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Will Microsoft’s acquisitions improve market share?

The message is already out and the precedent set years ago with studio buyouts.

People that primarily play COD are going to be considering losing access to it in the near future.

A lot of non-enthusiasts know this news already. Plus, 2023 is when more casuals will start to buy a PS5 or Series X anyway. That crowd still more likely has a PS4 right now. New consoles are so hard to get that most of the buyers now are more committed to the hobby. This CoD change will strike the fall that supply will be most plentiful and prices might even come down a little (perhaps with a redesign or something).
 
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Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
I don't see them gaining more marketshare than PS but yes they'll gain a few customers if they make COD exclusive or get a good library of exclusives

If Sony plays their cards right, they could have the next big FPS. They have some partnerships with the same devs who started COD and Destiny
 

XXL

Member
I don't think it'll be as big of deal as people think it will be.

But I'm just happy Microsoft is actually trying to compete now and taking things seriously again.
 

Orta

Banned
Course it will.

One more major acquisition (Take2 for example) and Sony can get used to playing second fiddle to Xbox.

Microsoft will just keep throwing money at Xbox/Gamepass till they're number 1.

 
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Deerock71

Member
Microsoft has built the Death Star and they've engineered the exhaust port to be located at a safer, interior position.

The Series X/S will be the first 200 million console seller.
I think a simple screen over the exhaust port might have saved them a lot of money.
 
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eNT1TY

Member
The absolute worst case scenario is slower growth than projected, but market share gains are a guarantee. They may not see profits for the market share gains in the next 5 years or so because the service and infrastructure of what i think they are trying to do are still in the nascent stage with staggering overheads but when everything comes together and likely several more acquisitions later it will bare fruit. Expect a much higher GP subscription cost by then.

Edit: Next gen and beyond is where MS's telescope is focused on.
 
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Microsoft has built the Death Star and they've engineered the exhaust port to be located at a safer, interior position.

The Series X/S will be the first 200 million console seller.

microsoft will finally reach their goal to sell 1b consoles.

 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
It'll improve it compared to not acquiring the companies you can count on it.

However, we don't know overall, as for all we know MS would have lost more share w/o those purchases.

So there's still nothing close to a guarantee they will outdo their last-gen share.

Their share of revenue will go up though most likely.
 
Nintendo and Sony about to

dbz-dragonball.gif
 

Caio

Member
The acquisition of Bethesda / ZeniMax, Acti / Blizz is huge for sure, and you can place a bet with everybody about XBox Brand becoming more popular Worldwide, increasing the Market Share as the big games hit the market. On the other hand, if this trend keep going, Sony must think about something, which cannot be "Microsoft like acquisitions", for obvious reasons. We'll see after 2023 what's going to happen.
 
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Clintizzle

Lord of Edge.
I dont think its important.

The amount of people subscribed to GamePass and the amount people that are going to buy add-on's and DLC is all that matters now. This can be Xbox + PC Players.

I think MS would like to have a big jump in people who play on Xbox consoles, but it is not the main thing they are gunning for.
 
I remember when Microsoft first announced they would be entering the gaming industry with the Xbox, many people thought they would ruin the industry because they would just buy studios instead of making their own games.

In the 360 generation, Microsoft was bully in terms of making Sony lose exclusivity and/or paying for exclusives. This was the strongest generation for Microsoft, however Sony turned out to do a good job and were neck to neck at the end.

If you notice, the 360 was a huge success at the expense of Sony making huge mistakes with the PS3, and the PS4 was a huge success at the expense of Microsoft making huge mistakes with the Xbox One.

I wonder if all these recent acquisitions would actually help Microsoft gain market share. Sony does an incredible job with their own exclusives, as well as Nintendo. I fear that these acquisitions turn out to be a restriction for gamers to play these games el anywhere, more than making people actually buy an Xbox console.

Of course, for Xbox owners, this is a huge deal because they will have these games on Game Pass. However, Microsoft needs to entice people to buy into their ecosystem. Even though the Series X/S are the best selling consoles for them, they are still low on market share.

I’m interested in knowing how many people buy PlayStation for CoD (for example), that will “have” to buy an Xbox because they don’t care as long as they play their favorite game.

IMO, as things are now, these acquisitions seem just a good deal for people that are already Xbox owners. For me personally, what would make me buy an Xbox are new IPs. Also, I believe many of third party games (specially Activition games) were played more in Xbox already.

What do you think this will turn out? Will there be a switch in market share this generation, or will it be noticeable until the next one?

Please comment, make your predictions or just state your opinions. Thanks!

Of course all the acquisitions will increase market share. Every good exclusive IP can bring in a significant number of people. As just one example per the ActiBlizz merger, CoD was the number one AND number two selling game in 2021. It should go without saying that once CoD goes exclusive from 2024 on, this one game series will all by itself pull a ton of casuals into the Xbox ecosystem via Game Pass.
 
