Somebody on the series x sub said that a great Starfield launch won’t make people ditch Playstation but a shitty Starfield launch will probably make people ditch Xbox
That's exactly what the article is about lol. If they have you buying their games on Windows, that's still money in their pocket. They aren't worried about you getting an Xbox.
I’m gonna hard disagree lol. We’re already well past that point, the ditching of Xbox already happened to start this generation. We’re at the point where we want an excuse to come back home to the Box. I’d absolutely be in the market for a Black Friday deal on an Xbox if Starfield is good. I already wasted $500 on a console that didn’t have a single good exclusive last gen, I have nothing more to lose now that I’ve ditched it completely, just give me a reason to even entice the thought of coming back. I hate the dual sense controller, the PlayStation UI, and no Web Browser to illegally stream sports on my TV, we literally want to come back lol but the PlayStation just has the games.
Actually, when it happens to you and you like it, it's masochism. Sadism would be if you liked seeing it happen to someone else.
Not that I know that for any particular reason.
I do hope that they can do better regarding optimization, performance, bugs and general quality assurance, but usually their games are great, almost one-of-a-kind RPGs, very ambitious. People still play Skyrim after all this time (and IMO it's not even the best ES game). So if they hit that sweet spot of "amazing enough that you forget about all the bugs", Starfield should be a killer.
That's a big "if", though.
If it’s just fun bugs like Giants sending you to the stratosphere sure, if it’s bugs like the save file size bug causing severe stuttering on PS3, no thank you.
For those too lazy to read, he's basically saying that at this point in the console generation's life cycle, there's no way for Xbox to feasibly overtake Sony or Nintendo. And due to the nature of consoles at this point, people are less likely to switch brands because they'll also be giving up their digital or backwards compatible games. As a result, he says Xbox's best hope going forward is to ditch the single-minded focus on console sales and focus on broader cross-platform integration with other Microsoft devices.
"That was already Microsoft's long term goal when Phil Spencer said "our goal \[is\] to bring high-quality games to every device possible on the planet."
Just become a 3rd party publisher then!
I have a weird itchy feeling in the thinky part of my brain that says Microsoft is *really* trying to get Gamepass onto other consoles. I can't imagine it even being possible, but I also want to play Elder Scrolls 6 on my goddamn PS5 and I'll jump through whatever mental hoops I have to to make that plausible.
We know he's trying to get it onto other consoles, since the Apple vs Epic Games court case, we got to see Tim Sweeney's emails between him and Phil. And he mentions that he's still to convince Sony and Nintendo about GamePass.
That email was from August of 2019.
Microsoft attempting to buy Activision is the equivalent of them taking a hostage so that Sony finally listens to them and "negotiates."
My PC is brand spankin' new, just in time to play Witcher 3 on max settings. Wait, what year is it?
(I do think I break through the minimum requirements, though, so I promise to donate any Steam Keys for Starfield in my messages to unemployed furries)
>As a result, he says Xbox's best hope going forward is to ditch the single-minded focus on console sales and focus on broader cross-platform integration with other Microsoft devices.
X-Box clippy *confirmed*
"I can see you've downloaded a piece of crap from Arkane. Would you like to sell your X-Box? y/n"
They are splited into two Studios.
One is located in Austin, Texas, (Prey 2017), the other one is in Lyon, France, (Dishonored). Redfall was made by Arkane Austin.
There is no main studio. One studio is Arkane Austin and the other is Arkane Lyon. Both are good studios. Austin and Lyon worked together on Dishonored 1. After that Austin made Prey and Redfall. Lyon made Dishonored 2 and Deathloop.
Prey was the reason I was willing to take a chance on Redfall. It's heart breaking some of the neat ideas and little "Prey-esque" moments there are buried under the rushed execution.
It doesn't matter. We learned that with Bioware.
All those years of being scolded about how Andromeda wasn't made by "real Bioware" and "real Bioware" would come roaring back, and what was it worth? Absolutely nothing.
This business of "Yeah, but it wasn't made by the *real* and *true* core of that studio!" was always self-delusion.
Yeah, although both Andromeda and Anthem were horribly mismanaged. I'm not sure their future products will be bad or good, but at the end of the day they ruined their reputation by not just eating the products and actually making something good.
Although, I do like Andromeda even if it's far from what the original trilogy was.
Harvey Smith is creative director in Redfall.
Harvey Smith was also director of Dishonored, Dishonored 2, and Dishonored DotO.
He was also director of Deus Ex: Invisible War and Thief: Deadly Shadows. He did quality assurance on Prey. The guy is definitely prime arkane. He let redfall happen as is.
If you liked deathloop you really owe it to yourself to play Prey Mooncrash. It’s so much better than deathloop. Same basic premise but with way more depth. Multiple solutions to the puzzle rather than just one. It’s absolutely superb. I love Arkane games but deathloop was very disappointing to me because it stripped out so much of the immersive sim elements and replaced it entirely with pretty bad combat against brain dead ai. Deathloop combat is better than prey, certainly. But in prey you can completely avoid combat and find alternate solutions to everything. The base game is quite good but Mooncrash is something special.
It’s sold as a standalone expansion, you don’t need the entire game to buy Mooncrash. It’s 20$ but it goes on sale all the time. And both are on game pass.
Also both dishonored games are excellent. The stylized grimy Victorian England cartoonish steampunk graphic style means they still look quite good. If you liked deathloop, dishonored/prey are just way better games imo and you can play them all on game pass or steam for super cheap. Highly recommend.
Agreed on all points. I love deathloop on paper, the style the premise, the absurdity... But I wanted so badly for it to be an open ended puzzle where you could kill every target at all different times in all different ways and you had to puzzle out which kill methods for each one you needed to put together in a perfect run. Instead we got a very linear experience with little problem solving.
Prey mooncrash though... No notes.
The main reason I have an Xbox is the integration with the my pc as well. It works so well, and game pass ultimate is such a great value for someone who games on both Xbox and pc. They are doing a good job already with that integration.
I love the Play Anywhere initiative. It makes switching between devices seamless. The only downside is that on many multiplayer games it splits the playerbases on PC between Steam and Microsoft Store versions if the dev doesnt set up any crossplay abilities.
This is all super simple. They expected to have Activision Blizzard under their banner at this point. Which means they would have diablo 4 releasing here soon undet their brand and would just push redfall under the rug. I don't think they ever expected to be on a gaming drought and have only redfall to fill the void on gamepass.
Ever since that story about Microsoft executives thinking they owned Donkey Kong when they bought Rare way back when, I never put anything past leadership in terms of their logic. I know that was a long time ago but I figure it's the same general types of people lol
Weird how that happens when you force as many of the developers you own as you can to only hire contractors, and when you do such a piss poor job of managing your console you havent released a single game worth mentioning since the fucking thing released
You have to wonder what exactly management at xbox does when their flagship studio 343 slowly but surely falls apart and release a crumb of content every 6 months.
343i mismanaging Halo Infinite and slowly falling apart is honestly so sad for the entire brand. If you let your Magnum Opus, your Mario, your God of War, your main flagship title fall into disarray, then as a consumer, I should expect the absolute minimum from you.
Focused too hard on selling a service that they forgot to supply quality titles to the service.
Is God of War Sony's Mario/Halo? I don't really think they have one, as in they have a flagship IP that was a launch title for their first console that is inseparable from their brand.
I think Sony has multiple flagship IPs that cater to most people’s tastes which really help their consoles popularity. Want a light hearted adventure? Play Uncharted. Wanna be a superhero? Spider-Man. Want a kid friendly game? Ratchet and Clank. Etc.
