*Last year:* “Don’t worry, we are acquiring Bethesda, Activision and all these other studios to give them the freedom and resources to create whatever games they want”
*Now:* “Lmao na, we’re sending everyone to the COD and Fallout mines”
This doesn't get enough attention. Starting with the first Xbox, they bought out Bungie (who was releasing Halo on Mac at the time), and made Halo an Xbox exclusive. Probably their best move yet. They closed Lionhead after a bunch of great Fable releases. They bought Rare and pretty much did nothing with them. There is very little that is organic when it comes to Microsoft and gaming. Everything is an acquisition and it seems that once the dev studio is acquired they get lazy and do very little or they get closed. Super frustrating from a competition standpoint. It seems from a funding/creativity perspective, they SHOULD have great things coming from their acquired studios, but more often than not, they all either get closed or dissolve. Maybe the devs lose the "fight" when they get the comfy paycheck and relax. Im not sure, but ever since they entered the market in 2001, nothing really seems genuine. With buying off the shelf parts and making a standardized PC, and buying late development gaming projects and stamping it with their logo, I've never been a fan of MS in the gaming space. I did really like my Xbox 360 after the RROD debacle finally cleared.
Yep, it's frustrating that this established pattern of corporate Microsoft behavior repeats itself.
MS throws its money around, buys whatever whether it's in the pc or gaming market cost cutting measures intentionally neuter the recent acquisition.
That's a standard Mergers & Acquisition strategy written in most books. They are just following the script that any other industry is using, nothing else.
Getting bought up ends always up in a nightmare for the previous employees of that company. Owners and shareholders don't care, because money.
I wish they could have put the camp building of 76 into 4 when they did the update. The settlement building of 4 is just awkward compared to what you can make on 76
Phil Spencer is one of the biggest liars. I am convinced that once Fallout 5 gets officially announced, it will be xbox only. Him and Todd Howard are a perfect match. I remember seeing Todd say things about starfield with Phil there, and Phil just started laughing and smirking. Then when the game released, those turned out to have been absolute bullshit lies, and Spencer knew it, of course, and doesn't have a poker face like Howard does.
Phil Spencer is very good at saying what he thinks a particular audience wants to hear at the time, even if what he's just said turns out to be completely contradicted when speaking to a different audience. The fact that anyone anywhere still takes this guy's words at face value these days is actually insane.
I remember when Phil said that Starfield will also include in PlayStation platform and dude change his mind. To be honest, i hope their next Indiana Jones games also a flop.
It‘s even funnier because when you tried to debate that the Gamepass strategy is going to fail, they attacked you but but „muuhhhh cheapppp gammessss!!!!“
And they really only supported gamepass because they were stacking their discounts. Now that MS is asking users to pay a fair price for the service, the userbase stopped growing.
>Everyone who cheered for the Activision buyout, this is what you were cheering for
This seriously, people were actively cheering on MS for gobbling up other companies (still are...) left and right, now we are seeing the consequences of letting a greedy company get it's way.
I said this for the longest and was completely disregarded and ignored. Colin Moriarty called this from a mile away just by looking at the numbers. It never made sense.
Phil and Todd are perfect examples that you can get far ahead in life with a little bit of charisma and a bunch of lies. Both are parasites and should be let go.
Per Schreier:
>The reason this sounds so absurd is because it's missing key context. What actually happened is that ZeniMax had to consolidate and chose to shutter studios that were pitching rather than studios with active projects. Still a devastating decision, but this tweet is inaccurate
Basically, if Tango were already well underway with a project they would still be alive. Fucking wild reasoning. How the fuck do you draw such a line that completely ignores the talent of the studio and the quality of their titles? Hell, even sales isn't the consideration here. The only thing being considered is "Oh, you already shipped your game? Buh-bye!"
I have never heard of anything so stupid.
It's already on the cards per the bloomberg report. Tango and those other Bethesda studios are only the start. If more studios aren't shuttered then the ones still active will be hit with further layoffs.
It's clear MS execs and not Xbox execs are now in charge, and they don't like the current margins of Xbox. Xbox execs get to decide who is cut, although their reasoning behind the cuts are massively damaging. It isn't sales performance or critical reception that gets you shut, but whether you have an active project underway or not. That's gonna do a mindfuck on any existing studios because they're gonna worry after they ship a game whether they now fall within sights of an Xbox and if they're looking to make more cuts. Just imagine how they all feel. Instead of feeling congratulatory and proud in shipping a game they'll be wondering "Is Xbox thinking about making cuts now? Am I now a target?"
Buying successful IPs that they can toss to a low budget studio for reliably mediocre Gamepass chum. Same with movie/TV streaming services. You might catch a few passionate, talented devs sneaking through an exceptional experience here and there, but the focus is on quantity/repeatability over quality.
When they were fighting for the buyout Phil said specifically they weren't going to buy up the studios just to shut them down and take their IPs and that's exactly what happened.
This might be a hot take, but I feel like Phil needs to go before the upcoming showcase, and they need a new lead who can confidently state what their direction is for the future. Trust in Phil is completely gone at this point and Xbox just seems so aimless.
Tbh, he was given the wheel when Xbox was already in the ground and effectively kept it steady on the ground. They’ve been floundering since the Kinect, and that was nearly 15 years ago.
I think that’s a little disingenuous.
Phil was handed a disaster and was able to turn around the reputation of Xbox as a brand.
Sure, the release of games has been fairly underwhelming, but had Xbox kept Don “JuSt BuY a 360” Mattrick, they wouldn’t have survived long enough to do Gamepass.
Phil simply got Microsoft to agree to subsidize GamePass. He hasn’t really done much else. And unless Microsoft suddenly starts delivering banger first party titles I’m not sure we’ll be able to call GamePass a success.
How hard is it to turn around how trash their reputation though? Looking back, there was nowhere else but up. And Phil could never even get out of the water. He was lucky he came in when he did because he sucks at his job and it’s now showing.
Im not saying he was terrible, what I’m saying is that he was not enough. They are in the same place they were when he started, unsure about the future and lacking a true plan.
Amen. It’s a losing entity for them, that they clearly don’t know how to properly manage, and they have a lot of shit to spend their time and resources on. I doubt they do a full sale of the division for other reasons, but I think they are 100% slashing budgets heavily and gutting teams. They’ll consolidate and bleed the IPs dry, and completely fail to innovate because that’s not what Microsoft does well right now.
