What will happened in a alt universe Xbox didn't acquire ABK, but putting their funding and effort on XGS+Zenimax and raising smaller 3rd party studio gem to GP?
like fixing redfall to a 8/10 game, better development of Starfield, operating better on halo infinite etc, with selection of tasteful small studio work like palworld and COE33
People often mistakenly attribute the Xbox's downfall and destruction to the Activision acquisition. But the problem started long before that. I won't even bring up what happened in the previous generation, because I believe that during that time Microsoft was still determined and trying. In my view, they actually ended that generation on a positive note. However, the Series generation began with one major mistake after another.
To start with, they launched the Series consoles without a single first-party title. Sony had a beautiful remake of
Demon's Souls, a new
Spider-Man, and a few smaller games. And as if it wasn't bad enough that Microsoft didn't have a single game ready for launch, they also had a disastrous reveal of
Halo Infinite, which became a global meme and laughingstock. A great start, huh?
Then came 2021, and things seemed to be looking up. They released the excellent
Forza Horizon 5, and
Halo Infinite turned out better than most people expected. That same year, they acquired Bethesda. Once again, things seemed to be getting back on track — "the year of Xbox" finally looked like it was coming. But once again, they made a series of terrible decisions.
Ever since acquiring Bethesda, Microsoft had been promoting
Redfall as a major title. It was featured prominently in several showcases and even used as the "one more thing" reveal in one of them. Microsoft was still suffering from a lack of major first-party releases — a leftover issue from the Xbox One era — but they bet heavily on the wrong horse.
Redfall was a complete failure, and once again a wave of negativity fell over the brand. The most incredible part of all this is that they had a gem in their hands:
Hi-Fi Rush. Not only did they fail to properly value that game, but they committed the atrocity of shutting down the studio behind it. How do you completely ignore one of the best games in your catalog and then close the studio that made it? It's unbelievable — but that's exactly what they did.
It's worth remembering that after
Redfall, our friend Phil Spencer had already thrown in the towel. His appearance on a podcast was marked by a catatonic expression, a complete lack of faith in the brand, and a funeral-like atmosphere. At that point, he probably already knew or suspected all the consequences that were about to unfold.
But was there still any hope left?
Starfield, the next big RPG from the creators of
Skyrim, was set to release in 2023. Well, everyone knows how that turned out (even today,
Starfield remains a poorly rated game on Steam — something that, apparently, will never change).
Everything that happened after the idea of acquiring Activision was irrelevant. The brand was already doomed long before that. And after more than a decade of Spencer in charge, I can say this with certainty: even without the Activision acquisition, as long as that man remained in control of the division, nothing would have changed.
What truly killed Xbox were the years of Phil Spencer's (and friends) mismanagement.
