MilkyJoe
Member
I honestly thought it was dead. well there you go.
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VentureBeat: Microsofts Xbox and gaming sales decline 9%
- Thread starter Rymuth
- Start date
I honestly thought it was dead. well there you go.
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Yet there are new threads all the time for new Vita games popping up here on GAF.
CosmicQueso
Member
The Xbox console is nowhere near being Microsoft's main product though.
Why wouldn't they just continue selling the boxes they have, say they'll have continuing support, and just not make a new box?
It's a very plausible scenario.
Pathfinder
Member
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Not true, we all know the Age of Sony is Done...
LiquidSolid
Member
It still baffles me not just how delusional Microsoft were at the time but how they even got there in the first place. All it took was a couple of great years thank to the Kinect and a narrow lead over Sony and suddenly their shit didn't shine. It was bizarre.
wapplew
Member
Nah, Scoripio won't be the end, they are making Xbox console like steam box. Making console with on shelf part isn't too much cost for R&D.
Windows phone is more dire and they still making new phones. Surface, phones, Xbox, all just part of the devices in different form factor for Windows10.
They had a huge lead over Sony in NA that never really narrowed. Sony caught up in total sales because of the rest of the world.
They (MS) aren't making Windows Phones (when I see a surface phone, i'll believe it). Partners are though and if that's what you meant then I'm sorry, I'm wrong.
Papacheeks
Banned
Don't they own Nokia? The lumia series is their brand of phone?
Surface Phone is happening, there's no doubt about it. Just a few months ago Nadella said they aren't done with phones, but he said he wants them to be category defining, like the Surface was, and focused on the Continuum capability.
The rumors from multiple insiders right now suggest it will be business focused.
Iva Demilcol
Member
April to June?
When all the rumors about a new model where everywhere?
As a matter of fact, my little brother wanted to buy an Xbox in May. I told him to wait after E3 because there were strong rumors a new model was coming. He did wait but he ended up buying the console because he found a good deal a few days ago since it seems many stores want to get rid of the old models.
Let's see how things develop the next months.
When all the rumors about a new model where everywhere?
As a matter of fact, my little brother wanted to buy an Xbox in May. I told him to wait after E3 because there were strong rumors a new model was coming. He did wait but he ended up buying the console because he found a good deal a few days ago since it seems many stores want to get rid of the old models.
Let's see how things develop the next months.
Papacheeks
Banned
I THOUGHT the Lumia 950 was their own brand of phone DUde? So they have their own windows phones. I mean they showed the lumia's off at their March/April summit they did when they showed off surface laptops.
LordRaptor
Member
There is a legitimate unfilled niche for a blackberry successor phone aimed at business; physical keyboard, built in encryption systems for traffic, easy connectivity with Exchange.
Techblogs would rip it to shreds immediately for not being 'cool', obviously, but MS is not a 'cool' company. They're a company with enterprise trust.
Imperfected
Member
So it was YOU! It was all your fault!
MilkyJoe
Member
Well I generally only look at the first page and then tab threads I an interested in... Eg new hardware and Star Wars, at the moment.
Bitch Pudding
Member
ah, just for the fun of it. Just kidding, my bad, wanted to quote the stuff you quoted from Guevara which he quoted from the transcripts which he couldn't be bothered to include a hyper link to... Well, yeah...
anothertech
Member
I did not realize this. It's a much worse situation than I thought.
slavesnyder
Member
Do developers already work with scorpio dev kits or is this console still a concept?
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
I understand. They are usually on the first page, often.
But if you are also not looking for it, they can easily be missed I suppose. Just saw a new one for a Macross (Robotech) game today.
Kleegamefan
K. LEE GAIDEN
The difference between Neo and Scorpio is that thanks to Microsoft's Play Anywhere initiative, you will be able to play 100% of all future Xbox games on the PC. Indeed, compared to Scorpio, you will be able to play even prettier versions of those games if your PC is up to the task.
On the other hand, if you are interested in the new God of War or Horizon or the new Spiderman or Days Gone, you will need a Playstation 4 for this.
A subtle, but important distinction.
Iva Demilcol
Member
Yeah, it's my fault. GAF should give me a medal because GAF loves to read that the Xbox division is destined to disappear.
MilkyJoe
Member
Nae bother. Lots of work on lately, my loafing quota has gone right through the floor.
I know that it's coming...but at the same time, that's spring 2017. I know all what Nadella said. It will most likely be very similar to the HP Elite x3.
