I’ve had these issues with Nintendo myself. They release some absolute gems, but games like ARMS and the sport games never have enough content to justify the price, nor do they ever really drop in price.
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Are we at the point where we start putting down other consoles to make the situation seem better? Like come on, the situation is what it is which is shitty at best, don’t have to rationalize anything.
If the claim being presented is ‘this is an Xbox specific problem that needs fixing by leadership’, then noting that delays and uncertain yearly roadmaps has literally been an issue across the entire industry since COVID hit is not ‘rationalization via whataboutism’ as you suggest it is. It’s an explanation for why big games are being delayed and speaks directly to the claim that this is Xbox specific or that leadership can click their heels and fix the problem.
There is no way to ‘plan’ a roadmap that has any remote level of reliability to it unless you want Xbox leadership (or leaders across the industry) forcing games out prematurely before the dev teams are comfortable with the build. A few publishers have had their leaders go that route and teh results have been disastrous. Good leaders opt to bite the bullet and take it on the chin and delay games, which give consumers better results in the end. Plus, long term nobody even will remember. How many ppl talk today about the delays for Elden Ring? Nobody cares if the game comes out great.
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If you think the delays are a reflection on xbox leadership when most big games are delayed I cannot take your argument seriously
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Ok first of all I think the problem is you guys follow some deranged people on twitter if all you see is that particular take. 90% of what I see and agree with is that this is a shitty thing to happen, it could be better and it should be better, but in the end it’s good for the games if they need it, and yes, it’s hopefully going to be forgotten.
Also comparing xbox with any other console or publisher right now isn’t fair because xbox has more than 20 studios capable of producing AAA games on their own right now, which others definitely do not have. So yes the situation is the same with studios delaying games, with the difference that xbox has 3 times the developing power of playstation, so if this was going to happen it should happen to them.
Bottom line is all this about ps and switches collecting dust and putting down hfw when it released next to elden ring, meaning that game had no chance of being relevant more than a week no matter how good it was, is just not needed. If anyone insinuates this is someway or another Phils fault just mute him or something and move on, no need to be toxic towards others to prove a point, which in my opinion doesn’t even help the argument it just makes us look bad.
the amount of studios is a non-factor when it comes to games being delayed.
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It obviously isn’t. It’s like saying you have 15 things that have a 80% chance of going wrong, and another guy has 5 things again each with 80% chance of going wrong, you should have a much higher chance of some things not going wrong than the other guy. Can’t explain it better with my English and bad math.
Hold up, this framing is bunk too. MS didn’t go buy a bunch of games ready for release, they bought studios working on games, finishing some up and starting other new projects. Projects that take 4-5 yrs on average to get made, no less. So just having those teams under their umbrella doesn’t magically make them ready to ship stuff and it’s not like Xbox leadership should rush them along to push shit out the door early.
Xbox only got Zenimax’s studios literally within the last year. And the ones they bought prior to Zenimax have put stuff out like Wasteland 3 and Grounded beta (with official release this year) and Psychonauts and Forza Horizon 4/5. They also have Avowed coming next year and Hellblade likely next year too from that batch of studios. If you wanna include Zenimax’s teams, you can add Deathloop and Doom Eternal DLC and Ghostwire to the list too. You talk as if those teams haven’t done anything or aren’t on the cusp of releasing major titles, which anyone who follows Xbox games surely knows isn’t the case!
So genuinely I dunno what studios you imagine have not been making great games from the teams they bought. Sony also went forever without releasing games running up to the PS5 launch, then took another 9 month gap after R&C last year. These teams Xbox has are all top quality and have been demonstrating that repeatedly since the acquisition. Just because MS owns a studio doesn’t mean they are magically ready to start dropping games from the sky.
Nobody is ‘being toxic’ to you. I’m explaining the reason behind the situation. Yes, 2022 will likely be a fairly dry year but that isn’t a leadership problem it’s a ‘global pandemic lasting 2+ yrs has disrupted AAA game dev’ problem. And in 2023 we will be showered with tons of games on Xbox as the extra dev time pushing titles into 2023 had lead to a pretty legendary landscape of potential games next year. I am not fussed about ‘what makes us look bad’ as if Xbox fans are a monolith. I speak my mind regardless of what my fellow Xbox fans think. /shrugs
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Everyone forgets Bleeding Edge… lol.
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Bethesda’s 2017 showcase was real good for me. Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, Wolfenstein II and The Evil Within 2 were all shown and released within the next four months.
Really hoping that MG is working on Wolfenstein III but remains to be seen. Would love to see it get announced at the showcase.
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I own other consoles and the situation is xbox will still be my most played system regardless
In a year where ps5 and switch are gonna have 5x more 1st party output…ill still clock in hundreds of hours more on xbox. Why? Multiplats.
They exist. Ive put more time into elden ring in the last 3 months than my switch and ps4 in the last year combined.
Its not trying to make a situation better
Reminder…xbox has had fuck all 1st party since halo. Its been 5 months. Theyre still doing ok
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True…I did forget it. heh >.>
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Something else to consider as well, as more and more third party titles go current gen only (Gotham Knights, Need for Speed, Jedi Survivor, etc.), Xbox is in an advantageous position of having the cheapest entry point to play these games this holiday and into the future (Series S), with an upgrade path at a later date (Series X).
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Appreciate Jez’s take. This is a bump in the road but no need to assume Xbox is doomed.
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It is really disappointing yes…but those people saying that Phil should resign LOL
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Most reasonable take on the current situation. Annd more thing after the showcase next month will have seen enough gameplay to be not worried anymore 
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Interested to know peoples reasoning for linking this to covid, I work in SW and in my business the effects of the pandemic on SW delivery were relatively minor and short lived.
So what are peoples takes on why game development is more severely effected by this than other types of SW?
Perhaps length of program at 4+ years, or higher need for F2F interactions or less well prepared for remote dev?
Why so sure this is covid related and not for instance scope creep?
My guess would be how dependent gaming is on creativity and idea sharing. Harder to do in wfh.
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It is true we do not really know, but I am pretty sure every Bethesda game in the last two years has received delays. You can make the case that one might just be feature creep, but it is hard to relay that for all four as the sole reason: Deathloop, GWT, Redfall and Starfield. There is though a single event that is common to all of them.
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It could be less about Covid’s current impact on development and more about the knock on effects from Covid’s impact in development in 2020 and 2021, basically pushing timelines out etc.
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