Tag Archives: Microsoft

April 7, 2023 · 01:06

Choices of representation

This happens, we all make choices and that is fine, but when the BBC makes choices of representation there is a larger catch and we need to look at that. In this, I feel largely uneasy regarding the choices the BBC made, but I could agree that we all are allowed to make choices, so lets take a look and see whether their choices were really wrong.

First there is the title ‘UK video games market value dipped by 5.6% in 2022’ which we see (at https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-65175394) and that is perfectly fine. Yet is the representation of a PS5 image correct? To see this we need to consider “The PlayStation 5 has sold 33.54 million units in 28 months, while the Xbox Series X|S sold 20.86 million units. The PlayStation 5 has a 61.7 percent marketshare (+2.0% year-over-year), compared to 38.3 percent for the Xbox Series X|S (-2.0% year-over-year)” (source: VGChartz), but in similar setting we always see this. You see, the setting (from my point of view) would need to be PS5 and Xbox series X, whilst the Xbox Series X is compared to the PS4 pro. But Microsoft is spinning the numbers to the extent that we can never do that, because that would show just HOW BAD Microsoft is actually doing. You see the Xbox series S is powerful enough to make next-gen games look great, albeit at a lower resolution and that is what Microsoft was toiling with, it was more powerful than the PS4 pro (not by much) but it was aggressively priced to do so and the series S now misses the drive and can only work with digital products (not a real issue in todays market). But that alone is setting a different stage and it makes Microsoft less than a winner in this. The second tier (completely unmentioned) is the Nintendo store, who is the massive winner here. In 2021 they had (according to released numbers) $15,990,000,000 in revenue in 2021, whist they ‘only’ had $14,011,000,000 in revenue in 2022, which was a drop for them to around 87.6%. There is your 5% market fall and I reckon that the fall will be the largest representation in the UK as well. No matter how great Nintendo is doing, losing out on $1.8 billion globally will do that, and the numbers I did not look at (as I do not give a hoot) is the mobile game revenue, which I expect show a somewhat similar drop. Yet the article does not show any of that, does it? So what was Emma Saunders doing? And why did she use a Getty image of Sony? The last one was the cherry on the cake, but it matters to me. The losses are clearly seen even if unexpected in the Nintendo and Mobile software setting and that is before I look at the funny money element of Mobile gaming. If anything Sony was a clear winner in 2022 and then we get “Pokémon merchandise was the top performer. According to the ERA Yearbook 2023, top performing titles in the UK in 2022 were Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, PlayStation exclusives God of War Ragnarök and Horizon Forbidden West, Pokémon Legends: Arceus on Switch and Elden Ring” which is fine. But that implies that Nintendo and Sony did amazing in these losses, as such why did we not see a Getty image of Microsoft there? Interesting how the BBC is shielding Microsoft from more established elements that do bring the bacon. The top performers do not mention anything by a Microsoft exclusive article, why is that? It perfectly fine that they failed to perform, but in that setting the 5% drop would be in the Microsoft realm, even as we see that Nintendo did a little less (and still was ahead of everyone else). 

So why did the BBC took to the streets with choices of representation by setting the image of Sony whilst they have been making numbers and growing marketshare? Is the stakeholder at the BBC shielding someone from bad news reflection? Just how neutral is the BBC at present? 

Just asking.

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April 1, 2023 · 18:54

Focal and blinders

We all face them at times, I am no different. The problem is when is what what. Let me be a little more clear, in my case Microsoft is an issue, as I personally see it, if they buy Blizzard, they will need $92,000,000 of profit a day just to break even with the purchase of 3 houses (Mojang, Bethesda and Blizzard), now this is not set correctly, they bought Mojang some time ago, as such the amount is a few million less, but it is not less by much. They already crashed Redfall PS5, which they are allowed to do. They are allowed to do whatever they need to with what they own. Yet, consider that the PS5 has well over 30,000,000 consoles in the field and they allegedly need $92 million a day, does the act make sense? So am I concentrating on a focal, or a blinder. Consider that a blinder lets you NOT see in a specific direction. We attribute all kinds of ‘evil’ towards Microsoft, are they blinders or are they seen as the result of a focal? That is actually a lot harder to answer than you think. When is one could also be the other.

As such I have been concentrating on my two IP projects. Project Graveyard and Project Cluster. Two very different software and hardware IP settings. They both fit the Amazon Luna and optionally whomever buys the Google Stadia, which is why Kingdom Holdings was on my radar. One will be a decent downfall for Microsoft the other no less, but also takes the steam out of Facebook, and as such Amazon was the logical path to take and not just merely logical, Amazon was about to get a whole new range of revenue because of it. Yet I try not to be smitten by either blinders or focal (no matter how much fun they are). As such I saw the appearance of Tencent on time and even as several players are willing to ignore Tencent, I cannot and I will not. Tencent has seemingly the ability to unite gamers. In addition it allows China to grow in one additional industry where Americans thought they would not exist and now Microsoft in particular will have a problem because of the required $92 million a day will become a nose grounded with an anchor around the neck of American economy. And there are plenty of nay sayer spinners on the internet. It is all Microsoft and they are all getting on top of things. So lets have a go at that list 

1. Microsoft would acquire Mandiant to solve their solarwinds issue
There was one news cycle and then suddenly it went dark, there was no more news. I raised it in ‘What we hope for’ on March 7th 2022 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/03/07/what-we-hope-for/). It became part of Google and it is a Google solution now. After that Microsoft and cyber solutions went a little dark on the matter.

