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.

 

[Candlicious Ghost]

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.

 

[Rincewiend]

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[Owain Taggart]

Again with the conflicting messaging, Microsoft. First you say you want XBox to be everywhere, be anything. Then you go ahead and raise prices on Gamepass to be cost-prohibitive for many people, locking out anyone but the most frequent players from getting a good deal. Well, soon you'll be less than anything if you keep up with these shenanigans.

Do the different departments even talk amongsts themselves anymore? It feels like one hand says something while the other goes and does something completely opposite. And it's far from being the only instance where this has happened. They've had a long history of this kind of decision making.

Microsoft doesn't even deserve to blame its customers for this. They've been making decisions that have been destroying themselves from within, for decades now.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I wish MS would kill the GamePass idea, it's dying a slow death by a thousand small price increases.

Just pull the band-aid and admit it was a dumb idea, time to move back to a traditional buy online model.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yeah, it's obvious that it's not quite working. Maybe it had for a while, but ultimately it's not something that's sustainable for the industry. In fact, I feel that it hurts it by conditioning players to wait for titles to appear on Gamepass instead of supporting developers directly by buying their games, even if waiting until they go on sale.

With games having become bigger and bigger, I think it's unfair to the developers for the time spent on developing them to then say just wait for Gamepass. If I was a developer, I think I'd find that more than a little insulting. And I wouldn't be surprised if this is what indirectly or directly led studios to chasing the live-service trend in order to make more money. In short, Gamepass has destabilized the industry, and not in a good way.

I think Gamepass has been their way of being transparent with the issue of players not really owning a game, but rather a license. Which is why the prices rising as high as they are this time around becomes a bad deal for the consumer. Which is why I'll say, just let me buy the games I want to play and support the studios directly and put this silly experiment to bed.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Maybe it had for a while, but ultimately it's not something that's sustainable for the industry.

It was never sustainable, it never reached their own internal financial goals to be self sustaining.

Xbox Game Pass never ever made financial sense.

Microsoft reportedly estimated that Game Pass led to $300 million in lost sales of Black Ops 6, with 82% of copies sold being on the Game Pass-less PlayStation 5

The idiots at top tried to apply the Netflix model to video games w/o realizing that it doesn't make financial sense to begin with.

You can't treat TV & Movies financial models like it works for Video Games.

The Video Game industry operates on different financial models, but the idiot Bean Counters & Executives at top thought they could.

Guess where it led them, to here, where the Xbox is on Deaths Door Bell.

They just jacked up the Game Pass Subscription Price by 50%, guess what happened after.

The Xbox Game Pass price hikes are so bad, it literally crashed the membership site due to widespread cancellations

 

[Owain Taggart]

It was never sustainable, it never reached their own internal financial goals to be self sustaining.

Yeah, if anything, I'm surprised it was allowed to go on for as long as it has. I guess once it gathered enough momentum, it was a matter of convincing everyone it was a good idea. But the bubble was bound to burst.

They just jacked up the Game Pass Subscription Price by 50%, guess what happened after.

The Xbox Game Pass price hikes are so bad, it literally crashed the membership site due to widespread cancellations

Yep, if that's not a sign....

I fully expect Microsoft to backtrack after people are cancelling in droves, or trying to anyhow. Funniest thing is I read about someone who was cancelling and buying a PS5. So, great job, Microsoft! Sending players to your competitors, great tactic! Although PS+ isn't in a much better position, especially as far as the higher tiers go. I personally can only afford the Essential tier, especially as prices keep rising. I prefer to buy my games (or licenses) based on what I'm interested in rather than pay for a service with time-limited access to games.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I fully expect Microsoft to backtrack after people are cancelling in droves, or trying to anyhow.

Given the idiots in charge, I don't think they will.

Sarah Bond is now the CEO of Xbox, she's a Harvard MBA, a perfect Bean Counter to run the Xbox division into the ground.

For all the stupidity of Phil Spencer making a dumb bet with Xbox Game Pass, he was at least a real gamer in the past.

But now that they're putting Sarah Bond in charge, I don't have much faith in the current solution she proposes.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Hmm, yeah neither do I. If anything, she was at the heart of the conflicting messaging last year or so when the first round of layoffs after the Activision-Blizzard purchase happened. Phil Spencer would say one thing, she would say something else entirely and sounded so completely out of touch. If that's who they now put in charge, yeah, bring out the dominoes. In fact, I wouldn't at all be surprised if this recent decision of a price hike is her first act as CEO.

 

[Candlicious Ghost]

We need an open world adventure game with Taylor Swift