It’s likely part of the benefit of not using a custom APU for Helix that normal servers may be able to do the streaming - GPUs are becoming more common on them to do AI and video encoding, so they’re likely to want to use new gen AMD tech in volume anyway (for dedicated servers, many businesses use Intel still although AMD are beginning to get more share, but for lower priority stuff such as VMs or general workloads it’d be perfect).
Given the servers can then be multipurpose, it reduces the cost of running xCloud - for example, during weekday afternoons outside of school holidays, the servers in a given country’s data centres can run VMs for office workers, then in the evenings and school holidays when offices are quiet they can double for xCloud.
That kind of efficient use would be highly prized by Microsoft as many data centres are filling faster than they can expand, so multipurpose servers would save money and maximise income - all while being more energy efficient
Young adults who have no interest in gaming will not go for Xbox, even its on a mobile phone, if most are anything like our 2 kids & their friends LOL. Our kids still think it’s ok for us to pay for their monthly contracts for crying out loud & just they aren’t going to spend £60 to £70 on a game just becasie its on a mobile, much less sub to GamePass to use Cloud on their phones
And I feel the young adults who are into gaming will just go the console route or PC, I’ve no idea about parts of Asia or Africa mind.
My point about Azure is that years back GamePass hit the 30 million sub mark & it hasn’t grown much since then (please read 30 million is more than good enough IMO) So Xbox Cloud gaming is not matching the growth seen with Cloud in MS reports, since you need a GamePass sub to use Xbox Cloud Gaming. So I think Xbox Cloud Gaming is getting mixed up with the growth of Azure, but I could be wrong on that front, granted.
Xbox, I feel, just needs better PR & some focused price cuts at certian points of the year . Xbox really should have people in the PR dept raming home how the Series X fully supports HDMI 2.1 full VRR, quick resume, auto HDR to old games, Play anywhere, Game Pass Ect, ect….
Also, Xbox needs to get sponsorship for sporting events if it really wants to connect with the youth of today; Darts is getting massive with the young in the UK & parts of Europe & we should have more than a tiny little Xbox Logo on Luke’s shirt, but full Xbox sponsorship of Darting tournaments & TV ad sports during the Premier League Darts or World Darts finals
That’s not Xbox Cloud gaming & games like PS0 2 or Flight Sim using the Azure servers regardless of Xbox Cloud gaming, since Azure is being used in the PS 5 versions of such games. You don’t need to sub to Gamepass to use Azure, unlike to use Xbox Cloud gaming
I think ABK is too big & yearly games too much, but you’re right about the money, all the more so… with the $70 billion dollar price tag.
Hopefully this year’s will be better since its IW turn with their game, I think. So should be much better than last year’s, which was the 1st COD game I never bothered to finish for the single player campaign
In the UK they teamed up with EE to offer Game Pass as part of / free with your monthly phone contract - EE did market it hard with the Kevin Bacon ads so I wonder how that panned out, probably not brilliantly as 5G still sucks a bit here but maybe not bad as the queues for xCloud are regularly 15 to 45 minutes.
That partnership is still going, so maybe once the data centres here are expanded later this year they’ll start advertising it hard again…
I’m with EE on its full 1.5 Gigabit fibre & pay monthly phone. You now have to pay for GamePass & where I live, even 4G can be patchy.
I’m all for moves like that, but really, Xbox needs to get more presence in sporting events if you want to connect with the youth; who love football & darts
Isn’t that’s the issue regardless of the demand they don’t have enough Xbox blades to reach say 50 to a hundred million which was the original target. Also, the series consoles weren’t exactly built to the cloud specification scale they need. I asked copilot what the realistic targets were, they could get today with the current blades, and it came to 10 to 20 million. There’s a chance they are already close to those cloud numbers.
