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[HerjansEagleFeeder]

I agree with you, OP. I had high hopes for MS this year because

• they got plenty of time to prepare
• new leadership
• tons of cash to spend to develop great software
• the right hardware
• the right services

I don't know how you can possibly fuck this up still. In the end, it's the games that count. MS doesn't seem to understand. We saw almost no gameplay. Sony doesn't even have to try at this point, they win the consumer by default with this kind of competitor. And don't get me started on Nintendo. What a shitshow this whole industry is. I guess I'm happy for all Sony fans, they still seem to get what they want. At the moment I'm contemplating just quitting gaming altogether, there's nothing left I really care about.

 

[supernova8]

there's something odd about the momentum that Xbox had a few weeks ago compared to now.

Wait when they did have any momentum? They fucked up and the Inside Xbox stream and, as I rightly predicted, they didn't learn a damn thing and put out an equally (if not more) disappointing showing last night (my time).

Aaron Greenberg is a liability to Xbox marketing.
Sarah Bond did what she did last time - she talked fluff for over minute with nothing to show for it.
Halo looks like it's designed for Xbox One X at a push, certainly not next-gen.
Hardly anything first party seemed to be showing actual gameplay.

Literally the only thing that looked promising was Forza and yet that wasn't even gameplay.

Makes you wonder how many of these games will actually be ready by early 2021.
No wonder Microsoft has so many 'console launch exclusives', they have no first party games for launch.

PS5 doesn't seem to have much ready for launch either, but we saw plenty of either gameplay or what looked like in-engine/in-game footage. Sure stuff like RE8 will come to XSX too but Sony was smart to secure marketing deals with the heavy hitters and Microsoft was seemingly left with AssCrack Valhalla.

 

[Stilton Disco]

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

Nintendo want to make toys.

Sony want to make art.

Microsoft want to expand their business portfolio.

I think that's why the show was far more about shoving as many games as possible on Gamepass, for as many platforms as can run them, rather than focusing on making the XSX look like the only system anyone should even be considering playing games on.

 

[Psykodad]

Oh you're talking about the games that will be available at launch, specifically?

Outside of Halo Infinite, we don't actually know yet.

There are a lot more games coming though. Games that I'm excited about. A bigger Hellblade sequel? A Fable reboot from Playground? Obsidian's "Skyrim"?

Yes please.

Those games are in the state I mentioned.
No doubt Hellblade 2 will be amazing and Everwild seems to be the most interesting title apart from HB2, but everything about MS and their announce titles show red flags all over the place.

Meanwhile, Sony will casually release their games and build an installbase rather easily.
Then there's VR too, adding into that.

MS really has to get it's act together asap.

 

[The Pleasure]

My friend who is a Nintendo fanboy who hates Sony is really banking on gamepass to destroy Sony though.

He was hyping the Xbox show yesterday to high heavens and went on to laugh at stupid Sony fanboys who pay full price for games on day 1.

Which is contradictory since as a Nintendo fanboy, he takes pride in Switch/Nintendo games holding their prices at full value even after many years later.

Tell him to take a shower.

 

[Sentenza]

I thought they had a better show than Sony, frankly.
Nothing technically too impressive, but more titles I was interested in, for sure.

 

[SamFo]

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

Nintendo want to make toys.

Sony want to make art.

Microsoft want to expand their business portfolio.

I have to screencap this, it's like genuinely amazing copypasta material.

Thank you

 

[Yoboman]

MS kept trying to play the "good guy" act while taking subtle jabs at PS5. Rather than slowly building themselves up, they put themselves right in the line of comparison by saying things like "they felt good after seeing PS5 reveal."

They've spent 6 months with their messaging all over the place. Cross gen, mix gen, exclusive, world premier, console first of game pass ray tracing update. All this has done is line Sony up for an easy and defined messaging win with "we believe in generations."

They absolutely crashed and burned at their first games reveal zoom conference for Xbox. Revealing themselves to be so utterly out of tune and clueless that they had to roll it back as "not the REAL reveal", "just a joke, bro", "was only an inside Xbox!" And somehow managing to damage control their way into a second games reveal which they've botched all over again.

