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[AJUMP23]

Nintendo next week and Xbox too. Eating good in February.

 

[Del_X]

They literally just spent over $70 billion for that plastic box. Well, that’s what it was originally for… maybe not now.

The ‘Xbox console isn’t important for Xbox’ is copium of the highest order.

They spent $70B for a publisher that makes games on all platforms and made it clear as day they intended to keep it this way. That narrative only exists in console warrior heads.

 

[FunkMiller]

If even more rumors are true, the leaks are coming from folks unhappy with this direction. Further, I'm not sure how you make the timing "right" and put a positive spin on this for the Xbox brand. Maybe a week to let things cool off isn't the worst thing in the world.

You think things will cool off? I think it’ll do the exact opposite. Lack of concrete information is going to spook a lot of shareholders.

 

[FunkMiller]

They spent $70B for a publisher that makes games on all platforms and made it clear as day they intended to keep it this way. That narrative only exists in console warrior heads.

Yes. You‘re absolutely right. The Xbox company doesn’t care about the Xbox. All of what’s happening is part of the plan they’ve always had. Everything is fine.

Good grief.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

I still don’t think people understand Microsoft’s long term vision here.

They absolutely will foreclose on PlayStation…one day

That day will come whenever everyone moves completely to the cloud through streaming. Could be decades off, but they’ll wait patiently

In the meantime, they need to make their gaming studios relevant and competitive. They can only do that by going third party

Listening to the Xbox hive mind, it seems the financial pressure for xbox to actually make money is too damn real.

Rand said that he heard that Xbox needs to make money immediately on the ABK acquisition.

Timdogo said that someone told thim that "margins have collapsed " and MS saw something that spooked them in last quarter or something like that.

Xbox is just in a shitty position; their current market performance can't sustain the exponential increase in costs they just acquired.

The xbox "ecosystem" is a place in which you don't buy games...and they already are on PC; growth has stagnated, no one is buying your console, you cant compete against Steam, and mobile is a different market.


cloud gaming has a fundamental contradiction in its purpose.

if the idea is

1.To make possible to run demanding games without the need for powerful local hardware:

These types of games are marketed to the enthusiast gamer which is the one who is willing and even happy to buy a brand new expensive toy.

cloud is complementary in this case.

2. if cloud is to enable more people (with less resources) to enjoy gaming

well, smartphones are getting more powerful and they have become a necessity to work/education and this market has it's own identity (types of games and design sensibilities) like ads, shorter gaming sessions etc..

in this case cloud is jus another way to play games. but nothing beats something native and free.

Tim also said that this decision is over Phil's head.

in other words:

MS has run out of patience for Xbox to gain market share and make the money is actually expected.

lastly, in the last financial report despite the massive growth thanks to the acquisition, there was a loss in money and the console is projected to perform even worse for the next quarter.

I think they are fucked and need PS userbase to make money....and that is not even a guarantee.

 

[RoadHazard]

They spent $70B for a publisher that makes games on all platforms and made it clear as day they intended to keep it this way. That narrative only exists in console warrior heads.

Sure. Just like they didn't immediately make all Bethesda games Xbox exclusive once that deal went through.

 

[Frwrd]

That confirms it.

If Xbox were going third-party then Phil would have said so in the tweet.

Next week they'll announce two or three games are going to PS and Nintendo, and that's it. No Starfield or Halo on Playstation etc.

Everyone was making a mountain out of a molehill.

 

[bender]

You think things will cool off? I think it’ll do the exact opposite. Lack of concrete information is going to spook a lot of shareholders.

Talking more about the overreactions from the Xbox faithful. And after a few days of the sun rising again, everyone can realize the world hasn't ended.

 

[TheDarkPhantom]

Phil Spencer announcing he's being adopted by Jim Ryan

 

[Del_X]

Yes. You‘re absolutely right. The Xbox company doesn’t care about the Xbox. All of what’s happening is part of the plan they’ve always had. Everything is fine.

Good grief.

Dude they said they'd want Game Pass everywhere for years. Phil literally said last year they're never going to win the console space.

 

[Topher]

I don't know what to tell you man. I guess everyone else is crazy and you're the only sane one. If you can't see why this is different than I don't know what to say.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

1.To make possible to run demanding games without the need for powerful local hardware:

These types of games are marketed to the enthusiast gamer which is the one who is willing and even happy to buy a brand new expensive toy.

cloud is complementary in this case.

They’d be playing games on cloud hardware that wouldn’t be possible locally

 

[Del_X]

Sure. Just like they didn't immediately make all Bethesda games Xbox exclusive once that deal went through.

Last I checked Bethesda isn't Activision but OK. What are you guys gonna argue over when Microsoft is actually done?

 

[Sorcerer]

Imagine next week's announcement is simply about a new color variant for the Xbox controller?

 

[XXL]

Lmao why are people pretending they haven’t had games coming to PlayStation? Or this is something new? They literally signed a ten year deal to bring their biggest IP to PlayStation and Nintendo. They’ve also published games on Nintendo over the years as well as PlayStation. So what if PlayStation gets a couple of older games. I’m not sure where the doom and gloom is coming from. As long as those games come to game pass day one I don’t think majority of people are going to care.

