With Xbox taking Halo multiplatform, who's next to fall?

You've seen the Spencer quote. "If we lose our way with Halo, we lose our way with Xbox."

I know Microsoft didn't come out and formally surrender the console wars, but the only reason we even have consoles is because of their exclusives. Because of the ecosystem they create. You buy a Switch to surround yourself with that sweet Nintendo brand iconography.

The Sonyntendo Switchstation.



ItsKaljinyuTime posted...

You've seen the Spencer quote. "If we lose our way with Halo, we lose our way with Xbox."

I mean, Phil Spencer has also been running damage control almost from the moment he was hired, as they brought him in to try and salvage the dumpster fire that was the Xbox One.

The fact that they still have a console at all at this point is a point in his favor.



ItsKaljinyuTime posted...

but the only reason we even have consoles is because of their exclusives.

No, I have a console because I loathe PC gaming - I stopped giving a shit about most exclusives a decade ago.

There will always be people who prefer the ease of a console and gaming on a couch over what PCs offer.

The only real threat there was stuff like the Steam Deck, but even that's limited because there are plenty of people who don't really want a handheld option either, and prefer to play on a larger screen (which is why the Switch tries to straddle both demographics).

Xbox failed long before this.

Sony

They already have a number of their games on pc. It's only logical for them to move to Xbox next.

So y has already gone multiplat too.

Xbox will leave the console market altogether. Sony could go multiplatform but it really would just be PS6 and PC, and Sony really doesn't have a lot of great exclusives.

Nintendo is extremely defensive of their IPs (even though they don't even use like a third of them) so I can't see them ever going multiplatform. Exclusives are the only reason anyone buys Nintendo consoles.

green_dragon posted...

They already have a number of their games on pc. It's only logical for them to move to Xbox next.

The Xbox is dead. No one will release games on it, the ones that do hate it because of the "it has to run on the Xbox Series S" rule.

green_dragon posted...

Sony

They already have a number of their games on pc. It's only logical for them to move to Xbox next.

Bro there won't be another Xbox.

As the consoles currently exist I can't imagine either Sony or Nintendo going multiplatform.

Maybe Sony will let older or lower budget games be released on Nintendo consoles.

Honestly I can't wait for all the consoles to die. The console wars are beyond toxic for game development and consumers. Nintendo gets to charge whatever they want for their increasingly uninspired drivel because no one else can touch it. Sony and Microsoft barely have anything exclusive worth fighting over. And having so many games locked on old consoles because developers have no incentive to re-release them or otherwise make them accessible is obnoxious.

I fought getting a PC for gaming for years but now that I've had one for a decade I have to say it's really cool that I can play literally every single steam game I've purchased in that entire time, including games that predate my entry into PC gaming by years. Meanwhile I have boxes with old consoles collecting dust and while I would love to play some of the games I own for those consoles, the effort to find space and hook them up, particularly on modern TVs for which they were not designed, is just too much.

I don't have a steam deck but I like the idea and I wish multiple companies would develop something similar. A type of portable PC that can stream to any smart tv, or, if needed, connect via HDMI. Something like a CD player or mp3 player. Developers develop games in a universal format and so the games are compatible with whatever brand of the console you want. No more having 8 different consoles connected to a single TV. No more console exclusives. Imagine having Netflix exclusive to a certain brand of TV and HBO exclusive to another. It's idiotic. Let people develop games and let other people develop the consoles and let the market decide which are the best. If the only thing causing your console to sell is an exclusive game, or vice versa, then one of them sucks.

man101 posted...

Honestly I can't wait for all the consoles to die. The console wars are beyond toxic for game development and consumers. Nintendo gets to charge whatever they want for their increasingly uninspired drivel because no one else can touch it. Sony and Microsoft barely have anything exclusive worth fighting over. And having so many games locked on old consoles because developers have no incentive to re-release them or otherwise make them accessible is obnoxious.

