Microsoft Studio Closures: Xbox Credibility Is On The Line

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[@Potato_n_Tomato]

U know it's bad when the Video is 42 minutes on Df clips lol

[@concinnus]

We in LMG clips territory.

[@nabieladrian]

Extraordinary shitshow requires extraordinary attention

[@skzeeman007]

LMAO

[@John-PaulHunt-pv6ol]

Redfall and starfield set the table on a future fall of Xbox and game pass from grace here. Microsoft needed those games to sell well and push both game pass subscriptions and Xbox hardware console sales numbers beyond just diablo 4 here. I would not be shocked if this holiday season Microsoft bundles in call of duty to make up for any losses on Bethesda's failures here as they needed to deliver and they didn't for Xbox. Que the Todd Howard sweet little lies memes soon again!

[@Daniel189HLL]

On the line? It's gone over a cliff edge.

[@MarquisDeSang]

RIP Xbox

[@Rhysto115]

Eh the Xbox brand is still a household name and old billie will drop a sizable bag on the full rebrand for the next generation

[@Juju-cm7ge]

@@Rhysto115I think next gen they are going to come out the gate swinging

[@reggyskull528]

@@Juju-cm7geXbox is going the way of the switch… their new main competitor

[@Hessianoct]

@@Juju-cm7ge Sure, just like these last two generations.

[@BReal23-qm8hs]

Microsoft is doing what it always does: Extend, embrace, then extinguish.

[@michaelmonstar4276]

Don't say "embrace" around here...

[@50Personas]

Triple-E

[@whodatninja439]

meanwhile letting 343, bethesdad and now activision continue to do whatever the hell they want

[@serafimjunior5891]

It remembers me when they bought Nokia in order to engage on smartphone market

[@ArielCleirigh]

But, but, but game pass.

[@vlxxrd4866]

just goes to show that even with all the money in the world, dozens of world class studios with history of making incredible games, management still does not know what the fuck they are doing. hundreds of jobs gone, future games wiped away, and xbox still has nothing to show for it.

[@startraffick]

PlayStation close 3 studios.

[@teiadam134]

​@@startraffickBraindead comment

[@eugenecheong7066]

@@startraffickcool…

[@BlueBARv5]

Please dont say "Nothing to show for it".....We still have the game of 100 generation: Starfield.. Todd's Masterpiece..

[@vlxxrd4866]

@@BlueBARv5 starfield is fucking ass, stop kidding yourself.

[@kn0bhe4d]

"You've gone so far past the line, the line is a dot to you" - Joey

[@ArielCleirigh]

MS: we dont cared, also thanks for your support, when we need to buy Bethesda and ABK, lol, dummys.

[@pingua086]

Developers cannot be creative in an enviroment like this, corpo wants the next Fortnite, the next warzone, the next helldivers... But they don't understand how important are single players games, and that is normal to put just 20-30 hours to a game, finish it and go play the next one. This is made seen as a failure, and they only want to monopolize the gaming community's time, in order to maintain them in the same game... And per game i mean ingame-shop

[@168original7]

Helldivers isn't as big as fort or warzone.

[@markedone494]

@@168original7 Its also not pvp, pvp is always popular for the crowd that plays nothing else

[@pingua086]

@@168original7 Yes that's true, but i meant how easy it became "trendy" not so long ago battle royales were not that popular either.

[@truedps8]

What they don't understand is you don't get the next Fortnite, Call of Duty, Helldivers, etc by forcing developers to only work on high profile games. The origin of all those games came from passion. Passionate developers that wanted to make a good game led to the birth of Call of Duty. We have seen over and over again what happens when you force developers to work on something they don't care about. We get games like Redfall. That is where Xbox is headed.

[@flufficornss]

@@truedps8 those games including helldivers all are an accumulation of experience too because helldivers 2 got its start from a pretty successful first game that allowed them to expand on the ideas more fortnite and warzone were both viewed as kinda bland at first before fully picking up steam and these companies expect 1 million concurrent players from the start

[@agentsmithone]

Microsoft has a long history of buying companies grand intentions then later abandoning going back to the 90s. The buying spree was rightly criticized by the feds

[@cartilagehead6326]

All of the gaming commentators and content creators and KZbinrs and twitch streamers who criticized the federal antitrust inquiry and called it an overreach should be eating crow right now

[@ArielCleirigh]

Many people cheering MS to buy all, now suddenly MS is the Bad one, so When this company was good?

[@boshi9]

Remember Nokia acquisition?

[@johansvensson833]

@@boshi9 nokia was already dead at the time and not even apple make money on the phones itself

[@DarthAscension]

@@johansvensson833it’s a clear example of MS being MS… suckering their base in time and time again to jump on their product only to abandon it down the road when profit expectations are not there. Windows phone and Zune show dated but clear history, it’s clear that people may have tried to debate that history and now looking rather foolish when MS drops the “for the consumer” act and show us it’s always been about the profit and they only do things for just that (yes every business is all about the money but most don’t have to act and lie so hard to hide it).

[@DeesBees76]

Microsoft did a great job of fooling a lot of people into thinking Gamepass was doing much better than it actually was. Seems as if the higher ups finally had enough of losing money, and now the reality of game pass is about to kick in. It’s very hard to make money on subscription services. Even Netflix has only recently started making actual profits.

[@ContrastCopy]

And that’s a subscription that can be used pretty much anywhere at zero cost. At the very least, Xcloud gaming requires a controller and phone to properly play.

