Not sure if releasing 2-3 Series X exclusive games qualifies as "dropping users". It'll happen eventually anyhow, and matching it with the release of a new generation of hardware isn't the stupidest idea.
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[Business Insider] "With the next Xbox, Microsoft has a 4-part strategy to end the console wars once and for all"
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Not sure if releasing 2-3 Series X exclusive games qualifies as "dropping users". It'll happen eventually anyhow, and matching it with the release of a new generation of hardware isn't the stupidest idea.
I haven't upgraded my phone for years because it's been good enough. For others it's a status symbol.
Spot on, I feel the same way.
At least they actually put in decent hardware, they have to eventually good make use of it, right?
Okay... how does that apply to games moving on? It doesn't at all.
People will buy the next-gen consoles but if there aren't massive advantages that appeal to masses I don't think it will continue like this gen. Higher fps and framerate aren't appealing to the masses.
Maybe half-way through the gen when games finally make good new use of the hardware.
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I highly doubt there will be only 2-3 first party Xbox games at the launch of the new console and in the following twelve months... But yeah first party releases are a key aspect of the service, so it is dropping users. There are plenty of people who would stop subscribing, possibly making them less attracted to Xbox when they decide to transition to next gen.
It doesn't mean that for mobile and pc though.
What it means is that games that would run on older devices get to run on them instead of an artificial and arbitrary block (mostly because from one generation to the next everything changes so you would have to basically do 2 games anyway), and games that wouldn't, well... just won't. And that's where the second part of their strategy kicks in on Xcloud to enable you to still be able to have access to that game. (This is something Phil himself said around the launch of X, how eventually old devices would be unable to run newer games and how they could get around that with Xcloud) which is actually something that not even pc or mobile have, they just force you to upgrade.
Having exclusives totally sits at odds with game pass, last thing you want is to suddenly discover there is a bunch of content that has juts come out as part of the service which is only available on a brand new £500 machine.
Imagine Netflix saying
"If You'd like to watch Stranger things series 4 , you'll need a new TV"
Imagine Netflix saying
"If You'd like to watch Stranger things series 4 , you'll need a new TV"
xcloud would have to constantly refresh to the highest spec hardware to facilitate this.
Why are people are acting like this type of development (where you're thinking about both forward and backwards compatibility) isn't already the norm in the vast majority of the gaming industry? It's the way it's done in both PC and mobile games. We're constantly checking our existing games on new devices and checking new games on older devices up to a cutoff point. It's just time for the console segment to catch up to the rest of the industry IMO.
^ PC gamers rely on there being a new console generation to force higher minimum specs. Without it, it becomes pointless to upgrade after a certain point.
Consoles set the standards.
If it's irrelevant because they'll still be supported for years to come, would they even get a good number of people buying into the new systems?
Does average joe care ($400 worth) about 60fps and 4K resolution? He's not going to be able to pull out his X1X at a bar.
Consoles set the standards.
The whole reason people care about getting rid of traditional consoles is to get better next-gen games. It's not to spite people who haven't upgraded.
If it's irrelevant because they'll still be supported for years to come, would they even get a good number of people buying into the new systems?
Does average joe care ($400 worth) about 60fps and 4K resolution? He's not going to be able to pull out his X1X at a bar.
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And yet, that's exactly what's going to happen in 12-24 months.
Netflix telling me I need a new TV in order to be able to watch ST4?
MS launching exclusive games for the Series X. Obviously. Millennials... *sigh*
Thats simply not true. The first generation they entered, people thought they were a joke, most press were scratching their heads wondering why they were getting into console gaming. Last gen they were rightfully slated by most of the press for their terrible communication and anti consumer strategy. There was a decent amount of positivity for 360 but they launched a year earlier and were coming off the original Xbox which had a good first party lineup. It also proved to be warranted because they massively moved console gaming forward in that generation with Xbox Live and Indie gaming on console. There is a fair amount of positivity this time round mainly because of the turnaround job Xbox have done over the last few years, making a lot of positive moves like Game Pass to set them up for a better generation. There isn't some grand conspiracy or bias from the press. People are simply putting forward opinions and guesses based on what the companies are doing.
yep, I think that will only happen when Xcloud is up and running or perhaps they will cut back on S and X will become the potato machine.
It's about telling Joe what he wants to have, that's marketing. Nobody needs a new phone each year. When it comes to actual "needs" we see that in 2019 most people were fine with buying a Switch.
By which point a sizable amount of subscribers will have transitioned over...
How's the marketing going to sell higher fps and resolution (things that scale up) over trailers and ads, when he can play those games on his current system.
"MORE POWER" sells it to early adopters and enthusiasts.
I feel like we're going to have to wait for the mid-cycle refresh for the real next gen to start, and not because they'll be more powerful.
Who knows, maybe next-gen won't come till the gen after. :/
I'm not working in marketing. I only know that companies are successful in marketing new things that some roll their eyes over to make people buy new hardware.
We are talking about a potential audience of ~200 million customers in the end. Not everyone is as informed as we are.
Mobile games get better without a console-like thing setting standards... There's no need for consoles to set a floor, it can happen organically.
Maybe they can do it. It's going to be harder.
That's real slow progress. That'd be the worst case scenario imo.
I really hope Sony's exclusives, if they are also on PC don't support hardware far worse than a PS5. And that MS only does keep cross-gen support for 1-2 years, and not double that.
We need that push, that we've gotten every other console gen.
I think all of this talk about current gen consoles holding back next gen consoles is going to be hilarious when Fortnite continues to be the most successful XSX and PS5 game for its first couple years (if not the entire gen).
They will have sold millions of consoles by the end of the first year. Many of them in the holiday period the year after launch.
Worst case scenario? I'd put things in perspective - It's a net positive to most users, who can play games on more hardware options and are not forced to upgrade, and most developers, who can sell to a larger user base across multiple devices. If the price is having progress be a bit slower and more staged than "big jumps" - I'd take it, and I think so would most of the industry, users and devs alike. We were hitting lower and lower gains with each generation anyway, it was bound to come to this IMO.
Don't forget the system limits pusher Minecraft and the last gen game GTAV.
Maybe, but maybe more slowly or less dramatically. Market response will decide anyway, but I think part of the key appeal of consoles has been the simplicity of - this is a new box, it's triggering a new cycle of software beyond your last console's capabilities, it will do you 5+ years. Soften that promise, make it less certain how long a box will do you, make the improvement buy-in less dramatic and I think you might be losing something. We've have console refreshes before without accompany software cycles, they didn't exactly set the market on fire.
We will see what the market prefers. But I don't think every model has to be the same (as pc/mobile) nor is any one model roundly superior to any other. I think we'd lose something if everything converged on one pc-like model.
It's not a net positive to enthusiasts.
Or the average gamer that feels all the games are getting kind of the same. Nothing to excite them. Maybe they drop off gaming.
Well that will be the true test, because without an already building catalogue of exclusives, the tipping point isn't clear. When exclusives begin to drop, yes, that will be the time when some people decide the transition is worthwhile, but without that initial "next gen launch"-like lineup a new gen has day one and in a window, it's difficult to see them doing so en masse for that reason alone.
That's kinda strawman and also... well... that Fortnite demographic isn't necessarily going to overlap year one early adopters.
That's been my worry the entire time. How can they allow for people to pay $60 for a title that might barely even function on the hardware they have? Xbox One S already struggles with a number of current generation titles. I cant see this plan not going poorly.
Mr Iwata was actually the first higher up in gaming to mention a strategy like that and it's what we've seen with the NX platform (Switch, Switch Lite, probable Switch Pro).
It obviously works far better with Nintendo who aren't trying to push graphical fidelity and realism in games vs MS showing something like Hellblade II then saying it will run on a base Xbox One...
That's like saying I'm sure Xbox would have no problem putting PS+ on Xbox.
Sony already has a service like gamepass and it makes 0 sense to launch the service of a competition on your platform.
If Phil's line about not caring were people play was honest and not corporate PR, he would just launch their games on PlayStation. But it's obviously pr and that's fine but people really need to stop going into defense mode to defend a PR statement.
If the only thing that makes you excited for gaming is how big of a jump it is in terms of raw power, I'd dare say you're not actually all that excited about gaming (I hope that doesn't come off as antagonising.) How big of a jump you get technologically has nothing to do with how same-y games feels IMO - And for an example, I'd point to Mobile and PC gaming being the place where you see the biggest variety of games, IMO exactly because of this model.