I fought getting a PC for gaming for years but now that I've had one for a decade I have to say it's really cool that I can play literally every single steam game I've purchased in that entire time, including games that predate my entry into PC gaming by years. Meanwhile I have boxes with old consoles collecting dust and while I would love to play some of the games I own for those consoles, the effort to find space and hook them up, particularly on modern TVs for which they were not designed, is just too much.

I don't have a steam deck but I like the idea and I wish multiple companies would develop something similar. A type of portable PC that can stream to any smart tv, or, if needed, connect via HDMI. Something like a CD player or mp3 player. Developers develop games in a universal format and so the games are compatible with whatever brand of the console you want. No more having 8 different consoles connected to a single TV. No more console exclusives. Imagine having Netflix exclusive to a certain brand of TV and HBO exclusive to another. It's idiotic. Let people develop games and let other people develop the consoles and let the market decide which are the best. If the only thing causing your console to sell is an exclusive game, or vice versa, then one of them sucks.

Then there are no more ecosystems. I have no "Nintendo scene" to wrap myself in and sleep with.

Snoregasm posted...

Maybe Sony will let older or lower budget games be released on Nintendo consoles.

The problem there is Nintendo is notoriously petty. I could easily see Nintendo being unwilling to accept Sony titles at all because they claim it dilutes their own brand, or just because they're still mad that Sony screwed them over 30 years ago (even though in reality it was Nintendo that screwed Sony over first).

But the real thing to fear is that if Sony gives up exclusivity, it would be a sign that Sony's considering leaving the console business as well. At which point Nintendo wins and the customers lose, because they'd become even more anti-consumer at that point knowing they have literally no competition in the console space.

The only hope there would be that we'd see a repeat of Sega dying but Sony and Microsoft stepping in to take their place - if Sony and Microsoft bail out, the vacuum it creates might make it more appealing for a company like Apple or Amazon to take a shot at console gaming. Though if they did the outcome would probably wind up being a weird sort of hybrid monstrosity that pleases no one.

"Who's next to fall", he asks, blissfully unaware that the sole interest of a multi billion dollar company is to make as much money as they can.

Honestly think Microsoft is trying to get ahead of the curve before consoles are replaced by the next thing

OhhhJa posted...

Honestly think Microsoft is trying to get ahead of the curve before consoles are replaced by the next thing

I think it's more a case of antipathy finally winning out, because in every single Xbox generation since the first, there's been a significant portion of the Microsoft leadership who thought the idea was stupid and that they shouldn't be making consoles in the first place.

The success of the 360 damped down that opposition a bit, but with everything that's happened since the disastrous launch of the XBone, it's probably just constantly empowering those people to voice their dissent louder and louder. Every setback presumably just increases that resistance, and now overall weak sales on the Series X/S and the problems with Game Pass are likely just pushing them past the tipping point, where the minority is slowly becoming the majority.

If most of your board starts asking "Why are we even doing this?", that's around the time when you start looking for ways to stop doing that.

I don't think it's part of a forward-looking plan on the part of a savvy company, I think it's the glacial yet inevitable response from a company that has never really known how to compensate for their own flaws or failures, and which has never really been fully committed to doing the thing they're doing in the first place.

Microsoft has never seen themselves as being a console company. They've always just been a company that happens to put out consoles on the side. Which means it makes perfect sense if they're the first ones to decide it's not worth keeping skin in the game.

Sony would be much harder to shift, and Nintendo even more so.

OhhhJa posted...

Honestly think Microsoft is trying to get ahead of the curve before consoles are replaced by the next thing

My next home will have a VR room.

Splosh posted...

"Who's next to fall", he asks, blissfully unaware that the sole interest of a multi billion dollar company is to make as much money as they can.

If Xbox didn't care about brand strength, Spencer wouldn't have said what he said. Microsoft will continue to make money, but they're losing/have lost the battle of the brands.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/43d867bb.jpg