GamePassBox is not popular while people struggle to afford even the basic costs of living? Who could have predicted this?
Did this story end up being untrue?
I saw a post saying it’s untrue but their only evidence seemed to be that their Target had not removed anything g last time they checked. Meanwhile I have seen a half dozen posts from employees and customers showing the Xbox stuff being removed. A month from now I’m sure it’ll be clearer on what’s happened.
Yeah, remember how microsoft said this wasn’t their last console and they aren’t getting out of it?
Yeah… they lied.
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This isn’t a contradiction to that.
It’s a contradiction to them having a successful next console. This is Sega + Dreamcast vibes all over again.
But this seems like these retailers are choosing not to stock the products, rather than Microsoft choosing not to sell to them. It might not bode well for Xbox doing well, but this doesn’t make them liars. (There are plenty of other great examples for that.)
This is in line with what I’m seeing locally. Weird they aren’t doing a fire sale like Sam’s Club:
Here’s a question. For ages back, the console market had three contenders. Who do you think would compete in the trifecta between Nintendo and Sony?
Normally, PC markets stay aside from that conversation, but it might be Valve and the Steam Deck. I’m just not sure if Valve is the type to be interested in running big promotions at Wal-Mart by Mountain Dew displays.
Perfect opportunity for the 3DO to make its comeback.
If Sony is doing it too, it’s the retail market that’s not showing results. Thinking most people order consoles online or from electronic stores.
You point the finger at retail and on some level it makes sense to want to funnel users towards your digital distribution platform to completely cut out the middle men and take the entire cut for yourself. So maybe it’s a lot of this…
…but i’m looking at that 50% subscription increase as a sign of what they want. Rent forever, own nothing.
Hardware has costs and overhead associated. They need support people and to have depot services. The cost to sell a console today is getting to be on par with a gaming laptop or desktop (not high end, but something that can play games.) The margin after retailer share has to be lower than ever, and sales tax tariffs are coming hard and fast.
You can develop your games with studios all over the world though and sell them through your US publisher for no import sales tax… especially if it’s on your subscription platform that is effectively impossible to tariff. They have the infrastructure readily available and totally paid for by business customers. Bandwidth costs next to nothing. Digital distribution has next to no overhead costs, unlike selling consumer hardware.
Ultimately Microsoft has a vested interest in Windows gaming, since it helps keep their market share and recurring subscription revenue. Few are linux gamers like I, and games are still being made that have 0 possibility of linux support, bf6 being the newest.
There’s a momumental challenge of escaping the microsoft ecosystem, and they’re pushing hard into the always online track everything you do on your computer and phone home to the mothership and sell your data to whoever is willing to buy it. Subscriptions will likely remove ads from future versions of windows… and the holy grail of total control DRM is not far behind between forcing tpm/secureboot that ONLY works on windows 11.
…but i’m looking at that 50% subscription increase as a sign of what they want. Rent forever, own nothing.
What they wanted was a volume of subscribers to rival Netflix, and even buying out several of the world’s largest publishers for day and date releases in their subscription service didn’t move the needle. They still sell you their video games, and they’ve acknowledged through a very short lived $80 price tag on The Outer Worlds 2 they can’t get away with that price. Increasing their subscription service by 50% shows that they’ve given up on getting more people to rent forever. You know who hasn’t? Nintendo. They’re selling you a $100 peripheral that only works with games that you can rent from them and not own. There’s a wide swath of their back catalog that they will not sell to you and only rent.
Nintendo suck, they always have. I have always heard the xbox v ps battle coming down to hardware and exclusives but truly Nintendo live and die by Mario et al.
I have a switch, a covid gift and I could not stand their store shovelware or predatory subscriptions so I only ever bought second hand and have now taken to high seas. They suck.
Playstation and Cbox are close behind too.