They hyped the event to heaven and could never deliver. Meanwhile Sony has kept a lid on things, let hype build on its own naturally and come out with big moments on their own timeline. It has been a masterful act in marketing and PR so far. Its the classic underpromising, overdelivering

 

[Sentenza]

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

Nintendo want to make toys.

Sony want to make art.

Microsoft want to expand their business portfolio.

It was stupid even the first time you said it, anyway.

 

[Balducci30]

They are in a worse position to me and don't get me wrong, memes are not as bad as they were before but hear me out...

They went head to head with Sony at the end of 2012-3, ~80 million consoles for both of them, they had a bigger audience back in the day, people jump from 360 to PS4 at an alarming rate... Now, people won't be jumping from console to console like in 2013, but they are in a worse scenario because they have no install base that wants the new Xbox, they needed to do something to attract the people they lose, but after today, I think they are losing more people even if they are not losing people as they did in 13'

Nah It aint as bad as that. I'll be prob jumping back in although I skipped the last xbox.

 

[Patterson]

I think people are getting fed up with Microsoft’s BS. They hype stuff up all the time then let you down. You can only get away with that for so long.

 

[RPS37]

I'm still weirded out by all this...

Is Miles Morales and Ratchet and Clank convincing everyone to go day one PS5? Or are there other titles I've forgotten? Remake of Demons Souls?

For 3rd party stuff CyberPunk is split gen as are Ubisoft's games and most likely the new Cod?

They convinced me to purchase a PS5 some time late next year after I’ve finished the six games I have on my PS4 Pro hard drive.
I’m just banking on XSX playing current gen games (frankly including Infinite) better than my One X.

 

[JTCx]

No doubt Hellblade 2 will be amazing

Not too sure about HellBlade 2 yet, NT can push some great graphics but when it comes to gameplay its always lacking.

 

[Coulomb_Barrier]

The cross gen policy, which will be a disaster for them in setting the tone for the coming gen, could have been stopped had there been more of a push back from Xbox fans on its announcement. Probably.

Had Sony announced similar there would have been a shitstorm so big the company would volte-face quickly.

 

[Chiggs]

I honestly think the gap next gen will be much larger than the gap this gen

Same here. Writing is on the wall in so many ways.

 

[INC]

It’s just like...SHOW FUCKING GAMEPLAY YOU DUMBASSES.

Edit:

Spoiler

maybe it’s partially due to current events, but I feel like someone had to have had enough time to show SOMETHING besides just Halo which we knew for months would be there

Issue is, we've seen the gameplay.........Best stick to in-engine

 

[the_master]

They had NOTHING, they still hyped the event and the console, they kept fighting the media battle, just like a common politician.

The day they had to show, they had a throwaway prototype Halo, nothing to show from Hellblade, no gameplay, and even many cgi videos.

It has been a disaster. Probably bad enough that Phil should step down.

 

[nowhat]

Haha you really believe that? Just wait....

...for the next E3!

 

[Steve.1981]

...everything about MS and their announce titles show red flags all over the place.

Meanwhile, Sony will casually release their games and build an installbase rather easily...

I just don't see red flags when I look at that Xbox show.

I watched the PS5 show & was confused with the online response it got as well. I enjoyed it, came away excited to play some new games & people acted like it was the worst shit they ever saw. Much like people are now doing with the Xbox show.

I don't get it. They were both good shows with a bunch of cool games. Both consoles look like good investments, but the response is just wall to wall negativity all the time.

 

[Paracelsus]

Microsoft happened to find themselves in the right spot when Sony slipped on the $599 banana peel.

While Microsoft was enjoying the fruits of that accident and blowing all their first party load, Sony was restructuring and expanding their own output (studios, hd collections, remasters, remakes, first party etc.) to avoid depending on third parties as much as they used to.
Microsoft made the mistake of thinking XBOX360 was the new PlayStation and XB1 was PS2. They mismanaged studios and series.

