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Xbox Xbox is failing so horribly, its kind of unbelievable

Lozjam

Lozjam

Don't Forget Me
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I say this as someone who has an Xbox instead of a playstation right now.... And I am sort of regretting it.

I would like to say all of this is on the back, of both Nintendo's latest direct, Xbox's showcase, and on the back of what Sony is doing.

Nintendo is 7 years into it's aging system, and is still releasing banger after banger. Even arguably, the Nintendo Switch Online subscription is kind of really a good deal. Nintendo can still have a direct and wow people. We still have a ton of games to look forward to between Metroid Prime, Pikmin, Kirby, Zelda, and we have just come off from the release of Fire Emblem. That is already, 5 huge games from the 1st half of the year. All in different genres, settings, tastes. And you have an absolute horde of third party games, that vary upon taste.

Sony has been constantly been in the frontlines in a different way. They have these absolute massive tentpole releases that do quite well for them where they basically release their heaviest games in the holiday. But people actually talk about and like those series! Not to mention, Sony going into massive popularity by having its IP be in shows. They get the big third party games too like Resident Evil 4 Remake, and the like too. So it feels like any playstation fan always has something to play.

Then you have Xbox. It's kind of telling, that Xbox's most well received presentation, has people whelmed. But in a comparison to any of the console manufacturers..... Well it's kind of unbelievable. They only showed 5 games. 5.

And the thing is, we kind of don't know what is coming out of them. Some many of them have caveats that make their lineup look ridiculously weak.
Minecraft Legends is literally coming to every console. It looks pretty cool, but it really isn't that much of a boon to have an Xbox.
Forza does not have a release date, so we don't even know what is coming.
Elder Scrolls Online is literally a game that has been out for 2 generations now. Its just some new content for a MMO, but will hardly be a huge incentive. Also, its also on PS5 as well.

Then you have stuff like Redfall, which can be legitimately good for fans of the genre. And you have Hi-Fi Rush, which is a spark of brilliance we haven't seen from Xbox in a long time. That is it..... And the thing is, we are now well into the generation, and the only thing that Microsoft has brought to the table is a mediocre halo game with sparse content, and an excellent Forza Horizon game. That's it.

We also know about Starfield, that may or may not be coming this year. However, Bethesda has been so tight lipped about it, it doesn't seem like its a sure bet.
Now, many people would talk about Gamepass, and how good it is. And you're right. However, no big game has really released to gamepass in months, besides the Persona games. It's just sort of aggravating how little content there has been, especially considering the competition.
 
I highly disagree. I have all 3 and I've always been a Nintendo person but I enjoy my Series X far more than my PS5. It just works well while my PS5 gives me tons of issues constantly and the controller is super uncomfortable imo
 
Don’t have an Xbox, but I also don’t really agree either. Consoles aren’t solely defined by their exclusives, and the accessibility of Gamepass cannot be understated.

They obviously aren’t without flaws, the output of XGS has been inarguably disappointing, and I’m very concerned about how they’re internal handling of studios. But they still have enough going for them that “failing” is way too harsh of a word. This gen has been a huge step up from the Xbox One so far.
 
Hey! Microsoft has also given us a dozen CGI trailers for games that might never come out AND corporate consolidation! Extremely generous of them!
 
Have a series X since launch.. and while the hardware is stellar, fantastic even.

Xbox has had a pretty shitty generation in terms of games so far. Gamepass is cool but it's been a lot less of cool stuff the last year or so.

I am really only waiting for Gears 6 and Everwild and who knows when those come around
 
the series x is my favorite device to play things on. last year nearly every indie game I was interested in came to game pass day one, so I was pretty happy with that. it's also an insanely flexible emulation machine, which I was not expecting at all

in terms of big games, yeah, they need a more consistent first-party output. but I also think stuff like pentiment is more interesting than pretty much anything sony has published this gen
 
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Slow start, yes. They did miss the mark with Halo, which was to be expected from 343, but I am betting they will hit their stride this year and beyond.
 
