Soapbox Killer
Grand Nagus
A Quantum Break Sequel would have fixed global warming, saved my marriage and made Xbox the number 1 and number 2 console on earth and mars!
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How XBOX could have been saved
- Thread starter mili2110
- Start date
LiquidMetal14
hide your water-based mammals
Dr.Morris79
Gold Member
MS doesn't know their arse from their elbow when they don't even realise the great games they had and let die for no reason
Bunch of dickheads running the show over there. No wonder it's falling off a cliff.
Mibu no ookami
Demoted Member® Pro™
A lot of you think you can make decisions in hindsight or within a bottle. It just doesn't work like that.
Microsoft has struggled to make good console games since coming into the industry. They had no history of making console games and they didn't invest enough initially in first party development outside of Bungie and Halo.
The root of their problems stem from their lack of investment early and there is really no undoing that.
Between 2000 and 2011 Sony bought Bend, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, Sucker Punch and Media Molecule, as well as Zipper Interactive (which didn't work out). They also bought BigBig/Evolution Studios, Incognito in those years. Serious investment in development studios which pay dividends mainly starting in 2009 with Uncharted 2. Some of these studios didn't get massive results for a very long time, in some cases taking almost 20 years... and this was after working with most of them before buying them.
A lot of people will say GamePass was a mistake, but without GamePass, Xbox would have shut down. The same is true of putting their games day one on PC. The real problem was their lack of quality games. They also wouldn't have been in a position to buy ABK and Zenimax without GamePass, so again scratch that off your list.
The inclusion of Kinect is what doomed the Xbox One with a starting price 100 dollars more than the PS4 and Sony having significantly better software studios. There is simply no coming back from that.
So that answer is invest in development studios early on and don't do Kinect as a mandatory option.
Microsoft has struggled to make good console games since coming into the industry. They had no history of making console games and they didn't invest enough initially in first party development outside of Bungie and Halo.
The root of their problems stem from their lack of investment early and there is really no undoing that.
Between 2000 and 2011 Sony bought Bend, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, Sucker Punch and Media Molecule, as well as Zipper Interactive (which didn't work out). They also bought BigBig/Evolution Studios, Incognito in those years. Serious investment in development studios which pay dividends mainly starting in 2009 with Uncharted 2. Some of these studios didn't get massive results for a very long time, in some cases taking almost 20 years... and this was after working with most of them before buying them.
A lot of people will say GamePass was a mistake, but without GamePass, Xbox would have shut down. The same is true of putting their games day one on PC. The real problem was their lack of quality games. They also wouldn't have been in a position to buy ABK and Zenimax without GamePass, so again scratch that off your list.
The inclusion of Kinect is what doomed the Xbox One with a starting price 100 dollars more than the PS4 and Sony having significantly better software studios. There is simply no coming back from that.
So that answer is invest in development studios early on and don't do Kinect as a mandatory option.
dcx4610
Member
I've said for years that the Xbox should simply be a pre-built PC running Windows with an Xbox app. Every 5 years, put out a new "Xbox" with upgraded components. It gets people into the Windows/PC ecosystem which is more revenue.
The only tricky part would be people just installing Steam and playing games there but since Microsoft already puts there games on there, I think it works out. They would have to give you some incentives to buy games from their Xbox app like GamePass and deals.
The only tricky part would be people just installing Steam and playing games there but since Microsoft already puts there games on there, I think it works out. They would have to give you some incentives to buy games from their Xbox app like GamePass and deals.
JackedTortoise09
Neo Member
Keep Peter Moore as the head of Xbox. The only reason he left was because he wanted to be able to Work from home instead of having to fly from LA to Seattle so often. He really loved the Xbox console and had a good pulse on what gamers wanted. So let him work from home, he stays as head of Xbox and Don Mattrick never takes over.
existensmaximum
Member
I would have easily bought an Xbox console if and only if:
- It had quality exclusives not available on any other platform
- Series S didn't exist
(Basically, if it was anything like the Xbox 360)
Wouldn't touch Gamepass even with gloves and a ten foot pole.
- It had quality exclusives not available on any other platform
- Series S didn't exist
(Basically, if it was anything like the Xbox 360)
Wouldn't touch Gamepass even with gloves and a ten foot pole.
