Microsoft Will Be Debating Right Now Whether Xbox Consoles Have a Future, Says Peter Moore

It feels like the video game console is at a crossroads. With Xbox Series X and S floundering in the ‘console war’, Sony suggesting PlayStation 5 is approaching the second half of its life after missing sales targets, and uncertainty around the release of the Nintendo Switch 2, there is growing concern that the traditional video game console business could be under threat.

[TheEnigma313]

It's obvious that MS is leaving the console biz. MS may have tons of money, but that doesn't mean they want to keep losing money on the gaming division to prove a point. Thanks Phil

[crazyCoconuts]

It's likely but not entirely obvious. The messaging is leaving a lot open to interpretation, and they haven't forked over their crown jewels to PS just yet.
It's POSSIBLE that the upcoming Xbox exclusives do so well they see an uptick in console sales and... change their mind??

[Michiel1989]

I feel like it's way too late in the console cycle for that, by the time some of them are out we are 1 year further. I think a better bet is to maybe make them with next gen in mind and make them cross gen between this and the next as to give their next console a great launch if the games turn out well. I feel that's their best bet to stay in the console business.

[GamerRN]

You should pray they don't exit. If they do, you will see the collapse of the gaming industry.

[Aloymetal]

Here we go again with that false sense of relevancy for the xbox platform.
I told you yesterday that the gaming industry was fine before MS entered the space and it will continue to do even better when they're finally gone. MS is/are not the ones keeping this industry healthy, far from it and most won't even bat an eye if they're gone.
...And Having lots of money doesn't mean success it just means you can keep failing for a long time.

[SeTTriP]

Xbox was spearheading the collapse of gaming.

[MrBaskerville]

They will just leave room for another competitor. Maybe someone who is more succesful at competing.

[UltimateOwnage]

Nah. We might see some real competition again. Maybe from a company that actually loves gaming. Like Sega.

[helicoptergirl]

Ridiculous. Acting like MS are the linchpin holding everything down and if they let go, then gaming will be ruined and prices will soar astronomically and creativity will be stifled and thwarted at every turn. It's a fallacy. I'm not saying it's preferrable to have MS out of the console space, but I am saying that all this fearmongering over what will happen if MS were to bow out is overexaggerated and overblown.

[andy85]

Collapse? It was here before Xbox and it'll be here long after. What exactly do they do to benefit it? Barely any game output, theyve taken studios and made them worse and they've hurt it trying to make everyone move to streaming.

[Bathyj]

Haha.
I'm actually laughing in real life at that

Why exactly?
What are Microsoft contributing to the industry that will be missed?

They're just taking a slot that should belong to someone better.

My vote is for Valve and a Steambox.

[GamerRN]

Since you guys clearly don't understand how this all works, I won't explain it to you. You guys will simply see it if it happens, then you'll quietly sit there acting like you saw it coming.

But you can research what Pachter and the other analysts have stated...
🤷

[DarkZane]

If anything, Xbox leaving the industry is actually what will save it and make it thrive. They don't contribute anything good to the industry and if anything, any bad practices today, they're the ones responsible.

Take a time machine, go back in the past and erase Xbox from existence, you'd come back to a present where the industry is much better. Remove Sony and/or Nintendo though, there is likely not going to be anything left.

[InUrFoxHole]

@Aloy
With competition sony has failed to deliver a diverse generation. Has shifted focus to Gaas, has put the support of their vr platform into the hands of PC, has jacked up the price of their service, is moving you into day and date on PC... Be careful what you close your eyes to. If you wish for MS to be gone, sony is heading in the same direction with less funding

[IRetrouk]

Didn't when sega switched it up🤷🏻‍♂️

[Lightning77]

Have fun waiting till 2040 somethin.

[Charlieboy333]

Have fun waiting till 2040 for Xbox to make a great game

[itsmebryan]

@theenigma
The same can be said if not worst about Sony. Who lose $2 billion of value, lose 26% of there operating income, missed sales goal by 4 million, and has no 1st party games coming out till next year? Console sales are not helping Sony. They are a much smaller company and how long can they afford to lose so much money?

[TheEnigma313]

Copeium

[Bathyj]

They are not losing money. They make profit. They bring in more then they spend. It's a business thing. Get a grown up to explain it to you.

You know a dropping stock price is not like that actually had to give 2 billion to someone. That didn't sell their shares. And failed to meet sales expectations? Still sold over 20 million in a year. You must be dizzy from all that spin.

[S2Killinit]

Just making up stuff to feel better? I dont blame you.

