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can you change the title of this topic to Xbox multiplatform strategy or just start one as this is no longer about a rumor but just the multiplat strategy. Thanks.
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Reminds me when I hear people who say Satya, who turned Microsoft into the second largest company, should he fired because of how they handled Xbox lol.
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Foresight is a thing. Satyaâs idea worked in this regard but he has had some misste p s as well. Iâd love to see a world where gaming is similar to the uniformity format value like with VHS, DVD and Blu-ray. Imagine what it would have been like if DVD or Blu-ray players manufacturers had a walled garden and controlled the content. I certainly would like to think Xbox is paving the way for something similar where content will be what matters and not platforms.
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While i agree itâs only Xbox falling behind right now, PS3 shared sales with PS2, which is the best selling Sony console to date, so itâs not like console sales are growing either.
Saying the reason X One did worse than 360 is releasing games on PC is delusional, first, itâs not like Xbox was doing great last gen before porting games to PC.
Second, X360 had a lot of great temporal or fully console exclusive games, i can name over 10 that were rated with a 9/10 or higher, while i canât name any outside of Forza Horizon during Oneâs generation. Also MS spent less money on marketing last gen, which doesnât help.
And you make it sound like itâd be easy for MS to reach Sonyâs HW numbers in the console space, the best Xbox year, they shipped 13M consoles, last year PS5 shipped 20M for example, after all MSâs console has to deal with not existing in Asia, plus right now itâs disappearing in most EU countries aswell.
I agree MS made many mistakes during the last 10 years, but right now, releasing games on PS5 looks like the right move to me financially talking.
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By the time Indy comes out on PS, it will have been a year since the first ports dropped. One more game in a year, and the prevailing sentiment from the media is âAll games coming! And soooon!â
It just has no bearing in reality
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Itâs tiring as is the ENTIRE current game environment discussions, things are changing no one is immune to it and each company will be adjusting over time to accommodate the changing gaming landscape.
I hope the console wars and other internal bitter gaming feuds just die out due to the industry changes.
No one âboxâ is going to be the end all be all of gaming, games will be on most devices and you as a user will just pick how you play and what eco system you play under.
I think gaming discourse in general has run itâs course in this particular version of gaming and I look forward to the changing landscape over time.
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While I disagree with some specifics I get your general point. I feel like if I listed my disagreements it would be a back and forth on those things and Iâm more interested in exploring your general point.
For example, I do think that consoles are stagnating in sales and itâs a relatively shrinking market (meaning that the sales growth doesnât match population growth) but I also agree that Microsoft has a problem selling Xbox consoles and yes that has to do a lot with their missteps of the past and present. But if we have a back and forth on these little things then we canât discuss your greater point.
But I do think you are bringing up a fantastic point in regards to Microsoft sacrificing their walled garden to pursue becoming a third party.
The 30% cut taken by various digital storefronts is an incredible revenue generator. Look what itâs done for Google and Apple. Look what itâs done for Steam. And we can see what is done for PlayStation in the last generation.
Microsoft has done a poor job in fostering and maintaining any of their digital storefronts. While they were chasing trends with the Windows Store, they were trailblazers with Xbox Live Arcade.
At some point there was a lack of vision (or will to carry out a vision) at MS that didnât see what Xbox had and looked at carrying that over to the PC when Steam was starting out. So theyâre a bit behind there.
As Iâve said, I agree with this move to port more games to more platforms but disagree with how they are going about it because I think they are sacrificing their own walled garden for it.
Thatâs a lot of money that theyâre resigning. Games like Fortnite and GTA6 are going to generate billions in MTX in the next decade and if the Xbox sales still fall largely due to this 3rd party strategy, thatâs a lot of money theyâre leaving on the table. Thatâs what I find puzzling.
Like I said Iâm not against porting more of their games to other machines, I just completely donât understand why they are going about it the way they are.
I believe thereâs a way to do it in a way that could foster the Xbox hardware userbase and even grow it.
Itâs not communicated enough that when you buy on Xbox, you get a free PC version as well. That you get the game cheaper on Xbox with Game Pass. That you can play all these games for cheap with GP and the Xbox. That you have cross-saves and that you can play your game on most devices through a browser when youâre away from your console. That you can pull up your games on your phone and start playing. That everyone with an Xbox already has their own PS Portal equivalent being their own phones or tablets at home.
Anyways, I donât understand the sacrifice of one for the other.
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I agree the industry is changing and Iâll also concur MS is probably doing what they believe is right.
But I wonât say I look forwards to where this is going, in fact I think the entire industry (certainly in the west) is in deep, deep trouble. They (from the top investors, CEOâs all the way down to the rank & file devs in almost every company releasing games in this market) have taken consumers in this hobby for granted for far too long & now weâre starting to see numbers which reflect consumer lassitude.
The market is saturated with samey copy/paste experiences differentiated with merely a new coat of paint. And oh yeah, everything costs a bomb now. Over the past 30 years this industry has been corporatized to the point of eating itself. Games cost way too much to make (thatâs not the consumerâs fault, thatâs the industryâs fault) & take way, way too long to produce.
I think Concordâs pitiful fate is a warning to everyone.
