Xbox says Sony and Nintendo are no longer their competition

[Guest]

According to Xbox/MS, Sony and Nintendo are on the wrong path and as such are no longer seen as competitors.

 

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Phil Spencer, Microsoft's head of gaming, said he now considered Amazon and Google as his top rivals because of their cloud-computing infrastructure.

So it certainly seems like M$ no longer want to compete on the hardware front instead moving to a cloud model. While we have seen this for some time, this does sound like the new Xbox could be the last in the line.

 

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"When you talk about Nintendo and Sony, we have a tonne of respect for them, but we see Amazon and Google as the main competitors going forward," he told Protocol, a new technology news website.

"That's not to disrespect Nintendo and Sony but the traditional gaming companies are somewhat out of position."

Whenever someone says "But" and "not to disrespect" it usually means just the opposite. Currently Nintendo and Sony have great sales figures fro their consoles, cloud gaming is off to a very rocky start. I am sure M$ would have loved the sales figures the PS4 and the Switch have enjoyed.

 

Quote

 

Google entered the home-gaming market in 2019, with its Stadia streaming service.

That is going down well....

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The company's vast cloud-computing business means it has the necessary infrastructure in place but critics say the line-up of games on Stadia is currently sparse.

Understatement that.

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While Amazon and Apple offer games on their app stores and Apple offers a monthly subscription, they do not currently offer a cloud-gaming service.

However, Amazon also operates an enormous cloud-computing business and is rumoured to be developing a games service.

 

Will be interesting to see how Amazon compete, but I still think cloud gaming technology is not up to scratch and will not be for some time. I work in the middle of our capital city and the broadband in our office is 4.7Mbps, shared by 5-9 people each day. Infrastructure outside cloud companies control is just not up to it in so many parts of the world. Until it is, people will still want local gaming power, it is just how we buy the games that has changed.

 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-51400135

[leadeater]

Yea good luck with that, sticking with Sony.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

So more than "no longer their competition", what they mean is that Xbox no longer exists / will no longer make consoles (which, other than branding, is the same)?

[Sauron]

That was supposed to be the big feature of the xbone at launch, didn't really pan out, did it?

[SeraphicWings]

Ahh, so that's why the Xbox One was first marketing as a TV box when it was released 7 years ago

 

Sorry M$, when I buy a console I want to play game

[IAmAndre]

Coming from the guy who thought that it was a good idea to force people to buy Kinnect and to have an internet connection to play Xbox games.

[TVwazhere]

In a way, Microsoft is right. Cloud based gaming will likely one day become popular. (Notably they should be adding Nvidia to their list of "new competitors") But until then, Consoles being as relatively affordable as they are will remain the primary gaming experience for players for many years to come. The ability to own your games is a luxury few are ready to trade it for a monthly subscription. 

 

My KH3 edition PS4 Pro will stand by my Corsair 380T for a long time though 

[ARikozuM]

Didn't the Switch outsell Xbox by double digits? I'll take the innovator thx.

[Jumballi]

Apple and Nintendo are then obvious winners here with their focus on mobile experiences that blend into a larger more robust one like a tv(switch) or laptop(MacBook).
 

As powerful as the tech in a cloud gaming server is, we still are managing, and will continue to manage for several decades down the line, to shrink those exact same parts into efficient mobile parts. And if I can get last years server in my phone with none of the drawbacks of latency, then I’ll take that.

[LeSheen]

24 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

will remain the primary gaming experience for players for many years to come.

I'm not that sure of it. More and more people seem to understand that the current consoles (except the switch) are just cheap optimized computers. And now both microsoft AND sony are making those few exclusive games available on pc. At the moment by selling a subscription service, which I personally think well be their future.

 

And apparently sony wants to port horizon zero dawn to pc? A new pc era might be upon us and I welcome it

[kuddlesworth9419]

I can see the death of the Xbox.

[SeriousDad69]

The "casual" gamers will go from console to cloud, and the "hardcore" gamers will continue on PC. If there is ever a game that is cloud only, I simply wont play it. If that means I stop gaming entirely one day, so be it. I'm not giving these billion dollar corporations anymore control than they already have.

[Commodus]

Microsoft can say it's not competing with Sony and Nintendo as much as it likes, but the fact is that people will cross-shop the Xbox Series X with the PS5 and (to a degree) the Switch, not a Google Stadia subscription.  This is Microsoft trying to reframe the discussion so that it can appear to be a leader.

[IAmAndre]

36 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Didn't the Switch outsell Xbox by double digits? I'll take the innovator thx.

I think so and it was also released several years later.

[Doobeedoo]

Imagine if they would make a XB branded PC hybrid, actual dual Windows and console UI machine. So really PC games, especially given how next gen hardware is much closer to it, but additionally optimized for custom APU obviously. 

This may look messy, though imagine if they actually made this, just next gen XB power/perf as fully usable Windows as well. I'm sure many business things would need to change, though everyone seem to also push cloud, that on the side and let's be real it's not something mainstream at all, has infinite limitations etc. Really MS here has a huge advantage though. 

[kaiju_wars]

Yeah, that's cool and all.  But Your Xbox Gamepass and and Xcloud doesn't have Splatoon or Animal Crossing (among the vast other Nintendo exclusives). 

[ARikozuM]

5 minutes ago, Doobeedoo said:

Imagine if they would make a XB branded PC hybrid,

That's what Xbox was originally touted as being, but we can see how long it took for them to actually get there. 

[maartendc]

1 hour ago, Phill104 said:

Whenever someone says "But" and "not to disrespect" it usually means just the opposite. Currently Nintendo and Sony have great sales figures fro their consoles, cloud gaming is off to a very rocky start. I am sure M$ would have loved the sales figures the PS4 and the Switch have enjoyed.

