Sword Of Doom
Member
We don't even know how much Scorpio will cost so it's hard to tell what will happen
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VentureBeat: Microsofts Xbox and gaming sales decline 9%
- Thread starter Rymuth
- Start date
We don't even know how much Scorpio will cost so it's hard to tell what will happen
Bitch Pudding
Member
Right now, you can only get the $399 XBOX One S. The immanent threat is that Sony announces Neo rather soon. Which might as well only cost $399, offers UHD AND adds more power. Furthermore, I think it's quite likely that Sony will also introduce a new entry-level PS4 SKU which also supports UHD playback, just to steal another USP from the cheaper XBOX One S SKUs.
Now, I have no doubt that XBOX One S will have a positive effect on XBOX One sales, but not long-term. I think what we'll see is a nice straw fire which will die out as soon as Sony - and Nintendo - present their new hardware.
And while I think Scorpio will do fine for a high-end SKU, it does not have the global mass market appeal to turn the tides in their favor.
They're doing what they need to. The move to unified Windows is smart as it gives the Xbox platform portability - currently that means 'play anywhere' for consumers, but it also gives MS the option to migrate away from dedicated boxes ifnscorpio doesn't gain traction. Or even towards an MSX model where others make the boxes but they're PCs branded Xbox with an Xbox front end
My worry is how relatively reactive MS has been over the last five years. Once this unified Windows approach is fully done, how long will they give it to bear fruit before changing tack again?
My worry is how relatively reactive MS has been over the last five years. Once this unified Windows approach is fully done, how long will they give it to bear fruit before changing tack again?
michaelius
Banned
There's nothing crazy in that thinking- last E3 was Microsoft slowly phasing out xbox as hardware and start of evolution into service.
I only wonder how they are going to solve Xbox live gold on "consoles" which will be more restrictive pcs ala steam machine vs normal pcs.
anothertech
Member
You are literally the only person that said anything like this lol.
MS has deep pockets. They have someone at the helm that cares deeply about gaming. Their in a massive slump sure, who knew they would get beat so bad this Gen, but their forward tone on Scorpio sounds to me like they are going to try and go all in and double down on this gaming thing.
Let's hope to God they don't decide to pull out. Competition breeds greatness and we don't want any of these companies getting too complacent. No matter your hardware if preference.
captainraincoat
Banned
Physical media is dying and we have some of the shittest internet in the world and will continue to do so thanks to liberal so streaming 4k for most is out of reach.
On the plus size i will be able to fit it in my ikea tv cabinet without having to hacksaw anything.
Maximilian Kolbe
Member
I think that's the reason why 1TB and 500GB One S no release date yet, maybe they're waiting how much of Neo, if it's same as 2TB One S, then they will drop all One S model by $50, if not, then they keep the price range this year at least(other than holiday deals).
Bitch Pudding
Member
People tend to overestimate the impact of thise move. Like if MS now sells hundreds of thousands more games thanks to Windows 10 store. In case of both Quantum Break and Rise of the Tomb Raider, XBOX 10 store sales barely managed to reach 5-digit numbers. The impact of this move is abysmal. And that won't change anytime soon. For the same reason I disagree with those saying that XBOX Anywhere will compensate the revenue and profit losses from the XBOX hardware.
It makes sense. It's UWP. Who cares about UWP. That's the point.
anothertech
Member
The fact they announced not one but TWO new Xbox sku's last E3 kinda defeats your point methinks.
They are absolutely not going "all in." If they wanted to, MS could be putting a lot of sorely needed recources into Xbox. They still want it to work out, they are willing to keep trying for now. But there was a time when the entire operation had a fair bit more support.
I'd like to add a diverse (read: eastern) 3rd-party-lineup, that's been missing from Xbox since the early 360 days. Everybody i know here loves some good JRPGs, over-the-top action games, Digimon, Odin Sphere, even some niche strategy titles from NIS etc alongside their FIFA and CoD. Even Nintendo has more of those typical japanese games (#FE, Bayonetta, Project Zero etc.) on offer than MS.
I don't have exact numbers, but always following the charts and sales reports, i have a feeling the german market shares my appreciation of diversification. It's the reason MS lost me as a customer, although i really loved my 360 in the first few years.
I think they could do way more in that regard and rekindle some positive brand recognition, yet nothing ever seems to indicate any change in direction.
anothertech
Member
Point taken. I just mean their 'most powerful console' talk and the way they are marketing the thing feels like they are trying to win back some favor as a 'powerful' contender in the gaming space.