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Thread title goin kinda hard 😅

My feeling is that from an absolute games standpoint, there is plenty to play due to strong western third-party support. GamePass remains a heckuva deal, and has more than enough quality content for the average person to be able to hit up (discoverability might be a problem tho?)

But yea from that first-party, platform-specific killer-apps aspect, its been the worst of the Big Three and honestly the worst overall lineup of the Xbox family (og, 360, One, Series) til now. Halo did not do its job, unf.

They got a ton coming and its relatively early for the XSX/XSS platform life, so maybe by the end of the year we start to really be wowed?

In a way, this helps their case for the Acti-Blizzard get: 'See judge, everyone is asking us where are the games?!'
Maybe Microsoft is holding back the floodgates until the acquisition goes thru 😆
 
I‘ve got a Series X and I like the box. It plays Yakuza games real good and tbh that’s kinda the main reason I bought it. Their first party output so far has been, frankly, pretty dire for me. They’ve yet to release a big first party game that I’ve truly loved.
 
I wouldn't say that Xbox is failing. I think it is more that people are beginning to realize that there is far more to a console than just hype.

Phil Spencer and the marketing team did a fantastic job of getting people excited for the system. That was don't by marketing the heck out of GamePass and announcing games that were/still are very far out. The reality is that game development is just as hard as ever. Were most of these games announced too early? Probably. However, you have to look at it with a wider lenses. The Microsoft 1st party pipeline was completely gutted for the first half of the Xbox One generation. Pretty much all good will was lost. In order to get people willing to buy in to a new Xbox system, Microsoft had to say "look we have games coming. We promise!"

While those 2020 showcases were amazing, two and a half years later and several of those games are still MIA. 2021 was a good year for Xbox Game Studios, but 2022 was notably silent. This is a big year for Microsoft. They need to "prove it" with their game releases. HiFi is a great start but the big elephant in the room is Starfield. If that game doesn't move Xbox systems then there is likely nothing in the pipeline that will in the near future. Ideally, there will be more consistent releases from XGS in the coming months/years.

Halo has been a disaster though. I feel so sorry for the long time fans.
 
Their console exclusive first party output throughout this generation has been utterly dire thus far. But they're well poised for the future, and their platform is ideal for multiplatform releases; especially with Game Pass in place.

Much promise for the future, as of yet unfulfilled though. If you're primarily interested in 3rd party releases however? There's no reason to choose any other console instead of Series S/X. Great hardware, and a fantastic deal, but basically no exclusive software worth your time; unless you're primarily interested in backwards compatibility (which I am; and also the primary reason why I own a Series X).
 
Eh, Microsoft is a blight on console gaming in general and I'd be glad if they went away permanently. If they had it their way, they would own everybody, and you would own nothing, only paying endless subscription and microtransaction fees to keep playing the same boring designed soulless money-sucking games.

That's the goal of Microsoft and has been since the start of the Xbox One era.
 
Gotta come in here with a hard disagree. My Series S has easily become my favourite device to play games over the last half a year or so. And that is owed in a big part to both Game Pass, and the unparalleled backwards compatibility offered on Xbox.

I somewhat agree that it has been sparse so far in terms of big new exclusive games, FH5 aside. But then you have games like Pentiment and Hi-Fi Rush instead, which are admittedly smaller in scope, but nonetheless among the best games I have played over the last few years. I am sure things will start to pick up later this year in terms of big releases with Starfield and Forza Motorsport, and only continue to get better from there.
 
I've got a Series S, but it's definitely in third place behind the PS5 and the Switch in terms of how much it gets used. If it were my only console, I for sure would have enough to play thanks to Game Pass, but I think I'd be pretty unhappy with the lack of first party games.
 
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In my books, MS has a more interesting first party lineup than PS, and I don’t even own an Xbox. Stuff like Flight Simulator, Forza Horizon 5, Psychonauts 2, Pentiment, Redfall and Hi-Fi Rush are all more exciting to me than Playstation’s current slate of exclusives. And I can play them all on PC, too!
 