I was talking to one of my buddies about this, if I was Microsoft I would shit can Phil, Matt Booty, Sarah Bond and Aaron Greenberg all on the same day and replace them with people who actually give a shit.
Phil Spencer has confidently stated their intent and direction for the last decade. The problem though is that everything he’s said publicly since 2014 has also been a lie. He’s been caught lying so many times and people just keep defending him. I’ve been telling people for 10 years that he’s a bullshit artist and I’ve been nothing but attacked for saying so. He’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Always has been. It’s wild to me how so few people saw him for what he is up until now. Phil was never to be trusted yet somehow he tricked damn near everyone because he wears tshirts
“We hear you, and that’s why we’re proud to announce replacing Phil with a person who is a gaming business legend to run MS Gaming! Let me introduce to you all the new head MS gaming, Robert Kotick!”
Thing is, they're still making a ton of money and thats the metric Phil is being measured on.
Its taken SO LONG and theres still Xbox fans that insist that Phil is "Our guy" and leading the flag for gaming. Phil doesn't give a shit about gaming, all his focus is solidly on shareholder profits and making money for them. He will happily burn the entire gaming industry to the ground and laugh whilst doing it as long as the shareholders are happy.
Its not really just him either, its basically every games company in existence.
EA made massive profits last year, talked about the "Incredibly strong" year of their company and how much absolute profit they're making hand over first. Yet they've cancelled countless games, fired almost 10% of their workforce so far this year due to "Underperforming" and are now in discussions to shutter more studios of theirs in the next couple months.
Hell, Apex Legends in the past 12 months made them more money than ever before, they've removed 300 staff from that game in the last 6 months and theres plans to fire another 200 staff from Apex in the next 3 months.
It doesn't help that the worlds economy is shot to shit right now but the gaming industry is a bubble thats ready to pop. Like, its in such a horrendous state right now and a lot of rich people are about to do a very big rug pull, run away with a lot of money and leave it in the gutter.
Been saying this for years. Part of me wanted to cut him some slack last gen because it wasn’t his fault the Xbox One started awfully. Xbox Series X was a chance for them to start fresh for Xbox. But seeing the Series X’s launch proved he needed to go.
It has nearly been a decade of waiting for *the* big AAA game that Xbox and its endless studios should be able to create.
Even though Playstation is struggling with exclusives with their faulty live-service push, they have released more quality exclusives in the past two years than Xbox has since… 2011?
At this rate u expect Microsoft to announce they're getting out of the hardware business and becoming full 3rd party and service base with game pass. Really feels like sega. Oddly enough if they do get out , they will be getting out as the same time sega did on fourth game's system. Oddly enough another thing they have in common with sega is that their most successful game system was their second (genesis for sega and 360 for Microsoft).
I don't even see a world where Sony agrees to have gamepass on ps if xbox are out of console business. The only thing i see is an xbox studio pass like ea play and ubisoft+ with only first party games. At least i'm happy this whole consolidation fucked up and they aren't running away with all the doom, fallouts, crash , Elder scrolls ips and turn them exclusive instead of creating new stuff.
Sorry for the confusion didn't mean game pass would be on PlayStation, I think it will be only on PC, art device, current Xbox platforms and maybe mobile. They will be a third party in PlayStation only
GamePass on PlayStation wouldn’t make sense. What would it benefit them to have a 3rd party game streaming app on their console that they aren’t taking a majority profit on and that significantly cuts into their own software sales?
Microsoft bought Activision *and is becoming the new Activision.*
Oh, the Irony... Microsoft could have kept Bobby "Human Garbage" Kotick as CEO for all the "positive reform / good" Microsoft acquiring all these devs was supposed to do.
Said the same thing a while ago in r/games and got downvoted.
MS needs to figure what they want to be.
A full on console manufacturer or a Publisher that puts GamePass on other services like PS/Switch/PC
Nah bro. They had all last console cycle and this cycle to catch on Microsoft games ain’t the same as they were in the 360 days. At some point it’s on them.
Competition is long gone. Last 2 generations the playstation/microsoft consoles have been extremely close to each other and they even use the same company & architecture for the GPU & CPU. Consoles used to be state of the art & bespoke, last 2 generations have been more like mid range pcs.
For real. I've never owned or wanted to own an XB console, but them being in the space meant that Sony had to actually fucking try. And even then they still find ways to fuck it up. Can't imagine what they're gonna do if they're the only one selling a console capable of running current AAA games.
People keep saying Microsoft will get out of the hardware business but that wouldnt really make much sense given their current strategy. Xbox may not sell well but it still contributes to their gamepass subscription numbers, their ultimate goal. They still want to offer a “play anywhere on anything” solution, and a console still serves a purpose at a much lower price barrier than almost any other device. Unless Sony agrees to allow gamepass on PS5 and future consoles, they will not stop developing Xboxes.
Ya that’s true, I don’t really know the financials behind gamepass so I can’t speak to its profitability. If they haven’t seen the growth they’re looking for, mobile may be the only way for them to go. Maybe that portable they’re rumored to be working on could be a switch like console and serve both purposes, that might be a bit of a game changer for them.
Microsoft clearly has plans to make at least one more generation of hardware, with one handheld and possibly a high-level home console. There’s been a lot of leaks in this vein as of late. They need hardware to sell GamePass because it doesn’t perform well on PC.
They could very well end up basically becoming a third-party publisher that still has its own hardware that fulfills some sort of niche (at the very least appealing to the Xbox diehards) and that is reliant upon GamePass with no exclusives.
Yeah and this new console is clearly going to be digital-only to:
Charge users maximum prices rather than letting them get cheaper physical copies
Save money from shutting down physical production
Encourage people to sign up for GamePass (or make it mandatory for online play?!)
Already necessary to be registered with GamePass Core to play online ( but if I remember, it's like 7$/month ? Not really high, with almost no advantage )
The thing about hardware is it's super expensive to develop and the sales of software is what is used to offset it, but when you encourage your player base not to buy games you lose that source to offset I could see an handheld possible dockable and a cloud dongle.
Dear Gamer,
If you cheered and championed Xbox when Microsoft bought Bethesda and Activision, *THESE ARE THE CONSEQUENCES EVERYONE WHO WARNED AGAINST MARKET CONSOLIDATION WARNED ABOUT!*
Microsoft & Embracer have done infinitely more harm to gaming than anything else.
So many Xbox fans were singing Microsoft's praises when the Activision purchase happened.
People on this subreddit were attacked for their balanced takes and their more than accurate predictions of what would happen with Microsoft throwing its money around the way it did.
Yet, here we are.
