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[Bumblebeetuna]

I have both systems and play my series x more, I really dont see what sony has to offer this gen thats insane if you didnt have a ps4. I think this gen in general is pretty lackluster. Maybe by like 2025 both systems will shine.

Agreed, I don’t think MS has really taken advantage of the Series hardware at all either. I guess a couple of their sim games do shit too advanced for the XBO hardware, but that’s about it. Never seen a gen before where three years in the games almost entirely still seem last gen. Maybe in a year or two it’ll be different. Sony is supposed to have another Pro console coming out.

Personally I’m fine with MS not making games that “cater to the masses” as people have pointed out in the thread. The studios they bought that I was most excited for were studios like inXile, Obsidian, Undead Labs, and Double Fine. Those studios don’t make mass appeal games.

MS could very easily lock up these games from all of these studios and get way better sales but that’s not their plan. And that’s fine with me, I don’t get extra enjoyment while playing a game if that game is exclusive. again so long as they sell enough that they don’t get abandoned Dreamcast style.

 

[ungalo]

2018 was the start. I'd say it's going pretty well. I've got plenty to play. In fact, I have so many games I don't even sub to GP anymore. I resub when there's a game I really want to play but aren't sure if i want to make am investment. Still a great service.

Don't be surprised if people are not convinced by what's to come then. We have very different views on what they did over the last 3 or 4 years. If you're cool with it that's fine.

Everybody knows what they announced and what they could potentially announce in the future, and most people still don't care. There must be a reason for that other than some Xbox hate.

 

[ReBurn]

Still waiting on this bad boy...

That thing looks like it's ready to put you through a series of impossible tests.

 

[King Dazzar]

Plenty of people are playing those games for the first time on PS5.

Exactly. And why am I playing them for the first time? Because Xbox have failed to deliver enough this gen to retain me as an Xbox sole platform focused customer.

 

[Gavon West]

You may believe that, but I sure don't. Five years is plenty of time for these studios to have produced at least one game. I'd say Playground and Obsidian have done ok, but their new games are still lagging far behind. The Initiative, Compulsion and Ninja Theory should have produced something by now. Where the hell is The Coalition? How the hell was Redfall allowed to happen? Not going to dream up excuses for pisspoor production. Sorry.

And nothing I said has anything to do with MS going third party or leaving the industry.

Well, the poster you responded to alluded to the possibilities. And you gave your remedy of sorts.

Anyway, this was a great year for Xbox (aside from redfall which I sort of enjoyed , personally) Next year will be even better. HBII releases next year. Many of their studios are cooking
We all know this. We'll have more very soon. Halo (best multiplayer this year) is clearly doing well, Starfield is making it's strides, HiFi Rush was a banger, Ghost wire Tokyo was another great game, even Forza did well critically, and the ABK deal went through. That isn't even mentioning Gamepass which has also had a plethora of bangers. This was a great year for the platform. The doom and gloom doesn't make sense, at all.

 

[Topher]

Well, the poster you responded to alluded to the possibilities. And you gave your remedy of sorts.

I cut out all those "possibilities" and replied to specifically to one sentence which said nothing about third parties or leaving the industry.

Anyway, this was a great year for Xbox (aside from redfall which I sort of enjoyed , personally) Next year will be even better. HBII releases next year. Many of their studios are cooking
We all know this. We'll have more very soon. Halo (best multiplayer this year) is clearly doing well, Starfield is making it's strides, HiFi Rush was a banger, Ghost wire Tokyo was another great game, even Forza did well critically, and the ABK deal went through. That isn't even mentioning Gamepass which has also had a plethora of bangers. This was a great year for the platform. The doom and gloom doesn't make sense, at all.

The only thing great about this year from MS, to me, was Starfield. Redfall was an embarrassment. Hi Fi Rush wasn't for me, but yeah, lots of folks liked it. But I did specifically say AAA games though. So far, I'd say MS has done ok with smaller titles.

