Must have taken a visionary to have made that. 
Unfortunately, even if this narrative is objectivly false and also hypocrite, because itâs based on double standards and elevates one genre above them all with no reason, Xbox only needs that one of its grand scale projects will be a critical darling and thatâs it, journalists/influencers are not known to be coherent and they will change the tune immediately, like with the console itself (all the praises for Series X|S) and Game Pass.
Sorry for my tone but GOTY nominations and awards mean jackshit, we live in a world where Shadow of Mordor and Dragon Age Inquisition back in 2014 got more nominations and awards than Sunset Overdrive, Titanfall, Wolfenstein: New Order, Bayonetta 2, The Evil Within and Donkey Kong Country: TP so yeahâŠnominations and awards are not a good way to judge a gameâs quality.
Sonyâs western output is the epitome of formulaic design, safe and proven jack of all trades master of none gameplay wise (which Gears 5 isnât, itâs a 3rd person shooter it sticks with it and it does that amazingly well) with decent mechanics (but almost always lacking in depth), extremely high quality production values and big emphasis on âmature storiesâ. If games like Gravity Rush 2 and The Last Guardian were as praised by the press as Uncharted 4 or TLOU2 then you would have a point about the formulaic part but right now high production values and âmature storytellingâ with as safe as they can be gameplay were the reasons Sony won the most awards last generation. This is as formulaic as it can get.
Also Gears 5 was severely underappreciated that year in the GOTY awards, for anyone that remembers it didnât even get nominated for best graphics/tech in most big shows/sites which is quite tellingâŠ
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Yeah, seeing the likes of AC Odyssey nominated and not Gears 5 speaks volumes about the bad faith against Xbox as a whole from media, it is a persistent thing, even now the well known detractors simply stay silent, waiting for some bullets to shot. The hero of the unions Jason Schreier couldnât stop himself from saying the Series X was an outstanding machine with nothing to play, only to wake up 6 months later to tell everyone something anyone with a brain already known about Sonyâs direction. Place like Xboxera are rare safe spots for xbox fans.
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I guess Odyssey wasnât as formulaic and had a level of quality that justified the nominations. 
Gears 5 was simply a victim of the Xbox Oneâs curse and bad faith as you said against Xbox as a platform, itâs an excellent game that deserved much much better for sure. Not seeing the game in the best graphics/tech categories was hilarious.
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The other day I saw the final stream of Ori 2 of one the most prominent italian youtubers in the gaming community, a person who clearly loves Sony, but he is as objective as he can and he said âwhy Ghost of Tsushima won the artistic award and not this, it is objectively superiorâ and we could go on and on. I found incredible that Ori wasnât even nominated for GOTY, when indipendent indie darlings were in the past. No one can convince me that this things fall back in the bad faith stigma.
It is even more ridicoulus now, with a ton of videos/articles saying âI didinât think I could, but I love Xbox nowâ, speaking of features maybe years old, lol. And we should trust these people?
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ALL you said is true, but it still wonât change how the majority of the media and gamers perceive GOTYs and awards as pure quality for games.
This, 100%. When most of the press and most gamers arenât gaming on X1, they wonât really care much about that platformâs games since they canât play em anyhow. Itâs just like asking ppl to rank the best games of the generationâŠthey will always pick only stuff they played on their favorite console. There are arguably lots of games that fell into this trap for X1 imho.
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I might of missed some adverts, but in my experience the marketing for gears could of been a better, they should of focused more on the more new and interesting part of the story where kate went down to that experiment bunker and u had an a crazy A.i being an asshole. I was surprised how good gears 5 was narrativly.
I agree Gears 5 was marketed bad, like really bad, but in an award selection the marketing shouldnât matterâŠin theory, lol.
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If MS forces Arkane and id to make swallow, sad dad cinematic âaction-adventureâ games then they could have a chance to be the next runner up at the GOTY awards but do we really want that? as you said above I want to see games like Ace Combat 7, ZOE2, Dishonored, Prey, The Evil Within e.t.c. not copies of Sonyâs 1st party. If anyone wants that they can always get a PS5.
The only thing that MS has to do is to release (and this is a very important part that they had a problem with last generation) polished, high quality games in genres that Sony canât compete. Right now MS is in a position that can offer AAA FPS, TPS, survival horror, action-adventure, sim, platformers, RPG, immersive sim games e.t.c. by some of the best studios in the industry. It may sound weird to some but MS right now is my only hope of (especially western) AAA not becoming homogenized by swallow and focus tested to death cinematic sad dad sims or open world check list games, if the market ignores MS in this generation then AAA gaming is royally fucked IMO.
Totally agree, Iâd argue that all Xbox One exclusives were affected by this, others more and others less but they were all underappreciated to a degree for sureâŠeven the higher scoring games like Ori 2 and FH3/4 didnât get the recognition, praise and awards they deserved.
