Xbox - Series S/X: Thread 01

[Team Andromeda]

Is it perhaps that MS have never really had to sell anything. Their main money maker is windows, which comes preloaded on everything anyway. Most of the software is the same, and new softwares like PowerBI just makes sense to buy if your running Windows anyway.
I can't really think of anything MS have successfully advertised and sold lots of.

I think MS makes quite a bit of money from the Cloud these days ?.

[Team Andromeda]

The anime game Scarlet Nexus that was shown yesterday is also coming to almost every other platform:

That tends to be the case with a lot of 3rd party games .

[wakka]

Is it perhaps that MS have never really had to sell anything. Their main money maker is windows, which comes preloaded on everything anyway. Most of the software is the same, and new softwares like PowerBI just makes sense to buy if your running Windows anyway.
I can't really think of anything MS have successfully advertised and sold lots of.

What apart from making an operating system that runs on billions of PCs, selling millions of Xboxes, millions of Surface computers, millions of PC accessories, subscriptions to Office, XBL and Game Pass, and all of their many B2B products like Azure?

Microsoft have had plenty of flops over the years but they also make a hell of a lot of very successful products!

[Cassius_Smoke]

Definitely, but do they need to aggressively advertise and push hard to sell them, or do they just slap Microsoft on it and let the name do it for them.
Sony have alot of competition generally with sound systems, TVs, movies etc. Microsoft, not so much.

Edit: I should reiterate that I'm not about to suggest that MS aren't successful. Just that advertising and actively selling products maybe isn't second nature to them.

[Neon Ignition]

That's probably part of the issue, with PC's their products like Windows, Office etc and anything related to it come from the long held stranglehold they have over the PC market in the same way that there are multiple store fronts but Steam stands tall despite needing little to no effort now to maintain it because it holds that much of the public mindset. For most people the thought of buying something PC and it not being MS will barely come into it so the marketing approach is somewhat different than if they were on the backfoot.

With Xbox Microsoft have mostly been an also-ran with the platform never accomplishing its primary generation goals. The approach needs to be much more aggressive, more nuanced and more convincing and so far they seem to come across like getting the name Xbox out there will be enough which presumably is why they keep going first. However, it means they shoot too early, play their hand to Sony can repeat its past trick of reacting and adjusting based on what didn't go down well for MS. Perhaps most tricky for MS is that getting the Xbox name out there earlier also means nothing if people simply don't care. So far there's not really been anything that strongly differentiates Series X from the Xbox One line, if anything MS remains keen on marrying the two generations as one large family instead of thinking that maybe the reason the XBO sales flatlined out so low is that few actually do want more of what Xbox One offered.

That's probably the most consistent thing for both systems so far - they both feel like extensions of the brands we already have except one is hugely popular and already seeing that feed into the next, whereas the other isn't and its new launch still doesn't feel like an enticing, exciting fresh start. MS is a company that largely deals with big update launches - Series X needs to not be an update.

[nonny]

I think MS is just positioning for a very different race to Sony. It's all about services and getting Xbox to mean the entire suite of hardware options and functionality.

The Series X looks like an upgrade because it is an upgrade. For people who want to upgrade... We're venturing fully into the mobile plan iteration market in how the hardware side of things is perceived. I don't think it's really about massive generational revolution any more... Now it's just evolution.

The same can be said of Sony but what they've got on hand early is exclusive first party titles when that is something MS is clearly aware of and investing in to deliver as early as possible.

Of course an exclusive these days can mean many things. It can be on one single console, a platform exclusive or timed... Or anything else marketing can dream up.

Right now Xbox has had more exclusives on its service by June than it had in all of 2019. I see the exclusive side of things being far more regular going forward simply due to the number of studios at play.

[Digfox]

I think it's nothing more than just a misfire from the Xbox team, basically on the comms side. They probably were between a rock and hard place where they had to announce these games because of contractual requirements, amongst all the other current immense challenges. And for games like AC:Valhalla where they have paid for some exclusivity (lead advertising) they needed that first showing.

For me they should have positioned this showing much better and not hyped things to the extend they did. And Aaron Greenberg has admitted they didn't do this well. Whether or not this is the usually fluff PR response remains to be seen.

But that's the danger even if they do swerve it. All I've read over the last few days are; 'doesn't look next-gen', 'no gameplay', 'that saves me some money then' and lots of other overwhelmingly negatives responses. All it will take is Sony unveiling Horizon Zero Dawn 2 with some gameplay and clearly showing a key selling point (instant fast travel) and they've won the mindshare battle again.

But I do think MS will do a lot better as we get closer to launch.

[Deuteros]

I'm convinced the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077-themed Xbox One X may very well be the most beautiful console variant I have ever seen. It -- along with Xbox Game Pass -- might get me back on Microsoft's ecosystem.

[Yakumo]

Ooh, I like that but sadly I won't be buying it. No point since I already have an one X.

[Brad]

Yep. I’m hoping the new gem will actually result in some great games for the one x. I only used mine to play rdr2. I ought to get cuphead really though as that looked ace.

[CMcK]

But that's the danger even if they do swerve it. All I've read over the last few days are; 'doesn't look next-gen', 'no gameplay', 'that saves me some money then' and lots of other overwhelmingly negatives responses.

What I would like to know is what does next gen look like? And how on earth do you get the improvements across in a wee video on social media?
The stream I saw on the Xbox the other day was crummy. It wasn’t until I saw the trailers on UToob that I could see games were obviously using ray tracing. But even a 4k video isn’t as clear as the real thing and will probably lack HDR for most viewers. And that’s before we get to games running at higher frame rates too.

[dataDave]

I'm convinced the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077-themed Xbox One X may very well be the most beautiful console variant I have ever seen. It -- along with Xbox Game Pass -- might get me back on Microsoft's ecosystem.

This looks very nice indeed.

[nonny]

What I would like to know is what does next gen look like? And how on earth do you get the improvements across in a wee video on social media?
The stream I saw on the Xbox the other day was crummy. It wasn’t until I saw the trailers on UToob that I could see games were obviously using ray tracing. But even a 4k video isn’t as clear as the real thing and will probably lack HDR for most viewers. And that’s before we get to games running at higher frame rates too.

Yeah that is a struggle alright... And given everything is online only with no game events in sight that is all they can do is stream and release full 4K video in the hope some people might watch it in full resolution.

I was really underwhelmed watching it on my phone (whilst on WebEx with work at the same time) but having watched a few trailers back now in full 4K on my TV there is some obvious stuff going on that couldn't be possible on current hardware.

[Neon Ignition]

It'll be like usual, down to the first party stuff to tap the power levels and showcase as usual. I've watched the trailers a few times now and it's blatant that everything MS showed was knee deep buried still on current gen and just tarted up a little like PC would for higher settings for the XSX rather than being anything that remotely pushed the hardware. If anything 4K footage highlights how lacking the reveals were.

[CMcK]

Even at pre launch events what’s the chances of the demo consoles being hooked up to TVs that have been setup correctly?