Microsoft Reckons It 'Lost The Worst Generation To Lose' With Xbox One

Apparently everybody forgot about the PS360 generation and the library of games they built up there. Although granted, every physical game didn't come to the stores digitally, but there were still plenty of gems I'm sure everybody enjoyed at the time.

Good there's no point in more than one console following the same path. We are in a situation where Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo all have consoles that bring something different to the table. Microsoft with its subscription and cloud gaming and Western Rpg's, Nintendo with its family orientated games and hybrid console design, and Playstation for its Cinematic blockbusters, JRPG's and VR content.

Never has there been more of a reason to own all systems in my opinion, something last gen and possibly the gen before didn't really inspire people to do.

Don’t Mattick screwed xbox for being an idiot. Phil is screwing xbox for not being proactive enough

If they want to go cloud-based (as in people without and Xbox paying $15/mo to stream), they need better exclusives.

IMHO, it seems like 75% of Game Pass games are half the games they could've been. They take soooo long in development, and then just end up sucking.

@UltimateOtaku91 well put, I agree 100%

@GeeEssEff read 6 articles written in 2 days from one quick interview you won't believe what happened next...

> "We lost the worst generation to lose in the Xbox One generation where everybody built their digital library of games."

I'm usually in agreement with Phil Spencer's views, but statements like this make me wish I could have an hour of his time over a beer or coffee (if he ever made his way to the Canadian West Coast...)

There were four times as many Xbox One consoles sold as Nintendo's console from the same generation, the Wii U, but its successor, the Switch, is currently one of the best selling consoles of all time. This demonstrates that while consumers can get attached to their digital libraries, the bottom-line is the gaming experience. And while there are great gaming experiences to be had on Xbox, it's frustrating watching Microsoft (mostly) ignore certain demographics that would go a long way to enriching the gaming experience as well, such as local co-op, licensing dormant IPs to indie studios, and certain genres of video games.

His interview has been twisted six ways to Sunday to write clickbait articles and fit a narrative.

What he said here is correct. PS5 has such a huge market share that a handful of huge games isn’t going to make them the market leader. Maybe over time they slowly get some market share back but it seems like they don’t see that as viable so switched course completely.

Disclaimer; I think Phil has done a bad job getting good games out but the strawman and lies about this interview annoy me to no end.

This 'winning' and 'losing' mentality needs to stop, and I'm surprised Phil actually used the term "lost" considering his earlier comments on console wars. Just because something didn't sell as well as something else doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't successful in its own right.

Also the eighth generation did consist of the WiiU, so Phil you didn't lose 😂

Wii U did worse than the XB1 yet the Switch is currently the 3rd most successful console ever (could even overtake PS2 and DS someday if the Switch's successor is years away) so that take is very questionable.

Realistically though, the take is likely nothing more than Microsoft's continued narrative to purposely look weak to try and get regulators to pass the Activision acquisition.

Our entire digital library should be available in xcloud.

@Somebody I think that will definitely happen before the end of this gen, but for me id rather them concentrate on making cloud gaming 1080p first (mobile).

@UltimateOtaku91 very well said and true.

Luckily I kinda skipped it, since there wasn't much that interested me. I came back last year and got a PS4 a Series S.
Since Sony isn't backward compatible, the stuff from my PS3 times only works on my PS3.
I pretty much jumped ship to Microsoft and I'm more happy than I have ever been with Sony.

The irony is that it was Microsoft that really led the push on backwards compatibility that led to people being able to carry over their digital libraries across generations. Now they are saying that those very digital libraries being carried over are causing them issues.

It may not move people from PS to Xbox, but it may lead to more people buying a second console. But you do need the games for that. And it’s unlikely that people will buy it for the (very good) £20 indies that hit the service. For people to buy a console they most likely want AAA - casuals especially (gamers on sites make up a small % of buyers.

Nobody is saying make Sony games, but just make sure they ship with Sony style quality (who more often than not hit the mark).

You better start now then and do some huge marketing and make a auditing division at least you wont cry next gen

Those companies you speak about did lot of effort, you cabt have insta success with buyouts, you already got bathesda buy some other studios and build on it

@UltimateOtaku91 i agree, i’ve owned every Playstation. Serie X is my first Xbox. I play on my kids Switch.

@Grumblevolcano very true! The WiiU did worse than the Xbox one and now Nintendo has one of the most successful consoles with the Switch.

I think Xbox needs to be more aggressive again. They’ve been playing the nice guy. As we know, nice guys finish last. They need to look at the 360 generation and see what worked. The price, the games, the momentum of what they built. This new Kumbaya Xbox is just getting pushed all over.

It sounds like they are going to be throwing in towel like SEGA did and just develop software. I hope that is not the case but I wouldn't be surprised I've invested in several things just for MS to abandon them.

Makes sense to me! Game Pass is Xboxs way of taking on Sony.

@Total_Weirdo Not just Sony. Your living room period. Xbox is thinking ahead there.

