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Microsoft to share details on bringing Xbox games to PlayStation next week / Microsoft has moved up an important Xbox business update to address fan concerns
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- Authors
- Tom Warren
- Published
- Feb 5 2024
- Word count
- 172 words
I think they made a mistake going all in on GamePass. It destroyed their market, no one bought games waiting for them to hit the service.
When Sony said that they didn’t see how GamePass could be profitable or sustainable lot of people laughed on the internet but I think they were right.
I think the MS higher ups saw how much money ABK makes without a subscription model saw that as a better business.
GamePass is either losing getting all games the day they get released or the price is going up by a lot.
I also don’t think they will get out of the Hardware market like I seen some people saying, they still need a console as their entertainment box for the living room.
Hard to say. MS has made their plans obvious in the past and it's even been on record saying that Sony isn't their true rival, but Amazon and Google. They see cloud and thin clients as the future of gaming and like most of the strategies in tech the last 15 years, MS wants to capture the market today and profit later. They want to be the Netflix of gaming.
Which, unlike Netflix would actually work if they more or less control the indie market. AAA's would make their own streaming service but it'd be hard to compete and capture the hundeds of indie creators (a big difference from TV) if MS has the mindshare as the most mature and robust streaming service. The customers are there, the devs will flock, the storefront will prosper. We already see this with Steam, after all.
Of course, regardless of if that future will happen: the problem here is that the government turned off "free money", so this strategy went from being as "safe" as taking out a loan to a huge gamble. While it seems like tech loves burning money, businesses are still fiscally conservative. So this strategy may be shifting. It may be less about Blizzard/COD being harmed by Gamepass (they simply wouldn't put it on Gamepass. Heck, Overwatch is F2P so it doesn't care) and more that the market capture strategy of Gamepass just won't work in this current economy. MS has weathered worse markets for gaming, but this may be a necessary shift to survive, if only until interest rates fall.
Baldur's Gate 3 did not release on gamepass because Larian thinks it's not worth it. Or rather, they do not think the cost of gamepass reflects the actual value of the game. This will happen more and more as studios will see their profits drop when they release on gamepass instead of just a shop.
GamePass doesn't have the relevancy that Steam has, where every studio and dev comes crawling back hat in hand to pretty please be featured in the store.
This depends a lot on the game though. Smaller indie titles may well find gamepass worth it, and there are users who would find that worth the price.
I don't own a device that can make use of GamePass atm, since I game on Linux and afaik Gamepass is Windows and xbox-only (which is a shame, bc otherwise I'd be able to get it for free through my wife's work). But I'm happy it exists solely because it's been explicitly cited by the devs as the only reason Pentiment ever got made, and that game is a masterpiece.
Gamepass is great for indie developers!
I'm worried about what happens to them when the big guys will inevitably walk away from Gamepass.
Yeah that's definitely a fair point.
Drawing a blank here, what's ABK?
Activision Blizzard King. Everyone forgets the King (makers of Candy Crush).
Thank you! To be fair I don't think I would have gotten it even with it just being AB.
And the craziest thing is King rakes in 2.4 billion a year in revenue off of predatory mobile apps
I played Candy Crush back in the day. Never have I played a game that was so devious, even for a mobile game. And I've played a couple of Gacha games.
For awhile, it's fun and fine. And that lasts quite a bit. Then I got to a point where it was clear that RNG was at play. Like they'd give me puzzle attempts to entice me to login each day, but it didn't matter, since I could go through all my banked attempts trying to complete the next puzzle, because some felt like they just couldn't be beat without the "right" initial setup of blocks. Which appears to be RNG based. Which of course, entices a person to spend real money to buy more attempts.
If I gave that game any money, it was like $5 before I had enough. Uninstalled it and never looked back.
Most of their "whales" are addicted aunties and grandmas with nothing better to spend their money on. There was this video going around a while back of some lady who was at like level 14,000 and had spent thousands and thousands of dollars on the journey.
The world would be much better off without these garbage dark-pattern abusing grifters sucking money out of the economy for 0 value.
For me GamePass recapitulates the trauma of cable television all the way back to the time Sumner Redstone bought MTV and decreed that we couldn’t watch music videos anymore.
I’ve always felt that I had some connection with studios that make the games I want to play through funding them. With GamePass it is Assassin’s Creed all the time.
We’ve seen this movie. Cable channels stopped caring about the quality of what they made because they got paid every month whether or not you watched. Prices went up, and up and up.
If this goes another 20 years parents will be complaining that their kids only want to play outside and won’t play video games because video games aren’t fun anymore.
I really don't understand how they dropped the ball.
