with Xbox A reader suggests console sales at a new low Microsoft it needs a major change of plan and does not involve the release of a new console.
It seems like this whole generation we’ve been watching the Xbox decline in slow motion. It was clear that The Xbox Series X/S was a failure from the first moment and I think most people were surprised by it and how bad it did. I know I was, but then it started to make sense when you realized that people already are locked into the PlayStation ecosystem and they’re not going to give that up for the Xbox One sequel, which has no actual launch games.
I was still shocked at how quickly things fell apart, especially the failure of Game Pass and how to buy Activity Blizzard, or really any of the companies they bought, didn’t even move the needle. I don’t think it was their fault, but they spent all that money just to get rich Call Of Duty to have his worst year ever is a bit of terrible luck.
Not that I’m going to shed a tear for a giant corporation, but as much as other people have a desire for it, I feel Phil Spencer he had his heart in the right place. I’m not sure if he was a good person to be in charge, but I think the circumstances were definitely against him. Whether it was bad luck or bad management, it doesn’t really matter, because I think it’s time to admit that the Xbox experiment has failed.
The new boss keeps talking about bringing Xbox back to what it was and even hints at exclusivity, but either she’s a crazy person or she just has people. There is no way they are bringing the franchises back. Who would buy them? There aren’t enough people with just an Xbox to cover the cost of making a game, and there’s no way they can make money on PC alone. There’s a reason big-budget PC franchises died out in the 90s.
As far as I can see, there are only two options for Microsoft right now, and neither of them involve releasing a console (if the new console is essentially a PC, then fine, but that means it’ll be so expensive that it’ll never be more than a niche). It just doesn’t make sense. They lost the rest of the world over a generation ago and I don’t think anyone in the US cares that much about being an Xbox fan right now.
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So the number one option is to simply admit that you are a third party developer as EA or Take-Two and just make games and release them in every possible format. This is the most obvious thing to do, I don’t understand why they haven’t done it already. I mean they kind of did, because nobody is buying Xboxes right now, but going for Project Helix and the new boss, they act like there’s a way back to the good old days of the Xbox 360.
There is not, however, I dare anyone to describe any scenario where the Xbox comes in nothing more than a distant third of this or the next generation. Maybe they could be relevant again if video game streaming takes off, but even then I wouldn’t bet on it. The Xbox name won’t appeal to anyone, just the streaming quality, and at the moment, from what I hear, it’s not very good.
Option two is very concerning, but I suspect it’s actually more likely that they’ll go for it, and that is to sell their gaming business. The big problem is that considering how badly Call Of Duty is doing right now, there’s no way that line is going to grow any time soon. It provides a lot of income, but that number is falling.
All a company like Microsoft cares about is making more profit than last year and that’s not going to happen with Call Of Duty, Activision in general or Xbox as a whole.
My preference would be to have Activision Blizzard become independent again, but I don’t know of any way that could happen, given the money involved. They can’t afford to buy management given what Microsoft paid for them, so unless there’s something legal that I’m not aware of, they’ll have to sell them to Amazon, Apple, or someone.
It’s not ideal, but at least one company would no longer own half of Western game publishers, and Activision would have their undivided attention. It’s not perfect, but the mess Xbox has put the entire gaming industry into is just awful and I’d much rather Activision and Bethesda it outlived the Xbox.
Microsoft has been in the gaming industry for 25 years this year, and barely five years have been nothing but a complete disaster. At some point, you just have to admit that things haven’t worked out and let it go.
From reader Xane
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