success. I would still put Halo and Starfield in that camp, as they still had big launches and positive reviews, even if it tapered off over the months.
I don't disagree with your overall point but the bangers Sony and Nintendo released during Covid started development well before 2018 when Xbox started this process. In 2021, they were targeting 2023 for all the games announced in 2019/2020, so last year would have been the absolute earliest they got those games out, and now we're finally getting some of them in 2024 and likely the rest in 2025 and one or two stragglers in 2026. They were never going to have them ready in time for 2020-2022, even without Covid, and they knew that when they greenlit them.
Should they have done all this earlier? Yes. But they didn't. It's time to accept that and focus on what they DID do, which was acquire studios and publishers and greenlight more than a dozen big games that are now on the cusp of releasing, not to mention everything greenlit or acquired since then. Will those games completely change Xbox's fortunes over the next 6 months? No, but over the next 12 months, 18 months, 24 months and 36 months, it will slowly get the momentum rolling and start to make meaningful progress towards where we want them to be. It will build goodwill that will carry into next gen, just like Sony carried PS4 goodwill into PS5.
We can lament them not starting earlier, but thank god they started when they did or we'd be in a far, far, far worse situation right now.