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VG24/7: 2 years in, the Xbox Series X/S still lacks even one killer exclusive

You dont need to defend xbox all the time.

I give xbox credits where it's due, and criticise them, when they fail on certain parts.

You need to have a balance. MS doesn't need your defending. It's not worth it.

There is a famous quote that says
It has nothing to do with defending anything. I like them saving me money. I like they haven't raised prices on consoles and games. I like what they've done with BC. I like what they are doing with Game pass. Far better than defending price increases and extra fees like some have done for other platforms.
 

feynoob

Banned
It has nothing to do with defending anything. I like them saving me money. I like they haven't raised prices on consoles and games. I like what they've done with BC. I like what they are doing with Game pass. Far better than defending price increases and extra fees like some have done for other platforms.
That is you.
But that doesn't mean you need to keep arguing with people on behalf of them.

This post shows all kind of responds. And some of those are just trolls, or repeating things that we got tired of.

At this point let it go. 2023 is around the corner. And people here would forget about these talks, once the gen ends.

That is what actually matters. By 2028, people would have answer to everything they wanted from Xbox. If MS cant deliver that, then that is on them.
 

ChiefDada

Gold Member
Also why is Gamepass seemingly not allowed to be a selling point for Xbox this gen?. It certainly seems to helping sell Xbox consoles this gen. I mean i wonder how many people have bought a Series console, especially a S, and using it as a Gamepass box.
I mean i'm on PC but Christ give me Gamepass over 2 or 3 exclusives a year.

Nothing wrong with appreciating the potential of gamepass as a concept but at some point you have to deliver with content that can't be found anywhere else, or in Xbox case, can't be found on PS. Gamepass has had some decent grabs with games such as Plagues Tale but when the competition's (Sony) strategy is so compelling that customers are willing to pay premium price for games like PT, that indicates first party exclusives are the key drivers for consoles so it's mind boggling how Microsoft hasn't gotten their act together when it comes to first party line up.
 

HTK

Banned
Delivering on a high level is something MS studios havent been good at doing.
That may be true to some extent, but I think Forza Horizon 5 was high level. I'm sure the next Forza Motorsport will be as well. I know outside of these games it's been a struggle for them.
 

rolandss

Member
Are we counting PS4 games as PS5 games now? Because that’s most of PS5s library. Honestly I have never owned an Xbox and been a PS gamer all my life but I’m waiting for them to give us “next gen” still. As far as I’m concerned no console yet has a true killer exclusive.

Also Starfield looks more exciting than anything exclusive that’s been announced on PS5. Now GOW is out (which is a PS4 game) what have we got to look forward to? Harry Potter and Forspoken? They look like Disney hell.
 

JTCx

Member
It has nothing to do with defending anything. I like them saving me money. I like they haven't raised prices on consoles and games. I like what they've done with BC. I like what they are doing with Game pass. Far better than defending price increases and extra fees like some have done for other platforms.
Translation: "I like things besides games"
 

Kvally

Banned
Are we counting PS4 games as PS5 games now? Because that’s most of PS5s library. Honestly I have never owned an Xbox and been a PS gamer all my life but I’m waiting for them to give us “next gen” still. As far as I’m concerned no console yet has a true killer exclusive.

Also Starfield looks more exciting than anything exclusive that’s been announced on PS5. Now GOW is out (which is a PS4 game) what have we got to look forward to? Harry Potter and Forspoken? They look like Disney hell.
Returnal and R&C are PS5 exclusives. But they aren't a next gen feel to me. Same goes for Xbox, including Starfield (though the game itself looks epic fun). I don't feel anything next gen to me. But I am not sure what I am expecting to be "next gen". Xbox and PS are starting their 3rd year now. Let's hope "next gen" starts in 2023. Spider-Man 2, Starfield, Redfall, FM8, etc are all current gen only games. Maybe we will be surprised.
 