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ResetEraVetVIP
Member
Exactly.
ArcaneNLSC
Member
TheGodfather07
Member
I think the combination of them totally botching the xbox one reveal and Sony simultaneously returning to top form was a killer combination that was impossible to recover from. That generation was so important because of the rise of digital games. They compete directly with eachother and majority pick only one. So there was no coming back for them. Its nothing like Nintendo, who sell to not only a difference audience but also as a secondary system to the hardcore crowd. Xbox was basically left with scraps.
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poppabk
Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Except a lot of those exclusives were originally on the WiiU which sold like dogshit.
Sorcerer
Member
They are going to find a way to gimp PC gamepass surely. I feel like they overlooked something when they left it a $9.99 a month and are regretting it.
ArcaneNLSC
Member
vaibhavpisal
Member
Gamers should’ve embraced Xbox One.
We would have gotten way to sell digital games.
Everything has gone to digital + drm anyways.
We would have gotten way to sell digital games.
Everything has gone to digital + drm anyways.
RetroGamingUK
Member
Not for me, I only buy physical games, as does most of Asia.
Maybe if the fat American slug heads running Xbox had realised that then Xbox One and Series wouldn’t have been total flops outside America
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Sony
Nintendo
People need to realize that Xbox was unsaveable. I've always that MS' aquisitions were not to get agead of Sony, but to stay relevant. Playstation is in a very very rare space when it comes to cultural significance in a way that it is almost impossible to overthrow.
Also, the market authorities didn't allow Microsoft to leverage their acquisitions in a meaning way in marketing. Microsoft is sitting on all these giant publsihers and other that gamepass they cannot leverage exclusivity or exclusive content.
Also, the market authorities didn't allow Microsoft to leverage their acquisitions in a meaning way in marketing. Microsoft is sitting on all these giant publsihers and other that gamepass they cannot leverage exclusivity or exclusive content.
DenchDeckard
Moderated wildly
They needed top quality games out of tge gate for this gen. Missing halo etc is what fucked them.
If they had a steady clip of high quality games, more people will have purchased the box i think.
Maybe they would have just bought pcs. Who knows
If they had a steady clip of high quality games, more people will have purchased the box i think.
Maybe they would have just bought pcs. Who knows
kruis
Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
Why not have MS throw in a free Xbox with every Gamepass subscription if you believe that MS doesn't care at all about profitability?
The reason why MS first had to expend gamepass to PC and then become a third party publisher on PS and Nintendo is that Gamepass isn't profitable without a huge subscriber base (100 million people). The more studios MS acquired, the more difficult it became.
SweetTooth
Banned
They should have bought Activision then locked all their games for Xbox only. It will hurt the bottom line at first but will create tremendous value for Xbox in the long run.
You want CoD? Buy Xbox
MS was the only one who could go through with such plan.
This notion is also valid for Sony and Nintendo. This is the only way to create value for your brand.
You want CoD? Buy Xbox
MS was the only one who could go through with such plan.
This notion is also valid for Sony and Nintendo. This is the only way to create value for your brand.
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Nickolaidas
Member
My personal opinion is that X-Box's downfall was Game Pass. It caused MS to rush some titles, the service itself never got the numbers MS hoped for and the very concept of Game Pass goes against the majority of gamers who want to own their games.
MS going on an acquisition spree that never brought any meaningful returns didn't help either.
MS going on an acquisition spree that never brought any meaningful returns didn't help either.
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Alan Wake
Member
Makes zero business sense. The investment in Bethesda and especially ABK is way too big. They have no other choice but to branch out to other platforms to make good on the investment.
Game Pass was intended as an industry revolution, and reportedly Sony were concerned about it before they saw how its growth stagnated and the tradition business model still worked very well for Sony. Microsoft started its acquisition spree around 2018 but it wasn't until 2024-25 we started to see the results of even the first acquisitions. It was too late to gain momentum from exclusives, Xbox sales had fallen off a cliff already. Now when the games once intended to be exclusives are starting to come out Microsoft have changed its strategy, and the games won't be exclusives at all. I can understand why many Xbox fans out there feel a bit fooled.