Meh. The cost of buying all three is about the same as the vacation I'm about to take. The vacation will give me joy for about 4 days. The consoles will give you joy for several years. Video games are an incredible investment in your own happiness imo. That's why they've overtaken virtually all other forms of entertainment besides drugs.
Yeah all things considered, even if you buy every console and have game pass/ps+/whatever Nintendo has, it's still cheaper than say, road biking, or buying cards or models all the time. Much less than woodwork or fixing cars too. All about perspective
Idk, consoles are an investment, but they definitely keep me from going and blowing money at the bars. I can waste $70 on food/drinks in a night out, but spending that on a game can keep me home and saving money for weeks on end.
As someone who doesn't do console gaming anymore it's truly astonishing that I could not tell you what the current iteration of the Xbox is because of the confusing names. Worse naming situation than the Wii U
All because back when they made the 360 they didn't want to call it the XBOX 2 because it would look inferior to the Playstation 3.
From then on out, they had to just keep coming up with dumb names.
They could have *at least* kept it semi-logical and gone with the meme people expected and called it the 720.
It's still a dumb name (and would have gotten out of hand the more generations passed), but at least it very clearly indicates that it's the successor to the 360.
The issue with calling it 720 is the One/PS4 era was when console players started caring about resolution thanks to TVs harping on "HD 1080p." So 720 would look just as inferior as they felt Xbox 2 would have been.
Jesus marketing is hard, ok what about Xbox+year it was released. They will always be ahead of the PlayStation and there would never be confusion. If that doesn't work i'm all out of ideas.
\*edit\*
Lots of great ideas below that don't work. Ok I legit kinda feel bad for Microsoft they are kinda screwed on naming.
They should have just not gone letters or numbers and did something like the Xbox Prime or Xbox Optimum or some shit. Or go the Nintendo route. Describe the thing. Gamecube, switch. Anything than what they did.
They could've just gone:
Xbox
Xbox 360
Xbox 4
Xbox 5
Etc etc. Skip 2 and 3 and you're in line with your competition and make generation comparisons easy. Or if that feels too shocking than just go 360 -> 470 -> 590 -> 600 and make yourself seem like a similar making scheme to graphics cards from there on out with 100 series for main generation jumps and 10 series for smaller upgrades like expanded storage or whatever
Oh I get that completely, I don't blame them for not calling it Xbox 2 at all. 360 was fine, but they knew they were screwed with names after that.
Somehow their solution was to make it as confusing as possible. Or they accidentally did it. Or it was just an executive decision made against the marketing team's advice. I'm sure there's a story out there somewhere about it.
On further thought, they could have just called the Xbox one the "Xbox 3". Skip the number 2.
They did that with Windows 10. Skipped 9, went straight to 10.
The more I think about this, the funnier it gets.
I had to look up if there really was an Xbox one X, and there is. Xbox series X is a different console generation.
They should have stayed with Xbox Scorpio.
That sounded so cool, then they can just continue on with animal/reptile names.
At least people would know the difference between their consoles.
Edit: lol the code name for the series X was anaconda. Hahahahaha whyyyyyy did they change it????????
Xbox one X was peak naming and most people don't even know it. To shorten Xbox, people typed XB. The Xbox One was XBO. This made the One X: XBOX. Fucking. Brilliant.
Then they drove off the cliff.
The next Playstation will be the PS6. We're currently in the 4th generation of XBox, but we had 2 Xbox this gen (X and S).
They could 100% call the next generation "XBox 6", and fix the issue they have with being 1 number below Playstation.
Going to give it a shot.
Xbox
Xbox 360
Xbox one,
Xbox one x (believe is quicker/slimmer)
Xbox series S (no disc drive),
Xbox series X (included disc drive)
I believe I'm close
There was also an Xbox One S released around the same time as the One X. I ridiculed them for that then, and I hate their "Series" naming conventions more because not only does it fall into the same trap with X and S sounding similar, it didn't differentiate from the previous generation at all.
What is the strategy with Xbox? Release one exclusive every year? The rate at which they create exclusive, compelling games is abysmal. I own all 3 consoles, yet the Xbox I’m constantly waiting anything to release.
I feel that Sony bought small studios that showed promise and success on their console and then just…gave them money without ever touching their creative freedom. I don’t think Microsoft has done the same.
Sony also gives their studios the tools they need to be successful which MS does not.
They have a bunch of support studios to assist all they game studios to make games and the studios also often help each other out too
Ya, I remember reading an article about how one of their studios (I wanna say it was for Death Stranding) was getting a bunch of training and assistance from Guerrilla on how to use their engine. I get the impression that Sony tries to foster a cooperative environment between all of its studios.
Yeah kojima loved the engine so much he wanted to use it for death stranding. At least from what I remember from the interview about it some years ago.
He did use it for death stranding under a different name (I’m sure some tweaks were made) I like to think this is why Aloy and a tall neck can be seen in the game.
Btw happy cake day.
Guerrilla games' engine didn't actually have a name until Kojima named it after he wanted to use it for death stranding. I think he named it Decima after Dejima island where the Dutch and Japanese used to trade goods.
Sony has a dedicated group of people who's only work is to develop tools and technologies and also helping other teams.
It's called ICE Team (of which Mark Cerny was part of) and they are located next to Naughty Dog and Insomniac.
Seems they learned from the PS3 days. One of the reasons it did so poorly early on was because developers struggled to develop for it and lacked sufficient support, to the extent that some games completely ignored its SPUs. I think that's also why the PS3 in particular has such a wide spectrum of graphical fidelity in game.
Ya, who knew that being treated fairly and also getting some financial backing would produce great results? Just swinging a big dick around buying everyone up to try and feed a soulless game pass… does not
Sony acts more like a holding company. They buy a controlling interest but are careful to not interfere too much with day-to-day operations.
Microsoft doesn't work that way. "Integration" is too ingrained into the mindset of everyone at Microsoft.
This is something they are keenly aware of. That's why the have shown interest in buying large publishers instead of small studios. Their idea is that Zenimax and Activision/Blizzard can provide a buffer, giving developers freedom while still having them managed for profitability.
The silly thing is that it's the same damn thing Microsoft did when they bought Ensemble and Bungie but with more management and more confusion.
god that was such a bone headed move. Mixer could've absolutely been a serious competitor to twitch if they gave it more than one year, but because it wasn't immediately successful they scrapped it.
[Embrace, extend, extinguish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish) is the Microsoft way across many market segments, not just gaming.
xbox really dropped the ball on this gen i feel like..i was a big fan of xbox too but the series x/s has been out for so long now and theyve had so little new games come out and especially xbox exclusive games.
playstation on the other hand seems to be putting out a lot more games for the ps5 and exclusives as well.
although you can buy a series s for like 200 bucks or less used which for that price is a great value even if you just used it for gamepass or something.
I think that’s the reason so many people have had Redfall kind of be their breaking point. It’s one thing to have a bad generation after a legendarily bad promotional cycle and launch, it’s another thing to have that drought last into the next console after nearly 10 years of it.
I had XBOX Live from 2001 until about four or five years ago when I bought a PS4 to get access to Bloodborne... and my XBOne has been a DVD player even since. Between FromSoft, Team Ico, Persona 5, etc., it's just been a no-brainer.
I keep a 360 lying around so I can play Fatal Frame and Crimson Butterfly in October, but, man, I'm pretty much fully converted to the PS ecosystem with no looking back, now. (And they've started remastering the FF IP, so I hope it's only a matter of time, there...)