PerfectDark

Banned
I always have a xbox. Can't name one good exclusive in the last 10 years. Xbox makes a nice console. A yearly Forza and nothing else. Not a PS5 fan but video games wouldn't skip a beat without Xbox. Sony and Nintendo would be missed.
 
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GHG

Gold Member

ProtoByte

Member
Which i think is weird considering the most popular games are live games.
People get through SP titles, show them off for maybe 8 months then go back to their MP titles.
Incessantly going back to multiplayer games doesn't make them good. It just means that they've managed to get the "addict" hooks into you with cheap dopamine tricks, FOMO economy and event design, and paid astroturfing via Twitch. It is, as you unwittingly point out, the filler you indulge in between the main events.

There's nothing wrong with picking up a new game, playing it, and putting it down. Revisiting/replaying it every now and again, but overall, you move on to new games/games you haven't played. It's healthy. It used to be normal. People used to play multiplayer games because they were fun. Now, it's almost as if the average multiplayer gamer has a second job.

People talk about certain games decades after their release. No one will talk about Sea of Thieves 10 years from now.
 

Nvzman

Member
And yet Xbox Series continues to track better than last generation and offers tons of great value and new games for their customers. It's almost like they don't rely on exclusives and more on services and value. Multiple ways to be successful in this industry.
Last generation Xbox (relatively to 360 and competition) sold like shit so it's not really a good point to use that as a reference.
Game Pass is great value but I definitely agree MS needs something other than CoD to actually convince people that Game Pass will be great value long-term. I've barely used it within the past few months because nothing really that great has come out on it. It's basically been a $15 a month subscription for Forza.
Also a lot of people here seem to forget how big MS talked up their first party game and how much they promised (even two years ago) and yet almost everything they have shown so far has either been lackluster or so far off from releasing it's irrelevant.

Also for what it's worth, I don't really consider Gears Tactics or Flight Sim as "killer Xbox exclusives" as they are PC games that just got ported later on. It would be like calling Half-Life 2 on the original Xbox a killer app.
 
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I push back against lies and nonsense. I stay out of threads about products I don't own. If you don't like Xbox why are you in this thread?
I have two Xbox consoles. They also have more playtime then both my PC and PS5 recently. A X and a S so don’t jump to conclusions and talk about shit you don’t know about.

Every post I’ve ever seen you make reeks of fanboyism and shilling. Nobody can say anything bad about your precious console of choice without you popping up like a discord mod.
 
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ProtoByte

Member
They definitely need Starfield to be a masterpiece

Delay as long as it’s needed to get it right
I can't remember the thread it was in, but someone was mentioning how they thought Starfield looks mediocre. I have to agree, and I don't think any amount of delays is going to change it.

The gameplay just doesn't look like it has anything close to modern polish, but it goes beyond technical stuff. It just looks creatively tired. Same old ponderous, expositional dialogue with little character, same drab artstyle and color palette, same faction-based setup featuring characters without the distinct characteristics to seperate into factions, etcetera. It looks like Fallout in Space. All this plus a metric ton of procedurally generated environments? Couldn't be more uninteresting to me if they tried.

I genuinely don't think anybody would be even marginally hyped for Starfield had Microsoft not bought Bethesda. The merits of the company, and this type of game delivered in this type of way really, was rightfully in dispute not 5 seconds beforehand.
 

Mr Hyde

Member
I always have a xbox. Can't name one good exclusive in the last 10 years. Xbox makes a nice console. A yearly Forza and nothing else. Not a PS5 fan but video games wouldn't skip a beat without Xbox. Sony and Nintendo would be missed.

angry star wars GIF by Hyper RPG
 

ProtoByte

Member
Incessantly going back to multiplayer games doesn't make them good. It just means that they've managed to get the "addict" hooks into you with cheap dopamine tricks, FOMO economy and event design, and paid astroturfing via Twitch. It is, as you unwittingly point out, the filler you indulge in between the main events.
Also very much worth noting that this is the type of design philosophy, down to the "it's not just about the player, it's about the viewer too", incentivized by Gamepass as a business model.
 