I mean, most multi-platform games are also coming to Xbox alongside PS5. For example, Resident Evil 4, as you mentioned in your OP, is not a PS5 exclusive. It's coming to Xbox as well. PS5 and Xbox have a ton of overlap in their libraries. So it does sort of come down to what exclusives you prefer, and whether or not Gamepass is something you value. PC is 100% the best place to be playing most games right now, but the initial cost can be a hard pill to swallow. So with that in mind, when looking at the choice between consoles right now, you're choosing whether or not you care about Sony's first party stuff. If you do, then yeah, maybe getting an Xbox isn't the right choice. If you don't, then I think an Xbox is better.

That being said, I do agree that their first-party lineup has never really been their strongsuit. Especially in terms of variety; a lot of them are first-person shooters or are shooter adjacent. A lot of their longer-running series have had dips in popularity (Halo in particular, while still great imo, has had a pretty big fall from grace), and their investment into Bethesda hasn't quite paid off for them yet. Arkane, Obsidian, and ID Software alone cement their first-party lineup as having a ton of potential (if you ask me, Arkane is in the S+ tier of level designers in the industry, alongside FROMSoft, Nintendo EPD, and IOI Interactive), but they haven't really capitalized on their output yet.

I dunno. I get where you're coming from, but it's hard for me to see them as a failure overall despite their first-party offerings feeling a bit disorganized. I think the console has a lot of value if you don't have a PC.
 
They're in an unfortunate spot right now for sure.

The Series' are apparently great so good for them for making good new systems.

Game Pass is a wonderful service but it's clear that the only way it works with a consistent library that doesn't have a bunch of bigger hits rotating in and out is if Microsoft buys everyone. They can't seem to get enough subscribers in the door regardless of what they add and I think it's going to show once this Activision/Blizzard deal falls through. Also considering how much the TV/Movie streaming world is being gutted with losing content and rising prices, idk who trusts a new streaming service. I'm not optimistic Microsoft won't do something similar down the line.

Meanwhile, out of all of these studios that they've bought, the only studio with somewhat of a consistently good output is Obsidian. Rare can't get a game out the door to save their lives. We haven't heard anything from Hellblade 2 in forever. Starfield has taken forever. 343 is a dumpster fire. They're horrible at maintaining a good first-party output and they have zero momentum. HiFi Rush seems great, and I haven't played it, but it honestly feels like a fluke.

Overall, feels like the Xbox brand has way overextended and is operating on borrowed time.
 
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Lozjam said:
However, no big game has really released to gamepass in months, besides the Persona games.
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Is Monster Hunter Rise not a 'big game'? MH is certainly bigger than Persona ever will be at least.

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The main value in Xbox (the ecosystem, not the console) is Game Pass and (access to games via the cloud on your phone/tablet/non-gaming computer), not exclusives. It's about time people realised that.

As someone whose main platform is PC (Steam specifically), I'm very happy with Xbox's direction though obviously, it could be better, for sure. The fact that I can play a game on my Series S and then continue on my PC and vice versa seamlessly is worth it to me alone. Or buy an xbox game and automatically own it on both. That they bring their own games to PC day and date is another plus, that they also don't block third-party games from releasing on PC day and date is another.
 
First party on Xbox has been dire for like eight years now. The saving grace is gamepass and backwards compatibility. It's great playing MGS3 or Daytona USA on the same console I use to play Fortnite. Can't say that about Playstation or Switch.
 
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Couldn't disagree more. Actually, taken as a game platform, Xbox as a whole has never been so good, imo. Not even the 360-era

GamePass, Bethesda, Activision, Blizzard, Rare, great hardware, marketing's on point... the credentials are all there. The future will be good for them.
 
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Hi-Fi Rush, Redfall, Gamepass….

I would have got behind the OP last year but things are going to get better this year.
 
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Dcubed said:
unless you're primarily interested in backwards compatibility (which I am; and also the primary reason why I own a Series X).
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it is worth stressing how cool it is that you can buy and play shit like breakdown and gun valkyrie on this thing. and the disks work!

meanwhile I can't buy tokyo jungle on my ps3 because my paypal account errors on the "add funds to wallet" page, and you can't buy shit straight from the ps3 store anymore. complete trash
 
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Strongly disagree. There are some valid points in here no doubt, but that title needs much more specification to even near the truth.

