Support NeoGAF

[Afro Republican]

OK guys, the end of the generation is here, especially for Microsoft who will have a small year as they prepare to launch the Xbox One successor. So it's time to give our end of gen grade to all three manufactures starting with Microsoft (Xbox One), then Sony (PS4), then Nintendo (Wii U).

So we know the history of the Xbox One, we know how the pre-launch is controversial, we know that the launch was good and eventually would collapse leading MS to drop the device the whole pre-launch controversy was based on, they had some great games, they put out two nice hardware divisions and recently they are building up their first-party and features.

Now based on the poll results, what grade do you give Microsoft? Please post the reason why you chose your grade in the poll in a post below.

Here is the Xbox One Retail line-up (not all games included but most bigger games):

 

[Iced Arcade]

Solid B.

I would mark a B for both them and Sony

 

[Strife In a Teacup]

It's definitely the B choice. They did a great course correction similar to Sony with the later half of the PS3 era.

 

[Dr. Claus]

C for me. They started out horrid, but began to turn things around. They still lacked a good assortment of quality exclusives, but made great strides in consumer friendly business moves.

 

[flashfire926]

Out of the poll options, C for me.

Outside of Forza their exclusives are unremarkable. Though game pass and backwards compatibility with 500+ games really makes up for that somewhat.

 

[J-Roderton]

Excellent. Game Pass also helps.

 

[SaucyJack]

I’ve gone with a D. It’s ultimately the games that matter even if they’ve sorted the Hardware late in the game.

MS has been accused of being overly reliant on Halo/Gears/Forza and that accounts for 12 of the titles in the montage in the OP which is also padded by having a couple of multi-platform titles (ROTTR and DR4) and the super-meh Recore included twice.

Ultimately it is (in my opinion of course) very ordinary.

 

[Klondyke]

AAAAA

Just for gamepass, sea of thieves and Xbox One x

Edit. How do you vote on this forum?

 

[GMan72]

XBOX hasn't introduced a new AAA exclusive IP since Sea Of Thieves 2015.

E3 2019 will be 4 years.

For a console that's a fucking travesty.

 

[Guileless]

C for me. They started out horrid, but began to turn things around. They still lacked a good assortment of quality exclusives, but made great strides in consumer friendly business moves.

Agreed, great reclamation project since Spencer was hired. But it was a grease fire at the outset, and they messed up Halo. Can't go higher than C+.

 

[Shin]

B ish, missing Ori on that list OP.
I give them an A with X, design, philosophy, choices.

 

[STI]

C+ They tried

 

[Isa]

I say C+. They have made great moves for the consumer, though I personally feel they did better than the 360 for me personally, as I wasn't a fan of Kinect and the focus it took. But I appreciate the moves made to bring more of a focus for first party studios and future releases, it has me psyched for next-gen. I never could have predicted that I'd have an Xbox system again, the X in this case. And its been an absolute blast so far. Gamepass alone has given my best friend and I a LOT of titles to play together which is very nice. Plus its quiet.

 

[Humdinger]

I'll be generous and say C+, although the D+ verbal description actually fits better. They royally screwed up the initial concept and had a lackluster exclusive lineup for almost the entire generation. They were redeemed by the X, BC, and the studio acquisitions -- which are undeniably a good sign, even if they won't bear fruit until next gen.

 

[Ovek]

D - The first gen hardware was a bit rubbish but it’s all about the games and Microsoft really fucked up this gen. From tired old franchises that had subpar sequels like Halo5 and GoW4 to outright broken releases like Halo remastered it did not go well.

One has to wonder how much time and money they pissed away on the drive for cross media content.

 

[YayNJ]

Why have an 'N' vote? Why be coy and just change it to "Im a Sony / Ninty fanboi"

 

[Mr Hyde]

How do you vote on this forum?

Send a PM to Evilore with a beautifully written poem, and he shall grant you permission to vote.

Spoiler

When you are upgraded to member status you will be able to cast votes.