@Total_Weirdo I disagree, I honestly believe if Sony allowed it Microsoft would put gamepass on playstation consoles.

@Sebatrox MS confirmed at one of the showcases a little while back that they are 100% working on bringing select titles from people's library to xcloud. Obviously, this is probably a massive undertaking, but it seems like the goal in the years ahead is set to allow people to stream games that aren't available just through Game Pass.

This is only partially true. Yes, they lost the first gen where digital purchases became big, but they still did not outpace physical sales until this generation.

PS buyers still either really like their physical copies, or don't trust Sony's digital practices (attempting to shut down the PS3/Vita stores left many warry, and last I heard people still were not able to buy or redownload due to store bugs.)

I, personally, still buy all my games digitally on XBox, but physically on PS and Switch. My digital library on xbox has gotten so large, I am unlikely to buy anything but exclusives on PS anymore. It's just that convenient to have all third party games digitally in one console, even if the game in question happened to play better on PS5 for X or Y reasons or bugs.

I'm sure anyone with a similar situation on PlayStation feels the same.

This is the generation that XBox should be fighting tooth and nail to get a grasp on, and games are not the only thing they need to focus on, they need to fix their supply issues. No one should enter a big retail store to buy an XBox and find they are out of stock.

Edit: the real reason last gen was a terrible one to lose is because both consoles were cutting off backwards compatibility, and building new libraries (physical or digital, its still a library.) Previous gen libraries became meaningless. This gen is backwards compatible, something that means players are likely to stick to what they have.

He was talking some serious nonsense in that interview.

@stinkyx phill said in this interview people think big new exclusive games is what Xbox needs but that won’t work! So with that mentality we ain’t getting anything amazing any time soon.

@UltimateOtaku91

I disagree, I honestly believe if Sony allowed it Microsoft would put gamepass on playstation consoles.

Doubt Sony will ever allow it, but at the same time a PlayStation Game Pass would not look anything like what anyone here thinks it would look like. It would certainly be closer to EA Play: include only games they actually own. Third party additions would continue to be only accessible on PC, XBox and streaming (not PS streaming.)

Even then, I would never expect MS to port their back catalog, it would only include MS games that are already on PS (games from studios they acquired, like Minecraft and Skyrim) and games done after the deal.

It took forever for EA to convince Sony to let them have EA Play on PS, and apparently UBisoft has not had the same luck getting their subscription program on their console, so I doubt that will ever happen.

Microsoft is forging a path where the plastic box under the TV isn't the only place to play games.

The Xbox console is a somewhat budget friendly device that is guaranteed to run the latest games. Nothing more, nothing less.

Sony and Nintendo have a strong reliance on selling the plastic box because it's a major part of the company's portfolio. Sony will always hit harder to maintain console dominance because it has to.

Cloud Streaming has gotten to the point where it feels "local" - even on a wireless connection. Sure, you don't get HDR or 4K resolution, but at least you can play the games - no expensive hardware needed (unless you think an Xbox Controller is expensive, of course). I have used it a few times on my laptop when the TV is in use and it's great!

Now, that doesn't mean Microsoft should just give up on gaming. It absolutely should deliver the best quality games it can. But I also don't think Xbox should shift its focus to do what Sony does.

Sony essentially makes interactive movies. God of War Ragnarok, great as it was, would feel like a repetitive button masher if there wasn't the "Hollywood spectacle" backing it up. It's worked out well for Sony - I mean, look at what sells at the box office: spectacle - but I don't want another Sony. I have a PS5 for that.

Nintendo just...is Nintendo. I don't even know how to describe what Nintendo does that makes everything so magical. Perhaps it's just that Nintendo makes games fun. Perhaps its the level of perfection Nintendo has with releases (how often do we really see Day 1/Multiple Week patches from Nintendo to fix broken messes?). Maybe it's the little details that add to a game's charm. I hope Nintendo always stays Nintendo because even despite the hardware limitations it feels like Nintendo adds things to games that even games on more hardware don't do.

Xbox is more of the PC-style game but with console controls. Microsoft needs to just roll with that and make sure those style games are the best they can be.

I love Redfall, but I am now starting to see the bugs people have been talking about. And to hear from Phil himself that Microsoft didn't step in assist (like it has been doing with Starfield) is heart breaking to me (being a software developer myself). To me, it feels like favoritism - but favoritism shouldn't exist like that. It says, "sorry, but their game is more important to us than yours."

Even though I know Microsoft is shifting less focus on consoles, first-party games should release with 2 guarantees:

1) games need to use the console to its full potential (especially since the Cloud Streaming relies on this console architecture)
2) games need to work with DirectX properly in Windows

@GamingFan4Lyf Favoratism maybe, but everyone was hyped about Starfield half a decade before MS even bought them, it was bethesda's big game. It was one of the industry's big games. From the team behind their big games.

