Deathloop was better marketed than Starfield outside american bubble and that’s saying all. They harmstrung the game on their own, not because of limited reach.
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Beyond the marketing, the issue is Starfield was the ONLY system seller released in two years.
Hi-Fi Rush is great but nobody is buying a Series console for it. Forza Motorsport is great (some would disagree with me) but is catering to a fanbase that likely already owned a Series console.
Microsoft needs to release consistent, quality, AAA titles every single year to convince people to buy the console. I don’t feel that they’ve done that.
Say what you will about Sony, but even in their weakest year they still dropped a system seller in Spider-Man 2.
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Lmao, so MS doesn’t have any games as long as you don’t count all the great games it has, got it.
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https://x.com/_Tom_Henderson_/status/1754910361067684242?s=20
I get him, I don’t get this either. But I do get worries and uncertainties what it all could mean for Xbox consoles and dev support for it. People seem to underestimate this.
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Yeah most people aren’t going to buy $500 hardware for the privilege of paying for Game Pass every month. You need more incentives than Game Pass and timed exclusives to sell consoles when PS and Xbox are so similar to each other. Game Pass requires a time investment to be worth its’ monthly price and also the upfront cost of the console (again for most people). Just getting a PS (or maybe a Steam Deck since that’s “console-like”) would be more convenient and straightforward for most.
A chrome-stick-style xCloud device could maybe succeed on that model but not an Xbox console that costs hundreds of dollars. Even xCloud is up in the air now because xCloud runs on Xbox hardware. Is making your cloud infrastructure console-based worthwhile if your console userbase falls off a cliff?
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MS released 3 games with mainstream appeal in this new generation: FH5, Halo Infinite and Starfield (I’d say also only FH5 reached the expected quality at release).
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What makes me laugh is that people are afraid of losing their digital purchases if Xbox leaves the hardware, but without any official information they already rush to sell their console, which means they don’t care that much about their digital purchases…
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HFR, Grounded, Pentiment, all of these are good games but good games don’t mean system sellers or things that make someone jump into an ecosystem
They’ve pretty much had the 3 system sellers like you said, 1 of which was bungled after launch because of no decent road map and another which was more divisive than they would have wanted
FH5 is their only true home run in terms of undeniable quality, that’s not good enough after 3 years
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Or maybe those quoted “40 year olds” from Henderson’s post simply feel like they’re not getting their money’s worth anymore & would be better off with a PlayStation 5?
I really, really dislike the way he framed that comment, i.e. “manbaby morons overreact trololol”.
They can do whatever they want with their purchase.
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Unless you are a Microsoft shareholder, you shouldn’t care how much more Microsoft’s market cap or revenue increases, that is their problem. If you are a costumer, the only thing you care about is the value and incentives of buying their product.
*sorry I replied on the wrong post, I was replying at Tom Henderson’s tweet. It is premature to sell your console before any official announcement though.
right, they’re making decisions off no official announcement
I get the logic though. if Xbox is a dead end then why keep putting money into it.
- Hi-Fi: Rush
- Psychonauts 2
- Pentiment
- Grounded
- Gears Tactics
- Flight Simulator
- Age of Empires 2 & 4
All of the above are great games (Hi-Fi: Rush was my GOTY and Psychonauts 2 may very well be my favorite Xbox game this generation), not a single game on this list is going to move Xbox consoles.
Like Saten117 said, you need IP with mainstream appeal, Starfield, Halo: Infinite and Forza Horizon 5 fit the bill, two of which released in 2021.
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I think it’s more to stop investing into a potential dead platform. Losing your digital purchases now is better than later when you invest even more into it. (hyperbole I know)
It’s definitely an overreaction, but I get it.
And I think a lot of core fans own Game Pass so it’s possible that their digital libraries didn’t grow that much in the past few years.
Man I’m super bummed about the direction Xbox is going. I just feel like on the console side it’s dead in the water. It just sucks I have a library of over 1000 games on Xbox. I don’t mind having to buy a PS5 even tho it’s shitty timing for me (my slumlords just raised my rent 800$) but I’m worried if Xbox gets out of the hardware business I’ll end up losing that library years down the line when the series x eventually dies or they shut down the Xbox store
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I don’t see the problem with people selling their Xbox if Microsoft is giving up on the hardware. Is there a single soul here who believes that the goal of this new strategy is to sell more hardware? I wouldn’t even be surprised if they were discontinuing the Series X.
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The Playstation crowd aren’t going to buy Hi Fi Rush either. At least not to the degree that makes driving away your costumers worth it in any way. They don’t even buy their own games, they buy COD a game that was going to be fucking multiplatform anyway so what is any of this shit going to accomplish in the end?
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No, but the store is the MS one, it won’t be discontinued, they need to offer all the games (BC included) functioning on pc/cloud even after a possible console shutdown in 5-6 years (I’d say 2030 tops if the go multiplatform).
Are you aware of the thread you’re posting in lol.
They need to come out and be definitive in their wording even if they don’t directly list off games. If what they say during this business plan update doesn’t rip the bandaid off then it’s iust them stepping on yet another rake. We’ll be right back in 6 months reacting to Starfield being confirmed.
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Personally I couldn’t care less about my digital library. I have the time to play a game to completion once (if I’m lucky) and then move onto the next one. I don’t go back and replay games I already finished.
I preferred physical for this reason (as well as cheaper than digital to start with), I’d buy it new, play it and then trade it in for some money back towards my next game. A digital copy of a game I’ve finished is worthless to me as I won’t replay it and can’t trade it in. Obviously this is one of the reasons digital is preferable for platform holders. They sell two copies (at a higher price) as nobody can trade in and then pick up second hand.
If I can afford/have the time for one console and I can get some/most of the Xbox games and all of the PS games on a PS5 then it’s a no brainer for me. I will move to PS5. It’s not an emotional decision because of all this, it’s just what makes sense.