 

[lucius]

Backwards compatibility deserves an A+ and some digital sales are still best deals on console, though that’s close with PSN flash sales . Gears and Halo could have been handled much better, Forza Horizon series is amazing though. They keep improving the system software to where Nintendo should be embarrassed that you still can’t have many games on the home screen. The way they improved controllers and give you options is great. Streaming options is as good as most of the Roku or Amazon TV players available and those are the 2 best. But if I was grading just on current gen games it’s a C but overall they get a B- for other things, I would rate Sony A- for games and Nintendo C- or incomplete even though Nintendo have 2 best games so far the system is lacking great games and they are not doing much to take adavatge of their BC library like they should.

 

[lingpanda]

Started bad but turned things around with the announcement of the X. I no longer play my PS4 for multiplats. Just exclusives now. B+

 

[Sakura Doritos]

I gave it a C+. I’m on all 4 platforms and I hated xbone until the X. X turned it around for me. Moved all 3rd party titles from PS4 to X. BC has been great. I have about 50 360 physical games and many are BC.

 

[Rock And Roll]

MS is turning it around but we won't really get to feel the effects until next Gen. Sony actually righted the ship with the Ps3 and had a great system by the end of the Gen, I feel like the same can't be said for the XB1. Got to give them a D+ but I think they'll have a great console waiting to replace it

 

[Wings 嫩翼翻せ]

Gave it a C+. I am generally not big on Microsoft, and I tried out the One/One S and thought the S was a huge money grab that could have been the original; that aside, I found the S to be a wonderful console with good processing power, and I had no problem with it.

 

[Castef]

Started very bad, turned things around nicely.

So, on average, C+.

 

[ethomaz]

D+

They messed big at the start of this gen and they are lacking big in game support at mid-end of the gen.

Most MS big moves this gen are for the future next-gen... so I hope they do a better job because they are not even trying this gen anymore.

 

[SlashBringingHasher]

this console has the least exclusives of any system I have ever seen. someone could actually look at sega,sony,nintendo,sega consoles overall. the only one that might have less exclusives is the sega CD.

 

[Ten_Fold]

I was disappointed this gen, I like Xbox live a lot more than Psn, but nothing on the Xbox one seemed interested as far as first party goes. Hopefully the $99 dollar Xbox one is real because I’ll pick it up along with game pass. Last thing is that if Microsoft can put out a solid variety of games from FPS, to jrpgs like the early 360 did then I’ll pick up the next Xbox.

 

[1.21Gigawatts]

F+
I never made the jump from my 360 to the One.
I've been complaining about Microsofts lacking 1st party output ever since I got a Ps3 in like 2010 and the problem persisted until today. So no buy from me this gen, and so far I don't see myself getting an Xbox next gen either. The competition is just better and I don't have enough time for 3 consoles.

 

[Norse]

D/B+/A+

 

[DeepEnigma]

C for me. They started out horrid, but began to turn things around. They still lacked a good assortment of quality exclusives, but made great strides in consumer friendly business moves.

Pretty much how I feel as well.

 

[AgentP]

Dismal 900p hardware on the low end, which is most players. They made a good high and system,but it's out of reach for many. OS is bad. Exclusives are poor. Game pass is cool.

 

[AnotherOne]

Worst first party games of any xbox system but the one x is the best hardware system.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

F- for the first year. A- the last 3. It would be A+ if not for terrib,e exclusives

 

[Deleted member 471617]

C+ for me. A few good 7.0/10 exclusives (Dead Rising 3, Ryse: Son of Rome and Quantum Break) and one great 8.5/10 exclusive (Gears 4) is what keeps it at the C+ grade for me. Online, services and features are all top notch but I could care less about any of them except Game Pass and Backwards Compatibility and here's why it's a negative for me personally - I played more Xbox 360 games this past summer on Xbox One than I have played actual Xbox One games on Xbox One. LMAO. Very disappointing. Gears trilogy was great and hope Gears 5 can get back to the level of Gears 2. For the operating system/user interface though, it's fucking horrible. I absolutely hate it. Way too slow for the dashboard to load up and it's just a cluttered ugly mess. Why they didn't just copy Xbox 360 is beyond me.