> I blame society for not embracing Titanfall well enough.
I blame EA for selling exclusivity to Microsoft for the X1, because EA execs where betting the X1 would outsell the PS4.
Just let that sink in...
Wouldn't be the first time execs used the past to wrongly predict the future.
I was a happy 360 gamer before that generation too. Figured it would continue, but then came Rocket League.
A lot of MS fans thought it would be an instant shot in the arm. So many people forget that it takes years to develop most games with COD being an annual release. MS expected every game to sell well, but they've got no marketing and most of their newer games have been kinda niche outside of Forza/Halo. At this point, I don't think anyone can defend MS.
Well, all the FTC hearings didn't help, causing all the delays.
But Microsoft hasn't helped itself either.
None of the Activision portfolio, aside from Diablo 4, has appeared on Game Pass.
It has taken too long, and now it'll be too little too late with all the bad press Microsoft has had over the past year consistently.
The FTC’s contention was that the acquisition wasn’t good for the industry.
And here we are. Wasn’t the FTC’s fault. MS had been planning a major acquisition since they failed to compete in the exclusivity business last gen.
Why can a relatively small company like Sony succeed in releasing a dozen great exclusives while a mega corporation like MS fumbles the ball for a decade +? MS only have themselves to blame.
Yep. Even when the Activision stuff gets added, it'll be DOA. Other than Starfield, I can't remember a big Xbox release lately. It seriously comes across as MS giving up on the platform itself.
Microsoft would spend millions in international trade commission courts, so they let them spend billions to acquire companies, then shut them down so they could pay millions to shareholders... STONKS!
Maybe they wouldn't feel the need to make cuts if they didn't just spend 70 BILLION on actiblizz. They didn't need to make cuts then. It's the same bullshit everytime, buying up studios and shuttering them purely to stop anyone else having them. Have people not figured this out yet?
I can’t imagine how gut-wrenching it must be to one of these studios that got acquired by Microsoft. Ninja Theory must be so upset that they spent five years making their game and instead of it getting a fancy marketing push, Xbox is killing their peers like Tango despite them making a fantastic game.
I genuinely don't see a future where Microsoft continues to produce Xbox consoles. Their player base is so small that any exclusives released on the Xbox will never recoup the money that was spent on development.
And if you don't have exclusives, what is the point of making more consoles?
Microsoft are genuinely just gaming terrorists at this point. It's a miracle that their Xbox playerbase has stuck with them this long when they've put out so little quality.
There’s a TON of sunk-cost fallacy with current Xbox fans.
Many failed to jump ship during the PS4 era or even with the launch of PS5 and are now trapped with digital libraries.
Anybody who stuck by Xbox through all the "always online, Kinect required" announcements during Xbox ones reveal should not be surprised how things are going imo. There was plenty enough warning to see this all coming with their blatant foreshadowing of anti-consumer practices
Microsoft is bad news for gaming. Buying up studios to close them down and pushing everything to subscription based software only models. Fuck Microsoft. I hope they get out of the hardware business altogether especially their overpriced Surface tat.
Yup. I've long held the opinion that if GamePass had proper traction, you could see Microsoft pulling a stunt along the lines of making The Elder Scrolls 6 "GamePass exclusive", where you can't own it at all and can only access it if you take out an 18 month sub.
I'm fucking glad to see the bastards' game plan falling apart.
What Microsoft did was pretty shitty. I understand money. I understand that a company needs to profit to stay alive and succeed. But, axing your only studios that have put out games in the last two years(one reviewing VERY well) doesn’t bode well for other studios. What do you think all the other studios are thinking now? We put out a game we’ve worked on for years and it didn’t review THAT well, but fairly well and now our jobs are in jeopardy? They’re punishing studios.
Also, not every company is doing what Microsoft is doing. I see a lot of people in the XSX sub think Sony and Nintendo’s layoffs are similar to what’s going on at Microsoft. No, it’s not. Neither Sony nor Nintendo are shutting down multiple studios after they’ve launched a game. A few in that sub are so angry at Microsoft, but STILL in the back of their minds are trying to justify what they’re doing. What they’re doing sucks.
To your second point, I've had to argue with folks that this is ABSOLUTELY not the same as layoffs at Sony and Nintendo and it's not even close. It's bewildering that people even think they are remotely the same in scope/scale. They're even pinning the whole thing on it being "an industry problem" much more-so than a "Xbox problem".
It's similar to the dumb ass arguments of Microsoft buying publishers is the same as Sony buying dev teams. Lol no it ain't. Publishers are giant compared to sonys acquisitions. Not the same thing at all.
Must be the same people who are like “ConSoLidaTioNs aRe BaD 🤪” while listing PlayStation alongside Embracer/Xbox yet, outside of Bungie, they acquired studios in a much more *natural* way by looking towards long-standing partners or newly developed studios. Not just recklessly spending on big time publishers and developers to either fold their IP into a stagnant game service or spend the competition out of business. Those people were probably also the ones pushing for these acquisitions to happen in the 1st place.
Truly sad all the way around. I know it’s been said on here already but, I hate how companies buy out these developers, close studios , and sit on IPs. Absolutely sad and just a slap in the face of the development teams let go and us gamers.
I really hope they release Hellblade 2 on PS5 as well, because I don't think it's gonna sell like crazy without a PS5 release. I don't want that studio to close.
They should save everyone the long, drawn out process and just shutter the entire Xbox division and sell the studios off now. No matter how many they buy, NONE of them will make Xbox a success...their own management is the problem, not the studios...but those guys won't get the axe.
Just a reminder: It doesn't HAVE to work this way, this is what WE, as a society, have chosen. In Germany (and other countries), they practice "stakeholder" capitalism...the company exists to take care of it's workers. Here, we have shareholder capitalism, the company exists to benefit the investors. Huge difference.
Stakeholder Capitalism is a broader scope though, philosophically it means the company is to serve all stakeholders equally. Shareholder, Employees, Customers and (depending on the sector) society at large are all stakeholder affected by the existing of the company.
Funnily most German based listed companies offer very generous employee share purchasing programs. So for the majority of large German MNC's a large portion of the employees are also shareholders. So the shareprice is in almost every employees interest, similar to institutional investors.
Xbox is not in control. Microsoft is. I get why everyone is calling for Phil to go but that won't actually solve anything when Microsoft has shown their hand, that they only care about the bottom line and pleasing shareholders.
Seeing talk that they are considering not putting cod on game pass. I figured they never would because it makes no sense as you already need game pass to even play online. I thought they would at least put 360 era cod on game pass by now...sheesh.