2. Microsoft had a new Tablet to WOW the world. No, it didn’t never got close to the Apple iPad and it got even less close to the iPad Air, two devices that were more able and had a larger following and it still does. It still has a lot more to offer, but the spinners came with the ‘with the keyboard it was a more complete laptop’. No, it was not and it will never be that more. I saw people howling with agony as they saw failure after failure on their Surface. I still see some people trying to spin that thing. A $1650 solution trying to win over a $500 iPad, all whilst Apple has the more versatile device.

3. Microsoft has the cloud solution, Azure. Smell it, it smells nice. Which is laughingly the biggest loser of them all. In clarity, Azure is not bad, it lacks and it has no business in gaming. Azure is the Microsoft solution and after 3 years it is nowhere near ready to take on the AWS (Amazon Cloud solution). Last month someone wrote (not me) “Azure is more costly. Azure is the finest alternative for a robust Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) provider and even a Windows integration. If a company needs infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) or a wide range of tools, AWS may be the ideal option”, so where are the SAAS and GAAS comparisons? And when I look, there is always a hidden issue where the people are promoting THEIR solution, no matter whether it involves AWS or Azure (Google is falling behind too much). At the moment the marketshare of AWS is a lot larger and in some reports it seems like Google cloud and IBM cloud are underreported. What matters is that this is another field where Microsoft is not ahead. 

4. The Microsoft gaming console is the most powerful in the world. It might be true, but the weakest console of them all (Nintendo Switch) surpassed the Microsoft sales numbers by a lot and did it in half the time Microsoft with their X/S console were in the field. Even now, these numbers of X and S series consoles are aggregated, the loss is that defining. They are way behind  the PS5 with their X series console, but it is the most powerful in the world. In addition the PS5 has a whole range of next generation titles that goes into the dozen and the Microsoft console is lacking there, even after two years it is still lacking in Next generation titles. 

I will ignore issues 5,6 and 7. 4 fields where Microsoft will need to do a lot better and for years they were not able to do so. So where is that $92 million a day profit coming from? I cannot see it, can you? And that was merely to claw back the investments on gaming alone. Amazon is hungry and they are driving their AWS (and optionally their Amazon Luna too) making the pain for Microsoft larger. Apple has a firm grip on their devices and even as we might not like Apple, their devices are solid and Microsoft has no chance of driving a wedge there. And as I see it, they already lost the console war. In that environment Microsoft is bleeding revenue all over the field, their books are red with blood and red ink. And for their security I have not seen an alternative for Mandiant (owned by Google). So where are they now? When will we see another Solarwinds? It is not a given, but they lack in cyber security, so I fail to see how they will stop the next wave. 

And now the battle field changes further, Tencent is about to arrive, I merely wonder if that was one of the reasons why the E3 was cancelled (I honestly do not know). If Tencent arrives, it arrives with more options and more settings than the Microsoft console field will allow for, no matter how that plays out, it makes the Blizzard $65,000,000,000 a massive anchor around the neck of Microsoft and it will hurt them, no matter what ideas they have. Tencent has been funding a lot of Unreal engine 5 stuff, as such they could wow the gaming community and if they are going the direction I am speculating on, it will hurt both Microsoft and Amazon to a larger degree, in this the pain to Apple remains unknown, or it might be minor. And that is all before some figure out that Project Cluster will enable a lot more than anyone considered, it was meant for that, to be ready for national 5G implementations. How many of them did that off the bat and how many (implying Microsoft) stated “We will get to that when it is ready”, it is the short term focal point of a quarter by quarter BI person. In this none of them have a real long term focal point and that is why Tencent is a danger to them all, they are focussing on 2025 and 2026 (the year Microsoft allegedly collapses).

So is Microsoft my blinder? Is it my focal, or did I see the stage for what it was one that offers great options for some and not that much for others. They limited their abilities by hanging an additional $65,000,000,000 anchor around their necks. I am calling it as I saw it. Perhaps I am wrong, you tell me. I gave you the numbers and the works, you can do your own research.

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March 31, 2023 · 20:09

Those cordially invited

That is a setting that is not merely an evolving one, it sort of fits several stages and it all revolves around the choices that some make. As such when the Gaming Bafta’s were on, there were two considerations. The first one was how well did Sony do, the second one is how bad Microsoft is doing. I will get to the logic a little later. Sony sort of won a few times. There was God of War who was a winner, of course the music by Bear McCreary won and Christopher Judge as the voice of Kratos won. It won 6 awards in the Gaming Bafta’s and had 15 nominations, including EE game of the year, best game went to Vampire Survivors by Luca Galante. Horizon Forbidden West by Guerrilla games, a Sony exclusive won best technical achievement. One out of 5 nominations. This maters as these two games are gaming achievements of the highest order. God of War is given a 94% score, HFW an 88% score (I personally believe it should have been a 92%). Microsoft and their acquired houses had 4 nominations and zero wins. OK, I will grant that Bethesda had bad luck having to go up against one of the Final Fantasy kids, but still as I see it, no bang for seven and a half billion spend on purchases? Perhaps next year. The big titles were not here and I was missing Hogwarts Legacy, but they might have missed the cut off point. As such Microsoft has additional issues next year and that is before the storm hits. You see, the E3 was cancelled. It does not matter what the reason is, they cancelled it for some of the players having their own spin presentation, where they can intentionally not invite those critical of them. It makes sense and it is a valid and acceptable choice to make (even as I am spinning this in personal ways too). You see, I do not know the individual reasons and that means I merely do not know. But the hardships that Bethesda presently has, the lack of releases by Microsoft houses and whatever Ubisoft has to remain absent, they might all be perfectly valid in Business Intelligence, but gamers will spin this. One source gave us in January “Ubisoft’s Project Q has now been reportedly cancelled. The PvP battle arena game was announced less than a year ago in April 2022. They’ve already delayed Skull and Bones six times now and the recent comments by CEO Yves Guillemot haven’t helped.” Another source gave us that Assassin’s Creed Mirage and The Crew: Project Orlando will not come before Q1 2024, implying that they miss the summer haul and the Christmas revenue haul (including thanksgiving), two massive revenue moment. As such it makes sense to give E3 a miss, yet I personally would have spun this into ‘We will get a better result when we take more time’ even though one game has had 6 setbacks. They basically face a lose lose proposition. In all this I set the groundworks for new IP and that actually matters this time. You see there is an element missing at present. That element is Tencent. They are giving a miss for now, but they are pouring buckets of gold into their Unreal engine 5 design teams, this implies that they could grow big next year, they could pull the carpet from under Microsoft legs. 

