TWIG BREAKING NEWS: The Xbox Business Update 2.15.2024 Watch Party

all right we going to go back here hello and welcome everyone to Jen Chris and Laura watching the Xbox announcement live so we're doing it on Zoom to make sure we can get the video and I am ready to be triggered theater mode all right here we go everybody hello and welcome to the official Xbox podcast I'm your host tinam and we have a very special episode today as you can probably tell by the fact that I'm joined by Phil Sarah and Matt welcome and we're going to talk about some updates at Xbox we want to talk about game exclusivity we want to talk about Activision Blizzard now that they're part of our portfolio how that might be an impact on Game Pass and we want to talk about Hardware too and how all of this fits into the strategy at Xbox so

where should we start Phil well when we originally had planned for the show starting with back in December um I think we probably would have started with Activision Blizzard maybe talked a little bit about the exclusivity with some of the news coming up and then Hardware but we've we've had some unforeseen news that has come out so let's just go and and tackle the exclusivity question because I know it's on the minds of a lot of people we hear from the community and that's an important input for us so we made the decision that we're going to take four games to the other consoles um just four games not a change to our kind of fundamental exclusive strategy uh it is we're making these decisions for some specific reasons um we make every decision really with the long-term health of Xbox in mind um and long-term health of Xbox means a growing platform our games performing building the best platform for creators um reaching as many players as we can and we're always

looking to learn as a leadership team um and to grow and we think this is an interesting point in time for us to use what some of the other platforms have right now um to help grow our franchises so we're going to do that so these four titles what are they can they can you say I'm not going to name those games the teams that are building those games have announced plans that are not too far away as we know game teams put a lot of energy into their announcements with the partners so I don't want to take away from those teams so I won't be talking what the [ __ ] what what's the point of this how do you go out of the gate like this it's four games um We're Not Gonna comment on the only there there's only what not even 10 games to choose from yeah dude they have they have nothing worthwhile except for four games maybe like I can't even think of four games that make sense I mean thought they were leaked already too

this is this is already [ __ ] right all right yeah about the titles specifically but I I think when they come out um it'll make sense can we say if either of those titles are Starfield or Indiana Jones they are not Starfield Indiana Jones well what was the criteria in how the team was thinking about selecting those four titles let me start a little bit outside of that and then I'll get to the four specific games that we're talking about right now cuz the the fundamental decision driver for any decision that we make anything we're going to talk about today is the long-term health of Xbox that we're running a growing platform that is reaching more players that our games are having as much success as possible and I do have a fundamental belief that over the next five or 10 years this is why I wanted to do this right here no their their strategy has done exactly the opposite they're not growing they're losing share their games are not being played by as many people

as they used to like the fact that Starfield and Indiana Jones are not on this list this is a total double-edged sword for them they are backed in a corner right so like they damned if they do and they're damned if they don't to some degree because their strategy is not [ __ ] working right they need a new strategy and if they're gonna come up with some [ __ ] four games that don't matter and it's not those two like I not those there are no other games that matter right yeah they want to get like a million unit of what else is there uh coming I had a quick look just so sorry we not are we not hypothesizing the games that are going out because I was Googling to see which ones had been leaked yeah go tell me so Xbox is a Screen Rant Xbox is rumored to make a shift towards multiplatform games um which may include titles such as Hi-Fi Rush uh pentant and sea of Thieves with a PS5 okay so so so yes sorry I was forgetting the name of it sea of Thieves make sense because it's like an online

game um highi Rush was rumored to be on Nintendo which also makes sense because it's a casual game but this doesn't again this does not help this does not do what he is suggesting it's going to do it's like if those are the type of games we're talking about and they're not big this doesn't help Xbox at all right it's too small for it to make it impact yeah it's not material and and it doesn't help promote the brand so let's continue exclusive games games that are exclusive to one piece of Hardware are going to be a smaller and smaller part of the game industry and that's not some great Insight because if you look at the last 10 years and what the biggest games are today it's a natural place whether it's one console and PC multiple consoles mobile console and PC you see big games landing on multiple platforms and we want to be a great platform for creators that are trying to realize that potential but now back to the specific specific so the question on these four

four specific titles we looked at games that are over a year old so they've been on Xbox and PC for a while uh a couple of the games are community-driven games new games that kind of first iterations of a franchise that have reached their full potential I'd say on Xbox and PC there's always growth franchises that we obviously want to continue to invest in can I just say this sounds like the Netflix strategy yeah a little bit like let's let's take some old stuff and and get yeah like okay parting part of having the ability to continue to this is exactly like the stadia strategy right like we don't have any new games let's just like we'll give you some old stuff yeah put old stuff do matter okay [ __ ] you know you know Sony's gonna go say go [ __ ] yourself go [ __ ] yourself I don't want anything to do with this I don't want yeah I don't want your [ __ ]

