Why is there such a complete lack of diversity and effort in Microsoft's Xbox first party?

I do want an Xbox One- I was going to buy it this year alongside Scalebound, with ReCore being a nice cherry on the cake. Scalebound's delay threw a wrench in the plan, however. But after thinking a bit, I figured I might as well get it this year. After all, why wouldn't I, right? Why not get an Xbox One? I asked myself why I am so reticent towards buying the console at all, and I realized- it comes down to the first party lineup. If i am to buy an Xbox One at this point, it is for the exclusives, the PS4 is going to be my machine for multiplatform games (as well as Sony's own first party, and third party exclusives), so exclusives is all Xbox One is really going to be for for me.

And then I realized- the answer is that the Xbox first party lineup is extremely narrow. I don't mean that just in terms of franchises and IP – though at this point, the Halo/Gears/Forza cycle is well known enough to almost be a meme – I refer more to the genre spread. I was going through the different genres that PlayStation and Xbox serve via their first parties, and I realized, Microsoft really does have the narrowest first party lineup on the market. It's a bit shocking.

For the purposes of this comparison, I have:

• Only considered 'active' franchises. Active franchises are defined as franchises which saw a new release in the last five years;
• Not considered Nintendo, because that's just unfair

Alright? So here we are:

PLAYSTATION:

• Killzone (First Person Shooter)
• God of War (Action)
• Resistance (First Person Shooter)
• inFamous (Action Adventure)
• Uncharted (Third Person Shooter)
• Ratchet and Clank (3D Platformer)
• Tearaway (3D Platformer)
• LittleBigPlanet (2D Platformer/Level Creator)
• Gravity Rush (Action Adventure)
• Gran Turismo (Racing Sim)
• Sly (3D Platformer)
• DriveClub (Arcade Racing)
• The Last of Us (Survival Horror)
• Bloodborne (Action RPG)
• WipEout (Arcade Racing)
• Hot Shots Golf (Sports)
• MLB The Show (Sports)

Number of Genres: 11

Number of Different Franchises: 17

XBOX:

• Halo (First Person Shooter)
• Forza Motorsport (Racing Sim)
• Fable (Action RPG)
• Killer Instinct (Fighter)
• Gears of War (Third Person Shooter)
• Ori and the Blind Forest (2D Platformer)

Number of Genres: 6

Number of Different Franchises: 6

Okay, right off the bat, this is pretty terrible. We see the highly contracted and truncated first party lineup that Microsoft has for the Xbox in full force here – only six franchises – and we also see Microsoft only covering half the range of genres that Sony does for PlayStation. More importantly, two of those are just variations on shooters – if I don't like shooters, I'm left with just four offerings – and Fable, at the very least, is known for inconsistency at best, and mediocrity at worst. The most ardent Xbox fanboy usually does not attempt to defend Fable of late. Overall, Microsoft are offering just a third of the number of franchises that Sony offers.

However, I have to give Microsoft credit and the benefit of the doubt, here- after all, they are working on expanding the range of their IP here, by introducing several new franchises over the next year. Equally importantly, these new franchises appear to be treading new ground. To ensure I would have a clearer picture, then, I decided to also assess the first party portfolios in context of the upcoming games. Here's what I discovered (active franchise rule ends here):

UPCOMING PLAYSTATION FIRST PARTY GAMES:

• The Last Guardian (Action Adventure)
• Dreams (UCG)
• Detroit: Become Human (Adventure)
• Horizon: Zero Dawn (Action RPG)
• Ratchet and Clank (3D Platformer)
• Gran Turismo Sport (Racing Sim)
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (Third Person Shooter)
• Gravity Rush 2 (Action Adventure)
• Hot Shots Golf (Sports)
• MLB The Show 16 (Sports)

Number of Genres: 8

Number of Franchises: 10

UPCOMING XBOX FIRST PARTY GAMES:

• Quantum Break (Third Person Shooter)
• Gears of War 4 (Third Person Shooter)
• Fable Legends (Action RPG)
• Scalebound (Action RPG)
• Crackdown (Action Adventure)
• Halo Wars 2 (Strategy)
• ReCore (Action Adventure)
• Sea of Thieves (MMO)

Number of Genres: 5

Number of Franchises: 8

Microsoft is definitely doing well here- they have eight first party games coming up, out of which four are completely new IPs. They are also catering to five genres, three of which are not covered by their existing portfolio at all. Sony is offering ten new games with their upcoming genres- the amazing thing is, however, they are offering eight different genres, meaning there is almost no genre overlap among their upcoming first party games. Two of these are brand new genres, not covered by their existing lineup. Also, four of these games are brand new IPs.

While Microsoft is doing better with their upcoming lineup, however, they are still lagging far behind Sony overall- Sony are offering 12 different genres with their first party lineup, currently active and upcoming, across nineteen different franchises. By contrast, Microsoft offers only 8 genres, across ten different franchises.

