Microsoft Earnings Q4 2022

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nominedomine

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Even if Sony honestly believes otherwise, they'd never say it. That'd be extremely stupid of them.

What is their goal right now with the MS/ABK acquisition? (1) the acquisition doesn't go through, or (2) the acquisition does go through but COD and other big IPs remain multiplatform, and MS does not create a competitive advantage for them by offering COD on Gamepass day one.

How can Sony achieve that goal? By over-hyping the importance of COD and making it a bigger deal, i.e., COD is a category on its own, no franchise or IP rivals it, no other studio can make it, it moves consoles, etc.

Imagine if Sony just showed big dick energy and said, "COD is meh. Our studios are better. We can make a COD whenever we want to."

The FTC would be like, "oh, then there is no problem with MS buying and locking COD, we guess. Let's finalize and close the acquisition, and MS can do whatever they want: make COD exclusive, put it on GP day one, or whatever. It's not like that'll hurt their competition at all."
Ain't nobody going to stop MS from making CoD exclusive if they want, something like that is never going to happen and doesn't even make sense. Any publisher can chose where to release their games and MS buying CoD doesn't get them anywhere close to any sort of monopoly.

CoD, day one on Gamepass, Xbox exclusive, do it Phil, I dare you, but please publish the sales so we can all laugh.
 

thicc_girls_are_teh_best

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Even if Sony honestly believes otherwise, they'd never say it. That'd be extremely stupid of them.

What is their goal right now with the MS/ABK acquisition? (1) the acquisition doesn't go through, or (2) the acquisition does go through but COD and other big IPs remain multiplatform, and MS does not create a competitive advantage for them by offering COD on Gamepass day one.

How can Sony achieve that goal? By over-hyping the importance of COD and making it a bigger deal, i.e., COD is a category on its own, no franchise or IP rivals it, no other studio can make it, it moves consoles, etc.

Imagine if Sony just showed big dick energy and said, "COD is meh. Our studios are better. We can make a COD whenever we want to."

The FTC would be like, "oh, then there is no problem with MS buying and locking COD, we guess. Let's finalize and close the acquisition, and MS can do whatever they want: make COD exclusive, put it on GP day one, or whatever. It's not like that'll hurt their competition at all."

Yep. It's silly to think they'd give up something they can still keep on their platform and still get money from with the way things are. They remind me of when Nintendo of America did this kind of stuff against SEGA during the congressional hearings back when Night Trap and stuff were under fire. They played a role simply to act a foil to their biggest rival.

That eventually led to the ESRB, but Sega did see some benefits out of all that (Night Trap sales blew up a ton due to the media coverage of the trail for example). I wonder what will result in terms of wider industry standards and whatnot WRT IP leverage in subscription services, etc. as a result of what's up for debate with this ABK acquisition.

Ain't nobody going to stop MS from making CoD exclusive if they want, something like that is never going to happen and doesn't even make sense. Any publisher can chose where to release their games and MS buying CoD doesn't get them anywhere close to any sort of monopoly.

CoD, day one on Gamepass, Xbox exclusive, do it Phil, I dare you, but please publish the sales so we can all laugh.

They know sales would take a major hit on all platforms where the game's available for purchase, and revenue through GamePass would not be enough to cover the loss in sales. They've even talked about bringing COD to the Switch; why handicap the sales potential over there by putting COD into GP Day 1?

I did think they would include COD DLC & some MTX in with GP subs, but kinda even doubt that now, seeing that they're selling the FH5 Hot Wheels expansion separately. Maybe they'll do it the way they're including the Riot Games perks in PC GamePass.
 

Remember_Spinal

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just doesn’t make financial sense for microsoft to go into activision and really do much of anything. They can barely handle their own little studios like undead labs or rare, what kind of shake up are they gonna do for a company with 6x’s as much value as all their studios combined?

“Hey we should take call of duty off the most dominate platform its on, make it a biannual franchise, and take all the studios they keep it running off it so they can make crash bandicoot and prototype games again, because why not?”

No, call of duty is a platform that requires that everything remain exactly how it is in order to maintain the revenue it brings in. Microsoft gutting the entire operation over at activision in order to stick it to sony would be the worst business decision they could ever make

They’re already gonna lose a lot of money putting it on gamepass
 

Heisenberg007

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They know sales would take a major hit on all platforms where the game's available for purchase, and revenue through GamePass would not be enough to cover the loss in sales. They've even talked about bringing COD to the Switch; why handicap the sales potential over there by putting COD into GP Day 1?

