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Xbox Closes a Milestone Year in 2016 with an Exceptional Year Ahead for Gamers

T

tiredheadcrab

Member
PritheeBeCareful said:
No, they're treating it like PS4 Pro - native 4K versions of games you've already played. Quote me in six months.
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Yeah IDK if we can compare what MS and Sony are doing as exactly the same move for move. I mean MS doesnt want to do generations and want their Windows 10 platform to be a baseline of their development ecosystem. Spencer has already said what he wants from future hardware beyond Scorpio. We have no idea what Sony wants beyond PS4 and PS4Pro. Thier reasoning for the PS4 Pro is rather flimsy at best.
 
B

Bgamer90

Banned
SneakersSO said:
Except face potential consumer backlash from people who just bought into the X1S in larger than ever before numbers?
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The potential is there either way though. I don't see how them pushing the Scorpio as "Xbox One ++" would be better. People get mad at new models either way. That's just how the tech industry is. And in this case MS was (in hindsight) smart to talk about the Scorpio so early as information for a new Xbox model has been around since before the Xbox One S even released. Some Xbox One S owners will be upset either way but at least MS had information already out there.

Clearly there is more goodwill in the X1 name then even Xbox fans give credit. And all we are talking about here is removing the 'One' moniker, nothing more - it'll still face the same market realities it would if it were a new console platform, which I highly doubt MS will do anyway.
Click to expand...

But people would view it as more than just an "Xbox One ++" which would help since people would be more attracted to the device. The device would feel more fresh/new instead of being attached to something that has been around since 2013.


Xbox fans iterating the X1 & Scorpio are two different platforms, when they not only aren't, but nothing from MS suggests that they are, is whats most baffling here.
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They are different in that they have different specs and they are different models but they aren't two comepletly different platforms. I don't see anyone here saying that but I could be mistaken.

MS isn't going to treat Scorpio as its own platform - they're gonna lump Scorpio sales in with X1 & X1S because its another X1.
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That's sales though. I'm referring to marketing. It would be far more smart to design Scorpio's branding and marketing as being separate from Xbox One to give the device more attention.

I think that during the Holiday of this year that "Xbox One" game cases will turn into "Xbox" (only) cases since the games will work on both the Xbox One S and Scorpio. Fewer Xbox One S owners will feel left behind while people interested in Scorpio will feel that it's new thanks to different branding.
 
N

Novocaine

Member
2017 needs Halo Reach added to MCC so I can play it at 60fps like the rest.

Pleeeeeeease

I'm happy to see Recore getting new stuff.
 
T

theJwac

Member
NickMitch said:
Both ms and sony are boasting multiplatform titles....Total bullshit
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Why is this total bullshit? Exclusives are less and less lucrative to publishers. I love a great exclusive game, but I've never been of the opinion that other players should denied the opportunity of playing it.
 
B

Bluenoser

Member
Bgamer90 said:
The potential is there either way though. I don't see how them pushing the Scorpio as "Xbox One ++" would be better. People get mad at new models either way. That's just how the tech industry is. And in this case MS was (in hindsight) smart to talk about the Scorpio so early as information for a new Xbox model has been around since before the Xbox One S even released. Some Xbox One S owners will be upset either way but at least MS had information already out there.



But people would view it as more than just an "Xbox One ++" which would help since people would be more attracted to the device. The device would feel more fresh/new instead of being attached to something that has been around since 2013.




They are different in that they have different specs and they are different models but they aren't two comepletly different platforms. I don't see anyone here saying that but I could be mistaken.



That's sales though. I'm referring to marketing. It would be far more smart to design Scorpio's branding and marketing as being separate from Xbox One to give the device more attention.

I think that during the Holiday of this year that "Xbox One" game cases will turn into "Xbox" (only) cases since the games will work on both the Xbox One S and Scorpio. Fewer Xbox One S owners will feel left behind while people interested in Scorpio will feel that it's new thanks to different branding.
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Or everyone will be confused wondering why stores are selling games for a 15 year old console :)
 
Unknown?

Unknown?

Member
icespide said:
while I mostly agree with you in the general premise of the Scorpio, I do think Microsoft will have a better "launch" (for lack of a better word) line up for the Scorpio than the PS4 Pro considering how much lead time they have
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Won't really matter as Pro will have many showcase titles by then that Scorpio won't. It'll have the same problem with developers not going back to old games so by the time it comes out it will have triple the amount of games.
 