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I am the last one to defend the corporations and they have indeed made mistakes that affected the industry in negative ways but trying to paint gamers (especially the core community) as angels is really funny.
We have seen time and time again big publishers putting out quality games that were not the âsamey copy/paste experiences with a new coat of paintâ and gamers didnât give a single f***. For how long EA/Activision/Bethesda e.t.c. should release games like Mirrorâs Edge, Titanfall 2, Dead Space, Singularity, Prey, Dishonored, The Evil Within when all of them flopped left and right? corporations are sometimes evil but they are also not stupid and definitely not charities.
If a game doesnât sell then the only logical thing to do for them is release more known IPâs/âsamey copy/paste experiences with a new coat of paintâ. As much as we donât want to admit it we gamers vote with our walletsâŚa recent example is EA with Dead Space Remake - EA released an amazing remake with Dead Space, it didnât do good sales wise so future plans for the IP are shelved and the studio moved onâŚitâs simple as that and I canât blame EA for doing this. 
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Honestly very good points.
An example that came to mind is Hi-Fi Rush. Fantastic game, critically acclaimed. Yet when it was ported over to the PS5 it debuted at #124 in the charts. Its peak CCU on Steam was 6,132 which is⌠I mean itâs not great.
Then when Microsoft was going to shut down Tango Gameworks, gamers were up in arms like âXbox finally gets a good exclusive and then they shut them down!?â. Like, yes because none of you fuckers bought the game!?
(Side note: absolutely not advocating for layoffs or studios being shut down, just commenting on the business perspective.)
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To me the gaming industry in general especially the console is in a funk and needs a total reset. Selling more consoles doesnât necessarily mean success. Sony has 61 million consoles, but the engagement and software sales have been poor not showing a strong userbase. The segregation to me has led to a shrinking market where every platform holderâs success comes at the detriment of the other. This is similar to the Betamax vs VHS or Blu-ray vs HD-DVD war. Certainly one format is better than 2 or more as it encourages less wastage and a bigger pool for all to partake in. I would like to believe this is more or less where Microsoft Xbox is pivoting to and that their NextGen console would seal the deal. The statements Phil made when he said "Us as fans, as players of games, we just have to anticipate thereâs going to be more change in how some of the traditional ways that games were built and distributed, thatâs going to change. Thatâs going to change for all of us. " This sounds more like something Xbox has already started probably for next gen. Also there was a question that DF tackled recently of why Xbox tech like velocity architecture, sampler feedback some of which they believe would have solved the series S memory issue isnât used. I think this multiplatform approach could lead or start the reset the industry needs if it is handled well.
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Dead Space Remake isnât âamazingâ.
The original still holds up. Iâm not the only one to think that either. The same can be said about the other titles you listed. What are going to do? Guilt people into spending 80 euros on video games they donât want? Because thatâs the crux of the matter, i.e. the market is now saturated with products no one has asked for or desires.
So yes, the customer is always king.
But if the (âalways kingâ) customer chooses to buy/support âsamey copy/paste experiences with a new coat of paintâ games instead of (great) original IP/games with new ideas why were you complaining about the gaming market being risk averse and âsaturated with samey copy/paste experiencesâ? publishers are giving customers exactly what they want, aka more âsamey copy/paste experiences with a new coat of paintâ games instead of games that apparently no one asked for. 
And yeah DSR is amazing and you should play it at some point to see what I am talking about, Motive did an impeccable job and they deserve all the praise and then some. If risk isnât rewarded then you wonât see more risky projects from the publishers because they donât want to lose money, itâs really that simple.
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I picked up Dead Space remake when it was 8 euros on the Xbox store last December. So I have l have played it. Itâs just a fresh coat of paint on an experience I played already.
FYI the industry is in trouble because everyone from to to bottom (like I said previously) is not reading the room. They donât know their market or core demographic anymore. No one asked for Hellblade, Concord or any of the recent underperformers.
People do ask for new Halo games, new Bloodborne games, new Days Gone games⌠but we donât get them, do we? No, we get GAAS or copy/paste Ubisoft-style samey stuff with increasingly lower sales numbers every year. Next up on the âshareholders are not happy with the gameâs performanceâ list will be Assassinâs Creed Shadows. Add the next Dragon Age as well.
They are reading the sales numbers and thatâs enough. lol
Also you should inform yourself why we donât get new Halo, Bloodborne and Days Gone gamesâŚthere are good reasons why we donât get them (and in the case of Halo we will get it sometime in the future).
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All Iâve heard for years and years now is âmicrotransactions this, season pass that, battle pass this, DLC thatâ.
Firewalk release a game at $40 that very much goes against that model and people are all âthey didnât release it as free to play? Are they stupid?â
Iâd argue that gamers a lot of the time have absolutely no idea what they want.
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Well⌠they absolutely didnât want Concord. Thatâs for sure.
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I myself have no issue with Indy coming the PS5, I always expected it too .
I would like to see Xbox have a basic rule of if MS do plan to bring a AAA Xbox In-House exclusive to the PS5 then it needs to be 5 years older or more
Forza Horizon 5 would be a bad look coming out on the PS5 this year or next but Forza Horizon 3 or 4 wouldnât get such a backlash if that makes sense to anyone out there
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