It really does seem like there's a lot of internal politicking at Microsoft and Xbox is getting a lot of pressure for underperforming.
There definitely seems to be a back and forth on whether Microsoft wants to stay in the hardware game at all. For a while it really looked like they were spreading out games to other consoles as a way of testing the waters and discontinuing the Xbox.
Then they retracted, say they don't plan on releasing Xbox games on other platforms, which suggests a move to wanting to focus on Xbox the physical platform more going forward.
Then they just announced the time limits on streamed games. Which, feels like a bad decision for one, but also is confusing. In my head I think that suggests they want to move away from hardware again. They want people streaming Gamepass games, and paying to stream them, and not having an Xbox to download them on. But it also could push players to get an Xbox to download their games and play them without the streaming fees.
Then they bought all those studios, then shuttered a ton of them. And that suggests they're considering a move away from the video games industry entirely.
It just seems like internal bickering causing these issues. Xbox is a big part of their brand, but a smaller part of their overall portfolio, it's not performing the way they want, that gets executives to start stirring the pot, and the executives don't agree on the direction to go.
I chuckled reading that. Although another way of putting it is that Xbox's biggest hindrance is themselves. I've never seen such a self sabotaging company in the gaming industry.
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u/BioEradication 15h ago
Too bad Xbox's biggest hater is Xbox.