Xbox Series X|S Thread - Power Your Dreams.

ITSMILNER wrote:Has Microsoft said they are done with studio acquisitions now or are we expecting some more?

They’re rumoured to be interested in buying WB games but whether that has any truth or not, time will tell.

Venom wrote:

Phil Spencer has said that news on backwards compatibility for Xbox Series X should be coming in August, sparking speculation that the previously-rumoured August Xbox event (and possible Xbox Series S reveal) event is legitimate. Speaking on iJustine's Same Brain podcast, Spencer discussed the work of the backwards compatibility team on Xbox Series X, and praised their work on optimizing older games for the next-gen console. He then added: "I'm encouraged to be able to talk more about it - should be August. I think August we'll have more to say on that."

While Spencer is specifically referring to backwards compatibility news, many have connected the August timing to previous rumours about an Xbox event set to take place during the same month.

https://www.ign.com/articles/xbox-series-x-phil-spencer-sparks-speculation-about-august-event

Hopefully not as long between the July and the August event as we had between the May and July one...... We have to get a price and date at this one as well, alongside Lockhart’s reveal if its coming out alongside the Series X.

I think Gamescom is on like the 28th of Aug and Xbox are at it so could be a wait...

Well, at least it can’t actually be as long as nearly the 2 month wait between the last two events then.

Insider Shinobi says about Xbox -

"Not just a singular thing, there's multiple news beats next month."

I'm not sure next month will be big on games in relation to Xbox honestly, at least new announcements. Might be new things to show, but I'd expect stuff on xCloud soon, hardware, big news related to Game Pass and a publisher - stuff like that from what I know

Question is whether they have a main event for the big stuff (Dates/Price/Lockhart/Gold changes) or they just drop a 5 minute video at Gamescom.

twitter.com/JeffGrubb/status/1289103311220736002

This is a big deal. Like, it really is.

Oh, so NOW you believe him.

For those who are unaware, Jeff is talking F2P games (this is the tweet the convo the above stems from):

twitter.com/JeffGrubb/status/1289028152891604994

Let's wait for an official announcement but it would be a bold move

Saint of Killers wrote::slol: Oh, so NOW you believe him.

For those who are unaware, Jeff is talking F2P games (this is the tweet the convo the above stems from):

"Xbox Live Gold is going away and playing online multiplayer will be free. They will not force you into Ultimate to play online." seem pretty conclusive to me. Yes the tweets start off with F2P but that last tweet is pretty clear.

Plus it's not the only rumour, 12month gold subs can't be bought now and a few other of these ITK people have danced around the exact same point. (I suspect Xbox see it a big announcement).

Makes good sense really since they're all in on Gamepass. Obviously a lot easier to sell people one subscription than getting them to sign up for two.

So, if this is announced, will Ultimate be cheaper in future or will they say adding Xcloud into it will take Gold's place...?

It'd be interesting to see how Sony justify PS+ if this gets announced....

Also:

Free online + Game Pass for a monthly cost is absolutely incredible value. I imagine that will win over a lot of the more casual market who don't buy games that regurlarly.

They've gotta be making money somewhere though and I can't help but wonder though if Microsoft are shifting their game towards more microtransaction based models. There's a much higher ceiling there just shifting a few million copies of game for a one off cost before it plummets in value. Halo Infinite is moving towards GaaS and they're making MP F2P so it would fit with that. I can see Forza and Fable making similar moves too.

Tomous wrote:Free online + Game Pass for a monthly cost is absolutely incredible value. I imagine that will win over a lot of the more casual market who don't buy games that regurlarly.

They've gotta be making money somewhere though and I can't help but wonder though if Microsoft are shifting their game towards more microtransaction based models. There's a much higher ceiling there just shifting a few million copies of game for a one off cost before it plummets in value. Halo Infinite is moving towards GaaS and they're making MP F2P so it would fit with that. I can see Forza and Fable making similar moves too.

Well Halo has been confirmed as NOT having ANY micros transactions, it will have a 'battle pass' and Forza could have that too but Fable is not an MMO or online at all, that rumour was false.

The big difference here is MS is massive company that could buy Sony outright several times over. Any hit they take is sustainable because of Surface/Windows/Azure/Office.

Microsoft owns 4 of the current top 6 games on Steam, so they are still making money...

