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[HeisenbergFX4]

 

[Negotiator101]

Yeah, its time for uncle Phil to retire.

He's just been promoted

 

[DeepEnigma]

He's just been promoted

Well, he did have is MS lifer executive career moment.

 

[Raonak]

Lack of quality control on their exclusives is indeed a big problem with xbox.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Gears 5 is great.
Forza has improved accept for the most recent.

But Phil or something still needs to change.

 

[Phase]

They owned them for like 2 months Jesus

Regardless of how dumb my post is lol, Activision sat on these just because COD and WoW did so well? Really hope they have some plans forming for some of them. Also, there needs to be new blood in the market! Everything's going stale, at least in AAA.

 

[Krieger]

Xbox has more problems than just Phil. Just take a look at the leaks of their current gen upgrade.

Spoiler

Their idea for a Series X Pro is a smaller Series X with better Wi-Fi and without physical games. That's it. This dumbass decision doesn't just come from Phil. Microsoft needs to get rid of everyone in their Xbox department and start from zero.

 

[Ozriel]

Xbox has more problems than just Phil. Just take a look at the leaks of their current gen upgrade.

Spoiler

Their idea for a Series X Pro is a smaller Series X with better Wi-Fi and without physical games. That's it. This dumbass decision doesn't just come from Phil. Microsoft needs to get rid of everyone in their Xbox department and start from zero.

Yeah, that's just a stupid move.

If they do go through with this vs a pro console, that would certainly be a truly daft strategy.

 

[Zathalus]

If Microsoft were smart, they would have focused on where they were strong, which is software, and build a software platform for gaming. Had they done that in 2000, they would be the Steam of today and there would be no Steam. Steam had 10 Billion in revenue in 2022, XBox had 4.7 Billion.

Close to $16 billion for Xbox actually.

 

[Negotiator101]

Close to $16 billion for Xbox actually.

Really?

 

[Last Hearth]

Close to $16 billion for Xbox actually.

Ok you're right, but what has it cost them? They spent 68.7 Billion to buy Act-Blizzard alone. I'm not sure they've made even a profit at all in their gaming division.

 

[adamsapple]

Close to $16 billion for Xbox actually.

Really?

Correct.

Actual fiscal 2022 gaming revenue totaled $16.23 billion, according to an annual report.

Microsoft projects two new areas of growth for gaming, leaked document says: Mobile and ads

Completing the Activision Blizzard deal that includes King, the company behind Candy Crush, would help Microsoft gain in ads and mobile purchases.

www.cnbc.com

 

[Optimus Lime]

I can save Xbox. They need a new franchise. A male oriented power fantasy involving extremely gratuitous violence and a sassy, unbelievably hot chick sidekick who shows a lot of cleavage.

You know. Make games that their actual audience want to play, and that are actually entertaining.

 

[FalconPunch]

I can save Xbox. They need a new franchise. A male oriented power fantasy involving extremely gratuitous violence and a sassy, unbelievably hot chick sidekick who shows a lot of cleavage.

You know. Make games that their actual audience want to play, and that are actually entertaining.

I do think in a way, Xbox is out of touch with it's audience. I don't know if it's on purpose in an attempt to grow their audience or if its unintentional. They've released some good games recently that the audience doesn't seem to care about. Take Pentiment or HiFi Rush as examples, they're great games that got absolutely no traction with their userbase.

 

[Elysium44]

I do think in a way, Xbox is out of touch with it's audience. I don't know if it's on purpose in an attempt to grow their audience or if its unintentional. They've released some good games recently that the audience doesn't seem to care about. Take Pentiment or HiFi Rush as examples, they're great games that got absolutely no traction with their userbase.

Maybe they weren't that great. I have no interest in them at all and presumably I'm not alone or they'd be bigger hits. They are too niche.

 

[Optimus Lime]

I do think in a way, Xbox is out of touch with it's audience. I don't know if it's on purpose in an attempt to grow their audience or if its unintentional. They've released some good games recently that the audience doesn't seem to care about. Take Pentiment or HiFi Rush as examples, they're great games that got absolutely no traction with their userbase.

That reason their userbase didn't care is that they were wussy, artsy crap. Pentiment was just boring nerd stuff, and Hi-Fi Rush was a fucking rhythm game that looks like it was made for kids.

Young men like blood and guns and tits and explosions. They need to make something with blood running through its veins instead of soy.