I did think they would include COD DLC & some MTX in with GP subs, but kinda even doubt that now, seeing that they're selling the FH5 Hot Wheels expansion separately. Maybe they'll do it the way they're including the Riot Games perks in PC GamePass.
By the way, I doubt Gamepass will get all CODs on Gamepass day one, even if Sony/FTC doesn't create a binding -- especially if they were to make it exclusive. It is just way too expensive.

Look at this statement by Phil Spencer.


"As many as possible". Why leave ambiguity? He could have been crystal clear, just like he was Bethesda. "After the acquisition, all ABK games will release on Gamepass day one."

But he didn't.
 

Darth Vader

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By the way, I doubt Gamepass will get all CODs on Gamepass day one, even if Sony/FTC doesn't create a binding -- especially if they were to make it exclusive. It is just way too expensive.

Look at this statement by Phil Spencer.


"As many as possible". Why leave ambiguity? He could have been crystal clear, just like he was Bethesda. "After the acquisition, all ABK games will release on Gamepass day one."

But he didn't.

He can't until the deal is fully closed
 

thicc_girls_are_teh_best

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He can't until the deal is fully closed

That's true, he's legally bound until the deal clears.

But just logically speaking, it wouldn't make sense for them to do from a fiscal POV. Sure MS could absorb the revenue losses with that strategy, but Xbox as a division has been a loss-leading brand from essentially two decades and whatever profits it generates haven't been very much compared to Microsoft's other divisions. They want Xbox (mainly through GamePass) to finally start bringing in big, sustained profits, but how much more money can they consider sinking into the gaming initiative before they finally go "Okay, that's enough of our money, Xbox. Time to start making good on these investments, bring in that net profit!!".

Because I think that moment is coming very soon, after this ABK deal closes, in fact. And I think in terms of legacy ABK content yeah, all of that will come to GamePass. But I don't think the majority of new releases, especially for COD, will be going into GamePass Day 1. I think they're gonna do what they did for Forza Horizon 5, but extend that stagger window between 'early' physical/digital release and GamePass to a 2-3 month window, maybe 1 month for the smaller new games.

They kind of have to, if they want the Xbox division in particular to start recouping some of the costs for the ABK & Zenimax acquisitions, considering it's Xbox and GamePass that were the main reasons for doing them (Azure growth in terms of new clients was also a major reason, but is secondary IMO at least when it comes to what Xbox/GamePass probably need to do for Microsoft going forward).

By the way, I doubt Gamepass will get all CODs on Gamepass day one, even if Sony/FTC doesn't create a binding -- especially if they were to make it exclusive. It is just way too expensive.

Look at this statement by Phil Spencer.


"As many as possible". Why leave ambiguity? He could have been crystal clear, just like he was Bethesda. "After the acquisition, all ABK games will release on Gamepass day one."

But he didn't.

They could just be referring to games like Candy Crush but somehow I doubt that 😁
 
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DarkMage619

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That's true, he's legally bound until the deal clears.

But just logically speaking, it wouldn't make sense for them to do from a fiscal POV. Sure MS could absorb the revenue losses with that strategy, but Xbox as a division has been a loss-leading brand from essentially two decades and whatever profits it generates haven't been very much compared to Microsoft's other divisions. They want Xbox (mainly through GamePass) to finally start bringing in big, sustained profits, but how much more money can they consider sinking into the gaming initiative before they finally go "Okay, that's enough of our money, Xbox. Time to start making good on these investments, bring in that net profit!!".

Because I think that moment is coming very soon, after this ABK deal closes, in fact. And I think in terms of legacy ABK content yeah, all of that will come to GamePass. But I don't think the majority of new releases, especially for COD, will be going into GamePass Day 1. I think they're gonna do what they did for Forza Horizon 5, but extend that stagger window between 'early' physical/digital release and GamePass to a 2-3 month window, maybe 1 month for the smaller new games.

They kind of have to, if they want the Xbox division in particular to start recouping some of the costs for the ABK & Zenimax acquisitions, considering it's Xbox and GamePass that were the main reasons for doing them (Azure growth in terms of new clients was also a major reason, but is secondary IMO at least when it comes to what Xbox/GamePass probably need to do for Microsoft going forward).



They could just be referring to games like Candy Crush but somehow I doubt that 😁
People have been claiming that the Xbox will need to bring in profits to justify its existence for 2 decades. It's still here and now it's getting more investment than ever. Xbox just had its biggest quarter ever why would they change what they are doing? Also there is no need to 'recoup' the costs of ABK and Bethesda because it's much better to have additional IP and talent to create content than cash which in the current climate is losing value.

