Well, just focusing on MS's latest event, my frustration's more with the fact:
1: None of the games were running on an actual Series X devkit
2: None of the 1st-party games shown besides Halo Infinite had much any gameplay (the only ones that had some like Avowed were
pseudo-gameplay which I definitely hope the final game can match) aside from Halo Infinite.
3: Speaking of Halo Infinite, while it looked fun enough for me the visual presentation, considering what it represents for Xbox as a brand and for MS going into next gen, did NOT hit the right notes in being a showstopper visually with the in-game graphics. I mean we have a meme around it FFS, people outside of the core fanbase are talking more about the meme than hyped for the game!
I felt like this was the event for MS to truly shut up the "haters", make up for lack of gameplay at the May event (which also did have some gameplay in there but aside from Bright Memory Infinite's fantastic demonstration, were in very small clips and the "gameplay" meme around Valhalla killed most of the goodwill the rest of the show built up), and at least match Sony in terms of showing off in-game gameplay for a decent variety of 1st-party titles.
Instead, I think they may've given people more ammunition against them, made some gamers not already in the ecosystem indifferent to their next-gen system launches, and some of those same people are probably viewing the brand as a meme since their marquee IP, Halo, is currently infamous for a meme that even 343i are embracing. Again, I personally feel the show was mostly okay, and rewatching the Halo Infinite footage I've even warmed up to it more visually.
But to a lot of hardcore/core outsiders looking in it seems like they are not acknowledging the value of Gamepass because all they got were CGI trailers for games that could be good but there's not enough a track record to know if they will be, and gameplay for Halo Infinite that had iffy visual impact for what was meant to be a demonstration of a very well-built and powerful next-gen system. In fact, again, none of this stuff was running on a Series X devkit, meanwhile Sony had their stuff running off PS5 devkits (unless they were lying of course, but I like to give the benefit of the doubt).
Overall I think MS just missed a big opportunity for impact to definitively take command of next-gen messaging among hardcore/core gamers who aren't already diehard locked into the ecosystem (seemingly even rubbed wrong some of those who are), and that might give Sony a chance to clean house. I hope the rumors MS held back (again) impressive footage (preferably in-game gameplay, and hopefully on Series X devkits) some stuff in anticipation of Sony's August event are true because if not....I really don't want to say what that does for their prospects leading into next-gen launch, let's just say that.
And there's no way anyone can call me a concern-troll on this because I've been pretty adamant in arguing in favor of a lot of MS's next-gen strategy and Series X hardware in particular for months here, even to the point some people think I hate PlayStation for some reason. Which couldn't be further from the truth. I just genuinely want the best from both Sony and Microsoft this gen but while I personally still got some satisfaction from Thursday's event, did the hardcore/core gamers who are more staunched in Sony and Nintendo ecosystems (who may've been genuinely considering a Series X or Lockhart/Series S) come away convinced to jump in?
Going from what I'm seeing around parts, it doesn't seem that way. And that's exactly what I was worried would happen if this event didn't hit a home run for them. MS has to expand their ecosystem to hit the profit projections they want, but they really need hardcore/core gamers not already in the ecosystem to buy in as soon as possible. They're the very same ones, though, that they might've just came off as a joke to or even worst, solidified sticking with Sony and/or Nintendo. Even PC guys, for those 3rd-party Gamepass games anyway they can just pick them up on Steam or Epic Game Store or GOG and do so at pretty reasonable prices for the specific games they want. At the very least there, though, they would still need Gamepass for MS's 1st-party stuff, or else they just buy it outright on a store like Steam, and MS still has them in the ecosystem anyway.