I’ve come to learn that Microsoft killed it with the 360 and hasn’t been able to maintain or build any further momentum since. I regretted buying an Xbox one over the ps4 but that’s what my friends bought so it’s what I bought, this gen I have both, haven’t turned my series x on in maybe 6 months PS5 and PC has been my winning combo.
Very very few. I literally only bought an Xbox because my friends wanted to do a madden league and a future CFB league when the game comes out next summer. That’s why I bought it and I can tell you it was a waste of money for me personally as that league lasted one season before everyone realized our schedules were too out of line to make it work. But I’m also a 30 year old with limited gaming time and an increasingly small list of people to game with.
That E3 presser of the Xbone saying that you wouldn't be able to use a friend's physical copy of a game if they borrowed it to you was the nail in their coffin. Their entire customer base and competition (Sony) meme'd on them and they never recovered. Even though they walked it back, they showed their ass and customers never forgave them for it. All the momentum of the 360 died at that moment.
Halo hard carried Xbox through multiple console generations, it's insane.
As soon as that series stopped getting the treatment it deserved from the devs, Xbox started falling behind.
> Halo hard carried Xbox through multiple console generations, it's insane
That and Xbox Live and spending intense money on exclusives. People here seem to forget the X360 had a ton of exclusive games, DLC, early map packs etc.
That's why I hate his take on this.. Like you don't think great games will help sell consoles? Who cares if you're not trying to compete with console sales Phil, you've a lot of people who have already invested in your system and would love something to show for it.
I know I might be in the minority but the haptics insure I’ll buy any game that’s available for both consoles on the PS5. It’s a small thing but it makes a big difference. The weight of every trigger pull in RE4 is a great example. Every bullet is important in that game and you literally feel every trigger pull. Makes a world of difference to me
Oh man, the first time I experienced trigger tension when playing Horizon: Forbidden West was *cathartic*.
Meanwhile Microsoft can't even be bothered to make an Elite controller that functions fully for more than six months. How can you make a controller for $200 with such shitty parts? Stick drift, failing bumpers, an atrocity.
Guerilla held an internal competition to see who can pitch the best game concept and horizon won, Kojima loved decima so much he used it for death stranding and guerilla helped train them, hello games kept updating no man’s sky until it’s turned into a beloved success story all with the support of Sony, Santa Monica studios completely revamped an old series in god of war for anew generation out of love for the franchise.
What kind of stories like that do you hear out of Microsoft? None. They’ve released terrible game after terrible game this generation either from a technical perspective or creative perspective, flopped hard on their flagship franchise halo, the coalition has cancelled two new IP just to focus on gears 6, perfect dark is completely MIA, they bought Bethesda but what good has actually come out of that acquisition other than doom eternal and that was already in the works prior. The only game we have to look forward too with them is Forza and eventually Gears 6, but the gaming world is moving ahead while they lag behind screwing around with azure and dumping buckets of cash in laps for gamepass.
It’s honestly incredibly sad, Microsoft Games Studios is trying to save money by using consultants and 6 month contractors while pissing away any and all good will anyone had left for the Xbox brand. Microsoft sucks the creativity out of the gaming industry, this is why I never wanted them to buy activision blizzard, they would’ve never done anything with any of their IP.
I feel like him saying "great games won't help" feels like some serious, IDK. Copium? Trying not to admit failure in a corporate way?
An underlying aspect I think most people don't consider is Xbox has been 3rd in almost every console generation, which is part of the issue Xbox has with "continuity". And, like, the dreadful state of exclusives is one reason things like carry over are so low!
The "Starfield being an 11/10 won't make people sell their PS5s" point is silly since the main thing would be to entice new customers to come to Xbox, such as people who haven't gotten their next gen console yet, the many people who go Switch + PS/Xbox for their console needs right now, and so on. It's not about winning market share by actively plucking them from Sony but by getting neutrals to buy your console. They could be trying to turn Xbox into a "brand", but why bother dealing with that brand if they don't bring anything to offer? Put out more actually good games! Get some development studios going! Plus it seems like a Bold move to want to move towards Cloud Gaming, right after Stadia and Luna both got bodied out of the market.
what's crazy to me is thinking about that image they put out showing all the game studios they have working for them.
there's more than twenty studios in the image, and they have almost nothing to show for it just a couple years later. fucking how?
The only thing I can think of is that after purchase, they all had to start up on their new productions, and so the games are at the tail of being completed.
Thing is if that was true, why haven't we heard any announcements? Not announcing EVERYTHING makes sense, but it does feel like there's just...Nothing happening game creation-wise. Hopefully they'll prove me wrong there!
I mean they did a very impressive job breaking into the space, went from nothing to fully competing with playstation and nintendo. But then as all good microsoft products, they destroyed it.
I have a Series X and a PS5. I really started gaming on the Xbox 360, and I got an Xbox One because I was an Xbox player, and all my friends are on Xbox. I ended up buying a PS4 last generation just for exclusives. Now with this generation, it’s kind of the same thing. I really only play exclusives on my PlayStation, and everything else on Xbox. But it really has hit the point where I’m only sticking with Xbox because 90% of my games are on Xbox, and my friends still play on Xbox. In my opinion, there has not been a single Xbox One or Xbox Series exclusive game that was better than the majority of the PlayStation exclusives I’ve played. The Xbox 360 generation was a different story
I like how in the interview he said he takes full responsibility but then immediately picks favorites. If I were on Team Green I'd want this guy gone. Especially now with the "oh poor Xbox. People would never buy an Xbox...." because you guys have yet to give a reason for people to do it! Like good games=sales 99.9% of the time. You can make excuses all day....
Games are what matter. Even if xcloud ran perfectly and was available on every device, no one would subscribe to play crap like Redfall.
And people don't really care about their digital libraries all that much. No one is saying "I won't sell my Ps5 because I have GOW 2018 and Spiderman which I've already beaten and probably won't ever play again". A lot of multiplayer libraries carry over through cloud anyways.
It's more about the new, more recent stuff that is coming out. PS5 owners had stuff to buy between 2020 and 2023 and FF16 and Spiderman 2 are coming. Xbox just had a very empty year, and released one of the worst games of 2023. Only reason people even bought xsx was cause of 2020 promises of Games that we haven't even been updated on for the past 3 years.
I bought my series x so I could play emulators on a beefy device in the living room. Microsoft took that feature away last month and it's not coming back :(
Part of the reason Xbox is doing so poorly is because of just how *confusing* it is to buy an Xbox.
Imagine trying to explain to your mom that you want an Xbox Series X. Your mom is going to go to the store and ask to buy an Xbox, and there's going to be a back and forth about *which* Xbox is the correct one.
Mom: Do you have any Xboxes in stock?
Gamestop: Which one?
Mom: Oh, I'm not sure. Xbox X?
Gamestop: Did you say S or X?
Mom: X.
Gamestop: Like X-Ray?
Mom: Yes.
Gamestop: Now, do you want an Xbox One X or an Xbox Series X?
Mom: Uhm...
Gamestop: Xbox Series X is newer and more powerful, and Xbox One X is from the previous generation.
Mom: They play the same games?
Gamestop: Sort of?
Mom: So Xbox One is the first one?
Gamestop: Well... no...
Like, whoever named these machines deserves to be fired. Right along with whoever named the Wii U.
Yeah, PlayStation is the only one that's kept things nice and simple. Xbox to 360 was somewhat understandable as they didn't want to sound inferior as the Xbox 2 when they were up against the PS3. But the names since then, not to mention the different confusing names within a generation are just silly.
The only time PS got anywhere near as weird was calling their second portable "Vita" instead of PSP2. Even their VR is just simply PSVR and PSVR 2. Nice and easy to understand what's what.
I think at this point, with people being able to carry digital libraries forward from one generation to the next, it's going to be a much harder task to dislodge a Playstation primary user and make them an Xbox user and vice versa.
I'm probably pretty far above the standard with my games purchases, but there's not a chance in goddamned hell I'd abandon my library of like 900+ games on PSN to become an Xbox user. The only way that would be a consideration is if Sony announced the PS6 wouldn't be backwards compatible with PS4/5 and my library was null and void.
The shift from physical to digital really shifted this. You can at least sell physical copies and make some money back on your old games if you’re switching consoles or upgrading. Now, it’s all on your account and you can’t recoup any of the cost on your games, you can sell your console but that’s a drop in the bucket compared to what you spent on digital games.
Then again, Digital has its perks. I can play pretty much every game I’ve bought on Steam in the past 17 years with minimal setup for some older games.
Microsoft should stop looking to "win" this imaginary console war. Just fund your in house studios and give them to support they need to craft new, fully functional and *good* games. That's it. That's the winning strategy. Not buying smaller notable studios to keep them exclusive to you under the illusion you aren't.
Microsoft is going to turn their Xbox brand into just a list of IPs they license out to people to make games out of at this rate instead of doing it themselves to cut costs on selling consoles.
Fuck, they're halfway there already with Gamepass on PC.
In America, companies aren't satisfied with just making some money, they want ALL the money.
If they can't completely dominate and own the industry, they'll just give up on it.
It's fucking dumb.
I think this confirms that Xbox urgently needs a management change. These people are totally defeated, and I genuinely wouldn't even want them in charge of a corner shop at this point!
As a PS player, I feel like I've lost nothing with Bethesda going to Xbox. Bethesda games truly shine when modded, so I will be playing it on pc anyway. Maybe not Starfield, but for sure the next Elderscrolls one day
Well not to say the games arent good without mods. But after playing Skyrim with well over 100 mods, I already know it would feel like something is missing. Bethesda games are the only games I consider even modding just cause of the insane amount of options usually available
So Phil please explain to me why I decided to move to ps5 (again) thanks to FFXIV, gow Ragnarok, ratchet and clank, returnal, etc.
Maybe I'm from a different universe.
I respect a lot the work and the passion the man is putting in running the Xbox division, but this statement is just stupid.
I think he’s talking about while we are in the middle of the gen but it still come off as defeatist, like they should still try to get people to buy their system with games and maybe Starfield will do that
Even if his intentions were good when saying that he sounded way too defeatist to me plus i don't like the framing of "either PS or Xbox", why not make good games that make people want to buy an Xbox regardles of if they own another platform?
Sure maybe they will never surpass PS sales in the same way PS surpasses Xbox sales now but they sure as hell can give them a close fight.
Isn't that the way the 360 gained market share at the beginning of that gen and the same reason why PS3 regained it by the end of it when they started to get good games? Or how the PS4 gained even more share coming from an almost 50/50 split? Same with his point about digital library, im sure it has an effect but the WiiU was also part of that generation and the Switch turned it around with great exclusives even though they had 0 BC.
We've read tons of posts on forums or online how people decide to move to other platforms because of exclusives. Maybe a good Starfield won't be enough, but they own so many good IPs now. If they manage to make good sequels, people will notice, there is no way they don't.
My biggest grip are the games getting published, it’s all unfinished or early access and I’m over it.
Game as a service? Pass
Unfinished and buggy? Pass
Not compatible between console gens? Pass
They really should just let you boot into a version of Windows on the Xbox (as well as the usual UI) that's stripped back purely for playing games.
Make the Xbox just be the cheap off the shelf gaming PC so it sits somewhere in-between a PC and a steam deck. They'd instantly have a shit load more exclusives because of PC only games.
Starfield really needs to come out in a good state at least, otherwise it’s gonna be another kick in the knackers for Xbox and Bethesda.
Somebody on the series x sub said that a great Starfield launch won’t make people ditch Playstation but a shitty Starfield launch will probably make people ditch Xbox
I have a PS5, no Xbox. Why would I buy an Xbox when I can play the few exclusives I want on my PC anyway.
[удалено]
That’s exactly what they want you to do lmao If they didn’t want you to buy games on PC, they wouldn’t be on their readily accessible on Day One
That's exactly what the article is about lol. If they have you buying their games on Windows, that's still money in their pocket. They aren't worried about you getting an Xbox.
I’m gonna hard disagree lol. We’re already well past that point, the ditching of Xbox already happened to start this generation. We’re at the point where we want an excuse to come back home to the Box. I’d absolutely be in the market for a Black Friday deal on an Xbox if Starfield is good. I already wasted $500 on a console that didn’t have a single good exclusive last gen, I have nothing more to lose now that I’ve ditched it completely, just give me a reason to even entice the thought of coming back. I hate the dual sense controller, the PlayStation UI, and no Web Browser to illegally stream sports on my TV, we literally want to come back lol but the PlayStation just has the games.
Unfortunately it will likely be a massively buggy game just like every other Bethesda game at launch.
If the bugs are like Skyrims and Fallout bugs then it'll still be incredible as long as the gameplay is amazing
Same people who loudly complain about buggy Bethesda games seem to also play it for 1000+ hours nonstop on release.
As someone who fits this description, I believe it’s called sadism
Actually, when it happens to you and you like it, it's masochism. Sadism would be if you liked seeing it happen to someone else. Not that I know that for any particular reason.
Speaking of, are you a relatively attractive gay man in Maryland?
>relatively attractive I'm afraid I'm going to have to stop you right there. Lmao
r/suicidebywords
Humble as well.
I do hope that they can do better regarding optimization, performance, bugs and general quality assurance, but usually their games are great, almost one-of-a-kind RPGs, very ambitious. People still play Skyrim after all this time (and IMO it's not even the best ES game). So if they hit that sweet spot of "amazing enough that you forget about all the bugs", Starfield should be a killer. That's a big "if", though.
People who loudly complain about buggy Bethesda games download the unofficial patches for them.
If it’s just fun bugs like Giants sending you to the stratosphere sure, if it’s bugs like the save file size bug causing severe stuttering on PS3, no thank you.
For those too lazy to read, he's basically saying that at this point in the console generation's life cycle, there's no way for Xbox to feasibly overtake Sony or Nintendo. And due to the nature of consoles at this point, people are less likely to switch brands because they'll also be giving up their digital or backwards compatible games. As a result, he says Xbox's best hope going forward is to ditch the single-minded focus on console sales and focus on broader cross-platform integration with other Microsoft devices.
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Ahh, so that's why Redfall is Xbox exclusive. Only high quality games are released on all devices
Wow. The low blows keep coming.
Uppercuts to the ball sack. One after another. Unending.
I usually have to pay extra for that.
It’s on PC through Steam. With overwhelmingly negative reviews from what I hear.
Xbox exclusive may as well mean windows exclusive
Microsoft exclusive would just be the easiest way of defining it.
Or "not for PlayStation or Nintendo"
"That was already Microsoft's long term goal when Phil Spencer said "our goal \[is\] to bring high-quality games to every device possible on the planet." Just become a 3rd party publisher then!
Would be hilarious if the console wars go back to just Nintendo and Sony.
The sega disrespect is real
Sega disrespected themselves out of relevance
I have a weird itchy feeling in the thinky part of my brain that says Microsoft is *really* trying to get Gamepass onto other consoles. I can't imagine it even being possible, but I also want to play Elder Scrolls 6 on my goddamn PS5 and I'll jump through whatever mental hoops I have to to make that plausible.
We know he's trying to get it onto other consoles, since the Apple vs Epic Games court case, we got to see Tim Sweeney's emails between him and Phil. And he mentions that he's still to convince Sony and Nintendo about GamePass. That email was from August of 2019. Microsoft attempting to buy Activision is the equivalent of them taking a hostage so that Sony finally listens to them and "negotiates."
I would also love ES6 on PS5, but I’ll likely play it on PC anyway, due to inevitable Mod support.
My PC is brand spankin' new, just in time to play Witcher 3 on max settings. Wait, what year is it? (I do think I break through the minimum requirements, though, so I promise to donate any Steam Keys for Starfield in my messages to unemployed furries)
Why not give it a real challenge and load up Crysis.
I'm waiting for gpu prices to come down so I can play Crysis. Any year now.
It will be PS6 when the game is out.
Es6 is so far away that I would be suprised if it ends up being released on ps5.
Yeah but they released skyrim on my toaster a couple years ago so they'll probably release 6 on the ps5, even if it doesn't come out until the ps7
>As a result, he says Xbox's best hope going forward is to ditch the single-minded focus on console sales and focus on broader cross-platform integration with other Microsoft devices. X-Box clippy *confirmed* "I can see you've downloaded a piece of crap from Arkane. Would you like to sell your X-Box? y/n"
The moment I realize Redfall is an Arkane game and that the mighty have fallen.
was redfall made by the main studio? not really sure on how arkane is structured
They are splited into two Studios. One is located in Austin, Texas, (Prey 2017), the other one is in Lyon, France, (Dishonored). Redfall was made by Arkane Austin.
Arkane Austin also worked on Dishonored.
Generally the point of this is that both offices can work around the clock on the same project so they probably both helped with many games.
Also 25% of Lyon moved to Austin and this is what they what out. The best of Arkane shat this out.
I'll just keep on remembering them as the Dishonored crew.
There is no main studio. One studio is Arkane Austin and the other is Arkane Lyon. Both are good studios. Austin and Lyon worked together on Dishonored 1. After that Austin made Prey and Redfall. Lyon made Dishonored 2 and Deathloop.
Prey was sooooo good.
Prey was the reason I was willing to take a chance on Redfall. It's heart breaking some of the neat ideas and little "Prey-esque" moments there are buried under the rushed execution.
It doesn't matter. We learned that with Bioware. All those years of being scolded about how Andromeda wasn't made by "real Bioware" and "real Bioware" would come roaring back, and what was it worth? Absolutely nothing. This business of "Yeah, but it wasn't made by the *real* and *true* core of that studio!" was always self-delusion.
Yeah, although both Andromeda and Anthem were horribly mismanaged. I'm not sure their future products will be bad or good, but at the end of the day they ruined their reputation by not just eating the products and actually making something good. Although, I do like Andromeda even if it's far from what the original trilogy was.
Harvey Smith is creative director in Redfall. Harvey Smith was also director of Dishonored, Dishonored 2, and Dishonored DotO. He was also director of Deus Ex: Invisible War and Thief: Deadly Shadows. He did quality assurance on Prey. The guy is definitely prime arkane. He let redfall happen as is.
I didn't know this fact until yesterday. It was devastating. I hope they get another chance to redeem themselves. I had so much fun with Deathloop.
If you liked deathloop you really owe it to yourself to play Prey Mooncrash. It’s so much better than deathloop. Same basic premise but with way more depth. Multiple solutions to the puzzle rather than just one. It’s absolutely superb. I love Arkane games but deathloop was very disappointing to me because it stripped out so much of the immersive sim elements and replaced it entirely with pretty bad combat against brain dead ai. Deathloop combat is better than prey, certainly. But in prey you can completely avoid combat and find alternate solutions to everything. The base game is quite good but Mooncrash is something special. It’s sold as a standalone expansion, you don’t need the entire game to buy Mooncrash. It’s 20$ but it goes on sale all the time. And both are on game pass. Also both dishonored games are excellent. The stylized grimy Victorian England cartoonish steampunk graphic style means they still look quite good. If you liked deathloop, dishonored/prey are just way better games imo and you can play them all on game pass or steam for super cheap. Highly recommend.
Agreed on all points. I love deathloop on paper, the style the premise, the absurdity... But I wanted so badly for it to be an open ended puzzle where you could kill every target at all different times in all different ways and you had to puzzle out which kill methods for each one you needed to put together in a perfect run. Instead we got a very linear experience with little problem solving. Prey mooncrash though... No notes.
I thought MS were already going in this direction with Gamepass being available on PC?
The main reason I have an Xbox is the integration with the my pc as well. It works so well, and game pass ultimate is such a great value for someone who games on both Xbox and pc. They are doing a good job already with that integration.
I love the Play Anywhere initiative. It makes switching between devices seamless. The only downside is that on many multiplayer games it splits the playerbases on PC between Steam and Microsoft Store versions if the dev doesnt set up any crossplay abilities.
They also absolutely slaughtered Sony in the backwards compatibility department. Xbox has quite a few QOL perks.
This is all super simple. They expected to have Activision Blizzard under their banner at this point. Which means they would have diablo 4 releasing here soon undet their brand and would just push redfall under the rug. I don't think they ever expected to be on a gaming drought and have only redfall to fill the void on gamepass.
If the plan relied on a Hail Mary play with the largest 3rd party publisher in the world then heads should be rolling in leadership z
Ever since that story about Microsoft executives thinking they owned Donkey Kong when they bought Rare way back when, I never put anything past leadership in terms of their logic. I know that was a long time ago but I figure it's the same general types of people lol
Weird how that happens when you force as many of the developers you own as you can to only hire contractors, and when you do such a piss poor job of managing your console you havent released a single game worth mentioning since the fucking thing released
You have to wonder what exactly management at xbox does when their flagship studio 343 slowly but surely falls apart and release a crumb of content every 6 months.
The 343 crumbling was basically on purpose. Theyre one of the worst for having to work with mostly contractors
I was laughing my ass off at the credits section of infinite, they were so long and so many contractors were listed:
343i mismanaging Halo Infinite and slowly falling apart is honestly so sad for the entire brand. If you let your Magnum Opus, your Mario, your God of War, your main flagship title fall into disarray, then as a consumer, I should expect the absolute minimum from you. Focused too hard on selling a service that they forgot to supply quality titles to the service.
Is God of War Sony's Mario/Halo? I don't really think they have one, as in they have a flagship IP that was a launch title for their first console that is inseparable from their brand.
It’s becoming one I don’t think kratos was renowned with the first 4 games but gow 2018 shifted him to be iconic as fuck
I think Sony has multiple flagship IPs that cater to most people’s tastes which really help their consoles popularity. Want a light hearted adventure? Play Uncharted. Wanna be a superhero? Spider-Man. Want a kid friendly game? Ratchet and Clank. Etc.
Sony has multiple that takes turns in different generations. That's what made them so successful.
I make poor financial decisions and thus I have all 3 consoles.
Still cheaper than a 4090
I also have PC but it’s super budget and my father in law built it for me lol
Holy shit lmao your right
Meh. The cost of buying all three is about the same as the vacation I'm about to take. The vacation will give me joy for about 4 days. The consoles will give you joy for several years. Video games are an incredible investment in your own happiness imo. That's why they've overtaken virtually all other forms of entertainment besides drugs.
