Why Xbox customers are right to be angry about Microsoft putting more 'exclusive' games on Nintendo or PlayStation

[fjtorres5591]

Well, that stops a few years in a new generation anyway. Like now, there's very few new releases on Xbox One. But anyway, Microsoft wouldn't stop its gaming activities, just the manufacturing part which means that if there is a market for it, they could still publish their games on the last generation of Xbox long after stopping making consoles. Like any other 3rd Party Publisher.


If you want to play your older games on a more powerful console 10 years after their release. Well yeah, you won't get that. Unless, Microsoft ensures you can play your Xbox back catalog on PC and all you have to do is wait a few years and buy a 500 dollars PC. Also note, playing a back catalog on an upgraded system is a "luxury", and probably not a very common thing with millions of daily requests.

What if Microsoft keeps the servers up so you can play your games on your legacy console for another 10 years or so? And then let you play your catalog on the cloud on any screen?

See where I'm going? I don't really see what people are losing.

But maybe, I'm missing something else here?

Do you even own a Series X/S?
Where you can play hundreds of 15 year old 360 games *better* than new, at 4K/60 with HDR.

Or did you hear that RED DEAD REDEMPTION came out for PS4/5 at full list but not for XBOX because it has been there all along. Ditto for MORROWIND, JADE EMPIRE, KOTOR, all the Halos and all tbe Gears and Fables.

Old games are as enjoyable now as tey ever were. Gaming isn't just about pixel pimping.

 

[fjtorres5591]

Microsoft could definitely be number... nut only with the help of Playstation and Nintendo. They are the driving forces of the gaming industry. And considering that MS wants to bring games to Playstation, they seem to agree. MS will only be number one if Playstation allows it. Otherwise they won't. And you seem to forget that Xbox has invested 100 billion dollars into studios, and you think they'll make that money back by 2030 LOL. The true meaning of delusion. Whether you like to admit it or not, consoles will always be the future. You can support Microsoft's cloud powered USB stick console in 2027, nobody is stopping you, but you'll yourself how big the PS6 will be. You only think that Sony is the past because your favorite console isn't being bought by anyone. You would be singing a different tune if Series sales were at 60m.

MS is already number 1 outside China and soon including it.
That is what buying ABK bought them (Plus $9B a year at a bargain. ABK was the classic distressed property.)

Bear in mind, there are two issues here:

1- Doing multiplatform games

2- Spending time and money to convert existing, signature XBOX games multiplat.

The concern is not the former: of course COD, DOOM, MINECRAFT, etc are and will remain multiplat. It changes nothing.

The concern is that converting existing exclusives degrades the value proposition for the XBOX platform, and by extension, the cloud and even DirectX. It wasn't that long ago that Activision threatened to make COD PS5 exclusive unless MS cut their royalties in half. Reduce the appeal of the XBOX platform and we'd be back to the PS2 era when most third party developers didn't bother with anything but PS2 because it was so dominant the sales on Sega, Nintendo, or XBOX might not yield a net profit. It was only Kutaragi's overpriced, gold-plated launch PS3 tht allowed XBOX and Nintendo back in the, ahem, game.

And finally, remember when the UK CMA emailed 11 major game publishers/developers asking what they thought of MS buying ABK to fortify the XBOX platform; 10 of them were in favor because anything that reduced Sony's leverage (charging extra for crossplat play, charging free-to-play games, etc) was *good* for competition and good for them. The 11th? Sony, of course.

Platform competition in gaming requires more than two japanese companies, not just for gamers' sake (Spiderman 3 is planned to cost $150, didn't you hear?) but also for the developers too. Otherwise all new games will end up at $100.

 

[Jez Corden]

It's cool and all, and I agree on some points, but... You literally threw the whole conversation that you just had with Destin Legarie out the window. Why?
Like, is it really bad that they will sell their old games on PS for $70, while still selling them for cheap on Xbox, and including them in GP? That's literally free promotion for their console, and they don't have to let go of their employees like Insomniac has (meaning that Spiderman 2 was probably the last Sony game with such high production values).
Now I don't think for a second that MS will go out of console business. But I do believe the rumours that Xbox 2026 will be a cheaper and weaker console, meaning that they won't be bleeding money anymore. On the other hand, I do expect Sony to release PS6 as your regular strong console, costing close to $600, because why not? And even with that price, their margins will be thin, and they will still continue to dig a grave for themselves, because of that dated approach to gaming. Now they do try to change some things, like those 14 GaaS attempts or changes to PS Plus, but MS is simply ahead of them at this point.

i don't think i contradicted what i said with destin. i mean i understand the logic like i wrote in the article, the business logic, behind these decisions. but you gotta admit that if it's sea of thieves, or hi-fi, where does it stop then? how can you make an argument against halo infinite or forza coming to playstation and maintain any sort of credibility?

xbox needs some kind of uniqueness if it's going to continue to exist. and i also think gamers on xbox (and other platforms too) deserve some upfront honesty about what is and what isnt slated to go multiplatform, is all. maybe brand **** as "xbox originals" if they're fully exclusive.

