Talking Point: Overall, How Successful Has 2023 Been For Xbox?

B for me. Redfall was a big disappointment and has to be taken into the factor, but we’ve had a great year for Game Pass, the other games have been really good.

It's been a pretty mixed year but definitely a step in the right direction. Starfield wasn't for me but it was definitely an exclusive the console needed. Microsoft just really need to pump the accelerate on game releases. Owning so many studios with so little first party output is getting frustrating.

Please dont be mad - but not great for exclusives...tbh i thought starfield was a letdown and redfall was just poor...think the obvious highlight is the ActiBlizz deal finally getting approved 🙂

I'd give it a D. Only really good release was Hi-Fi. Which was decidedly a small game.

While I love Starfield, it is definitely more niche than say, Elder Scrolls, so I understand why it doesn't jive with a lot of people.

Forza and Redfall are my biggest disappointments. The latter not having a single redeeming quality while the former is a glorified mobile game that has been downgraded significantly from prerelease demos. Likely so there wasn't a large disparity between the X and S.

And finally, learning of the asinine party clause has definitely dampened my outlook on Xbox. Those that buy an inferior product should expect an inferior experience to those that buy a premium product. And instead Xbox is insistent on neutering the premium product.

I voted B, has been good to see the first party releases come, but imo only Hifi Rush nailed it. With issues around the other 3. But games will hopefully follow steadily.

I think if Xbox improves its quality control/testing I think it’s games will then release with a better finish.

But yeah it’s an improvement on last year. Obviously ABK stuff to be added. GP still worth the money.

Other niggles are stuff like the increased Ads, the recent 3rd party peripherals issue, don’t look great on a premium product. Hopefully though MS have heard the feedback on it all.

So yeah Solid if unspectacular and hopefully lays a foundation for the future

Think it's been a pretty good year for gaming on all platforms

A in terms of Game Pass.

B in terms of first party games.

Game Pass an A for me.

First party a B. Redfall and Forza Motorsport has been absolute dumpster fires in the company of some otherwise really good games.

I'd give it a C since they actually got some games out. only a C though. While sony put out spiderman and nintendo put out zelda, those were absolute bangers. Starfield was just okay, forza are redfall were awful, on a technical and design level just bad, rushed, unfinished games. Hi-Fi rush was supposedly great though,

This year has been an incredible year for gaming. Xbox might not had the massive exclusives everyone wanted, but where the year has shined is in 3rd party games. Hogwarts Legacy was a surprise for me personally as me and my partner were clued to the screen to 100% it. Resident 4 remake was everything I wanted from a remake and improved on such an iconic game. Separate ways was the perfect dlc and a bargain at €10. Dead Space is blowing my mind on how good the game looks, sound design is top notch and brings me so much joy (and horror). Two remakes in my list there but Armored Core 6 was another highlight. Never played a robot mech game but From Software was knocking it outta the park with the Soulsbourne series, I jumped in. Mind you I got blown up alot and was frustrated but the achievement of overcoming the bosses I was stuck on, gave me so much satisfaction. Cocoon was a great puzzle game and definitely a indie game of the year contender. Game pass has thrown so many little games at me, it's hard to play them all and I love the service. My favourite bill every month and will keep continuing to support it. Alan Wake 2 awaits me after Dead Space so a nice jolly game to end the year for me.
The future looks bright for Xbox and look forward to all the studios releasing games on game pass.

I'd say yes all things considered. Though StarField didn't really do it for me at all and Forza Motorsport was a pretty big disappointment for a few reasons, I think it was a solid year for the brand. Nothing out of this world but a decent amount of exclusives & goodwill overall

@Lup Agree. I feel like everything is set up for a strong 2024 both on GPU and 1st party games.

I gave a B, but harsher scores are also fair. It's a problem of Xbox's own making in that 2023 had such huge expectations, it could never meet them all. Making the obvious disappointments like Redfall stand out all the more.
I am one in the crowd that think Starfield is amazing, but Forza Motorsport is seriously needing a lot of work still...
Hi-Fi Rush my game of the year. Having Age of Empires 2+4 along with Goldeneye on consoles is also amazing! Not to mention the Quake 2 re-release.
But then Minecraft Legends was poor...
On a normal timeframe it's a very good year but coming off the back of the worst Xbox year ever in 2022, I can't help but feel they needed just a little bit more.