I did not give Tencent the consideration I could have, mainly because Amazon is a better fit, but in the setting that they are in. I am sitting on a totally new form of gaming on one hand (a small exaggeration), on the other hand the other IP in phase one could represent five billion and a lot more after that. Tencent could be the direction to grow my setting and even as I prefer Amazon as a first choice, one needs to go where the gold is (a small personal greedy direction). And as long as Microsoft is rejected as a contender, I am happy, even if Tencent ends with the IP. It still is important for me to assist in sending Microsoft to some revenue graveyard by December 2026. You think I am serious, and I am, but there is a hidden egg in the graveyard part. 

If Microsoft had focused on quality instead of spin (which they in part might be) there could have ben a little hope, yet at present when we see the Xbox Series X and after two years we still see review (source: Tom’s guide) “Few next-gen launch games” a setting you can accept in year one, but not after two years, you see how Microsoft is desperate and now I add Project: Graveyard against that setting, without Microsoft being able to attend that game? It is nice to hand Microsoft the wooden spoon in 2024, especially when they could have spend a little over $100 billion by then (Mojang, Bethesda and Blizzard) and that is before the other IP is launched (if it is sold) and before the list of Sony releases get to be even larger. Ubisoft is important for Microsoft and their consoles as they were their biggest drive, no matter how we think of some games, Ubisoft has had moment of true greatness and one additional title could safe Microsoft. So when we set the larger stage and we see the gaming Bafta’s and the E3 cancellation, the larger stage of Microsoft is as I personally see it diminishing. And the stage is worsening in other ways too, but I will write about that should Microsoft acquire Blizzard, because that is expected, but not set in stone at present.

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March 29, 2023 · 23:46

By Jove, I did it

This is not how it started. It started with me being mad at Microsoft. The question is whether I had reason to be mad at them. They bought Bethesda (and stopped Redfall for PS5), now they are out to buy Blizzard and I am seeing the most BS issues get to the front of the line. OK, I can do something about that. You see, my imagination is a good one and I am going to make sure that this $65B investment is the one they choke on. There is also another part. Here we are sitting and we get the line ‘Microsoft says 10 years is ‘sufficient for Sony to develop Call of Duty alternatives’’ Wrong! I finished it today and it is a nice challenge, one no one never saw before. It will be exclusive to Amazon Luna and optionally Sony as well. A game where Microsoft is not welcome. The fun part, they do not have to pay 65 Billion for it. If Amazon buys the other IP (which bags them well over 50 million subscriptions) they get this one for FREE! It becomes their IP and I hope they share it with Sony. I know it is their call at that point, but to see Microsoft fall and implode by 2026 will matter to me (loud evil laughter to follow). 

I had part of the idea and then today, the other parts started to connect. The challenge, the levelling, the area, the environment and a few other parts. The price? Well the other IP is set to $50 million post taxation and a few extra’s, and that is one hell of a long way away from $65,000,000,000. For the non calculus people among us, it is less than a mere 0.1% of the amount, that is how you drown a corporation, by making them drown on their own futility and that is what I set in motion, a new way of gaming, a new challenge that no game streamer has ever seen and there is no cheating here. Any cheater will become a pig faced player (quite literally) and its pig appendages cannot hold a weapon any longer. It can merely run and oink a lot. So the CoD cheat people will run into the light and wonder what is happening. This game will be different and it is no easy reward either. It becomes you against 880,000 others (not all at once mind you). It felt good, to suddenly connect the pieces of the puzzle and let Microsoft eat crow. Yes, I knew I had it in me, yet in all honesty I expected it to take a little longer, optionally a few weeks longer. But there I was, it was a little past 16:00 and the puzzle was ready for presentation to Andy Jassy. The question becomes ‘Is he ready to take Microsoft down a few pegs?’ He might not be, and when that happens, it will be up to Sony, but to be honest. I prefer Amazon as the other IP can be qualified with a dollar value much faster and they would get this solution for free. A win-win I would say. 

What a lovely way to start Thursday!

Have a great day, dream big. Especially if it is about kicking Microsoft in the testies.

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March 26, 2023 · 05:54

What business plan?

The very first thought when I saw a Nordstrom video less than an hour ago. In light of the closure of Nordstrom someone made a 4K walkthrough of the Nordstrom shop in the Eaton Mall in Toronto, which is their flagship. The shop is about 220,000 square foot and the first thought out of my mind was ‘Are you flipping kidding me?’ And I suddenly understood why Nordstrom never made a profit. I cannot understand why the people there did not see this right off the bat. In the first the shop looks pretty amazing, but overly spacious and not in a good way. The shop has about 70,000 square foot of unused space, that is a third and mall space is expensive. So to be wasting space to the likes of 70,000 square foot. I found one source with a price (not verified) of $1,450 per square foot, implying that Nordstrom was wasting $101,500,000 EVERY YEAR on empty space. So what kind of business plan is that? And the video (at https://youtu.be/6IQMgV_7uqE) clearly shows the waste of space. You could setup the entire shop in half the space and when you reduce the cost of one shop by $51,000,000 it amounts to a large sum of money. I do not care what the vision of these people were, when you optionally have 13 stores in the same setup, you are wasting hundreds of millions a year. Now, we know that the others are smaller, but it still implies that the stores were wasting close to half a billion every year. So what gives?

