The Xbox launched in the UK on March 14, 2002. It's strange to think that before then Microsoft was seen more or less as the company that made computers work - via Windows. Now it's impossible to imagine a games industry without the Xbox, such is the success of the second system, the Xbox 360. Here VideoGamer.com looks back at some of the original Xbox's best games and where those developers are now.
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
Xbox boss Asha Sharma has discussed how component shortages will impact the company's plans for Project Helix.
When does this end? Its killing everyone. Consoles and PC. And for what? AI? The benefits of AI are completely outweighed by the negatives. And the government should have never allowed one company to buy up all the RAM.
This kind of proves this is an after thought product, most products like this are in r&d 5 years before they start mass producing. So they typically have the cost of components and things worked out long before assembly starts.
This is an assumption still, but I wouldn’t be surprised if project helix is similar to Scalebound,perfect dark and sod3. They had an idea but no actual execution other than concept stage. Being impacted by the ram shortage likely would also put this device 3-4 years out.
I’m not even sure MS has that endurance with Xbox yet
I mean.... what?
We're at a point that Samsung wont even provide their own phone department ram because they can sell it at higher prices to 3rd parties (AI). Its more profitable to sell the ram than make their own devices with it.
You think because R&D starts 5 years ago the 3rd party component manufacturers will honour that price? They'll sell it to whomever is paying the most today, not some gentlemens agreement they made years ago. AI farms will buy more volume at higher prices than any console manufacturer will. It'll be the same for Playstation.
Contractual agreements are not the same as “gentlemen” agreements. If you think that they work with their distributors a month before production then their entire business model is trash. They work with companies like nvidia constantly for building the graphics cards they need. They work with companies that build motherboards years in advance. This is what proper business planning does.
They are not buying components on a whim like a consumer. So again, considering the ram isn’t a singular module and is integrated into the motherboard I highly doubt they wouldn’t have a final schematic that they are supposed to be building around.
If they are delaying production another 3 years then it’s obvious again this is an after though project and is just trying to be responsive to their bad execution they had the last 14 years.
It also isn’t far fetched to use their failure to produce first party titles the last 7 years including the highly anticipated games I mentioned all being cancelled. That they would continue to you know… lie
Helix is going to be stupidly expensive
Instead of leaning into smarter upscaling techniques they're brute forcing hardware that will cost them dearly and it remains to be seen if it's genuinely going to provide a meaningful differential
I know in the oc.doace people like to brag about not using frame gen or dlss to get to high on a game but for the majority of players they happily use those technologies without a second thought
That's going to be ps6 vs Helix
While this does seem to be the case, I am encouraged by the statement from Microsoft about wanting to provide affordable options. If this means a Series S style Helix, at least there will be something affordable being offered.
It's called systematic inflationary. Yes we get it Microsoft, keep raising in the name ofall kinds of stuffs
Honestly if there was thing I learned from this generation is that new consoles arnt day one anymore.
I can wait 1-3 years.
Another important lesson from this generation: while Nintendo showed us that prices don't necessarily need to ever drop, we've now learned that waiting 1-3 years does carry some risk that prices increase. This generation is just bizarre in all the wrong ways.
The factors are largely external. Covid and Russia-Ukraine war causing inflation led to the first price increase in 2022.
Then we get Trump's tariffs increasing hardware prices, AI boom causing a RAM crisis, war on Iran causing a worldwide fuel crisis which impacts the cost of everything.
Gaming doesn't exist in a vacuum. The last few years have been a shitshow and lot of it was definitely avoidable.
LucasRuinedChildhood,
For sure. No disagreement on the external factors doing a lot of this. Where I have to gently push back however is on two fronts:
1. The pandemic definitely caused some issues: asynchronous development was a big issue and really complicated timelines and affected game quality. At the same time, when it comes to price hikes, it's really difficult to know what was genuine necessity and what was taking consumers for a ride. The pandemic brought about "stag-flation" which was increasing prices and stagnant wages, which was a problem caused by supply chain constraints. There was also "Greed-flation", where companies that were slightly affected or had no issues took advantage of the situation and squeezed everyone citing supply chain issues when there were none.
