Sorry you may feel that way but you cant deny that MS have been extremely focused on kinect and services the last few years. The last few E3 performances prove that alone.
Yes, because it makes perfect sense. First they established Xbox 360 as a great platform for "core" gamers, then focused their attention on broadening the appeal. That benefits everyone in the end, including the "core", since a platform that keeps selling well and keeps showing great software sales (especially for third parties) will continue getting tons of great content, some exclusive. It's a process that breeds confidence within their third party partners, although the benefits might not be immediately apparent (developers generally giving Xbox 360 versions of their games more attention may be one of the immediately noticeable perks). However, in the long term, it could mean a difference between having strong third party support and having practically none at all.
Nintendo's current situation stands as a testament to that; third parties nowadays avoid their consoles because they think (not without evidence) that the only thing that sells well on Nintendo consoles (in general; of course there are some exceptions) is Nintendo software. Sony is much closer to Nintendo's philosophy than Microsoft is, they're at a risk of flooding the PlayStation ecosystem with their own games, driving the third parties away. It hasn't happened yet, obviously, but with Microsoft generally moving out of the way for third parties, they stand a better chance of avoiding that in the future.
As for their first party strategy, they've been open about it from the outset. This is from
an interview with Robbie Bach from July of 2005, some 17 minutes in:
Robbie Bach said:
Our approach to first party content, just in general, as an overall philosophy, has evolved over the last two or three years. We've gone from being a well called "bulk" producer of first party games to being somebody who focuses on titles that drive the platform. That means we're going to do fewer titles, it means at times we're going to want those titles to be carefully timed with new things we're doing on the platform.
...
Our first party studios will do fewer games, that's a true statement. They will be bigger titles, more focused, more AAA-generating titles than we've done in the past. Our third party publishing community is doing such a great job of covering the sort of the spectrum of platforms and the spectrum of genres for things that we don't need first party to be able to cover every single genre.
Barring some drastic turns in the overall strategy, you will probably see the same thing with Durango. There's going to be a hell of a lot of high quality first party content in its first few years, for every segment of the market they're currently wooing, including the "core". As time goes on, you will see them increasingly focus on several strongest franchises and some completely new experiences, tied with their efforts to further broaden the appeal of the Xbox brand. If that doesn't suit you, you better bail out straight away.
I'm fine with it. For all the numerous titles Sony has published over the course of this generation, very few possess that certain something that would make me choose them over some third party game (or indeed, their competitor's game). Microsoft has struck a much deeper cord with me, in relative terms, even though they didn't publish nearly as many retail titles.
Devs are pleased? Since when? People truly working on next gen software have been extremely silent and we've heard nothing from them. Everyone is afraid of breaking NDA.
Not quite. Granted, that's rather old, but unless Microsoft has made a u-turn, it seems they'll be pleased with the system.
