The Future of Xbox Isn't Just a Console (wired.com) 24
With the Xbox Series X on the horizon, Microsoft's head of videogame hardware sees a future where consoles may no longer be front and center. Wired reports: Despite its massive push for the Xbox Series X, Microsoft is hedging its bets that a decade from now more and more gamers will be taking a "no gods, no masters" approach to where and how they play. Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, thinks whether consoles will exist in 10 years is the wrong question to ask. "In the long run, to me, it's a question about the viability of the television," said Spencer last week in an interview with WIRED. "There's this calculus, this chess match we're playing," says Spencer. "It's no longer checkers." Spencer's chess match isn't against Sony or Nintendo; it's against the ever-changing trends in how two billion gamers worldwide consume media. When the Xbox Series X arrives in stores later this year, it will become a part of Xbox's chimera approach -- alongside its cloud gaming service, Project xCloud, and Xbox Play Anywhere -- to capture gamers wherever they are. With xCloud, you'll pay a currently undefined subscription to stream AAA games onto your mobile phone and tablet. With Xbox Play Anywhere, you can buy, say, Forza Horizon 4 and play it on both Xbox One and Windows 10 on PC.
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Spencer paints the Xbox Series X and the "game anywhere on stuff you have" pitches as complementary rather than cannibalistic. "I don't think it's 'hardware agnostic' as much as it's 'where you want to play," he says. Which makes sense: The more ways to play, and the more services Microsoft provides, the more repeatable revenue flowing into Microsoft's coffers. After the hype around the Xbox Series X cools down and the hardware-content singularity approaches, it's possible that many of the people opting to play Xbox games will do so on everything except the Xbox. It seems fair to ask whether this generation of dedicated consoles will be the last. "I like watching TV. I like playing games on TV. It's where I play most of the time," says Spencer. "I think there will be -- for a long time -- a world where people want to play on a television, and we're committed to that and we will deliver great console experiences. I don't think Xbox series X is our last console. I think we will do more consoles to make that great television play experience work and be delightful."
And if not, well, the company still has options. "The nice thing about being in a company the scale of Microsoft is we're able to make bets across a lot of those fronts and we're not really dependent upon any one of those individual kinds of businesses or relationships to succeed," says Spencer.
[...]
Spencer paints the Xbox Series X and the "game anywhere on stuff you have" pitches as complementary rather than cannibalistic. "I don't think it's 'hardware agnostic' as much as it's 'where you want to play," he says. Which makes sense: The more ways to play, and the more services Microsoft provides, the more repeatable revenue flowing into Microsoft's coffers. After the hype around the Xbox Series X cools down and the hardware-content singularity approaches, it's possible that many of the people opting to play Xbox games will do so on everything except the Xbox. It seems fair to ask whether this generation of dedicated consoles will be the last. "I like watching TV. I like playing games on TV. It's where I play most of the time," says Spencer. "I think there will be -- for a long time -- a world where people want to play on a television, and we're committed to that and we will deliver great console experiences. I don't think Xbox series X is our last console. I think we will do more consoles to make that great television play experience work and be delightful."
And if not, well, the company still has options. "The nice thing about being in a company the scale of Microsoft is we're able to make bets across a lot of those fronts and we're not really dependent upon any one of those individual kinds of businesses or relationships to succeed," says Spencer.
Oh yeah? (Score:2)
"The nice thing about being in a company the scale of Microsoft is we're able to make bets across a lot of those fronts and we're not really dependent upon any one of those individual kinds of businesses or relationships to succeed," says Spencer.
Except for phones. That's not an option anymore, even for a company the scale of Microsoft.
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Mobiles Microsoft (Score:2)
The point being made was the even though Microsoft failed on massive opportunities like Mobile, Goolge, and Social Media they are big enough to survive and keep going.
That said, Microsoft could potentially do OK on mobiles building on Android. But it is a very tough market. I think what we will see is a totally Chinese operating system taking over the non-western world.
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A lot of this has already failed and they seem to be trying to resurrect it. The Xbox One was supposed to be a home media hub but that was quickly forgotten, and customers rebelled over DRM and always-on internet connectivity requirements.
Streaming gaming is already on its death bed. Google tried, Nvidia tried, lots of smaller players tried. At best latency gives the player a significant disadvantage in multiplayer and people are rightly wary of any model which requires them to keep paying rent.
Most people
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It is similar to Stadia, which really just showed how out of touch Sundar Pichai is.
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They succeeded at phones. They figured out that they could just demand patent royalties for every Android that's sold and let others do the work for them. They don't even have to take these companies to court, all Microsoft has to do is demand their protection money because it would be a shame if something bad were to happen to their company.
Product positioning 2.0 (Score:2)
Despite its massive push for the Xbox Series X, Microsoft is hedging its bets that a decade from now more and more gamers will be taking a "no gods, no masters" approach to where and how they play.
The more straightforward rendering of the marketing concept, "Screw you, daddy!", was found to need some tweaking in focus group.
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Over a long enough time frame, all other video game companies will simply become 3rd party publishers for Nintendo and Valve.
lol (Score:1)
... which doesn't work well because Physics.
lol so funny, so true...
That's what they said the last 2 times (Score:2)
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Consoles / TV-based gaming (Score:2)
I distinctly remember people predicting this generation of consoles would be the "last ever", presumably since pundits saw how popular phones and mobile gaming are. Yet another tech prediction that has proven to be utter nonsense. Here's the next one.
Gaming on your TV or computer provides an entirely different experience than gaming on your mobile device. I'm betting that this notion of "gaming anywhere" will be a fairly minor blip on the radar, because for gaming, the experience truly matters. It's a h
NO WAY! (Score:2)
Tell me it isn't so that a company which integrated Xbox Live services in their OS 8 years ago as well as the games store sees the Xbox service moving beyond a piece of hardware. Waddarevelation!
Did that article actually say anything? (Score:2)
n/c
Console as appliance. (Score:2)
I imagine the smart bet would be to market and sell your hardware as an appliance that sits in a closet or garage, and streams locally to any device in your home, and if you're up for the latency, over a fancy VPN tunnel to whatever device you want on WAN.
That's how I use my own gaming PC, and it's great. Tricked out AAA gaming streamed to the the potato laptop in my bedroom.
I'm Surprised It Took This Long (Score:2)
very good (Score:1)