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If Microsoft offered only Halo/GOW/Forza as exclusives, would Xbox still be viable?

I feel like IPs like Halo live off of the 13 year old Halo 2 fans.

This demographic is in their late 20s and 30s and growing older. I dont see new kids and young gamers playing Halo. They play the cool games like Overwatch.
This isn't true. I was under the assumption that not many kids played Halo these days too until several friends who are content creators have told me how much kids essentially harass them to play together lol. Kids LOVE Infection and wacky custom games, so now that Halo 5 has a browser and hopefully will for future games, more people of all ages will stick around.
Halo 3 sold Xbox 360s. Halo doesn't have that power today, I dont think
Judging by how the industry loses its shit every time a major Halo releases, I think that's not true. TMCC moved consoles as did H5, but compared to Halo 3 who knows how much. The landscape was different with H3.
 

trixx

Member
absolutely not, at least from my perspective.

Two of those games are shooters I dont care what perspective it is; it's still a shooter. Not only that but the AAA industry is filled with a shit load of shooters.

Why would I a person who does not like shooters and the fact that shooters are damn near everywhere care for these two shooters, no matter how high in quality they are?
 

Wezzulus

Neo Member
This isn't true. I was under the assumption that not many kids played Halo these days too until several friends who are content creators have told me how much kids essentially harass them to play together lol. Kids LOVE Infection and wacky custom games, so now that Halo 5 has a browser and hopefully will for future games, more people of all ages will stick around.

Judging by how the industry loses its shit every time a major Halo releases, I think that's not true. TMCC moved consoles as did H5, but compared to Halo 3 who knows how much. The landscape was different with H3.
I think after Halo 5's campaign, people getting it for the story might not follow the hype anymore. I know that for me, it killed my love for Halo, well... for it's future that is. I still love the past games.

Really wish 343 had a consistent plan with Halo and would follow up on every thing that was build in Halo 3 and Halo 4. Instead they gave that all the finger and went with their "the created" storyline.

On topic. Microsoft needs more exclusives and more first party studios. Halo, Gears and Forza alone won't be enough to keep the Xbox floating down the line.
 

Theorry

Member
The gnasher did not properly work at launch along with the matchmaking and the economy was so broken they had to completely overhaul it.

By the time issues were fixed the other menagerie of MP shooters came out leaving mostly nothing but the most dedicated players left on Gears 4, couple that with it selling the lowest of the entire franchise (even less than Judgement).

That was not broken at all. And i play since release. The economy needed abit of work as with many games. Also people always bring up Judgement as it sold worse etc. We only know the first weeks and it was still pretty close and probably with digital it was on top of Judgement if we count the average 30% digital sales and has better legs also. As Gears 4 is a good game and got good reviews and worth of mouth.
 

goldenpp72

Member
Already kinda feels like that. Kinda wishing they canceled Scorpio so i'm not tempted to keep buying Xbox stuff at this point. Scalebound was a big deal to me and was the one game I latched onto through all this, so kind of sad to see the Xbox brand go from what it was on 360 to this.
 

RoKKeR

Member
Very much so. They have an established ecosystem, substantial 3rd party support, a large subscriber and player base, and the infrastructure to maintain and improve their network.
 
In the long term? It's looking like no unless the franchises receive a resurgence in popularity. Halo and Gears are on the decline and Forza was never a huge seller (and racing games aren't getting any popular these days).

Actually, I would say that even if they're in a decline right now, both Halo and Forza will maintain steady audiences as long as the games are quality. They will retain the Xbox faithful at least. As for attracting new audiences... probably not. But that's what 3rd parties are for right? I don't know about Gears though. And IF Xbox stays its course, then I expect to see less variety in games all around outside of the western AAA market.
 

Lima

Member
Well yes. There is more games coming out than I can play already so if all of a sudden Microsoft starts to have a rather large and diverse lineup like Sony or Nintendo I wouldn't be able to play all of them anyway. I mean it sucks if you only own a Xbox I guess but that's your fault entirely. If Xbox becomes my Gears/Halo/Forza machine im okay with that. I got Sony and Nintendo for my singleplayer experiences.
 

Humdinger

Member
It's a weird hypothetical, because it's unlikely to ever get that dire. I think you're probably just reacting to people's characterization of MS as having nothing but Halo/Gears/Forza to offer, which is a hyperbolic statement (though I get where they're coming from and sometimes talk in those terms myself).

I suppose Xbox could stay marginally viable under those conditions, assuming 1) they did some mean budgeting; 2) those franchises reverse their downward trend in popularity and 3) MS went all in on the microtransaction, "games as services" model with these games, milking them for years.

It's nothing I would want a part of, though.
 

Sanctuary

Member
Don't they kind of coast by with those already? Exclusives don't matter as much as they used to, and as long as they foster their Xbox Live ecosystem and keep strong third party support, they'll be fine.

I honestly thought that's what the primary determing factor was for these systems anyway for those who can only choose one. I honestly don't even know what other "system selling" exclusives they have on offer. Killer Instinct? When I wonder why someone purchased an Xbox One over a PS4, other than "brand loyalty" (whatever that is), I always think Gears/Forza/Halo. Scalebound was bound to change that I guess, but not anymore.

