The End of Xbox is Here

[Matricks]

XBOX trans into XBOT XBORG.
These are all Brandnew XBOX Legions. U CANT BEAT XBOXXX...
Gears Win of Console War, when Nintendont and Fony cry.

 

[Izzy]

I've thought this for years and still hold out hope we'll see a nice big industry collapse on a scale we've never seen just to try and get some sort of reset on the entire gaming sphere. It won't happen completely since there's so many avenues and options (PC and mobile being practically different worlds of the same industry for example) but I can see Xbox and Playstation hitting the gutter sooner rather than later if Steam OS or Steam Machine 2.0's start to pop up.

The collapse of FPS whores and Twitch??? ...Sign me up.

 

[ThatOneLum ThatOneLum]

Watching people praise the crash of one of their primary hobbies sure is interesting xD

tbf people are more praising the downfall of the current, modern, commercial version of our hobby.

All these sick AF old games we enjoy playing ain't going anywhere as long as places like RGT exist.

 

[Livekraft]

XBOX trans into XBORG.
These are all Brandnew XBOX Legions. U CANT BEAT XBOXXX...
Gears Win of Console War, when Nintendont and Fony cry.

I'm waiting to an Alienware Xbox handheld. I wouldn't pay 1000 buckaroos for a Lenovo or an Asus lmao.

 

[Izzy]

It's almost like people bellyaching on Reddit about this issue. Let's see, I just gave it up before it got THAT bad. I gave up on membership for two reasons, I got bored and most of the games I had were RPGs. Was the world gonna blow up if I kept feeding them money on a membership that didn't have much in its lineup? Same with PSN. Only reason why I would keep it around is cause they got a lineup I could go for, but I don't see myself paying over $50 for membership. Granted, I'd be able to unlock the games I had before, but I can buy them to keep them unlocked. Now if I really wanted the game THAT badly? Multiplayer without paying? Steam. Rather have something for casual play with friends for free without having to pay for a service to do that.

 

[Matricks]

I'm waiting to an Alienware Xbox handheld. I wouldn't pay 1000 buckaroos for a Lenovo or an Asus lmao.

I have cheap new MSI Claw A1M U5 135 for $350, or the U7 155H around 450.
Can play everything old/new pc and emulators switch, ps2,ps3,psp,gc,n64,saturn,dc,3ds, etc finally pretty playable.
Downside is battery duration of 2hrs, so need mostly pluggedin mains.

 

[Sorion]

I have cheap new MSI Claw A1M U5 135 for $350, or the U7 155H around 450.
Can play everything old/new pc and emulators switch, ps2,ps3,psp,gc,n64,saturn,dc,3ds, etc finally pretty playable.
Downside is battery duration of 2hrs, so need mostly pluggedin mains.

If that MSI claw ever gets SteamOS you should give it a try, the devices that already got steam OS support saw a nice increase in battery life because windows 11 has a lot of unnecessary background processes which drain a lot of battery and performance, man, even at making Operating systems, their main money maker, microsoft has a lot of problems

 

[Dodgykebaab]

I guess Sony next

I think the big difference is that Sony corporation as a whole is heavily invested in the video game market, as the largest percentage of their profits come from video games they are most fight to keep that going.

Where as with Microsoft, selling gaming hardware is a tiny blip in their overall income. So dropping it is just shredding dead weight

 

[Jeff]

even if they buy it back, it's not the same Rare Ware from the early 2000's most people from back in the day already left the company

So my best bet is to have PlayTonic the new studio created by former Rare staff to team with Nintendo for once.

 

[Dany28]

Who would have thought that so many people here would be interested in the Xbox future but I'm not entirely convinced that the Xbox is now at its end. I think they're making a show out of it, now is actually a good tactic so the Xbox stays in the conversation. I wouldn't believe everything that is written or said on the Internet much of it is fake news.

 

[Zerpina]

I highly doubt Xbox is finished....

They may not make any consoles after this, but Xbox will be around in one form or another.
As @Dodgykebaab said, this is just a blip on Microsoft's income, but it's a large blip. I don't know the exact yearly amount, as of July of this year Microsoft has raked in around 23.5 billion this year alone so far from Xbox, according to Google.

So I'm going to assume that's correct or close to it. Even for Microsoft, 23 billion isn't something to sneeze at. And as long as it keeps printing money, the system and brand aren't going anywhere.
Yes, they may pull a Steam Deck with the Xbox, but if you think for a moment it won't be branded Xbox something or other... And people won't throw money at it, you're only fooling yourself.

 

[Lena CE]

Watching people praise the crash of one of their primary hobbies sure is interesting xD

If the hobby is propped up by evil corporations sucking the soul out of workers and the money out of consumers to create mediocre AAA products then I don't really see anything worth keeping around. If the AAA industry died tomorrow there will always still be indies and a handful of middle market studios makin neat stuff. I don't need Microsoft or Sony buying up, shutting down and cancelling a fuckton of games to get a Hollow Knight Silksong, after all.