I agree, I don't think they are pouring the needed resources Into the Xbox side, especially the software section, and the Scorpio might be too little too late, but at least they aren't trying to rely on the Xbone alone for another 3 years.
Coulomb_Barrier
Member
What, so sales will be back up in winter 2017? That's...great.
Tough break. XB1's are cheaper than ever and hardware is still selling less.
Anyway, if I remember correctly last year had crazier deals and bigger games for the quarter but a 33% hardware revenue drop is kinda eye watering.
Yeah, I mean it seems the XB1 is on life support everywhere else around the world.. It's crazy to rely on two markets i.e. US and UK (yes I know they are the biggest revenue earners for video games) in our now globalised world for electronics.
Maybe Scorpio can reverse those fortunes but I think it'll need to be more than just a slogan of "most powerful console ever built".
Anyway, if I remember correctly last year had crazier deals and bigger games for the quarter but a 33% hardware revenue drop is kinda eye watering.
Yeah, I mean it seems the XB1 is on life support everywhere else around the world.. It's crazy to rely on two markets i.e. US and UK (yes I know they are the biggest revenue earners for video games) in our now globalised world for electronics.
Maybe Scorpio can reverse those fortunes but I think it'll need to be more than just a slogan of "most powerful console ever built".
Yes, that's a perception problem. Both companies gather data from their users and the negative media around the Kinect was unjustified.
-v please. Also, two decades? What?
So this is about the company and not the console?
There are more exclusives than Gears and Dead Rising...
If Neo manages to get a one year headstart and classic PS4 sees a price drop, fight will be over before even starting imho
Yep, that's quite exactly it. People will just buy a Playstation, if Sony not completely fucks a console up. It's the synonym for gaming and I guess this also applies to a lot of other countries, as well. Nothing wrong with it but add to that that MS also almost always had and has a negative image because of Windows.
I feel like anybody who's been paying attention could see that the Xbone's sales would taper off and dry up a long time before the 'end' of this generation. Just the effect of being wildly outsold by PS4, it happened to the OG Xbox and GameCube too. The ratio of PS4 to Xbone sales each month is going to start swinging very heavily in PS4's favour from here on out.
EventHorizon
Member
Not really. We don't know what Scorpio is supposed to be. I have a pet theory that it's going to be a PC/console hybrid and that MS is going into the computer appliance market. If that happened then the Scorpio could very well be MS moving away from traditional consoles. Instead they'd want hardware that is capable of playing a much larger section of apps out of the Windows Store than just games. That's mean using more powerful CPUs than would be needed if all they wanted was a device to play console games. That'd cost more, but instead of marketing it as an expensive console, it could be positioned as a cheap(ish) PC.
No, because their overall revenue SHOULD be up, because XBO has a larger install base than this time last year.
travisbickle
Member
No, this is an unsustainable plan.
They're dropping the price of the Xbox to try and maintain some kind of growth for their services. There's going to be lapsed gamers the longer the generation goes on, the problem MS has is they have to keep cutting the price of hardware heavily to replace them as new gamers won't pay the current price.
ThoughtsOfSpeaking
Banned
I will say this, Hoildays will be interesting for Xbox, at least in the UK. With the pinch of Brexit fully hitting by then, alot of people are going to be put off spending. This is advantageous to Microsoft, who will eat the losses that come with the falling pound, as they have traditionally in Canada. If they keep pushing out deals at mass market prices, with the Xbox S I see a recovery of the top spot from Sony, who are almost certain to price the Neo based on the current value of the pound.
I have no idea, I'm from the uk and ms caters for my tastes pretty well tbh, but it's pretty obvious they struggle outside of uk which is largely a mini USA in regards to consumer tastes. They've given up on Japan largely it seems and Asia, and struggle with mainland Europe, smarter people than me should be advising ms on those issue but maybe they simply don't care anymore?.
There's zero chance of them over taking Sony in one season man, it doesn't seem to have done anything when the Xbox one has been cheaper than the ps4 for sometime now, the Xbox has been sub £200 with games over the past few months.
wapplew
Member
Oh, right, never thought of that.
"MS use price cut, it's not very effective" summarize 33% hardware revenue drop.
I don't think that they don't care but the Playstation brand is just too big in Germany. I mean, both consoles mostly offer the same games and arguebly the same "experience" - at least to a point that the market difference does not relate to the difference in the consoles. MS has generally a bad image in Germany since the 90s which also "adds" to the difference, of course.
PRISM was in every media outlet while Xbox one was revealed. Unjustified?
Playstation is present in germany for two decades
What kind of question is that? What Microsoft closed all those PC Devs and not XBOX? What?
