Microsoft has just made headlines for raising the price of Xbox Game Pass. However, Microsoft's strategic shift may be more thorough and crazy than we imagined.
According to uncle SneakersSO's revelations on the NeoGAF forum, the actual production plan for the next-generation Xbox console has changed from "very specific" to "pending," suggesting that Microsoft may abandon Xbox hardware and become a third-party publisher.
This news is quite confusing - after all, we are now approaching the critical moment when the new console is put into production.The original target is to start production in 2026 (expected to be released in 2027), but the whistleblower's statement implies that Microsoft is now wavering on whether to continue to implement this plan.
SneakersSO explained the reasons on the forum: "The future of Xbox is to publish games, and the focus will be on high-profit IP (such as "Call of Duty", "World of Warcraft", "Minecraft", "Candy Crush Saga", "Forza Horizon"), cloud games will become the home of the 'Xbox platform', and Game Pass will be transformed into a subscription entrance to xCloud (by the way, the price will continue to rise in the future). In addition, Microsoft plans to make its own games available on all devices with markets and users."
In other words, Microsoft may follow Sega's lead and completely withdraw from the console hardware market.Although this makes sense from a certain point of view - after all, Xbox hardware sales have continued to decline over the years - Microsoft has repeatedly promised players that it will launch a new generation of most powerful game consoles. The president of the Xbox division even claimed that it would be "the largest generational performance improvement in the history of game consoles."
In addition, less than four months ago, Microsoft signed a multi-year cooperation agreement with AMD, covering the development of a new generation of devices, including consoles, handhelds and cloud devices.In theory, Microsoft can indeed renegotiate the console part, but if it really announces that it will no longer launch new consoles, Xbox fans are bound to strongly backlash, especially because it may mean that they will lose access to the entire past game library.
Of course, this rumor needs to be taken with a grain of salt for now.However, technology media The Verge reporter Tom Warren recently mentioned on the Xbox Era podcast that SneakersSO does have a very good understanding of Microsoft’s internal gaming business:
"I can say that he does know a lot about what's going on inside the company. I think he's a reliable source - he does know a lot."
The rumors that Microsoft is giving up on Xbox hardware still have some basis in fact. For the recent 3A masterpieces, Xbox sales are really pitiful:
"Silent Hill f" and "Mafia: Hometown" Xbox version sales are dismal
Over 80% of the sales of "Call of Duty: Black Ops 6" came from PS4 and PS5
@Zuby_Tech, a tipster who focuses on PS news, fiercely criticized Xbox head Spencer, treating both Xbox and himself as a "show":
SneakersSO and some of the rumors I’ve heard and it’s all crazy:
Game Pass is underperforming, and Microsoft was counting on Call of Duty to bring in a large number of new subscribers.Game Pass will transform into the entry point to xCloud in the future, and cloud gaming will become the new home of the "Xbox" brand.Game Pass will increase in price again.Sales of "Call of Duty: Black Ops 7" have dropped sharply, and the price of Game Pass has skyrocketed by 50%.It can also be seen from the data of the PlayStation Store that the sales of "Black Ops 7" have indeed dropped significantly.
Xbox's game showcases are becoming more and more like a show - their focus is not on the games at all, but on winning the promotion war against PlayStation.They'll even greenlight some projects just so they can be announced at the showcase; you could see that from Xbox's E3 2014, where many of the games announced were later canceled.What they focus on is winning exhibitions, winning public opinion, and gaining good reputation.It can be said that these exhibitions are basically public relations performances.
Even more exaggerated: It is said that Phil Spencer paid people to use his account to play games and increase achievement points, so that Xbox fans would think that he was really "one of their own" and build his personal image.He even used Microsoft's marketing budget to manipulate the media and Internet celebrities to set the pace.When he saw the announcement of Horizon: West, he actually celebrated and said: "Halo: Infinite beats it!" As a result, the game was delayed for more than a year.
Microsoft is still training management on how to use LLM (large language model), AI and Copilot.They are desperately trying to replace as many jobs as possible with AI agents.
Xbox hardware:
--More and more retailers are preparing to remove Xbox Series hardware from their shelves.
——The next-generation Xbox did not meet internal development goals, which is consistent with previous rumors-Microsoft started developing the next-generation console after the PlayStation, and the launch time was too late.
--The next Xbox may not be released at all.
——I have also said before that just because a product is “under development” does not mean that it will be mass-produced or actually launched on the market.
When I previously broke the news that PlayStation 5 development machines had been sent to Microsoft Game Studios, I knew they were working on PlayStation versions of their games.SneakersSO also said that they will completely transform into a third-party publisher, relying on those top series: "Call of Duty", "World of Warcraft", "Minecraft", "Candy Crush" and "Forza Horizon".Microsoft is cutting budgets and cutting expenses.As I revealed before, Xbox will be completely transformed into "Microsoft Gaming" (Microsoft Games), which they already call themselves internally.In the future, they will become a fully third-party publisher and publish more games on PlayStation and Nintendo platforms.
As for why they still maintain this "illusion" (just those four exclusive games), the reason is that those 10 million to 20 million extremely loyal users-they will almost always maintain high-priced Game Pass subscriptions.Microsoft wants to keep this part of its revenue as stable as possible while gradually restructuring Xbox into a leaner business focused on only a few mega-projects.
