Tag Archives: Phil Spencer

February 20, 2024 · 17:50

Many off ramps, same destination

It has been quiet here for 6 days. These things happen when you suddenly end up in hospital. I will spare you the details, they are not important. The cemetery is filled with people who had my condition, so there. We are about to take to trips before we get to the main event. Thee elements all matter to paint a picture, one of presentation, one of anticipation and one of speculation. In all matters I could be wrong, but I will let you decide for yourself. A small added treasure hint, I will add a new piece of IP tomorrow. The savvy programmer could become a millionaire. I will let you consider that for yourself. I am no programmer and I have other things on my mind. But if you are savvy and create a good program, you could get between 20-50 million downloads over time. At $0.49 per sale that will amount to serious money. So I leave it up to you to consider that tomorrow. Now we take a different gander. 

The dream
When you are locked (lets call it that) to a bed your mind gets to wander and my did (and then some). I was offered a job as a courier for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia based in Sydney. Their personal mailman and they started with one hell of an offer. My startup bonus was BTC300. Of course I accepted and that would be my initial payment for up to 6 months. So when was the last time you were offered a starting bonus of $24M? So, yes my dream was delusional, but it was my dream and I was locked to a bed. In my mind I visited the cities I have visited in the past (a fair amount of them) and my life was turned upside down.  

Now I am certain that you wonder why anyone would do that? And that would be a fair question. Now consider the other side.

  1. The consulate might have been desperate for staff members and they took one that knew several languages and had travel experience all over the world and I fit that bill (fortunately).
  2. The consulate might prefer a courier who did not speak or read Arabic for all kinds of reasons.
  3. An unknown reason, only known to them.

These three reasons are perfectly logical and they will matter soon enough. Anyway, it was a lovely dream and I saw the places I have missed for about a decade.

The next instance of a rewrite
That is something all writers face. In my case the story of Engonos (played by me off course) I end up with a powerful Olympic bident called Psychofagos (meaning soul eater). I never really explored the part on how I got it. So that came to my mind, setting the hospital as a stage (might not be like that in the end).

As I walked through the hospital I noticed a myst, it was different, it was like clouds of soot, but the people didn’t seen to see it. I saw some of them blink like they were dealing with blurry vision and my mind raced. This wasn’t new. It was the Myst of Tartarus. Hades added the myst thousands of years ago. You see in the early days of Tartarus he saw that the strong became stronger, too strong and the end result was that these people started to relax. Hades created the myst of Tartarus. You see that myst attacks all sense of a person. Vision, abilities, skills and the mind. In effect it becomes a free for all, the weaker convicts now have a chance against much stronger opponents and the myst comes sudden, it comes quick and it is relentless. Above all you need to realise that when you slay another in Tartarus, you become stronger, but a share of all kills go to lord Hades (a large share). Tartarus itself nourishes Hades and has done so for thousands of years. The myst gives the strongest a chance to really add to the Hades pool of souls. So there I was seeing that myst in the hospital and I looked around rather frantically. To see myst where none should be is unsettling and it never spells good for anyone. Because of my heritage I am not affected to the degree others are, but I will feel the impact of the myst to some degree, so I was not a happy camper to say the least. I started to move slower and moved towards a wall, no ay to be really surrounded when there was a wall. I saw a glimpse of one creature, then a second one. They were in the attire of Myrmidons. The heralds of Tartarus. They killed with such vigil on earth, they were rewarded with eternal wars in Tartarus. Their souls knew of no better reward and they were almost inhuman. Take the largest gladiator you ever saw, make him twice as strong and five times as fast and thrice as agile and you are close to a myrmidon. They train every moment of their existence that they are not engaged in wars. They are unsettling to say the least. And two just slowly started to appear in my sight. They were clearly looking for someone and suddenly I saw that they turned on a fellow patient. Andreas and his son Kostas, both Greeks. They were looking for something that they didn’t see and I saw them move in for the kill, the movements were clear as day for me. I grabbed someone dinner knife from his plate and stabbed one in the neck, he hadn’t seen me and that as the last mistake he would ever make. He halted for a second to shake off the pain that a knife in the neck makes. I grabbed is sword and cut off his head with one clear slice. The second saw this and attacked. But there he was in a disadvantage. I am a son of Ares, as such my battle skills were born with me and the knowledge of a thousand battles. I stepped aside, blocked in a low stance cutting his meniscus. He sidestepped with the other leg  quickly, he had been wounded before and now he was a lot more dangerous. He would let me do the attacks, giving him an advantage. I made a fake attack, which he parried, I circled his blade counterclockwise and stuck the blade through his breastplate in the chest. His grip on his blade loosened just enough for me to break his pinky and grab the sword and off went his head. The only sure way to get rid of a Myrmidon. The body like the other one was turning to ash and I now had two swords. It seems that they could see some of the opponents, not all but some. I told Kostas to protect his father. He nodded but he felt a little lost. The myst does that to nearly all. Then I noticed something else. I felt some resurge, it appeared that I was getting some of their energy as well. I felt the sickness go away in seconds and I saw a lot more. I saw that there were more opponents one floor down. I rushed down in a cautious way, they were looking. I snuck up on one and as he never expected to face opposition I got him unaware and decapitated him, more energy and more sight, like an illumination from the myst itself. There were three ore, two myrmidons and something else. The last two myrmidons were a little harder, they worked as a team and one cut my leg. But the defeated souls almost instantly repaired me. This has an effect on the myrmidons. They hesitated and the early bird that hesitates becomes worm food, so off with their heads (I’ll spare you the choreography). I reenergised and it repaired whatever scratches I had and also my overall energy levels went up. There was a third part that I had never felt before, I felt more secure and skilled with the sword. Something that was new to me, but then I hd never slain a Myrmidon before and now I had taken care of 5 of them. Then I saw the myst a lot clearer and it became a beacon or me, the last Myrmidon. This one was different, his helmet lit up as polished silver in the moon, as did his bident. A bident? That was unreal. His bident wasn’t silvery, but has a silvery shine. It also had a large gemstone on the edge of the fork, a ruby. It gave me a memory which I buried for now. He was going for a bed in the end of the room. The name on the small whiteboard gave me ‘Leandros’, another Greek name. He was suddenly aware of me and countered before I could strike. He was more cautious and was engaging with fake attacks. This was clearly a highly trained opponent. He cautiously moved from side to side, trying to find an opening and then I noticed that I could touch the Myst. An idea formed and as we moved form side to side, blocking each others attacks, I suddenly noticed what I had hoped for and I threw one of my swords as a spear, which he countered, but that one second when he thought I had made a tactical mistake. I had my hand free and grabbed a dense cloud of soot, closed my fist and blew in my hand, the hand became a blowpipe for myst straight into his face and I saw the effect it had on him. He frantically went into defence mode against people who weren’t there and I thrusted the sword under his jaw, severing the spinal cord. As the head fell, I grabbed the helmet which was no ordinary helmet. In addition to that I grabbed the bident. I suddenly felt a rush. The bident focussed on Leandros, I saw Greece, somewhere on the east of the Peloponnesus. I saw Argos, I seemingly flew south east to Tolo, then still South East to a small island. Then the image faded. Whatever they needed, it must be there. I looked at the bident. It was some kind of brass, but there was more to it. There was an inscription “ενωμένοι είμαστε πιο δυνατοί” Then the memory came back. 5 Myrmidon commanders decided to honour Hades with all the kills Hades had allowed them to do and they would honour Hades as long as they kept the orders of their commander Achilles. A true vow. I could get behind their train of thought. They travelled to Crete where a well known blacksmith resided, they brought gold and asked him to make 5 bident in honour of Hades (something that was rare to say the least). Each commander paid two bard of gold, which was an absolute fortune and the blacksmith went to work. It took several weeks after which he produced 5 bident, each with a stone. Menesthius was given the bident with the ruby, Eudorus got the bident with the sapphire, Peisander the amethyst, Phoenix the emerald and Alcimedon the diamond. They were all happy, their bidents were stronger then anything they had ever held, their weapons a lot lighter and stronger. And they all have the same small text engraved “ενωμένοι είμαστε πιο δυνατοί”. As such I looked at the bident again. It was superior in many ways, it was not an Olympic weapon, but stronger then anything that era had. So I now had the bident of Menesthius. Was it Menesthius I had just slain? It might be, but that was a worry for another day. As Menesthius was slain the myst started to disappear and I hid the weapon and helmet in the usual place. Time to be a patient again. The myst had a nice side effect, the last hour became fuzzy for anyone hid by it, which worked for me. Time to plan on a trip to Argos and then Tolo. 

