Where the fuck to begin????????????????
1. Redfall delay. I have said numerous times that I was always expecting Redfall to be delayed to 2023. February/March was my prediction. Give them an extra six months and stay away from the packed Fall/Holiday season. So no surprise here whatsoever. At least, not for me. When it releases in 2023 I guess is an entirely different conversation. Hoping that there's NO release date for Redfall's gameplay trailer at the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase because well, if the following game can have a release date 18 months and get delayed, then what's the point in announcing a release date now??? I say show gameplay in June, hope it's a good showing and then wait until The Game Awards to announce a release date if it's before June 2023. If it's after June 2023, just wait until next June's showcase.
2. Starfield delay. If there was one single game in 2022 that I didn't believe would get delayed to 2023, it was this game. When you give an actual release date 18 months prior, in my mind, it's like, okay, they're extremely confident, you know like 100% fucking confident in hitting that date. Otherwise, why give a release date? Makes no sense to me. If you're not 100% certain no matter what, don't give a release date. As for the game itself, im not a Bethesda Game Studios fan. I am a fan of Arkane, Machine Games and Tango Gameworks though. Excluding a few hours of Fallout 4 years ago, I have never played a single BGS game. This was going to be the first BGS game that I was going to play and give a legitimate chance to. Obviously, this game must have some serious issues and people thought it was releasing in Fall 2021. Hahaha. Hoping the gameplay trailer in June at least looks good and the foundation is there. If it shows like Halo Infinite in July 2020, they should pull it from the showcase in my opinion. I'm going on record right now and saying that Starfield will release in November 2023. I believe that it will get a full one year delay just like Halo Infinite.
3. Bad PR. After this past weekend's outage and DRM nightmare, delaying not just Redfall since I don't believe that would have mattered much in the grand scheme of things but also Starfield is just piling on after last weekend. Microsoft should have waited until after the showcase to delay Starfield. Redfall they could have put a new release date on it in June when they show gameplay and post-show, be like, yeah, they needed another six months or whatever. But for Starfield, I would have waited until July to delay it. Let Xbox fans have a great showcase, stay hyped and excited and then delay the game because if you're excited after the showcase for whatever reasons, at least it wouldn't be as bad in my opinion because there would be so much to look forward to in the future.
4. Empty and dead 2022. This is pathetic. All these fucking studios (excluding ABK since they don't own them yet) and they can't even release any games. This reminds me of the Xbox Series launch where all they had was Gears Tactics and that's it. This year, Xbox fans will get a Deathloop port. Yay!!! (sarcasm). I know people expect Forza Motorsport and I will be honest, I would not be shocked or surprised if it gets delayed to 2023. UGH. This year is definitely giving 2017 Xbox One a run for it's money. lol
5. Mismanagement and leadership issues. Seriously, how many fucking times does someone have to see negative after negative before realizing, holy shit, there may be some serious fucking management issues? And the more studios they add, the harder it's going to be to manage them all. It's like they bit off more than they can chew. I also don't understand how there could be miscommunication issues which is definitely apparent here because how do they start marketing Starfield knowing that it's probably getting delayed? In all honesty, they don't seem to have a clue as what they should be doing. I understand being hands-off in the creative process after green-lighting a game but they should be hands-on and require updates at least every three months. Like, hey, what's your progress? How's the game coming along? Do you need anything? More money, more personnel, more resources? I like David Jaffe and while I don't always agree with him, he's 100% right in this regard because as of now, it looks like fucking amateur hour at Microsoft in regards to Xbox.
6. Phil Spencer. I like Phil but he's too relaxed and laid back. He needs to be more strict. Granted, he's probably a generation away from retirement and has setup a great foundation to build on but at this point, there needs to be some results and games getting released. And I don't care what 2021 was. That means nothing to me now. Spencer and company need to get their shit in order, period because if not, all this investment, acquiring studios and publisher will be for nothing.
7. Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase. While majority will probably disagree with me but as an Xbox fan, I DON'T want to see any new game reveals from their first party studios at all. Show me fucking gameplay for the games that have been announced the last two fucking years. Don't show me a fucking CGI trailer for a game that's 3 years from showing gameplay and another two years before it actually if we're lucky. No, just fucking no. Hold back showing new games until they're literally within 18 months from release. I don't need to know games are coming out in 5 years. I want to know what's coming out sooner rather than later.
8. 2023 and beyond. This is perhaps the only upside and positive. If in 2023, Microsoft actually releases 4+ exclusives and all of them are great, then awesome, the future goes back to being bright instead of dark like it is right now but at the same time, they all really need to get their shit together because having nothing at launch outside of Gears Tactics, nothing in the first half of 2021 and thus far, nothing in 2022 is simply unacceptable.
That's enough of my fucking rant. Worse part is that im not even really pissed off, more so, im so damn disappointed and letdown because it's like, every time, you want believe that Microsoft has finally righted the ship, nope, here's another fuck up that makes you think, how do they not have their shit in order? I can fully understand a few studios having issues (like 343 as an example) but JFC, it's like they all have fucking problems and issues. I just don't get it. I really don't.
UGH. What a shitty day for gaming. At least for me. Oh well.
EDIT - I knew I forgot to say something. With no potential exclusives this Fall outside of probably the Deathloop port, Microsoft needs to go after Gotham knights and Avatar to be in Game Pass day fucking one because other than getting major top tier AAA titles into the service at release, I don't see how anything else can even come close to making up for delaying Starfield and to a lesser extent, Redfall. UGH.
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