Microsofts Hunert Smoke
Banned
- When Microsoft introduced the Xbox One in 2013, it was still the industry standard-bearer in video game consoles with the Xbox 360.
- In the course of a few months, Microsoft torpedoed its goodwill with its most dedicated fans, while Sony repeatedly dunked on Microsoft with the introduction of the PlayStation 4.
- But Microsoft has been repositioning its Xbox business in smart ways, introducing programs that people love and paving the way for a future that sounds promising.
- Meanwhile, Sony has made several easily avoidable mistakes.
Soon after, Microsoft's then-Xbox leader Don Mattrick took to the company's Xbox blog to roll back major features of the Xbox One that people were upset about. One month later, Mattrick was out at Microsoft, quickly replaced by longtime Xbox exec Marc Whitten. Another nine months later, and Microsoft would replace Whitten with current Xbox leader Phil Spencer.
And in the years since, under Spencer, Microsoft's Xbox group has changed course.
As a result of a variety of initiatives, the Xbox One has become a more appealing platform. And as the current gaming generation draws to a close across the next few years, the changes reflect Microsoft smartly setting itself up for the next generation of gaming:
1. Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass, the Netflix-like subscription service for gaming, is a great reason to buy an Xbox One.
For $10/month, Xbox Game Pass offers access to over 100 games. That includes every first-party game that Microsoft makes, loads of indies, and even some heavy-hitters from third-party publishers like Bethesda Softworks.
Launched in 2017, the service is one of gaming's best deals.
Instead of streaming the games, a la Netflix, you download each game to your Xbox console. As long as you're paying for Game Pass, you keep all the games you download.
Best of all, any new games that Microsoft publishes are included with Game Pass.
When "Crackdown 3" arrives in February, you could drop $10 on a Game Pass subscription to download and play the game — a whopping $50 savings over the normal $60 price of a new game. Microsoft's betting that you'll like the arrangement so much that you'll keep paying for the service every month, like Netflix.
2. Project XCloud, Microsoft's video game streaming service — what Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently referred to by the shorthand "Netflix for games" — is on the horizon.
With "Project xCloud," Microsoft is creating its own game streaming service. No downloads, and no waiting — high-quality, blockbuster video games streamed directly to whatever device you're using. Where Xbox Game Pass is similar to Netflix, XCloud is a direct analog: A subscription-based streaming service for an entertainment medium.
In 2019, Microsoft is planning public tests of Project XCloud.
The company demonstrated its service in a video released in October 2018:
3. Backwards compatibility sets an important precedent.
First with Xbox 360 games, then original Xbox games, Microsoft added backwards compatibility to the Xbox One. No re-buying games, even — if you owned it digitally in the past on a previous console, now you own it on Xbox One. If you have it on disc, simply put the disc into your console.
It's an ambitious, precedent-setting statement about what Microsoft is trying to achieve with Xbox, and it directly ties into several other initiatives at Xbox. The concept of Xbox Play Anywhere, for instance — where you buy a game on either Xbox or Windows 10, and you own it both places. Or Microsoft's push into cross-platform gaming with "Minecraft," which was the first major game to offer players on competing game platforms the option to play together.
All of these initiatives are part of the same narrative Microsoft is telling about Xbox: Your digital account from Xbox is an access key to a game library that crosses platforms and generations. Games are games, period.
4. Microsoft started the movement toward cross-platform play with "Minecraft," while Sony refused to budge — until it couldn't refuse any more.
Microsoft's been banging the drum for interoperability between competing game consoles for a while now. Ever since announcingthe "Better Together" update for "Minecraft," which allowed players on all "Minecraft" platforms to play the game together, the entire game industry has begun moving toward cross-platform multiplayer.
It makes a lot of logical sense if you think about it: Games like "Call of Duty," "Overwatch," and "Minecraft" are functionally identical across platforms. Why shouldn't I be able to play "Overwatch" on Xbox One with my friend on PlayStation 4?
The reason, of course, is business.
Sony's in the lead by a large margin, and has no real incentive — financially — to work with Microsoft on getting cross-platform play working between PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. But that all changed with "Fortnite," and Microsoft ended up looking like the good guys for leading the charge.
As of September 2018, after months of wishy-washy responses to players and game makers demanding cross-platform support, Sony now officially allows "Fortnite" players on PlayStation 4 to play with people on Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, and Mac. Moreover, if you buy stuff in "Fortnite" on PlayStation 4, it will now show up on other platforms (so-called "cross-commerce" support).
5. Microsoft is being straightforward about the next generation of Xbox consoles, and speaking directly to gaming's most-dedicated fans.
"Everybody knows what's happening," Microsoft Xbox lead Phil Spencer told Giant Bomb in a June 2018 podcast interview, referring to Sony and Microsoft making new consoles. "It's this kind of unsaid thing of like, 'Well, they shipped Xbox One X. They didn't lay off their whole hardware team. What do you think they're doing?'"
It's that kind of direct, no-nonsense talk, in a candid interview with a respected member of the video game industry, that people like so much about Spencer. Rarely are video game executives quite so candid or as openly passionate as Spencer, which has helped Xbox regain some semblance of trust among gaming's most passionate fans.
"It's not tomorrow," he said, in reference to next-generation Xbox consoles, "But I didn't want people to think that we're walking away from that part of the brand and the business, because it's really important to us," Spencer said.
Rumors point to Microsoft creating two new consoles that coexist within the same generation: a smaller, less expensive Xbox potentially focused on streaming video games, and a larger, more traditional, more expensive Xbox that could power games locally (and stream them).