All it took was the XB1 presentation accident to ruin them completely and return Sony the favor.

We live in the multiplatform era, when almost every game is everywhere first parties are the difference maker.

This is how first party looked back when gaming still had top tier total third party exclusives.

The cross gen policy, which will be a disaster for them in setting the tone for the coming gen, could have been stopped had there been more of a push back from Xbox fans on its announcement. Probably.

Had Sony announced similar there would have been a shitstorm so big the company would volte-face quickly.

Gamepass thrives on crossgen, they won't ditch it.
I bet they are hoping neogaf is wrong and the next gen launch is overall weak and slow so they have time to move on to next gen at their pace.

 

[TheRaidenPT]

The cross gen policy, which will be a disaster for them in setting the tone for the coming gen, could have been stopped had there been more of a push back from Xbox fans on its announcement. Probably.

Had Sony announced similar there would have been a shitstorm so big the company would volte-face quickly.

I don't think they even know what's the cross gen policy... On the event they say A, few minutes later on twitter they say B and then on the blog post it will be C.

 

[Psykodad]

Not too sure about HellBlade 2 yet, NT can push some great graphics but when it comes to gameplay its always lacking.

I guess.
Personally, I loved the combat of Heavenly Sword and Hellblade.

 

[Coulomb_Barrier]

Microsoft happened to find themselves in the right spot when Sony slipped on the $599 banana peel.

While Microsoft was enjoying the fruits of that accident and blowing all their first party load, Sony was restructuring and expanding their own output (studios, hd collections, remasters, remakes, first party etc.) to avoid depending on third parties as much as they used to.
Microsoft made the mistake of thinking XBOX360 was the new PlayStation and XB1 was PS2. They mismanaged studios and series.

All it took was the XB1 presentation accident to ruin them completely and return Sony the favor.

We live in the multiplatform era, when almost every game is everywhere first parties are the difference maker.

This is how first party looked back when gaming still had top tier total third party exclusives.



Gamepass thrives on crossgen, they won't ditch it.
I bet they are hoping neogaf is wrong and the next gen launch is overall weak and slow so they have time to move on to next gen at their pace.

Gamepass could have still thrived with a couple Series X exclusive titles, fuck even just Halo Infinite built from ground-up for Series X could have been spectacular. Instead we got an ugly XB1-looking game upscaled to 4K.

 

[Psykodad]

I just don't see red flags when I look at that Xbox show.

I watched the PS5 show & was confused with the online response it got as well. I enjoyed it, came away excited to play some new games & people acted like it was the worst shit they ever saw. Much like people are now doing with the Xbox show.

I don't get it. They were both good shows with a bunch of cool games. Both consoles look like good investments, but the response is just wall to wall negativity all the time.

MS problem is that they've been boasting about the power of XSX, Greenberg trolling Sony's PS5 Reveal, only to then show Halo's abysmal gameplay and trailers for games of which some don't even exist yet (like SoD3).
HB2 even had absolutely no show.
Everworld and Forza were in-engine trailers.

Now Rare even seems to have dropped Xbox One support for Everworld as of today and there is at least one other game (forgot the title) that has removed the Xbox One title from the website.
They're completely nullifying their pro-consumer stance on support of current-gen as well.

Edit:

Correction.

 

[slade]

I wrote months ago that MS's first party would not be ready for launch given that they acquired most of their new studios just 2 years ago. Along with that they have to build them up to AAA level since they bought cheap. All that means is that they needed to be humble when it came to next gen and their prospects. But, their fans, their staff and their head just can't keep their mouths shut. You reap what you sow and what the Xbox division is seeing right now is blowback from the past year of talking big about 12 TF's and all their big promises.

Games will save them eventually but they NEED TO SHUT THE FUCK UP.

Also, putting a leash on some of their more militant fanfic writers on twitter would help. It doesn't help them when their own guys are spreading rumors about acquisitions, second GPU's, or non-existant services.

