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[Forbes] PlayStation Is Still A Hit Machine While Xbox Hasn’t Even Started Catching Up

Banjo64

cumsessed
Yes? They have a large stable of developers now. Just look at what is on tap for 2023.
What is on tap for 2023?

MS themselves have only listed Forza, Starfield and Redfall for release in 2023. Age of Empires II & IV is cool.

I find it difficult to believe that Fable, Avowed, Everwild or Perfect Dark will be ready.

Possibly Hellblade II as their q4 game?

I don’t know. Only Starfield screams ‘great new game’ to me.

Microsoft really doesn't take risks at all. They haven't really evolved since they came into the market from a game design perspective. Their studios just create sequel after sequel for what they THINK caters to their audience, and their talent eventually leaves.

Because they don't take risks, their studios don't mature and their games just become stale.
Whilst they didn’t handle Bungie correctly, I’m not sure how you can come to that conclusion. When you look at some of Microsoft’s current offerings; Flight Simulator, Grounded, Sea of Thieves, Age of Empires IV, soon to be Pertiment, Mojang’s work. It’s all very different. They’ve also acquired Double Fine who are known for their out of the box thinking.

Not to start a list war, but if anything you could argue Sony have become too dependant on sequels.

Sea of thieves can sell 50 million copies. For me this game is nothing more than a shallow tech demo. What a waste of potentital. No one who cares big aaa single player experiences will be satisfied with sea of thieves. And if MS wants to expand their audience. They need to offer great sp experiences. With great story, gameplay and graphics.
That’s your opinion, and you’re entitled to it. But AAA single player experiences are just one tiny portion of the market. You could make the same argument about Sony needing to expand in to great multiplayer offerings if they want to expand their audience (both companies are trying to do this, MS with single player, Sony with multiplayer).

Ori was a step in the right direction, equal to any single player game I’ve played on Nintendo or PlayStation hardware. It’s not AAA though, but that didn’t bother me.
 
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again how the fuck did they manage to get people to buy an Xbox and an Xbox 360??

You do realize that without games like Halo, Gears, Forza, Fable etc Xbox would really be in a ditch right now? Hell the only reason they're even considered one of the 3 main tentpoles up against Nintendo and Sony is because of how influential those 4 games were and how much people fucking loved them, how they drove sales to Xbox as opposed to other consoles like PS. IT IS THE EXCLUSIVES. PLAIN AND SIMPLE.

The idea that this is what the narrative is now when over 16 years ago people were making fun of Playstation for having no games fucking baffles me

I actually think it is more so due to Halo specifically and their cultivation of online play and FPS and PC style games on the Xbox like Elder's Scrolls. Call of Duty used to be way more successful on 360 than PS3, but that really flipped on its head on PS4 vs X1 with Sony embracing online gaming more and learning from the mistakes of the PS3 that limited consumer buy-in. Sony also didn't have many strong exclusives early on with the PS3.

Sony had a similar issue with PS1 and PS2. They didn't have great first party titles back then, which is why when they ran into PS3 they really struggled out of the gates with the system being so expensive and difficult to develop for. It wasn't until Sony stepped up their 1st party support did the PS3 really begin to sell better and lead to the PS4 selling significantly better than the X1.

Microsoft is in a tough spot right now and they kind of know it (which is why they want this activision deal that is a bad deal to go through). They don't have anything. Right now the XSX/S are selling due to availability. Once supply shores up for PlayStation, we'll see what the demand looks like for XSX/S without any games. Right now the XSX/S are on a trajectory to outdo the X1, but we'll see if they can maintain that trajectory without major games.

Right now the PS5 is outselling the XSX/S at a 2:1 ratio, which is still pretty much in line with PS4 and X1.
 

Pelta88

Member
With all this Pentiment talk I figured I'd take a look at some gameplay on youtube. My initial thought was

giphy.gif


Anyone pushing the narrative that after all the promises made by Phil Spencer, Pentiment is the answer, is trolling you.
 
