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[supernova8]

Setting the stage

Lots of threads these days talking about how it's "the end for Xbox" etc etc. Getting kinda boring. I thought it might be time for something a tad more constructive.

By most traditional metrics, Xbox Series is/are not doing very well against Playstation 5.
Xbox One didn't do very well against Playstation 4.
Xbox OG didn't do very well against the juggernaut that was the PS2.

But! Xbox 360 did seem to pretty damn well until the latter half of that generation when Sony finally sorted its shit out.

Similarly, Nintendo bombed (in relative terms) with the N64, bombed with the Gamecube (again relatively) against the PS2, but did very well with the Wii, and even managed to stage an amazing comeback with the Switch after the absolute shitshow (commercially) that was the Wii U.

There was some talk by Phil Spencer himself (during that Kinda Funny interview) about how losing the Xbox One generation was the worst thing that could happen since that's when a lot of players were solidifying their online/digital game libraries. However, I proudly present..... Nintendo Switch.

I think the Nintendo Switch debunks Spencer's claim (or implication) that losing last gen was some sort of death knell. Nintendo (until very recently) didn't even have PS3-level barebones online infrastructure (I say that because I always preferred the 360 interface and XBL in general), so I personally see no reason why Xbox couldn't come back from losing the previous generation.

Anyway.... onto the meat of the question

You are in charge of Xbox, you are formulating the overall plan for next-gen (ie this gen) - what is your plan?

I will also outline my own idea of what I'd do (later as a comment) but I'll leave it out for now to keep the post as short as possible. Here are a few guidelines/goalposts to make sure everyone is "playing" by the same rules.

Overarching budget
Assume you have roughly whatever Xbox has/had at the time.

Hardware
SKUs and performance - It's up to you what SKUs you do or do not launch, but let's stipulate that the hardware (performance wise) itself is already pretty much decided (ie there's an Xbox Series X and an Series S, or maybe a digital-only Series X, you can make minor tweaks like that but let's not go crazy with pie-in-the-sky superpowered consoles that realistically wouldn't exist anyway), and you're free to name the console(s) whatever you want.
Pricing - feel free to set whatever price you like (which could even include indirect pricing tactics, such as offering Game Pass for free for a certain period (1, 3, 6, 12 months etc.) or offering a low barrier to entry subscription based model where customers sign up to at least a year of Game Pass and only pay $100 or something) but I'll stipulate that Playstation 5 is going to launch at $499.

Games
Clearly Xbox has opted for a model where all games on Series X (or whatever you choose to call it) have to release on Series S (which, again you can erase from history if you want to). There has been criticism that Xbox has not pushed its hardware enough with first party exclusives (or hasn't had enough heavy-hitter first party exclusives).

Here, we're going to assume that COVID-19 did happen (because it did) and that COVID-19 has affected game development to some degree. However, PS5 managed to release a few heavy hitter titles relatively early on. Here, you can decide what your launch lineup would be, but try to keep it realistic (i.e., nobody expects Xbox to have some amazing launch lineup of 10+ titles). In my mind, I'd like to see maybe 3 or 4 relatively heavy hitters.

Remember, you're Head of Xbox so if you want a series to be rebooted in time for launch, you reboot the damn thing.

Plus, if you decide to go for one (powerful) Xbox SKU then perhaps you will be thinking of really leaning into the power (ie graphics and AI).

EDIT: I'm stipulating that in this alternate reality, Xbox does not even attempt to acquire Activision Blizzard. They have acquired Zenimax though. Feel free, as Xbox Head, to leverage that as you please. Also doesn't mean Xbox cannot strike some sort of exclusivity deal for Call of Duty, assuming regulators will not step in as long as there's no actual acquisition.

Overall messaging
Finally, this is more about setting the overall "tone" for the generation. I think we can all agree that Xbox 360 was very upbeat "games games games, check out these fucking awesome games", while Xbox One just felt like "TV TV TV interactive experrrrrieenzzzz" with somehow less emphasis on actual games despite it being a... games console.

This generation, Phil Spencer has talked a lot about how it's all about making sure everyone gets to play, no matter what device etc etc, but maybe you want to take a more aggressive approach. Maybe you want to say "look we have the most powerful console with the most advanced games, the next-generation begins with Xbox" or something along those lines.

Here, you can also outline how you would reveal the new Xbox console(s), what you would show off at the event, in terms of games coming at launch but also those a bit further out.

TL; DR you're the head of Xbox, what would you have done differently heading into this generation?

 

[GametimeUK]

Successfully bought Activision

 

[TexMex]

Release games

 

[PeteBull]

There is nothing much to talk about, just copy early/mid days of xbox 360 and even if u dont win vs ps4 u are very close and successful, tldr- tons of high quality exclusives, it works for any platform, even highly underpowered and outdated switch .

 

[Esppiral]

Another thread about this Jesús gaf

 

[supernova8]

Another thread about this Jesús gaf

This is a much more constructive thread than the other whine-a-thons out there. If you don't like it no need to comment.
Hell, put me on ignore if that floats your boat.

 

[Danwan224]

Get triple a second party games at the start of the generation if your internal studios ain't ready

 

[supernova8]

Successfully bought Activision

I just edited the OP to say Xbox does not acquire (or even attempt to acquire) ActiBliz in this scenario, just to make things less complicated (and to avoid discussion devolving into fights over said acquisition).

 

[supernova8]

Release games

I would personally rethink the whole atmosphere around next-gen Xbox. I'm not sure it's only about "releasing more games".

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Shift gears on GamePass.

Try to grow GamePass more organically and without cannibalizing B2P sales.

No day 1 first party on GamePass.

No day 1 first party on PC except GaaS.

Build out support studios and significantly reduce reliance on contractors. Focus on the reduction of tech debt across studios.

Would have purchased Remedy, CDPR, and more strategic acquisitions.

Would have looked into re-acquiring Bungie.

 

[supernova8]

Shift gears on GamePass.

Try to grow GamePass more organically and without cannibalizing B2P sales.

No day 1 first party on GamePass.

No day 1 first party on PC except GaaS.

Build out support studios and significantly reduce reliance on contractors. Focus on the reduction of tech debt across studios.

Would have purchased Remedy, CDPR, and more strategic acquisitions.

Would have looked into re-acquiring Bungie.

Interesting take, how would you do that in practice? (Personally I think offering first party titles Day One on Game Pass is one of the best things they did, could be wrong though).

 

[Daneel Elijah]

Bethesda basically saved them. I do not really want to write that because I fear that Xbox could do it, but they should buy Devolver. 1 publisher for AAA in Bethesda. 1 for indies that would be the gateway for Gamepass. Then work out one or two non Gamepass marketing deals. Cyberpunk was great for them and they were not harmed by its reception. Hire Ubisoft for an exclusive. It will probably be shit but better than nothing. They did it for the Wii U so it should not be that hard. If they really have"unlimited money" or at least the ear of Nadella, commision a Xbox Series X equivalent of Quantum Break or the quiet man from Square Enix. To show off the console abilities.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Interesting take, how would you do that in practice? (Personally I think offering first party titles Day One on Game Pass is one of the best things they did, could be wrong though).

Similar to how Sony has managed it. Maybe put games on GamePass after 12 or 18 months depending on B2P data.

They actively cannibalizing sales and they are diminishing the need and value of owning an Xbox console.

Other than perhaps the chance at bad ports, there are really no reason to own an Xbox over a PC. Xbox doesn't really do anything of merit better than PC.

This is why no one is buying games on XSeries and why no one is buying XSeries. This plan only works if GamePass grows exponentially to the point where you largely no longer need Xbox as a platform, but it only makes up 15% of xbox revenue. That's the most hardcore xbox fans who probably would have bought 4-5 games a year who are now buying nothing and many are doing so on PC instead of Xbox, meaning you aren't getting non-GamePass revenue from them. They're on Steam.

People should study MoviePass and AMC A-List.

MoviePass had this idea that you could subscribe to moviepass and go to the movies as much as you want. They were burning money to make this work. The problem? The most avid movie goers were the first to sign up for the service and they bled the service dry. They had hoped for two things that enough people would sign up for MoviePass that it would balance out the heavy movie goers and that they would get a large enough userbase that they could demand a percentage of concession revenue from theaters and probably reduced ticket prices. They were subsidizing the entire ticket price...

