Future of Xbox in gaming - Tom Warren (Video)
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peter42O
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Watched the interview.
Regarding COD, would Microsoft love to have it be exclusive? Absolutely and so would Sony if the roles were reversed. But will they be fine with it being multi-platform in order for the acquisition to go through? Also absolutely because ABK is worth a lot more to Microsoft then just COD.
Regarding prices, I personally don't see them raising the prices of the consoles at all. And Phil says at some point, which could always mean a decade from now. Granted, obviously not but I don't see this happening at all in regards to their consoles. Game Pass, I can see Ultimate going to $20 but base staying at $10. The one area I can see Microsoft raising prices is their first party games to $70 which makes the most sense of the three simply because their games even pre-Game Pass barely sold which is why they changed business models to begin with and if they can get more people into Game Pass instead of buying their $70 games, they win either way.
Back to COD, I like how Spencer says he wants it to be like Minecraft because that means, a platform and just add to it which is what im personally hoping for.
As for Game Pass growth, it's still growing but when you have no major first party titles for 2022, why would it grow? PC growth is different because vast majority of PC gamers have until recently ignored it. Xbox Game Pass will grow once their first party games start releasing and when you look at what non-first party games releasing day one on Game Pass in 2023. A year from now and going into 2024 will be if we see Game Pass grow more than what it currently is on console.
The Game Pass APP on Smart TV's is a great idea because you can get more people into your eco-system at an extremely low cost where the consumer would only have to buy the controller.
Regarding COD, would Microsoft love to have it be exclusive? Absolutely and so would Sony if the roles were reversed. But will they be fine with it being multi-platform in order for the acquisition to go through? Also absolutely because ABK is worth a lot more to Microsoft then just COD.
Regarding prices, I personally don't see them raising the prices of the consoles at all. And Phil says at some point, which could always mean a decade from now. Granted, obviously not but I don't see this happening at all in regards to their consoles. Game Pass, I can see Ultimate going to $20 but base staying at $10. The one area I can see Microsoft raising prices is their first party games to $70 which makes the most sense of the three simply because their games even pre-Game Pass barely sold which is why they changed business models to begin with and if they can get more people into Game Pass instead of buying their $70 games, they win either way.
Back to COD, I like how Spencer says he wants it to be like Minecraft because that means, a platform and just add to it which is what im personally hoping for.
As for Game Pass growth, it's still growing but when you have no major first party titles for 2022, why would it grow? PC growth is different because vast majority of PC gamers have until recently ignored it. Xbox Game Pass will grow once their first party games start releasing and when you look at what non-first party games releasing day one on Game Pass in 2023. A year from now and going into 2024 will be if we see Game Pass grow more than what it currently is on console.
The Game Pass APP on Smart TV's is a great idea because you can get more people into your eco-system at an extremely low cost where the consumer would only have to buy the controller.
Is Tom Warren an Xbox Ambassador?
Tom Warren
Senior Editor at The Verge ║ I cover all things PC, console, and Microsoft ║
OP
OP
He is media but he focuses just on MSFT, as Tubz notes above.
Much like Jez Corden.
Loads of these MSFT focused sites recently.
To have it on exclusive would be dumb because MS would be making way less revenue than CoD is doing now even if going exclusive would steal a handful million users to PS.
What MS wants is to have it in all platforms but without paying Sony, Nintendo, Apple and Google the 30% revenue share cut, because this is what would give them more revenue.
I'm pretty sure that they'll price $70 their next gen only games, and if they didn't do it until now it's because they still have to release next gen only games.
Regarding the consoles, the pricing of electricity, components and shipping skyrocketed. He said that they will hold prices for this holidays, I think to try to fight Sony having better pricing to compensate that unlike Sony this holidays they won't have console exclusives to fight GoWR, TLOUP1, GT7 or HFW to name a few. I think they'll rise the price of the exclusives early next year, maybe around April.
Regarding Gamepass, I think they'll hold the price raise until just after they completed the ABK acquisition to don't affect the regulators and also to 'justify' the price increase with the first big chunk of ABK games probably dropped around summer at the same time they add Riot stuff.
They mention growth but don't mention how many subs they have or talk in percentages. So maybe they grew 4 subs only.
Yes, it's a good idea. It's what I thought when Sony mentioned it back in 2013 as part of their long term PS Now plans. It's funny to see that pretty likely as other things MS will have implemented it before them.