 

[GreyHand23]

Continuing on from my previous post, lets look at the Ori series next.

A great game and one that bucks the trend of a general decline in quality. The user and critic scores are closely aligned showing that this is a series where the critics got it right.

Fable Series:

The only thing we can say here is that there's a perceived decline according to the users. The franchise is shelved I believe.

Flight Simulator:

Flight Simulator is a stable series in terms of reviews with FSX being the outlier. Notice the huge gulf in userscore vs critic score suggesting that the critics were wrong once again. Personally speaking, I like the series and it's one I play often till this day.

Miscellaneous Exclusives:

There's no real trend to see here. This chart just highlights the Metascore vs User score for each random exclusive.

Dead Rising Series:

Here again we see another decline in quality with each iteration. Nothing much to add.


Minecraft:

Another decline in quality although these are different type of games.

Let's Look at Phil Spencer's Performance as a whole.

It's clear to see that prior to Phil Spencer taking over Xbox as a whole in 2014, titles scored higher with both users and critics. Since he's taken over, we've seen a drop in both ratings.

Key takeaways:

• 8 out 11 franchises saw a decline in quality with each mainline release
• There's a drastic difference in user score vs critic score suggesting that the critics are overrating games. This is not just limited to xbox
• The franchises tended to score higher earlier in the lifecycle often aligning with OG Xbox or Xbox 360
• There are more 90 rated games in the OG Xbox / Xbox 360 era than there are in the Series / Xbox One era
• Of the recent releases, only Flight Simulator, Forza Horizon 5 and Ori the will of the wisp touch the 90s.

Discuss....

Personally speaking, I feel like Phil Spencer is a big problem.

EDIT: adamsapple is attempting to derail the thread by arguing that metacritic user scores are invalid. The charts are composed of both the metacritic "critic" score listed as metacritic and the metacritic user score listed as "userscore". If you do not like the userscore. Feel free to ignore the user score and look at the aggregate critic scores.

Not reading every reply, but I think the difference in user score and critic score has more to do with the fact that reviewers typically only use 7-10 in the review scale and only go below that for significant outliers. Users do not have the same behavior so they tend to use the entire 0-10 scale which ends up skewing the score lower on average. For most of the games the lines are fairly consistent between them in terms of trends, however.

 

[Arsic]

The two reasons for me to own a Xbox were Halo and Gears.

Under Phil’s reign these franchises are now dead.

However, as a PC player I got gamepass, and have saved tons of $, and played more games that I would’ve never bought that I ended up really loving like Lies of P or Yakuza franchise.

Would I give up gamepass pc to have a good halo and/or Gears ? Yes. In a heartbeat. I value those two franchises, gears especially, more than saving $500+ a year on games.

 

[mckmas8808]

The Phil Spencer effect™.

Maybe this is why there was an Xbox shakeup.

 

[Feel Like I'm On 42]

That's fair point however you chose to focus on user review scores when the critic review scores still show a decline. You're arguing semantically in an attempt to invalidate the whole premise. It won't work. Phil Spencer is a problem.

Because he's one of the biggest Xbox fanboys I've seen here. No surprise he wants to find a flaw to discredit the argument, despite missing the bigger picture. Those same user scores exist prior to Phil Spencer, so they're a consistent metric. Both critic reviews and user reviews show a downward trend. They're not necessary to prove the decline anyway. Simply remove or ignore the user scores, the downward trend is clearly shown regardless.

 

[adamsapple]

Those same user scores exist prior to Phil Spencer, so they're a consistent metric.

User scores have existed before but the way they're weaponized by fantards in the last couple of years is unprecedented. We all know this.

I can't believe a single person is actually batting in favor of metacritic user reviews here.

And, no, before you say it. I am not missing "the bigger picture". Decline via the disparity in user vs critic scores is the focal point of most of the charts in the OP.

But hurr durr xbox fanboy or something

 

[THE DUCK]

I don't blame Phil... I blame gamepass.

As simple as gamepass limited the game budgets and developers aren't gonna spend time and money to polish an 8 game to try and make it a 9 for it to end on a service on day one.

Ms is sacrificing quality in order to have games released regularly to keep ppl susbcribed

Gamepass had zero to do with any of that. Did gamepass have bungie leave?

If anything the continuous stream of cash from gamepass allows longer development times.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

I think you're mostly wrong.

