600°

Some publishers reportedly questioning support for Xbox amid "flatlining" sales

That’s according to GamesIndustry.biz head Chris Dring, who said his takeaway from GDC last week was that he thinks “Xbox is in real trouble as a hardware manufacturer”.

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videogameschronicle.com
MrDead67d ago (Edited 67d ago )

PlayStation will be MS's biggest console platform to publish games on. They tried the buy-up and mass ban of multiplatform games and it's just ended up with them needing Sony for sales.

KwietStorm_BLM67d ago

That's the reason they bought publishers, to profit across platforms..

MrDead67d ago (Edited 67d ago )

...why were they restricting Bethesda games then? Seems a weird thing to do if "That's the reason they bought publishers", it seems more like they bit off more then they could handle and now MS is stepping in and taking over at Xbox as they need the sales.

S2Killinit67d ago

Its so ironic! Some of these xbox fans were soooo happy that MS was going to buy up the industry and deprive others of games they all used to enjoy. They cheered MS on, now it turned out that MS will need to go multiplat to pay for the cost of the acquisitions. Karma?

Cacabunga67d ago

If at the same time PS is going back to making single player games then it will be the only console of choice

Barlos66d ago

Exactly. How can't people see that their plan was to eventually drop hardware and go multi platform - essentially becoming the biggest publisher in the industry?

The disagrees you got shows there's a lot of people in denial over it.

BlackOni53d ago (Edited 53d ago )

If I remember correctly, they stated their recent Blizzard acquisition as a way to stay competitive with Nintendo and Sony, not specifically to profit across platforms. Of course, the end goal is always profits, but they've also made a bunch of exclusives that haven't made their way to other platforms yet, with more on the way.

I imagine the other acquisitions were for the same reason, but I could be wrong. They recognize that most of their offerings aren't to the same level of quality as what the competition is doing, hence the buyouts and porting older xbox exclusives to PS and Nintendo.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 53d ago
Lightning7767d ago

Didn't know Halo, Fable, Perfect Dark Gears, Avowed was goin on PS originally.

YourMommySpoils67d ago

Dude, just give up already, just throw in that towel.

MrDead67d ago (Edited 67d ago )

Well as you guys don't buy games MS may be forced too for sales. New Halo won't be much good on such a tiny platform as Xbox, but they do have the option of PC and PS to keep their games going and hit sales targets.

ocelot0767d ago

Halo was actually suppose to be a Dreamcast exclusive. Perfect Dark started life on Nintendo, Gears at one point did have a PS3 build.

Abear2166d ago

No way those games wind up on PlayStation, sadly, they’ll be forced to run on Series S too and will be lesser games because of it.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 66d ago
Lightning7767d ago (Edited 67d ago )

There's no you guys here. As usual, here and on Twitter nobody ever makes any sense. Because internet.....

Uuh uh. Come out with new hardware only to put everything on PS and neglect their new console and forget console growth right....

Yep that makes the most sense in the world ppl. Some guy on twitter said the exact same ignorant thing. Riiight makes perfect sense....

@mommy what towel I don't work for MS? I know I make too much sense it goes over your head I know and you're frustrated because you want only one console in the market. One day you'll get it... Maybe....

BehindTheRows67d ago (Edited 67d ago )

My man, much of this dame doubt was cast upon us before those 4 games released outside of Xbox/PC and here we are yet again. Of course, Microsoft could easily put this to bed if it weren't true, but they don't. The smoke coming from whatever fire is real.

Going full 3rd party? Not quite so soon, but I'm inclined to believe the rumors of many more Xbox games coming. It makes sense as Xbox console sales have largely dried up and it would be silly to ignore the much larger userbases of Nintendo and PlayStation.

MrDead67d ago (Edited 67d ago )

Oh, er sorry you seem to be taking this news a little rough. Don't worry though PC, Nintendo and PlayStation will keep the market afloat and hopefully MS will sell enough on other platforms to make a new Halo for us all to enjoy. .. Also don't forget MS has King so you can cheer that on, lots of profit!

Cockney67d ago

As usual it's everybody else's fault

VenomUK67d ago

@Lightning78 Phil Spencer has just said in an interview that Xbox has had a ‘brand pivot’ so that it will be available on any platforms Gen Z wants to play. This interview is confirmation that Xbox games have gone full third party. It seems he wasn’t ready to say it at the Xbox event last month, now he has soft announced it.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer says multiplatform ‘brand pivot’ partly driven by Gen Z habits
https://www.videogameschron...

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ChasterMies67d ago

Not will be. Already are. Minecraft and Call of Duty already sell more on PlayStation than on Xbox.

