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[RetroGamingUK]

Microsoft just doesn't understand gamers anymore.

Switch 2 works just like the GameBoy and SNES, pop in a Nintendo cartridge and play.

PS5 works just like PS1, pop in a Sony disc and (after initial install) play.

Xbox wants you to pay for an expensive subscription service where you'll "own nothing and be happy" and, if there is a physical version it's usually a piece of paper or a disc with a download link. No wonder Series X flopped compared to PS5 and Switch. And now they're doubling down on PC-ification.

Clueless!

 

[Bernardougf]

Never in the history of gaming a console brand existed and succeeded without good exclusives.

People talk about "third party" and fortnite and fifa, but the truth is they cant use one example of a full third party console because there never was one, and graphics and sales data wont change this fact.

So MS neglected their first party output and launched all their games on PC. They failed.

Lets see if Sony can pull it off the first console brand to survive long term without great exclusives if they choose to continue with this shitty first party output and launching everything on PC on a more regularly basis (if this happens).

 

[KungFucius]

They need to manufacture and supply more systems.

Thats about it.

That might've worked in 2020/2021 but once PS5 was readily available they couldn't give 'em away. There were deals where they were selling them for under 400, now they are like 32k or something.

 

[KungFucius]

Switch 2 works just like the GameBoy and SNES, pop in a Nintendo cartridge and play.

PS5 works just like PS1, pop in a Sony disc and (after initial install) play.

Xbox wants you to pay for an expensive subscription service where you'll "own nothing and be happy" and, if there is a physical version it's usually a piece of paper or a disc with a download link. No wonder Series X flopped compared to PS5 and Switch. And now they're doubling down on PC-ification.

Clueless!

Huh? PS5Pro comes without a disk drive, and digital games are the majority of purchases. I think you are conflating your minority opinion with the masses here.

 

[Rentahamster]

Xbox needed to be more pro-consumer in order to offset the anti-consumer sentiment from the Xbox One debacle. It wasn't.
Xbox needed 343i to make Halo Infinite an incredible experience that convinced fans to give Xbox another chance. 343i failed. Again.
Xbox needed better hardware to decisively win the FPS battle. They merely tied.
Xbox needed solid first party games to rival Sony's first party output. They didn't have much despite Sony shooting themselves in the foot with live service failures.

The PS5 was decent, but not as awesome as the PS4 was. This was Xbox's chance to make a comeback, but they kept fucking up.

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

Xbox was cooked when MS shifted the latter part of 360 gen to Kinect. It was a clear message that instead of building traditional console MS is chasing fads and looking for an easy way to cheat the market i to domination. Everything else was actually in line with this same philosophy.

Any other sensible or poorer company would've pulled the plug 2 years into XBO generation. It's just MS was too rich and stubborn for its own good. Reminds me a lot about their mobile efforts, really.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

Huh? PS5Pro comes without a disk drive, and digital games are the majority of purchases. I think you are conflating your minority opinion with the masses here.

Nope, PlayStation offers ME the same experience that I like.

If others are doing things a different way on there then so be it.

 

[PendekarRajawali]

Xbox one reputation and gamepass

 

[Loboxxx]

 

[xrnzaaas]

The damage was already done last-gen and once people built their digital librariers and friends lists around the PS ecosystem it was over.

 

[Radical_3d]

Someone (probably a father) mentioned that at the end of this animation the braid clips through the shoulder and arm and now it's all I can see.

On the matter: nothing to add.

 

[Joel Was Right]

The moment Sony did their PS4 reveal.

It had feature parity, and was launching around the same time as Xbox, not 12 months later.

Everything Xbox hoped to avoid.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

That might've worked in 2020/2021 but once PS5 was readily available they couldn't give 'em away. There were deals where they were selling them for under 400, now they are like 32k or something.

It was selling decent numbers.

Not record breaking but it kept moving.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

The damage was already done last-gen and once people built their digital librariers and friends lists around the PS ecosystem it was over.

That's why I think it's too late for anyone to compete with Nintendo and Sony now.

Best a new competitor could hope for is releasing an Xbox PC or Steambox, but it'll be niche expensive hardware relying on someone else's platform.

 

[8BiTw0LF]

They've offered most of my most memorable gaming experiences in my lifetime.

Me too, but after the Xbox One reveal and afterwards +10 years of bad decisions I can't fathom why anyone's still holding on to nostalgic memories.

Xbox is dead - it had a good, but short run

 

[deeptech]

I am biased towards Sony so can't really say.

But I guess they never had interesting games. And latest fifa is still coming out in ps2 lol.... jk

 

[MrTired]

Spoke to this elsewhere, but I think this is Xbox's biggest weakness.

Lack of brand identity.

It lacks an identity I think only because the things that gave it it's identity have been taken by the competition (Playstation) and implemented on there hardware.

Xbox used to be in the home of multiplayer experiences, the home of shooters, the home of the blockbusters.

There implementation of online was superior than their competitors to the point where they could charge for that service and still remain competitive against the console that provided an inferior service albeit for free.