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People seem to think high quality and well polished AAA games are exclusive to Sony, not only that but they seem to think because games go into Game Pass day 1 it means the games have to be lesser quality. Honestly Gears 5 and Forza Horizon are both extremely high quality but because itâs a Gears and Forza game they kinda get a instant pass. If you said Gears 5 / Forza Horizon was a new IP they wouldâve been rated much higher because itâs not just another Gears and Forza game.
Itâs going to take a brand new IP of Gears/Forza quality for people to actually think Xbox has high quality games.
For Game Pass to support 4 big AAA 300M budgeted games they need 10m subscribers paying $10 a month. The issue for MS is going to be talented developers to make games for Game Pass. This is one of the reasons why I think they could 100% buy a massive company like Ubi with their 18k staff, obviously not all staff is game devs but I would say theyâll do a Bethesda and leave them alone to sort themselves out while making Xbox/PC games.
Both Sony and Microsoft is going to be perfectly fine this generation which is awesome.
To provide a different perspective: Iâm sure Gears 5 is great. Iâve heard a lot of good things about it. But itâs also Gears 5. I beat the first game like ten years ago and havenât touched the series since, Iâm not about to jump into number 5 or Tactics for the same reason I wouldnât jump into Halo 5 if my only experience were the first one either! I assume this isnât a problem for Forza.
I think part of the discussion is about ease of accessibility into the games. Look at Sonyâs heavy hitters:
- The Last of Us 2 - Sequel, first game was on PS3 and PS4
- Spider-Man - New entry, also insanely popular IP
- God of War - Soft reboot. You hardly miss anything from not having played the previous games (though thereâs one cool moment)
- Horizon Zero Dawn - New IP
- Ghost of Tsushima - idem
That isnât to say that MS doesnât have good new standalone stuff (Ori is fantastic, Sea of Thieves is highly regarded, the new Minecraft game probably isnât predicated too much on experience with the main game)
It also doesnât mean that later entries canât capture the zeitgeist by themselves (Skyrim, Fallout, Doom 2016, Persona 3).
And frankly, while Iâm impressed with MS Flight Simulator, and Forza is cool from the bit Iâve played, and Tell Me Why was interesting and significant, I understand why some people donât think about them when they talk about Game of the Year stuff. I donât know, I donât want to say that racing games and flight simulators are niche because I donât know the numbers, and I also really appreciate that these entries are at the top of their respective genres.
Itâs hard to articulate. I guess I feel most comfortable saying something like âthese games donât capture the collective attention, they donât prompt a discussion, they arenât a broad far-reaching event, they donât land with a meaty thump and the table shakes a bit afterwards.â I do think that MS are in a better position than ever to change that, though.
Oh, and sorry if Gears 5 is a soft reboot like God of War is, or if it does a ton to dissociate itself from the perhaps unfair âdudebro shootbangâ identity I attribute it. I really have no idea and Iâm unlikely to find out unless I decide to power through all the games like I did Halo last year.
Edit: I forgot to actually state my point after that wall of text lol. I think that thereâs a large number of factors behind this, and that boiling things down to (for example) âgaming media are biased and only like sad dad gamesâ is very reductive and unhelpful. I think too much attention is paid to GotY stuff and metacritic ratings, and itâs honestly a blight on the industry.
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You know, the things you say are a the common bullets used by console warriors (Iâm not accusing you, do not worry XD): ânot new ipâ ânot that genreâ ânot whatever I sayâ, the reality is that these games were good, but the traction itself originated from the PS4 success, which is not related to exclusives at all (exclusives arrived years later and built upon the existing momentum). The same games exclusive on Xbox would have rated worse, sold worse and won less awards, Iâm certain of that, maybe even less than the Halo-Gears-Forza trifecta.
EDIT: you even have the direct comparison with Sunset Overdrive, which is Spiderman 0,5: it has the exact same mechanics, scope and gameplay, only with a different coat of paint. Rated worse, sold less and won less awards.
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No worries my friend, I didnât take it that way at all. I skipped almost all of the Xbox One, so I understand that my perspective is very focused on what PS4 did. In fact, thatâs why I bothered to type up that mountain of words (thank you for reading it, by the way)! I completely agree with you that the install base is a huge factor as well.
Frankly, I think that despite everything that the people in charge have done to improve the Xbox One, it was kind of a lost cause. I think that the unfavorable narrative had set in too firmly to really be shaken up by much, and thatâs a crying shame. I freely admit that I considered the console a joke until last year when all the positive buzz around Game Pass led me to really re-evaluate the proposition and switch over. A clean start with the Series console was necessary, and I think that Spencer and his division have done a fantastic job overall of putting their best foot forward this time (as opposed to in Don Mattrickâs mouth). The future is bright, most of all for people who actually enjoy playing games. Iâm too old for console wars, I just want to play cool games and have my custom respected.
Regarding your edit: itâs impossible for me to be objective about this. I never played Sunset Overdrive, and Iâm a big Spider-Man fan. I would argue that, while the install base is a factor as agreed, the IP has done a ton of work as well, especially coming off of the whole MCU phenomenon.
