Xbox No Longer Investing In XCloud Growth

TLDR: The XCloud and Fortnite “success” was all bs. The player count didn’t turn into revenue growth. (A trend for them) Xbox isn’t investing in the growth of XCloud. Yet Xbox is putting the future of their brand in the hands of Cloud gaming (If Game Pass grows big enough per Phil Spencer)

We are running out of narratives driven by their PR fluff pieces…

Jesus Christ Microsft really are leaving gaming behind after their AI advancements, aren't they?

"see if we can find market fit" is a big oof.

No wonder they're spending all that money on ABK. They need native mobile games ASAP.

Wait, I just realized the CMA tried to kill the ABK deal over a dead service. lol

Meh. Outside of perhaps doing a quick and dirty try out of a game if I don’t feel like downloading it I have no real need or desire to play my games via streaming.

He's not wrong, I dont see the issue.

Are we arguing that MS should invest heavily in making mobile games stream only? That they should pump more money into XCloud rather than working to grow what they already have?

I feel like some want them to just keep dumping money into areas that they already bash them for? What kind of sense does that make?

MS bought Activision for the mobile arm and needs to invest more into creating more mobile experiences. Mobile investment is how they get to 100M Game Pass subs, not XCloud streaming.

I don't know about you guys but its too damn much bad news at once. They should've spread out the leak over a month or two, so everyone could milk each and every leak, guys. Come on, do a better job at drip feeding us, guys.

Please make at least 10 more Xbox something something threads in the next hour guys. You can do it!

Eh. I doubt it would reach that point.

We need a "Grim Day At Microsoft" sticky. But god i loved my History Channel thread so much, and @davillain killed with no questions asked.

Separate threads about the leak are fine as long as they are not copying info from another thread.

Third generation alt is not known for being a drama king without cause.😂 You need to be concerned, it is the law.

Seriously! I explained it why it was locked and as for you Hardwenzen, go play some video games like the rest of us.

There is enough evidence indicating that playing games is not a thing for him.

Um… The leaks tell us that the Xbox console targeting 2028 is a cloud console hybrid. The info is contradicting your hypothetical… Which is par for the course today… Cloud is the future vs we aren’t investing in Cloud. Xbox is only 10%-15% of our business model vs if Game Pass doesn’t grow enough by 2027 we may be out of the business. All their words… Xbox has no clear identity or direction.

You got triggered even in this thread.😂 Now point me to the hypothetical that I made in this thread. I will wait.🤭

@Pedro: You didn’t make the hypothetical. The other person in the post chain did. I was addressing both of you… You’ve become so defensive that somehow you’ve flushed forum basics 101…

I’m not triggered. I’m just showing you and your buddies what Phil Spencer said and watching y’all spin. It’s quite entertaining. You have yet to address anything, just insult posters here. It’s an interesting strategy

🤭

Who or what was insulted?🤔

So you admit to addressing nothing in this thread? 🤭😂🤣

Now I see why Xbox doesn’t pay y’all

First, you claim "The info is contradicting your hypothetical". When asked about the hypothetical you stated "You didn’t make the hypothetical.". Now when asked about who or what was insulted, you bailed.😂 I got you spinning.

@ghostofgolden: Using the cloud to power parts of the game and "cloud gaming" are two different things.

Man, I'm so glad I didn't buy a series x. What a disaster it has been.

Receipts really hurt you don’t they?

You should know.(ABK)🤭

@randy_lahey: What are you talking about?

First, I was addressing two of you in that post. The other poster in the chain made the hypothetical, not you. But I’ve explained that already.

Next, you called me a “drama king,” and then stated another user doesn’t play video games. Lite little jabs, but still insults. You’re being much more combative in other threads. But when you can’t counter any of the substance in these leaks, what else do you have?

I can take whatever you wanna throw my way. I’ll just respond with Phil Spencer and other Xbox staff quotes for you to ignore…

That’s what you’re rolling with? Really?

@ghostofgolden: It's called "being in the technology sector ", bro; which I have been for a long time now.

They are different things.

Gotta give props to dabear. Has been failing all day trying his best to damage control, and still has the strength to keep going. Pretty powerful lemming tbh.

I’m just gonna let this one go… It’s tough, but I’m not trying to get myself in trouble because of this board again…

Than he's a bigger fakeboy than I took him for😅

sounds like what we already knew: most people are using cloud as a "feature" of Xbox (ie they already game on console or PC) rather than cloud being an entirely different market..

as such, they are making an adjustment to halt further investment until they can get device expansion to an acceptable level (ie. SmartTV apps, etc) or until the market itself grows beyond the current usage habits..

not sure why we should be "concerned" but, okay..

Device expansion requires further investment. Unless you think LG, Samsung and them are gonna put the service on their products out of the kindness of their hearts.

read the last paragraph of your own OP..

Eh, just "insert concerned gif here" lol :P

@Antwan3K: Existing partnership with the service being added to 2021 TVs… What year is it? And the leak is from early last year. Where’s that Logitech device?

Again, they aren’t investing in expansion, so they can’t hit that “acceptable level” you speak of

do you actually read or do you just auto-respond?..

I said, "they are making an adjustment to halt further investment until they can get device expansion to an acceptable level (ie. SmartTV apps, etc"..

if that level doesn't happen, why would they continue to invest?.. makes perfect business sense and doesn't affect me at all as an end-user.. again, why should i be "concerned"?..

Antwan... How do you get device expansion to an acceptable level without further investment?!?! Your response to this post makes no sense. You're just talking in circles of defense

Makes perfect sense, the cloud is the only thing holding back the Activision deal. They’ll make way more money from cloud licensing than they will from xcloud

again, read the last paragraph of your own OP..

they will continue with their current roadmap of device expansion but are halting further investment.. IF device expansion ever gets to an acceptable level (via PC app usage, mobile app usage, SmartTV app usage, etc) then they can reevalute.. IF there continues to be a lack of an independent market for cloud gaming, then investments in that area will be halted indefinitely (which makes perfect business sense)..

this is not that difficult to understand..

Sigh…

How do they achieve device expansion without investment?!? Xbox needs the TV app to be on LG, TCL, Samsung TVs beyond the ‘21 and 22’ models etc. How do they do that without investing in the expansion? It’s not gonna happen magically.

Use your brain. I know you have one.

@ghostofgolden: sigh.. let me ask you a question:

do you think 2023 Samsung TVs don't have the Game Pass app?

follow-up question:

do you think the Game Pass app has ceased to exist on PCs and mobile devices?

there's a TON of potential customers who own smartphones, PCs, and SmartTVs.. but "cloud gaming" has yet to cross over into an independent market.. not yet anyway.. so until that current TON of potential customers switch their gaming habits towards cloud (without already being a console gamer or a PC gamer), there's no point in investing in that non-existent market beyond what they already have..

it's not that complicated.. particularly when you stop trying to shoehorn everything into your narrow agenda..

@ghostofgolden: revenue growth is possible but there are too many gatekeepers. On mobile market where MS is trying to crack, apple illegally bars 3rd party platforms like gamepass from being on the app store, to protect their profits. Android is better, since they allow gamepass, but they have their own restrictions in place.

Its amazing how the US government had the sack to threaten to break up MS back in the 90s, and charge them a record $11 Billion for their monopoly tactics. Without those fines and regulatory actions, neither google or apple would exist today. Yet here we are in 2023 and both apple and google are allowed to do what MS did in the 90s. This is the problem with government...got their heads up their asses.

Apple is working on sideloading apps so it's just a matter of time until GamePass is on it.

That being said, cloud gaming on mobile still isn't a clear market for growth (MS even admits this). Microsoft's best bet is to start integrating native mobile games into GamePass. The flip side of that is Apple themselves could start bringing in more traditional games (through deals or acquisitions) onto Apple Arcade and, really put the brakes on GamePass.

The next 10 years are going to be hella interesting.

Game Pass subscription growth has come to a screeching halt. I provided you a Phil email regarding this in another thread. What they have done with the app and streaming services isn’t working. Your solution is to leave it the way it currently is and hope for the best?!?!

Here we are nearing Q4 2023 and you’re still using the word “potential” to describe a massive group of consumers that have minimally responded to the current Xbox strategy. You just wanna do more of that…

What you both are describing would require further investment into the XCloud service and strategy. Xbox has no interest in that.

And yeah, the government is a HUGE problem. Until we get the money out of politics, they’re gonna have their grubby little mitts all over everything.

@ghostofgolden:

XCloud is streaming.

I'm saying Xbox starts putting full on mobile games like Candy Crush, Fallout Shelter, Mighty DOOM, Hearthstone, Diablo Immortal, Minecraft Mobile etc. on GamePass. Games being F2P makes it tricky but they could give out DLC, free content packs etc. Premium (paid) mobile games and, native traditional games would be the next step. Ex. Imagine downloading and playing the next Gears native on your iPhone.

Microsoft absolutely needs native games on mobile if they want to seriously take a crack at it.

@Nonstop-Madness: I got you now. Thanks for clearing that up and I totally agree

you didn't answer my questions.. also, it's not "my solution".. are you mentally okay?.. kinda a serious question at this point..

again, "cloud gaming" hasn't grown into an independent market yet.. maybe it will get there eventually but right now it's just a "feature" that current Xbox gamers use to try out new games without installing them and/or continue gaming on the go..

IF that dynamic changes, they can reevaluate.. until then, Microsoft/Xbox has halted further investment into that non-existent market.. if "cloud gaming" never becomes a thing, then that's a smart business decision.. what part of this simple concept are you still not understanding?..