Xbox Series S/X: Thread 04

[fishbowlhead]

As a heads up, usually a few weeks before launch a challenge pops up in the rewards app for big games like MW2 where you can get 6,000 points back if you buy it...

You're paying full price for the game through the store but it's £5 off nonetheless.

Also, places like cdkeys work for these cards in the rewards, but you have make sure it's the right edition (usually the standard edition).

I did this for COD Black Ops Cold War... bought it at cdkeys after activating the rewards card, paid £33 but got 6,000 points back when it was £50 in the MS store.

Seems pack in games don’t though. Got the Halo infinite special edition console and the game included in the pack didn’t work for this reward when it launched. Though that’s probably a rare instance as how many times would a pack in game and the 6000p offer align, rarely if ever.

[Neon Ignition]

Cheers, I'll definitely keep an eye out closer to the time. Worst case I'll only have to make up a small amount like £10 so getting a fiver back in points is extra bonus time. They should just outright replace gamerscore with reward points

[teddymeow]

I redeemed all my points back in late May for 3 month Live codes to renew my GamePass for another year.

Since then, I've amassed another 36,000 points. That's with me losing a crazy long weekly streak when I missed a set due to being poorly and not playing on anything.

[nonny]

Yeah never stress if you lose a streak, you never really lose that much as the early accumulators are quite generous on the way back up. I've lost my daily streak a load of times at this stage... On the xbox rewards app I'm now on a 92 week streak though.

Unfortunately I'm also about to go on holidays camping in a week or so... might have to take the Series S with me!

[nonny]

https://www.eurogamer.net/ps4-sold-twice-as-many-units-as-xbox-one-new-court-papers-show

Sounds about right given how much of a disaster the Xbox One launch was... I'm actually surprised it sold 50-60m if I'm honest.

Will the Series consoles sell more?

[wakka]

I think the ultimate sales of the Bone were due to the quality of the turnaround job MS managed. The One S and One X were both great improvements over the original machine. It still wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, since the quality of the first party software was mostly markedly lower than Sony's, but they were able to make up for that with the launch of Game Pass and effectively giving the games away for (nearly) free.

The people who delivered the revised Xbox strategy after the Kinect/cable box disaster really did a great job, IMO.

[nonny]

Yeah I think installing Phil as head and pivoting (correctly) back to a focus on games was the right move and the success they're having now began with strategies agreed from that point onwards.

I think this gens hardware is rock solid as well. Really no complaints about the price point / power / features of the Series consoles from my opinion, where with Xbox One they came in too expensive with crap no-one wanted (Kinect).

I also think them pivoting to a less hardware centric model is genius, as really whilst the hardware is solid MS strengths lie in services.

[Neon Ignition]

I imagine even that's MS using a very liberal reference, that it'd be at the lower end of the range rather than the higher one. I can imagine the arc for the XBO was that it sold poorly in the first year or so overall but then recovered nicely only to flatline in its latter years thanks to the starvation of releases that we're still somewhat suffering from today.

For the Series S/X I'd be willing to hazard a bet that it does outsell the Xbox One. I'm assuming though there that at some point the content flow will kick in hard but they don't have any reasonable excuse for late 2023-2027 to not be a heavy chain of major new titles and GP expanding older hits coming out. Otherwise, all these buyouts and existing studio delays have been a waste.

[wakka]

Yeah, I'd agree, I would expect the Series to sell better than the Bone. I think Sony will probably maintain their lead this gen though.

Console generations are a fascinating thing. It seems whoever has a high degree of success in a given gen is doomed to approach the next one with overconfidence and screw it all up. PS3's ridiculous lateness, price point, pointless features and lack of rumble. Bone's price, Kinect and irrelevant cable box compatibility. The WiiU ('nuff said).

It's a bit different this gen, as the incumbent Sony have released a corker of a console with a good amount of strong first party software. But I think if they're not aggressive enough in competing against Game Pass, it's really going to hurt them long term.

Going into next gen I think Game Pass is going to have an extraordinarily strong line-up, and I think the fact that we have all now been 'trained' as consumers to purchase our entertainment via all-you-can-eat subscriptions cannot be underestimated. Fairly or unfairly, £70 for a game is going to increasingly feel like a lot to people in a world where £10 per month buys you instant access to practically every song ever released.

[nonny]

I think the strength of the PS5 is its replacing the PS4.

I don't think it's a particularly impressive machine (though the controller is admittedly a huge step up) as it's huge and bulky, but it's going to benefit from the sheet success of its predecessor. The last generation was important because it was one of the first where digital purchases were really a big piece of the market and I think ecosystem loyalty is a big thing.

Equally I think MS realised this very early, even before this generation began and it's partly the reason Game Pass even exists. You don't sway people to jump ecosystem very often so having a eat all subscription service is just smart business.

I also think Sony were a little complacent coming into this gen in terms of long term strategy. They clearly have the first party machine well oiled at this stage but the last gen support, general backward compatibility, services and PC support just all feels like they quickly shifted to a more diverse plan, especially given the pandemic and finanical outlook.

All up though I think Xbox Series consoles will do well and surpass Xbox One easily. I also think Game Pass could hit its stride once we're into a regular pattern of 1st party output and this Activision deal goes through.

[Neon Ignition]

Yep, with Game Pass I could easily picture it doubling in numbers as the gen goes on. If anywhere I think GP will stumble outside of the core Xbox ecosystem. I'm not expecting too much traction from it on PC or via phones/TV

[nonny]

A better PC app would be a start and improved integration into Steam OS somehow to leverage the popularity of Steam Deck and other handhelds.

I'm not really convinced cloud based gaming is great on mobiles as screen is too small but I can see it being a great experience in on TV (if tSamsung game previews are a gauge) or via a TV stream stick device.

I do even question that strategy as well when the Series S is beginning to reach 2nd hand prices of <£180... A stick would be what? £50?

[wakka]

I think there's a definite question mark hanging over how effective Game Pass will be at winning and retaining subscribers on non-Xbox platforms. But I think that's a sideshow at this stage anyway.

Looking ahead to next gen, I think subscriptions will dominate console choice for many. And honestly, hot take, but I think there's a very good chance Sony eventually start packing their new-release first party software into PS Plus Premium, or some kind of Premium Plus tier.

[Lebowski]

The Problem I'm seeing now is both companys offering something similar. Sony have their Sony gamepass type thing and with them chucking Stray up their as well as older PS5 big first party stuff it made a lot of sense to just up your sub and get a lot of people to try it out, Launching with stray they show they are not adverse to putting high-profile games up there day one too so it shows their is value to it (not God of war £70 game value but interesting Sony backed third party game value).

When we talk about the value of a lot of Microsoft it feel massively generous but both Forza and Halo have a secondary revenue stream in add-ons ( the hotwheels dlc, car packs ect and halo skin store and season pass) widening the audience that can access this dlc and having an engaged tied in monthly sub to play these games might also mean they purchase the full game too as well as the dlc. Sony cant leverage this as options for add on revenue is a lot less viable in traditional single player games like Horizon FW and God of war.

[wakka]

I don't think there is fundamentally a need to have significant add-on revenue for Game Pass to be viable. I would guess that the percentage of Game Pass revenue generated through DLC sales for games on the service is a tiny percentage.

The revenue is generated by building and retaining a big enough subscriber base, then steadily hiking the prices.

If you do that the rewards can be massive and putting 4+ brand new AAAs a year on the service is just logical at that point. It's what you need to do to get enough people onboard and to keep them there.

In the end I think it's going to be table stakes and Sony's hand will be forced.