I think the late nights, and the occasional early morning, are starting to get to me, because I'm actually starting to feel a little bit bad for Microsoft. Note, when I say a little bad, I only actually mean, a tiny bit bad, and nothing more. Allow me to explain.
As we all know, when the Xbox One was first announced, there was a list of things people didn't like about it, from DRM, to always on Kinect. When I went to E3 last year, I was so furious at the company, that I didn't even enter their booth. But, the more I think of it, they really shot themselves in the foot then, and any attempts to recover, have been met with mixed reception.
What I mean is, Microsoft really wedged themselves between a rock, and a hard place. I can't think of any other reason than greed, to motivate them to make all the initial decisions that they did, but once those decisions were made, they were doomed to receive critical backlash, no matter what they did.
Had Microsoft stuck to their guns, and for a time they did, they would have been the bad guys, who were anti-consumer. Well, ok, to be fair, there's some debate as to whether or not they're still anti-consumer. But, now that they've retracted almost everything that bothered people about their system, they lack integrity.
Sure, I can only feel somewhat sympathetic to them. I mean, if someone jumped into piranha infested waters, they would be attacked, regardless of which direction they swam in, and it would have been their fault for jumping in, in the first place. In this case, however, we as gamers are playing the part of the piranhas. We've been the ones attacking Microsoft at every turn, no matter what decisions they have made.
Of course, Microsoft should have had a backup plan, in case their selfish agenda wasn't met with universal praise, because it wasn't, and now they must live with the consequences. I'm not going to argue that their motivations weren't selfish, and sure, they made their bed, so it's not unreasonably to assert that they should lie in it, but I also think we as gamers could afford to back off a tiny bit, and give the company even a sliver of a chance to redeem itself, as unlikely as it might be.
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
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
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Every single thing MS did wrong....was their own fault. Every situation they are in now, because of those bad choices, are, again....MS's own fault.
I love Xbox, but i dislike MS. There's no way i could feel sympathetic for a company that *knowingly* tried to force those horrible, anti-consumer, greedy, control-hungry policies onto a hobby that we have joined with (relative) freedom for decades, only to then tell us "we don't understand" and if we don't like it "get a 360".
Granted, they are digging themselves out of a hole right now (and have done a great job so far), and that's a great thing for gamers, but it's a whole *they* created. They aren't out friends, they don't want our sympathies, they want our money.
They will gain my respect back when i see great exclusive support throughout the *entirety* of this gen, not just the first half. I want the MS of old back (OG Xbox days). They were awesome then.
This struggle has been the best thing to happen to MS in years in my opinion..Why?because look at the improvements being made to the whole Xbox gaming division in terms of being more software focused plus the quality Xbox One updates being released.
There are too many people who will hold this grudge over MS for the idea of them even considering the things they did prior to reversing them before/after launch.
It's understandable to be mad at MS for those dumb ideas but to shun the platform as some sort of protest is just petty. I have never held a grudge against a system regardless of the stupidity of the platform holder. Great games deserve to be played no matter what.
I have been gaming for over 30 years and i have seen the good and the bad when it comes to these companies and their ideas. but at the end of the day its the games that i play, not the companies behind them.
I'll feel bad for them when they are on the verge of leaving the gaming industry... They market an overrated FPS as if it was an exclusive(COD), their idea of a "megaton" at E3s are bought multiplatforms and exclusive DLC. They have done better with introducing new IPs though, so hopefully they improve when it comes to that...