The main event
You see what you saw was part of Engonos and as it is in my blog, now it is visibly mine. My concoction and my creativity. I need to see where in the script it will fit, but it should be added to seasons one. The main event is all about Microsoft. I saw the article last week but I was somehow indisposed. I had not forgotten it, because no matter how dim the BBC was. I saw something that others might have missed and that is the exercise of today. It is about delusional settings. We have intentional delusions and unintentional delusions. The intentional is often self inflicted like the dream, or the story. The unintentional version tends to come from speculated views or facts and the mulling of these facts. Some set to half truths by your own views and speculations and some are set to other parts (which is not up for discussion today). What matters is that you see these parts ‘as is’ not as truths or as ‘maybe truths’ that is the largest mistake that a speculation can lead these versions to. The media relies on this for flames and so on. I do not, but I am strongly set to presumptions. If a speculation is a guess, then the presumption is an educated guess based on available data. That is the underlying setting you need to see.

This started as I read ‘Xbox, Nintendo or PlayStation: does it still matter?’ (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-68304967). The short answer was ‘Yes, it does’ but that is not what this is about. We see the spin by Microsoft and then there is a jewel. Perhaps unintentional, perhaps a quick slide to avoid what was ALMOST said. The first I saw was “The analysts Ampere estimated that in 2023 there were a total of around 46.5m consoles sold, of which only 7.6m were Microsoft’s Xbox. That leaves nearly 39 million gamers that Xbox exclusives such as the long awaited Starfield from Bethesda, didn’t reach.” Don’t get me wrong, I have been a Bethesda fan for the longest time. Now consider that the game was released on September 6th 2023. And now we see “Updates could play a big part in improving the future of Starfield, but there’s one key issue with the game that seems unlikely to ever be addressed. Although Starfield received some share of acclaim upon its release, it was also met with a lot of disappointment, as it didn’t necessarily live up to the standards set by prior RPGs from Bethesda Game Studios. Although there are a number of areas for improvement that updates could tackle, some underlying choices in the design and story may be frustrating forever.” (Source: Screenrant) As I see it the 39 million gamers are not overly sad on missing out. We see also on other media “Phil Spencer on Helldivers 2 Not Being on Xbox: ‘I’m Not Exactly Sure Who It Helps’”, well the answer is simple. It helps a game being shown at its maximum. Sony has a truckload of those and Microsoft fell behind by a lot. He sounds like the desperate executive who cannot make ends meet. How are developers given a fair shake when they are rewarded pennies when they are entitled to dollars? GamePass only works at the core of less then $10 a month leaving developers with less than $0.25 per gamer. How does that work out for them? The quote that set me off is ‘suddenly’ gone, so I am hoping others still have it and Gamespot still had it: “a future where every screen is an Xbox.” I personally believe that he wanted to say “a future where every screen is an Xbox data collection point.” To see this, I need to take you on a small journey as I have stated this danger in the past before. Consider that Activision Blizzard was acquired for $69,000,000,000. Sixty nine billion. Let that sink in. Now consider that Activision Blizzard made 7.53 billion USD in 2022, less than in 2021. This gives us that the investment will take 10 years to break even, 11 years when we consider the interest and even more time when they become GamePass games and the revenue will become smaller still. So how is that a good investment when gaming technology evolves the way it does and Microsoft is now losing ground awfully fast. But when you consider data where games collect data on every gamer the field changes and they will have sign up deals where you get something cosmetic every month for free, it costs nothing and thousands will sign up, the small print that they collect certain parts will be written in the small print over dozens of pages. Yes, this is ALL speculation but that is what I would do if I paid for an Edsel for a ’mere’ 69 billion. The latest games are disappointing and Microsoft is losing ground. They misjudged the field and the people are sticking to their consoles (mostly Nintendo and Sony). I reckon that Tencent will be outshining Microsoft too with the optional 50 million subscribers (also speculation). That will be the third time that Microsoft misjudged gamers and loses a lot in the process. We can understand the spin by Phil Spencer. I reckon he is now desperate to get a win but as I see it it is not in the cards for him. Not as things look at present. And it goes more arctic for Microsoft soon after that. They are betting on the wrong horse and whilst they shared the field closer to equals with Sony in the era of the Xbox360, they threw it away in under a decade and after that they invested almost 100 billion in a few software houses that could not bring home the bacon and I was eager to assist in their downfall by handing IP to independent developers giving Bethesda even more challenges down the road. In the end you are as good as your next success and Bethesda had it in 2011 with Skyrim. Then Microsoft messed up their mojo. That is how I see it and now Microsoft is (as I personally see it) going down hard and the ‘spin’ we see around Helldivers 2 doesn’t help Microsoft. And it gets to be worse. This is given to us with “Xbox president Sarah Bond even teased the idea of some brand new hardware in a podcast released by Microsoft on Thursday” yes Sarah, deliver or shut up. You either have something new coming up (which might be essential for Microsoft), or basically fudge off. Microsoft lost against Sony, then it lost against Nintendo, the weakest console of all and there is a decent chance that over the next 15 months it will lose against the Tencent Handheld as well. Consoles require (for the most) games, or something unique and GamePass was not enough, not when the pass owners are told that certain games will not be released on GamePass. When mediocrity is the sum of GamePass, the games will go somewhere else and Bethesda new elder scrolls is well over a year away (at least), gamers will go somewhere else and when that happens the 100 billion dollar is the anchor that drowns Microsoft games. So the statement of “Ampere does not expect Microsoft to exit the console platform business in the medium term as that would leave a gaping hole in its games-related revenues” I am not so sure. RedFall and Starfield are huge disappointments and that amounts to abandonment by gamers. They will find another venture and some will hold on to their console, that is fair enough. But with the abandonments also comes GamePass cancelations and that is revenue Microsoft desperately needs to make revenue. 

So how wrong am I?
Not all will pan out, I get that, but I feel that I am closer to the mark than most others and the two elements that will ensure the drop of Microsoft is now more exclusive games on Sony and the numbers that Tencent will get. The second one will cost Microsoft a gaming population, one they desperately need.

When you read between the media emotions you see that I am making a good case. Read up and form your own opinion. Don’t just take my word for it.

Enjoy the week.

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January 25, 2024 · 18:42

Those happy dreams

We all have them and I just had mine (not the one with Laura Vandervoort). The dream started with me attending some gameshow with Amazon bigwigs. I personally handed Phil Spencer a gold inlaid wooden spoon with the message that I try to keep my word. That morning Amazon with the Luna surpassed 75 million consoles (plus subscriptions) sold, Microsoft is now deal last in the gaming industry (nice achievement for the strongest console in the world), apparently big hardware isn’t everything. But the dream moved on, I was talking to His Excellency Ahmed Al-Khateeb, Minister of tourism for Saudi Arabia. 

I was explaining to him (and to myself) a new approach to customer service solutions and I called it the Complete Customer Service Solution System (C2S3 for short). The image is more for myself so I can recall it later. A complete system based on foundations of Nice CX One but with a massive difference, the organisations were no longer central here, they are still the centre or axial in it all, but the central setting becomes the tourist. A system no one ever considered (or off hand rejected), but in 2025-2030 the tourist, the customer needs to be the central hub in everything. Places like Saudi Arabia and the UAE need an evolved customer solution system because that is how they remain top player. The larger players (like Hilton and Marriott) will get on board fast, because they will see the benefit there, then the them parks and soon thereafter they all want to join such a system and in the cloud you can find a person fast. You see, the biggest drain on any vacation is time loss, people take it for granted, but what happens when one or two players throw that overboard and redo the whole thing? What happens when the total vacation has 0.1% logistics at best? You go through the mill in the Airport, at the hotel, at attractions, at resorts. So what if the airport is the start, but it is replicated to other places as soon as you go through gate one? What happens when you are in a new place and you do not get lost, because the tag you have tells you where you are and where you are supposed to go? Now consider that around the world, it is estimated that over one million young people are reported missing every year. Don’t be afraid, will over 95% is found within a day. Now consider this new system where a child is found within the hour, optionally quicker. The loss of stress in almost unimaginable. And it is not merely loss that is removed. It is that places will hand out badges with RFID, the RFID records your achievements and records what you have done, so the tourist will have a record on him that he can look at. 2 days of skiing, 12 slopes, they keep a progression record and a record of places. In Japan they have a booklet where you can stamp where you have been and every place has its own stamp. Now consider that digital record, connect that to a digital library and the tourist can make a small photo album with their own images and insert their digital records of places they have visited. They can make it anywhere in the world and it can remain private. A system where the foundation is Arrival and Departure, it does not matter where you go from there. You could visit as a family the Almasaa Cafe in Riyadh, wouldn’t it be nice to insert a digital sticker in your album when you were there with personal pictures? The list goes on and a system like that isn’t build overnight, but it has the merit that for once the tourist is the centrepiece of it all (some claim that, but it is their sales system). A setting where the customer solution is build and designed around the customer. In 43 years I have never seen such a system, have you? 