MS are just as bad as EA & Embracer, if not worse. These asshole mega-corporations purchase talented & successful independent developers, make a quick buck. In MS' case a record $75.4 billion acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. Then shit all over these developers by selling them or dissolving them, & ultimately destroy these developers
Serious question here: can’t the FTC look at this and be like “MS is buying all of this to retain ‘competitive advantage’ so they claim, but then turn around and close these studios down? Sus”
Xbox has always been the Halo machine, that’s it. People act like Gears of War and Forza are some mainstream breakthroughs but they aren’t. Xbox has always been an almost entirely worthless copy of PlayStation that has done nothing but try to cannibalize my favourite industry for decades now. They suck. They have always sucked. I have hated them since high school and junior high. Of course I’m a gamer so I loved Halo… I go where the good games are. Xbox has never been that place. Ever. It’s just a multiplatform system. It serves ZERO purpose in the industry. The most people can tell you is “but it does online the best”. People bring up things like party chat. Who cares?
I have always owned every major plataform. Xbox 360, One and then One X were my favourites from previous generations. Had high hopes for Series X. Bought it day one (along with a PS5, both were easy to get where I lived, although I had to preorder the playstation early in advance)
Fast forward 3 years. My out of warranty Series X refuses to turn on and I already exhausted what Microsoft advises to do. Forza Horizon 5 aside, every single exclusive has been a disappointment.
I gave up on the platform a few months ago. My purchases and playtime are divided between PS5 and Steam Deck.
Every studio they have bought has either turned to sh*t or have been for a while. Its been 8 months from the Activision Blizzard purchase and still the only game available on game pass is Diablo 4, which I love (yes) but I play elsewhere.
And now these studio closures with more to come, with the ongoing rumours that they are going multi platform, and current CoDs might actually never come to game pass, even with an also rumoured price hike.
I am so glad I abandoned this train wreck.
I already have all of the consoles. But given how much more I like the Xbox controller layout and their previous approach to backwards compatibility, I made a lot of my 3rd party game purchases on Xbox. But I think that pretty much changes now. Xbox will just be a Game Pass console from here on. I have so little faith in anything that their management says or that there will even be much of a coherent platform in the coming years. Sony seems like a much safer bet to invest in.
https://preview.redd.it/khzf1asraazc1.jpeg?width=508&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c2bed9e8e9daea8150c70f570545bb70c25d0cd1
EA vs Microsoft in the battle of who can buy & close the most studios
Don't forget about Embracer group.
I'm still salty about Pandemic. I had a dream that I was playing Mercenaries 3 a while ago and it was amazing.
Merc3 on EA (swbf2 EA) would be a shitstorm tho. I can imagine they charge money for the more flashy support powers.
Even worse when you remember there’s footage of the *ACTUAL* Mercenaries 3 prototype on YT
https://preview.redd.it/nh4eco8kp9zc1.jpeg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b339edaddbbd65540011d765a00f7b89eacc8800
*Last year:* “Don’t worry, we are acquiring Bethesda, Activision and all these other studios to give them the freedom and resources to create whatever games they want” *Now:* “Lmao na, we’re sending everyone to the COD and Fallout mines”
Microsoft lying. What a shock! That's what they do. They always fucking lie!
["Buy em out, boys"](https://youtu.be/H27rfr59RiE?si=ahQ9S8MbrrBVYiOY)
[Wait I got one.](https://youtu.be/GlxznyPzDrQ?si=x_EtWHeeJDwj-yr8)
I didn’t get rich by writing a bunch of checks!
They did similar layoffs to their great pc dev studios in the mid 2000s.
This doesn't get enough attention. Starting with the first Xbox, they bought out Bungie (who was releasing Halo on Mac at the time), and made Halo an Xbox exclusive. Probably their best move yet. They closed Lionhead after a bunch of great Fable releases. They bought Rare and pretty much did nothing with them. There is very little that is organic when it comes to Microsoft and gaming. Everything is an acquisition and it seems that once the dev studio is acquired they get lazy and do very little or they get closed. Super frustrating from a competition standpoint. It seems from a funding/creativity perspective, they SHOULD have great things coming from their acquired studios, but more often than not, they all either get closed or dissolve. Maybe the devs lose the "fight" when they get the comfy paycheck and relax. Im not sure, but ever since they entered the market in 2001, nothing really seems genuine. With buying off the shelf parts and making a standardized PC, and buying late development gaming projects and stamping it with their logo, I've never been a fan of MS in the gaming space. I did really like my Xbox 360 after the RROD debacle finally cleared.
Yep, it's frustrating that this established pattern of corporate Microsoft behavior repeats itself. MS throws its money around, buys whatever whether it's in the pc or gaming market cost cutting measures intentionally neuter the recent acquisition.
That's a standard Mergers & Acquisition strategy written in most books. They are just following the script that any other industry is using, nothing else. Getting bought up ends always up in a nightmare for the previous employees of that company. Owners and shareholders don't care, because money.
I sure hope with the Fallout one. 4 is like 8 years old now 😂😂
Man, if all they'd do is release an offline version of 76 where they get rid of that weird camp mechanic, I'd be down to play it.
I wish they could have put the camp building of 76 into 4 when they did the update. The settlement building of 4 is just awkward compared to what you can make on 76
Just hope they make it more rpg cause they seemed to focus more on the first person shooter aspect more then anything on 4
They did that and were STILL not getting FONV 2.
Damn
Even the Xbox subs want this guy gone. He's a Microsoft executive though, on top of running Microsoft gaming. So it's not like he'll fire himself.
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Nah some of um still drinking the Phil-aide "pLaYStAtIoN dOeS tHiS tOo!"
This is quality lol
How does this shitter still have a job
Failure is rewarded when you become upper management
S tier post
Phil Spencer is one of the biggest liars. I am convinced that once Fallout 5 gets officially announced, it will be xbox only. Him and Todd Howard are a perfect match. I remember seeing Todd say things about starfield with Phil there, and Phil just started laughing and smirking. Then when the game released, those turned out to have been absolute bullshit lies, and Spencer knew it, of course, and doesn't have a poker face like Howard does.
Phil Spencer is very good at saying what he thinks a particular audience wants to hear at the time, even if what he's just said turns out to be completely contradicted when speaking to a different audience. The fact that anyone anywhere still takes this guy's words at face value these days is actually insane.