Yes it is. I own that phone. Yes, they have it but they aren't making any right now. The 650 was the last phone that they revealed. Nothing since then and nothing until the surface phone. Since the 950, everything has been fluff and even including the 950 (and I love my phone). They won't be serious until the surface phone.
But anyways...gotta get back on topic.
And I think having titles that are bigger/"AAA" console quality instead of simply small mobile-like titles & apps will help with that.
But people can "care about" (in this case, use) UWP if it has a game (or multiple games) that they are interested in.
anothertech
Member
I also had a Lumia, it was a great phone. unfortunately the apps I absolutely needed for work were never released on the Windows store.
I think that is the main issue with their mobile products across the board, is the availability of apps and the issue with no developers making their store a priority.
It will likely be the same with surface phone.
serversurfer
Member
Yeah, kind of surprising they don't expect the SlimBone to really increase revenues
Indeed, Phil seemed to indicate there wouldn't be much need for another XBox after Scorpio when he talked to Polygon about inflection points.
"You and I lived through the transition from standard def to high definition, and that change was obvious to people. We're doing more work on PC and I see the change to 4K resolution and some of the capabilities there, and that's what we picked, to make 4K a design point for this box. So if we can't hit true 4K this year, let's not do it, even though that would have been easier. We said let's do it next year, because it's really part of this vision of trying to create this cross-platform vision of games across Windows and console to define entry points for people. If I'm a customer with a 1080p TV, you should go buy an Xbox One. That's a great box for a 1080p television, and there's no reason to go buy something that supports 4K right now. If you got a 4K television, we've got a box coming for you. If you just play on Windows, we want to make sure we're investing in it fully if you're not on console. That vision we've been talking about in pieces."
So, Bone is "great" for 1080p, and Scorpio is being held until it's similarly great at 4k. Presumably, the box after that would be targeted at 8k gaming, whenever that happens
Wasn't it? /rimshot
If that's the case, what's the point in actually manufacturing the boxes themselves? Seems that if XBox is going to be a steam-style box, MS would just license the XBox brand to PC manufacturers who meet some minimum performance spec. Hell, at this point, "Project Scorpio" is literally nothing more than a vague performance target as it is. Who knows what it'll actually turn out to be.
Yep. Apps have been the main reason why their phones never "made it" and the reason why Windows Store isn't doing anything right now. I agree with you.
Satya? No
Omnistalgic
Member
I would be all for Xbox just being a branded PC with gaming performance in mind. Atm, there just isn't any room for PS and Xbox in my house, the consoles are just way too similar. Since I've gotten out of high school I haven't cared about the odd exclusive I miss out on by choosing one platform over the other. I don't have 10-12 hours of free time a day to dedicate to gaming, and the software library is just too similar to justify both so I'm gonna go with the most appealing box.
Perhaps not the best comparisons but in gaming world it feels like Nintendo is Apple, you get their hardware to play their software and the best software comes from them.
On the flip side it's like both PS and Xbox are essentially there to play everyone else's software. Sony's a little stronger in first party diversity, but still essentially a box where 3rd party stuff shines. So they are both trying to be Android, and IMO you just don't need two consoles doing basically the same thing.
Perhaps not the best comparisons but in gaming world it feels like Nintendo is Apple, you get their hardware to play their software and the best software comes from them.
On the flip side it's like both PS and Xbox are essentially there to play everyone else's software. Sony's a little stronger in first party diversity, but still essentially a box where 3rd party stuff shines. So they are both trying to be Android, and IMO you just don't need two consoles doing basically the same thing.
Dyson Industries
Banned
After you climb out of the backseat, you may want to reconsider what he's saying. MS has known for ages that the Xbox division has been in decline, so developing/announcing new hardware would be a legitimate tack to take in an attempt to reverse their fortunes. Announcing Scorpio this far in advance is absolutely a desperation move.
Satya killed windows phone.
Xbox doesn't get a free pass on bad financial performance because of keyboard warriors.
Xbox can very well be another Steam, Microsoft goes 3rd party and software only: their strengths.
CosmicQueso
Member
Haven't heard of any.
Exactly. The concept is fairly open ended at this point. Maybe it's a new console, maybe it's something else.
The same reason they make things like Surface Pro (2-in-1 convertible) and Surface Book (laptop with a detachable screen), and presumably the Surface Phone with Continuum (phone that can be a PC), to create examples of category-defining hardware showcasing what Windows can do that other manufacturers can follow.
I do wonder if Satya is applying the same category-defining criteria to the Xbox console as he did to their other hardware. Rumor is he killed the Surface Mini right before its reveal because it wasn't unique. It's hard to think of how they would make a video game console category defining without tying another Kinect-like noose around its neck.
Agreed that there's no telling what it is right now other than a few target specs.
This would be great, but I don't think there's a chance of this happening as long as the Xbox division sits within the Windows division.
serversurfer
Member
Not really the same situation at all though. First, the tablet market dwarfs the console market, both in terms of user visibility and hardware sold. In the last six years, Apple have sold 308M iPads. By comparison, in the last twenty years, super-successful Sony have only sold 380M consoles. To put that in to more perspective, Apple's 308M sales have come in the span of what could reasonably be called a single console generation. In the three years that PS4 has been available and sold 40M units, Apple have moved almost 140M iPads. And Apple are only a quarter of the tablet market at this point.
Further, the markup on a Surface is nearly 100%. Someone argued that MS could try to position themselves as "the Apple of" console gaming. So I guess they figure on MS selling Scorpio for $800+ and/or games for $100? Apple survive as a boutique vendor 5% of the market and 45% of the profits. I don't personally see MS pulling that strategy off, especially in the console space
and that's why. What category-defining have MS done in the console space beyond conference calls and paywalls? How will MS lure users in to their console boutique and persuade them to start paying Apple-like prices? "Just like Apple does," isn't an acceptable answer, BTW; if MS could be Apple, they wouldn't be MS. ;p
A bit OT I know but I was wondering, does anyone know what sort of cost UHD drives entail at this point? I'm curious about just how expensive they are and whether or not that is one part of the high debut pricing for the XB1S. If they are expensive then it might be that they have to keep prices up in order to avoid taking a loss on the HW.
Yeah you have no problem admitting to it after the fact and then proceed to draw another long bow with IAAS references that is another market littered with dead providers and is coalescing around only the biggest providers. Competition can and does forces providers out of the market.
http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3055225
Speaking at the Gartner Infrastructure, Operations and Data Center Summit in Sydney today, Gartner vice president and distinguished analyst Lydia Leong said the IaaS solution ecosystem is rapidly consolidating around a small number of market leaders.
"The sky is not falling customers are getting great value out of cloud IaaS but the competitive landscape is shifting," Ms. Leong said. "Few providers have the financial resources to invest in being broadly competitive in the cloud IaaS market."
Why? There's zero reason it make one. It has zero chance of adoption and Microsoft is literally a decade behind the smartphone industry. Unless it runs 100% Android it's a non-starter.
Nadella said they're not making hardware for the same reason Apple is, they make it it to showcase Windows and create things other manufacturers can follow. That's why the hardware division is within the Windows division and not the other way around. At Apple I'm fairly certain the device design takes priority because that's where most of their revenue comes from. At MS most of their revenue comes from software and services. The comparison makes no sense.
Nadella's whole vision is about your experiences (and all the MS services you pay for) going with you across every screen in your life and the TV is still a major screen. He's acknowledged that gaming is the biggest life (non-business) category in terms of time spent and revenue, so they've got to have something there to get those MS accounts and Windows Store users.
Probably because they want to see if they can gain traction with Continuum, or the idea that your phone can be a PC. That's all I can gather from what Nadella has said.
Shpeshal Nick
aka Collingwood
Firstly, Windows Phone isn't actually killed off.
Second, let's say it is. It wasn't killed due to bad financial performance. It was killed due to having less than 2% market share.
Not only is the Xbox market share healthy, Xbox is needed for Microsoft as a brand. It's literally Microsoft's only link to a youth demographic and these organisations aren't stupid. A kid who grew up playing Xbox is more likely to buy a Windows PC later in life than someone who grew up on PlayStation. Especially if the foundations for a good ecosystem are in place, which Microsoft are currently doing, step by step.
.This is a very narrow view on what losing a console does to MS. Losing the hardware sale is not important. Losing the Live subscription and the money made on all software sales in that ecosystem is important.
You're thinking only about their software.
Kaji AF16
Member
I agree.
Could the current Windows Phone situation become a worst-case scenario for Xbox? I doubt Xbox market share will fall, at least in the foreseeable future, to WP levels. Sony hasn´t the strength of Apple and Google, plus the Xbox ecosystem itself is becoming hardware-agnostic and could eventually survive without a dedicated device.
Lumia 720/630/650 and Xbox One user here, loved all of them. And waiting for Scorpio!
Omnistalgic
Member
that bolded part may make you inherently biased then. Things can change dramatically gen to gen and Ms is only operating within U.S and UK marketplace, they are dying out just about every where else with Xbox and while Windows might dominante the workplace it holds little sway in consumer goods.
I wouldn't rule anything out.