I just can't see why they'd give up such large income streams without an idea on how they're going to replace. There's clearly a change in strategy, a change in the way they want people to consume games, and they're not doing that out of the goodness of their own hearts. There has to be a long term driver behind it. I understand them wanting to regain market share but even with these moves it's not as if they're going to blow Sony out the water, the brand is too strong.

I'm no big business expert, and MS is definitely bigger than Sony, but in no way is it a David and Goliath type comparison like you're trying to make out there.

Most recent data for Sony puts them at generating 8 trillion Yen in revenue for 2020 which equates to about 80 billion dollars. Microsoft's latest data shows 2020 revenue at 143 billion.

Tomous wrote:I just can't see why they'd give up such large income streams without an idea on how they're going to replace. There's clearly a change in strategy, a change in the way they want people to consume games, and they're not doing that out of the goodness of their own hearts. There has to be a long term driver behind it. I understand them wanting to regain market share but even with these moves it's not as if they're going to blow Sony out the water, the brand is too strong.

They have this thing called Gamepass, it's quite popular.

I think you're missing the point a bit here, PC gamers don't have to pay to play online, so with all Exclusives coming to both PC and Series X it makes no sense to have one behind a paywall. They're banking on Gamepass's continued success to hoover up a lot of the gold subs they lose.

Jenuall wrote:I'm no big business expert, and MS is definitely bigger than Sony, but in no way is it a David and Goliath type comparison like you're trying to make out there.

Most recent data for Sony puts them at generating 8 trillion Yen in revenue for 2020 which equates to about 80 billion dollars. Microsoft's latest data shows 2020 revenue at 143 billion.

Revenue has little to do with how much a company is worth or more importantly, it's spending power.

MS is a 1 trillion dollar company.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/25/18515623/microsoft-worth-1-trillion-dollars-stock-price-value

Sony is an 80bn company and make 80bn in revenue.

The reason MS's revenue is only double is because they are investing in infrastructure, there's a reason 1 company has a worldwide cloud infrastructure plus 1bn people using a windows device. It really is a david and goliath situation financially speaking.

On top of that, Xbox makes about 3bn in revenue which is TINY in MS's grand scheme of things yet Phil sits on the board of Microsoft.

I like the idea of a shift in focus. Hopefully it'll mean Xbox becomes a more viable option for people. Gaming is better when there are more options, if there can be a space in the market for Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo we all benefit.

Photek wrote:

Tomous wrote:I just can't see why they'd give up such large income streams without an idea on how they're going to replace. There's clearly a change in strategy, a change in the way they want people to consume games, and they're not doing that out of the goodness of their own hearts. There has to be a long term driver behind it. I understand them wanting to regain market share but even with these moves it's not as if they're going to blow Sony out the water, the brand is too strong.

They have this thing called Gamepass, it's quite popular.

I think you're missing the point a bit here, PC gamers don't have to pay to play online, so with all Exclusives coming to both PC and Series X it makes no sense to have one behind a paywall. They're banking on Gamepass's continued success to hoover up a lot of the gold subs they lose.

I think you're missing my point actually. I know they have Gamepass, I'm just questioning how this is going to work long term. We're continually told AAA development is expensive yet everything is going on Gamepass day one. Halo 5 sold 10m+ copies, would have made £400m alone. But they're giving up that up, Gamepass subscribers get it and the multiplayer will be free. And while I can understand the logic in them removing paid online , it's still giving up another big money spinner for them. Yes they make a lot from Gamepass, but they also have to share that out quite a bit with everyone else putting their games on there.

All I'm saying is we don't know their long term strategy in full yet. Either there is a point where X amount of Gamepass subscribers is more profitable than the previous model of selling games for a one off price and they think they can hit that number of subscribers and reap the rewards or they have other monetisation methods in mind. No doubt, full reveals of Halo, Forza and Fable will tell us more about what they're planning, as if they are going down those types of routes it will be in the flagship IPs where they make the most.

more heat than light wrote:I like the idea of a shift in focus. Hopefully it'll mean Xbox becomes a more viable option for people. Gaming is better when there are more options, if there can be a space in the market for Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo we all benefit.

Yep, it feels like they're all going in very different directions at the moment, which is only a good thing. I can see Microsoft selling a lot of Lockhart consoles to people who don't game that much but are happy to pay a subscription and load it up a few times a week to play the latest COD or whatever.