Redfall was a b-side GaaS developed by one of their small studios that never sells many copies of anything that had the GaaS stripped out of it. It's just kind of "there". Maybe it's favoratism, and obviously they should have done much more to help it along, but it's pretty clear the priorities weren't really misguided. Even if they bought activision and put all of Infinity Ward and Raven on Redfall it would still merely be redfall when it was done.

@SplooshDmg The one thing I still hope is the ability to have quick resume in cloud. I know that costs a fortune in storage, but it's really the biggest thing preventing cloud from rivaling switch where the network allows it.

@BleedingDreamer The internet is making that perception. Phil said in the same paragraph that the console is still the core of the brand. He said they're going in their own direction, not trying to win the console race and outdo what Sony or Nintendo are doing, making it part of a sort of device-agnostic ecosystem between PC/cloud/mobile, but that it's still the core of it. Only the pundits are trying to make it sound like they're bailing from console.

@Kevw2006 It is ironic. MS led that push because they were the leader the previous gen and they were hoping that creating that connection between the X1 and the 360 with people's libraries would help them stem the hemorrhaging of customers to PS. It did kind of work, it's probably the main reason they didn't end up worse off than WiiU. But it didn't work in a big enough fashion that it swayed enough market toward them to have enough invested customers to retain into this gen. And it's also the reason PS had to have quality BC this gen.

@Somebody @Sebatrox They are. I can't remember if it was Greenberg or Booty, but one of them said that they're working on purchased games being available on xcloud "starting with" "a selection of" games. We don't know how limited, when, or when it will expand to be "everything" but it's definitely a pending feature that will arrive someday.

@Grumblevolcano @101Force I don't think Phil's disputing that though. Nintendo lost, but they play in their own sandbox outside the Sony competition which they do on purpose ever since it was clear they couldn't best Sony directly even by outpowering them on hardware in the N64 and GCN era. So they bounced back by making their new private sandbox apart from the Sony competition more compelling. Phil's basically proposing that same solution for themselves here. He's saying they can't fight Sony head-on because they're just too behind, just as Nintendo was after GCN/PS2, and they need to carve their own path and do something different just as Nintendo did. I think that's really his point, but the internet as twisted "we need to go our own unique route (just as Nintendo successfully did)" as "Xbox doomed, can't compete."

It wasn't the medium in which games were distributed, that caused me to skip a generation and a half of gaming. It was the money grab and lack of originality, where developers kept rehashing the same old formula over and over again.

And now after sinking more money than I care to admit into this generation of games; I'm beginning to think, it's the same old story.

@UltimateOtaku91 I disagree with you. Your definition creates the impression that the three systems are niche, and that's not the case. There's a huge overlap between their catalogs; each of them offer contents beyond "WRPG" "Cinematic blockbusters" or "family games", and the three of them offer subscription models.

We could agree that each platform has their strong points (and flaws), and they are targeting different use cases.

I give you a point that it could make sense to have the three systems, if someone want access to the exclusive contents in them.

Funny, my digital library is the reason why I love Xbox

@Sebatrox they could dump Xbox hardware and just be a software company. Make deals with TV manufacturers to put Xbox GamePass on them, Nintendo and Sony. No one ever thought back in the day that they would see Sonic on Nintendo or Playstation.

@PROPS I have both the Series X and PS5 and I've only played 3 games this generation. It feels like everything I start playing it is something I've already played. I get pretty bored with pretty much everything out for that very reason.

I respect his opinion...but I strongly disagree that people wouldn't come to Xbox if they had a big game to be excited for. The digital library argument might be something to be concerned about but I really doubt it's that large of a portion of the gaming community. If it was that big of a deal Nintendo would be absolutely screwed! Their consoles almost never carry over your purchased libraries. It's Nintendo's quality of their software alone that keeps people coming back.

Same really goes for Playstation as well. It's the quality of Playstation exclusives that bring me to the platform.

No one is saying putting out a system seller is easy but great games are 90% of the formula to having a successful platform. Xbox should know this better than most considering it was Halo that provided Microsoft's original Xbox with it's "killer app".

Yeah. I mean, even though the switch was a huge success for Nintendo it’s clear the main reason was gamers feeling locked into that ecosystem because of their digital library.
It’s also true that very very few gamers ever buy more than one console.
So I reckon Phil smart to basically give up competing in the console market. I mean yeah, it was odd that he also revealed Xbox console owners are the ones financially valuable to them. But I mean they lost last gen because they were so inept at delivering games and making marketing deals that the console today should definitely not be a priority and used to grow gamepass subs.

