To be fair, at the time if Sega could do it, anyone could. Even Nokia tried to get a niche market going. Microshaft had Zune coming and Windows wasn't the poison it is now. At the time, it made sense.
Microsoft seems a bit schizophrenic with the direction they're taking XBox. They are woefully short of first party titles and the acquisition of Bethesda and Activision was a way to correct this.
Now they're pushing ports of their few first party titles to PS5 and Switch? Console exclusives drive system purchases. Mario/Zelda/Metroid/Etc. being Nintendo exclusives is probably the only reason they're still in the console business.
Why buy an XBox if you can play all the same games on PS5 plus the Sony exclusives?
They'll port their games, and then put them on Game Pass to push that service. Which will probably work. You can get like 3 months of game pass for the same price as one AAA game, so if you play one new AAA game on the service more often than every 3 months you're saving money.
They're counting on girl math, and the apparent lack of normies' desire to own physical media.
I'm kinda waiting for Steam to end up on PS5, that will be the death of consoles.
Gamepass is a trojan horse to buy your back library. Publishers hate it that you can buy a game once and play it forever, they hate competing with the past. There's no reason for any good third-party game to release on gamepass because it's just throwing money away. E.g. would GTA 6 release on gamepass? That would just be setting Fort Knox ablaze for Rockstar. Hence, gamepass will always be a dumping ground for trash, just like Kindle unlimited.
Subscription services are a raw deal for creators.
With how most of Microsoft's products are subscription focused (go fuck yourself for renewing office!) it would make sense they'd apply this to their console too.
Buying Activision and Bethesda and making them first party would cause such a backlash and rush to pirate it would make the pirate era look like amateur hour. Better to go third party and reduce hardware costs since Microsoft seem to be a software company more than hardware.
Console gaming is dying. Too expensive for its own good at this point. Companies still make games for the last Gen of consoles even though the latest Gen has been out for 5 years. The PS5 and Series X are jokes at this point. It will be Nintendo and the PC for gaming alone at this point.
But consoles aren't quality though, they were always outdated by pc standards even when they first came out, what consoles had were standardization and pop in and play now they just have standardization
The expense probably wouldn't matter if they kept weren't so short sighted on it.
Like, they are trying to just outright remove disc ports on their consoles when adding full generation backwards compatibility for all discs would instantly see a huge spike in sales. That alone is what kept Xbox One alive through the PS4's dominance.
Those little features outside pure exclusive AAA games are what sold consoles through PS2-onward, and they seem to not have ever realized that.
The truth is, Microsoft and Sony need each other. The only way to make a AAA affordable is to sell it to both consoles. Xbox exists to challenge PlayStation. That's not even a joke, Microsoft employees are pretty honest about it. So if this is true, then Sony is about to get out as well.
It gets juicier, both companies use the consoles to develop stuff for other organizations that want to remain anonymous, until they proudly talk about it being in a space probe or something. We test the product as a game device, and it gets used for other stuff.
Based on the fact that NVidia is making tons of money off AI instead of gaming now, I can guess where everything is headed.
The Switch 2 would then have all the games everyone said would never arrive on a Nintendo consoles. Pilotwings would make a huge comeback. The new FZero would be open world and have several different vehicles to use for missions.
They should be making "fun" games, but the people they have hired simply want to make movies like the Sony studios. All of the people in the industry are devoid of passion for gaming, and the industry has nobody to blame but themselves.
It was pointed out to me once that Microsoft is a software company that sells software and Apple (and Sony) are hardware companies that sell hardware. While it sounds simple viewing it in this light will make individual decisions made by the companies make a lot more sense. It certainly makes the non-exclusive game pass decisions make sense.
Xbox should never have been made in the first place.
To be fair, at the time if Sega could do it, anyone could. Even Nokia tried to get a niche market going. Microshaft had Zune coming and Windows wasn't the poison it is now. At the time, it made sense.
Microsoft seems a bit schizophrenic with the direction they're taking XBox. They are woefully short of first party titles and the acquisition of Bethesda and Activision was a way to correct this.
Now they're pushing ports of their few first party titles to PS5 and Switch? Console exclusives drive system purchases. Mario/Zelda/Metroid/Etc. being Nintendo exclusives is probably the only reason they're still in the console business.