MrNinosan67d ago

Hi-Fi Rush most likely also sold more on Playstation already.

KwietStorm_BLM67d ago

They "restricted" games to make their platform look like a good buy, knowing they could make a move at any time because they now own the IPs. But anyone who's been paying attention to even a little bit of their business model over the last handful of years has seen them moving in this direction. They've explicitly said themselves they want Xbox on as many screens as possible, Xbox being a brand, not hardware.

notachance67d ago

all their own fault

1. They trained their own costumers to wait for games to come to gamepass instead of buying from the store. I'll bet most of their customers have stopped buying games entirely since gamepass launched, with some high profile exception like Baldur's Gate 3 and Hogwarts Legacy.

2. They split their own SKUs into the weaker S and the more powerful X, particularly the weaker S needed extra effort to port games into it. With the sales flatlining there's simply not enough profit to justify the cost to do it.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 53d ago
Einhander197267d ago

Probably sooner rather than later at this rate...

Elda67d ago (Edited 67d ago )

LMAO!! Why did MS/XB even bother in the first place. Just wasted money.

Zeref67d ago

Publishing certain games on Playstation makes them more money not less. So how is it wasted money? Lol

mandf67d ago

68billion for activision will take a long time to show profit. It was a power move that backfired

Zeref67d ago (Edited 67d ago )

@mandf
Backfired how??

You think they actually thought they're gonna profit from a 68 billion dollar deal in a year? What are you talking about my guy?

mandf67d ago (Edited 67d ago )

Zeref playstation makes up the majority of buying console players for activision games. There goes that money and let's give it out free in gamepass. If you don't understand that then you will never understand business. Playstation players aren't going to leave playstation for Xbox like ms thought or delusional xbox players thought. Every single ip 99percent sold more on playstation.

Ms started to create a monopoly and for once they aren't in control and got called out. Ms is the greediest of all corporations in this world. A lot of gamers aren't blind. I wont buy any ms produced game.

You are watching ms bow out of the console business. They couldn't bully bribe or buy their way into dominance. And now ms is very shortly going to held accountable for a lost venture. The entirety of ms console has never showed a real profit. It has been subsidized by ms. Literally a waste of money. Today they are worse then where they started..

Year 3 or 4 of this gen and they still haven't reached 30million sold. Where is all this future profit coming from.

shinoff218367d ago

With ms signing that 10 year deal with call of duty. I bet they knew from the jump that they were going this route. Probably trying to figure out the best way to break it to its base. Sure 68 billion can't be made back in a year but some xbox players are jumping ship now. So what happens in 5 years when console sales dwindle to nothing. Answer the same exact thing that's happening now. You can paint rainbows and butterflies all you want but ms will be releasing even more on ps and switch. At this point it's a dud

StormSnooper66d ago

They have spent more than they have earned in 4 generations.

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Christopher67d ago

I think Elda is referring to getting into hardware in the first place. I don't agree. We need more hardware competition, IMHO.

mandf67d ago

I respectfully disagree. Go play Nintendo switch games tell me you think they are reviewed on the same scale as ms and ps.

Now think of it this way if ms was the only console and switch and ps5 games were on xbox. The standard of reviews changes. Nintendo has some great games let's get that out the way. Zelda has no speech in this current day. If final fantasy did this they would get review bombed and gamers would riot.

Sea of thrives when it it released has 4 enemies and a kraken that has no body hit metacritic at 7. If that game wasn't exclusive if would been review bombed.

Dragons dogma 2 just released and all we here is framerate problems and let destroy the game through the internet. Name one Bethesda gamethat never had framrate problems we overlook it.

3 consoles create a corrupt and unbalanced conversations. If a company only has to produce one not 5 games they can optimize and make a better game. Game development becomes cheaper and quality becomes better if zelda was on every platform it would become a better game. Reviewers wouldn't gloss over low poly textures , no speech, no mo cap and other industry standardized game elements.

Almost every xbox game in the last 4 years has been hyped to no end. Xbox last 2 exclusive were touted as games of the generation months before release. Then reviewed and low and behold average at best go look at the disparity of the reviews 10s to 2s. That's fishy. I'm a playstation fan and I read all the reviews on godr and I heard from some reviewers was more of the same as if it was a negative . Halo nor zelda has been called out for that. If there was only one console for those 3 games. You would see the reviewers hold games to higher or the same standards.

Competition is good when games developers go against each with same exact standard halo trying to out do gow is better on the same console instead of console vs console.

The more consoles you have the more watered down games, reviews and standards you have.

