Xbox Series S | X Console Discussion

[Dcubed]

A podcast is a bit of a bizzare way of announcing whatever this is, but I suppose it’s indicative of how last-minute this whole thing is.

They clearly had no intention of making a public statement any time before April originally; but the leaks have forced their hand now.  So this is what they could cobble together in the shortest time possible…

… plus it gives them time to react to this week’s Nintendo Direct

Edited February 12, 2024 by Dcubed

[Sheikah]

A podcast is a bit of a bizzare way of announcing whatever this is, but I suppose it’s indicative of how last-minute this whole thing is.
They clearly had no intention of making a public statement any time before April originally; but the leaks have forced their hand now.  So this is what they could cobble together in the shortest time possible…
… plus it gives them time to react to this week’s Nintendo Direct [emoji6]

Yes, it's a hastily unplanned announcement and also a carefully planned Switch tie in.

[Julius]

New article from The Verge yesterday which talks about Xbox's plans to be everywhere:

Only real news here, for me, is that Pentiment might be one of the games moving over - don't think it's been mentioned up to this point? 

Anyways, elsewhere, they've announced another limited edition Series S, this time for Dune: Part Two. 

Kind of nuts how many limited edition variants they've had compared to PlayStation, who seriously don't seem to care about branching out beyond their own IP. The LeBron collab is the only one that comes to mind? 

[WackerJr]

I can’t see them pulling out of the console race like this, so I expect that to be all hype.  My prediction is like many others, to announce they’ll be publishing some games on other platforms.  Possibly a revision to their current hardware, and an update to GamePass.

Whatever the case, this is probably the most interest there’s been in an Xbox podcast!

[drahkon]

Can't wait for all this to be over.
The news cycle about the whole Xbox situation and "insiders" talking about an unannounced but delayed Nintendo Direct is annoying me to no end

[Julius]

It's live:

 

[drahkon]

Gimme a list with all the important info in 23 minutes please

[Hero-of-Time]

1 minute ago, drahkon said:

Gimme a list with all the important info in 23 minutes please

As rumoured, 4 games are going multiformat. Not Starfield or Indiana Jones.

Rumoured games were Sea of Thieves, Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment and one other.

 

Edited February 15, 2024 by Hero-of-Time

[Julius]

 

2 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Gimme a list with all the important info in 23 minutes please

They've...refused to name the 4 games lmao

The Verge are reporting that it's Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves and Grounded

[Hero-of-Time]

Yeah, Grounded appears to be the 4th game.

Basically this is a whole lot of nothing.

[drahkon]

Ok, moving on then

[Happenstance]

1 minute ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Basically this is a whole lot of nothing.

At this point that should be the Xbox slogan

[Hero-of-Time]

It's quite embarrassing how this has been handled. They could have easily nipped this in the bud but instead chose to do this.

They keep going on about growth (whole thing is very corporate) and yet I can't see how that happens in a substantial way with just 4 games, especially with some of the ones they've chosen to bring to other platforms. All they are doing is weakening their platform even further.

[Hero-of-Time]

Sod off. Phil bragging about how they are one of the largest publishers across all platformers. Yeah, because you barged your way in and bought up a stupid amount of studios, all the while your own internal studios output was going down in flames.

[Hero-of-Time]

Business.

Growth.

Business.

Growth.

Business.

Growth.

[Ike]

At least this will stop the “game pass coming to other consoles” rumours.

Maybe

[Ashley]

4 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Business.

Growth.

Business.

Growth.

Business.

Growth.

[Josh64]

So much business jargon, this takes me back to the halcyon days of E3 presentations, before they were so showbiz, like the glory days of Reggie whipping out graphs and sales numbers mid presentation. 

 

 

[Sheikah]

It's quite embarrassing how this has been handled. They could have easily nipped this in the bud but instead chose to do this.

They keep going on about growth (whole thing is very corporate) and yet I can't see how that happens in a substantial way with just 4 games, especially with some of the ones they've chosen to bring to other platforms. All they are doing is weakening their platform even further.

My thoughts exactly. This communication is hilariously mismanaged...why wouldn't they just nip it in the bud?

The only thing that would make sense is if, following the backlash, they've chosen to hold off announcing any other games that might/will also come to other platforms. Start with just 4 and then trickle announce others further down the line to soften the disquiet.