Now that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are about to be the pole position players in tourism, such a system would solve several items. They would also imply that they are about to stay at the top position until others catch on, and after the SEC blunder I saw yesterday some players will be behind these two players for years to come. 

Just a thought, enjoy Friday in 24 hours.

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October 20, 2023 · 00:32

The gig is partially up

Yes, this happens. Even to me and Microsoft apparently figured part out, part I had hoped to include in the sale of my IP, IP which might now be made public domain. I refuse to let Microsoft walk away with it all. You see, I made the second (or third mention) in ‘Ring around the currency’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/12/25/ring-around-the-currency/) on Christmas day 2022, almost a year ago. I had seen how gaming went and I made some calculations. Between 1985 and 1999 the systems Atari 800, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and Commodore Amiga had a little over 10,000 games. I reckoned that if you took the list sorted by rating and you take the top 10% you end up with 1,000 games. Now we get that some still have IP protection. I reckoned that if we set that marker to 50% (really high) we still end up with 500 games, a lot more than Amazon or Google had. The others are fair game, no IP protection and these games could easily be transformed for cloud gaming. Going from 64KB to 1MB-15MB is still a good gig and these games were really fun and addictive. A system with 500 games (merely one of three pillars). That is what the seemingly bright people at Amazon missed and I was laughing most of the year, knowing that my giggles were temporary at best. It was one part that ensured 50,000,000 consoles and alas Kingdom Holding (with Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud) were not taking the bait for billions in revenue. Neither was the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia who was driven to eSports. But I thought ahead of the pack. You see eSports people get there by training and the younger they are the better they become and these games set up my and the next generation, so the new generation could do worse than train on these games. Still that was not my focus, it was a focus on fun. The fun I had through decades of joyful gaming. Not hopping like a kangaroo in FPS games. I also saw the option to reengineer some games (like Defender of the Crown) to be a little more realistic and more Arabic driven, a combination of that game with a focus of the 1st Crusades. Show the current generation what Islamic life in 1095-1291 achieved. And that was not all, many games were up for grabs, rejected and forgotten. As such the creation of a large coffer of games would propel any console and that was the setting I set out to do, but it was only one of three pillars. I tend to make the other two pillars public domain soon enough especially as my retirement in Toronto is now no longer a reality. 

There were several other games that required remastering in the new setting. There was Knight Games on the CBM64, and setting this with a Saracen style might appeal to a lot of Arabic gamers. The nice part was that I had played most of those games and I would be able to recall plenty of details and plenty of gaming sides, even improve on some of them. A setting that was never considered in those days. 

All this came to the surface when I saw ‘Phil Spencer Teases the Revival of Older Microsoft Franchises’. It came with ““With Game Pass, we have the ability to maybe pick a couple of franchises every year and almost do a ‘revisited’,” Spencer explained. Although he clarified that it was not an official branding term, he expressed the potential to recognise the significance of these games in gaming history and make them available through Game Pass.”

Yes, that was the setting that gave me pause to think. Spencer does not think in small settings and as I make this now public domain others will come and see what they can have. You see Microsoft has committed 69 billion, as such making sure that all these games get multiple contenders all vying for a piece of the pie makes the slice for Microsoft smaller and that is not the only thing they will face. So all who read this, if you develop games, see what old games you could purchase, get the IP for or register the new gaming IP. It will be the first disappointment for Microsoft. They will have to share the pie with many others. The other side is that these people could get a slice of the game through the new Tencent Technology handheld. Another mess they never banked on. I had hoped to keep ahead of the curve, but it seems that this is no longer an option. The only thing left is to make these steps as expensive as possible for Microsoft. They invested to get a mile, so if I can make the setting so that they merely get a furlong it will be a good day for me, or at least a better day than it was this morning. So here you see it, this is what Amazon and Google missed. Well, it was one of three parts they missed and I wonder if someone over there will wake up at some point. 

Enjoy the day, I will enter Friday being decently grumpy today.

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December 19, 2021 · 13:25

See for creativity

It makes sense, it really does and it all started this morning when I was confronted with an article (at https://www.cbc.ca/radio/spark/search-engines-try-to-rival-google-by-offering-fewer-ads-more-privacy-1.6286925), the CBC is giving you all ‘Search engines try to rival Google by offering fewer ads, more privacy’, yes that is one approach, but that is the iterative approach, it comes from ‘What else can we do with this?’ And that leads nowhere, it will not lead to true innovation. True innovation is different, it goes where no one has gone before. To give you 5 examples lets take you on a little trip this morning.

F is for Facebook
Yes, there is Facebook muddying right along, having a new setting soon enough coming from Mark the Meta man Zuckerberg, it is a natural station forward and as others are all about dangers and all about warnings, the story behind them is fear, they never saw that this was coming (which is fair enough) and they are afraid to miss out twice in the digital environment. I for one saw the massive potential that TRUE Social Media could have. There is Cocoon (at https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/26/cocoons-social-app-for-close-friends-gets-vc-backing-to-chase-paths-dream/) which refers to a private social media, for your friends and family. They can take it a whole level further, but it seems that the people at Amazon (Luna) and Google (Stadia) are just not catching on. But now I do see wannabe’s making a chat and message version of that. Fair enough, yet the stage could grow further, will the see it?  I cannot tell and I actually do not care. It is up to them, but the stage of ‘There is more’ is missed by too many. Whether it is from a ‘How do I get rich fast?’ delimitation, whether they cannot see it, I do not care, not my battle, but options are missed all over the place.

A is for Apple
There is not too much that we can say on Apple. I can see a novel iteration that they are missing (Not the same as true innovation) but it is out there and it is larger than anyone thinks. I wrote about it almost a year ago and I will push the image below, perhaps someone will catch on, perhaps they will not. 

A station where an Apple/Nintendo partnership might appeal to both, but Apple does have what it takes to go it alone, in all this the setting is not what more is there, it becomes (to some degree) where else can we take this and there is a much larger station that is missed, because the wrong people are in charge. It reminds me of a thought I had for the longest time. You see Steve Jobs was clever, was bright yet was not the greatest innovative thinker, Steve Wozniak was but Steve Jobs (unlike some overpriced CEO’s) did recognise true innovation and that brought Apple where it is now. Still there is more that Apple can do, will it? I do not know.

A is for Amazon
Amazon is perhaps the largest power player with growth potential. I saw a potential to grown the Amazon Luna by 50,000,000 consoles (a conservative cautious number), I saw the potential of them becoming a 5G powerhouse. They have the potential to equal if not surpass Apple not merely because they started as an online book shop. They are set in a station where they could become the one powerhouse in Neom City (Saudi Arabia). Amazon has the ability to grow a lot more because they have an interesting balance of Manufacturing, retail and services. Microsoft wanted to focus and get rich fast, they there for hired people who were clueless on several matters. They lost the console world (from Sony and Nintendo) and optionally Amazon Luna if I have my way. To be honest, I fantasise on handing Phil Spencer (who is not to blame) a wooden spoon with engraved (in gold no less) Microsoft 2023. The year that Microsoft ended DEAD LAST in the console world. Their people will spin that, but consider the strongest, most powerful console in the world is behind Sony (PS5), Nintendo (Switch) already and when surpassed by Amazon (Luna), perhaps the people at Microsoft will start thinking instead of boasting Azure (blue) and their hardware when they were for the longest time clueless and there needs to be a penalty for that. Buying Bethesda for $8,500,000,000 might dull the pain and leave the people with the imagination that some good comes from it, yet the station of loss will increase and increase and If I have my way (and fantasy) Phil Spencer gets a wooden spoon in 2023 showing the board of directors at Microsoft that Amazon beat them there too. And that is before the people realise that the decision makers at plenty of places merely had a BS (not BU) presentation and that is when they realise that some made a bet on the wrong horse so whilst Amazon takes the lead, Microsoft becomes a ‘Horse no show’.

