They keep letting wow moments get away from them. Like they have done Halo 3 times now and details about F2P leak out from a toy store then they announce it officially in a tweet.
The shorter Halo trailer with a MP showing added after and details about it being F2P and paywall being dropped (if true) would have broken the internet.
For me the wow moment has been seeing how absolutely gorgeous Flight Simulator is. I want to play it on Series X so bad…
I think because of global pandemic things have been diluted instead of a big WOW moment.
It’s seems bad because diluted month after month, but in fact I think it helps people to understand the value of each advantages.
For the moment what we have :
What’s coming on??? (August xbox event, Gamescon digital, Tokyo Gameshow Digital etc…) :
It’s just some guesses and wishes of course, but it’s more or less what we’ll get on the upcoming months.
Depending on the serie X price, Lockhart, and future of xbox live gold subscription it could be, all added up like if it was all packed in one show, that drop mic moment.
Hellblade 2 was definitely that moment for me. I think if you are still waiting, wait just a little longer - Fable and Avowed are going to be insane wow moments when they get a gameplay trailer.
I think when people say ‘wow’ moment they mean something that crosses into the mainstream - that becomes so big that everyone is talking about it. I think plenty of wow moments for existing xbox fans but that big wow - this is amazing - to casual gamers - this hasn’t happened, but then Sony haven’t done that either. Frankly I think a lot of sentiment is coming from the fact that Xbox hasn’t really had a major wow moment that transcends the gaming forums and beyond this whole gen (apart from their launch and used games stance). Sony have probably had one with Spiderman and the general PS5 success.
Xbox has IMO been a little dangerous of late in focussing quite inwards rather than offering new gamers a reason to join the ecosystem. Gamepass is marketed pretty conservatively - many people still don’t know what it is - and many think its a demo system. They don’t realise you play full games - and downloaded ones too.
They need to get better at speaking to a broader audience - gamepass marketing is pretty simple - play 200 full games for a monthly prince including X number of brand new AAA games. You could show the cost difference between buying a PS5 and Spiderman MM and buying a Series X and playing Halo infinite. That’s the sort of thing that might speak to a broader audience. Also start showing off the power of your system - show some ray tracing on new games.
I disagree with this sentiment, because I think Flight Simulator does exactly that. Just check Youtube impressions - if they can nail an easy mode, this could have extremely good mainstream appeal.
What I fault MS with, is that they are not leveraging the shit out of the initial positive responses. We need to see this game running on XSX like yesterday!
For me, the best thing about the next generation is almost no load times, a snappy UI, switching between multiple games, accessibility between all your devices from xCloud to PC to console, and then the improved visuals and Auto-HDR to BC games. I’m still hoping to see an improved AI to be a focus of game development, but companies have been disappointing me here over the years.
Hellblade II WAS a WOW moment. People just like to brush over it. Forza WAS a WOW moment, but it was also too short. It’s a pity we didn’t get to see a bit more of the Avowed and Fable worlds in-engine, or just a bit more in general. Could have created more traction.
I also agree that Sony’s show wasn’t much better in this regard. They did say “everything you are going to see has been captured on a PS5”, I think this was effective marketing. Ratchet was cool, yes, but it wasn’t as mindblowing as people make it sound. Still, nothing about the Horizon snippet was very different from the Avowed one, but people know the Horizon IP, while Fable has been gone for 10 years and Avowed is a new IP. I feel this is where more flesh was needed on the bones for some non-enthusiasts unlike us. We probably also needed a bit more on Hellblade II. And yeah, Halo Infinite didn’t cut it the way it should have, but I still feel we have a reboot-style great game coming up here.
The July show had the rights things, but it didn’t always highlight enough of the important bits. Covid-19 might play a role here, yes.
Also I think they should do a breakdown of how much money you save by choosing Xbox and Game Pass for launch this holiday. Would be quite effective.
The games are already here, and more are coming. Game Pass is also all about games, and I know first hand that it is a system seller to some. To others it maybe won’t sell consoles, or at least at first it won’t, but PC and soon mobile represents Microsoft’s biggest opportunity for growth anyway. We could argue over how many of the early adopter crowd Xbox might lose to PS5 if they don’t go big with next gen games at launch, but the truth is none of us know, just like we can’t tell if it would be significant in the new grand scheme of things which encompasses more than just consoles.