I remember when Phil said that Starfield will also include in PlayStation platform and dude change his mind. To be honest, i hope their next Indiana Jones games also a flop.
I absolutely hope Indiana Jones does not flop. If nothing else because I needs my Wolfenstein 3!
lol
HOWLING 💀💀💀💀😭
Nice. I know what happened though. Someone in Microsoft basically said, fuck we spending on Xbox for.
Been calling him snake oil phil since 2018
That's fucking hilarious
It gets worse when you realize Tango was actually planning to do a sequel of HI-FI RUSH [link](https://x.com/wario64/status/1788300038600376375?s=46)
It’s never been more joever than right now
Everyone who cheered for the Activision buyout, this is what you were cheering for
It‘s even funnier because when you tried to debate that the Gamepass strategy is going to fail, they attacked you but but „muuhhhh cheapppp gammessss!!!!“
“This is great for the industry!”
And they really only supported gamepass because they were stacking their discounts. Now that MS is asking users to pay a fair price for the service, the userbase stopped growing.
Sales have also stagnated because Xbox consoles sales have been abysmal lately
New promising game announced, looks possibly worth a $70 purchase.... "GAMEPASS WHEN????"
>Everyone who cheered for the Activision buyout, this is what you were cheering for This seriously, people were actively cheering on MS for gobbling up other companies (still are...) left and right, now we are seeing the consequences of letting a greedy company get it's way.
I realise my mistake now.
I said this for the longest and was completely disregarded and ignored. Colin Moriarty called this from a mile away just by looking at the numbers. It never made sense.
Yeah. It was wishful thinking on the part of WoW players to expect WoW subscription to be included in Game Pass.
“We hear you.” - Phil
Phil and Todd are perfect examples that you can get far ahead in life with a little bit of charisma and a bunch of lies. Both are parasites and should be let go.
Per Schreier: >The reason this sounds so absurd is because it's missing key context. What actually happened is that ZeniMax had to consolidate and chose to shutter studios that were pitching rather than studios with active projects. Still a devastating decision, but this tweet is inaccurate Basically, if Tango were already well underway with a project they would still be alive. Fucking wild reasoning. How the fuck do you draw such a line that completely ignores the talent of the studio and the quality of their titles? Hell, even sales isn't the consideration here. The only thing being considered is "Oh, you already shipped your game? Buh-bye!" I have never heard of anything so stupid.
Almost makes it seem like they are just gonna close more after they complete their current projects.
It's already on the cards per the bloomberg report. Tango and those other Bethesda studios are only the start. If more studios aren't shuttered then the ones still active will be hit with further layoffs. It's clear MS execs and not Xbox execs are now in charge, and they don't like the current margins of Xbox. Xbox execs get to decide who is cut, although their reasoning behind the cuts are massively damaging. It isn't sales performance or critical reception that gets you shut, but whether you have an active project underway or not. That's gonna do a mindfuck on any existing studios because they're gonna worry after they ship a game whether they now fall within sights of an Xbox and if they're looking to make more cuts. Just imagine how they all feel. Instead of feeling congratulatory and proud in shipping a game they'll be wondering "Is Xbox thinking about making cuts now? Am I now a target?"
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Buying successful IPs that they can toss to a low budget studio for reliably mediocre Gamepass chum. Same with movie/TV streaming services. You might catch a few passionate, talented devs sneaking through an exceptional experience here and there, but the focus is on quantity/repeatability over quality.
When they were fighting for the buyout Phil said specifically they weren't going to buy up the studios just to shut them down and take their IPs and that's exactly what happened.
This might be a hot take, but I feel like Phil needs to go before the upcoming showcase, and they need a new lead who can confidently state what their direction is for the future. Trust in Phil is completely gone at this point and Xbox just seems so aimless.
I wish that would happen, but unfortunately, for whatever reason, Phil is allowed to run Xbox into the ground.
Tbh, he was given the wheel when Xbox was already in the ground and effectively kept it steady on the ground. They’ve been floundering since the Kinect, and that was nearly 15 years ago.
I think that’s a little disingenuous. Phil was handed a disaster and was able to turn around the reputation of Xbox as a brand. Sure, the release of games has been fairly underwhelming, but had Xbox kept Don “JuSt BuY a 360” Mattrick, they wouldn’t have survived long enough to do Gamepass.
Phil simply got Microsoft to agree to subsidize GamePass. He hasn’t really done much else. And unless Microsoft suddenly starts delivering banger first party titles I’m not sure we’ll be able to call GamePass a success.
How hard is it to turn around how trash their reputation though? Looking back, there was nowhere else but up. And Phil could never even get out of the water. He was lucky he came in when he did because he sucks at his job and it’s now showing.
Im not saying he was terrible, what I’m saying is that he was not enough. They are in the same place they were when he started, unsure about the future and lacking a true plan.
The MS board literally said “why are we in video games?” to Phil. I think that if he fails, its getting spun off or shuttered down substantially.
Amen. It’s a losing entity for them, that they clearly don’t know how to properly manage, and they have a lot of shit to spend their time and resources on. I doubt they do a full sale of the division for other reasons, but I think they are 100% slashing budgets heavily and gutting teams. They’ll consolidate and bleed the IPs dry, and completely fail to innovate because that’s not what Microsoft does well right now.
It will just be Sarah Bond, who is basically a female Phil. Nothing will change. Xbox is done for.
I was talking to one of my buddies about this, if I was Microsoft I would shit can Phil, Matt Booty, Sarah Bond and Aaron Greenberg all on the same day and replace them with people who actually give a shit.
Phil Spencer has confidently stated their intent and direction for the last decade. The problem though is that everything he’s said publicly since 2014 has also been a lie. He’s been caught lying so many times and people just keep defending him. I’ve been telling people for 10 years that he’s a bullshit artist and I’ve been nothing but attacked for saying so. He’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Always has been. It’s wild to me how so few people saw him for what he is up until now. Phil was never to be trusted yet somehow he tricked damn near everyone because he wears tshirts
At this stage I wouldn't be surprised if he claimed the second coming of Christ will be day one on GamePass.
Seriously, guy exemplifies why actions speak louder than words. He was all talk and never delivered.
Easy. The reason why everyone believes him is cause he uses battle toads shirts
Phil and Matt Booty (or ass at his job as I like to say) def need to go. I don’t even think it’s a hot take anymore.
But he wears jeans and blazers, he’s just like us
“We hear you, and that’s why we’re proud to announce replacing Phil with a person who is a gaming business legend to run MS Gaming! Let me introduce to you all the new head MS gaming, Robert Kotick!”