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Microsoft doesnt really care whether you play these games on an actual Xbox or on Steam or on the Microsoft Store or the Cloud or on your Samsung TV.
As long as you are playing said games.
The actual hardware is but one avenue...basically another entry point to the Xbox ecosystem.
I agree with that only when it comes to GamePass. Before that, when their only focus was on selling software, I never agreed.

Of course, they want you to buy their games in their closed eco-system (Xbox) where they get 100% of the revenue as opposed to other eco-systems (Steam, Switch) where they get 70%.

If they only cared if you bought their game, regardless of anything else, they'd sell all their games on every platform, including PlayStation.
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
The past 2 days I've had a ton of people ask about XBX, and today was the first time in awhile people lined up outside our store until it opened to buy a series S. I work at walmart btw.
srs?

Been watching Series S stock at Target around here out of curiousity.

It moves well up until about 2 days ago when everyone got a restock and as far as I can tell stock levels haven't changed.

Lots of "only 7 left" been there for 48 hours type things.

edit: Hey, one went from 7 to 6 today! (in Redmond, lol)
 
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Woodchipper

Member
I just think it’s laughable more than anything.

Every studio that Sony has recently bought they’ve been closely collaborating with for years before.

Microsoft on the other hand, acts like some rich mid-life crisis asshole who buys a bunch of Lambos and Ferraris to impress his neighbors, except they just think he looks stupid.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
It doesn’t matter how many IPs you own, if they all end up being tripe. I’m not saying for one minute that this will be the case, but I’m hesitant to believe that all of these acquisitions will lead to nothing but a plethora of quality games. MS purchased Rare, who were the Nintendo poster boys, pumping out Nintendo IP level quality games. Under MS they have arguably released one successful game in Sea of Thieves. With Bethesda, there is Starfield (unknown) Fallout and TES that will no doubt be quality, but the rest most can live without. Then comes Activision/Blizzard, where only COD is still a big thing.

Also, it is going to be really difficult to manage so many teams, to ensure quality products. And if the majority of gamers jump to Xbox because they swallow up all of the IPs in gaming, then where is the competition to keep you on top of your game? That’s my only concern.

Last year - on console - Microsoft studios released multiple games with Metacritic ratings of 85 and above. Many of their games in the works are coming from talented, respected studios like Obsidian, InXile, Ninja Theory, Tango and iD. Where’s this concern about quality coming from?

Pray it not getting worse.

After YEARS of hearing the mantra that people go where games are, it’d be interesting to hear why you’d think it’d be worse this generation when they’ll have a lot more games than ever before.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
I just think it’s laughable more than anything.

Every studio that Sony has recently bought they’ve been closely collaborating with for years before.

Microsoft on the other hand, acts like some rich mid-life crisis asshole who buys a bunch of Lambos and Ferraris to impress his neighbors, except they just think he looks stupid.

Why do you people personalize these things? 😂

They’ve made it quite clear they’re buying these content providers and this content to provide feedstock for Gamepass. Publicly traded megacorps don’t make big investments just to show off.

I’ve never seen anyone burst out laughing here whenever Gamepass games for the month are announced.

Profound thanks to you for the much needed hilarity, though.
 
No not all. Xbox holding the bag to 30+ insanely successful studios, IP and major world renowned titles will not change anything at all, not even one tiny little bit.

Anyone thinking otherwise is clearly a deluded fool. That Gamepass thingy? Pfffft, like when has offering insane good value ever done anything!?!
 

DJ12

Member
Depends on what you mean by market share. This will barely make a dent in Sony's popularity once the drama queens pipe down.

MS want in on PlayStation, they have already asked to join the PlayStation party and were told no, eventually, when someone at Sony realises xbox is dead (long live Microsoft gaming) then this will happen pretty quick.
 
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Lol at everyone still talking about console sales.

This deal is about GamePass post console. This move has very little to do directly with hardware unless it’s through the GamePass lens.
 
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Rudius

Member
This has already been proven to be untrue as people are still buying out the consoles.
Games are still selling well even when they are on Gamepass.
I'm only using myself as an example. I really wanted to play the Forza Horizon titles and would have eventually bought a Series X for them, but since I could play 3 and 4 at 1080p60 on my laptop, I played that way and just got the PS5 for my next gen games.
 

yurinka

Member
I think MS will focus ok keeping multiplatform what already was multiplatform from Activision, Zenimax and Mojang and on making exclusive their new IPs plus games from smaller teams like Ninja Theory, Double Fine, Obsidian, inXile that previously released stuff on PS or obviously the older MS stuff like Halo, Gears or Forza.

