analog_future
Resident Crybaby
After a decent start, this has been an unmitigated disaster. This year was supposed to be a big ne for them as Sony only had a single first-party release whereas Microsoft had 4 but 3 out of them fell short and the only one that met and even exceeded expectations was Hi-Fi Rush which is a smaller game. Redfall was a colossal failure. Forza Motorsport was poorly received and reviled by fans. Starfield has become a meme and is now the lowest-rated Bethesda game on Steam. They couldn't afford to fail this year but they did.
Their numbers in Europe make the Wii U seem like a runaway success and they have made absolutely no progress in Japan. Even in the US, their strongest market, the competition is demolishing them. Their sales figures have become so embarrassing for so long that they refuse to disclose them, instead covering them up with "engagement metrics". What is players having shot 1,000,000,000 bullet in Halo finite supposed to tell me?
People should be calling for Phil's head. He took over in what, 2016? And he somehow managed to sink the brand further. The only good thing he did is Game Pass.
The experiment with the current brass has been a failure. Time to regroup, sack everyone (especially Booty, Geeenberg, and Phil) and rethink their strategy.
What's a next gen console going to do for them other than create an even smaller pool of consumers to develop for/build around?
Xbox as a brand is no longer repairable. Microsoft is going to have to make their money in the gaming space by being largely invisible ala Minecraft. Just profit off of Call of Duty / Actiblizz games, Minecraft, Game Pass, and Candy Crush and keep the Xbox branding to a minimum. Because frankly the Xbox brand is toxic to consumers at this point.
Particularly with younger consumers. It's cool to buy Nintendo. It's cool to buy Sony. It's not cool to buy Xbox.
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