‘Xbox Hardware Is Dead,’ Says Founding Team Member, ‘It Looks Like Xbox Has No Desire — Or Literally Can’t — Ship Hardware Anymore’ – IGN
‘Xbox Hardware Is Dead,’ Says Founding Team Member, ‘It Looks Like Xbox Has No Desire — Or Literally Can’t — Ship Hardware Anymore’ – IGN
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They’re taking the Steam Machines approach.
If Xbox could sell consoles in the numbers that Sony or Nintendo can, they absolutely would keep making hardware. They never recovered after the Xbox One launch blunder and this pivot into software only has been a long time coming.
That being said, I would be super interested if they release the much rumored gaming focused windows everyone has been asking for. Microsoft might not be able to compete in hardware sales, but Sony and Nintendo could never grab a slice of the PC pie the same way Windows can.
I mean, that’s what happens when you make a service that doesn’t require you to buy an Xbox to play Xbox games.
Xbox hardware sales were forever doomed when Halo Infinite was allowed on GamePass for PC.
And then it was only made worse by following that up with Starfield and Indiana Jones and probably more games I’m forgetting.
If you want to play Legend of Zelda, Mario, or Pokemon, you _HAVE_ to buy Nintendo hardware. And so people do.
If you want to play Spider-Man, Last of Us, Uncharted, or God of War within a year of release, you _HAVE_ to buy PlayStation hardware. And so people do.
You don’t have to buy Xbox hardware to play Xbox games anymore. So why would you?
I’m sure someone will say exclusives are bad for gamers anyway, but that’s not the point. Hardware manufacturers need exclusives to sell their hardware. Without exclusives, it’s a harder sell when you can play the other games anywhere else.
Microsoft itself has admitted it never once made a profit from selling the consoles it was always sold at a loss
The writing’s been on the wall for a while. Xbox One killed their future prospects for the hardware business. They might have recovered with a faster output of strong games, but it’s near impossible to have a fast turnaround on AAA games nowadays versus the past. They also would have benefitted (business-wise) from keeping those games exclusive to Xbox, but I guess they ran the numbers and decided that bolstering the hardware wasn’t as valuable at this stage as just getting the software profits from any platform. The damage was already done and the effort to salvage Xbox as a console wasn’t as lucrative as just embracing software.
Xbox is a service now, and a software publisher.
GamePass is the best service in gaming by a large margin and if MS can do the “Console/gaming PC” hybrid correctly, it will sell well. Xbox will be fine regardless of the opinion of an old employee
I’ll die on the hill that the Xbox consoles would’ve done appreciably better if Microsoft hadn’t insisted on giving them such confusing names.
Their biggest gaming platform was always Windows, so if they now fully embrace this by partnering with PC manufacturers (like Asus for the Xbox Ally X) and finally optimize Windows 11 for gaming (a quasi “gaming mode” for Windows), then that makes a lot of sense to me.
And by porting their games to non-PC platforms like Nintendo and PlayStation, they don’t leave any money on those tables, either.
So basically Fryer calls the “Xbox Anywhere” approach “style without substance”, noting there’s no exclusive games pulling people toward Xbox hardware everything’s available on other platforms now.
I guess it’s just some gimmick from the rivals to create controversy maybe in don’t know if it’s true.
Oh well
I absolutely love reading the comments from all the armchair experts it’s a master class in uneducated advice
The internet loves ex employees syaing bad things about stuff they dont like. “Theyre making outer worlds $80 to drive gamepass”. When sony and Nintendo have $80 games will it to be drive gamepass?
Thanks a lot Mr. Mattrick.
What happens to our bought games if they stop making xboxes?
I just did CPR on my series X. Thankfully I saved it and can continue to play
Phil Spencer in 2011: “If we lose our way with Halo, we lose our way with Xbox”
Xbox pivoting away from games with the Xbox one is what did it.
I mean it arguably died during the first Xbox One where they required a Kinect and internet connection. Even though they backtracked, that killed the huge momentum they had from the 360 era. I honestly actually liked the Kinect as an optional accessory that could’ve been built upon for future games. It should’ve never been mandated or a required accessory.
The second time it died was creating the S and X with such a difference in graphic performance while mandating that games be developed with both in mind.
