Xbox Brand - What is Going on? Studios Closing, Game Pass Changes & More - Adam Koralik 

E3 was just a reflection of Xbox's decline since 2010. Microsoft has had an obsession with selling Xbox as a service like they do Windows, and even Windows isn't doing that great.

@@sammiches6859 EXACTLY. people have simply forgotten the way that the Xbox 360 ended its run, because of management's obsession with their stupid gimmick toy camera. Xbox 360 had five 'good' years, and i put in scarequotes because all five of those years, there was no 360 design that didn't self-destruct. so even at their best, they were selling defective hardware. AT THEIR BEST. and that interval began in 2005 and ended promptly in 2010

​​​​@@WeeWeeJumbo The original Kinect for the 360 was a big success , no matter how much this fact may trigger some people in the fanbase it's the simple truth, it sold over 25 million units, easily the best selling add on for a console of all time ( it surpassed the Sega CD the previous best selling add on ). What Microsoft failed to understand was that by 2013 casuals that loved stuff like the Wii and the Kinect were all playing games on they're phones now , forcing people that just wanted to buy the Xbox One to also buy the new Kinect whether they wanted to or not was the real mistake.

T.V!!!!

That's what happens when a company does not listen and decides it's a good idea to take a massive dump on their customers. I went back to them after a while because I liked the One S and their policies at the time but many people just forgot about them and it solidified Sony's position.

SO does Sony

Why do you think they don't have a plan?

Their path forward is a path forward of some kind, and I hope we enjoy it.

@@JonBonZombie indeed...

@@YerNewUncle 🤣🤣🤣👍

I don’t disagree with anything you said…. And yet, I still prefer it to PlayStation. I have a lot of reasons for that but I just hate ps look and feel.

@@leeartlee915 The cool thing is that we can all like what-we-like... and we do not have to explain why we feel that way. It's your free time, your money you spent on the console, and your money you earn that you spend on whatever games you like. That holy union of man and video-game... *sniff* it should never be questioned. Only celebrated. ❤

@@mr.selfimprovement3241 I was mainly addressing his statement about “giving up on consoles”. Like you said, there’s beauty in video games. It just makes me sad when I hear people are giving up on it. For example, Adam talks ALL THE TIME about how he is done with console games the moment you can’t buy physical. Now, is that someone who loves video games or someone who loves collecting video games? Because they are two, distinct, things.

@@leeartlee915 Very true my friend. I actually feel the same way about some people in the hardcore physical crowd. I've got one foot in each camp as someone with my old hardware, but also plays a lot on PC (steam). But it's their choice, and I respect that. Luckily for you and me, we get to decide if we find enjoyment in the digital landscape or bow out. For me, I feel like we are going back to the days when most people did not own their games. We went to a store and rented them, had a wonderful experience and then moved on. That's a tough sell for a lot of people who did not grow up that way, or who are attached to the collectors angle of our hobby. I don't think they are wrong at all - but I realize that I either fall on that hill with them, or find my own path in the new landscape. And I've chosen my love of video games over my love of physical ownership.... ofcourse, at the same time I no longer pay full price for ANYTHING (and I'm buy way less games). But again: it's people personal choice. We don't have to understand it - just respect it.

@@leeartlee915 I agree and feel the same way: but we have to respect their choice. Luckily, you and I get to decide whether we bow out like them, or carry on in the new landscape. As a kid who grew up never owning my games until I was a teenager, renting titles every single weekend for a few bucks, experiencing them, and then moving on.... it feels like we are heading back to that era. Some guys just can't separate the game/experience, from the physical medium it's printed/shipped on. And that's cool - I just know that if you and I don't accept the digital landscape, then we will be forced to bow out too. You either adapt or be left behind. It's not like my old games or hardware are going anywhere.

It was. After 360 xbox brand died to me.

Because of the games? Or..?

It was the games and other things they did w xbox live arcade and such. Just felt they cared more and wanted to try. 1v100, the avatars, and even if got the greatest Kinect too.

@@cardman1031 thanks, I don't disagree

I can't get over how badly microsoft fell off after the xbox 360. They completely squandered the position they were in trying to chase their digital only dystopia.

Become Disney, take on the problems of being Disney. Yeah that checks out. You have the monopoly, now what do you actually do with it? How do you manage it?

Also not utilizing those IPs they bought is another issue. Those people got Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey and to this day did not make a franchise out of any of those.

The first two would be amplifiers if they had decent exclusives. The reason buying every studio and publisher was needless is because they're too chicken to throw some money in. They see the profits of Tencent and they want the same quick turnaround and recurring flow of cash. They want all the profits of those big titles and none of the overhead.

