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Eurogamer: What is the point of Xbox?

FIREKNIGHT2029

FIREKNIGHT2029

Member
Apologies if this is old news. I searched the forum and couldn't find a dedicated thread to this.




A pretty long read. I just dug out a few parts.

www.eurogamer.net

What is the point of Xbox?

Xbox has repeated the same terrible mistakes for over a decade. The reason is simple: its priorities are back-to-front.
www.eurogamer.net www.eurogamer.net


The 360 years feel like a lifetime ago. This week, Xbox stunned the industry by announcing it had closed three studios, and repurposed a fourth into another service game support team. This follows the 1900 people laid off across Xbox at the start of this year, and those Xbox employees quietly caught up in the 10,000 layoffs Microsoft made the year before. It has been a disastrous piece of PR self-sabotage, particularly with the reputations of these studios in mind.

Arkane Austin struggled with the uncharacteristic co-op, online shooter elements of Redfall, but before that made the excellent 2017 reboot of Prey and the first, fantastic Dishonored that led to the immersive sim's modern mini-revival. Tango Gameworks, Microsoft's only Japan-based studio that was led, until earlier this year, by horror legend Shinji Mikami, made The Evil Within games and the critically acclaimed, BAFTA-winning breakout Hi-Fi Rush. Roundhouse Studios was founded by the makers of the original Prey, but is now presumably destined to make different coloured leather boots for The Elder Scrolls Online. Alpha Dog made mobile games, an area where Microsoft has been specifically looking to expand. More broadly, for two console generations now, Xbox has floundered under a clear and obvious lack of inventive, attention-grabbing exclusive games. It just bought these studios in 2021.
Click to expand...

What is the point of Xbox? Go back through the last 10 years or so, to the end of the 360's golden age and the origins of the Xbox One, and it starts to become clear. The point of Xbox is to achieve, apparently, growth on a massive scale. It is to make more money than it did the year before.


Hi-Fi Rush 2, potential new Dishonored game were reportedly being pitched by now-closed Xbox studios
Read more on Eurogamer.net
This will seem like ancient history now, but bear with me - the mistakes Xbox made in 2013 are, as we'll see, worryingly relevant to the struggles it faces right now. We need to start with the infamous "TV, TV, TV" presentation on stage at E3 2013, where Don Mattrick, Xbox's boss at the time, unveiled plans for the Xbox One. It would be an all-in-one home entertainment device, which was actually quite a nice, interesting, forward-thinking idea (aside from the compulsory bundling-in of the expensive and wildly unpopular Kinect), but the perceived emphasis on non-gaming applications, next to PlayStation's laser targeting of traditional, blockbuster video games and more graphically powerful console, gave the impression Xbox hadn't prioritised its core audience.

It's also the first sign of Microsoft's backwards thinking with the Xbox, where it sought to grow beyond its core audience not by adding to them, by fulfilling its core purpose of creating new games that more people want to play and new ways to play them, but by offering something entirely unrelated and merging the two together.

But the issue with its priorities ran deeper than the hardware. Take the closure of legendary Fable developer Lionhead, in 2016, and the cancellation of Fable Legends that was due to launch that year. As covered in Eurogamer's extensive inside story, it was Microsoft's idea in around 2012, six years after it had bought the once-independent studio, to shift from the single-player RPGs it was known for to a free-to-play, live service multiplayer game in Fable Legends.
Click to expand...


The point here, ultimately, is that this cycle has been repeating, and repeating, and repeating, and it does not show any sign of coming to an end. Xbox buys talent, mismanages it in search of impossible scale, and cuts it loose - be that the 20-year experts of Fable, or the battle-scarred makers of Dishonored, or the invigorating new generation behind Hi-Fi Rush. Xbox's leadership clearly knows it's a problem. I believe Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond were utterly sincere when they said they looked at Lionhead and promised themselves not to make the same mistakes again. But to do that, they have to step behind this first, surface-level layer of justification for closing studios, and get to the real cause - not the decisions themselves, but the principles that inform them. The principles that say expertise, creativity and talent are less valuable than the cost to let them flourish.

Dig out the scarlet thread again, and the thing that binds all these moments together couldn't be more clear. The philosophy of a great video game platform holder is that it makes money in order to make more consoles and more games. The philosophy of Microsoft - and by dint of that, Xbox - is evidently that it only makes consoles and games in order to make money. Like so many businesses owned by gigantic, publicly-traded mega-companies, Xbox is now stuck in a cycle of thinking back-to-front. It, and I suspect much of the video game world, no longer knows why it exists.
Click to expand...
 
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thicc_girls_are_teh_best

thicc_girls_are_teh_best

Member
As a console? There is no point.

As a games publisher? I figure it's to release games in as many places as possible, with as many big IP as possible, to get as much revenue & profit as possible to recoup the roughly $85+ billion they've spent on acquiring big pubs & studios over the last six years.

As a hardware maker? Probably to cater to the remaining hardcore & maybe draw in new enthusiasts with PC-like devices (sold for profit), and continuing their peripherals like controllers. Maybe make some self-deprecating meme items about the console's failure to capitalize on that. Peripherals seem like a good market for Microsoft.
 
Draugoth

Draugoth

Gold Member
Reason:

This article is really good. Xbox just fundamentally doesn't understand the gaming audience. The Microsoft leadership is built on fast deliverable and numbers. They expect a certain product to do x numbers by x time and position it to compete with the top of the line products in that category.
From Microsofts perspective if every game isnt competitive with the most successful games the way that their software competes then its not worth it.

They dont understand organic growth by fostering an audience over time and building it by satisfying their wishes.

The Acti/Blizz aquisition proves it.

They refuse to build as organic audience so they will buy someone elses and expect it to produce earth shattering results.
 
Varteras

Varteras

Gold Member
200w.gif
 
Meicyn

Meicyn

Gold Member
“I believe Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond were utterly sincere when they said they looked at Lionhead and promised themselves not to make the same mistakes again.”

Even with evidence in front of them, Eurogamer still goes to bat for the phony personas. Sincere? Actions speak louder than words.
 
diffusionx

diffusionx

Gold Member
Key word in that article is "impossible scale." MS was trying to build this massive behemoth to be able to release incredible games quickly (quarterly) to make GamePass feel mandatory. People on forums like this pointed out that the math didn't work years ago, and it didn't, but MS has the resources to try.
 
H

howitis3

Member
after the failure of the Xbox one Microsoft shifted to gamepass. they went all in on spending on content. then the post covid downturn happened and just like every other company they are cutting costs to show profit in a negative growth environment. essentially, they gave up on the gamepass content plan before it even started. They have all but given up on gaming entirely. we are going to see a discounted xbox universe over the next few years where Microsoft sees how much money they can squeeze out of it before bowing out completely.
 
T

tomato shrub

Member
Xbox is one twin console too many. Right now it's all about form factor, console or PC, or handheld. No one needs a second home console in the market anymore and Playstation has done a much better job establishing itself since 2010, irregardless of recent fumblings.
 
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Kurotri

Kurotri

Member
Isn't that the question. I know some people have already said this but I also just really wish Microsoft fucked off out of this industry. They do nothing but damage. Customers are fucked over, studios are fucked over, IPs are fucked over and/or not properly handled. It's tiring to see this insanity seemingly every day. Also gotta say this particular article is pretty good, it really hammers home how Xbox has continuously fumbled and fumbled over time.
 
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E

elhav

Member
I think the Xbox's relevance to us is the competition it forces on the other big two. While it doesn't have to be Microsoft (I would greatly prefer sega, but it's unrealistic), there needs to be another company with lots of funding and exclusives to force both Sony and Nintendo (mostly Sony) to not be too complacent.

It's the perfect time for the KFConsole to cement itself as the Playstation's new rival
 
Mr Hyde

Mr Hyde

Gold Member
Been a PS and Nintendo gamer all my life. I've never been interested in Xbox whatsoever, always saw it as a third rate video game brand where those in charge didn't know what they were doing. But during the recent years and all the acquisitions made by Microsoft something had to give as I feared missing out on great games. I invested in a PC and started to explore some of their past games. Sunset Overdrive, Gears 5, Recore, Battletoads, Ori (which I played in Switch). And to my surprise, I found out that they were actually not that bad. They were actually fun and not complete garbage the internet made them out to be. I started to take an interest in the brand, I was excited by the future seeing all these games coming out from their studio acquisitions. Tango Gameworks and Double Fine were already some of my favorite studios since before they got bought so I thought I was in for a ride. I rooted for MS being the underdog. Looked forward to Avowed, Hellblade 2, Fable and whatever Tango and Double Fine were working on. It seemed like Microsoft finally got their shit together. At least from my perspective.

All of that ended last night when they closed Tango. I don't have a history with Arkane so can't really say much there if it was warranted, but it sucks nevertheless to see them go to. I know they are renowned for their immersive sims. But Tango. That is fucking unforgivable. Microsoft, a company that makes 20 billion in profits a year. Richest company in the world and all they do is conquer, divide and destroy. The last 24 hours I've seen so many posts here about the contradictions from MS and Phil, statements that means nothing. I didn't know the extent of the lies they've spewed over the years but it makes me sick to my stomach. Going on about how much they need a japanese gaming studio and how much respect they have for Tango. And then they just close it, no questions asked. Absolutely disgusting how Phil and his cronies have behaved. I will never support this fucking brand ever again. I saw myself as a new fan of Xbox but now I just feel contempt and anger. I hope everything just burns down and goes away for good.
 
deeptech

deeptech

Member
It's funny, I've been asking this question for a while now. It's also crazy with all the stories surrounding xbox lately, how something so obvious as NO GAMES can be so hard to see, it's so simple.
 
SEGAvangelist

SEGAvangelist

Member
elhav said:
I think the Xbox's relevance to us is the competition it forces on the other big two. While it doesn't have to be Microsoft (I would greatly prefer sega, but it's unrealistic), there needs to be another company with lots of funding and exclusives to force both Sony and Nintendo (mostly Sony) to not be too complacent.

It's the perfect time for the KFConsole to cement itself as the Playstation's new rival
Click to expand...
I think any major company entering into the console gaming market would be insane. It would require a major loss-leading type philosophy that no one wants to take right now. Honestly, the only route is to go full based Gigachad, and no one has the balls to do it.
 
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