What can Microsoft do to make Xbox One a GREAT console?

We all know that Xbox One is a good console, but it's not great. It needs a lot of work.

What do you guys and gals think they could do to really push it over the top?

Games games and more games!!!

Keep away from the holy trinity mantra ( Halo/Gears/Forza)!!!

Not talking about multiplats of course, only then i may give a go.

I think it's great as is.

Bring on more Play-Anywhere games.

This. The people that complain about the system the most are the people who don't own one. Which has become the norm.

People hate on the lack of exclusives for the One but MS making their games available on both PC and Xbox is a win for gamers. Why the f#%* would anyone complain about something like that? Exclusives is not and will continue to be anti consumer. This multiple sets of hardware to play multiple games is dumb but stupid fanboyism keeps the stupidity alive.

Tripple down on generic shooters and racers. And stay away from Japanese made games.

More games obviously, not pew pew, vroom vroom games.

This is the correct answer, but were talking about more new IP exclusive games however.

They should focus on making it less pointless.

Not enough Halo/Forza/Gears.

Give us more Halo/Forza/Gears and make X box great again!

I think they need more studios to make games. They should bring on MDHR and other indie studios. They should create a new studio to make fantasy rpg games like Fable. Let Rare keep making new games for them.

Point is more studios = more unique games you can't play on Playstation and Nintendo, making it a more compelling purchase.

1. More Newer IPs
2. Invest in more 1st Party Studios

Crackdown 3 and Sea of Thieves just won't cut it.

A new single player, story focused IP that doesn't get cancelled or flop upon release. A critically acclaimed RPG or JRPG on XB1 that scored well and is "must play" could force a lot of people that likes those types of games to buy an XB1 kinda like how a lot of people went out and bought a Switch just for Zelda. Or bring back Fable tbh

Agreed. Good point. They made investment in tech and hardware, now invest in software and they'll do better.

MS should invest in more games and also increase the diversity of games they invest into. Enough of the multiplayer shooting and driving games, they have too much of that, and more single player story-driven games. Sony and Nintendo are killing them in this regard. There’s not a single single player game they’ve released this gen that has mad me go “wow”. Considering a ton of gamers rarely play online multiplayer games MS are shooting themselves in the foot.

Make some must have games that you can only play in Xbox! I was really consider to buy 1 with Scalebound.. Well so much of that!

To be fair, the topic is about Xbox not MS. I completely agreed with you that play anywhere is great for gamers. I do not need to buy xbox to play the games seems my PC is more powerful than the X1S, is a win win for both gamers and MS.. But for this topic is to make Xbox great again (not MS) they do need to make games for Xbox only!

I love Halo and still I say: Halo 5 MP is great, Halo 5 campaign is SHIT ! So why not making a really good Halo on both ?

Gears 4 is good but campaign is ..... too damn short !

Can’t say anything about Forza because I haven’t played a Forza game in years.

More IPs.

They need some sort of motion controller. Or like a camera that makes YOU the controller.

Exclusives need to be counted based on the parent company, not the console. Sea of Thieves is an MS exclusive. BOTW is a Nintendo exclusive. And so on.

It's one of the worst consoles ever released with a shit exclusive library.

Release good exclusives or abandon the Xbone MS.

The point flew past you.

Kotor sequel exclusive.

I just saved MS.

Xbox One X is the greatest console out there hardware wise. 2017 lacked games, 2018 looks like it will be different.

That would not make sense for them to make XBox only games. It didn't make sense for the Orig Xbox and Xbox 360. It took them over a decade to realize that such a direction is nonsensical when they span across two platforms to which they have strong influence over the development of games and how they are developed. Xbox is PC and consoles. That is what the brand is now and making exclusives will not only undermine that direction but would be counterproductive to the company as a whole vision. The future is unifying platforms not segregating.

@n64dd: They have had 4 yrs to make it a great console. The XB1 will never be this amazing console because of really stupid business decisions starting from 2013. Don't get me wrong they did somewhat turn the brand around once Phil Spencer became head of Xbox, but its still not great. They need to start from scratch and come out with a bang.

It needs games.

The only thing XB1 really needs now is a few more new IPs to compliment Halo/Gears/Forza etc. We already have a few (ie. Sea of Thieves, ReCore (which has potential I think), Ori etc), but we need more. Expanding their 1st party studios would be nice, but even if they sign on other devs (similar to Playground games & Moon Studios etc), that'd be good too.

But in pretty much every other aspect, XB1 is equal to, if not better than it's competition. It now has the best hardware, best online service, best features (back compat with 360 & OG Xbox, Play Anywhere, Game pass etc). If they can boost their platform exclusives, it's looking pretty damn good.

if they purchase some multi regional first party talented studios it can go from great to excellent. I do agree the Play Anywhere function should be applied to all their new IP's.

Xbox one X is excellent already though, the graphics that thing can pump out is awesome. There are enough games, but a few more Japanese/European single player driven IP's would do good. Ow and the holy trinity of Halo/Forza/Gears are all insanely good and perfect pick up and play games.

Does anyone have any idea what the state of the Arcade exclusives is like these days? The last Night is pc/xbox one exclusive. Then again, Nex Machina is PS4/PC exclusive.

@hrt_rulz01: After all the patching Recore is an awesome game, too bad it didn't shift enough copies.

Actual exclusives. If it had those, I would have bought one.

They need to build more fist-party development studios and have them create a wider variety of first-party games. Also more OG XBox backwards compatible games.

Nothing really.

Their audience doesn't really care about exclusives.

Yeah it's definitely a lot better than when it launched... but it still is a little repetitive and mundane in parts for me. But like I said, I think it has potential. If MS gives it a bit more priority and a bigger budget, I think it could be a terrific open-world game.

Exclusives that are must have games. They fixed a lot of their blunders since 2013.

More diversity in their lineup. Shooters and racing games are covered, build more exclusive rpg, action games, etc.

They need a new IP that is a system seller. This would help the platform out tremendously. They had way to many **** ups at the beginning of the generation to really catch up to Sony, but they can still have a successful system that is profitable without worrying about Sony.

Exclusives. I'd have to want it for a start.

MS needs to invest in ALOT more action & rpg games before gamers like me would consider X1 a great console.

Panzer Dragoon Orta digital BC release with Xbox One X enhancement would be enough for me.

A good exclusive RPG would be great for it.

Its level of greatness will be measured against other consoles, particularly the consoles of its time. It has a LOT of catching up to do and it will need a shit ton of new and most importantly GOOD games that arent on PS4 or Switch to make it a great console to own. That is very unlikely to happen though.

Play anywhere? Play what any?

Answer 1: Invest in some more quality first party studios.

It wouldn’t hurt to buy up some. Smaller ones like Moon studio and aim for some big ones like Capcom. If resident evil, street fighter and mega man for example were all exclusive to Xbox. The console war would be more interesting.

Answer 2: comepete with other consoles more directly. Nintendo just made and amazing genre defying Zelda game. Copy some of the ideas and add new thing and make a new better fable.

Mario odyssey is a awesome platformer. Make a new banjo or edgier conker to compete.

I think it's you the point is flying past. Do you think MS just realized hey, why are we making a xbox console when we "span across two platforms to which we have strong influence"? Xbox was born of fear that sony would rule the living room space uncontested, and they saw PCs moving into the living room space. They failed at their objective to compete with sony with the original xbox, and they succeeded at competing with sony as they took away console market share with the 360. They are/were losing bad against sony with the xbox one due to their blunders and don matrick vision for the console (kinect, tv and reliance on 3rd party devs). They are loosing so bad, they've all but given up and are retreating from the console space.

If MS was successful with xbox one, they would not have let their biggest games go on PC. that move is to try and have the big games sell to a larger audience as the small install base of xbox one isn't large enough for the big games to thrive profit wise. don't forget xbox one user base is probably what half of PS4s?

The original post is not talking about microsoft in their entirety with products like surface, office windows. and it's not talking about xbox as a brand or service like xbox live or game pass. what can microsoft do to help the xbox one console. And the console as it competes/ compares to PS4 is a lost cause. And I like xbox. I've spent more time on xbox this gen than ps4. but i have to admit it. Without exclusives games you odn't have much to drive your console install base. and small console base, a la dreamcast, wii u are failures. nintendo and sega didn't have PC space to fall back on and save face tho, but microsoft does and that is exactly what they did.

Do you think the ps4 would have sold so many units if sony easily ported uncharted, spider man, last of us, horizon, gran turismo, god of war, last guardian, ratchet and clank, crash, etc to the pc? Sure you can play third party games on pc or xbox, but if you want to play those very same 3rd party games AND all the cool and interesting looking sony games the one way is to BUY A PS4. Do you disagree that is an advantageous situation for PS4? I feel for microsoft tho, they did try. at one point it was like if you want to play 3rd party games AND cool titles like quantum break, sunset overdrive, halo, gears, ori, etc you'd need an xbox. but that isn't the case anymore.

Better get on that since they've failed at doing that on a lot of games.

