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The story
Reports that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Xbox must be “a great publisher, and at the same time a great platform on both PC and Xbox,” sparked discussion on 5ch’s Hardware/Industry (“Geha”) board. In the thread, claims that Xbox’s business has run a 10-20% profit margin clashed with foreign media reports suggesting Xbox “has never turned a profit,” while stalling Game Pass subscriber growth and data showing Xbox accounted for only 8% of platform sales for Resident Evil Requiem were also cited. Speculation about consolidating PC sales from Steam onto the Microsoft Store, plus remarks suggesting that whether Hideo Kojima’s new game releases on PlayStation is up to Xbox, were brought up too — leaving posters divided on just how far this shift toward an exclusives-first strategy will go.
What people said
The Xbox fanboys ('chika,' 5ch slang for hardcore Xbox stans) kept chanting how great Xbox is doing
"We need to find a sustainable, appropriate business model"
so what's going on here?
They were making a profit.
It just never came anywhere near the absurd profit-margin targets Nadella imposed.
They'll end up relying on Steam anyway — and by not releasing on PS, they'll actually shrink the value of the whole high-end console market (PS/Xbox).
If PS ever exits, PC and Xbox would just split up whatever market is left — no big deal.
Honestly, even Xbox games that go multiplatform on PS barely sell — only Forza really moves units — so it wouldn't change much.
Sales breakdown by platform:
PS5 – 48%
Steam – 43%
Xbox – 8%
https://x.com/nextgenplayer/status/2103573504121885083?s=61
'Xbox has never made money' — Nadella finally says it out loud
https://gagadget.com/en/714961-xbox-has-never-made-money-nadella-finally-says-it-out-loud-amp/
Xbox's business had a 10-20% profit margin, at least through fiscal year 2023.
I'd think it's pretty obvious which one's more accurate — Nadella's own words, or some media outlet's fantasy article.
Xbox's finances are opaque — they only ever vaguely compare revenue year-over-year, they've never disclosed actual profit.
Asha has no pride in Xbox's history — she already shipped even Halo off to Activision — so depending on the numbers, Gears will get thrown under the bus too, without mercy.
Sounds like you're still salty that 'trash-tation' (a derogatory 5ch nickname for PlayStation) got axed.
Here we go again, twisting the hardware-loss-leader story.
Oh, so we're just pretending the inconvenient numbers don't exist now, huh?
It's weird this thread even exists.
Exactly.
You can't even find one to buy anywhere.
If people bought from the Microsoft Store instead, that 30% would disappear — but nobody who already uses Steam is going to bother switching to the garbage PC Store.
And if Steam ends up running on the next-gen Xbox anyway, everyone will just buy it on Steam and get the 30%-off deal regardless.
So will the Xbox version even sell? No — it's all Game Pass subscribers, nobody actually buys it.
And has that Game Pass subscriber count exploded? Not at all — it hasn't budged, if anything it's dropped.
Asha: 'Don't worry, thanks to my genius Game Pass is back on a growth trajectory.'
With dev cycles dragging out and no big titles shipping, of course it's not growing.
isn't it going to be really tough to make a AAA game like CoD or TES profitable on the PC market alone?
Is there even any hope left for consoles over the next five years or so…?
Re: #65
Unlike Battlefield, CoD has always been mainly a console game.
Besides, those franchises don't actually move hardware as much as people think.
Even the flagship title Starfield didn't move any consoles at all.
And for the record, that was the best-selling Xbox exclusive of roughly the last decade (though that might change now that FH6 came out this year).
Even that flopped on hardware sales, so it's really not as simple as 'release an exclusive and consoles sell along with it.'
Plus the punchline is that even Starfield's main sales ended up being on Steam.
Is there any point to all this nonstop scrapping and renaming?
Because she couldn't take the lead on AI at all.
Xbox at least has a hand full of big IPs to fight with, though, so maybe there's still a chance there.
PC will be Microsoft Store exclusive.
CoD: Infinite Warfare: 'Nobody's in multiplayer' — Microsoft Store issues refunds
https://fpsjp.net/archives/265139
Are we really going back to that era?
> Kojima admitted that whether Physint ultimately releases on PlayStation is still unknown,
> and that the decision is up to Xbox.
Just like Nadella said — consoles are Xbox-exclusive now.
Their policy is to prioritize brand image over money, so they won't be partnering with other platforms.
https://assets-prd.ignimgs.com/2026/09/25/htevm-ew8aa3i26-1790349126593.jpg
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
This discussion kicked off after reports that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Xbox “must be a great publisher, and at the same time a great platform for both PC and Xbox.” While some claim Xbox’s business has historically run a 10-20% profit margin, foreign media reports have also cited remarks suggesting “Xbox has never turned a profit,” and interpretations of the numbers were split even within the thread. Reports that Game Pass subscribers fell from 34 million in 2024 to 30 million as of 2026 were also raised as evidence of stalling subscription growth. The main focus was speculation that Microsoft may consolidate PC sales onto the Microsoft Store away from Steam, with skeptics pointing to the 2016 failure of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, when the Microsoft Store had to scramble to issue refunds. Comments about Hideo Kojima’s upcoming title ‘Physint’ — where whether it releases on PlayStation is reportedly Xbox’s call to make — were also brought up, raising the question of how far an exclusivity-first strategy might extend to affect third-party software availability. Some also pointed out that releasing exclusive titles doesn’t necessarily translate into hardware sales, casting doubt on how effective the strategy would actually be.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry, aka ‘Geha’) thread ‘Nadella Shifts Policy: Xbox and PC Now the Focus, Console-First Goes Xbox-Exclusive’.
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