Xbox will get some extra users from PS due to Gamepass even if games like CoD continues multi, but Sony will compensate that loss by far with new players that they'll from the growth they're experimenting these years.

Whats the obsessing over marketshare? I'm going with the profit per user increase
MS recently invested $80B only on Minecraft, Zenimax and ABK. They obviously didn't do it expecting profit in short or mid term, they don't give a crap. They did it to get revenue and market share.
 
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DaGwaphics

Member
You'd think they would have to gain some market share with GP gaining more and more value every day. Almost seems impossible that they wouldn't.
 

DaGwaphics

Member
I think MS will focus ok keeping multiplatform what already was multiplatform from Activision, Zenimax and Mojang and on making exclusive their new IPs plus games from smaller teams like Ninja Theory, Double Fine, Obsidian, inXile that previously released stuff on PS or obviously the older MS stuff like Halo, Gears or Forza.

Xbox will get some extra users from PS due to Gamepass even if games like CoD continues multi, but Sony will compensate that loss by far with new players that they'll from the growth they're experimenting these years.

They've already mentioned ES6 as exclusive to Xbox/PC like Starfield.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Short term probably not as systems are hard to get. Long term they'll make up ground. But who knows how much in the console war.

I think MS is more concerned with getting xcloud plastered on every device with as many games as possible.
 

ChiefDada

Gold Member
Yes, eventually. But more so from other IPs that could be rejuvenated and extend beyond the console/pc landscape. I don't know what Call of Duty looks like 2 years from now or if it will continue to command large following.
 

Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
I'm only using myself as an example. I really wanted to play the Forza Horizon titles and would have eventually bought a Series X for them, but since I could play 3 and 4 at 1080p60 on my laptop, I played that way and just got the PS5 for my next gen games.

So you think market share...the markets has more than one frikken person wont change because you....one guy....who clearly represents a small portion of people did a thing?
How important or close to being mainstream did you think your opinion was?
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
This is no different then asking if sony will maintain market share with there exclusives.

But to answer OPs question, yes, Xbox jas already gained marketshare, by this time last gen the xbox one only sold 3.9 million.
 
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oldergamer

Member
I think MS will focus ok keeping multiplatform what already was multiplatform from Activision, Zenimax and Mojang and on making exclusive their new IPs plus games from smaller teams like Ninja Theory, Double Fine, Obsidian, inXile that previously released stuff on PS or obviously the older MS stuff like Halo, Gears or Forza.

Xbox will get some extra users from PS due to Gamepass even if games like CoD continues multi, but Sony will compensate that loss by far with new players that they'll from the growth they're experimenting these years.


MS recently invested $80B only on Minecraft, Zenimax and ABK. They obviously didn't do it expecting profit in short or mid term, they don't give a crap. They did it to get revenue and market share.
Ms has billions in the bank collecting interest. 80 billion in the bank makes them less money collecting interest then it does buying these studios/publishers. Activision generates 8 - 9 billion in revenue from its holdings. Bethesda generates less but you get the picture. This was the thought process when paying 2 billion for minecraft.

If they can grow the business they get a faster return on investment.

This is why i dont see them moving the large titles away from playstation. They wont leave money off the table that is steadily generating revenue.

Starfield is an exception as sony was going to pay to prevent it arriving on xbox. It hasnt generated any revenue or released on any platform. They can make it console exclusive without impacting the numbers. Ms wont block the yearly rev generating games from doing so. New unreleased, unproven, or revived dead ip games are a investment and different story.
 
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Melchiah

Member
I remember when Microsoft first announced they would be entering the gaming industry with the Xbox, many people thought they would ruin the industry because they would just buy studios instead of making their own games.

In the 360 generation, Microsoft was bully in terms of making Sony lose exclusivity and/or paying for exclusives. This was the strongest generation for Microsoft, however Sony turned out to do a good job and were neck to neck at the end.

If you notice, the 360 was a huge success at the expense of Sony making huge mistakes with the PS3, and the PS4 was a huge success at the expense of Microsoft making huge mistakes with the Xbox One.

I wonder if all these recent acquisitions would actually help Microsoft gain market share. Sony does an incredible job with their own exclusives, as well as Nintendo. I fear that these acquisitions turn out to be a restriction for gamers to play these games el anywhere, more than making people actually buy an Xbox console.

Of course, for Xbox owners, this is a huge deal because they will have these games on Game Pass. However, Microsoft needs to entice people to buy into their ecosystem. Even though the Series X/S are the best selling consoles for them, they are still low on market share.

I’m interested in knowing how many people buy PlayStation for CoD (for example), that will “have” to buy an Xbox because they don’t care as long as they play their favorite game.

IMO, as things are now, these acquisitions seem just a good deal for people that are already Xbox owners. For me personally, what would make me buy an Xbox are new IPs. Also, I believe many of third party games (specially Activition games) were played more in Xbox already.

What do you think this will turn out? Will there be a switch in market share this generation, or will it be noticeable until the next one?

Please comment, make your predictions or just state your opinions. Thanks!

Not to mention, the parity clause they had on 360, and how they were also against crossplay in that situation. Their stance could change again towards those days, if they were in a similar position.
 

tusharngf

Member
They sold 50 million xbox units without first party games support. My prediction is they are going to sell at least 40 million XSX plus 30 million XSS this gen alone. Not to forget that they are releasing games on PC day one and that market is hard to count.
 

Kagey K

Banned
MS have already made huge strides from where they were.

Revenues are reaching record highs, console sales are beating expectations.

They are doing what they need to, to be competitive in the market and succeeding at it
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
Market share in the console space? Probably. Although Microsoft really couldn't care less about consoles sold anyway.

Microsoft have never made a profit on Xbox consoles, which is where Gamepass comes in. Rather than relaying on people buying the hardware, they can now offer Gamepass subs on PC, allow people to play Xbox games on their phones via xcloud and now even sell a majority of their titles on Steam.

Microsoft don't care about console market share. They make more money buy selling people a subscription service and selling software via Steam. Sure it would be nice to have the best selling console, but that's not the priority of Microsoft.
 

Tschumi

Member
Xbox doesn't have the global presence western fans think it does, they're buying companies to skip ahead in the global dissemination process
 

Mozza

Member
I don't think it'll be as big of deal as people think it will be.

But I'm just happy Microsoft is actually trying to compete now and taking things seriously again.
The award for the biggest understatement of the year goes to.................................... ;)
 

Mozza

Member
Ms has billions in the bank collecting interest. 80 billion in the bank makes them less money collecting interest then it does buying these studios/publishers. Activision generates 8 - 9 billion in revenue from its holdings. Bethesda generates less but you get the picture. This was the thought process when paying 2 billion for minecraft.

If they can grow the business they get a faster return on investment.

This is why i dont see them moving the large titles away from playstation. They wont leave money off the table that is steadily generating revenue.

Starfield is an exception as sony was going to pay to prevent it arriving on xbox. It hasnt generated any revenue or released on any platform. They can make it console exclusive without impacting the numbers. Ms wont block the yearly rev generating games from doing so. New unreleased, unproven, or revived dead ip games are a investment and different story.
People also forget they have bought a publisher worth 70 billion, and they did not pay that because they were not worth that value, some just seem to be suggesting they have paid a huge amount of money and got nothing in return. ;)
 
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MonarchJT

Banned
Xbox doesn't have the global presence western fans think it does, they're buying companies to skip ahead in the global dissemination process
that's not s prob you can grow it pretty fast if you have the right products, the most similar example where people are linked to the brand and have difficulty in changing is that of mobile telephony...but look at Xiaomi and how and fast it surpassed giants as apple and and other and how is now the second mobile producer in the world.
Just remember how famous was the x360
 
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shubik

Member
When it's all about market share and Gamepass base numbers Microsoft simply needs to put the game pass App on SONY´S ecosystem. I would get a subscription in a heartbeat. And I´m sure I´m not the only one. At this point, it would even make sense for SONY to let Microsoft into its own ecosystem. Otherwise, their player base would lose out on big titles. It would be a win/win for both.

Plus Phil keeps telling people that SONY is not the main competition for Xbox.

Too bad this will probably never happen...
 

MrFunSocks

Banned
Hmm I’m not sure if Microsoft owning one of the best selling and known franchises in the gaming world along with a bunch of other massively popular and money printing franchises will improve their market share when they all become exclusive.

What a silly question lol.
 

kyussman

Member
Of course it will.If you are a normal person like me then Xbox has become a lot more attractive since the aquisitions began.I have been PlayStation only for the last two gens purely because there weren't enough games on Xbox to interest me.....that has changed now.Of course,like I said "a normal person",if you are one of these strange fan boys that has some sort of emotional attatchment to your console then I guess you'll just have to miss out....weird.
 
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DragonNCM

Member
80$ games for sure are not helping Sony to fight MS. For price of 2 Sony games you can get 1y subscription on GPU & you can play more then 400 including day one games from MS big hitters.
 

Mattyp

Gold Member
Easily, have multiple Sony friends wanting to buy an Xbox now. Even a few stuck still on PS4 waiting for stock and this is pushing the to a Series X instead. Their number one played game each year? CoD.

Will drive crazy growth for gamepass.

$120 for just a single copy of CoD yearly or $120 for gamepass?…
 

oldergamer

Member
People also forget they have bought a publisher worth 70 billion, and they did not pay that because they were not worth that value, some just seem to be suggesting they have paid a huge amount of money and got nothing in return. ;)
I know, there are a lot of posts about this that are more emotional then rational.
 
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