Xbox keep raising the prices of their Game Pass service and consoles, while owning a very large percentage of the worlds game developers, undercutting said developers abilities to get their games in the hands of fans due to the fact that nobody wants to pay for their expensive consoles or Game Pass service anymore.

It’s a big dumb circle of stupidity, like a metaphorical red ring of death.

This is all very reminiscent of SEGA during the Dreamcast era. They beat Sony to the market with very little exclusive games to go with it, Sony kicked their ass in sales, SEGA stopped making consoles and went third-party with their games.

While Microsoft denies that they’ll be getting out of the console business altogether, we can absolutely make an inference that they won’t be releasing a traditional console when it comes to the next generation.

With the release of the Xbox ROG Ally handhelds, I think we’re looking at the future of the Xbox hardware market. Microsoft have shown that they’re willing to partner up with third party manufacturers for their devices now, rather than creating them entirely in-house, and they’ll be focusing on Windows PC as a platform.

Why else would they be so focused on giving these handhelds a new front-end UI? They’re so expensive and niche, they surely wouldn’t be doing it just for these handhelds.

This is all to say that Microsoft need to turn this ship around sooner rather than later and here are my top 5 ideas on how they can do that, totally free of charge. You’re welcome Microsoft.

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1. Lower Your Console Prices

This is an obvious one, but it seems like the folks over at Xbox are oblivious to the most obvious things. I understand that tariffs are a thing and the cost of living is going up (blah, blah, blah, bullshit, bullshit, bullshit) but we’re talking about a trillion dollar company here.

TRILLION

It used to be that console makers like Sony and Microsoft would make a loss on the cost of the console because they knew they’d make that money back in accessories and games. Lose a little money now for future profits. Simple.

But now these companies (Sony included) are so money hungry that they release their hardware at a price that allows them to make money from day one. Not only that, but they never lower the price when the manufacturing costs go down, so they’re making even more money now than they were at launch. Then you add on the fact that they’ve actually put the prices up and it’s obvious that they’re just money hungry.

I understand that you’re in the business of making money, but I promise you’d make a lot more money if people bought your consoles, and the easiest way to do that is to sell them at a loss, like you used to.

If that’s too much for you…

2. Stop Selling Consoles

Just go entirely third party with your games. You have 40 studios under your banner that you spent billions of dollars to acquire and you’re not doing them any good by spending your time and money on hardware that nobody wants. If you’re releasing games that people want, they will go wherever you put them.

Whether it’s on a currently competing console or streaming on Game Pass, people will play them if they want to.

3. Stop Putting Games Day One On Game Pass

This is going to be a contentious one, but hear me out. It was always a bad idea for Xbox as a company, whose main goal is to make money, to release their brand new games on Game Pass day one. Game Pass as a concept isn’t good for making money, it’s just not. It’s great for consumers who pay a monthly fee to have a whole bunch of games to play, but they’re not even paying the price of one full game. Even if they only play one game a month, they’re getting that game for either one third or one half of the price through Game Pass, even with the new pricing structure.

It’s also bad for developers because Microsoft only give them a licensing fee to put their game on the service and the devs don’t receive any cut of the Game Pass subscription. They could have the most played game on Game Pass in a month and they still won’t receive any of the back end profits.

They’re being robbed.

And with the game being on Game Pass, they get lower sales of their game outside of the service. In the long run it won’t even be good for the consumer, because we’re the ones who will eventually have less games to play once development houses are shuttered due to lack of game sales.

4. Re-release Your Older Games On PC Or Other Consoles

They don’t have to be full ground-up remakes, just the most basic ports to PS5 or Switch will get you sales. There are rumours of a full Halo Combat Evolved remake coming to PS5 and that’s great, but you could just port the Master Chief Collection, the latest Forza Motorsport or how about Sunset Overdrive?! A little team-up between Insomniac, Microsoft and Sony? That would be pretty crazy, but also cool.

You have all of these exclusive games that you can currently only play on Xbox consoles (that people aren’t buying) and you’re not doing anything with them. You’re leaving money on the table.

5. Sell Some Studios Or Allow Them To Go Independent If Possible

A lot of people said it from the announcement of the Activision Blizzard merger, and some even before that when Xbox acquired Zenimax, but Microsoft own too many development houses and it’s just not sustainable for them to keep pumping money into every single one. It’s also not possible to give each of those studios the attention they deserve to release quality titles.

I don’t understand why Microsoft was allowed to buy all of these studios. The fact that both of these mergers went through is insane to me. Then you add on the fact that Microsoft told the FTC that Game Pass prices would not go up due to the Acti/Blizz merger, nor would there be mass layoffs.

Both lies.

Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and say they weren’t lying and actually believed what they were saying at the time. If that’s true, then stay true to your word, Microsoft, and do what’s best for the developers under your umbrella. Save them from the axe that’s been aiming for their necks for the past two years and sell them to somebody that will actually take care of them.

I don’t know who that would be. Spinning them off independently would be preferable.

So what are your thoughts on the current Xbox situation? Agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments.

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