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Taul Passi: Microsoft’s Satya Nadella Doubles Down On Xbox’s Confusing Strategy

Sebastian1295

Sebastian1295

Member
They expanded too fast and too soon and ultimately screwed themselves. They should've bought bethesda and then let things be instead of buying activision/blizzard which in turn got investors looking over at the gaming side and saying to themselves 'we want to make a profit and we want to make it now because of all the money you just spent'.


Add to this that they went all in on gamepass aka a subscription service when consumers are showing companies more and more that they're not going to pay for all these subscription services and you got a disaster on your hands thanks to phil spencer. They were banking on gamepass blowing up with activision/blizzard games coming to the service and the truth is no one gives a crap and now they're stuck with a subscription service that has stagnated. Worst yet they can't pivot away from gamepass without a MASSIVEEEEE upheaval by people paying for it and they've effectively fucked themselves. Phil spencer literally sunk the xbox brand and is one of the worst CEO'S in gaming history there's just no arguing that at this juncture.

well-youre-fucked-jane-fonda.gif
 
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Astray

Astray

Member
Skifi28 said:
I don't think the strategy itself is confusing, the message has been quite clear for a while now.
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I mean is it really?

I honestly think they're still doing two opposite things at the same time: tease new hardware AND gut said hardware of any future selling point.

A company that is fully into the 3rd party publishing business would announce a game for all platforms as soon as they legally can because that way your big marketing push can energize all of your addressable market at once.

A company that's trying to sell hardware would go out of its way to keep any port news minimal and almost hidden. They would try and keep something like the Indiana Jones PS5 port hidden and not do things like announce it before the game is even out.

Microsoft is somehow doing both and none at the same time, their messaging is all over the place.

(Also I posted this piece because it's been a while since we saw the name Taul Passi).
 
Sebastian1295

Sebastian1295

Member
TheGodfather07 said:
What is confusing about Microsoft becoming a 3rd party software publisher? How hard is that to understand?
Click to expand...

They're being forced to become a third party publisher because phil spencer failed at being a CEO and went all in on a subscription service that dosen't make enough money and has stagnated. Instead of focusing on exclusives and securing major third party and second party deals for the platform, he decided to devalue all of our xbox's exclusive games by putting them on a service that in turn destroys the sales of said games. If microsoft would've had a CEO in charge who knew what he was doing then they would've never had to go the route of being a third party publisher.
 
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Killjoy-NL

Killjoy-NL

Member
Sebastian1295 said:
They've being forced to become a third party publisher because phil spencer failed at being a CEO and went all in on a subscription service that dosen't make enough money and has stagnated. Instead of focusing on exclusives and securing major third party and second party deals for the platform, he went decided to devalue all of our xbox's exclusive games by putting them on a service that in turn destroys the sales of said games. If microsoft would've had a CEO in charge who knew what he was doing then they would've never had to go the route of being a third party publisher.
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They were already headed this way during the second half of X360/PS3. It's just that nobody realized it back then.

Their output since then has only become more and more mediocre. People stopped caring.
 
Roman Empire

Roman Empire

Member
Where is the confusion here? Microsoft wants Xbox as a brand to spread far and wide and the best way to do it this is by turning into a 3rd party publisher and put their games in every platform possible.
 
Sebastian1295

Sebastian1295

Member
Don mattrick was a disaster and no one can dispute that but i put alot of the failure at phil's feet. Phil should've been busy moneyhatting big time games to the xbox platform when he took over ala peter moore style to fix the mess don created. He should've been calling every japanese developer/publisher possible to secure deals and build a japanese fanbase on the xbox instead of letting japanese support essentially die after the 360 era. He also should've been securing big timed exclusive deals with key publishers like EA, ubisoft, capcom, square enix, etc etc to get big franchises first on the xbox platform.


Phil had all this money available too him and all these resources and essentially did nothing with it for yearssss and it cost xbox a majority of the fanbase which started the downfall. Phil's passive attitude while his competitors were being aggressive was the worst possible strategy he could've done and he has no one to blame but himself for the mess he's put xbox in.