Example:
Halo Infinite Steam score(120k reviews verified paying users): 69.71
Halo Infinite User Score: 79
Is User score now useless?

Starfield Steam Score(120k reviews verified paying users): 66
Starfield User Score: 70

The premise is that critics are overrating games. User score doesn't invalidate this and is actually more generous in rating that Steam scores. Critics are overrating games and it's not just limited to xbox.

Steam scores aren't ratings... They're a percentage of a binary choice as to whether someone recommends the game or doesn't.

I think Metacritic and the platform holders need to get a grasp on user scores and we've discussed this at length. You should have to be a verified owner of the game through API.

The user review score has become almost meaningless on metacritic now and maybe publishers are more comfortable with that, but I don't think it's great business.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Gamepass had zero to do with any of that. Did gamepass have bungie leave?

If anything the continuous stream of cash from gamepass allows longer development times.

I would say that GamePass subscriber growth being so intrinsically tied to Xbox platform growth means games are still releasing entirely too early because Microsoft needs to sell Xbox units and maintain engagement on GamePass.

The most played games on GamePass right now are

• Minecraft
• Starfield
• Halo Infinite
• Dead by Daylight
• Farming Simulator
• ARK Survival Evolved
• Texas Chainsaw Massacre
• Skyrim
• For Honor
• Fallout 4
• DayZ
• Sea of Thieves
• The Hunter Call of the Wild
• Gotham Knights

Frankly, this is a terrible list and I don't know how they're going to sustain memberships for another 6 months on the backs of Starfield and Halo Infinite. Honestly, I don't know how GamePass hasn't already imploded except that a lot of people probably have months/years stacked up.

 

[blue velvet]

I do.

GT7 would be the best GT game ever if it weren't for the awful microtransactions.

The game is no fun if you don't want to spend real money.

2.3 is well deserverd.

>le michael transaction
You clearly have not played nor own the game. You're just regurgitating what you've read on the internet.

 

[existensmaximum]

Not reading every reply, but I think the difference in user score and critic score has more to do with the fact that reviewers typically only use 7-10 in the review scale and only go below that for significant outliers. Users do not have the same behavior so they tend to use the entire 0-10 scale which ends up skewing the score lower on average. For most of the games the lines are fairly consistent between them in terms of trends, however.

Exactly my thoughts. If anything, these graphs show that the users pretty much agree with the critics. At least then it comes to the statement that the trend is that many series are declining.

 

[VideoGameEnjoyer]

It seems like you just learned how to make graphs in Excel.

 

[Edmund]

Phil is actually THE problem, so much talk for nothing, literally.

At his beginning, he was "fresh" because he got the benefit of the doubt, now the truth has been revealed with the ABK courts, he's just a (bad) joke, a clown full of blablabla at this point.

Xbox had so MUCH potential after the Xbox 360 storm, today, everything has been wasted.

lol this Lowrie James guy really looks like Phil.

 

[THE DUCK]

I would say that GamePass subscriber growth being so intrinsically tied to Xbox platform growth means games are still releasing entirely too early because Microsoft needs to sell Xbox units and maintain engagement on GamePass.

The most played games on GamePass right now are

• Minecraft
• Starfield
• Halo Infinite
• Dead by Daylight
• Farming Simulator
• ARK Survival Evolved
• Texas Chainsaw Massacre
• Skyrim
• For Honor
• Fallout 4
• DayZ
• Sea of Thieves
• The Hunter Call of the Wild
• Gotham Knights

Frankly, this is a terrible list and I don't know how they're going to sustain memberships for another 6 months on the backs of Starfield and Halo Infinite. Honestly, I don't know how GamePass hasn't already imploded except that a lot of people probably have months/years stacked up.

I could work that if you could tell me all the "rushed" games from MS lately and budget cuts and layoffs over the past few years. (Basically non existent) Even though the scores have been lower overall, it has nothing to do with gamepass.
They took an extra year with Halo, and they took thier time with Starfield.

Games, on gamepass or sold traditionally, need to perform. The pressure and expectation is there either way.

The reason gamepass doesn't implode is it still offers a lot of content for the money, even if they are 8 out of 10 games instead of 9 out of 10. Your list also backs up the idea that casual players are still engaged. Those casual players are actually what MS is after the most.

 

[March Climber]

User scores have existed before but the way they're weaponized by fantards in the last couple of years is unprecedented. We all know this.

