TheVerge: The #EpicGamesStore still isn’t profitable.

[Alabtrosmyster]

After the $70b acquisition of Activision, they would probably have to do this rather than liquidate everything gaming at MS. But I don't see the strategic play for MS Corp as a publisher. They're a software services company at core, not an entertainment publisher. The strategic value of Xbox was based on the speculative idea that everyone will have a computer in their living room. They were right in ~2000 to bet on that. But in 2023, the outcome is mixed. Playstation destroys Xbox, but Sony is not doing much to leverage it as a computer. They've had great success with PS4 and PS5 by streamlining them down to core gaming functions.

Smart TVs are really the mainstream computer in the livingroom, but they are primarily video streamers than application platforms. The standalone set top box exists, but in a narrower form. If MS was starting from scratch to put a computer in the livingroom, it might not be a videogame box. It might be more like a Chromecast or AppleTV.

So why would MS want to be a publisher?

For the same reason that they have been a games publisher since the 90s (if not before).

 

[Jim Ryan]

Steam is to PC, what PlayStation is to home consoles.

At this stage it would be very difficult to change the natural order and people just associate that method of gaming with that brand.

That's why I think Xbox needs another path, something away from consoles.
Maybe as a publisher.

 

[flaccidsnake]

For the same reason that they have been a games publisher since the 90s (if not before).

There's a qualitative difference between the 1990s MS sporadically publishing Flight Simulator and Monster Truck Madness vs launching Xbox as a gaming brand in 2004 vs 2023 acquiring the largest publisher in videogames despite failing to compete in the space.

 

[Zzero]

Ridiculous post. Windows is a monopoly because Microsoft builds it to be anti-competitive. They were sued by the US govt in the 90s for the exact same shit they still do. Making their shitty browser impossible to remove. Forcing you you use it. Making it complicated to install competitive software.

Microsoft Antitrust Case

The Microsoft antitrust case came to be one of the high-profile cases a few decades ago. In the 1990s. U.S. federal regulators sued Microsoft

corporatefinanceinstitute.com

It's only due to the insane legalized bribery in the US government that Microsoft was not split into OS | Other divisions.

It's bizarre that you specified "Chrome/Chromium" since Chromium undermines the case that Google/Chrome is a monopoly. If Microsoft made a Chromium version of Windows that took out all the anticompetitive shit, AND released it for free, there would be nothing to discuss.

Chromium is bad for consumers since it standardizes Googles anti-consumer shit (like ad block blocks) even across its competitors.

 

[JAHGamer]

I fully support Epic Games, I hope they get MORE exclusives just to piss off the annoying PC Master Race clowns

 

[Playstation Sucka]

it's wild how many icon posters think this is inevitably going to happen. MS dissolving Xbox and exiting videogames is more likely.

Valve getting bought is more realistic than this

 

[KiryuRealty]

It would make more sense, sell the consoles portion and keep going as a games publisher.

However, given how bad they have been as a publisher I don't think this is such a good idea, but what do you do after you spent $100 billions on something?

You can’t sell something that’s worth less than nothing.

Microsoft tried to sell the Xbox hardware business to Samsung in 2010 and the deal fell through when Samsung saw the books for it.

Things have only gotten worse since then. Nobody will want to buy a hardware operation that has never, in 23 years of existence, been profitable. You’d be better off starting up your own console business like from scratch than paying for the money pit of Xbox hardware.

Since everything is contract production these days, what would one even buy? The Foxconn contract with MS?

 

[flaccidsnake]

Valve getting bought is more realistic than this

Phil Spencer disagrees.

 

[Alabtrosmyster]

You can’t sell something that’s worth less than nothing.

Microsoft tried to sell the Xbox hardware business to Samsung in 2010 and the deal fell through when Samsung saw the books for it.

Things have only gotten worse since then. Nobody will want to buy a hardware operation that has never, in 23 years of existence, been profitable. You’d be better off starting up your own console business like from scratch than paying for the money pit of Xbox hardware.

Since everything is contract production these days, what would one even buy? The Foxconn contract with MS?

I think that they want to sell the branx with its following? They figured it could be worth something.

That being said, a legacy of losing against the competition could be a problem when you want to sell something on reputation.

 

[KiryuRealty]

I think that they want to sell the branx with its following? They figured it could be worth something.

That being said, a legacy of losing against the competition could be a problem when you want to sell something on reputation.

No matter how badly you want to sell, you need to find someone willing to buy or it doesn’t matter.

Selling the Xbox brand at this point would be like selling herpes. You’d have to try to find some way to make it desirable before you’d have anyone interested!

 

[Alabtrosmyster]

Valve getting bought is more realistic than this

Yup, those in denial have to come to grip with the idea that the Gaben will not be alive forever and Valve is his as far as I know. At the very least it's not publicly traded, making it one of the rare truly private entreprises out there.

Phil Spencer disagrees.

Phil said that if things did not pickup for GamePass they would leave in 2027... Hopefully this is not another empty promise.

 

[KiryuRealty]

For the same reason that they have been a games publisher since the 90s (if not before).

Activision has been around since the tail end of the 1970s. They were founded by ex-Atari staff who were unhappy with not receiving credit and royalties for the games they made.