6 ms·
Microsoft raises Xbox prices by up to 43%
- poisonborz 2mo agoWith all the other Xbox layoffs, studio shutdowns, price increases, rumors of pulling titles from Steam, what do they still expect from this brand?
- datakan 2mo agoNothing. That’s why they gave it to a young woman with no achievements whatsoever in gaming and no reputation to build off of. Her job is to kill it in a way Satya can save face on so they can finish their push to everything in the cloud.
- mulderc 2mo agoCurious that you focus so much on her gender.
- baal80spam 2mo agoI didn't get the impression OP focused on the gender. Is it forbidden to mention a gender if it's female? Seems to me the one focusing on the gender is you.
- speak_plainly 2mo agoI think the point is that if it's irrelevant, why mention it?
- mulderc 2mo agoNotice that there is no mention of the gender of the CEO.
- ohmylawd 2mo ago[dead]
- CamJN 2mo agoI don’t pretend to know GP’s motives for putting it that way, but if I was going to put on my evil hat and kill off a gaming company/division I’d also put a woman in the hot seat. Not because I think women don’t understand gaming, they do; nor that I think women can’t run successful companies, they do; but because a large chunk of the gaming market is openly misogynistic and would root for the failure outcome I was orchestrating. Hell I’d even throw in some kind of golden parachute deal because that would enflame the trolls even more. People are easy to manipulate, and that’s quite possibly what’s happening here.
- mulderc 2mo agoI think that is a much more complex plan than I have seen come out of most corporate planning and promotions.
- inigyou 2mo agoIt's like the Ellen Pao era of Reddit. Ellen was a scapegoat put in by the board of directors to soften the impact while they rammed through a lot of unpopular decisions. Then they replaced her with the actual CEO.
- BobaFloutist 2mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_cliff https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_cliff
- datakan 2mo agoHit a nerve eh?
- mulderc 2mo agoMore found it distracting and irrelevant.
- fryanyway_swe 2mo agoHe just mentioned her gender.
- mulderc 2mo agoTwice for no good reason, he didn’t bother to mention the gender or age of the CEO.
- hhh 2mo ago'No Achievements'? even just on her Wikipedia she has a great run in her career. Also the population seems to like her.
- 650 2mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asha_Sharma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asha_Sharma Bachelor of Science in Management from University of Minnesota Marketing role at Microsoft 2011-2013 out of college, standard average college grad role. --- There are thousands of more intelligent, harder working, better credentialed, better achieving college grads alone at this point. --- COO of Porch ~2013-2017 - how does one go from a standard marketing role to COO, ok whatever maybe its a smol startup "After departing Porch, she joined Facebook as VP Product & Engineering for their Messenger and Instagram Direct products." lmfao - more credence to the fact that most "Product" roles are leeches. VP Product and Engineering at Meta is absolutely crazy at this point in anyones career. Management Degree -> Marketing Role -> COO of startup (lolwut) -> VP Product/Eng at Meta (cough nepotism? cough) --- COO of Instacart in 2021 LMAO President of Core AI at Microsoft in February 2024 LMAO insert "i have no technical ability whatsoever"
- galkk 2mo agoReading on tea leaves has more credibility and substance than your “analysis”.
- 650 2mo agoPlease provide a rebuttal. 4 years from a marketing role they were in out of college at Microsoft to VP Product and Engineering at Meta?
- galkk 2mo agoNo. You made claims, it’s your job to provide evidence. And you already contradict yourself - per your message she was 2 years at ms, and then 4 years at startup. Honestly, I hate defending multimillionaire and get that to climb that fast at those companies anybody needs to be, most likely, ruthless corporate warrior. But you just throw claims and sound like a baseless hater.
- GiorgioG 2mo agoXbox is in complete disarray and is imploding. I haven’t owned a PlayStation in decades. If my son’s Xbox Series X (the worst naming ever) suddenly dies, we’ll either switch to PlayStation or build a PC.
- binarin 2mo agoIsn't playstation going download only way in a year or so, with no physical disks at all?
- 2III7 2mo agoThe majority of gamers don't care. PC has been digital only for decades.
- ZenoArrow 2mo agoThere are a few points to raise here. Firstly, yes PC is mostly digital only, but there is at least competition between PC gaming marketplaces, which helps to restrict anti-consumer practices like deleting content that gamers have paid for. Secondly, some of the competitors in the PC gaming space allow for physical backups of installation media, which helps with game preservation. For example, if a game is bought on GOG, the installer is mostly/always one that can be backed up onto physical media. Thirdly, while it's true most gamers have moved away from physical media, it still has value. For example, second hand games allow for more people to take part in gaming than could otherwise (legally) do so. Taking away physical games won't stop people on low incomes from wanting to game, and is likely to lead to a resurgence in game piracy. Not exactly the outcome game industry leaders are likely to welcome.
