Xbox gone crazy. 9000 people sacked

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Maybe time for a gaming industry crash some people are saying

More like MS upper management realized they lost the Console War.

Sony beat them for dominance in the TV / Living Room.
No point in continuing the fight.

Nintendo owns the Hand Held Market and merged their desktop experience into their hand held as a hybrid unit.

Steam owns PC and with Steam Deck and the up coming Steam TV unit, it's encroaching on MS' normal domain.

So to prevent Steam from running rough shod, they're pivoting to a Xbox like Console Interface for PC and trying to bring that to PC gaming and migrate the remaining ~30 million loyal Xbox die hards to slowly convert to a PC like platform.

It's going to be brutal for those remaining Xbox fans, but their only option is to either convert to Sony if they really want a physical console, and say goodbye to the previous Xbox collection, or convert to Windows based PC gaming.

Any next gen Xbox Console is only going to be a "Last Hoorah" as a Console attempt to slowly migrate them to Xbox style Windows based PC gaming.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I thought there was going to be an xbox handheld made via Asus Ally type handheld

 

[Jax]

Microsoft's new Game Pass prices are out and the service is becoming a mess - Too many services splitting up all the content.

* Xbox Game Pass Essential (formerly Core) -- $10/month (no price change)

* Xbox Game Pass Premium (formerly Standard) -- $15/month (no price change)

* PC Game Pass -- $16.50/month (was $12/month)

* Xbox Game Pass Ultimate -- $30/month (was $20/month)

Now the Premium model will have to wait 1 year before gaining access to any 1st party release but that will never include Call of Duty - I have already cancelled my subscription.

Oh and the cheaper subs will have to contend with adverts in 2026.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I doubt a crash now would affect anything like the Atari one. We'd lose AAA gaming, but the indy scene is so big now I can't see it going anywhere. Maybe we need more Waterpark Simulator and less Assassin's Creed.

True enough. The Indy scene is quite a creative one, and is more likely to take chances on something that the AAA's can't afford to be doing.

More like MS upper management realized they lost the Console War.

I doubt this is directly related to Microsoft. I think it's purely a business decision on behalf of Costco. Costco is a huge buyer with lots of inventory. They don't buy what they can't sell, and because of this they are sometimes a trendsetter. The likely scenario is that they already had lots of inventory that wasn't moving and decided it wasn't an item they wanted to sell anymore that was taking up space. Higher-ups were likely seeing a slowing trend to the sales and made the decision to stop selling it altogether.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I doubt this is directly related to Microsoft. I think it's purely a business decision on behalf of Costco. Costco is a huge buyer with lots of inventory. They don't buy what they can't sell, and because of this they are sometimes a trendsetter. The likely scenario is that they already had lots of inventory that wasn't moving and decided it wasn't an item they wanted to sell anymore that was taking up space. Higher-ups were likely seeing a slowing trend to the sales and made the decision to stop selling it altogether.

Not Surprised, Costco & many major Retailors with a substantial inventory volume that sees sales tanking will probably send back the XSX|S.