I've been hearing "we'll have more soon" for years now. That's the problem. Hell, Phil Spencer has said it is a problem on multiple occasions. I'll give Microsoft credit if/when they actually start producing kick ass games on a regular basis, not before.

 

[ReBurn]

Why not, they still represent the majority of Gamepass revenue? If they want to grow Gamepass, they need Xbox for now.

I think some of the contention they're facing is that they're primarily focused on trying to sell game pass and consoles have been relegated to being a way to access the subscription if you don't have a gaming PC. Nobody is saying "I really want a monthly games subscription, I should buy a console." They should be trying to sell more consoles to increase the install base, then try to sell game pass to the new people in the ecosystem. They are not structured to sell hardware at all. There's no incentive.

I like the subscription services and they're the way I spend most of my time gaming these days. But I wouldn't buy a console just to be able to subscribe to a service. There still needs to be games that pull me in. There haven't been many this generation.

I've been an Xbox customer since the OG and the worst thing to happen to Xbox is it changed to conform with Microsoft's corporate image. It went from being scrappy and aggressive with OG and 360 to corporate style guide conformist with Xbox One and Series. The problem is that nobody thinks of entertainment when they think of Microsoft. The stupid MS corporate branding and unified interfaces on every device are fine for business use but they suck for gaming machines. Microsoft really needs someone who isn't a Microsoft lifer to run the gaming division. It needs new ideas, even for their PC offerings, and they need to shed the Microsoft business image from Xbox.

 

[Celcius]

There is. I only have a mini pc with a integrated weak gpu thats good enough for browsing the net and Office.The Xbox is a cheap option to play games i would otherwise need a more expensive gaming pc for.

In this scenario why not get a playstation? All the 3rd party games are the same and the exclusives are FAR better...

 

[simpatico]

They're going the Steam Deck route with handhelds and PC boxes. Bet. The "install base" is going to make for a rather sexy press release.

PC: 1.5 billion
PS5: 46 million
Switch: 125 million

it's a good look tbh

 

[meech]

In this scenario why not get a playstation? All the 3rd party games are the same and the exclusives are FAR better...

Is Ps Plus better now?Thanks to game pass, I played games like Desperados 3, Ace Attorney and other hidden gems.The amount of games was really lacking on Ps Plus when i had a ps4.

 

[VitoNotVito]

Or go 3rd party publishing and get access to Playstation and Nintendo installbase.

That would be a smart idea. In the end, Microsoft is a software company...

 

[Klayzer]

Plenty of people are playing those games for the first time on PS5.

That's a good point. I believe 30% of PS5 users were new to the platform. According to Sony.

 

[U n i o n 0015]

They need to bring back whoever was in charge of Xbox during the first gen and 360. Whoever got promoted towards the end of 360's life just ruined the whole thing.

 

[Astray]

Microsoft really needs someone who isn't a Microsoft lifer to run the gaming division. It needs new ideas, even for their PC offerings, and they need to shed the Microsoft business image from Xbox.

Fucking this.

I have no idea why Microsoft wants to tie Bing points to Xbox, Bing is one of the most staid products I've ever used, it should absolutely never ever be tied to a consumer lifestyle type of brand like what they want Xbox to be.

Every time the Microsoft mothership changes colors fonts etc, that style is imposed on the Xbox interface as well. Very weird idea to transpose things from office and productivity suites into the machines meant to be an ESCAPE from all that shit for most ppl.

 

[Dr_Ifto]

Phil specified why XBOX is failing and that was due to not dominating in the XBO / PS4 era. Now everyone has their library ecoverse locked down. And since Gamepass nearly stops people building a library on XBOX cause you can just play for free, they cant really grow. This is going to be a slow process, which I think with the right leadership could overcome. Clean house today? I think Phil needs to be chief creative officer, and let a real CEO come in.

