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Comment on Xbox CEO: Consoles are a 'good, established business' and a 'really healthy part' of Game Pass

Yeah, but the headline cuts out that part where they’re not growing. I think more customers can do math than console manufacturers are willing to admit, or at least more than Sony and Nintendo are willing to admit. The word’s out about how much that online subscription is going to cost you for multiplayer over the years, and if they were interested in running a console the way that consoles have always been run, the lowest hanging fruit to keep that going and to be competitive would be to remove that cost; they’re making it up in digital sales anyway. My guess is that once the new Xbox is just a disguised Windows PC, that will be when they drop the requirement of Live/Game Pass for online multiplayer.

Also worth noting that sometime in the past week or so, maybe, they’ve changed their messaging on Game Pass. They put so much of their weight behind that thing trying to become the Netflix of video games, as a way of pivoting in a world where they can’t compete with PlayStation by doing what PlayStation does, only to end up with a fraction of the subscriber base that they expected to have. It’s a lucrative base nonetheless, but now that they’re decidedly not the Netflix of video games, they’re just leaning into being the industry’s largest publisher.

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celia@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Well, the Xbox has been a disguised Windows PC since the Xbox One

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- ampersandrew@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  But not to the point that you could load up your Steam account or a random Windows game disc from your shelf. That’s the thing that’s likely to change, which has a profound impact on the library you can play on that machine, not to mention your ability to play online without a subscription fee.
  
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LandedGentry@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
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- ampersandrew@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I’m not giving them or Valve any shit. I have a living room PC running Bazzite, and I had a Steam Machine back in the day. That’s a product I want. And Microsoft is reacting to market realities before their competition is, because none of them wanted the gravy train to end, but it is ending.
  
  For what it’s worth, I’ve got a number of friends, all in their 30s, who swear by Game Pass, as at least most of them are the type to bounce around to as many games in a given year as they possibly can without sweating if they finish them or not. Many they don’t even like, but they like to have formed their own opinion on them. It doesn’t make sense for me, as I do value getting to keep the game when I’m done, so that I can revisit it whenever I want.
  
  All of my traditional consoles are collecting dust, and just moments ago before reading your comment, I was evaluating whether or not it makes sense to get rid of my PS4.
  
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  - LandedGentry@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
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    ampersandrew@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    I found out a few days ago that my PS4 is no longer accepting Blu Rays, and my basic troubleshooting steps were unsuccessful, which severely diminishes the value I get from that machine, hence my deliberations minutes ago, lol. I have to ask myself how happy I’d be with the PC version of Until Dawn the next time I want to revisit that game, because that’s about the only game on that system I’d want to play that I couldn’t run better on PC. I couldn’t even be bothered to finish Bloodborne at the frame rate it’s got on a legitimate PS4.
    
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