Halo was the pinnacle of shooter on console for a period. And even when it was surpassed by CoD they made sure to make Xbox 360 the place to get that as well.

They not Sony we're the ones to first push the cinematic Hollywood blockbuster experiences that people deride Sony now. Halo 3, Gears, Fable etc. Playstation had those experiences but they weren't produced by Sony till Uncharted. Xbox worked very hard to make sure those experiences produce by Publishers which were exclusive to Playstation during the PS2 generation came day and date on there platform.

Unfortunately for Xbox It was easy for Sony (apart from the games) to implement these into their next console thereby taking away Xbox unique selling point away. Playstation implement party chat, Achievement system in Trophies. Got key marketing deals on CoD, Destiny etc. And eventually from 2016 onwards releases those the Summer blockbuster games, Uncharted 4, Horizon, God of War, Spiderman, Last of Us 2, Ghost of Tsushima.

 

[SomeNorseGuy]

It might've not been the most important or impactful failure. But it seemed to me that when Starfield turned out to be a wet fart is when the MS suits had had enough and initiated a full pivot. Had it been the modern Skyrim they had hoped for I think maybe things would've gone a bit different.

...for a while at least.

Spoiler: Satya Nadella's dream

 

[Fake]

Don Matric did a never recover damage.

 

[PropellerEar]

What does modern Xbox offer?

Constant disappointment.

 

[CentralScrutinizer]

What is with all this post op sensationalism? Are journalists gonna pretend they haven't been writing constant hit pieces since the day Don Matrick shit out of his mouth?

"Oh man, it's such a mystery that Xbox is effectively dead, how could this have ever happened?!"

 

[JimmyRustler]

When Peter Moore left and Don took over and introduced Kinect. They were never able to recover from this.

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

Current? They were not in it. They just didn't know it.

 

[DeltaPolarBear]

Xbox's situation is reminding me of a card in Magic The Gathering, the Platinum Angel. It's power is "you can't lose the game, your opponent can't win the game".

That sounds powerful, right? Why isn't it banned? Because just because you can't lose, doesn't magically make you victorious. If you are dying as it is that you needed this card to stay alive, you are already losing so bad that a 4hp creature is only delaying the inevitable.

Xbox, for the last ten years, had been on borrowed time. They were given a lifeline to keep going, but for the entire time they were sustained they never changed how they operated. They lost, couldn't go bankrupt, but then kept doing what made them lose. They kept accumulating negative favor to Microsoft as they went, all the while not being able to tell the difference between a good game or a bad game.

Trying to determine when Xbox lost the console war is actually rather easy. it is when they pivoted to Gamepass. They did this to get rescued. Doing so didn't kill Xbox; they are already dead, Gamepass just allowed them to keep playing the lost game after the result was already decided.

 

[memoryman3]

You think people are not buying because there is no supply, but reality is there is no supply because people are not buying.

Or because they lost $200 per console and Amy Hood set profit margin targets.

 

[Astray]

The moment Sony did their PS4 reveal.

It had feature parity, and was launching around the same time as Xbox, not 12 months later.

Everything Xbox hoped to avoid.

It actually released up to a year ahead of the One in some territories.

Microsoft had some weird tier thing going where they gradually rolled out the XB1 console (so Tier 1 territories would get the system on launch day, Tier 2, 3, etc some time after), I assume it's because most of the world doesn't use cable for their TV hookups in that way (we use Satellite TV instead).

 

[Blood Borne]

Xbox died before this gen even began. Microsoft made the decision to shut down Xbox ages ago.
The Activision acquisition is actually part of the "shut down Xbox" plan.

Basically "this hardware stuff isn't working out, let's become a major publisher before we leave".

 

[Three]

Their console launch was a joke. People blaming Don and Xbox One but just look at the XS launch. The XO didn't help but xbox just failed to deliver anything with the new console. They launched a console with no new exclusives, Halo delayed and even that turned out crap, bunch of CGI videos of games that went on to be cancelled or not yet released. When finally the promise of "the year of xbox" came round in 2023 it turned out to be duds like Redfall and Starfield. Chestbeating of "power king" and the difference was almost nonexistent. Lost out on games like BG3 and Black Myth Wukong. Xbox did nothing right. It just did what MS does and acquired a bunch of stuff for revenue. The xbox series was a shit console launch with poor support. The xbox one and Don might take some blame but xbox and Phil continued to fail on their own.