All of those games have / are coming to PC.

PC & PS4 seems the way to go, honestly.
I only have a PC.

I'd agree, but haven't their PC ports been rather shit of late? Almost like they actually want you to purchase an Xbox One to get a better experience or something...
 

kirby_fox

Banned
No. I believe they will still be somewhat viable for a short time, but long term the audiences will shift to competitors with more options alongside 3rd party support.

I see PS success in that they really grew their first party offerings. I see Nintendo failure because they stuck with first party a lot. Without offering as much as your competition, it's hard to stay competitive.
 

JaggedSac

Member
I'd agree, but haven't their PC ports been rather shit of late? Almost like they actually want you to purchase an Xbox One to get a better experience or something...

Population being the main problem for pc. People arent buying from the store so mp dies on the games and cross-play isn't there for competitive modes.
 

Everdred

Member
It's weird, everyone I know has Xbox. All my personal real life friends and acquaintances of about 50-60 people. I can log on at any point and have people to play with. On the contrary, I have about 12 on PlayStation and none of them really play. Steam is somewhere in the middle and they seem to just play the same couple games (CS and Dota).

Exclusives don't seem to matter. I would be 100% PC but anyone I want to play with is on Xbox so if I want to play with friends I have to own one.
 

Vyrance

Member
Only one out of those 3 I'm interested in is Gears. Never really played Halo but I would for single player. But those 3 couldn't make the Xbox viable for me by themselves
 

killatopak

Gold Member
I'm sure there are people who are satisfied with that line up.

3rd party is where it's at but it's gonna be the weakest out of all platforms.
 
They have largely cultivated there dude bro shooter base since 2010. I think it's feasible in the US and maybe three UK.

Their emphasis on those three games is what led me to abandon there Xbox 360.

Edit:
Friend at work only plays shooters on his X1. He has TF2 and BLOPS3. Yet he hasn't even played the campaign for either game.
 
If the price and marketing are right and better than the competition's, it can be viable and succesful however, not for me, I have no interest in supporting a company that does not invest in games.
 
With how much Halo 4 and 5 absolutely sucked, and how stale gears has become no. FH3, Halo MCC, SO, and 360 BC are the only reasons I haven't sold my xb1. Unless there are actual worthwhile exclusives in the future xbox is dead to me.
 
With how much Halo 4 and 5 absolutely sucked, and how stale gears has become no. FH3, Halo MCC, SO, and 360 BC are the only reasons I haven't sold my xb1. Unless there are actual worthwhile exclusives in the future xbox is dead to me.
This is sadly the case.

As excited as I am about Scorpio what burns is that I'm not expecting enough exclusive content to warrant the purchase.

In the time of og xbox there was an incredible amount of great exclusive content on the most powerful system. And because you can't expect the same from the future if xbox it's just another box that is redundant and boring.

I am leaning away from the thing unless it magically supports steam or something which would be awesome
 
That was not broken at all. And i play since release. The economy needed abit of work as with many games. Also people always bring up Judgement as it sold worse etc. We only know the first weeks and it was still pretty close and probably with digital it was on top of Judgement if we count the average 30% digital sales and has better legs also. As Gears 4 is a good game and got good reviews and worth of mouth.

The gnasher was definitely straight up broken, dude. It fired off ghost rounds that registered on screen as shots and cost the player an animation but never actually fired any actual rounds and as such did no damage. Even though it showed the player blood etc, but no bullet hadn't left their ammunition count. This was something well documented and admitted to by the developers. Don't even get me started on how overpowered the Hammerburst was.

I also played at release.
 

Miles X

Member
5 years ago, yes. These franchises (perhaps not Forza ...) are getting less and less interest. And userbase isn't the sole issue ... Halo and Gears did much better numbers on much smaller userbases. (I think Gears and Halo sold to like 25% - 30% of the low userbase first month when they came out, Halo and Gears are barely reaching 20% lifetime now ...

If Microsoft want any sort of future, they need to learn (no idea why they haven't already) that they need to put in some actual effort to get anywhere, their approach has been so arrogant. Give Halo a rest, give Gears a rest, heck give Forza a rest.

343 on a new RPG/FPS
Coalition on something totally new
Turn 10 on PGR
Playground on a Burnout style franchise
Rare on their old IP!

Create a couple new major studios, one focused on action/adventure and another on RPG, bring back a more mature and darker Fable.

I look back at this gen and can't believe how far they've fallen, and pretty much all of it could have been avoided.
 

Theorry

Member
The gnasher was definitely straight up broken, dude. It fired off ghost rounds that registered on screen as shots and cost the player an animation but never actually fired any actual rounds and as such did no damage. Even though it showed the player blood etc, but no bullet hadn't left their ammunition count. This was something well documented and admitted to by the developers. Don't even get me started on how overpowered the Hammerburst was.

I also played at release.

So Gnasher not complety working as intented. Is now "cant seem to launch working game"
lol.
 
So Gnasher not complety working as intented. Is now "cant seem to launch working game"
lol.

Considering the Gnasher is the bread and butter of that game, yes. I also pointed out that the matchmaking had severe issues as well as a completely broken economy along with the incredibly overpowered hammerburst that broke the flow of the game. But yeah, continue dancing around those.
 
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