[S2Killinit]

Whats crazy is that when some xbox fans were cheering the acquisition of a large part of the multiplatform gaming, they didn’t realize they were cheering on what was to pave the way for xbox to leave console space.

Oh the irony. Karma?

[StormSnooper]

True ^
Yup, they celebrated taking games away from others even though they weren’t getting anything they wouldn’t have got anyway. Now it turns out it was all a plan to end Xbox as a console. Heh 🤦

[Profchaos]

Exactly right everyone thinks Microsoft is willing to bankroll an underperforming division simply because they can afford it however that's not how these companies operate they might bankroll something for a year or two while not gets established however now is the time they bare expecting a return on the investment and it's clear Xbox is underperforming.

[rlow1]

Good article and this is not a duplicate. The link that @Maximus Prime shared is just a small portion of the full interview. This post is the full interview.

Times are changing quick, the same ol way the industry been is changing. Where people play is changing.

[ChasterMies]

“What I think Phil is doing is setting up some smoke signals that we're thinking very differently”

I’m surprised how slowly Microsoft is moving toward Xbox as a software platform. They usually don’t care so much about upsetting their customers with unpopular changes like they do with every other version of Windows.

[badz149]

yeah like they just very recently removed support for Android apps on W11 without much of a warning. simply because they claimed that not many are using them. Sony got a huge flak when removing OtherOS support form the PS3, I think the same should be happening to MS to for removing the apk support. such a dick move!

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

That is surprising, I know big companies can't move fast, but they're moving at a glacial pace, everything they've done with Xbox for the past decade has been moving at such a slow pace. I suppose they have money to burn with how big the company is.

[derek]

This "console market hasn't grown narrative " is overblown. The market has grown just not as fast as say smartphones. But so what? There is still money to be made in the business and just because Microsoft has failed doesn't mean the entire industry is facing sudden collapse. Gaming will be fine, every industry has to go through periods of restructuring. AAA games are made becuase its what attracts gamers the most and is where they spend the most money. (Demand/supply) Microsoft abandoning hardware should have happened years ago, they clearly lost interest at a base level in producing games and/or paying 3rd parties to back during the tail end of the 360 generation. Tired of hearing about the future of gaming, just make great games and/or invest in one's made by other to attract people to your platform.

[hiroyukisanada]

@derek Right! It's so obvious that all Xbox has needed to do is create great first party games like every successful console has done since the original Nintendo. It's not rocket science lol I have lost so much respect for Microsoft over the last 10 years and their rabid fanboys that do not represent their base as a whole. Literally just MAKE Great games and people will invest in your platform. It's not rocket science or excuses. It really is that simple lol
This victim mentality that Phil has instilled this generation has really turned me off the brand for good. Really enjoyed OG Xbox and, while I couldn't wholeheartedly support 360 due to that atrocious failure rate, they had some killer games and services. Ever since Gears of War judgement dropped in 2011 and they shifted completely to Kinect, it's been so bad.

[Ninver]

It all started going down hill after Don Matrick stated "stick with the xbox 360 if your don't have any internet.

That man singlehandedly destroyed the xbox brand then jumped ship as it was sinking 😂

[DarXyde]

Ninver,

Don had the look of a sleazy businessman, but I don't understand why that moment gets a bad rep.

They were super honest in that moment, and I have to say, it sucks that this is the direction the company would take, but it was such a mask off moment that really highlights their plan.

Nowadays, you have Phil, who isn't direct but is very much still going in the same direction.

What it comes down to, at least from my observation, is Don and Phil were/are just the messengers. Don took a dive following the backlash, so they repackaged the messaging approach with a new person to make it seem like the company is taking a new approach. Nothing has really changed.

So I don't think Mattrick did anything that he wasn't asked to do by his own higher-ups.

He's like a landmark really. Just a reference to a point in time when things got bad. In reality, it was Microsoft's vision for Gen 8 going forward that destroyed them, not Mattrick.

That's my read of things, anyway.

[badz149]

Don was honest, Phil is sleazy! don't blame just Don for that downfall, Phil was part of the team back then too. the one announcing the price for the xbone on stage was Phil, remember?

[anast]

Phil can't tell the truth without being sued.

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

Reminds me of when the Wii U's poor sales led to speculation that consoles are dead. It's so repetitive and annoying.

Some people act like we're all about to switch over to cloud gaming when the internet infrastructure and data caps alone would take decades to accommodate such a change.