Whilst they didn’t handle Bungie correctly, I’m not sure how you can come to that conclusion. When you look at some of Microsoft’s current offerings; Flight Simulator, Grounded, Sea of Thieves, Age of Empires IV, soon to be Pertiment, Mojang’s work. It’s all very different. They’ve also acquired Double Fine who are known for their out of the box thinking.

Not to start a list war, but if anything you could argue Sony have become too dependant on sequels.

Flight simulator and Age of Empire are sequels. They had to buy Mojang and as you said they bought Double Fine. They didn't cultivate these studios.

Sony hasn't been risky in the first couple years of the PS5s life, that's absolutely true, but they've still put out Returnal, Astro's playroom, and they've just had some recent new IP with Ghost of Tsushima which became cross-gen with the Directors' cut. They're also putting a lot of energy into VR. Sackboy was also a departure for them.

Not saying Microsoft shouldn't buy companies, but they've got to actually cultivate them and develop them. Sony buying developers usually turns into a multiplayer effect not only for the new company but for their other internal studios. This has not been the case at all with Microsoft.

Most studios under Microsoft have either stayed the same or gotten worse.
 
Ori was a step in the right direction, equal to any single player game I’ve played on Nintendo or PlayStation hardware. It’s not AAA though, but that didn’t bother me.

How is the relationship between Microsoft and Moon Studios and before you buy the hype that they divorced due the toxic environment at Moon Studios, remember that Microsoft is spending 70B on Activision...
 

solidus12

Member
With all this Pentiment talk I figured I'd take a look at some gameplay on youtube. My initial thought was

giphy.gif


Anyone pushing the narrative that after all the promises made by Phil Spencer, Pentiment is the answer, is trolling you.
But it’s a game made by Josh Sawyer !!!
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
Flight simulator and Age of Empire are sequels. They had to buy Mojang and as you said they bought Double Fine. They didn't cultivate these studios.
Age of Empires III came out in 2005 though.

Quite frankly I don’t care if they cultivate the studios or not. I don’t care that Sony haven’t cultivated Bungie, Nixxes or Haven.

Sony hasn't been risky in the first couple years of the PS5s life, that's absolutely true, but they've still put out Returnal, Astro's playroom, and they've just had some recent new IP with Ghost of Tsushima which became cross-gen with the Directors' cut. They're also putting a lot of energy into VR. Sackboy was also a departure for them.
Astro is a sequel and Sackboy is a derivative sequel. It has to go both ways. Returnal and GoT are new, but so are Grounded, Sea of Thieves and Ori.

Not saying Microsoft shouldn't buy companies, but they've got to actually cultivate them and develop them. Sony buying developers usually turns into a multiplayer effect not only for the new company but for their other internal studios. This has not been the case at all with Microsoft. Most studios under Microsoft have either stayed the same or gotten worse.
100% agree, they need to show they can actually produce a culture of excellency like Nintendo and Sony do. Personally I don’t think they can and will instead have to rely on individual brilliance from the likes of Obsidian, Playground and Bethesda. It’s going to be hodgepodge IMO.
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
How is the relationship between Microsoft and Moon Studios and before you buy the hype that they divorced due the toxic environment at Moon Studios, remember that Microsoft is spending 70B on Activision...
Bad as far as I know. It’s a shame too. Personally I don’t care what goes on behind closed doors as long as the finished article is good. MS should have done what they could to tie them up. Can’t wait for their next game, which is multi platform.
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
It doesn’t help that Microsoft focuses more on multiplayer/GaaS. You’ve got a studio like Rare anchored to Sea of Thieves. Is this really a good use of them?
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
I actually think it is more so due to Halo specifically and their cultivation of online play and FPS and PC style games on the Xbox like Elder's Scrolls. Call of Duty used to be way more successful on 360 than PS3, but that really flipped on its head on PS4 vs X1 with Sony embracing online gaming more and learning from the mistakes of the PS3 that limited consumer buy-in. Sony also didn't have many strong exclusives early on with the PS3.