While I think it's too early in the year to judge, I'd rank it D so far. This year seems to be a showcase of Microsoft's greed (greed being increasingly present as the year went on) but I have to give some credit to that short time period in January where they had the Developer Direct + Hi-Fi Rush + Goldeneye 007 + AoE 2.

While the FTC round 1 and CMA sadly lost (the Activision acquisition being blocked would've been fantastic for gaming as a whole), I still appreciate their efforts in trying to stop Microsoft. A lot of info came out of stuff like during the FTC trial and Microsoft wouldn't have accidentally done that Xbox leak if there wasn't a FTC round 2.

Another year of empty promises imo. Next year, next year, next year. All those studios, so little to show for it

Simple D from me.

@OldGamer999 Same. NO games i want to play. I have been playing my PS5 more because they make the single player games i like and Xbox doesnt.

I gave it a C.
Starfield was over-hyped and there are already more people on steam playing skyrim than Starfield, so Im not the only one.
Forza was also a big dissapointment and lets not talk about Redfall. At least Hi Fi Rush was excellent.
Some good 3rd party titles on GP are keeping that value there.

But they are simply not shifting units compared with the other two, which is a worry.
Of more concern to me is that they now have have Boby Kotick among their number, as well as all the 'frat boy' managers at Blizzard whos behaviour I deplored so much I've boycotted ABK games for years. I've let my gp sub lapse until I can see they are serious about respect for devs and excersising control over some of the worst antics of those leaders.

Its positive that they have the manpower. I hope they take the opportunity to change the culture of their new staff and really inject xbox with the awesome games it deserves.

@NarutosBiggestFan
It also depends on personal taste and for Xbox haven’t really done it for me in 2023.
Starfield came the closest but not good enough really.
Also looking into next year 2024 their possible release schedule could be amazing depending on the quality of the games or the same as year ok ish.

Look at the sales. You can’t call it anything other than really poor.
Some great games but sales and Game Pass subs have got nowhere near where they need to be.
Worryingly they don’t look like picking up either.
Personally I love Xbox and Game Pass and I worry about how they are going to keep up because sales in Europe as well as other territories are flagging.
The lack of marketing in the UK is also bizarre. Watching TV you would think that Xbox didn’t exist here.

I was between a B and a C. Ended up picking B.

It was a solid year but Hi-Fi Rush was the only real standout for me. Starfield and Forza are both great but not as good as previous games by their devs. Redfall was a joke at release but I heard is alright now. Age of Empires 4 coming to XBOX was nice and is a great game. Minecraft Legends is good as well.

Overall, not bad. Good games, just a bit underwhelming in some fronts.

i give it a b with heavy hitters like redfall, starfield, age of empires, goldeneye, darktide on gp, dead space on gp, and quake 2.

down side is no quake 4 remaster and way too many "cartoon games for children" on gp. way too many.

@BaldBelper78
You are absolutely spot on, PS5 now has 51% market share in the UK, which used to be Xbox second biggest territory. The rest is about an equal split between Xbox and Switch.
World sales of series consoles to date the same as Xbox one down 11%.

If you want the harsh truth as a series x owner I think Xbox console days are nearly over. Probably this generation will be their last.

It’s so obvious their set up is heading towards gamepass and games on all consoles and systems and Xbox will be a massive developer and distributor of all their studio games across all platforms.

That isn’t a bad thing at all really just my humble opinion.

My initial reaction was a "B" but the more I thought about it, it's really a "C" (maybe a C+?).

Compared to my Switch and PS5, I hardly played my Series X this year — and when I did, it was for retro games. Redfall was an obvious miss. It's hard to pick Forza 7 over GT7, which is finally in a great place. Starfield isn't for me. And we're starting to see some of that arrogant anti-consumer Microsoft attitude creeping back in. And of course, the Activision deal was ugly and didn't always paint MS in the best light --- not to mention it closed right before one of the worst-reviewed Call of Duties hits the market. Not good!