[@terribletimes902]

These dogshit companies hate the idea of consumers owning anything so much that they will continue with these systems that are detrimental to both them and the consumer, and everyone involved in making the product. Xbox actively harm the sales of these games, knowing they would be making more money on a regular sales model, just so that the customer never actually owns any of these games.

[@TheSlanderousTruth]

It's not a gamepass issue . it's a Bethesda issue. These studios had problems before. But continue to push your narrative tho

[@DeesBees76]

@@TheSlanderousTruth this is not a narrative. It’s reality. A former Xbox marketing employee just posted this on LinkedIn days ago. Explaining that Gamepass has stopped growing and Phil Spencer was all in on it, and now it’s not working out.

[@mbern4530]

200 million was the point at which netflix started making a profit if anyone is interested. It's a different business model of course, but it really shows just how many customers you need to make streaming profitable. And netflix remains the only streaming company turning a profit, with maybe hbo and crunchyroll doing it as well.

[@peterjaimes8776]

They couldn’t sell tango and the ip to Nintendo/epic/valve to recoup money while still honoring the developer for its work,smh.

[@rikimarizard]

See, now you’re thinking like a normal person. Why let the studio go to a competitor and make it even harder for MS to compete, when they can just shut it down, the employees’ lives be damned

[@zakhir91]

Now that you mention it, why not? Microsoft is now pushing gamepass to all plaforms, meaning they want as many games as possible. By closing Tango Games and letting Hi-Fi Rush rot in limbo seems illogical. They should sell it to another studio/publisher and have it stipulated that if it's used to create a sequel or something adjacent to it, launch it to gamepass. Consumers get happy and new customers will flock to gamepass and grow its subscription.

[@osmancardona3613]

Too much work unfortunately, easier to just close it.

[@peterjaimes8776]

@@osmancardona3613 did you say to much work with sarcasm in your voice or are over all the crap they went through to buy them?lol.

[@nabieladrian]

​@@osmancardona3613Are you one of those lost-minded CEO?

[@LeeroyJanky]

Their credibility is "on the line"? They were hard to take seriously before. Now, after these last closures? If I work for a company and I see it is getting bought out by Microsoft, I am ALREADY starting my job hunt.

[@flufficornss]

i think they're saying that from the perspective of the general public who doesn't fully know/understand/care about the severity of Xbox and Microsoft's actions as an employer and company and game tycoon

[@syeddanishanwer]

Agreed 100 percent. I had lots of cash last year and intended to buy Xbox Series X. But after looking at the lineup I decided against it. Almost all Xbox games are AA or A rated games. I will not even buy it for free.

[@BasePuma4007]

Are you aware of what percentage of the total workforce of Xbox game studios got layed off, excluding the legal and marketing staff overlap at Activision-Blizzard? It's tiny. It's even more silly that people say things like this because most of the actual talent (artists, writers, software engineers) are keeping their jobs, they're just getting transferred. This is the most overblown "controversy" I've ever seen. Games media and gamers on the internet are some of the dumbest and nost reacrionary people on the planet.

[@acurisur]

@@BasePuma4007 You just described 99% of the people who write comments on the internet

[@James-gj8rn]

It makes Microsoft and Xbox look really scummy, that, even after saying that Hi-Fi Rush did well for the company, months after the fact they close the studio that made it, combine that with "We need games like Hi-Fi Rush" the first thing i really wanted to shout when i heard that is Why the hell did you shut down Tango Gameworks then?! It's honestly one of the stupidest moves and situations Microsoft have been in and now they look like an absolute joke of a company

[@originalbadboy32]

Remind me what people said when Sony shuttered their UK studio? Oh wait .. nothing. None of this is good, but the double standards here is breathtaking.

[@James-gj8rn]

@@originalbadboy32 If it's a studio i'm passionate about, i'll be vocal, i was the same when SEGA disbanded the Hatsune Miku Project Diva development team recently

[@originalbadboy32]

@@James-gj8rn It shouldnt make any difference whether you or anyone else are passionate about it or not. The point being that thus all reeks of double standards and the community at large (including DF( isnt helping thats for sure.

[@James-gj8rn]

@@originalbadboy32 of course being passionate about a developer is where the discourse will be coming from

[@startraffick]

When Sony laid-off over 900 devs and close 3 studios you guys were quiet.

[@MurphyOCP-001]

Microsoft have shelled out 80 billion on studios and acquisitions and their growth has virtually stalled. The higher ups are cost cutting, closing the smaller studios, maximising the games that do bring in money, making all their games third party (yes, this is going to happen) trying to make all this money back.

[@notthisguyagain8557]

It will be almost impossible for them to do so. They never made that 500m from rare. Lionhead. Now 80b to buy the biggest publishers. Activision isnt selling games as well. Bethesda lost money on starfield.

[@jacobnv3944]

You know it's bad when a DF Clip goes for 42:48.

[@thegreator]

Strange to see Phil is still silent in all of this.

[@alostcause4035]

Its more than strange. Its gross and completely cowardly and comes off like he couldnt care less about the studios and employees under his management. As the ceo of that entire division of Ms, he shouldve been out front very quickly with statements about the closed studios amd the plan going forward. Just another example of the terrible leadership and management at xbox.

[@friedzombie4]

NDA probably.