Google Stadia was shut down and died a horrific death just 1 year ago. lol

[darthv72]

If you are looking to something like the PS2 as the measuring stick... keep in mind that there was a percentage of units sold that were replacements for bad lasers and then you had others buy replacements because of model revisions. I'd venture a guess and say the real market saturation point is somewhere between 125-140m. And yes that includes handhelds because even those have users who invested in different variants over the coarse of their lifetime.

You can't truly use units sold as a measure of individual owners. you are right though, the market has certainly grown from something like the 8/16bit era to today, but nowhere near as quickly or as large as the smartphone/tablet market. You figure there are entire swaths of people who dont play consoles/handhelds but they do play on their phones.

[crazyCoconuts]

Agreed. I think if you look at the number of concurrent players playing the popular games of the time, it's always breaking records, not decreasing. Sure there are ppl that play on their phones, but a crap ton of kids and adults are sitting down at their computers or consoles to play. Are they all playing the same kinds of games i used to play? not really. But that doesn't mean consoles/computers are going away - they're gonna play games.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

It’s grown based on what. What PS console has ever hit 200 million? Even with Xbox doing poorly it’s the same customers who were already going to buy a PS console

[derek]

@353, Console sales are not the end goal but the gateway they're not the only measure of growth. You sell consoles to sell games and subscriptions to your platform and that has grown substantially since the ps1/ps2 generations. Revenue and profits have grown meaning the business has grown. Sony's concern is with their margins which have shrunk recently (some from the cost of producing a ps5 not decreasing like in past cycles, some from paying off the bungie purchase, some from growing development costs). So they cut jobs and will look to were they can save on development. Not saying that decision will be proven correct but this is a normal but unfortunate part of the business cycle and its happening across tech. You're talking about the addressable market, but as Layden said if you want to attract new people to console gaming then different games will have to be made then your traditional gta, cod, GoW etc that will interest them.

[CrimsonWing69]

They don’t. TVs have Gamepass and everything’s on PC.

[Ironmike]

Hopefully they do

[Travesty]

Of course, there’s more money in mobile gaming, less money to put in development and much smaller scale games to a more available audience since everybody has a phone. That doesn’t necessarily mean console gaming is in a decline because it’s not.

If Microsoft does get out of the hardware business and solely focuses on software. I can see Steam coming in and making a console along with their portable.
Microsoft accumulated a lot of talent and I hope they do well with it honestly.
But Sony does need competition to help keep them aligned. PS5 as much as I love the console, it just had great moments in sputters not like in a consistent amount.. and that’s not necessarily their fault. Game development has taken a dramatic amount of time to develop for.. but this generation has been definitely limited. And if Sony has steep competition, I think it would help them find a way to be more innovative.

[SeTTriP]

Imo Sony is holding a lot of major first party titles until the end of the consoles life cycle.the last 2 or 3 years they'll drop banger after banger to sell the ps 6.

[MrDead]

Xbox needs an owner that wants to make games and add to the industry. MS has never cared about the making games side only the money, they purchased two publishers that already release games on their system thinking that would bring more people to Xbox and take them away from competition, now they need that competition back buying the games they'd banned so to keep their publishers afloat... who'd of thought removing publishers biggest revenue generator in the console market wouldn't work out, MS is a joke.

MS just needs to go far, far away from console and computer gaming and maybe focus on what seems to suit them more, mobile gaming, cheap little money grabbers that require little imagination and creativity but can be pumped out by the thousands and monetised to death.

[Lightning77]

"MS just needs to go far, far away from console and computer gaming and maybe focus on what seems to suit them more, mobile gaming, cheap little money grabbers that require little imagination and creativity but can be pumped out by the thousands and monetised to death."

And which games are they doing this with currently?

[MrDead]

You miss the point completely. MS is a creativity bankrupt mega corp that gave up creating and are solely focusing on acquisition, when you get to the size of MS megamergers are how you effectively raise the stock price and buy market dominance. They want a premade business that just generates money and the mobile phone gaming market suits them far better, cheap money grabbers with little cost and thought that can be pumped out by the millions.

[Lightning77]

Makes no sense. How can they be "creatively bankrupt" when just 6 years ago they had 5 studios? How can you create these super amazing new IP with 5 studios? You need to buy more studios to create these games right?

I disagree with ABK that's just pure power grab tho they did let Toys For Bob go independent, again that's a pro industry move. Bethesda has been a long time partnership for over 20 years with several exclusive games or timed games So BZ makes sense. Xbox Game Studios makes even More sense from what you're talking about. You need studios to create these games. xbox games studios means more games, also means more creative games. Games like Fable wouldn't make a comeback and South Of Midnight or Clock Work Revolution wouldn't be a thing. So what "creative Bankruptcy" are you talking about.