This was meant to be a reply to 'killjoy-nl' lol sorry.
 
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TBiddy

TBiddy

Member
playXray said:
Xbox Series is an amazing piece of hardware. Xbox One X was also incredible for its time, and a much better engineered system than PS4 Pro.
Click to expand...

The Series X is indeed a great console (as was the One X). Is it better than the PS5? In some ways, but not in all aspects. That doesn't make it "shit tier" though, but Ronin_7 Ronin_7 has never been known to be level headed about Microsoft.
 
J

Jakk

Member
I'm sorry, but the "Everything is an Xbox" campaign they are doing is so ridiculous. Porting Xbox games to other platforms doesn't turn those platforms into an Xbox. It really seems like they are effectively killing Xbox consoles. I know they are making new HW, but I really don't see how is it going to sell. I have never even owned an Xbox, but I still think it's a shame.
 
bitbydeath

bitbydeath

Member
Sebastian1295 said:
Don mattrick was a disaster and no one can dispute that
Click to expand...
He messed up sure, but he never stopped delivering games, even with the launch of Xbox One he got the likes of Titanfall, Dead Rising 3, Quantum Break, Ryse and Sunset Overdrive as third party exclusives and even brought in different first party titles like Killer Instinct.

That all went away when Phil “I don’t believe games sell consoles” Spencer took over.
 
Sebastian1295

Sebastian1295

Member
bitbydeath said:
He messed up sure, but he never stopped delivering games, even with the launch of Xbox One he got the likes of Titanfall, Dead Rising 3, Quantum Break, Ryse and Sunset Overdrive as third party exclusives and even brought in different first party titles like Killer Instinct.

That all went away when Phil “I don’t believe games sell consoles” Spencer took over.
Click to expand...

Phil spencer would've been fired or 'retired' by now if he worked for nintendo or sony. Jim ryan 'retired' after the GAAS was proven to be a failure and sony quickly moved on from and got new guys in charge because failing at sony isn't acceptable and will get u canned which i respect. If you fail at nintendo or you don't live up to nintendos quality standards then you're shown the door as well and they even apologize if they fail because it's not acceptable to them to fail there consumers.


I'll also add that phil spencers 'plan if you can even call it that' relied on being CEO of xbox and xbox alone because there's absolutely no way that sony or nintendo would've had the pockets to fulfill his gamepass plan and taken the losses necessary to even give the plan a chance. There's also no way they would've approved the plan to begin with because they would've realized it was a disaster in waiting. Phil is just lucky to be CEO of a division that's ran by a company that dosen't hold him or any of his braindead subordinates accountable for their failures.
 
Skifi28

Skifi28

Member
Astray said:
I mean is it really?

I honestly think they're still doing two opposite things at the same time: tease new hardware AND gut said hardware of any future selling point.

A company that is fully into the 3rd party publishing business would announce a game for all platforms as soon as they legally can because that way your big marketing push can energize all of your addressable market at once.

A company that's trying to sell hardware would go out of its way to keep any port news minimal and almost hidden. They would try and keep something like the Indiana Jones PS5 port hidden and not do things like announce it before the game is even out.

Microsoft is somehow doing both and none at the same time, their messaging is all over the place.

(Also I posted this piece because it's been a while since we saw the name Taul Passi).
Click to expand...
I don't think being a third party publisher forbids you from doing your own version of hardware. Obviously whatever they do next which is rumoured to be a fancy PC is not doing traditional console numbers in sales, but it's not bad to have something to transition their existing users and their libraries. I do think the message has been clear though in terms of their future games and how they'll be on most devices.
 
Astray

Astray

Member
saintjules saintjules someone made a typo when writing Paul Tassi's name on some other column (I think it was the wukong one) and it stuck lol.

