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I can only assume having an exclusivity focused business model doesn't work great when you haven't had a good big budget one in about a decade.

If Xbox had the same caliber of exclusives that Playstation has today, they'd 100% be doing much better. Feels like the last time Xbox had unmissable exclusives was during the 360 era and the sales numbers show.

Some people just never understood how unsustainable gamepass really is for big budget AAA games.

I bought the gen 1 X B O X for the original Halo. Funny how the arc of the entire console lineage nearly matches the arc of the Halo franchise itself.

Imagine being a "diehard fan" of a corporation or brand.

Counterpoint: Xbox just doesn't have console selling titles anymore. For me Halo was the only title I ever bought an Xbox for, but 343 has completely murdered that series beyond recognition. But tbh I only even bought a PS5 for FF7 Remake and FF16.

You can't just have an exclusive. The games actually have to be good. I'm just glad we got games like Baldur's Gate 3 and Elden Ring making the box you own not matter.

So is Xbox going the route of SEGA and ATARI? Publishing/developing games instead of hosting them now

Its interesting to note that youtubers specialized in betesda content, who talk about Skyrim, Oblivion and Fallout to this day, are not talking about starfail anymore, because there is no audience for it.

Bloodborne to PC, all I want.

It's absolutely fascinating how much of a catastrophic failure the release of the Xboxone has been for microsoft, as much as people memed on the WiiU the Xbone did significantly more damage to it's brand than the WiiU ever could have.

xbox went from PS has no games to now PS has all our games

Lol Starfield

The leaked "Nintendo is taking too long to understand that their future only exists outside of their platform:)" is so ironic now, lmao

when your market share is so tiny you can't even afford to keep your exclusives.

I own a Series X. Been an Xbox user since the early 360 era. It drives me bonkers to turn on the Xbox that I purchased and have to tap through ads to access my main menu. 1st world problems, but it's supposed to be MY system, right? I don't want ads just to use it. Makes it feel significantly less "mine".

I just did a quick comparison in my head... MS really did follow Sega's exact history. The first console didn't do so well but established a brand. The second did amazingly well, but only in the west, leading to a confusing add-on that sold badly. Then they went through two bad console generations in a row. That makes the Series X their Dreamcast. And, much like the Dreamcast... I have one...

If you listen closely, you can hear the faint cries of millions of console warring souls being snuffed out.

I loved how you brought the tragic incident of DreamCast...damn I remember buying that console for the first time in 1999 and playing Soul Calibur and how it was a huuuugr jump compare to the old ps1 Soul Edge.. yeah Sega lost that battle but it was years long battles.

This is bad for the market unfortunately, Sony has a terrible track record when it comes to being fair to its consumers, so making them the sole console maker is potentially terrible for us.

Sony also is having issues, they’re just quieter about it

You can always count on Microsoft on making you feel like an idiot for purchasing their product. Learned my lesson in 2014 with the Xbox One.

Something else to keep in mind is just how much the "exclusives" argument was used to fight the actiblizz purchase. Putting all of their games on all platforms essentially invalidates that aspect of the monopoly concerns

I'm so interested in the ad rates discussion you always bring up. We are in very different realms of content creation, so it's definitely not a 1 to 1. We were making a ton of content last year for regions that had very low CPM and RPM. After learning more about that we've been focusing on other regions. Our rates has sky rocketed. We are having insane increases in ad revenue compared to this time last year. I just wonder if someone your content is being pushed to low CPM regions. I'm American and always assumed your content would have great CPM rates. It seems like that is just not the case. We went from a .50 RPM average to now 3.50 RPM average

The issue with pc is that the barrier to entry is higher than what it is for console (Xbox and PS5) for similar performance.

The only thing consumers really have to worry about is the fact Sony has no high end competitor in the console market. When they are the only choice other than an expensive pc or Xbox 1 level switch for gamers I don’t see them selling at a loss anymore.