I see no reason for games like Diablo 4 and CoD to not hit Game pass day one for the base titles and add-ons and DLC being a separate discounted price. That is what gives Game pass the biggest distinction over the competition and they won't be changing that any time soon.
 

Remember_Spinal

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People have been claiming that the Xbox will need to bring in profits to justify its existence for 2 decades. It's still here and now it's getting more investment than ever. Xbox just had its biggest quarter ever why would they change what they are doing? Also there is no need to 'recoup' the costs of ABK and Bethesda because it's much better to have additional IP and talent to create content than cash which in the current climate is losing value.

I see no reason for games like Diablo 4 and CoD to not hit Game pass day one for the base titles and add-ons and DLC being a separate discounted price. That is what gives Game pass the biggest distinction over the competition and they won't be changing that any time soon.

They are gonna lose a lot of money putting those huge games on gamepass. I guarantee they do a early access preorder deal for them to recoup those day one purchases.
 

DarkMage619

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They are gonna lose a lot of money putting those huge games on gamepass. I guarantee they do a early access preorder deal for them to recoup those day one purchases.
Why do you as a gamer care if MS loses money especially if you don't like Xbox? Maybe they'll lose so much money Xbox will be pulled off the market! In the mean time I'm going to enjoy day one major releases on Game pass until they are no longer available. Some people are worried about weird things.
 

Remember_Spinal

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Why do you as a gamer care if MS loses money especially if you don't like Xbox? Maybe they'll lose so much money Xbox will be pulled off the market! In the mean time I'm going to enjoy day one major releases on Game pass until they are no longer available. Some people are worried about weird things.

Why does anyone care about anything? This is literally a thread about microsofts business
 

Hezekiah

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Ain't nobody going to stop MS from making CoD exclusive if they want, something like that is never going to happen and doesn't even make sense. Any publisher can chose where to release their games and MS buying CoD doesn't get them anywhere close to any sort of monopoly.

CoD, day one on Gamepass, Xbox exclusive, do it Phil, I dare you, but please publish the sales so we can all laugh.
Never happening.

It will be something like the number of hours played, but they'll have to be careful not to show up Halo Infinite lol.
 
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DarkMage619

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Why does anyone care about anything? This is literally a thread about microsofts business
Indeed and based on what the CEO said they are doing quite well. I don't think we'll have to worry about Xbox losing support at all for a long time to come. Rest easy friend. It's great to see multiple strong gaming platforms indeed.

Never happening.

It will be something like the number of hours played, but they'll have to be careful not to show up Halo Infinite lol.
Does MS report how many copies of Windows OS they sell? If they report one and not the other perhaps a conspiracy is afoot! I'd also be curious to see if Apple reports the number of iPhones they sell. If they aren't reporting them clearly they have something to hide!
 

Hezekiah

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Indeed and based on what the CEO said they are doing quite well. I don't think we'll have to worry about Xbox losing support at all for a long time to come. Rest easy friend. It's great to see multiple strong gaming platforms indeed.


Does MS report how many copies of Windows OS they sell? If they report one and not the other perhaps a conspiracy is afoot! I'd also be curious to see if Apple reports the number of iPhones they sell. If they aren't reporting them clearly they have something to hide!
Microsoft used to report Xbox sales until the first year of Xbox One.

They used to announce some software sales too.

But nowadays people like you get triggered any time the word "sales" come up 🤔.
 

Remember_Spinal

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Microsoft used to report Xbox sales until the first year of Xbox One.

They used to announce some software sales too.

But nowadays people like you get triggered any time the word "sales" come up 🤔.


Satya Nadella: “xbox has outsold the competition 3 quarters in a row, we are happy with how many consoles we are selling?”

Random person: “and how many are you selling, exactly?”

Xbox fan: “why are you questioning how much he is selling, why do you even care? What are you jealous of xbox??”
 

IntentionalPun

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Financial reports are for investors. MS changed gears with the strategy of telling investors that hardware sales weren't a metric that mattered, overall revenue and engagement were. At the same time they widened their PC strategy and subscription strategy.

If MS were more competitive on hardware sales, and they'd love to be, they'd report the number.

It's spin, but it's not something investors are clamoring for largely due to the fact that the Xbox business HAS grown, after being less focused on only console sales.