N is for Netflix
Netflix is the hardest case, they started being first, being true innovation, but over time they resorted to invest heavily in more and more scripts. Yet is that enough? Will that take the cake? It is hard to tell, you see we can all make claims, yet Netflix gave the people Love Hard (Nina Dobrev and Jimmy O. Yang) a hilarious approach to a Christmas movie and to be honest, it has been a while since I had that much fun watching a movie, then they also took the cake with Red Notice (Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds) a funny movie that is filled with fight scenes and clever situations. To be honest watching a youthful 98 pound young lady (Gal Gadot) slapping Deadpool and the Rock silly will never go out of style and that is merely the tip of an iceberg of fun and excitement. With these two titles alone Netflix rules 2021. I am not judging of making claims against Apple+, Disney+ or Amazon Prime. It is how things go at times. But more is needed and there we see that the Netflix IP division needs to diversify. I for one saw that a place like Netflix could be a great place for the comic books of François Craenhals (de Koene Ridder). 

The intro from Comic books is one thing, yet the transfer as they get to the second book (Les Loups de Rougecogne) the stage could be set for a new legendary franchise. 

I read these comics when I was young, but these comic books can be read at almost every age and the larger stage is there where plenty could be spend on the production and not all on IP to get forward. The comic books have almost everything any successful series need to have and there is more out there. Will Netflix take a leap into the untrodden places? I cannot tell, I do not work there, but there is potential.

G is for Google
There is not a lot of criticism on Google, they have pushed innovation again and again and they are the party to show others how good it can get when you are the innovative player. They are also the one innovative player that a power player like Huawei fears. I reckon that Huawei has the one essential directive stamped in their minds. ‘Get there before Google’, and they are happy that American politicians are so stupid, those politicians are doing the work of delaying the stage of Google again and again, so there is every chance that Huawei will get to a few stages (not all stages) before Google gets there. Can they do more? That is hard to say, Google is too big, too many parties playing and there are larger settings. I believe that not developing software on the Google Stadia (by Google) is not the greatest idea. Relying on Ubisoft will bite and that is where Amazon has the inside track, but there is more in play, so my thoughts make sense but could be wrong for Google. Consoles is not where their strength is and the idea that is in the Apple part could equally apply to Google, but not as wide as Apple can hand it. And all this relies on a free hand to play, all whilst these players are committed to moves, moves that also needs to take Microsoft, IBM and Oracle into consideration. There is no way that me ( or most people) are in the know on all those elements and there is a stage that states that Google is too big. I said it but I do not totally believe it, I believe that Google is too widespread. Apple is too much hardware, Google is too many services and Amazon has seemingly a much better balance, making growth easier (for now). And in this Google needs to consider where Apple and Amazon are going so they can avoid some tug of war in the field that many occupy. It is a rather nasty stage and there is no clear answer.

So here is my view on the FAANG group and my response to the article that gives us “He bills Neeva as an ad-free, private search engine. Results won’t include advertisements, and the company says any information it does collect from users isn’t shared with third parties.” This is fair enough, but that is not the stage, the stage is: ‘What does the consumer need?’ The larger stage that too many avoid because it leads to elements that these players do not want to entertain at present. So you can either make claims that they (might) need it, or you can sail unsailed waters offering something entirely new that was never considered and the consumer suddenly realised that he or she never considered needing that (which I did a few times) and that is where TRUE innovation starts, the stage where a person states ‘That is so logical’ a stage that Microsoft had with releasing Windows 95, but it was forgotten soon thereafter. The idea is not to be complex, but to be simple and let the ship steer its course from there, and when it sails in the right direction without you interfering all the time, at that point you own the IP of an innovate game-changer.

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December 6, 2021 · 15:56

Jump into the deep part

I have a mission. In part I no longer need to look at the Sony side, they have theirs covered. Yet now I must focus on the Amazon Luna. Apart from a plan that will sell them 50,000,000 consoles. I also think it is important to fill the setting with more games. They have a selection, but not enough and in my mind. There will be no peace until I hand over the wooden spoon (with gold engraved Microsoft 2023) to Phil Spencer, I will not have done enough. I reckon it is time for the world to Microsoft to see them as they are, a mediocre organisation who ends up dead last whilst they have (by their own words) the most powerful system in the world. They are already surpassed by the weakest system (Nintendo Switch), and Google Stadia will not count as they do not develop games, but now only Amazon Luna needs to surpass them. One plan already gets them there, but more games will offer a much faster track and and the idea that shelling out $8,500,000,000 did not aid them will be the sweetest aftertaste for me. I just roll that way.

To set the stage, we need to take another gander at espionage games. Yet we need to be better and more refined (and larger) in this. We also need to make sure that there is enough variation to keep the need alive to play this game more and more. 

To take a few small steps, the first part is towards an old CBM64 game called the 4th Protocol after the book and the movie. As the image shows below, it was not much, but the idea was sound. Even for a system with 40KB of memory. Yet the idea is the dashboard, we should add a few items and set a larger station (like localisation), in the end it is more than a game, it should have an ‘educational’ side. In this we can grasp to some of the elements of the old Microprose game Covert Action. 

Here we see bugging and encryption. There is nothing to stop us from evolving these parts. Setting a much larger setting to include VOIP and normal telephones. (Still a game though). We see that as the game progresses we add more and more to the dashboard and the load of the operations spymaster. 

In the original game it was about setting up locks, but what if we take a gander to Hacker 2 (Activision, 1986) and add the camera feed? We now have a larger station than before and we have the technology to make it look really good. We can add the cross-over that as the hacks were more complete and better we see more camera views. 

And as we get operational settings underway and we add trainings we can up the agents efficiency, so in time settings we cannot do it all, we need to rely on agents, and as they are better the hacks and intrusions are more complete, so badly trained agents will give you access to less and no results. And in cities the size of London, Berlin, Washington DC, Paris, and Moscow we get two new additions. We can hack, but we can get hacked as well, then there are counter hacks and the danger of getting caught, so an agent with a 60% rating might float in Berlin, but not in Washington DC or Moscow. And as the agents get better (which requires you to get better), we get more access in more places. Then there is the allegiance side. What happens when we select to be the Spymaster of the UAE, Egypt or Italy? It will change the place where we are regarded as ally, neutral or optionally hostile. I do not think we can get a real live game (like Watchdogs, or Elder Scrolls), yet the setting that was once accepted could be upgraded and give us all a new challenge. The original hacking in Covert Action was the approach Julius Caesar used 2075 years ago. So what if we educate the players on encryption and as they get better we add encryption options? The nice part of Amazon is that a subscription service implies that they already paid for it, we merely need to add more, just like the addition of boardgames and achievements and rewards I wrote about a few months ago. The added value over time will entice more and more players to include the Amazon Luna, especially when it is only there that they can have it. 

Will this be for everyone? No off course not. The delusion of Ubisoft is that they make games for everyone, but a game that offer satisfaction to everyone is a game that basically pleases no one, that has been a truth for decades and it does not have to be that way, the stage becomes to offer games that pleases people in a niche and then make games to cover many niches, that is the only way to grow your population. A simple but harsh truth and why is my idea a good one? I do not know whether it is a good one, but it is one that others are not doing, to have something unique matters. Ask Sony if you disagree, they have a dozen games on that path. And yet we can do more, have more ‘hi-res’ games, but the larger truth is that until 5G is completely ready and rolled out, congestion will hit the Amazon Luna and other streaming consoles. So looking at the old games and seeing whether we can give them a new look, a fresh paint job and better rendering, w are merely digging our own grave if Amazon relies on Ubisoft they will be done for. Less then 2 weeks ago there was “Amazon Luna bug glitch” for Assassins Creed Valhalla. And when I search “Amazon Luna Ubisoft bugs”, I get pages of results. Now there might we an overlap with other systems, but the gamer wants a decent game and Ubisoft has been falling short of that, so Amazon needs a plan C (my 50M consoles solution is regarded, by me, as plan B). 

And it does matter, when there is a full 5G within the net 2-3 years, the streaming console war begins in earnest and that is when (my wish-list) comes to fruition and Microsoft wins (and earns) the wooden spoon. There are of course a lot more games they can work on, but I already covered several in earlier stories and I hate being overly repetitive. 