 

I think Phil Spencer is a smart guy, and he is totally right.

 

I genuinely don't think he means disrespect to Sony and Nintendo. He, more than anyone, knows very well that Sony and Nintendo beat Microsoft this generation. He just sees the future of gaming going to a different place, and Sony and Nintendo are not as well positioned as MS, Amazon or Google to make that transition. Nintendo will probably keep making popular Switch-type handheld hybrids. And Sony... well they had their chance with Playstation Now, which totally sucked (I know, because I had it for a while). Maybe they can get their act together.

  

38 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

If they go cloud gaming with no hardware, it will just be a Stadia v2

People who dont have good internet will probably all go to Sony PS

 

If Microsoft can combine their Game Pass subscription model with a good streaming service, they are on to something. Google has missed the mark by not having a subscription service tied to Stadia, and forcing people to buy the games. If for $10 a month you have a library of 100's of games, AND you don't need to buy any dedicated hardware, that is an interesting proposition.

 

1 hour ago, TVwazhere said:

In a way, Microsoft is right. Cloud based gaming will likely one day become popular. (Notably they should be adding Nvidia to their list of "new competitors") But until then, Consoles being as relatively affordable as they are will remain the primary gaming experience for players for many years to come. The ability to own your games is a luxury few are ready to trade it for a monthly subscription.

 

Microsoft will keep making Xbox hardware for as long as they have to, meaning as long as most people don't have good enough internet to support cloud gaming. THey will offer both side by side. As time goes on, more and more people will switch to the cloud, and less and less people will have the box. Just like the transition between physical and digital games was gradual, or between HDTV and 4K. It is always gradual.

 

Like I said, I think Phil Spencer is a smart guy, he "get's it", he is a gamer and he knows how the market works. They won't force the issue, but they will be ready when everyone is ready for cloud gaming.

 

 

[maartendc]

If you've got some time, Giant Bomb always does very good interviews with Phil Spencer at E3:

 

This gives some background to the whole discussion.

 

 

[TVwazhere]

1 minute ago, LeSheen said:

At the moment by selling a subscription service, which I personally think well be their future.

It will be the future, but we simply dont have the infrastructure to support the bandwidth needed for even casual games. And ISP's seem to be slow to adopt fiber cables over copper Ethernet. Hell, even getting speeds above 25mb/s in non-city areas has been a struggle in my area. It was only like a year or two ago I got 100mbps, living in a county with an over 200k population. 

[maartendc]

 

1 hour ago, IAmAndre said:

Coming from the guy who thought that it was a good idea to force people to buy Kinnect and to have an internet connection to play Xbox games.

 

That was the last guy, Don Matrick. Phil Spencer was a mid level executive at the time, and knew they were making a mistake. Actually Phil Spencer has been righting the ship every since he took the lead.

 

In fact, if you follow gaming news closely, Microsoft has been doing way more gamer-friendly stuff than Sony for a couple of years now:

 

- Backwards compatibility for a lot of games from 360 to Xbox One (while Sony has no back-compat, just PS Now, which is expensive and doesn't work)

- Supporting cross-platform multiplayer (while Sony has been actively combatting this)

- Game pass subscription is amazing value (while Sony has been jacking up the price of PS Plus and removing 'free' PS3 and Vita games from the service you pay a fee for)

 

I don't care either way, I am just surprised people are still "fanboying" over Sony, even though they have been doing anti-gamer stuff ever since the PS4 has been market leader. (and yes, I own a PS4 and not an Xbox One, I kinda wish I bought an Xbox instead).

[Sauron]

1 hour ago, SeraphicWings said:

Ahh, so that's why the Xbox One was first marketing as a TV box when it was released 7 years ago

 

Sorry M$, when I buy a console I want to play game

 

[Beerzerker]

Having it as a subscription service rather than one being able to have the game "In Hand" empowers them to do as they please as Steam and others have been doing already.

 

I knew years ago when it all started it was nothing but trouble and knew right away I'd never do that. Folks paying for and then getting banned from a game server for cheating is one thing, getting banned for no apparent reason is another and such seems to happen all the time.

 

Not to mention there comes the day with most if not all titles you simply can't play it anymore when the server(s) for it shuts down. Yeah - You may lose interest one day in any given game but that would be on your own timetable to lose it, not theirs to just cut you off after having paid and played so much for so long.

 

When you buy a game cartridge or disk(s), you pay once and it's yours forever - With a subscription you have to pay a fee every month too, which can easily over the course of playing a game exceed what it would have sold for is simply bought like they used to be.

 

It takes control out of your hands and places it right into theirs.

 

I voted with my wallet and said "No" a very long time ago - Too bad others didn't and well..... Here we are with what we've got.

 

 

[ARikozuM]

5 minutes ago, Beerzerker said:

snip

That's why we need to fight to uphold and enhance first sale doctrine and digital ownership for the individual. There's too much power in digital products that does not exist as it does for physical, i.e. Adobe's old rule that you could only download your products 3 times total (it was done away with quickly from what I remember in HS, but the issue remains looming). 

[porina]

Part of the problem here is that "gaming" isn't just one thing. It is a complicated mix of very different areas. If MS decide, let's call it "traditional console gaming" is on the way out, that's their choice. If they think cloud is the future, and keep in mind they have Azure, it's their business decision. Only the future will tell us if they made the right decision, or if the Xbox name will be relegated to history like many other MS attempts in other areas.

 

I also wonder if there will be parallels with the music industry if there is a shift from a sale to sub model, although that wont be limited to MS.