All they needed were good games. They had unlimited money to spend and could have funded a hundred indie studios plus a few big ones.
The Xbox library is so sad. Not a single game that made me want an Xbox even slightly.
Agreed. They should've leaned into having more amazing indie and AA games. Instead, they ended up with a lackluster selection of AAA games.
I miss the days of AA games. Really tired of all the bloated uninspired AAA games that take insane development cycles to even put out.
I haven't felt compelled to buy an Xbox console since the 360.
I feel like AA games have become a lot more prevalent in the last few years, but the line between indie and AA has also blurred a lot so maybe it's hard to notice.
I think you're right, they've made a comeback. I guess development tools have improved to the point where indie devs can create something that resembles a AA game. Which is awesome.
I think project scopes need to be shrunk in the AAA space. They are investing so much money on these big projects that if even one project fails, then it can spell the end for the developers. Not to mention these huge scopes take quite a toll on the people working on them, often resulting in crunch periods. Creativity can flourish when there's not the pressure to deliver the most amazingest expensivest game of all time.
Anyways, sorry for ranting lol
I'm reminded of that "is it an indie" flow chart - https://twitter.com/E_Vaan/status/1724126373424369964
Good games are expensive, uncertain, and ephemeral from a financial point of view. We see from stuff like the insomniac leaks that AAA development is only getting more expensive and taking longer. It can be really hard to justify a $300m AAA title unless the game sells as well as Nintendo. Which is really difficult. It's also why everyone wants to get their own GaaS running: continuous high yield money for a safe bet (once one of them becomes profitable).
As for why they don't invest in more indies: I can't entirely say. I imagine the metaphorical penny slots as an indie publisher isn't how a billion dollar studio wants to operate (or at least, doesn't give confidence to their shareholders). Gotta go big and build big excitement with stuff that few others can emulate. Is that a better strategy? Unsure, but that seems to be how every other AAA studio is operating.
I just feel like buying a bunch of AAA studios at their peak value is like buying a stock up top. At best, they'll stay expensive to make and keep earning what they're earning now. More likely, they'll stay expensive to make while continuously becoming less popular.
Microsoft definitely had the money to dip their toes into every pond. They could have a couple AAAs while also funding indie and AA games.
Lord knows there are enough proven game creators out there now. How many of them just need some money and support to make the next big thing? So many great games have come from people literally working out of their houses with a few buddies. They would probably be able to turn a million dollars into something pretty sweet with some help on the project management side.
The Xbox store isn't just lacking good games, it's lacking games. Aside from Halo and Starfield, what did they even try to entice us with?
Also, their naming conventions suck and series s/x thing was not wise. Why would they think that was a good idea? Reminds me a bit of the Nintendo Wii U problem, albeit a bit different in why it's confusing.
as does every AAA studio. But few these days seem to want to invest that way. Square enix is one of the few exceptions and you can see how hit or miss the AA strategy is as of late. They do publish once in a blue moon, but we've seen a clear decline over the decade.
There have been a few neat games here and there. Hi-Fi Rush was a dark horse of last year that had a shadow drop, and Pertinant was a great example of a game that would be traditionally hard to pitch to a publisher, but got through due to gamepass. But that's kind of the rub; these weren't large AAA releases with month long marketing like Starfield was (even if some gamers would say Hi-Fi Rush was way better). marketing budgets tend to be proportional to how many sales a company expects, so they can't put those tens of millions into advertisement for something like Pertinent unless they are super confident in a big franchise arising. But no one is confident these days; that's a reason why new AAA IPs are a rarity unless they are indeed some sort of GaaS.
Flubbed hard on Gears of War as well this gen. Then no new IPs on top of that.
I thought Gears 5 was pretty good, but I have to wonder what's taking them so long on Gears 6.
I wonder if the glimpse of open world elements in Gears 5 kicked off some much needed inspiration.
I’ve always wondered why the game doesn’t lean more into the horror elements that were present in Gears 1 but tapered off completely by Gears 3. The factory, stasis pods, Kryll acts in Gears 1 and 2 were massive highlights to me.
I think the really did the story dirty. I feel like Kait should have embraced her control over the locust and bring back elements of Beast Mode.
Choosing who dies at Gears 5, it makes me think they killed the franchise with that.
This makes sense. Since they said all Xbox games would be a PC too it killed any reason for me to buy an Xbox. Might as well sell the few games they make people actually want in as many places as possible.
While I play on PS and PC nowadays, I started playing console games on Xbox so it's sad to see them move away from hardware. However, the writing was on the wall for them for a while. Exclusives have always been the biggest differentiator of consoles and Xbox's biggest franchises all seemed to have struggled since the Xbox One was released. All their big franchises like Halo, Gears of War, Fable, Skylanders, and Forza were all great during the original Xbox and 360 days (maybe I'm just being nostalgic to them) but it seems like they all floundered during the PS4/Xbox One era and just never recovered.