Bitch Pudding

Bitch Pudding

Member
PritheeBeCareful said:
No, they're treating it like PS4 Pro - native 4K versions of games you've already played. Quote me in six months.
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I agree, while I am sure some games will deliver a high-end graphics mode (like RoTTR) it's basically a "play your XBOX One games in 4k" machine.

But since MS made a good experience with it, I am sure they'll change plans as soon as sales don't match their internal targets. And yes, I am talking about introducing exclusive content and/or games early here.
 
C

Chris1

Member
Bgamer90 said:
I think that during the Holiday of this year that "Xbox One" game cases will turn into "Xbox" (only) cases since the games will work on both the Xbox One S and Scorpio. Fewer Xbox One S owners will feel left behind while people interested in Scorpio will feel that it's new thanks to different branding.
Click to expand...

MS need to be careful doing that though, people could actually view it as a new gen and think "xbox" games only work on Scorpio and if you have a standard XB1(s) you need "xbox one" cases (older games)

Having both Xbox and Xbox One cases on the shelves + a new console with a huge power difference over the Xbox One will be confusing for parents and stuff, MS needs to keep the xbox one I think.
 
L

LukasTaves

Member
Mass Effect said:
Because there was some confusing PR when it was first announced.

They've cleared it up since (repeatedly), but if you haven't been following Scorpio news, then it's possible to still be confused. And plus the whole thing about people saying "it's a new generation" and talks of whether to remove the Xbox One name (on GAF at least). Yeah, I can see why people are confused sometimes.
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That wasn't a PR confusion, the PR message was the same, but in a show floor interview Shanon loftis misspoke (she probably heard the question as something else) and when they asked her to confirm she clarified.

How the media got so hung up on that quote despite every official response being the same was quite annoying really, probably trying to make a case out of nothing to generate clicks.
 
D

DriftingSpirit

Member
With Halo wars 2 in Feb, it is looking like Crackdown 3, Scalebound, State of Decay 2 and Forza 7 as the fall/holiday lineup.

They'll probably have a few smaller things to add toward the end of the year as well.
 
I

icespide

Banned
NeoMetallix said:
Won't really matter as Pro will have many showcase titles by then that Scorpio won't. It'll have the same problem with developers not going back to old games so by the time it comes out it will have triple the amount of games.
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I wasn't really saying anything in the context of one winning over the other just that the Scorpio could have a better "launch" than the PS4 Pro did in terms of supported games at release.

does everything really have to come down to one winning and one losing?
 
G

get2sammyb

Member
Bitch Pudding said:
But since MS made a good experience with it, I am sure they'll change plans as soon as sales don't match their internal targets. And yes, I am talking about introducing exclusive content and/or games early here.
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Given that Scorpio at best will have 10% of the market share of Xbox One this time next year, I don't think they'll be doing that either.
 
L

LegendofDragoonLives

Member
brb trying to figure out how many sales there are from all this hard facts

hangover-maths-gif.gif
 
N

Nzyme32

Member
Nothing like presenting meaningless statistics that have no comparative value. Always amusing when companies take this kind of approach in a vain attempt to have some numbers to talk about
 
S

Samurai G0SU

Member
I wish they could have the new Xbox named Xbox Scorpio, but i know it wont happen because of confusion.

People will get confused and think the Xbox One S is the same as the Xbox One Scorpio because of the "S".

People are very simple minded when it comes to these things and especially if they don't care to research what they really mean and expect the employees in store to educate them.

Unless commercials are similar to how samsung/apple market their new phones. So people understand what to ask for at the store instead of relying on their self motivated research.
 
V

Voyr

Banned
Nzyme32 said:
Nothing like presenting meaningless statistics that have no comparative value. Always amusing when companies take this kind of approach in a vain attempt to have some numbers to talk about
Click to expand...

Or maybe announcements like these are made for the average consumer that doesn't care to analyze and compare. It sounds like good news. Mission accomplished lol
 
M

m23

Member
Novocaine said:
2017 needs Halo Reach added to MCC so I can play it at 60fps like the rest.

Pleeeeeeease

I'm happy to see Recore getting new stuff.
Click to expand...

I think Recore is just getting a new bot. It's new but nothing huge. Unless of course they changed plans and are now adding more...
 
S

Somnia

Member
DriftingSpirit said:
With Halo wars 2 in Feb, it is looking like Crackdown 3, Scalebound, State of Decay 2 and Forza 7 as the fall/holiday lineup.

They'll probably have a few smaller things to add toward the end of the year as well.
Click to expand...

My assumption is Q1 will be Halo Wars 2 and Voodoo Vince. Q2 (april-june) will be pretty quiet, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and a much larger Sea of Thieves beta. Q3 (July-Sept) will be State of Decay 2, Forza and Scalebound. Q4 will be Crackdown and something else we haven't heard of it along with a couple high profile marketing deals (what that is I don't know as I assume Sony will have COD still, Battlefront 2 again, Destiny and RDR2... maybe MS will get Assassin's Creed and something else).

Obviously I'm leaving out Cuphead, Ashen, Tacoma and others that will be on XB1 only (console wise, not including PC here).
 
R

Ricky Ricardo

Member
Nzyme32 said:
Nothing like presenting meaningless statistics that have no comparative value. Always amusing when companies take this kind of approach in a vain attempt to have some numbers to talk about
Click to expand...

Seems like a pretty by-the-numbers recounting of their year and projects. Mayhaps you're looking too deeply into a relatively innocuous recap?
 
GHG

GHG

Member
Nzyme32 said:
Nothing like presenting meaningless statistics that have no comparative value. Always amusing when companies take this kind of approach in a vain attempt to have some numbers to talk about
Click to expand...

It's their way of painting an "everything is rosy" scenario for the Xbox division for the shareholders, that's all. I've come to the conclusion that there's no point in even reading them anymore because it's always a whole lot of nothing.

Let's see what this year brings.
 
H

hanspampel

Banned
GHG said:
It's their way of painting an "everything is rosy" scenario for the Xbox division for the shareholders, that's all. I've come to the conclusion that there's no point in even reading them anymore because it's always a whole lot of nothing.

Let's see what this year brings.
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everything is rosy for shareholders when you look at Microsofts gaming division
less hardware sales, more game, digital content, expensive controller and service sales

higher gross margins, higher profits, less inventory and production risks
 
C

chaosmaster(1)

Member
I think Scalebound is gonna be delayed into spring 2018. Even though I think the game will flop I think it would do much worse in the crowded fall this year considering some of the heavy weights planned to drop in the fall.
 
Bitch Pudding

Bitch Pudding

Member
LegendofDragoonLives said:
brb trying to figure out how many sales there are from all this hard facts

hangover-maths-gif.gif
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's all in there.

Happy New Year!
As we start off the new year, we thought we would take some time to look back at a great 2016 and look forward to what will be an exceptional 2017 for Xbox gamers.
We were privileged to celebrate the 15-year anniversary of Xbox in November, but what made 2016 most special was laying out our vision for gaming at E3 2016, delivering a new version of Xbox One along with great new games and services for you to play on the device(s) of your choice and seeing terrific response from gamers worldwide this holiday. In fact, in November and December we saw Xbox Live engagement reach an all-time high of 3.9 billion hours, up 23 percent compared to the prior year. Thank you!
Looking back, we reached a number of exciting milestones in 2016, including:
Xbox One owners enjoyed nearly 400 new games to play in 2016, including critically-acclaimed console exclusives like Gears of War 4 and Forza Horizon 3. Forza Horizon 3 became the best-selling, highest-rated racing game in 2016 and the biggest Forza launch to date. The Forza franchise continues to grow and has now seen well over 14 million players on Xbox One and Windows 10.
Gears of War 4 launched to critical acclaim (Game Informer: 9.25/10, IGN: 9.2/10, Polygon: 9/10) and has had a tremendous reception for its campaign, Horde 3.0 and Versus Multiplayer experiences – all of which are delivered in High Dynamic Range (Xbox One S), 4K (Windows 10) and support cross-play as an Xbox Play Anywhere title.
We are seeing incredible engagement on Xbox Live with nearly 23 million Versus Multiplayer and Horde matches played since launch, as well as within the eSports world, where the Gears eSports Pro Circuit has marked the franchise's dramatic return with a more-than-$1,000,000 prize pool.
The Xbox Play Anywhere program launched, which enables gamers to play a growing list of titles like Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3, ReCore, Killer Instinct: Definitive Edition, Everspace and Astroneer on Xbox One and on Windows 10 PC at no additional cost. You can pick up where you left off on either device, bringing all your saves, game add-ons and achievements with you.
Xbox One owners enjoyed more than 265 million hours playing Xbox 360 games in 2016, including highly-requested titles like Red Dead Redemption, Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: World at War, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Skate 3, via Xbox One Backward Compatibility.
It was a big year for the Minecraft community with the launch of Minecraft: Education Edition as well as the release of Minecraft to new platforms such as Gear VR, Oculus Rift and Apple TV. In addition, 150 new features were added to Minecraft from more than two dozen updates.
With new titles for Windows 10 and growth in Windows 10 devices, gamers played more than 2.5 billion hours just in November 2016, which is a 127 percent increase compared to November 2015.
Xbox Live was rated the fastest, most reliable gaming network in an independent study by IHS Markit in the U.S. and U.K. New system updates on Xbox One and the Xbox app brought Clubs and Looking for Group (LFG) on Xbox Live, as well as Cortana and Background Music. Since the release of Xbox One in 2013, over 200 new features have been added.
Fans created over 2.4 million personalized Xbox Wireless Controller designs via Xbox Design Lab in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.
Last but not least, we launched Xbox One S, delivering the only console with built-in UHD 4K Blu-ray, 4K video streaming and HDR for gaming and video. New titles with HDR support included Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3, NBA 2K17, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Final Fantasy XV, The Elder Scrolls Online and World of Tanks. Xbox One S was among the top-selling consumer products this holiday in many markets, and its launch helped set the engagement records we experienced. Looking forward, we expect 2017 to be a special year for Xbox gamers.
We will not only launch the most powerful console ever in Project Scorpio, but we also plan to bring a number of exciting enhancements to Xbox Live. And we'll deliver a terrific portfolio of new games with Xbox Live support on Xbox One, Windows 10 or both this spring. We are especially excited about Halo Wars 2, which launches on Feb. 21. There are many other titles coming by this spring, like Resident Evil 7 biohazard, For Honor, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands, TEKKEN 7, Thimbleweed Park, Mass Effect Andromeda, South Park: The Fractured but Whole and Tacoma. We'll also be releasing new add-on content or expansions for many of our best 2016 titles, including titles from Microsoft such as Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3, ReCore, Dead Rising 4 and Minecraft. You can expect our third-party partners to provide content to enhance your gaming experiences as well.
We're excited to show you more of what we have in store for 2017, including the much-anticipated unveil of Project Scorpio, in the coming months.
On behalf of Team Xbox, thank you for making Xbox all it has become. Here's to an exceptional 2017 in front of us!
Click to expand...
 
D

DriftingSpirit

Member
Somnia said:
My assumption is Q1 will be Halo Wars 2 and Voodoo Vince. Q2 (april-june) will be pretty quiet, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and a much larger Sea of Thieves beta. Q3 (July-Sept) will be State of Decay 2, Forza and Scalebound. Q4 will be Crackdown and something else we haven't heard of it along with a couple high profile marketing deals (what that is I don't know as I assume Sony will have COD still, Battlefront 2 again, Destiny and RDR2... maybe MS will get Assassin's Creed and something else).

Obviously I'm leaving out Cuphead, Ashen, Tacoma and others that will be on XB1 only (console wise, not including PC here).
Click to expand...
Oh, I forgot about Sea of Thieves! I could see that slipping to early next year but we'll see.

Perhaps, with Sony acquiring the big third party partnerships (CoD, BF2, Destiny 2 and RDR2), MS will just try to stack as much as possible in the latter half of the year to counter. I can see MS getting AC though.

I don't know what they could announce at E3 that would be on par with something like Crackdown and hit this year too. I think Crackdown will be the big exclusive for MS this year and the one they promote the most.
 
I

icespide

Banned
chaosmaster(1) said:
I think Scalebound is gonna be delayed into spring 2018. Even though I think the game will flop I think it would do much worse in the crowded fall this year considering some of the heavy weights planned to drop in the fall.
Click to expand...
it's gonna flop no matter what. Might as well put it out when it's ready
 
O

OrbitalBeard

Member
Are we expecting Scalebound to not release until the second half of this year? Because that's a huge bummer if true. Hopefully Cuphead is out within the next few months.
 
S

Somnia

Member
DriftingSpirit said:
Oh, I forgot about Sea of Thieves! I could see that slipping to early next year but we'll see.

Perhaps, with Sony acquiring the big third party partnerships (CoD, BF2, Destiny 2 and RDR2), MS will just try to stack as much as possible in the latter half of the year to counter. I can see MS getting AC though.

I don't know what they could announce at E3 that would be on par with something like Crackdown and hit this year too. I think Crackdown will be the big exclusive for MS this year and the one they promote the most.
Click to expand...

I think Sea of Thieves will go open beta or early access this year and launch next year. So it will be playable and purchasable this year.
 
B

blakep267

Member
DriftingSpirit said:
Oh, I forgot about Sea of Thieves! I could see that slipping to early next year but we'll see.