There is a time for waiting and a time for acting. It is my personal believe that the time for waiting is over, it now matters how Amazon will feel about winning that race. I know that Microsoft cannot afford loss there and that makes it more and more important (for me at least) for someone else to win it. 

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November 23, 2021 · 23:30

With a capital ‘S’

Yes, it happens, we all find tuff and wonder how it was possible to make that mistake? It is called Sloppy, sloppy with a capital ’S’. In this I am referring to Skyrim PS5. Now, lets be clear. This is a free update. Yet this is also the 5th iteration of the same game. In this I am ignoring the Nintendo Switch edition. So there was the Xbox 360, the PS3, the PS4, the Xbox One and now the PS5, I did not get the new Microsoft console as it is soon to get the wooden spoon award (dead last in the race), that is if Amazon accepts my offer which will set them back $25M, but it will give them 50M additional consoles sold and that is a careful cautious estimate, it might get a lot higher in 2023. So after 5 iterations I played it again and in this I tool the stormcloak side. It was fr the mere reason to get Hjerim earlier in the game. I also took the Vampiric side, because I needed those 11 perks achievement. So when the Stormcloak campaign starts and we take Whiterun (as we do), the city marker is removed from the map, as is dragonreach and the personal housecarl of the old Jarl remains in the castle, the music is now set to battle music all the time and that is merely what I found. All these glitches (not really bugs) are here and update 1.001.001 does not solve them. So why is that? The PS4 edition did not have this, as far as I remember. The updates fix something (I reckon) yet issues remain. Now lets be clear, it is a free edition, yet it should be better. I did not buy it because if I spend A$80, it better come with a physical PS5 disc, that is how I roll. 

And there is more, but I want to make sure that this is not some bitch against Bethesda who gives away a PS5 edition free of charge (you still need the PS4 disc). I also recognise that the game is so good I never had any second thoughts about the 4 versions I bought, the game has brought 10 years of joy and in gaming time that is more than a lifetime. Yet the design I made of my new RPG as well as the initial TESVI: Restoration was a continuation of the excellence that Bethesda had brought. And there are options of making it TESVII: Restoration, but to be honest it was never with Microsoft at the helm and with them ‘sort of’ announcing that TESVI will not be a PS5 title, the option of Restoration will fall of the map as well. I get it, there was a tactical reason for Microsoft to dish out $8,500,000,000 for Bethesda, but that does not mean that I like it. A brilliant strategy but a flawed one. So should Amazon take the offer I will make it my duty to hand Phil Spencer the Wooden spoon (with golden engraving of ‘Microsoft’), that is what is required. This is not against Phil Spencer. He was given a lousy hand and he is still standing. Giving us that this man could have reached legendary status if the coins did not fall where they did. And consider that their marketing division will have to spin the setting that ‘the most powerful console’ will end up being dead last in a console race. And before Microsoft did what it did, it was never a consideration. I was not mulling over options and hardware opportunities. Anger did that and when I found what I did, I also did not expect to find the option this open. How could no one see it? And even now I am still in awe of the oversight others made. The question for me to me is whether the show of ‘sloppy’ in others had anything to do with it. In a total time that was smaller than a week I came up with TESVI: Restoration, Watchdogs IV, Far Cry VII, Mass Effect 5 and a few more games. Even a new approach to board games on streaming systems. Another week for a film setting, a mini series and a TV series over three seasons. I need to be careful not to blow my own horn but I did this, I found this, I created these elements, so why could they not? 

And the issues is not merely the setting of what is and what could be, the idea that can propel the Amazon Luna has never been done before and that is merely the first wave, the second wave will offer a hell of a lot more and that is when the big bucks come rolling in (minus 10% for me, I hope). And that is all before you realise that the bulk of gamers would really want another Marvel: Ultimate alliance, not version 2 or 3, but version 1. Why? Because it was close to perfection. It brought joy back to gaming. They took the 1985 game Gauntlet and made some serious upgrades and Ultimate alliance was the result and it was awesome. But after that the wrong people got involved. With their ‘what if’ and ‘if only gamers could’, and they never checked with actual gamers and the result was sloppy. The first one I played over and over (I never found all the figurines the first time) and it was awesome to finally find the 5th daredevil figurine (I think it was daredevil). No matter what, the game was awesome and I wonder what would happen if DC takes a shine to Gauntlet, or a Diablo minded game. There are plenty of options for loads of games, yet the setting is up to the designers. I am not a game designer, I am a storyteller and in RPG I have value. I do not feel that I am a great asset towards a new version of Ultimate Alliance. 

So whilst we are criticising Sloppy with a capital ’S’, there is a rather large lack of ‘Standards’, ‘Supremacy’ and ‘Superbness’ all with a capital ’S’, gaming should embrace all those needs as well, not the old discussion of ‘What if we only please 80% at launch date?’ It might sound nice, but that sets the stage of pushing 1 out of 5 to another platform that does not embrace it and so far the Sony exclusives embraced perfection (as close as it is possible), so after three games the other consoles face the risk of having lost three out of 5 gamers. Yet it is a slippery statistical slope, but it is not unrealistic. It is the danger of pleasing 80%. And that is why Microsoft is in danger of getting the wooden spoon (well, my idea is still part of that danger for Microsoft), so it now lies with Amazon (Google does not create games), as such they are absent of the discussion. 

A stage of gaming that required console makers to listen to their gamers, Microsoft blew that stock royally in a few ways, but that is what they signed up for. Angering gamers was the one mistake they could not afford to make. 

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June 18, 2021 · 06:53

Vindictive eagerness

So is a person eager to be vindictive, or does that person seek vindication through eagerness, they are not the same but at times we cannot tell the difference within ourselves. Yes, there are a lot of people who are angry because Bethesda games are not coming to Sony Playstation, it is the consequence of Microsoft paying $8,500,000,000 for Bethesda and all that is around it. I get it and even though we find it a dick move, if I owned Bethesda I would have done the same. Strategically speaking it was a pretty brilliant move. So as we took notice of quotes like “Bethesda’s SVP of global marketing and communications Pete Hines offered an apology to PS5 owners, claiming that he understands the frustration, but there’s also very little that he can do about the situation. At the end of the day, it seems that the exclusivity is just part of game publisher politics!” And the man is right, it is the trump card of a system, we feel stricken because millions of gamers embraced Bethesda on their console and that got me thinking even more. I had already handed out free IP to any Sony exclusive game, but what if I add Amazon Luna to that list? You see, the idea came when I saw “Microsoft outlined the future of the Xbox platform. It was a quick focus on how we’ll be playing games rather than what we’ll be playing. Part of this new design strategy was outlined in a Q&A with Xbox head Phil Spencer and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella” in the PC Magazine that was headed by ‘Microsoft Expands Xbox Cloud Gaming, But Streaming Won’t Replace Consoles’ and PC Magazine is right, but if we give IP to Amazon Luna (Google Stadia made a few wrong decisions), which was seen 3 days ago with ‘Ubisoft keeps Google’s ship afloat as exclusives dominate the show’, yes, if Google wants to embrace gaming mediocrity it is their choice, and even as they see it as a valid one, I do not think that relying on Ubisoft will help them that much, as I personally see it Ubisoft dropped the ball too often and has become slightly too unreliable. So it seems that the Number three spot after Nintendo might in the near future become Amazon Luna. Microsoft will remain around in gaming ranking, but it will be 4th, or 5th (more likely) position. So as I have a bit of free time, I will try to make the $8,500,000,000 invoice to seem like it was a $28,500,000,000 one, and by handing out free IP to Sony and Amazon exclusive games is one way of doing it and as I am creating novel and never seen before gaming IP, Microsoft will have to counter and that is the funny part of a vendor that buys ideas, they more usually than not are utterly incapable of creating their own (Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk). 

So as I was pondering a few ideas I suddenly realised that cloud gaming comes with another benefit, games can take new directions in a much larger field. It is like handing an artist who grew its art through drawing on A4 pieces of paper, an A1 sheet. In the beginning, he might think of how much bigger his art is, then he will see that he can place 15 additional pieces of art on one sheet, yet when you combine the two thoughts, you get a very different stage and that is where cloud gaming can take you.