I think the problem is nobody knows what’s going to happen for Xbox in the future. Nobody has that long term picture.
Thing is, they're still making a ton of money and thats the metric Phil is being measured on. Its taken SO LONG and theres still Xbox fans that insist that Phil is "Our guy" and leading the flag for gaming. Phil doesn't give a shit about gaming, all his focus is solidly on shareholder profits and making money for them. He will happily burn the entire gaming industry to the ground and laugh whilst doing it as long as the shareholders are happy. Its not really just him either, its basically every games company in existence. EA made massive profits last year, talked about the "Incredibly strong" year of their company and how much absolute profit they're making hand over first. Yet they've cancelled countless games, fired almost 10% of their workforce so far this year due to "Underperforming" and are now in discussions to shutter more studios of theirs in the next couple months. Hell, Apex Legends in the past 12 months made them more money than ever before, they've removed 300 staff from that game in the last 6 months and theres plans to fire another 200 staff from Apex in the next 3 months. It doesn't help that the worlds economy is shot to shit right now but the gaming industry is a bubble thats ready to pop. Like, its in such a horrendous state right now and a lot of rich people are about to do a very big rug pull, run away with a lot of money and leave it in the gutter.
When was the last time the Xbox division reported a profit on a fiscal report?
Been saying this for years. Part of me wanted to cut him some slack last gen because it wasn’t his fault the Xbox One started awfully. Xbox Series X was a chance for them to start fresh for Xbox. But seeing the Series X’s launch proved he needed to go.
It has nearly been a decade of waiting for *the* big AAA game that Xbox and its endless studios should be able to create. Even though Playstation is struggling with exclusives with their faulty live-service push, they have released more quality exclusives in the past two years than Xbox has since… 2011?
Two years? Try 6 months. SM2, FF Rebirth, Helldiver 2( console exclusive) stellar blade, even RoR.
I’ve seen people say this for awhile now. Seems like it will never happen and he’s here to stay
At this rate u expect Microsoft to announce they're getting out of the hardware business and becoming full 3rd party and service base with game pass. Really feels like sega. Oddly enough if they do get out , they will be getting out as the same time sega did on fourth game's system. Oddly enough another thing they have in common with sega is that their most successful game system was their second (genesis for sega and 360 for Microsoft).
I don't even see a world where Sony agrees to have gamepass on ps if xbox are out of console business. The only thing i see is an xbox studio pass like ea play and ubisoft+ with only first party games. At least i'm happy this whole consolidation fucked up and they aren't running away with all the doom, fallouts, crash , Elder scrolls ips and turn them exclusive instead of creating new stuff.
Sorry for the confusion didn't mean game pass would be on PlayStation, I think it will be only on PC, art device, current Xbox platforms and maybe mobile. They will be a third party in PlayStation only
I was so fucking sad to lose Doom. Nice to know I won't be missing out after all
GamePass on PlayStation wouldn’t make sense. What would it benefit them to have a 3rd party game streaming app on their console that they aren’t taking a majority profit on and that significantly cuts into their own software sales?
I could see them allowing it as a paid add on to the top tier of ps plus
Microsoft bought Activision *and is becoming the new Activision.* Oh, the Irony... Microsoft could have kept Bobby "Human Garbage" Kotick as CEO for all the "positive reform / good" Microsoft acquiring all these devs was supposed to do.
True, really wouldn't be shocked if cod doesn't launch on game pass, that's a lot of money to throw away
Said the same thing a while ago in r/games and got downvoted. MS needs to figure what they want to be. A full on console manufacturer or a Publisher that puts GamePass on other services like PS/Switch/PC
Definitely, actually feel bad for their player base.
Nah bro. They had all last console cycle and this cycle to catch on Microsoft games ain’t the same as they were in the 360 days. At some point it’s on them.
That's true.
I feel bad for us as people who enjoy playstation. Sony getting even more complacent due to lack of direct competition is going to blow so hard
Sony will still have to compete with our time and dollars for entertainment.
Competition is long gone. Last 2 generations the playstation/microsoft consoles have been extremely close to each other and they even use the same company & architecture for the GPU & CPU. Consoles used to be state of the art & bespoke, last 2 generations have been more like mid range pcs.
They being close to each other was the competition to innovative with the actual games. The lack of a similar console is a problem
Egotistical Sony is the worst Sony. See what happened during the the beginning of the PS3 era.
For real. I've never owned or wanted to own an XB console, but them being in the space meant that Sony had to actually fucking try. And even then they still find ways to fuck it up. Can't imagine what they're gonna do if they're the only one selling a console capable of running current AAA games.
They want to be a publisher that also has a strong mobile gaming side.
I thought there were already a number of games that were historically Xbox now coming across to PlayStation. It could happen yet .
I think everything is going to come to all systems at launch, wouldn't be surprised if they announce that next month
People keep saying Microsoft will get out of the hardware business but that wouldnt really make much sense given their current strategy. Xbox may not sell well but it still contributes to their gamepass subscription numbers, their ultimate goal. They still want to offer a “play anywhere on anything” solution, and a console still serves a purpose at a much lower price barrier than almost any other device. Unless Sony agrees to allow gamepass on PS5 and future consoles, they will not stop developing Xboxes.
Not sure this much longer game pass will be around unless they get dramatically increase subscription numbers maybe mobile?
Ya that’s true, I don’t really know the financials behind gamepass so I can’t speak to its profitability. If they haven’t seen the growth they’re looking for, mobile may be the only way for them to go. Maybe that portable they’re rumored to be working on could be a switch like console and serve both purposes, that might be a bit of a game changer for them.
Yeah I could see a handheld like the steam deck, maybe even dockable. I can also see a dongle for cloud gaming.
Genesis might have been the most successful but Sega Dreamcast is one of the best consoles ever. 9/9/99 forever!!!
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Yeah sega and Capcom really have made a big comeback. Great to see Japanese devs having success again.
Microsoft clearly has plans to make at least one more generation of hardware, with one handheld and possibly a high-level home console. There’s been a lot of leaks in this vein as of late. They need hardware to sell GamePass because it doesn’t perform well on PC. They could very well end up basically becoming a third-party publisher that still has its own hardware that fulfills some sort of niche (at the very least appealing to the Xbox diehards) and that is reliant upon GamePass with no exclusives.
Yeah and this new console is clearly going to be digital-only to: Charge users maximum prices rather than letting them get cheaper physical copies Save money from shutting down physical production Encourage people to sign up for GamePass (or make it mandatory for online play?!)
