It didn't end up being the system seller quality game they might have wished for, so why not get some more sales out of it. Nobody is gonna base their choice between Series X or PS5 on Starfield, but a lot of PS5 owners would indulge in purchasing the game out of curiosity. The maths make sense.

The problem is, you can extend this sentiment to most if not all of the XBox console exclusives that have been released for a good while now. They have unfortunately failed at producing a killer app for far too long at this point. Ever since Mattrick killed the momentum of the brand, they have never been able to recover it.

As much as I don't want a future in which PS5 is uncontested in the console space (Nintendo is too much its own thing to count as direct competition imo), it is starting to look like, from all angles, it just makes sense for Microsoft to focus on expanding Gamepass and their games as much as possible across all platforms because there's more money in that than in salvaging the XBox hardware brand.

[–] slimerancher 21 points 10 months ago (2 children)

As a PS5 owner, if Xbox stops giving them competition, that would be very bad for all of us.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

Yeah, at the very least it would result in a brutal deterioration of the value proposition of future Playstation hardware. The harsh truth is that a large majority of Playstation players would not consider moving to PC or Switch 2 as a viable alternative, and Sony knows that, and would price accordingly. We all saw what happened the last time they felt they were uncontested in the market when they unveiled the PS3 and its pricing, but this time there would not be a 360 to punish them for it.
There is not a world in which a hypothetical PS6 isn't at least 599 ( without the hardware to make up for it) if it doesn't have a direct competitor. And that would have its own domino effect on Switch and PC hardware pricing... what are you gonna do, go to the overpriced PS6? Pleaaaaase.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Agreed and the space is now too expensive for an upstart like Lenovo

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

At this point it's not even just about it being too expensive for an upstart, it's about being too expensive, too hard, and not at all worth the risk/reward proposition for anyone.
Microsoft is the largest public company in the world and they failed at it! Coming from two successful previous generations of products! Getting in in the market as an unproven entity at this point would be suicidal. Not to speak of the fact that the requirements to enter as a player in the market today are 10x more than when Microsoft entered the market with the XBox. When they unveiled the XBox, a half-decent network infrastructure for gaming was revolutionary; nowadays, an almost-perfect infrastructure with a good digital store is a minimum requirement.

Quite ironically, many of the players that could plausibly throw their name in the hat already have their fingers in gaming in other ways that don't exactly align with launching a domestic console. Apple is currently pushing for more ports of current AAA games to iOS and Mac; Facebook (I refuse to acknowledge their rebrand) is pushing Quest as its main platform and I imagine a traditional console would clash with that; NVIDIA provides hardware for Nintendo, sells gaming hardware for PC and a cloud gaming service, and I guess a console kinda clashes with all of that; Amazon seemed more interested in becoming a publisher than anything else when it comes to gaming; Alphabet probably still has PTSD from the whole Stadia fiasco...

Like, I don't know, I don't see a fuck you-tier company that could plausibly pull it off and at the same time would be interested in it. Tencent maybe? It's not looking good, honestly.

[–] Defaced 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Valve, that's who would get in on the market. They already made a killing with the steam deck and there have been talks of a dedicated steam console again, like they have prototypes of consoles in their offices. I'm not talking about another steam machine scenario either, I'm talking dedicated valve designed hardware like the index and deck. They have the storefront and the network architecture to support the hardware. I'm already using my deck as a switch replacement and a console plugged into my TV with a USB-C hub.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You know what, you might be right, a second attempt at the concept of a Steam Machine, but this time done in a way that, you know, actually makes sense, with a single super-official SKU, with a lot of abstraction from the "PC" part of it (which Steam Deck has already set the field for) could potentially work.
But they did it so, so fucking badly last time, that I won't believe it until I see it.

[–] bruhduh 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Steam deck already successful, they just need to make steam deck but stationary and few times more powerful which next gen amd apus already providing, quite simple mission, and yes, you can flash Linux on mini pc with AMD hardware and have it, hovewer, why people who buy consoles not buying pc in the first place?, because console works out of the box, so valve can aim in that spot

[–] RGB3x3 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Stadia was such a funny story, imo. Nobody thought it would last given Google's track record of killing products. Then to try to get into the gaming industry, an industry notoriously impossible to break into... And lo and behold, they failed and killed Stadia.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

The fact that the one thing about Stadia constantly pratted by the press and public was "When will Google kill it?" impacted its growth profoundly. Google's culture killed the Stadia, not the lack of investment. And as a company, they are in bad shape product and leadership wise.

[–] bruhduh 2 points 10 months ago

If they made it gamepass netflix like then it might have taken off, but they required to buy games that you don't own, even now it causes outrage and back in the day? They was delusional with that idea that you don't own what your buy