 

[AngelMuffin]

They’ll never be very successful outside of the US. Sony has cemented as the #1 choice between the two and I don’t see that ever changing.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

MS is trying to force customers to want their vision and for the most part it's backfiring.
Apple's whole "the customer doesn't know what they want until we tell them" mantra just isn't working for subscription gaming.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

Phil specified why XBOX is failing and that was due to not dominating in the XBO / PS4 era. Now everyone has their library ecoverse locked down. And since Gamepass nearly stops people building a library on XBOX cause you can just play for free, they cant really grow. This is going to be a slow process, which I think with the right leadership could overcome. Clean house today? I think Phil needs to be chief creative officer, and let a real CEO come in.

That was such bull shit I can't believe people think it's true.
No one buys new hardware because of their old software.
Nintendo tells us every generation Fuck your digital library, and their consoles still fly off the shelves.
Content is king, but it's the new content.

 

[Dr_Ifto]

That was such bull shit I can't believe people think it's true.
No one buys new hardware because of their old software.
Nintendo tells us every generation Fuck your digital library, and their consoles still fly off the shelves.
Content is king, but it's the new content.

He siad it himself, and I for one wont switch to the other team due to my library being so large. Its just what it is.

 

[Kilau]

I think Sony is in the process of imploding the PlatStation brand so Xbox just needs to stay the course and pick up the pieces.

 

[Famipan]

I really think they should try offering Xbox Game Pass for PS but with only Xbox titles.

 

[midnightAI]

I think Sony is in the process of imploding the PlatStation brand so Xbox just needs to stay the course and pick up the pieces.

In what way? its doing better than ever, so well that a streaming only accessory is outselling Mircrosofts two consoles combined by nearly 3:1 in Spain (yes, I know thats only one country but its the only figures we have for Portal sales)

 

[Clear]

I kinda feel like what will happen next is they will offer another 2 tier "console" line-up. One being moderately expensive Series X equivalent which will mirror the devices populating their back-end servers*, and an ultra-low cost streaming dongle+controller package that will purely service their cloud offering.

They'll move their self-produced content primarily onto GP/Cloud with selected titles being cross-platform for continuity, and although they'll still take third-party content for console publishing, they will primarily be focussed on their digital storefronts across all platforms. I can see them publishing outside their own ecosystem as a secondary revenue stream, but I'd suspect that'll mainly be GAAS type content that they can directly monetize irrespective of platform.

I cannot see them ever seriously pivoting back towards a console-first type of offer; they want subscribers not owners, and although I think they'll continue to sell hardware and accessories they won't feel the need to directly compete against Sony and Nintendo in the way they have in the past. Their pitch will be to offer an "equivalent but better" gaming alternative to consoles.


*This is a necessity as there has to be a target spec for developers to aim at/port to.

 

[Kilau]

In what way? its doing better than ever, so well that a streaming only accessory is outselling Mircrosofts two consoles combined by nearly 3:1 in Spain (yes, I know thats only one country but its the only figures we have for Portal sales)

Alienating their core audience for one.

 

[Phase]

Here's the short version: There are no exclusives that make an Xbox a worthwhile purchase. If you have a PC, well, you can play all of their games there and much more. You NEED exclusives that only exist on that platform to sell consoles at any decent rate.

I think Xbox is going to stop making consoles very soon if they cannot produce some blockbusters from their acquisitions/current studios this or next gen.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

Only one man can save them

You may have meant this as a joke, but it's 100% right.

This mofo would turn Xbox around. His employees might loathe him, but Xbox would actually become competitive with Sony.

 

[Gavon West]

Don't be surprised if people are not convinced by what's to come then. We have very different views on what they did over the last 3 or 4 years. If you're cool with it that's fine.

Everybody knows what they announced and what they could potentially announce in the future, and most people still don't care. There must be a reason for that other than some Xbox hate.

What do you mean? Everybody cares whos a gamer. Even Sony fans care to one degree or another. EVERYONE cares. GaF is in no way everybody.

You guys have to get outta this "GaF is all" mentality. It just ain't true outside of here and a few other forums, mate. If you're smart, you want the same thing. One dominant player on the game is no good for nobody. Microsoft keeps Sony in check and vice versa.

 

[Sephimoth]

Everything was set up for Xbox to have a decent gen, but so far it's been pretty weak.

