Is MS wasting time with Xbox?

It's not major news, but MS has 800 million Windows 10 devices, which is near their 1 billion devices goal. Back in the day, it was clear that Xbox ran off Bill Gates' ego, but now don't get what they're doing.

They sit around dreaming about 200 million Xbox One sales, but can't even get 50 million in 5 years while their Windows 10 store where they sell games is essentially the weakest/lamest store in gaming. If they spent little time making it better it could be a store people actually like to shop at on Windows 10.

They spend all this time making video games and what do they do with them, put them all on Steam while Epic is paying big money just to get a little exclusivity even if for a month or so, you know, actually trying to compete with Steam, doing more in a few months than Win10 done in years.

Why is MS sitting around dreaming of putting Xbox Games on mobile, when Surface is one hell of a product, and if they made a phone half as good, they could put their Xbox games on it. Certainly with great hardware, their Operating System and own stores, they could be the a big name in phone building and big publisher on mobile stores.

I get console business is good, and that Gold money is probably too good to leave behind, but damn, is making Xbox consoles really worth it? I don't mind them building them, but not when Win10 is shit and can't even make a good phone.

I wonder why I read this crap!

@rrjim1: Probably cause you don't understand, or don't actually read anything anyone says, but pretend to.

Absolutely. They're half-assing it and getting totally dominated by Sony. That's a bad combination.

I don't get what you're saying. 800m windows 10 devices, 40m of which are xbox...and they should just give up on the income that xbox gives them, and rely on the income they already get from a better windows store?

What would the advantage be of that?

@saltslasher: Simple answer: Its profitable!

Blah, Blah, Blah. Tell me something, if you had a business that was profitable, maybe not as profitable as the competion, but customers and shareholders were happy. Would you drop your product just because it's not the top seller?

No, of course you wouldn't!

Competition is healthy. I think it's always positive for us, gamers, to have companies investing in our favourite hobby, even if they are not doing the best job.

The Xbox brand has beeen a complete flop. It’s only been around so long because investors forget it even exists and they hide the poor sales in their “entertainment” or whatever division.

It will continue to “just be there” until someone at Microsoft stops being too lazy to take the dog to the vet and put it down already.

I haven't head about any profits for Xbox. Just increased revenues for their gaming division, which does not equal profit.

"Is MS wasting time with Xbox?"

Are you crazy? With all that money MS is making through XBL and you got to be a fool to not see MS isn't wasting time with Xbox One. MS knows it's the holy grail cause they are milking their fans through XBL fees.

Why ask when you already know the answer?

Wasting their time have you seen the profits they make on the brand.

Xbox Won...Baby!!!

:P

No, gaming has been a big part of Windows PC supremacy strategy for years, look at videos of their Windows 95 promotions and tools they were giving developers. I think looking back at their push for console makers to adopt DirectX APIs was to help bridge console game development with PC so that the Windows PC market would be well supported with games hence their ability to monetize on their OS and other software. Part of the reason they got into consoles was to keep this up since development for the Xbox would be an easy jump for PC development. At very least, the start of their console ambitions was really to keep Windows on PCs as the dominant OS.

I'm interested to see how this disc-less console does you can see that ms are definitely testing the market for next generation.

Ya. 40 million sales is a complete flop.

OP never took business or marketing classes apparently.

@BenjaminBanklin: but revenue growth isn’t a reason to bail out either.

Nope.

40 million sales with constant discounts though? Xbox reports hardware losses every quarter. That adds up.

No I don’t think they are and I’m very happy that they are in the console space myself.

@BenjaminBanklin: Strange. Weren't you just complaining that Xbox only reported $10 billion in revenue? You're saying they're reporting a loss now?

It does indeed. MS real straight comes from XBL Gold subscription. If MS lose Gold supporters, then they be really into trouble cause Gold is the only reason why Xbox console is still here. and MS can never charge a fee into Windows 10 cause that will piss-off alot of PC gamers, so they gotta keep their Xbox fans happy with Gold.

Complaining? MS gaming reported 10 billion in revenue, not Xbox alone. It's not strong enough on its own to report separately. They do at least report on hardware revenue, and it's always down. It was down 19% last quarter, which has actually been mild compared to other quarters.

You wait, Windows will be a subscription sooner or later, this is MS we are talking about. Already is for enterprise or whatever.

Besides the obvious way this fishing post seems to go,

It´s actually not a bad question.

But the answer is no, but with the string attached that if MS does not begin to make actual console exclusives, they are wasting their time and money with another Xbox

They actually tried that in the past and failed big time! When Gold got big on 360, MS thought about trying this on Windows and when we found out about it, every PC gamer got upset and MS back off that idea. I be really surprise if MS tries it again.

@BenjaminBanklin: That gaming figure includes xbox, they're not separated....and the 19 % you are quoting is hardware sales year on year.....which is not surprising seeing as this gen is coming to an end, and is also the reason why Sony dropped 14% in profits on their gaming division.

You can't say they actually tried in the past to a comment that explicitly states "Windows will be a subscription soon or later", when it was never tried in the past. Just saying.

@Random_Matt: Except Xbox hasn't reported losses every quarter.

Xbox sucks and MS should be embarrassed.

Hardware loss means nothing. Consoles are usually sold at a loss (especially at launch), because software is were the money is at.

IMO, if they dont want to have their games exclusive to xbox and release on multiple platforms, they should stop making the xbox and let someone else take a shot at entering the console space.

Because their games being on PCs negatively affect console gaming?

Fanboys use some special logic.

@Pedro: well with the amount of times that Phil Spencer has stated he wants to and is working on bringing microsoft games to other platforms plus the rumors of game pass coming to nintendo switch, imo it's only a matter of time that xbox games are available on every platform, including playstation. Would you still be able to say the same thing then?

I worded that wrong, sorry.

MS at the time thought about it when Gold got so popular, someone slip that idea through the net and PC gamers got upset about it. As for the subscription model for future Windows 10 edition, I'm not all that worry about it since it's really aiming for business users and I only use Windows 10 for gaming/editing only, not like they are gonna charge that just for a simple OS when all the other stuff is business wise features.

I agree with a lot of point made regarding the Windows store. They should be trying to capitalize on the pc market. But in no way should they abandon Xbox. They are making money. Simply put. Imagine if every burger shop that couldn’t sell as many burgers as McDonalds decided to stop selling burgers because they can’t possibly compete? That would be terrible for us consumers. Also McDonalds sucks. Now the day where they are losing money off of this is the day where they have to make a choice whether to double down or cut their losses. Til then...let them sell the product they offer.

Didn't I just say that? Xbox used to be reported separately until it started tanking this gen, then MS reshuffled the way it reported earnings to hide weaker performing sectors... like the Xbox division. And the hardware drops are not because it's coming towards the end of the gen, Xbox One regularly lost money throughout its run. With hardware losses being as high as 40 percent some quarters. Xbox One was reported to come at a loss of 400 million the first year.

Sure it means something. It hurt Sony when they did it with the PS3 the first few years, because making PS3's at a loss of around $200 a piece initially was unsustainable. They were forced to a make a version of PS3 that didn't lose them money hand over fist because there was no way software could fill in the hole.

I know things have been bad for Xbox since MS has been selling discounted versions of the console since the first few months of its release, on top of massive software giveways and various deals of that ilk. MS killed any profits they had just trying to get the systems in homes to save face.

They're practically burning money because they can on Xbox, but regularly taking losses on hardware and such is not the ideal situation.

Again MS is being true to who they are. They should be trying to offer software and services on all type of devices. That is where they make there money. On hardware side they should still look to create there own devices when its feasible. Surfaces, Xboxes etc... A microsoft console demand is still there and they can offer something better by there own ambitions. Better then what sony may offer. Xbox can still regain 3rd party share lead. It can still be the home for COD again and whatever new 3rd party trend is. People who want console hardware will still buy the next xbox. I think the only way that changes is if they can put there software and services on someone else console. Console is a category to them and right now there own console hardware is the best offer.

This thread is a waste of time.

Link? I am thinking this is another false narrative from a fanboy. When you don't understand why something occurs just keep making shit up until it fits your narrative.

You are not talking correct figures here.

Xbox Gaming division includes Xbox live which is Windows 10, Xbox One in its various forms and Xbox 360 as well, which is why they have reported 56million active users, considering their lower number of consoles sold.

So the figures you have is including the PC division as well, which makes your whole series of argumentation moot.

Link? There's two in the post. I never post without links to put fanboy asses like yourself in check.

Not in check. Show me a link that states Microsoft reshuffled the way it reported earnings to hide things. If not it is your opinion that is why they did it. Easy enough! The truth is no one knows if Microsoft is profitable in this division other then Microsoft. So really both sides can't speak about it to be honest.

You think that's something they're just going to tell you? They did it in 2015, the same time Xbox One was shown to be on the trail to fail. there was no other reason to MS to do this, really. This came at the same year they were no longer going to report console sales. There's some info they choose to divulge to investors, but that was the point where they started obscuring others. A little coincidental don't you think?

They don't want investors to know how far behind they are for a reason. Xbox has been this mad push for conquest since its inception, and you can't really do that if they have to constantly report failure, because investors will ask questions. They took a queue out of the Sony playbook this gen by combining the numbers of Xbox One and 360 figures like Sony did with PS3, but MS got even bolder and stopped reporting figures altogether. I'd say that's a pretty big red flag there. This is the world's biggest tech company afraid of telling people how a product is faring.

Xbox can be profitable in the future if these plans work out. But, they basically had to throw in the towel on just going toe to toe with Sony and Nintendo in the hardware biz and are looking to expand to other platforms and streaming. It's a risk, but they have the massive capital to try and stick with it as long as they can.

Personally, I do like that they're putting games on PC at least, as I can finally play them now. I just hope they don't do a switcheroo and try to sneak charge XBL.

I don't have the link, but Phil just did an interview and basically said there's no money in consoles. The money's in getting their software on every device, even competition. Crapgamer on YouTube who's a huge Lem just vented about it. Xbox the console is slowly dying. MS cares about money first, as they should, and the money's not in Xbox as a console. It makes sense that MS should focus on their bread and butter: software and subscriptions to software(and games now). My guess would be that they took a loss on hardware this gen, but made it up with software. So, eliminate the loss(hardware) by putting your games on PC and soon on Switch, and maybe we'll even see some on PS. Fanboying aside, Sony's relying on PS to stay afloat; MS is not relying on Xbox, the console.

Edit: Here's a link. Lems read it before hating.

https://gadgets.ndtv.com/games/news/microsoft-xbox-one-game-pass-project-xcloud-phil-spencer-2003005