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Xbox Xbox is failing so horribly, its kind of unbelievable

Phantom Thief said:
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?
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Because they're not interested in those kinds of deals whereas Sony is. MS would rather do Game Pass deals, to get games on Game Pass as soon as possible, or as long as possible. They're not interested in making anything exclusive through marketing deals like Sony is. (Even when acquiring whole publishers, they still release everything on PC day and date) I personally cannot understand the point of Sony paying for Final Fantasy exclusivity in 2023 - for example - a franchise that will forever sell the most on PS compared to both Xbox and PC. (Even more baffling when Sony itself is putting its first-party games on PC but paying third-party pubs to delay PC releases. Why should they even care?)

It definitely works for Sony - they've been doing it since they got into the industry, but I imagine MS realised some relationships are too tough to crack at this point.

Phantom Thief said:
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.
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This I agree is a concern. Being so hands-off seems to have only proven detrimental so far in an alarming number of cases.
 
There hasn't been a compelling reason to get an Xbox since the 360 except for maybe the Series S as a budget option. It's just PlayStation minus Sony first party.
 
Wockio said:
There hasn't been a compelling reason to get an Xbox since the 360 except for maybe the Series S as a budget option. It's just PlayStation minus Sony first party.
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This is exactly how I feel. Xbox One was a complete waste of money and the only console I ever regret purchasing. Xbox Series seems exactly the same so far, and my PS5 covers just about anything I'd want to play next gen, aside Hi Fi Rush, which does look cool. Not spending 500 dollars for that though.

Feels like nearly 10 years of being told "just wait until next year" for Xbox games to hit. I'm sure it will happen one day though. Maybe this is the year for real this time.
 
I own all the current gen consoles (same as the previous gen and previous to that) i BY FAR the console i play the most is my Series X 🤷‍♂️ , so i highly disagree with this thread.

I would like to know if I can open a thread detailing on how much I've been progressively hating Sony up to this day? Coming from being a great fan during PS1 and PS2 eras, I just can't stand that shitty company and their blood boiling practices and...just everything related to them, it is hard to explain quick.

So even when i own a PS5 and its latest exclusives, I don't play it as much so I stick to multiplats on Series X. One of the reasons why now I hate Sony so much is their stupid console/game updates that for some reason happen EVERY TIME i have plans or time to play that console, it's like they are aiming to target me (and this happens since PS3) and of course, i can't leave the console in stand by mode because last time something got fucked up and had to reformat my PS5 and lose all the data....and please stop me because i can go on and on and on on fucking Sony, i could tell you that time some months ago when my PS3 bricked on the very last system update that Sony released because of....reason. i could go on.
 
Ultimately I disagree even though a lot of what you said isn't wrong. It was a while back now, but I remember when I was first subscribed to Game Pass in 2019 in one of the months Slay the Spire, Devil May Cry 5 and Yoku's Island Express all were added to Xbox Game Pass. I hadn't played any of these games before they were added and ended up adoring StS, playing it for dozens and dozens of hours as my first game in its genre. I also really enjoyed Yoku's Island Express even though it was short, and even DMC5 was worthwhile me downloading it as I knew within an hour of playing it that it wasn't for me and I could simply uninstall it and move on with no 'buyer's remorse'. It was just great to have 3 very different games like those and not have to do any due diligence on them before spending potentially upwards of £50 on a game I may not enjoy at all such as DMC5.

I have been subscribed to Game Pass ever since and will continue to do so even if many months have nothing for me, this very year I have been LTTP in trying Tinykin and High on Life after hearing good things about them, and was not disappointed by either even though I may have found them harder to justify if I had bought them at their full price (particularly High on Life TBH), and that's not even mentioning bigger names like Persona, Monster Hunter and later on in the year Starfield and other inevitable exciting additions. I know PlayStation now has something similar to offer but I've been subscribed since the revamp launched and this comment is long enough as is so I'll just say it's crap and doesn't hold a candle to GP.

But yeah you're not wrong about the games probably, though Halo, Minecraft Legends, Forza and whatever Redfall is could hypothetically end up reviewing better than Tears of the Kingdom and I couldn't care less, Microsoft games aren't for me at all, I am happy with the console and the GP subscription for other games.
 
Honestly, it's not like it's actually much better on the PS5 side. I enjoyed God of War Ragnarök and Horizon: Forbidden West well enough but they are fairly iterative sequels that havent sat right with everybody (though I personally preferred both to their previous entries - especially Horizon). And as far as future content is concerned, if you aren't a fan of Marvel and live service, I don't really know what there is to look forward to.