You seem to index strongly on xbox's latest presentation, meanwhile it had a very specific intended focus and scope that was communicated ahead of time. Comparing it to a Direct is apples and oranges.... no less comparing it to any state of play which have failed to ever impress me with the odd exception of one full of third party reveals that weren't exclusive.

More big games have come to Game Pass recently beyond Persona. Monster Hunter Rise in Jan, Lego Star Wars in Dec to name two.

and.. RE 4 Remake is coming to Xbox? lol. I'm not sure why Sony's financial backing of game for marketing rights is relevant as a positive here. It's a waste of money from the gamer's perspective.
 
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I love my series s for gamepass and emulators. It gets more use then my ps5 despite me being able to name 10 ps5 exclusive games I'm excited about compared to like 3 Series games I'm excited about.
 
Maronic03 said:
Yeah, imagine being the only console that doesn't get Octopath 2. I couldn't live with myself in such a shameful situation.
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especially interesting since OT 1 is still on GamePass. I imagine it's waiting to come to Xbox along with GP but didn't want to cannibalize day 1 sales.
 
I traded my series S in for a steam deck, all of microsofts games are coming to steam now anyway, so I get access to all of steams games, portability and any Microsoft game if they ever decide to release another. There’s no reason to own a xbox
 
They make nice looking hardware and presentations, but personally I wouldn't touch an Xbox with a 6ft pole. Besides the lack of JP titles, in my opinion their first party games and exclusives have had this hyper macho aggressive tone that kind of scares me. That does seem to be improving as time goes on, but I still permanently associate it with their brand and it keeps me from buying.

Interestingly enough, this and last year with redfall, hifi rush, and pentiment, they seem to be getter closer than ever to having a nice variety of releases. Just need to work on the consistency now.
 
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Don't have Xbox and don't really follow them. Was surprised to hear Series S and X sales are low. I think it's still too early to draw conclusions as the games from their acquisitions will take time to hit the market
 
Dekuman said:
Don't have Xbox and don't really follow them. Was surprised to hear Series S and X sales are low. I think it's still too early to draw conclusions as the games from their acquisitions will take time to hit the market
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Even when those games come they will be day 1 on pc now, there’s never been less reason to buy a xbox than now
 
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BlueManifest said:
I traded my series S in for a steam deck, all of microsofts games are coming to steam now anyway, so I get access to all of steams games, portability and any Microsoft game if they ever decide to release another. There’s no reason to own a xbox
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unless you want to play game pass games on the go unfortunately.

That's why I bought an Ayaneo instead of a Deck.

But yes - decoupling XBOX from being strictly a console platform is indeed part of MS' strategy.
 
The comparison of the Xbox & Bethesda Developer Direct to a Nintendo Direct is a bit silly to me. They showed 5 games, 4 new, 1 old. How many new first-party titles did Nintendo show? I get that the Series consoles are at the opposite end of life compared to the Switch and they should show more, but the last time they did that, people complained that they showed too many games that are too far out - which is fair. The focus of the Dev. Direct was therefore on titles releasing relatively soon.

grumpybat said:
Besides the lack of JP titles, in my opinion their first party games and exclusives have had this hyper macho aggressive tone that kind of scares me.
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Outside of maybe Gears (lead character of 5 was a woman btw) and I dunno, Forza Motorsport at a stretch(?), where is that tone? Flight Sim, Forza Horizon, Halo, Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Psychonauts, Redfall, Pentiment, Minecraft, High on Life, The Gunk, etc etc. I'm not seeing it. Your comment sounds like it's from 2007 lol

Dekuman said:
Was surprised to hear Series S and X sales are low.
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I don't think we even know that.
 
totofogo said:
unless you want to play game pass games on the go unfortunately.

That's why I bought an Ayaneo instead of a Deck.

But yes - decoupling XBOX from being strictly a console platform is indeed part of MS' strategy.
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Well I could put windows on my deck for native gamepass but i don’t want to
 
Red Monster said:
Honestly it's hard to complain about Xbox when they are releasing a potential GOTY game this year.
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They released my personal GOTY last year, too (Pentiment), along with another one of my top games (Grounded).

The first two years of the Series S/X generation were pretty…light, in terms of first party releases (it really didn’t help that Bethesda was contractually obligated to release two big games as PS timed exclusives) but it does seem like they’re genuinely turning a corner.

The thread title seems a little hyperbolic and I think it’s sort of excessively pessimistic to act like it’s a toss-up if Starfield is going to come out this year or not. It’s clearly their big game this year and was prominently featured in their “get ready for 2023” trailer less than two months ago. It’s February, it’s okay if the game doesn’t have a specific release date yet.

Some of the posts in this thread are…something else, to be honest.
 
BlueManifest said:
Well I could put windows on my deck for native gamepass but i don’t want to
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From my research, that isn't the smoothest deal but yeah.

My point was just that there is very much reason to own an Xbox/PC for the full GamePass "Xbox" experience. The Steam use case is more for those dipping their toes in or who prioritize (digital) ownership
 
totofogo said:
From my research, that isn't the smoothest deal but yeah.

My point was just that there is very much reason to own an Xbox/PC for the full GamePass "Xbox" experience. The Steam use case is more for those dipping their toes in or who prioritize (digital) ownership
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Well main point was I don’t miss out on any of their games, even if I have to buy them instead of gamepass, plus I have access to all steam
 
idk man. that gamepass sure is amazing. I know it ain't popping in the 1st party field but gamepass do be delivering. I have brought just 3 games on the system. But I have played over a dozen in like a year. Which is decent for me. Mlb the show ain't costing me a damn dime and I'm putting hundreds of hours into that.

But yeah it's 1st party stuff ain't got nothing on Sony and Nintendo. And that's okay.

On a side note: did they have to honor bethesda's timed exclusivity deals with Sony? Like do we know the legalities of if Microsoft said, "Nah bro that game is exclusive to xbox now."
 
My Xbox is a fantastic companion to my Switch, I don't have a gaming-able PC, just the two consoles. Xbox Series has an immense backwards compatible catalogue (I bought Jade Empire and the TimeSplitters games in the sale a couple of weeks ago, and they just work), most third-parties, and a lot of new games - anything between indie (although I rarely play ID@Xbox games, a lot of them are on Game Pass!) and AAA.

I'm not a total fan of everything Microsoft does. The UI is riddled with typos in Dutch ("Save" as in "Save Money" is translated as "Save" as in "Save Game" (should be "besparen" but is "opslaan"). That's borderline unacceptable IMO.
 
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At this point, Xbox feels like something you buy because you always have and so have your friends

Like, I'm not even super big on most of Sony's major titles (Ragnarok was pretty mid tbh) but I'll be using my PS5 for Spider-Man, Final Fantasy, and upcoming Yakuza games. No regrets on that purchase, glad I have it alongside my Switch.

But anyway, Hi-Fi Rush looks really cool. Glad it's on PC.
 
I doubt they're in the competition to "win" anyway. they're here to keep the gaming industry alive and kicking while making some serious buck in the meantime. This could be their final hardware release, with AB acquisition, they'll most likely unify their console and PC business to have more profitable brand.
 
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I agree.

Microsoft, to their credit, actually did get a lot of things right this generation. They have the better hardware, they have more affordability, their focus on compatibility and continuity is great, and Game Pass is great, but ultimately, for the second time straight (third if I consider Xbox One X as its own thing, which to some degree it was since it was meant to represent a soft relaunch) they have missed out on very literally the most important thing: the games.

We are very literally 27 months into the Xbox Series X's lifecycle. As of right now, Microsoft has released two tentpoles for it, one of which they wrecked to a spectacular degree post-launch (literally never seen that happen before), and the other, while amazing, is the one thing Xbox has consistently delivered, and therefore neither a surprise, nor really preaching to anyone but the converted. We also got smaller stuff like Pentiment, Hi Fi Rush, and ports such as Flight Sim, and Age 2, and that's great, but more than two years in, this is all MS has to show? In this comparable period, Sony has put out Spider-Man Miles, Sackboy, Demon's Souls, Returnal, Ratchet and Clank, Horizon Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7, The Last of Us Part 1, and God of War Ragnarok. Not only is this list not counting smaller stuff (Astro's Playroom is arguably among the best PS5 exclusives, and I didn't count it there), not only is that not counting ports such as Ghost of Tsushima and Death Stranding - both ways that I am giving Xbox an unfair advantage here btw - but it is also totally ignoring the general reception, success, and hype of Sony's games versus Microsoft's. The difference is flabbergasting.

And this doesn't even consider third party games. Why are most exciting third party games allowed to get strong PS associations? Exclusive content, exclusive demos or betas, or even just PS branding on all reveals and marketing; meanwhile MS gets what? Why are they just letting that happen? How is Sony getting so many amazing, big name third party exclusives (FF16, Silent Hill 2, Rise of the Ronin), and MS is getting nothing? How is this company that is so rich and so big so completely incapable of going toe to toe with a competitor a fraction of is size, with far fewer resources? "Well, it takes time to build up a first party", Microsoft has been in the business for 22 years now. They have had all the time and incentive in the world to build their first party. 22 years in for Sony was 2016, by 2016 they had God of War, Uncharted, The Last of Us, Ratchet and Clank, Gran Turismo, they had standalone shit like Bloodbone, they had games like Horizon in the pipeline. Where is MS by comparison?

Instead, even after their massive shopping spree, it feels like every other week we hear news of an MS project being mismanaged, or canceled, or rebooted, or running into some development issue or the other. We hear about layoffs. We hear no good news.

And we aren't even talking about Nintendo yet, because that just makes MS look even worse! As a game publisher, as a platform holder, MS is totally clowned by Switch era Nintendo. In terms of first party support, marketing, messaging, community engagement, keeping hype around your brand and keeping it in the news cycle. Even in terms of third party outreach, Nintendo got the Switch to an unreal position. And Nintendo was coming off of the fucking Wii U. Their situation and position was even worse than MS' with Xbox One, but they completely turned it around to reach a position of unassailable invulnerability within 2 years. MS? Phil Spencer took over in 2015, eight years ago. And here we fucking are.

I was really rooting for MS to have a resurgence this generation. On some detached, academic level, I still am. But personally, the last three years have solidified to me that MS is not a games publisher, they have no understanding and/or desire to manage a pipeline of high quality creative content. They are good at services and computing and ecosystem building, and those are all areas Xbox is good at, but other than that, right now, I think they have failed on the most fundamental level.

Starfield will literally need to be a Skyrim level game to change my mind, and it'll still be just the one.
 
Regarding the recent Xbox showcase, I would say that it's taken Nintendo a very good long while to perfect the Direct formula. We all remember those dark Wii U days when many a direct could be considered subpar. It's taken them a good decade to get them to the point where they have the reputation, the clout and the contacts to jam pack a Direct with announcements like yesterdays. Microsoft and Sony have a lot to work on in that regard, but I sense they'll get there.

Getting high profile exclusives out the door has been an achilles heel of the Xbox brand for a decade now, and it's only really in the past 3 years they've made the moves - both through sensible and aggresive means - to build up their portfolio of exclusives. They're making progress, but the area I do think they need to improve on is project managing all their new developers to create a consistent pipeline of content. That's currently one of Nintendo's strengths (and Sony's to a lesser degree). The taps which should be providing a flow of unique, engaging content are still a bit bunged up for them.

I bought an Xbox series X because there are some really interesting games in the pipeline from them, more interesting to me than Sony's future games currently, and once these start rolling out proper you would hope the hype train will begin to roll. My one concern is whether those higher up the chain than Phil and Co have the patience to wait before Microsoft gets distracted by something less useful, like an AI Hamster or whatever.
 
BlueManifest said:
Well main point was I don’t miss out on any of their games, even if I have to buy them instead of gamepass, plus I have access to all steam
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Gotcha. Apologies if it felt like I was yucking your yum, was projecting my own experience navigating the purchase of a Deck a bit :)
 
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