I'm genuinely intrigued to see what direction they'll go like. Like many, I'm predicting a continued focus towards the eventual shift to PC, where Xbox is more of a brand that exists across devices than it is a discrete piece of hardware.
There are plenty of first-party games I'm excited for, including Scalebound, Sea of Thieves, Gears 4, ReCore, Halo Wars 2, etc. But it's undeniable that they've made a lot of moves that call into question their focus on first party going forward. I think they're smart to contract out devs to do the work for them on first-party properties (second-party, if you will), but the last couple of years have been interesting:
> Closed Press Play (multiple games)
> Closed Lionhead (multiple games)
> Discontinued partnership with Twisted Pixel (bummer)
> No word from BigPark
> No word from Undead Labs (worrying)
> Cancelled Fable Legends
> Cancelled Gigantic (but it may continue)
> Delayed Scaledbound to 2017
> Cancelled/Delayed Phantom Dust
> Meaningful exclusive indies have been slow to arrive (Below, Cuphead, etc)
> ReCore has been a no-show (scale of this game is in question)
> Crackdown seems rushed, with maybe a "beta" this year
Those are just some of the moves they have made cancelling games, delaying games, changing the scale of games, closing companies, ending partnerships. It would be nice to see some new blood. Again, the mobility that second-party development allows is undeniable, as it gives you a chance to change up if one company can't continue or can't hack it (KI comes to mind), but they need to start showing that Xbox has more than just an ecosystem. The poor attitude towards indies early on has really hurt them
I have no doubt that they'll announce some new exclusive indies and a couple of big IPs that are being contracted out to other studios, but they've really consolidated around a few tentpoles games. Even the merits of Gears and Halo are sort of questionable at this point, especially as those franchises get longer in the tooth.
I'm still bullish on MS and Xbox, and I own all platforms, so I don't have a horse in the race. But I've liked a lot of what they've done in the past (and how they've course-corrected recently), so I hope they continue to add new ideas, new blood and new experiences.