I created in the past a game IP (situated in Amsterdam post apocalyptic) that had a wink towards Mercenary (a very old Atari ST game), but what if we change the premise, what if the sandbox is not merely one we create, but what if we can move from sandbox to sandbox? So what if we create the algorithm that can give us Europe around 400BC, 500AD and 2700AD and 3500AD? The same for a sandbox in China, India, South America and America? Not the people, but the lay of the land. So you end up with 20 sandboxes and the gamer can try and master them all. As we set the stage to a larger frame of mind (and a larger sandbox) we now can use that same sandbox in a few stages and in several games. So far none have offered that option, because it was not part of their setting, but they never considered the advantage of a much larger piece of paper, yes you can use it for larger art, but how many considered the ability to change that one piece of A1 and turn that into 16 pieces of A4? 

Yet that was merely the land, so what next? Well that is where it takes a shine to other fields and for that I need t remind people of something called Zoids, but with caution. I never saw the manga, I only saw the toys in a shop, but it was presented to me in a different fashion, two pieces make a larger third piece and even though I thought it was novel and nice for the kids, I never gave it much thought after that, but the idea stuck in the back of my mind somewhere. So what happens when the gamer is such a Zoid and by exploration the gamer can find and salvage more and more parts evolving over time and adding abilities, requirements and staging a much larger area. There was seemingly (never seen by me) something called ‘Zoids Saga DS’, it had the right idea, but like so many other things it was seemingly a really nice idea, but it was ultimately limited by gaming and that was 25 years ago, in this stage something like the Amazon Luna or the Sony PS5 can turn that idea into something serious and as we detach area from gaming premise we can add game after game in the same sandbox, the gamer can select which sandbox he plays this on, like an adaptive RPG, the stage will no longer be depending or limited on where you are, but what you become. Gaming as far as I could tell never took that sideway towards a larger highway, so as  we are dumped in what would become Madrid, Paris or Oslo, the adaption takes a different turn and we will not have seen that part before, cloud gaming allows for that and if we can bitchslap Microsoft marketing around on what they present to be innovation compared to actual innovation we might wake up whole scores of gamers as well. In this there is an old saying: “The analyst will show you what the best direction is, the politician makes you look forward to the invoice that follows”, yet the business world has more and more adapted from actual analysts to storytellers and now they have a problem, the politician adjusted to the storyteller, yet as I offer materials and foundations to others, the storyteller can adjust for what they have, not what others get. They can merely watch it happen and that puts the politician that the company relies on in a precarious situation.

Now this is no indication that all is bad for Microsoft, they will have home-runs and they will have plenty of good days, and they are entitled to those too, yet within the next year Microsoft and their  Azure work desk will add limitations and they will set the need for gamer data and as gamers will realise that always online means something different for Microsoft as it does for a cloud game, people will catch on, they are to some degree merely a revenue asset and that is where Sony, Nintendo and Amazon can shine and win. They always treated the gamer as a gamer and they gained the revenue, Microsoft and Ubisoft saw the gamer as a revenue piggybank and as I personally see it approached them as such, the moment the larger group of gamers catch on these two will take a dive and that is why my view of Google Stadia relying on Ubisoft gets hurt in the process. As I see it, should Amazon Luna embrace the qualities of Sony and Nintendo, they will end up in third position of the gamers list, with Google and Microsoft trying to catch up. I wonder if that is what Microsoft aimed for the whole time, spend $8,500,000,000 to end up in fifth position. I do not know, I am merely speculating and created a few ideas in the process. So as I left an (intentional) gap in the thoughts I offered, have you figured out what I am seeing all whilst Google Stadia and Microsoft Xcloud rely on Ubisoft+ titles? When Ubisoft+ becomes a separate vendor, something we have seen in streaming more than once, what will become of Microsoft, Google and its gamers? Amazon Luna has an advantage and over the next year it could evolve into an impressive amount of forward momentum, a stage that could degrade Microsoft in 4th position, so the maker of the strongest console in the world is basically a year away from moving from 3rd position to 4th position in gaming. I wonder if they consider that part when they handed over $8,500,000,000. I would not be surprised if they offer PS5 gamers Xcloud and Microsoft software on PS5 in some near future. I doubt Sony gamers will trust Microsoft, but you never know. 

So as we accept that we see “Xbox has roared to life at E3 announcing 30 new games for Series X|S”, we think it is a lot, and when we see “it laid out two years of exclusives including Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5 and Starfield from Bethesda”, yes over two years, implying 15 a year and more important, the big guns relying on a Bethesda game now need to create a hype that is staged for November 11th 2022. 11 years after Skyrim and it is still 511 days away and a lot can happen in that time, more important, their big guns are presented a year early and we saw that happen when Bioware did that with Mass Effect Andromeda, how exactly did that end?

The old expression: “You never know how the cow catches the hare” (answer: with a fishing rod)

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April 16, 2020 · 23:50

Marketing fools

We are at the moment getting drowned in YouTube videos on who will win the next console wars. Or the most a lot of videos are a marketing approach from both sides mind you. Even as the bungles and stupidities by Microsoft makes me go towards the PS5 alone, there are however a few exceptions, they do exist. The first is theGamer who gives us a few clear parts. 

Like the BS approach we saw Microsoft had brought in the previous approach, the given fact is that the Xbox does have more teraflops, yet what does it mean? Faster is not essentially better and speed is limited to the slowest part and in the case of Microsoft that seems to be the drive. Sony has optimised gaming to such an extent, that Spiderman will play on the PS5 in 0.8 seconds (against 8 seconds on PS4). They are bringing cartridge speed to the console and that is a huge advantage. To be honest, there is something you both need to know, BOTH consoles will have the option to an internal SSD expansion, so it seems that Microsoft is repairing one of their more stupid decisions, they only needed 8 years to learn this. 

Sony showed recently how their SSD works in speed and it seems that it is able to process well to close to 100% more data uncompressed and over 25% more data compressed, it seems that teraflops really don’t matter too much when your system is that much slower. Yes the initial drive on the Xbox is larger, but both can expand and so far I have seen a 3TB option for the PS5, as such there is no issue on storage, yet there is a larger issue on the setting on drive speed and that implies that the Xbox is already lagging at the start of the race. The second movie I watched was about the Decline of Xbox by the Act Man. I felt like him, mainly because I loved my Xbox 360, I only got the PS3 as it came as a free extra with my new Sony TV. Microsoft had that much advantage and they squandered it in one E3 meeting. After that the Xbox Flaws started showing up and it made me resent my Xbox. I actually only got it for 2 games, Subnautica and Elite Dangerous. The second one is a game that I have loved since the early version on the CBM 64 and what I saw on the Xbox was overwhelming. Here is a console that could have been the number one, yet they lost it on senior managers that see greed not games, revenue not fun and it showed in that disastrous E3 meeting where we heard ‘always online’, and ‘no lending games’. Greed enticements that would destroy a console from the very beginning. There is the harassment side to marketed pushes and bullying people to be online and it did not go well for Microsoft from that point onwards. The video has a lot more, including a few things I never knew, and it might not matter but they were nice to know things.

Now,as we are 6 months away from the next line of consoles, we see that Sony is taking the gaming lead again and Microsoft seems to hide behind their teraflops. Yes they have more, but consider that in the big three they are in third position, their most powerful console is behind the weakest console of them all (Nintendo Switch), which gives you an idea that those in charge are not ready to take the price home. Now to be fair Spencer is a massive upgrade, yet Microsoft had him fight the good fight with one hand behind his back for almost three years. They lost cool, they lost exclusive titles and a marketing team that had to do a 180 degree on physical games and cloud gaming twice. Yet that group has a unique view on spin.

Although some critique in that video is a little harsh, it is not that wrong, and there are still flaws that are very unlikely to be fixed at present, as such Sony is not just off to the races, it is close to be the only consideration for the upcoming console purchase, within two consoles the positions are beyond reversed and Microsoft did it to themselves.

As Microsoft keeps on focusing on power, more and more gamers are watching what they are actually getting for it, as such, I believe that Microsoft will make another mistake before the launch, we will see ‘demo’ options for 8K gaming, and how great it is. Yes, it will be good, optionally even great and if there was an 8K AC Origin, I would play it again, yet the one little part missing in all this is the fact that is the small fact that an 8K TV starts at $7000, that is a decent one, some are $10K and more, with the B&O version being mentioned at €13,500, which is almost $20,000. As such most 8K TV’s, will be in the immediate future unaffordable to 90% of the gamers. 

So how happy am I?