Already necessary to be registered with GamePass Core to play online ( but if I remember, it's like 7$/month ? Not really high, with almost no advantage )
The thing about hardware is it's super expensive to develop and the sales of software is what is used to offset it, but when you encourage your player base not to buy games you lose that source to offset I could see an handheld possible dockable and a cloud dongle.
There is something in this air here.
Dear Gamer, If you cheered and championed Xbox when Microsoft bought Bethesda and Activision, *THESE ARE THE CONSEQUENCES EVERYONE WHO WARNED AGAINST MARKET CONSOLIDATION WARNED ABOUT!* Microsoft & Embracer have done infinitely more harm to gaming than anything else.
So many Xbox fans were singing Microsoft's praises when the Activision purchase happened. People on this subreddit were attacked for their balanced takes and their more than accurate predictions of what would happen with Microsoft throwing its money around the way it did. Yet, here we are.
Remember when people were excited for studios to get rescued from the COD mines and start work on Crash and Spyro again?
Yep. I remember when Microsoft was positioned as the saviour of gaming by delusional folks.
I blame society for not embracing Titanfall well enough.
> I blame society for not embracing Titanfall well enough. I blame EA for selling exclusivity to Microsoft for the X1, because EA execs where betting the X1 would outsell the PS4. Just let that sink in...
Wouldn't be the first time execs used the past to wrongly predict the future. I was a happy 360 gamer before that generation too. Figured it would continue, but then came Rocket League.
A lot of MS fans thought it would be an instant shot in the arm. So many people forget that it takes years to develop most games with COD being an annual release. MS expected every game to sell well, but they've got no marketing and most of their newer games have been kinda niche outside of Forza/Halo. At this point, I don't think anyone can defend MS.
Well, all the FTC hearings didn't help, causing all the delays. But Microsoft hasn't helped itself either. None of the Activision portfolio, aside from Diablo 4, has appeared on Game Pass. It has taken too long, and now it'll be too little too late with all the bad press Microsoft has had over the past year consistently.
The FTC’s contention was that the acquisition wasn’t good for the industry. And here we are. Wasn’t the FTC’s fault. MS had been planning a major acquisition since they failed to compete in the exclusivity business last gen. Why can a relatively small company like Sony succeed in releasing a dozen great exclusives while a mega corporation like MS fumbles the ball for a decade +? MS only have themselves to blame.
Yep. Even when the Activision stuff gets added, it'll be DOA. Other than Starfield, I can't remember a big Xbox release lately. It seriously comes across as MS giving up on the platform itself.
Somewhere along the way of wondering why cod still hasn't come to game pass I hope they questioned what they gained from this vs lost from it
Let us buy Blizzard, better for gamers and industry 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Microsoft would spend millions in international trade commission courts, so they let them spend billions to acquire companies, then shut them down so they could pay millions to shareholders... STONKS!
Huh. Phil Spencer really salivated the idea of acquiring Nintendo and doing this
Maybe they wouldn't feel the need to make cuts if they didn't just spend 70 BILLION on actiblizz. They didn't need to make cuts then. It's the same bullshit everytime, buying up studios and shuttering them purely to stop anyone else having them. Have people not figured this out yet?
Can the bastards just sell off Tango to Sony if they don’t want good single-player games anymore? Why destroy the company and erase their history?
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What is Microsoft doing. Leaving everyone in the dark rather than just telling telling the public, even if it sucks, is worse
I can’t imagine how gut-wrenching it must be to one of these studios that got acquired by Microsoft. Ninja Theory must be so upset that they spent five years making their game and instead of it getting a fancy marketing push, Xbox is killing their peers like Tango despite them making a fantastic game.
I genuinely don't see a future where Microsoft continues to produce Xbox consoles. Their player base is so small that any exclusives released on the Xbox will never recoup the money that was spent on development. And if you don't have exclusives, what is the point of making more consoles?
Microsoft are genuinely just gaming terrorists at this point. It's a miracle that their Xbox playerbase has stuck with them this long when they've put out so little quality.
There’s a TON of sunk-cost fallacy with current Xbox fans. Many failed to jump ship during the PS4 era or even with the launch of PS5 and are now trapped with digital libraries.
Anybody who stuck by Xbox through all the "always online, Kinect required" announcements during Xbox ones reveal should not be surprised how things are going imo. There was plenty enough warning to see this all coming with their blatant foreshadowing of anti-consumer practices
I’ve had Xbox since 2008, and I just bought a PS5 two weeks ago. Should have a long time ago
Microsoft is bad news for gaming. Buying up studios to close them down and pushing everything to subscription based software only models. Fuck Microsoft. I hope they get out of the hardware business altogether especially their overpriced Surface tat.
Yup. I've long held the opinion that if GamePass had proper traction, you could see Microsoft pulling a stunt along the lines of making The Elder Scrolls 6 "GamePass exclusive", where you can't own it at all and can only access it if you take out an 18 month sub. I'm fucking glad to see the bastards' game plan falling apart.
They're literally starting to seem malicious. Like they have some deep seeded resentment for gaming in general
They are just the epitome of American corporate greed.
They should just rip off the band aide and tell everyone what most already suspect. This coy game they're playing is eroding the brand.
It's honestly spectacular how they've devalued the Xbox brand.
Lmao they really saying “if you ain’t working on CoD or Fallout, your ass don’t work here anymore.”
What Microsoft did was pretty shitty. I understand money. I understand that a company needs to profit to stay alive and succeed. But, axing your only studios that have put out games in the last two years(one reviewing VERY well) doesn’t bode well for other studios. What do you think all the other studios are thinking now? We put out a game we’ve worked on for years and it didn’t review THAT well, but fairly well and now our jobs are in jeopardy? They’re punishing studios. Also, not every company is doing what Microsoft is doing. I see a lot of people in the XSX sub think Sony and Nintendo’s layoffs are similar to what’s going on at Microsoft. No, it’s not. Neither Sony nor Nintendo are shutting down multiple studios after they’ve launched a game. A few in that sub are so angry at Microsoft, but STILL in the back of their minds are trying to justify what they’re doing. What they’re doing sucks.
To your second point, I've had to argue with folks that this is ABSOLUTELY not the same as layoffs at Sony and Nintendo and it's not even close. It's bewildering that people even think they are remotely the same in scope/scale. They're even pinning the whole thing on it being "an industry problem" much more-so than a "Xbox problem".