Why is this forum such a dumpster fire. As many issues as Resetera has, at least I don't see them constantly devolving into shit slinging console war monkeys.
 

SteadyEvo

Member
Grounded is definitely one. Just finished it. Second best game of the year.

Is there story mode? I won’t lie, everytime I see this game I’m turned off. Doesn’t look like my cup of tea and seeing the coverage MS gave it leading up to launch was head scratching to me.

It’s a Gamepass and cable box since my TV doesn’t support the app. Exclusives I’m looking forward to are Starfield and whatever Tango Gameworks makes next.

High hopes for Avowed. They acquired a ton of studios, surely someone will deliver.
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
Is there story mode? I won’t lie, everytime I see this game I’m turned off. Doesn’t look like my cup of tea and seeing the coverage MS gave it leading up to launch was head scratching to me.

It’s a Gamepass and cable box since my TV doesn’t support the app. Exclusives I’m looking forward to are Starfield and whatever Tango Gameworks makes next.

High hopes for Avowed. They acquired a ton of studios, surely someone will deliver.
???????
 

ungalo

Member
People don't know how to distinguish a fanboy and someone who's trying to make a point in good faith, that's weird.

Criticism in general is not handled very well. People are going to crazy extent to defend anything.
 

Kacho

Gold Member
I genuinely don't think anybody would be even marginally hyped for Starfield had Microsoft not bought Bethesda. The merits of the company, and this type of game delivered in this type of way really, was rightfully in dispute not 5 seconds beforehand.
Maybe in terms of Xbox fanboys using it as fodder for console wars. But no, if Todd Howard puts out a new game there is a ton of hype, especially on PC. The game will be an event when it launches.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
Stop trolling.

In fact i think the worst thing in all of this is once the games will finally arrive, some of them will face an undeserved shitstorm when people see they are not really big games.

Microsoft mismanaged the schedule so bad that it will put a lot of pressure on certain studios.

Apparently, pressure is magically able to change the budget of completed games.

"When these big budget AAA games arrive, people will see that they are actually AA games"

gods, the sheer wildness of some of you folks posts here on GAF. What were you thinking when you made this post?
 

ProtoByte

Member
I view Xbox as a kind of sleeping dragon. They have a large number of studios now working on games, some getting close to the 3-4 year development time as of 2023. It sucks to keep hearing "it's coming" but when you have over 20 studios all actively working on games, not to mention the exclusive projects being worked on under the Xbox Game Studios Publishing arm by third parties (like IO)..

This narrative is an issue for Xbox, they have not yet popped off. But when they do it's going to be crazy, that's a lot of studios now years into project development. It's only a matter of time.
That's assuming things are going well behind the scenes. There's no reason for expect that they are. The same management is in place, and if anything their mentality's gotten worse.

By 2023, it would've been a full 5 years since they bought Ninja Theory, Compulsion, etcetera, and started up The Initiative.

3.5 years after the fact, the best Ninja Theory's had with their Hellblade sequel was a glorified tech demo. I don't know why anyone would expect good things from Compulsion. And the Initiative failed spectacularly, to the point thay they've essentially handed the game to Crystal Dynamics hot off the catastrophic Avengers.

This whole "it's cooking" thing has been around for years, and hasn't delivered.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
I genuinely don't think anybody would be even marginally hyped for Starfield had Microsoft not bought Bethesda. The merits of the company, and this type of game delivered in this type of way really, was rightfully in dispute not 5 seconds beforehand.

Not sure if serious. To say nobody would be hyped for the next major RPG from a revered RPG studio is just plain bananas :messenger_grinning:

The game is #3 on Steam's Global wishlists. Apparently, Xbox fans are the ones wishlisting the game on Steam?
 
Master Chief Collection, BC, Gamepass.