[ __ ] to stop growing and it's like meaningless your one-year-old lukewarm mold growing on it leftovers full potential i' say on Xbox and PC there's always growth franchises that we obviously want to continue to invest in parting part of having the ability to continue to invest is that the businesses behind those franchises continue um we think it's important that these service-based games that have communities behind them that they can have confidence that they're going to exist in the future so two of them kind of community-driven games that will end up on other platforms and give us the ability to continue to invest in them we think that's great for the business and great for the communities more players to play with I'd say two of the other games are smaller games that were never really meant to be built as kind of platform exclusives and all the Fanfare that goes around that but games that our teams really wanted to go build that we love supporting creative Endeavors across our Studios regardless of size and as they've realized their full

potential on Xbox and PC we see an opportunity to utilize the other platforms as a place to just drive more business value out of those games allowing us to invest in maybe future iterations of those so sequels to those or just other games like that in our portfolio and when we don't damage Xbox and we can grow our business using what other platforms have and to to help us with that we're going to do that and and that's really the story Behind these four games and last thing I'll say looking forward you know I think there are there is an interesting story for us of introducing Xbox franchises to players on other platforms to get them more interested in Xbox we think there's a a good brand value for Xbox there so for games no promise beyond that so if you're on those other platforms and you see these for games coming please don't take it as some signal that everything's coming it's not um and we're going to learn so when you are thinking about the

future and this concept of live service games games that can benefit from bigger audiences new audiences how does that apply to Future titles and how you're applying that criteria there yeah there's really no fundamental change to how we think about exclusivity we just came out of developer direct which was an awesome show um where we showed great games that are coming the Xbox and PC and Cloud which really makes them accessible to you know hundreds of millions of people so it's this kind of we're we're really focused on a couple platforms and what's going to show up there um but our our key of play the games you want with the people you want anywhere you want when anybody play when everybody plays we all win these have been part of our strategy for years and will continue to be our focus is on how do we continue to grow the games industry by reaching more players in more places and how do we grow Xbox as part of that Xbox is a hardware platform Xbox is a publisher of great games and Xbox as a platform for the world's best creators MH and then knowing that how do

we think about our first party games and Game Pass yeah well to build on uh what Phil just said one thing I would add as you were talking about growth is just that uh We've sort of seen this inversion over the last five years where it used to be that the platform was the biggest thing that's right and the games would sort of tuck in within the platform today big games like a Roblox or a fortnite could actually be bigger than any one platform and uh that really has changed the way that we think about things so in the midst of all that I think we at first party can come back to sort of some core principles first that all of our games will be on the Xbox platform second all of our games will go into game pass on day one and third we know that game pass will only be available on Xbox so there's sort of starting points for us um as Phil mentioned there are games today that you can play that only can be found on Xbox and at the same time we want to bring more of our games to more players so we're going to continue to look at that

kind of moving aside though from some of those and thinking more about what does it really mean for the player to me the two key things are crossplay and cross- save um those things allow us to deliver okay what what did he just say he just contradicted himself he did he's like we know this and then we're g but we're going to continue to look at it do I need to rewind that I was kind of I'm kind of like confused he basically said that everything will be day and date on Xbox yeah and that Xbox Live Well actually that's actually a big admission right that they're only going to have Xbox um the the subscription service on Xbox yeah right like so no that was a a rumor that it was gonna go on Apple too right because of Apple opening up yeah that makes sense however that doesn't really solve their problem of where they're going to find growth if

they don't move to other platforms with the Xbox Live service but I don't know maybe we'll keep going but I I just this doesn't this this the whole thing has much to do about nothing I guess we'll get to it at the end but like yeah seems like the same strategy they're just taking a few chachy games and putting them on other platforms and I I honestly I don't think Sony's going to accept that I don't think they're going to accept the relationship with Microsoft to put content on their platform why would they why would they promote content if they're if they're small if they're small nothing games right he kept saying small small small so I mean and and if this guy's in charge a first party he better [ __ ] clean this [ __ ] up and start [ __ ] making games you know like I don't anyway right all right continue let me rewind a second and then while yound quick question so well just out of curiosity um the so