The only way to revive it now is to focus on software, create a Steam box program of sorts, and mandate that hardware partners have to target a certain minimum performance output. That last part is actually key here because if you just allow anyone and everyone to create an “Xbox” with wildly varying performance then you’re not going to be in a better position in my opinion.
Phil Spencer has presided over all this. He about to announce another 2000 job losses while he still draws down his ridiculous salary.
They don’t need to make hardware. At least not in the same capacity. They dominate software atm. Maybe make Xbox into more of pc but make it competitive with the current market. And slap on any pc software. An affordable steam Xbox would probably be attractive to those who don’t have a pc
Mom said it’s my turn to post bad about xbox for views.
check comment section on reddit for this topic.
man gamer bros are how would i put this…..
you will believe anything posted period…
you dont care about facts at all now it seems.
just what ever make you mad….
I mean yeah, there’s essentially no incentive to buy Xbox hardware when you can get their software on basically any device available, they are basically going the Sega route without bowing out quietly
I may be the only one but their rumored plan of pivoting XBox to basically just be a PC with an interface designed for the couch, able to play Steam games and Sony exclusives, is pretty much the exact only way to get me to ever consider buying an “XBox” ever again. If that device delivers on all that at a competitive price vs PS6 I would give it a hard think, tbh.
I admit, I didnt see the vision at first, But with Xbox spreading to any device, all of a sudden, Xbox has a VR head set (quest 3) a handheld, can be played on your smartphone and of course cloud and the xbox series systems, They have the potential to have more reach than any other time before. I also think theyre going to allow you to install steam games and play your steam library on the future xbox which drags playstation games to an xbox.
I will never understand how Xbox’s marketing team failed so spectacularly. Even simple things like the naming of consoles. My partners friend recently asked me about buying an Xbox and it took me several attempts to explain what the new consoles were actually called. Xbox One, Xbox one X, Xbox Series X, Xbox series S?!! Who thought that these were acceptable names? Even the new Xbox handheld console. I can’t recall what’s it’s called without looking it up. I know the name is only a small part of why they have failed but it blows my mind that these are what they went with.
The Xbox one destroyed that brand, everything they built with the 360…
The x360 and ps3 sold around the same it was 50/50 or 45/55 market shares, it was awesome because it was a healthier market with each AAA console manufacturer pushing harder to keep their market
The X1 was an industrial-scale shipwreck, they wanted Microsoft in your living room, kinect helping sell targeted ads, always-online etc who in his/her right mind greenlit this direction ?…I am still baffled
It’s sad, especially for huge PS fans because monopoly is crap
If they didn’t screw up the release like xbox One then they would be fine. Especially now they have GamePass. Imagine a handheld dedicated to it. Feel like that is a no brainer.
If you could go handheld then dock to a TV or stream to a monitor I feel like they would calve out a nice chunk of the handheld market
Please keep making controllers
There’s really no point of switching console anymore just stay on the one you have and just upgrade your pc I’m stick to Xbox
Console sales don’t make the money, they don’t really care. It’s all about software/subscription sales.
I think Xbox’s pivot is an extremely smart one after they lost the digitization generation. There was no way out. Either they would close shop and exit the business, or do what they are doing and completely flip the game on its head.
The reality is that the home console audience is not growing. You can simply target the same 200-300m users every generation. The field needs to expand, more players need to come in, and for that to happen, the barriers of entry need to be shattered and broken down.
Game Pass is that hammer Xbox hopes to wield to achieve that result. Having AAA games, accessible on *any* screen, is the way forward. It brings a new chunk of players who would otherwise never have gotten a console. But now they can play “Xbox” on their TV, their laptop, their smartphone, their toaster, and become part of a bigger thing. More active users is where the money is.
Xbox has always trailblazed – sometimes they have succeeded, sometimes they have not. But from their losing position, I don’t see how else they could have clawed back out. There was no other way. They had to be aggressive and bold and give themselves a shot in the arm. I am very curious to see how it will pan out.
As sometime that went through 8 elite controllers before Microsoft said they will no longer repair or replace I wish they had realised this sooner
Ummm, I watched the video and she never mentioned that announcement Sarah bond made recently. They are making Xbox PC with custom SoC from AMD. I feel like her sources were outdated or she intentionally did not mention it because that would go against her video points.
If they released XBox 2025, Xbox 2026 I could figure out what to buy.
Didn’t quest 3s Xbox edition sellout everywhere?
Just drop the price so I can play GTA for as cheap as possible