Bethesda is a huge get as well. Then there’s Forza Horizon 5 and the Hot Wheels Expansion, Halo Infinite’s campaign had a great open world, though some of the missions were lacking, Ori 2 was great. Sea of thieves is fun. Found so many other good games on game pass as well.

an early xbox one game? what? thats like saying PS5 has infamous second son.
 

SteadyEvo

Member
That's assuming things are going well behind the scenes. There's no reason for expect that they are. The same management is in place, and if anything their mentality's gotten worse.

By 2023, it would've been a full 5 years since they bought Ninja Theory, Compulsion, etcetera, and started up The Initiative.

3.5 years after the fact, the best Ninja Theory's had with their Hellblade sequel was a glorified tech demo. I don't know why anyone would expect good things from Compulsion. And the Initiative failed spectacularly, to the point thay they've essentially handed the game to Crystal Dynamics hot off the catastrophic Avengers.

This whole "it's cooking" thing has been around for years, and hasn't delivered.
Hellblade was a solid game. Serviceable, enjoyable combat with terrible puzzles. Hopefully they can build and improve on the 1st.

I agree with you on Compulsion Games. Not expecting much and We Happy Few and that shadow game.

The Initiative is a toss up.

Best they have are Bethesda and The Coalition if it’s not Gears related. I play Halo and Forza 1 week to a month after launch and never touch them again.

And the guys making Avowed. That has potential.
 

ungalo

Member
Apparently, pressure is magically able to change the budget of completed games.

"When these big budget AAA games arrive, people will see that they are actually AA games"

gods, the sheer wildness of some of you folks posts here on GAF. What were you thinking when you made this post?
AAA category is wide, and it's something that is defined internally, it can cover very different realities of production. Can you tell me what is the minimal budget for an AAA game right now in 2022 ?

Plus we saw with Avowed or Perfect Dark that it could change over the course of development, these are not "completed" games i don't know why you say that.

I'm talking about expectations vs reality anyway. Not everybody knows exactly the capacity of the said studios, with the amount of time the games took since their announcements, of course expectations grow, especially when you have nothing to play in the meantime.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
This is the only way anything ever changes with videogame companies. When the gaming media actually decides to criticise them instead of their usual shilling.0

Xbox rightly got criticized in the Xbox One era for too few exclusives. And they've worked to resolve that by securing a MUCH bigger first party pipeline.

I suspect the gaming media isn't enthused about criticizing them for delays for Starfield and Redfall since they didn't criticize delays for Hogwarts Legacy, GT7, Horizon, GoW Ragnarok, Gotham Knights, Suicide Squad, Callisto protocol, Zelda, Evil West, Warhammer 40K, Forspoken, Test Drive Unlimited and many others.
 

S0ULZB0URNE

Member
Xbox could debut 10 AAA exclusives next year with 10/10 average on OpenCritic, and that talk still wouldn't fade.


Those 3 first party games were delayed to 2022 because of COVID :messenger_neutral:

/Snip
Wholy wall of text Batman!

In the history of Xbox we never got a total of 10 AAA games.

Covid card eh m8? How is Sony and Nintendo delivering then?
 
While ive HAD it up to here with MS, things wouldve felt a lot differently had Stalker 2 and Starfield actually released this year.

As it stands I feel hoodwinked by MS and Bethesda. They made SUCH a big deal out of Starfield being a November '22 game that ai felt safe buying a Series X. Then they turn around and delay it without even giving us a timeframe which makes me think it eas never going to come out this year and they used it to help sell consoles.

Even after alll these delays MS can't give us a timeframe of when to expect their 3 big gqmes of '23- Redfall, Forza, and Starfield. Its only sometime in "23.

Hellblade 2 needs to come out in '23 but we found out thats not near completion either. The biggesr bummer though is Halo Infinite being a complete dud.
 

ungalo

Member
Xbox rightly got criticized in the Xbox One era for too few exclusives. And they've worked to resolve that by securing a MUCH bigger first party pipeline.