Skifi28 said:
I don't think being a third party publisher forbids you from doing your own version of hardware. Obviously whatever they do next which is rumoured to be a fancy PC is not doing traditional console numbers in sales, but it's not bad to have something to transition their existing users and their libraries. I do think the message has been clear though in terms of their future games and how they'll be on most devices.
Click to expand...
It certainly doesn't (Sony is doing it right now with PC storefronts). But they are two things that kinda pull in opposite ways when it comes to marketing and messaging.

Being cagy about future games coming to PS5 and Switch 2 only risks ruining their future sales on there because the entire marketing campaign for some games ended up not being directed at two of the most lucrative platforms for a 3P publisher.

Sony is going through a similar tightrope situation between PS5 and PC, but it's clearly choosing it's own hardware and platform in any dilemma it faces. It very clearly would rather take less PC sales than less PS5 sales on most things it publishes and it shows in their decision-making. It also helps that they talk less in general.

Meanwhile Microsoft continues to prevaricate and send constant mixed signals via its PR and marketing, the phrase "case by case" should not be your main mantra when it comes to messaging around your new software release strategy.
 
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Mr.Phoenix

Mr.Phoenix

Member
My only question(s) is... if their strategy is to sell to everyone.

Why are they still making, teasing, or pushing hardware?

I mean I can understand the handheld console form factor, but why does or would a home Xbox console still exist or they even consider making another one? Why don't they announce their games on everything, even when we know it will eventually come to everything?

I don't think their strategy is confusing. Any unbiased person with half a brain could have seen it coming a mile away, maybe even before MS realized that is what they would have to do (I mean, some of us called it the second they started trying to buy ABK). However, I do believe how they are going about it all is confusing at best and contradictory at worst.

As it stands, I believe the only reason Phil still has a job is to save face. Sacking him would be the loudest possible admission that they have gone about everything wrong.
 
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P

playXray

Member
TBiddy said:
The Series X is indeed a great console (as was the One X). Is it better than the PS5? In some ways, but not in all aspects. That doesn't make it "shit tier" though, but Ronin_7 Ronin_7 has never been known to be level headed about Microsoft.
Click to expand...
Yeah I consider Series X and PS5 both amazing bits of hardware. Xbox has an advantage with its back-compat hardware support, but I much prefer the overall design of the PS5.

One X was way better engineered than PS4 Pro though - they were pretty much the same size, but PS4 Pro was significantly louder even at day one, and 4K back-compat titles on One X were nothing short of miraculous.

Either way, to say MS hardware is “shite” is just completely wrong.
 
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Rob_27

Rob_27

Member
I see 2 options

1 They will eventually do a Sega and become software only
Or
2 Have a hard reset and clean out the idiots and go back to what xbox and xbox360 did.
 
Doctor Hades

Doctor Hades

Member
I have always been baffled by Microsoft's push to the GamePass service on as many devices as possible because Xbox doesn't really have the rich gaming heritage or system selling exclusives to make it appealing outside of the console itself. 95% of the games on GamePass are indie games and third-party titles that are available on other platforms anyway, plus these games are not permanent as they can be removed from the service at any time. Yes, Xbox owners get access to a selection of back catalogue games from Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One but those games will never be playable on anything but Xbox hardware.

So where is the appeal of GamePass outside of Xbox (and PC) exactly?

To clarify, I own an Xbox Series X, albeit mostly unused these days, and did subscribe to GamePass for a year until I cancelled back it back in May due to there not been anything worth playing it on it in terms of first-party exclusives. I did not care about the third-party stuff as I own a gaming PC and would rather have my games on Steam than the truly terrible Xbox app. I ended up just buying the few first-party exclusives on Steam instead and that was cheaper than wasting a monthly subscription fee.
 
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Astray

Astray

Member
Mr.Phoenix said:
My only question(s) is... if their strategy is to sell to everyone.

Why are they still making, teasing, or pushing hardware?

I mean I can understand the handheld console form factor, but why does or would a home Xbox console still exist or they even consider making another one? Why don't they announce their games on everything, even when we know it will eventually come to everything?