Its already a great console. The amount of change and work that has gone into the console since launch is incredible.

Its the best looking console. It still has the best controller. It still has the best online service. The UI has came on leaps and bounds, and is certainly more robust than that on PS4.

Its a console that does more for its fans, with support for cross-platform play (that Sony will not allow), digital purchase refunds (again that Sony do not allow), early access, play anywhere, backwards compatibility (something Sony is currently monetising) etc etc.

It doesn't lack games - it's weakness is exclusive content which is being addressed, however this is something that will only matter to multiplatform gamers.

The icing on the cake is the X. Microsoft nailed the mid-gen refresh whereas Sony fell short.

I would say they need to re-evaluate what made the Xbox 360 great. That platform was the go to for multiplatform games, and frequently got the best timed exclusive/partnership deals when it came to dlc. With the Xbox One X now being the most powerful console to date, surely they can recapture that edge if they were prepared to spend a little cash (which Microsoft isn't short of) to incentivise 3rd party developers. Microsoft seems to be dead set on developing the play anywhere initiative, bringing Xbox games to the PC. It's possible that they could also reverse that to a certain extent, and attempt to bring certain PC games to the Xbox. The success of games like PUBG, Cities Skylines and the Sims shows that the demand is there. Not to mention with certain exceptions such as Halo Wars, there is an untapped potential for rts/strategy games on the console.

Now in terms of exclusives, it's true that Xbox One does seem like it has some great titles. However imo they should aim to diversify their lineup a wee bit. One of the strengths of the PS4 this gen seems to be it's varied catalogue of exclusive titles, and it's fair to say that the Xbox 360 was a lot stronger in this regard too. If Microsoft were able to revisit certain franchises, or give the go ahead to their developers to pursue more ambitious/unexpected projects, this would help to set them apart from the competition. Heck, how about a Jade Empire sequel or a new Fable game?! Also, easier said than done, though they should try to limit game delays or cancellations.

Looking at the controller, I think they have perfected the design. It's surely one of, if not the best on the market. My only suggestion would have been to lower the price of the elite version, or at least have bundled it with the Xbox One X console to make the purchase/upgrade more appealing to people. Additionally, the UI appears to have improved significantly since it's release, so I don't believe that's holding it back. With the price rise of the PSN subscription, that gives Microsoft another slight edge over Sony in the future, though perhaps not a very significant one. Perhaps I'm in the minority here, but I actually thought the 'centre of your living room' idea of the Xbox One when it launched seemed fairly cool. Obviously the always online and drm policies hurt them, but marketing your console as primarily, but not just for gaming goes a certain distance to differentiating your console from the competition. I don't own an Xbox, so I don't know how far they pursued this feature, but the PS2 as an example shows that additional multimedia features can really help to sell your product.

Focussing on the Xbox One X specifically, I don't believe there should be any exclusive games developed solely for that console, in spite of the extra power potential. Nintendo did this with the new 3DS, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3D/Fire Emblem Warriors etc, and I personally know several people who were not happy with that. In a way you are screwing over your early adopters, and most loyal customers by forcing them to buy a new version of the console just to play new games. It's almost comparable to season passes in games, some people will be willing to buy them to get new maps or content, others won't. In the long run it just seems to split the player base, and any new online games exclusive to the Xbox One X could very likely die off quickly in that scenario, unless they worked out a crossplay system for them with the PC gamers to keep the playerbase alive. Speaking of which, the way Xbox has embraced crossplay is nice to see. I'm happy that they've finally started to get to work on that, as in the not so distant future hopefully, people can just buy the console they are really interested in, rather than being swayed or peer pressured into getting the one all their friends play on. In an ideal crossplay world, it wouldn't matter which console you game on with multiplats, and game lobbies would stay populated far longer. This is an area I see Sony missing the boat on, and it could in theory hurt them, if not this gen then surely in the next unless they come to their senses.

Overall I do view the Xbox One as a successful console. Sure it is 2nd (potentially 3rd?) place by the end of this gen, but it had a pretty rough start similar to the PS3 last gen. They have sold more than their first console, and while they most likely won't reach the levels of the Xbox 360, with the weird way in which mid-gen redesigns work now, they are in the perfect position to experiment with alternate approaches, find out what works, and really hit the ground running when the Xbox... Two? releases in 2020/21ish!

To expound on that, it needs games that I want to play. Outside of Cuphead, there is nothing on Xbox right now that I do not want to play or that I cannot play on my PS4.

Mighty X1X MonsterBox MasterRace....

MAGA... Baby!!! :P