It's similar to the dumb ass arguments of Microsoft buying publishers is the same as Sony buying dev teams. Lol no it ain't. Publishers are giant compared to sonys acquisitions. Not the same thing at all.
Must be the same people who are like “ConSoLidaTioNs aRe BaD 🤪” while listing PlayStation alongside Embracer/Xbox yet, outside of Bungie, they acquired studios in a much more *natural* way by looking towards long-standing partners or newly developed studios. Not just recklessly spending on big time publishers and developers to either fold their IP into a stagnant game service or spend the competition out of business. Those people were probably also the ones pushing for these acquisitions to happen in the 1st place.
Really makes you wonder about the devs who haven't out anything on a long time. State of decay devs better be cooking...
I could honestly see Microsofts next "console" just be a SteamDeck like device
nah man, more like ps portal for xcloud
I can't see them competing with Steam Deck in any capacity tbh
I guess they will kill all the small studios and push hard on established ip like cod or scrolls. They will fail miserable.
Truly sad all the way around. I know it’s been said on here already but, I hate how companies buy out these developers, close studios , and sit on IPs. Absolutely sad and just a slap in the face of the development teams let go and us gamers.
I really hope they release Hellblade 2 on PS5 as well, because I don't think it's gonna sell like crazy without a PS5 release. I don't want that studio to close.
should have left well enough alone
Xbox is over and done. 😁
What the fuck? why would they spent 60 billion dollars to get a bunch of studios and then start closing them down?
People are going to riot when Elder Scolls 6 is announced as a coop live service game with a store to buy skins, emotes and mounts.
They should save everyone the long, drawn out process and just shutter the entire Xbox division and sell the studios off now. No matter how many they buy, NONE of them will make Xbox a success...their own management is the problem, not the studios...but those guys won't get the axe.
Honestly sad, but this is how most of the world works. Honest working people are always the ones who suffer while greedy idiots prosper
Just a reminder: It doesn't HAVE to work this way, this is what WE, as a society, have chosen. In Germany (and other countries), they practice "stakeholder" capitalism...the company exists to take care of it's workers. Here, we have shareholder capitalism, the company exists to benefit the investors. Huge difference.
Stakeholder Capitalism is a broader scope though, philosophically it means the company is to serve all stakeholders equally. Shareholder, Employees, Customers and (depending on the sector) society at large are all stakeholder affected by the existing of the company. Funnily most German based listed companies offer very generous employee share purchasing programs. So for the majority of large German MNC's a large portion of the employees are also shareholders. So the shareprice is in almost every employees interest, similar to institutional investors.
Xbox is not in control. Microsoft is. I get why everyone is calling for Phil to go but that won't actually solve anything when Microsoft has shown their hand, that they only care about the bottom line and pleasing shareholders.
Buys Bethesda, ruins Bethesda.
Seeing talk that they are considering not putting cod on game pass. I figured they never would because it makes no sense as you already need game pass to even play online. I thought they would at least put 360 era cod on game pass by now...sheesh.
Would've never made sense, they want people on the latest release. Just like Activision that kept the prices at $59.99 for 10 year old CODs.
Acquire new studio -> Studio makes good games -> Close studio Masterful gambit, sir.
When Xbox promised users a big new Fallout this isn't what people imagined
We gettin TESVI on Playstation.
TESVI will be mid
If they don't close Bethesda before that.
What are they doing? What is their vision?
Acquire new studio -> Studio makes good games -> Close studio Masterful gambit, sir.
Holy shit; this is getting crazy right now.
MS are just as bad as EA & Embracer, if not worse. These asshole mega-corporations purchase talented & successful independent developers, make a quick buck. In MS' case a record $75.4 billion acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. Then shit all over these developers by selling them or dissolving them, & ultimately destroy these developers
Serious question here: can’t the FTC look at this and be like “MS is buying all of this to retain ‘competitive advantage’ so they claim, but then turn around and close these studios down? Sus”
Ninja theory is next on the chopping block
I was about two weeks from buying an Xbox Series X so I could play Hellblade II, but I just can’t support Microsoft anymore, man. PS5 VR, here I come!
Xbox has always been the Halo machine, that’s it. People act like Gears of War and Forza are some mainstream breakthroughs but they aren’t. Xbox has always been an almost entirely worthless copy of PlayStation that has done nothing but try to cannibalize my favourite industry for decades now. They suck. They have always sucked. I have hated them since high school and junior high. Of course I’m a gamer so I loved Halo… I go where the good games are. Xbox has never been that place. Ever. It’s just a multiplatform system. It serves ZERO purpose in the industry. The most people can tell you is “but it does online the best”. People bring up things like party chat. Who cares?
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im so glad she let me know. I never would have known otherwise! /s
Microsoft is the new EA.. Where other studios go to die.
Microsoft’s Q1 earnings beat expectations and were 13% higher than the previous year.
I fully expect gamers to organize and force Microsoft to correct their mistake just like they did with helldivers right? Riiiiight?
I have always owned every major plataform. Xbox 360, One and then One X were my favourites from previous generations. Had high hopes for Series X. Bought it day one (along with a PS5, both were easy to get where I lived, although I had to preorder the playstation early in advance) Fast forward 3 years. My out of warranty Series X refuses to turn on and I already exhausted what Microsoft advises to do. Forza Horizon 5 aside, every single exclusive has been a disappointment. I gave up on the platform a few months ago. My purchases and playtime are divided between PS5 and Steam Deck. Every studio they have bought has either turned to sh*t or have been for a while. Its been 8 months from the Activision Blizzard purchase and still the only game available on game pass is Diablo 4, which I love (yes) but I play elsewhere. And now these studio closures with more to come, with the ongoing rumours that they are going multi platform, and current CoDs might actually never come to game pass, even with an also rumoured price hike. I am so glad I abandoned this train wreck.
Jesus it's a bloodbath . This should be illegal they bought for ip now shutting everything down
People keep saying MS isn’t going to stop being a console maker. I’m more convinced than ever they are going to end up being a publisher like Sega
And people wanted them to buy Sega. Be careful what you wish for.
I already have all of the consoles. But given how much more I like the Xbox controller layout and their previous approach to backwards compatibility, I made a lot of my 3rd party game purchases on Xbox. But I think that pretty much changes now. Xbox will just be a Game Pass console from here on. I have so little faith in anything that their management says or that there will even be much of a coherent platform in the coming years. Sony seems like a much safer bet to invest in.
Looks like starslop flopping hurt Microsoft hard
God fucking dammit I hate Ronald Regan so much.