The game that made me happiest with my PS5 purchase was probably Rollerdrome and I'm sure it will end up on Xbox in a matter of months.
 
As somebody who enjoys a lot of Nintendo games, the cadence of releases on GamePass that I’m interested in, new games or otherwise, has suited me perfectly. I don’t have time for more.

This year already promising me HiFi Rush, RedFall and Starfield, without multi platform (Diablo 4, Resident Evil 4) or anything known about H2 - that’s plenty. Sony only has FFXVI that I’m interested in this year. So yeah, weird take. I think Xbox is doing perfectly well.
 
I think the thread title is worded a bit harshly but I don't entirely disagree, MS needs to get their first party situation under control.
 
Wyampharos said:
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
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Yeah, but Sony are releasing games like God of War and Horizon. Even a remake of The Last of Us Part 1 is better than what Xbox is delivering.
 
Completely disagree. I like my Switch but I use my Series X daily and my launch PS5 literally sits in my closet collecting dust because there's nothing to play on it and the UI is horrible. Game pass alone makes Xbox the best place to play new (non-Nintendo) games and indies.
 
I agree I barely use mine
Tbf for third party games I always go switch then PlayStation and then Xbox so it’s always going to be my least used system but even then there really aren’t many reasons to boot it up
 
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It's been a wild ride, for sure. It's hard for me to know how to fully assess it, but I think overall I'm positive?

For the record, I have a Series S. I think in a lot of ways the Xbox is the best platform right now. Game Pass is without a doubt the top subscription service in games, and I think generally they do a great job making deals to get interesting titles on there Day 1 beyond their own stuff. Their store, phone apps and cloud streaming offerings are also super well done across the board. Backward compatibility is outstanding. They've been publishing some very interesting projects that have come to fruition recently, like Pentiment and Hi-Fi Rush. They have a pretty good looking year already, too:
  • Hi-Fi Rush (already out!)
  • Ghostwire: Tokyo (by the sounds of it some sort of definitive edition with new content)
  • Minecraft Legends
  • Redfall
  • Age of Empires IV console
  • Starfield
They'll also be getting basically any third party release of note: Armored Core, Diablo IV, Assassin's Creed, etc. Not all of those games are exclusive of course, but I feel like MS has been fairly clear about that messaging for a while now. They want their games business to extend beyond the traditional console and unit sales structure. Obviously they're big on Game Pass. Streaming on a phone or tablet already works pretty well (for me!), and will only continue to improve. Selling games or subs on PC is just as well for them. Selling copies of Minecraft Legends on PS4/PS5 are still sales for a Microsoft developed game, and money in their pocket. Of the big three, they are most openly planning for what they see as the future of games: playing them anywhere, on basically anything you own.

Sony has had way better output, although I'd say for me personally their exclusives haven't excited me much at all in the past while. Granted I don't have a PS5 and can't try them for myself! But they're not exactly making me put any time or effort into securing one, either. A remake of Demons' Souls. A remake of Last of Us Part 1. Sequels to critically acclaimed games I didn't like at all on the PS4 (God of War, Horizon, FFVII Remake). Again, it's inarguably more than what Microsoft has been putting out! And I'm not saying those games are bad or aren't immensely popular or whatever. But I don't think I'd bite on most of this stuff even if I could personally. (Returnal looks sick though.)

It's impossible to deny that the Xbox first party situation has been in the shitter for a while now. I think my assumption is that when leadership and strategy changed over following the Xbox One launch, things were looking dismal over there. That was seven or eight years ago, but it's also not that uncommon for games to take that long to develop. It's not unheard of, certainly. I'm really hoping Microsoft and their teams can establish a nice pace, consistently release games through the year as planned and get some of their many projects off of the freakin' docket! I don't want to hear Microsoft announce a game for the next two years lol. Clear the list you've already built up first!
 
Interesting post. Can't massively disagree with any of it. At the same time, I like the Xbox as a platform and the PS exclusives don't excite me that much (although a lot more than Xbox ones do). When I come to finally buy a non-Nintendo console, I don't know which I'll go for but I slightly lean towards Xbox at the moment.
 
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Let´s see:
  • Resident Evil 4 is also releasing on Xbox.
  • We knew the games that were going to appear in the last showcase beforehand. They publicly said 4 games were going to be featured many times. In fact, we got one more (Hi-Fi Rush, a great surprise and a success). If folks were expecting more games is nobody's fault but theirs. Format was unanimously regarded as pretty much perfect.
  • The problem is exactly they have a ton of games coming, some announced way in advance I give you that, so it is making the wait more difficult to bear.
I stopped answering your many debatable points at: "Minecraft Legends is literally coming to every console", as if that would make the game less enjoyable.