I wish Kinda funny had asked him for the gold subscription numbers

Yadda yadda yadda……… u overpromised & u continue to undeliver year after year. I dont have a reason to switch my xbox on, it’s as simple as that. Everyone praising phil for being so apologetic etc but think back to cyberpunk devs who got SLAUGHTERED because of the state they let that game release……. xbox just done the same thing!!!! They straight up LIED to the consumer and they’re getting away with it cos phil comes out and says it aint hood enough etc etc……….. he KNEW it wasnt up to scratch, xbox KNEW it wasn’t up to scratch yet they still released it. Completely unacceptable & deceitful. But it’s ok……. Its phil👎👎👎 disgusting

Funny enough I bought a Series X to access my 360 and XB1 digital catalog. I had a bunch of games digital like Fable, Fallout 3/NV/4, Witcher 3, Skyrim, Dead Rising1-3 on the Xbox platform but couldn’t access it because I’d sold my XB1 within a year. Didn’t like the dash/slow speed compared to my PS4.

Now that I’ve got the Series X, I’m rebuilding some of the digital library I had on PS4, like the Mass Effect and Borderlands collections, Dragon Age collection so I’ll have them regardless of platform. Most of the libraries can be bought on sale for dirt cheap too, so it’s not a big deal rebuilding em. Except for when licenses expire, like with Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1&2 remasters. Those are stuck on my PS4 probably indefinitely.

@Grumblevolcano @101Force Nintendo is the wrong company to use for your point. They have the most iconic characters in the world, not video game world, the world. They have games that can sell 40 million copies in games like Animal Crossing and Mario Kart 8, for Nintendo it will always be about getting their hardware choices right and marketing it correctly, never about software. MS this gen has great hardware and services, and value in price with the S, but they don’t have that power to release a great game from an ionic level like Nintendo. Halo would be their closest thing and they ruined that largely since 360 was over and everyone is on Fortnite. I get the point you are trying to make, but Nintendo is in a class all to their own, the Switch 2 should easily do this all over again.

Why does it matter Phil? You said many times Sony are not your competitors 🤔.

Funny now you're trying to get an acquisition through that you're in competition with Sony for console sales when you yourself said "we're not in competition with Sony. Our competitors are Amazon, Apple and Google."

If we're being pedantic you're actually winning. Remember when you said "the Xbox One family is forwards compatible"

The XOne was an example of pure greed. People seem to forget Sony was planning much the same path. They did an about face a few months before their release and caught MS completely off guard. It was a savvy switch and Sony gobbled up market share.

It's ironic to see the rules somewhat reversed now. MS is maneuvering to leap frog over Sony if they don't get it together. GP is still better than Sony's terrible and very frustrating "tiered" system (and cheaper). Xcloud/streaming access is paving the way for multiple 3rd party mobile consoles without spending a dime of MS revenue. Sony's "remote play" is practically unusable. MS only needs to bring in a few more powerhouse games and they will truly eat up market share. (Clearly the Activision acquisition was part of that goal)

MS is definitely playing the long game. If they can keep it up, they'll surpass Sony in the next generation.

@BeerIsAwesome The difference is that the '360/PS3' era was replaced by the XB1/PS4 era and those consoles didn't carry their digital Library forward - it was a 'fresh' start - however 'small' digital libraries were, there was no BC and 'NO-ONE' cared about Digital content as MS were trying to 'push' with their XB1 consoles which may of made it 'better' which also hurt their XB1 era - not just the TV TV TV

When the PS5 and Series X launched, Digital was far more prominent, people cared more and both Consoles brought their Libraries forward with BC. Therefore all those 120m+ PS4 owners, many of whom jumped to PS4 at the start of the gen, now won't jump back because they have their 'Digital library' locked to Playstation so have to buy a PS5 to keep their games.

It doesn't matter if Starfeld is the best ever game, its not going to entice all those gamers to sell their PS5 to buy a Series X to play it, give up their library of games they've amassed over a decade. Therefore Xbox won't catch-up because of legacy and the fact that gamers have much more to lose by jumping now than ever before...

@UltimateOtaku91 I absolutely agree with your comment about there being no better time than now to own all 3 consoles this generation but despite Xbox going the way of cloud gaming, I do hope Microsoft keep making Xbox consoles in the future. It simply wouldn’t be the same just loading up a Game Pass app from a TV or any other device without the console but I’m not naive as it would save the company millions by not producing consoles which always sell at a loss.

I don’t see Microsoft doing away with consoles for at least of couple of generations yet as streaming is still way off for the masses who are yet to have decent enough internet for streaming.

@Dm9982 that’s s actually really a smart plan and idea. Makes me think i should do more of that. Xbox has been my daily driver console since 360 and PS has only been used for exclusives. Maybe i should build my PS4 library up that i never bought.

I've never heard Phil sound so defeated before. That probably can't be good.

@themightyant I am certain that EA Play give both, Sony and Microsoft a cut of the membership fee, and Microsoft has stated they have no issue with that in the past while talking about Apple. Their issue with Apple was mostly about Apple demanding every single game addition go through Apple review process and be individual streaming apps.

I am sure a hypothetical PlayStation Game Pass service would be its own subscription, and yes, Sony would get a cut.

