• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

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

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.
God of War got criticised forvbeing anjounced too early and Sony using that to sell ps5's in '21. That's how I feel Starfield was used by MS. I'm surprised the Starfield delay hasnt been criticized in that way when they made such a big thing out of November 11th 2022 ...

You gottavtake into consideration the context though. Why would people criticize all those 3rd parties you listed? None of them have been delayed egrigiously. More is expected out of MS especially with their recent acquisitions. MS is the company that needs rlto deliver. Theyre the company with the reputation of "just wait a little longer; exclusives are on their way. Funny you bring up Sony titles as even with those games being delayed, Sony continues to deliver hits year after year. Sony also outmaneuvered MS by securing timed exclusives like Deathloop and Ghostwire which helped fill in the gaps in their already strong lineup.
 

ungalo

Member
...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.
Nah the only one trolling is you it's pretty obvious. It can only be that, i don't want to assume worse.

You cannot miss the point with such regularity. When you announce a game, people normally expect it will come out in reasonable time, whether you announce a date or not.

Normal people like Sony (and Microsoft back in the days), they launch a console, they have like 3 or 4 games ready at this point, that they kept secret, and they announce them with the console. This is called a lineup, this is what you announce with the console so people will buy it.

Now this launch was a little tricky, with covid and all that. Still, they managed to give us at least some crossgen games that would take advantages of the new features of their console. 2 or 3 exclusives to the next gen that would come out in the first year of the console also. Sometimes a game out of all of that might be delayed, shit happens. But as long as you can assure there is steady flow of releases it's not a big deal.

You don't announce a game with your new console, when the development has not even begun. It's dumb and worst, it's misleading.


This is just meaningless talk. AAA refers to budget, and any AAA game is by definition a 'big' game.
Sure, absolutely meaningless to know if your game is going to be God of War or Saints Row, as long as it's written AAA, a game is a game.


Avowed and Perfect Dark have been announced as AAA games from Day 1 and that has never changed.
For Avowed that doesn't seem to be true but again it shows how the term AAA is ambivalent which you don't acknowledge. Whatever, the ambition of a game changes over the course of its development, that's my point. Avowed has been scaled back on some points at least. For Perfect Dark it's the opposite because Microsoft got scared seeing the player's expectations.

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?
Yes and you can play it anywhere. You're also pretty much forced to play it. And that's when there is something to play that you like. Overall it's less choices.

Doesn't have to be made by MS, but they have to do better than 3 months exclusive for mediocre games like they did at launch.
 
Last edited:
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.
I mean look at some of these game development stories, it takes like 3-5 years or more these days to make a huge ambitious triple A game. I agree with you in general, but your point on timing is consistent with the message that 2023 is the year we see Xbox really start throwing punches.

Not defending them too much, it's beyond frustrating to keep hearing 'it's cooking,' but it's not like these studios are sitting on their hands, some of these studios are fantastic and have a consistent reputation of delivering quality products (Obsidian, ID, Machine Games, Arkane, Ninja Theory, the Coalition). When these projects start coming to light, Xbox may have a real shot to have some bangers.. Especially considering many are into or beyond 3 years of development time.

I think it's obvious that Xbox has had a poor showing at the start of the gen, I don't think that story will be true by the end. It would take a catastrophic failure across the board for every studio they have to faceplant. I just don't see that happening.
 

Danknugz

Member
I like the whole ecosystem. I've got XSX and a PC. I have an Android phone is pretty much dedicated to xCloud. I've got Game Pass and the cherry on top is MS Rewards which has paid for Game Pass for a year and a half already and I'm paid up until July 2023. What's not to like?

First party needs to improve, but that's already happening. In the meantime, I really don't have many complaints.
how do you get so much money from rewards? all i get is enough for a 5$ gift card like once a year.
 
Last edited:
Let's just shoot the elephant in the room. Sony allows MS to put Gamepass Ultimate on PS5 for $20 per month, giving MS full revenue for a GPU sub, Sony gets their 30%, and Ponypigs get to pay.

Everybody walks away happy.
 

Topher

Gold Member
how do you get so much money from rewards? all i get is enough for a 5$ gift card like once a year.