They’re not going third party Microsoft is not going to give up their own store front to sell stuff on Sonys and let them keep all the money when they can get that directly. This is just fanboy fudder. In fact putting their games on Sony is actually a Trojan horse to push their agenda forward they’re literally working on a mobile store. Xbox is also their only consumer facing brand the rest is enterprise. They get to make money from subs on game pass with their hardware. They aren’t going to share game pass revenue with Sony to get rid of their hardware but keep dreaming.

What’s the doom and gloom they just reported their best quarter at Xbox. They gaming business is now their third largest business over windows. You think they’re doomed? What kind of spin is that? Or are people just have Xbox derangement syndrome. People are acting as if they’re bleeding money and they’re so abysmally down. No company invest 70 billion into a dying business or one that they plan to get rid off that’s just stupidity.

 

[FunkMiller]

Dude they said they'd want Game Pass everywhere for years. Phil literally said last year they're never going to win the console space.

Do you understand that GamePass is not successful? Hence why this is now happening?

 

[Syphon Filter]

They literally just spent over $70 billion for that plastic box. Well, that’s what it was originally for… maybe not now.

The ‘Xbox console isn’t important for Xbox’ is copium of the highest order.

MS doesn't care where people play, xbox clearly isnt as important to them as it was during the 360 era.

 

[nani17]

Imagine next week's announcement is simply about a new color variant for an Xbox controller?

Xbox controller for the PS5

 

[Kenneth Haight]

Last I checked Bethesda isn't Activision but OK. What are you guys gonna argue over when Microsoft is actually done?

We’ll find something don’t worry. Anything but actually playing games

 

[Sorcerer]

Xbox controller for the PS5

No lie, that looks awesome. I would buy that in a heartbeat. But of course being Sony/Microsoft you can be sure there would not be hall effect sticks or mechanical buttons. LOL!!!

 

[TheInfamousKira]

 

[bitbydeath]

What are you guys gonna argue over when Microsoft is actually done?

I imagine GAF will look something like this:

 

[Frwrd]

Phil will now go down as Matrick 2.0 if they go through with it.

Put some respeck on Don Matrick’s name, he wasn’t nowhere near close as the PoS that Phil Spencer is.

 

[ManaByte]

Not a lot of threads made it to the Web Archive, but ManaByte was there, he might remember.

Gaming Age Boards - General Forum

web.archive.org

People weren’t dancing on Sega’s grave like now.

 

[Zadom]

Just looked up Sarah Bond, wow!

She is just my type. But I guess now’s not the time to join Xbox.

 

[XXL]

Put some respeck on Don Matrick’s name, he wasn’t nowhere near close as the PoS that Phil Spencer is.

 

[Frwrd]

 

[March Climber]

I buy physical games. I ain't touching no cloud bullshit.

 

[StereoVsn]

They literally just spent over $70 billion for that plastic box. Well, that’s what it was originally for… maybe not now.

The ‘Xbox console isn’t important for Xbox’ is copium of the highest order.

I think spending $80bil (including Zenimax) is half the reason to go 3rd party. That price can only be justified with wider audience and their Xbox and GamePass plans didn’t pan out. So either write off a substantial amount of that or go 3rd party.

70% is better vs 100% if nothing.

 

[mckmas8808]

Colin Moritorty said this about Gamepass 2 weeks ago after the Larian CEO made his statement about subscription services on consoles. It's time stamped.





Colin was right!

 

[FunkMiller]

I think spending $80bil (including Zenimax) is half the reason to go 3rd party. That price can only be justified with wider audience and their Xbox and GamePass plans didn’t pan out. So either write off a substantial amount of that or go 3rd party.

70% is better vs 100% if nothing.

Oh, I think they originally intended for the two acquisitions to power XBox forward... but then the financial realities of GamePass hit, as did the realities of very bad console sales. And now someone has panicked... and this is what we're getting.

Buying ABK killed Xbox. That will be the headline in the years to come.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

I imagine GAF will look something like this:

It tickles my gooch that in less than a day, it's already become a bipartisan talking point for the autistic politics sphere of GAF and Era.

But you know we'll find something to war over on here. If you take away a central conflict, it's like taking away the buzzlight on your porch. Nothing to keep the gnats away. War is good for business.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

They’d be playing games on cloud hardware that wouldn’t be possible locally

and who is going to make these kind of games?

MS is so damn incompetent that they can't even make a "walking simulator" right.

we had the crackdown 3 fiasco. The power of cloud gave us something worse than to OG crack down.

and it seems MS is not really willing to spend 300-500 millions dollars making these blending edge games that could take a decade to release thats if they even they do in the first place.

in the immediate future, xbox is still dealing with a lot of skepticism to regarding the scope and quality of their games.

and such bleeding games like Star Citizen for example are far and few between and almost work like their platform. Roblox is the evolution of Minecrat and it runs fine on mobile.

furthemrore, MS is going to push A.I. on game development and that could be another can of worms.