Theaters knew what was up and they balked at giving MoviePass a cut of their revenue, so MoviePass try to geofence theaters who wouldn't play ball and only send their subscribers to specific theaters to try to up the pressure. This didn't work because it just reduced the value of MoviePass and didn't apply enough pressure to get theaters to bend. Meanwhile MoviePass ran out of money.

What did AMC and other theaters do? They created their own subscription services, with more tame offerings (3 movies a week) and smarter pricing.

Microsoft is burning money on GamePass with 3rd party and 1st party titles AND to make things worse is they're losing sales from B2P and console ecosystem.

It's not AS bad a model as MoviePass but it's still pretty bad.

You look at Netflix and it was always a subscription service. They modeled how many DVDs you can get at once based on the price tier. When they went to streaming they quickly realized that licensing out 3rd party content was going to get and remain expensive. That's when they started making their netflix originals, but they were never eating into their own revenue or userbase.

Let's say I was a diehard Bethesda fan, but I didn't want to buy XSX. Microsoft has designed it so that I could play it on GamePass for very cheap and then just get rid of GamePass. Hell if I don't have the hardware I could just play it on xCloud and still just get rid of GamePass afterward.

They should make it more difficult to drop out of GamePass and incentive people to stay long term and not just 1 year but 3-5 years. That's what a console is, it's largely a commitment for 5+ years. GamePass is a commitment for a month...

 

[Slicker than your average]

I've seen lots of types of these threads recently, as in what should Xbox have done?

Every single time the answer is games.

It's really that's simple op.

 

[supernova8]

I've seen lots of types of these threads recently, as in what should Xbox have done?

Every single time the answer is games.

It's really that's simple op.

Xbox actually has put out a lot of games. I think they were just not the games some people wanted. That's why I don't believe it's quite as simple as that.

 

[T0minator]

Plan a solid line up for the first couple years and continue with consistent releases.

I've been playing through Burning Shores and I look over at my Series X and think how MS didn't have this generation planned out probably for game releases.

 

[SeraphJan]

Since this is a role play, I will purely take the perspective of Microsoft. Also assumed I'm solely focusing on making the Xbox hardware platform competitive, meaning I'm not trying to build the Xbox as a brand that work across platform, here is what I will do.

1. Tell every studio that we currently owns to focus on building exclusive games both in terms of variety and quality, spend all the budget that would other wise spent on game pass, cloud gaming and acquisition onto these project including development fee and marketing. The platform needs a variety of different genre than just the typical image of shooters, racing, and MPs, it especially needs more Japanese style games.

2. Try to hire talented developer in the industry and compensate them well, especially hire more Asian developer to add diversity to the games. This also means acquire more small and cheap but talented studio, more second party funding deals etc.

3. Cancel most of the budget that goes into cloud gaming and game pass, no more day one first party release, even if it means game pass fanbase's upset, main while reduce the subscription fee to make it plausible, its going to hurt the brand initially, but it will work out in the long run.

4. Expect to lose one generation with the prep time, but comeback one generation later with all the best quality games.

5. Making every game exclusive to Xbox hardware like Nintendo, even if it upsets PC gamer, take the PR hit. Releasing games on PC will make extra money, but its not beneficial to make the Xbox hardware platform competitive, in the end the main revenue for console manufacturer is the 30% cut from third party not from its first party games themselves, the first party game act as a incentive not the end goal. I mean If relies on software, then why even bother making consoles, just be a third party publisher. Pay no attention to all the criticism online, like I said above take the PR hit, stay low and endure one generation until the public's attention move unto something else.

6. Try to build a loyal fanbase within 2 console generation with top quality games that are exclusive to the Xbox hardware platform, never make the mistake of giving the player a second alternative, it will alienate the fanbase. In the end its the core fans that matters, the fans are the best marketing tool with enough followers it could shift the gaming culture and criteria of assessing video games, this is basic human psychology.

7. Giving third party developer better assistance to make third party games perform better compare to competitor's platform. This will give the platform one additional edge, especially consider we have outlets such as Digital Foundry that will notice these tiny difference and do the marketing for us.