Ok, I see. I asked because I always see him talking about MS only and typically spreading their PR. Makes sense.
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peter42O
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I agree to an extent. My thinking is that if COD was exclusive to Xbox/PC/Cloud, they would increase the user install base and everything around it will grow. Anyone who only plays on PlayStation isn't going to invest $300/$500 on an Xbox console just to play COD in Game Pass. They would rather just spend the $70 instead. And if it becomes a platform instead of a yearly release, then even less reasons to buy an Xbox. Either way, they'll make a shit ton of money.
Flight Simulator was a current generation only game and it was $60. So was Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo.
Prices for the consoles have increased but Xbox isn't the worldwide brand that PlayStation is nor is it as popular so raising the consoles would do more harm than good. One of the biggest positives Xbox has is the value proposition. Raising the consoles would eliminate that. Even more so, I don't believe that they would raise prices in NA so it would just be other regions which would be a mistake since they were thrashed last generation everywhere outside of NA.
Game prices to me is what makes the most sense. Hardcore will still buy them while the rest will be more tempted to go to Game Pass to play them. I think they'll raise the prices of their first party titles with whichever one releases first excluding Age of Empires as I don't see them raising these types of games to $70 but Redfall, Starfield and Forza Motorsport, absolutely.
I don't think they raise the price of Game Pass. Even with ABK, COD isn't going on the service for years and Riot games are just PC only if I remember correctly. I think Ultimate gets increased if they add their first party DLC and whatnot day one and/or if they can get Ubisoft to add their Vault to the service like EA Play.
True but too many gamers online seem obsessed with all of this. I want Game Pass to grow so I can get more games day one on it but other than that, good or bad, it's all on Microsoft to figure out all that stuff.
Yeah. Sony had Gaikai and OnLive. Funny thing is that Sony had the opportunity to be first with game streaming and really kick start it but they did nothing with it. For Microsoft, game streaming is at least two more generations away but it's smart for them to build the infrastructure because it will happen eventually so better to be prepared than not and even if game streaming were to never take off or anything, they still wouldn't lose much if anything and the potential future benefits far outweigh risks/losses.
Yes, making CoD Xbox/PC/Cloud exclusive wouldn't increase their userbase a lot. Some of the people who played it on PS also has XB or gaming PC so would play it there instead. Most of the CoD PS players without gaming PC or XB will buy other PS games instead. Only a small portion of the CoD PS players would buy an Xbox or gaming pc to play CoD if goes exclusive. And the CoD PS buyers are a tiny percent of the PS users. Sony wouldn't almost notice it.
The money that Sony invested on marketing and getting the small CoD exclusives would be spend on other games, meaning that these CoD PS sales would continue on Sony land, but now would be Destiny PS sales or Battlefield PS sales, Final Fantasy PS sales or whatever.
Nobody shown cloud gaming numbers higher than the Sony ones. To say Sony did nothing with it it's the same that can be said with MS or any other company who like MS pays Sony for using Sony's cloud gaming patents for their infrastructure because they are implementing tech patented by Sony, Gaikai or Onlive.
But I agree, I think cloud gaming won't be mainstream until at least 10 or 20 years in the future and even then won't dominate gaming but it's good to start positioning, building catalog and tech now because it will be key in the future.
These games could have been previous gen games perfectly and aren't big sellers. Same goes with Redfall, which I think will be $60 too. I was thinking about Starfield or Forza and stuff like that.
Thanks to the money that oil, gas and weapon companies from USA are making with the war on Ukraine plus sanctions that USA forced to put on Rusia, the dollar is skyrocketing compared to other currencies, which favors companies from USA like MS. So they have less pressure than companies from Japan or Europe who due to this currency valuation change are more force to change the pricing. But this is only part of the price rises we're seeing everywhere so sooner or later MS must increase prices too if they don't want to keep burning money for no reason.
PS, VR, phones, PC GPUs... everything is rising their prices. Nobody will riot if MS increases $50 or $100 the price of their consoles. People will understand it. Xbox will continue being the 3rd console and MS won't give a shit as usual, because their focus is to move their gaming business away from Xbox to mobile, PC and specially Gamepass. And even rival consoles specially if they manage to get rid of the 30% on non MS platforms.