When I wrote ‘The unplanned story’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/03/21/the-unplanned-story/) on the 21st of March, I did make mention of “there is a weakness in your business model, but I do not think it was enough”, in this malls tend to be the same and I did not give it the consideration I optionally could have. I never expected that Nordstrom wasted space to the degree they did. There is more, it seems to be some elite store and Canadians aren’t too elite based (well over 40% of the male population loves their hockey jersey). A shop like this fits Los Angeles, optionally Rodeo Drive, but even then this flagship there would become a money pit soon thereafter, especially when you waste 70,000 square foot of space. 

I keep on coming back to the thought, who were these people wasting money to this degree? You see, covid or not, I expect that covid had a massive impact, but the clear waste of space is boggling my mind. Malls are expensive and that keeps on badgering my mind. It also reminded me of a place called Meddens in Rotterdam. A fashion store with exactly the same setup in a place called ‘Lijnbaan’, there is however a difference. The people behind it were brilliant and they bought the entire block. They became an eccentric and exquisite shop, but as they owned the block, their $100K gamble became a multi million euro win and it funded expansion after expansion and after 180 years (in 2010) the 6 shops stopped. I reckon 180 years is a good run. A shop like Nordstrom that stated to CBC last month “Despite our best efforts, we do not see a realistic path to profitability for the Canadian business.” Well, when you waste that kind of space I am not entirely surprised. And it will not take long for places like Holt Renfrew, Hudson’s Bay, and Simons to gobble up the clients. Personally I hope that the staff members will find space in these places as well. They tend to be victims of a business plan, not the instigators of it. It took the parent company less than 10 years to see wisdom and with an earlier quote (I think it was CBC) that they never had a profitable year I actually wonder why it took this long. 

The more I saw of this video the more questions came to me and I have no idea what these board people were thinking (if they were thinking). I might seem happy, but I am not. I do not relish anyone’s downfall (Microsoft being the exception) and this shop was managed floor by floor by people who loved their job and their space. You can see that with EVERY display in that shop and there are many of them and we would want to give them a pass for covid, but the shop was not doing well years before that point and that partially angers me, waste tends to do that. A weird start to Sunday for me, but when I see the evidence I am not really overly surprised on the outcome, merely on some people not seeing this clearly years before me.

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March 25, 2023 · 21:50

Another promise in the works

It was a mere 15 hours ago when we were given ‘UK regulator no longer thinks Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard to make Call of Duty exclusive’, which might be true, but Microsoft created waves when we were told that Redfall was made an exclusive the moment Microsoft bought Bethesda. Now this does not mean that Call of Duty is becoming an exclusive, but there are other things that Microsoft could do and over time we have seen them do similar actions and they have made a $68 billion wager on ‘their’ success. As such I feel that I need to counter the setting by creating a new IP, never seen before and it will be an Exclusive for Sony and Amazon (well optionally whomever buys it will have it all to themselves. Yet the idea of slamming Microsoft in a few ways is oddly satisfying. The IP is at present set to counter whatever Bethesda and Blizzard have in the works. Of course there will be a time of growth and there is a timeline. Only stupid people think that they have a solution ready of the bat. I already created IP to counter Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls with IP that was actually meant for Bethesda, but when they became part of Microsoft, that went into the drawer. Now it serves my need to drown Microsoft in their own arrogance. So in the net IP instance, I focussed on an First Person game, the reason that CoD is First person, but there is a rather large need to go in another direction and I think I achieved that. I looked at combat, I looked at healing parameters and I looked at some of the weapon settings. Two elements I solved and even as you can collect some things, the aim of collection is set to a more redundant stage. A world with 800K opponents does not need to rely on weapons, it needs to rely on favours and I think I set that in a new limelight. The idea of blending favours and favoured weapons is something not done before (as far as I could tell) and in this world we all adhere to one master, well two if you are a proclaimed master of self. Then I considered the world of income and I discarded it in this case to a much larger extent. There will be options for barter, but bartering will be set to other needs (not missions). Then in light of my everlasting need for replayability I set mana to a different score, to the enhancement of passive abilities. There will be melee, ranged and weapons of reach. And your first choice matters, there will be no real switching in the initial game if you want to stay alive. You see in the old days people could hardly afford one weapon, let alone several. So I decided to set the combat to knife, dagger, gladius, sword, axe, club, mace, pitchfork, spear, bident, trident and a few more. But the game needs to be a challenge and there we have the larger stage (which will be revealed to some extent at a later date). As my mind sifts through challenges and opportunities it is important to keep this an open sandbox game, to give the people choice to go in any direction and to consider the realm they are in. I wanted more than a simple game with trigger points and that is where I found myself. There will always be people that prefer CoD, but when you consider what they achieved in NEW innovations, I feel I have a chance to make Microsoft regret their choices. If this game gets its own following and merely persuade 10% of the gamers to try something else than CoD, my job is done and when Microsoft has to do a Ubisoft and sell the game at 50% less (or more), that additional $68B anchor (in addition to Bethesda) it becomes a $100B chokehold and as I wrote 2 days ago in ‘One thought counters another’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/03/23/one-thought-counters-another/) the simplified quote “To merely break even Microsoft will have to exceed 72.8 million of PROFIT every day between now and 31/12/2026 and that is merely to cover the last three spendings, not all their waste.” As such I ignored a few items, but the short and sweet became that they need $72.8M a day to break even, so when my IP allows Amazon Luna and Sony to diminish that to a mere $32M a day with the added thought that in gaming they have no chance of getting anywhere near that $72.8M a day, especially with GamePass in play, they stand to lose more and more money. The added benefit of IP that is there not for Microsoft products, Amazon will grow (still hoping they buy the other IP which would land them well over 50,000,000 subscriptions)and Sony will grow a little more too Sony might not grow too much due to me, merely because they have an amazing lineup of games already. But I am adding them to make sure Microsoft gamers will see that there is more out there and the CoD fans will stick with Microsoft, I get that and they are ‘devoted’ fans, but when they merely get more of the same and they seek out other shores, Microsoft will truly be done for and at that point the Exclusive needs of Microsoft are merely nails in their expensive coffin. 