Xbox Series X as a videogame system and a piece of engineering is probably one of the best manufactured ever. "Exclusive" games are not here yet, but they will. In the meantime I have plenty of videogames to play.
 
Maronic03 said:
I hope you will learn how to appreciate true beauty one day.
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me too

the 2023 non-first party game pass lineup is looking pretty good
  • routine
  • replaced
  • stalker 2
  • she dreams elsewhere
  • last case of benedict fox
  • silksong
  • lies of p
  • way to the woods
  • wo long
  • atomic heart
  • the new amnesia, apparently
it's such a pain in the ass when sony locks up exclusivity for games like season & goodbye volcano high. if ms did they same, they'd be on game pass (though I guess the jury is still out on long term profitability for indie devs that launch on the service)
 
I feel like Switch is the ultimate "you buy this for exclusives console", which is fine because Nintendo makes very good exclusives. But in a world where all of the other exclusives are on PC eventually anyway, I feel like Xbox is the ultimate "this has all the video games on it" console. It's a new way of viewing the value of a console so depending on your mindset it may not seem very good.
 
The Xbox Series S is my Game Pass box, and that's pretty much all I expected it to be. If there's a third party/multi-platform game that isn't an immediate must-play, I just wait for it to trickle down into the service. Once in a while there's even a solid indie/AA game that's available day 1 on the service.

So yeah, the Xbox lineup as a whole is weak, but in its niche, as a supplement to the heavy hitters on Switch/PS5, the Series S pulls it's weight. That's enough for me and possibly many others. And for the FPS/sports fans (a pretty big niche), it's possibly the best console (and the Switch is the worst).
 
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Their first party lineup is bad but who cares when they have Game Pass, it's literally the best value in gaming. If you can't find a ton of stuff to play on Game Pass then I don't know what to tell you
 
SlumWolf said:
routine
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Holy shit, now there's a game I haven't thought about in a while. I totally missed this was:
  • alive
  • coming to game pass this year!
That's amazing. When I first heard about Routine I was a single man. Now I'm married and have a kid who is going on seven years old.
 
Disagree. 2021 they were fantastic imo and they even got Publisher Of The Year that year. 2022 Xbox was dowright awful imo. 2023 they are having a decent start and I am watching them closely to see how they bounce back and what their future is. If I had to give a current score for their performance in this gen it probaly would be a C+ or B- that is trending in the right direction. That is far from failing horribly to me.

In regards to Gamepass, my partner loves Nintendo and never touched a Console outside of the Nintendo ecosystem. I got them a Series S a year after I got a Series X, and now my partner has more time in Gamepass than I do...apparently games like Dangaropa and Hifi Rush are hype af. They are close to surpassing my total Xbox playtime as well.
 
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YolkFolk said:
Yeah, but Sony are releasing games like God of War and Horizon. Even a remake of The Last of Us Part 1 is better than what Xbox is delivering.
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Sure, but all of those are PS4 games too, so I wouldn't say they're really moving on to the next generation either despite them being great games. Xbox still provides tons of value through Game Pass, even if it's not all first party or exclusive, and other features of the console and hardware are great too. I think people put a lot more emphasis on the fact that something is exclusive rather than seeing the console as an entire package
 
Tastes.

I could say the same about Nintendo since im interesed in only 1 game this 2023 but i would be lieing because i know people were amazed by the direct.

The 180° turn that Microsoft made when Phil entered and bet on the gaming division cant be done in 2-3 years, games are taking much longer to develop...
 
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MS did an amazing job with the hardware and software (OS, features, etc) side of Xbox, X and S are amazing consoles but man, they really need to sort out the games sides of the business, hopefully Hi Fi Rush is a sign of things to come but that game was in development way before the acquisition right? games now take too long to make, hopefully the stream of games start coming soon.
 
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Mbolibombo said:
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
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Does Everwild even have a game design yet? They literally debuted a mood concept trailer for a project that didn't have any gameplay concept.
 
I have a Series X for nothing other than 360 games and the occasional One title sprinkled throughout 😅
So yeah, Microsoft has been failing the brand for a while now.
 