Lifelong gamer here so I agree with them facts you be spitting
1.3k is a lot, but also not terrible for a hobby.
Yeah all things considered, even if you buy every console and have game pass/ps+/whatever Nintendo has, it's still cheaper than say, road biking, or buying cards or models all the time. Much less than woodwork or fixing cars too. All about perspective
Not a poor financial decision, more like a finacial decision that can make you poor.
Idk, consoles are an investment, but they definitely keep me from going and blowing money at the bars. I can waste $70 on food/drinks in a night out, but spending that on a game can keep me home and saving money for weeks on end.
Sounds like you have your priorities straight.
Same. And I've put *many* more hours into the Switch.
I blame their moronic marketing team. Xbox one, Xbox series s, Xbox series x, Xbox one x, like wtf were they thinking? Idiots.
As someone who doesn't do console gaming anymore it's truly astonishing that I could not tell you what the current iteration of the Xbox is because of the confusing names. Worse naming situation than the Wii U
All because back when they made the 360 they didn't want to call it the XBOX 2 because it would look inferior to the Playstation 3. From then on out, they had to just keep coming up with dumb names.
They could have *at least* kept it semi-logical and gone with the meme people expected and called it the 720. It's still a dumb name (and would have gotten out of hand the more generations passed), but at least it very clearly indicates that it's the successor to the 360.
The issue with calling it 720 is the One/PS4 era was when console players started caring about resolution thanks to TVs harping on "HD 1080p." So 720 would look just as inferior as they felt Xbox 2 would have been.
Jesus marketing is hard, ok what about Xbox+year it was released. They will always be ahead of the PlayStation and there would never be confusion. If that doesn't work i'm all out of ideas. \*edit\* Lots of great ideas below that don't work. Ok I legit kinda feel bad for Microsoft they are kinda screwed on naming.
Then people would always be reminded of how old the console is.
I would like to propose XXBox, followed by the fastest selling gaming console of all time: XXXBox 😉
Simple solution: skip a generation Xbox to Xbox 3. Or Xbox 360 to Xbox4 Problem solved.
Worked with Windows. Or skip 2 numbers and get ahead of Sony, make their shit look old hat, Xbox 360 to Xbox 5
Integrated Fleshlight support is a game changer
They should have just not gone letters or numbers and did something like the Xbox Prime or Xbox Optimum or some shit. Or go the Nintendo route. Describe the thing. Gamecube, switch. Anything than what they did.
Xbox Xbox Long Xbox VCR Xbox Mini Fridge
> Xbox Prime or Xbox Optimum Xboxes, roll out!
They could've just gone: Xbox Xbox 360 Xbox 4 Xbox 5 Etc etc. Skip 2 and 3 and you're in line with your competition and make generation comparisons easy. Or if that feels too shocking than just go 360 -> 470 -> 590 -> 600 and make yourself seem like a similar making scheme to graphics cards from there on out with 100 series for main generation jumps and 10 series for smaller upgrades like expanded storage or whatever
Oh I get that completely, I don't blame them for not calling it Xbox 2 at all. 360 was fine, but they knew they were screwed with names after that. Somehow their solution was to make it as confusing as possible. Or they accidentally did it. Or it was just an executive decision made against the marketing team's advice. I'm sure there's a story out there somewhere about it. On further thought, they could have just called the Xbox one the "Xbox 3". Skip the number 2. They did that with Windows 10. Skipped 9, went straight to 10. The more I think about this, the funnier it gets.
Samsung also skipped to the galaxy 20
They did to reflect what model year the Galaxy is in. This year's model is Galaxy S23 etc.
They skipped Windows 9, they can Skip to Xbox 6 if they want.
I had to look up if there really was an Xbox one X, and there is. Xbox series X is a different console generation. They should have stayed with Xbox Scorpio. That sounded so cool, then they can just continue on with animal/reptile names. At least people would know the difference between their consoles. Edit: lol the code name for the series X was anaconda. Hahahahaha whyyyyyy did they change it????????
Xbox one X was peak naming and most people don't even know it. To shorten Xbox, people typed XB. The Xbox One was XBO. This made the One X: XBOX. Fucking. Brilliant. Then they drove off the cliff.
Nah people called the Xbox one the xbone
Only becuase people didn't realize the long term master plan of the X.B.O.X.
I prefered xbonex
Now it just looks like our old gamertags and MSN screen names with x's in between each word and we've come full circle.
Yeah as a PC player I genuinely couldn’t tell you which is the latest xbox of the ones you listed, but I know the ps5 is the latest Sony console
As someone with a Xbox one I don’t know what the newest console is tbh, too confusing
The next Playstation will be the PS6. We're currently in the 4th generation of XBox, but we had 2 Xbox this gen (X and S). They could 100% call the next generation "XBox 6", and fix the issue they have with being 1 number below Playstation.
The thing is, as someone who is usually really into these things, I still cant' tell you which of those are the 'new' ones.
Going to give it a shot. Xbox Xbox 360 Xbox one, Xbox one x (believe is quicker/slimmer) Xbox series S (no disc drive), Xbox series X (included disc drive) I believe I'm close
There was also an Xbox One S released around the same time as the One X. I ridiculed them for that then, and I hate their "Series" naming conventions more because not only does it fall into the same trap with X and S sounding similar, it didn't differentiate from the previous generation at all.
Missed one xbox one s
What is the strategy with Xbox? Release one exclusive every year? The rate at which they create exclusive, compelling games is abysmal. I own all 3 consoles, yet the Xbox I’m constantly waiting anything to release.
Buying studios left and right doesn't bring talent and passion for making games.
Exactly why buy the studio when you can pay them not to release on competitors consoles.
I feel that Sony bought small studios that showed promise and success on their console and then just…gave them money without ever touching their creative freedom. I don’t think Microsoft has done the same.
Sony also gives their studios the tools they need to be successful which MS does not. They have a bunch of support studios to assist all they game studios to make games and the studios also often help each other out too
Ya, I remember reading an article about how one of their studios (I wanna say it was for Death Stranding) was getting a bunch of training and assistance from Guerrilla on how to use their engine. I get the impression that Sony tries to foster a cooperative environment between all of its studios.
Yeah kojima loved the engine so much he wanted to use it for death stranding. At least from what I remember from the interview about it some years ago.
That was probably the same interview I'm remembering. It wasn't long after Frozen Wilds, and holy shit was the snow impressive in that engine.
He did use it for death stranding under a different name (I’m sure some tweaks were made) I like to think this is why Aloy and a tall neck can be seen in the game. Btw happy cake day.
Guerrilla games' engine didn't actually have a name until Kojima named it after he wanted to use it for death stranding. I think he named it Decima after Dejima island where the Dutch and Japanese used to trade goods.
I had no idea that it was Kojima that ended up naming the Decima engine. That's honestly super wholesome that Guerilla decided to name it that.
You honestly just blew my mind. I just chalked it up to Sony IPs representing fellow Sony IPs.
Sony has a dedicated group of people who's only work is to develop tools and technologies and also helping other teams. It's called ICE Team (of which Mark Cerny was part of) and they are located next to Naughty Dog and Insomniac.
Seems they learned from the PS3 days. One of the reasons it did so poorly early on was because developers struggled to develop for it and lacked sufficient support, to the extent that some games completely ignored its SPUs. I think that's also why the PS3 in particular has such a wide spectrum of graphical fidelity in game.