[@serkany5905]

@@alostcause4035This is the problem Xbox and Phil Spencer have given themselves now. Whenever s**t hits the fan, people expect them to come out and explain themselves all the time. When technically they should have been a faceless corporation like PlayStation and Nintendo.

[@acurisur]

@@alostcause4035 Because he was against the closures and MS went over his head? Like seriously do you ever stop to think about Phil Spencer as a human being?

[@alostcause4035]

@@acurisur and you know this how? Bc he hasnt said a word. Who will think about the poor millionaire that closed studios and fired hundreds of people. Thats your take? He has a responsibility as the ceo of the division. His lack of a response has been awful.

[@Pack-Man199]

What I find funny is a GDC talk about the game’s development by the HiFi Rush director got posted today

[@djtomoy]

"I didn't get rich by signing checks" - Bill Gates (Microsoft co-founder)

[@Sleepgarden]

why didn't he just leave Compu-Global-Hyper-Mega-Net alone :( :(

[@djtomoy]

@@Sleepgarden He was smart, he destroyed them without even buying them first, old school

[@XPuntar]

Oh, Yes he did get rich by doing EXACTLY THIS! Not giving credit for other people's work that made HIM rich is literally a very common trait for narcissistic, filthy rich ego maniacs, like Bill Gates and Klaus Schwab. Those kinds of people would rather burn the entire world than allow others to succeed because of their arrogance of how great they are compared to others! Despite doing nothing else than only signing some paper that pay him dividends/profit while others do the work!

[@elhazthorn918]

Credibility on the line? It's long gone. A decade of "it's just around the corner, this'll be our year!" and ending with the gutting of game studios for the sake of short term cost-cutting.

[@concinnus]

True. I'll believe they're back when they make a new Halo game that's worthwhile at release.

[@Bdestiny933]

EX-BOX

[@jguerrero7033]

I don't care about MS recovering..they just wanted the to acquire the Intellectual properties not the employees - I hope the ex-employees do their own great indie games and get the respect they deserve - MS is just another tech company focused on money not art - "Triple A" is a joke -

[@60weHoodsta]

As long as the bots and fanboys continue to defend and support them, they will be fine

[@Derek-mg2le]

Exactly why Microsoft buying up developers and studios was never a good thing.

[@dnegel9546]

Business wise it was good. Now they sell their product to the competitors.

[@mhjmstultiens]

Right on the money, gentlemen. It's not only about making money. It's all about identity, trust and confidence. Nintendo understands the inner values of their products very well. Some people might dislike their games not getting discounted often, but it helps carve out the identity and value permanency of their products. I also agree with you John: subscriptions and (extreme) discounts will only drive products to the bottom of the pile in the long run. Short term it may look like an interesting value proposition for individual consumers, but in the long haul people will care less for things they get for free or buy for just a few euros. Personal anecdote: Epic Games, its weekly free games. At first I wanted to get every weekly free game, but after a few months I started to care less. And now I almost never check which game is for free anymore. And it's not because all the free games are rubbish, as there seem to be some genuine jewels every few months. But again: for free, so there's no personal attachment at all. As strange as it might sound, my desire to own certain products is closely connected to how much money I pay for something. And I'm not the only one with that sentiment.

[@donmooney21]

We promise.....keep waiting. -Microsoft/xbox

[@stabinghobo57]

They been saying please wait since 2013!

[@KrolKaz]

Bro next year Xbox is gonna be KILLING IT! 2025- The Year of Xbox 👨‍👨‍👦‍👦

[@simplymincy]

Gamepass mistake is not really all about the numbers. It's about the initial roll out and convincing the consumers games should be cheap. They had so many deals going on to get people in gamepass that was absurd that you end up conditioning the costumers that this is the cost of a game. They should have priced it at $30 earlier on and then focus on delivering great games. Yes the subscriber numbers would not be as high but you have to think that people would still buy more games because they wouldn't feel the gamepass quality is there. Think about it. There is no reason in the world that Netflix should cost more than gamepass.

[@Drstrange3000]

It really made me realize why Nintendo keeps their game near retail and doesn't want to devalue their games. I felt like a crazy person seeing people become more and more disillusioned with how little games should cost. I feared it would teach people to expect games for cheap/free and it seems like fears were right. I wish the games media were more critical. None of the big gaming journalist did their jobs.

[@simplymincy]

@Drstrange3000 agreed. The deal was too good to be true. The cost had to come from somewhere. I get why Xbox did it tho. They had to win fans back over. They also pushed Playstation to offer something similar. Not as giving as gamepass but ps plus extra and premium would not be a thing without gamepass. At least I don't think so. I hate to see this happen to the creatives but sooner or later it would come to this. I'm sure there is more consolidation left for a year or so in their studios

[@mondodimotori]

"convincing the consumers games should be cheap" I recall the consumers themselves crying when someone sayd that 60$ for a game was no more sustainable. It was the consumers that asked for cheaper games. This is the result.

[@simplymincy]

@mondodimotori no disrespect but I'm not sure what you are saying here. Yes, people will always complain about higher prices but the reality is people will pay full price for a game they feel is worth it. Nintendo and Sony sells show that. Especially Nintendo. They have very strong anti consumer practices and very rarely have sales but people for those games. Having said that, there are a good bit of publishers saying how bad game sales are for them. I would say the reason so many big AAA games are not selling as much is because of a lot of the games are pivoting towards live service styles or ips that have built up a loyal fanbase over the years have had their games restructured in a way that is no longer ideal for that former audience. Lastly we only have so much time. So if each game these companies put out is set up to be a game that you have to clock in each day like a job to get the most of it, then sooner or later you are going to have people stop buying as many games as they use to, and stick to the game they invested hundreds of hours in. These companies have in a way cannibalized themselves by all going after the same audience.