BUT I don't think a C is bad in this case, because the Series entire lifecycle has been pretty rough up to this point. 2023 has been a turning point and Xbox is heading in the right direction, finally. When that will start to bare fruit, who knows — I hope next year! — but when you look at how the last few years have been, a C for Xbox is a massive improvement. Hi-Fi Rush was my high point. Quake 2 remaster was fantastic.

The future's finally looking up for my Series X, unfortunately about halfway through its lifecycle. It's obvious the promised land is finally coming, but I just don't think 2023 was it yet. Rome wasn't built in a day and all that, though.

The year has been simply amazing, Xbox has delivered banger after banger with exhausting space. Xbox is truly the best place for gamer to be this year, previous years and in the coming years, there is zero contest, Xbox is dominating. Simply beautiful how much effort Xbox and Phil Spencer are putting for us gamers to have the time of our lives.

@OldGamer999 they already have a next gen console in development and knew this gen would be an uphill battle from the damage the Xbox One did. They aren’t going to leave the console business owning all those studios and IP’s without giving it time to see if gamers come back into the brand. Now if the next Xbox doesn’t take off i would be concerned. But this Gen was always about trying to get right with the gamers after Xbox One gave the market back to Sony. Speaking of Sony it’s going to be hard for them to match the game output of MS going forward and add in GP and that is something i think MS wants to see if gamers will buy into. The plan is still early and hasn’t taken off yet.

@HonestHick
You maybe right we might get another Xbox next generation.
By the way I really hope we do along with some nail biting pure quality big AAA games.

Maybe the coalition with the next gears hopefully this generation can show us what the series x and Xbox studios can really achieve.

a sony with no xbox console around next gen would force me to.... gulp..... pc gaming which would likely be much cheaper hardware wise than a ps6. plus sony doesn't make games i want. i would take redfall with no patches over spyder men, gods of war, ect. sony makes me puke.

@Kaloudz i really liked outer worlds and very much looking forward to avowed in 2024.

Well it would have been a B from me if Redfall didn’t exist. The botched Redfall launch did happen though, I won’t conveniently ignore it, so that drags the score down to a solid C from me overall.

Lies of P was a great addition to Game Pass as it ended up being my personal GOTY and the lineup overall has been very solid this year.

2021 is still my favourite Xbox year though thanks to the phenomenal Psychonauts 2 and the fantastic FPS Boost programme.

Hi-Fi rush was an amazing 1st party title this year.

But as for the rest…

Starfield was ok but not the addictive and wondrous game I thought it would be.
Forza is a gutted barebones shameful release that lasted only fives days on my hard drive before I deleted it.
RedFall… disaster.

I give Xbox a C, and only because of the amazing third party lineup this year and Hi-Fi rush.

Where is the quality control at Xbox? Should I begin to fear for Avowed, Fable and the next big 1st party releases all being a bit Meh, a bit average or outright ‘Redfalls’?

Gotta go with A. I was pretty sure I was going to enjoy Starfield because of how much I love Bethesda games but I wasn't expecting to be starting a 4th playthrough and over 200 hours. Simply adore this game.

Gamepass was great as always too.

I voted C. I’d like to vote C+ though.

Starfield was good but not great for me. HiFi Rush I liked much less than apparently everyone. Redfall I played after patching and thought it was pretty fun. Halo has improved. Forza Motorsport plays and looks great but isn’t something I enjoy enough to play long term.

Outside of first party, Sea of Stars was excellent.

@rustyduck 😂😂😂. You had me at first.

Based on my backlog alone it has been a solid A. If Starfield, Redfall and Forza had been that much better then A+… in 10 years 2023 will have been lauded as the first golden year of the X/S generation

A, Age of Empires and Forza are my main two.

Voted B. Great year in my opinion.

