"When something looks this good, it’s okay to want more than one.
Announcing the Robot White controller. Enhanced for the next gen. Compatible with the current gen"
Just how shock-ing is it?
With Microsoft’s long list of poor messaging and poor decisions this week, combined with rumors of behind-the-scenes problems with some of its top games, one frequent point that keeps coming up is how much weight has been thrown behind Xbox/PC/Ultimate Game Pass.
Well fancy that. A Forbes article with common sense.
Microsoft's only shot to get more gamers, being the devils advocate, is to go Mobile and free to play with ads to grow their fan base. With maybe a subscription to games like cod on Mobile to get more to buy in what they are offering.
But mobile isn't like consoles or PC at all. You can't charge huge amounts for games because that platform is used to cheap or free content. Can't go to Nintendo and Sony with game pass because they'(competitors) aren't stupid to destroy their own platforms with Microsoft's rental service. And PC gamers dabble with it but they're fine with Steam and other, similar offerings. Casuals are their target but do casuals really care because up to this point, they haven't.
They put themselves in a bind and I'm not sorry for them in the least. When you kill your own sales of hardware and software, you groom your base to not buy but to rent, and do everything you can but do what works for Nintendo and Sony in creating games that grow the industry, this is the results. Dead last.
Why was/is it so hard to just make great games and from that, EARN respect that would lead to an increase in consumers? Never made sense how stupid they are when they had the finances to compete and pretty much outdo Nintendo and Sony combined. They just chose greed and annual fees and lack of effort instead.
Touche, Forbes did it at last.
Remember that in addition to having no appetite to invest in new IP and no creative vision to recognise potential winners or refresh their existing portfolio, Microsoft simply can't manage or lead their studios.
I repeatedly find it ridiculous that The Initiative was formed in 2018 when it was announced at E3, and now five years later they haven't even managed to release a trailer let alone gameplay content of anything they're working on. If they don't show off something at the upcoming Xbox showcase, it would be absurd.
But you're right, Microsoft has groomed their fanbase to behave the way Game Pass makes them, but what we've been telling people for years is that "value" or quantity will never ever subsidise or replace a good product.
Give me God of War over the entire Game Pass catalogue, I'll jump to spend on Hades 2 but only sub to Game Pass once or twice a year, and likewise I'll spend a night with Godzilla Minus One over hundreds of B-class shovelware on Netflix.
They have little choice but to double down on their greed, passive revenue streams and ownership cut.
The gaming world is still reeling from the announcement that Microsoft is shuttering Tango Gameworks, the studio behind last year’s big Xbox hit, Hi-Fi Rush.
There's no logical or good reason to give for closing Tango Gameworks. They make great games consistently and Hi-Fi Rush was the highest rated Xbox game in literal YEARS. Closing the studio was just plain stupid and nonsensical.
It’s quite strange to not see Phil Spencer in any talkshow or podcast… usually the dude would talk almost daily when there’s even a bit of news from xbox.
Muzzled and/or in on it from the very beginning. You have to be a very stupid person not to anticipate that your division is going to be under scrutiny from shareholders after 80 Billion Dollars worth of acquisitions
The beauty of being a CEO here in America is that when your company does well, you get extra money as a reward...
And when your company does badly, you get extra money to encourage you to stick around and lead it through the storm...And at some point, you get to bow out and float toward retirement on your golden parachute, which means and you guessed it, MORE MONEY!! What a deal for snake oil man Phil!!
Same applies to PlayStation.
Jim Ryan partied with London Studio and fired them all 24 hours later.
He closed studios and fired thousands and then departed with a huge payout
Perhaps they think they can sweep this one under the rug, gamers will forget about it,
We will not
They made a good game and you put the whole studio in the bin, this couldn’t be clearer, ms don’t care, everyone suspected it, but now we KNOW it
She's kinda got the verbal communication of 3-years-ago Biden trying to say something he knows nothing about.
What she meant to say is: "We wasted our budget for the next couple years buying Call of Duty, and we're moving all our chips to that one series"
It's starting to seem quite obvious that XBox is going to be shutting down most of their studios or selling them off, then focusing on some sort of PC/Console hybrid OS for the next XBox where they can collect royalties Valve style.
I wish we had a white option for the Series X.