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Game Pass is great, but I feel like it's still a bit too early to make that basically your entire platform's killer app. You still have to release 1st party games and they really need something to hit that's not Halo or Forza. I mean yeah of course they're going to have a monster amount of IP if this Acti-Blizzard deal goes through and the Bethesda deal also, but still it feels like significant XBox exclusives from them are still a ways off.

Instead of just spending billions on buy-outs, I think some smaller spends to get a few games exclusive here and there would've helped.
 
Xbox is one of my favorite platforms. I use it to chat with my irl buds I game with weekly, using my cellphone. I ve really enjoyed Forza Horizon 5, The Outer Worlds, Pyschonauts 3, Descenders (bmx rogue like, fucking genius) Supraland, Fallout 76, using my old as fuck I7 3770 and rx470 desktop. Norco, Prey, Exo One and others on my comically underpowered poor person's gaming laptop (MX350).

Oh the hardware consoles? They're whatever, who cares. Xbox isn't their consoles and thats fantastic. On the other hand, go ahead and try to get me to spend $600 on returnal and a bunch of cross gen games when I have a PS4..... Never lower your prices on your software Nintendo.....

Really strange that my experience is seemingly so different than many of you.
 
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Hailinel said:
Does Everwild even have a game design yet? They literally debuted a mood concept trailer for a project that didn't have any gameplay concept.
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I dont think so, I'm just going from the initial trailer which talked to me.
But yeah, it could turn out to something else so Im just living off of hope there lol
 
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For myself with access to all 3 systems and PC and mainly a PC/Switch user. the one that get's the least amount of usage is my PS5. Currently lent it to a close friend because I haven't used it in months and they wanted to play a couple games I've had (Uncharted series, Last of Us series, God of War series, etc.).
My Series X main usage is access to streaming shows and such as well as being the only way to access Game Pass in the Cloud that includes Xbox game library (not just PC). Last game I've touched and played directly on it is Halo Infinite when it launched.

MS knew they needed to beef up their internal studios gaming lineup which is why they went on a dev buying spree in the last couple years. We will start seeing a lot of the work that has happened since acquisitions in the next year or two.
 
I think say Xbox is failing is too unfair. I have don't played Hi-Fi Rush yet but if MS/Xbox keep publishing games like that I welcome it. I feel more optimist of their output for this year just for that game and the positive impressiones I have read.

Also I love the Xbox Series S (just wish they make a new SKU with more storage) and everything it represents, so I will root them for that.
 
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I love my Series X as a machine to play legacy software, but, on the whole, I agree with you. Xbox is absolutely horrible at managing first party content.
 
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I mean, it's better atm than where they were all of last generation.

That said, I am kind of over them trying to buy other companies instead of just starting to produce more of their own new studios. I know it's easier said than done. But even The Initiative is just doing an old IP.
 
The Xbox Series consoles themselves are brilliant pieces of hardware and in my opinion blow the PlayStation 5 out of the water in every aspect except expanding SSD storage. Those memory cards are too small and way too fucking expensive.

When it comes to games unfortunately their first party IP just don't carry the weight they used to. At one point Halo was literally the biggest video game series around. Halo 3 was a fucking juggernaut of a release. And now look at Infinite. A great game IMO but a shadow of it's former glory in terms of IP strength. Same with Gears. Gears 5 was so good but barely made a dent. Outside of Forza every first party IP has declined in mindshare or just fallen off the face of the Earth. That's not to say some of it can't be salvaged. There's still a ton of potential with Halo and I fully expect Gears 6 to be a graphical tour de force for Unreal 5 and Series X. And hey, Fable and Perfect Dark are coming back. That's pretty freaking cool. Then there's Obsidian, Ninja Theory, Double Fine, inXile, etc all with games in the pipe-line.

Buying Bethesda was a brilliant move. Bethesda's RPGs are sales monsters. Skyrim and Fallout 4 were massive, massive games and I think it's safe to assume Starfield will be the same and way out in the distance you've got The Elder Scrolls VI. You've got Arkane who's reliably cranking out great game after great game with Deathloop, Prey, Dishonored, and Redfall's looking pretty great too. Tango just delivered Hi-Fi Rush which came out of nowhere and blew everyone away and Ghostwire Tokyo should be dropping on Game Pass next month. Who even knows what id is up to, and you've got MachineGames working on Indiana Jones and (hopefully) Wolfenstein III.

I really do think the games are coming. It's just AAA development takes so long now and Sony's got the hype on their side with titles like God of War, Final Fantasy, Spider-Man, etc.

