Opinion: Three Steps Forward A Tumble Down The Cliff Backwards – Microsoft’s Business Strategy

Now that the E3 has officially finished, and the dust of consumerist turmoil has settled, it is finally time to take a step back, and look at the ‘’Electronic Entertainment Expo’’ from much more logical, and objective perspective.

This year’s show was much calmer, than the ones that came before. Simply because a vast majority of publishers, have unveiled only a handful of brand new, AAA titles. EA has shown a 10 second clip of an unnamed Star Wars game, whereas Ubisoft shown, well… Nothing – as Watch Dogs 2 has leaked numerous times over the last few months, and Steep looks like a title which is being created by Ubisoft Annecy, just so it looks like they are doing something. And if not for Sony, which has turned up and literally made it rain with new IP’s, and sequels, the whole E3 event would feel simply pointless.

Pointless, because it would feel like a mid-gen show, a show filled with scraps, as developers are working on titles which are set to be released on brand new hardware in about two years’ time. But it couldn’t possibly be a mid-gen show, as people have been promised consoles with an extensive lifespan, and both PlayStation 4, and Xbox One have only been out there for about three years, so we can’t possibly be getting new consoles in less than… Oh.

See, while all other conferences were focused on software, Microsoft, a company which is known for development of said software, went out there and announced a bunch of brand spanking new consoles. And inadvertently, has confused every single person which was watching their show.

First in line was Xbox One S, which during this holiday season will cause so much confusion in stores around the world, most of them might go up in flames. But maybe it’s been Microsoft’s plan all along:

1. Create a new console, and call it Xbox One S
2. Have kids ask their parents to buy them a brand new Xbox One S
3. Said parent goes to the store, and inevitably asks for ‘’Xbox Ones’’
4. Instead of buying the new Xbox One S, parent in question buys a bunch of vanilla Xbox Ones
5. In result of the world wide confusion, Microsoft’s plan comes to be a tremendous success, and Xbox One finally begins to reach figures similar to the ones of PlayStation 4(not).

But all jokes aside, Xbox One S looks to be a pretty good console. For just £349.99, you get 2TB console, which is both smaller, and features a built-in power brick. It is also supposedly more powerful than its predecessor, features a 4K Blu-ray player, and supports HDR. But before anybody even had the time to whip out his or her bank card, Phil ‘6 teraflops man’ Spencer, went out there and announced yet another console, which is even more powerful than Xbox One, and just announced Xbox One S?

Xbox CODENAME: Scorpio, a brand new console with 6 TERAFLOPS of pure POWER is coming to a store near you in 2017. Six teraflops man (STM), has underlined that Scorpio is a console capable of running games in 4K, while providing the players with enhanced visuals. And as his monologue was coming to a close, STM has come out and reassured all 12 Xbox One owners out there, both in the room, and behind the screens, that Scorpio will not make their consoles obsolete, as it said to be a new member of the ‘Xbox Family’, and not a next-gen replacement. STM has then continued, and stated that the 4K, VR ready console will not have any exclusives, and that all first, and third party titles will feature on all three consoles which are part of the family (Xbox 360, and OG Xbox have been ousted, along with Kinect).

As soon as the conference has finished, all the prominent news outlets around the world have taken STM’s words into question, as how will significantly underpowered Xbox One, and Xbox One S handle VR. And the answer is they won’t. But not to worry, because Scorpio will not feature any console exclusives, just like the current Xbox One, as all first party titles will also feature on PC, meaning they are not ‘’exclusives’’. However, if Microsoft decides to release all titles, on all consoles which are the current members of the ‘’Xbox Family’’, then what is the point of buying the Scorpio?

Most 4K TV’s cost in excess of £800, and are not as common as the LED, or OLED Smart TV’s, so if Scorpio plays all the same games that Xbox One, and Xbox One S, are capable of displaying, without a significant graphical upgrade, beside the 4K upscaling, then what is the point of purchasing Scorpio? The answer is simple, there isn’t one. But the truth is Scorpio will provide additional benefits other than upscaling, and will most definitely be a host to titles which will never make their way to Xbox One or Xbox One S.

If you are worried, or simply angered by the fact that you’ve just splashed between £300-£400 on a brand new console, and there is another one, much more powerful machine already on its way, you have all the reasons in the world to be emotionally affected, by what some would consider to be a waste of money. And yes – Microsoft’s STM has assured everybody that Xbox One will coexist along Scorpio, but the truth is that few months after the initial release of the new machine, Xbox One, and most importantly Xbox One S, will be simply left behind, as third party publishers along with some of the in-house teams, will simply not waste their time on the creation of two different games, for two different machines. Especially when you throw PlayStation 4K (NEO) into the mix.

And NEO may be Scorpio’s biggest problem, because now that all the cards are on the table, words have been said, and statements have been made, Microsoft will either have to spend millions on supporting the older hardware, or admit that doing so, is impossible. Because come Tokyo Game Show, Sony will surely present its excessively priced magical box of wonders, but will not promise anybody anything. In fact, Sony’s Andrew House has already stated that NEO, will provide customers with much prettier, and more mechanically stable versions published videogames. And by jumping the gun, Microsoft might yet again find itself in a place it was in just three years ago, after the initial announcement of the Xbox One. As it will either have to stand by STM’s initial statements, and simply turn Scorpio into a rather expensive machine which only upscales titles, which can also be played on a much cheaper Xbox One. Or what is most likely to happen, it will have to officially announce that Scorpio is not what STM has painted it as, and will in fact be a new console, with no relation to the Xbox One.

Right now Microsoft is in a very unpleasant spotlight, it’s stuck with three consoles, one already on the shelves, one coming soon, and one so ambiguous, nobody’s quite sure what it is. And from what has been said about all three, it seems like there is no point in upgrading at all, as Xbox One will play all the titles just as well as Xbox One S, or Scorpio if you don’t have a 4K TV. So the closing message of Microsoft’s E3 press conference is that it is better to buy cheaper vanilla Xbox One, than any other console that was announced on the show, which is well, strange. But in the very least, Microsoft has given Sony a lot of time to alter their announcement, and hardware specifications of PlayStation NEO, which is probably the biggest downside of the entire conference. But I know that there is at least one man who is extremely happy about this particular misstep…