 

[jonzie23]

Microsoft could definitely be number... nut only with the help of Playstation and Nintendo. They are the driving forces of the gaming industry. And considering that MS wants to bring games to Playstation, they seem to agree. MS will only be number one if Playstation allows it. Otherwise they won't. And you seem to forget that Xbox has invested 100 billion dollars into studios, and you think they'll make that money back by 2030 LOL. The true meaning of delusion. Whether you like to admit it or not, consoles will always be the future. You can support Microsoft's cloud powered USB stick console in 2027, nobody is stopping you, but you'll yourself how big the PS6 will be. You only think that Sony is the past because your favorite console isn't being bought by anyone. You would be singing a different tune if Series sales were at 60m.

*with the help of ABK you've meant. And Sony has literally nothing to say in that matter. And they themselves acknowledge as much in the leaked documents, where they've said that they fear MS will leapfrog them. There's nothing magical behind it.

Yeah, I fully believe that they'll recoup that money by 2029-2030. What's so special about it?

No, they will not. Mobile phones will be the future, whether you like to admit it or not. Like, consoles literally hit the ceiling, you get to 100-120 million units sold and that's it. Unless you price it like Nintendo, then it's maybe 130m. And that's that. The rest of people play on PC, handheld or a mobile device. And only the last one is still growing like crazy.

Nobody is talking about MS releasing USB stick, they abandoned the project 2 years ago, lol. Their next console will be stronger than Series X for sure, just not on PS6 level. And it doesn't have to be.

I find it funny that all this time you kept thinking that I actually own an Xbox ;D
I've been gaming fully on PC for the past 2-3 years, and don't regret a thing. I used to have a PS. And an Xbox, from which I took my saves, and my games to PC. I haven't seen any difference, apart from better graphics, and I'm sure that MS haven't seen a difference as well, as they are still getting my money.
Hell, I don't even need PS, I just finished GoW3 (through emulation) and GoW4 recently, and I'm playing Horizon now, in preparation for Forbidden West. There's a chance that Ragnarök will be released on PC this year
And this is why I can see the difference in approach - MS simply doesn't have to reduce the budget of their games, because they release it everywhere. Meanwhile Sony is already struggling, because their games release only on one platform from day 1. And that will only get worse, since the prices are going up. And that's why I fully believe that they will start releasing their exclusives on PC sooner. That's a no brainer.

And finally, I don't believe for a second that MS will release their games on PS day 1 in the foreseeable future. They don't need to. I mean, sure, Odyssey from Blizzard and Mandalorian MMO from Zenimax Online will be there, it doesn't make sense not to release them on everything. Other than that? Nah, not day 1 at least. This way they'll still give you the incentive to play it on Xbox, mobile (through the store they are supposed to launch this year) or PC.

 

[jonzie23]

i don't think i contradicted what i said with destin. i mean i understand the logic like i wrote in the article, the business logic, behind these decisions. but you gotta admit that if it's sea of thieves, or hi-fi, where does it stop then? how can you make an argument against halo infinite or forza coming to playstation and maintain any sort of credibility?

xbox needs some kind of uniqueness if it's going to continue to exist. and i also think gamers on xbox (and other platforms too) deserve some upfront honesty about what is and what isnt slated to go multiplatform, is all. maybe brand **** as "xbox originals" if they're fully exclusive.

I get what you are trying to say, but on the other hand I agree with what both of you have said in the video.
Sure, it seems bad, because exclusive are not exclusive anymore. But then is it really bad if they are released there 2-3 years down the line for a full price? I'm playing mainly on PC these days, and I wouldn't feel any more incentivised to purchase PS5 than I do right now. Why should I when I can use Game Pass, and play PS games on PC already. And why should someone that owns an Xbox already? They would have to pay full prices for both Xbox AND PS games. That would be a little bit too much for anyone.
Also, PS diehards could have a chance to see that Xbox games are not bad after all. And then they could say 'Oh well, might as well buy an Xbox and save some money in the long term. And play these games day 1'.
I know that people were mocking Halo Infinite. If it turns out that 2-3 million copies were sold on PS5 right now, than that would not be so bad at all.

Having said all that, I believe that all these 'news' were blown out of proportion. I really don't expect them to release their big SP games on PS. Games like HiFi or Pentiment make sense. Sea of Thieves, Mandalorian MMO or Odyssey from Blizz as well. But Halo? Gears? Nah. Financially it makes sense, it's obvious. But I believe that before they would do it, they would likely try and strengthen the Xbox brand first. Yesterday's show was a step in a good direction, in my opinion.

And I also agree that MS should be more honest about all this. Maybe they'll announce something during their showcase in the summer.