Of course they want, they would love to get out of the hardware business.
Gamepass can only be successful (and profitable)if it reaches massive subscription numbers, which it isn’t, MS themselves have said that subscriptions have stagnated badly, which makes sense since the xbox hardware is on track for being a distant third place again, doing about as well as the XB One, and on the PC space there is no way they will ever be remotely competitive with steam, so they are losers on both markets.
The first “E” in “EEE” is for “Embrace”
I’m sure they do, Microsoft would love to torpedoe their console hardware business, sadly for them Nintendo and Sony stuff sells like hot cakes.
Aka were making so much fucking money with this shit and it scales with minimal effort and investment on our part
Gear shift after scaring Gabe with the Windows stuff and inspiring them making the Steam Deck on Linux and pushing hard on Linux/Mac fronts in general.
Now they see they can’t easily pursue some of their desktop/Windows agenda because of the power wielded by Valve/Steam. So they think they’ll build a better wheel. Then their plans for Windows won’t get shot in the butt by people they don’t control blowing the alarm.
I like GamePass fine. But their aim is clearly to displace Valve/Steam. I think it’s so they can pursue other agendas that just won’t work unless they control gaming digital distribution/compatiblity/DRM.
Maybe in 20 years they will succeed. But it will take that long to displace all the Steam platform content people have amassed, will not easily part with, and don’t much care for remembering which games they own on which of 5 different distribution platforms.
If they can seat themselves as a “key master” and basically bind all digital distribution (PC, all consoles) in their darkness then that could be cool. At least beneficial maybe in the sense that we could get way more buy-once-for-all-platforms sort of deals and cross platform multiplayer possibilities.
It’s just that Valve/Steam… they’re going to need something to interest them in helping with that… Potential access to the PS/Nintendo markets may be well shiny enough.
Propaganda.
Linux?
If I’m being completely honest, if Valve comes out with PS5 level home console that runs Steam OS, I see no reason to invest in either Xbox or PS or Nintendo hardware. PC is the ultimate platform, and the benefit of fixed hardware is pretty evident with SteamDeck, which has only gotten better over time. We don’t need to lock out to one first party store owner for that. If content is indeed king, I guess it may be inevitable that all content comes to PC/Cloud subscriptions.
There was rumours of MS wanting to get Game Pass on Switch ages ago, when Minecraft had some minor Xbox Live functionality on Switch IIRC.
Maybe being open about that is a change of strategy, but it’s seemed obvious that MS wants to redefine their role by using Game Pass to become more platform agnostic.
Consoles are loss leaders, if MS could expand their role in the market while cutting down reliance on selling expensive hardware (expensive hardware with no foothold in Japan, a barrier to attracting some big name developers and publishers; and also struggles in Europe, where PlayStation has pretty consistently outsold Xbox), it’d be a clear boon for MS.
Yeah they don’t even want you to play on a Steam Deck right now though
I wonder if only on game pass for their games, or if they do this will they make the games buyable physically for those that might want a game or two from them but do not want to pay monthy for them.
They’re trying to get rid of consoles aren’t they? It’s just gonna be gamepass on cloud gaming sooner or later lmfao
Guess this is what happens when you lose the console wars. Turn everything into a subscription and buy up all the game companies. Nice
Basically white flag risen on the console war.
We’ve heard this before. This isn’t new news?