Insanemaelstrom
Member
Personally, I don't think Xbox needs saving and even if their sales for series gen would have been the same as Xbox one gen, they still would have gone third party, imo. Activision and Bethesda are just too huge. They have far too many studios now, and there is far more profit involved by porting the games of those many studios everywhere as compared to keeping it exclusive to one console. It just doesn't make financial sense. Xbox will, for the reasonable future, constantly have 4-6 games releasing every year. They simply have that many studios. With the amount of investment required through each year, it just doesn't make exclusive content financially viable.
It's simple math. Back when they have 10-12 studios, they earned more money on Xbox hardware through firstly party and third party revenue( especially the 30% cut from third party). Now they have dozens of studios. The money that can be earned by porting everywhere simply dwarfs the money that be earned through one hardware. Hence the decision to become multiplatform. Activision was the biggest third party games publisher, MS simply bought and replaced it.
It's simple math. Back when they have 10-12 studios, they earned more money on Xbox hardware through firstly party and third party revenue( especially the 30% cut from third party). Now they have dozens of studios. The money that can be earned by porting everywhere simply dwarfs the money that be earned through one hardware. Hence the decision to become multiplatform. Activision was the biggest third party games publisher, MS simply bought and replaced it.
Horseganador
Member
From this point on, the brand had no possible salvation, except to prolong the agony for years based on billions spent.
Killjoy-NL
Member
Gj, OP, you would've killed Xbox even faster.
RetroGamingUK
Member
Indeed
If they had a console base around 100 million then being first party would have been very profitable, but they didn’t, so it wasn’t sustainable.
Obviously back during the MegaDrive days you could get away with a 30 million player base, but game development was so cheap back then.
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Shadowstar39
Member
This. Its my most played console, outside of PC land.
I got an xbox X as a gift, I like the hardware, but the controller is not as refined as my ps5.
I love it for some of its backwards compatibility. I have at least 30 older Xbox/360 games I rebought for it when they are on sale, many for $2.99 a pop.
The modern games I have on it, Starfield, Forza 7, Forza Hor4, Stalker 2, Indiana Jones, and BG3 (ran out of space on my 2tb ps5 and didn't want to delete so bought this there).
6 out of 7 of those games are exclusive.
If Stalker 2 was exclusive (along with a few other games) and I already didn't own the console. I would of considered getting it just for that.
Phillip Spencer is wrong! Good games do sell consoles. If you make them, they will come. This is not outdated philosophy, it's common sense, business 101.
Trying to push more subscriptions when people are tired of subscriptions is the problem. I don't want gamepass. I will buy my games or wait for a sale. I have a backlog 1000+ games long going back decades on multiple systems. Maybe in a world where only netflix and hulu had all the shows/movies I could see that but now everyone has a subscription, its too much to ask.
XBOX, just go back to making good games. If you make them, they will come!
EarsOfASnake
Member
Yup, this is where they fucked it and then wanted $100 more for it than a PS4 which was more powerful.
Zacfoldor
Member
They are in a corner now because the console players buy the gamepass at full retail price but I'm not sure if the consoles were gone that many on PC would be willing to do the same. Especially if they raise the PC prices to match console prices.
Long and short if they now have gamepass and want to move away from consoles but they can't because they need the console base to have a gamepass base.
They are in a tight spot. Not sure what could be done now but hunker down and hope this train doesn't go flying off the rails in the next few years. Make sure COD stays popular, that's the key, if COD starts to fade watch out.
Long and short if they now have gamepass and want to move away from consoles but they can't because they need the console base to have a gamepass base.
They are in a tight spot. Not sure what could be done now but hunker down and hope this train doesn't go flying off the rails in the next few years. Make sure COD stays popular, that's the key, if COD starts to fade watch out.
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diffusionx
Gold Member
The Xbox went like almost a decade without a marquee game. That was the problem. They couldn't hold onto the audience because Sony was releasing lots of great games on PS4 and Microsoft couldn't put out a good Halo. Indiana Jones might be the best game "AAA" MS has released since like, Gears 3. It's been that bad.
Xbox One was weaker than PS4, yes, but not a problem if the games were good. But they weren't. So it had worse games and worse hardware, not a recipe for success.
Xbox One was weaker than PS4, yes, but not a problem if the games were good. But they weren't. So it had worse games and worse hardware, not a recipe for success.
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noob smokes
Member
Buying sega