Microsoft, change your strategy, or drop out (long read)

Let me tell you why you're wrong.

1. PS2 had a hard drive for games like SOCOM and FFXI among others. XBox didn't exactly change the course of history with that. More on this later.

2. Nintendo had triggers and analogs, that's not an XBox thing.

3. Online service and trophies are partially what's wrong with XBox. MSes push there artificially inflated the budgets needed for running gaming and introduced an almost unnatural evolution. One which is being over-monetized today with things like service fees, DLC and optional content for revenue.

4. PS1 was also a very developer-friendly architecture. PS4 is a return to Playstations roots.

5. Halo and KillZone aren't really all that compared to the FPSes on PC. Besides, Halo is now an outsourced franchise for all intents and purposes. Just a sign of how much MS has abandoned its direction.

PC did all of this. PC gaming is where MS got pretty much every move in its playbook and consoles have caught up. I suggest you calm down and look at reality. XBox is past its prime and everything about the Bone makes that obvious. Like I made a list of before, it's Sony that is keeping MS honest at this point. The innovation and new tricks from MS are gone.

In fact, isn't that really the point of this thread? MS being a barnacle on the bottom side of existing franchises with wallet power doesn't do anything for anyone.

MS talked about cloud. Sony has PS Now up and running.

MS talked about DX12. DriveClub and Uncharted 4 let loose a water shit all over whatever MS has to show us.

Sony is preparing to launch Virtual Reality. MS is buying timed exclusives.

MS takes it's vision for Kinect and sets it on fire. Sony launches SharePlay.

It's just not happening man. Let it go. XBox had a good run but it's over now. We have all seen what MS does in the drivers seat and it's not really all that awesome. They had the core gamer at the start of last gen. They closed studios and abandoned you for Kinect just so they could try to steal some sunshine from the Wii. It was all for naught.. We all know the Wii crowd either got transformed to core gamers or they're on iPads now. MS has mismanaged XBox so much that they have to scramble to open unproven studios just to keep their best IP like Halo and Gears of War alive. Really, I hate to be the one to break it to you and this forum, but it is high time it has been said by somebody..

The industry needs XBox for one thing and one thing only. XBox should stand, from here until the end of gaming itself, as a testament to how you can enter console gaming with a vision and then completely lose your bag of tricks by your own blundering. It hasn't been a profitable business model since day 1 on top of even all that. When December rolls by and all this talk of comparing the XBones first year to 360 becomes utterly silenced, remember what you read today. After all, if you want to know why Nintendo didn't have to bow out, it's because they've done the polar opposite of what XBox does. They stayed consistent and trustworthy to their fans. Whether times are good for Nintendo or times are bad, Nintendo delivers to its fanbase unrelentingly. Microsoft pretty much flinches with every punch. They will tell you one thing, and then like flipping a switch, do another. You better start believing in life after XBox.

I never said the XBOX brand was invulnerable. I only said I WILL be gaming on the X1. There's no denying, unless you're a pathetic Cowturd, that the X1 is doing very well compared to it's predecessor, 360, at this time.

Dreamfall isn't any indication the XBOX brand is in dire straits at this very moment. Otherwise, a vast majority of 3rd party publishers, including indies, would be jumping off ship as we speak.

Lets not act like this isn't about what this is about, and that's MS getting the next Tomb Raider, boo-fucking-hoo.

I think MS could benefit from developing some strong first party studios, but I don't see anything wrong with funding third parties to make exclusives for them. I will admit that getting Tomb Raider was rather heavy handed, maybe even fiscally irresponsible and arguably that money can better be spent, but I'm not going to vilify them for it. Either way I look at deciding which console to get I'm gonna get one at the expense of not getting the other that will still have games I want.

PS4 being shaped by 360 is irrelevant. Why wasn't the XBone shaped by the 360?

When has power mattered? Well, aside from pointing to every resolution and framerate thread over the past year and a half, let's talk about how power helped the SNES overcome the Genesis. Yes, power matters for consoles not selling themselves on a novelty.

There's only room in the console business for three main players. There have been quite a few times where someone tried to play fourth fiddle and they lost their ass. CD-i and 3DO say whassup. Speaking of wet dreams, calling me a Cow just because I'm not roses and kittens over the XBox is getting you nowhere. I figured I'd point that out, since quite literally, it's only Lemmings who try to bring that up as a talking point when arguing me.

Hell, let's cut it straight here. For what MS spent to market Kinect and get an NFL deal, they probably could have launched a handheld. Forget the shit loads of new IP or resurrecting Rare franchises and whatnot that could have been done with that.

As I said the 360 was influential, but for good or bad? If it didn't exist, would Sony now be charging a monthly fee to play online? Would AAA devs be nickle and diming us on consoles with petty DLC content that should be on-disc? Guess we'll never know.