8. Releasing two model of the hardware in the generation that I wish to come back. But not the terrible idea of Series S and X, but instead make a Home console model and a Portable model (with a built-in dock, market it with a catchy name like hybrid or whatever new term our brainstorm team come up with), both use the same architecture and OS, scale every game accordingly to work on both platform, for example 4k 60fps on the Home console model, while 1080p 30fps on the portable model. Make achievement and save file or other feature synced seamless in both model (after all its the same console but two models) This way I could capture audience from both market but without sacrificing graphic or portability for each camp.

 

[Bankai]

The best move would have been it go 3rd party and bang out them Fable & GOW quadruple-A' s on PS5

No but seriously, it's amazing how Xbox was able to come back from the Xbone debacle.

Who can forget this epic moment, which destroys everything the 360 era had built?

 

[Mibu no ookami]

The problem for Xbox right now is that every game release has the pressure to hold up the entire xbox brand.

That's not a problem for Sony. Spider-Man 2 has big hype around it, but PS5 isn't solely reliant on it.

I can't remember the last time a single game was as important for an entire brand's generation as Starfield is... And spencer is right it could be 11/10 but it won't shift the financials. It will help change the narrative though.

 

[SSfox]

I'll do the opposite of what Phil does

The best move would have been it go 3rd party and bang out them Fable & GOW quadruple-A' s on PS5

No but seriously, it's amazing how Xbox was able to come back from the Xbone debacle.

Who can forget this epic moment, which destroys everything the 360 era had built?

Phil commentary was way worse than Don's tbh

 

[N1tr0sOx1d3]

I’d probably buy many of the studios that EA closed down and get these companies to make the games they want to make. Trust them.

Bullfrog Productions
Westwood Studios
Origin Systems
Pandemic Studios
Visceral Games

I’d buy Ready at Dawn and Evolution games and get them to make the games they want to make.

Finally I’d buy Cliffy B who wants to make another one of those billion dollar franchises, but wouldn’t trust him to.

 

[supernova8]

I’d probably buy many of the studios that EA closed down and get these companies to make the games they want to make. Trust them.

Bullfrog Productions
Westwood Studios
Origin Systems
Pandemic Studios
Visceral Games

I’d buy Ready at Dawn and Evolution games and get them to make the games they want to make.

Finally I’d buy Cliffy B who wants to make another one of those billion dollar franchises, but wouldn’t trust him to.

Fuck yeah I think you're on to something.

Having said that, it seems like they're "trusting" studios now and it's not necessarily working out for them. How long are they supposed to trust Rare with Everwild before someone says "look guys if you don't show us something soon we're pulling the plug and putting you on something else"?

 

[Mibu no ookami]

I’d probably buy many of the studios that EA closed down and get these companies to make the games they want to make. Trust them.

Bullfrog Productions
Westwood Studios
Origin Systems
Pandemic Studios
Visceral Games

I’d buy Ready at Dawn and Evolution games and get them to make the games they want to make.

Finally I’d buy Cliffy B who wants to make another one of those billion dollar franchises, but wouldn’t trust him to.

Buying the studios that EA closed down?

What does that look like? Renting out the space they used to live in? They don't own the IP, is that what you mean? The employees don't still have ties to those companies... I guess I don't understand here.

 

[N1tr0sOx1d3]

Buying the studios that EA closed down?

What does that look like? Renting out the space they used to live in? They don't own the IP, is that what you mean? The employees don't still have ties to those companies... I guess I don't understand here.

I guess in my mind since this is an alternate reality, I’d like to rebuild those studios with the offer they create the games they want to make. True they don’t own the IP, but they can certainly make great games in the vein of their previous titles.

I gues what I’m getting at is amongst the studios EA closed down, we’ve lost some incredible IPs along with incredible talent who made games with passion.

Would be nice to capture that once more.

 

[FunkMiller]

Release. Great. Exclusive. Xbox. Games.

 

[N1tr0sOx1d3]

Fuck yeah I think you're on to something.

Having said that, it seems like they're "trusting" studios now and it's not necessarily working out for them. How long are they supposed to trust Rare with Everwild before someone says "look guys if you don't show us something soon we're pulling the plug and putting you on something else"?

