kungfuian
Member
Quite frankly how Microsoft have handled the X-box and games division is atrocious. It’s a fucking dumpster fire by even the best metrics.
I know negative press comes in waves, but this feels different. It seems just about everyday we get new reports of some shitty thing they are doing/have done and a bunch of pissed off people (gamers, developers, influencers, etc).
To sum up, in just the last few weeks we have seen them-
-Buy up two of the largest publishers in the industry only to turn around and fire 1900 people on those teams and close one studio (so far). This by itself is a huge fuck you to the industry and to the people that make our games. It’s hard to imagine a greedier and more screwed up way to buy your way into a dominant software position at the expense of real people's jobs.
-Using their shady reporting of metrics to effectively steal Bethesda studios employees promised bonuses.
-Evidence they are dropping physical games and going all digital with their new hardware, thus fulfilling their plan to rob gamers any level of game ownership, and a huge slap in the face to all their fans that have built up physical libraries.
-Reports that COD may not be a day-one on Gamepass game or even on Gamepass at all, which indicates they will be going back on the one thing that makes the service stand out from their competitors and a promise they have built up the majority of their subscribers on.
-Rumors/evidence pointing to a third party approach with their game studios which is essentially a giant fuck you to all those that have supported their platform and been so patient with them. While it might mean more games for all, it is also a huge betrayal to all the fans who they have been promising exclusives to year after year and the reason so many of their fans purchased their hardware in the first place.
In isolation any one of these moves would be bad news but somewhat forgivable and seen as a business just being a business. Close a developer that’s under performing, happens, lack of physical games, yeah that’s already a thing on steam, etc. But at some point, the totality of their moves are just blatantly anti-consumer, anti-developer, and just plain bad for the industry.
I feel like the mask has been peeled away and they have revealed themselves for who they truly are, a big greedy monopolistic mega corp whose only interest is to get what they want at the expense of whoever they have to screw over.
So my question is this, with all these recent moves, is it time for a boycott of their gaming division and x-box products? If gamers and developers unite and send them a message that hits them in the form of dollars and cents, maybe the negative backlash and new ‘metrics’ will motivate them to do better.
It might not do shit, who knows, they’ll probably do what they are going to do regardless, but I can tell you one thing for sure, negative PR pieces are not enough. They shrug that shit off like nothing.
Ultimately talk is cheap and the only language a company like this speaks is in dollars and cents. If gamers want something different they will have to hit them in their pocket books.
I wonder if we might see something like this manifest itself sometime sooner than later?
I know negative press comes in waves, but this feels different. It seems just about everyday we get new reports of some shitty thing they are doing/have done and a bunch of pissed off people (gamers, developers, influencers, etc).
To sum up, in just the last few weeks we have seen them-
-Buy up two of the largest publishers in the industry only to turn around and fire 1900 people on those teams and close one studio (so far). This by itself is a huge fuck you to the industry and to the people that make our games. It’s hard to imagine a greedier and more screwed up way to buy your way into a dominant software position at the expense of real people's jobs.
-Using their shady reporting of metrics to effectively steal Bethesda studios employees promised bonuses.
-Evidence they are dropping physical games and going all digital with their new hardware, thus fulfilling their plan to rob gamers any level of game ownership, and a huge slap in the face to all their fans that have built up physical libraries.
-Reports that COD may not be a day-one on Gamepass game or even on Gamepass at all, which indicates they will be going back on the one thing that makes the service stand out from their competitors and a promise they have built up the majority of their subscribers on.
-Rumors/evidence pointing to a third party approach with their game studios which is essentially a giant fuck you to all those that have supported their platform and been so patient with them. While it might mean more games for all, it is also a huge betrayal to all the fans who they have been promising exclusives to year after year and the reason so many of their fans purchased their hardware in the first place.
In isolation any one of these moves would be bad news but somewhat forgivable and seen as a business just being a business. Close a developer that’s under performing, happens, lack of physical games, yeah that’s already a thing on steam, etc. But at some point, the totality of their moves are just blatantly anti-consumer, anti-developer, and just plain bad for the industry.
I feel like the mask has been peeled away and they have revealed themselves for who they truly are, a big greedy monopolistic mega corp whose only interest is to get what they want at the expense of whoever they have to screw over.
So my question is this, with all these recent moves, is it time for a boycott of their gaming division and x-box products? If gamers and developers unite and send them a message that hits them in the form of dollars and cents, maybe the negative backlash and new ‘metrics’ will motivate them to do better.
It might not do shit, who knows, they’ll probably do what they are going to do regardless, but I can tell you one thing for sure, negative PR pieces are not enough. They shrug that shit off like nothing.
Ultimately talk is cheap and the only language a company like this speaks is in dollars and cents. If gamers want something different they will have to hit them in their pocket books.
I wonder if we might see something like this manifest itself sometime sooner than later?