I’m not sure how the first half is a response to what I said… I’m sorry but it’s not could be. There’s no mixing up Azure Growth and Xbox cloud gaming growth. They’re in completely different sections of Microsoft earnings and Satya doesn’t vaguely say “Growth in cloud”. When already talking about gaming he speaks about an increase in engagement in Xbox Cloud Gaming. They also do notably not say, “Cloud Gaming made XYZ money.” because as you’ve said yourself they can’t. It’s tied to Game Pass subs. Microsoft hasn’t shared Game Pass subscriber counts in a while, and that likely is because the growth number isn’t as high as if once was. But that’s also nothing surprising. Even companies like Netflix have moved from sharing total subscribers to focusing on engagement on the platform. Similarly Microsoft doesn’t share GP numbers, but they do (in the same section) speak of general Game Pass growth. That’s not mixing things up with Azure. Azure is in its own section being the massive profit bringer inner that it is. Xbox Cloud Gaming can benefit from Azure being in house and Microsoft overall can maximize efficiency, but when they’re talking about cloud gaming they’re talking about cloud gaming.
I thought we already agreed that markets are largely fixed and there’s no real influx of new gamers to console? Yes, Xbox will have to figure out how to actually reach mobile gamers with traditional console gaming spending models. Heck, free to play live service forever games on console and PC are continuing to eat into traditional spending models.
As for Xbox marketing, yeah, they should keep doing what they’re already doing and go harder with it all. HDMI 2.1 is standard and I don’t think anyone is buying a console for quick resume this late into the generation (they did their advertising for all the Series features at launch; I guess they could do that again if they intend to keep the Series consoles around a long time). I do want Xbox to do more with the Xbox Play Anywhere tags that have been popping up on game trailers and the Xbox/Xbox on PC/Xbox Cloud tags. Those have been great because games like Invincible Vs will have them on even the trailers they do outside of Xbox shows. Also Backwards compatibility isn’t talked about nearly enough by Xbox. They should just dunk on PS and Nintendo with that. Stuff like Xbox being the only place to play all the mainline Final Fantasy Games BECAUSE of backwards compatibility. More partnerships and sponsorships are great, but they can’t just shove money at that and make them happen overnight. That’s a lot of negotiations and contracts. Those are probably even happening behind the scenes now. Again, Xbox marketing has shown constant improvement this entire generation. If they can just keep doing that (improving) then it’s great. They’ve already leveled up their showcase and presentation game immensely.
Asha has her work cut out for her. The price of components has increased. If they lower the price of the Xbox Series consoles then they make less money on it. Also Project Helix is coming, gamers might question why spend money on a Series consoles when Helix is coming. If I was Asha I would focus on selling Series consoles and reduced the price. You already set the precedent of removing Call of Duty and lowering the price of gamepass do that with hardware. Halo, Gears, Forza Horizon and Fable all need to come out this year and need to be great. Market the 4 horseman and put them on the back of the Xbox Series X|S console box. Put the consoles back in stores across the world. Delay the ports of Halo, Gears, Forza and Fable indefinitely to PlayStation. Find a way to market this Call of Duty with Xbox on tv and Billboards. I want a Halo, Gears, Forza and Fable billboards in Times Square and around the world with the Series consoles. Make a green see thru Xbox Series X that you can sell around the holidays to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Xbox
I don’t think any of that is happening. The way I see it her idea is to work on Xbox features that will also be on helix. She said they will stabilize the console and spoke about cloud as well. Chances are new features that might be for creators are coming. If people can make money with the console, they’re more apt to pick it even at the high price. The COD removal to me was not a good precedent but it’s done. I think somewhere along the line maybe at the June showcase or later they will announce a new Gamepass tier for COD probably after looking at pre orders. They want to sell as much COD as possible so I don’t know if they will be putting too much Xbox branding there. Since she came aboard, I haven’t seen Xbox spend much. I’m guessing there won’t be any new Xbox commercial until after the June showcase.
One is on about how people on forums & social media go on about the growth of Cloud, not MS’s actual reporting of the data. One does not see the same massive growth in Game Pass subs compared to that of Cloud. So I feel some Xbox fans on social media are conflating the two.
There is of course, new gamers, but like even with social media, you aren’t going to see spectacular growth any more than one saw in the old days, that doesn’t mean one should give up it & having a audience of 100 million gamers is more than big enough
Xbox needs to get back to trying to sell consoles again as well as moves on cloud & PC. It simply neglected the console badly over the last couple of years… with no PR pushed on selling consoles, no deals & bad messaging in terms of exclusives
I feel, though, we’ll see more deals & a better push this year & that real good stuff is happening at Xbox @the MO