Yes, all those first person shooters
Germany loved all those PC Games that Microsoft developed and published in the late 90's and early 2000's
- Age of empires | RTS
- Flight Simulator | Sim
- Mechwarrior | Sim
- Mech Commander | RTT
- Dungeon Siege | RPG
- Freelancer | Spacesim
- Starlancer | Spacesim
- Rise of Nations | RTS
Yeah, at this point in a system's life revenue should be going up, not down.
Is it though? The price drop was made to push volume but that hasn't happened to an extent for the quarter (worked a treat holiday 2014 though).
Sure they want money from software and services too but there's no way that MS want to sell less XB1's and make less overall revenue like they are now.
Edit: Matt and travisbickle say it better than me:
The thing is they never really put any effort in those regions, outside of a handful of money hats at the start of last gen for Japan. Sony has been putting in work into pretty much every region in the world to try and grow them as stronger markets for games (localised marketing arms, localisation of third party games to traditional Chinese in Asia etc.). In comparison Microsoft hadn't lifted a finger. There's a very good reason why Playstation is such a big global brand and essentially synonymous with video games in most markets around the world. And there's a very good reason why Microsoft is not. You get out what you're willing to put in.
Coulomb_Barrier
Member
I think again, the people behind strategy at Playstation have out-thought those at Microsoft with respect to the new consoles.
Having a year head-start with a cheaper product with a compelling exclusive line-up is going to ensure the Scorpio is a failure. It will fail also because, for some reason, it's being pitched to high-end gamers who already have high-end PCs. The Scorpio can never win in this scenario. So it's beaten in the console space and its beaten at the other end too.
Having a year head-start with a cheaper product with a compelling exclusive line-up is going to ensure the Scorpio is a failure. It will fail also because, for some reason, it's being pitched to high-end gamers who already have high-end PCs. The Scorpio can never win in this scenario. So it's beaten in the console space and its beaten at the other end too.
That's the exception rather than the rule, no? Before last generation there was generally always one console that was a runaway success and one or more that were also-rans whose sales dried up after a few years as they limped to 30 million LTD.
The Horror the horror
Banned
I thought Microsoft's intention behind entering the console race was to prevent Sony from dominating the living room. Have they shifted that focus, or do they believe PCs will grow their presence in that area?
Bits N Pieces
Member
Are you a developer or an exec at Microsoft?
A 9% decline isn't a big deal, you're acting like if Microsoft was doomed...also these companies make most of their money from subscriptions and games royalties, and looks like they're doing great there, they often have just a little margin of income for every console sold, what really means to them is that Xbox Live is doing well, and that's why they want to push it on PC too and they don't mind selling less console
wapplew
Member
Don't know about what back to PC will do for them, but while they busy entering console race, Valve take their digital store cake, Apple & Google take the mobile cake and they left with 20m install base, some live subscribers and some MAU.
I hope that's worth their time and money.
I just think its nothing to with Scorpio, I just this the way younger people are consuming more mobile and tablet games, as well as using they devices to stream stuff thus not needing tv's in bedrooms.
Games shops are in decline, as well as the in-flux of f2p games, its a different market to what it was 5 to 10 years ago.
Games shops are in decline, as well as the in-flux of f2p games, its a different market to what it was 5 to 10 years ago.
MilkyJoe
Member
I wouldn't say it would hurt it either. People seem to have the weird notion that if a game is suddenly on PC, people are going to stop console gaming and go spend 3 x as much on a PC instead. If anything you release it on both Xbox and Windows 10 - both MS platforms - more people will buy it and more money goes back into bringing people more games.
Do you actually think the 9% net decline of the gaming division revenues does not include revenues the gaming division has generated?
No, you don't understand. Revenue for the whole Xbox division is down 9%. Revenue from the sale of XBO systems is down 33%.
Why people continue with this argument?
More consoles, more software, it's simple.
I guess they don't ming releasing Halo on PS4 then, right?
Does that matter? It's not like that stops him from hearing things.
Right on time for your scheduled spin.
_/¯
wapplew
Member
Windows 10 install base is way bigger than all current console combine, which means more software sales, at least that's their plan.
StrongBlackVine
Banned
Tablets and smartphones are the new "living room" so that is kind of irrelevant at this point. Although that is make it seem a bit strange how quickly they gave up on Windows Phone.
But what is number of Windows 10 products that can function as at least console level gaming machines? My laptop certainly can't. And they have extremely stiff competition in that arena with Steam. On Xbox they are getting revenue from all 3rd party games being sold. That is not happening on PC any time soon if ever.
MilkyJoe
Member
And yet somehow people see that as a failure...