[@KrolKaz]

Why not? Netflix gives you more content than game pass . If you were to buy everything on gamepass it would equal to about half of what Netflix offers.

[@strider6425]

I got excited when they bought up these developers because I figured we would finally get to see some new games. Years into the current generation and there are mostly third party games. What the heck? If Xbox can’t manage exclusive first party games then it makes it hard to justify to stay on Xbox. I still love my Xbox but damn man I also don’t want gamepass. It’s rough

[@LappyAwoo]

They can't even manage Halo properly, I have no idea why people thought they would be able to handle even more studios, let alone improve them

[@Drstrange3000]

I'm not trying to be rude, but I'm at a loss of why people assumed they would start seeing an influx of games from Xbox. Especially, within a couple years. The industry is so focused on Live service and huge open world games that take forever to come out. Xbox also never had a good track record and have always overpromised. For years. I always saw it as a desperate attempt to "win" rather than a well thought out strategy.

[@BigMojo41]

What about all the games theyve already announced, n who knows what other games they have comin…. Quit the hate,yall not psychic ….. stop talkin with no proof

[@pixeljauntvr7774]

At best you were going to get given games back you already had access to as 3rd party. As we can see now, we're no longer in the best case scenario.

[@Mene0]

If putting out something of Hi-Fi Rush's quality isn't enough, then what could be?

[@purringbluzzmuffin8030]

Modern Warfare 17

[@NxtDoc1851]

John was killin it! Well said, gaming brother!

[@Crusty783]

Xbox has turned into a genuine disease on the games industry. Such a shame too, the 360 era was incredible.

[@pixeljauntvr7774]

The original Xbox and 360 team were a bunch of punky rebel cool kid developers. The current Xbox team are a bunch of corporate husks.

[@balaam_7087]

I would personally argue Xbox peaked with their original machine, as I felt the 360 didn’t have much I was interested in-but I get the sentiment here. It’s a real shame.

[@mortenpotzdidler2790]

Xbox basically ended as a great series of devices when Peter Moore and J Allard left. The former was the Xbox market bulldog, the latter was the tech evangelist; both clearly loved the product, and weren't boring suits like Spencer or Bond. Hell, as bad as the shift was, Mattrick did a better job with marketing and software than Spencer.

[@BigMojo41]

Ponies are the disease, js

[@stabinghobo57]

OG Xbox and X360 had bangers of hits! They lost their way since 2013 and never recovered.

[@AJ-xv7oh]

They forced Arkane to develop a game completely out of their expertise so they could pile more rubbish on game pass and then they closed them down when it inevitably failed. Disgusting behaviour.

[@kylewavey6206]

Redfall was under development from Bethesda's orders before Microsoft acquired them. If Microsoft had any sense they would have cancelled it once they bought Bethesda

[@Dej0Le]

@@kylewavey6206 Phil Spencer saw that piece of trash of a game and didnt stop its development,he let it get released and started apologizing after getting bombed by every human being that has some dignity

[@11Mikuiztli]

Only if you had an idea of business

[@reggyskull528]

@@Dej0Lethen good ol Phil assured everyone they wouldn’t get canned because of Redfall🥴🥴🥴🥴

[@acurisur]

"They forced Arkane to develop a game completely out of their expertise" No, Bethesda did. Redfall was already years into development when MS acquired Bethesda. MS also promised to let Bethesda run autonomously without interference.

[@rwestvang]

Game pass IS the reason. Doesn't matter how good the games are when all monetization is tied up in selling game pass subscriptions. What happens when it's not growing? yeah.. Shareholder's get pissed.

[@reggyskull528]

And the biggest purchase in tech history

[@faustianblur1798]

Hellblade 2 will be hailed as amazing success, reaching new heights for the series and the developer. Then a week later Ninja Theory will be closed with immediate effect.

[@HatedJared]

Its really sad to see this long decline of Xbox. When they hit the scene it felt like a rag tag team who was showing up to fight. They brought power, a unique perspective, they were the first to really adapt and implement online functionality at a broad scale, they were super kind to indie developers, and their backward compatibility was the best in the industry. I was rooting for them so much that the only generation I didnt prefer the Playstation platform was the PS3/360 era. Feels like Xbox is now being run by the same team that manages Excel over there.

[@d8l835]

The writing was on the wall for a long damn time people. Nobody's fault but your own. This what you get for being a blind fanboy. Start calling these companies out on their shit. Look at what just happened with helldivers. You can make a difference if you just take the fanboy shit out of it

[@skzeeman007]

Helldivers is solved only for current owners. People who want to own the game in the future still need PSN. It’s not a complete W.

[@d8l835]

@@skzeeman007 and the alternative is what? Exactly. It's an incredibly recent example that everyone here would instantly know. What does your point have to do with my original point? That point being, anyone with a brain could see this Xbox shit coming a mile away. And that more of us, their customers, should have called them out on it years ago?

[@TwinOpinion]

😞Very disappointed. Microsoft's closing of Tango Studio & Arkane Austin is a disgrace that should follow them for a LONG TIME. 😞

[@ContrastCopy]

Indeed. I can only hope they will work hard to move forward so that they’re good works can outshine their bad. But, it should not be forgot.