Sony had a similar issue with PS1 and PS2. They didn't have great first party titles back then, which is why when they ran into PS3 they really struggled out of the gates with the system being so expensive and difficult to develop for. It wasn't until Sony stepped up their 1st party support did the PS3 really begin to sell better and lead to the PS4 selling significantly better than the X1.

Microsoft is in a tough spot right now and they kind of know it (which is why they want this activision deal that is a bad deal to go through). They don't have anything. Right now the XSX/S are selling due to availability. Once supply shores up for PlayStation, we'll see what the demand looks like for XSX/S without any games. Right now the XSX/S are on a trajectory to outdo the X1, but we'll see if they can maintain that trajectory without major games.

Right now the PS5 is outselling the XSX/S at a 2:1 ratio, which is still pretty much in line with PS4 and X1.
i mean yes the Xbox's online games and better online infastructure, as well as xbox live, xbox live arcade and all that did play a part, but their quality output also drove people to the console. It wasn't just halo. Forza was a great GT competitor, Fable was a great RPG series, Gears was an extremely influential 3rd person shooter, (although it's not my cup of tea personally) all the timed exclusives they acquired, etc.

They were all about the games, all of the franchises they owned were great hits and even the more obscure games like Ninja Gaiden and Project Gotham Racing have cult followings. Halo was just the strongest out of all of them
 
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Buying studios itself does not constitute good management or a proper investment. The constant thread across upper management of Xbox has been shortsightedness regarding IP development. Sony generated more successful original IP during the PS4 generation than Microsoft has across all of their platforms...
I never claimed that buying a studio means good management. You claimed MS didn't invest in studios and mentioned Epic and Bungie like that all MS has done with regard to game development. It doesn't appear you even know what studios MS even has.

Sony on the other hand was fortunate to never really have any serious competition in gaming. Sega is self evident. Nintendo continued to use game media that was against what developers wanted so it was completely passed over for 3rd party titles. This is still true today.

Sony was able to leverage their other business ventures to push media formats that helped them move consoles and build 3rd party and internal studios to what we have today. MS really had none of those advantages but sure their leadership from the company didn't rely on Xbox to support MS overall so it wasn't a priority. That has nothing to do with today.
You're clearly an xbox fanboy, which is fine, but why would it matter how sony counted their subscribers? They get a lot more revenue from their sub than Microsoft does with Game Pass, and significantly more profit.
You should ask Sony why they changed how their subscribers are counted. I'd wager they didn't like how despite selling more consoles and having more customers MS had the superior game subscription service with much better numbers compared to PS Now. This is still true regardless of accounting.

With regard to profits why would you care about that over the quality of the service? I guess in that vein Game pass is profitable and great service so there is no excuse to not have both. You want to call me an Xbox fanboy but you'll never see me worring about how much money MS is making. I care about value and seeing them spend money to make their customers happy. I don't see that happening on other platforms when prices are increasing and there are fees for things that should be free. It's so weird to see gamers more concerned about a company's financials than their own.
Beating the gamecube is not an accomplishment, it was one of Nintendo's lowest selling consoles and had more to do with Nintendo than Microsoft.
I disagree. Nintendo has been in gaming for generations and Xbox was a brand new console. I understand that if a person isn't even aware of what Xbox has done in gaming you could think that though. Goal posts shift all the time when trying to discredit things MS has done in gaming.
Microsoft has been spinning its wheels for 20 years in terms of developing games and your argument is their focus is 3rd party games that are also on PS and PC...It's laughable.
This is false. Again the Series consoles have been outpacing previous Xbox generations. I'm not going to bother making a list of successful games over the generations but perhaps you can look it up while learning MS had more game development involvements than Bungie and Epic.

MS focus on 3rd party is part due to lack of studios in the past and part of the current focus when they are trying to support their superior game service. MS is not nearly as interested in taking games away from other platforms so you'll see them focusing on getting interesting games on the service over exclusive 3rd party stuff. Their current lineup is more diverse than what I see elsewhere.

The future is changing with new exclusives in development and we'll see how well they do. Thankfully gaming is not a zero sum game so all three gaming platforms can be successful. I'm just glad to have alternatives to the current market leader so I can save some money and have plenty of games to play to boot.