If it wasn't for Mutant Year Zero (which I literally just finished a few minutes ago) and Ashen being on Game Pass, my Xbox One X would still be in the box in my closet because I haven't played it since the summer.

Better than the original Xbox for me easily but also easily behind Xbox 360. Hopefully, Xbox 4 can be for Microsoft what PlayStation 4 has been for Sony.

 

[Fbh]

Until the One X terrible. Worse exclusives (obviously just IMO) and worse performance and/or resolution in most games.

The X really improved things. Best hardware this gen and it's not even close.

Right now what's holding it back are the exclusives. It's obviously all personal opinions but I look at this year and as a nice as it is playing the best looking version of Red Dead or AC Odyssey, ultimately I'd rather keep my console that also has God of War and Spiderman

 

[AnotherOne]

Until the One X terrible. Worse exclusives (obviously just IMO) and worse performance and/or resolution in most games.

The X really improved things. Best hardware this gen and it's not even close.

Right now what's holding it back are the exclusives.

100% agree with you.

 

[ReBurn]

Pre-Phil Spencer: C

Post-Phil Spencer: A

 

[StreetsofBeige]

B-.

Xbox One X and improvements to OS updates bumps it up a notch.

If I still had an OG in that old form it'd be a C-.

 

[MDSLKTR]

Having a good PC, I still took the plunge last week.
Solid C for me.
:
-X is some great hardware, I wish I had a 4k to fully enjoy it but waiting on hmdi 2.1
-Downsampling and the few performance modes are still worth it on 1080p sets.
-I'm a believer in game pass now, dont think I'll buy much games as is.
-Legacy support on point, I finally can replay ninja gaiden, conker L&r, perfect dark and kotor.
-Feels good to play all halos and gears in one place man.

:
-UI is a fucking mess holy shit... And its supposed to be improved compared to before?? I can not believe the ads. Why can't I hide them?
-The MS store is confusing... why can't I use my prepaid MS credit on legacy games? Why do I have to buy it on a separate browser? What games are enhanced? Im constantly battling between the home button and the dashboard.
-More games need to be enhanced. No point adding games on gp like dead rising 3 if they look like outdated ass. Why is ssx3 enhanced but not dead space or mass effect?
-Cant play f2p games without XBL gold.

Never expected I would get an Xbox console this gen, but I'm pretty happy with my purchase overall.

 

[Armorian]

Xbox One X is probably the best console hardware ever created (Xbox 1 is second) but their consoles this gen lack exclusive content. I have PS4 and gaming PC and no desire to but X1 whatsoever (and I had 360 last gen) because every interesting MS game lands on PC too.

 

[kunonabi]

BC and the X hardware brings it up to D+. Cant really get any higher than that due to how poor the actual game library is.

 

[dottme]

D or C.
The beginning of the generation was awfully bad. There has been some bad decision of the hardware design and a really bad marketing.
Over the generation, it is improving. But the Xbox feel like a PC with more expansive game than a console. There is no game or feature making it different than a PC. It lacks identity especially when you look the work Sony has been able to do with the PS4.

 

[Sakura]

Gave it an F+. I had an OG Xbox, and purchased a 360 day one, not buying a PS3 until years later. I've never bought an Xbox One though, and never will. They fucked up. The games aren't there. There are no exclusives I want to play. Games are the most important thing to me when buying a console.

 

[Gavon West]

Gave it an F+. I had an OG Xbox, and purchased a 360 day one, not buying a PS3 until years later. I've never bought an Xbox One though, and never will. They fucked up. The games aren't there. There are no exclusives I want to play. Games are the most important thing to me when buying a console.

Wait....how can you give the console an F+ and you've never owned one? I get games are an essential, and Xbox has games - even if their multiplats. Genuine question. You've had to've experienced it, in my opinion, to give it such a low grade. I've never owned a base PS4, I wouldnt give it anything lower than a B-

 

[Sakura]

Wait....how can you give the console an F+ and you've never owned one? I get games are an essential, and Xbox has games - even if their multiplats. Genuine question. You've had to've experienced it, in my opinion, to give it such a low grade. I've never owned a base PS4, I wouldnt give it anything lower than a B-

I don't see why you'd have to own one in order to judge the library or hardware or the way they handled it the first year. The fact they were unable to convince me to purchase one is a failure to me. It's not like I haven't played one, my brother has one.