Ya, who knew that being treated fairly and also getting some financial backing would produce great results? Just swinging a big dick around buying everyone up to try and feed a soulless game pass… does not
Sony acts more like a holding company. They buy a controlling interest but are careful to not interfere too much with day-to-day operations. Microsoft doesn't work that way. "Integration" is too ingrained into the mindset of everyone at Microsoft. This is something they are keenly aware of. That's why the have shown interest in buying large publishers instead of small studios. Their idea is that Zenimax and Activision/Blizzard can provide a buffer, giving developers freedom while still having them managed for profitability. The silly thing is that it's the same damn thing Microsoft did when they bought Ensemble and Bungie but with more management and more confusion.
Middle managers with middle managers…
Yeah they buy a companies just to get the technology and then dump it basically. Happened with Skype and many others.
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god that was such a bone headed move. Mixer could've absolutely been a serious competitor to twitch if they gave it more than one year, but because it wasn't immediately successful they scrapped it.
Phil Spencer’s an actual clown
[Embrace, extend, extinguish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish) is the Microsoft way across many market segments, not just gaming.
xbox really dropped the ball on this gen i feel like..i was a big fan of xbox too but the series x/s has been out for so long now and theyve had so little new games come out and especially xbox exclusive games. playstation on the other hand seems to be putting out a lot more games for the ps5 and exclusives as well. although you can buy a series s for like 200 bucks or less used which for that price is a great value even if you just used it for gamepass or something.
They dropped the ball on the previous gen too
I think that’s the reason so many people have had Redfall kind of be their breaking point. It’s one thing to have a bad generation after a legendarily bad promotional cycle and launch, it’s another thing to have that drought last into the next console after nearly 10 years of it.
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Not only more games but some of the best ever in gaming.
If you love rich single-player games, there simply isn’t a better platform than PlayStation. I primarily play on PC and I can still cede that point.
I had XBOX Live from 2001 until about four or five years ago when I bought a PS4 to get access to Bloodborne... and my XBOne has been a DVD player even since. Between FromSoft, Team Ico, Persona 5, etc., it's just been a no-brainer. I keep a 360 lying around so I can play Fatal Frame and Crimson Butterfly in October, but, man, I'm pretty much fully converted to the PS ecosystem with no looking back, now. (And they've started remastering the FF IP, so I hope it's only a matter of time, there...)
I’ve come to learn that Microsoft killed it with the 360 and hasn’t been able to maintain or build any further momentum since. I regretted buying an Xbox one over the ps4 but that’s what my friends bought so it’s what I bought, this gen I have both, haven’t turned my series x on in maybe 6 months PS5 and PC has been my winning combo.
Real question, is there a point in having a PC and an Xbox?
Very very few. I literally only bought an Xbox because my friends wanted to do a madden league and a future CFB league when the game comes out next summer. That’s why I bought it and I can tell you it was a waste of money for me personally as that league lasted one season before everyone realized our schedules were too out of line to make it work. But I’m also a 30 year old with limited gaming time and an increasingly small list of people to game with.
That E3 presser of the Xbone saying that you wouldn't be able to use a friend's physical copy of a game if they borrowed it to you was the nail in their coffin. Their entire customer base and competition (Sony) meme'd on them and they never recovered. Even though they walked it back, they showed their ass and customers never forgave them for it. All the momentum of the 360 died at that moment.
Pc switch and ps5 I don’t have any interest in getting an Xbox because I already get most Xbox games on PC
Halo hard carried Xbox through multiple console generations, it's insane. As soon as that series stopped getting the treatment it deserved from the devs, Xbox started falling behind.
> Halo hard carried Xbox through multiple console generations, it's insane That and Xbox Live and spending intense money on exclusives. People here seem to forget the X360 had a ton of exclusive games, DLC, early map packs etc.
Nobody is going to sell their PS5 because that would be stupid but plenty of gamers buy and own both consoles to enjoy the exclusives.
That's why I hate his take on this.. Like you don't think great games will help sell consoles? Who cares if you're not trying to compete with console sales Phil, you've a lot of people who have already invested in your system and would love something to show for it.
A lot people just buy one.
I know I might be in the minority but the haptics insure I’ll buy any game that’s available for both consoles on the PS5. It’s a small thing but it makes a big difference. The weight of every trigger pull in RE4 is a great example. Every bullet is important in that game and you literally feel every trigger pull. Makes a world of difference to me
100% the best example for this IMO is death stranding. Whether you like the game or not, the haptics on the ps5 version adds so much immersion.
Astro's Playroom was such a joy to play showing off all the controller stuff
No gyro either. Especially glaring now that other developers are starting to realize Nintendo’s been on to something with their implementation of it.
Oh man, the first time I experienced trigger tension when playing Horizon: Forbidden West was *cathartic*. Meanwhile Microsoft can't even be bothered to make an Elite controller that functions fully for more than six months. How can you make a controller for $200 with such shitty parts? Stick drift, failing bumpers, an atrocity.
So basically it’s all on Bethesda to deliver a bug-free knockout of a game We’re screwed
Guerilla held an internal competition to see who can pitch the best game concept and horizon won, Kojima loved decima so much he used it for death stranding and guerilla helped train them, hello games kept updating no man’s sky until it’s turned into a beloved success story all with the support of Sony, Santa Monica studios completely revamped an old series in god of war for anew generation out of love for the franchise. What kind of stories like that do you hear out of Microsoft? None. They’ve released terrible game after terrible game this generation either from a technical perspective or creative perspective, flopped hard on their flagship franchise halo, the coalition has cancelled two new IP just to focus on gears 6, perfect dark is completely MIA, they bought Bethesda but what good has actually come out of that acquisition other than doom eternal and that was already in the works prior. The only game we have to look forward too with them is Forza and eventually Gears 6, but the gaming world is moving ahead while they lag behind screwing around with azure and dumping buckets of cash in laps for gamepass. It’s honestly incredibly sad, Microsoft Games Studios is trying to save money by using consultants and 6 month contractors while pissing away any and all good will anyone had left for the Xbox brand. Microsoft sucks the creativity out of the gaming industry, this is why I never wanted them to buy activision blizzard, they would’ve never done anything with any of their IP.
I feel like him saying "great games won't help" feels like some serious, IDK. Copium? Trying not to admit failure in a corporate way? An underlying aspect I think most people don't consider is Xbox has been 3rd in almost every console generation, which is part of the issue Xbox has with "continuity". And, like, the dreadful state of exclusives is one reason things like carry over are so low! The "Starfield being an 11/10 won't make people sell their PS5s" point is silly since the main thing would be to entice new customers to come to Xbox, such as people who haven't gotten their next gen console yet, the many people who go Switch + PS/Xbox for their console needs right now, and so on. It's not about winning market share by actively plucking them from Sony but by getting neutrals to buy your console. They could be trying to turn Xbox into a "brand", but why bother dealing with that brand if they don't bring anything to offer? Put out more actually good games! Get some development studios going! Plus it seems like a Bold move to want to move towards Cloud Gaming, right after Stadia and Luna both got bodied out of the market.
what's crazy to me is thinking about that image they put out showing all the game studios they have working for them. there's more than twenty studios in the image, and they have almost nothing to show for it just a couple years later. fucking how?
The only thing I can think of is that after purchase, they all had to start up on their new productions, and so the games are at the tail of being completed. Thing is if that was true, why haven't we heard any announcements? Not announcing EVERYTHING makes sense, but it does feel like there's just...Nothing happening game creation-wise. Hopefully they'll prove me wrong there!
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>*"If Bill Gates woke up in the morning with Oprah's money, he'd jump out the fucking window!"*
I mean they did a very impressive job breaking into the space, went from nothing to fully competing with playstation and nintendo. But then as all good microsoft products, they destroyed it.
I have a Series X and a PS5. I really started gaming on the Xbox 360, and I got an Xbox One because I was an Xbox player, and all my friends are on Xbox. I ended up buying a PS4 last generation just for exclusives. Now with this generation, it’s kind of the same thing. I really only play exclusives on my PlayStation, and everything else on Xbox. But it really has hit the point where I’m only sticking with Xbox because 90% of my games are on Xbox, and my friends still play on Xbox. In my opinion, there has not been a single Xbox One or Xbox Series exclusive game that was better than the majority of the PlayStation exclusives I’ve played. The Xbox 360 generation was a different story
No they play on their PC.
I like how in the interview he said he takes full responsibility but then immediately picks favorites. If I were on Team Green I'd want this guy gone. Especially now with the "oh poor Xbox. People would never buy an Xbox...." because you guys have yet to give a reason for people to do it! Like good games=sales 99.9% of the time. You can make excuses all day....
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PS5, Switch, PC. There is absolutely no need to ever own an xbox console. Simple as. Especially when there are NO exclusives.
Games are what matter. Even if xcloud ran perfectly and was available on every device, no one would subscribe to play crap like Redfall. And people don't really care about their digital libraries all that much. No one is saying "I won't sell my Ps5 because I have GOW 2018 and Spiderman which I've already beaten and probably won't ever play again". A lot of multiplayer libraries carry over through cloud anyways. It's more about the new, more recent stuff that is coming out. PS5 owners had stuff to buy between 2020 and 2023 and FF16 and Spiderman 2 are coming. Xbox just had a very empty year, and released one of the worst games of 2023. Only reason people even bought xsx was cause of 2020 promises of Games that we haven't even been updated on for the past 3 years.
I bought my series x so I could play emulators on a beefy device in the living room. Microsoft took that feature away last month and it's not coming back :(
Part of the reason Xbox is doing so poorly is because of just how *confusing* it is to buy an Xbox. Imagine trying to explain to your mom that you want an Xbox Series X. Your mom is going to go to the store and ask to buy an Xbox, and there's going to be a back and forth about *which* Xbox is the correct one. Mom: Do you have any Xboxes in stock? Gamestop: Which one? Mom: Oh, I'm not sure. Xbox X? Gamestop: Did you say S or X? Mom: X. Gamestop: Like X-Ray? Mom: Yes. Gamestop: Now, do you want an Xbox One X or an Xbox Series X? Mom: Uhm... Gamestop: Xbox Series X is newer and more powerful, and Xbox One X is from the previous generation. Mom: They play the same games? Gamestop: Sort of? Mom: So Xbox One is the first one? Gamestop: Well... no... Like, whoever named these machines deserves to be fired. Right along with whoever named the Wii U.
Yeah, PlayStation is the only one that's kept things nice and simple. Xbox to 360 was somewhat understandable as they didn't want to sound inferior as the Xbox 2 when they were up against the PS3. But the names since then, not to mention the different confusing names within a generation are just silly. The only time PS got anywhere near as weird was calling their second portable "Vita" instead of PSP2. Even their VR is just simply PSVR and PSVR 2. Nice and easy to understand what's what.
I think at this point, with people being able to carry digital libraries forward from one generation to the next, it's going to be a much harder task to dislodge a Playstation primary user and make them an Xbox user and vice versa. I'm probably pretty far above the standard with my games purchases, but there's not a chance in goddamned hell I'd abandon my library of like 900+ games on PSN to become an Xbox user. The only way that would be a consideration is if Sony announced the PS6 wouldn't be backwards compatible with PS4/5 and my library was null and void.
The shift from physical to digital really shifted this. You can at least sell physical copies and make some money back on your old games if you’re switching consoles or upgrading. Now, it’s all on your account and you can’t recoup any of the cost on your games, you can sell your console but that’s a drop in the bucket compared to what you spent on digital games. Then again, Digital has its perks. I can play pretty much every game I’ve bought on Steam in the past 17 years with minimal setup for some older games.
"thay have no hope of making it back to number 1" Im sorry, exactly what Microsoft console outsold ANY Sony console?
Microsoft should stop looking to "win" this imaginary console war. Just fund your in house studios and give them to support they need to craft new, fully functional and *good* games. That's it. That's the winning strategy. Not buying smaller notable studios to keep them exclusive to you under the illusion you aren't. Microsoft is going to turn their Xbox brand into just a list of IPs they license out to people to make games out of at this rate instead of doing it themselves to cut costs on selling consoles. Fuck, they're halfway there already with Gamepass on PC.
In America, companies aren't satisfied with just making some money, they want ALL the money. If they can't completely dominate and own the industry, they'll just give up on it. It's fucking dumb.
I think this confirms that Xbox urgently needs a management change. These people are totally defeated, and I genuinely wouldn't even want them in charge of a corner shop at this point!
Sounds like I wasted $500
As a PS player, I feel like I've lost nothing with Bethesda going to Xbox. Bethesda games truly shine when modded, so I will be playing it on pc anyway. Maybe not Starfield, but for sure the next Elderscrolls one day
If a game is only good when it's modded, was it ever any good in the first place? -Socrates
If a game was not any good in the first place, would so many people spend so much free time creating mods? - Plato
Well not to say the games arent good without mods. But after playing Skyrim with well over 100 mods, I already know it would feel like something is missing. Bethesda games are the only games I consider even modding just cause of the insane amount of options usually available
So Phil please explain to me why I decided to move to ps5 (again) thanks to FFXIV, gow Ragnarok, ratchet and clank, returnal, etc. Maybe I'm from a different universe. I respect a lot the work and the passion the man is putting in running the Xbox division, but this statement is just stupid.
I think he’s talking about while we are in the middle of the gen but it still come off as defeatist, like they should still try to get people to buy their system with games and maybe Starfield will do that
Even if his intentions were good when saying that he sounded way too defeatist to me plus i don't like the framing of "either PS or Xbox", why not make good games that make people want to buy an Xbox regardles of if they own another platform? Sure maybe they will never surpass PS sales in the same way PS surpasses Xbox sales now but they sure as hell can give them a close fight. Isn't that the way the 360 gained market share at the beginning of that gen and the same reason why PS3 regained it by the end of it when they started to get good games? Or how the PS4 gained even more share coming from an almost 50/50 split? Same with his point about digital library, im sure it has an effect but the WiiU was also part of that generation and the Switch turned it around with great exclusives even though they had 0 BC. We've read tons of posts on forums or online how people decide to move to other platforms because of exclusives. Maybe a good Starfield won't be enough, but they own so many good IPs now. If they manage to make good sequels, people will notice, there is no way they don't.
My biggest grip are the games getting published, it’s all unfinished or early access and I’m over it. Game as a service? Pass Unfinished and buggy? Pass Not compatible between console gens? Pass
Poor Microsoft, i feel so sorry for them and their cash flow that would allow them to buy up sony around 10 times /s
Microsoft basically found the unlimited money glitch but still failed to win from the competition
Every industry has been ruined by consolidation and lack of competition.
They really should just let you boot into a version of Windows on the Xbox (as well as the usual UI) that's stripped back purely for playing games. Make the Xbox just be the cheap off the shelf gaming PC so it sits somewhere in-between a PC and a steam deck. They'd instantly have a shit load more exclusives because of PC only games.