It's appreciated that so many people who don't even own an Xbox are concerned about its future. People have been predicting its demise since they first entered the market 20 years. Xbox is still here and will be just fine in the future.
 

Freeman76

Member
This shit is so tired by now.

People like to swing their dicks becauae their choice of console has a few highly rated games.

Sony as a company are complete cunts. Their attitude towards charging for upgrades, charging for cloud saves that are deleted after a while of not paying them, and locking exclusive content to their platform then crying about MS doing it amongst other things.

Having said that, I enjoy games and couldnt give a fuck who makes them. I have a PS5 that I literally use for their exclusives.

Everything else I get on Xbox, I just prefer the platform in general and because they are always on the back foot, are a lot more consumer friendly. The amount of awesome games I would never have tried if not for gamepass is unreal. Yeah you can argue Sony now have their equivalent, but to me that is only because MS gave them no choice, no way would we have that otherwise.
 
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64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
It's appreciated that so many people who don't even own an Xbox are concerned about its future. People have been predicting its demise since they first entered the market 20 years. Xbox is still here and will be just fine in the future.
vast majority of people criticising xbox here owned a 360. again, people have seen it at its peak and thats why there's so much criticism. There's trash talk yes but all of it stems from who want the console to get better
 

solidus12

Member
At that point Phil has to commit ritual suicide in front of the CMA. His death will cement the future of the company and finally get the acquisition approved. He'll die a martyr and save Xbox.
Phil committing seppuku… all those years tweeting and congratulating Sony first party releases have thought him some Japanese values after all…

Just not the ones his consumers want unfortunately…
 
What is on tap for 2023?

MS themselves have only listed Forza, Starfield and Redfall for release in 2023. Age of Empires II & IV is cool.

I find it difficult to believe that Fable, Avowed, Everwild or Perfect Dark will be ready.

Possibly Hellblade II as their q4 game?

I don’t know. Only Starfield screams ‘great new game’ to me.

AoE2 DE
AoE4
Redfall
Starfield
Goldeneye
Minecraft Legends
Forza

That’s seven day one games for me, compared to uh, 1 in 2022? 2 if you count Deathloop, and I might be forgetting something else. I’ve had that rona twice this year, it’s all a blur.

And we all know they’ll have more coming than what is announced. For example, Ghostwire should be coming. And you listed five more big games (or four, one could argue Everwild) that might come in 2023 but could easily be 2024. So you have a slew of games for 2023 and a slew of others likely 2024. That was my point, once given time, their stable of devs will start churning out big games.

And that’s without even mentioning ABK, which will be approved sometime in 2023. Will be a gargantuan boon for GamePass. Barring, of course, the games Sony has paid to keep out of GamePass 😆
 
That nobody will play and won't move the needle even in the slightest.

Please, take a look at the top selling PlayStation and Xbox lists and tell me sales matter to quality. It’s CoD, it’s 2k, it’s Madden, with an exclusive or two that is likely a derivative sequel sprinkled here or there. God forbid something different comes out once in awhile.

I guess no one should care about music that isn’t Taylor Swift or uh, whatever else is popular nowadays 😆
 
It was never about how many first party studios they had. Something just isn't right with the way Microsoft manage their studios and games. Either Microsoft just don't know how to consistently create good high quality games or they just don't care to. Why does it take them years and years to churn out games, that end up being mediocre anyway? In that same time frame, sony and Nintendo create extremely high quality, memorable games.
 
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64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
Either Microsoft just don't know how to consistently create good high quality games or they just don't care to.
they have the know how but they just dont give a shit. Why make high quality exclusives when GamePass is right there and you can just advertise your entire brand off of that?


