No Wonder M$ Are Going Multi-Plat... (Console Gamepass Subs Dried Up Ages Ago)

[winb83]

I think Phil said in the Giantbomb interview that console gamepass numbers plateaued. Oh well it was nice while it lasted.

They have more Game Pass subs than they've sold Xbox Series consoles. If console sales dry up obviously new subscribers to Game Pass will dry up.

They haven't put out official updates to sub numbers in a year. People needed a tweet to tell them subs flatten?

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

They haven't put out official updates to sub numbers in a year. People needed a tweet to tell them subs flatten?

*2 years

Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass service grows to 25 million subscribers

Just as Microsoft adds Activision to the Xbox Game Pass library

www.theverge.com

 

[CEO of Morgan Industries]

and shytty leadership


oh well

Peter Moore would still have Xbox cooking.

There's a legitimate question to ask about whether Phil Spencer is worse at leading Xbox than Don Mattrick was at this point. Never thought it'd get to this point.

 

[winb83]

Peter Moore would still have Xbox cooking.

There's a legitimate question to ask about whether Phil Spencer is worse at leading Xbox than Don Mattrick was at this point. Never thought it'd get to this point.

Phil Spencer convincing Nadella to go all in on gaming is the reason Xbox still exist. He got the CEO to buy Minecraft, ZeniMax, and Activision Blizzard. He’s overseen the Xbox division to profitability. What are you even talking about?

 

[ORDER_66]

Phil Spencer convincing Nadella to go all in on gaming is the reason Xbox still exist. He got the CEO to buy Minecraft, ZeniMax, and Activision Blizzard. He’s overseen the Xbox division to profitability. What are you even talking about?

Did ALL those things and still number 3...

 

[Legal]

Did ALL those things and still number 3...

In fairness, no investor on this earth gives a single fukk about being in third place if the profitability is looking right.

 

[winb83]

Did ALL those things and still number 3...

They’re only #3 if you narrow the scope to who sells the most boxes on store shelves. At this point the gaming division is probably at least as big as PlayStation if not larger in terms of revenue they bring in annually.

Some of y’all have a really narrow view of gaming.

 

[ORDER_66]

In fairness, no investor on this earth gives a single fukk about being in third place if the profitability is looking right.

Ok fine... but the sentiment is still not looking good on xbox's future... they need to have hard hitting games...

 

[ORDER_66]

They’re only #3 if you narrow the scope to who sells the most boxes on store shelves. At this point the gaming division is probably at least as big as PlayStation if not larger in terms of revenue they bring in annually.

Some of y’all have a really narrow view of gaming.

I mean globally they are still number 3 irregardless

 

[CEO of Morgan Industries]

Phil Spencer convincing Nadella to go all in on gaming is the reason Xbox still exist. He got the CEO to buy Minecraft, ZeniMax, and Activision Blizzard. He’s overseen the Xbox division to profitability. What are you even talking about?

Taking about the Xbox brand specifically in the console space. Do you know what you're talking about? A quick read of your posts reveals that you usually don't.

Nadella's the guy who is going to push Xbox brand in the direction it needs to go, which is not spending R&D on home consoles.

 

[Legal]

Ok fine... but the sentiment is still not looking good on xbox's future... they need to have hard hitting games...

As an entity that makes consoles? Maybe not. But as an entity that gives people access to video games? Remains to be seen.

The problem is that they were in a no-win situation due to not growing their stable of in house developers earlier. They had to do something, but the reality is that modern AAA game development is so long, that they unfortunately a lot of those purchases ended up being teams that didn't necessarily have something ready ASAP, and those that did (like Bethesda) ended up being a bit messy in execution and presentation on what ended up being exclusive, and what didn't.

Taking about the Xbox brand specifically in the console space. Do you know what you're talking about? A quick read of your posts reveals that you usually don't.

Nadella's the guy who is going to push Xbox brand in the direction it needs to go, which is not spending R&D on home consoles.

The bolded seems to be the math that someone over there is doing. If they can get the majority of the Gamepass and publishing revenue they currently get without having to drop the heavy upfront R&D costs and continued manufacturing costs of consoles, why NOT do it? The problem is that that decision kind've overlooks the personal connection people make to the platform they buy video games on.