​@@Peak_AussiemanThe problem is their shareholders want money coming in like the rest of Microsoft and similar to Tencent. It would be easy to exploit all of their IPs, but they don't want to put in hundreds of millions of dollars after Starfield and others. Because the people running the show are used to making money from business, they have no idea how to make money from entertainment like Sony and Nintendo. If they were like Sony, and found some talent to throw some money at in exchange for good exclusives and little overhead, they'd probably sell more Game Pass and Xbox.

@@sammiches6859 right, and it won't work out that way. Tencent and Chyna are a different beast entirely. But yes, no exclusives does play a role too.

The Console market is not growing. It peaked in 2007. PC and mobile are much bigger and are still growing. 16+ million PS5s are not turned on despite the alleged Console sold. Did Sony scalp their own Consoles? A Japanese business analyst stated that Sony is inflating the number of Console sold, and that many PS5s are hibernating in warehouses in Japan. This doesn't help Square Enix to sell more copies of Final Fantasy

PC > home console

⁠@@startrafficklol i have relatives in Japan and they said PS5s is kinda selling well there so most of these stories is crap plus the FF7 Rebirth sales is doing well for an exclusive game but for Square’s its not also console market didnt peak in 07 when PS4 and Switch sold 200mil units plus 50mil units from PS5 recently lol

almost 20 but still so FRESH

@@nickm5419. In my opinion, better than the Xbox one, let's face it, the first 2 Xbox consoles were great, after that, not so much, well I don't know about the series x because I don't have one and have no plans on getting one, I'd say the Xbox 360 era was the last best generation of video games

@@LonnyMacdonald-tw8zy Series X feels like Xbox One X 2

ASMR style!

My pleasure!

Now, what happens when he learns to set up compression on that mic?

Same, has all the negatives of digital distribution plus more. I can't stand seeing people always being "Should've been on Gamepass Day one". Well look happening now that your games aren't getting made because you are lazy and cheap!

@@dstreet3818 anyone with half a brain could see this coming. Just completely unsustainable

Same

Xbox One was too ahead of the curve when they released it. I guess a lot of folks weren't quite ready.

@@jerryk3280 Lol... of course. Especially with always online, used-Game DRM and the fantastic Kinect 🥲 Way too ahead indeed.

@@jerryk3280 Or maybe a lot of folks just didn't want that at the time. It's not a matter of "folks not being ready". It's just nowadays people are more accepting when tech companies take away features it seems. Everyone saw this coming.

@@jerryk3280 Of course. Especially with always online, used-game DRM, the fantastic Kinect and a lousy first party line up... Way too ahead indeed. 😂

@@LostKawaii and yet all consoles are the same to this day interesting isn't i?, btw ms stop all of those on 2014 ,10 years ago...

I disagree, they never recovered from *_Don Mattrick._* Before E3 2013, Xbox 360 had gone from a massive lead that had lasted the majority of the generation... to Microsoft pushing the Kinect hardware, crappy software, a horrible redesign of their dashboard pushing television and movies! In that short time, Sony's previously meandering PS3 hardware began to erupted in sales, and exclusive releases from Naughty Dog and Insomniac leveled the base by the time E3 2013 even was announced. The fact is that in 2013, the XBOX 360's sales has slowed to a crawl, while Sony was still actively growing past their install base. The writing was on the wall, and they had already lost the next generation by the time Don Mattrick uttered those famous words: _"We have a product for those people [who don't want always online]... it's called XBOX 360!"_ People forget this, and the only reason I am as aware of this myself - is that during that time I was working as a editor at FUTURE publishing (Diff Davis Prior) for PlayStation: The Official Magazine, and we were charting the sales internally from our sister publication Official Xbox Magazine. E3 2013 was just a physical manifestation of the companies ethos at that time. It was a giant presentation, kiosks, and interviews from management - all plastering for the world to see, what the culture within XBOX had become. It let people know that under Don Mattrick, the Kinect, apps and multimedia integration was just the first step in a big shift towards your cable box.

@@mr.selfimprovement3241 I hear you. I still can't comprehend why Don thought screwing over fans (or at least trying to screw them over) with those restrictions was going to go over smoothly and then on top of that, doubling down when folks had problems with their "game" machine. It doesn't really help much that not too long afterwards, he literally left Microsoft. "I made a mess that I don't want to clean up... see-ya."

That was more than 10 years ago. Spencer has had enough time to recover. Nintendo did it twice after Gamecube and Wii. It’s time to stop blaming Mattrick.