 

[ShadowsofCreationAga]

If the hobby is propped up by evil corporations sucking the soul out of workers and the money out of consumers to create mediocre AAA products then I don't really see anything worth keeping around. If the AAA industry died tomorrow there will always still be indies and a handful of middle market studios makin neat stuff. I don't need Microsoft or Sony buying up, shutting down and cancelling a fuckton of games to get a Hollow Knight Silksong, after all.

I mean... you kind of do, unless you are purely a PC gamer. No console manufacturers means no consoles. A hard thought to grasp, I know.

And even if you ARE a PC only gamer, no consoles means a smaller market. There are a lot of people who aren't going to switch to PC even if there is no alternative. Some people will just stop playing. Less consumers means less incentive for ANYONE to make games as their is less potential profit.

Of course some games will still be made, but as I already stated in another post, less competition is always a bad thing.

Edit: Also, not for nothing, but pretty much EVERY hobby is 'propped up by evil corporations'. Welcome to the real world, where money talks.

 

[Zerpina]

but pretty much EVERY hobby is 'propped up by evil corporations'. Welcome to the real world, where money talks.

This is a hard truth and a difficult pill to swallow, but it’s true.

Whatever you like to do, if it involves buying anything to support it, there is a company making the product and a company above that telling them what to make, and so on. Unless you are playing a self made tabletop role playing game with plain paper, No. 2 pencils, and using something in place of dice, your hobby is funding some big corporate machine.

 

[petran79]

"Another interesting tidbit: Microsoft could've made more from Xbox Game Pass than it did from hardware, at least when it comes to revenue. Our findings show that hardware was down to $1.01 billion throughout the Holiday 2024 period."

So if you lose Gamepass subscribers on top of hardware sales losses, things are not so bright

Read more: https://www.tweaktown.com/news/1028...aten-console-sales-in-holiday-2024/index.html

 

[Lena CE]

I mean... you kind of do, unless you are purely a PC gamer. No console manufacturers means no consoles. A hard thought to grasp, I know.

And even if you ARE a PC only gamer, no consoles means a smaller market. There are a lot of people who aren't going to switch to PC even if there is no alternative. Some people will just stop playing. Less consumers means less incentive for ANYONE to make games as their is less potential profit.

Of course some games will still be made, but as I already stated in another post, less competition is always a bad thing.

Edit: Also, not for nothing, but pretty much EVERY hobby is 'propped up by evil corporations'. Welcome to the real world, where money talks.

This is gonna be an essay of sorts but idk I trimmed it as much as I could while still feeling I got my point across lol. Sorry for being overly verbose.

Who is really losing out there though? You get a PC that costs a little more than a console (especially with all these price hikes they're getting) and have a perfectly serviceable 1080p indie/middle market machine that can even tackle most AAA games at low-medium settings. You'll save so much on games themselves and avoid paying monthly subscriptions to play online to the point that you just make your money back on investment. Not to mention all the pros that people always talk about when it comes to just having a PC generally because of all you can do with it. Consoles haven't had a meaningful distinction from PCs in over 12 years.

Besides, even if someone is viscerally uncomfortable at the thought of playing games on a PC and they jump through all the mental hoops to justify avoiding the platform entirely, you have decades of already released games on consoles. Video games could have stopped releasing in like 2010 and you would likely not have enough time in your life to play every worthwhile release, especially if you like a variety of genres. If new games stop releasing entirely - even indies - I'll just focus on the thousands of games from the decades of history we have to find what to play next. This obviously goes for indies too. 19000 games released on Steam in 2024 alone. Even if 95% of those are some form of ultraslop that was made to gunk up algorithms or asset flip for some quick bucks you have about 950 games that are still worth your time. Most people haven't come close to playing that many in their lifetime, let alone beating that many.

Competition just doesn't matter as much as people think it does.

I'm involved in the local art scenes in most US towns I've lived in. From local bands to local painters, filmmakers, fashion designers etc. Most of them will never make it big because by design the system can't allow the majority of amazing and talented artists to make it big. The idea that fewer people will be able to pay their bills making games does suck, but I sincerely doubt if the AAA scene collapsed and Nintendo and PC or even just PC became the only platform that people would suddenly lose all ability to make ends meat or would lose all passion for making games. And again, there are more releases in a year than most will have time for in their lifetime.

As for the edit, it doesn't really change my point. Saying "Yea I know you don't care if the shitty corporations die in this hobby but don't you know that there are shitty companies in other hobbies?" Like ok? I wouldn't mind them failing either to be honest. Most communities/hobbies don't /require/ these companies nor are we ultimately benefitted by their existence.

I don't need Microsoft to make consoles to have access to making games if that's what I want to do. I don't need evil record companies to exist to make music. I don't need Disney to exist to make a movie. If you want to make big budget stuff under the current market system and/or get personally rich within the respective industry, then yea you need the big companies in many (but not all) cases. Can't say I'm someone that cares about that too much though and even most of the people that do care will never be lucky enough to be one of the few that manage to make mondo bucks off a creative endeavor. Again, by design most people in the system have to fail or barely survive in order for there to be enough resources to pool at the top to make them megarich.