It feels like someone (Phil) needs to go to each of their sub-studios and get things rolling, be more forceful that they need things delivered. It's like they're just coasting along or something... They have like what, 32 studios? We should be getting a constant stream of games.

There's still time to turn things around yet, but it needs to happen soon. I've owned every Xbox since the 360, but I'll be in no rush to buy the next one unless I see a very good reason.

(Not impressed with Sony either this gen)

 

[midnightAI]

Alienating their core audience for one.

are they? how are they doing that? (or are we talking about Twitter/youtube outrage here? you know, those who just want to be outraged at something, anything)

 

[Kilau]

are they? how are they doing that? (or are we talking about Twitter/youtube outrage here? you know, those who just want to be outraged at something, anything)

I don’t know about that, I don’t watch outrage YouTube. I’m talking about the push for Gaas gaming and for some the PC ports, personally I’d rather they had more presence on PC but the claim that Xbox games on PC hurts Xbox console sales can’t only be true to them. As for the outrage stuff, ESG/DEI will catch up to them, ask Disney.

 

[Thirty7ven]

Alienating their core audience for one.

How? Are we talking about the Debbie downers who always moan? It’s always the same shit ever since Sony adopted a say less approach. Been years.

 

[midnightAI]

I don’t know about that, I don’t watch outrage YouTube. I’m talking about the push for Gaas gaming and for some the PC ports, personally I’d rather they had more presence on PC but the claim that Xbox games on PC hurts Xbox console sales can’t only be true to them. As for the outrage stuff, ESG/DEI will catch up to them, ask Disney.

Both MS and Sony are doing the GaaS thing, they arent chasing it by stopping production of Single player games they are doing it because there is a massive user base there and to obviously make money (in fact if rumours are true, Sony may be walking back from that, at least in part, but you know, rumours...).
Sony dont want to release games day and date on PC, it's not part of their business model unlike MS which has them as part of Gamepass. In fact, I think MS probably kinda wished they hadn't gone that route now as that is a huge chunk of sales (mostly) lost all to keep the subscription count up (which is still lower than PlayStation). This is why I don't see MS pulling COD from PlayStation, that would be a huge loss money wise, in fact, it wouldnt surprise me to see Elder Scrolls 6 on PS afterall)

All we are seeing at the moment is MS imploding, PlayStation sales are at an all time high, so to say MS will pick up the pieces after Sony implodes seems rather strange to me as it stands currently (and for the foreseeable future I would think). Do you think Nadella will continue to see this happen? And there is no point throwing in the diversity/inclusion card either, they are all doing that also (whether you like it or not).

 

[ungalo]

What do you mean? Everybody cares whos a gamer. Even Sony fans care to one degree or another. EVERYONE cares. GaF is in no way everybody.

You guys have to get outta this "GaF is all" mentality. It just ain't true outside of here and a few other forums, mate. If you're smart, you want the same thing. One dominant player on the game is no good for nobody. Microsoft keeps Sony in check and vice versa.

A forum like this is probably easier to convince than the general public for Microsoft. This is like step one for them. And i don't think they're doing a good job at it.

Believe me i would like to see them keep Sony in check, i really would. I had the Xbox One and i even bought the SX, had all the time in the world to see them take the easiest route possible since 2016 and still fail. Now it's hard to see what's going to happen, they have a shit ton of studios but hardware is falling apart, i don't really see them take a 180 degree turn and return to classic console business, so they're probably not going to keep Sony in check even if they manage to do better.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

He siad it himself, and I for one wont switch to the other team due to my library being so large. Its just what it is.

I know he said it, he says a lot of bull shit.

If any of these consoles have banger launch titles, it'll sell like hot cakes. With no one even thinking twice about BC.