Exactly!

Sony is the big dog, they took the gaming industry from Nintendo, while Nintendo pretended nothing was happening. No one else could compete with them at all. So all is right with gaming right now it has reached back to its normal state. Sony SHOULD be ahead of Microsoft they have been in the industry longer, they acquired a larger library of games through aggressive tactics. Microsoft got ahead of Sony last gen only partially due to their own merit (Unified Shaders) Sony's mistakes is what put them where they were If they had continued the success of the PS1 or PS2 no one would have been surprised.

Sony is to Gaming what Microsoft is to Software engineering.

Wait people want microsoft out of gaming? lol microsoft have $85 billion in CA$H ,that is more than enough to buy entire gaming industry and burn it to ground so you fanboy can stop fighting for plastic

I look at things way different. I remember a time when Atari pretty much WAS the industry. Then along came a little company called Nintendo and a gen later, there was no Atari. A generation after that, Playstation became a thing. The players come and they go, but no one is too big to get kicked out of the console race. Who knows, someone may come along and utterly bury Playstation one day and do for gaming what Nintendo did back in the 80s and early 90's as a result.

For now, in Generation 8, Sony is the industry again and XBox is looking completely replaceable. Just like Atari was in the early 90's and Sega in the early 00's. The way I see it, XBox abandoned gamers back in 2009/2010. Seems like every decade someone gets booted out of the running.

for starters, i think MS needs to come out and admit (not explicitly) but just accept that their console is inferior at this point in terms of hardware and Stop bsing about how its the best system to play on, etc. THey also need to come out and tell us what the "CLOUD" is all about: is it all hype by consumers or is it an actual thing. If it isn't real and isn't useful in gaming, then tell the consumer. It's stuff like this that makes them seem shady. Ofcourse all businesses are shady to an extent , nintendo, sony, etc. BUt MS does it in such a blatant way that its actually quite noticeable. So on that point, i agree that there needs to be a change (A culture change) .

next gen: come out and give the best console they can offer and focus on the gamer. FORGET these 2ndary incentives ( like social stuff), just focus on giving a powerful console that plays well.

I would agree with you but Atari was pretty much dead, and they were not really pushing things forward. Game industry didn't become mainstream until Nintendo. Nintendo Dominated the Industry until they were too slow to convert to cd rom and that left Playstation the opening. If nintendo and Ps didnt fall out who knows where we would be. I don't think there was a real disbelief that Sony was the one in charge last gen I think Microsoft took advantage and furthered the Xbox brand but if it wasn't for playstation blunders that could still not be the case. Anything Microsoft does or has done in the game sphere they learned from Sony.

MS would rather spend on ads than to make new game studios.They think that they can sell same games over and over again and market it to hell and everyone will just buy it. The thing is, the only company that works for is Nintendo.

The difference with Nintendo is they have a ton of ips that they can cycle through if they want. For example we haven't seen a metroid game in quite some time but we know there will be one when the time is right. Also even if Nintendo only sells Mario games it still wouldn't be as bad as MS because Mario can be found in many genres of games.

:D not at all.. I always enjoy your thread even if some are mostly opinion but this is System Wars :D opinions mixed with facts can only make System wars even better...

cheers charizard..

;)

Jesus Christ son, did you take your prescription this morning?

Firstly, when i sadi the 360 was one of the best consoles ever made i said,quite clearly 'Gamewise' i wasn't talking about Reliability,i suggest you learn to read, but to be honest, my favorite console of all time, the Ps1, i had to replace MORE times than my 360's.

Secondly, all i see is Blah,Blah, Blah the Shit MS pulled without ANY Examples of what those things Actually are, typical Cow, cannot back up your own statement with any sort of Evidence whatsoever.

I don't do ' it is because i say so' BS dude, Provide examples of what they have done thats been bad for the industry or shut the Hell up.

Of course i am a lemming (sarcasm) every one who disagrees with the Rabid SONY drones on this board is a lemming to Rabid SONY drones,lol

Why are you asking me to answer on Topic when you are not even 'on topic' yourself dude, get a life man

thanks for proving my point, that you are an idiot:)

@93BlackHawk93 said:

I should make that my sig.

Its not irrelevant. We were talking about competition. As said above, MS forced Sony into pulling their heads out of their asses last gen, and this gen the roles are reversed. Of course the XOne was shaped by the 360.

So it matters in SW. In other words, it doesn't matter at all. Thanks for clarifying.

MS started developing the Xbox in 1998. They didn't care that Nintendo, Sony and Sega were all in the market. They couldn't have known the Dreamcast would fail. Theres nothing stopping a fourth company now entering the market. Especially with Nintendo going off on their own tangent. Reality is, no one would replace MS.