- 2III7 2mo agoI agree with all of those points. The market unfortunately doesn't. Physical sales constitute only a quarter on the PlayStation platform (even less according to Sony). Most if not all of the top 10 games by player count are online only anyway. If Sony does go all digital with the PS6 they'll only lose a small fraction of loyal gamers and they just don't give a fuck. Piracy on the PlayStation? Also not gonna happen. At least not for online games and that's where the money is.
- codemog 2mo agoThe deal was they took everything from you… but at least you could buy electronics for cheap! Now they don’t even let you have that.
- estearum 2mo ago[flagged]
- ActionHank 2mo agoIt’s because of the idiocy of p&l tracking. The hardware, store, and games all need to be independently profitable. Once they are, they all need to be more and more profitable. Finally when it’s no longer profitable fire half the people and strip it for parts. They’re already dead, they just don’t know it yet.
- thegrim33 2mo agoSounds like an opportunity then for you to create a competing company that functions the way you feel it should function. If that's what people value, you'll take all the business since you're the only one offering it.
- EA-3167 2mo agoWhat people value is subject to marketing and long-term manipulation, not to mention a poverty of competition.
- darth_avocado 2mo ago> Sounds like an opportunity then for you to create a competing company that functions the way you feel it should function Sure, if one has millions and millions in capital. Because why would an investor put a money in my company that works the way it “should” according to me if it produces lower profits as compared to my competitors?
- lotsofpulp 2mo ago
- kderbyma 2mo agoThe Era of the Gamecube, Xbox, and PS2 will forever be the best in terms of consumer value and choice and commitment to quality, followed by the Xbox360 Ps3 gen....Its been boiling the frog since end of PS4 and on, but I got out of the water by the PS5...xbox was boiled long ago and were the first to turn up the temp
- deadbabe 2mo agoCan we not forget Dreamcast was also part of that era?
- coffeebeqn 2mo agoWe had a pretty good run there from NES onwards. Today the state of the games industry is weird - It was the best of times, it was the worst of times
- VCFundedGenYer 2mo agoWe shouldn't ever forget the sweet spot of the Game Boy Advance SP (proudly exclaimed "plays all games" on its box, and that wasn't a lie) and the original model of the PS3 which had full BC for every previous generation. It's such a shame how far things have fallen since. The Switch 2 is an amicable modern day effort, but still, the industry has gotten much pricklier for the average consumer. Not to mention prices that will irreparably damage the scene.
- Plasmoid 2mo ago[dead]
- grg0 2mo agoThe best part is that the era isn't gone; you can buy those and the games, and it's not even an expensive hobby. And people also know how to / can repair them.
- mpfh 2mo agoI don’t blame them because I don’t know all the variables involved. Neither does the media reporting and we don’t know what a company of their size is going through with prices going up and suppliers being unwilling to sell parts needed to manufacture these things. I bought a used Xbox one a few years back. I’m not a heavy gamer anymore so I usually buy the previous generation or even two generations ago hardware, get the games I want from eBay and I’m good. And I was looking forward to getting a Series X, but at this point it looks unlikely unless the brand completely tanks and they’re selling them off to get rid of inventory. Otherwise, my Xbox one is going to be worth more in the future than what I paid, and I don’t want that situation for anyone.
- bluescrn 2mo agoAt this point, it’s the ExBox :(
- sterlind 2mo agobizarrely self-destructive behavior from XBox. they've been shooting themselves in the foot for years; apparently they've decided to exchange the gun for a flamethrower in hopes of cauterizing the stump.
- rustcleaner 2mo agoI'm sure it applies to Xbox too, but I priced out today's PS to the PS1 and it closely follows the inflation rate that M2 has undergone. M2 expansion is the prime driver of prices, after supply & demand. Normalize SPX, gold/silver, etc, to M2 and see that they all run in fairly horizontal channels. You can even see nominal GDP normalized to M2 having been flat initially and then transitioning into a downward sloped curve for the last few decades. By normalizing, I mean [in TradingView] doing SYMBOL*23.16*10^12/M2SL (conceptually SYMBOL*M2SL[0]/M2SL). Most important items track close to M2's roughly 6.5%-7% annualized force of interest inflation rate (the quotient of the natural log of the ratio of price now to historical price, over the elapsed time between the prices). 7% inflation (FoI) -> wealth halflife of cash ≈ 10 years.
- kiddico 2mo agoReading this made me question my own mental stability.
- rustcleaner 2mo agoCPI replaces steak with hamburger or chicken once steak becomes unaffordable. It understates inflation.