I am not, you see Microsoft had pushed Sony to its limits in their Xbo360 era, I doubt if the PS4 would be that much better if Microsoft was not breathing in their neck. Now that this setting is gone, there is every indication that the jump from PS5 to PS6 will be a lot less appealing. Competition drives good hardware for gaming and that is what we are about to lose. 

Even as we see that a lot of the damage at that disastrous E3 was repaired by
Phil Spencer, he still has a lot of work to do and the current approach of what we see marketed in the form of Gigaflops and ‘high dynamic cool’ games, all whilst we see a larger base of changes that make the claim pointless and it ends being a mere race of Microsoft fighting not to be overtaken by Nintendo even further. At present their option to surpass Sony is close to ludicrous. 

Their system and OS needs an overhaul, and if I am correct, Sony will have the option to launch their (highly speculated) internal social media named GameBook, if that happens and Microsoft cannot counter it (apart from marketed pushes to your page), there will be no second round, it could mean the end of Microsoft as a gaming platform, apart from what Google and Apple brings to the next year. There is a chance that they will nibble on the market share cadaver that Microsoft brings and that leaves Sony as the big winner, which is also a little bad. As both machines were true competitors, they upped the game and both delivered cool gaming experience, now that push falls away, there is every indication that Sony will remain at the lonesome top making their need to remain on the edge of gaming also a lot less likely, so I do hope that Microsoft ups their game, right quick.

 

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December 23, 2018 · 13:45

It’s all about the funny, not the money

I made a prediction almost a year ago, and it is still decently on target to being met. I made the prediction in ‘All eyes on Nintendo‘, the article I wrote (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2018/04/06/all-eyes-on-nintendo/), In April 2018, I made the prediction that Nintendo Switch would become the number two console and they are nearly there, I also stated: “I have no doubt that Nintendo will take that spot, it is merely the fact that, at present, it will not happen before January 2019“. The fact that one third of the entire global lifetime Microsoft Xbox market was equaled in the US alone in 21 months, less than two years. In October we were given by PC Magazine “the latest sales figures from Nintendo confirming its hybrid console has now sold 22.86 million units“, that was almost two months ago and there were three large festivities on approach. And as we add the partial overlap with the 5 month challenge of: “The news comes from an article in Japanese daily newspaper, Kyoto Shimbun, where Furukawa also briefly touched upon Nintendo’s 20 million Switch console sales target for the same time period” we could almost conclude that they hit the mark, yet Microsoft did not sit still and that device is still selling. Still, within 5 weeks we will see whether my prediction holds, it will be a close call to equal total global sales in 24 months, whilst Microsoft has had 6 years to get there. As the gaming shops have playable Nintendo Switch consoles in their store and as we can first hand experience the addictive fun that the Nintendo Switch brings, we see that it does not look good for Microsoft. Some sources are already claiming that the Nintendo Switch is the bestselling console in US history, a bold claim and interesting if it is supported with the right data. Microsoft and their Xbox remains at a steady climb, now at around 40 million in total life time sales, it is almost the same for Sony, but with well over twice that amount sold, It is Nintendo who is shaping the curve with an actual monthly increase for now, even as it is merely 100,000-150,000 more per month, which is twice the monthly amount Microsoft has been selling, they were still catching up to Microsoft. I reckon that close to the end of the year the damage done to Microsoft by Nintendo will be a little more clear, yet I personally saw that in the time that I was in a games shop 3 Switch consoles were sold versus one PlayStation and zero Xbox consoles, yet that was in my particular window and that is not representative, even though it supports the indication given by me 8 months ago.

Even though VG Chartz (at http://www.vgchartz.com/analysis/platform_totals/) gives us a global setting of Xbox One at 41.26 million versus Nintendo Switch at 24.13 million, I believe that the total number of Nintendo should be closer to the 30 million mark. You see, if I am wrong (always a valid consideration), than it implies that the statement from Furukawa gives rise to his goal being off by a decent amount, it will no longer be the case of the Nintendo Switch not being able to meet the 20 million mark, it would lose out to close to 20%, which is a really big deal. In addition, the 20 million mark had been hit in August, so with one additional quarter and the holiday seasons (plural) that the 4 million mark seems too low, yet we will know in a week how the scores ended. Also we saw that over September, VGChartz gave us 900K Nintendo’s versus 400K Microsoft consoles, so in that light, my prediction is eerily on the mark and we might see that even though my call for January 2019 might have been a little too enthusiastic, the numbers are clear, in 2019 Nintendo advances to the second place and Microsoft with its most powerful console has degraded itself to a mere third position.

We can argue that there had been too much damage and Phil Spencer had to get through this moment no matter what, it is clear that as I personally see it, not listening to the gamers was the biggest mistake and accounted to the largest fall. For Microsoft to actually listen, the Nintendo Switch would still be a threat, but not to this degree and it would still be in a situation trying to catch up to the other two, Microsoft merely made it easy for Nintendo and that is not the fault of Phil Spencer. To change this, he has to make a few hop, skips and jumps. Yet overall Microsoft could pull it off, its game pass is a good move and should not be underestimated. In addition, Forza Horizon IV is considered by me as the best game of the year. I believe that God of War deserved to win in many ways, yet oddly enough my vote went to Forza.

You see, just as the entire Nintendo formula made it an instant winner, that Formula should also be administered to games. So there is me, and I loved the God of War, been a fan since the very first game. I was never a racing fan, I am no Microsoft fan (my reviews show that), yet whenever I see Forza, or better stated FH4, I want to race, the game makes me want to pick up a controller and race, even me as a non-racing fan. That pull is so strong that it is important to acknowledge it. FH4 is a true winner and even as in the scores the God of War was a little higher (and deservingly so), I felt it was important to weigh a game, a game I love to play against a game I want to play at the mere sight of it, FH4 did something remarkable there, that needed to be recognised and that is why I gave it my vote.

FH4 is merely the start, if Microsoft wants to turn the helm around, it needs to make choices it needs to make hard decisions and it has to ACTUALLY start listening to the gamers, if they do not, they are lost and in addition, whatever comes next will receive a lot less consideration than before. For now, for the beginning of 2019 it will be up to Microsoft to find a path to return to that second place, because if they do not, their own marketing will become a joke, proclaiming yourself to be the ‘most powerful console’ is nice, but like the older console names 3DO, it does not pay to pave the road about it, it merely leaves the console in a state like a sepia photograph, remembered fondly for a moment and then forgotten as people move again into the now of things.

The formula was not complex, it was actually quite simple, Nintendo got it and they got it right, Microsoft was able to get almost every element in that equation wrong, which is an achievement, but not a good one.

 

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September 9, 2018 · 14:29

Bragging becomes the burden

We have all done it; we have all made that one claim that was in our imagination the better truth, or perhaps the better part of a truth. I myself offered a certain lady a 10″ penis (a long time ago), it would be delivered in two installments. I kept my word, she basically faltered in math, was I fraudulent?

That is the thought I went with when I got the annoying message on more than one game trailer when Microsoft stated: ‘Play it on the world’s most powerful console‘, which is hilarious for a few reasons. Now when we consider the quote from Japanese Analysts that “Nintendo Switch Sales To Surpass Nintendo’s Forecast“, which is of course really good for Nintendo and with “Japanese analyst, Hideki Yasuda, from the Ace Economic Research Institute in Osaka, has released his latest forecast for Nintendo’s full fiscal year – predicting the company will shift 25 million Switch units and 140 million software units. According to DualShockers, this would put the total amount of Switch sales at 42.79 million units by March next year“. This now also implies that the total sales for the Xbox One (not just the world’s most powerful part) will be surpassed in their total life cycle in approximately 13 weeks, which is just before Christmas, making my worst case scenario for Microsoft a reality. By the end of the year, which I actually did not expect, but there you have it, a console surpassed via short-sightedness and of course the blatant stupidity of NOT listening to their customers. From these parts we get the setting that if Microsoft is pushing forward on Project Scarlett, they have to do it standing from last position, the wooden spoon place, all because certain players (Microsoft executives) thought that they knew better than those who actually are the gamers, who play the games, who live the frustration.