To me it's embarrassing when Sony fanboys harp on this and it's embarrassing when Xbox fanboys buy the koolaid and pretend "hardware sales don't matter." They do, they matter greatly to MS.. so does the optics of how they present the business, so they spin spin spin. It's what businesses do.. they all do it in different places (Sony's comments to regulators on the ABK deal come to mind, everyone seems to understand that those comments are spin/BS and just says 'well why wouldn't Sony do that?' .. so why would Xbox report bad numbers if their investors aren't asking for them?)

As it stands though some of their strategy is being adopted by Sony. Greater focus on subscriptions, releasing on multiple platforms... so Sony seems to think MS is doing something right.. and Sony has a chance of dominating consoles, subs and PC gaming lol
 
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Themaskedcrag

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That's true, he's legally bound until the deal clears.

But just logically speaking, it wouldn't make sense for them to do from a fiscal POV. Sure MS could absorb the revenue losses with that strategy, but Xbox as a division has been a loss-leading brand from essentially two decades and whatever profits it generates haven't been very much compared to Microsoft's other divisions. They want Xbox (mainly through GamePass) to finally start bringing in big, sustained profits, but how much more money can they consider sinking into the gaming initiative before they finally go "Okay, that's enough of our money, Xbox. Time to start making good on these investments, bring in that net profit!!".

Because I think that moment is coming very soon, after this ABK deal closes, in fact. And I think in terms of legacy ABK content yeah, all of that will come to GamePass. But I don't think the majority of new releases, especially for COD, will be going into GamePass Day 1. I think they're gonna do what they did for Forza Horizon 5, but extend that stagger window between 'early' physical/digital release and GamePass to a 2-3 month window, maybe 1 month for the smaller new games.

They kind of have to, if they want the Xbox division in particular to start recouping some of the costs for the ABK & Zenimax acquisitions, considering it's Xbox and GamePass that were the main reasons for doing them (Azure growth in terms of new clients was also a major reason, but is secondary IMO at least when it comes to what Xbox/GamePass probably need to do for Microsoft going forward).



They could just be referring to games like Candy Crush but somehow I doubt that 😁
I can see them putting the multiplayer on GP, and having the campaign as an add on.
 

DarkMage619

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Microsoft used to report Xbox sales until the first year of Xbox One.

They used to announce some software sales too.

But nowadays people like you get triggered any time the word "sales" come up 🤔.
Microsoft also used to focus entirely on physical game sales, have no titles that were playable on the cloud and they didn't have a game subscription service either. Times change. Triggered people pop into to threads about systems they don't own to complain about things that don't affect them based on what I've seen. 🙃

Satya Nadella: “xbox has outsold the competition 3 quarters in a row, we are happy with how many consoles we are selling?”

Random person: “and how many are you selling, exactly?”

Xbox fan: “why are you questioning how much he is selling, why do you even care? What are you jealous of xbox??”
You seemed worried MS was losing money. I'm simply told you there is nothing to worry about and Xbox will be supported for a long time to come. Rest easy.

I can see them putting the multiplayer on GP, and having the campaign as an add on.
Halo Infinite seems to show multi-player will be available for free and the campaign will be on Game pass. I don't seem them doing much else.
 

Hezekiah

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Microsoft also used to focus entirely on physical game sales, have no titles that were playable on the cloud and they didn't have a game subscription service either. Times change. Triggered people pop into to threads about systems they don't own to complain about things that don't affect them based on what I've seen. 🙃


You seemed worried MS was losing money. I'm simply told you there is nothing to worry about and Xbox will be supported for a long time to come. Rest easy.


Halo Infinite seems to show multi-player will be available for free and the campaign will be on Game pass. I don't seem them doing much else.
Funny how Sony has no issue giving game sales, Nintendo too.

Same goes for hardware sales.

Last week we didn't even get GamePass numbers from MS, just that it increased lol.

But some little weasels feel the need to damage control whenever the matter of sales pops up. Like it's a source of personal embarrassment or something 😂
 

Remember_Spinal

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Funny how Sony has no issue giving game sales, Nintendo too.

Same goes for hardware sales.

Last week we didn't even get GamePass numbers from MS, just that it increased lol.

But some little weasels feel the need to damage control whenever the matter of sales pops up. Like it's a source of personal embarrassment or something 😂

Not even increased, “there was growth” which could mean literally anything. More people playing xcloud, more people downloading games, longer playtime. Etc.

You know if they were substantially growing in actual subscriptions they would just say that because why wouldn’t they? They are very on the nose when they hit their goals.
You seemed worried MS was losing money

No where did I imply i was “worried” about Microsoft losing money. Since this is a thread specifically about Microsofts financials i was factoring in how they would release their games in relation to their subscription strategy.
 
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