#generationxbox

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Xbox All Access Could Give Xbox Scarlett A Major Advantage Next GenerationXbox All Access Could Give Xbox Scarlett A Major Advantage Next Generationxbox 360

Earlier this week, Microsoft finally announced the long rumored Xbox All Access at last. For those of you who are curious about what that is, it is basically a plan where instead of spending money on the system upfront, you pay for it over a period of two years, by committing to remain subscribed to Xbox Live and Xbox Game Pass for that period. Monthly payments vary from $ 20-$ 35, depending on what model of Xbox you choose to get, but on the whole, this isn’t much different than buying a smartphone over a two year contract (although Microsoft’s pricing is far fairer). It’s something Microsoft has attempted once before with Xbox 360 (and Sega with Dreamcast), but that was a very limited rollout that went nowhere.

This time, it feels a bit different, though, especially given the confluence of circumstances from the last few years. It lines up with Microsoft’s own focus on services and trying to get subscribers for them- for the company, their hardware has just become a way to try and get more people subscribed to their services. Microsoft would, in that case, be all too happy to take a short term loss on their hardware to make it up over the long term with assured subscribers.

Here’s the other interesting thing, though- after the original Xbox One was weaker than the competition, Microsoft seems to have woken up to the fact that power has always been perceived to be a core part of the Xbox brand’s DNA, and that that is an advantage over Sony they can’t afford to relinquish again. This was most evident in terms of the Xbox One X, where they were willing to go all out to making it the most powerful console ever made- and now, the same team that worked on the One X is working on the next generation Xbox, reportedly codenamed Scarlett.

“A powerful and loaded to the gills next generation Xbox would be very expensive- the Xbox One X alone is $ 500, and even accounting for price drops, it means that a proper next gen system will be at least that much, a price that is prohibitively high for the mass market. “

A powerful and loaded to the gills next generation Xbox would be very expensive- the Xbox One X alone is $ 500, and even accounting for price drops, it means that a proper next gen system will be at least that much, a price that is prohibitively high for the mass market.

We have already heard how Microsoft plans to sidestep this to a degree- rumors regarding the Xbox Scarlet mention multiple SKUs, including a cheaper one which will primarily be for streaming games only, eschewing most local hardware. However, even for people who don’t want a gutted Xbox for themselves like that, and want the full experience, something like Xbox All Access could help.

Essentially, Xbox All Access allows Microsoft to sell a very powerful system for a reasonable upfront price, without taking much of a financial hit. Consider a supremely powerful next generation Xbox, for example, which costs $ 600 because of how powerful and loaded it is. That would ordinarily be the kiss of death- but an All Access style plan allows Microsoft to sell it for $ 200 upfront, with the other $ 400 covered for over two years via guaranteed subscriptions to Xbox Live and Game Pass.

Over the long term, of course, the amount paid to Microsoft will come to $ 600 or more, depending on the payment plan- but upfront, Microsoft can advertise “the most powerful system made” for $ 200. Assuming the next generation PlayStation is more powerful than Scarlett, Microsoft can still contain the damage by advertising their system for $ 200. North America, especially, is a market that is already used to using credit to buy things, and to long term payment plans for purchases ranging from homes, cars, to yes, smartphones. This is something the market could easily come to terms with, at least there.

“North America, especially, is a market that is already used to using credit to buy things, and to long term payment plans for purchases ranging from homes, cars, to yes, smartphones. This is something the market could easily come to terms with, at least there.”

And therein lies the advantage Microsoft has potentially created for itself with the rollout of Xbox All Access: by introducing this plan now, getting early feedback, gauging market reactions, and making course corrections accordingly, not to mention normalizing the idea of a console paid for in this way now, they could roll out a far more palatable and ambitious plan with Xbox Scarlet at launch- allowing them to have their cake and eat it too. Basically: have a powerful console that does not compromise on anything; sell it for a mass market friendly price; don’t take a financial loss on it. That’s literally the dream scenario for any console vendor, but it is one that only Microsoft is positioned to pull off, especially since neither Sony nor Nintendo share the same extent of focus on services that Microsoft does.

Of course, we could see Sony attempt something like this too- they have PS Plus, PS Vue, and PS Now. That’s enough services to try and push something like this. But where Sony has missed the beat is in not getting ahead of the game on that front now. If this is something they want to do, they need to start doing it now, and normalize it, iron out the kinks with a relatively low stakes rollout for their current generation machines. They could leave it for next generation- and it may not go all that well, and they wouldn’t have the time to respond to it, since they would be doing things on the fly, unlike Microsoft, who would have had the chance to address whatever feedback they receive on it ahead of time.

Which brings me to the thesis- Microsoft’s potential genius here is in positioning themselves to delivering something that is palatable and beneficial to all parties involved, including especially their customers, but also themselves. Having a dedicated pool of subscribers for Game Pass would also, for instance, allow them to negotiate better with third parties regarding getting their games on the service. This is in addition to potentially being able to sell a powerful console for cheap- it’s an all around win.

Of course, this is all a hypothetical- Xbox All Access could go nowhere, and put a stop to this fantasy upfront. But for now, I am very curious to see how things play out.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

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What Happened to Xbox This Generation?What Happened to Xbox This Generation?xbox 360

We now sit in the midst of the eighth generation of video game consoles, and we find ourselves in a very different place than we were in the previous, seventh generation, at least in terms of which console is selling the most units. As of now, Sony’s PlayStation 4 has sold over 70 million units and is on track to sell more units than any of the three major consoles of the previous generation did by the end of this year. It may not catch up to the PlayStation 2’s 155 million, but it will almost certainly do the next best thing and outsell the original PlayStation’s 103 million by the end of this generation. Microsoft’s answer to the PS4, the Xbox One, sits somewhere around 30 million, which isn’t terrible in a vacuum, but when compared to Sony’s numbers, appears dismal.

Most gamers are pretty familiar with the success of the PS4 and the mediocrity of the Xbox One by now, but in 2014 when this was all coming to fruition, it was really quite remarkable to watch. Sony beating Microsoft in such a decisive, unquestionable manner so quickly was a bizarre thing to see, considering how Sony started out the previous generation with the pricey PlayStation 3. This massive shift of power, as sudden as it was, didn’t just fall out of the big blue sky. It came from lots of different factors, one of which is Microsoft’s multiple blunders with brand identity and completely self-inflicted wounds with their reputation at the very beginning stages of announcing Xbox one’s existence and specs.

“Sony beating Microsoft in such a decisive, unquestionable manner so quickly was a bizarre thing to see, considering how Sony started out the previous generation with the pricey PlayStation 3.”

In the early 2000’s Sony was riding high off of the success of one of the most successful video game consoles of all time with the PlayStation 2. Xbox and Gamecube didn’t exactly do poorly, but PlayStation was the first on the scene, would play DVD’s unlike its competition from Sega and Nintendo, and they had a massive library of games from day one thanks to seamless backwards compatibility with PlayStation one games, controllers, and memory cards.

If there was ever a time for a video game division of an electronics company to have their vision blurred by the fog of arrogance, it was then. By the mid 2000’s the Sony PlayStation was launched and it was certainly a beast to behold. The original sku had backwards compatibility with PS1 and PS2, four usb ports, a suite of card readers, and it could play blu-ray discs; sony’s video format which was currently winning the war with HD-DVD. The problem was, Sony was charging an arm and a leg for their new behemoth. The 20 GB model was $ 499 while the 60GB model was $ 599. Both of these models were way out of the normal price range for a video game console, and sales showed that with very soft numbers for the next two years.

Sony also bungled the response by releasing new versions of the console that all had different features taken away, and it soon became a mess and difficult to explain succinctly. People didn’t know what model of PS3 they needed, and it was often so confusing that employees couldn’t recite the different options accurately. On top of all of this, Sony wasn’t prepared and did a poor job at responding to the criticisms. It wasn’t until several years later that PlayStation was able to finally crank out some system-selling exclusives, revamp their marketing, simplify their message, and catch up to the Xbox 360 that ended up spending most of the seventh generation running away with a lot of the casual gamers that the PlayStation 2 had cultivated for so long. Bottom line? Sony got lazy.

“It wasn’t until several years later that PlayStation was able to finally crank out some system-selling exclusives, revamp their marketing, simplify their message, and catch up to the Xbox 360 that ended up spending most of the seventh generation running away with a lot of the casual gamers that the PlayStation 2 had cultivated for so long. Bottom line? Sony got lazy.”

The PS3 was an excellent system, but they didn’t want to work to make it affordable, and were reluctant to relinquish their attitude of being on top so they could get to the necessary work of earning their customers. This is almost an exact mirror to what ended up happening at the end of the seventh generation and the beginning of the eighth. Sony was in a place where they were ready to fight again. They knew they had a lot to prove and wanted to do it. Conversely, it was now Microsoft’s turn to be arrogant and sluggish to deal with issues. The success that the seventh generation had brought them put them essentially in the exact same head-space that PlayStation was in at launch time for the PlayStation 3.

Just like Sony before them, Microsoft had an expensive console with a plethora of features that were largely unnecessary and only served to bloat the price and muck up the mission statement of the machine. Adding extra fuel to the fire, despite lots of nearly unanimous criticism of the upcoming Xbox One, Microsoft failed to respond appropriately and even took a tone of resentment towards their audience at first. It took many years for that damage to be repaired, some would argue that their still repairing it, and meanwhile, thanks to Microsoft’s many avoidable mistakes and Nintendo’s unappealing Wiiu, Sony had taken this generation completely away from its competition.

The big difference between the similarities of the seventh and eighth video game console generations is that Microsoft still hasn’t completely followed through with the redemption campaign that Sony was able to pull off ten years ago. The Xbox One has been out for over four years and the list of exlcusive games is still one of the shortest in recent memory. Most of the multi-platform games perform better on the PlayStation 4, so it would have made a lot of sense for Microsoft to crank out some exclusives, but here we are and other than a few titles and an HDMI input that serves very little purpose, there’s not much you can do on an Xbox One that you can’t do as well if not better on a PlayStation 4.

“Some signs of an about-face for the gaming giant are present though, with the recent applications of games pass and some very consumer-friendly practices in backwards compatibility- the PlayStation 4’s weak spot.”

This is a major component of what got Sony across the finish line with the last generation in a respectable place. Even though Sony didn’t win that generation, they finished strong. Due to Xbox still struggling to give gamers reasons to buy their machine over Sony’s or Nintendo’s, it is not looking like they are going to finish the eighth generation in the same way. Until those reasons materialize, Microsoft better get used to second or even third place going forward.

Some signs of an about-face for the gaming giant are present though, with the recent applications of games pass and some very consumer-friendly practices in backwards compatibility- the PlayStation 4’s weak spot. This may be too little too late for the current generation, but it has potential to grow in the future. If Xbox can elaborate and expand on these features and compliment them with an army of exclusives for their next machine, I’m certain they can catch up to Sony if not overtake them in the future, but as of now, Xbox still has quite an uphill climb ahead of them. As we have learned in this generation though, history certainly repeats itself, so perhaps Microsoft’s Xbox is poised to really surprise us soon.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to GamingBolt as an organization.