Petebloodyonion67d ago

Quick question Chief didn't you cancel this story earlier on?
https://n4g.com/news/259203...
What makes this one valid versus the previous one that was posted this morning?
Just curious

Petebloodyonion67d ago

@Mandif
I disagree the more consoles you have = the less chance an Apple situation will happen
Tell me Do you think that if Sony or MS were alone you would have backward compatibility?
Would you get a free upgrade patch?
Do you believe that Sony or MS would try making games? Just look at Valve, Epic, or simply Meta with Quest which only produces games when potential VR competitors are around (PSVR2 and Apple).
What would stop Sony from removing your digital rights on an older platform and asking you to get the newer Playstation to keep them?
Or how about MS with DRM like 2013?

mandf67d ago (Edited 67d ago )

@pete

Yes I do. Couple thousand games from last gen is profit and is stupidity if you don't. Apple literally has a small blueprint in gaming. None of the big 3 has ever charged you backward compatability.

Digital rights are a joke and a whole other can of worms.30yrs from now none of our current software will compatible with future hardware. If it is in what form. The truest way to preserve you game collection is physical games.digital rights what a joke. Read your licensing agreement. Are you going to buy a car and pay for access to your headlights once month it's just 50cents for the radio. We already lost the war on digital rights. Physical is the way to go. Playstation gamers are buying physical games that's called demand. Gamepass has made best buy and wal mart to not sell xbox games anymore. It's a gotcha moment once it's all digital we will be renting games by the month or candy crush 5dollars for 5 lives. Digital sucks and is only going to get worse once congress start taxing gamers for high internet usage. Like I said a big can of worms. Sorry man we need a couple hours to discuss this in depth.

By the way drm and digital rights are really different my other comment is about quality of games and competition between them not quality of hardware maker

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 67d ago
wesnytsfs67d ago

They should like 2 years later like Sony does with PCX games.

Eonjay67d ago

Not exactly because Microsoft is already bringing everything to PC as well. This is about bring games to other console platforms. I would only expect Sony to release certain games on Xbox like MLB and Marathon...

GhostScholar67d ago (Edited 67d ago )

It wasn’t Sonys choice to bring the show to Xbox. The devs themselves decided not to renew the contract with Sony for exclusivity.

dumahim67d ago (Edited 67d ago )

edit: wrong thread

GamerRN67d ago

The Devs didn't decide not to renew the contract, MLB stepped in and demanded multiplatform

shinoff218366d ago

Ghostscholar , lol it wasn't the devs. The devs are sonys studio. It was the MLB.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 66d ago
XiNatsuDragnel67d ago

They're slowly becoming a 3rd party publisher.

VoiceMale67d ago (Edited 67d ago )

what'cha mean SLOWLY?
They're already a 3rd party publisher...been that way for years.
or maybe you are suggesting ONLY a 3rd party publisher...then the answer is NO
and to be fair both consoles have their IPs on PC which makes them 3rd party by definition.

Nintendo alone remains solely an ONLY for console with 1st party IPs

i know a lot of ppl will be upset at this but they have to understand the changing industry is heading towards not all 1st party content will be exclusives to a single box, some but not all, or even timed going forward.

FinalFantasyFanatic66d ago

You could see this coming from a mile away, we did hear rumours of a new Xbox, but I'll be very surprised if it actually comes to fruition, unless that's actually an Xbox/PC handheld they're developing.

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210°

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2's Scope Was Impacted by Xbox Series S Limitations

Wccf tech writes: "Kingdom Come Deliverance 2's scope was impacted by the Xbox Series S hardware limitations, as developers could only make a game that was 25% bigger than its predecessor."

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wccftech.com
-Foxtrot12h ago

This is the issue with things like this

Xbox Series X is apparently to MS the worlds most powerful console

However the Series S is obviously a limitation because it’s underpowered and developers have to go for parity.

So what’s the point of the world’s most powerful console if you are holding third party developers back? They aren’t going to push themselves if they have to think about the weakest console.

The issue wouldn’t be as bad if it was just Xbox but you are also affecting the PS version aswell

I think developers need to start just taking advantage of a console and if one of them can’t do X Y and Z then f*** them…why should the others suffer. What’s MS going to do? The bigger the franchise the least chance MS are going to tell them to f*** off. Baulders Gate 3 seemed to have stood their ground and suddenly their “strict” parity rule didn’t really matter. We suddenly got super optimisation efforts for the Series S that got things sorted.

anast8h ago

I agree, and the sad part is use normal folk saw it the second they announced their plans.

Abear214h ago(Edited 4h ago)

Agree 100% this is why I didn’t want the M$ Monopoly, now PS5 version will be held back too.