....MS has a lot of shit to deal and figure out..like, right now. this transition or whatever aint gonna be pretty for them

 

[StereoVsn]

Oh, I think they originally intended for the two acquisitions to power XBox forward... but then the financial realities of GamePass hit, as did the realities of very bad console sales. And now someone has panicked... and this is what we're getting.

Buying ABK killed Xbox. That will be the headline in the years to come.

Yep, that acquisition took long enough that their sales had enough time to crater, basically making the whole thing pointless. Well, CoD was going to other consoles/platforms for 10 years in either case.

 

[DeepSpace5D]

I imagine Phil and the team are cooking up a speech that attempts its best to spin the news and explain how releasing some games on PlayStation will be a net positive for Xbox.

 

[GoldenEye98]

I am just very very skeptical Microsoft would want to be in the gaming industry just as a content creator. Most large tech companies are not entertainment industry for sake of it. They are doing it to drive their services.

So I am skeptical they would exit the hardware businesses without exiting the business entirely. And they just spent $70B...so I am skeptical they are doing that either.

My guess is that they are just going to release their content on other platforms along with Xbox. I mean this was already true for arguably their biggest franchise now...Call Of Duty.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

Oh, I think they originally intended for the two acquisitions to power XBox forward... but then the financial realities of GamePass hit, as did the realities of very bad console sales. And now someone has panicked... and this is what we're getting.

Buying ABK killed Xbox. That will be the headline in the years to come.

What do you think, Microsoft's management teams woke up the other day and realized "we were doing it all wrong!" and knee jerk course corrected? This has all the makings of an internal power struggle long in the making.

 

[ViciousAgenda]

Do we genuinely think this is going to happen?

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

and who is going to make these kind of games?

The best our industry has to offer

Cloud has the potential to vastly supplant local

 

[Sephimoth]

Would've been easier just to make great games...

 

[FunkMiller]

What do you think, Microsoft's management teams woke up the other day and realized "we were doing it all wrong!" and knee jerk course corrected? This has all the makings of an internal power struggle long in the making.

You don't think people are panicking at Microsoft?

 

[FunkMiller]

Do we genuinely think this is going to happen?

I do. Primarily due to the recent earnings call that told us GamePass hasn't been growing at all, and console sales have been terrible.

The natural and logical step if you've just spent billions on a games developer is to destroy the area you're not making money in: console sales.

 

[Frwrd]

I'll put 5 bucks on another career defining moment for phil

 

[Jigsaah]

Hmmm with the Jez tweet and all these rumors here's what I expect.

Phil announces that some games will come to PS5 and Switch...does not give any actual titles. Taken on a case by case basis.

Phil states that they aren't leaving the console market (pointless statement, but whatever) will say we will share plans on next gen console at the right time.

Phil somehow states with a straight face that he still believes the future of Xbox is bright.

Lastly, Phil will announce a gamepass price hike just to put icing on the cake.

 

[Mister Wolf]

Put some respeck on Don Matrick’s name, he wasn’t nowhere near close as the PoS that Phil Spencer is.

Bullshit. I saw that press conference and so did you. Matrick was an idiot. Xbox > PS2 in 3rd party game performance, 360 > PS3 in 3rd party game performance, releases the Xbox One with obviously inferior hardware to the PS4 and tries to charge more for it. He destroyed all the goodwill and public perception Microsoft built up over the past two generations in one generation. Phil just continued his idiocy.

 

[Kittehkraken]

Do we genuinely think this is going to happen?

Microsoft is doing absolutely nothing to stop this firestorm. And all its social media mouth pieces who would normally help put out these kinds of fires are jumping ship and spreading even more rumors.

I expect Phil to try and put out some fires next week with his double speak but it would appear the writing is on the wall for the future of Xbox.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Xbox > PS2 in 3rd party games, 360 > PS3 in 3rd party games

 

[Kacho]

What do you think, Microsoft's management teams woke up the other day and realized "we were doing it all wrong!" and knee jerk course corrected? This has all the makings of an internal power struggle long in the making.

Nutella likely put his foot down after Starfield failed to drive Game Pass growth and move Xbox hardware. The only way they can make money in the short-term is by porting their games to platforms where people are actually playing.

 

[sloppyjoe_gamer]

If xbox goes third party it's just a matter of time. Nintendo does its own thing.

And? That doesnt make them a console?

 

[Aguero9320]

Oh, I think they originally intended for the two acquisitions to power XBox forward... but then the financial realities of GamePass hit, as did the realities of very bad console sales. And now someone has panicked... and this is what we're getting.

Buying ABK killed Xbox. That will be the headline in the years to come.

No offence, but this is crazy talk. They closed ABK a fraction over 100 days ago - you think they went through with a $69bn dollar purchase and the “financial realities” of the next 100 days were so severe and so unexpected that they abandoned their plans?

The only thing that is certain right now is that whatever is happening right now is exactly what they intended was going to happen when they initiated the transfer to close ABK.

Is it what they planned when they started the acquisition? 100% no, but this fall of the Roman Empire type speculation is nuts.