 

[Kilau]

Both MS and Sony are doing the GaaS thing, they arent chasing it by stopping production of Single player games they are doing it because there is a massive user base there and to obviously make money (in fact if rumours are true, Sony may be walking back from that, at least in part, but you know, rumours...).
Sony dont want to release games day and date on PC, it's not part of their business model unlike MS which has them as part of Gamepass. In fact, I think MS probably kinda wished they hadn't gone that route now as that is a huge chunk of sales (mostly) lost all to keep the subscription count up (which is still lower than PlayStation). This is why I don't see MS pulling COD from PlayStation, that would be a huge loss money wise, in fact, it wouldnt surprise me to see Elder Scrolls 6 on PS afterall)

All we are seeing at the moment is MS imploding, PlayStation sales are at an all time high, so to say MS will pick up the pieces after Sony implodes seems rather strange to me as it stands currently (and for the foreseeable future I would think). Do you think Nadella will continue to see this happen? And there is no point throwing in the diversity/inclusion card either, they are all doing that also (whether you like it or not).

Expectations from fanbases are different for MS and Sony. I’ve been with PlayStation since launch of the first and I really have zero interest in what they are doing now and have planned. Killing Japan studio didn’t help.

 

[midnightAI]

Expectations from fanbases are different for MS and Sony. I’ve been with PlayStation since launch of the first and I really have zero interest in what they are doing now and have planned. Killing Japan studio didn’t help.

So have I (waited in line at midnight to pick up PS1 with Ridge Racer and WipeOut), I have had every PlayStation including portables (imported PSP from Japan at launch because UK launch was months later), PSVR and Portal and my interest isn't waining in the slightest. I have also had most Nintendo consoles, most Sega consoles and a couple of MS consoles. But mine nor your opinion matters, what matters is that of the masses who buy them, and in that respect people are buying PlayStation more than ever while interest in XBox is dying.

As for Japan Studio, they hadn't done anything in ages, and just weren't profitable, the only team worth keeping was Team Asobi which is what they did.

 

[Fbh]

IMO MS always screws up by having a weak launch.
Xb1 had the weak marketing campaign and the higher price (with worse performance) due to insisting on bundling every system with a Kinect.
Series X/S wasn't that bad but having to delay Halo Infinite a whole year took away one of their main console sellers during a critical time. Also their 2021 was solid but their 2020 and 2022 weren't.

People can say "but Sony didn't have such an amazing launch lineup either" which is true, but that's almost sort of irrelevant because in most of the world outside the US they've established themselves as the default home console. If you want to be competitive against the better known market leader you need to do something to stand out. They might have the studios now but being like "hey we've got all these games now" 4-5 years into the gen isn't going to magically turn things around.

IMO if they want to stay in the console market they need to have a killer system and lineup for the next xbox. Come out with guns blazing

 

[Rob_27]

Just provide 2x the ps6 internals at the same price. Decent single player games and a handheld that plays the same games.

 

[Eotheod]

No thank you, I prefer what we have right now. I'm never getting a PlayStation since owning a 4 back in the day then selling it for Xbone, so I have no care for how well the console wars are going. All I care about is content, and right now I've been living the best gaming timeline ever with how many games are available on Game Pass. I'm quite literally struggling to keep up with all the titles that have come out, and have saved a shit ton of money.

Also Microsoft have Activision Blizzard King now, they really do not care with the cash cow pulling in money.

Here's the short version: There are no exclusives that make an Xbox a worthwhile purchase. If you have a PC, well, you can play all of their games there and much more. You NEED exclusives that only exist on that platform to sell consoles at any decent rate.

I think Xbox is going to stop making consoles very soon if they cannot produce some blockbusters from their acquisitions/current studios this or next gen.

This is the thing everyone keeps hammering on about, how Microsoft providing for PC as well as Xbox suddenly devalues the brand and can't exist at all. That's straight up bullshit, because there are plenty of people still playing and buying Xbox content, but also plenty of people engaging in Sony's platform despite them releasing PC titles.

 

[havoc00]

No Tha K you, I prefer what we have right now. I'm never getting a PlayStation since owning a 4 back in the day then selling it for Xbone, so I have no care for how well the console wars are going. All I care about is content, and right now I've been living the best gaming timeline ever with how many games are available on Game Pass. I'm quite literally struggling to keep up with all the titles that have come out, and have saved a shit ton of money.

