My overall personal thoughts and opinions -
Personally, I prefer Sony’s first party studios over Microsoft’s because they give me what I want the most - single player third person story driven games. Doesn’t matter if it’s linear, wide-linear or open world. Their quality is for the most part, top tier. They’ve earned my confidence in them to where outside of a game here and there, im never worried or concerned. However, I do know what to expect from them so im not as hyped as I was with PlayStation 4. Granted, I may get a surprise (like Returnal) here and there but for the vast majority of PlayStation 5, I know what im getting.
With PlayStation 3 which if it wasn’t for Naughty Dog, I would have had only a single exclusive game. I ended up with five for the generation. It wasn’t until 2016 on PlayStation 4 that I really started to see and care about games from their other studios. Guerilla was nothing to me until Horizon. Insomniac was nothing until Spider Man. I played Ratchet 2016 earlier this year. Sucker Punch was nothing until Ghost of Tsushima. Bend Studio was dead to me until Days Gone. Naughty Dog was the only consistent studio for me and even then, I was disappointed with two of their three games.
The entire point of the above is that it took time for me to actually care and get invested into PlayStation 4 as I was an Xbox 360 guy first and foremost. This is what I see right now with Xbox Game Studios. I have The Coalition which during the Xbox One generation was the equivalent of Naughty Dog during the PlayStation 3 generation meaning that it was pretty much just that studio and nothing else.
With Xbox Series X, I see Xbox Game Studios being for me what Sony’s first party studios were for me during the PlayStation 4 generation. To start, there’s 343 Industries with Halo Infinite. I believe the game looked great but had no “pop” due to the bad/non-existent lighting and no Ray Tracing. But art style and design looked excellent and im all in. So much so that I have watched the gameplay trailer 10 times and once I get Xbox Series X, I will be playing through every main game in the franchise because now, im hyped to play them all and get invested in the franchise.
Playground Games has made what I believe is the best racing franchise in the industry with Forza Horizon. I beat FH2, played some of FH3 but skipped FH4. Of course, im not into racing and driving games. Me playing as much as I did is honestly surprising. With that said, I am however hyped for Fable because I see it being for Playground Games what Horizon Zero Dawn was for Guerrilla Games. My only concern with Fable is what art style they choose. I personally want it to be realistic and more mature like The Witcher III as I do believe that Xbox Game Studios do in fact need a few realistic looking games. Fable definitely being one of them. And of course, you have their second studio developing Forza Horizon which will most likely be a live service game once released. Turn 10 has Forza Motorsport which will be a live service game as well but im pretty much done with racing games so while I know both will be great, they’re not for me.
The Coalition hasn’t shown anything for Xbox Series X yet but I would imagine that they wrap up the current trilogy storyline for Gears 6 and then hopefully end the generation with a new IP. At least, this is what im hoping they do. Ninja Theory has Project Mara and previously released Bleeding Edge which are of no interest to me. What is of interest to me though is Hellblade 2. Ninja Theory is an excellent development studio and im expecting the sequel to surpass the first game which was great in every aspect. Looking forward to it.
The Initiative is currently working on what is heavily rumored to be a Perfect Dark reboot in third person which works for me. Expecting it to have multi-player but hopefully, an excellent single player story campaign. Just have to see gameplay when the time comes to be all in.
Obsidian Entertainment currently has passion project Grounded which is doing extremely well but is not for me. Played The Outer Worlds but only a few hours worth. Will go back to it once I get Series X as I am trying to get into Obsidian’s games. Avowed showed a teaser trailer and it does appear to be their version of Skyrim. I have interest in it and it’s on my list but I need to see more gameplay before getting hyped for it.
InXile Entertainment is releasing Wasteland 3 which im already all in for but since there will be post launch DLC, im better off waiting to play it on Series X as opposed to buying it for PS4 especially since I will be trading in the PS4 by October 31st. I have no clue as to what their next gen AAA RPG is going to be but I do hope it’s a third person perspective game.
Undead Labs has State of Decay 3. I played, completed and enjoyed State of Decay back in 2013 on Xbox 360 but I quit State of Decay 2 after about 15 hours. The base building and environments were better but everything else was equal or worse than the first game. To get me back which is definitely possible is that State of Decay 3 must look like the trailer they showed. If it looks like State of Decay 2, I will not be pleased or happy whatsoever. Aside from that, im just hoping for an actual story campaign like the first game had.