@OldGamer999 i am hopeful also. I just think it’s early into the plan of owning all these studios and seeing what happens. I mean we haven’t even gotten COD on GP yet and there are people saying MS is leaving the console space. Let’s see some things play out and if console sales don’t pick up then i could see the panic. Also let’s see if they bring WOW to console at some point. That could be a console selling move also. Plenty of moves left to make. 😊

C , didn’t really have a console seller of a game ,couple of 8/10 games but no stand out .A bit disappointing really when you think of the game studios they own

@HonestHick
Yeah the console space is a strange space at times. It really is a tough one to call for Xbox console wise.
It all depends if say at the end of the generation if Xbox are happy making the investment in hardware maybe selling about 50 million consoles to keep in touch.
More importantly I believe they really need to get some momentum behind the brand as it is extremely quiet in the UK on the Xbox front the quietest it probably has ever been in Xbox history sort of buzz wise and brand recognition wise.
The other two are really kicking arse and getting those big console and game sales and so much brand momentum and recognition.
I mean PlayStation alone owns 51% of the UK market with the remaining split between the other two and that’s with a very old Switch and not Switch 2 yet.
If you go into our big supermarkets down the merchandising clothes isles gaming wise apart from Minecraft it’s all Nintendo and Sony merchandise. TV adverts are the same in the UK Sony and Nintendo. So I’m not surprised Xbox is becoming a UK after thought.

An easy C - Some big hitters like Starfield and Forza may have been good, just not 'Amazing', Hi-fi Rush was a surprise and critically the best of the bunch with Redfall probably the biggest disappointment.

Obviously mistakes were made and they can do better - especially with their OWN content. We know a few more games in production, but haven't really seen games they told us were in development a while back (Contraband and even Hellblade hasn't 'sold' gamers yet with little/no real Game-play shown off.

Yes the thing with ABK dragged on and really should have been resolved sooner, but now that has become part of the Xbox Family, there is a LOT of potential but also more 'years' of potentially waiting for the Games these Studio's will bring...

I doubt I'll look back on 2023 as being the year that I'll remember best from Xbox and considering how many games and Studio's they own, we are still waiting for news on games like State of Decay 3, Perfect Dark etc and still waiting for actual game-play and release windows for Fable, Avowed and Hellblade 2 - one of the First major games revealed for Series X.

I know games will take as long as they take to make and I'd rather they ensured they are 'ready' for release before they do, but the 'promise' of Great Quality Games hasn't really met expectations when the games we did get weren't 'Amazing' and still 'waiting' for the next gen to really start.

@Kaloudz avowed? well outer worlds was falloutish, im guessing avowed will be skyrimish.

@OldGamer999 Marketshare is a tad concern for me. Tho i see it as PS has it’s full momentum behind the PS4 and Xbox is coming off Xbox one. So this Gen was going this way no matter what. That is not me saying there isn’t room for improvement on the Series consoles. Also let’s see how Sony does with having half their games delayed cause they don’t know how to make a game that isn’t a over the shoulder action adventure game that cost $250 million to make and only net’s around $75 to $100 million in profit. Meanwhile those games that people play for years are being picked up by MS. While Sony outsells MS 3-1 in consoles they don’t out profit Xbox 3-1 and that was before MS got COD and Candy crush and others. That is going to flip the profit scales even closer. I will add something from my own personal take on reading into what MS has said as a company and that is they wish they never left the mobile phone space. They know they can’t get back in now, why would they do that to the Xbox Console? Apple and google make trillions of dollars also, MS would be foolish to just walk away from an ecosystem that is making them money. If Nintendo had enough money to outlast the Wii-U then MS surely has the cash and profits from Series Consoles to continue their quest of becoming a huge ecosystem of player choice to play their games. I don’t think internet gamers are fully aware of how big the ABK deal was and will be for Xbox. Throw in what Bethesda has cooking and MS admitting they aren’t done growing yet and i just don’t see them walking away as they can grow the Xbox console space to 70-80 million units and that is a lot of GP users they aren’t going to walk away from in my opinion.