 

[Dodgykebaab]

I highly doubt Xbox is finished....

They may not make any consoles after this, but Xbox will be around in one form or another.
As @Dodgykebaab said, this is just a blip on Microsoft's income, but it's a large blip. I don't know the exact yearly amount, as of July of this year Microsoft has raked in around 23.5 billion this year alone so far from Xbox, according to Google.

So I'm going to assume that's correct or close to it. Even for Microsoft, 23 billion isn't something to sneeze at. And as long as it keeps printing money, the system and brand aren't going anywhere.
Yes, they may pull a Steam Deck with the Xbox, but if you think for a moment it won't be branded Xbox something or other... And people won't throw money at it, you're only fooling yourself.

View attachment 116556

Microsoft will definitely be involved with video games for a long time considering their investments; but I see them becoming software only, which does make sense considering Microsoft is a software company first and foremost.

Although Xbox as a console brand is at the end of its life, Microsoft Studios will continue on for many more years yet.

 

[KenaiPhoenix]

Its been a corpse for while, just look at Halo. My take is that when they show their super "Combat evolved in UE5 remake that will solve everything" and people realize how ass it looks its going to be over definitely.

The death sentence begin with when the corpos got in control at the end of the 360 era, when they pushed for the Xone that was not even designed to play video games. The rest is story: Halo death, xbox games on all platforms, etc.

Next Xbox will just be W11 with Xbox overlay, and if they are retarded enough, they will charge for online gaming making it the worse deal in existence. But I doubt it, they are just going to be worse Steammachines/Steamdecks.

Fanboys will claim "MS is still in the game", but we all will know it is not.

 

[Calunomnom]

This might be redundant to say, but given Microsoft’s current direction, they’re better off acting as a third-party publisher. Nowadays, their “console brand” feels more like an extension of a larger platform ecosystem, similar to how Windows runs across third-party computer hardware.

The problem is, they’ve stumbled repeatedly on the software side for years and it's becoming cumbersome to keep giving them money with very little output in return. If Microsoft wants Xbox to have a strong, lasting presence in the industry, there needs to be a serious shift in leadership direction. The brand currently lacks both focus and emotional connection.

 

[iamthemilkman]

It looks like it really is the end of Xbox as a hardware company:

Without going into too much detail, not long after the last round of layoffs (next one should be coming in Q1 26 btw - and its going to be just as massive as the last one), some rumblings out of Xbox starting coming out that were a little hard to believe.

The ramifications of the CoD GP gambit not working out were just starting to get properly measured, but the thing that really stuck out to me was that suddenly, really concrete plans for actual MS Xbox HW went from being definitive, to up in the air, which was really startling given that this thing was meant to be out relatively soon. It was one of those situations where, despite folks being told 'hey, we wanna pull the trigger on this in 2026', the steps you would need to take in the lead up to delivering a new console gen weren't being met. Lots of things that were 'sure things' started getting pushed. The Costco retailer pulling Xbox, and apparently they are one of many that we'll learn about soon, told me all I needed to know.

To sum it up: the future of Xbox is software publishing, with a significantly honed-in focus on profitable IPs (CoD, WoW, Minecraft, Candy Crush, Forza Horizon), Cloud gaming being the home of the 'Xbox platform', transititioning GamePass into basically becoming the point of entry subscription for xCloud access (which will continue to drive its price tag higher btw, they aren't done there just yet either), and releasing their software on any device that has a marketplace and users willing to buy their titles.

Maybe some OEM thing will take up the Xbox name, but given what is clearly a collapse in favorable mindshare and faith in said brand, i'm not even sure a 3rd party OEM is gonna want to have an Xbox console by the time MS is done with their reorienting of the division.

This is from a credible leaker and journalist Tom Warren backs him up:

I will say he knows a lot of what goes on internally, I don't think he's a bad source. I think he knows a lot about .. (he got cut off here but I think he was going to say internally again)

 

[ThunderBoy]

We are witnessing the end of Xbox

 

[Tortuga]

Honestly it's a miracle xbox still alive
If Microsoft didn't have infinite amount of money they would axe xbox decade ago.

Also game pass was ALWAYS a bad idea and terrible for video games.
I'm just glad majority finally realizing it

 

[DjQuick2008]

Yeah i doubt ill be on x box online once my stacked game pass sub runs out in 2026. Have some 360 games on the series S so ill just continue to play them offline. X box is also fantastic for emulation so could convert it into that.

 

[iamthemilkman]

Jez Corden is reporting that Microsoft's still going forward with new hardware:

Rumors are swirling that Xbox is going to kill its hardware ecosystem. It's not true ... for now, but it easily could've been true, given how nonsensically Xbox acts lately.

Link

That said, the guy who leaked this information was the one who leaked Microsoft's third-party publishing plans before they announced that they were bringing games to PS5, whereas Jez Corden was singing a different tune: