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Why didn't Microsoft win over the hearts of gamers like Sony and Nintendo did?

nikolino840

Member
And yet Microsoft never mentions how many units they shipped or how much money they made, just how many users they have. Weird how that works.

Personally, I feel that people love to hate Microsoft, but at the same time they need better games. Near the end of the Xbox 360 and the beginning for the Xbox One they kind of dropped the ball. But now with the Xbox One X, scarlet, expanding their libraries to PC, putting Xbox Live on more devices, crossplay, play anywhere, gamepass with 3rd party titles, etc. You can see that they want to grow the user base and bring more and more people together regardless of platform.

Meanwhile, Sony is trying to keep everything closed off to make sure that they keep there community segregated. In the end Sony has fantastic games, but their business practices will end up hurting 3rd parties and Indies in the end. They’ve always seemed so arrogant to me, but I guess the games are the reason why I own a PS4 Pro. I think, that since the PlayStation Brand has been around longer, people have more of a sense of nostalgia towards them.



Do you have any examples where this has occurred?
Units selling Is Just for sheeps.... I am a Wolf :p
 
The original team who made the original Xbox did it for the love of gaming and most within Microsoft didn't understand the idea of a Gaming Console asked why it isn't a portable PC. The original Team stood by their vision and got third parties involved from Japan and the west which shown a lot of passion and heart. It was mostly a western based library but still had some great Japanese Gems in their line up for those who wanted it.

The early years of the 360 was mostly the game but they tried to showcase an online community of sorts through the console and put a lot of effort in the onlkne infrastructure. They tried again with Japanese Studios but it sadly didn't work as well for them and CoD, AssCreed seemed a safer bet.

Then Mattrick came in and introduced the Kinect and wanted to try and cater to the ultra casual and rely on the same IPs that did well in the 369 era despite changing devs and personnel, losing their charm.

I would say that Sony doesn't help with their aggressive exclusive contracts but MS shot itself in the foot by never committing to making unique content and cancelling games from their own studios left and right.

I can see a shift for Next Gen if Sony continue their archaic censorship system and general arrogance of dominating this generation. The MS/Nintendo partnership feels more like they want to beat Sony in mindshare rather than compete with one another directly. If MS and Nintendo can convince all third parties involved that they can get a better deal with them (no censorship, better production costs for indies, mid devs and Japanese Devs, exclusive content that is cross compatible with Xbox and Switch) over Sony then I honestly can see the Playstation 5 with fafewer exclusives then this generation.r
 
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Kdad

Member
Xbox 360 sold 84 million consoles, I think I think I would count that as a success. PS3 only sold 3 million more and I think that happened towards the end of the last gen. Xbox 360 was ahead until near the end I beleive.
The vast majority of those 84 million* were in US/Can UK...i don't see how what you're saying and what I'm saying can't co-exist.
You say this like the U.S., U.K. and Canada are three tiny islands off the coast of Europe.

The question posed is about the hearts of gamers, not sales totals. So yes, 3 countries where you have some hearts won over (and in the UK and Can is isn't THAT strong) is a pittance in the world. Go outside of these three countres and mention console gaming and TROTW will think Nintendo or PlayStation brand, not XBox
 

tassletine

Member
They don't have a strong identity and they try to much to people please. It happens to most companies at some stage.

Traditionally companies that ride those social waves adapt to the market.
Microsoft did initially, and their console was associated with dudebro games, which is of course now wildly unpopular in the mainstream press.

They haven't really found another identity -- When your brand is defined by strength / looking powerful it's a bit of a dead end as stepping down from that loses some face. It's one of the reasons they look disingenuous, it's because ultimately they are. They don't have much to fall back on.

All companies want to earn money, but when you don't have an identity it hurts you, especially if you are in entertainment which is a more artful area. They need to appeal more to that sensibility and stop acting like a cold tech company that wants to impress you.
 

Fluzer

Banned
The vast majority of those 84 million* were in US/Can UK...i don't see how what you're saying and what I'm saying can't co-exist.


The question posed is about the hearts of gamers, not sales totals. So yes, 3 countries where you have some hearts won over (and in the UK and Can is isn't THAT strong) is a pittance in the world. Go outside of these three countres and mention console gaming and TROTW will think Nintendo or PlayStation brand, not XBox

Mexico and Australia say hi.
 

Valonquar

Member
Mostly due to them teaming up with the 3rd party devs that Sony didn't want, who proceeded to just make shit tier sequels of better games from previous gen.
 

mcjmetroid

Member
Because Sony and Nintendo are more nostalgic. They've been doing it far long and a lot of people grew up with those companies. Sega can be included in this too even though they don't really make hardware anymore.
 

Daymos

Member
MS is all about flashy graphics, fast cars, cool guns, and big manly explosions.. which turns into games that aren't very memorable or unique.

It's that backward business idea of making a product to fit your audience instead of make a product that's the BEST there is... it's better to make something great that people didn't know they wanted.
 
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Caffeine

Member
if we are going based off this gen then bc + gamepass is their biggest selling point, they had to also turn this ship around with the poor initial reception. gears 4 was more of the same, and halo 5 outside of the great mp didnt really do much favors for halo which is their flagship franchise. The third party games they had deals with a majority of them are not that great and the ones that looked interesting were canned.
dont get me wrong I still use the xbox one daily mainly playing bc and third party titles and they turned the negative reception around, but they need to push for a more diverse first party which I assume they are with all the studio acquisitions.
 
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#Phonepunk#

Banned
nothing Microsoft did has ever been innovative or ever blown minds. I was PC gaming in the 90s and Microsoft was only known to me for actively making gaming worse. Anyone else ever try playing Doom on Windows?

Mostly, it’s just the style. Steve Jobs said it best Microsoft has no taste. Everything they do feels generic and poorly engineered to me. I like the weirder stranger Japanese stuff. Seeing Super Mario Bros in the 80s was a mind blowing experience and Nintendo keeps delivering those. I haven’t had a Microsoft moment as exciting as what Nintendo was doing 30 years ago
 
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Fluzer

Banned
nothing Microsoft did has ever been innovative or ever blown minds. I was PC gaming in the 90s and Microsoft was only known to me for actively making gaming worse. Anyone else ever try playing Doom on Windows?

Mostly, it’s just the style. Steve Jobs said it best Microsoft has no taste. Everything they do feels generic and poorly engineered to me. I like the weirder stranger Japanese stuff. Seeing Super Mario Bros in the 80s was a mind blowing experience and Nintendo keeps delivering those. I haven’t had a Microsoft moment as exciting as what Nintendo was doing 30 years ago

Not sure anyone can't shit at pants at Gears of War in 2006 or seeing Halo 3 for the first time. Now those were real games, not the pussyfoot games we have today.
 
I see it all over, when you mention Sony as a gaming company you're met with them "Oh they're great, they make some amazing games. I love PlayStation" and Nintendo the same. But whenever Microsoft is mentioned in a positive light, you're sideyed and met with confused looks. Sony and Nintendo are synonymous with gaming, Microsoft wrecked any chance for such recognition when they decided gaming was an afterthought, I believe this was in 2009 when Kinect took over and Microsoft's exclusives drought started.

I will give Microsoft for credit for games/franchises like Halo, Gears, Forza, Fable, Lost Odysessy, Alan Wake, Blue Dragon, Crimson Skies, Blood Wake, Sunset Overdrive and Ori but why do you think these games weren't enough to win over gamers? Also, do you think Microsoft being a fat cat American company had any bearing on people's perception of Xbox? Do you think people just like to root for the underdogs who are Sony and Nintendo in this case?
The simple answer is MS is too big, they are considered a megacorp. The cool kids think it's not cool to support mega corps only the underdogs. In some ways that thinking is good because you never want a megacorp to control the whole industry.
 
nothing Microsoft did has ever been innovative or ever blown minds. I was PC gaming in the 90s and Microsoft was only known to me for actively making gaming worse. Anyone else ever try playing Doom on Windows?

Mostly, it’s just the style. Steve Jobs said it best Microsoft has no taste. Everything they do feels generic and poorly engineered to me. I like the weirder stranger Japanese stuff. Seeing Super Mario Bros in the 80s was a mind blowing experience and Nintendo keeps delivering those. I haven’t had a Microsoft moment as exciting as what Nintendo was doing 30 years ago
You are not being serious when you say never has been innovative are you?
 
I always thought Xbox IPs were too similar and marketed too heavily to tweeners. I primarily game on PC, and I also keep in mind how much of a hassle Microsoft has made their own games on PC. - Games for Window Store, Games for Windows Exclusives, the Games for Windows UI in general, and then Games for Windows acting like a port of Xbox, not being able to play with other people on the same game, dropping support at the whim of a hat for games in development [RIP Mythica], poor decisions with games they released Asheron's Call 2 [yes, this was originally a MGS title]. Even modern successful games like Killer Instinct were made more of a hassle by the games for windows store.
 

HE1NZ

Banned
I believe in hubris cycle of gaming industry and at this moment Sony is at their 2005 levels, with all out arrogance. They're gonna announce a $799 console with a dedicated censorship chip and bunch of crap nobody wants soon and will be begging for third parties to return. Their exclusive pipeline is slowing down too and all devs appears to stick to new third person cinematic action template.

Meanwhile Phil Spencer's been rebuilding brand since 2015 and seems to be doing hell of a job. They turn Xbox consoles into what Gaben wanted with Steam machines and make everything available on PC, Game Pass seems like a much better solution to streaming services, top notch E3 presentations without any pc politics or pompous grandstanding, extremely well done backwards compatibility, etc. I think Xbox brand is in a good place right now, all they need to do is carry it all over to next gen.
 

Chittagong

Gold Member
1st party franchises and studios. Microsoft didn’t give much to love.

Gears, Halo and Forza are pretty much it. They’ve acquired studios people loved and ran them down.

In contrast, Nintendo and Sony have committed to studios and franchises for decades.
 

Psykodad

Banned
MS is completely out of touch with the gaming community and always has been. Besides, they're cancerous to the industry.
 
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Fox Mulder

Member
The Xbox was built to be a third party machine and they haven't kept up with the iconic first party games of Nintendo or Sony. Even Halo is down from its glory days at a time when competitive shooters are everywhere.
 

SpartanN92

Banned
I love Microsoft and Xbox!
They aren’t perfect of course but I feel as a consumer that I have been catered to and my money has been well spent on Xbox products over the past 15+ years.

Halo does need to get better though. Between the MCC launch and Halo 5 I really felt let down. However MCC is doing great now and will be even better in the near future when Reach is ready, and I have confidence that Halo Infinite will be good.
 
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Ar¢tos

Member
Why? Hmmm
Maybe this?
pp,840x830-pad,1000x1000,f8f8f8.jpg

Or this?
Dew_Doritos_JPG-hero.jpg

When you make "being AMERICAN" the centre of your marketing, how do you expect the rest of the world to react?
MS alienated itself from the rest of the world, no surprise that other companies took advantage of that.
 

Fluzer

Banned
Why? Hmmm
Maybe this?
pp,840x830-pad,1000x1000,f8f8f8.jpg

Or this?
Dew_Doritos_JPG-hero.jpg

When you make "being AMERICAN" the centre of your marketing, how do you expect the rest of the world to react?
MS alienated itself from the rest of the world, no surprise that other companies took advantage of that.

If a cheeseburger and doritos chips offends people so much, maybe they should grow a backbone. lol
 

cireza

Banned
MS is completely out of touch with the gaming community and always has been. Besides, they're cancerous to the industry.
Sony is completely out of touch with the gaming community and always has been. Besides, they're cancerous to the industry.
 

HE1NZ

Banned
Why? Hmmm
Maybe this?
pp,840x830-pad,1000x1000,f8f8f8.jpg

Or this?
Dew_Doritos_JPG-hero.jpg

When you make "being AMERICAN" the centre of your marketing, how do you expect the rest of the world to react?
MS alienated itself from the rest of the world, no surprise that other companies took advantage of that.
I'm not American and that burger ad is fantastic.
 
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Outrunner

Member
I think it is just fairly unknown to the general public. Nintendo and Sony have been around for a long time, adults all have childhood memories with these companies.

I personally hate Microsoft because of how they are sitting in loads of cash and can't grab a single exclusive. Also I hate the fact that Phil Spencer keeps trying to convince us that we want games as a service and that we really need streaming. None of these things serve the consumer's interest, only Microsoft's.

Let me tell you though I owned an OG Xbox and it was for me the best 128-bits after the Dreamcast.
 
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MayauMiao

Member
Wait, people liked the original Xbox? lol

I had the OG Xbox, almost made the jump to X360 too but the RRoD blunder killed it. Didn't help MS was being a-hole for introducing the horrible Games for Windows Live service, and by the end of X360 they were so heavily Kinect focus while Sony was beating them with exclusive PS3 games.

The infamous Xbox One TV TV TV completely destroyed any hope I have for the Xbox brand.
 

Ar¢tos

Member
Nobody said people got offended, those people just did not get captivated by a product that identifies itself through American stereotypes.
Exactly my point. And having an worldwide reveal that completely ignored the whole world, except America only reinforced that image.
 

Riven326

Banned
Because they screwed up with Xbox One. Then they doubled down on it until they couldn't anymore. It did a lot of damage to the brand and Sony was almost perfect with their performance.

They also closed Lionhead. Fuck Microsoft.
 

Aurelian

my friends call me "Cunty"
A few factors.

It looks and acts very corporate. It's not just that the company has a perennial problem with being uncool (even the Zune screamed "try-hard"), it's that its experience and first-party game selections tend to be painfully generic. That could change soon with titles like The Outer Worlds, but Microsoft typically comes across as gaming with the edges taken off. Even Nintendo feels edgier, and that's saying something.

It frequently puts other goals above those of gamers. While Sony isn't immune to this, Microsoft is notorious for having goals other than gaming in mind. The launch-era Xbox One was, in a sense the culmination of the Steve Ballmer era of Microsoft -- it wasn't a game console, it was a Trojan horse for Windows (and Microsoft technologies) in the living room. Even now, there's a big emphasis on pushing services like the Microsoft Store. They can have benefits like cross-platform play, of course, but there's a sense that Microsoft sometimes sees the Xbox more as a means to another end than the end itself.