[@RedVsBlueUser]

@@ContrastCopyAgreed. And hopefully they can give their IP’s to studios who will do right by their original creators.

[@TheNegativeDude]

What credibility? lol Only DF thought they had some credibility left. Ive seen MS conferences dating back to Kinect reveal in 2010 and they have been dreadful since.

[@craigsampson3386]

Yeah around the time they focused on Kinect towards the end of 360 gen is when Xbox started to flop and never return, it only got worse from there onwards.

[@jegjrtp87]

Gamepass shouldn't exist

[@BigMojo41]

🤦🏾‍♂️the only thing missing from gamepass is ps exclusives…. Don’t make dumbazz decisions picking a side 🤡

[@diamondbracelette]

That's antisemitic

[@nintendoconvert4045]

⁠@@diamondbraceletteI believe is antiGamePassemitic

[@germangamer2976]

I miss the glory days of the 360

[@Walkinfaaaast]

Microsoft thinking all they need is CoD each year and nothing else.

[@OwtDaftUK]

If Xbox went with the windows direction it would need a console mode to the OS so it's easily useable on the TV with a controller. A PC by definition is an office computer used by a single person to do office related work and that is a very different expeiance to a system connected to TV screen with no desk to rest a mouse on. The differance between a TV and a monitor is a TV is the centre point of a room (not personal) and a monitor is used by a single person at a time and so it's a different expeance, the text will need to be bigger on a TV with bigger icons.

[@ThatZenkiS14]

not really an issue, i use my pc on my 4k oled just like my 240hz monitors. games scale correctly, and txt is fine.

[@pixeljauntvr7774]

It would just be a low end PC. Is there a market for that? Bad PC's?

[@jakien]

Series X owner here. I can't wait to trade it in towards a Switch 2. I chose series X over PS5 because of how pro-gamer/consumer MS seemed (back-compat etc). The rumoured discless series X and studio closures have told me all I need to know.

[@harsharip]

Please go ahead, you need permission from Internet ?

[@jakien]

@@harsharip Not at all, I've made my decision thank you.

[@harsharip]

@@jakien I hope your trade goes well and you get a good deal rebuying your library

[@jakien]

@@harsharip I don't intend to re-buy - I buy on one platform, complete and trade in my physical games. You get around 80% of their value at CEX here in the UK. Big part of why I won't touch digital games.

[@1984dannz]

But they have so many controller colours. Surely gamers want new controllers.

[@trappedintimesurroundedbye5477]

more controllers than games 😂😮

[@LuisPerez-129]

Lol, they definitely announce more controllers than games at this point.

[@Ray-dl5mp]

Funny how recently KZbinrs were all talking about how they hope the other companies add GamePass to their consoles someday. Ha. It was so obvious that was a terrible idea. But a lot of the KZbinrs promoting weird GamePass marketing did not help the gaming industry.

[@bsaintnyc]

Bobby Kotick was right. Gamepass is value destroying. Its a stupid idea - the netflix of games. Most adults buy games and never complete them. Now you can just skip buying games, play on gamepass and forget them. The only way to do gamepass properly is to put 2 year old games on it. Even then it will kill lifetime sales of titles. You will never see huge franchise sales if gamepass takes off. There is no way Resident evil 1 would hit its lifetime sales numbers if gamepass existed back then. Microsoft is a disaster. They are completely ignoring their strengths as a software company. If I was Phil spencer the division would be focused on making tools to get AAA development time down to 2-3 years. Microsoft should be competing with Unreal engine. Their entire 1st party software problem would evaporate if they said "use our tools and all fees for using the xbox suite of tools for your games sales are waved for all game sales on xbox" "use our tools and publish exclusively on xbox and fees for using our tools are waived and the publishing royalty gets a 50% discount" THIS IS CHEAPER THAN SPENDING 70 BILLION DOLLARS FIRE ALL THESE EXECTUIVES AND HIRE ME

[@perlichtman1562]

Here’s a regulation/legislation question: why are things setup financially in a way where Microsoft, Sony, Epic and others are incentivized to close studios instead of selling them off? It seems like that’s a pretty big oversight in the tax code if a company can do better ending jobs than selling studios (and we recently saw similar things with the Discovery merger and HBO Max removal of content and shelving finished films).

[@mrb3991]

HI The Another issue is, If they have PC/Xbox Device there still wont be First Party Games ????

[@GG.Atletico]

Activision purchase was a bad move. You can get away with spending Daddy MS’ cc for small stuff.. but that major purchase got their attention.

[@FrankWestOffTheRecord]

@29:39 - absolutely nails it

[@MrMightyZ]

Now kids, no matter how nice the corporate executive seems, do NOT get in the car with them.

[@jman2101]

Maybe diversifying for next gen console?

[@balaam_7087]

I’m incredibly relieved I ditched this brand after a couple red rings during the 360 era and never looked back. I’ve built up my digital ( *and physical* ) library over the course of 3 gens now and overall I’m very satisfied. Between a PlayStation and Nintendo device, console gaming is covered. Meanwhile I’m saving for a high end PC to complete the triforce.

[@TheFirstRealChewy]

Let's see how this turns out.

[@ChaosAngelZero]

Crazy conspiracy theory: perhaps Mr Spencer _ISN'T_ telling the truth when he says that the next Xbox system will represent the greatest jump between generations...

[@lammyjammer6670]

Sony has the right idea in staggering when their games end up in their subscriptions... it's really the all MS day one killing those game's sales with Gamepass. That's what's cannibalizing sales.

[@trapez77]

The riven remake just got confirmed for meta quest 2/3

[@frankallen3634]

Anybody who thought game pass wouldn't screw up devs earning back at least cost is kinda dumb. Phil's ideas have never done much but the idiot base loves him. And they never bothered to think about the stupidity of day and date rmoves most money to keep devs safe

[@mr.carter0521]

Phil shot himself in the foot when he started shoving everything into Gamepass.

[@JeffroTV]

Holy hell Xbox has been flunking for 11 years STRAIGHT and people are just now saying "Maybeeee Xbox isnt doing so great" ???? What's wrong with people lmao

[@geminijinxies7258]

Microsoft had so much goodwill a few years back with the backwards compatibility thing on Xbox and helping funding Double Fine. It's all gone now.

[@ThatZenkiS14]

if 1st party xbox games were locked, to the console and off gamepass. for 30 days it would have pushed those who really want to play to buy the game day 1. and the rest would wait till its on gamepass. if they actually, focused on making 1st party games and using the ips they own. instead of just trying to snap up everything for gamepass. interest would be higher, in xbox. because it has stuff no one else has. the reason i like my switch and ps5 is the first party titles. granted ps5 didnt have as many as usual but they were hits. xbox has not been dropping hits, and thats sad imo. i loved my 360 and ps3, they were so different and they had games, they both had stagnant times. but they both pulled though on the game front. we went threw x1 gen and it never really got, the killer games. and series x feels no better.

[@reginaldbutterfranklin9424]

They said that they want to make development of their games (like Fallout) faster and yet decided to close talented studios that could help them with that.

[@XoloFI]

"The recent studio closures have left the Xbox brand image in tatters..." - things Richard Leadbetter never said

[@aboveaveragebayleaf9216]

I think Rich is a bit too worried about the Xbox leaning towards a more steamdeck like format. Even if it does have access to pc libraries, there is nothing stopping them from. Developing games for the specific hardware. It would still be a set hardware target, and the Xbox gaming experience doesn't need to really change at all. You can have you"xbox optimized" kinda library through the Microsoft store that is very plug and play just like before. Then you can have access to a wider pc library as well. These things don't necessarily have to be mutually exclusive. It just gives advanced users more options.

[@XDapologist]

These demons will make so there is only 4 games at this rate, FIFA, Call of duty, Fortnite and Skyrim with microtransactions shops running for eternity on them

[@reggyskull528]

Commercial ads are coming ti videos games very soon. Especially with the companies focusing on viewers as a means for success

[@acurisur]

Skyrim? You do know Bethesda have already started work on The Elder Scrolls 6 right? That's literally their next game.

[@XDapologist]

@@acurisur skyrim 2 you mean

[@acurisur]

@@XDapologist No I mean Elder Scrolls 6 bud, every game in the series has been set in a new area of Tamirel. Using your weird logic I could call Skyrim Oblivion 2, or Morrowind 3.

[@UlyssesM]

One thing Xbox and PlayStation have in common is that they keep ass fucking their consumers left and right. The only difference is that PlayStation has games so people just forget about how shitty they treat their consumers. And Sony knows it. They can put out a trailer or a shitty state of play and people will forget everything. At the end of the day people don't really give a shit. They don't care about layoffs, price hikes, policies etc.They just want to play games and that's not something Xbox has had in the past two generations beside a handful of okay exclusives. Xbox can't deflect. PlayStation can. PlayStation has made an equal amount of bad decisions since the start of PS4 but hey they bring quality games to the table. If PlayStation didn't have this they'd be in the same position as Xbox. Watch them deflect the helldivers thing next month with a state of play. They already tricked people and you don't hear about it as much as the first round of the helldivers fiasco.

[@GatsuRage]

the thing with gamepass ppl often forget that the service was next to "free" at some region so OBVIOUSLY they wont be seeing a lot of return of investment when some regions are getting 1 year of game pass for less then 3...5usd. They should seriously look at how much they're charging for the service first because paying that lil money for the amount of money that the service actually cost is a recipe for destruction and we are seeing that unfold right now. Number of active players matter but also the money they get from 'm.

[@otomoravec1732]

The problem is, Sony needs good competition, otherwise they easily get too cocky.

[@leopoldleiva5027]

RGS REAL GAME STUDIOS ONLY 1080 60FPS CUT COSTLY GRAPHICS IMPROVE GAMEPLAY AN ASK WHAT THE GAMERS WANT AN NOT SHARE HOLDERS WHO HOLD NO INTEREST ON OUR LONGTIME FUN....CAUSE IF THIS HOW GAMING WILL BE ITS GOING TO BURN

[@Fafhrd42]

Double Fine is ABSOLUTELY on the chopping block. It's been three years since Psychonauts 2 came out and they haven't announced a new project, and the only position they're currently hiring for is 'Financial Analyst.' Meanwhile they're still spending money on things like hosting Day of the Devs. Unless they've got a huge reveal for the Xbox Showcase, I could see them being shuttered by the end of the year.

