Microsoft May Exit Gaming Business If Game Pass Subscribers off Console Don't Increase Enough by 2027
Microsoft May Exit Gaming Business If Game Pass Subscribers off Console Don't Increase Enough by 2027
Microsoft's Phil Spencer said in testimony that the company may exit its gaming business if GP subscribers off consoles don't increase a lot.
Spencer said in no uncertain terms that Microsoft could exit the gaming business if this projection became reality. Microsoft needs the light green and blue segments (PC and cloud) to get much larger and much faster by fiscal year 2027, or it could opt out of the business altogether.
I do not believe that that is what the future Xbox business would look like. This is a presentation from our devices organization to the gaming leadership team, so this is the view from the team that is chartered with building our hardware on what the future business would look like.
I can fairly safely say that if we do not make more progress than this off of console, we would exit the gaming business. If this were the outcome, we would -- I don't believe we'd still be in the business.
A majority of our customers are found off of our own hardware, I would hope by earlier than 2030. So, when you asked me if I agreed with this chart that the light green and blue depending on what colors you see there would have to be much larger much earlier. I would say by FY26, '27 that we should be in that position, or we'd have to make a different decision with the business.
Second-biggest chunk of the console market, effectively necessary for the PC market, gobbling up studios and publishers like fucking Galactus, and these empty suits still treat "making less money than the number we pulled from our asses" as losing money.
How is the third most sold out of current consoles the second biggest chunk? The numbers aren't adding up
"Sold out" doesn't mean anything. For the last four generations, Sony has deliberately underproduced consoles at launch, specifically to claim 'It's flying off shelves! We can't keep it stocked!' This free publicity stunt even worked for the PS3... which struggled for years.
That said, yeah, apparently the Xbox whatever-it's-called sells about half as many units per year, compared to either the PS5 or Switch. Rough.
Still making money hand over first.
While less competition is bad, I'm not sure there's been a competition with Microsoft since like 2009. They have continuously proven that they will make the dumbest choices with stuff like always on online, can't play used games, gimping games for the series x because the series s is basically just the Xbox one again, buying game developers and doing absolutely nothing with them, and releasing maybe two interesting exclusives in the span of 15 years. I was team green from the og launch until I got my PS4 but man I hope they just kick Xbox to the curb and just let PC kinda do its own thing. I have zero confidence in Xbox making any decision right in the gaming space.
That and also - fuck Microsoft.
Games look better on the Series X than the PS5. Very little is gimped.
Click bate title. Just a slide of what they think they will hit. Microsoft is not going to drop gaming when it just spent how much on studios?
Microsoft paid Ninja about $50 million to leave Twitch and stream solely on their Mixer platform, only to close Mixer entirely less than a year later.
They will absolutely buy up a bunch of stuff and then just close down altogether. Their market cap is in the trillions; these things don’t really matter to them in the end.
They created the Zune only to promptly shut it and the division down. The zunes were awesome and I wish we had more options for music playback devices.
Yeah no way. I can't see it. Maybe shutting down game pass and shuttering xbox integration but I can't see them completely leaving. Too much money on the table.
Software and media rental models are meant to die in a close future . They suck
I get where you're coming from, but I don't mind rentals if they are what you are intending. I miss being able to try out a game for a few days for a few bucks from renting it.
I don't care for it in streaming, though, as when it's a perpetual subscription I feel much more obligated to play the subscription games than those I've traditionally purchased to get my money's worth. I like playing things when I feel like it. It doesn't help that each time I've tried using Game Pass it's taken hours to get it properly working and the games to function
See the latest console they want to make "streaming hybrid" focused? Sounds like the series x is the last console I'll be getting for a while
I'm totally okay with that, I don't think Microsoft represents a positive force in gaming or in technology in general.
Then who? Sony? The company that made rootkit a household name?
How about none of them? But Sony has far less power in this space anyway.
Gamepass is neat idea in theory, but I really dont trust corporations to not use it to ruin it all to get more money. If most people used gamepass, you propably couldnt at some point buy games regularly at all or only at crazy prices. Also modding games on gamepass is more difficult or just impossible sometimes due to files being locked.
I would rather it all die and force back to disks, or at least some guarantee you actually own the game.
All these services are going to become endlessly tiered with eventual extra dlc costs. They know most gamers spend $300 a year on games. So if Gamepass takes off, expect the base option to eventually be $15 a month, with tiers up to $40, maybe higher... who knows what whales will spend, especially if they throw in currency bonuses.
Then they will add in some in store currency and give the highest subscriber tiers extra Boxbux to spend on DLC... or probably literally loot boxes.
It would be neat to see support for a universal digital library system. Where it can only be checked to one person. If you want to sell the game, you uninstall and it provides you with a token number it generates. That unique number is tied to the copy of the game. You sell the token number, they now own the game. If they ever uninstall it, they get a new number to trade. Or libraries could lend them for free using the same system.
On top of that, I bet they would make you buy the games anyway. You would just have to pay subscription for "privilege" of doing so.
Kinda of like a game NFT that tied into some DRM allowing ownership of a license. And the reason it should be distributed, is to not trust any single organization.
As of today, I would trust steam entirely, to do the right thing, with game reselling and so forth. But soon as Gabe dies, and somebody else takes over steam, we're going to lose that trust. Gabe is a benevolent dictator, but his succession plan has no guarantees.
Well, if they provide linux with Game Pass then I'm in lol
They won't.
They might.
Put game pass on steam like EA play ez.
Gamepass includes EA Play.
Steam is a shit launcher. Google bloat.
Hard to hear, especially after dumping so much into acquisitions. What will happen to everything under their umbrella?
Hopefully the end up leaving, nothing positive has come from Microsoft in the gaming industry since the early 360 era.
Sounds good. Looking forward to Microsoft fucking right off. Plenty of fantastic indie devs, teams, studios, and publishers out there. 👍