There’s the holier than thou thing I was referencing earlier. It’s like it bothers him that someone else is bothered by something to a degree that he isn’t lol. Why??
People may be more or less invested than you and thus may be more or less affected by this whole scenario than you. And that’s perfectly okay. It has no effect on your life to the point you need to attempt to talk down on them. I don’t get why people in the gaming space do that so much.
And objectively speaking, nobody on this forum should say anything about anyone else being “too invested” when we are all using an online message board to talk about gaming in 2024
Anyways, I don’t expect MS to be super clear on things and I fully expect more questions to arise from their business reveal next week than answers. Call me cynical but I’ll take that charge.
Talking franchises that have won GOTYs, sold many systems, smashed their targets.
Halo, Gears, Forza, Fable, Perfect Dark (on the N64).
Hifi Rush is borderline.
Every new game should be timed exclusive to see if they meet the bar to become exclusive.
Bean counters are happy because metrics on your exclusives games will show that they either sold well or sold systems.
Xbox influencers are happy because for every port that happens, they can say the game weren’t good enough to remain exclusive.
Devs are happy because either their game is viewed on the level of Halo, Forza, Gears, Fable, or they’ll end up with lot more reach due to additional platforms.
Xbox leadership has political leeway in deciding what to port. You know nothing pleases people in power more than obscurity and plausible deniability.
First, why would you want to hear about new hardware next week when they’re almost three years away from releasing? Second, what if they’re not ready for 2026 but rush it out anyway just to move on from Series? Third, you don’t care about exclusives so how exactly would Microsoft sell people on their new hardware without exclusive games and content which in my opinion is the #1 most important aspect if you’re a hardware manufacturer and releasing new hardware?
I understand you are angry, just please let’s not contradict reality. Xbox consoles aren’t selling as competitively ≠ they aren’t selling. It’s very insane to say that after they had an increase in hardware revenue & increase in console engagement and a record month sales. btw this isn’t any defence on them, if anything it’s more condemnation that they grow even if a little and then they lessen one of the console’s differentiations instead of going harder.
Concerning Halo, I’d say at least FH5 numbers and (not or) quality of release are the bar considering the legacy of the franchise, it’s not an impossible ask and 343i never delivered that, let’s be honest.
Considering ports, IDK, MS continued flip flop over the years (more than a decade now) changing strategies and ultimately not delivering on their initial promises (from Kinect to now) had built a certain primal distrust within old fanbase, add to that media and the usual uproar every time there are Xbox bad news.
When analyzing Halo’s success or lack thereof, you can’t just look at Infinite though. Millions of Halo players are on the Master Chief Collection which fragments the entire player-base.
I just checked the Xbox most played list and Halo Infinite Multiplayer ranks at #16 and MCC is #48 so if you combine those two along with Infinites single player, the total player-base would probably be in the top-10. This is similar to Madden which has 4 games in the top-50 most played, combine those four and Madden is easily a top-3 most played game which gives you a more accurate view on Maddens player count on Xbox consoles.
Oh. Because I dont really care that one game has a 92 metascore with 36 million players and the other has an 87 metascore with “over 30m players” as of 6 months ago. To me both of those titles are approximatly the same level of successful. Like Ratchet having an 88 with 4 million sales or Deathloop at 89 with 5 million players.
Theres not enough in it to declare one a failure and the other as a shining example of excellence.
It’s not only the metacritic, if you played both games you see and feel which one was rushed and unfinished and which one was great all around and built upon it.
Anyway, Halo Infinite was not a failure, it’s not a failure, it moved also consoles (2021 was the best Xbox year of this gen so far), but put simply it was not at the expectation level from his legacy (but it could have been).
I have the impression they will decide which games to bring to PlayStation or Nintendo depending on the success it has on their proprietary platforms.
Starfield: the game did not drive hardware sales as they hoped, perhaps it increased Game Pass subscribers, but less than they hoped. PS5 port approved.
Indiana Jones: too early to evaluate, but with the right marketing it could do better than Starfield, therefore Xbox/PC exclusive. If it goes below expectations, porting to PS5.
Hi-Fi Rush: Niche game, not a system seller and doesn’t even increase subscribers. Ported to PS5 and Switch.
Pentiment: Same thing as Hi-Fi Rush.
Gears of War 6: Difficult to rate. The franchise no longer has the same appeal it had in the Xbox 360 generation, I don’t think it’s possible to say whether it can help sell consoles or increase Game Pass subscriptions. Porting to PS5 to be considered.
Sorry for the long paragraph, but it was to give an example for the type of strategy they might have adapted.
Not Starfield and not even Pentiment. Those userbases did nothing to cultivate what Xbox and its fans built, fought us at every turn and shat on every game.
My larger guess in this instance is to trust that its a case by case basis and not everything as Nate and others suggest…and maybe that will lead to more acquisitions.
All i know is i feel with CoD backing game pass and Xbox from here on out, there will be an absolute ton of Xbox games for Sony to contend with.
This is why its important they to be 100% clear with no rooms for the maybes. If the start with the “case by case basis” then
Also, this also shows why people should start listening to clowns spreading fake rumors out there. Dont pay attentiton to the likes of Colt or Gas, they now nothing.
You know 95% of Nintendo and Playstation users aren’t the insane trolls you see online, right? it’s a really bad tone to think there’s deserving and undeserving platforms and players.