 

[Stiflers Mom]

What I don't get is, why don't they just "fake" game play to look good or what they try to achieve when the game is finished, instead of these stupid in engine animation movies.

 

[nani17]

I think the last time I've seen this much people agree on something like this was the famous Konami E3. Jesus even typing it makes me feel sick .

I personally feel the Halo part killed it for many of us. Its literally doom gameplay with the grapple hook mixed with terrible graphics. It feels like game pass is far more important than the console and they hope its gone soon so they can focus on gamepass

 

[Eliciel]

....in almost the same position as they were back in 2013 with that abysmal E3 presentation.

How the hell did this happen so suddenly? The reaction today across all forums, social media outlets, and subreddits have been harmonious in that today's Event from Xbox was not the way it was hyped up to be.

Say what you say about Sony's June Event, it had overall positive reception among gamers and journalists alike. That was much harder to achieve considering Sony's dominance in the console market.

Xbox had lower expectations and higher rootings as being the underdogs who will topple Sony as the leading gaming platform brand of next-gen.

So GAF, how did we come to this point? Did anyone really see this kind of reaction coming? It's not just Brute Memes, there's something odd about the momentum that Xbox had a few weeks ago compared to now.

We came to this point by concentrated power of will! We were never meant to be here, but we made it, finally, we can jump in the shoes of Masterchiefs' tales again and his journey will be infinite this time. An endless loop of true awesomeness, so sit back and relax, but especially enjoy the ride!

Ohh and let me calculate something and you can tell me what it is:
1) 10,000,000 * 14,99 * 12 = 1,798,800,800
2) 15,000,000 * 14,99 * 12 = 2,698,200,000
3) 20,000,000 * 14,99 * 12= 3,597,600,000
4) 25,000,000 * 14,99 * 12 = 4,497,000,000
...

 

[Golgo 13]

I don’t think the fuck-up is as bad as 2013. Not even close. They aren’t showing the console as a fucking NFL-Box that happens to play video games on the side and saying fuck used games.

But it’s true that the ONE thing they needed to nail — Halo: Infinite — they absolutely, unequivocally, %100 FAILED to do.

The game massively underwhelmed and looks like “GamePass filler”. This is a dangerous road to go down for Microsoft. 343 needs to be disbanded or put on Peggle 3 or something that doesn’t require knowledge of how to make and market a AAA flagship title.

Hell, beg Marty to come back and poach some Bungie staffers. They have to change and restructure leadership at the highest levels and stop doing so many “woke” hires, too. Probably wouldn’t hurt.

 

[JimmyRustler]

MS is still trying to make Xbox into something that's going to be end up in every home. They just flavour their presenation different than they did back with the One.

They just don't get it's never going to happen and that they won't make a 2nd Wii. Sony and Nintendo get the idea of how the market works: Please the hardcore gamers and than natuarlly pull in the casuals over time. If it works, good, if it doesn't, fine, they still have the harcores.

MS just doesn't get this and at this point it seems they never will. Xbox will never become something like Windows for the living room. Just STAHP.

 

[Buki1]

I'm struggling to understand some of the stuff I'm reading on here after yesterday's show.

From first-party studios alone, they showed or spoke about Halo Infinite, Forza 8, Everwild, State of Decay 3, Hellblade 2, Avowed & Fable.

As bad as 2013? No games?

None of this games showed power of the next generation, and all those games are coming to PC - that's why it's a worse console sales pitch than 2013. At least in 2013 you still knew you are buying access to some next gen games not available anywhere else, so buying Xbox made sense. This year, not so much.

 

[Balducci30]

Im beginning to think their entire strategy is built around the possibility of the new console failing.

 

[Havoc2049]

As Halo goes, so goes the Xbox. If they would have nailed the Halo trailer, it would have been a great show.

 

[Kokoloko85]

MS just doesn't get how to approach the gaming market.
Absolutely clueless. X360 was a fluke.

People forget they had a years advantage, And a cheaper price console.