Perhaps, with Sony acquiring the big third party partnerships (CoD, BF2, Destiny 2 and RDR2), MS will just try to stack as much as possible in the latter half of the year to counter. I can see MS getting AC though.

I don't know what they could announce at E3 that would be on par with something like Crackdown and hit this year too. I think Crackdown will be the big exclusive for MS this year and the one they promote the most.
Click to expand...
Nah, state of decay will be the big exclusive that gets promoted. Open world zombie co-op survival etc. That game has the best chance of taking off on console and pc

As for 3rd party stuff, we still don't have a full picture of what's coming in the fall but they likely will have something Fromm ubi( whether it be Assasins or far cry 5), the usual Madden and Fifa, and maybe something like Prey from Bethesda etc
 
S

Somnia

Member
blakep267 said:
Nah, state of decay will be the big exclusive that gets promoted. That game has the best chance of taking off on console and pc

As for 3rd party stuff, we still don't have a full picture of what's coming in the fall but they likely will have something Fromm ubi( whether it be Assasins or far cry 5), the usual Madden and Fifa, and maybe something like Prey from Bethesda etc
Click to expand...

Ya they'll have Madden and Fifa again probably and I forgot about Prey, I could see that for sure.
 
F

FinaruDensetsu

Member
This is a message written for Xbox fans, it's pretty dumb to be criticizing for PR and "marketing" or whatever.

If you want to waste your time decrying Xbox's great PR firm during their NPD releases, I can at least understand that a tiny, tiny bit. Picking on this and mocking them for no numbers comes off extremely petty and pathetic.
 
C

chaosmaster(1)

Member
icespide said:
it's gonna flop no matter what. Might as well put it out when it's ready
Click to expand...
Question is how hard would it flop in fall compared to spring. They've put a lot of money on it and trying to reduce the loss they take on it in spring could be better for them but who knows maybe the cost in delay wouldn't be offset.
 
R

Ricky Ricardo

Member
Devilgunman said:
You gotta give props to MS PR for telling absolutely nothing with that many words. It takes serious skills to do that.
Click to expand...

Talking about games like Red Dead Redemption and Black Ops coming to Backwards Compatibility (Which were actually big geals)

Talking about features that launched during the year, like LFG and Clubs.

Talking about XPA, which launched in 2016 with several titles.

Talking about Xbox One S, which also launched in 2016 and was well received.

Talking about continued content announcements for 2016 games like Gears or War 4, Recore, Forza Horizon 3.

Its news written to simply remind readers of the year the division has had. A recap of the semester, if you will. Trying to read more into it makes it look like you lack common sense and any sort of reasoning skills.
 
T

Theorry

Member
FinaruDensetsu said:
This is a message written for Xbox fans, it's pretty dumb to be criticizing for PR and "marketing" or whatever.

If you want to waste your time decrying Xbox's great PR firm during their NPD releases, I can at least understand that a tiny, tiny bit. Picking on this and mocking them for no numbers comes off extremely petty and pathetic.
Click to expand...

Ricky Ricardo said:
Talking about games like Red Dead Redemption and Black Ops coming to Backwards Compatibility (Which were actually big geals)

Talking about features that launched during the year, like LFG and Clubs.

Talking about XPA, which launched in 2016 with several titles.

Talking about Xbox One S, which also launched in 2016 and was well received.

Talking about continued content announcements for 2016 games like Gears or War 4, Recore, Forza Horizon 3.

Its news written to simply remind readers of the year the division has had. A recap of the semester, if you will. Trying to read more into it makes it look like you lack common sense and any sort of reasoning skills.
Click to expand...

Amen,
 
D

DriftingSpirit

Member
Somnia said:
I think Sea of Thieves will go open beta or early access this year and launch next year. So it will be playable and purchasable this year.
Click to expand...
Mhm, seems most probable. Rare should get the time they need since this is their big new IP.

blakep267 said:
Nah, state of decay will be the big exclusive that gets promoted. Open world zombie co-op survival etc. That game has the best chance of taking off on console and pc

As for 3rd party stuff, we still don't have a full picture of what's coming in the fall but they likely will have something Fromm ubi( whether it be Assasins or far cry 5), the usual Madden and Fifa, and maybe something like Prey from Bethesda etc
Click to expand...
I guess I could see that too. Maybe just have SoD and Crackdown tag team it.

Yeah, MS can just pick up what is left from the third parties. I think they would be better served just putting more weight behind their exclusive titles though.
 
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