You know, its funny. Sony fought the aquisition so much that in the end it wasn't even worth it if Microsoft just potentially still sell their games on all platforms regardles either way. No doubt it will gotten here sooner as well. But we will see if most of it turns out true.

exclusives only work as a business model, IF THEY'RE GOOD. when's the last time they made a game that really made you want to have a Xbox to play it on?? i can't say ive seen a game in many years, that made me wish i had one.

I imagine they’ll start with recent and upcoming games like Starfield and Indiana Jones. I find it harder to believe they’ll go back and port older titles like the Master Chief Collection to ps5 anytime soon (though I’d love to see that happen).

Toss a coin to your Bellular! They make content a plenty! 🎉

I mean this should have been obvious to everyone community wise if you look at the time line of what Microsoft/Xbox has been doing with the platform setup. It was basic corporate subterfuge by making it look like they was widening access across multiple platforms via the game pass and steaming and waiting till they had the operating capabilities to to pull the rug out from under everyone.

Do we all finally understand now? Corporations only have one form of loyalty, and it's to their shareholders. The customers they claim to love are just wallets to be vacuumed out to give more money to the shareholders.Stop pretending that brands are your buddies and start treating them like the manipuatlive adversaries they are.

I still play Crazy Taxi and Shenmue on my Dreamcast. Good hardware but they sunk way too much money into it.

the real money has ways been in the games not the hardware and by doing so MS would drastically increase their potential customer base. there are 50million PS5s out there.

As an Obsidian fan who can't justify the purchase of a second console, my big hope is that Avowed is a multi-platform release.

lol Starfiled: the shortest console exclusive ever!! If only sony would do the same with all their exclusive games.

SEGA also had games on the Gamecube too. Sonic on Nintendo was a thing

Exclusivity should be broken down into 3 tiers. Tier 1 titles are IP that Xbox cannot allow anyone else to have (Halo, Gears, Forza, Fable or any titles that utterly define what it is to be Xbox). Tier 2 titles are timed exclusive with varying rates of exclusivity depending on their weight (Starfield, Elder Scrolls, Fallout 1 year exclusive Dishonored, Blade, Indiana Jones, The Outer Worlds 6 month). Tier 3 titles are multi-platform from the outset by design (Call of Duty, Minecraft, Diablo, Overwatch, Sea of Thieves, Microsoft Flight Simulator).

It's the reason I updated to a higher end PC. I'll now not have to play this ridiculous conosole exclusive game. I'll have to wait, but for the most part i'll be able to play the exclusives from both consoles. And happily continue buying nintendo consoles.

I just looked at steam community tabs and the latest re release of elder scrolls is at 23k players, starfield is at 7.5k, I definitely would not brag about it being an exclusive if i were them lol

I own every single console of Nintendo. I own every single Playstation. I own the original Xbox and the 360. On the side between each console purchase was a PC upgrade as the 'mainstay' of where I put my time. The new Xbox, the Chimney and Poverty versions? Why should I get them? Playstation does what Xbox does, with exclusives that doesn't show up on PC every now and then. God of War, Ratchet&Clank, and Spiderman are the reasons I got a playstation. Xbox One? I couldn't find anything to play I'd want enough to buy the console. Same for the Chimney and Poverty - I'll just place the extra money I have on my PC instead.

Microsoft acting surprised that ass games dont drive sales 💀

The only thing I would actually care about is if they bring the sequels to indie IPs they acquired back onto GOG, e.g. Ori, Hellblade, PoE/Avowed.

Wonder if wow is going to end up multi platform. Can see Microsoft doing that. It would be lucrative for them if it was tied to game pass.

As a PC player with no horse in the console race, if Xbox actually go ahead with this and give up on exclusivity, I'd be more inclined to go out of my way to support their products. More games everywhere for everyone is a good thing. If these leaks end up being true, hopefully it goes well enough for Xbox that their competitors follow suit.

Imagine what would happen if on top of this, Sony loosened the reigns on their view of early access games...