P.S.: I grew up using commas for decimals and it gave me a nice little thrill to see that again after so long living in America 
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Yeah, Xbox One was a lost cause, even with the Zenimax deal occurred 3-4 years before, the name of the console and the brand was tainted. Now in 2021 journos and influencers are discovering and praising features of the ecosystem that existed for years and years and itâs amusing to see the hypocrisy and/or the ignorance (which is serious from âprofessionalsâ of the industry).
Yep, obviously the Spiderman ip did the heavy lifting combined with the PS4 momentum, but no one can convince me that SO on PS4 would have sold much better, would have rated much better and won awards, itâs certain like the gravitational constant.
PS: anglo saxons are heretics with their strange use of commas, units and so on 
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Absolutely! It was actually kind of hard for me to find any information on what the Xbox One experience was like when I was doing the research, probably because of the ignorance you mentioned. Ignorance isnât necessarily malicious, but it can be pretty telling!
While the general attention was focused elsewhere, the Xbox quietly improved itself dramatically apparently, and itâs especially evident now when you compare the new PS5 OS and the clunky generational transition with the seemingly effortless approach MS have established. The transition is by its very nature temporary and I have no doubt that the PS5 will improve its OS, but the situation speaks to the importance theyâve placed on style over substance IMO.
I believe that the improvements made and the generational change present a huge opportunity for MS to force some of the attention back on themselves, and I think this generation will be a lot more even than the last.
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From experience, PS OS will only worsen with time, the PS4 was very swift day one, when I sold mine in 2017 it was worse than the Xbox One X I bought the same day, really worse.
The Xbox One OS was held back by the Kinect stuff in background, with One S/X which removed that thing it was already much better, now with Series console itâs almost perfect (the sharing stuff is still horrible, itâs the last thing to fix).
MS is firing the nuclear artillery from the mythical warchest, if they are serious as they seem to be, in the long rung Sony doesnât really stand a chance, they were almost butchered by a half committed MS in the 360 era. But we wil see, the Xbox One taint on the brand is still persistent in many non-core countries and Asia is a trainwreck for MS, they really mismanaged badly that region.
Oof, hope youâre wrong about the OS! Anyway, I think that MS are betting heavily on xcloud to claw back some mindshare in Asia.
Counterpoint: The narrative surrounding X1 exclusives was set in stone WAY before any of the games you noted were even announced.
It isnât that ppl are noting that Gears 5 should be considered a GotY candidate, just that it gets no recognition for its great gameplay, storytelling or visuals beyond Xbox circles. That is in spite of being among the best in the industry in these areas for the genre, especially in the year it launched. FlightSim arguably has the most impressive tech for any game ever, including in the area that seems to matter most, the photorealistic graphics. And yet, it too got ignored in tech-related categories. Ori 2 is a masterpiece from top to bottom that got snubbed last year as well. A year after release, the whole industry seemingly forgot it ever existed. I also think it is entirely safe to guess that had Quantum Break (for instance) released exclusively on PS4, it would have been heralded as the incredible game that it actually is. RYSE too.
You say those games donât capture the collective attention etc, but that is our pointâŠthe question is why not? It isnât due to the game quality or specific areas each game excels at nor even the genre in all cases. Itâs more likely (imho) that the reason is due to ppl not caring about games on consoles they have no intention of ever owning. Thatâs human nature.
I think discourse about press bias triggers ppl to leap into their default stances of either âthe press is biased and therefore are fanboysâ or leap to the other end where âthe press cannot possibly be biased and Iâm above the console war fray by saying soâ. The problem with both angles on that issue is that bias is being associated with malice instead of simple human predispositions. The press was not getting together to conspire about screwing X1 over nor were they Sony fanboys. That fact does not somehow imply there wasnât actual bias slanting against X1 and its games. There are mechanisms to explain how bias can color perception and we should not just pretend those exist in every other human being and every other form of press coverage but mysteriously not the gaming press. Itâs there. It should be acknowledged in the right context.
To explain more, letâs think on the actual mechanism that is likely at play: If the press sees its audience as core gamers, and the journalists routinely interact and engage on twitter or gaming forums, many (if not all) will have their perspectives colored by emergent patterns and narratives in those social channels. Why? Because thinking about games is anchored to discourse on games and is therefore inherently a social exercise and the same social influences that happen in every other form of engaged discourse will happen here too. It isnât a matter of if it will happen. It WILL happen.
If the vast majority of what you see online are Sony fans on twitter or forums talking about how great the PS4 library is and how âmehâ the X1âs is, and you are tasked with writing about some of those games, you are gonna inadvertently slant your thoughts towards appealing to those predispositions as you will see those ppl as your target audience for the piece. As I explained earlier, if someone spends their personal time gaming on a given platform, they will see games on platforms they donât own as much less interesting by default simply because it doesnât serve them to get excited by it.
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