@@ramsesgarcia8461 He's the main reason why Xbox is the way it is, nowadays.

​@nsgames24 He thought they could make money like they did with Windows (and ironically that has been in decline since 8 as well) while copying Sony's success with multimedia features. I seriously doubt they did any market research before structuring the console that way.

EA should buy Nintendo. (I'm joking!!! it's a joke!!! put the pitchforks and torches down!! hahaha).

If anything, Sony should buy Xbox, and Sega and Atari should come back for real. Then maybe we could go back to having real competition.

@@sammiches6859Sony doesn’t need to buy xbox they have no high demand exclusive ips. Halo is dead. Gears is dead.

Ur adopted

@@sammiches6859 xbox: die. sony do whatever. sega: buy konami and make them good again.

No

Don should have to have _"He Died on the Hill for Kinect"_ on his gravestone one day.

​@@mr.selfimprovement3241That's brutal.

Mannnnnn, I wish I had brought up the Y2K thing.

Same

@@AdamKoralik I remember when even apple was trying to get into the console thing. For a while there it really did seem like PC's where just though of as expensive word processors - with the real graphic intensive innovations being made in dedicated platforms. I think that is actually the well were Graphics cards sprung up. Initially, massive 'add-in' graphics processor cards where themselves tiny game consoles... even Sega bothered to produce a bunch of Genesis-on-a-board, Saturn-on-a-board, dreamcast-on-a-board cards. I still remember all the news from japan leading up to the PS2's launch of Ken Kutaragi calming their new console was the most power super computer on the planet, and that they were in talks to sell them to NASA and the Japanese government for weapons defense systems (to replace those boring ol' IBM super computers). lol. I miss Ken.

For me I noticed that PC was outdoing consoles around 1997. I’m console through and through but during the PS1 era I was gaming between my Mega Drive and the family PC. The PC could do everything the PS1 could do and more. Games like the X-wing series were phenomenal 3D space sims, with CD quality music and full voice acting. However, what put me off ever just going PC only was the speed and convenience of consoles like the N64 (4 player local coop after school with friends was brilliant) and the fact that so much could ‘go wrong’ with compatibility issues on PC. Consoles didn’t suffer from that.

Dude, when I heard about Y2K, I was 10 years old. I thought all our computers in the house were like going to shut down, so I started changing all the clocks on our family PC and my old DOS laptop to the year 1984. lmao.

It’s intrusive

I guess I understood their plans more than the crybaby children who wined at the xbox one launch but I was looking forward to many things they had planned, like family game sharing on digital titles

I'm genuinely surprised someone else here also uses Linux and Steam. Don't get me wrong, I still have retro consoles- but I sold everything newer than the Xbox One and really have not looked back except for the crazy prices computer parts were at.

Yep. In my mind I've told myself I'm happy with the systems and games i currently own. I dont see the newer stuff as better than what I own. And I'm a working adult so I cam buy whatever I want.

@@yolahola1 I got sick of windoze nonsense years ago & the thought of my operating system data mining me creeped me out. Best thing I did was drop windows.

@@lee5111 Right I think everyone hates the practices done by big companies. The way I see it is everything that the average consumer would purchase does all this, so what I think most people have done is kind of just accepted this is how it is. Granted the available ways of bypassing all this can in some ways sacrifice convenience. My speculation is that we'll evolve from an era of convenience to a time where everyone's holding companies more accountable. Not sure how long it'll take, but I'm doing my part by getting a PinePhone and daily driving Linux on everything.

I saw that too. I didn't realize the blue muppet was even aware of Xbox's existence. I'd only heard him talk about Nintendo before.

@@ressljs Arlo’s reviewed Starfield and Elden Ring and a few others. But his favouritest thing is Paper Mario and Pikmin, that is true

They let Toys for Bob become independent. Not really the same as shutting down studios. That said, the entire industry is going through this shift, because the ROI on games isn't there for most games. The free to play model makes more money than the majority of big AAA budget games.

I must admit I don't know who that is. But thanks!

@@AdamKoralik You don't sound like that guy. lol. Mraltoid just need to turn up the volume or get new speakers. Adam, you sound like the _figureitout_ guy, and that's the only person they should ever claim you sound like! Also Pissed off Mickey Mouse sometimes. But these kids will never know.

They need to follow Adam’s quick shoot series

Ironically I think it helped them protect the PC market.

That's not what happened. Sega went to Microsoft with a partnership offer, not a merger, Microsoft turned them down.

I was referring to exclusivity son.