Hopefully one day someone makes a credible website where people have to either provide a gamertag or connect their trophy/achivement profiles before being able to review. Then once the review is posted, right next to the review it can say “this person has completed _____% of the game based on trophies/achievements earned.”

If I can think up this concept out of the blue at a random hour of the day, then someone out there, hopefully, has to be working on this.

 

[Roger Rabbit]

interesting charts. Some of it is expected. Or all of it is really... considering it's MSFT. MSFT is all about the business. They aren't a craftsman culture. I feel like a Nintendo also has a craftsman culture in addition to the business culture. And the two are simpatico.

MSFT is all about owning you. lol.


I can't speak for Sony. Although I feel like they are trying to emulate Nintendo on the games side while emulating MSFT on the business side.

But as for MSFT I remember Fable. That could been their Zelda.

Minecraft ...they haven't released sequels afaik which is good I think. A few spinoffs that don't rate as high is expected.

Forza? I don't play it but felt like they spam too many of them as there is always a new one and never could figure how they could make so many new versions of what to me seemed like the same game. And by releasing so many ...quality and interest is only going to drop off.

And Halo... the reality is some franchises need a lot of time off before you release another one. Look at SMB on NES. Pretty sure they waited something like 20 years before making another on the Wii.

Never cared much for GoW. I played one. I never saw the appeal of the characters. But as long as they haven't damaged the franchise too much...it's something they can bring back in the future. That's the thing with franchises. You can't just go for the cash grab. You have to consider whether or not you are enhancing or damaging the brand when making a new iteration in the franchise.

Granted annual spamming has worked business wise for EA with its sports games, ATVI with CoD and TTWO with NBA 2k. Kudos to Kotick and CoD considering the other guys do it thru licensing sometimes exclusive licensing.

The days of Forza spamming appear to be over. We were lucky enough to get a new Motorsport or Horizon every year between 2013 and 2018. But the last Horizon was in 2021 and no 6 doesn’t appear to be coming out any time soon. Meanwhile the recent Forza Motorsport is six years after Forza Motorsport 7.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

I could work that if you could tell me all the "rushed" games from MS lately and budget cuts and layoffs over the past few years. (Basically non existent) Even though the scores have been lower overall, it has nothing to do with gamepass.
They took an extra year with Halo, and they took thier time with Starfield.

Games, on gamepass or sold traditionally, need to perform. The pressure and expectation is there either way.

The reason gamepass doesn't implode is it still offers a lot of content for the money, even if they are 8 out of 10 games instead of 9 out of 10. Your list also backs up the idea that casual players are still engaged. Those casual players are actually what MS is after the most.

Extra time is all relative. They've got essentially no content at the moment 3 years into the generation. If Halo Infinite came out this year and Starfield came out next year, both games probably would have received much higher scores, but they had to release Halo Infinite in 2021 because they couldn't go two whole years with no content.

I agree that that pressure is there either way, but the pressure is double with GamePass and a dying console platform.

I wouldn't say my list says anything about engagement at all. There is a rank but there is nothing in regards to numbers. I think it could be argued based on the engagement we're seeing for those games on other platforms, that the numbers probably aren't too good.

I think what's happened is most gamepass subscribers are actually microsoft's core, particularly on Xbox, so they've probably stacked up months if not years. The more casual gamers are actually playing games that aren't on gamepass like NBA 2K24 and Fortnite.

Now that they've replaced Live Gold with Xbox GamePass Core, I fully expect this price to go up. I can't imagine that GamePass Ultimate doesn't actually implode soon.

 

[Hudo]

I care about Flight Sim, but I also care about Forza (deteriorating), PGR (now dead), Rallisport Challenge, etc and I also once cared to actually own an Xbox console (which he doesn't seem to care about anymore).

The best thing he's done of late in terms of games is allow Remedy to have the Alan Wake IP back so that we could end up with the fantastic Alan Wake 2 and that speaks volumes.

He's not one of the worst, he is the worst leader they've had. Just saying "I only want these 2 games so fuck the bigger picture" is massively shortsighted. Some people once said "I only care about gears and halo, fuck the bigger picture", what are they saying now?

When Microsoft was doing better "in the bigger picture" during the 360 era, my personal interest was the lowest because they rarely had any games I was interested in. So yes, I don't care about the "bigger picture". Because it's not my responsibility to care. I care about, as a consumer, what they have that I want. And right now, they have more of what I want than before.

