Recency bias is a helluva drug.
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Not at all, but I give credit to SONY for having a next-gen title ready at launch, something which MS couldn’t do. If Halo had come out when it was meant to, the software AAA doubt from MS would have been even worse
And I do tire of ‘looking’, ‘forward’ ‘future’ I like to game in the here and now.
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You make good points but I think you give PlayStation too much credit and Xbox not enough credit.
As someone who had both systems at launch. This is how it played out for me… Spider-Man Miles Morales / Astro’s Playroom for the month of November, Cyberpunk Series X for December. I was happy with both launches however Xbox clearly had the better launch. Cyberpunk was my game of the year and it was basically a Series X console exclusive.
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Yeah, it worked great on Series X. They could have pushed that harder tbh.
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You come across as someone that has a feeling and are twisting facts and ‘not counting’ things that don’t back up your emotions.
The discussion really isn’t going to go anywhere.
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Hellblade 2 won’t swing the pendulum towards Xbox. The first game is so niche & requires the player to tolerate ‘voices in the head’ to an invasive degree so… I wouldn’t bet on it reaching mainstream appeal anytime soon if they continue down that path. No matter how good it looks.
There’s a whole bunch of niggles with regards to Xbox which have accumulated for ten years now & have finally resulted in sales cratering whilst PS5 sells gangbusters. Microsoft basically bought Activision at the 11th hour as a final hail mary & it’ll go through just in time to avoid complete Wii U style sales, i.e. Xbox becoming the Game Pass + Call of Duty box is going to save this thing. I don’t even care about COD & have my own reasons ‘why’ I enjoy Xbox but I’m not the mainstream. I’m the sort of person who enjoys playing through the campaigns of the original Halo games again & again, or playing some older titles with auto HDR & fps boost. But that’s not what most consumers want. I’m also the sort of person who is amazed by how good VRR & low framerate compensation works on the Series X when paired with a 120hz tv set. It’s incredible. But consumers probably don’t care about that either.
I think the Series X should have had a digital edition, basically. I also think the dualsense PS5 controller is a far bigger deal than Sony’s AAA exclusives. And it’s something which cannot be overcome this gen, i.e. the fact third party AAA titles like Resident Evil 4 & Hogwarts provide a ‘special’ bonus experience in the hands of the player on the PS5 (in the form of haptic feedback & triggers which are basically the controller equivalent of a force feedback steering wheel) is something which automatically makes a difference in terms of selling a ‘next gen experience’. We have such diminishing returns when it comes to visuals, i.e. the best looking current gen games don’t really look a generation apart from something like Red Dead Redemption 2 running on a One X or PS4 Pro, so it’s ‘other stuff’ that makes a difference, like the aforementioned controller.
That’s of course on top of a cultural landscape heavily favoring the PlayStation brand. So yeah, COD & Activision are going to save the Series consoles from selling worse than the One generation but Microsoft needs to look at what makes Sony’s hardware so attractive as well, not just the software side of things. When reviews say ‘haptics are great, it feels amazing!’, Xbox players are screwed either way.
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It’s hard to disagree.
Still, the game that might start reversing Xbox’s fortunes could be Starfield, assuming it lives up to the impact Fallout 3 and Skyrim had during the 360 generation. After that, each new 1st party would be adding to the breadth and depth of Microsoft’s line-up, making it a worthy console in the eyes of the mainstream player, assuming they start coming out at a decent pace.
I don’t necessarily think Microsoft bought ABK to help Xbox though, but investing $69B into ABK should reassure us that Microsoft’s interest in gaming won’t wane just because they have one or two slower quarters. The way I see it, after the ABK acquisition closes, Microsoft Gaming will comprise FIVE medium sized publishers, but only two (XGS and Bethesda) are supposed to carry the Xbox brand, Activision and Blizzard will only occasionally release exclusive games. Which I think is fine, XGS is still ramping up and we haven’t felt the impact of that yet.
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Sure, absolutely. For me it’s also about how the deal will allow Xbox to exist in the market based on a very singular offering of its own: COD on Game Pass. That will be easily recognisable as a value proposition to most consumers. It won’t turn Xbox into the dominant market leader & it won’t magically make COD players all subscribe to Game Pass but it’s the value Microsoft needs to make its service stand out (& consoles sell).
I have other issues (which would require writing a huge wall of text) but I’ll keep it simple: the controller issue I mentioned (i.e. Sony’s dualsense) is vexing because Xbox had the really cool impulse triggers last gen… which third party AAA devs totally ignored, yet now (surprise, surprise) they’re all implementing dualsense haptics features on the PS5. That sucks for Xbox.
Then there’s all the talk about focusing on Game Pass, mobile & PC when console sales are crashing. Xbox as a brand is still a console first brand, i.e. that’s the best place to subscribe to Game Pass (none of the PC related hassle) & best place to play Xbox games (tailored for the hardware). I don’t want to hear about mobile, PC or services when it’s the core console market which needs solidifying right now. That’s the foundation, otherwise potential Xbox customers are simply going to go over to Sony, get a PS5, enjoy the haptics & forget Xbox exists.
So I say in terms of marketing strategy, Redfall & Starfield have to be all about the Series consoles offering a premium experience. At least make sure PlayStation owners consider the possibility of owning two consoles, i.e. through FOMO, and not just think ‘meh, I’ll get these on PC when they’re discounted’.
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No single game will swing the pendulum, not even Starfield. The pendulum will swing as a result of a consistent release cadence of quality and varied games over the span of many years. Hellblade 2 is an important part of that, as the most “Sony” game Xbox has made in a long time, alongside Perfect Dark, Fable, Indiana Jones etc.