This is true. I just sorely miss IPs from these companies, and ultimately it’s corporate suits that have destroyed so much talent.

 

[SJRB]

I would make sure the 53 studios I spent BILLIONS on produced some actual triple-A experiences within an acceptable timeframe to entice gamers to play their games on my platform.

I would also make sure any studio I bought was managed correctly and production pipelines were streamlined as efficiently as possible before I moved on to buy the next studio.

I would also make sure to delay literally any game that does not live up to standards instead of shoveling it out the door and ending up severely damaging our brand name and make us become the laughing stock of the industry and me having to go a "we're super sorry, we're going to try harder next time, trust us. Please buy our games" press tour for the 12th time because I aint got time for that.

 

[salva]

Hindsight the thread...

But basically:
- Schedule and release great first party titles continuously each quarter
- Prioritise, polish and push Halo Infinite content/DLC to come out shortly after release
- Release a new Halo-themed game (I reckon a third-person action game) not following the master chief.
- Continue to keep adding BC titles to GamePass to expand the library/offering
- Build a new dashboard/ui instead of using the xbone one to make it feel fresh. Prioritise speed/performance
- Look at having some sort of Steam/wider Windows compatibility to play PC titles (highly unlikely)

 

[theStartupSound]

Partner with some big store chains and make Xbox way more visible outside the US. Be 50 EUR cheaper than PS5 and train the employees of these stores to actively promote Xbox over PlayStation. Give incentives for groups of friends to switch together from PlayStation to Xbox.
Make it a pretty good deal for all the GTA/COD/FIFA crowd to switch to Xbox.

I’m pretty sure, many PlayStation gamers in my area don’t even know that GamePass exists. Make them know. Get something like FIFA for GamePass.

And in the background learn how companies with really good games build them. At what point in the development a Microsoft game goes down the mediocre road? Where do you need to change something, that you don’t get these okayish games, but bangers instead. What does the Rockstars, Playdead, IOIs and Sonys of this world do different?

 

[Damigos]

Release good games however long it will take
F Kinect shiet
Develop new studios and new ips
Honor your current IPs

 

[Neff]

I'd do my absolute damndest to make sure I had 360 part 2 on my hands instead of Xbox One part 2.

 

[TLZ]

Bought PlayStation.

On a serious note, I'd just go back to what worked for Xbox 360, pre Kinect.

 

[ThatStupidLion]

Introducing The XBox

A standard discless sku - 449$
An attachable external blu ray drive ( or internal) - 49$
An official app for phone/tablet for playing your xbox library anywhere any time - 99$ (or subscription based 5/mo)
connects to official handheld accessory or xbox controller
Phone/tablet accessory that attaches directly to phone to play similar like switch in handheld mode - 99$
Online - free
Digital game licenses as NFTs
Native marketplace for used digital game resale.
Digital game rental service 5-9$ per game per day

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Bought PlayStation.

On a serious note, I'd just go back to what worked for Xbox 360, pre Kinect.

Sony wanted to backdoor their way into the gaming industry by being a snes extension where sony would get the royalties for games. Nintendo balked at that, turned on Sony, and Sony came back with a vengeance.

Microsoft wanted Windows on PlayStation and Sony said no, and Microsoft has kind of just puttered around the last 20 years trying to make something happen.

The reality is that Sony is probably too small to really compete in gaming in the long run. I could see them merging with Disney except for antitrust. They'd probably have to divest Sony Pictures or elements of it. But with that poison pill of Spider-Man, no one else can really afford to buy Sony.

Won't be the first or last time Microsoft should have bought a company. Look at slack.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

I'd do my absolute damndest to make sure I had 360 part 2 on my hands instead of Xbox One part 2.

Bought PlayStation.

On a serious note, I'd just go back to what worked for Xbox 360, pre Kinect.

What worked for Microsoft with the 360 was Sony's mistakes. Hard to control an external competitor.

 

[Daneel Elijah]

And in the background learn how companies with really good games build them. At what point in the development a Microsoft game goes down the mediocre road? Where do you need to change something, that you don’t get these okayish games, but bangers instead. What does the Rockstars, Playdead, IOIs and Sonys of this world do different?