Also Microsoft have Activision Blizzard King now, they really do not care with the cash cow pulling in money.

I’m in the same boat with gp it has given me tons of content and gaming hours. To be fair if your new to the ps ecosystem ps plus could have the same effect with ghosts on there infamous horizon etc.

 

[6502]

Xbox are just two aquisitions away from winning the industry.

Sadly for them Sony and Nintendo are not for sale.

 

[Giallo Corsa]

No thank you, I prefer what we have right now. I'm never getting a PlayStation since owning a 4 back in the day then selling it for Xbone, so I have no care for how well the console wars are going. All I care about is content, and right now I've been living the best gaming timeline ever with how many games are available on Game Pass. I'm quite literally struggling to keep up with all the titles that have come out, and have saved a shit ton of money.

Also Microsoft have Activision Blizzard King now, they really do not care with the cash cow pulling in money.

This is the thing everyone keeps hammering on about, how Microsoft providing for PC as well as Xbox suddenly devalues the brand and can't exist at all. That's straight up bullshit, because there are plenty of people still playing and buying Xbox content, but also plenty of people engaging in Sony's platform despite them releasing PC titles.

Holy shit at those mental gymnastics, zero self awareness and amazing passive aggressiveness

Content = quantity, amirite?
What about quality ? Oh wait, you're playing some third party games "for free" via Gamepass instead of actually spending the bucks, and people wonder about the decline of gaming/sales and whether that leads to lower quality produced content...


Wow brother, again, zero self awareness whatsoever...

 

[laynelane]

I've been an Xbox customer since the OG and the worst thing to happen to Xbox is it changed to conform with Microsoft's corporate image. It went from being scrappy and aggressive with OG and 360 to corporate style guide conformist with Xbox One and Series. The problem is that nobody thinks of entertainment when they think of Microsoft. The stupid MS corporate branding and unified interfaces on every device are fine for business use but they suck for gaming machines. Microsoft really needs someone who isn't a Microsoft lifer to run the gaming division. It needs new ideas, even for their PC offerings, and they need to shed the Microsoft business image from Xbox.

I agree with this. I first noticed it with the XBone reveal. It was then that it seemed like MS, the company, stepped in majorly in terms of how the XBox division was run. And it has continued to snowball. It would be great if they got people who really understand the gaming market and have the passion to take risks and innovate. I think that's what we saw with the OG and 360 and why there were so many successes and excitement surrounding the brand at that time.

 

[Kumomeme]

first party wise, if they failed to plan new line up atleast for launch period again then they really are fuk up considering the studios they acquired

 

[Little Chicken]

Is Ps Plus better now?Thanks to game pass, I played games like Desperados 3, Ace Attorney and other hidden gems.The amount of games was really lacking on Ps Plus when i had a ps4.

I can assure you that PS Plus continues to be a complete piece of shit.

 

[Little Chicken]

first party wise, if they failed to plan new line up atleast for launch period again then they really are fuk up considering the studios they acquired

It's almost like there was this global pandemic in which almost 7 million people died between 2020 and present day and people were forced to work from home.

 

[GHG]

I can assure you that PS Plus continues to be a complete piece of shit.

It's hilarious that you say this when one of the games he mentioned also happens to be available on PS Plus. I guess that means gamepass is also a complete piece of shit then, in which case I think it's the first time we've ever agreed on anything.

Also...

Is Ps Plus better now?Thanks to game pass, I played games like Desperados 3, Ace Attorney and other hidden gems.The amount of games was really lacking on Ps Plus when i had a ps4.

How is Ace Attorney a "hidden gem"?

 

[Mr Hyde]

I can assure you that PS Plus continues to be a complete piece of shit.

 

[meech]

How is Ace Attorney a "hidden gem"?

The sales for for all released games of the series counted together is what, like 5 million?Not exactly a known game.

 

[Celcius]

If I'm Phil, first thing I'm doing is putting the original Gears of War trilogy on Steam.