Honestly, I don't think Sony will allow Game Pass on their platform so long as Xbox is a platform provider. They don't want that XBox logo anywhere in their ecosystem.

@Green-Bandit Yeah it’s handy, especially if one console has to be replaced/repaired. And thanks to super sales you can usually get large amounts of games for the price of a new one. I got ME Legendary editon Plus Andromeda for $30 total, and all the dragon age games for the other $30.

Fable 1-3 plus all dlc can be gotten for about $40 total if ya wait, Fable Anniversary goes on $10 sale every now and then.

I snagged Doom and Doom Eternal plus all dlc for both for $30. Witcher 3 complete can be gotten for $20 or less. Fallout series can be gotten for about $40-50 with all dlc I believe when they’re on sale. And I managed to get all the Assassin Creed games plus all dlc for about $60-70, minus Ragnorok at the time. Gotta love those massive sales!

@Sebatrox Yup. It's the biggest flaw with competing services like Luna. On Luna you can buy a DLC for a game on the service, but then the game can leave the service and you have no way beyond that to access the game, because there is no Luna platform other than cloud. You can't outright buy it and continue to play anywhere. So you own DLC for a game that is now just unavailable. Everything about that is the wrong way to do it, but as it stands, if someone only wanted to be a cloud player in the Xbox eco, it's just like that. So, hopefully MS gets that sorted out sooner than later.

@BleedingDreamer I feel the exact same way. The only game that's peaked my curiosity since I bought my Xbox Series X, is Fallout 76 (and that's technically a Last-Gen game). It's the combination of rpg, loot, multiplayer and base building (base building being the key) in a 1st person perspective, that has me going back. But even that's getting stale. I don't mind grinding, but when a game forces you to log in daily, complete repetitive tasks, over and over again, just to gain a little more power...I begin to lose interest. Why? Because I've been there and done that before.

I personally feel like the video game industry has become a version of Hollywood. Yeah, you'll find a gem every so often, but for the most part, the larger development studios are only going to crank out software that resembles something that sold well in the past.

@Dm9982 DooM Eternal. Great single player...but where's the old school death match?! I grew up designing levels and modding Doom. The single player was great...but death match was where it was at. And that aspect of the game is non-existent.

I miss the days of run and gun. Every pvp game now a days is some watered down version of CoD or Team Fortress with over the top graphics.

Now that I'm done with that little rant...those flash sales are awesome. It's a great way to pick up a handful of games for the price of a new game. Problem is, most of those games are unoriginal.

@Dm9982 thats the power of digital also. I love to collect digitally. But yes good point if one system goes down or god forbid MS quits making Xbox consoles and goes PC/Cloud. Tons of reasons why it’s nice to have them in more than one place. Trophy and achievement hunters get to unlock them more than once if thats a thing to them. I read your post and was like thats a good idea and makes a lot of sense, something i don’t see much of these days. This week was the Phil Spencer said great games don’t matter 🙄 couldn’t be further from what he actually said.

@Green-Bandit lol thanks, yeah I try to approach things as logically and efficiently as possible…: As much as I wanted Zelda TotK physical to match my BotW copy…. since they brought back the voucher system in the US and I wanted the Bayonetta Origins game, it made so much more sense to buy a voucher pack and get both of those for $100 rather than 60 and 70….

I love both physical and digital, but anymore I usually go digital. I’d be physical only if we still had the awesome cardboard boxes with box art, manuals and such. But anymore it’s just a disc/cart, plastic case and an insert that you could print out yourself…. Plus digital has one huge boon I love, ability to take your entire collection wherever without lugging around a ton of game cases or a binder.

@PROPS Yeah I loved Doom 2016, got it on PS4 originally and played a bit, but didn’t fully get into and finish it until I got it on Switch. When Bethesda had its last huge sale on both Switch and Xbox I snagged both bundles digitally so I could always have em. I originally traded my Switch Doom copy to buy another game at the time, always regretted that. But I Haven’t been into multiplayer on shooters since Gears 3 lol. Anymore we play Diablo or Borderlands as our multiplayer fix.

@NEStalgia I want Pure Xbox to confirm for us if you type more words than everyone else together. Make it happen.

@FatalBubbles more than the editors that's for darned sure

@grumpypotato What do you want him to say "were doing great, 1 console for every 2 PlayStations is far beyond expectations, redfall once again demonstrates Xbox best in industry content, I did not sleep with that woman, miss Lewinsky"?

At some point coming out and saying "were last place and effed up. We know that." Is necessary.

@FatalBubbles Nah, no way. BAMozzy can give NES a run for his money. Plus, Dezzy on a bad news day. I think he types as many words as NES, it's just broken up between forty seven different posts about inventory levels.