2. It's definitely true that the tariffs, AI boom, and RAM crisis were all things enabled by tech broligarchs throwing money at this caricature of a world leader, one of them being Satya Nadella. I don't think Sony and Nintendo have contributed much to this problem if at all, but Microsoft's Nadella I feel was instrumental in causing every one of those issues. Microsoft as a company contributed to both candidates (though they gave Harris 4x as much if I recall), but Nadella was all in on letting AI run wild. He paid for unregulated AI, and got a war that's not a war (even though Trump called it that at least five times on television) that screwed up helium access. So for me, I feel that one of the players in the gaming industry is a key architect of these issues, and for that reason I struggle a bit to think of it as "external".
In an exclusive interview with Game File, new(ish) Xbox boss Asha Sharma and Xbox chief content officer Matt Booty explain their vision for Microsoft’s gaming division
A good start would be to release games to go with the console. My Xbox Series X has gathered dust virtually from launch. My advice would be to ditch a next console and release games on PC, PlayStation and Switch. Another idea would be a hybrid console based on Xbox Series X tech and go the same route as Nintendo. Another idea would be to pull out of gaming altogether. Plenty of options there.
Why would they pull out? They have the momentum. Sony has been getting nothing but bad news lately.
Baldur's Gate, Jade Empire, KoToR. . .sigh, BioWare, will you ever make ROLE PLAYING games again?
I hate you EA
I can easily imagine a world without Xbox.
Just ordered Godzilla destroy all monsters melee. Will be using this on the 360, as it is backwards compatible and will be upscaled! I heard this version had much better graphics than the gamecube version, and playing it on the 360 will give it even more of an advantage. Great game!
Me too PixL.....they just treat there 1st party developers like a joke, & failed to hold onto not only there biggest IP developer in Bungie.....but they also screwed Lorne Lanning & the boys from Oddworld Inhabants then offloaded them onto EA when the damage was already done), Rare is now a developer that went from SNES-N64 top of the heap, to the lower end of mediocrity with the beautiful looking, but stiffer than a viagra patients pen!s in the controls, that of Kameo, & don't even get me started on that PDZ
sh!theap (I was really looking forward to that game & was shocked when I bought it & it was below average crap, that Resistance buried), & the list goes on for MS, as they totally scrapped the poor studio responsible for the critically above average Halo Wars before the game even released & proved itself sales wise, they allowed Bizzare Creations to bail out of exclusitivity when they were making one of driving game enthusiasts most beloved games...........and the list does go on & on.
I personally wouldn't miss MS, if they left the console biz....I think the biggest loss would be Sony, as they are the benchmark for others to hit, as there past consoles have sold squillions, I mean RECORD breaking numbers of PS1's & 2's......& they have the greatest 1st party developers gen & gen again, not only that, they encourage new IP's from these developers (especially with new hardware releases).
Now I also have no false notions that Sony are the be-all & can do no wrong, as they have lost important once exclusive developers like Insomniac, as well as screwing up top inhouse developers such as Cambridge Studios & London Studios by delegating them to total crap, such as Singstar games & dlc, not to mention that HUGE waste of there talents in HOME......f$#k that, they could put any d!ckless wonder onto those f@rtsquirts of titles & let these others super awesome developers stck to giving me awesome games such as Medievil, Primal, Ghosthunter, The Getaway, etc, etc.
But fact is, MS's have positioned themselves in a not so unique position of the go-to pc to MS console conversions, where the games offer nothing unique, groundbreaking, or completely out of the box, as opposed to Sony & to a lesser degree, Nintendo that have truly unique, totally out there & awesome titles.
I would miss MS the least, & would welcome Samsung into the market to make up MS's number...........big problem is that thanks to the rip off that is Live, MS are the only ones making money...thanks to suckers thinking X-game chat & other more minor tweaks are worth paying to have internet gaming features twice....so basically paying 2 lots of money, to 2 seperate ISP's for the same service, with the only difference being that with Live your paying for a very strict, closed service that caters 2 only 1 thing (the Xbox)......whereas PS3 is easily accessable for developers do things with like PS3 vs PC play.
MS have waaaaaay too much money to ever leave this biz for the next 10yrs, or more.......They are here to stay, & to destroy MANY great developers along the way.
competition is great for the industry, though through clever marketing tactics a platform holder can change the way the industry profits from consumers. if one platform shows that consumers are willing to pay more for something even though they get nothing in return, all platform holders will start taking money from their users in that way, which is bad for consumers.