mfnick Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 The whole digital is 90% is kind of BS. On struggling to find the actual figures but I think it’s 90% digital in Revenue - not sales. Including battle passes, MTX etc. Of course the manufacturers want that narrative to run as they get a lot more money that way which is why they want to go all digital - and let’s be honest the fact these companies want to go all digital so badly should ring alarm bells. There’s no way they’d want it to be digital if it would benefit us and not them. I have found 1 link for Sony from a couple of years ago with actual numbers for 2021 and projections going forward. https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/IR/library/presen/irday/pdf/2022/GNS_E.pdf Obviously a bit out of date but I doubt it’s have changed that much from their projected figures. That being the case they’re still making $7-11 billion from physical sales. They can’t just let that go. I know the Xbox is meant to be more digital at this point but I bet it still makes billions from the physical side. One thing I don’t actually see happening with games - as much as MS want it. Is subscriptions ever taking off in the same way as film, Tv and music. Games require much more effort from the player than any other form of entertainment. They also last a hell of a lot longer than a film or album. & while FTP games like Fortnite exist for the more casual audience there’s no reason for them to subscribe to a sub for a bunch of games they’ve no interest in ever playing. & the true casual audience which are needed for subs to truly take off like they’d want are on mobile playing free games there. Going back to the MS going multi platform thing, I can only say I just agree with what everyone has been saying regarding it being terrible for competition and for gaming in general. Really hope it doesn’t happen. They really need to get out there and say something before they lose control of the narrative again like they did with the One. I will say if they start releasing games on PlayStation though I’m done with Xbox. There’s literally no reason to own it at that point. Apart from the pad which I prefer 1000% but I can live with that if it means one less £400-500 console to buy. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nag Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Just saw a rumour that even Gears of War may be heading to PlayStation... if that happens I'll be a single console gamer for sure.🤷♂️ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nag Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfnick Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 A week. Haha the gaming community is already in meltdown over this. Another week is just going to make it go supernova. Can only assume a lot of truth is in all the rumoured games going multi then otherwise he’d have just said it’s bullshit. Whats even more confusing is they seem to finally be making good on all their investments. A few bigger releases are coming out this year and the Acti deal has gone through so if their fortunes were going to change it would have been this year. But if they do go multi I’m with a lot of their games it’ll destroy that momentum entirely. Been no mention still of Acti-Blizz games coming to Game Pass either yet which would have been another big deal for Xbox this year. Grabbing defeat from the jaws of potential victory. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Will soon know if Nag has to change his avatar to a swan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maf Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 With mfnick. You don’t tweet about it, address it any way, or announce a fucking thing to tune in to next week if it’s all bullshit. Oooh *exciting* I have a million thoughts but also at a loss for words. Are they really going to spend all this money and throw it away haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 What's exciting about it though? It's generally a bad thing that seems to be happening here, potentially a bit of a Dreamcast moment Like, is it the drama? I guess I kind of get it, but still Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maf Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Oh, yeah, it’s terrible. But you know. What a huge shift for games. And the drama. I just sort of can’t believe it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nag Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 10 minutes ago, Maf said: Are they really going to spend all this money and throw it away haha Wouldn't they be making more money? And I'm not changing my avatar to a fucking swan ever.😡 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maf Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 All the money they were spending felt like they building up all their infrastructure and pipelines to have the #1 box and a subscription service that’s too good to pass up. But none of it played out that way. So yes, they’ll make money now because no one is buying Starfield for example, and now people will. But the amount of money they’ll make as a 3rd party on PS compared to being a super strong platform holder/Gamepass provider is bound to be so much smaller. The Xbox will still exist so they’ll still get cuts of game sales there. But if they give up all their exclusives it’s a death sentence for the Xbox. Like there are so many knock-on effects to what they’re doing. There’s a reason exclusives are “system sellers” (or meant to be) because of all the business that comes with that/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DisturbedSwan Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Sounds like Microsoft is going third party now Acti-Blizzard is on board. It’s the sensible play at this point, consoles cost shit loads to manufacture and the Xbox isn’t that popular (no hate but it’s true). Game Pass being blocked on PS means if they want a larger audience for their games and the place where the majority of current-gen gamers are then putting them on PS will bring in a lot of cash. Especially in Xbox’s seemingly all digital future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maf Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Here are 3 things that spring to mind 1) I looked at that showcase last week and said those games aren’t