What's odd is my OG, 360, One and X all work fine. I had 2 PS4s end up as jet engines due to thermal paste/heating issues. That's actually part of what helped me decide on the X vs PS5, my personal pains with the PS4. That being said, my PS2 works great all these years later. Loads REALLY SLOW but it's from the launch, I can't even remember how long ago that was 😂

My original Xbox hasn’t been any bother but I recently had to replace the power supply on my one x.

You should open them and check if the caps are fine. The laser's not the only thing that goes bad in Xbox drives.

I know, right? My Series X disc drive refused to work just after one year of owning it

@@snou69 hmmm... Maybe it's because I'm playing almost entirely digitally. Do you watch a lot of movies or...? Only asking because I thought the laser was pretty much doing nothing outside of installing and authenticating the disc. I could be 100% wrong about that... It's just that all the disc ever seems to do is allow me to play, feels like it sits idle otherwise 🤔

Microsoft should continue making great xbox controllers, PCs, and throw their games on steam and take the sega approach. You wouldn't have to pay for game pass anymore.

I enjoyed so much that I wished it were longer! Thanks Adam!

It's not unique to you. It was completely normal to have a family PC in an average middle class family in the US or Western Europe by the 90's. Before the IBM compatibles became dominant by the mid-90's "home computers"/micros (C64, ZX Spectrum, MSX, Amstrad CPC 464, Atari St, Amiga etc.) were also very popular, especially in Europe. They were arguably even more geared towards gaming than the typical 90's "family PC", at the same time the so-called "video game crash" of the mid 80's happened in the US. Gaming on all kinds of computers has just as much history as gaming on consoles, or even gaming in the arcades for that matter. The console/micro divide was ironically less clear cut in the 80's: both were similarly affordable on balance for example (e.g. a bit more expensive hardware but cheaper software for micros). But all of this is something Koralik often glosses over because it doesn't fit his narrative or it's not concretely based on his own experience. I've watched this channel for the better part of a decade and let me tell you that this guy is notorious for talking out of his ass. He makes bold assertions with hardly any reference to actual evidence and pontificates over-confidently about things he has the same Wikipedia-tier cursory understanding of as any of us do. It would be fine as entertainment if it wasn't so grating at the same time. The whole story of "Don Matrick and co." in Japan in this video is another good example. Do you seriously think they just walked into a "show and tell" with no prior idea about what games were selling in that market and were horrified of Cave shooters (the gold standard of bullet hell) and Idol Master? I'm also skeptical about the "Microsoft is afraid consoles will take over the PC" narrative. Since we're in Anecdote Central on this channel I can share my own; I was reading magazines around 2000 where the PS2 was marketed as an "entertainment catalyst" for the living room, i.e. a games, DVD and music player fitting for the entertainment center. PCs, as we know, were always sold as the productivity option first, the "home office" machines that sit on a desk next to the printer, but also do other things like gaming, and other hobbyist activities. Mice on consoles were typically for specific genres originating on PC that benefit from that type of input like dating sims, adventure games, visual novels, FPSes and Mario Paint. Keyboards on the DC, PS2 and GC were there basically to accommodate online multiplayer, MMOs and light browsing (lest we forget Typing of the Dead). It's more likely Microsoft wanted a slice of the gaming industry pie and saw it as a market with big growth potential (which it definitely was).

Actually yes I would very much like to read about that.

Similar situation in my part of the world nowadays: you'll see shelves after shelves of PlayStation and Nintendo games - and maybe a shelf or two for Xbox titles - at most.

It's nice to think of everything as simple and easy, but it's not. Motivation isn't born of nothing. That's their history, like it or not.

@@AdamKoralikI'm not saying that it's simple or easy. But it ain't complicated, either. I'm saying Microsoft wanted a piece of what is now a $350B market.That's the reason they made the XBOX.

I admit, the MSX doesn't get nearly enough historical credit.

I can't believe Booty has been able to keep his job given the way the studios have been mishandled. From delays, to cancellations, to development hell, it's been a mess for a long time, and Booty was the guy in charge of all of that. They even screwed up Forza Motorsport. Those games were always surefire great games even if you didn't like racing games, but that last one was in development for 6-7 years and it was a mess with barely any content.

How did Microsoft kill Halo? Halo is still a big franchise.

@@TheHistorianKing no split screen since halo 4, killing spinoff projects like ODST 2, underbaking the story/gameplay so that it’s no longer a must play campaign and system seller. My family used to system link consoles during the holidays so that all the cousins could play Halo together, now it’s just Fortnite because Halo Infinite is a far inferior product despite it being a full priced game.

@@TheHistorianKing by a thousand cuts.

@@jellyface401 Huh?