Compulsion Games is working on a next gen title. have no clue as to what it is. I will say that out of all the Xbox Game Studios, Compulsion is at the bottom of my list because their games haven’t been that good and also haven’t interested me at all. Will see if that changes with their next gen title.
World’s Edge is developing Age of Empires IV. The entire franchise is not for me but they appear to be great games. Just not my thing. Mojang is pretty much just Minecraft. Dungeons was fine but overall, not for me.
Double Fine is a great studio who make great games but the only problem is that they don’t appeal to me whatsoever. I’m expecting Psychonauts 2 to be a great game but for me, I have to wait and see what their next gen title will be.
Rare is working on Everwild which has my interest based on the art style which is absolutely gorgeous but at the same time, it all comes down to what kind of game it is which as of now, even Rare doesn’t know. This is simply a wait and see.
Xbox Game Studios Publishing is however giving me a few games. I’m hyped for Gears Tactics from Splash Damage and while it’s highly unlikely, I do believe that Microsoft should have tried to acquire them because just imagine Halo Tactics, etc. With InXile looking to move away from those isometric turn based strategy RPG’s, acquiring Splash Damage could have been an excellent replacement. I also have Ori and the Will of the Wisps which I know was released months ago on Xbox One but don’t have it so I have to wait until I get Series X. I also have Crossfire X campaign developed by Remedy Entertainment. This was my surprise of the Xbox Games Showcase because damn, does it look great and seems to have bullet time which granted is no surprise but overall, looks great and looking forward to playing it.
I know I just one hell of a long ass post but the entire point and purpose is that games don’t get created, developed and released overnight plus while there may be nothing of interest to some of you, that can change later on. I had only 5 exclusives for PlayStation 3 but that changed with PlayStation 4 as I ended the generation with 18. I had 6 exclusives for Xbox One but im expecting to have at least double that with Xbox Series X.
I know that the delay to Halo Infinite is disappointing and has only been heightened by the fact that there doesn’t appear to be anything to replace it at launch but it is what it is and I prefer 343 Industries to get everything right then to rush it out. Should Microsoft/Spencer have had a secondary game and backup plan? Absolutely but they don’t and nothing is going to change that.
In the second paragraph of this long ass post, I stated that Sony didn’t really give me great games until 2016. Sure, I played a few good games between launch and 2016 but nothing to brag about. I see the same outcome here for Xbox Series X. A slow 15-18 months, perhaps longer, maybe, not really sure but once Xbox Game Studios start releasing the games in 2022 and beyond, it will be like Sony with PlayStation 4 where it was one great game after another.
Since E3 2018 when Microsoft acquired the studios that they did up until now, I knew that I had to be patient because if not, I would be getting myself all worked up and whatnot for no reason because from there, I wasn’t expecting anything until 2022 and beyond from all those studio acquisitions. Sony’s first party studios didn’t get where they are now overnight or even after a generation or two for me personally so that’s how I see Xbox Series X playing out.
Just have to be patient and if Microsoft’s/Spencer’s direction with Xbox Series X is not what you want it to be or prefer it to be, then you should probably look elsewhere because their direction is only going to go further out in the direction you already don’t want it to go in and it’s simply not going to change no matter how much you may want it to.
For me personally, im the most hyped for Xbox I have been in a decade and with or without Halo Infinite, Xbox Series X was always going to be and still is a day one purchase because im not only excited for the console itself, what it offers but also for Xbox Game Studios overall and Game Pass is simply too great a service to pass up. Also, like 95% of gamers, multi-platform titles are going to be what you play the most in every generation on every console and in this regard, I believe that Xbox Series X will be the best console to play them all on.
As for the live service element, to be perfectly honest, it depends on the game itself. For say Hellblade 2, it should be a one and done but for say Halo Infinite and many others, not so much because they can add a lot of content to it over the weeks, months and years after release.
I’m not into the online co-op and/or online multi-player whatsoever as it’s not for me nor am I into weekly and monthly content but what I am into is single player story driven expansions like in The Witcher III, Assassin’s Creed Origins, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and others. If I get two of these a year even if I have to pay for them and they’re quality, then I will be more than happy and satisfied.
One final thing - above all else, the games need to be quality. They don’t need to be perfect 10’s or some shit but they do need to be in the 8 range and higher when possible. And by this, I don’t mean critics because I could care less about them all but I mean for me personally and I would think that if you’re getting good to great to excellent quality games regardless of who else likes them or not, you should be a happy gamer.
Sorry for the massively long post. Hehehe.
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