 

[Gavon West]

I don't see why you'd have to own one in order to judge the library or hardware or the way they handled it the first year. The fact they were unable to convince me to purchase one is a failure to me. It's not like I haven't played one, my brother has one.

The first year of the One is done. Trips me all the way out when people bring up what Xbox did in the beginning and how it still has an effect on them today. That shit's crazy! Either way, that's irrelevant. Stark contrast from now till back then.

I dont know if you know this but, the only REAL way to judge something is to experience it yourself - even with games. Quantum Break wasnt everyone's favorite but, there are loads of people who loved it. You could be one of the people who may like what it brought to the table as far as storytelling, gameplay etc.

I'm very content with the Xbox myself. But I still gave it a C+. It could do much better as far as 1st party title (which are on the way)Everything else, and the way the brand has handled itself has been super impressive though.

 

[ancelotti]

The One X and Spencer's business decisions have done a hell of a lot to repair the damage done to their reputation which was caused purely by their own hubris. I still think they need at least one big game to really connect as a love letter to their fanbase before this generation closes out.

 

[TLZ]

Well OP grading and wording don't go together for me, lol. So, going by OP wording it's an F+ for me. It's the worst of the 3 Xboxs I have, but it has some good.

Going by my own grading though I'd probably give it a D. Good hardware whether S or X, ok BC, but current gen first party isn't good enough for me, plus really dislike the UI. It's a pass, but barely.

I hope they do much better next gen and great things come out of all their acquisitions.

 

[EDMIX]

XBOX hasn't introduced a new AAA exclusive IP since Sea Of Thieves 2015.

E3 2019 will be 4 years.

For a console that's a fucking travesty.

Agreed. Its why I gave it a F.

This whole gen has pretty much been a focus of 90% of their game development funding on Halo, Gears, Forza combo. When they decide they want to actually really support their install base, its only to do so for the next XB.

This is just a forgettable generation for MS. When you let EA and Activision beat you in making a big AAA new IP, you know you went off the deep end. With how next gen is gearing up for them, this is easily going to their worst ever.

1. 360 made some mistakes, but did more right then wrong and made some new IP (well Epic games did at the time)
2.NEXTBOX- unknown if it will be 360 big, but this would be the first time they are actively trying to best Sony in the actual games department vs (Halo, Gears, Forza endless combo) They make 1 successful new AAA IP next gen, already beat XONE with 1 game folks
3.Original XB, soooo many innovated things done on that platform for the time.
4.XONE, by default I don't now if they can do as bad as this tbh.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

XBOX hasn't introduced a new AAA exclusive IP since Sea Of Thieves 2015.

E3 2019 will be 4 years.

For a console that's a fucking travesty.

Battletoads? And who cares about the announcements if the games are still coming out. Ryse and Killer Instinct were out in 2013. Master Chief Collection, Titanfall, D4, and Sunset Overdrive came out in 2014. Halo 5, Forza 5, Rare Replay, and Ori and the Blind Forest came out in 2015. Quantum Break, Super Luckys Tale, Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3, and Recore came out in 2016. Cuphead, Forza 7, and Halo Wars 2 came out in 2017. State of Decay 2, Sea of Thieves, Forza Horizon 4, PUBG, and Ashen came out this year. Crackdown 3, Gears of War 5, Battletoads, Tunic, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, and hopefully The Last Night come out next year. They may not be your cup of team but they do appeal to other people. I give Microsoft a solid B all things considered.

 

[Fox Mulder]

C+, due to their recovery late.

The console launch sucked and it was weighed down with the Kinect anchor that made the Xbox weaker and more expensive than the PS4. They even got me to stop giving a shit about Halo with the MCC and Halo 5.

What MS did with the X and BC are great. They still lost me to the PS4 a few years into this gen though. Buying those studios for next gen exclusives have me interested again, so I hope they nail it.