You can't genuinely believe someone like Samsung would create a dedicated games console with hardware that rivals the XOne/PS4 and then build up a group of first party studios.

I call you a cow because you bash the XOne and defend the PS4 any occasion you get. I don't give a shit if you game primarily on the PC or whatever. Its how you're perceived around here. #dealwithit

But it is fading to irrelevance.

And don't think for a second that XBone is making a PS3-like comeback. XBox doesn't have the global presence. It never nurtured it. Sony did so by buying studios around the world during the latter half of PS1 and throughout the PS2 era. Playstations global appeal isn't just some kind of brand-name preference or an accident.

Everything that should have been done during the 360 era wasn't done. The industry doesn't really need XBox. By the way, you can buy a Steambox right now. That is your most likely contender for that third spot. Valve is probably just waiting for a Microsoft exit strategy announcement to go big with marketing Steambox.

@blackace: kinda like when 360 was released, and we all know what happened after ... Sony needs to be on the lead if we want m$ to really show us that theyre really gonna focus on games with x1, its for you lemmings' benefit aswell

And yet they have Halo, which trumps everything else you put up there. Thanks for playing. Bye.

Well the PS3 was more expensive. That's a hard sell all things being equal. But really what regions of the world has MS dominated during their time in the console market? Very few. And this gen.....some of those buyers switched. Not everyone buys multiple consoles.

The only thing about the 360 sales that might be skewed is repurchases because consoles died RROD. And while I'm not going to say it inflated their sales.....it did create some duplicate sales. Which means the penetration wasn't quite as staggering as it would seem. And finally....MS has never led a generation. So it's going to be a hard road for MS being as behind as they are.

I'm not saying you can't have fun with your X1 if you purchased it. And you will probably get the majority of games on it. I'm not going to moan about graphics etc. I only care if games are great to play so I'm not bothered by the X1 not being as powerful.

But you must admit MS shot themselves in the foot this gen. Nothing but bad PR after E3 2013 which is a battle from which to recover. Best case I see MS a decent second this gen. Worst case.....Nintendo unseats them.

Now I know the fan boys are going to cry about this post....but I am being honest here. Really I do look at these events dispassionately. And before anyone thinks they know what I game on....it's everything. I just like games.

Microsoft did some things great with making online multiplayer work on consoles. However, their first party support is atrocious. Exclusives help differentiate your system from your competitors. Sony and Nintendo have a large amount of first party offerings. Only reason why Nintendo struggles is because of lack of third party support. Microsoft enjoyed a year head start last gen but who knows what would have happened if Sony launched at the same time and at a better price than 600 dollars. Microsoft probably wouldn't have done as well as they did. Can't rely on third party and timed exclusives forever. Eventually that strategy doesn't work anymore. If they just invest on first party games them the xbox one would be a killer console to have. As it stands now it's a good console but there is potential for it to be even better.

I'm pretty sure you will be happy even if Microsoft offered you a big pile of shit without the need of MS convincing you it's actually good.

nah the point is i don't care what you say so you are delusional to think i would waste my time replying to you xD

i only use logic and arguments with smart people not with delusional fanboys.

well in the end, even if you want to exclude the business side of things, its what drives the creation of new things.

microsoft, as well as sony and ninty, should bring more new ips for us gamers to enjoy BUT as sony said , if they released 10 ips....only a couple of them actually take care of profits for all 10....and some companies arent okay with that. MS still hasnt made a profit yet so they are going to lean heavily on what works. Halo, gears, forza works...

but i think they are going to learn eventually, and when they do, everyone else better look out. I actually think out of the big 3, they have a keen eye for blockbusters.

but hey it seems like the lemmings like not having new ips...they like third party games

Source

Thing is who charged for online gaming long before the other? Who wanted used game fees? Who charged me $79 for a WiFi adaptor & $13 for each charge n play kit? Sony both are built in at no extra cost.

Name 1 thing Sony did that costs the gamer more that now MS has also done that costs the gamer more.

Yes Sony wants money. At least they're not as eager to charge for things as MS.

'Delusional Fanboy' oh the F***ing irony.

and i have NEVER seen you use Logic and arguments, i made some Valid and good points and the reason you don't want to debate about it is because everything i said was absolutely spot on and you have absolutely NOTHING to counter it.

It would kill a SONY drone like yourself to Acknowledge that anybody has done anything for the games industry other than SONY.

Kinda makes me laugh actually, SONY have only been in the console industry since the 5th Gen but Cows act as if they somehow invented console gaming.

Wow, one of the best posts i have seen in ages and i agree with every single one of your points, especially about DLC and the Fact that not every developer is out to rip you off and it has been around a lot longer than the 360 but i do think that MS where one of the first companys to charge for DLC, which isn't a bad thing, people tend to Forget that all the Money goes back into the industry in one way or another.