[@OriginalEdition-fo4nu]

Xbox just listened to the gamers and to the media that have humiliated Arkane Austin for Redfall way too much (as if bad reviews weren't enough !). You can't make such noise about a game that you forced the boss himself to apologize and then expect the direction to validate new investments in the studio ! And for Tango Gameworks, the first to be shocked by its closure are the same that forget to talk about the big project that should have mde live the studio : Ghostwire Tokyo ! They almost validate MS on the closure by ghosting this game and giving only value to Hi-Fi Rush that was made by a very few people of the studio. Even Nakamura and Mikami abandonned the studio before MS did it too. The first to hurt those studios were the players and the media. Xbox listened and both the reception and the figures were bad...

[@diehlr]

People want to own their games!

[@BenyaminLorit]

A 42:48 clip? Damn.

[@chemergency]

Between this and the prospect of them killing-off the ability to use physical media, Xbox Series hardware sales are going to absolutely flatline going forward. Why even have a dedicated console platform anymore? On the broader scale, unfortunately I think we've only hit the tip if the iceberg on the long-term ramifications of the failure of ninth generation console gaming because Sony's not in a good place either and Nintendo might find themselves in trouble eventually if the Switch successor doesn't knock it out of the park or fumbles in some way.

[@LoneWolf1985BK]

What a lot of these companies are running into is too many high paid execs and poor leadership.

[@JAGtheTrekkieGEMINI1701]

The ONLY Problem is the Closure of Tango... Every other Studio merger/closer, albeit being not good in generell, makes at least sense Ps. The ONLY Xbox Game that still has not "tanked" after months Price wise is actually Starfield MS should have NEVER put Big AAA Games Day1 into Gamepass.... Big Mistake mAn

[@TheAbram099]

Xbox leadership failed, simple as. I don't know how Phil and his crew still have a job after running the brand into the mud

[@lostone4654]

The “Here’s to many more years” on the Tango Gameworks tweet… Is DISGUSTING. That’s complete bs

[@larrytaylor2692]

High fi rush was the first game I completed in years and I was really looking forward to the second game being even bigger and better than the first game.

[@Zoeila]

The problem with gamepads is it's not pulling in PlayStation and switch players

[@michaelmonstar4276]

Personally, I'm absolutely done with Microsoft. I was tolerant of that corporation until perhaps a few years ago, at least as soon as all the nonsense with Windows 11 and even 10 started happening. - So I'd already moved away from Windows. - But while I still wanted to check out stuff like some of the Forza-games and definitely wanted to see Hellblade 2, I'm just not going to support them in any way. - Sorry, I will just not buy stuff like Hellblade 2 now, as I feel they will be shut down regardless, whether I'd buy it or not. - Besides, as it has already been discussed endlessly, the Game Pass deal is just hurting that anyway, cause most people will just get the subscription, check out the few games they might be interested in and be done with it. - For that, I also suggest you cancel Game Pass if you are subscribed. - Microsoft needs a mass-boycott, as it's way overdue. - Just don't buy their products, cancel Game Pass, uninstall Windows, and move on.

[@user-sl7vh8lb6m]

Switched to MacOS years ago and made a conscious decision to get a ps5 over the xbox. I hate that I have to use windows 11 for work. It's the laggiest windows I've ever used. I can't believe it got through QA. That company needs to be broken up.

[@suprflyification]

This is on Phil and all his exec chums. On his watch studios have produced nothing. Even 343 heads were bestoes worh Phil and it took for the death of halo for them to fire them

[@dominicdococo4574]

phil is on record saying that "great games won't sell xbox consoles". Kinda outs himself as someone who's clueless.

[@estebanfumero3728]

Had some money around February for my birthday and I genuinely thought of buying my first Xbox console ever to see what I've missed out on. Didn't end up happening for no big reason. Months later, they've ensured I never buy a console off of them + I'm now pivoting to buy games from mostly indie developers or at least ones with not so horrible business practices (From Soft comes to mind). Corporate executives don't seem to know what they're selling: it's both art and entertainment, and it's difficult to appreciate art or be entertained when there's a thought in the back of your head that the product you're consuming and pouring money and time into is tied up into bullshit very much like the one you face on your day-to-day job.

[@dantehchad2227]

"Do they just pretend that none of this has happened?" -business as usual for MS. People forget that is FAR from the first time they've pulled this, and gamers unfortunately have the memory span of a housefly.

[@Clutch4IceCream]

I think it’s just general uncertainty in the air overall in the world. Every industry is cutting back and consumer spending is low. This is the beginning of a recession.

[@doublea761]

Looking back it feels so obvious that we as a community should have been way more skeptical from the get go in regard to the initial acquisitions of Bethesda and Activision by Xbox. These corporations can only get so big before they start to buckle under their own wait and begin throwing the actual talented people under the bus to stay afloat.

[@marklarz4399]

Xbox didn't just die, it was murdered

[@Mr.Chimpazee]

Since Xbox one….Yep 100%

[@leopoldleiva5027]

It got sent to hell with no ice

[@parthibanspace]

If they could just add an Xbox interface to windows and if that interface is switched to automatically upon connecting an xbox controller and also making sure that the dashboard is customisable, letting people add other store games and apps to that interface, all while making that the windows background tasks are running at the bare minimum or suspended, that itself will be a big win for Microsoft. Even much better will be the ability to start windows in xbox mode or windows mode and switching to the other mode as when required smoothly, just like switching between desktops. AMD/Nvidia(with ARM processors) could come up with Xbox performance class APUs certified by MS for running both windows and xbox and can be housed in a compact cabinet, like in a mini-PC or a little larger portable form factor. I think that's the way forward.