And besides, I don’t think that Sony will have much to offer at launch either. They’ve not hit the ground running (as far as games go) for at least the past two generations, and so far the next one doesn’t look like it will be any different in that regard. Yes, they have the mind share advantage by default, but people who are more interested in Sony’s offerings are likely to have been that way for a good while now.
I’m exponentially more excited about next gen than I was coming into this one. That said, I get it. So far the games they’ve shown look a lot like the games we’ve been playing visually. I think the wow moments will be felt with the controller in hand this gen until devs are able to fully leverage the new tools. We also have to step back and think about what next gen would’ve felt like if there wasn’t a Xbox One X or PS Pro. Going from 900P/30 to 4K/60.
The reality is that we’re a half step from a half step graphically and taking advantage of new feature sets, CPUs, I/O speeds and Xcloud will be felt with controllers in hand rather than graphic showcase demos.
In the end, this gen is far more exciting if you value gameplay, variety and quality of life.
Yeah they absolutely should have shown it on the SX. The problem is its too late now - that should have been the kick off to their July show - show the most graphically stunning game ever running on SX. Would have blown minds. The problem now is - its just flight sim and its not going to sway the masses queuing to play Spiderman - its like Xbox are just a bit behind with how they think about things.
I thinking we are under estimating the effect of COVID-19, whilst much of Europe and Asia has been returning to some normalcy, this is not the case in USA, where most of Microsoft employees are based. I have been working from home since February, and probably wont physically be in office until well into next year. Whilst organizing meeting conference calls, writing docs and coding is easy enough for individual contributor like myself, I cant image the impact on many aspect of game development or on filming which needs large collaborative efforts. Putting on these game events has been an immense challenge as has been the ability to set correct expectations.
The only wow moment for me from both companies has been RE Village, and that’s because REVII is my favorite game this gen.
I’d be surprised if we get a real “wow next gen is here moment.”
In part because of mid-gen refresh systems which have really taken the wow factor out of higher than 1080p resolutions. And in part because it seems like we’re going to be playing largely the same franchises as we were even as far back as the 360 and PS3. Hard to get excited for another go at Assassins Creed and COD. But largely because COVID seems to be gutting teams abilities to polish and show really impressive gameplay.
The closest I’ve come to “wow next gen is here” is flight simulator which is next gen because of the data streaming integration not the hardware and path-traced Minecraft.
Big Xbox is over here trying to reinvent the entire console industry with their prioritization of GamePass and xCloud. They’re letting their games be played on PC, Android, and Xbox consoles. They’ve designed the Series X to not only havd a 20% power advantage, but to be largely compatible with older controllers and software.
That is what is wowwing me more than anything. More than, “Hey kids, it’s Banjo and his bird!”
Just my two cents.
I was pretty impressed by HB2 not only because it came out of nowhere but it was the first next generation only glimpse and was already above my expectations graphic wise.
Shame for covid because I doubt they would lead with HB2 and just stop there, I’m sure they initially planned to show off more from Avowed, Forza and Fable for example. Even the NT part on July was like: Hi guys we wanted to show more but covid fucked us so please be excited.
Well said. I was watching a video from Alana Peirce I think her name was and out of everything, she is just shocked how the industry isnt looking at GamePass more. It is in the spotlight in a way but just sit down and think of ALL those games they have showed in July and alot of the games in May, we get with our sub. Its MIND boggling! lol
I think what would of been a jaw drop moment is if they really showed how massive halo Infinite’s open world would be like how Nintendo did with zelda breath of the wild
Buying WB Games would be the ultimate wow moment.
Microsoft going all in on Game Pass means they need to buy more studios. Nothing would garner more attention than WB Games.
I just had a wow moment this morning but for the wrong reason… The report that Xbox Live Gold may not be going away sure made me say “wow.” That would be a huge momentum killer.
Agreed, I hope that Xbox can make that deal happen; acquire WB games with some licenses like Batman/DC Universe, Lego, The Matrix, Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings. That would be amazing, but it seems as though MS is more focused on making the Tiktok deal happen ASAP. Doesn’t mean they can’t afford both WB and Tiktok since they are a trillion dollar company.