Xbox is still committed to making consoles, says boss Phil Spencer
Xbox is still committed to making consoles, says boss Phil Spencer
www.eurogamer.net
Xbox is still committed to making consoles, says boss Phil Spencer
57 comments
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The writing is on the wall here, and it's plain to see. Also, you really can't trust anything that comes out of Phil Spencer's mouth.
If the goal is indeed for Xbox games to be on all platforms, then the Xbox platform is the only place they don't make money. Super low third-party sales, zero first-party sales. Only gamepass subscription money, which can't pay for all of their company buyouts, never mind paying off the 65 billion actiblizz purchase.
If gamepass is everywhere, then Xbox has no value to Microsoft, it only harms them.
It also exists to weaken any argument they might have to get governments to forcibly allow Microsoft stores on other platforms like the eu apple ruling.
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It doesn't even matter if Gamepass or Xbox is currently profitable or not. It's about whether it can be more profitable. They originally thought the path to that was through exclusivity - now they don't (just as Sony changed course in regards to putting stuff on PC). Anyone who thinks that corporate decision-making is ever based on anything else is being naive.
The practical concern here for me is at what point does MS find it most profitable to stop supporting my ability to use my accumulated physical and digital xbox software. Another reason walled gardens suck.
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Microsoft with gamepass (and other large game companies) are trying to do the gaming industry what Spotify did to the music industry. Blow the bottom out of it, get consumers used to subscriptions where money goes to massive companies not the artists actually doing the work, and let it all collapse into a heap so execs can do whatever they want because workers in the game industry have zero leverage left to dictate a higher quality of life since the path to profit has been carpet bombed by the finance industry (you don't want to work for Microsoft or Sony? Oh sorry yeah nobody else can make money in video games so tough luck finding a job somewhere else).
Why now? Well unlike the movie industry, video game nerds have a stunted awareness of the value of unions and worker organization so in plain daylight the rich can drive the entire industry off a cliff, fire a huge percentage of the workers and try to replace them with AI.... and worst comes to worst those companies will be in a great position to demand whatever they want from the remaining human labor after the dust settles even if the AI crap doesn't work.
Good old Disaster Capitalism.
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Windows is everywhere but the Microsoft Surface products still have value to Microsoft. Or for that matter, Steam is everywhere but Valve still made the steam deck. There seems to be some value to software companies making hardware if only to help set the tone and introduce features or ideas they hope other companies who use their software will follow.
That said, I wonder if we won’t see the Xbox brand transition to software only with a line of gamer targeted Microsoft surfaces advertised as Xbox ready.
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Those are the standards and those products have value. Buying an Xbox when Playstation has all games for both consoles makes no sense unless you just have to have Gamepass, specifically.
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Also, you really can’t trust anything that comes out of Phil Spencer’s mouth.
That's really not a Phil Spencer thing, and more of a "You can tell any executive is lying, because their lips are moving" thing.
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It’s almost as if Microsoft is a software company at heart and just wants to sell as many copies of their software as possible.
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Okay, but are the users still committed to buying them?
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I mean, is that a real problem for Microsoft today?
I think Xbox is in its stronger times, so much that I actually want one lol
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Considering that estimates have PS5 outselling XSeries by 2:1 (also confirmed by semi-official data), and XSeries doing worse than its predecessor, I'd say: yes, it's a very real problem for them.
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The only reason they want their games on multiple platforms is so they can prove they're not trying to buy up studios for exclusivity. This is the main objective here folks. They don't care about being on more than one platform, they just don't want to fight the FTC again when they try to buy up sega, square enix, take2, embracer or whoever the fuck they want to buy next. Remember, this is the same arrogant bullshit company that wanted to buy Nintendo and got laughed out of the conference room.
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I wish they would let you install windows on them, but then i guess id be buying games on steam not Microsoft store / gamepass
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They should make Linux boxes.
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Xbox is Microsoft so that'll literally never happen. They could make Windows 11 boxes though.
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Xbox is Microsoft so that’ll literally never happen.
Microsoft already uses Linux and in fact even develops its own Linux distribution since quite some time because Windows just isn't good enough for certain tasks: https://github.com/microsoft/CBL-Mariner
Surface Duo is another Linux-based product by Microsoft.
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Having been predominantly a PC gamer for 30 years... PCs more hassle to update and maintain. When I finish work I want to sit on my sofa and play with as little inconvenience as possible.
Consoles fit nicely in a living room and are better for local multiplayer. This generation they were also cheaper than buying the equivalent PC hardware at launch.
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I would be a thousand times happier in a world without consoles. Games are published everywhere, and “consoles” are just prepackaged PCs from Microsoft or Sony for people who do not want to build a PC themselves
What do you think current PS and Xbox consoles are? They are all just PC hardware with each a custom OS as differentiating feature. A world in which everything has to run Windows is definitively much worse than the current state.
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I'd rather see consoles open up to being general purpose PCs, than not see consoles at all.
Valve got it right with the Steam Deck. I enjoy accessing my game library from SteamOS and using the Desktop Mode when I need to be productive.
If the Xbox had an option to boot into Windows, they'd be selling the Xbox like hot cakes. It would keep users invested in Windows as a platform rather than them moving to Linux or macOS. It's such a waste of potential.
They're far too stupid to realize that.
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57 comments
They also said they were still committed to Zune and Windows Phone.
They probably weren't lying then or now, they are committed... for this quarter. When they read the numbers next quarter, well that's completely unrelated to today's commitments!