Mediocre exclusives. This ties in partly to the "very corporate" part. Microsoft loves to tout exclusives, but they tend to be these very middle-of-the-road, indistinguishable titles that are rarely terrible but also never good enough to lure someone over. Yeah, you have Recore, Sunset Overdrive and Crackdown, but who gives a shit about those? Don't get me wrong, titles like Sunset and Forza (most of the series, anyway) are fine, but Microsoft seems chronically unable to generate a true must-have Xbox game.

Its focus on North America. Like it or not, Microsoft screams "by Americans, for Americans" with its brand, marketing and game lineup, and it still doesn't know how to court gamers or developers outside of its home continent. Some of this is outside of Microsoft's control (there's a chicken-and-egg situation), but the fact is that someone creating a JRPG or European sports game has zero desire or incentive to develop for the Xbox. Sony and Nintendo may be Japanese companies, but it feels like they're designing hardware and courting games meant for the whole planet, not just their home turf.
 

brian0057

Banned
"Winning the hearts of gamers"...
No company in history "wins my heart" or whatever the hell that means.
I may like a specific brand or choose a particular product but I'm under no pretense that any company, no matter how altruistic they may appear, are in it for the good of the people.

Ultimately, a company's goal comes down to the bottom line. As long as the company I choose to support doesn't screw up too often, they'll still get my money.
Otherwise, I simply swap them.
 
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Breakage

Member
With Microsoft, I always get the impression that its wider corporate goals no longer mesh well with the idea of a fixed hardware platform like Xbox.
I suppose this is the motivation behind Microsoft's desire to make “Xbox” available across many devices.
 

tr1p1ex

Member
No Xbox has sold as well as the most popular PS or Nintendo platform.

They haven't done enough to stand out.

Hardware issues. Pricepoint issues. Exclusive issues. They had Halo back in the day but it isn't the big hit it once was. CoD took over that spot for shooters and it's multi-platform. The first XBox was big and bulky. The 360 had RROD. The X1 was $100 more than the PS4. GoW was a hit but it hasn't been sustainable. Fable seemed like it could have been a great franchise but they drove that into the ground. Forza does ok from what I read, but they spam the titles so it's being driven into the ground as well at least from where I sit. Minecraft could be that big 1st party game, but it's so well established on every platform that it is too late to make it exclusive.

MS had Xbox Live but Sony seems to have mostly caught up and offers up enough in that department. And where you think MS might strong, they have been weak. I'm talking the UI. I had an X1 and it was a pretty bad UI. So much so I decided to give the PS4 a try. And never looked back. That was a few years ago.

And then Sony was their first. PS1 already had 100+ million sales. PS2 was a 150 million seller. MS got into the business a year after the PS2 launched. To beat the champ you really have to do much better than the champ.

Sony also seems more games focused than MS. It's a much bigger part of Sony's business than the Xbox is of MS's business. Sony seems to have more 1st party studios/exclusives. They seem to have a culture in place that will nurture those titles.

Nintendo is Nintendo. And Nintendo's only business is games. They compete by doing their own thing. And games are arguably the most polished games in the business. They also don't spam their franchises with few exceptions.
 
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HeresJohnny

Member
1. Kinect
2. DRM BS
3. $500
4. $500 again
5. Don Mattrick
6. Awful management post Ed Fries.
7. Japan is nationalist with regard to consoles and will not buy an American console no matter how decent it is
8. Relied on an all or nothing strategy involving always needing to completely dominate in the west
9. Constant hardware refreshes reinforce the decision to hold off on buying an MS console because something better is usually around the corner
10. Not enough software output and what is there can be played on other platforms
11. No interest in capturing the mass market when it comes to pricing.
 
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Azelover

Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.
Maybe I'm wrong, but.. I see Microsoft as predictable trend seeking company. That has hurt them in my eyes. Nintendo and Sony have more warmth and passion from what I can perceive.

But that's a really personal opinion. Maybe a lot of other people don't agree. But that's my answer to the OP's question.
 

Dontero

Banned
Don Mattrick

Everything was going very well after X360 until this man ideas basically ruined MS for gamers.
Phil earned back a lot of it back but Mattrick damage is still there.
 

HeresJohnny

Member
Maybe I'm wrong, but.. I see Microsoft as predictable trend seeking company. That has hurt them in my eyes. Nintendo and Sony have more warmth and passion from what I can perceive.

But that's a really personal opinion. Maybe a lot of other people don't agree. But that's my answer to the OP's question.
I've said before that Microsoft is into box checking, and I think that's a pretty fair assessment of them.
 
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