I'd kill to even have their 2015 output, let alone their 2009 one
 
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vast majority of people criticising xbox here owned a 360. again, people have seen it at its peak and thats why there's so much criticism. There's trash talk yes but all of it stems from who want the console to get better
I am pretty skeptical. No one can look at Xbox today and conclude that nothing has improved from last generation. The Xbox Series is already doing better than any previous Xbox system at this point in their respective generations. Of course I had a 360 too and it's pretty cool that Xbox still can play many of those games along with the new ones as well so there is a superior value argument as well. There is no indication that 2023 won't have significantly more first party games than this year so many of the concerns ring completely hollow. Those people absolutely do not want Xbox to be better and are the same people complaining about the ABK acquisition.

It was never about how many first party studios they had. Something just isn't right with the way Microsoft manage their studios and games. Either Microsoft just don't know how to consistently create good high quality games or they just don't care to. Why does it take them years and years to churn out games, that end up being mediocre anyway? In that same time frame, sony and Nintendo create extremely high quality, memorable games.
You really should check the last games that were reviewed on Metacritic. Plenty of Xbox games are far from mediocre and have far more variety too.

they have the know how but they just dont give a shit. Why make high quality exclusives when GamePass is right there and you can just advertise your entire brand off of that?
I don't know because Game pass won't be successful with bad games on it? People don't seem to realize that all games on the service are available for normal retail purchase.
 
AoE2 DE
AoE4
Redfall
Starfield
Goldeneye
Minecraft Legends
Forza

That’s seven day one games for me, compared to uh, 1 in 2022? 2 if you count Deathloop, and I might be forgetting something else. I’ve had that rona twice this year, it’s all a blur.

And we all know they’ll have more coming than what is announced. For example, Ghostwire should be coming. And you listed five more big games (or four, one could argue Everwild) that might come in 2023 but could easily be 2024. So you have a slew of games for 2023 and a slew of others likely 2024. That was my point, once given time, their stable of devs will start churning out big games.

And that’s without even mentioning ABK, which will be approved sometime in 2023. Will be a gargantuan boon for GamePass. Barring, of course, the games Sony has paid to keep out of GamePass 😆

That list is kinda bad

Starfield is the only big game they really have announced

Can’t believe how long these other games are taking
 
How long has Everwild and PD been in development again?

Already 3-4 years with nothing to show

It took over 2,000 people six years to make Last of Us 2.

Games take time. I don’t know why Xbox is supposed to be immune to that. Also idk how long PD has been in the oven. I know Rare was still toying around for awhile to make a gameplay hook in Everwild.

It’s like people want more Cyberpunk situations 😆
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
I don't know because Game pass won't be successful with bad games on it?
and yet their 2022 games for gamepass have ended up mostly being fodder with a few gems sprinkled in like windjammers 2 and persona 5... the latter of which came out on playstation 6 years ago
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
I don’t know why Xbox is supposed to be immune to that.
Xbox is supposed to be immune because they've got 50 studios and 2 trillion dollars at their disposal, we should be getting 3 AAA games every quarter from them realistically.

Microsoft is the second richest company in the world. Xbox players should be getting quality first party games shot at their console like bullets from a minigun
 
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FritzJ92

Member
It was never about how many first party studios they had. Something just isn't right with the way Microsoft manage their studios and games. Either Microsoft just don't know how to consistently create good high quality games or they just don't care to. Why does it take them years and years to churn out games, that end up being mediocre anyway? In that same time frame, sony and Nintendo create extremely high quality, memorable games.
It was definitely about how many first part studios they had. MS had no issues pushing out games in the Xbox 360 era when they actually had 1P studios and could focus on quality. For XB1 they embraced this exclusive third-party development strategy which failed. I guess the idea was to reduce cost of 1P manpower and contract all exclusive games. What they did not factor is that people want 1P games from people who know how to navigate the hardware.
 
It was definitely about how many first part studios they had. MS had no issues pushing out games in the Xbox 360 era when they actually had 1P studios and could focus on quality. For XB1 they embraced this exclusive third-party development strategy which failed. I guess the idea was to reduce cost of 1P manpower and contract all exclusive games. What they did not factor is that people want 1P games from people who know how to navigate the hardware.

So if EA or ubisoft own more studios, does it automatically mean more and better games? No, because the management itself sucks. That's the point I'm making. Microsoft are still Microsoft.
 
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