No. We’ve been down this road before. Windows Phone. Zune. Kin. Microsoft has written down billions on failed acquisitions and product launches. Microsoft Surface didn’t exactly penetrate the market like iPad. Even the original Xbox was a loss. Xbox 360 was also a loss in its first few years because of RRoD. Then Microsoft lost marketshare with the Xbox One. A Microsoft handheld would be another failure. If you want Microsoft to compete this console generation, then you don’t want to take Mi...
“But we don’t really need mainstream media, do we? We have our own media channels as well as YouTube, Twitch and Discord”
I wouldn’t say that media channels run by giant corporations are “our own media channels”. Look at what happened to Twitter. The author also glossed over the gaming media’s lack of independence. You see it in review score inflation and hype for shit like Overwatch 2. Lest we forget that most of the gaming revenue goes to a handful of giant corporations. ...
Spider-man is huge on PS4/PS5. Spider-Man on PS4 sold better than Halo 3 on Xbox 360. Don’t forget about Xbox Live Gold versus PS+ Essential. I would rather play games online for free, but if I have to pay, I would rather have PS+ Essential. And for me personally, I like the lower cost of PS+ Extra.
As a single console owner, I care. Always have. The winning platform that gets the most games. And that’s why I want the platform that I buy into to be the winner. Even if my platform loses, the fight itself is good for me. The platforms fight by releasing great games. I like great games. Let them fight.
Agree 100% on this. Xbox players really don’t get how big Spider-Man is on PlayStation. More 20M copies sold. That’s more than Halo 3 sold on Xbox 360 (and everyone should agree that Halo 3 had the best campaign of any game ever). Spider-Man 2 will sell a lot of PS5s. PS5 will also have the best and only console VR this year. The halo effect for PSVR2 will keep going through the holidays.
Meanwhile, there is a lot of the market that only knows Bethesda from old looking jan...
So like an additional market of 65M in a world of 8B.
“Microsoft's hardware-agnostic efforts”
What does this mean? Xbox has a cheaper SKU but so does PlayStation. What really interests me is the breakdown of Series X and Series S. What kind of attach rate do we see with the underpowered Xbox S? How will Microsoft wow players with first party games if those games have to run well on the Series S? And with backwards compatibility, how do you convince PS4 players to give up their libraries?
Covid messed up the supply chain. Sickness, lockdowns, deaths. They take a toll. But Sony says production is back and we have anecdotal reports of PS5s in stores.
This, exactly. If you look at all the antitrust actions, most end with settlements. Microsoft may need to spin off studios as a separate company or make promises about cross platform access.
The Steam Deck is not a household name. For PC gamers, sure, everyone who plays PC games knows Steam. For households, no, never heard of it.
Why is it irrelevant when Call of Duty came out? When I watch “The Office” season 2 and see references to Call of Duty, the cultural footprint of this franchise seems relevant. I also wonder about whether Microsoft’s knowledge of the market power of Call of Duty is relevant as they spend $70B.
“The Dreamcast was Sega’s answer to the burgeoning console war of the PS2, GameCube and Xbox.”
Dude needs to reevaluate his timeline.
If you want a more powerful handheld, just use an iPhone and buy one of the controller docks like the Backbone. You want get Zelda but you will have the same sized screen and better graphics. Just sayin’.
The only issue with the PS3 at launch was the price. Otherwise it had better graphics, a Blu-Ray drive, and user upgradable storage. Long term, the PS3 was less expensive than Xbox because the PS3 did not require a monthly subscription to play on-line.
I’m so old, I remember playing the original. Loved it. Fantastic game.
Microsoft missed its targets for Game Oass subscribers. The ad supported tier would of help then grow the subscriber base. Raising the price of the paid tier would help them increase profits. The gaming media will still call it the best deal in gaming.
The real fight is in North America. Generally, the rest of the world is entrenched in the PlayStation ecosystem. What interests me is the breakdown of Xbox Series S versus Xbox Series S. If this underpowered console has significant marketshare, it will drive developer decisions.
Games are not always about gameplay. Sometimes I want to be wowed by an alternate world, like a virtual vacation. Sometimes I want to be sucked in by the story, and aesthetics can help. In some games, 30fps is fine, just like how 24fps is still fine for films.
We ordered one but, yeah, $550 is a lot to swallow. Also, after years (decades) of tepid response to VR, these devices need positive word of mouth, and that won’t come until February. I’m not sure anyone in our house will like it. We all get motion sick easy.
If this is what is comes down to, then Series S must have a really bad image in the market. The future isn’t great for Series S owners.