 

[Celine]

It's an accumulation of factors that goes beyond the current generation.
Xbox was already losing mindshare prior the introduction of Xbox Series X/S and would have needed an ace up the sleeve unique to them to turn the events, just a bit more first-party games compared the shitshow that happened wouldn't have helped much.
Think about the atavic weakness of the Xbox brand in key markets like Japan and continental Europe that was never addressed by Microsoft.
Xbox answer was GamePass for the unique selling point and Series S to undercut competition for the hardware price standpoint however hardware price turn out to not be a big issue for consumers so Series S became sort of a hindrace (split in two Xbox Series installbase that had to be addressed by third-parties) and GamePass is merely a service to deliver games but not a game changer especially because among the mass market many just buy a couple of new games per year and the ones that don't are likely invested consumers that own multiple hardware (PC, Nintendo, PlayStation).
The GamePass alignment was kind of forced onto Xbox because it would align the Xbox division to the goals of the big corporation that own them which in turn would let big papa to fund them for another round and let them buy time by making expensive bets like acquisition of third-party publishers.
But this service oriented attitude diluited the Xbox brand and could only result in the adoption of a multiplatform strategy that would further diluite the brand and spell its demise as a a proper console maker.
By its own nature Microsoft isn't very well suited, nor care, for the business to sell specialized hardware which is especially troublesome in a period in which the utility of specialized hardware (console) is cast into doubt compared to generalized hardware like PC.
The effects of the commoditization of consoles will inevitably hit all console makers but only one is well equipped to try to effectively respond, the other two not so much.

 

[CosmicHusky]

The ball was dropped with Halo Infinite.

 

[zaga]

They probably lost with RROD even though they try to spin the RROD repair program as some sort of customer trust building exercise

 

[ahtlas7]

A generation back.

 

[kruis]

This goes for Xbox too. It's been a long, gradual downwards slide (that didn't start with with Xbox One and its TV TV TV messaging but with the original Kinect when MS stopped focusing on their core gamer customer base) up till the Activision takeover. Now the pace is picking up and we're in the suddenly phase.

 

[Lightbreak]

Two reasons: Sarah Bond, Phil Spencer

 

[damidu]

they lost from start with the morons at helm.
spending 100billion while betting whole division on a "netflix of gaming" pipedream was the last straw that forced their total segafication.

 

[diffusionx]

I think if Halo Infinite was as good as Halo 3, the Series X could have been successful. I know that's a high bar but they needed it to be really good. But once it turned out to be yet another Bonnie Ross 343 special, the system had no chance.

 

[Badlucktroll]

when a stupid microsoft goon fratboy took over

 

[Ar¢tos]

It's Sunday!
Can't wait for Jizzed Condom reaction this DF video!!

 

[DeltaPolarBear]

I think if Halo Infinite was as good as Halo 3, the Series X could have been successful. I know that's a high bar but they needed it to be really good. But once it turned out to be yet another Bonnie Ross 343 special, the system had no chance.

If the team given the task to develop the most important IP that Xbox owned before the Activision purchase, couldn't deliver... I would say that was a sign of how the entire company was dysfunctional.

it would be like if Nintendo suddenly released a stinker that was a mainstream Mario title. Nintendo would never damage the Mario brand so easily. Xbox couldn't release a good Halo game anymore because they didn't actually know what "good" looks like.

 

[demigod]

Never in the history of gaming a console brand existed and succeeded without good exclusives.

People talk about "third party" and fortnite and fifa, but the truth is they cant use one example of a full third party console because there never was one, and graphics and sales data wont change this fact.

So MS neglected their first party output and launched all their games on PC. They failed.

Lets see if Sony can pull it off the first console brand to survive long term without great exclusives if they choose to continue with this shitty first party output and launching everything on PC on a more regularly basis (if this happens).

The PS2 says hi.

 

[Artistic]

The PS2 says hi.

Not a good example.

 

[Fake]

Xbox 360 was so good...

 

[Alexios]

Same point Sony lost, when Switch released

 

[Walliwallipaloo]

Donny-Boy shot Xbox in the gut and walked away. The absolutely pointless Activision acquisition (like, seriously, WTF?!) was the dying Xbox mistaking his cyanide tablet for hemostatic.
Whoops.

 

[Humdinger]

The DF clip was pretty weak. They seemed overly cautious and afraid to call a strike a strike. The opinions here here are more realistic (well, most of them, lol).

 

[Saber]

John point was spot on.

The thing about consoles, and games in general, is having an appeal. This is your selling point, having a difference that makes you stand out in the market.
Microsoft is that rich dumb kind that has money and don't know how to use it because "hey I have money, we don't need to beat it just make it bleed until it dies".
Nintendo huge loss with Wii U make them hard thinking about a single question: What went wrong? By answering that question, they created the Switch.
Xbox on the other hand never acknowledge their fail and keeping digging their tomb deeper and deeper. The only difference is that they have money, Microsoft money to be more exact.

 

[Soren01]

It's been downhill since the Kinect

 

[reinking]

Two reasons: Sarah Bond, Phil Spencer

Sarah was brought in after Xbox was already in trouble. One of those names has been there the whole time.

 

[ValiantInstance]

That first E3 Kinect conference with Peter Molyneux was the looking glass moment.

They had the opportunity to listen to their audience who were screaming at them to stop chasing the Wii and focus on hardcore gamers. They ignored it.

 

[Astray]

The DF clip was pretty weak. They seemed overly cautious and afraid to call a strike a strike. The opinions here here are more realistic (well, most of them, lol).

I think John was calling it very correctly.

Microsoft just couldn't figure out an identity for Xbox that works for the masses AND was sufficiently different to "Diet Playstation".

Nintendo accomplished both with the Switch 1/2 and are reaping the benefits. There's an audience out there if you're actually pushing to surprise and delight them.