PS used to have such great exclusives. Especially thinking back to PS2.

The question is, what is the catch? Nothing is done for free or just for charity, so to speak.

Never underestimate Xbox’s ability to disappoint its fans.

This is a good thing... it means the cloud service only plan is not happening this time around :)

A lot of people don’t understand how much a 30% cut really is. Not only that but just to let someone’s game be in their ecosystem store. Yes-Microsoft will receive 80% from those sells but it will dwindle down to around 30%-40% in revenue while the rest will go back into re-investing(game-development and marketing etc..) all while taking all the risk of game development process.

The fact people get mad that something is no longer exclusive to their preferred console is the dorkiest thing. Like, you're literally simping for nothing more than a sales tactic

Gamepass are losing money if xbox has to do this

Satya Nadella, Reid Hoffman, and Hugh Johnston are among the directors of Microsoft,

Dang, I didn't think my email I made since the 360 will effect my Windows account 0_0

Turns out you're not selling as many copies of a game if you put it up on a cheap subscription service day 1. shocker. OTOH, MS can cross-finance gamepass through sales on other platforms, so this is actually a win for gamers that bought into the xbox ecosystem.

16:45 has it though? Their motto has been 'play anywhere' if you ask me (a series x owner).

Moving away from exclusivity makes sense if your long term vision is not in hardware sales but in cloud-based rendering/streaming for games.

Companies releasing bad products wont last forever, and now companies are feeling it 🎉

Any of those exclusives worth playing? No not really tbh.

I don’t play my consoles much but this seems like a win for everyone especially those that only have a ps5 or switch.

As a player on xbox this makes me worried about my library of games I have, and will I have a console in the future to play these games on? I don't want to switch to Playstation but they have given me no choice really.

Honestly, consumer W. Exclusivity is a relic of the past and it does nothing but restricting the customers to conveniently buy games.

Now if only we can get sony and nintendo to do the same, i wanna play sly cooper and loz spirit tracks again

Micro-$oft has long held the corporate adage "embrace, extend, & extinguish."

I am conflicted I must say...happy that more people can play but there needs to be competition and I worry what can happen with that

Steam Deck 2 will be selling massive amounts if they release in mainstream stores.

They thought they could buy first place and monopolize the industry with a model they chose as the leader. But money can only get you so far.

As a PS5 player who loves space games,......... fuk starfailed

Thanks for the great analysis, the 70/30 deal has to change. Im down for this msft pivot but neither apple, google, steam, epic, sony xbox or nintendo. Nobody should be getting 30% of your work thats unreal

Realize this is 90% rumor until they talk about it next week. I just saw a tweet from somebody who said there’s no plans to abandon the next Xbox machine and there’s no plans to give up at least six of their AAA studios over to PlayStation.

I haven't owned an Xbox or played an Xbox game since the 360 (great console btw), so if they do this and I'm able to buy/play Xbox games on Nintendo or Playstation, then they will have my business again and a lot of other gamers business as well who aren't dedicated console fans.

They are probably running out of money and need to churn out some profits here and there. Most of their big titles don’t really make much money on Gamepass. I guess this way, they can make profits from major releases while simultaneously using those games as free advertising for Gamepass.

One issue that Xbox has is its weak position in Japan, and how so many exciting games are coming from Japan, with western developers delivering mediocre product that would barely classify as a worthwhile game. Comparing Assassin's Creed Mirage to Armored Core, CoD: MW 3 to Dragon's Dogma 2. Hell, Granblue Fantasy: Relink - on consoles it came out only on the PS, and I don't think it's any exclusivity deal, I just think it is a game developed for Japanese markets first, with global markets second - so PS and PC. It's so bad that when I'm even seeing games like Tekken 8, multiplatform releases, my firs thought isn't "I need a next-gen console", it's "I need a PS5". What Xbox is dealing with now is an absolute failure to build an enticing portfolio of games over the past decade. Their recent purchases can maybe bear fruit in the next 5 years, but they won't if MS focuses on gaming product, as opposed to creative, exciting games. I don't think MS has the values to do that. So if you're looking for a next gen console, get a PS5. The only thing you may miss out on is buggy, garbage releases of mediocre games. As for the Switch - I got a SwitchLite as a gift last year - it's a lovely bit of hardware. I am absolutely enjoying it. It absolutely makes sense to buy, cuz I am going to get a good 4-5 years of gaming on it before I need to move to a Switch 2. The only console that truly doesn't make sense to buy is an xbox console. Hell, I think even a PS4 is a good idea if you can find it for like $100-150. The library of games there will keep you busy for a handful of years. If Xbox wants to compete on the gaming field, Phil Spencer needs to go, and their values need to change.

