• 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.

What is wrong with the Xbox brand? Exclusives matter

Gamer79

Predicts the worst decade for Sony starting 2022
I currently do not own an xbox but loved the original OG Xbox and Xbox 360. It is not a complicated formula on why the Xbox brand has been failing. At the end of the day, what really matters are the games. The PS5 has so many more exclusive games it wipes it's ass with the Xbox brand.

On PS5 I am playing: God of War, Spiderman Series, , Ratchet and Clank, Ghost of Tsushima, Returnal, The Last of us series, Demon Souls, Astro's playroom, etc. There is a great library of games developed for the PS platform:

On Xbox you have: A pretty good Forza series, A shell of bungie Halo, Gears of War still going?, I know Xbox fanboys are creaming their pants for Starfield but the consensus says it's pretty average, Ori is cool, and Flight Simulator if that is your thing. The Xbox brand has failed to establish IP's that get the masses excited.

It's simple, GAMES MATTER!

If microsoft stays in this console race and flexes their muscles using their new Developer acquisitions to keep games exclusively on xbox it could become interesting down the road. I admit that I am rooting for Xbox and sad to see it's much worse than I thought at this point in time. Bottom line is the games I can play on said platform matter much more than Teraflops or marketing. You have to be a complete blind fool to not admit thate Sony has many more exclusive better games than the Xbox brand right now. That could change but time will tell.

*The point of this thread is not some fanboy flame war. I am giving my opinion on the way I see things. It is clear when you look at sales comparison the xbox brand is falling way behind. There are factors to that but IMO the core reason is software.
 
Last edited:

T4keD0wN

Member
Here We Go Again GIF
 

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
I have become the old man get off my lawn guy but most of the series you mentioned have been losing their luster to me

GOW Rag was boring, Spiderman is dying to me as Peter Parker is Spiderman, I didn't know Elden Ring was a PS5 exclusive, Ghost of Tsushima TO ME is the jewel here, Demon Souls was very good, Astros was just mind blowing introducing me to the controller
 
Two of those Sony franchises you listed fit your criteria about IPs they created that get the masses excited (God of War and Last of Us). Ghosts of Sushi? Astros Playroom? Ratchet? Nothing masses about those. Elden Ring is a third party multi platform franchise.

You’re more than welcome to your opinion about the Xbox games you listed. If a game being exclusive is super important to you then don’t buy an Xbox 🤷‍♂️ I care about enjoying games I play, not whether those games are exclusive or not.
 

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
Management or lack of it. No one at the executive level has a clue how to manage the brand.
The one who did left because other agendas were more important.

They are so out of touch when he did leave Phil told him his seat at the round table would be left vacant to remind them who they worked for, the gamer since he was such a huge gamer first

My question is why does Xbox have to be reminded they are supposed to appease the gamer of all people?
 
The one who did left because other agendas were more important.

They are so out of touch when he did leave Phil told him his seat at the round table would be left vacant to remind them who they worked for, the gamer since he was such a huge gamer first

My question is why does Xbox have to be reminded they are supposed to appease the gamer of all people?

Who was this?
 
I have become the old man get off my lawn guy but most of the series you mentioned have been losing their luster to me

GOW Rag was boring, Spiderman is dying to me as Peter Parker is Spiderman, I didn't know Elden Ring was a PS5 exclusive, Ghost of Tsushima TO ME is the jewel here, Demon Souls was very good, Astros was just mind blowing introducing me to the controller

I only wish Xbox had “boring” exclusives like those titles mentioned 😢

Yet this old man continues playing CoD 😂 (no offense)
 
They have done things so badly and for so many years that it is difficult to give a summary explanation of why the Xbox brand is the way it is, and no, having games is of no use if you don't know how to sell them, as has been seen with Starfield-Forza where the Hardware sales continue to decline.
 

TastyPastry

Member
OG Xbox and Xbox 360 were so much cooler. when i think of the 360 i think of Ninja Gaiden 2, Dead or Alive, Fable, Alan Wake, Bioshock, Mass Effect, Gears Trilogy. they had many good deals with third parties and good first party games. gears and halo are not what they used to be, Team Ninja is making PS5 exclusives now, Dead or Alive is dead, Alan Wake 2 is out for every platform. when i think of xbox series s/x i just think of their subscription service which i don't want because i want to acutally own the games i play

it has great backwards compability though
 
Last edited:

gothmog

Gold Member
If Microsoft committed to being an actual third party publisher they would probably be in a much better position. Right now we know their executives still want to starve out Sony and it is a mistake. They own a ton of best selling IP and people buy PlayStation. This should be a simple choice to publish where people are gaming instead of trying to force an ecosystem on people.

Not that surprising given the history of MS and their need to control everything.
 

yamaci17

Member
I knew things were bad when Microsoft praised TLOU in an internal report while simultaneously admitting they have no way of making a game like that.