If Bethesda can knock Starfield out of the park I think it'll be the start of Xbox finally cooking with gas. As someone who stuck with Xbox during the later years of the 360 and through the entire dogshit generation of the Xbox One deep down I really think things are turning the corner. It's super frustrating at times, and lord knows COVID didn't help, but I want to be optimistic. I want to believe Xbox can return to greatness.

I want to feel like this again.





 
I love all my consoles including the Series X and I'm 100% glad I waited until I could get an X rather than settling for Series S.
 
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100% agree the first party output is bad. But they are excelling in literally everything else. The eco system is in such a good point that I prefer playing on my Xbox over setting up my PC and I have a 3070 so it's no slouch either
 
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I would love it if MS went full third party developers and released Halo, FS and Forza on all platforms instead of just Xbox and PC
 
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I disagree, I have Xbox Series S and there is so much games that I played and that I yet need to play on it.
Also I fucking love how I can play all Xbox games (counting previous generations) on single console.

I am so much pleased with Xbox that I planning to buy Series X also (for different room).
 
Redfall got me thinking about this thread. It’s such a bummer. The consoles are well made, the services and apps and everything are great. Seriously: what is going on with all of their first parties? I feel like there must be more to it than just the regular game dev challenges. All of these games have been announced for years:
  • Avowed
  • Fable
  • Hellblade 2
  • State of Decay 3
  • Perfect Dark
  • Everwild
I’m sure I’m missing some! Not only have none of these games come out, we have seen basically nothing of any of them. The games that do get out door never make a splash. Many first party studios have been silent for years. It’s extra weird in retrospect that Microsoft pursued a big buyout like ABK; they have so much work to do in their own backyard and could probably turn things around for a lot less than $70B. Turn 10 is like the only studio under their umbrella that can regularly put out games.

I feel bad for Starfield honestly. There’s a lot riding on that being a big hit, and it feels harder than ever to believe they’ll knock it out of the park.
 
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If Starfield doesn’t turn the ship around I’m abandoning all hope. That like the game they are banking on. It’s been pretty sad to watch them limp along in real time over the past decade. If I were a hardcore Xbox fan I’d have jumped ship years ago.
 
Their first party has sucked hard this Gen. Absolutely pathetic by them. All these studios they bought and they still can’t put out consistently good games.
 
While not entirely Microsoft's fault, I've also found a lot of the big indie games that Microsoft has promoted as big day one Gamepass drops have ended up really glitchy or just straight up bad. I really enjoyed Sable but it was really rough at launch. Recently, Sommerville and Benedict Fox ended up being below average games with bad performance. Before that was Twelve Minutes. Tunic so far has been the only gamepass launch indie that ended up not being underwhelming to me in some capacity.

Honestly, with how these indies and Redfall turned out (Arkane is one of my favorite studios and Redfall was one of my most anticipated games of the year) I'm starting to regret investing so heavily in the Xbox ecosystem and if it weren't for the fact I own Elden Ring on Xbox (and I dont want to lose my save file for the upcoming DLC), I'd likely consider selling my Series X.
 
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This has been a completely terrible month for Xbox owners between Redfall being one of the worst reviewed AAA games this year and the ABK deal getting blocked by the CMA. (meaning it's likely it's dead)

I will fully admit I'm in doom mode on Xbox, but honestly it's gotten to a point where Microsoft has overpromised and underdelivered for years that I have lost faith in them being able to compete.
 
This isn’t a rip on Bethesda by any means — I have loved several of their games, nobody quite makes ‘em like they do and I think it looks cool — but what do you feel the odds are that Starfield is a stable, relatively bug-free experience on launch day? Lmao.
 
they are pretty much betting it all on Starfield at this point huh? Has to be their BOTW moment.

Suprised no one else points out the fact that their console is STILL getting outsold by the 6 year old Switch at this point, and not just in Japan either. Gamepass can only do so much ESPECIALLY with how volatile subscription service numbers seem to be these days
 
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This thread when it started: “You’re crazy OP!”

This thread after Redfall released: “Hold on let him cook.”

Jokes aside, I really hope Starfield is great. Game pass doesn’t entice me personally and this game specifically is what I’ve been waiting to buy an Xbox for.
 
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Dark Cloud said:
Their first party has sucked hard this Gen. Absolutely pathetic by them. All these studios they bought and they still can’t put out consistently good games.
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First they need to consistantly put out games at all before they can even put out consistantly good games :p

Xbox struggles hard, realy hard and it's kind of sad to see.
 
There's no way Starfield alone can turn this around. Even if it were a great game -which I am not sure about- it's not enough.
 
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