Could you imagine what things would be like if Don mattrick wasn't in charge of the xbox one's development? Or at least if they could have gotten their messaging straight that it worked as such: each disk works as it does with your 360 with no online requirement, but if you're online and register it you'll essentially get a digital version that can be played without the disk.

To think an entire division of one of the largest companies in the world would be destroyed by one man saying TV 35 times in less than one hour.

I still think gamepass still not stable for Microsoft from people who looking from the outside, but inside they're not making amount money they need to get back their investment and cost to keep the lights going just alone on xbox with out digging in money what they make on the server side of things. Even Windows Microsoft adding more stuff to it to get people to buy onedrive, office and add ads to the desktop to make up the cost to keep that running.

I guess we wait until the announcement next week (I think).

Worst thing about this is that, compared to the past, the bar is so friggin low... Once upon a time, we used to get dozens of hours of replayability and hidden content. Now we're lucky to get a complete game on release.. The reason Nintendo is winning is because they're, at least, focused on finishing games before release. Sony in second because they have nostalgia from ps1/2. Sega died, and Microsoft should just focus on turning the xbox into some sort of periphery of their PCs.

Curious if this will be basically like how games that release on Epic Games are considered to be betas, until they release on steam

Phil Spencer said a few years ago that their primary goal was to move away from exclusivity situations, arguing that it while it might be good for each console market, it's bad for gamers and they wanted to move to a model that benefited gamers. I'm glad it's finally happening. I've been an Xbox fan since the x360, although I haven't owned one for a decade or so. It's good to see they are matching that ideology finally

I asked a student one time what console he had. He said he has an Xbox Series X. I asked him which games he has, and he said he only plays the Minecraft games and Fortnite. 🤣

I'd argue we've been slowly moving in a direction where something like a console was going to become obsolete. I"m 38, an 1980s baby. I remember a time when one's household setup was that the phone only did phone calls, the home PC did very specific task and the TV was for visual entertainment. You had a VCR for prerecorded video. You had floppy disks for videogames played on the computer. You may have had a game console to play video games on the TV.Some also had the gameboy if they want to play video games on the go. Then you have a radio that also could play cassette tapes. I also happened to be in a household with a typewriter and a record player. Eventually we had CD, DVD and Blu-ray players added to the mix and eventually cassette players and VCRs disappeared, while PCs when to using the smaller floppy discs, to used DVDs and eventually Blu-rays. Fast forward to the late 2000s and the household device setup stopped being much less discrete on dividing tasks. In fact, over the last few decades the PC has gotten to a point where it's doing everything that many other devices have done. You can use it to handle phone calls, watch & record movies & television, listen to & record music, play video games and of course do the all the stuff that PCs were used for in the 1980s. Phones have gone from things that used to be tethered to household walls and phone booths, to something that is no longer bound to a physical structure and they have also become more like PCs.Also TVs can easily be used as computer monitors. If I were the long term planners at Microsoft, I'd conclude that we're fast approaching a point where the only difference between a home PC and a home entertainment system is going to be nonexistent. Where the average person is going to have two home PCs, one that serves as the entertainment system, while other is prioritized to handle various tasks that computers were always used for. In terms of hardware, that is akin to the console. I think the console does go the way of the dodo and that competition there on mostly complete devices is going to be for things like controllers, phones, tablets and laptop computers. It does feel like controllers have enough going for them that they won't end up being a periphery in the way that keyboards, headphones, webcams, remote controls and mice are. Hell, if I were a big corporation, I'd be wondering just how much longer I'd be allowed to have my corporate walled garden. It does feel like the public is getting quite tired of all the corporate BS and the pendulum, that has allowed so many corporations to have to deal with very little regulation, might be about to swing in the other direction. So a console could end up being a liability, if all of a sudden the regulations decide "you know, that really is anti competitive and your going to have to move away from the exclusivity setup." So it might not just be "we can sell software to everywhere," that most certainly is part of it, but also that the xbox could end up being a liability, even if things turn around. Not to mention that Microsoft getting out of the console market could end up being a monkey paw situation for both Sony and Nintendo. Sure they get to absorb Microsoft's market share of the console market, but it also gets easier to argue that both companies control too much of the market, thus making things anti competitive and that could suck really bad for them, if we do see the pendulum swing against this current notion of "well we don't need to regulate companies that much, they are totally trustworthy and aren't screwing all the customers over to maximize profits."