This is seemingly becoming such a nice weekend. I will have a cheese sandwich and consider to meditate on an old expression of adding the angel’s share to the game. I could not find anyone who did the same ever.  A game with over a dozen unique parts never seen in FPS games before. It sucks to be Microsoft soon enough, for now lets see how arrogant they remain.

Enjoy the weekend!

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March 23, 2023 · 09:14

One thought counters another

This is a case we sometimes face. My thought counters theirs and their thought counters mine. There is nothing unnatural about it. In a setting where we applaud, respect or even merely accept the scales of balance, we see that one side counters another. Balance is natural and that is important here. You see, players like Microsoft have been fighting balance for their own selfish little needs for the longest of times. Now, this does not mean that Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google are not like that, but they tend to go with the flow for most of the time (Facebook perhaps a little less than the other three). Apple might be the most in tune with the scales of balance, but that is from where I sit and might be incorrect. And this all started with ‘Microsoft says ten years is “sufficient” for Sony to create Call of Duty rival’, yes, I can do you one better. They can do it in half that time. More important it will not be some Call of Duty rival, it will be better. As Microsoft is becoming more and more of a hollow egg, the $69 billion more in the near future is also the face of a failing company. You see, You can buy all you like, but when the creative people walk away because they see the failing of a company who fails against Apple with their Surface, who fails with their Azure against AWS, who fails with their Bing against Google search is a company that is doomed and as I personally see it, it is in its last 1,375 days before it crumbles into a joke, that firm will lost a lot more soon enough. And it is not that hard an equation. To merely break even Microsoft will have to exceed 72.8 million of PROFIT every day between now and 31/12/2026 and that is merely to cover the last three spendings, not all their waste. That is why I know that Microsoft will fail. So I created in the past blogs the foundations of more RPG that I made freely available to people designing for the Amazon Luna. It is the final blow of failures for Microsoft. I don’t need to do anything for Sony. They have their horses in a row and they are ready to race. Nintendo has its own niche and they are doing fine. All settings that two gaming giants had racked up correctly. Microsoft betrayed their own gamers, blew its audience who is now taking a distance from Microsoft, and as such their population is dwindling down. Still think I was delusional?

It goes from bad to worse after that. Their own cornerstone is having more and more issues and people are willing to push away from that too. Microsoft office is too bulky and there is a lot of power in Open office and Google’s solution which apart from their spreadsheet is doing above OK, not to mention the fact that it is a free product. And in the graphic settings Adobe surpassed them in several ways all at once and in the age of Meta and their metaverse Microsoft will merely lose more and the need for the daily profit of 72.8 million that marker will merely bite more and more. With the Luna set to overtake (with a little help) the Microsoft streaming service they will get another opponent. It is Chinese Tencent who is already taking serious time to create Unreal Engine 5 applications. Another soft spot Microsoft was ignoring. Yes we are given all the spin in the media, but too many is created by ‘Microsoft Friends’ and we see AI claims all over and when we think things trough, we will realise that ‘their’ AI is data driven and they lack data. There is no way that some AI claim can create scripts. You see (deeper) machine learning can only react to data, react to events they HAVE and that means that they can copy and edit, but they cannot create. That is the first larger flaw. And now as I had another idea for Streaming gaming, there will be a much larger case for people to connect to systems that will deliver, not are bought and then altered to fit another need. That is a sure way to fail. One source (a few, but seemingly all from the same source) gave us “Redfall PS5 version was in development, but cancelled after the Xbox buyout”, so how does that align with a Microsoft statement that they would be everywhere? Now, lets be clear Microsoft is allowed to do what they do, they bought Bethesda, they are trying to own Blizzard. But what happens when we design new versions, new IP exclusive for Amazon Luna and Sony? What is their win when they spend $100,000,000,000 for a console that as some sources gives us 

As of June 2022, lifetime unit sales of Xbox One consoles in North America reached 31.58 million, while in Europe, lifetime unit sales surpassed 12.8 million with some partial addition of what was estimated that Microsoft had shipped at least 18.5 million units of the two consoles (series S and X) worldwide by December 2022. Now look at the Sony equation. PS5 sales have now climbed to 32 million, with 7.1 million consoles sold in the last three months alone, a dramatic increase over the 3.9 million sold in the same quarter last year. This means that the PS5 is almost equal on the Microsoft last 3 consoles, all whilst the PS4 has surpassed 117,000,000 consoles. Now they want to go to the cloud whilst their consoles are already doomed. So I am willing to set aside some creative time to make sure that they fail there too. 6 directions (tablet, SAAS, office, search, gaming and GAAS) where Microsoft fell short and keeps on failing, no purchase will counter that and the message merely gets to be worse soon thereafter. Now, do not discount some options. Microsoft will get some parts right, Starfield looks for all accounts amazing, but when there is an alternative people will go for the one solution that does not betray them. And should Amazon (or Apple) select my IP, they stand to get more than 50,000,000 more accounts making the failure of Microsoft even more dismal, especially as I predicted this setting for the better part of 2 years. No spin will work when there is a published article countering that. They are all about making a spin towards the future, but what happens when the ‘future spin’ becomes past and does not hold up to the numbers? That is the part Microsoft seemingly forgets about (again and again) and that wheel is merely spinning faster and not for Microsoft. They will merely lose more and more control. At some point they will need more money to repair the potholes of their shoddy road. Consider the Solarwinds issue and the fact that Microsoft was going to buy a cyber powerhouse (which became part of Google) and after that the media went dark, the spin failed, so darkness is all they had and the media complied. There were no questions on how Microsoft was going to deal with it after that. Weird he?