@Dm9982 you had me at Diablo and Borderlands. I have insane hours on Diablo 3 and 4 looks to surpass that. Love those games. Yeah for me it’s digital all the way and the reason is it’s just more convenient all the way around for me. I miss some things now and then about physical but mostly the stuff i miss as you said is no longer included. I mean the God of War collectors edition came with a digital download code. What’s the point. I like the box art and if they do inside the case art which 99% of xbox games don’t. More switch and Sony games do but even those are few. So i just stick with my digital collection and really love it. But for sure i need to at some point build a bigger PS library up, at the moment i only have a few PS4 and even fewer PS5 games on my PS5. My Series X is from 360-present. Xbox BC is really good tho. One of the few things this gen they got right from the start. Now we just need some killer games to start dropping, even tho i will mainly just play Diablo 4 anyways haha

@grumpypotato Think at the moment he isn’t saying much cause they have a game show in June to say all that for him. Even tho i do agree with a lot of what you said. I am still one of the few that is actually liking RedFall even tho it shows many areas that need work. Glitches, Bugs, Bad Ai and then of course when thats fixed hit the 60fps patch. I think once that happens this will be a cult classic game for me cause for some reason i love shooting and staking the vampires and roaming around from mission to mission. Normally when a game releases in this state of affairs i pass and rarely come back around to it.

@NEStalgia Agreed and all Phil is saying here is what is known, PS and Nintendo are globally HUGE and it would take them to mess up to the moon and back to seriously give their marketshare away. However MS is also setup in great shape for when Cloud becomes more and more mainstream with the casual FIFA, Madden crowds. Xbox Consoles to me are and have been my daily choice. But truth told if Sony had a better or as good controller i would be on PS, cause it just makes sense and i would use my Xbox as a GP exclusive machine. You have to SICK of hearing this by now from me, but i just can’t make Sony controllers my daily driver. It just doesn’t fit in my hand like a glove. The Ui is better in some spots and much worse in others, and i hate to have to pay for Cloud saves but I understand why and i do. But for Xbox to really do well it is going to take them do all the little and all the big things right and at the moment they are still showing they struggle at figuring out how to be a entertainment company and as a die hard Apple user i could say figuring out how to make operating systems and software but i will try and keep it between the lines. Sony and Nintendo just understand what it’s like to be a entertainment business, if MS can figure that out they can be as good of competition as anyone with their money and reach and infrastructure. I still don’t believe they will walk away from Xbox, it would be a bad look to the company and make gamers not trust the name or brand to support them cloud wise. It’s to early for that, console for the next 10 years or more needs to be apart of the ecosystem.

@Green-Bandit Lol same here with D4. I’ve been playing the crap outta D2 on Xbox and Switch lately. Quite enjoyed the beta for D4. I liked it a lot more than D3, which wasn’t bad, just more actiony/casual I guess? D2 is gritty, and I had a similar feeling with D4. Like a perfect mix of D2 and D3.

@Dm9982 couldn’t have said it better. I liked the seasons in D3 but it is not the game D2 is and D4 is looking like it will be. I love the BETA for D4 when it went away i looked at my Xbox with that i don’t love you anymore look hahaha. I think Diablo 4 has the ability to be really great for the franchise. It might not have the long term following of D2 but time will tell. It’s my most wanted game of the year, heck of the last 10 years maybe. Not since Red Dead Redemption 2 have i wanted a single game this bad. Honestly all i need on Xbox is Gears of war, Red Dead and Diablo games and i am happy. I can play all those for 100’s of hours and still have fun. I got a PS5 and how knows maybe on a sale I’ll snag D4 there as well. Just not sure i love the controller to play for multiple hours like i would on Xbox.

@Green-Bandit Same games man, same games! I’d be fine for years. I’d add Monster Hunter in there. Rise is good, but for value and so much stuff, Generations is the pinnacle. MH, Borderlands and Diablo are the only games that have that “oooh a piece of candy, ooohh another piece of candy!” Slot machine like effect. Every drop is a dopamine hit!

@grumpypotato Lol I was going to rebut a few if those points but then the abk part and beyond had me rolling.

I don't disagree with your points overall but there's also a time for that. This wasn't about a hype machine this was about dropping the grinning "just wait till next year salesman act and acknowledging the bad, and the things people whisper/scream and about their actual place in the market and that they are aware of that. That's a good step 1. The "just wait next year" routine can come back next month with notE3.

@BeerIsAwesome Yes but you can't play any of those PS3 games on PS4/PS5, and only a handful of 360 games on Xbox One/Series. Whereas all Xbox One games can be played on Series and all PS4 games on PS5. So those digital libraries matter a lot more.

@Dm9982 i agree that’s awesome buddy. We are getting closer to Diablo 4, thats all i have been counting down the days on since they announced the June release date. Think i am going Wizard and barbarian to start with.

@Green-Bandit Wizard and either Rogue or Druid for me, haven’t decided which yet. Druid was fun on the beta! Missed that class in D3.

@Dm9982 good choices. wizard is crazy solid. I do like the Rouge and Druid classes. I am sure once i am late late levels and want a new character those are the ones i will decided from. I for some reason didn’t love the Druid on the beta and i think it’s cause i played it wrong.