Here is my OT:


Takes a few minutes a day along with the quest and Rewards app on Xbox. Those points will build up quick.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
God of War got criticised forvbeing anjounced too early and Sony using that to sell ps5's in '21. That's how I feel Starfield was used by MS. I'm surprised the Starfield delay hasnt been criticized in that way when they made such a big thing out of November 11th 2022 .

Sony didn't need God of War to sell PS5 consoles. Neither did MS need Starfield release date to sell Series X consoles. Both are not yet able to fully meet demand at this point.
The vast majority of delayed AAA games had release dates or release windows. Why single out Starfield for critique?

You gottavtake into consideration the context though. Why would people criticize all those 3rd parties you listed? None of them have been delayed egrigiously.

Starfield delayed from November 2022 to H1 2023. So (on paper) a max 7 month delay. That's pretty much in range of many of the delays announced for AAA titles. GOW Ragnarok for example was delayed for (at least) nearly a year.

Starfield delays are no more egregious than that for Horizon, Hogwarts Legacy and Suicide Squad.

MS is the company that needs rlto deliver. Theyre the company with the reputation of "just wait a little longer; exclusives are on their way. Funny you bring up Sony titles as even with those games being delayed, Sony continues to deliver hits year after year. Sony also outmaneuvered MS by securing timed exclusives like Deathloop and Ghostwire which helped fill in the gaps in their already strong lineup.

And from what's announced + what their studios are working on, it's clear this is a one-off. 2023 looks really good for exclusives, and there's a clear pipeline for an equally great 2024 and beyond.
If you're banking on 'Xbox has no games' this gen, I suspect you'll be sorely disappointed.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
We’ve been hearing about how many studios they have for over a decade and what do they have to show for it?

They went through the bulk of the Xbox One generation with around 5 first party studios. So no, you haven't been hearing about that for 'over a decade'.

You don't announce a game with your new console, when the development has not even begun. It's dumb and worst, it's misleading.

Development on Hellblade 2 had already begun when it was announced.

You cannot miss the point with such regularity. When you announce a game, people normally expect it will come out in reasonable time, whether you announce a date or not.

And what's your definition of 'reasonable time'? It's perfectly viable to announce games early in development. Wolverine, for example.


Sure, absolutely meaningless to know if your game is going to be God of War or Saints Row, as long as it's written AAA, a game is a game.

If you want to make a commentary about quality, best to spell it out in plain English vs whining about 'big game' which typically refers to budget and scope.
Not all AAA games are the same quality. Not all AAA games have the same budget. But all AAA games are big (> $50 million) budget games.
This isn't rocket science.


For Avowed that doesn't seem to be true but again it shows how the term AAA is ambivalent which you don't acknowledge. Whatever, the ambition of a game changes over the course of its development, that's my point. Avowed has been scaled back on some points at least. For Perfect Dark it's the opposite because Microsoft got scared seeing the player's expectations.

Source?


Yes and you can play it anywhere. You're also pretty much forced to play it. And that's when there is something to play that you like. Overall it's less choices.

Why does it matter if i can play it anywhere? What a ridiculous comment. Monkey Island is a 92 MC rated game I can play on GP without forking out extra cash. Why would I go buy it on my PS5 instead? And how exactly am I 'forced' to play it when I've still got a crazy backlog across PS5, Xbox and on my Steamdeck?
 

SHA

Member
Good. More articles like this. Call these pretenders out.

You’ve been in the business for 20 years and still don’t have a stable list of first party exclusives?

Do better or get the fuck out of the console business.

And all this praise for Phil Spendser needs to stop. The guys gaming portfolio is abysmal. What games has he delivered? All he ever mentions is Starfield and Gamepass.

Newsflash, your subscription service is useless without games I want to subscribe for.
The pandemic don't exist anymore even though it's the pandemic.
 
I'd say Forza horizon 5 is a killer exclusive and whilst pretty niche, flight sim is good.

