At times, I really don’t understand Microsoft’s MO.
They own a tonne of studios and IPs, and have also completed acquisitions of both Bethesda and Activision Blizzard over the past few years.
Xbox could easily surpass PlayStation if Microsoft actually bothered to leverage the intellectual properties they’ve developed and acquired to start pumping out exclusives. If they shat out a slew of console exclusives like new Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, StarCraft, Elder Scrolls, Doom, Pillars of Eternity, Perfect Dark, Banjo-Kazooie, Jet Force Gemini, Conker, Gears, Halo, etc games, and actually ensured they were competently made, Sony wouldn’t have a leg to stand on.
Heck, if World of Warcraft got an exclusive Xbox port optimized with gamepad controls in mind (cross parity with PC may not be possible given how prevalent third party add-ons are), they’d dethrone Sony.
I can understand why certain IPs like Minecraft are better kept multiplatform, because Microsoft make an absolute mint off of merchandising which made their $2bn acquisition of Mojang more than worth it.
Microsoft are dead-last in the console race because they aren’t doing anything with the sheer volume of IP’s they have.
Unless they’re doing this on purpose to avoid pissing off the FTC & CMA, acting all buddy-buddy with Nintendo and Sony because you’re too incompetent to compete isn’t going to drive innovation in the console market. If anything it’s going to stagnate things. Nintendo really need the kick up the arse necessary for them to actually improve their hardware and the state of Nintendo Switch Online, and perhaps they need both Microsoft and Sony to offer a superior product to open their eyes.
I think they plan to offer a gaming service (eg Game Pass) that will not be dependent on a platform. I’m sure their IP will have exclusives or timed exclusives on that service.
We will probably see another Xbox. But I’m not sure if we’ll see 2 more. Same goes for Playstation. There will certainly be a ps6, but will there be a ps7?
I think this is the answer. It seems like Microsoft is laying the foundation to go all-in on cloud gaming and/or gamepass. I think their ultimate goal is to dip out of the console wars altogether and be at the forefront of what they think could be the next frontier in gaming.
Honestly, it's kinda smart. Idk if cloud gaming could really be the future (at least in the US) until we have better infrastructure and access to fast/reliable internet without data caps is more ubiquitous, but carving out a niche for themselves instead of locking horns with the competition is pretty clever. It's worked for Nintendo. Most PC and console gamers I know also own a Switch, in part because of the quality of the exclusives and in part because of the relatively accessible pricing of the console, but also because the Switch hardware offers a unique experience (well, it was a lot more unique pre-Steam Deck).
Well, we know there will be a PlayStation 9 in 2078! Evidently console lifecycles will start to get very long.
But in all seriousness, I had the same thought about Xbox. One more console and then I think they might throw in the towel and become only a developer and publisher, like Sega did.
I hope not. I like Xbox and I like competition.
I do think we’ll continue to see Nintendo and Sony consoles. I also think if Microsoft exits hardware that we’ll eventually see other, smaller competitors attempt to enter the market—and likely fail within one generation. Think efforts like Google Stadia.
Back when Atari was king there were still a glut of competitors: Odyssey 2, Intellivision, ColecoVision, etc. There was technically an Odyssey 3, but all were failures and the companies quickly exited the market (including, ultimately, Atari).
Microsoft isn’t the developer here; Bethesda, A/B, etc. are. Microsoft is working as the publisher to get these games into as many people’s hands as possible. The way they are doing this is by putting Game Pass onto as many devices as they can, and publishing those games exclusively to Xbox and Game Pass.
Xbox could easily surpass PlayStation if Microsoft actually bothered to leverage the intellectual properties they’ve developed and acquired to start pumping out exclusives. If they shat out a slew of console exclusives like new Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, StarCraft, Elder Scrolls, Doom, Pillars of Eternity, Perfect Dark, Banjo-Kazooie, Jet Force Gemini, Conker, Gears, Halo, etc games, and actually ensured they were competently made, Sony wouldn’t have a leg to stand on.
making good games is difficult. They’ve tried to ensure their recent games were competently made, and failed. You don’t just get good games by thowing money at it.
In addition, they need to actually make money at some point, they could make all those games but they would lose money on every single one, because Xbox doesn’t get game sales anymore thanks to Game Pass.
So Microsoft needs to make just enough that is cheap enough to make Game Pass make them profit.
I can’t say about nintendo, but sony has already declined the ea service on playstation. Could be hard for microsoft, to get their service on other consoles. Even if sony and Nintendo get they about 30% share, they probably not happy because they earn more with sold games.
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