Xbox Official Xbox thread

[Jack Reacheround]

That's not a sustainability issue. Guaranteed revenue is the most sustainable thing in the world. Costs exceeding revenue isn't inherent, and the need to grow subscribers isn't inherently required. All the entertainment companies are prioritizing growth because they're in a footrace to claim as much of a global market share as possible before the market is saturated, fully matured, and they sort out how much milk the cows are going/willing to produce. Then they'll adjust their expenditures needle depending on how much of the pie they sliced for themselves.

I’m not saying they’re going out of business. Maybe sustainability isn’t exactly correct, but that’s just splitting hairs. I’m saying that they want constant stock price increases because that is just his things are done now. And you said it yourself, the number of subscribers is essentially finite. That is why they are shifting to having more content with more ad space sales. And I think the market is fairly matured at this point. There aren’t many people who have internet who do not have at least two or three streaming services. And you can only cut costs so much. Just like there is a ceiling in subscribers, there is a floor on costs. That was the reason for the SAG strike.

So we will see these services resemble more and more their broadcast predecessors. They can sell a ton more ad space and make money that way than they can increasing their subscription prices.

And we already see the same type of price discrimination we had with cable and satellite providers. They split the market into two or three markets - tiers giving you more channels depending on the package you purchase. Or in the case of streaming services, more content depending kn the package you purchase.

 

[Madmick]

I’m not saying they’re going out of business. Maybe sustainability isn’t exactly correct, but that’s just splitting hairs. I’m saying that they want constant stock price increases because that is just his things are done now. And you said it yourself, the number of subscribers is essentially finite. That is why they are shifting to having more content with more ad space sales. And I think the market is fairly matured at this point. There aren’t many people who have internet who do not have at least two or three streaming services. And you can only cut costs so much. Just like there is a ceiling in subscribers, there is a floor on costs. That was the reason for the SAG strike.

So we will see these services resemble more and more their broadcast predecessors. They can sell a ton more ad space and make money that way than they can increasing their subscription prices.

And we already see the same type of price discrimination we had with cable and satellite providers. They split the market into two or three markets - tiers giving you more channels depending on the package you purchase. Or in the case of streaming services, more content depending kn the package you purchase.

It isn't splitting hairs. To argue that streaming services aren't sustainable is to argue that in the long term they will not survive. That's wrong. The only condition to save the argument is to opine they will only survive if they radically alter their business model. That is also wrong. I think you're right about one thing, they will continue increasing ad portions, but increasing ads in the base tiers isn't revolutionizing the business model. Ad bloat is just more of the same. I've already explained why it doesn't make sense that ad-free tiers will go away. Quite simply, it's unnecessary.

The issue for the streaming giants was the bubble of ever-increasing spending pursuing increased growth, yes, and finally running into a ceiling. But that's it. They're just figuring out the porridge: where saturation is realized. Profitability has never been an issue. They're profitable. All of the minor tweaks you're discussing are just strategies to maximize revenue yields. They aren't returning to free broadcasting with ads. That space is already populated anyway (i.e. Tubi, Crackle, etc). They aren't dispensing with ad-free tiers.

 

[Jack Reacheround]

It isn't splitting hairs. To argue that streaming services aren't sustainable is to argue that in the long term they will not survive. That's wrong.

Ok, but I clearly didn’t say that. I said that from the perspective of always needing stock prices to increase… blah blah blah. And I also said sustainable might not be the right word.

Jesus, this need you have to try to one up anyone who makes an observation that you didn’t, or argue about every little bit of minutiae must be exhausting. How does anyone dealt with you?

 

[Madmick]

Ok, but I clearly didn’t say that. I said that from the perspective of always needing stock prices to increase… blah blah blah. And I also said sustainable might not be the right word.
Jesus, this need you have to try to one up anyone who makes an observation that you didn’t, or argue about every little bit of minutiae must be exhausting. How does anyone dealt with you?

I haven't been rude to you. I've pointed out the flaws in your opinions.

"...the subscription model isn’t sustainable, for tv and movies..." Why? Because of a need for stock prices to go up? Let's think about that. How does revenue go up? Either they gain more subscribers, they more lucratively monetize the subscribers they have, they sell more content a la carte, or they increase the ROI by maintaining the revenue streams they have while spending less. Introducing new tiers, with ads injected into the base tier, giving them an excuse to raise prices of the ad-free tiers, was a way to get more money without increasing subscribers. But how does sacrificing the million of subscribers they already have increase revenue, and thereby the stock price? Doesn't make sense.

I think the idea you're circling is wondering what to do when the media provider hits a ceiling of new customers willing to be paying subscribers...how do they continue to grow "subscribers"? They copy a tried and true model of old: they introduce a new, completely free tier. All ad revenue. Technically, they haven't grown paying subscribers, but they have grown their viewer base, and perhaps with it their total revenue.