Whilst Horizon and God of war are AAA exclusives, i do feel PS users overstate the amount of killer exclusives the console has. I wouldn't call Astros play room, rachet and clank, even miles Morales (also on PS4) "killer games". Very good yes. And in that case Xbox has games in that same category.... psychonauts, sea of thieves expansions, etc
 
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.
You’re 100% correct about this. The problem is you can’t accurately convey your emotions and facial features in a text, therefore you get random hero try hards attempting to correct your opinion online based upon how they read your sentence. Emojis are a weak persons guide to assuming mood. Everything is fluid, but the internet is black and white.
 
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.
Must have missed the memo where your lord and saviour Phil said they will need to raise prices on literally everything.
 
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.
If someone can troll I can tell the truth. I can agree that in the end we'll just have to see what MS comes up with. Regardless if they can survive last generation with few studios and games this generation will be fine.
 

Humdinger

Member
People say, "thank goodness they are finally writing articles about this," but they've been writing articles like this for years -- back to 2016 or 2017. These complaints about MS bringing no new exclusives (nothing aside from Halo/Forza/Gears) go back 7 or 8 years. In the past, you'd see these sorts of articles after every E3 -- followed by cries of, "Wait until next E3!" You would also see them after a big Sony exclusive dropped, as you're seeing here with Ragnarok.

It's been a very long draught, but the tide should turn in 2023, or 2024 at the latest. As we all know, MS has spent countless billions buying up huge publishers and developers. Those games will have to start rolling out soon. When they do, these complaints will fade (and other complaints will take their place.)
 

Kagoshima_Luke

Gold Member
3a5.gif
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
Well as opposed to Sony, MS actually puts their AAA games on gamepass, whereas Sony is charging full price for games like TLoU part 1, Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart or God of War. For 15€ monthly I already had Forza Horizon 5, Halo Infinite and tons of other great games.
Wouldn’t be leading with Halo Infinite if you’re tying to promote the service. They’ve just added some quality games in Tinykin, Requiem, Vampire Survivors, FM2023 etc.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Game Pass more than makes up for missing a few exclusives I have no interest in.

Not really the point. Why shouldn't you have both?

Don't you realize that there has been a severe issue with this part of Xbox for pretty much the last decade, and nothing has changed in part because the fanbase has put up with it!

Also with portfolio management this poor why should anyone outside that fanbase feel confident or enthused about the prospect of further acquisitions?
 
And yet there are people like me that have zero interest in Sony single player games. I'm still yet to want to play TLOU or GoW or Uncharted etc. I just don't have interest in those walking sim, heavy story, anime games, scripted etc. I'm just not into that sort of thing. I understand that's awesome for some, more power to you. Let us not pretend there aren't great games to play irrespective of the hardware you own. Sony have the lead in first party games, well when I actually think about it Ninty would be the top of the heap in terms of recognisability, replayability and icons within gaming. Sorry Kratos isn't in the same league as Mario. PC has perhaps Steam vs Scam Citizen as its posterchild.

Xbox shit on Sony and Nintendo online, from parental controls, crossplay, emulation, accessibility, value proposition and server quality to anti-cheat and patches etc. Sony shit on Xbox first party. Nintendo shit on them both. PC is enjoying perhaps a renaissance in terms of games available, really great to see one place where it can all come together. PC gaming is currently like the ICQ of chat software from the 2000s. When I look at what games I can play across Gamepass and Xbox with a console, PC and phone in cohorts and cloud-based game saves, friends, security, backward compatibility etc etc I see no reason to buy into the PS ecosystem. There isn't a single game that's a system seller for me and I haven't even entered into the value for money Xbox/Gamepass have over Ninty, Sony or PC. Currently there is more interest in games outside of first party tentpole games anyhow, they're important but they're not what they used to be exactly. The attach rate isn't where it used to e.g. Super Mario Bros sold like 1 to 1 with the NES. These days GoW sells around 1 in 10 console owners e.g. 10% of the install base of PS4.

I also find it pretty fucking funny so many go on about lacking first party. How about motherfucking Minecraft bitches. Yeah, it's multiplatform but that's exactly the point I'm making. Y'all are so blinded by a brand on a box and paywall garden to get a hardon for the game/box you obsess over that you don't see that MS is beyond that now. MS/Xbox are doing what they did with Azure; open up your systems, standards, protocols, services and community to become agnostic to such paywalls and hardware limitations to maximise your audience/potential buyers, MTX and subs. They'll happily sell one GP on PC to one customer then sell a Series X and controller + 2 games to another while selling just xCloud to the kid with his phone and controller. It's a diversification of services to reach a larger audience and move another tier beyond just a gaming console box.

