• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

What's Xbox's strategy here?

Not sure, I'm wondering if Helix is quietly being internally delayed due to component cost and procurement issues? Maybe they're throwing out a couple of exclusives because they're having to stay in the game for longer than they planned.

The exclusive strategy doesn't make sense from a market share perspective. whats it going to do, help them shift hundreds rather than dozens of Series X/S units?

Or they just simply don't know whats the best way to die.
 
Last edited:
Not sure, I'm wondering if Helix is quietly being internally delayed due to component cost and procurement issues? Maybe they're throwing out a couple of exclusives because they're having to stay in the game for longer than they planned.

The exclusive strategy doesn't make sense from a market share perspective. whats it going to do, help them shift hundreds rather than dozens of Series X/S units?

Or they just simply don't know whats the best way to die.
Nobody will ever convince me that a machine that will likely cost over $1000+ will be the thing that saves Xbox...

The move MS can make NOW is to drop the current consoles in store to firesale prices, get gamers and people who are snake bitten by the high cost of PS5 and Switch 2. They have a wide opening....if they are willing to pay for it.
 
They basically are surviving to reach next gen on a better position. Moving from "Everything is an Xbox" to "Exclusives Matter" Will take this year and half 2027.

Xbox Will keep focused on Gamepass since it's the only tool they currently they have to survive. But My Guess is that they are working on exclusive games for Helix. So basically they are returning to the oldest videogame strategy : Exclusives sell consoles or Game platafors not the contrary.
 
They basically are surviving to reach next gen on a better position. Moving from "Everything is an Xbox" to "Exclusives Matter" Will take this year and half 2027.

Xbox Will keep focused on Gamepass since it's the only tool they currently they have to survive. But My Guess is that they are working on exclusive games for Helix. So basically they are returning to the oldest videogame strategy : Exclusives sell consoles or Game platafors not the contrary.
The strategy they started this gen with and still failed. Good luck to them.
 
As an XBOX main with a dusty PS5 - I don't see what PlayStation is doing as anything exciting either. They're both corporate shitlords at this point, which is a function of being gigantic platforms, so I get it, but outside of having a preference in your country because they do a better job marketing to you, I just don't see the difference. I just butchered that sentence with a lot of commas. You're welcome.
 
Nobody will ever convince me that a machine that will likely cost over $1000+ will be the thing that saves Xbox...

The move MS can make NOW is to drop the current consoles in store to firesale prices, get gamers and people who are snake bitten by the high cost of PS5 and Switch 2. They have a wide opening....if they are willing to pay for it.
Nobody is more capable than MS to take that sort of chance but they refuse to do it. Which makes me think they just want to get out of hardware altogether but are being hamstrung by a quiet war inside the xbox division. The constant shifting of strategy seems to suggest they arent all pulling in the same direction.
 
As an XBOX main with a dusty PS5 - I don't see what PlayStation is doing as anything exciting either. They're both corporate shitlords at this point, which is a function of being gigantic platforms, so I get it, but outside of having a preference in your country because they do a better job marketing to you, I just don't see the difference. I just butchered that sentence with a lot of commas. You're welcome.
PS really isn't doing anything that much more exciting. I just prefer PS exclusives over anything on Xbox. Xbox also misses out on few Japanese games I enjoy. Once Helix is out though if they truly allow Steam it will be a non-issue.

Still at that point I'm already on PS I have no real reason to move anywhere.
 
The list of games XBOX users willing to give up after 2 years like Death Stranding. From my understanding, any exclusive game remain exclusive after 2 years is bs and no one cares about it.
 
What's Xbox's strategy here?
All over the place, is what.

ioS9kXQ5lNa4HGq7.jpg
 
If they sell a lot of consoles on the back of E-Day, then it makes sense. I mean, I wouldn't buy another Series X for one game because I have a PS5, but I can't speak for everyone. It's also likely that the biggest audience will be PC anyway.

I don't think Clockwork Revolution will move the needle, even if it does look interesting.

Like others have said, I think they needed to go all in one way or the other.
 
It's stupid. They've already brought Halo to Playstation, it's over. That's like Nintendo releasing a 3D Mario on Playstation and then saying "Oh, but you still get Fire Emblem exclusive to us (and PC)!"
 
The whole "XBOX can't put the genie back in the bottle" argument is fucking stupid

Their goal is to rebuild XBOX, compete in hardware, compete with software and compete with services

So just because something was, doesn't mean it always is

You have to start somewhere to come back and exclusives is the way to do it

They can also subsize the development of some of these games since COD, Fallout and ESO makes them a shit ton of money

If you want to be a brand, you have to have something that's actually your fucking brand

Also, everyone should be rooting for XBOXs return….