As we can see, even when the full picture, including upcoming games is considered, the situation is dire for Microsoft- Sony has almost double the number of IP on the market, and they offer 150% the range of genres that Microsoft offers. By every metric, Microsoft has an inferior first party, catering to a lesser variety of tastes.No matter what kinds of games you like, you are likely to find them on PS4- on the Xbox, it's more of a crapshoot.

My question is, why is it this way? Why is it that Microsoft's first party is this bad? There is no excuse for how bad it is- Microsoft has some talented studios- it acquired, or has worked with, studios such as Lionhead, Rare, Ensemble, Bungie, Remedy, and Bizarre in the past. They have also actively been in this industry for 16 years. As a comparison, when Sony had been in the industry for 16 years, their full range of active franchises included, but was not limited to, Uncharted, Resistance, Dark Cloud, God of War, inFamous, Killzone, Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, Sly Cooper, Shadow of the Colossus, Gran Turismo, Motorsport, Wipeout, Syphon Filter, LittleBigPlanet, Demon's Souls, Siren, Heavy Rain, and Hot Shots Golf. That is absurdly better than Microsoft's showing right now- Microsoft has literally no excuse for how poor their first party showing is.

What could be the reason for this? And why do people let this slide?

Because they don't rely on it. They try to be the multiplat box of choice.

To an extent, Sony has done this with the Ps4 though they still try with exclusives more.

Dem graphs!

Smear campaign 2K16!

Man, you're really on a trolling rampage.

Lack of talent and vision.

Oh this will not sit well at all.

#SmearCampaign.

You listed The Last Guardian and Gravity Rush as Action Adventure and then pretended they weren't in the same genre.

Go home, Chaz. You're drunk.

For a person like me I think there could be enough to justify it even though I own a PS4. I did not own a Xbox360. I liked the first Halo but never played another. I liked the first Fable a lot but never played any of the others. I have never played a Forza or Gears of War. A small handful of the upcoming games seem like they might be something I could like. But then again I don't own a WiiU either. Those two are going toe to toe as a secondary system for me. I could probably live without either. Depends on how entertained PS4 keeps me. Just my point of view for what it's worth...

Also, if we go by your pretty graphs, statistically, Micosoft is doing better than Sony at catering to diverse tastes.

8/10 is a better metric than 12/19.

Just sayin', bro.

You're absolutely right- and it's fixed!

Sure, the argument can be made that Microsoft only makes a new franchise when they want to tackle a new genre- that's good! The problem is, that's not too often.

The fact of the matter is, Sony are simply offering a wider variety of genres with their first party than Microsoft is. When other things, such as different aesthetics and styles of play are considered (unquantifiable, and not present in this analysis), the comparison is completely one sided- Microsoft are far less diverse than what Sony offers.

Your lack of Ori and The Blind Forest disturbs me.

Also, yo, Scalebound is totally a hack n' slash, man. C'mon.

Hmmm, I did miss that for Microsoft, and I missed Hot Shots Golf for PlayStation.

Sure, absolutely. Just playing the devil's advocate.

I personally don't find Sony's 1st party impressive outside of Naughty Dog and SCE Japan (God, I want Guerilla to stop sucking and make Horizon: Zero Dawn a good game, though), but you can't deny that they make a wide range of games.

Platinum and Microsoft both label it an Action RPG. Just going by what's been given to me, man.

Yep. There is also the fact that Microsoft's first party now, 16 years after their entry into the industry, and Sony's first party in 2010, 16 years after their entry into the industry, are worlds apart.

lol hot shots golf.

Just so I'm understanding things here because I'm kind of slow. This new thread is actually page 17 of "It is indisputable that the PS4 has a better lineup of games than the Xbox this year" right?

Anyway, added both to the OP, so we're good.

@charizard1605: Years ago, I would have argued that Microsoft's first-party was better on the basis of Bungie and Ensemble. These days, I find both content to drown in mediocrity.

We live in sad times, man. Thank God for Nintendo.

Dude. Yes. Bungie at their peak, and Ensemble and Age of Empires was beyond anything else, really. Plus of course, this was back when our hopes and dreams regarding Rare had not been completely crushed yet, too.

So full of possibilities.

Today, Microsoft have four retail franchises. Four.

@charizard1605: *high five*.

So one or two system-seller aka worthwhile games on each platform ....meh! Gotta wait for the end of the generation to consider buying a PS4 , Xbox One games will eventually come to PC so no worries there.

i admire the effort you put into this thread. thx.

Yes, and only two of them are good. And Halo... Halo ain't what it used to be. Fucking 343.

Yeah- Microsoft needed to diversify yesterday. At least they finally got the memo.

Some of their upcoming stuff looks good.

Yep, it's not been great. The selection of games they're bringing for the next year has me optimistic about the future of the console. They need to keep it going.

How many of these cow circle jerk threads do we need?

When did they ever have diversity? You act like this is a sudden revelation. They've always relied on the same 3 franchises. The only difference now is they ran Halo into the ground, no one cares about Gears anymore, and no one ever cared about Forza no matter how good it is.