Hi there fellow gamers,
I give Xbox's Year In 2023 a C overall.
Hi-Fi Rush was such a great way to start the year, but then it was a let down. Redfall was a disaster, Starfield underdelivered and Forza Motorsport is not what Forza Fans were expecting from what I´ve heard and seen.
On a very positive note, Game Pass is still the "GOAT" with great and diversified titles, some of them day one, and for that alone, once again, people see the great value of that subscriction.
If only Xbox Studios could also deliver, and now they have way to many, there is no more excuses to have.
Xbox, as a brand, needs its first party lineup to be fantastic and appealing, not for the masses, but for its FANS who just want to enjoy play games on their favourite system.
And as a FAN of of all things gaming, I just want those amazing, fun and engaging gaming experiences that brings myself and many others great joy.
Bring on the games Xbox.
Cheers and happy gaming to us all

It has been pretty poor for Xbox this year.

Redfall was garbage.
Starfield didn't live up to expectations.
HiFi Rush was good.

They continue to lose market share.
Xbox One failed.
Series S and Series X should have been a proper NEW generation console.
The fact that they missed out on one of the biggest games of the year because of the Series S is a joke. (BG3)
Foolish mistakes.
These acquisitions don't look like they're going to do much that I find interesting.

I expect they will succeed in devaluing every brand they have acquired from Activision/Blizzard over the next few years.

@OldGamer999 just thought of this point also, sorry forgot to include it. Would MS really tell all of ABK and Bethesda to learn their development tools and use their software and then 3 years later say never mind we are leaving the console space? Like that doesn’t add up to me. That would stunt all those studios learning process and what they have been working on. It just don’t add up to me unless Cloud somehow replace’s consoles, i don’t see Xbox leaving but in this industry it is easy to be wrong overnight. So I’ll gladly eat crow when and if i need to 😊

I gave it a B, but Starfield is the only 1st party game that I’ve stuck with for any length of time.

B-?

@HonestHick
Everything you say makes total sense just as what I say could make sense as well.
I think we will not know until whatever happens.
You never know with Microsoft what the next move maybe.

I’m a bit skeptical because they just don’t seem to be pushing in a big way in the UK, maybe like you said they are way to far behind this generation and this generation is a build up generation but if they become to irrelevant in the UK like they are a bit now then they may never get the chance to get that momentum and general public enragement back to get in the game no matter what they do.

Nintendo did it after the Wii U but their characters are iconic and the clever move to make a hybrid forced handheld Nintendo users to by a switch as well, that was a smart move.

Gave it a B - like, it seems, most of the people. Hi-Fi Rush is one of the best games of the year. Starfield was ok, nothing spectacular, maybe a bit last generation in how the narrative was constructed. But I've tried a lot of game pass games, some of them I've loved, some of them I have not but without the gamepass I never would've played them.

Very successful. Got 4 let's say bigger games like Hi-Fi Rush, Redfall, Starfield, Forza Motorsport and a ton of good games in all categories in Gamepass. Had the chance to play Atomic Hear, Wo Long, Lies of P, Fifa 23, Dead Space Remake, Gotham Knight, Jusant, etc. Also, so many day one Releases in GP. So many good indie games (cocoon also best indie of the year candidate). I don't care what everybody says, but even Redfall which had a rough launch is a pretty good game now. I even had friends, life ps fans, buying an xbox for the first time this year to play starfield and they were really happy with it. They found the right path in Xbox, heard the fans' feedback about 2022 and its lack of first party games and i think they are gonna keep rocking hard in 2024.

I am going to say a B- IMO. There were not that many titles that interested me, personally, just Hi-Fi Rush and Starfield, but there was a lot coming from Xbox this year. Forza, Starfield, Hi-Fi Rush, Age of Empires IV, Age of Empires II Definitive Edition, GoldenEye... on top of all the crazy high profile day one Game Pass additions... yea it was a solid year for the Xbox ecosystem even if the consoles have not managed to gain ground.

Next year, I expect to be on fire.

