@ghostofgolden said:
I’m sure that’s their goal. But look at their current results. Xbox is spending billions and billions for 1%-3% growth in revenue YOY. PlayStation is topping that through conventional means. PlayStation is increasing its marketshare lead and has better margins as well. Xbox has made their software and services available to more than a hundred million additional consumers who don’t need to buy anything but a subscription. And their growth has been minimal. The market trends aren’t in Xbox’s favor.
Potential is nothing without results. Xbox has been operating on potential for long enough.
This is the mindset that I was referencing with my post.
Change is difficult, and people had the EXACT same argument when Netflix started sending out DVDs for free, said the same thing when they shifted to all digital.
It took them 6 years and billions in losses to reach ONE million subscribers. It wasnt until 2007 when they went to streaming (which people said would kill the company) and in 2009 when they started producing original content did Netflix really take off.
Now, they have 248m paid subscribers.
Xbox is on a faster trajectory than Netflix and seems that they have learned the lessons of their mistakes.
MS is trying to be the Netflix of gaming and they are really investing in that as you mentioned in your post. Not everyone will understand, not everyone will like it. People are used to the traditional gaming console market and cant understand how the math works outside of that.
Truth is, gaming has been shifting for a decade (yes, im old). The traditional (Sony) model isnt sustainable, which is why they are investing in PC and Live Service games. Sure, they are selling consoles 1.7x-2x that of MS, but their REVENUE is shrinking. They make awesome games, but they also invest 200m to make those games amazing. That isnt sustainable, even if they sell 10m units. Why? Time. Those games take 5yrs to make and dont come out regularly enough to sustain the business. They are/were relying (their own words) on COD and other 3rd party revenues (paid exclusives) to subsidize their first party. They wont have all of that now that MS owns Activision.
Where are they going to get the money to subsidize the first party? More low cost remakes? Remasters? Lower game budgets? More GaaS games?
Money has to come from somewhere.
Do i like what MS is doing? No because I dont like my games tied to a subscription. But I seem to be in the minority as people keep subscribing to PSN and Game Pass and buying digital.
They market is changing, gamers just live in their own bubbles and havent caught up yet
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