Think it’s gone both ways - people who are very pessimistic about the future of Xbox and those who are very optimistic were generally being pretty dismissive and horrible to each other.
In reality most people are somewhere in the middle agreeing with points from either side I think - there’s definitely valid criticisms of the Xbox approach over recent years (generally I think it’s been pretty good) but there’s also been some major overreactions (I’m probably guilty of a few of them).
Glad it’s staying open as it’ll hopefully keep discussion of the new strategy just here (again, I’m probably guilty of mentioning it in the Pentiment thread for example) while the rest of the forum we can all pretend to get along
Yeah glad it’s still open. Hopefully the I think permanent time delay will give people time to really think before replying… There has been what I’ve assumed to be alot of off the cuff knee jerks when it’s come to this topic fr both sides
Basically some “friends” I have talking shit to me because I decided to stay on Xbox while I deal with the big backlog I have, no reason to get a PS5 now and rebuy all the games I want to play, those guys went insane and it’s kind of creepy so I cut them off from my socials.
It doesn’t ignore the entire context and it isn’t even about console warring. I even said it doesn’t matter if it’s because of a bug or any other reason. It’s bad optics. It’s being talked about here, on social media, and on gaming websites. If it happened with a bigger game, it’d be an even bigger talking point. So many people are questioning the brand and the decisions being made so they shouldn’t have any dumb oversights that result in more bad press. It just shouldn’t have happened. As I said before, if this were the only thing, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but it’s one thing after the other and Xbox repeatedly puts fuel on the fire that warms the heart of Xbox negative brand perception.
I don’t even have Twitter, but I see it on reddit, podcasts, Xbox centric YouTubers, and forums. If you follow any xbox news, it’s littered with talks about the discourse and whether these moves are actual beneficial or harmful to the brand and has been for months; even in your own podcast Nick has expressed a number of sentiments that echo a lot of what has been said in this thread. It has made following gaming news on pretty much medium impossible as you can’t go anywhere without seeing/hearing about it and it’s so damn annoying. I’m excited for the games Xbox studios are going to be putting out, but I can’t say the same thing about Xbox hardware. I’d like to see the brand that I prefer actually try to entice people to buy their products, both the console and the games. I swear there’s a constant 4 or 5 people in this thread that are looking for an excuse to shrug off every bit of “bad discourse” as trivial, unwarranted, and crazy
If people put the thread on mute, that’s good for them and they don’t have to engage in it. They can have an echo chamber with the majority of the forum and other threads here where everything is peachy in the Xbox community and any mention of anything negative going on gets relegated to this thread. How this thread has been handled is a reminder to me of why I always end up leaving these forums after some period of time.
This thread is now nearly 2 full months old, and the discussions had started weeks before. There’s over 8000 posts in here, if something big/new that actually warrants a decent discussion happens it can go off the timer. For now though we’re done with it.
Yeah the blame on the tone should go to both extreme sides. I’ve been equally upset by bad takes as I’ve been by the dismissive wannabe-suits.
If we tried to approach the subject with a more adult and listening view of things, maybe this would work better. There’s no need to be dooming over hypotheticals OR to antagonize people who have emotions. There’s no need to make drive-by posts about how horrible the thread is f.e, we all know you can ignore threads on this forum so you choose to come in and antagonize people whilst contributing zero to improve the discussion. Be the change you want.
I really hope this thread can continue, with perhaps a bit less harsh cooldown lol, and that we can talk about these things in a calm manner.
The thread will stay open, the cooldown will go away when actual news hits, and driveby posts will continue to be heavily moderated but we’ll try to put up “this post was moderated” style notices on things more.
The problem is that adult conversations require that people be receptive to objective data. Feelings, however important they may be to an individual who holds them, are not a substitute for objective reality.
There are insurmountable mountains of data, telling anyone willing to look at it, exactly how/why the industry, and specific businesses within that industry, is heading the direction it is.
Just lock it. It’s what you guys want anyway. I hate to sound political, but this is almost like stifling freedom of speech. people are still respectful in their debates here and this topic just seems to be the one that they want to engage in the most. there is definitely a lot of negative feeling and I guess it can be annoying and trying on one’s patience, so I get the tolerance, but I say just make it all stop by locking it. The discussion after all has changed from rumor to fact to Xbox future or whatever. Seems to me the original topic is over.
Guess the concern is by closing this thread it’ll just spill out elsewhere - and those muting this thread will end up seeing stuff they can’t be bothered with (same if a new thread is created, maybe just rename this one if title no longer fits?)
For example, without meaning to my criticism of quality assurance ventured into this territory in the Pentiment thread and even being careful on the Sony one I’ve mentioned their insane marketing budget vs how little Xbox does (although it was in context, that they could cut it to be more profitable, while it might explain Xbox’s profitability given they do so few TV ads etc).
I’m a Bristol City fan (for my sins) and their fan forum has a Bristol Rovers Dustbin Thread, which is the only place you’re allowed to discuss / laugh at the local opposition (primarily as we’ve stayed at least a league above for over 2 decades so most people don’t care about them but those old enough / with Rovers mates / with family history may still want to).
This thread reminds me of it - want to speculate on the future direction of Xbox and critique / support it, come here (without getting personal), while other threads stay more positive, less speculative and more grounded in facts…
And the timer is making me think through what I post, so less “heat of the moment” stuff I guess
But that’s the same on the other side, if you don’t understand and be ok with it you’re basically shamed and looked down upon as a console warrior and being toxic
Personally I barely associate these games going multiplat with the Xbox brand…
What will this website look like if something like halo goes to PlayStation? The forum will be shut down for sure because of the negative discourse so many concern trolls seems to engage with here
Unfortunately I think Xbox will always be viewed in a negative light.
IF and it’s a big IF Xbox continuously release high quality exclusives going forward and keep their hardware & software up-to-date then people’s perceptions might start to change.
After today PS will have a headcount of just over 10k whereas Xbox will have a headcount over 20k. Although we can all agree the layoffs are shit, Xbox is technically in a much better position going forward then they ever have been, whereas PS has been gradually declining. PS would kill to have franchises like Minecraft and Call of Duty.
Despite both companies laying off 8%, Microsofts layoffs included duplicate staff from their ABK merger. Playstation did not have this same excuse, is the market leader, closed down a entire studio and their layoffs are still perceived less harshly than Xbox (PS also likely killed off VR today too).
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