they're putting all new games are going on uh game pass on Xbox is that that's what they do now or that's that's a change that was assumed that they would be doing it okay that's not a change I think that's CH yeah that's not a change for the player to me the two key things are crossplay and cross save um those things allow us to deliver on the promise of of Xbox which is play with your friends where they are play on the devices you want play the games you want so that is really only possible at a practical level when you know that your saves and your player are going to be able to move across all those parts um so not of our games today are necessarily built to take advantage of that there still will be some games that don't um as we bring more teams into the Xbox family there's some catchup to do as we get there but that crossplay cross save is like so fun fundamental to what we're doing and I think is uh something

that we as first party get such a good benefit from being so close to the platform yeah absolutely I mean that's one of the things like you said all of our games are always in Game Pass and so I'm excited to announce you know with the coming together that we had with Activision Blizzard King that Activision and blizzard games are coming to Game Pass starting with Diablo 4 on March 28th which I'm super super excited to share today and it's all part of our commitment to make box the Xbox experience and the games that we build as widely available as possible so now the 34 million Game Pass members can all enjoy the Fantastic experience of Diablo 4 anything there I mean did we expect this I mean yes we expected that both Call of Duty and Diablo would be on the platform so yeah I think uh yeah I this seems to be much to do about nothing it's basically going to be Hi-Fi Rush pentant sea of Thieves and

grounded on PS maybe on Sony and and maybe on switch and I think this that's the only thing that's happening right now as far as I could tell so far so cool Diablo's on there what was the other what was the other game they said Diablo and something else Call of Duty wasn't it yeah I think Call of Duty is next yeah keep going okay amazing can we come back to the point Phil you mentioned at the top this isn't really a change in strategy for us can you recap for me how it isn't yeah and I I thought both Matt and Sarah did a really nice job of talking about what we're doing on Xbox where where we're going you know if you if you take a platform feature like Xbox play Anywhere which has been a promise that we've made on our first party games that you can buy our game once you're going to get play across Xbox and windows I think we're the only platform that does this um that makes it possible for you not only to play with your friends wherever they are but to know that you actually have multiple entitlements to the games I think that's

a a technology I'd love to see apply to more platforms um but it is this view that people are going to play Xbox in multiple places um whether it's play the games you want with the people you want anywhere you want whether it's content community in Cloud whether it's when everybody plays we all win like we've had different taglines different strategy uh kind of words that we've used but always with this view that Xbox is a platform for creators who want to reach the most players um our investments in xcloud our investments in franchises like Minecraft and Now Call of Duty and other large franchises so that we learn how to build those this has been a strategy that we've been on for I'd say a decade uh it's not about one device it's not about games in service of a device but rather the devices that people want to play on should be in service of making the games as big and popular as they possibly could be because really a healthy Creator community on Xbox a healthy

Creator community in gaming all up is the thing that all of us as game players should be voting for because that's the thing that will lead to the best long-term success and growth in this industry and my understanding just from listening and learning from you3 um over the past few weeks just understanding what's happening with Xbox is that we see Trends with player Behavior where people are playing on multiple devices that is the reality and we have put some games out on M platforms before so my understanding is that that's been good for players how does that come back to the business with all of that in mind yeah as you said we have shipped games on other Platforms in fact re realistically if you look with the addition of Activision and blizzard and zenax we're one of the largest game Publishers on Playstation we're one of the largest Publishers on the Nintendo switch especially when you put Minecraft into the equation as well and now we're one of the largest Publishers um on mobile platforms as as well and that's not something that we want to back away

from we want to continue to be building great games that millions and millions of people can Love U and that they can play those games where they want to go play um but we do understand the business success that Xbox has to have um us as leaders in this business um the system today the system that all companies that we play video games from is a world of you got to be growing your business um growth in our Xbox business is critical to the long-term health of Xbox many people know I've been on Xbox for over 20 years and I want to make sure Xbox is in the best position for the next 20 years that means healthy player community healthy Creator community and healthy business so when we look at opportunities to allow more people to play more people engage more people to buy more people to subscribe it's all about putting Xbox in the best position and our Hardware is a critical component of that the absolute best experience somebody has on Xbox is Hardware that your team builds M um and that people play but that's not going to

be everybody we fully accepted that we're going to have Xbox players across all kinds of devices so I think a lot of people think about 2023 as this incredible year for gaming and in a lot of ways it was there were some really amazing releases that I think we all enjoyed but what were the signals behind the scenes that maybe indicated how we wanted to look at the future of Xbox and how we kind of keep up with the industry yeah such a good question and I think it's as people who care about the industry which I assume is people who are watching this it was an amazing year some great launches some of the games that I think will stand the test of time and people be talking about a decade from now but it's an industry that didn't really grow and what happens when an industry doesn't grow um you end up with some job eliminations which we had we had even our own hard decision make about building a sustainable business for ourselves but in no way first of all part of the reason the business didn't grow was because Xbox put exclusive titles like Starfield in a [ __ ] subscription right like why

wasn't that on Playstation if you really care about the franchise that you're building you would have put that on Playstation they gave up at least between Indiana Jones and Starfield it's got to be at least a billion in Revenue potentially between those two games alone they are they are uh they are losing by not putting this stuff on Playstation so it's like I think part of the reason we didn't see the the double digit growth is because yeah things like Starfield were not accounted for in all these numbers because they weren't sold packaged Goods they were part of the subscription for Xbox and they were not on Sony's platforms so and and now that Diablo in a couple of weeks or a month is going into that same subscription program are they forgoing more revenue on Diablo or is Diablo just not even a factor anymore because it's falling off a cliff yeah I mean from a business decision like because it's falling the clip the Maus are terrible it's most likely going to help reinvigorate the user base and get more people playing

the game so it's good for the franchise but the question really is and what he's not going to answer is what happens when the expansion comes out later this year is that GNA be part of the Game Pass like that would completely cannibalize all the sales on PC and play potentially PlayStation so it's like it actually would be really devastating for the business right for for Blizzard's business I think if if they weren't be able to get the sales part of a pass because they they just talked about this entitlement system that if you buy it in one device you get it in the other so does that hurt the future of Diablo well I mean I guess is game game passes on PC and console right right right so so that you know that wasn't how it used to work at Activision where there used to be sales of PC and sales of you know to the same human now they're saying oh well I I I really have

to wonder how much of it is cross how many how many players actually do take advantage of that I I'm curious do you happen to it is that no I I actually don't know the stat I imagine it's not as big asag people think what I would say though is that if there is if it if they're giving away the expansion for free under the Xbox game pass which include PC that would likely hurt overall sales or you know dollar Revenue associated with that for blizzard right correct it would make it less appealing that's the danger of these type of models in general um so and it should have see success I don't doubt that it'll do well on if they do the expansion by the way all right let's continue sorry one question when they say crossplay di Diablo 4 as an example so it's going to be uh part of Game Pass right now it's already on ps45 is do you think think that crossplay is going to be you can move your save states between those two

your PlayStation account versus no so it's not it's cross Just Between the PC and Xbox yeah PlayStation won't allow that for now with with with some ex exceptions like fortnite but like for the most part they're not GNA they're not going to play nice with Xbox I'll guarantee you so decisions to make about building a sustainable business for ourselves but in no way were we alone in that um when you think about a healthy industry I want players who believe that they will find the best games on the platforms that they love I want people who invest their careers in working here to feel like this is a place that be they can be successful and that really is down to being part of an industry that is growing if you listen to Lisa sue the AMD CEO she'll say that AMD powered consoles are likely to decline in 2024 I think there's an amazing set of games coming in 2024 but if we don't get to growing as a an industry the industry will struggle and today there's

really two choices on how do you grow the industry do you say I have a fixed number of players the players that we have today and do I find new ways to monetize those players to get more money from the players that I have or do you think about how do I expand the business I have by finding new players and adding those to the base of players that already play our focus on Xbox for the last decade has really been on that lad Point how do we make sure Xbox absolutely fail this is the thing it's like you've been doing this for the last decade you are in the worst position in the history of Xbox right now yeah you know because of your strategies like this is what drives me insane like he has failed miserably and he's just doubling down on the same stupid strategy yeah I don't get it I I don't get it like it's it doesn't make sense what have they really done to grow the industry for new players this this past year what they let Harry

Potter come out from Warner Brothers like and I'm not even sure yeah what content have they created what what ability for new customers to engage with that content like like they're doing the subscription is great for the consumer and I'll give you that but all the content is the same and this this is what I've been railing about for years now it's like if you really want to build a strategy you build a strategy with new content that's that's more mass market for for women for outside the 18 to 44 44y Old demographic which you own kids like yeah really supporting like things like Roblox um to the extent they they did support fortnite which I think will help kind of grow the demo to some degree but like it's like they have all these guys like Legions of people building content and they're building the same [ __ ] dude you know what content is not GNA expand the demo it's [ __ ] Starfield right or Elder screw or Forza or your shitty

Halo right like that's not expanding the demo that's not expanding the market or growing the market you they this is what drives me said they are a net net deterrent they are a negative Drive uh drag on the market with the subscription [ __ ] and they're not adding any value to grow the market and and they're doubling down on a strategy that hasn't worked for the last 10 years and that's what is driving me insane and everyone's gon to love this guy for it oh so I don't know if you remember there a couple months ago we were talking like one of my crazy ideas was to build a like an old school Nintendo controller and have it Bluetooth into the Xbox to get in all of the like the Retro play to get moms and their kids in and so someone heard this like one of my good buddies who's kind of high up in in some of the other companies and he's like my wife was in the car and she heard you say this and she like jumped out of her seat and was like yes I would actually get on the Xbox and play if I had a controller like

the old school Nintendo controller and and so I was like first of all you let your wife will listen to our podcast and she's actually interested okay fine and then second thank you for telling me that I was right but like that at least is as crazy as that idea is that is an idea that lives up to that strategy that levels this other stuff I they they have I I want to know what the tactics are that deliver to this strategy that he's talking about because I don't see it yeah and so historically there was rumors that they were going to partner with with uh Nintendo and this would be a way of trying to expand the market that' be great a subscription service on Xbox that that allows you access to old Nintendo content and vice versa right these are the type of moves that would be interesting and and and valuable and and grow the market as opposed to detract from the market which is what they're doing now uh with this with these crazy subscriptions and pulling product that PlayStation users want

badly right they're not at the best interest of the player you know that that's not what they're doing and so he's just kind of like completely lying every time he says that because otherwise they would have been day and date with with PlayStation with this uh with Indiana Jones and Starfield right if they cared about the player right and they cared about the business right um so they need to find strategies that grow the market and not keep doubling down things that are detracting from the market yeah okay let's Contin players growing for our creators so those people are finding success um on our platform which will grow the Xbox business and put Xbox in a position to be very strong for years and decades to come Matt earlier you were talking about these growing gaming communities how they're incredibly large um and you know comparable on such a different level when we think about console audiences like you mentioned Roblox you mentioned fortnite so how are we we're obviously thinking about our responsibility our Hardware responsibility is supporting

the growth of gaming communities how has that actually shown up for the players are there game other games we can speak to from our portfolio well as Phil mentioned I mean two of the biggest ones for us Call of Duty and Minecraft I mean they are driven just from the bottom up by the communities of people that play those games um which is so great I think think about it for the player community it comes down to where are the friends where are the people you play with and then equally important is where where have you built up your library of games right where's the where have you invested where's that Library I think those two things probably are some of the biggest influences on where people choose to play and what devices they choose to play when we think about on the other side the developer side just any game developer wants their game to find the biggest audience possible that's just the the nature of building a game you want people to enjoy and participate in what you've made and I think we're in a unique position to deliver on that just because we are the platform we build Hardware we've got a

first party games group and then we've got a system that ties that together that brings together your friends your progression your achievements all of that and I I think that's really what has contributed to the momentum behind some of these communities yeah absolutely I mean when you look at just step back and you look at the history of the industry was that like three minutes of him not saying anything yeah I hate I hate this PR shite that's written to like say nothing for like I and you know this is my you know this is my area of of discipline I I would have Coach this differently right he he literally he's like yeah we want to make a place where people can play games with their friends holy sh really I like I mean I I think this guy but everything he has said is like let me just tell you about like what it's like to make a video game we've moved from a

place where it used to be that someone built and launched a game to accelerate Hardware to actually the things we do with our hardware and with our platform are all in service of making those games bigger and we think about that across all of the Investments we make the consoles we build the Investments we do with things like crossplay cross progression the things that we're doing with Cloud how do we actually give more options to game creators they can have the greatest success ESS I think one of the the fun recent examples about this is actually po world you know po world was able to launch they were game preview they launched in Game Pass they also simultaneously launched in Steam and through the combination of those things you know pocket pair was able to have this outside success and it was the large Oh I thought you were commenting I mean that that makes sense though right this this is yeah fair I'm like okay okay now you're talking just third party game Game Pass launch ever and that's all because we give creators options on

how they can launch their games we've got subscription we've got retail we've got freeo playay we've got gr preview we have the consoles we have our experience on PC and they can access all of those things and when we step back and we just look at the performance of our platform all up we know it's working we're at the highest level of users on Console the highest level of users on PC the highest level of users on cloud ever we have double digit growth rate on PC and Cloud place where we're enabling creators to actually reach new players beyond the console ecosystem stop stop double digit growth means [ __ ] nothing absolutely nothing when you're going from zero to one yeah that's double digit growth [ __ ] off with that [ __ ] and like power world they're probably kicking themselves for doing an exclusive with Xbox oh you know absolutely dude they would have sold a gajillion units and made T hundreds of millions of dollars extra most likely compared to what they got from from Microsoft to to finish this game although although what I will

say is did they they didn't know they had a hit though so they had to do the small company thing which was okay I'm going to take what do you think they paid him three three million bucks Xbox like here's three million bucks finish your game you're exclusive to us not enough not enough now we know but if if that game wasn't a hit then they would be an amazing spot they just I but but but the way this woman is characterizing what's her name Sarah Bond Sarah the way the way Sarah's characterizing it is is not accurate right that's not a win for power world it's certainly not a win for uh the developer and it's just a win it's a win for the consumer I guess and for Xbox that's yeah no if you're keeping score that's the right place to put the score marks yes okay ever we have double digit growth rate on PC and Cloud places where we're in enabling creators to actually reach new players beyond the console ecosystem

and that's why we're leaning into it and doing more because that is inaccurate they are not reaching new players this is the whole thing cloud is reinforcing the same players and PC you think there's I mean PC may be some growth but it's still Gamers like that have been playing on PC PC is a pain in the ass you know it's like they're not reaching new players that that is not true they know that's not true right they that's not true so do you so my my question is it it probably goes to how they're counting players right like so the data I would love to see is how to your point how many of these people already played Xbox and they're like o bonus now I play on PC and they're like that's a new player and it's like well no that's the same player now playing on multiple devices so number one is I'd love to see that data number two is maybe maybe maybe there is some sort of data that says that more kids these days

more people have device PC devices that will allow them to play I I doubt it to your point I doubt this but but I need I need to see some data because my gut tells me it's more of one which is console players now playing on PC although we also admittedly said that that percentage is small and but that I think is where they are pointing to the growth right if if they were if they were truly growing the audience Xbox sales would be through the moon right like they would be matching Sony easily right if they expanding the demographic they would not be out get outsold two to one right I thought it was like three to one like when we I think it's like it's like 10 to one in Europe but I think us kind of equalizes it but it's it's probably three to one you're probably right but nonetheless so that is not happening and PC is not making up the difference difference like let me be clear right um it's just not so their

subscriptions are coming down like they're just they're flatlining right yeah um okay I'd be curious on your data point Jen to know how many with the with PA world how many new conversions to Game Pass so people that have an Xbox don't have Game Pass how much these games are actually contributing to a like basically a new subscription for it as well that's what they want right no yeah maybe I mean it you know with how many units I know we talked 7 million units at one point like five or six days in I bet they're at 10 I mean I would imagine the new growth came from Steam versus like I'm gonna sign up for xax console to play po world I mean I think we I didn't even realize it was on Xbox again as an Xbox fan I didn't even know that that was there yep all right here we go see all those signals cloud ever we have double digit

growth rate on PC and Cloud places where we're enabling creators to actually reach new players beyond the console ecosystem and that's why we're leaning into it and doing more because we see all those signals so we're talking about the role that Hardware plays for creators for the games and those communities what about the role that Hardware plays for us as a business for Xbox when we look at our Hardware it really is and Phil said this every earlier it's where you get like the most Flagship seminal experience of Xbox and it also represents a developer Target our developers can build the specs of our hardware and we invest to make sure they know when they do that that the games are going to grow great on our Hardware but they're also going to be able to be access across any streen any screen because of all the other Investments we make so we're giving them an easy way to access as many players as possible and we actually have more creators right now building for Xbox than ever before thousands of them by nature of those Investments and we got more to come

there's some exciting stuff coming out in Hardware that we're going to share this holiday and we're also invested in the Next Generation road map and what we're really focused on there is delivering the largest technical leap you will have ever seen in a hardware generation which makes it better for players and better for creators and the visions that they're building and then when we're talking about Hardware too there's these other considerations that are really important to our community probably to each one of ourselves as well when when you talk about library because I want to dig in on that a little bit more you know as we talk about cloud in The Wider entertainment industry there's conversations about streaming how is that impacting how I own my content that I've invested in so what can we say about our stance around game preservation yeah you know one of the highlights for me of of being in this position was getting to stand on stage when we announce back compat coming to Xbox One like it was fantastic people were reading the teleprompter before I could read it slow reader um and just feeling the energy in the in the uh in the auditorium as we were

saying that and online you know one of the cues I think us as being part of Microsoft take is looking at windows and how Windows over decades has maintained software compatibility with things that are built on it like I can still go back and play some of the games that I love playing on Windows from decades ago and it will still run and we try to bring that same view to consoles it's harder in consol because the line between what the hardware is and what the game is in consoles is traditionally it's it's tighter which makes compatibility you end up doing these generational compatibilities that we've built but I will say compatibility the ability to not only play the games but my saves are still there with our Cloud save systems to try to keep the services up as long as we can so that people can play is a tenant of what we are as Xbox it's at our foundation when we look at Future Hardware Generations and what we're gonna you always catch me when I'm drinking yes dude this is this backwards

compatibility is a feature on a [ __ ] box no one does it no one plays I talked to Sony less than 2% of the people play Playstation 4 games on their PlayStation 5 like it's [ __ ] like this is like agree and every time they bring it up it's more of a fan service to get you know the IGN guys like you know happy make them happy but it's not a meaningful agree feature at all period end of sentence so I don't spend time on this it's a marketing bullet point they must have found through again Data Insights that um it's something that people really are worried about but when you actually get down to people say they love it and they want it and they're going to make a decision based on it but when you get down to usage they don't use it so this is probably something that research like identified and why they keep harping on it I mean again like these are smart people who who the who put this like this is heavily heavily

polished and crafted so everything they're saying they they put in here for a reason I just think that for us as people nitpicking this uh we're able to see through the the comms and the pr the used car salesman magic that's going into this this feels like two things to me one it is a wrap-up of a very long year of negotiations between their the um acquisition so hey it's done look at all these cool cool things that are happen happening now and then two they're hyping up they're trying to get people excited about the upcoming Hardware there's not I don't see there's there's not much else in this no I not let's there's still a few minutes left let's go because I I have to go at one so support making sure that we respect which is the word I use respect the Investments that people have made in Xbox going forward is fundamental and the fact that you get entitlements when you buy a game from us on both windows and Xbox also you have the ability to play that game across a multitude of devices which I think furthers the

compatibility of the games that you own can we go back to what Xbox stands for today I think we've pretty much covered all of the elements but if you could break it down for me you know when you play on Xbox what we're saying is is you're playing on a platform where you know the biggest games in the world are always going to be you're playing on a platform where you get to access Game Pass and all of the games from our incredible range of Studios will always launch in Game Pass day one and you're playing on a platform that's dedicated to you like player first features crossplay cross save cross progression uh backwards compatibility uh being able to play your games in your library anywhere you want because of the Investments that we make in cloud gaming and so you're playing somewhere where you're investing and you know you get to take the games forward with you and across all of the screens where you are and I think what more importantly Xbox is a place where you know when you're investing in Xbox you're

investing somewhere that is dedicated to making games more successful and creators more successful so that they can invest more to bring even better experiences to you all of the time yeah just that investment in the studios is is so and we feel that as part of first party with the platform proximity you know it's um kind of amazing now to look out across all the studios we've got and just be reminded that we're now one the biggest development organizations in the industry what does that mean for players it means that the biggest games are going to continue to come to Xbox and uh this 2024 the year coming up we've got more than 10 major releases coming up great stuff hellblade 2 we've got Diablo expansion we've got avow ARA the Indiana Jones game and there's more in development which uh I think we're going to be able to share more about at our June showcase coming up pretty soon well I guess I should get ready to work on that show well thank you all for showing up