This isn't the same as deciding to go vast majority subscription based with Office, where people ultimately nearly all of those users will still have a computer, and some sort of need for that same software, regardless of how it's delivered. With gaming, players can decide to leave your platform/ecosystem entirely for another, and largely still have an enjoyable experience, albeit without all of the same games they used to. They've got to be careful to not piss off the diehard XBox brand supporters, since diehard supporters of anything can be irrational.

 

[Rekkapryde]

Peter Moore would still have Xbox cooking.

There's a legitimate question to ask about whether Phil Spencer is worse at leading Xbox than Don Mattrick was at this point. Never thought it'd get to this point.

Yes he was worse. Peter at least got em games (Granted many ended up multiplat). But RROD did him in.

Phil promised games for an entire gen last gen and delivered zilch. Capped to the CFO and Nadella about shyt improving and it got worse.

 

[CEO of Morgan Industries]

The bolded seems to be the math that someone over there is doing. If they can get the majority of the Gamepass and publishing revenue they currently get without having to drop the heavy upfront R&D costs and continued manufacturing costs of consoles, why NOT do it? The problem is that that decision kind've overlooks the personal connection people make to the platform they buy video games on.

This isn't the same as deciding to go vast majority subscription based with Office, where people ultimately nearly all of those users will still have a computer, and some sort of need for that same software, regardless of how it's delivered. With gaming, players can decide to leave your platform/ecosystem entirely for another, and largely still have an enjoyable experience, albeit without all of the same games they used to. They've got to be careful to not piss off the diehard XBox brand supporters, since diehard supporters of anything can be irrational.

My issue with giving credit for these acquisitions to Spencer is that, if you take Spencer out of the equation, I still think Microsoft pursues video games as a service under Nadella's watch.

And if you look at the mixed messaging coming out of Microsoft about things like exclusives, Spencer is the one talking about making Xbox console owners feel special, but it's the people elsewhere in the company or above him that are talking about putting their games everywhere. Spencer is being disregarded from what we can tell.

The idea that Spencer should get credit for Microsoft making opportunistic acquisitions is absurd to me if you just look at what's coming out of this company. Don't get me wrong, Spencer loves it that Microsoft is acquiring companies, but I don't think he's the primary driver. If Nintendo was up for sale and Japanese regulators were going to let Microsoft buy it, they wouldn't need Phil Spencer there convincing Nadella to do a damn thing. I think ABK being in trouble and needing a buyer meant that Microsoft would be there no matter who was running the Xbox division.

 

[Legal]

My issue with giving credit for these acquisitions to Spencer is that, if you take Spencer out of the equation, I still think Microsoft pursues video games as a service under Nadella's watch.

And if you look at the mixed messaging coming out of Microsoft about things like exclusives, Spencer is the one talking about making Xbox console owners feel special, but it's the people elsewhere in the company or above him that are talking about putting their games everywhere. Spencer is being disregarded from what we can tell.

The idea that Spencer should get credit for Microsoft making opportunistic acquisitions is absurd to me if you just look at what's coming out of this company. Don't get me wrong, Spencer loves it that Microsoft is acquiring companies, but I don't think he's the primary driver. If Nintendo was up for sale and Japanese regulators were going to let Microsoft buy it, they wouldn't need Phil Spencer there convincing Nadella to do a damn thing. I think ABK being in trouble and needing a buyer meant that Microsoft would be there no matter who was running the Xbox division.

Agreed. Spencer tries, but it's not like he was some visionary here with these acquisitions. Otherwise, the pipeline from acquisition to release, and the kind've support these teams get after release (he high key hung Arkane out to dry with his media rounds after RedFall came out) would've been smoother.

If we want to be reductive here, he was essentially the equivalent of a shopper for a rich person looking to cop some clothes. He pointed the company in the direction of stuff that was available when they were likely going to buy something either way.

 

[Pressure]

Micrososft isn't looking to leave the console business. It's aiming to position itself to take advantage of the landscape once it does change.

Increased presence in mobile and service games, building out cloud streaming etc.

We saw the same blueprint with M365. I remember folks laughing at deskles workers and getting companies like Walmart to provide their entire staff with email etc.

Fast forward to Covid, m365 was well positioned with cloud app offerings,virtual desktops, virtual Dev boxes and a completely remote Infrastructure

Some of yall are afraid to e forward thinking.