1 They care.
2 They have talent and experience, notably in culture and good practices.
3 They do not have Microsoft culture and practices looming over them, like contractors.
4 They need to be good. Microsoft does not. They just want the rewards.
5 They are not that good. Just better than the competition.
6 They had a distinctive advantage. Something that is not just doing what others do, but better. Like being first at something. Or having monopoly of a certain tech.
7 They do not harm themselves like Microsoft does: do not prefer PR to reality, does not make promises they know they can't do, launch bad products ....

 

[ChoosableOne]

I wouldn't make the console redundant for pc users. I would make online membership free. I would make annual subscription plans for gamepass(so people won't need sneaky tactics). I would add first party games to the gamepass after at least 6 months. I would control the studios more tightly.

 

[Ozriel]

And spencer is right it could be 11/10 but it won't shift the financials.

Not only did Spencer never say this, this is quite the weird thing to say.

An 11/10 Starfield will sell crazy numbers on Steam alone, and drive GP subs or retail sales on console.

 

[mrmustard]

If i would be interested in selling as much consoles as possible - Some high budget games with >100m marketing + going all in on console pricing to let Sony bleed out.

If i would be interested in a cloud / mobile gaming future - Try to buy Activision Blizzard

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Not only did Spencer never say this, this is quite the weird thing to say.

An 11/10 Starfield will sell crazy numbers on Steam alone, and drive GP subs or retail sales on console.

He absolutely did say this. It won't drastically shift the market share.

People renting Starfield for a month or two on gamepass isn't going to drastically shift their financials. Even high sales on Steam will have very little impact on their bottom line.

Starfield isn't going to generate a billion dollars in revenue. Hell, it won't generate 500 million.

 

[supernova8]

Partner with some big store chains and make Xbox way more visible outside the US. Be 50 EUR cheaper than PS5 and train the employees of these stores to actively promote Xbox over PlayStation. Give incentives for groups of friends to switch together from PlayStation to Xbox.
Make it a pretty good deal for all the GTA/COD/FIFA crowd to switch to Xbox.

I’m pretty sure, many PlayStation gamers in my area don’t even know that GamePass exists. Make them know. Get something like FIFA for GamePass.

And in the background learn how companies with really good games build them. At what point in the development a Microsoft game goes down the mediocre road? Where do you need to change something, that you don’t get these okayish games, but bangers instead. What does the Rockstars, Playdead, IOIs and Sonys of this world do different?

Yeah I like those two bolded ideas in particular. Simply being cheaper than Playstation means something psychologically. I'd personally even go for $399 if PS5 is sold at $499, just to essentially have the exact opposite situation from last gen. They would generate a significant amount of goodwill from that alone.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

If i would be interested in selling as much consoles as possible - Some high budget games with >100m marketing + going all in on console pricing to let Sony bleed out.

If i would be interested in a cloud / mobile gaming future - Try to buy Activision Blizzard

Just think for 70 billion, they could have given out 140 million XSX for free.

They could have sold 175 million XSX for 100 dollars.

233 million XSX for 200 dollars.

 

[rhodesianshepard]

The only way Microsoft could of potentially competed this generation was if they went all in on gaming in 2015 instead of 2018. If they had real next gen games(no cross-gen) that released alongside the Xbox Series release in 2020 then they could potentially of regained some of the market share. At the very least, the Series S would be selling like hot cakes imo. Somehow, the only true AAA(70$) release by Microsoft is Redfall

 

[supernova8]

Introducing The XBox

A standard discless sku - 449$
An attachable external blu ray drive ( or internal) - 49$
An official app for phone/tablet for playing your xbox library anywhere any time - 99$ (or subscription based 5/mo)
connects to official handheld accessory or xbox controller
Phone/tablet accessory that attaches directly to phone to play similar like switch in handheld mode - 99$
Online - free
Digital game licenses as NFTs
Native marketplace for used digital game resale.
Digital game rental service 5-9$ per game per day

I'm probably misunderstanding your specific points in terms of pricing but overall it sounds like you're saying they should have leaned a lot more into the whole "play on any device" via the cloud angle (without directly breaking up the installed base.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Yeah I like those two bolded ideas in particular. Simply being cheaper than Playstation means something psychologically. I'd personally even go for $399 if PS5 is sold at $499, just to essentially have the exact opposite situation from last gen. They would generate a significant amount of goodwill from that alone.