And we were hitting smaller and smaller gains for each gen anyway, it's just bound to happen as you get higher and higher fidelity. You're bound to reach a point where the jump to a new gen is just not all that dramatic anymore.
It actually does happen if your TV is pretty old...
That's true I think it will cause some people to hold off on next gen a bit longer, but I still think you will get the usual core of early adopters. Either way it's still better in terms of subscriber retention to give a chance for people to switch over rather than having that hard cut off too early
We're not at that point. Games aren't close to as good as they could be (ignoring budgets).
I'm not that "excited about gaming" because I've been playing the same level of games for 10 years now. It gets stale. The games only vary so much. It's the same sort of systems, physics etc. I have my favourites, and if they're multiplayer I stick to them. I'm not excited for something else that just has a new skin, new soundtrack and reshuffled the mechanics with all the same limitations. Sure, I'll play some indies and smaller scoped fresh titles but, that's not what I sit around waiting for.
I'm more than ready for something new and amazing. And it's not coming for years maybe.
Watching through all the hype and "in-engine" cinematic trailers leading up to the next-gen console release is going to be ... I dunno, bitter sweet? Frustrating?
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It's not a $60 buy in proposition. That software drops in your lap thanks to your ongoing subscription. In that context, it's much easier to feel you didn't really lose out when your experience isn't as hoped.
They said all their exclusive games for the first two years would run on every current gen Xbox. Unless they think Hellblade II is a 2023 game?
After seeing the original game on Switch it's not beyond the realms of possibility for it to use lots of tricks and run at 720p/30fps on bass Xbox One, 1080p/30fps on Xbox One X and 2160p/30fps on Series X.
I think you confused them. It's basically the exact opposite.
It's a big plus to know your friends are not left behind, and if the games themselves scale convincingly there isn't much of an issue. At least not immediately. It's a good compromise.
Explain.
I think MS would make that trade if Sony allowed it. PS5 will outsell Xbox. PS4 outsold Xbox One. That is a good tradeoff, imo. Sony wouldn't allow it and for good reason.
To me as we didn't see any actual gameplay but a cinematic trailer, this game will not be a cross gen game but a next gen show case and by what I've seen so far is going to be very impressive.
Naming: XBOX Series X vs. PlayStation 5: Only one of those has a 0% confusion rate.
Games: XBOX: "We'll launch next gen exclusive games at some point" vs. "Exclusive games day 1"
SKUs: "There will be a Lockhart and Anaconda SKU, oh, wait, Lockhart is cancelled, no, wait again, Lockhart ist STILL a thing but we are not sure about its reason d'etre since we are not launching next gen exclusives anytime soon "vs. "you'll get a PS5".
MS' communication around Series X has been a mess so far. Even if some of those are based on rumors, they failed to do proper damage control.
I have to agree. Sony have said they believe in generations. There's a new generation coming and new, exclusive games with it day one. The fastest transition yet is promised. Players on playstation know where they stand and what is in store. They've seen console generations before and know what to expect.
On the microsoft side, we know there won't be exclusives for the xbox series x for a nebulous period of time. The certainty is a different one - that you can stay with your current xbox for at least 2 years and not miss out on a first party title. Beyond this, there is a grey area - we do not know when exclusives will begin, we don't know once they do if it will be a hard transition from that point onwards or a continuation of mixed support or even a scenario where games still appear on all formats but are more feature-complete on the newer machine/s. Balancing this will be key to how sucessful a strategy it is, the tough thing is that this kind of target platform decision is one that needs to be taken years in advance to make any sense.
Just read the quoted parts. Article implies Xbox One will run all Xbox games next gen which obviously isn't the case. I do wonder how Microsoft will broach this once games need to become XSX exclusive. They will need some really clear messaging. I wonder if they might scale back their games in future though so they can get a port to the Xbox One just to keep consumers happy, however I really do expect the vast majority will understand and be happy to upgrade once the games demand it, it's just a curious place to be for a new console generation with the messaging they're going to need to explain to people where they can and cannot play their games.
No, he said every first party game for the next "year, two years" in Nov 2019. Which means the game could in theory lauch as a next gen exclusive in 2021