And Nintendo, yeah, it's hard to actually see what they are actually doing, they had it with the gamecube, the wii was a commercial success but not poular with most gamers and they really pulled a dreamcast with the Wii-U, although i intend on getting one for Zelda and Windwaker the lack of 3rd party support (again) is rather disconcerting.

I won't be getting an Xbone or a Ps4 anytime soon, it's really alarming how many of the games are still being released on the 360 and Ps3, Fallout 4 could have got me to upgrade but, again, it's being released on the 360, it feels like dropping 400 quid on nothing more than a graphics upgrade personally.

Am I the only one who honestly doesn't care?

If I can buy or rent a game, play it, and enjoy it, why do I care if people who own other consoles can play it as well? Lots of great games on every console.

Am I not nerdy enough or something?

Honestly after seeing Gamescom it's starting to look like M$ is going to be as bullheaded and arrogant as ever, and I'm one who favors XBL because the majority of my playtime is online play. When they said they had a big suprise I was thinking a new ip or something but instead we see more exclusive DLC (timed), indies pegged first to console on XB1, and finally the TR exclusive deal. Everything else we saw were games that we already new were coming. Granted I watched both shows and I do think M$ had the better showing, but PS4 sold 10 mil already, they have to realize that buying exclusive deals left and right means nothing to gamers right now, they did that last gen and it worked out but most of us from last gen got tired of waiting for M$ to bring new IP's and bought PS3 because of the variety of games and exclusives. There are a couple of ip's not out in the open that look good like Scalebound, Mercury, and Phantom Dust, but I still feel like M$ are not putting their money and resources to good use.

Like I said I favor XBL for online play but at this point M$ is looking just plain stupid and stingy, Sony lives for the gamers despite them being broke they gave us PS+ with better offerings than M$ even though they have to pay for the games. Why do I get more value from my PS+ free games than my GWG? If both companies have to pay for the games why does it seem that the struggling company is giving more and better free games than the company worth more than 15 times what they are?

M$ needs to stop trying to buy us and instead wow us.(gonna have to tweet that to Spencer)

Just replace Seaworld with XBox and whales with video games.

Sad, but true.

Nobody gives a flying **** about the Tomb Raider franchise. I haven't played one of those since PS1.

@charizard1605: Yeah, you should. Persona 4 is becoming old hat. :P

Here's a concept that would prove shocking to you. Nintendo only makes sequels to games with ideas that are interesting. It might not always work, and in certain cases (cough, NSMB2, cough), prove to be far too gimmicky to add real depth.

Take Kid Icarus for example. It was a oneshot IP that lay dormant after NES, only reemerging in Brawl. Five years later, Kid Icarus: Uprising was released. Sakurai took the concept of stylus controls and implemented in the Kid Icarus universe, which turns out to be surprisingly deep (trolling goddesses and cynical alter-ego aside).

Contrast Kid Icarus with Killzone: Shadow Fall Intercept DLC. Mark Walton called it

...a technically competent add-on that feels like it was designed to latch onto a growing co-op trend and to plug a gap in the game's multiplayer repertoire because the market research said to, rather than something designed with some real heart and soul behind it.

I've been gaming since the Atari days. I've seen a lot of companies come and go. Microsoft is the worst company I've ever seen in gaming. As far as I'm concerned they've done nothing but damage to the industry.

@Suppaman100: I completely agree with the gafer.

Microsoft really needs to revive the Project Gotham franchise. I'm assuming they have completely pushed it to the side and made Forza their only racing franchise, but I fucking loved those games (except for the fourth one, it was just decent compared with 1-3). PGR1 was a great launch title and companion to Halo, PGR2 was one of the first great online console racing games, and PGR3 just added to what made the series so great while adding some stunning graphics to show off the power of the Xbox 360. It was one of the most addicting games I've ever played and so rewarding when you did well. Stringing together power slides and other combo moves to get the most "kudos" was so much fun and really set it apart from other racing games. It was the perfect balance between an arcade racer and a sim. Perfect balance.

@jdc6305: "I've been gaming since the Atari days. I've seen a lot of companies come and go. Microsoft is the worst company I've ever seen in gaming. As far as I'm concerned they've done nothing but damage to the industry."

Agreed, Nothing of value would be lost. Imo

Okay, you're gonna have to help me out here, which of my posts was this in response to? :p

Well you seem to short sighted about the ramifications for the industry....don't worry...it will affect you as well down the line.

So I've heard before.

Many...many...times. I'll dig my tinfoil hat out of the attic.

Perfect post charizard.

I wonder what the apologists will say... *sigh*