Support NeoGAF

[BlackTron]

Strange.
In the past, Microsoft were often criticized for "devaluing" their games via cheap subscription. Now that they are finally starting to take care of properly conveying the "value" of their works, it doesn't seem right either?

If I hear "greed", I immediately think of Sony and Nintendo instead.

If you think GP devalues games, then the antidote for that would be worse value in the GP sub making it more attractive to just buy the game...although now it might be on PlayStation

 

[MatrixReloaded101]

 

[demigod]

Strange.
In the past, Microsoft were often criticized for "devaluing" their games via cheap subscription. Now that they are finally starting to take care of properly conveying the "value" of their works, it doesn't seem right either?

If I hear "greed", I immediately think of Sony and Nintendo instead.

This folks, is why the xbox brand is in the toilet.

 

[Klayzer]

This folks, is why the xbox brand is in the toilet.

No normal person, wants to be associated with a cultish group like that. Xbox big social media presence, is hindering their growth. IMO

 

[Goalus]

This folks, is why the xbox brand is in the toilet.

The toilet is already occupied by the Playstation brand.

 

[Banjo64]

The toilet is already occupied by the Playstation brand.

 

[ecosse_011172]

The toilet is already occupied by the Playstation brand.

 

[Doctor Hades]

I loved the original Xbox especially (Microsoft new to the console market, great hardware that was better than the competiton, very experimental with their excluisive games and plenty of them plus support from SEGA that made the system feel like Dreamcast 2) and the Xbox 360 even with its red ring failure fiasco that cost them millions to sort out.

However, I remember getting the Xbox One at launch and thinking what a massive disappointment it was. The game looked horrible, sub-720p and with blown out contrast making them look overly dark and the hardware specs suffered because of the whole TV! TV! TV! thing and the inclusion of the awful Kinect device. Exactly a week later I got the far superior PS4 and since then I've never really looked at Xbox in the same way as PlayStation became my go-to platform of that generation and, indeed, this one with the PS5 even if Sony have made a few mis-steps along the way.

I even made the mistake of buying an Xbox One X, which was admittedly a superbly designed piece of hardware but at that point Xbox was well into the decade long exclusives drought and I never really felt like I got my money's worth out it. It did make a good 4K Blu-ray player though before I bought a standalone Panasonic player but as far as games were concerned it felt like a console that Microsoft had abandoned.

Fast forward to this generation and I only bought a PS5 and opted to not bother with the Xbox Series X, mostly due to the fact that I owned a gaming PC anyway and the new Xbox didn't appear to have much in the way of exclusive games to justify buying one. My PC was old though and this was during COVID and the scalping craze so I ended up picking up an Xbox Series X about a year after launch for retail price to play Xbox games on while I waited for prices to settle to upgrade my PC. Once I got a new PC in December 2022, I never had any reason to use my Xbox Series X and so it has been basically unused.

I canncelled my GamePass Ultimate subscription in May 2024 when I realised that I did not like or support the direction Microsoft was going with them buying up developers, announcing new games then cancelling the games and closing the studios down. The few Xbox games that I am interested in, I just buy on Steam to avoid the god-awful buggy mess than is the Xbox app on Windows.

As such, Xbox as a console has become irrelevant to me and is no longer a platform I am interested in owning. I am not even convinced at this point that Microsoft are even that interested in Xbox any more as they seem to be doing everything possible to annoy their user base and scalp them for every penny they can get without actually delivering on any of their promises. I suspect that Microsoft will ultimiately become a software-only publisher at some point like SEGA, although I'd argue that they do not have the rich and diverse gaming history that the Japanese company had to its advantage when it ditched the console market after the failure of Dreamcast.

 

[Team Andromeda]

IGN will always be remembered for one thing: SHIT

 

[John Wick]

People really thought the world's 2nd most valuable corporation by market cap became that wealthy and powerful by giving all their products away for free

It wasn't that they were giving away anything for free but I bet some expected that £1 Game pass deal to last forever.............
MS are not in the business of looking after gamers. Putting their competition out of business and monopolising the market are their priorities. The true nature of how much a horrible bastard their main founder is reflective of the company.
Remember the days of MS could literally outspend Sony??? Their Windows phone failed because they didn't want to outspend Google or Apple.