hot. And if they’re thinking about going multi-platform with them before they’re even out they know that as well 2) Imagine being 3rd party on Xbox. If no one buys the system, why make a version of the game for it? If 3rd party support dries up, what games will they put on Gamepass? And if you are currently developing a version of the game for Xbox, but the community dies, who’s going to buy it? 3) PS must be laughing it up. They’ll make more fans over the next week by doing fuck all and get paid for those tasty Redfall sales lol This is a disaster but man if I’m not breaking out the popcorn 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyKurosaki Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 A week is a long time. Admittedly I’m not following all of Xbox’s current events, as I don’t have one, and can’t afford to run 3 consoles. But, Microsoft potentially going 3rd party, is not something I saw coming at all. Twitter is already going ballistic, if it’s a week before we hear anything concrete, they’re going to have an absolute field day. If this results in exclusives coming to PS5, such as Indiana Jones, and Blade, I’m quite happy with that. I’ve not played Gears since the 360 era, but that was always a bloody great time. Guess we’ll see in a week what the fuck they’re actually doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retroed Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 I'll be gutted if Microsoft stop making consoles. The Series X is legit one of my favourite consoles of all time, and by far my preferred controller. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 I will say, if there's a firesale on these things I might finally get one. Turn it into a spare 4k blu ray player and Ninja Gaiden Black* machine. But that's probably not that likely. Or maybe not such a great idea if the store gets shut down at some point It occurs now that buying ABK seems like a physical victory, if the protracted litigation fucked the momentum they were hoping that purchase would give 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maryokutai Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 I hope there's some coherent messaging coming next week, and not the usual fluff of 'we're looking at the service side of things', because not only is that extremely vague but it's also the exact reason why I think they're in this spot now. Look at how Sony felt forced to put their games o PC despite having sold roughly twice the amount of consoles that Xbox has and raising game prices by 10 bucks. Now imagine a different company just giving those games away for 10 bucks a year. We've all said it at some point, despite Microsoft someone twisting and turning the narrative into something else, but I can't for the life of me imagine the whole Gamepass thing being sustainable. And while, naturally, no other company wants to have it on their platform, Microsoft's next move to recoup development costs is putting everything everywhere. But that's a very short-sighted reactionary move in my opinion. There are multiple ways to address this without just leaving the field to Sony, which this will ultimately result in. But when you look at the last decade of Microsoft PR and how they've basically been promoting Playstation instead of Xbox, I suppose it makes sense they want to finally put their games on the system they make such a good job of portraying as the better alternative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regemond Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 I think everything will be on everything eventually, anyway. It sounds stupid, but I already play as Kratos in Fortnite on Xbox. You were already able to buy an Aloy skin, too. Obviously you're not buying their respective games on the Xbox in that instance, but there's something there in my mind. Don't forget, PS were essentially forced into crossplay after everyone else did it at the same time. Maybe that's what Xbox are going for? If MS start putting their third party games on other consoles (including Switch), it puts pressure on Sony to start sharing their third party stuff, too. Bit of a hail mary play from their part, sure, but I can see a thread of logic there. One of the problems with the whole ABK acquisition was Xbox having PS dev kits (ie insider secrets). That's out of the window now with CoD being promised for PS, so there's no point hiding what's in your magic box anymore. I'm also just trying to think of the logic, rather than the wider meaning for the industry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HandsomeDead Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 I just don't understand this really. For me I wonder if MS saw the Activision acquisition playing out this way? Like even as a possibility early on but went through with it anyway. Is owning ABK a better option financially than being in the console market? Were they at a point they couldn't back out of the deal when things started going sideways? I think the Series S is still a cheap way to get new video games but in the near future the Series X is pretty redundant if this plays out in the way people are talking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 A take I saw is that this is a decision forced down from above onto the gaming division, as there's been lots of reports recently of stores in the US (and I think UK, can't remember, edit EU actually https://kotaku.com/xbox-series-x-s-physical-game-low-sales-digital-1851218453) taking xbox stock off shelves cause the sales of it are so poor. So maybe end of last year was supposed to be a much bigger deal for xbox, and with disappointing results there's been a come to Jesus moment for their gaming division. Which would also dovetails with all those cuts they made, not just in departments where there was overlap in roles but also in development with a team like Sledgehammer getting decimated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maf Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 That would make a lot of sense actually. It seems like the kind of decision a non-gaming exec would make, not fully understanding what it means to the long term health of the console/community/brand, instead looking to “easy” sales Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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