Xbox is being transformed into a portable console – Kommersant FM
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Microsoft Corporation is thinking about releasing a portable gaming console, we are talking about the first compact version of the Xbox console. The head of its gaming division, Phil Spencer, recently announced that such an idea is currently being discussed within the company. He did not provide any other details.
Independent video game expert Vyacheslav Makarov suggests that the portable console from Microsoft will combine elements of several currently popular models: “If we don’t take a variety of Chinese consoles that cover retro games, then there are several big players on the market. This is Nintendo’s Switch console, which runs on a processor similar to mobile phones, and Valve’s Steam Deck, which can run large adult games.
The solution you can expect from Microsoft is somewhere in the middle. That is, a mobile console that can run large, complex games, just like the Xbox console as a whole.
There is a demand for portable gaming; it can be easily seen by the success of portable consoles. With a good business strategy for launching such a product, the project can be successful.”
Almost the entire console market is divided between three companies. Just under half of global sales come from Sony’s PlayStation consoles. Nintendo and Microsoft each have more than 20% shares. At the end of 2023, a deal took place that could change the balance of power. Microsoft bought game developer Activision Blizzard for $68 billion. The corporation, along with the asset, acquired ownership of several large franchises, in particular, Warcraft and Call of Duty. All Activision Blizzard releases will now appear on the same day of release on the Xbox Game Pass cloud service.
This factor could become an important competitive advantage for Microsoft’s future portable console, noted former editor-in-chief of Igromaniya magazine Alexander Kuzmenko: “Previously, such a device was not released for the simple reason that Nintendo had already entered this market with the Switch, which could be and portable, and also attached to the TV, as is customary among the Japanese.
Secondly, these are Americans, very cautious people looking to the future. They will compete with both Nintendo and Sony, which also promises to release some kind of portable console. Because gaming is moving from a world in which the player is tied to the TV to some kind of mobile world. This console will have to support all the latest games, and, I think, will be distinguished by the presence of a cloud service, which Xbox currently has. At least for the North American or Western European market, the device will become the main console if it is really made at a very high quality technological level.”
Global sales of handheld consoles have seen a significant increase in money during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, according to the analytical platform Statista, they brought companies $1.6 billion. Then demand began to decline; last year and the year before, the turnover in this segment of set-top boxes did not exceed $0.5 billion.
Everything is clear with us – Telegram channel “Kommersant FM”.
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