Subscription services have incredible profit opportunities. If 30M subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate, that’s $510M every month. That pays for a lot of game development. There would be no more waiting 5 years or more to profit from release of your game. Microsoft would have a steady stream of income whether or not games are bad or delayed. Microsoft is going to do whatever it takes to get to that place.
Starfield is now enough of a curiosity that it can make up ground at discount prices. Some folks will want to see how bad it is. Black Friday isn’t that far away. And folks can always sign up for a month of Game Pass. This brings us to the real issue here. Microsoft really doesn’t care about one-time sales anymore. They would rather you subscribe.
$69B -$3.6B = $65.4B that Song doesn’t need to make from Bungie to break even on the deal. Meanwhile, Microsoft has a lot more ground to make up.
Armored Core is still going. Microsoft doesn’t need to do better for Armored
Core.
Phil Spencer has refuted a lot of things.
I mean, I’m reading this article on my phone, which has better graphics and a better screen than Nintendo Switch.
I never pay full price for good enough. I certainly why buy into an ecosystem for good enough.
I never trust your review. /s
Microsoft can easily market PC GamePass to new PC gamers who don’t have a Steam library. But what will really move the needle for Game Pass subscribers is forcing Game Pass on folks who want to play Call of Duty, Diablo, etc. That’s the end game for Microsoft,
I’m actually a little tired of the 3x, 4x, 10x headlines. The numbers Mason! What do they mean? Just give us the player counts.
They should be worried about game ownership. How many Netflix originals are for sale in any format? That’s the future of Game Pass.
PS4:XB1 was 3:1 for the first year and a half after launch, until Microsoft deeply discounted the price. And of course, WiiU was DOA.
So 42M PS5s versus less than 10M Series X consoles.
Sony Group reserved 2 trillion yen (~$14B) for the acquisitions back in 2020, to be spent over three years. So the Bungie purchase shouldn’t affect Sony’s profit on its quarterly investor report.
“We're not entirely sure how Microsoft calculates its accountability margin”
I guarantee it doesn’t cover the costs of acquisitions and everything else covered by Microsoft’s other divisions. Payroll comes from Microsoft, cloud storage comes from Microsoft. The real power of Xbox is that Microsoft can use its profits from Windows and Office to buy game studios and eat losses on console sales.
And how do you think Resident Evil Village will run on the Switch 2? The Switch 2 will probably have a 720p display.
The 2018 iPad Pro was as powerful as an Xbox One S. The current iPhone 15 Pro has raytracing. Nintendo can do better than beat last gen home consoles.
Holy Schnikes! Wow. I did not expect that breakdown. No wonder the Series S is holding Xbox back. Just think that 75% of Xbox owners see a PS5 witness games that look better and play better on PS5 than on Xbox. No wonder PS5 is eating Xbox’s lunch. It just guts Xbox’s marketing that they have the console with the most teraflops when games made for PS5 will always look better and play better than games made for Xbox Series S.
Microsoft always touts the largest number they can support. It’s been this way since 2014. On the whole, it looks desperate and makes you wonder why they hide the numbers that matter.
Meanwhile, Sony publishes a monthly top 20 download list. I love Sony’s fearlessness.
No, because Jim Ryan isn’t backed by a trillion dollar company that makes so much from OS and office software that it can buy entire industries.