As I said, this already exists. Amazon has already done it. They made Freevee. In fact, they used that to soften the blow of introducing ads to Prime Video. But an ad-free tier still exists, and they defintely aren't getting rid of Amazon Prime (despite that it becomes increasingly pointless with each passing year). Maybe Netflix, Disney, and others will join suit.

So, I iterate, the notion that streaming is "unsustainable" is silly. You should be more skeptical of whatever it is you're reading. The companies that maintain premium subscriptions have risen to dominate the media landscape, as well as stock values, and their subscription services aren't going anywhere. If observing this annoys you, I can't help that.

 

[KaNesDeath]

Why?

You better get used to it, because consoles are going away. The tech is at a point where you don't need them. And that's right now. 10 years from now, Sony and Microsoft will just be offering subscription fees for their games, as they can and will all be streamed through apps on your TV. They can't wait to stop spending billions of dollars on the manufacturing costs of consoles.

Playstation CEO came out a week ago stating their primary business model moving forward still deals in exclusive titles. Where these exclusive games will come out on Playstation and a year later be released to Pc. With the goal of that year hiatus driving Pc users to buy a Playstation for day one access. This shows Sony is decades behind in their thinking towards Pc users. Also shows hubris thinking their exclusives will continually push Playstation unit sales.

Streaming gameplay through Cloud servers is decades away from standardization. Server and data costs alone make it unviable. Then you get into other negatives like latency and network infrastructure of countries/regions. *For context Battlestate Games spent ~30 million on Escape from Tarkov servers just in 2022.

 

[method115]

. Also shows hubris thinking their exclusives will continually push Playstation unit sales.

It's funny you mention this because Digital Foundry discussed this as well. While they all agreed they didn't think this was a strategy that would work in any meaningful way. One of them pointed out that all of his friends got rid of their Xbox's while at the same time they all still have PS5's including him.

There are a subset of gamers out there who simply do not want to wait for a games to come to PC. How many? I don't know but I'm sure these companies have a general idea. Sony requiring PC users to create accounts for all their games will give them more info into just how many people are doing that. I'm sure from there they will adjust or keep their current strategy depending on what the data says. The game sales they have on PC make me think it's maybe higher than you would think. Either that or PC gamers just don't give a shit about Sony exclusives because the sales are actually pretty low.

 

[My Spot]

It's funny you mention this because Digital Foundry discussed this as well. While they all agreed they didn't think this was a strategy that would work in any meaningful way. One of them pointed out that all of his friends got rid of their Xbox's while at the same time they all still have PS5's including him.

That's because the PS5 has actual exclusives (or at least timed exclusives). I think MS goofed making every XB1/XBS&X game day one PC releases.

 

[Strychnine]

 

[llperez22]

looks very much like alien isolation. First person walk around and be quiet so the monster doesnt find you while you travel around solving puzzles. Could be really good.

 

[Strychnine]

looks very much like alien isolation. First person walk around and be quiet so the monster doesnt find you while you travel around solving puzzles. Could be really good.

Alien isolation was a gem. That game was so much fun. I hope this one turns out to be as good.

 

[clutchCAT420]

Glad i got my xbxX during the holidays, $300. The new digital xboxs and the pricing are a joke. I almost fell for that trick last year when they released leaked info of the " brooklyn" xboxX. I was going to wait for that one but glad i didn't. Lmao

 

[GtehMVP]

Anyone here play any games on the cloud/streaming, and on a Steam Deck?

I really want to play Dragon Age Origins at some point, but the PC version is a mess. I've tried every fan patch/workaround out there, but it just doesn't work well. Emulating the 360 and PS3 versions kept crashing for me.

It looks like the only way to do it for someone without an Xbox is through the cloud for the 360 version. This could be a great solution as I'd be able to stream it on my Steam Deck, mitigating the dated graphics.

How do you find the experience latency wise? I have a fast connection at home, and can hook up my Deck via lan. I'd probably want to play it on the go, so an option is tethering to my phone's 5g connection. Have any of you streamed using your phone's data? Does it eat up a lot of data?

Looking it up, it looks like it streams at 720p upscaled to 1080p 60FPS on an Xbox. Can you change the resolution to 1280? I guess it would keep the 60 FPS?

 

[rikwebb]

Anyone here play any games on the cloud/streaming, and on a Steam Deck?

I really want to play Dragon Age Origins at some point, but the PC version is a mess. I've tried every fan patch/workaround out there, but it just doesn't work well. Emulating the 360 and PS3 versions kept crashing for me.

It looks like the only way to do it for someone without an Xbox is through the cloud for the 360 version. This could be a great solution as I'd be able to stream it on my Steam Deck, mitigating the dated graphics.

How do you find the experience latency wise? I have a fast connection at home, and can hook up my Deck via lan. I'd probably want to play it on the go, so an option is tethering to my phone's 5g connection. Have any of you streamed using your phone's data? Does it eat up a lot of data?

Looking it up, it looks like it streams at 720p upscaled to 1080p 60FPS on an Xbox. Can you change the resolution to 1280? I guess it would keep the 60 FPS?