There is another point being missed entirely with such articles. MTX. The elephant in the room. Sony is reshaping or adding another appendage to push into online further and MTX/subs etc. Every metric out there for the last decade shows this is the growth portion of the industry and the way forward beyond bugged releases, delays, budget blowouts, infinitely complex games to build of first party cycles. Bungie and Sony partnership is proof of such. Why would you invest hundreds of millions on a one shot sales run vs GaaS/MTX?

All platforms have advantages and disadvantages. This article is frankly insulting to games like Sea of Thieves (as big as any Sony first party), Grounded (mimics Steam early access very well), Minecraft (seriously, how is this not in the conversation), Forza (bigger than Sony first party), MS Flight etc. For example let us take a non-game like MS Flight and compare it against GoW franchise, flagship Sony. Flight often gets written off as "not a game" etc, however, MS Flight franchise had already sold 20Million by 1999 as a franchise. The latest 2020 single title entry for Series S/X/PC of Flight sold over $2.5Billion of hardware accessories just to play Flight Simulator. GoW has approx. 50Million sold. Yeah, we can let this rhetoric that Xbox first party games don't sell die. How about Halo vs GoW? 80Million+ for Halo franchise overall. How about some MTX comparison...

Elitist shit if you ask me. It's also funny how 3rd party/F2P is still bigger and growing more rapidly than any 1st party from any platform but doesn't seem to dominate the conversation as much these days e.g. historically COD, LoL, FIFA/NBA/Madden/EA games, Fortnite, Overwatch 2, GTAV, Apex Legends, Rocket League, Destiny 2 and all the indies success recent years.

You get it. It will be interesting as more Xbox first party games drop next year, either way tentpole games will hit an upper limit of budget, quality and market share.

Take a look at the biggest gaming franchises by unit sales. Not a lot of Sony first party there either. In fact, the article should really be titled "Even with the success of Sony first party why are Xbox and Sony so far behind Nintendo?". At least that would be an objectively accurate article instead of a biased personal blog.


g4gj91N.png
 
Last edited:

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Lacking a "killer" app may be true but thanks to game pass I'm perfectly content. Would I like a god of war game , yes, is not having one stopping me from enjoying my series X ,no

Game Pass was the killer app all along

:messenger_heart:
 
Last edited:

Hendrick's

If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
Not really the point. Why shouldn't you have both?

Don't you realize that there has been a severe issue with this part of Xbox for pretty much the last decade, and nothing has changed in part because the fanbase has put up with it!

Also with portfolio management this poor why should anyone outside that fanbase feel confident or enthused about the prospect of further acquisitions?
I just don't care that much about an ultra small percentage of games that may miss the platform when there are more games than I have time for already.
 
Lacking a "killer" app may be true but thanks to game pass I'm perfectly content. Would I like a god of war game , yes, is not having one stopping me from enjoying my series X ,no

And if they did, the people condescending those who are not currently impressed by their efforts so far and want them to do better, will be the first to praise, the first to say how great it is . You watch.
 

Pelta88

Member
The apologists for a publisher / console manufacturer, not dropping games for their system should really give you pause for thought. We've lived through... And I'm doing this in chronological order:

Wait till E3
Wait till Tokyo games show
Wait for the XB1X /scorpion
Wait for new studios
Wait till next generation
Wait a few years into the new generation
Wait for Covid to pass

Wait for COD to come to the service and then, finally, we'll be cooking with grease.

I stopped waiting "When wait till E3" came and went 3 years in a row without any change in output. So it's kinda shocking to see others still... Waiting.
 
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

Fuck yeah! Master chief collection. Xbox and 360 games on my new xbox series x. Awesome. Who needs new games? Sony should have supported ps3 games for eternity instead. It's no wonder xbox always lags behind Nintendo and playstation when it's main selling point is old games and bc. But its fine. By 2058, Microsoft will finally be releasing 1 AAA game per quarter after buying 500 studios.
 
Top Bottom