Yes, at some point they will increase the GP price. Or minimum they will remove the $1 deals to upgrade or renew, and will stop giving free months of PC GP everywhere. To buy ABK and the Riot deal must have costed them a shit ton of money and I assume the higher ups at MS will start asking Phil that after spending almost $100B on content for GP it will be time to try their gaming business into a profitable one or at least to stop bleeding billions every year.
The new/recent CoD are the ones that won't be able to be on GP for a while. But they will be able to put there day one old CoD games plus tons of other old ABK games. Probably will add most of the representative old ABK catalog in gamepass in 2 or 3 separate steps as they did with Zenimax.
I think that once they start putting there the ABK and Riot stuff they'll stop adding AAA 3rd party games at launch or dramatically decrease their number. I think that in addition to rise the price, GP will focus more on 1st party, new indies and in a small portion, not new/old 3rd party AAA and AA games. Regarding 3rd party AAA games included in GP specially at launch, I think that the ones included there will shift more to paid GaaS games.
Games like FIFA that get most of their money from microtransactions, so getting a bigger audience benefits them because even if lose revenue from sales they still will be able to do it via microtransactions.
I think this is also the strategy of MS for most of their biggest 1st party IPs, that already are GaaS or are turning them into GaaS (see Halo, Diablo or Forza Motorsport as examples, or in the case of Bethesda, Fallout and Elder Scrolls). I think Gears, Starcraft, Doom and Quake will move to GaaS too in their next entries.
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He is a media focused in Microsoft plus to create fakenews about PlayStation… that is why we call him Tom Warrior.
Tom Warren/the Verge has to be owned or on microsoft payroll, it makes no sense to be that fan boy-ish about them as a professional otherwise.
And to be fair, I think gameindustry biz are in sonys pockets, even though you dont see Dring on twitter acting like a goofy fanboy everyday, he’s pretty professional. Its clear they have a deal with sony cause they get all their big pr stories and interviews.
And to be fair, I think gameindustry biz are in sonys pockets, even though you dont see Dring on twitter acting like a goofy fanboy everyday, he’s pretty professional. Its clear they have a deal with sony cause they get all their big pr stories and interviews.
Yep plenty of these shills on youtube, twitter and “media” sites. Its so obvious.
I wonder how they get indirectly paid? Or “gifts”
Exclusives articles and interviews im assuming, if you live to drive engagement to your website for revenue then having exclusives is the same as getting your hands greased.
Tom Warren always has some new story about xbox or microsoft before almost anyone else. Same with Jez Corden and Jeff Grubb, Microsoft pretty much pays them in controlled leaks. They know how important it is to have the media in their pocket, thats why Bobby kotick was going to buy several video game sites last year, to clean his image. Look how much astroturfing they’ve done regarding playstation and xbox this generation.
You think phil Spencer is doing those interviews because he’s such a good guy? He’s doing it as payment to talk nice about xbox for several more years, with the hopes that they may get another. Getting a big CEO on your podcast or website is gold for them.
Thats why a lot of media kind of a shits on playstation cause they don’t really butter them up. They[re not gonna get exclusive jim ryan, hulst, or Shu interviews, they’re not gonna get inside the studio articles, they’re not gonna get a trip somewhere to preview a game. Etc.
Thats why gameindustry biz never puts up clickbait headlines for playstation cause they get all the above and they’re the only ones. I guess Sony sees them as more of a credible and professional outlet.
I dont even know if the “shitting on playstation” is a part of all that for them. I think since microsoft is going out of their way to put food on their table they just kind of become indoctrinated by them by default. When you got one company giving you all these perks and another company completely ignoring you, it probably just makes more financial sense for them to drive engagement from sony by being negative cause theres no incentive for them to say anything positive.
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It was on some TVs for a while and I suspect that there was no pickup because they discontinued it pretty quick.
This is why I respect Sony, no BS social media driven business.
Yes, temporally Sony had it on tvs and phones of their brand and got discontinued. But time later they released additional related patents mentioning Android and 5G and time later around 3 years ago or so they mentioned on investors presentations that in their next gen (meaning PS5 gen) plans they planned a number of things for PS Now, most of them already implemented, but one of them was to expand it to tvs and mobile devices.
The Verge is currently how ZDNet used to be in the late 90s/early 2000s: pure Microsoft propaganda mouthpieces.
