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Microsoft Is Facing Its Biggest Challenge Since The Launch of XB1 (XboxAchievements)

Zedox

Member
No but what hurts them is that all of those are available on PC and PS4. At least Nintendo has games exclusive to their systems. There is no reason to buy an Xbox at this point unless you want another gears, halo or forza. Personally, for me, gears and halo are both dead and stale.

I always look at this statement and think...can't the same be said of Nintendo? People still buy the games of their franchises (granted they do bring new to the table and that's something I always admire about nintendo...but because of their lack of 3rd party support their last two systems fluttered away). Mario/Zelda/Metroid are their big three.
 
To Nintendo yes. To Ms? No way. also instead of helping the brand it will damaged even more because the fans will want those games on switch and for some reason ms will be the evil.
Anyway there is no way they can pull the nostalgic card. Also people are okay with shenmue because Sega is dead as console manufacturer
Yeah I should have been more clear. Microsoft has nostalgic games, but the games aren't nostalgic to the Xbox community, nor are they nostalgic because of Xbox
 

NeOak

Member
Honestly the only people facing a big challenge right now are the gamer who prefer single player offline games and stuff like that. The challenge of accepting the inevitable change.

It's not a sustain able business anymore. People buying habits have changed. Both in prefers genres and game modes. The amount of time and money the invest in different games etc...

I just don't get why the game media is not aware of that and is still riding the wave of the old vocal "ex- core gamer", that are not the core at all anymore.


But probably because of the clicks


Wtfisthisshit.gif
 

The Jutty

Member
I always look at this statement and think...can't the same be said of Nintendo? People still buy the games of their franchises (granted they do bring new to the table and that's something I always admire about nintendo...but because of their lack of 3rd party support their last two systems fluttered away). Mario/Zelda/Metroid are their big three.

I wish.
 
I always look at this statement and think...can't the same be said of Nintendo? People still buy the games of their franchises (granted they do bring new to the table and that's something I always admire about nintendo...but because of their lack of 3rd party support their last two systems fluttered away). Mario/Zelda/Metroid are their big three.
More like big two. Metroid hasn't been relevant for a while now.
 

Freeman76

Member
They are so far out of the game now, I hope they at least try and keep up as a monopoly will be no good for any of us, no matter what our choice of platform is.
 
I always look at this statement and think...can't the same be said of Nintendo? People still buy the games of their franchises (granted they do bring new to the table and that's something I always admire about nintendo...but because of their lack of 3rd party support their last two systems fluttered away). Mario/Zelda/Metroid are their big three.

Pokemon, Mario and Zelda are the big three. But Splatoon could become pretty big in its own right.
 

wapplew

Member
Was that the E3 of manly tears? :p The confirmation that The last guardian hadn't been scrapped, along with the reveal of FF VII remake and the Shenmue 3 kickstarter.

I don't think MS would invest that much energy into "dream" projects which wouldn't be massive sellers as it's not their approach toward building a profit earning platform.

Scalebound will be part of MS trinity for years to come.
 
I sold my Xbox one s for a switch. I hadn't been using it for months. Seems like crickets over there with respect to exciting announcements and momentum for Xbox one. Sony has a pretty exciting first quarter and Nintendo is getting attention with Zelda and switch releasing.
 
They are so far out of the game now, I hope they at least try and keep up as a monopoly will be no good for any of us, no matter what our choice of platform is.
Nah they'll continue to push along. Their first party output is likely to continue to be bad to people who don't care about Halo/Gears/Forza, but the bro's in America will keep it alive
 

Lkr

Member
I always look at this statement and think...can't the same be said of Nintendo? People still buy the games of their franchises (granted they do bring new to the table and that's something I always admire about nintendo...but because of their lack of 3rd party support their last two systems fluttered away). Mario/Zelda/Metroid are their big three.
I agree with you completely. I buy Nintendo systems for their games and nothing else. The problem MS has, imo, is that those three games seem to be literally all they are offering this gen outside of Rare games. MS Game Studios pumps out much less content than they used to. Even on failures like the Wii U, there are still going to be exclusives that make me want the system as bad as it is.
And I'll give the Xbox this: I much prefer the UI, OS, controller, online service and features of the console in comparison to anything else on the market. But the lack of original new games hurts my interest in it as a gaming device. Maybe it's just me, that's my opinion. I don't mean to shit on the Xbox, but MS used to release new games but now they won't take risks on anything.
 

Rymuth

Member
Throwing Mattrick under the bus still? Ehh...

If that's accurate then they won't have anything to show at e3... and that's not likely.
Why not? Last year the only 3rd party highlights were Dead Rising 4 and We Happy Few. Phantom Dust trailer was made over nothing, it's not a far fetched to see nebulous CG trailers again. Likewise, I expect only two notable third party games this E3

My predictions:

- Halo 6
- Forza 7
- Gears 2 Ultimate Edition
- Random 3rd party multiplatform (Tekken 7, etc)
- Indie Reel
- One timed exclusivity new reveal (but it'll be worded in a way to make us think full exclusive)
- One new IP (CGI, no gameplay)

I also wouldn't surprise to see another a non-gaming segment ala Holo-Lens.
 

theWB27

Member
So why is the Xbox selling so poorly compared to the PS4? Obviously there are reasons to own one, I use mine as an entertainment center and to play EA Sports games. I don't think "ms is doomed" but for a forum full of people insisting that no one would ever buy a switch "just for zelda", I find it weird that there is so much faith in MS still

Because it doesn't have the worldwide appeal of playststion.

You bring up switch. why? We know one of the biggest questions around that is 3rd party support. Its hyperbole, but allot of people don't want to buy a system solely for exclusives.

Sony is unique in that they have what Nintendo and Microsoft don't. Enough 3rd and 1st party support while being more popular in more places than both their competition.

Also don't pretend Microsoft has not made an effort to extend into other regions. They have and people didn't want it.

So you stop trying to beat Sony at their game and create your own niche. Which is what the pivot micro is doing now.

Gaf puts too much onus on exclusives. Ps4 proves that even if you have as many exclusives as the competition you can still crush them. Nintendo proves that if you rely on them too much you can fall behind.
 

Hoo-doo

Banned
I always look at this statement and think...can't the same be said of Nintendo? People still buy the games of their franchises (granted they do bring new to the table and that's something I always admire about nintendo...but because of their lack of 3rd party support their last two systems fluttered away). Mario/Zelda/Metroid are their big three.

Yes. Why do you think the Wii-U sold as it did?

Nintendo first-party strongly caters to a core fanbase. This group is shrinking though, and they absolutely have to expand beyond this fanbase if they want to realize audience growth.
And by and large they have been slowly pumping out new franchises like Splatoon. But key thing is that Nintendo diversifies their established IP's to a completely different level than Microsoft does.

Just because there's a Mario in the title, doesn't mean that Super Mario Galaxy, NSMBU, Super Mario 3D World or Mario Party are similar games. They always manage to keep the formula fresh because the IP's are universal and not fixed in a single type of game.
 

nekkid

It doesn't matter who we are, what matters is our plan.
I sold my Xbox one s for a switch. I hadn't been using it for months. Seems like crickets over there with respect to exciting announcements and momentum for Xbox one. Sony has a pretty exciting first quarter and Nintendo is getting attention with Zelda and switch releasing.

It's obviously your call, but....eesh.
 

Tecnniqe

Banned
I agree with you completely. I buy Nintendo systems for their games and nothing else. The problem MS has, imo, is that those three games seem to be literally all they are offering this gen outside of Rare games. MS Game Studios pumps out much less content than they used to. Even on failures like the Wii U, there are still going to be exclusives that make me want the system as bad as it is.
And I'll give the Xbox this: I much prefer the UI, OS, controller, online service and features of the console in comparison to anything else on the market. But the lack of original new games hurts my interest in it as a gaming device. Maybe it's just me, that's my opinion. I don't mean to shit on the Xbox, but MS used to release new games but now they won't take risks on anything.

How are they not taking risks?

ReCore, Quantum Break, Sea of Thieves, Halo Wars 2, Crackdown, Ashen, Below, Inside and Cuphead are all new games or risks as they've never sold particularly well.

They might even have a few hidden projects ongoing as well for all we know.

I'm not seeing any of the others going out of their way taking risks and making huge amounts of new IPs.

Exclusives and the wars around them are literally the worst thing ever. Fighting over plastic boxes when everyone could enjoy everything regardless of systems in a perfect world.
 
Yes. Why do you think the Wii-U sold as it did?

Nintendo first-party strongly caters to a core fanbase. This group is shrinking though, and they absolutely have to expand beyond this fanbase if they want to realize audience growth.
And by and large they have been slowly pumping out new franchises like Splatoon. But key thing is that Nintendo diversifies their established IP's to a completely different level than Microsoft does.

Just because there's a Mario in the title, doesn't mean that Super Mario Galaxy, NSMBU, Super Mario 3D World or Mario Party are similar games. They always manage to keep the formula fresh because the IP's are universal and not fixed in a single type of game.
Microsoft diversifies their IP's excellently. They have TWO different Forza series

/s
 
Truth. I look at donkey Kong, starfox, and smash as their second tier games.

I'd argue Smash is one of their strongest franchises now. Mario, Zelda, Mario Kart and Smash are three franchises I feel are guaranteed to get new games each generation. At the least it certainly can't be in the same tier as Starfox and Donkey Kong. Star Fox only recently got a new game after being in purgatory for a while.
 

Unknown?

Member
In the US they're pretty close with Sony ahead by about a million units- but you can thank a botched launch that had gamers thinking used games would be going away, and substantially higher pricing thanks to kinect for that one.

Worldwide they're getting slaughtered- but Sony has always been extremely strong in Europe and led there easily (minus the UK) during the PS3 era even when the 360 was at it's best.

JP has always laughed off the Xbox as a joke machine, it's never had a chance there and never will.
PS4 is over 1.6 M ahead may be 1.7 now. Close but nothing to sneeze at.
 

Mandoric

Banned
They would probably get blasted for that as well.

More to the point, they already did it, and it fizzled hard. MCC was an unmitigated technical disaster, and while Rare Replay reviewed well and spiked early it ultimately didn't have much of an impact. (It also was more a celebration of the Speccy through N64 eras than anything Xbox-related.)

It's hard to overstate how much MCC, and beyond that letting Bungie go rather than staffing them up, was their missed chance, really. Halo's the one title that stands out as why people went for the Xbox rather than why people went for the best MP box (which happened to be the 360 then, but is the PS4 now, and might be from Samsung or Amazon in another ten years.)
 
More to the point, they already did it, and it fizzled hard. MCC was an unmitigated technical disaster, and while Rare Replay reviewed well and spiked early it ultimately didn't have much of an impact. (It also was more a celebration of the Speccy through N64 eras than anything Xbox-related.)

It's hard to overstate how much MCC, and beyond that letting Bungie go rather than staffing them up, was their missed chance, really. Halo's the one title that stands out as why people went for the Xbox rather than why people went for the best MP box (which happened to be the 360 then, but is the PS4 now, and might be from Samsung or Amazon in another ten years.)

MCC soured me on the franchise tbh. Was handled terribly. I brought a console for it and months later, the game was still broken. How do you treat your main franchise like that?
 

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
I dunno why anyone thinks singleplayer games are under siege. Is it just because a multiplayer game came out that did very well in the end of year lists? I don't think SP games are going anywhere.
 

0racle

Member
I think you guys are in for a surprise.

Microsoft is laying low. They will kill it at E3. I just feel it.

Scorpio for them, is a massive risk and I think its their last card this gen in order to shoe horn themselves into a good position for the next generation of consoles. If they keep things going the way it is now with the way Sony is performing that mindset will carry over for the next iteration of hardware we get.

Scorpio will be massive, they will have some absolutely mind blowing things to show off, I think forza 7 will be a game changer same with whatever else the showcase with it. Microsoft has constantly been improving since their XB1 reveal fiasco, we can all agree to that. That pattern will continue with Scorpio 10x fold. This isn't fanboyism its just a logical evolution of events for them. Scale bound aside.
 
I dunno why anyone thinks singleplayer games are under siege. Is it just because a multiplayer game came out that did very well in the end of year lists? I don't think SP games are going anywhere.

Hell, Uncharted sold very well. Assassin's Creed is a huge franchise. We have a new Mass Effect coming in a few months. Halo and Gears still get a lot of emphasis on their single player. Horizon: Zero Dawn is coming soon. DOOM sold and reviewed well because it's incredible single player. Hitman has blown up as an episodic single player game.

SP games are thriving. Not everything is turning into Destiny.
 

Neff

Member
It's not surprising, but still amusing in a way that the cancellation of that game has triggered this big backlash against the Xbox brand. They need a very solid E3, or heads might start rolling sooner than later at the management level.

They deserve the backlash. Scalebound was a much-needed dash of spice in their otherwise grey, flavourless, stale menu of sagging franchises. Also, you just don't shit on industry darlings like Kamiya and PG like that. You just don't. They were out of their god damn minds to cancel it.
 
I think you guys are in for a surprise.

Microsoft is laying low. They will kill it at E3. I just feel it.

Scorpio for them, is a massive risk and I think its their last card this gen in order to shoe horn themselves into a good position for the next generation of consoles. If they keep things going the way it is now with the way Sony is performing that mindset will carry over for the next iteration of hardware we get.

Scorpio will be massive, they will have some absolutely mind blowing things to show off, I think forza 7 will be a game changer same with whatever else the showcase with it. Microsoft has constantly been improving since their XB1 reveal fiasco, we can all agree to that. That pattern will continue with Scorpio 10x fold. This isn't fanboyism its just a logical evolution of events for them. Scale bound aside.

I don't get why all of a sudden, everyone is acting like Scorpio is going to make games look all that amazing. They'll look good, but I still feel like alternatives have been out there for ages for people who care and want top tier graphics. Out of all games, Forza 7 is going to be the big game that makes everyone want a Scorpio?! Pricing it really well is their best hope.

A console with nicer graphics isn't the cure that ails what MS is suffering from currently. I thought the switch reveal was awful, but I'm more interested in that at the end of the year once it has a lineup rather than a souped up Xbox.
 
They deserve the backlash. Scalebound was a much-needed dash of spice in their otherwise grey, flavourless, stale menu of sagging franchises. Also, you just don't shit on industry darlings like Kamiya and PG like that. You just don't. They were out of their god damn minds to cancel it.


Not if the game was a pile of garbage they weren't. Now IF they meddled with the development of it, then they were out of their minds
 
Sea of Theives is meant to come out Q1 2017 and we've seen barely anything really. It is a concern.

They put out videos fairly regularly and have a closed alpha going on now. They let people play it at trade shows and conventions. There hasn't been a huge info dump yet because Microsoft doesn't have a PSX equivalent, E3 is Microsoft's main stage. We'll be seeing much more of it there and beta sign ups are already available.

Out of all games, Forza 7 is going to be the big game that makes everyone want a Scorpio?!

It makes sense to me. In the past racing games have been the genre to showcase the technical prowess of a console. Console launches usually had footage from a racing game somewhere in there to say "look how great games can look!" Forza Scorpio is probably going to look really damn good.
 

Shin-Ra

Junior Member
Honestly the only people facing a big challenge right now are the gamer who prefer single player offline games and stuff like that. The challenge of accepting the inevitable change.

It's not a sustain able business anymore. People buying habits have changed. Both in prefers genres and game modes. The amount of time and money the invest in different games etc...

I just don't get why the game media is not aware of that and is still riding the wave of the old vocal "ex- core gamer", that are not the core at all anymore.


But probably because of the clicks
Funnily enough, this reminds me of the people that argued it was only a vocal minority that strongly opposed Microsoft's direction at the announcement of the Xbone.
 
At this point anything shown off by Microsoft at E3 is going to be questionable if it's going to come out or not unless it's first party game like gears, halo or forza.

This is a fair reaction, but in MS's defense they were showing games that were years away development-wise. What they should do instead going forward is simply show off games that are nearing the finish line and take less risk is all.
 
I don't get why all of a sudden, everyone is acting like Scorpio is going to make games look all that amazing. They'll look good, but I still feel like alternatives have been out there for ages for people who care and want top tier graphics. Out of all games, Forza 7 is going to be the big game that makes everyone want a Scorpio?!

A console with nicer graphics isn't the cure that ails what MS is suffering from currently.

I agree. Resolution does not solve their current problems. Resolutions are coming to a point where there are diminishing returns.

There are plenty of awful movies sold in HD and 4K. But they are still awful movies. Similar situation with games. Mighty No. 9 with better resolution doesn't make it a better game.
 

quest

Not Banned from OT
I don't get why all of a sudden, everyone is acting like Scorpio is going to make games look all that amazing. They'll look good, but I still feel like alternatives have been out there for ages for people who care and want top tier graphics. Out of all games, Forza 7 is going to be the big game that makes everyone want a Scorpio?!

A console with nicer graphics isn't the cure that ails what MS is suffering from currently.

I want the best version of rdr2 this fall that means Scorpio. I'll keep ps4 for their excellent exclusives but 3rd party Scorpio. If it has 12 gigs of ram Scorpio games will look much better.
 
If that's accurate then they won't have anything to show at e3... and that's not likely.

What do you mean, 'won't have anything to show'? We have yet to see gameplay from State of Decay 2, we haven't seen anything of Forza 7, anything of Halo 6, anything from the Ori followup, there are plenty of gameplay systems for Sea of Thieves we've yet to see, we've seen none of the Phantom Dust Remaster, and we haven't seen Crackdown 3 gameplay in almost 2 years.

Add a few 3rd party marketing deals + the Scorpio unveil, and that adds up to an okay E3. Well, I hope it does at least. If you read that paragraph and think "that it?", then you might be disappointed. But if you're a core Xbox user, I think that paragraph speaks volumes to you.
 
I want the best version of rdr2 this fall that means Scorpio. I'll keep ps4 for their excellent exclusives but 3rd party Scorpio. If it has 12 gigs of ram Scorpio games will look much better.

I agree. Resolution does not solve their current problems. Resolutions are coming to a point where there are diminishing returns.

This is where I'm at how much different you think the pro is going to really look from the Scorpio version as neither are going to actually be true for 4K either way so…
 

DavidDesu

Member
As long as they get the big games from Ubisoft, Activision, EA, 2K, and R* they'll be alright.

This aint Nintendo where Zelda being a launch title is the difference between tolerable and a dumpster fire.

Funnily enough I think they are in a similar position to Nintendo in a way. Sure they have the third parties... but their console does all the same stuff PS4 does.. PS4 has all the third parties too, and most of them with better DLC timed exclusives and so on. Microsoft's first party games have been more hit than miss recently, I think only Forza, maybe Gears are the only ones I've seen with really positive feedback, they seem to have lost their lustre.

Microsoft really are relying on the pull of their first party titles at this stage in the game, and at this stage in the game many of those titles have all but gone AWOL. Unless you're a huge Forza, Halo, or Gears head then what really is the draw to Xbox One over PS4? PS4 has most of the most critically acclaimed exclusives, and has an absolute bucket load of amazing looking exclusive games coming up (Horizon, TLOU2, Spider-man, Death Stranding, and more). PS4 also gets all the same indies, if not more that the XB1 is getting, and with momentum and sales on PS4's side it's not going to get any easier for Xbox.
 
They should work with Valve to get a Steam app installed. It doesn't solve the problem of the lack of exclusives, but they open the doors to a large number of games that console only gamers have not experienced.
 
I want the best version of rdr2 this fall that means Scorpio. I'll keep ps4 for their excellent exclusives but 3rd party Scorpio. If it has 12 gigs of ram Scorpio games will look much better.

I agree. Resolution does not solve their current problems. Resolutions are coming to a point where there are diminishing returns.

Tiger said it best. Without someone to point out most differences, it's honestly not going to be all that noticeable to the masses. I like nice graphics too, but I couldn't justify a console purchase over some upgrades I probably wouldn't notice. For the record I only brought my pro because I was giving my old one to my son and got a crazy discount on it.

Bringing up graphical buffs on a console still tied to older hardware as a strong point just falls flat to me. I never thought I'd say it, but if anything, these mid tier upgrades pushed me closer to PC gaming than ever.
 
This is a fair reaction, but in MS's defense they were showing games that were years away development-wise. What they should do instead going forward is simply show off games that are nearing the finish line and take less risk is all.

This would be a lot better, it's annoying to see games two years away being headliners at big events, same with announcements of announcements of a game in early development in a press release.
 
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