I voted C - with stumbles including Halo Infiinte's lack of meaningful improvements, Starfield and Redfall being underwhelming & a price increase for GamePass, I felt like this year has been fairly lacklustre. However, we have had some smaller treats like HiFi Rush, Cocoon, Sea of Stars, Lies of P, all of which bolstered the GP lineup. We have also had some good updates to Sea of Thieves. Some other mishaps along the way include the Activision deal which took a long time to go through, the associated document leaks and a miscommunication about ending the Xbox 360 store contributed to my grading. Not a bad year considering, but room for improvement, especially as PS5 is picking up and Switch is soaring. They also need to fix various things on Windows 11, like the stupidly slow Xbox app & overlay.

For me all the big titles didn't do as well as expected. This was a down year for Xbox. Prices raised for Game Pass and the content isn't improving. I gave it an E I think Xbox can do a lot better. 3 years later and still missing Velocity Architecture features we were promised at launch. This was the year Xbox was supposed to hit it out of the park with Starfield and Forza Motorsport and I believe those two titles exposed Xbox more than help it.

I think Starfield is a big win and I am still paying for gamepass but I haven’t turned on my xbox in months. Did just get street fighter 6 so that should change that.

However no big draws to the system after I got bored with starfield.

Been a great year for Xbox, a solid B for me. Some great games and set a solid foundation for the next few years. No one did better than Nintendo this year though, they killed it. Sony a distant 3rd.

I'm a tough grader I guess looking at these comments. I would break it down like this:

XBOX - D+

• Still struggling in the exclusive dept., but doing better (Hi-Fi Rush, Starfield)
• Concrete release dates still absent for most anticipated releases, several years since announcements
• Sharp decline in market share over the course of 2023 for hardware, despite a few high profile releases
• Issues with Series S parity policy (BG3 release delay)
• GamePass releases have been consistently solid
• GamePass price increase
• Finally closed ABK Deal, though somewhat offset by MWIII's terrible critical reception.

PlayStation - C

• Weaker year for first party exclusives in terms of quantity (Spiderman 2, Horizon Call of the Wild)
• PlayStation VR2 still not finding traction or a stand out release
• Murky vision for the future / lack of communication on future releases (Last of Us Factions in limbo, very little known about 2024 first party release lineup)
• Weak showcase emphasized live service stuff, received generally poor reception
• UI updates for PS5 lacking, most requested features still absent (actual folders, themes)
• PS Plus Extra has been excellent.
• PS Plus Premium is still very, very bad.
• Somewhat lackluster 'slim' hardware revision
• Impressive array of first party accessories released

Nintendo - B-

• First party games have been frequent and very high quality, but weighed down by a bit too many re-releases of older games (Metroid Prime, Super Mario RPG, Pikmin 1 + 2).
• Still no Switch 2 announcement, Switch hardware cannot keep up - some third party releases on Switch struggling / highly compromised quality (Hogwarts Legacy)
• Nintendo Online retro game catalogue still inadequate / games releasing too slowly.
• Platform is consistent, but doesn't present any 'wow' factor in its releases or overall direction, Tears of the Kingdom aside. Exists on its own separate little island, for better and worse.
• Due to hardware limitations, missed out on the most high profile games of the year.

Third Parties - A++

• Best year for third party releases since 2001 (specifically, third party releases on PS5 / Xbox - sorry Switch). Stole the show and are the real winners of 2023, by a mile.

TL;DR Version: Xbox has an exclusive first party games and market share issue, Sony has a massive communication problem and seems unsure of it's direction in the future, while Nintendo is approaching a wall with its antiquated hardware. All that said, thank heavens for third party publishers / devs.

Its not just about the games for me id say this year has been future focused its not been easy to get here in any regards but im still happy with team @Xbox and looking forward to what journeys us and the tech goes on ❤

Despite Gamepass' consistent value, C would be fair as first party continues to disappoint compared to the competition. I bumped it to a B however from a purely business perspective with the acquisition of Activision. Microsoft continues it's march to being a publishing behemoth. I'm still on the fence as to whether they will exit the console space as Sega did.