Xcloud only goes up to 1080p

 

[Madmick]

Anyone here play any games on the cloud/streaming, and on a Steam Deck?

I really want to play Dragon Age Origins at some point, but the PC version is a mess. I've tried every fan patch/workaround out there, but it just doesn't work well. Emulating the 360 and PS3 versions kept crashing for me.

It looks like the only way to do it for someone without an Xbox is through the cloud for the 360 version. This could be a great solution as I'd be able to stream it on my Steam Deck, mitigating the dated graphics.

How do you find the experience latency wise? I have a fast connection at home, and can hook up my Deck via lan. I'd probably want to play it on the go, so an option is tethering to my phone's 5g connection. Have any of you streamed using your phone's data? Does it eat up a lot of data?

Looking it up, it looks like it streams at 720p upscaled to 1080p 60FPS on an Xbox. Can you change the resolution to 1280? I guess it would keep the 60 FPS?

It will eat up huge amounts of data. Depending on the device, it can run all the way up to ~50 Mb/s (that's around where they cap it IIRC to manage their bandwidth burdens). That's more intensive than Netflix 4K streaming. At that rate, you would consume 22.5 GB of data in an hour.

On wired connections it's perfectly viable for single player games. You wouldn't even know you were playing via the Cloud if the image wasn't so blurry compared to what one is used to with a proper rig, and there is the occassional freeze-up. I've only spent a very limited amount of time testing phones and iPads, and it's sketchy. Android, iOS, doesn't matter. Maybe a Steam Deck will be better, but I doubt it, especially if it's being tethered via a hotspot. Too many links in that chain. A Windows laptop with a 300 Mb/s+ WiFi card that isn't too far from a Gen 5+ router...I bet that would work perfectly.

Xcloud only goes up to 1080p

And so it should. Going any higher is pointless with where we are right now, technologically speaking. NVIDIA does it just so they can flex the number, but they know it's silly. Even rendering at 4K on their side to stream out at 1080p is pretty dumb. Just introduces latency for no tangible benefit.

 

[GtehMVP]

It will eat up huge amounts of data. Depending on the device, it can run all the way up to ~50 Mb/s (that's around where they cap it IIRC to manage their bandwidth burdens). That's more intensive than Netflix 4K streaming. At that rate, you would consume 22.5 GB of data in an hour.

On wired connections it's perfectly viable for single player games. You wouldn't even know you were playing via the Cloud if the image wasn't so blurry compared to what one is used to with a proper rig, and there is the occassional freeze-up. I've only spent a very limited amount of time testing phones and iPads, and it's sketchy. Android, iOS, doesn't matter. Maybe a Steam Deck will be better, but I doubt it, especially if it's being tethered via a hotspot. Too many links in that chain. A Windows laptop with a 300 Mb/s+ WiFi card that isn't too far from a Gen 5+ router...I bet that would work perfectly.

And so it should. Going any higher is pointless with where we are right now, technologically speaking. NVIDIA does it just so they can flex the number, but they know it's silly. Even rendering at 4K on their side to stream out at 1080p is pretty dumb. Just introduces latency for no tangible benefit.

Thanks Mick. I have an adapter that let's me connect the Deck to my router if need be.

DAO is one of the several games I couldn't finish on my 360 as all my saves on my hard drive got corrupted when the drive failed. That game has been cursed for me. I think it's the last one from that list. Hopefully this does the trick!

 

[Strychnine]

A clawhammer(?) and flintlock that can both be upgraded!?!

Yes please.

 

[mixmastermo]

It appears xbox series has fallen behind xbox one sales at this point in their respective life cycles.

PS5 Continues To Outpace PS4 In Sales While Xbox Series Falls Behind Xbox One

The latest sales data has been released and it shows that the PS5 continues to outperform the PS4 and Xbox Series consoles in all metrics

insider-gaming.com

Gamepass FTW.

Just put Halo Gears and Forza on PS5 already.

 

[Strychnine]

 

[milliniar]

Today in Xbox rumor land.
Currently strictly a rumor.

Microsoft Could Stop Pushing Xbox Consoles In Europe, Other Regions

According to a new report, Microsoft could be changing how it markets the Xbox ecosystem throughout Europe and other regions.

insider-gaming.com

The marketing plans for Microsoft regarding its Xbox consoles could be changing in a major way. In the latest edition of Tom Warren’s “The Notepad” newsletter, the push to sell Xbox consoles in Europe and other regions could be going the way of the dodo bird.

According to a “tip” Warren received, Microsoft will reportedly stop marketing the Xbox console itself in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). Instead, the company will focus solely on Xbox Game Pass, cloud gaming, PC, and Xbox controllers.

“Microsoft has been struggling to sell Xbox Series S / X consoles in many countries across EMEA, and the tipster believes Microsoft will now allocate less console stock to Europe as a result,” he says.

 

[Madmick]

Friendly heads up. Last stop.

Final Update: Price Reductions Available Now on the Digital Xbox 360 Store – Closing July 29, 2024​