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Yes, Xbox needs to build the reputation of being a place where you can play many excellent games that aren’t available on either Playstation or Nintendo. But it needs to to have a stream of excellent games first… I think Xbox executives realize that and are not panicking yet, they simply started investing into internal development to be ready for this generation (assuming Starfield lives up to the hype, it’ll be the second ‘killer-app’ for the console after 3 years on the market, which is pretty bad).
I am quite optimistic about the games once they start out come out regularly (which is 2023 hopefully - MS could release 4 or 5 highly rated games this year, and then repeat the feat next year, and the year after that and so on) - I’m a big fan of the RPG genre and some MS studios are capable of producing graphical bangers (id, The Coalition), so the competition will definitely heat up.
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I should come across has a XBox fan . Just not happy seeing MS seeing XBox come out 2nd best all the time.
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Who cares about what other people spend their money on (like a PS5). As long as Microsoft believes Xbox is viable & continue supporting the platform, that’s good enough for me.
Also, let’s not kid ourselves: hardware & games are not the issue, trends are. People don’t flock in droves to buy a PlayStation 5 because God of War is the best game ever, they buy it because it’s market leader, fashionable & the reviewers tell them God of War & Sony exclusives are the best games ever.
As an Xbox owner I’m drowning in some of the best games available right now, via Game Pass as well. The content on Xbox is there & going to get better this year, yet the cultural Zeitgeist isn’t. I mean just look at what Xbox has coming this year: Redfall, Starfield & Forza. Sony has Final Fantasy 16 & Spiderman. From a sheer quantitative & quality standpoint does that merit doom & gloom for Xbox? No, but people follow trends & fashion.
The mantra “Sony has the best exclusives” isn’t even the biggest differentiator, it’s simply another layer on the cultural dominance Sony enjoys. Breaking that is going to require Xbox to keep up the pace of well received titles but also Sony must muck up themselves with games people don’t enjoy. FOMO aka fear of missing out must become a thing when PS5 owners look at what’s on Xbox.
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I wish I had more likes to give for your posts.
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Should be to ramp up series x production and msrketing.
Ms should be looking to ship millions of serismes x systems for starfield.
Series x sales will drive your gamepass numbers.
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Let’s hope in the future Microsoft are as aggressive as can be when they push COD. Let everyone believe it doesn’t exist on PlayStation and that Xbox/PC is the only place to play it. That may finally break down some of that cultural dominance.
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I’m not counting on Xbox selling a lot of consoles anymore. I think the push will be PC and their mobile store plus Cloud. Xbox will rise
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I care actually. I’m sick of the PS trolls on social media having fun at Xbox’s expense. I actually want what I consider to be the best console around to be doing better and selling better. In truth, I want Team Xbox to smash SONY and sales data is very important when a developer looks to lead on a console IMO
Please don’t kid yourself that I’m some rabid SONY fan when I’m not and I don’t like many of their AAA exclusives: I think Spiderman/MM Horzion Zerodawn 1/2 are boring and just not for me. The point is they’re out on the market and SONY fans have a choice and can ram down our throats the fact that the PSV is selling like hotcakes and how many AAA games they have out that are so well rated on metash8t
I love it when you can give it back to the SONY fans who in most cases have never held an Xbox pad, but still like to down the system and games they’ve never owned
I never enjoyed gaming so much since the Sega Saturn days and all that’s thanks to the Series X, but most of that is down to old XBox games now upgraded or 3rd party support, little of that is from current AAA Team Xbox titles and nearly 3 years in it should be a lot better.
I’m tired of waiting and I feel that MS needs to do far better with the Studio it already owns and not just look to buy more, quite frankly XBox PR is a joke. But that’s just my rants and feelings
Come June I bet it will be all forgotten
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Fair enough.
I only get disappointed with social media narratives (& media narratives full stop) when I make a purchase mistake as a result of underserved hype. Like paying too much for a game I don’t like because everyone is screaming ‘must buy, best game ever!’ (I’m looking at you God of War 2018…).
Long story short: I have a PS4, it was a gift. Some exclusives were fantastic (Bloodborne, Detroit Become Human, Nioh), others were flawed (Horizon, God of War 2018). Spiderman for me was totally unplayable though, i.e. as someone who loves the Batman Arkham series, I found Spiderman so dull & tedious to play I bounced off almost immediately. By & large these titles are absolutely not in any shape or form deserving of the insane praise heaped upon them by the gaming press.
Take Uncharted 4 for example: it’s an uneven, poorly paced slog with some genuinely great moments (the clock tower for example) & then absolutely killjoy levels which suck the fun out of everything. It’s also blighted by a bittersweet moralistic story which undermines Drake as a pulpy fun action adventure hero. I then got the Xbox One & played the heavily criticised Gears 4. You know what? Gears 4 is better than Uncharted 4, both as a third person shooter & also in terms of pacing, character development & level design. The praise Uncharted 4 got versus the borderline hate Gears 4 received creates a jarring chasm in terms of perception which simply has zero real life merit. It’s the same with Halo 5, i.e. IMO it got unfairly destroyed by fans… yet it’s better than any first person exclusive shooter put out there by Sony over the past 10 years. It’s miles more enjoyable than Killzone Shadow Fall for example.
It also doesn’t help perceptions when Xbox players regularly cr*p all over their own games (like Gears & Halo), whilst Sony’s fanboys employ the opposite tactic & defend everything on their system. I’m not saying people need to ignore faults in Microsoft’s exclusives but there’s a line where potential buyers might get duped into believing everything is rosy on the PlayStation side of gaming whilst Xbox has bad games.
As someone who’s been gaming on both systems for a very long time, the reality is far, far different.
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Sometimes when you guys make these long posts I both agree and disagree with points… But I appreciate the passion, it’s clear people can praise Xbox but also criticize Xbox, that’s what prevents this fan base from becoming a cult like those other guys. 
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