Competition breeds creativity

You say rebuild XBOX. Do you mean the console or the platform? You cannot bring a console back with "exclusives." The console does not and will not have true exclusives. The spiral down started with day one PC and the push for Game Pass. People are completely forgetting that they had console exclusives the first half of this generation and it wasn't working. They had an identifiable brand; it was called Xbox and it meant a console. They Destroyed it by trying to make it mean more than that.

The biggest problem they have and continue to have is no clear path. You said it yourself, "compete in hardware, compete with software and compete with services." There is nothing wrong with having all three of these but one of those has to be the focus and calling them all the same platform is not the same thing. That is why Sony backed out of PC games. They found that trying to be the master of all equals being the master of none. IMO, XBOX needs to pick their horse and ride with it. Let the other categories be added value. If they go console, go console and have true exclusives. They can release PC games 6-12 months later. If they want to be service, be Game Pass and sell a streaming console. If they want to be software, go third-party and still offer your games on a service like Game Pass. They can still go down the path they were rumored to be going down with Helix and keep a smaller console market or let OEMs handle it. As long as they have this idea that XBOX equals platform and that they have to be the first in all three of the categories you mentioned, they will continue to struggle to bring in new users. I said it earlier, they will pump up "XBOX" numbers when Windows PC gamers get included but that is not bringing in new users.
 
Last edited:
You say rebuild XBOX. Do you mean the console or the platform? You cannot bring a console back with "exclusives." The console does not and will not have true exclusives. The spiral down started with day one PC and the push for Game Pass. People are completely forgetting that they had console exclusives the first half of this generation and it wasn't working. They had an identifiable brand; it was called Xbox and it meant a console. They Destroyed it by trying to make it mean more than that.

The biggest problem they have and continue to have is no clear path. You said it yourself, "compete in hardware, compete with software and compete with services." There is nothing wrong with having all three of these but one of those has to be the focus and calling them all the same platform is not the same thing. That is why Sony backed out of PC games. They found that trying to be the master of all equals being the master of none. IMO, XBOX needs to pick their horse and ride with it. Let the other categories be added value. If they go console, go console and have true exclusives. They can release PC games 6-12 months later. If they want to be service, be Game Pass and sell a streaming console. If they want to be software, go third-party and still offer your games on a service like Game Pass. They can still go down the path they were rumored to be going down with Helix and keep a smaller console market or let OEMs handle it. As long as they have this idea that XBOX equals platform and that they have to be the first in all three of the categories you mentioned, they will continue to struggle to bring in new users. I said it earlier, they will pump up "XBOX" numbers when Windows PC gamers get included but that is not bringing in new users.
let's be honest….. even since Xbox one, they have not had any legit line up of exclusives and seriously no consistency

The moment they had the studios start to churn games out, they went multiplat

It's an uphill battle for sure and it isn't dead because PC. PC isn't console crowd and vice versa.
 
I think Sony's removal of its games from PC/steam may have caused this pivot back to exclusives.


With helix its looks like it will play steam and with that Sony's PC games. Sony nixed that recently
 
xbox fucked up with xbox one and they doubled down when they forgot who their opponent is, Nintendo and Sony know exactly how this industry functions and the whole "when everyone plays everyone wins" is a losing strategy, the issue is back peddling from that will take a good fucking while and I don't know if they can pull it off.
 
Gears and Clockwork Revolution are exclusives, but a bunch of games you'd expect to be like Senua aren't. So, what's the point? Either you go all in or you don't. Seems they're half-assing it.

My guess is both those games are timed exclusives and will come to PS5 at a later date. It makes no sense to keep just two of them off PS5 and release the rest.

I think they've made deals with PS5 and also have to outweight the positives and negatives (the cost investment of making titles exclusive). Halo will sell like crazy on PS5, just as Horizon does.

As they start selling more consoles with the brand growing in popularity and public opinion shifting, they can make more games exclusive again. And make their brand more premium again, "a la Nintendo" - but this will take a bit of time. At least, that's how I see it.
 
Last edited:
let's be honest….. even since Xbox one, they have not had any legit line up of exclusives and seriously no consistency

The moment they had the studios start to churn games out, they went multiplat

It's an uphill battle for sure and it isn't dead because PC. PC isn't console crowd and vice versa.
I will just say this about PC and Game Pass day one. Keep in mind, I play on PC too so I love day one but that is for selfish reasons. There are three major console makers. Two of them are seeing success. One of them is not. What is the biggest difference in those three? Two of them focus on their console business and one of them does not. 🤷‍♂️
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom