To be fair:
It needs only 3hrs in Starfield to see all the planets.
And 297hrs of loading screens inbetween.
Once again, I find it more interesting to take a closer look:
In the penultimate October-to-December quarter of 2023 (Q2 at Microsoft, the annual report for Q2 of 2024, which has just ended, will be published in February), ABK contributed a total of
• 2 billion USD
to revenue at that time.
That's an average of USD 660 million per month, October to December.
The interesting part:
You just said that Hulst was demoted.
Which he wasn't.
When Hulst replaced Jim Ryan he became CEO of the Studio Business Group. Nishino was the CEO of the Platform Business Group.
Hulst remains as CEO of the Studio Business Group.
You now could just say: "Oopsie, sorry, I just confused it."
Up to you.
This is not true.
When they replaced Jim Ryan it was said that:
"Hideaki Nishino heads the Platform Business Group, i.e. the hardware and console business - the former PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst is the new CEO of the Studio Business Group and will continue to provide first-party software supplies."
Hulst's position didn't change.
What's Hulst's demotion here?
"To be honest"
I mean, no big deal, everyone's thinking something honestly.
I don't think Hulst should have been fired.
Personally, I find he's got such a good track record before Concord happened.
And Concord wasn't really only Hulst's fault to my understanding.
Concord is over, done, history.
I still think Hermen is the right guy at the top of Sony...
Quite interesting.
MLB is a fairly popular game now skipping Gamepass.
Rather than speculating, I just wished we would be officially served the reasoning behind it.
2025/2026 are going to be very interesting years to lean back, enjoy the games and watch the industry very likely to re-shape here & there.
Regarding the elephant in the room, what about Hermen Hulst?
"[...] he continues his role as CEO, Studio Business Group."
I think the Shattered Space DLC killed a lot of its momentum.
Once announced as a "game with a decade of support", yet they've given it nothing but a truly mediocre DLC.
This is remarkably telling.
And actually quite funny.
While I truly like those statistics just for the sake of gaining knowledge, I still don't really think console vs. PC is a comparable thing.
Just like I wouldn't compare PC vs. mobile, neither.
Consoles are a super exclusive product category, still mostly built and designed for running games only.
PCs however can be found in almost every household with so much more choice of games and DLC to buy.
And looking ...
Funny:
There's actually more 'port cancelling' happening by Microsoft than port begging by anyone.
@RauLeCreuset
"He'll be standing on the deck of the ship saying "what about Congrgggrrrdd..." as it sinks beneath the waves."
I just spit my sip of water laughing. This was great, thank you.
Oh, and talking about biggest flops:
Maybe sometime he'll read Xbox had spent 7.5bn on Redfall.
Yikes. That's 30 Concords.
Or that Microsoft had once suffered...
I had a 360. But I had skipped the One for well documented reasons.
The PS4's been a wonderful time, so many great games, that's why I went with PS5.
Back in 2020, I remember I was a bit skeptical about the Series' lineup. And time didn't prove me wrong so far.
Hellblade 2 and Starfield both weren't enough to pay them 499. I am not really "eager to play them".
I perceive PS5's line u...
It's actually like watching a natural phenomenon happening in awe, but for the opposite reason:
There's nothing "pro consumer" about keeping/putting CoD, Doom, Starfield, Hellblade 2, even Indiana or a future TES6 "(back) on Playstation".
It's been rather anti-consumer having made these original 3rd party IPs exclusives in the first place. Only due to lack of own stuff.
This psychological spin of words, a...
This is quite astonishing:
"2024 year-to-date, the PlayStation 5 has sold an estimated 18.65 million units, the Nintendo Switch has sold 12.05 million units, and the Xbox Series X|S has sold 4.97 million units."
For PS5, it's still Jan to Mar left for their complete fiscal year.
However, November and December saw the PS5 Pro being available for the first time. And if the estimates for November were approximately correct, t...
This is truly something I think the Xbox brand can benefit from heavily and it was exactly what I was thinking when I read that Ninja Gaiden 4 will be published by Xbox.
Heavily declining hardware sales, worse software ratio and slowing down new GP subscriptions? What could they possibly do now?
How about offering third parties very attractive publishing deals.
Put it into GP? Sure. Here's your compensation. Oh, you wanna publish on...
While I think, looking at it from a current game optimization perspective (because I feel most games only are optimized even worse today), the PS5 Pro wasn't really neccessary.
But it's all about wether or not Sony were confident enough to bring it, make a profit from it, to introduce the brand PSSR, the technology behind, the coop with AMD and for studios to get familiar with it.
Everyone who bought it up until now really wanted to have it, that&...
Xbox has taken over 20 former 3rd party studios and 26 already existing third party IPs that were already available on every platform.
The only thing that changed:
Xbox, as the current rights holder, is now publishing them.
"MS is a homogenised consolidating force that sterilises all creativity in search of endless profits"
I really think you've put that beautifully.
So, going by that, then you're implying that
"Don't buy the Series!"
has been Microsoft's logical communication and goal? Because they don't matter?