Friday, January 17th 2025
Microsoft Refutes Reports of Xbox Division Facing Closure Back in 2021
Microsoft's gaming division faced an uncertain future back in 2021, according to an article published by The Information mid-week. The long-form piece mainly focuses on Xbox's current predicaments, but the wider gaming press picked up on surprising allegations from days past. The story goes that Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO's, presided over two paths: either keep Xbox Game Studios going, or mothball the whole operation. History shows us that he kept his company's gaming department alive—a series of acquisitions (during and since 2021) have expanded development and publishing operations—but Xbox's journey has been rocky in the ensuing years. Investors and industry analysts believe that Microsoft's $68.7 billion takeover of Activision/Blizzard/King—back in 2023—has not boosted overall revenues to expected levels.
Insider Gaming has managed to make contact with a Microsoft spokesperson—extracted comments have been published in an "exclusive" report. The brand ambassador insisted that Nadella remains resolute about his company being "all in on gaming"—the CEO never entertained the notion of Microsoft winding down "its games business entirely." Industry experts have also criticized Xbox's Game Pass business model—many believe that the service's reach has faltered. The spokesperson commented on these opinions—proposing that engagement on Xbox platforms is "at an all-time high," helped in part by the recent launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Additionally, Microsoft believes that its audience count is in a healthy spot, with: "well over 500 million monthly players and over the last year, we've seen consistent growth in monthly users on cloud".
Sources:
The Information, Wccftech, Business Insider (image source), Insider Gaming
Insider Gaming has managed to make contact with a Microsoft spokesperson—extracted comments have been published in an "exclusive" report. The brand ambassador insisted that Nadella remains resolute about his company being "all in on gaming"—the CEO never entertained the notion of Microsoft winding down "its games business entirely." Industry experts have also criticized Xbox's Game Pass business model—many believe that the service's reach has faltered. The spokesperson commented on these opinions—proposing that engagement on Xbox platforms is "at an all-time high," helped in part by the recent launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Additionally, Microsoft believes that its audience count is in a healthy spot, with: "well over 500 million monthly players and over the last year, we've seen consistent growth in monthly users on cloud".
35 Comments on Microsoft Refutes Reports of Xbox Division Facing Closure Back in 2021
Today, a 'blockbuster' game with high production standards and with a strong set of mechanics and still the nice little details and easter eggs that you would expect in the most obscure titles just doesn't happen anymore... oh wait... Baldur's Gate 3 exists :) Elden Ring exists. Horizon... and many more. Its not the next-gen Fable, no. But these are games that tick all the boxes just the same, don't they? And was Fable that perfect... I don't know about that.
I'm personally quite convinced that studios in their lifetime manage to create one, maybe two to three amazing titles, more often than not building on the success of the one and expanding upon it further. After that? Difficult. There are very few teams that can reinvent things well every time. More often, you just need a new team of people fresh together to get something truly new.
Today the PS5 and the Series X are essentially "the same". Not Literally, but figuratively.....they offer almost nothing the other does not, even down to performance variances measured in barely double-digits and that depends on how the dev's execute the code. The PC is the common factor.
Microsoft understands this because they are a software company. Sony hates this, because they are primarily a Hardware Company. Game developers hate both because they want to make the most money possible on a successful game now that the Gaming Sheep (that's us) have become self-aware that we have the ability to say "You know what, this thing you're producing....kinda sucks" and we've stopped preordering and started protesting.
Stop Preordering Everything. Learn to appreciate what we have, and what we have had. Make the gaming industry take our wants seriously and not just churn out whatever they want and expect us to show up at the trough.
Sony releasing a $700 system that takes 30fps games and turns them into 60fps with "barely observable" increases in visual fidelity is insulting, MOSTLY because they promised (I know, I know) the PS5 would be that 60fps OMG machine.
Microsoft has, in a fit of temporary (no doubt) sobriety that none of us saw coming, said "yeah uh, we're just sticking with the hardware that is out there for right now..."........my guess is they will leverage Dell and Asus and whoever else to start turning Xbox into a "Brand" of standards that PC code bases running Windows 11 or some kind of Steam Deck/Xbox Kernel Hybrid will support natively, aka: A pc that is a game console first with an option to go Mouse/Keyboard and run WORD and so forth once you open up some widows, but the thing basically boots to an xbox/steam interface that is 100% controllable with a joypad.
Sony needs people to keep buying hardware revisions, Microsoft....just needs people to stop buying their hardware and move their gaming to WIndows because.....they own that market completely. If Sony's best games are on Windows, then the future is Sony's walled garden and handful of exclusives versus all the games that run on Windows PC's of a certain spec.
Nintendo, meanwhile, is Nintendo and for the purposes of this argument kinda just does it's own thing.
They can't sustain exclusives with the sales of Series falling off a cliff and that's precisely why they are announcing more and more titles for PS5 and my best guess is that they will be among the publishers with most titles for the Switch 2 launch. Lets not forget they've been releasing absolutely everything day and date on Steam. They even phased out the Bethesda launcher and gave away Steam keys instead of Windows Store ones.
It's like they are trying to save face in the weirdest roundabout manner with a (very expensive) controlled demolition.
there is no technical reason for them not to be running the same software.
so yeah Microsoft just doing Gaming as a Service on pc and the console would probably better for their bottom line and be great for kids
Those names are associated with successful games 15 years ago, but clearly corporate greed pushed all the talent away and all that is left is a high-churn rate of new staff trying to get a big AAA studio on their CV so that they can get out of the oppressive sweatshop and work somewhere making actually new IP for a company that doesn't try to satisfy shareholder dividends above making a quality product that ensures the studio has a future.