4 ms·

Microsoft is definitely pivoting towards making most of their money from their subscription game pass, with the idea that even if their consoles do sub-par they

Microsoft is definitely pivoting towards making most of their money from their subscription game pass, with the idea that even if their consoles do sub-par they can also gain money from PC users and try and eat into Steam’s market share. Given how many game studios they’ve been buying, I don’t know whether it’s smart to bet against them (even considering their spotty history with studio acquisition). While I have a hard time imagining Sony making another play at the handheld market after two failures, maybe they’ll realize that if they actually market it well and don’t use weird non-standard hardware like the PSP’s did they’d stand a better chance.

ekianjo 4y ago
I don't think it's fair to categorize the first PSP as a failure. It did very well market-wise, even though it did not sell as much as the DS.
- NineStarPoint 4y ago
  You’re right, actually even the PS Vita sold more than 10 million which is better than I expected (It was a WiiU, not a Sega CD/Virtual Boy) . I’ll have to remember that in the future.
agloe_dreams 4y ago
> Microsoft is definitely pivoting towards making most of their money from their subscription game pass I'm not convinced this is going to be a winning strategy. It clearly doesn't work for TV/Movies. I'm not kidding. The model of "grow as fast a possible" means low prices and lots of content. Once the bean counters show up, the prices go up and content development becomes a trickle. Look at Netflix. By that point, it is way easier to launch a product with preorders to pay off investment. Microsoft's key play will be that they own the console and can force game pass/etc but seemingly, gamers prefer the other platforms so they may run. If Valve builds a living room next-gen console from Steam OS, they may have the most well-liked platform for devs.
philistine 4y ago
Look at the Xbox Series S. Microsoft has already fragmented the target hardware for consoles. Sony or Microsoft could conceivably make something akin to a portable Series S in four to five years. The delta between the TV console and the portable one would be greater however.

ekianjo 4y ago

I don't think it's fair to categorize the first PSP as a failure. It did very well market-wise, even though it did not sell as much as the DS.

NineStarPoint 4y ago
You’re right, actually even the PS Vita sold more than 10 million which is better than I expected (It was a WiiU, not a Sega CD/Virtual Boy) . I’ll have to remember that in the future.

agloe_dreams 4y ago

> Microsoft is definitely pivoting towards making most of their money from their subscription game pass I'm not convinced this is going to be a winning strategy. It clearly doesn't work for TV/Movies. I'm not kidding. The model of "grow as fast a possible" means low prices and lots of content. Once the bean counters show up, the prices go up and content development becomes a trickle. Look at Netflix. By that point, it is way easier to launch a product with preorders to pay off investment. Microsoft's key play will be that they own the console and can force game pass/etc but seemingly, gamers prefer the other platforms so they may run. If Valve builds a living room next-gen console from Steam OS, they may have the most well-liked platform for devs.

philistine 4y ago

Look at the Xbox Series S. Microsoft has already fragmented the target hardware for consoles. Sony or Microsoft could conceivably make something akin to a portable Series S in four to five years. The delta between the TV console and the portable one would be greater however.