Better tech for 3rd party and took a bunch of Playstation franchises for the first time like Tekken, Dmc, Fantasy fantasy 13 etc.

Plus playstation did a horrible job at the start.

Wont ever happen

 

[dalekjay]

Deserve props tho, the fact that some companies wants to increase the price tag from 60 usd and companies that ask you 60 usd and shoehorn lots of micro forms of monetizing is ludicrous, EA at same time cry for price increase and make records in sales, and don’t let’s not even mention AC odissey at release.
Deserve props for go on other direction and even anyone who hates Xbox should at least cheering gamepass, imagine a Sony version of it would be killer

 

[Redlancet]

You understand they make $$$ without having really done anything new, right? THAT'S business 101 my friend.

yeah,thats why xbox division is losing money right and left

 

[Optimistic Gamer]

We have a console for those who want to be happy about their hardware; and that one's called SNES.

 

[Paracelsus]

I don't think they even know what's the cross gen policy... On the event they say A, few minutes later on twitter they say B and then on the blog post it will be C.

Microsoft is playing games (no pun intended) with sales numbers. We don't have real certifiable sales numbers for Halo 5 and Gears 5, except that Halo 5 sold 5.5ish millions. That's good but not very good when you consider Sony has like 4-5 >10m titles.

For all we know they could be scared Halo doesn't have the drawing power it used to have, especially since Halo 5 wasn't as praised as one would think/remember.

On one hand they give a f* you to the people that still put up with them, on the other they have to compromise next gen.

If Halo Infinite fails at launch, what else do they have?

 

[Slings and Arrows]

Xbox will be fine I think. It took Sony a loong time to be able to have a consistent quality output and MS just started putting their shit together only 2 years ago.

This is bollox. Microsoft smashed it out of the park with the OG Xbox and 360 (up until 2010/2011) since then it's been suits, excuses and please wait.

They clawed some goodwill back with the X, gamepass and elite controller and instead of building on that, they got arrogant and pissed it up the wall

 

[AV]

1st party MS Games that specifically said XSX/PC only:

Forza
State of Decay 3
Everwild
Avowed

Which means that at this stage, Microsoft can't actually confirm that any of those games will be available in the next 2 years.

And 3 of those were the things that followed Halo. Uh oh.

 

[Stooky]

I wrote months ago that MS's first party would not be ready for launch given that they acquired most of their new studios just 2 years ago. Along with that they have to build them up to AAA level since they bought cheap. All that means is that they needed to be humble when it came to next gen and their prospects. But, their fans, their staff and their head just can't keep their mouths shut. You reap what you sow and what the Xbox division is seeing right now is blowback from the past year of talking big about 12 TF's and all their big promises.

Games will save them eventually but they NEED TO SHUT THE FUCK UP.

Also, putting a leash on some of their more militant fanfic writers on twitter would help. It doesn't help them when their own guys are spreading rumors about acquisitions, second GPU's, or non-existant services.

Yep I think it will be at the ealiest 2 years before we start seeing any major output. It takes time to get that ball rolling where talent and tech are firing on all cylinders. Sony has had multiple console generations to get this right. It really explains all this extended crossgen talk from Microsoft.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Weirdest part is all the other games and developers shown had high standards of graphics and duty of care to detail TBH e.g. Everwild, CrossfireX, Medium, Hellblade, Forza, Destiny 2 etc. Halo was right there from the old two teaser in engine videos. What they fucked up was not keeping Halo right on the money. They still don't understand their own zeitgeist with Halo. Bring Chief doing badass shit and make it industry leading good looking/sounding and kick assery with classic and familiar mechanics and tones but innovative too.

To drop Halo with the elementary levels of gameplay as their big reveal literally shit in the fan blowing their momentum. It's the flagship, this should have been Halo's killer moment to show off what it can do. What it showed was lacklustre and displays shithouse leadership at 343 to think that demo is what a big reveal of a new console and 5 years behind the curtain Halo game should be.