 

Real nonsense speak going on in this announcement though. They're talking about bringing games to lots more people like they're some sort of charity, when in reality they bought up the industry which has ultimately restricted access to existing players.

[Josh64]

This meeting absolutely could have been an email. 

[killthenet]

That was painful to watch, it was mostly just business gibberish - I don't know why they couldn't just come out and say 'only four games are being ported to other platforms' last Sunday when the rumours really started to gather pace, there was nothing in this chat that couldn't have been said in a single tweet. Waiting so long to say something made it seem like it was much more of a big deal that it was.

[Josh64]

I rarely succumb to rumours these days, but given they've been playing ball with Nintendo recently with Banjo, and the heavily rumoured Nintendo Direct was due today, I did think maybe there would be some form of Rare announcement. 

 

I think Sheikah may be onto something, in that maybe they did intend to make a bigger splash, but have scaled back the announcements amid the backlash. If that's not the case then they really are pretty inept to make such a fuss over what essentially should be a tweet announcing that 4 titles are coming to other platforms. 

[Hero-of-Time]

 

2 minutes ago, Sheikah said:

The only thing that would make sense is if, following their backlash, they've chosen to hold off announcing any other games might/will come to other platforms. Start with just 4 and then trickle announce others further down the line.

This seems to be the plan. Despite them saying on the Podcast that their exclusivity strategy hasn't changed, an interview has been published with the following from Spencer.

Quote

You mentioned that Starfield and Indiana Jones aren't part of the four despite rumors, but will those ever come to PS5? Can you rule that out?

I don't think we should as an industry ever rule out a game going to any other platform. We're focused on these four games and learning from the experience.

But I don't want to create a false expectation on those other platforms that this is somehow the first four to get over the dam and then the dam's going to open and that everything else is coming, that's not the plan today. I also don't want to mislead customers on those other platforms. We're launching these four games, and we're excited about it. We're excited about the announce and everything else, but we'll see what happens for our business.

There's also this...

Quote

I understand that Microsoft has also previously been weighing up the idea of bringing Gears of War, Microsoft Flight Simulator, and even the next Doom game to rival platforms. Final decisions haven't been made on these other games, but there's bound to be more than just four. As this strategy evolves, it's clear there will be some interesting decisions being made about the future of Xbox games and exclusivity.

At this point they may as well go 3rd party and stop with the mixed messaging. They are clearly gearing up for bigger titles to cross over. Whole thing reminds me of the Tomb Raider incident and how the messaging was all over the place for that. In fact, messaging and has been a massive issue for Microsoft/Xbox for a couple of generations now.

[Julius]

I agree with @Hero-of-Time that this being sat on for nearly two weeks for a near-complete nothingburger is dreadful. Could and should have nipped this in the bud immediately. And good lord do they not stop with the marketing buzzwords! 

Do also agree with @Sheikah that maybe things got scaled back as a result of the backlash - if nothing else I think it gave Phil something to go with to Satya and say "see, I told you. Bad idea." It's the only possible explanation why it took nearly two weeks for a low production and low effort 20+ minute sit-down to come together. 

Anyways, I took notes while watching, might as well share them:

Quote

• Phil explains show originally planned in December, start with ABK, hardware, but unforeseen leaks means they want to tackle exclusivity first. 
• four games coming to other consoles - decision being made with "long-term health of Xbox in mind: growing platform, games performing". 
• four titles asked to be named - denied. Have announcement plans which aren't too far away. 
• Starfield or Indy? Nope, says Phil. 
• asked about criteria to decide these, but Phil explains fundamental is long-term health of growing the Xbox platform and giving their games as much success as possible. Believes in 5-10 years exclusive titles will be a smaller factor - no great insight here, has been a growing trend for years. Coming back to the question, looked at games over a year old, some of which are community-driven and reached full potential on Xbox and PC but which they still want to support and invest in. Hoping this move gives them confidence moving forwards - so two of these fill this mantle. The other two are smaller games which their teams really wanted to build and after realising potential on Xbox and PC, want to get more value out of these by bringing to other platforms. Feels this doesn't damage Xbox brand. Looking forward, looking to introduce Xbox franchises on other platforms to generate more interest in value of the brand - but no promise that more than the four games are coming. 
• how does this apply to future titles? Doesn't change exclusivity stance, says Phil. Feels cloud and the platforms they are available on and growing strategy on new, more accessible platforms, trying to reach more players in more ways. Emphasises Xbox being a hardware platform and a publisher. 
• Booty: used to be platform was the biggest, games would tuck in within this; now, things like Roblox are bigger than any one platform. Revisiting first-party, all their games will continue to come to Xbox first, Game Pass on Day 1, Game Pass will ONLY be available on Xbox. Want to bring more of their games to more players, so will continue to look at that. 
• still Booty: cross-play and cross-save, want to continue supporting this across platforms. Not all their games today built to take advantage of this, some catching up to do with newly acquired teams. 
• Bond: all games always on Game Pass. ABK games coming to Game Pass starting with Diablo IV on 28th March. Part of commitment to make experience and games they build as widely available as possible to their 34 million Game Pass users. 
• Phil asked to recap how this isn't a change in strategy, explains something like Play Anywhere where they're the only ones doing this and knowing consumers have access to content how they want it, wants to see this on more platforms. 
• had different taglines and strategies through the years but ultimately with investments in xCloud, Minecraft, CoD, etc., want to bring games to as many as possible. Games not in service of device, but deviceS in service of the games being accessible to more. Will help to continue to grow and generate the brand. 
• seeing trends with people playing on multiple platforms, which they've already been doing - good for players, but how about for business? With addition of ABK and Zenimax, Phil says they're one of the largest publishers now on mobile, Switch and PlayStation - which they don't want to back away from. Highlights need of growth in business to continue supporting this - wants healthy player, dev communities and business to continue to grow from this. 
• how does Xbox want to keep up with the industry? Phil says 2023 was an amazing year for games but the industry didn't really grow - and when this happens, we see jobs get lost. Lack of sustainability. A healthy industry should be players getting games they love, and devs feeling they can invest in their careers. If you listen to AMD CEO Lisa Sue, AMD-powered consoles likely to decline in 2024. If they don't grow the industry, it will struggle. Options are to monetise things more or expand and find new players; focus on Xbox last decade is the latter, an emphasis on growth. Feels this will put Xbox in a great position for years and decades to come. 
• Booty: gaming communities? CoD and Minecraft driven by their communities. For the player community, feel they're looking for where their friends are and where your library of games is. On the dev side, obviously want the biggest audience. Feels they're in a unique position with hardware, first-party games group, cross-platform systems to help make the games bigger. 
• Bond highlights Palworld. Biggest third-party Game Pass launch ever. They know it's working, performance of platform: highest level of users on console, PC, cloud, ever. Double digit growth on PC and cloud, allowing devs to reach more. 
• hardware? Bond: it's where you get seminal Xbox experience and doubles as a developer target. More people than ever before making games for Xbox [my note: *acquisitions*]. Looking ahead at next-gen hardware, looking to make the largest technical leap. 
• libraries and preservation? Phil: highlight for him was announcing their Xbox backwards compatibility initiative last gen. Looking at Windows, over the decades it has maintained software compatibility through the years on new platforms. Harder on console as the line is tighter, end up with generational compatibilities. Looking at future hardware generations, making sure they respect the investments already made is fundamental. Ability to play games on multiple devices with entitlements on both Xbox and Windows when purchasing a game. 
• what does Xbox stand for today? Bond: when you play on Xbox, you're playing on a platform where you know the biggest games are always going to be [my note: I audibly snickered]. Get to access Game Pass, all games from all their studios on Game Pass on Day 1, cross-play, cross-save, cross-progression, Play Anywhere [buzzwords, more buzzwords]. When investing in Xbox, you know you're investing in making gaming more successful. 
• Booty: reiterates that they're one of the biggest developers and publishers, more than 10 major releases coming this year, some still to be announced. June Showcase coming up. 

@Hero-of-Time to me that interview suggests they're going to do what they probably should have to begin with and trickle things out for the rest of this gen before taking the plunge at the start of the next. This discussion should never have been on the cards mid-gen, and whoever decided it was needs their ego to be checked. 

Edited February 15, 2024 by Julius

[darksnowman]

Imo, should have said we don't comment on rumours and positioned themselves above it all from the getgo and let the insatiable rumourmill eat itself alive. Then again, the only thing worse than people talking about you is people not talking about you. 

T'Internet'd still be raging if Xbox put on an E3-style presser to announce they're shutting up shop with immediate effect so there's no winning in this business.

Well, that's been Palworld and this Xbox debacle. The Nintendo Direct "insiders" gonna ramp it up for the second half of Feb or can we look forward to something new next week?