Ok, here's my take on the whole XBOX thing...
Yes, their messaging is unclear, their pick for what's exclusives or not is confusing, they're a mess, and there's still no logical reason for anyone to buy an XBOX over a PS5.
BUT....
They just turned over their whole leadership. They know they f'd up their last, like, 10 years. We know they know that, not just because Sharma is saying things, but because they put her in charge in the first place.
I dunno if any of you have been in a corporate environment with this kind of change over but I have and lemme tell you, it's bedlam. It's chaos. XBOX and Sharma absolutely do not know what they're doing yet. And that's ok!
Far be it from me to sympathize with these execs but to be honest, I don't think anyone knows what the "right" thing to do is. There's too much uncertainty.
- The economy is a paper fantasy of hope and bullshit. The backbone of the global economy- the dollar and secure trade backed by the US hegemony, is in the hands of a crazy baby. Anyone who says they know how to deal with this is full of shit.
- AI AI AI AI. The above allows companies to prayerfully cling to this mantra in lieu of anything else. And it's tricky because its productivity gains- in certain situations- are cataclysmic.
- Gaes take longer to make and are more expensive and as much as you want to counter that with indy this and authorship that, AAA gaming is and must be the economic backbone of the industry, the same way blockbusters must for Hollywood, regardless of short-lived trends here and there. If you really want to swear off AAA gaming then don't criticize Microsoft because by that metric, the only thing they can do to make you happy is to close their gaming efforts completely.
- The hardware costs are real. Yes, MS has a billion trillion dollars but no one can practically make and sell consumer hardware right now. It's just true. XBOX is dealing with the fact that they have to admit that they're "everything is an XBOX" cloud everything strategy was a bust at the same time as being unable to retreat to selling devices and discs like ins the old days. Their current confusing silly talking and marketing points are a result of this contradiction- they wanna trade on the good old days of green Xboxes and Halo while also not being to sell any of that because of market conditions. But what's the alternative- stubbornly lean into the cloud everything nonsense; give up consoles; kill XBOX entirely and just be a third party publisher (which was my prediction before Sharma took over)? Y'all would be reacting much more harshly to any of that than what is going on now.
tl'dr; XBOX is making shit up as they go. That's not inherently a bad thing. If they were a pro sports team, we'd call this a "rebuilding" period. Those often end up in humiliating disaster but sometimes end in glory. (Go Knicks!)
The only thing Sharma said recently that means a damn to me is that she claims XBOX can and should be the gaming leader in 4 years. She is right- they freaking own everything, that is a claim that is not arrogant it's just reality. The big mystery for us is- if they're successful, will it actually benefit the gamer/consumer? And in 4 years who knows what anything will look like.