Any PS4 or Xbone owner who only owned 1st party games would probably be pretty bored. Which is why I'm saying you only need one of the consoles this gen.

Forza's amazing. I want the drugs you're on.

Microsoft relies more on third party deals, heck even the listed first party line-up in the OP just goes to show that their line-up is third party produced, hell what's to say they even retain ownership of the IPs? Anyhow, under this system we see games like Dead Rising 3, Screamride, State of Decay, Sunset Overdrive, Crimson Dragon, Ryse, Titanfall. It adds to their list of titles. Last gen we also had Dead Rising, Mass Effect (for a while), loads of time exclusives like Bioshock, Lost Planet, the Toy Soldiers series, loads of indie and XBLA games. Thing is, they're nice first starts to series that greatly benefit MS. Their problem isn't a lack of diversity, it's utter lack of maintaining relationships with these third parties and the franchises, either buying studios, IPs, both. Nothing sticks around. Even a studio like Bizarre Creation who MS had a long history with in their Project Gotham Racing series, and even in the Geometry Wars games, even after they were in need of help after Activision kicked them to the curb, MS had an opportunity to buy them up, maybe make them a permanent fixture as part of their first party line-up; no interest. Surely they could have bought Dead Rising and Blue Castle during the whole Dead Rising 3 development, even more so now that Capcom has nothing going for them that they need Sony to bankroll and publish SFV (probably means they'll get all the money for that too); no from Microsoft there too. Problem with them isn't the lack of their ability to seek out variety in their line-up, what they lack is the ability to have it be a part of a lasting partnership.

I didn't say anything about its quality. I said no one cares about it and the games continuously failing to chart proves that.

I want the drugs you're on.

There's no doubt that game diversity has been a problem for Xbox over the years, compared to PS. But I think, slowly but surely, that it's improving. You can see that MS is trying to invest in more new IP this gen... and as an Xbox owner/fan, I'm pretty excited with the line-up for this year. And the Xbosses have said that it'll only get better too.

What about the real issue, the true issue; where Microsoft and Sony have garbage for first party and you shmucks apologize for their trash.

2 years - 1 great exclusive between the two of them, and that was a souls game, a third party exclusive that sony funded. Wasn't even one of their own in house teams making something good.

Microsoft at this point has shown more new stuff than actually delivered good new stuff. It's a fucking joke how much effort is put into arguing which first party is least gutter trash. Do you people enjoy sewer water?

Because... bros gotta bro. For the target audience they have a "keep it simple, stupid" mentality.

You missed MLB The Show in general , and Hot Shots Golf for upcoming.

Sony is crazy

• Shadow of the Beast
• Alienation
• The Tomorrow Children
• Drawn to Death
• Kill Strain
• What Remains of Edith Finch?
• Bound
• Wattam
• Rime
• Matterfall
• WiLD

Plus all of the VR games.

@charizard1605

Positive Wii U threads left and right, PS4 praise threads all over the place, and nothing but threads attacking the Xbox One...

What's your deal man.

Oh lord, new thread of the year contender incoming.

You know, I find this amusing bc it is, in fact true, but char.....you're so thorough with this stuff that I'll hate if Sony ever dives to such low depths.

I know Sony/PS isn't perfect...so I await and dread such a thread.

Didn't they sell most of their first party last gen with the 360? MS has been on a downward spiral in regards to first party since last gen. We are seeing a lot of the lasting legacy of Don Mattrick on the Xbone right now.

He's right though, the last Forza game didn't chart and neither did the one before it.

True, even Until Dawn charted and that was a completely unknown game and it wasn't even one of Sony's big budget productions.

I don't give a shit about sales. I play games, not profits.

Well he was talking about sales not quality. You should pay more attention.

Sorry Char, I disagree.

Cash is going to take charge for xbox fans on this one.

I don't think there is a lack of diversity for xbox one, in fact I think it's much better than xbox 360 at this point. What you are leaving out and what you have dismissed are the FLOPS and or the games that didn't score well critically.

Not scoring well may be an argument for system wars luzs but it doesn't eliminate the game from existing. Games like Ryse, screamride and Sunset Overdrive are no where to be found in your OP, why? Diversity has nothing to do with critical reception so if this thread is based on one and not the other then you will need to rethink your entire post.

Also MS has a lot of indie titles that would fill that diversity void and some look really solid. Aside from RPGs where I would make the argument MS is lacking behind, they have tried a bit more than they did last gen IMO and lack of games all around rather than lack of diversity is where I would give xbox one and MS flack. Their diversity is actually pretty good it's just that MS hasn't released that many games and the one's they have released haven't been well received.

Char counts dead / inactive franchises and treats single games with DLC / expansions as franchises.

How cute.

It's also puzzling how PGR and Viva Pinata aren't franchises.

It's like you want to be lynched. :P

for someone who claims the ps4 has soooo many amazing games you sure do have a lot of fucking time on your hands to make up bullshit threads.