We've seen this doesn't really work though.

Xbox has been more powerful AND cheaper than PlayStation many times during the course of the last 20 years and still was outsold.

The Dreamcast dropped to 99 dollars and the PS1 was still outselling it dramatically after the PS2 came out.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

There is a lot you can do for 70 billion USD.

But without knowing long term gameplan for Microsoft as a whole, it's difficult to say what could actually be done.

 

[Neff]

What worked for Microsoft with the 360 was Sony's mistakes.

I remember badly wanting a 360 at launch based on Perfect Dark Zero, Blue Dragon, Ridge Racer 6 and Kameo alone, even though I couldn't afford it. The fact that it was the first HD console was also a big deal. Fair enough, PS3's fumble did its job, but 360 had a breadth of varied, appealing software from hot developers at launch and beyond. They've never even tried to match 360's library since. The only game of note for me outside their typical diet of Gears/Forza/Halo was Scalebound, and they cancelled it. The immediate future looks better, but my time with One and Series X hasn't offered a tenth of the enjoyment I got out of 360, and that's purely down to the software.

 

[supernova8]

We've seen this doesn't really work though.

Xbox has been more powerful AND cheaper than PlayStation many times during the course of the last 20 years and still was outsold.

The Dreamcast dropped to 99 dollars and the PS1 was still outselling it dramatically after the PS2 came out.

Xbox 360 was beating the PS3, I think the problem is that Xbox kinda took their foot off the gas toward the end. It was almost as if Xbox or Microsoft corporate was like "meh we kinda won temporarily.. that's good enough" and gave up. If Xbox was cheaper AND had more heavy-hitter titles AND more attractive online infrastructure then people would start moving over.

I was all over the Xbox 360 despite being solidly on PS1 and PS2 before that (I did delve a bit into Gamecube for titles Wind Waker and Luigi's Mansion), because it was the best place to play games at the time. I remember Xbox came out firing on all cylinders that generation. The hype was real and there was a lot of buzz.

It's probably the first (and only) time that it felt "cool" to own an Xbox 360. Hell, people didn't even call it Xbox 360. It was just "360". The marketing around the name did exactly what it was supposed to do. Catchy name. Contrast that with "Series X". It's fucking annoying to even say or type out. Plus the 360 looked cool. It was a perfect mix of looking a bit futuristic but also not being gigantic (unlike the PS "George Forman grill" 3). It's crazy to think back then I knew people getting ridiculed for owning a PS3 early on. Everyone was like "stop being a poser with your PS3, we all know all the best games are on 360".

They lost a lot of goodwill with the Xbox One launch (the mix of DRM bullshit and forced bundle with Kinect initially) but I simply don't believe that Xbox is a lost cause.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

There is a lot you can do for 70 billion USD.

But without knowing long term gameplan for Microsoft as a whole, it's difficult to say what could actually be done.

I think they'll put out a streaming stick for 100 dollars which includes a controller and that will largely be their strategy going forward. Not to compete directly with Sony over AAA titles anymore, but to really focus entirely on the cloud space and try and sell as many dongles as possible.

You plug it into your tv's hdmi port, it has an ethernet port and built in wifi, and wireless for low latency controller. Maybe bluetooth maybe not. You log in, you either create an account for GamePass/xCloud or you log into an existing account.

Instant access to games.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Xbox 360 was beating the PS3, I think the problem is that Xbox kinda took their foot off the gas toward the end. It was almost as if Xbox or Microsoft corporate was like "meh we kinda won temporarily.. that's good enough" and gave up. If Xbox was cheaper AND had more heavy-hitter titles AND more attractive online infrastructure then people would start moving over.

That's a lot of ANDS. Xbox will never get japanese support that tens of million that are always off the board. They're basically dead in Europe too.

All they have is US/UK and they're now falling behind on it at a point where people are at whatever degree less likely to switch between platforms going forward.

Microsoft has to pivot away from consoles just like Nintendo did and go entirely into the streaming space and gamepass on PC. Hell they can publish their titles on PlayStation if they want.