on the podcast today and we'll see the rest of you this June yeah thanks Tina thank you this was kind of underwhelming to be honest oh my God it was nothing I was expecting anything more than this can and they didn't talk they didn't talk about Hardware they said they were gonna talk about Hardware did they say anything about Hardware the new thing is coming soon we're super excited about it it's going to be the best ever didn't they say something oh new technical limitate or new technical uh whatever it is that you've never seen before so it was it was it was a bit of hype bunch of shite yeah although her leather jacket is really badass Laura right yeah like I yep oh my God that's what this come down to is fashion I'm trying to find something to talk about because there's nothing to freaking talk about in here um they didn't reveal anything okay let's let's do you think that this was a reaction

that they that yes the plans changed between when this was leaked and and this announcement this this looks like something leaked about the games going to the other platforms and people were freaking out and partners must have been calling them freaking out and they're like okay well we'll jump on the podcast and while we're there we'll make sure to say crossplay and cross save and cloud and backward back backpack what what is back backwards compatible but what he called it like backpack he had like a little phrase for it was like shortened any backom or something yeah yeah um and then the fact that they reiter reiterated some of those points three or four times was really was really weird um to me but I felt like this is an was an overreaction to the leak about the some of the games going and I think they basically wanted to say it's not Indiana Jones and Starfield

going to PS5 everybody calm down they should have just said that they should have just did a tweet that said that yeah we should have made a bingo card for this talk put all those like The buzzword Game Pass po World crossplay um and then weird they also um they kept calling developers creators did you notice that be and and so as a marketer what's super confusing is creators are influencers they are the people who they are players who take your product and do twitch streams and so that's a word we use very differently than than they were using like I'm used to that them saying developers right and and and so I was wondering why they weren't like where that was coming from why they were they slipped a couple times and said developers and so I don't know I just need to know what the difference is in their mind between a Creator and developer I don't know I thought they

were talking about Minecraft like the people that create things in Minecraft no no they so I had a complete take different takeaway when they started using the word creators right like ugc like ugc that's what I thought yeah no they were using it very purposely in as we normally say developer so yeah like go and watch that as again as the marketing PR comms person I have to zero in on the language that they're using what they choose to reiterate all three of them CR final notes before we I mean it's much to do about nothing it's basically those four games that I already mentioned that are likely coming across platform unclear as to whether they'll be on Playstation because I think Sony's gonna say [ __ ] off um so they're basically doubling down on a strategy that's not working and and and it's very very disappointing but I think it'll probably just this whole thing will blow over and it'll be continue as we go you know yeah oh Diablo Diablo and

Game Pass on March 28th I just don't think that was a surprise right I mean I don't know I I hope it's not a surprise I mean I I thought that was like one of the biggest talking points of why they were doing the acquisition of ABK was to get the get that content into Game Pass and boost Game Pass so I felt like that was maybe how quickly it happened I mean I guess I guess it all closed when did it close October I mean I guess it's been a little while yeah and they've had all this time all this time this is this is the other thing is that like actually the final note I will say is that they've had over a year to not only negotiate this deal make sure it gets through regulation but they have other people in their organization creating the strategy around what this deal means and so this is not like the this stuff is all well thought out right it's not like they're not under the gun you know

like and so like I think if they were changing their strategy we we would know by now you know but it looks like they're not they're just doing the same thing they've always done um that's failed them to date so um you know we'll see if if maybe Call of Duty and uh Diablo and all the rest of the content makes a difference but that is again detracting value from the overall industry um and that's part of the risks of with uh subscriptions how does DLC work today in Game Pass like are there ex like if Starfield has an expansion how does that work because I'm just terrified for imagine you're a Diablo business leader or Call of Duty business leader and your your DLC is coming out and you're in Game Pass what happened to your p&l well that's the problem is that that the Diablo strategy was all um DLC based right DLC well it's season based but also DLC

based so they're a big like um expansions you know every year they're trying to build expansion so as part of Game Pass they won't drive direct revenue from that they will have to be part of the game pass and I would imagine that the number of people that are going to be playing that game is going to be so low that they're not going to recoup the investment that that big team is and so if I were to get I don't think they're going to last past the first expansion yeah um and that team will be cut back which I think I've already said in the podcast so yeah okay um yeah it's not good it's all bad news in my opinion like yeah so well in any event this was fun uh thanks for doing a watch party I'll see how I can upload this somehow since we did it on Zoom but let's do this more often this is fun I like something really juicy though really juicy well we thought well we thought this would be juicy oh no no sorry not a comment on you more of a comment on the next one I hope is like more of a reveal

of things yeah bring it on all right guys all right bye now all right cheers see you