The list merely grows and at some point the media needs to do a 180 or accept that they are a Microsoft tool. So how many failures until the media actually turns on Microsoft? Perhaps the larger advertisement deals come through, but not for all and that is the counter that vanishes, especially when you consider that the world has 18,000 registered with the World Association of Newspapers (WAN). Some will lose and that is the beginning of a lot more pain for Microsoft. 

So whilst all of that is in play. I considered a new RPG, free for Amazon Luna and Sony developers. Consider the absolute hit the first 4 God of War games were. Now consider an RPG where Tartarus is actually mapped out. As such it is no God of War and you have no special powers, but a battlefield the actual size of America named Tartarus, the underworld where you need to keep standing, where you need to survive and each death restores you, but with the millions of opponents you cannot run into battle all the time. You need to find the relic weapons that have additional powers and perhaps you will at some point find an Olympian piece of armour or. weapon that gives you an edge. And it will be first person. So 9.9999 years before Microsoft imagined I gave Amazon and Sony a rival. That is the power of creativity, something Microsoft lacks, they surely lack it, because if blizzard is bought, many creative souls will retire with their part of billions and Microsoft end up with another near empty shell, product but without driving creativity. So how long until the makers at Bethesda will have had enough? How long until they think that Ubisoft is a better deal than Bethesda under new management? That is how I know that Microsoft is ticking away towards implosion and when that happens (within the next 1380 days) I will merely sit, sip a little Ice water and tell you ‘I told you so!’ Because I get to do that at that moment. Yay me!

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March 18, 2023 · 02:23

Retro engineering

This is a bit of a weird subject. It is not really that weird, retro parts are on top of our minds, well at least most of us anyway. And for the most it is in areas we normally have not that much of an outspoken voice to say the least. I started this thought as I woke up from a disturbing nightmare. I know it was disturbing in the way I woke up, as well as the fact that the dream is gone from my mind, it was gone the moment I woke up. This implies that it was unsetting in many ways. 

So the mind pushed me into different directions and that is where the retro mind pushed me. In computers the mind pushed me towards the MegaST. I always loved that one, I merely had the 1024STF (or something like that) and now we do not need the CRT monitor, but consider that this is the foundation of enough power for most of our daily needs and it still is. A 1991 released computer and it can do whatever we need and still could 32 years later. We all (including me) gave in to the BS of Microsoft and others. Then there was the old dream (definitely not a nightmare), you see if there is truth to that and Microsoft becomes obsolete in 2026, we will need alternatives and in that case an upgraded LINUX version for the 68000 makes perfect sense. We do not have to give in to the E-armistice race others are trying to push onto us. And lets be clear the 68000 was one hell of a graphic chip. Now this would give the field to Apple in a massive way, but for the most that does not scare me (at least if there is some truth to their streaming aspirations) and they will need an alternative path too, if thee is any hope of crushing Microsoft they will need a way to content with an additional 2 billion customers/households.You really think that the MegaST4 is such a bad run? Consider EVERYTHING you do now on it and consider whether it is possible on a 68000 (or 68020) now, for the most it is all possible and when streaming takes off, and it will, the push to buy a new and upgraded PC every other year will mostly be done for. I reckon the only really complaining part with be the bitcoin mining one and I reckon that group can be ignored for the most. And there will be competition, I don’t thing that this ill not be the case for one moment. At that point Sony will consider making anew PS5, sleeker and more refined to the needs of the household, not merely the gamer and it already has the power to do just that, it merely needs the interface to make that work and I reckon that it is not too far away as well. 

Then we get to cars, a subject I know next to nothing about. Yet here too Tesla has options. 

I personally always loved the Citroen DS90 (I know I’m dorky), but someone will figure out that the setting of these automated designs are over the top and someone will consider that the chassis of some retro cars are perfectly well, most of these retro cars cannot come back because the engine is not up to it, but with an electric car this goes out the window and the aging population can reconsider their first car yet again. And the DS90 has plenty of high points, the one thing it did not have is a lasting engine but the Tesla battery will come in handy at that point. Now that a car has a massively shifted interest. That car can now be safer, it can be more entertaining inclusive and it could be more desired. Lets face it, how many people go “I just love my Suzuki Swift?” They don’t, the group was specific, most were on a budget and most needed small space, plenty of them the second one more than the first and that remains an issue for a while. But consider where you are now, consider what is real and consider what makes you happy. Banks are bailing each other out with billions and at some point they will get tax benefits as well, billions they do not have to pay FOR you and they are happy, it is time to get some happiness back. Retro is one of those paths, we do retro things because they leave us with a feeling we missed. In clothing, in games, in stuff (like vinyls). It is time to consider the two elements that could add to this equation. Gaming and household items are one and we do not need to give in to the next Microsoft failure, no matter what spin they give it, cars is another. And these two have a following of billions. Don’t take my word for it, look around and see for yourself. When you overlook the dreams that we all have (me too), as the Bugatti Chiron is something I will never be able (or willing to afford), as I personally believe that a car at a million plus is folly on any given day with all the Karen’s and road rage moment out there, we get the sobering thoughts of what we always loved when we were young and a few models come out (in my case the Citroen DS90). And for these carmakers to return their golden choices as electric cars is the creation of another branch of what people actually want, no branding required and when some of them get back, they will introduce their first (or early) love to ALL their friends. A market that almost grows itself, like the almost forgotten MegaST, which could now easily become a MegaST128 (or 256 for that matter) and still be cheaper than that Surface joke at $2599. A market waiting for the right person to be captured, although the MegaST will need a massive OS overhaul, as well as an upgraded versions of Calamus/Pagestream, but here there is an upside, Adobe has parts of these for the 68000 as it is the old Mac version. Consider the Adobe suite which has nearly all we need, we merely need some kind of Lotus 123 version on there and our Homeoffice suite is ready. It takes that little and we add a few nails to the coffin holding the cadaver of Microsoft. Isn’t life lovely sometimes?