If PS5 Pro comes out and Series S is still a thing it’ll be interesting what differences and what devs choose to do. Really hoping Rockstar pushes the PS5 pro with GTA6 and we get the best version possible.

outsider16242h ago

Good ole S indeed. Everyone knew this all along. S was holding games back...Now where the hell is Orchard i want a word with him.

LucasRuinedChildhood13h ago

More info from the author of the article, I think: https://www.reddit.com/r/ki...

Quote:
"1) I was told this info from the producer of the game Martin Klíma.
2) He specifically said the game will have only one mode.
3) And this mode is 4K 30 on PS5/XSX and 1440p 30 on XSS.
4) He said that the game is already running north of the 30 FPS cap so the performance should be stable on launch, much better than KCD1.
5) The limitation was XSS because of the 10GB memory. He said that's why they wanted to make the game 25% larger.
6) Speculation on my part: the output resolution is probably upscaled and the reason why there won't be a 60 FPS mode is because it'll most likely be very CPU heavy, like Dragon's Dogma 2 for example."

Doesn't seem like they're adding a 40fps mode on PS5/Series X for launch even if they can handle it.

Sgt_Slaughter8h ago

I'd much rather have 1440p/60fps or even 45fps. Having just one, even with the Series S in mind, is disappointing.

franwex7h ago(Edited 7h ago)

Remember when xbots were adamant that the series s won’t hold back the gen?

Microsoft just needs to let go of the mandatory parity. Who cares if your grandma doesn’t understand that a game cannot be played on the S. It’s not like it she can buy you a physical game for it anyway. Before buying the game put up a notice that it only works on series X. If you’re buying for a friend-allow for a refund.

Bam. Everyone is happy. Most series s owners are for casuals that want Game Pass anyway and most likely don’t purchase most games.

If the developers want it to run on S, let them figure it out.

Chocoburger1h ago

If it were Series X only then they'd only be selling to 25% of the Xbox Series userbase, and that's certainly not worth the time and effort into doing a port. Could just do PS5 & PC instead. No compromises needed.

Jin_Sakai7h ago

“During the event, the Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 producer also revealed that on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, the game will run at 4K resolution and 30 frames per second“

Another “creative decision” right? 🤦‍♂️

IHateNate6h ago

Amateur hour. Very incapable developer.

Outside_ofthe_Box6h ago(Edited 6h ago)

Since you're not an amateur and clearly know more than them, can you over there and help get the game running on the S without having to sacrifice their true vision. Us gamers would really appreciate you using your wisdom for good 🙏

IHateNate6h ago

Thousands of games run just fine on S.

But Kingdom Come is the game that can’t. Must be one hell of a game!

franwex4h ago(Edited 4h ago)

Thousands of games run on PS4 and on Switch. If developers want them to run on those systems. Fine. Those two platforms still get new games. Sony isn’t making studios also make a ps4 pro version, or Nintendo a wiiu version. Microsoft technically is.

IHateNate3h ago(Edited 3h ago)

If games like Alan Wake 2, GTA6, COD, hellblade all run on S, no excuse for this 100x smaller and 100x worse looking game to be held back.

outsider16242h ago(Edited 2h ago)

"Thousands of games run just fine on S.

But Kingdom Come is the game that can’t. Must be one hell of a game!"

Kingdom come 2 runs just fine alright. Its the SCOPE that they want. They had to cut it because of the stupid S series. Hellblade2 ran just fine too..but im pretty confident if it was just the X in mind, the scope of the game would have been much bigger.

IHateNate2h ago

So their scope is greater than that of GTA6 and warzone? Wow. Crazy

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100°

Celebrate the Diablo Anniversary with March of the Goblins

Come celebrate the 1-year anniversary of Diablo IV and the 2-year anniversary of Diablo Immortal! There are heaps of rewards to mark these celebrations with a bounty of devilish goods across both games.

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terminalgamer.com
anast14h ago

This game is about to get buried by Path 2.

LordoftheCritics13h ago

Still no global chat or group finder.

The emptiest MP game ever made.

OtterX13h ago

1 more month then I can celebrate 1 year since i stopped playing and uninstalled the game.

Walalon11h ago

We are on the same team brother!

Rynxie8h ago

I uninstalled d4 after they kept screwing over the sorc build and I beat the game. I also uninstalled immortal after reading the end. I actually went back to d2r here and there.

70°

Tales of the Shire Stands at a Fork in the Road Regarding Magic

Tales of the Shire has many hurdles to jump to live up to the J.R.R. Tolkien masterpiece, and magical elements might be its most pertinent one.

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gamerant.com