And that is not even the good news, the good news was hidden in the previous quote, with “140 million software units” we see that the Nintendo gamers are not merely happier gamers, they also game significantly more, adding largely to the coffers of Nintendo wealth. Even as Nintendo was less enthusiastic, we need to consider that Nintendo is still picking up momentum in the US, or better states (by US Gamer): “The holiday frenzy is about to gain some sick momentum“, implying that both Thanksgiving and Christmas could be ruled by Nintendo this year around. Apart from that the pressure is on for Sony as well. Even as Sony has been the front leader for the longest of times, we were treated to ‘Nintendo Switch Set to Overtake PlayStation 4’s Lifetime Sales in Japan‘ a mere 3 days ago. It has no chance to catch up on Soy global sales any day soon, but this milestone is important, because that is a milestone we did not expect to see passed this early. For any console to surpass its own Japanese opponent locally, as well as the other player globally is just too strong an achievement, it cannot be ignored; all this whilst software sales are equally booming for Nintendo.

Venture Beat added to that setting a mere two weeks ago when we were treated to: “The NPD Group revealed its list of the top-selling games of July in the U.S. today, and Nintendo is the month’s big winner. Octopath Traveller is the best-selling game of the month. Nintendo not only wins July in terms of software sales, but it is also at the top spot for the year so far when it comes to physical game retail sales“, all because one player listened to their consumer base and the other one merely considered its own ego. That is how businesses collapse into any basement. In addition, we see that half of the July’s top 10 are Nintendo exclusives. In variety we see the additional info: ““Nintendo Switch is the only platform showing year-on-year growth in full-game dollar sales with gains of nearly 70 percent when compared to a year ago, despite digital sales on Nintendo platforms not currently being tracked by The NPD Group,” said analyst Mat Piscatella. “Year-to-date sales of full-game software on Nintendo Switch have more than doubled when compared to a year ago.”” That is the simple situation when we are faced on giving the customer what they desire or giving them what we think they desire.

That difference is the one bringing doom (not the game) to Microsoft. Yet we also need to give consideration to the other side. CNet did (at https://www.cnet.com/news/xbox-chief-aims-to-be-the-voice-of-consumers-inside-microsoft/) and we see a few things there. The first is “Looking at Phil Spencer’s role at Microsoft is a bit like playing the game “One of these things is not like the other”“, I like the setting because it gives the voice of gaming at Microsoft in another way, my interpretation is ‘something here does not belong‘, not as diplomatic but it seems to fit, the business side of Microsoft for the longest of times never understood gaming and Phil Spencer is at the deep end there. We also see: ““The analogy I use with some people is we were like the garage band for a long time,” said Phil Spencer, executive vice president of gaming. “As long as we didn’t play our music too loud, we’re allowed to keep practicing.” He’s allowed to play music as loud as he wants now” this is a comprehensible point of view and it makes sense. It is almost like ‘you can play, but do not disturb the people doing actual work‘, which is wrong on so many levels, mainly because the other players (the work people) are set in a stage of making less and less revenue whilst the gaming sector could have been the supporting pillar for them if they had only listened to their customers. A mistake still not tended to I might add. The question now is not whether Phil Spencer comprehends the market, we know he does, but does Satya Nadella have a clue in all this? That is one part I am not convinced of, basically time will tell. Yet it is the escapist that gives us other goods, goods that matter not merely for the systems, but for the players too. You see, we are smitten with titles, with games, with ideas and in all this the JRPG (Japanese Role Playing Game) has been tremendous in all this, it has been driving sales and desire among the players, which is exactly the well of goodness for Nintendo. Sony has benefitted as well but not as much, so when we are treated to: “Even 17 years after the arrival of the original Xbox, Microsoft still hasn’t gained a foothold in Japan. At this point the situation probably seems hopeless. But I think there’s a way in, if Microsoft is willing to do something unconventional“, I partially agree here, it can work if the unconventional is addressed into a form of curiosity for the new players and an irresistible urge for those who are not new players. That whilst the article ends with: “History has shown that drastic reversals in fortune are possible, particularly when the buying public is being denied something they really want“, which turned out to be the killing game show that murdered their own console. Storage and off line achievements are the two most damning part, both easily adding to 40% of the non-buyers, or switchers (to another system). How can Microsoft survive? Well, first of all they need to get the right indie developers (and fast too), because there is a market that embraces indie developers. You merely have to look at Elite Dangerous and Subnautica on the waves that they created. Microsoft had the right moves there, but as those players are now no longer exclusive, people moved away. There are a few more options. The still anticipated System Shock will get people to the Xbox/PC if released in the right way, the following for that title was huge and they are still there waiting to replay the game that these players loved for decades, that is a need that will not die and there is more in the open to get. When we look back even further we see that there is a world of untapped games, games that were OK and sometimes even great in the old days and they are awakening the next generation, whilst at the same speed also calling back the old gamers.

The essential next step is not merely looking at new IP; the power is that old IP under new conditions can become a truly great IP. When we consider the older games on the CBM Amiga, we see a setting that a decent game remained decent game despite the utter lack of resources. What do you think will happen, when it gets true resources? When those playing the game realise that was merely passable on that system with 512Kb gets to be fully versed in a system with 8GB RAM and plenty of gigabytes on the Drive? What happens when we see a game like Seven Cities of Gold with some real resources? We are seeing that the makers of the Bards Tale moved to today’s systems and the reviews are giving us ‘Contemporary take shows Bard’s classic tale stands test of time‘, so basically, what was old is new again and it is one of several games that are out there. I mentioned Seven Cities of Gold, yet there was also the Black Crypt, Paradroid, Space Hulk (now released as Martyr Inquisitor), a collection of thousands of games, where several dozen could be revitalised, Indie developer can get the gamers what they desire, the question is which console will get to these games first? Will we see a smoother version of what was one of my favourites Knights of the Sky? You see, it is not merely about copying the idea that has been done before, but to set the stage on a scale of arcade versus realism, where the setting can be tweaked by the player to their own preference is more important than you might think. Some of the players are not Forza dedicated (they admire and love it), some are more for a little more arcade version of that game and the one who gives both will rule that land. Will Forza remain or will the Crew 2 take it all? When we see Steam giving it 60%, IGN 70% and Gamespot 80%, yet we see that 94% loved the video, we see that something does not add up. I was personally overwhelmed with the E3 video, even as I accept the review by some on ‘jack of all trades‘ to some part, the game is graphically amazing and it is perhaps more arcade then Forza, which is for some the part of gaming that many prefer. I have had my issue with Ubisoft for the longest of times, and even as I am not a racing fan (I never was) this game drew me in and that is what matters, or what should matter. So where is this going?

I think that we need a stronger setting for adjusting a game to the player. If the Crew had the option to switch ‘realism’ levels and become a Forza? Would that change the game? Is that even possible?

These issues are important because even as we want a true Crew 2 game, how far can we get? This now links back to Knights of the Sky (Amiga), the Red Baron (PC) was in that basic setting of realism versus more arcade playability. It is not merely the graphics, even as the comparison video (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFTO7JHXn7s) gives us the part that we accept and that pushes us towards a decision which game to buy. The Crew does not win, and against a game that has been out for 2 years, it matters, yet the Crew 2 gives us a much larger arena to have fun in and that matters too. For gaming it will be to find a larger community and that is where we are when we see the upcoming game Forza Horizon 4 (due in one month), giving us a setting that is more Crew, all open and in Britain with all the seasons available making it an entirely new challenge. In all this Microsoft has outdone themselves, anyone claiming not, trivialising that achievement is merely a Microsoft hater. The question is, why is Microsoft not more aggressive in gaining this level of excellence on more fronts. If we accept that exclusive games are the wining card in any console war, why is Microsoft merely running behind other crews doing new stuff? When will the Xbox and PC gamer get treated to a set of games that gives them some level of an upper hand? God of War and Spiderman on PS4 shows that the queues in shops are large and growing. Merely waiting for the next Assassins Creed and Lara Croft is no longer good enough for Microsoft, not when they are about to become a mere third position, right behind the least powerful console in the world. Microsoft has to change the game and the games they play. Indie developers are soon to be the essential first in all this. That, and to address the pressures from the gamers, which is something they needed to do a long time ago, just some of the issues that is dragging Microsoft down. So even as some shareholders are smitten with that ugly term ‘Play it on the world’s most powerful console‘ they will be less impressed as they are soon confronted with a third position and that ‘most powerful’ expression merely ended them with the wooden spoon console trophy, at that point their enthusiasm will simmer down really fast.

Microsoft is running out of time and options, when they do get surpassed, the options they did have are very likely to melt away like snowflakes in the sun.

#HappyGamingSunday

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