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March 17, 2023 · 05:23

Confirmation and standards

That is what I was confronted with over the last 5 hours. I got a message a little before that and we will talk about it. I mentioned it in my previous article. It connects to more, but that is not important right now. What set me off was the article (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2268696/saudi-arabia) where we are given ‘Saudi energy minister: Kingdom will not sell oil to any country that imposes a price cap’. In this I agree, even if it hurts me badly. You see the US has been crying on expensive oil, but the price is set as well by Brent oil, an American firm. One that has the BIGGEST production of oil on the planet.

So when we are given “Spare capacity and global emergency stocks are the ultimate safety net for the oil market in face of potential shocks. I have repeatedly warned that global demand growth will outpace current global spare capacity, while emergency reserves are at a historic low.” I have no other thought but to agree. This has been going on for the better part of 2 decades. No one was complaining when oil was $40, but the setting differs. The US will not buy from Russia (which makes sense) and neither is Venezuela an option. The Arab nations are united in getting the best deal FOR THEM, which is done on a global scale in many commodities, but oil is not the US point of trade, it is THEIR anchor, yet no one looks at Brent oil and what it does, weird, isn’t it? We have seen the massive need to drop dependency on oil and in 2 decades nothing was done. The blame is all on governments for not acting, then 5 years ago an optional sidestep could be made, but the US government pissed of Elon Musk, whilst giving a free ride to that previous Twitter owner, that Dorsey thingamajig. But the Media on a global level REFUSED to ask him the hard questions. And now that it is too late, now that we see that a battery change was required 3-4 years ago, the Governments (especially America) start crying like little bitches. 

When a well can pump 10 cups of water an hour, and there are at any given moment 25 people needing water, some will go thirsty and that setting has been clearly there for over 2 decades. Why was nothing done? So when I see “NOPEC refers to a No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels bill, proposed US legislation that could leave members of OPEC+ open to prosecution under American antitrust laws. The bill, which has been periodically proposed for several years, was revived this month by a bipartisan group of senators in Washington amid ongoing concern about high energy prices.” And here the thought “Are you insane?” pops up. In the first why is Brent Oil not mentioned? And it is so easily fixed. Saudi Arabia (Aramco) could deliver 20% less oil to the US and Europe and sell that to China, everyone happy, or not? It is not a concern for high energy prices, it is the bloody mess of inaction which can be clearly shown for well over a decade and when there was a solution, you pissed off the industrial that could have aided you. So how is that for stupidity?

The second reel
The second reel is different, it is not connected to oil, but optionally to stupidity (as I personally see it). I have seen now confirmation on two of the branches that this will work and due to a few changes, there would be a growing need for the third branch as well. For me it could be good, and could is the operative word as Google was asleep at the wheel and let it pass and Amazon doesn’t seen to be waking up to the billions they can get in this. At present my hope lies with Kingdom Holdings and one other party. That one might not give me the full price, but it is better than nothing, in addition, keeping Microsoft away from there is prime concern, they can only screw up the IP, blame others, point fingers and then refer to miscommunications. I can do without that. There is a small option that Apple might pick it up, but it is not really their turf, so I feel uncertain about that thought. So it is in some regard inverted from oil. Oil everyone wants, and seemingly my IP no one wants. I reckon that the first one that buys it and see what they stand to gain, at that point everyone will come calling, like a Credit Suisse banker with an empty wallet, but that is my weird sense of humour.

The idea that I am right is nice, but I have seen enough confirmations in several directions to know I am right, but that is just me. I still check all forms of verifications, not merely to proof that I am right, but to confirm I was never wrong. That too matters, because I am where banks and oil consumers needed to be, in a place of checks and balances, something both parties require very very fast.

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March 13, 2023 · 22:05

The first letter

Yes, sometimes the connection between articles is merely the first letter, it is what connects Aramco and Amazon. I had several articles to look at but they both started with the first letter. The first article is about Aramco. 