I'm loving everything xbox is doing, game pass, bringing things to PC, the updates to the OS, gamebar on PC etc. 343 shit on them with this reveal. No one gives a fuck about brohammer or Banished, Chief and bombastic Halo moments were nowhere in this gameplay reveal. No Halo 3 scarab moment, no Halo 2 factions warring and sure as shit no adult based content like Halo CE's flood helmet cam to flood reveal in game.

They've got a fucking roadmap in Halo 1-3 but just can't stick to it can they. Gotta make it all touchy feely bullshit. Fuck you NPC emote side kick, fuck your antagonist...bring Chief doing cool shit in CQC and large scale events. Done.

 

[Three]

They clawed some goodwill back with the X, gamepass and elite controller and instead of building on that, they got arrogant and pissed it up the wall

They are building on that. It's their entire strategy this gen. Release a powerful console, put in little effort to use that power in terms of software, and rake in the subscription money.

The quicker people realise that MS doesn't have an identity in gaming anymore the better. Their strategy is whatever is making the most money at the time and that has kept changing for them.

At the beginning with OG XBox it was all about hardcore games. That continued in early 360 but by the end of the 360 that was motion controls and avatar microtransactions. Early xbox one they thought it would be the same + TV, until late xbox one it was selling subscriptions.

A lot of people are happy with gamepass' value but I remember A LOT of people were singing about the value of EA Access too but honestly it just means EA and MS are just quietly making a lot of money with little to no effort now. They don't even give a shit if you buy a Series X, really.

 

[SoloKingRobert]

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

Nintendo want to make toys.

Sony want to make art.

Microsoft want to expand their business portfolio.

I think that's why the show was far more about shoving as many games as possible on Gamepass, for as many platforms as can run them, rather than focusing on making the XSX look like the only system anyone should even be considering playing games on.

Edited:

Sony wants to make interactive movies.

 

[LisaMariaMartin]

They built a 12tf console with no showstoppers.

Honestly, I don't work in management but any 5 year old could have seen this coming. AAA is dead at MS studios.

 

[Compsiox]

Covid really did have an impact. We can't forget that. Also Sony had a lot of studios long enough to plan projects leading up to launch. Xbox Games Studios really is just starting out. These things take time.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

 

[LisaMariaMartin]

Covid really did have an impact. We can't forget that. Also Sony had a lot of studios long enough to plan projects leading up to launch. Xbox Games Studios really is just starting out. These things take time.

I feel like I've heard this for the past 5 years now.

They should sell Xbox to Sony. They actually seem to know what they are doing.

 

[Compsiox]

I feel like I've heard this for the past 5 years now.

They should sell Xbox to Sony. They actually seem to know what they are doing.

Alright you're trolling. Got it. Have fun.

 

[Jon Neu]

Did anyone really see this kind of reaction coming?

I did.

I fucking knew Halo Infinite was going to be a friggin Xbox One game and have Xbox One graphics. And it's a shame, because I'm seeing everybody trashing 343i for the graphics, but it's not their fault MS ordered them to make the game based on Xbox One. And I actually think the gameplay looks so good, it really gives me Halo CE vibes and looks smooth and fun, so it adds more shame to the whole thing.

Seems to me MS decided pretty late to buy all this studios and tell them to make next gen games, but obviously you can't make a next gen game in some months, you need at least a couple of years. Hence why MS is saying that the first two years are going to be crossgen, because they aren't fucking ready.

And that's the most stupid strategy ever, because people expect next gen games and you keep showing Xbox One graphics while at the same time claiming you have the most powerful console ever, so the hype is destroyed and your image is being seriously damaged, again.

What's the point of launching a next gen console if the games you are going to play the first two years aren't all that next gen? MS should have waited a year more to launch the console if this is the state the Xbox studios are in. Make a huge discount in the Xbox One range, look at the specs of the PS5 and then launch a better console than that in all the aspects possible. And then wait till your launch in 2021 and keep hyping the console as much better platform than the competition. It would have been better than all this mess.

So yeah, fuck you MS for fucking it up once again. You keep shooting yourself in the foot.