Video Games Video Game • Page 924

(salty/tilted post incoming)
okay i have fucking HAD IT this fight fucking SUCKS it is unfun bullshit and is making me like the game less.
a fight this fucking irritating should not have a second phase


excuse me i'm gonna go for a smoke to calm my irritation

 

I’m not gonna disagree on Microsoft’s many fumbles, but I feel like someone should mention that PS5 (base and Pro) sales haven’t met Sony’s expectations either (or at least so they said in 2024), and that goes double for software (not to mention PSVR2). Only the Switch qualifies as selling like hotcakes. The PS5 is just selling “well” (good enough to still be an actual success). That’s mostly due to the death of non-portable consoles in Japan and like half of PS4 players refusing to upgrade.

EDIT: Also, the narrative sounds like the Xbox is selling like a Dreamcast or a WiiU, when they actually sold around 30 million until at some point last year. It’s not good enough for sure, it’s bad (especially given Microsoft’s scale), but it’s not the level of disaster people make it sound like.

 

Well yeah but the 30 Milli figure includes both SKUs, not to move goal posts, but I don’t think the S is worth considering in the business scheme of things (moves very little software, low engagement). Not to mention them just straight up pulling out of countries due to non existent sales.

Software that is Xbox exclusively consistently flops to the point of imminent studio closures (Tango, Arcane Austin), an absurd amount of layoffs (343) on a scale simply not replicated in this industry.

at the end of the day, either Xbox has conditioned people not to buy games due to Game Pass* or there simply isn’t an audience there despite the not-disastrous hardware sales.

(* then why close studios whose games don’t sell well?)

 

Yeah, the sales expectations when they push game pass make no sense to me. You’ve pushed people to game pass, it’s done well, but then they blame sales as reasons studio close. There’s a finite number of game pass subs that will happen, so why are studios being punished for the marketing and plans that Microsoft have chosen?

 

AAA gaming is broken

 

Regarding the * question: cause they don’t perform well on GamePass. It’s the Netflix way. I think it’s a flawed way, but then again I don’t have their jobs.

 

yeah but it shouldn't matter how it does on Game Pass, as long as the Game Pass project is profitable.

I know that they'll technically have more high profile releases now given the recent acquisition, but the entire model of Game Pass should reward and not punish experimentation.

That said, yes, a flop like Redfall will absolutely tank a studio even outside Game Pass, not to mention releasing two back to back (Hi-Fi Rush and Ghostwire Tokyo, a game so unremarkable it couldn't even sell on PS5).

 

Btw. I agree that the Series sales, compared to the One and 360 sales, highlight a quickly disappearing ability to compete (not win, you don’t have to win), which is a problem. Now, it fan always turn around, but the question is if Microsoft, who doesn’t need this business at all really, is willing to wait around.

 

but how and why would it turn around if all marquee titles will release on PS5, Switch 2 and PC? Why on earth would I buy an Xbox at this point? So I deprive myself of 3-4 good titles a year and the privilege to give Microsoft another 240 dollars a year for Game Pass?

 

Oh I don’t mean now or anytime soon. I mean like another console generation. Maybe two from now. Sony would have to do something wrong and Microsoft something right at just the right time. Or something like that. It has happened in the console business (the Xbox One announcement being an example). That’s why I’m saying that Microsoft probably doesn’t have the patience to wait, because why would they, they don’t really need this business. So instead they go in a way different direction now, to see if that maybe is an alternative. We’ll see.

 

Microsoft's best bet is just selling a bunch of software on an install base far greater than they could ever achieve with their own hardware, without having to maintain their hardware business, their own store/support and whatnot. It should even out but will be infinitely less risky.

 

Sega should come back.

 

Genuine question: What would you like to see in a SEGA console that you're not seeing in any of the ones currently available?

I say this having grown up a Genesis Mega Drive kid.

 

I was a Genesis Nomad kid

 

ok sorry something might've gotten lost in translation. I meant I really fuck with Phil Collins' drumming.



it's got huge drive.

 

What Nintendon't.

 

I... don't think they can release Mother 3 in the west.

 

Not with that attitude.

 

Obvs a controller with a screen that plays its own games

 

Yo, we heard you like games so we put two screens in your console so you can game while you game.

 

Console gaming obv is in trouble though. At one point the market was able to have the 360, the Wii, the DS and the PS3 all doing really well. We’re so far removed from that. A future that supports only one dedicated console (i.e. not a handheld/hybrid) is even bleaker.

 

I have all 3 consoles so I don’t really give a shit where games release. The more platforms, the merrier. More people should get to experience more games.

That said, I’ll continue to own an Xbox as long as it’s the only box game pass exists on and the value proposition stays high. Games are $90+ tax here. Paying for a year of game pass is far better value than buying games outright

 

I’ll get an Xbox as long as they make them because A) I have a huge library and B) and I vastly prefer staggered sticks