[@merkyuk]

The mistake was gamepass. Buying studios to feed the subscription model tgat doesn’t get the numbers

[@ejspad]

Let’s see them feel when no return customer to buy Xbox anymore

[@SENATORPAIN1]

Johns #beird is taking longer to develop than a modern day AAA.

[@Tommy-gm7uo]

And who is actually surprised by all of this? I guess only the hardcore Xbox fans or those who couldn’t do basic dev cost to GamePass revenue calculations. Just hope the studios have some kind of buyback clause

[@E6hosting]

Thank goodness Alex has put on a tee-shirt for this one.

[@ayotundeayoko5861]

Xbox in the 360 era was amazing...blockbuster bangers after blockbuster bangers. Now , I don't even know what games they released ...its so sad.

[@hdhdhhehe6709]

Hi fi Rush was one of the best Steam Deck games of 2023.

[@emigdioalaniz]

I am a game collector that have some limited edition things, don't always need to get the highest price for all games but I buy more physically. I have all systems but maybe 10 games from Xbox, why? Because you have them in the library so no need to buy any of those. But Nintendo and Sony you have to buy them, and I have more units on those systems than anything. From ps1, and super Nintendo. I don't like digital anything but only in the graphics and software not my games

[@LeoDavidson]

The company is making bank, but it'd be virtually impossible not to in their position. Every single thing they do has gotten worse under Satya. The man is a disaster across the board. He has no respect for any of their products or teams in the long-term and purely sees them as vehicles to make short-term profits or as a way to access their users to show them advertising. As a developer who writes Windows software, I cannot wait for someone to replace that guy.

[@cartilagehead6326]

The only thing that has really borne fruit under his tenure seems to be Azure/Microsoft cloud services, everything else from Win8 and Windows Mobile forward has just reeked of a company in search of a new direction and unable to find one. They started and then stopped making hardware without ever truly committing to it, they failed to capitalize on ARM while dipping their toes in for a decade and eventually signed away five years of exclusivity to Qualcomm at a time when Qualcomm didn’t have any desktop class chips or any roadmap to get there, HoloLens and Windows VR both died on the vine, Windows 10 was accepted by Win7/XP holdouts but Win11 is an abomination, multitouch support remains spotty and half-baked……

[@benmcreynolds8581]

How did they AGREE to pay 70 billion dollars? I just saw a vid that Finland bought a 3rd of Uruguay's land & developed a forestry, pulp manufacturing system & it only cost them a total of 3 billion!!? They paid 70 BILLION DOLLARS and they are still very much struggling in the game department!? Wtf It shouldn't be "A Thing" where someone can intentionally NOT make a game, Yet it grants them power so NO ONE ELSE can ever make other versions of that IP.. It's so messed up if you really think about it. They can buy it up, with no intent to make more versions of that game and it allows them to destroy certain game IP's.. Seriously I hate this more than almost anything else in this world.. Why is our timeline like THIS? Luckily I got to experience the golden era of gaming through out the 90's-00's era and now we are experiencing the WORST moment in gaming probably since the gaming crash way back.. But nothing is crashing. It's all due to extensive greed due to massive profits and zero care about VIDEO GAMES 👍🏻 Yay.. That should totally be allowed to happen... Right? No.. Okay let's change it! Imagine, what if all Dev's who work under the Xbox umbrella Legit QUIT and leave them ONLY with the Highest paid Higher ups who are useless? Let's see how that plays out? Devs should band together to only make passion projects. Give power back to the devs who do all the work

[@Edinburghdreams]

I don't think it's even that complicated. It's simply line must go up for shareholders, a meme is passing around that cuts are acceptable, so cuts happen. The shareholders like cuts. That's it. Let's have another share buy back while we are at it.

[@Fusion05]

I'm actually planning on getting rid of my game pass subscription for now. I'm not a very big fan of this direction Xbox has chosen. It was promised that these companies could flourish under the Xbox umbrella and that the acquisitions would make Xbox better. Instead it seems that they buy these companies just to crush them. I just don't see the end goal here. How do you have successful games like HiFi and decide "nah that wasn't good enough" and close the studios. I find it super scummy that they advertise DLCs and then kill it off before it gets it. I honestly think it should be false advertisement, making promises just to make you buy the game. I really hope whoever is making these outlandish decisions gets fired. They are hurting the gaming industry tremendously, and it seems they don't care.

[@cztech2631]

The economics of Game Pass make no sense. Give people 5 or 6 $70 games a year your at $350 or $420 in AAA titles you’re giving away to customers. If you’re paying for Game Pass Ultimate monthly you’re giving Microsoft only $220 or so dollars a year. It makes sense why Microsoft is putting many games on the PS5 and Switch. Game Pass can only be profitable if millions of extra subscribers signup. Definitely Microsoft went too far into trying to get people to go to subscription services and people outside of the US buy physical media and or PlayStation products, so they can’t grow subscribers very much. With limited console sales worldwide it makes Game Pass a hard sell.

[@felspawn4841]

Is there any hope that Hi-Fi Rush will still come to Switch?

[@racerboyo]

Probably not Switch, but there's a chance for the successor Nintendo platform.

[@j-pilou6776]

The Xbox we knew has been dead for a while, it has become something else, and unfortunately this is only the beginning. there is a big lack of quality and no one seems to know which direction to go. a huge lack of advertising as well. here in France for example Xbox is almost non-existent and it's the same everywhere in Europe.