I was seriously mulling a series x to get back into gaming (from Switch). Sounds like maybe the PS5 is the better choice with the path Microsoft is walking?
I've been an Xbox guy since the 360, PS and Nintendo before that so no reallll brand loyalty, but I was done with Sony over them yoinking purchases back.
Now I have MORE research to do, I guess lol
PC is still the best all rounder for gaming and the Steam Deck is a decent alternative if you don't mind doing some tinkering. Steam Deck would also match the flexibility you get with your Switch in that you can dock it to connect it to a TV and external controller but also take it with you on the go.
PS5 is a great option for a regular console experience and I enjoy playing mine though most of the games I play are still mainly PS4 games. The only real PS5 game I play from time to time is Gran Turismo 7. However, with Xbox out of the picture, I can see Sony/PS being more greedy so I'm not sure how much I'd trust them.
Unless you need 4k, or really want those Playstation exclusives, you can save a lot of money by getting a Series S.
Not gonna lie, I do kinda see the vision here. You could buy and play the games on rival platforms (Linux/PlayStation/Switch) or you can get them at no extra cost with Game Pass on Microsoft platforms (Windows 10/Xbox) for (a lot) cheaper.
This essentially makes the value proposition for Xbox "Game Pass Box for If You Don't Want To Bother With a PC." Problem is, I don't think this is moving very many Xboxes at the moment. So it'll be interesting to see how this unfolds.
I've never owned an Xbox and didn't realize people were considering it the loser vs. PlayStation (in this generation, at least). As a PS5 gamer I've been a bit envious of the other side lately, because of Bethesda and Obsidian platform exclusivity. I missed Starfield and I've been bracing to miss TESVI, The Outer Worlds 2, and Indiana Jones as well.
So this headline came as welcome news for me! Here's hoping that era is over and those will all get the proper PS5 releases they deserve.
Edit: Not to mention the unrealistic hope I've been clinging to since MS acquired both companies that another Fallout: New Vegas might someday be on the table, and I absolutely don't want to miss out on that either.
Xbox never really recovered from the massive backlash to the Xbox One announcement. The digital nature of the games was very poorly received (and quickly walked back) and the mandatory Kinect was memed to death.
Combine that with a (imo) sharp decline in the quality and pace of first party game releases and it's a recipe for disaster.
Now, Xbox seems to have made another big misstep in their current generation console. They went with a proprietary format for their expandable storage and promised that as production ramped up and third party companies started making some too, prices would drop to the same or comparable to standard storage. From what I've seen, this has not happened and prices have remained high.
And, the games situation has not improved. Halo Infinite, while at its core potentially a good game, suffered from some truly baffling decisions that ruined its perception right out of the gate. The purchase of Bethesda and ABK may bolster Xbox but it doesn't help that both of those companies have their own recent reputations of putting out mediocre games.
The simpler days of "Please drink a verification can."
Was Xbox One the announcement that had the "television, television, television" super cut meme? It was also more expensive than the PS4(?) or equivalent Sony console at launch, like $500 vs $400 or similar, mostly because of that Kinect white elephant.
I'm not familiar with the meme you mention but probably. The Xbox One was intended to be the "one" device that unified all of your living room media devices. It has a HDMI input that was intended to be used for passing your cable box through the Xbox. People were annoyed that Microsoft was focusing so much on stuff that wasn't gaming with the Xbox.
And yes, I don't remember exact numbers but the PS4 was around $100 less than the Xbox and that just so happened to be about the same price as the previous version of the Kinect. So to nearly everyone's eyes, the Xbox was more expensive only because of an added peripheral that the majority of people aggressively didn't want and which Microsoft said the console literally couldn't function without.
Personally, I actually thought the Kinect was neat and had the potential for some innovative gameplay - its spacial tracking and person reading capabilities were way ahead of their time. But the privacy concerns were very valid and it was pretty much DOA since asking third party developers to learn and make games for something that is not transferable to the other platform was a big ask. Microsoft hoped that by making sure everyone had a Kinect, they would avoid the usual chicken and egg situation with new markets (like VR is still working its way out of) but they completely fumbled the PR side of it so it just pissed people off.
I found the video. They said TV and Sports a lot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbWgUO-Rqcw
The gaming industry was still looking for the next Wii gimmick back then. Tap in to the casuals somehow. Even Nintendo couldn't replicate that success.
That must've done damage to the brand because I still associate Xbox with TV TV TV sports call of duty.