If I were a member of the board, sure, I would've asked Phil what his plans were for Halo and Gears, because these IPs bring in money. (PGR4 is one of the best racing games of all time, btw)

Edit: I actually don't know what the argument here is. I don't disagree with you. My point just was that stuff is not black or white. He did some good things, he did some shitty things, which he should fix, if feasible. From my personal point of view as a consumer, I don't like the direction of gaming-as-a-service but that's where the money is. And he moved Microsoft and Xbox in a solid position w.r.t that. Now he ""just"" needs to get Halo and the other stuff back on track. But I don't have any suggestions on how to do that.

 

[Edmund]

Hopefully one day someone makes a credible website where people have to either provide a gamertag or connect their trophy/achivement profiles before being able to review. Then once the review is posted, right next to the review it can say “this person has completed _____% of the game based on trophies/achievements earned.”

If I can think up this concept out of the blue at a random hour of the day, then someone out there, hopefully, has to be working on this.

You don't have to finish eating a piece of shit to know it tastes bad. Just one bite and you know it's shit.


Same with fallout 76 for me. Me and my 2 friends were anticipating playing it together. One hour into the game I told my friends that I think this game is gonna be crap. They weren't happy and kept on playing.

I kept on playing with them for another week and I said I give up and gave them all my loot. Of course they weren't happy as I shat on the game and it's bugs constantly throughout our playtime together.

A year later I asked one of them how is fallout 76 going. And he admitted it's shit.

 

[systemr123]

I can save Xbox. They need a new franchise. A male oriented power fantasy involving extremely gratuitous violence and a sassy, unbelievably hot chick sidekick who shows a lot of cleavage.

You know. Make games that their actual audience want to play, and that are actually entertaining.

MS picking up your message and tomorrow::: "We're happy to announce that we acquired the Bayonetta publisher", now we own it we will not do anything good with it, but alas, Bayonetta will now be an Xbox exclusive because when we all play, we all win.

 

[clarky]

You don't have to finish eating a piece of shit to know it tastes bad. Just one bite and you know it's shit.


Same with fallout 76 for me. Me and my 2 friends were anticipating playing it together. One hour into the game I told my friends that I think this game is gonna be crap. They weren't happy and kept on playing.

I kept on playing with them for another week and I said I give up and gave them all my loot. Of course they weren't happy as I shat on the game and it's bugs constantly throughout our playtime together.

A year later I asked one of them how is fallout 76 going. And he admitted it's shit.

This might be true of Fallout76 ( I never played it) but there loads of games that failed to grab me in the first couple of hours but turned out to be bangers once i returned and gave them another go.

Sometimes you bite into shit and find out its filled with cocaine.

 

[crackajack]

The critics got it "wrong", because average people generally get most things even more wrong then them. The expectations or entitlement and also bitterness about diminishing returns is growing each year. I think a discrepancy isn't surprising at all- stupid review bombing not even considered. That generally the scores are a bit declining is more of an indicator, still no real gotcha moment, than that the user score is even more going down.

But the whole thread would make more sense if Spencer would have been compared to every other studio leader, if he significantly performs/greenlight worse projects, and since some already did that with prime examples of review bombed games we already see that it is an argument that someone wants to be true but really necessarily isn't.

 

[THE DUCK]

Extra time is all relative. They've got essentially no content at the moment 3 years into the generation. If Halo Infinite came out this year and Starfield came out next year, both games probably would have received much higher scores, but they had to release Halo Infinite in 2021 because they couldn't go two whole years with no content.

I agree that that pressure is there either way, but the pressure is double with GamePass and a dying console platform.

I wouldn't say my list says anything about engagement at all. There is a rank but there is nothing in regards to numbers. I think it could be argued based on the engagement we're seeing for those games on other platforms, that the numbers probably aren't too good.

I think what's happened is most gamepass subscribers are actually microsoft's core, particularly on Xbox, so they've probably stacked up months if not years. The more casual gamers are actually playing games that aren't on gamepass like NBA 2K24 and Fortnite.

Now that they've replaced Live Gold with Xbox GamePass Core, I fully expect this price to go up. I can't imagine that GamePass Ultimate doesn't actually implode soon.

Not really a dying platform, looks like it's on track to similar numbers to xbox one. It's no ps5, but it's not dead either.