I don't think their strategy is confusing. Any unbiased person with half a brain could have seen it coming a mile away, maybe even before MS realized that is what they would have to do (I mean, some of us called it the second they started trying to buy ABK). However, I do believe how they are going about it all is confusing at best and contradictory at worst.

As it stands, I believe the only reason Phil still has a job is to save face. Sacking him would be the loudest possible admission that they have gone about everything wrong.
Click to expand...
This is my point.

In the space of less than a year, Indiana Jones went from being proclaimed by their Gaming CEO as a game that's not coming to PlayStation* to being announced for Playstation.

Then we got that same CEO recently talking about 'no red lines' on Bloomberg only for his lieutenant to come out and tell us that it's on a "case by case basis" on Variety within less than a month. It's very weird to me how they continually have to talk about this, but they still don't have their ducks in a row.

The strategy is clear to us because we are by now used to these jokers and how they talk and know what's being said between the lines, but most Xbox gamers don't and it's probably maddening for them.

* Yes there are semantics to how he specifically said it, but they don't matter to most people because they take things at face value.
 
Hyet

Hyet

Member
You are all too stupid to see this is the winning strat! When everything is an XBOX, they will 100% win the console wars since PS5 sales and NS sales also count as XBOX sales. Microsoft goes from an shrinking third place to owning 100% of the console market, 100% of the mobile market, 100% of the toaster market, 100% of the sex toy market and even more! :p
 
Mr.Phoenix

Mr.Phoenix

Member
Rob_27 said:
I see 2 options

1 They will eventually do a Sega and become software only
Or
2 Have a hard reset and clean out the idiots and go back to what xbox and xbox360 did.
Click to expand...
There is only one option. And that is option 1.

Option 2 is all but impossible at this point. It would be easier for a new player to launch a new console than for Xbox(Microsoft) to do a hard reset right now.

What is fucked right now... is how MS is insisting on going about that option 1... is going to fuck that up too.

They need to do a Sega, make an announcement that Xbox is now going multiplatform on everything and focus on their software. That Xbox home consoles are going to cease production but support for them will remain for the foreseeable future. Announce their Xbox handheld initiative that would be running some "gamer/lite" version of Windows.

They can continue supporting Gamepass, but change up the tier pricing to make the day one games tier more expensive or get rid of day one sub releases entirely, clearly that shithas done more harm to them than good. And for the other tiers adopt something similar to what PlayStation is doing.

This is the only way MS can salvage all this, now why they are not doing it and instead insisting to keep bleeding money and go about shit in this non-committed way... I will never understand.
 
Cert.in.Death

Cert.in.Death

Member
Hardware barriers/restrictions inhibit growth.

The strategy is to sever the Xbox identity from the box in your home, much in the same way Steam exists. But there are myriad obstacles, namely the legal deference given to platform operators to restrict distribution methods in the name of stability and security. Until we arrive at an endpoint where side-loading or open distribution is demanded by the free market, MS will struggle to string its vision together into a coherent plan of action.
 
D

Deleted member 848825

Unconfirmed Member
They simply dont give a fuck about their console customers. And they'll lose them. But it wont matter to them overall, as I'm sure they'll do well enough as a third party publisher.
 
Horseganador

Horseganador

Member
They are playing both sides and that always ends badly, on the one hand they want to sell hardware because they need it for the GP... but on the other hand they also desperately need to be third to make their developments profitable, it is not a problem with an easy solution.
 
Sintoid

Sintoid

Member
They don't need anymore to attract people to XBox, soon they won't need Xbox anymore and after that they will kill gamepass
 
FIREKNIGHT2029

FIREKNIGHT2029

Member
Nothing confusing about MS’ strategy. They are a software company that’s struggling to move hardware and they’ve pivoted to becoming a third party software company that delivers content to every platform now including former rivals. The only people confused by their strategy are people on Copium or in denial. Satya has been clear about their strategy since the beginning of this year.
 
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