Will XCloud vs. Stadia in 2019 end up looking like Xbox vs PlayStation in 2013?
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
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Certainly, as far as Google Stadia is concerned, Microsoft has indeed flipped the script, and they've got some great momentum heading into the next generation. The question that should really be asked, is whether Microsoft can flip the script on Sony, who hasn't had much to announce over the last year, and who has been riding the continued marketing wave for TLoU2, Ghost of Tsushima and Dreams, for what seems like the last 3-5+ years. Sony's price change on PS Now is encouraging, but that whole service looks flat compared to Microsoft's XCloud offerings, including the ability to stream digital games you already own in your library, and the inclusion of GamePass with day one 1st party game releases.
Nothing beats having a console or even a PC. You can buy games on disc. You can buy digital that you can download. And, you can stream. You also can remote play your own games you bought with a good internet connection. You can watch movies on Blu-ray, stream music and surf the internet. And you can play VR on three of the consoles.
Stadia does only one of these and you can't play if there's no internet. It's not even a battle.
The only gamers that would be truly interested are the casual, mobile gamers that are already playing free games or with ads. Why would they want to pay a monthly bill or run up their data plans?
Consoles were built for a reason: Plug it in. Play it. Nothing else is required. Not even internet. Even if Stadia gets off the ground, there's still no competition.
“If there’s going to be a streaming war in the video game world, it’s going to be between Stadia and Xbox’s XCloud.”
Why wouldn’t PlayStation Now be factored into that?
When it was Xbox 2013, it was them saying they could improve performance, add effects and the like, via "da cloud" versus simply streaming games. Now its several years later and they are promising to simply stream games, have Xbox owners use their Xboxes as servers with their own in support, versus Google wholly using their own servers and already saying that they wont be able to provide half of the services and features they promised. Nevermind that neither service/system has been released while both companies have history of "rough" launches for their tech.
Xbox 2013 was a dumpster-fire upon announcement which the masses managed not to experience firsthand. Now with Stadia vs XCloud, those dumpster-fires will be experienced, and of the two questions that should be answered one - which will be the bigger dumpster-fire: Stadia - is obvious. Second should be how long will it take to get either near a functioning condition to what was promised.
Great on Microsoft.