Stating the obvious.
After recent Forza Horizon 5 and Gear of Wars announcements, MS clearly can't figure how to run video gaming business.

So am I.

How's this News?
I'm sorry, but anybody can say I have been talking to ppl behind the scenes and they told me...
Who?
Can't say, but trust me.

I think Microsoft is losing money on the Xbox side since they went spend happy on companies. You only have certain titles that can only make so much money back. Microsoft is dead last in Xbox sales, they just jacked up the price on Xboxes, there are some places in the world where the Xbox has not been in stock for a while. I see no benefit in buying an Xbox let alone considering a next gen Xbox. I think Microsoft milking games that were once an exclusive to Xbox on other platforms to generate more money. Like what Sony does when porting a Playstation title to PC. Breathes new life in that game and generate extra sales. The Gears of War for Playstation surprised me can't wait to campaign co-op it with a friend. But I agree if games are going multiplatform then what's the point of putting a game on XBox and lose the extra revenue. I honestly think Microsoft should just go the Sega route and just stick to software. If the next gen Xbox were announced today I honestly don't think I would preorder one let alone buy one.

They're reluctant to make games for Xbox because their games are going everywhere? So they want less money because Devs want to develop for a single platform and make less money? This dude always has been a clown when it comes to this stuff. How the hell so some of these ppl get their jobs and positions in their games industry? Nobody, and I mean nobody can be that dumb.

i mean.

xbox is kind of a mess. it has been for a long time now.

not sure how its baffling. sounds more like just more shitting on MS. The fact of the matter is hardware usually loses money and eventually breaks even. the real money to be made is in software and services. Games are software. The more places your software is available, the more opportunity there are for sales.

The exclusives model doesn't really pay off like it did before. Sure you get bragging rights about a game being released on your preferred platform over the other, but those reasons are becoming more and more superficial. Exclusives by their very nature and as the name implies are less available to more people. A successful exclusive will 19 out of 20 times still sell less than a successful Multiplatform game. Thats just reality. Xbox doesn't move the hardware that PS does so getting popular successful games on that platform generates more revenue where it might have plateaued on the single platform.

I refuse to believe that ppl are this dumb. This is a very "console wars" mindset, and not the mindset of business - which is to turn profits. True system seller games are few and far between these days - with the exception of Nintendo, and thats because Nintendo has pretty much spent their entire gaming platform career pushing the same handful of IPs that they rinse and repeat and brand and spin out at every opportunity - but they are also not in the same market demographics as the ps5 or xbox - where games like GTA, COD or whatever (arbitrary examples here) are the actual big sellers.

If you actually look at real sales figures you'll see that. The most recent God Of War was a pretty huge success with glowing reviews and sales of 23 million. Not bad. COD Black Ops 6 though, a Multiplatform game sold 500 million. When you get through the fanboys, bias and BS, the business itself isn't that hard to understand. MS just put Forza Horizon on PS5 - to them that just means millions of more sales. considering the game brings in more ROI than the console hardware, again... not hard to understand.

@MrDead

Lol..what you posted doesn't prove nothing. Nothing says they were banning games. Phil Spencer never said anything about keeping games off of other platforms. Even if they did want to do that. It's their right and their property. I can play the Ps5 games i want on PC. There is nothing you or anyone else can do about. Keep this same energy when sony starts putting more ps5 games on more platforms.

I suspect Microsoft will be fine no matter what they do with Xbox as a brand. I thought the whole point of going multi-plat was because the Xbox base was just not big enough or Xbox only gamers did not buy enough games, and consoles. I also thought if the point is to sell software and that is where the money is then MS going multi-plat to me is the best idea. They have supported the Xbox for atleast 24 years and if they feel they still are not where they should be then this new direction to me seems like the best option. Rip off the bandaid, and move forward.

It does not matter. Phil and his boys are not held to any standard of performance other than Game Pass revenue/growth. If they are fired, they will have massive parachutes for mediocre results.

The S. No talented people in management. No creativity in management.

At this point it would be best if Xbox went third party and just make software like Sega, and forget about a next gen. console.

They should be but the real test is if people are actually buying the games on Xbox if sales fall off a cliff that's the answer

Really? So all the companies that developed games for Xbox over the years are now reluctant because they are starting to go more multiplat? Trash fanboy article

The funny thing about this is right now Xbox is making better first party games than Sony. Sony hasn’t done anything really other than astrobot (which is excellent by the way). Also I agree Xbox hardware isn’t selling but that’s not the strategy. Game pass is the strategy. For a couple hundred bucks a year, I’m playing thousand of dollars worth of games. You can say “Xbox players don’t buy games” but when Sony starts putting their games (and they will) on ps plus day one the same people will sit there looking stupid and act like they aren’t the biggest hypocrites in gaming. I’m getting what I want through game pass and couldn’t care less what the grifters and trolls think or lie about lol

Games are expensive and there's not enough players on Xbox to make their money back.

I didn't realize there were so many experts on N4G! It's hilarious! Meanwhile, just look at the top 5 selling PS5 games! Been playing them all on GP for awhile. Buying them now at a huge discount, and backing them up.

MS has been a plague from the 360 era to date. So many anti consumer practices. I'm surprised they lasted this long.

N4g needed that xbox bad article. Lemme guess... it's dying... gamepass bad... consoles not selling.... and.... going multiplat is the final swan song? This is n4g logic
Selling most consoles but no exclusives=success.

Great for Microsoft, terrible for the Developer. Clair Obscura beat the odds because it’s a generational game, as MS decided to release Oblivion at the same time as well.
Luckily they’ve been very successful, but I’d argue they would have sold 5m copies if not for Oblivion and GP.
I do think they will continue to sell.

Maybe it's only temporary to raise awareness of the brand and recoup costs of bought companies. It would be hard to do if other consoles outsell you. Then next gen you kept investors happy and you gained a few more fans.

They make more money from games than consoles, and they're porting everything they have to PC and other platforms.

Isn't this like being baffled by PlayStation moving to PC?

Glad to see MS putting more and more of their games on PS. Never buying their platform was clearly the right choice and I'm reaping the rewards for it.

Bad decisions materialized since 2008. That's it. Everything was right with a first gen to enter the market and Xbox 360 to mark distances in many aspects that made it a different breed. Many wanted an Xbox 360 or its exclusives, online options, access price, variety of experiences and... yes, the brand. Now, I don't see any wanting Xbox as a brand, only paid supporters and the ones that can't afford anything else.
Microsoft is now doing the same as others. Nothing will make people buy something related to Xbox like we do with Rockstar, From Software or CD Project. That is a problem, a problem of brand and prestige.