Topic: If Microsoft kills off Xbox…

Rumors are abound around this and other ideas Microsoft may or may not announce next week. Phil Spencer has always taken the position that console wars are dumb, but not before conceding that Xbox has lost.

If Microsoft kills off Xbox hardware and rebrands Game Pass as Microsoft Game Pass, Xbox exclusives could end up on current gen “rival” PS5. It will likely mean much more over time, but this alone may be enough to disrupt Nintendo’s blue ocean strategy. Teams Green and Blue would no longer be direct competitors of each other. Microsoft would be positioning itself to be more in completion with Steam than Sony.

I wonder how Nintendo might respond and if this announcement from Microsoft is strategically timed being so close to the rumor date of a “Switch 2” reveal.

So if Microsoft kills the Xbox, what do you think it could mean for Nintendo? Or even the video game industry?

I don’t think it’ll be that different to what happened to other console manufacturers who have pulled out of the console race (such as Sega and SNK), as they’ll shift their focus to having their brands live on across more popular consoles and/or PC. Nintendo may miss out on some titles due to the power disparity, but I don’t think it would be a huge loss.

@Sisilly_G yea, I’m not convinced it’ll be anything drastic. At least not immediately. But, Xbox took the place of Sega back in 2001 as the third major player. SNK wasn’t a threat here in the states. To me, this feels like another disruption; a way for Microsoft to make their strengths (software subscriptions, ie. Game Pass) more important in the industry than their weaknesses (console sales.)

Microsoft's top game has been Minecraft which was always cross-platform and now Call of duty may be in the top 2 and they promised that would be cross-platform for a decade. Some of their other best games (such as Ori) they also already share. And then of course most xbox games work for windows also. Honestly not sure how different it would be if they change their focus since they are already much more spread out with their IP than e.g. Nintendo.

Microsoft were also instrumental in bringing Cuphead to the Switch, and were nice enough to play ball when it came to getting the N64 versions of Banjo and Goldeneye released.

We are, most likely, looking at them continuing to bring selected games to the platform and not a radical shift to start porting everything that's possible.

Xbox sales might be lagging behind the PS5 and Switch, but they're nowhere near Dreamcast or even Wii U levels of struggling. The last official total they gave, as of the middle of last year, was 21 million units sold, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's closer to 30 by now, after their first Christmas of being unconstrained by supplies.

For anyone interested, there is a great summary of the situation (alongside future speculation) in a recent 'WhatCulture Gaming' podcast - https://whatculture.com/videos/xbox-just-broke-the-games-indu...

Ignore the click-baity title, these guys (UK based) are genuinely sound and fairly astute/objective in their analysis. They also discuss possible implications for Sony/Nintendo, both positive and negative, alongside consideration for exactly Microsoft "wants to be" in the gaming space.

Really interesting, only 20 mins, and gives a really solid and grounded analysis

@Logicfire
Nintendo abandoned the blue ocean strategy after the decline of Wii and failure of Wii U. Miamoto even made a statement explaining how its a waste chasing such fickle consumers. Hence Switch serving as a recalibration of their strategy.

I think in the end, Nintendo benefits. One less platform to make revenue on for 3rd parties (even IF the platform still exists, profiting from software sales is a whole other matter) positions Switch 2/3 and beyond as absolutely crucial for revenue, as more and more, games rely on multiplatform releases to generate enough profit. Which means Nintendo platforms would almost certainly get ports of virtually all 3rd party games. That's likely to happen regardless, but all the more so if Xbox becomes impotent for 3rd parties to earn meaningful revenue.

@JaxonH I agree that Nintendo most likely will benefit. I’m curious of the overlap with the new hardware that Nintendo unveils. I’m still not convinced a Switch 2 is a simple answer but that would be the surest solution to having PS as a major hardware competitor. Both manufactures would be using iterative numbers to denote progress in their products. Also just to touch on it, yea I didn’t mean Blue ocean in the purest sense. I guess I was inferring the idea of Nintendo’s pattern and successes with using older and proven technologies in their current hardware rather than chasing the expectations of the latest processor or graphic output.

"If Microsoft kills Xbox..." I will celebrate!! Never owned or liked Xbox and it will be interesting to see it switch to Nintendo VS Microsoft! (even though I feel like they are less enemies now considering SONY is helping make the Zelda movie)

It can only be bad for the industry, because giving Sony a monopoly over high-end consoles will give them a free pass to slack off with their games and technological innovation, plus pricing, knowing it's their way or the highway.

Well, it seems that it's just another failed Microsoft project. Be honest, Xbox has always poisoned the industry. Paid online, subscription madness, digital-only consoles—it's all that Xbox did. I hope that the industry will be more clear without them.

Never really liked Microsoft that much. The only time I ever bought a Microsoft console was when I got an Xbox 360 to play third party games, and that was only because I didn't properly do research on the PS3's exclusives and just went with the more powerful console. There's nothing really worth coming back to an Xbox for unless you really like Halo, Forza, or Fable, they don't really care about actual games and anytime they need more games, they just buy developers instead of actually coming up with something themselves. So I wouldn't care at all if they dropped out. I'd actually be happy in fact, since their legacy on the industry is far more negative than positive.

We'll soon find out what happens to this brand in the upcoming week. I'm excited; this is the biggest Xbox news we have had in months.

Thanks for the information!

I think the massive elephant in the room here is that Microsoft's bold claims about console exclusives becoming less important is massively contradicted by the huge success that Nintendo has enjoyed with Switch.

I would be happier to see as the real competition is only between Nintendo vs Sony while XBOX is just party popper which distract us with bad gaming business decision from DLC, DRM check, Online only, Game Pass, streaming games, etc. We don't need those bad stuffs in video gaming.
The only good efforts Microsoft have done was from OG XBOX and XBOX 360 with their Kinect.
Since XBOX ONE era, the Microsoft was going downhill.

@nocdaes I think there's some truth to the claims outside Nintendo. People tend to buy PS/Xbox for the big multiplatform games like Fortnite, CoD, GTA, FIFA/EA Sports FC, etc. nowadays rather than the big exclusives like Halo, Forza, TLoU, Spider-Man, etc.

@Grumblevolcano I think a big reason for this is the fact that many of Sony and MS first party exclusives aside from their sports titles are rated M. This prevents many minors as well as people who enjoy less serious games A.K.A. E-T rated titles over more adult-oriented ones from playing many of their first party offerings.

I wonder if this depends on age.... it's a small sample size but everyone I know who is an adult gamer bought PS5 purely for timed/console exclusives like Final Fantasy or BG3 or the occasional actual Sony game like TLoU. I don't have a PS, but all the final fantasy exclusives have made it very tempting.