Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag was the last Assassin's Creed game that I was able to enjoy without any doubts or reservations. After that, Assassin's Creed Rogue was never released for Xbox in Japan, and as a result, I lost my loyalty to the series.

DEATHLOOP was a truly fantastic game. Personally, it's one of my favorite titles from the early days of the Xbox Series X.

It's a relatively compact time-loop experience, but the characters were so engaging that I really came to love the world they inhabited.

With so many AAA games in recent years treating characters as little more than political tools, DEATHLOOP felt genuinely refreshing.

The biggest problem with Xbox right now is that it feels far too utilitarian. There are very few animations, and the overall design feels like a business operating system rather than a gaming platform. Back in the original Xbox and Xbox 360 days, simply navigating the dashboard was exciting and enjoyable. It wasn't just about getting to your games, it was part of the experience. Even if Microsoft doesn't bring back the Blades UI, I'd love to see them recapture the sense of fun and excitement that Xbox had back then.

I wish they would stop that bad habit of pretending it's Marcus and Dom's story while actually putting the spotlight on new characters, and portraying JD, the protagonist of the previous game, as a bad guy just to make those new characters look better.

I believe Xbox could recover both its sales and its reputation with players if it addressed the issue of its games becoming too political, without needing to shut down or sacrifice its studios.

I used to be a fan of Forza Motorsport, Forza Horizon, and Gran Turismo, but these days I'm playing Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. Honestly, I think it offers a far more fun multiplayer experience.

It may be inevitable, but as the series has progressed, the political undertones have become increasingly noticeable and distracting. That's why I like the first game. It can be enjoyed as pure entertainment.

I attended the FanFest in Japan, but the venue was just a small warehouse, and all we received was a single T-shirt. Looking at FanFest events in other countries, they seem much more impressive, and honestly, I'm a bit jealous.

Japanese Xbox influencers boast about having one million Gamerscore, yet they never reveal the games they've actually played.
Probably because their libraries are filled with low‑quality indie titles.

I like Mario Kart too, but Sonic Racing Cross Worlds is extremely well‑made. I highly recommend it.

The translation quality is terrible.

Xbox 360 – Gears of War: Perfect Japanese dubbing

Xbox One – Gears of War: Ultimate Edition: No Japanese translation, English only

Xbox Series X|S – Gears of War Reloaded: Basically Japanese subtitles + English audio, but for some reason only certain movie scenes have Japanese dubbing

All of the Perfect Dark projects — the one pitched by the Conker team, the one developed by The Initiative, and even the one proposed by id Software — have been cancelled. This happened despite the IP being so popular. It really makes you wonder if Microsoft holds some kind of grudge against Perfect Dark. As someone who bought an Xbox because of Rare, this situation is extremely disappointing.

Hmm… they’ve barely put any effort into translations or advertising outside the US up until now.
So how exactly are they planning to reach those audiences?
We can’t even properly experience Halo’s story without importing books from the United States.

Unfortunately, it feels like Microsoft has almost no interest in markets outside North America.
They don’t run local advertising, nor do they strengthen game lineups tailored to each country.

If they bring Gregg Mayles back, I’m all for it. Without him, any new Banjo‑Kazooie would probably end up as dull as Yooka‑Laylee.

id Software used to be one of the best studios under Xbox. If anyone should be prioritized for layoffs, it should be Halo Studios or Turn 10 instead.

@ILuvGames Harry Potter sold well because it was Harry Potter. No one bought it because they thought it had DEI characters. If the PR had pushed DEI to the forefront, the outcome would likely have been different.

About half of the third‑party Game Pass day‑one titles that Microsoft contracted were politically motivated projects, and most people didn’t play them.
At this point, it wouldn’t be a problem even if they stopped signing such contracts.

I genuinely believe there is room for improvement when half of the Game Pass day‑one titles clearly feel less like they’re meant to entertain players and more like they’re expressing political messages.

They invested heavily in games that were never going to sell, and unsurprisingly, they didn’t.
It’s the result of prioritizing how they wanted to be perceived over what customers actually wanted.

They were made to develop the kind of politically charged game that Microsoft would never expect to sell, and when it inevitably didn’t sell, the studio was shut down.

Believe it or not, Xbox Series X|S sells only around 100 units per month here in Japan, yet it’s constantly out of stock.

The cancellation of Perfect Dark and the sale of Tango Gameworks were truly disastrous decisions.
They’re one of the reasons I can no longer trust the Xbox brand, so please do something about it.

This is probably an issue limited to the U.S. and a few other regions.
In Japan, we don’t see ads like this at all.
Well… there have been times when ads for games that aren’t even released in Japan showed up, and opening the link just led to an error page in the store, but that’s about it.

Xbox has effectively neglected its console business for the past five years, and it will take significant effort to regain players’ trust.
It won’t be enough to simply launch Project Helix — Xbox will need to pour five years’ worth of care and commitment into everything: promotion, the title lineup, and the overall console experience. Without that level of dedication, winning back the community will be extremely difficult.

@Kilamanjaro They say that, but there are parts that feel far removed from the Japan that actual Japanese people know.
For example, some of the in‑game signboards look almost like the Japanese-themed season from Fortnite — they’re written in Japanese, but the design style is something you’d almost never see in Japan.
(It’s still better than Fortnite’s version, to be fair…)

If Xbox still owned Tango Gameworks, I really wish they had asked them to supervise the project.
The recreation of Tokyo in Ghostwire: Tokyo was genuinely outstanding.

In Xbox’s official footage, they said you could drive across all of Japan, so I was surprised by how small the map actually feels.
Real Japan isn’t this rich in nature everywhere, and the area around Tokyo has far more buildings.
That said, since the concept seems to be ‘Japan as seen by tourists,’ maybe viewing it from our own perspective is a bit nonsensical…

I’ve basically bought every piece of hardware I’m interested in on day one since the Xbox One era.

Xbox One + Kinect, Xbox One X, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and the ROG Xbox Ally X.

As for the PS4 and Wii U, I picked those up later on.

I used to be a huge fan of Rare, so seeing Everwild and Perfect Dark announced at that event genuinely thrilled me.

Eiyuden Chronicle ended up being so conscious of Western “ethical standards” that it lost the harsh, convincing sense of wartime tragedy that Suikoden used to deliver.
Even so, it’s still one of those rare, one‑of‑a‑kind experiences, and I still find myself wanting to revisit that world from time to time.

@Globo I agree. Before the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, I wanted to replay Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, so I bought a physical copy. I replayed the campaigns of Black Ops 1 and Black Ops 2 before launch, and then went straight into the Black Ops 7 campaign.

Yeah… it was a really sad experience.

@Sol-idsnake I’m glad you understand how I feel. There used to be scenarios filled with imagination and compelling characters, but now there’s hardly any trace of that left. Honestly, their older works—back when they were almost excessively violent—were far more exciting and engaging. These days, you can really feel how much they’re trying to be considerate of various things.

I’m not particularly happy about it. I used to be a huge fan of Ubisoft, so up until games from about five years ago, I bought almost all of their titles and built up quite a library. However, the current Ubisoft has become shockingly boring and lacks appeal, so I don’t need it anymore.

If Assassin’s Creed Shadows gets added, I might give it a try.

Please also add an option to disable Smart Delivery.
Why should I be forced to install games on an SSD just to play retro titles or simple puzzle games?

The commercial failure of South of Midnight is something that the entire Xbox studio organization should take the opportunity to reassess.

I would like the UI to have smooth animations like it did in the Xbox 360 era, with avatars prominently featured. Xbox back then felt fun and full of entertainment.
Right now, the UI feels sturdy like a business device, and it’s not enjoyable.

First, let’s learn to think about games and politics as separate things. We should also stop hiring game developers based on political priorities rather than experience. Simply doing this should improve the majority of current AAA titles.

I bought three years of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate at the old price before the increase, so I’m set for a while. However, considering how significantly the price has gone up, I honestly don’t feel that the added titles have improved at all. I don’t need things like Fortnite Crew or Ubisoft+ Classics, and to be frank, I just want the price to go back to what it was before.

If Xbox hadn’t abandoned Tango Gameworks, they could have approached the GhostWire: Tokyo team for help in recreating Japan. GhostWire: Tokyo achieved an astonishing level of authenticity, and I’ve never seen another game that matches it.

Please develop a technology for team‑based multiplayer games that automatically switches a player to AI control when it is clear that they have put down the controller and are inactive.
There are far too many idle players in Xbox games.

Hmm, the city areas of Tokyo look better than I expected, but the rural roads don’t look like Japan.
This is probably because the game is made from a tourist’s perspective, not from the viewpoint of people who actually live there. It looks about as different as Earthbound does from the real America.

High‑quality services come with a high price, so it may not be all that surprising even if an Xbox One X–era masterpiece shows up.

The quality of games and the decisions made over the past few years were at their lowest even before the new Xbox leadership took over. Studio closures, cancelled game projects, and the departure of many prominent creators continued.

I used to be a fan of Xbox first‑party titles like Gears of War, Halo, and Forza, but I haven’t really liked any of the recent entries. If Xbox wants to regain its former glory, it should start by improving the quality of its games.

First, let’s make it a more masculine platform again. The original Xbox and Xbox 360 were filled with sports, military, and boys‑oriented games.
But now they’re making nothing but games featuring unappealing characters created through contrarian ideas, and it’s not even clear who they’re supposed to be for.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is one of the worst story-driven games I’ve ever played, and the graphics were filled with AI-generated elements. Please stop making games like this.

From the Xbox One generation onward, instead of placing Xbox teams in each country, operations were run with full control centralized in the United States. As a result, marketing and sales strategies that showed no consideration for local cultures were adopted, and Xbox lost its presence in many regions.

At the same time, it appears that Xbox has also been losing popularity even within the United States. Wasn’t this approach a failure? With the change in Xbox leadership, I want them to dismantle the current corporate culture of Xbox.

I don’t know what Phil Spencer was truly like as a person, but at the very least, I believe he understood gamers’ feelings to some extent. He had to make many tough decisions, likely influenced by declining sales and the judgments of Satya Nadella and the rest of Microsoft’s leadership.

What concerns me now is that his successor comes from the AI division and has no experience in the gaming industry. I’m worried that, in the name of cutting costs through AI‑driven game development, Xbox may undergo drastic changes.
There may already be very few people left at Xbox who can create truly imaginative games, but I still hope they can once again make titles with the brilliance they used to have…