I suspect the gaming media isn't enthused about criticizing them for delays for Starfield and Redfall since they didn't criticize delays for Hogwarts Legacy, GT7, Horizon, GoW Ragnarok, Gotham Knights, Suicide Squad, Callisto protocol, Zelda, Evil West, Warhammer 40K, Forspoken, Test Drive Unlimited and many others.
Of course the big problem is the "delay" factor, it's not the fact that for example Hellblade 2 was announced with the console at the end of 2019 and will come out at the very best (because i'm optimistic) 4 years later.

Who even does that ? Who even announce a console with a game as a flagship that will release in the middle of the gen ? Only Microsoft could pull some crazy shit like that and still get defended lmao.

Oh but God of War got a one year delay it's the same, media are so biased against Xbox...
 
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Roberts

Member
I’m just here with my 67th sponsored post about how much Grounded rocks. Been playing it with a friend four/five times a week since it came out and still having enormous amount of fun and thrills. For me, it is a definition of a killer exclusive!
 

Ozriel

M$FT
AAA category is wide, and it's something that is defined internally, it can cover very different realities of production. Can you tell me what is the minimal budget for an AAA game right now in 2022 ?

This is just meaningless talk. AAA refers to budget, and any AAA game is by definition a 'big' game.


Plus we saw with Avowed or Perfect Dark that it could change over the course of development, these are not "completed" games i don't know why you say that.

Avowed and Perfect Dark have been announced as AAA games from Day 1 and that has never changed.

I'm talking about expectations vs reality anyway. Not everybody knows exactly the capacity of the said studios, with the amount of time the games took since their announcements, of course expectations grow, especially when you have nothing to play in the meantime.

Everybody knows the capabilities of Turn 10, Arkane, Obsidian and Bethesda. What are you on about?

especially when you have nothing to play in the meantime.

Is your console broken? Mine plays third party games just fine. A lot to play on GamePass for me. You imagine Monkey Island won't launch for me because it isn't made by MS?
 
I think Game Pass has helped massively in papering over the cracks - but the reality is Xbox does lack any real console exclusives.

Anything that is Microsoft exclusive is also on pc, further diluting the strength of the brand.

Yet, it doesn't seem to matter as there are committed console players who are happy to experience those Microsoft exclusives on the Xbox.

It has to be said that, and I think it's objectively true, Sony has offered at least some genuine system specific titles of merit.

If you count the upgraded ps5 versions of games like Ghost of Tsushima, Days Gone, Death Stranding, as well as big hitters like GT7, Ratchet and Clank, Returnal, Spiderman and Miles Morales, GoW Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, and others, it's clear they've offered something that Xbox customers haven't got.

Plus, Sony has also given pc players the opportunity to experience their biggest I.P (albeit after a few years).

They've even allowed some of their new I.P into Game Pass (think Death Stranding).

Sony is far from perfect, but I think they've been a solid software publisher this last 20+ years across multiple console generations.
 
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Ozriel

M$FT
Of course the big problem is the "delay" factor, it's not the fact that for example Hellblade 2 was announced with the console at the end of 2019 and will come out at the very best (because i'm an optimistic) 4 years later.

Who even does that ? Who even announce a console with a game as a flagship that will release in the middle of the gen ? Only Microsoft could pull some crazy shit like that and still get defended lmao.

Oh but God of War got a one year delay it's the same, media are so biased against Xbox...

...and now a 4 - 5 year development cycle for an AAA game is A Bad Thing.

I think it's clear I'm being trolled at this point.
 

93xfan

Banned
an early xbox one game? what? thats like saying PS5 has infamous second son.
It’s always getting better and is still being supported. It’d be more like saying PlayStation has… we’lli guess it’s tough to find a game to compare it to that was heavily supported and not shut down.

Socom. No wait. Driveclub. Hmmm. How about Motorstorm. Or Killzone. Warhawk? Maybe MAG?

Gravity Rush 2. That’s the one. :p
 
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