[Hereandthere]

With Phil and Sarah in charge, it's dead, they don't value system selling exclusives and don't want to put the resources or effort into making top notch 1st party games.

[Lightning77]

I guess HB2, Avowed and Indy are just figments of our imagination then?

[andy85]

None of those are out though. So no one knows if they're top notch. People said the same about Redfall and Starfield. From all these studios we're still waiting for something acclaimed. Until then it's always gonna be waiting for the effort to be put in

[purple101]

There like a rotting toe that has got frostbite, eventually, you need to cut it off to save the body

This is Xbox and the body is Microsoft

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Clickbait 🐂 💩 every week is doom and gloom.

[anast]

I am The Oracle.

[Julion0715]

A man child u mean

[anast]

You might need to check what you just wrote before putting that title on other people. It's called being aware.

You're welcome.

[blacktiger]

Although I'm not a big fan of Microsoft in fact I really hate them. However I'm also not a fan of one corporation to win it all.

[Miacosa]

Just like the other business lines that Microsoft runs it will end up placing their games everywhere. While Games Pass service will be the main access point they will still produce a console but it will no longer be necessary to access games.

[TwoPicklesGood]

Ummm the CEO of Xbox said multiple times that are important and aren't going anywhere.

[gold_drake]

uhm, the ceo of microsoft has more say than phil.

[Bathyj]

1. A business doesn't have to continuously grow and grow to be sustainable. In fact that's impossible you can't grow and grow eventually it has to Plateau. The industry experienced a huge boom during covid and now it's settling down hence not growing. Not growing is just Microsoft's excuse. They said it about five times during that little sit down when they told us they were going third party. All of business has to do to keep existing is to make profit, not grow forever.

2. Nintendo and PlayStation are doing fine. They're selling millions of consoles, millions of games and making loss of profit. There's only one lame duck in the console industry that car compete and that's why they've tried to buy everything up to compensate. It's okay Microsoft will continue to exist they will simply drop the platform and become full third party and they won't have the burden of trying to make a good console they will just release games made on the backs of other people's talent.

This is the future.

[Destiny1080]

phils top secret plan its not difficult to decipher

xbox exclusive games are know coming to playstation

[hard joe]

xbox console has no future
it will be merged with gaming division of microsoft

[Lionsguard]

I think PC is just the future. Games nowadays are held back by consoles. Playing FF7 Rebirth right now and I'm just dying for a PC version that isn't so laggy and textures still deciding to whether they want to load or not.. I can't help but dream of this game being made entirely for PC with no console chains to hold them back.

[46player]

Between the terrible decision to make Xbox Series S and the oppressive management of all the developers they basically bought and destroyed, it’s clear Microsoft has LOST the console wars. They will continue to thrive in the PC space with little first party games support.

[bigfish]

These companies do long term forecasts going even beyond 5years. Its clear that MS Long term forecasts for hardware revenue is not painting a pretty pitcure therefore they are in a transition phase to leave the hardware business behind and focus on being a publisher where there long term forecasts is looking healthier.

MS leaving the console business in the traditional sense is nothing to be ashamed about its business and you have to go where there is maximum return on investment. All the best to MS if anything it shows good business acumen.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Microsoft giving they can profit being 3rd party publisher due to the cash you get so I'm thinking they might go publisher.

[Retro1986]

Yes it has a future. Would love to see a hybrid like Nintendo. With full hardware spec.

[maniacmayhem]

Sony bringing everything to PC, MS bringing everything to PC, PC doesn't charge for multiplayer, at this point why on the blue earth would anyone invest in consoles, especially next gen consoles?

Seriously, the only one left standing in terms of one place to play their games is Nintendo.

[BehindTheRows]

Sony isn't bringing everything to PC and have never said they are. Whether that changes for PS6 remains to be seen.

Microsoft is the only one who's games not only all come to PC, but do so day and date.

[maniacmayhem]

You're lieing to yourself if you don't think Sony isn't actively bringing their library to PC. Every other month we get an announcement of one of their "exclusives" being ported to PC.

[fsfsxii]

you can emulate anything nintendo with ease lmao, good luck emulating anything that isn't ported to pc on modern systems.

[BehindTheRows]

As the saying goes, we’ll see.

[jznrpg]

The debate has been over for some time. They are just slow playing it and trying to ease the fans that remain into a digital rental future disguised as play anywhere.

[Aloymetal]

Exactly! Soften the blow I guess although they don't really care about saving face either, MS will gladly pick up their bags and leave the console space with the flip of a switch if they have to cause they still got their golden goose aka momma Windows.