Their next big thing should be, as someone else said, to bring as many digital games player owns to cloud and if possible/compatible to your Xbox library. Link steam account and play it all on cloud or on console.

Cloud has huge way to go honestly, I have 10 year old potato PC but my GTX760 can still play some few years old games on lowest settings on 1080p, Redfall on cloud? GPU on 100%, stuttering, game looking like child's drawing...and I was unable to play Redfall with keyboard and mouse via cloud on my PC. If this is their business plan then the future of Xbox does not look good tbh.

Keyboard and mouse is very underutilized and overall game pass library is not that huge, it's just okay for its price but nothing insane.

@Bleachedsmiles i’d say nowadays majority of gamers have at least 2 systems. I have Series X an PS5, my kids have Series S an Switch.

My PS4 library don't matter to me. I'll rebuild a new library on my PC with Steam.

I must have been early, cuz I built my primary library with Xbox 360. I'll never be able to thank Xbox enough for the Backwards Compatible service.

@BleedingDreamer Maybe they will be the first not to make their 'own' console, maybe with Asus, HP or other 'Gaming PC' giants making hardware, even 'Xbox' licensed, and the fact that MS make their games for PC anyway, means that these would still get games that MS may not release on Sony/Nintendo platforms as they want to get you into their Cloud/Windows Hardware ecosystem. The Xbox is just a 'windows' gaming PC stripped of the flexibility of a PC but designed to make PC games available on affordable hardware. That's what the OG Xbox was built for to get 'windows' games into more peoples homes via their 'windows' DirectX Box in the form of an 'affordable' Console.

With Asus and Steam making Handhelds - both outlets for Xbox and therefore no 'need' to make their own handheld, maybe Asus can make a 'dedicated' Windows gaming 'console' that has Steam, Xbox Game Pass PC, Windows Store, Epic Store and all the other 'PC' options, MS themselves don't 'need' to make a Series X 'elite' for example as it may cost the same but 'locked' to MS and therefore doesn't have Steam or Playstation PC games... Games are 'still' exclusive to Windows hardware and/or Microsofts 'Xbox' ecosystem. It could bring down Hardware if Asus, HP, Lenovo etc all compete for 'gaming' specific hardware boxes designed more for the living room than an office. You just 'upgrade' to whatever latest hardware as and when you need/can afford to because they'd be competing like AMD/nVidia compete with GPU's or Apple & Samsung compete with Mobiles. Your Library will come with you - its 'Xbox' and the same Account. I don't know if I'll buy another 'Xbox' console - not because I think their ecosystem is 'bad', just that I won't need to. I could play on 'Cloud' on ANY device or play on 'PC' hardware (whether Handheld or living room console style or more traditional Laptop/PC). With RTX cards offering DLSS and the best RT performance, even my 3080ti laptop can outperform my Series X/PS5...

Series S is a 'HD+' entry tier Hardware option to play the latest games, Series X is a 'premium' tier option to deliver a 'similar' tier experience to PS5, but the 'highest' tier is PC and ALL their games release on PC - sometimes 'first' (AoE, Flight Sim, Gears Tactics...) and can play games at the highest PQ and Frame Rates. Its not necessarily a 'choice' to have 'Quality' 4k visuals with RT etc **OR** 60fps on PC, you can have both!!

The point though is that the 'bulk' of current gamers have a large digital Library that they'd 'lose' if they jumped ship. At the start of the PS4/XB1 era, neither hardware had BC so you 'lost' what little digital libraries you had so jumping from '360' to PS4 as a LOT did, they expected to start 'fresh'. By the end of the Gen, people would be VERY ANGRY if they 'lost' their Digital Libraries - something MS was trying to do something about with their 'digital' approach but got 'slammed' for it and Sony took a dig at too...

1 great game isn't going to make those 360 gamers that jumped, now with a decade of games in their Playstation Digital Library they'd lose, sell their PS5 to play that 1 11/10 game. Its not suddenly going to make people choose Xbox when Playstation has 10yrs of Award Winning 'great games' you can play in their ecosystem - its not just Spider-Man 2, but Uncharted, 2 God of War Games, 2 Horizon Games, Returnal, R&C, Both LoU games etc they can also play if they choose PS5 over Xbox - XB1 had 'no games' so their BC catalogue is 'light' in the Public Opinion - so no, 1 great game isn't going to make a difference to Xbox catching up to Sony in terms of Console sales....

Xbox 360 people got for better online, particular games and cheaper and better marketing. Yet Microsoft goes oh people have made up their minds on libraries and won't switch consoles. Yeah people did when they stuck to 360 the whole gen, moved to PS4. Either way people either went PS4 from 360 or 360, PS3, PS4 or PS3, PS4. Games with impact matter.