Aramco
The article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-64931074) gives us ‘Aramco: Saudi state-owned oil giant sees record profit of $161bn’ in this, I can tell you right upfront that there are days that I have nowhere near that amount in my wallet (weird eh?) Even as we are given “Aramco rode the wave of high energy prices in 2022,” said Robert Mogielnicki of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. “It would have been difficult for Aramco not to perform strongly in 2022.” We might think all kinds of things, but the one that matters is missing. You see, the world removed Russia as a delivery agent of Oil and after that the choices were rather slim and Saudi Arabia was a natural first choice. But then we get a small stab. It is seen with “Aramco – the world’s second-most valuable company only behind America’s Apple – is a major emitter of greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change”, which might be correct, but was it not America and England begging like little chihuahua’s to deliver more oil cheaper? Would that not be a contributing factor to the emissions? So when I see “Responding to Aramco’s announcement, Amnesty International’s secretary general Agnès Callamard said: “It is shocking for a company to make a profit of more than $161bn in a single year through the sale of fossil fuel – the single largest driver of the climate crisis.”” Another partisan response from everyones United Nations joke Eggy Calamari. The individual who seems to be a Saudi hater right of the bat, like her best friend who is a Guardian ‘investigative’ journalist named Stephanie Kirchgaessner. I have written several pieces in this in the past. You see, Eggy can yap like the chihuahua she is all she likes, but lets see what happens when Aramco lowers output by 20%-30%, what BS ballad will she utter then? And towards the Guardian, like the BS articles on private jet owners. The Environmental report a little over 1 year back, when we were given that 50% of all damage came from 147 facilities in Europe, who of them spend any time looking into that? 147 facilities creating 50% of the damage, now that does not put Aramco in the clear, but they are not alone in creating climate issues, but leave it to these two individuals to spin BS. In the meantime lets see what happens when the Saudi government decides to shut the valves if that Calamari individual does not clean her act. Just a thought. Then we get “Saudi Arabia is the largest producer in the oil cartel Opec (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries).” Now this is true, yet the larger truth is that Saudi Arabia is not the greatest producer in the world, that is the USA by a fair amount. As such the Calamari shit becomes a debatable issue on a few sides. As such we need to consider what the Saudi government does when it had enough, when they close the taps by as little as 5%, there will be widespread economic issues for both the US and EU, as such we need to start looking at the actual image, not the image from some hating dodo in the UN building. 

As such in the first yes, Saudi profits are up and the war has something to do with that, but mainly because people stopped buying Russian oil, so how much more oil did Aramco sell because of that? Oh and tanks are expensive they need 3 gallons per mile, how far does one tank go? Now consider that Ukraine has over 400 tanks. That implies 1200 gallons per mile and the war has been going on for over a year. They are not guilty, neither is Aramco. Russia started that event and they are still playing that game. So when we take a look at the bigger picture, Aramco has a commodity that everyone needs, everyone wants and most of them desire. Prices go up especially when Aramco has 100,000 barrels per hour (simple speculation) and each hour people are trying to buy 125,000 barrels. It is a simple economy and it as in place for several decades. So stop whining like chihuahuas and either come with an alternative, buy less oil or shut up. That is my simplistic view on the matter.

Amazon
The second article touches Amazon. I saw it (at https://www.thegamer.com/nobody-wins-if-amazon-luna-succeeds/) it was a debatable article from beginning to end. I have personal connections here, as such, I am a little biased. The title ‘Nobody Wins If Amazon Luna Succeeds’ was like a red flag to a bull. It is wrong on many levels. You see we all win when Luna succeeds. Luna is the beginning of a new stage in gaming. Streaming gaming can up the ante for gaming in many ways, I have written about it several times. It allows for much larger games, it allows for more versatile games and for an evolving game line. Now this is all possible on a PS5 (a console I love), but only in limited way at present. Nintendo cannot go near this because it is limiting in other ways. Still the Nintendo Switch is a system I love and now that Metroid Prime remastered is released I play it a lot more than anything else. That too is gaming. After 21 years Metroid Prime is just as addictive and beautiful as it ever was and I still claim that no FPS can get near this game, this game is a reason to buy a Switch, even as aSony fat with my PS4 and PS5 I make that claim. Gaming is seen in many stages and many ways and the Luna is merely the next wave towards gaming. The next issue is “Amazon Luna and Google Stadia have the same problem – there simply aren’t enough games to guarantee success” that is a mistake that both Amazon and Google had, I set the premise to almost guarantee 50 million subscriptions (one essential rule comes into play) and they had the option to win this, but Google dropped the cloth and evicted the stage, now Amazon has the option to rule it all alone with plenty of games too, so whomever is making that claim (a Tessa Kaur), she is not looking at the field, there is a lot more and some makers had a starting advantage, but apparently they squandered the advantage and now indie developers could end up with the larger stage. So as we get to “It’s the same with game hardware – they’ll discontinue the PlayStation 4 one day, I won’t be able to repair it when it gasps its last gasp. That will be that, all my games will be unplayable.” We get the first element. The article mentions NOTHING about Microsoft, why is that? Yes, they will discontinue the PS4 at some point, yet at present I will have had a PS4 for well over 11 years and several of these games can be played on the PS5, so I could have that one game for another decade, that part is missing too. The element also missing is that any streaming system will need a proper 5G connection, in many cases there are issues with 4G and 5G is still in a deployment stage in some countries a hell of a lot more then in others. The other element missing is that streaming gaming sucks in rural areas which amount to well over 35% of Europe. We do not see that either. I believe that the Luna is the next generation and with a fully deployed 5G it becomes a hell of a lot better and when developers start thinking of streaming as the ultimate goal, not some game that ALSO plays on the Luna, the game changes a lot more in favour of the Amazon Luna. Streaming is the future and we are only seeing the start of it at present. Microsoft is making their Xbox cloud gaming claims and they are hopelessly lost. Even as they are betraying their population, even as their consoles are not getting it done, they stand to lose a lot against Sony (console) and Amazon (cloud) and that is their real fear. Google might have bailed, but that doesn’t mean that Amazon will too, they actually have a few additional options that they might not have considered yet (speculation on my side). And that is where Apple comes in. If Apple (in their own way) starts in this field, Amazon will have a tough opponent. Microsoft is hopelessly lost and when Apple comes into play they will be doomed. But that is for 2024 I reckon. So far I have faith that Amazon will deliver in the end and create forward momentum in cloud gaming. They need not spin anything, they merely have to create the titles and the population, a setting they have a better hand on then Microsoft ever did. But that is merely my view on the matter.

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