Why buy an XBox if you can play all the same games on PS5 plus the Sony exclusives?
I think Xbox is steering away from consoles in general, they’ve been pushing the play everything on pc pretty heavily
Expect the walled garden in the near future. They'll make windows unbearable first, then lock it down later.
Their exclusives are all shit. Who buying an xbox for Starfield? Lol.
They'll port their games, and then put them on Game Pass to push that service. Which will probably work. You can get like 3 months of game pass for the same price as one AAA game, so if you play one new AAA game on the service more often than every 3 months you're saving money.
They're counting on girl math, and the apparent lack of normies' desire to own physical media.
I'm kinda waiting for Steam to end up on PS5, that will be the death of consoles.
Gamepass is a trojan horse to buy your back library. Publishers hate it that you can buy a game once and play it forever, they hate competing with the past. There's no reason for any good third-party game to release on gamepass because it's just throwing money away. E.g. would GTA 6 release on gamepass? That would just be setting Fort Knox ablaze for Rockstar. Hence, gamepass will always be a dumping ground for trash, just like Kindle unlimited.
Subscription services are a raw deal for creators.
The Persona series is on game pass so you can't say it's all shit.
Because Microsoft can't compete against itself. As long as their games are all on PC too, then no one will bother to buy an Xbox for them.
There was a reason why Halo, their biggest console seller, was either terribly ported or not at all during their heyday.
Flamethrower and fuel rod cannon on the pc port of halo 1 beg to differ. This was peak gaming.
Because the product ultimately doesnt matter. This is all stock price hype manipulation.
With how most of Microsoft's products are subscription focused (go fuck yourself for renewing office!) it would make sense they'd apply this to their console too.
Buying Activision and Bethesda and making them first party would cause such a backlash and rush to pirate it would make the pirate era look like amateur hour. Better to go third party and reduce hardware costs since Microsoft seem to be a software company more than hardware.
Console gaming is dying. Too expensive for its own good at this point. Companies still make games for the last Gen of consoles even though the latest Gen has been out for 5 years. The PS5 and Series X are jokes at this point. It will be Nintendo and the PC for gaming alone at this point.
As someone with a massive back catalogue and only Xbox One, PS3/4 and 3DS. I keep finding myself calling PS5 and Series X next gen.
Crazy that they have been out for half a decade.
Eh, show me a quality gaming PC you can buy for $500.
But consoles aren't quality though, they were always outdated by pc standards even when they first came out, what consoles had were standardization and pop in and play now they just have standardization
This. Consoles are just crappy PCs now.
The expense probably wouldn't matter if they kept weren't so short sighted on it.
Like, they are trying to just outright remove disc ports on their consoles when adding full generation backwards compatibility for all discs would instantly see a huge spike in sales. That alone is what kept Xbox One alive through the PS4's dominance.
Those little features outside pure exclusive AAA games are what sold consoles through PS2-onward, and they seem to not have ever realized that.
The truth is, Microsoft and Sony need each other. The only way to make a AAA affordable is to sell it to both consoles. Xbox exists to challenge PlayStation. That's not even a joke, Microsoft employees are pretty honest about it. So if this is true, then Sony is about to get out as well.
It gets juicier, both companies use the consoles to develop stuff for other organizations that want to remain anonymous, until they proudly talk about it being in a space probe or something. We test the product as a game device, and it gets used for other stuff.
Based on the fact that NVidia is making tons of money off AI instead of gaming now, I can guess where everything is headed.
The Switch 2 would then have all the games everyone said would never arrive on a Nintendo consoles. Pilotwings would make a huge comeback. The new FZero would be open world and have several different vehicles to use for missions.
Lol. gAmEpaSS iS tHE fuTUrE!!
They should be making "fun" games, but the people they have hired simply want to make movies like the Sony studios. All of the people in the industry are devoid of passion for gaming, and the industry has nobody to blame but themselves.
Source: Sony Ponies that desperately want it to be true.
Banjo-Kazooie/Tooie remakes/sequel?
I know odds are they'd ruin it. The magic that made those games was rare to begin with. But a man can dream....