Like they were already defeated and couldn’t compete and try and achieve that standard?
yes, they're incapable of doing it

let alone being capable, they also somehow manage to shoo away developers that can do great games (ori devs, sunset overdrive devs).

and the first cod game under the banner of microsoft probably will kill the cod brand for good (whether the game is released like this under the influence of upcoming microsoft acquisition or not is up to debate. I tend to think it is).
 
Last edited:

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
Who was this?
Ybarra

I only wish Xbox had “boring” exclusives like those titles mentioned 😢

Yet this old man continues playing CoD 😂 (no offense)
None taken :)

Honestly would rather play COD #72 with recycled maps and a campaign that is DLC to last years vs a lot of what the OP mentioned

I don't know why the GOW, SM, TLOU has played out for me but COD has not

I do look forward to Death Stranding 2, has to be a Ghost of Tsushima 2 coming and possibly Wolverine though that one concerns me a bit
 
Ybarra


None taken :)

Honestly would rather play COD #72 with recycled maps and a campaign that is DLC to last years vs a lot of what the OP mentioned

I don't know why the GOW, SM, TLOU has played out for me but COD has not

I do look forward to Death Stranding 2, has to be a Ghost of Tsushima 2 coming and possibly Wolverine though that one concerns me a bit

Maybe you’re just an MP gamer these days.

Objectively all of those games have been smash hits critically and sales wise
 

ungalo

Member
I have become the old man get off my lawn guy but most of the series you mentioned have been losing their luster to me

GOW Rag was boring, Spiderman is dying to me as Peter Parker is Spiderman, I didn't know Elden Ring was a PS5 exclusive, Ghost of Tsushima TO ME is the jewel here, Demon Souls was very good, Astros was just mind blowing introducing me to the controller
It's not the point, i personally don't like the Sony IPs, but they are still modern, well produced, high end exclusives.

We are in 2023 during the 9th generation which could be considered simply as the continuation of the PS4 gen, and Microsoft still hasn't delivered a single AAA that meets the standards of modern gaming. I'd say the only two exceptions are the Forza Horizon series (but it's a racing game) and Starfield which was produced by Bethesda (although it's a controversial game).

The rest is either a production disaster or something similar to what you could find in the beginning of the 360 era. Like the Gears games that didn't change one iota in their structure since the 360.

And again it's not criticism about the games themselves (although i think most of those games are not great) but Xbox either don't have the talent, or the means, or the will to get to Sony level when it comes to producing big fashionable games that will please the average player (especially the average console player).
 

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
Maybe you’re just an MP gamer these days.

Objectively all of those games have been smash hits critically and sales wise
Possibly

Still many games I enjoy offline

Sales numbers and metacritic does make a good game for me though

I am pretty sure the OG ARK Survival Evolved did not score well and I have over 600 hours in it
 

Gamer79

Predicts the worst decade for Sony starting 2022
Has the nerve to list Astros Playroom as if it’s a monster fuck-a-doodle-do exclusive IP.

And then Elden Ring.

Walloper thread alert!
Have you played Astros playroom using the dualsense controller? I almost guarantee you haven't. It is still probably the best use of a controller in any videogame period.

Not is it a visual delight to look at, it is a true next generaton experience that hasn't been matched factoring the controller use. After thousands of hours on ps4 and ps5, it is the only game that I cared to platinum. It is a gem
 
They don't understand the gaming-industry.

That's all there's to it.

They thought they could transform the industry and that they could be Netflix.

Netflix wanted their app on every device and platform. It’s why they have a web app.

But gaming isn’t TV/Movies or music. It’s not content you can consume passively. It’s not episodic in nature. It takes hours of commitment.

So yes, while a platform agnostic approach will happen in the future, we’re not there yet. Microsoft learned this lesson the hard way putting their content both on PC and gamepass.

Helps short term revenue but gives you nothing long term. Jim Ryan could have made the same mistake and honestly it probably would have worked out better for Sony. They have bigger IP and their console sales are less reliant on 1P games.

Spider-Man 2 will perform well on PC as will Ragnarok. It’s just extra revenue for them, not a pure business model.
 

Gojiira

Member
Simple OP, Xbox cares more about ‘control’ and ‘market leadership’, they want to be the biggest company in the gaming space. As such they care more about everything but the quality of their own output.
Thing is they have big daddy MS bankrolling everything, if Xbox had to rely on itself they would have shut down long LONG ago. Hell MS debated shutting Xbox TWICE already. That says a lot about Xbox.
 

X-Wing

Member
No, and every single one needs to be printed and force-fed to Phil Spencer.
It's overwhelmingly obvious that they are aware but simply don't care

Please, this is almost as embarrassing as this thread.
70% of those games are multiplatform games that will probably never see a sequel now that the acquisition when through.
Microsoft also has zero merit in any of them.
And when you look at the things that have been made by Microsoft for a while you see things like ReCore and State of Decay, really? Medicare franchises at best.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom