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[BacklashWave534]

I honestly have no clue how this is the "Demise" of Xbox. They will most likely still release another console and will always live on as a 3rd party publisher. Why do so many people want to see it burn. It just means Sony will have no competition and can do whatever they want.

 

[Feel Like I'm On 42]

GOTY contender. Hi-Fi Rush was not. there's a difference...

Massive difference. Even if HiFi Rush is just as good of a videogame. I can't believe he's arguing in good faith that SM2 and HiFi are equally valuable releases. Straight up delusional.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

Men_in_Boxes is legit shook.

U ok, fam?

 

[Braag]

This place has gotten weird last couple of days.

 

[Represent.]

I honestly have no clue how this is the "Demise" of Xbox. They will most likely still release another console and will always live on as a 3rd party publisher. Why do so many people want to see it burn. It just means Sony will have no competition and can do whatever they want.

I dont want to see them burn. But the Xbox as we know it is dead if all the rumors are true.

I wanted them to compete and deliver quality SP AAA games, instead they decided to double down on gamepass, and buy up the entire industry.

Their way of competing is toxic

 

[BacklashWave534]

I like single player games but I dont think Sony has good one's either. They are slow watered down for casuals walking sims and movie games with politics,etc.

I was about to argue against your comment but you're right. Horizon Zero Dawn was one that came to mind but the sequel and it's exapansion have inserted their stupid California politics is annoying. This is a dark time for gaming if Microsoft exits the hardware business.

 

[Black_Mamba]

It has always been about the killer app, which is a great exclusive single-player game. Zelda: BotW made the Switch, right after Nintendo failed with the Wii U because it lacked one.

 

[BacklashWave534]

I dont want to see them burn. But the Xbox as we know it is dead if all the rumors are true.

I wanted them to compete and deliver quality SP AAA games, instead they decided to double down on gamepass, and buy up the entire industry.

Their way of competing is toxic

I can't argue that. They have made some very poor choices lately. I had a feeling Gamepass would hurt them in the long run by creating an endless stream of mediocre games.

 

[RickMasters]

The top 5 games on the US PSN are always multiplayer games: Fortnite, EA Sports FC, NBA 2K, Call of Duty, Madden. That disproves your entire thesis.

He was just using the current rumours to make a baseless point based on his own preferences. Was obvious the moment he be ever mention any of what you said.


Ive logged more hours on halo than any single player game. Cod and destiny players go even harder. This guy don’t know what he is talking about. Meanwhile how much money is being made of them one and done games Vs how much people spend on battle passes and skins. You BBC pull buy three full priced triple A games with what some people spend on forthright or COD in a space of months easily. And that’s just off just one multiplayer game.

 

[sendit]

The top 5 games on the US PSN are always multiplayer games: Fortnite, EA Sports FC, NBA 2K, Call of Duty, Madden. That disproves your entire thesis.

Kicking and screaming till the very end.

 

[ManaByte]

Kicking and screaming till the very end.

Then explain why the top 10 selling games on PlayStation last year were MP games (except for Jedi Survivor) and the first exclusive SP game was at #11.

 

[peter064]

Then explain why the top 10 selling games on PlayStation last year were MP games (except for Jedi Survivor) and the first exclusive SP game was at #11.

You sure about that

 

[sendit]

Then explain why the top 10 selling games on PlayStation last year were MP games (except for Jedi Survivor) and the first exclusive SP game was at #11.

I’m not arguing against hard sales. When you think of Playstation, what games come to mind? When you think of Nintendo, what games come to mind?

OP has a point. Quality single player titles that are exclusive. In Sonys case, 2-3 year console exclusive until some have PC releases.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Terrible news, I don't want the brand to disappear.

I don't want a monopoly of Playstation and Nintendo only.

I hope I have an Xbox with Apple or Sega... But it was balanced to have 3 consoles.

 

[angrod14]

I think the industry has shown again and again that you can get away with bad hardware, but not bad software.

The Wii was a POS. Yet it has the highest sales record.

The PS3, while technically not bad hardware, was so difficult to deal with for devs that it ended up running pretty much every 3rd party game worse than the 360, which was on fire at the time. What saved the console and made it the winner in the end? Releasing incredible exclusive, single player titles that you couldn't played anywhere else unless you had a PS3. Uncharted 2, The Last of Us, God of War III, among many others.

The PS4 was not bad as an overall package, but in CPU terms it was super limited since the day it released. Never mattered, it ran all the games greatly and had an incredible run of exclusive titles. And of course, the GOAT OF GOATS debuted on it, Part II (team Abby, baby).

The Switch, another POS by Nintendo, essentially an Android tablet, is breaking records. It sells because it has great exclusive games people want to play.

Switch 2 will probably use VHS for physical media and no one will give an F because at the end of the day people just want good GAMES.

Xbox was unable to offer something compelling since the 360 days. It was all downhill for them since the One launched.

 

[Sethbacca]

No.

It’s just quality games period. The biggest, most popular games aren’t single player.

I spend 100s of hours a year playing rocket league, I spend tens of hours per single player game. Rocket league is my most played game but it’s the single player games that sold me the hardware. This isn’t that hard to figure out.

 

[NeverYouMind]

Xbox was unable to offer something compelling since the 360 days. It was all downhill for them since the One launched.

It has Forza Horizon 3-5... Forza Horizon 4 still has no equivalent in fidelity in racing genre on console even if the other 2 play better on PC. Also, Sea of Thieves and Killer Instinct are high fidelity releases that have their own audiences. Ori and Cuphead games were also well made and exclusive for a while.

 

[angrod14]

It has Forza Horizon 3-5... Forza Horizon 4 still has no equivalent in fidelity in racing genre on console even if the other 2 play better on PC. Also, Sea of Thieves and Killer Instinct are high fidelity releases that have their own audiences. Ori and Cuphead games were also well made and eclusive for a while.

They might be decent games but they aren't killer apps. They need something at the level of the OG Gears or Halo to save the brand.

 

[NeverYouMind]

They might be decent games but they aren't killer apps. They need something at the level of the OG Gears or Halo to save the brand.

Given the anti-consumer history of Xbox One, even if the new Fable is the greatest action RPG in history, Japan and Europe would not give a shit. Same for any other online offering.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

I honestly stopped buying Xbox products because of the Xbox 360 red lights error, that's when the quality of their products made me distrustful... But I don't want it to disappear... Can you imagine only having 2 console options like Playstation and Nintendo only?

 

[nial]

The "Don Mattrick killed the brand forever!!" cope will never stop being funny. Xbox One was ages ago, Phil Spencer is just shit at his job.
Deal with it.

 

[Sethbacca]

I honestly stopped buying Xbox products because of the Xbox 360 red lights error, that's when the quality of their products made me distrustful... But I don't want it to disappear... Can you imagine only having 2 console options like Playstation and Nintendo only?

Many of us grew up in the 80s. We are quite familiar with a 2 console paradigm.

 

[FunkMiller]

The "Don Mattrick killed the brand forever!!" cope will never stop being funny. Xbox One was ages ago, Phil Spencer is just shit at his job.
Deal with it.

It's the polar opposite of people praising Jim Ryan at Sony.

Please. He's been riding off the back of other people's success for years now.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Men_in_Boxes is legit shook.

U ok, fam?

I reported OP so hard the mods will have no choice but to give him an 8 hr ban.

Literal blaspheme.

 

[Bojji]

I think the main reason the younger generation buy consoles isn’t necessarily game quality at all lol. They want the console their friends play on. Everything now is multiplayer. I mean the top games are usually always multiplayer not exclusives by quite a wide margin.

Young people play some free to play garbage, they are not really driving software sales that much.

It’s a actually crazy because no one even plays these games anymore..

People want them until they play them.. then they give up a few hours in and go back to COD and Fortnite.

So why there are single player games that sell millions and millions? You can't waste your time with them forever like with typical MP game but there is clearly big fucking audience for it. Fans of SP games also drive software sales, after completing one game they buy another where typical MP fan only pay once and then MAYBE spend money on in-game stuff.

 

[Shadowstar39]

The top 5 games on the US PSN are always multiplayer games: Fortnite, EA Sports FC, NBA 2K, Call of Duty, Madden. That disproves your entire thesis.

I dont touch any of those (even no cod since the gaas push).. Single player games has been my console motivation for 4 decades.

 

[Crayon]

There's only so many multiplayer games that are poppin at the top of the most played lists. People playing single player games buy them on a regular basis and that spend is spread out over a huge variety of games.

 

[Mercenary09]

I've been enjoying the heck out of the meltdowns coming from those console warriors.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

No, the importance is down the shitter when you have no competition anymore.

 

[March Climber]

Terrible news, I don't want the brand to disappear.

I don't want a monopoly of Playstation and Nintendo only.

I hope I have an Xbox with Apple or Sega... But it was balanced to have 3 consoles.

You will be fine. Steam Deck will be the new #3. It will enter that spot within 1-2 generations.

 

[HofT]

You need successful games but they don't have to be single player only.

Halo and Gears were huge for Xbox 360.

Mario Kart, Smash Bros., Animal Crossing and Pokemon are just as important for Switch as Zelda is.

360 also had timed single player exclusives like Bioshock and Mass Effect. Keep in mind at the time, people enjoyed Halo and Gears campaigns as much as multiplayer.
Plus, 360 was the easier console to develop on so it yielded better looking 3rd party games compared to PS3.

 

[HofT]

I honestly have no clue how this is the "Demise" of Xbox. They will most likely still release another console and will always live on as a 3rd party publisher. Why do so many people want to see it burn. It just means Sony will have no competition and can do whatever they want.

Because why buy an Xbox when you can have its games on Playstation/PC?

 

[Mooreberg]

It is about balance. If you can make money from people who buy new games on a regular basis, AND the whales playing the same game over and over, go for it. They have been successful with this for a while now, well before the PS5 even launched.

I like single player games but I dont think Sony has good one's either. They are slow watered down for casuals walking sims and movie games with politics,etc.

You must at least enjoy the Syphon Filter games?

 

[Sony]

1. Xbox is healthy, but not growing. That's far from a demise.
2. No amount of single player games could help grow Xbox and catchup to PS5. The Xbox as a brand is simply not as appealing. Xbox at it's very best didn't even outsell PS.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

The Playstation had a whole generation to reach an audience and grow a huge fanbase in the 90s. Playstation 2 also had a year (maybe 2?) Before the Xbox released. There's obviously a lot more to it than that but I think that having such a foothold on the industry and being years ahead of any new competition had a big part to play.

It's not just about single player games.

 

[Auto_aim1]

The Playstation had a whole generation to reach an audience and grow a huge fanbase in the 90s. Playstation 2 also had a year (maybe 2?) Before the Xbox released. There's obviously a lot more to it than that but I think that having such a foothold on the industry and being years ahead of any new competition had a big part to play.

It's not just about single player games.

Yes but the PS3 launch screwed all that and gave Xbox an equal footing in the industry. They were demolishing Sony and then got complacent with Kinect and a bunch of crap. While Sony continued to release games like TLOU and build goodwill. PS4 with its easy to develop hardware and decent price just won it for them.

 

[SpecialAgentZ]

The top 5 games on the US PSN are always multiplayer games: Fortnite, EA Sports FC, NBA 2K, Call of Duty, Madden. That disproves your entire thesis.

But when they go out and buy their Fortnite/EA Sports/NBA/COD/Madden machine, they buy the most talked, most hyped, with most ADs. They buy the machines kids talk about, the machines common folk associate with games.

They go to the internet and are bombarded with news about the superb awarded games a platform has, and, even though they wont't play those specific games, the machine brand that comes attached to the games inspires the buying action.

Whenever Sony releases the next God of War, Uncharted, Last of Us, or retain exclusivity for big budget games like Final Fantasy, lots of articles and ads for these games puts the brand PLAYSTATION into the common people minds.

Xbox? What is Xbox? Common people doesn't even know Xbox Series is a sucessos to the Xbox One. For many, it's just a new version of Xbox One, and the Playstation 5 is the only know current gen machine.

I'm talking as a satisfied Series X owner. Don't regret my purchase in any way. Great machine. Great value. But I know the brand is damaged.

 

[makaveli60]

You can have all the multiplatform GAAS trash you want. (Fortnite, the list goes on)

You can have all the successful multiplayer focused games you want (Halo, Gears)

You can have all the successful racing and sports games you want. (Forza)

But.

The reason people buy CONSOLES is to play quality, exclusive, single player games.

Its the ONE thing Microsoft failed at. They had MP hits, they have sports games, they have great service and value, they were the pioneers of online console gaming, they have everything on their platform they need to succeed except quality single player exclusives that Sony and Nintendo have in droves.

Like? Whats the difference between PlayStation and Xbox? They both offer the same exact shit, one just has an onslaught of quality single player exclusives the other doesn't.

How did Sony build the brand power the PlayStation has? quality single player exclusives

Nintendo? quality single player exclusives.

Quality single player exclusives are what give your console an identity. They are the Game of The Year winners, which help give your console recognition. They are the games people talk about decades later.

Xbox doesn't have that. And it cost them their brand.

Publsihers will always need to invest in quality single player games, its the only thing that has been proven succesful time and time again. Generation after generation. Even with the rise of GAAS trash. MS should have invested in more big budget, AAA, single player games - They wouldn't be on the verge of becoming Sega 2.0


edit: importance*

edit 2: My first ever thread without a or reaction, mods, un-tag me

Spoiler: in lieu of gamespot 2004

TLHBO

No lies detected.

 

[Damian black]

Dreamcast had generation defining games and true exclusives at least.
Series X has nothing but soulles multiplat slop.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

The only thing it shows that "defaults" are just too strong. But it is true everywhere - OS, app stores, browsers etc.

 

[DenchDeckard]

I dont want to see them burn. But the Xbox as we know it is dead if all the rumors are true.

I wanted them to compete and deliver quality SP AAA games, instead they decided to double down on gamepass, and buy up the entire industry.

Their way of competing is toxic

Problem is, I honestly see all of this third party stuff is their clear way to be able to buy whatever they want.

I think they realised that the opposition they received from buying ABK would make any other purchase extremely difficult. THey want free reign to buy whatever. So they buy what they want and say they are multiplatfom while consoles are around. The reality is, that in the future shit is going to be streamed or delivered on a different device to a games console.

MS will then have complete control of all this IP. James Sawyer Ford is completely correct imo.

We are all looking at short term plastic boxes that could be completely irrelevant in 20 years. MS is being MS.

 

[SmokedMeat]

I spend 100s of hours a year playing rocket league, I spend tens of hours per single player game. Rocket league is my most played game but it’s the single player games that sold me the hardware. This isn’t that hard to figure out.

OP was painting Microsoft as though they only focus only multiplayer games, which isn’t true at all. Hence the reason I said it’s quality games, period.

 

[KungFucius]

It's true though. Day 1 PC and Day 1 Gamepass are bad ideas in terms of incentivizing hardware sales. Like, fatally bad.

Almost as if they don't want to sink money on a loss leader for those who can just sub to gamepass on PC and buy a few controllers and adapters that are actually profitable.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

I reported OP so hard the mods will have no choice but to give him an 8 hr ban.

Literal blaspheme.

Looool!!!

You're a great sport, Men.

Def one my fav characters on Gaf. Keep doing you, my friend.

 

[jufonuk]

Meanwhile Nintendo is like this about their IP’s on other systems (save for thise CD-i shit Zelda games)

 

[Dane]

I think the industry has shown again and again that you can get away with bad hardware, but not bad software.

The Wii was a POS. Yet it has the highest sales record.

The PS3, while technically not bad hardware, was so difficult to deal with for devs that it ended up running pretty much every 3rd party game worse than the 360, which was on fire at the time. What saved the console and made it the winner in the end? Releasing incredible exclusive, single player titles that you couldn't played anywhere else unless you had a PS3. Uncharted 2, The Last of Us, God of War III, among many others.

The PS4 was not bad as an overall package, but in CPU terms it was super limited since the day it released. Never mattered, it ran all the games greatly and had an incredible run of exclusive titles. And of course, the GOAT OF GOATS debuted on it, Part II (team Abby, baby).

The Switch, another POS by Nintendo, essentially an Android tablet, is breaking records. It sells because it has great exclusive games people want to play.

Switch 2 will probably use VHS for physical media and no one will give an F because at the end of the day people just want good GAMES.

Xbox was unable to offer something compelling since the 360 days. It was all downhill for them since the One launched.

I don't know why people in forums insist that is all exclusives and not the entire thing

Wii - It was a innovative gameplay at 250 USD, but the games after 2008-2009 sucked in quality except for few (remember the sholveware complaints?), it then became famous for being the dust collector, no wonder why almost 80% of its sales came during the first 3 years.

PS3 - Almost twice the price of a 360 Core, and none of the games at the time required mandatory HD install like PS3 did, they had a strong brand that helped them to keep selling especially in Europe where it surpassed the 360 in 2008 despite not having a compelling catalog of exclusives.

Switch - A new way to play as Nintendo do with their Blue Ocean strategy that went right, instead of a useless one that was the WiiU, a console that had exclusives selling at the 5 to 8 million units figures in a 13 million unit hardware, and it received a massive third party support to the point were developers are willing to port their higher end performance games like The Witcher 3 into it.

 

[DForce]

The top 5 games on the US PSN are always multiplayer games: Fortnite, EA Sports FC, NBA 2K, Call of Duty, Madden. That disproves your entire thesis.

People who use this terrible argument don't get it.

All of these games are playable on both platforms. When it comes to choosing Xbox over PlayStation, then exclusives are going to become a deciding factor.


Fortnite/ Call of Duty/NBA/Spider-Man/God of War is more attractive to gamers than Fortnite/Call of Duty/ NBA/Starfield/Forza Horizon

 

[Kiya's Guard]

Just lol. And I hate Microsofts long run strategy, they could fuck off right away. But they're playing a different gamej

 

[ANDS]

I haven't had an XBOX in well over a decade (likely longer) and have zero interest in their products - but where the hell is this "Chicken Little"-ing coming from? Maybe they do announce they are getting out of the console game at this Spencer talk, but no news or rumors even come close to pointing to that as the "obvious" next step for the company.

Like, what changed last year: one spectacular flop and one huge critically (by journalists at least) well regarded release. People really think THAT'S a reason for a company this size with a device presence in so many homes to pull up stakes? Really?

. . .also roflcopter at the OP's premise: go to any top-seller chart and see what's at the top of each storefront. Single-player games, in my mind, give a console its character and the company a shine in the press (with the "Mighty" scores on OP and their Hall of Fame), but they aren't what people are primarily using their machines for. Hell, the entire reason MS/AB deal took so long was over one now-GaaS IP being taken off a competitors platform.

 

[kyussman]

It's strange, because MS was just on the brink of turning the long-standing exclusive problem around. 2024 was shaping up to be a pretty good year, exclusive-wise. And with all the acquisitions, we knew there were plenty more exclusives in the pipeline. It looked like the long drought -- the lack of good exclusives since 2015 or so -- was finally coming to an end. Xbox would finally have a good stable of exclusives.

And then they start publishing those "exclusives" on other platforms. Making them, at best, timed exclusives. Completely undercutting that momentum. It's weird timing.

I mean, I get why. GP and console numbers weren't anywhere close to where they expected/hoped them to be, and they couldn't afford to leave all the multiplatform cash on the table. But still, it seems weirdly ironic that, just as Xbox seemed to be turning a corner, finally being able to say "Here are the first-party exclusives!" they start de-exclusivizing their content.

Who's to say these games will be any good though.Yea,they have plenty of studios now and can make lots of games,but they just don't deliver truly great AAA games....Halo Infinite,Redfall,Starfield....none of these are special and some are straight up trash....year after year they fail to deliver head turning games,exclusive or not they need to release some 9/10 AAA games.