This is why the fight over CoD bewildered me. All MS has to do is price hike to 70$+, as is becoming industry standard, and offer GamePass as a free* alternative and get good PR, revenue and service buy-in

The console wars ended when digital games started to be more common than physical copies it used to be if you wanted to switch consoles you could take your games to game or xtravision and get store credit to get you started on the other console but you can’t do that with digital, the real winner of the console wars is Nintendo they managed to hit that sweet spot of being most gamers second console

This is a move ahead of its time. Regardless of whether or not they do making hardware, hardware as a loss leader is coming to an end. If people want your content, they will find it on the device they like to use.

Is that Mass Effect Andromeda menu music in the background or am I hearing things?

This is what happens when the head of Xbox has the mentality of "strong exclusives don't sell consoles" and "we're in third place, time to give up". I've long said that Spencer should be replaced by someone with a burning passion to see Xbox be the best on the market. Spencer would be better as head of PR or something.

I guess we are down to one hardware platform! Sad, since competition is good for innovation...

I still need Xbox to play niche games like Flight Simulator and Forza Motorsport, but above all those that I’ve purchased and do not have Xbox direct, which allows to play the title on PC without a new purchase

The only way I care about exclusives is when I can't play them. I don't get being upset over more people being able to play a game. The game doesn't become more enjoyable just because some other console also has it.

Didn't Phil Spencer basically say that they want to move out of the console business a year ago? They've been losing the console wars for several generations so this move makes sense.

So not even a year ago Phil said "we don't need to worry about our games multiplatform" Now he is guess dude cant even keep to his own words

The reason Nintendo's been doing so well with the Switch despite it being underpowered is because 1. they release games frequently, both first and 3rd party. 2. The games being released are games fans are actually excited for. 3. Because their games are of good quality. When I bought Tears of the Kingdom, Pikmin 4, and FE Engage, I knew I was going to have a fun time. Microsoft's releases haven't exactly been of that same quality in recent years. And before anyone says I'm a Nintendo fanboy, I have a Switch, a PS5, a PS2, a 360, and a Series X sitting on the same shelf. I really like the Series X from a technology point of view, but their line up since launch has been poor.

Hurray.. I may be able to access the virtual stores to buy virtual goods from more devices!

Will we get Lost odyssey on Steam?

Adapt or die. We speculated this a couple of years ago. Xbox would move towards a service rather than a console. Now they have CoD as leverage, I don't think its far off seeing xbox gamepass through playstation like EAplay and ubisoft+

I take Perfect dark for ps5 or switch2, full price if its complete.

As a die hard xbox fan i am not only fine with this but prefer it, the more platforms xbox games are on the bigger those games will grow which is good for people like me who are major fans of xbox 1st party games and want yo see them teach their max potential, plus cross play ect