- inigyou 2mo agoHe's basically saying the increase in prices has matched the increase in the money supply. Implying that we need to hold politicians accountable for the massive expansion in the money supply. Which is logic that's hard to fault. Also implying that inflation is under-measured, perhaps deliberately. Which definitely seems true for anyone who's experienced inflation.
- rustcleaner 2mo agoBetter stated than my ham-fisted attempt. Thank you. :^)
- ZenoArrow 2mo agoExcept the increase in prices is not tied to M2 in this case. It's clearly a matter of supply not matching demand, as a result of changes in priorities of computing equipment manufacturers. You don't have to look at M2 to understand that Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix deprioritising DDR memory over HBM for AI data centres has led to the rapid increase in prices for consumer-grade RAM.
- toomuchtodo 2mo agoValve’s gain.
- sssilver 2mo agoValve is truly walking into the perfect storm with their current roadmap.
- bsian 2mo agoHave you seen the prices of valve’s hardware?
- toomuchtodo 2mo agoI ordered a steam deck, so I have. I trust Valve to maintain the ecosystem more than I do Microsoft and Xbox, and so that is where I invest my leisure gaming dollars. The cost per year is reasonable considering how long myself and my kids will get value from it. No different from my MacBook Air and other Apple gear I’ll use for a decade. (price is what you pay, value is what you get)
- wookmaster 2mo agoNo because I used it on my Mac and Linux desktop
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- ravenstine 2mo agosideshow_bob_rakes.gif
- dbg31415 2mo agoFor my entire life, I've seen the same cycle. Microsoft buys something great, optimizes all the good out of it, and then pulls the plug. Skype, Nokia, GitHub... Now it's happening to video games. The thing everyone needs to realize is that Microsoft fundamentally doesn't make anything, they never have. All they can do is buy low and sell high. Or buy high and sell higher. They certainly can't lovingly craft games, the way gamers expect. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that executives hate artists. Go out of their way to fire them. Look at what's happening to Blizzard & Bethesda under Microsoft. Arguably Blizzard was ruined the moment Activision sunk their claws in. Quality went down, creativity went down, and all so Bobby could buy a new yacht and sail to Epstein's Island. "Do you guys not have phones?" That's something a manager who was totally out of touch with his audience would say. Not of an artist creating experiences for gamers. Microsoft wedge micro-transactions into everything, changes game play to emulate games like Candy Crush where gamers have to pay every 30 seconds. Really more slot machines than video games, but to the ghouls running the show they can't tell the difference. Players like to be amazed, entertained, and it's not a formulaic process. A gamer will never say, "Oh good, I love feeling pressure and being rushed and all I wanted to do was put in more money all along!" Microsoft has killed support for all these games. Which kills community. They add things that nobody wants, because they saw someone else doing it. And they keep adding more of these pay to win and collection "buy a new skin" type mechanics. Anyway this is a straight up rant at this point, but Microsoft buying something is always a sign doom will follow. Just a matter of time. Xbox held out pretty well. But in the last year or three Microsoft has set its sights on ruining every game it has, so it's just a matter of time now before gamers abandon it. I have zero faith Microsoft will find a way to bring an audience back, because they have no idea how to connect with said audience. It's always just going to be, "How much ARR does that game produce? Wow what a great game!"
- VCFundedGenYer 2mo agoI really don't get what MS is doing here. They claim they care about Xbox, that they're going to turn the ship around, yet they cluelessly and carelessly laid off most of their best staff, all while raising prices multiple times and still not producing a coherent future roadmap. Any consumer or customer would look at this behavior pattern and think they are far too unstable to put their trust into. At this point it's time to call it for Xbox. I don't think they'll be around in six months time.
- bathtub365 2mo agoThe new leadership that was installed clearly has no idea what they’re doing. I get the sense they’re just trying not to get fired. Asha had no games industry experience coming in. They were also dealt a pretty bad hand with the humongous Activision acquisition and a pretty poor slate of games year over year basically since the start of Covid.
- ebbi 2mo agoI recently purchased an Xbox Series S for ~NZD$180 to re-play GTA4 (and Episodes) as I never got to finish it when it first came out, and to get through all the GTAs before GTA6 comes out. 512GB Series S consoles in NZ are now retailing for close to $1,000. Might have an appreciating asset on my hands!
- inigyou 2mo ago($1 NZD ≈ $0.50 USD)
- pipeline_peak 2mo agoWhen did the Xbox start looking like a Braun radio?
- shahedshah 2mo agoI get the impression from Xbox and Sony that they are oblivious to the fact that they are killing the console. You no longer own the games you purchase. Rather, it's a license for a game (or movie) that can be taken away at any moment, and they want you to be okay with that. Prices are increasing with the excuse of the RAMpocalypse, but the hardware upgrades between the generations are minimnal. Okay. Vent over.