Pretty sure there was some info released that said something like 90+ % of the subs left on gamepass were paying monthly at this point, so the idea that most of the subs remaining are stacked is not accurate. Most people aren't on.gaming forums looking for stacking deals.

Not sure why you.think gamepass will implode, they already stated years ago it was already at break even. And it's not like the games can't enjoy traditional sales on Xbox and pc as well. Throwing in Activision will help too.

 

[Mr Reasonable]

How do people have the energy to make these threads?

"What're you doing, honey?"

"Just getting my charts made, I worked out a new way to criticize Phil Spencer"

"Darling that's wonderful! And you say this will help you get a job and find meaning in your life?"

"Uh..."

 

[Havoc2049]

 

[FunkMiller]

Good old Phil has failed utterly to make Xbox a compelling console brand that competes with its rivals. The fact people still defend him and his track record is mind boggling.

 

[RagnarokIV]

I don't like phil spencer and here's my evidence:

Somes charts:

and some tables:

As you can see, the evidence is quite compelling.

 

[ShakenG]

I do.

GT7 would be the best GT game ever if it weren't for the awful microtransactions.

The game is no fun if you don't want to spend real money.

2.3 is well deserverd.

It also has a rating of 4.3/5 on the PS store. Where you actually have to own the game to rate it. Cant be too bad.
2.3 isnt deserved in the slightest.

 

[Elog]

User scores have existed before but the way they're weaponized by fantards in the last couple of years is unprecedented. We all know this.

I can't believe a single person is actually batting in favor of metacritic user reviews here.

And, no, before you say it. I am not missing "the bigger picture". Decline via the disparity in user vs critic scores is the focal point of most of the charts in the OP.

But hurr durr xbox fanboy or something

You are missing the point. When looking at the same tool for measurement the trend differences over time are real regardless of the quality of the underlying tool.

Ergo: Spencer has an abysmal record in giving direction, supporting, organising and deliver games which frankly is his core task as responsible for the MS gaming division.

 

[Ozriel]

Ok you're right, but what has it cost them? They spent 68.7 Billion to buy Act-Blizzard alone. I'm not sure they've made even a profit at all in their gaming division.

The $68.7bn spent on Activision certainly isn’t showing up as a negative or ‘loss’ on their Xbox balance sheet.

You are missing the point. When looking at the same tool for measurement the trend differences over time are real regardless of the quality of the underlying tool.

That’s inextricably tied to the dipping public perception towards Xbox as a whole since 2013.

 

[Robb]

User scores on Meta are utterly meaningless, especially for these heavy hitters which get review bombed infinitely by fanboys, in both directions.

But yeah, MS output have not been very consistent and they seem to need better leadership within a lot of their studios.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

The scary thing is they haven't been able to create a new, big IP to match Halo, Gears, or Forza. Starfield was the big chance, but failed spectacularly.

MS didn't even create Starfield. They had to buy the publisher to get the game exclusively and somehow pretend that they were responsible for creating it. Nonsense.

Bethesda Softworks has been in decline ever since Fallout 4. So Starfield being ass was something MS should have calculated, given how bad the studio's last game, Fallout 76 was.

 

[Jayjayhd34]

Hopefully one day someone makes a credible website where people have to either provide a gamertag or connect their trophy/achivement profiles before being able to review. Then once the review is posted, right next to the review it can say “this person has completed _____% of the game based on trophies/achievements earned.”

If I can think up this concept out of the blue at a random hour of the day, then someone out there, hopefully, has to be working on this.

I've said this numerous of times on the forum so your not alone. Maybe should all team hammer metacritics inbox

 

[Elysium44]

MS didn't even create Starfield. They had to buy the publisher to get the game exclusively and somehow pretend that they were responsible for creating it. Nonsense.

Bethesda Softworks has been in decline ever since Fallout 4. So Starfield being ass was something MS should have calculated, given how bad the studio's last game, Fallout 76 was.

Spencer is like a stock picker who only buys falling knives, he buys them after they're past their best and everyone else is heading for the exits.

 

[Unknown?]

I'm gonna stop you right there.

Using user reviews as any kind of gauge or metric, especially from metacritic, is immediately disqualifying of the whole experiment.

Why? We know Microsoft actively deletes bad user reviews to get better overall. All corporations do that, so it is essentially better than what it should be.