I don't care for the 2016+ PS4 era games but hey I'm the minority when their games make an impact even if I don't care for many of them in their current direction of big games, IPs with not as appealing entries and creative games by Pixel Opus/Japan Studios they kill off making it hard for me to care to upgrade so I stick to a PS4 for third parties thanks, keep my Switch, retro Nintendo, PlayStation and Xboxes and also use my Xbox One as you guessed it a third party machine. Even PS4 era I used my PS3 more that whole gen and an Xbox One less collecting dust. I use my Xbox One less then my Wii U and owned a Wii U since 2018 with an Xbox One as long as my PS4 almost the whole gen (take a few months off).

Microsoft: Lets have ads that showcase value. Let's backtrack from the TV focus and have backwards compatibility try to have games but push value. Focusing on trending games than making us set the trend ourselves with our great games.

Nintendo: Yeah this value direction isn't going well for us with the Wii U ads lets change that by focusing on lifestyle and great games and a great use cases of the Switch that we failed to show the console with the Wii U. Oh it worked.

Sony: Yeah these abstract/showing off our brand or media focus ads early PS3 wasn't working for us lets show we care about games and it can do media than saying it only focuses on media. Oh 'it does everything' worked. Oh PS4 era were killing it. Oh PS5 were showing off great games, value and reasons you need the console. A few missteps but those are minor right. Letting casuals buy remasters because they don't understand what backwards compatibility or cheaper prices is more beneficial to them as a customer then the more for our pockets.

There is a reason Microsoft is having issues focusing on 'value' and 'look at these games you can play on any thing like Roblox and Fornite but you 'apparently' need an Xbox but play it' because why should people get their console, join gamepass, play anywhere on their ecosystem sources. Like did they forget what it was like to compete with Windows when there was more competition with computers.

Yeah not a good idea. Even the Gamepass ads aren't really great. They go 'console, gamepass, highlight games really quickly' yeah how anyone is supposed to be convinced by that I don't know even though I know what Microsoft has to offer they really have bad advertising here. You need games and games with an impact not saying there is value like the Wii U had and not push why you need one. Even the oh look at these game characters were highlighting ad at one of the gaming events it made me confused more than intrigued.

I usually like to think oh they aren't thinking the same as their Windows side and then they pull off a 'look how cool this is teens look at this value' type ads that make me go yeah skip thanks than actually pay attention or care for the 'value' they want to offer.

@BAMozzy @shoeses I was trying to avoid sounding naive there, which I hopefully achieved. It comes off as a little weird (for lack of a better term) that nobody bothered to move those games forward, instead just consigning them to the fate of time. Sure the digital revolution kicked off properly last generation, but the pioneer generation seems all but forgotten now.

@BeerIsAwesome Sadly a lot of the major releases starting since the One & PS4 to even now are just Remakes, Remasters, & Collections of old games from the 360/PS3 Gen. Heck, look at 2023 - some of the biggest releases this year so far are remakes of Resident Evil 4 & Dead Space. Sadly that was a lot of companies' ways of moving forward, is the reason AAA games have been pretty stagnant, and is the reason a lot of games that would've been BC contenders were skipped.

@BeerIsAwesome In general, up to the PS4/XB1 era, you expected a 'fresh' reset and for Sony, it was certainly necessary after the PS3 and its 'design' which only benefitted games built specifically for it.

Whilst the 'Digital' era started in the 360/PS3 era, it was still an Era of Physical and a LOT of gamers were resisting Digital. Microsoft were ahead of the curve with their 'ideas' on Digital content, but the vast majority were not ready to accept 'Digital' - Sony even took a dig at MS by using a Physical copy to show how easy it is to 'share' games with friends, mocking the 'digital' concept MS was offering...

However, a decade later and most people buy Digitally these days and certainly by the end of the generation, they 'expected' their Digital Library to be playable - like I said, neither XB1 or PS4 had BC, the PS4 especially would have been very difficult to implement because of the PS3's design...

@EvilSilentFrame i hate the be nice guy behavior, i was a salesman in a big brand and was failing till i weared the devil mask and said f*** it i dont care if everybody hate me i will do anything to be on top, at that time i start arguing and fighting for my sales (against my colleagues) and start being ranked on top 3 in the company out from +50 sales Rep,

its the samething here your in a market and if you want to sale you have to be selfish, active, aggressive yet honest and caring to your costumers!!! phil is still at that nice guy character a nice guy is a losing guy his GF cheat on him his colleages will use him and he will lose on everything! enough xbox go wild buy studios, buy 3rd party exclusivity, do some heavy marketing
all or nothing look at how sony trying to knock you down!! they stopped your ABK deal they arent afraid to go to media and sh*t on you! yesterday rumors saying Castlevania silent hill and MGS is exclusive to PS5!!! they know your broken and they spit on you!! how dont you guys feel furious?

@Moby whoever control the market will try to ripoff the consumer...thats why balance is always required, sony is pushing now for game price increase and console price increase next gen upgrade and backward compatibility thro subscription only