Forbes - Xbox Losing This Gen Is A Good Thing

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Sep 11, 2013
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinmurnane/2019/01/13/__trashed-18/#7593b785828c


The Xbox One launch was screwed up so badly you were left to wonder how a company of Microsoft’s size and experience in the console space could be so arrogantly unaware of the needs and desires of game players. Sony grabbed the opportunity and the PS4 crushed the Xbox One from the git-go. Five years later, Xbox hasn’t closed the gap.

Stake holders were yammering for Microsoft to sell off the Xbox and get out of the console business when it became clear the PS4 was doing much better in the marketplace. Fortunately for everyone who loves video games, Satya Nadella didn’t listen. Microsoft shed the Xbox management team responsible for the launch, and Nadella put Phil Spencer in charge of Xbox in March 2014. The result has been a steady stream of innovation from Xbox that’s squarely focused on making things better for players.

The Xbox One X is the clearest example. Microsoft’s flagship console is so superior to the PS4 Pro that it’s reasonable to think the only reason to buy a Pro is to play PlayStation’s outstanding collection of console exclusives. That’s a very good reason, but virtually every cross-platform game looks and plays better on the One X.

Microsoft didn’t build the most powerful console ever seen, pat itself on the back, and then sit and wait for the world to recognize its achievement. The company reached out to developers and helped them enhance previously released games to take advantage of the processing power in the One X. Microsoft also continued to innovate in console hardware with Design Lab and the Adaptive and Elite wireless controllers.

While Xbox’s hardware innovations lead the industry, a strong argument can be made that the company’s most important innovations lie in broadening opportunities for players to play games. Backward compatibility is the most obvious example. The story when the Xbox One and PS4 launched was that games from previous console generations were unplayable on the new consoles because of fundamental hardware incompatibilities. And then Xbox engineers built a virtual Xbox 360 that runs on the Xbox One and old games could be played on the new console.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about backward compatibility is that Microsoft didn’t treat it as an opportunity to squeeze more money out of players by making them buy back-compat versions of games they already own. Instead, backward compatibility exemplifies the idea that players should have a library of games they carry with them from one console generation to the next. If you paid for it once, you shouldn't have to pay for it again. It’s hard to imagine a policy that operates more for the benefit of players.

The buy-it-once ethos Xbox introduced to console gaming continued with Microsoft’s Play Anywhere policy. Xbox exclusives generally appear on the console and Windows PCs at the same time. Buy a game for either platform and you can play it on both. You get two platforms for the price of one.

Xbox surprised the gaming world a year ago with another new idea that’s all about benefiting players. Henceforth, Xbox console exclusives would be available to play for free on Game Pass on the day the game launched. Since then, a selection of cross-platform games such as the recently released Mutant Year Zero: The Road to Eden appeared on Game Pass on launch day. A cheap subscription service that includes access to new games on launch? Who saw that coming?

Xbox also looked to benefit players in the future when it added next-gen technology to the One X and S last year in the form of support for variable refresh rate, automatic low-latency mode and 120 Hz refresh rate. These features won’t come fully into play until HDMI 2.1 becomes widespread, but Xbox is helping players navigate the transitional stage by supporting the technology now.

There are also some indications that the blinkered arrogance that produced the Xbox One launch disaster has gained a foothold at PlayStation. In June 2017, Sony’s global sales chief Jim Ryan told Time magazine“When we’ve dabbled with backwards compatibility, I can say it is one of those features that is much requested, but not actually used much.” A little less than a year later Xbox reported players had logged almost a billion hours on back compatibility games. A more recent example can be found in PlayStation’s resistance to player demands for Fortnite crossplay.

The situation today seems almost the reverse of what it was at E3 in 2013 when an agile PlayStation crushed a clueless Xbox and electrified the gaming world. Now Sony feels staid and hidebound while Microsoft forges ahead. PlayStation has never lacked for innovative thinking and it's hard not to wonder whether the company would have done more to change gaming for the better if the PS4 didn't have such a decided advantage in sales.

The Xbox One quickly fell behind the PS4 in the competition for console sales. Microsoft responded by bringing in Phil Spencer who infused Xbox with a sustained commitment to innovative ideas that benefit players. The consequences illustrate the value of thinking about competition rather than war in the console space. Xbox’s innovations have markedly changed the world of console gaming for the better. From a player's viewpoint, it’s the best thing that’s happened to gaming in years.
 
Lolz at the title...and nothing in the article actually supports it. Being reactive, which is all the stuff this article mentions, is not a good thing. You shouldn't have to lose inorder to do good things. It shouldn't take a loss for you to address massive, obvious issue with your brand and vision.

The Xbox one clusterf*** never had to happen. All they needed to do was listen.
 
Lolz at the title...and nothing in the article actually supports it. Being reactive, which is all the stuff this article mentions, is not a good thing. You shouldn't have to lose inorder to do good things. It shouldn't take a loss for you to address massive, obvious issue with your brand and vision.

The Xbox one clusterf*** never had to happen. All they needed to do was listen.

Tell that to Don 'Farmville' Mattrick.
 
I am old enough to know there are no good guys in the console market. The only thing keeping these companies are market share and profits.
 
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Wii U lost this gen actually. Was that a good thing? It appears the Switch makes the answer a yes.
 
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Wii U lost this gen actually. Was that a good thing? It appears the Switch makes the answer a yes.

This will be the first gen I didn't buy all 3 consoles. I only have Wii U and Playstation 4. The Switch is way too expensive.They f*** you in prices and the most hyped games are ports. The X1 AAA line up don't impress me. I never had an issue with it's power so going the power route did ZERO for me personally.
 
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Lolz at the title...and nothing in the article actually supports it. Being reactive, which is all the stuff this article mentions, is not a good thing. You shouldn't have to lose inorder to do good things. It shouldn't take a loss for you to address massive, obvious issue with your brand and vision.

The Xbox one clusterf*** never had to happen. All they needed to do was listen.
They did listen. They listened to the stupid ass focus groups.
 
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Call me Crazy, but does it takes a genius to figure out releasing a product that is about 60% of your direct competition power, while selling 100bucks more is a good idea?

That’s ignoring the DRM and the TV stuff.
 
Call me Crazy, but does it takes a genius to figure out releasing a product that is about 60% of your direct competition power, while selling 100bucks more is a good idea?

That’s ignoring the DRM and the TV stuff.
Did they know that, though.

The DRM, Kinect, TV stuff is more the stuff they only had to listen to see it was not good.
 
Games are what define consoles not services and features....
i don't think that is entirely true anymore. Don't get me wrong, games are massively important, but features and services are too. Things like gamepass, BC, EA Access, built in streaming services are important.
 
PS 5 will have BC to PS4 games and if Sony wanted to they can make PS now similar to gamepass. It just the EA acess, they won't have for obvious reasons. Built in streaming services sony already have just not good enough yet. Both consoles will be fine next gen. You will not go wrong with either one. The only thing is you maybe compel to buy both if the Xbox new studio acquisitions payoff with great exclusives. I still have my original launch ps4 and xbox one so I haven't bit the bullet on buying the PS 4 pro or xbox x\xbox one s. Thus helping me be prepared to save to buy both PS5 and xbox 2
 
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They are laying the foundation to have both next gen.

We heard this all before.

i don't think that is entirely true anymore. Don't get me wrong, games are massively important, but features and services are too. Things like gamepass, BC, EA Access, built in streaming services are important.

The console with games failed to win a single NPD in 12 months.
 
We heard this all before.



The console with games failed to win a single NPD in 12 months.
I'm assuming that is meant to say "without." Not that it matters, your reasoning here is a bit short sighted. You just interpreted a metric in a manner to support your theory...even though it doesn't clearly do that at all.

Games stopped mattering to XBox fanboys sometime back in 2014.

They...aren't like us anymore.
You are dumb and ignorant.

There has been a loud vocal outrage from the Xbox consumers regarding the state of exclusives over the last decade or so, especially this gen.
 
I'm assuming that is meant to say "without." Not that it matters, your reasoning here is a bit short sighted. You just interpreted a metric in a manner to support your theory...even though it doesn't clearly do that at all.

You are dumb and ignorant.

There has been a loud vocal outrage from the Xbox consumers regarding the state of exclusives over the last decade or so, especially this gen.

Yeah there has, the grumbling has been going on in the xbox community since probably the 2nd half of the 360 generation. That being said services aren't doing a lot to turn things around, they are solid services but you still need current games to make them worth having. EA access has shown me how shallow their library is this gen if you aren't looking to play sports games or alternate between battlefield and battlefront every other year. Gamepass is mostly older 3rd party titles and 360 games and while MS will be releasing their 1st party games day one they certainly haven't been going all out in the 1st party department, everyone points to their new studios that they bought but we won't see any real output from them until next gen. I think you are both right to be honest, you need to have a mix of both games and services but games are by far the most important part.
 
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Yeah there has, the grumbling has been going on in the xbox community since probably the 2nd half of the 360 generation. That being said services aren't doing a lot to turn things around, they are solid services but you still need current games to make them worth having. EA access has shown me how shallow their library is this gen if you aren't looking to play sports games or alternate between battlefield and battlefront every other year. Gamepass is mostly older 3rd party titles and 360 games and while MS will be releasing their 1st party games day one they certainly haven't been going all out in the 1st party department, everyone points to their new studios that they bought but we won't see any real output from them until next gen. I think you are both right to be honest, you need to have a mix of both games and services but games are by far the most important part.
i think we are both right too.
 
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I'm assuming that is meant to say "without." Not that it matters, your reasoning here is a bit short sighted. You just interpreted a metric in a manner to support your theory...even though it doesn't clearly do that at all.

Nintendo is far behind Microsoft/Sony in terms of features and services but they constantly win NPD's. Things like Gamepass have been around for a long time yet no real impact to people rushing out buying X1 compared to Ps4. I understand your assumption, but it's based on hope not preformance.
 
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Nintendo is far behind Microsoft/Sony in terms of features and services but they constantly win NPD's. Things like Gamepass have been around for a long time yet no real impact to people rushing out buying X1 compared to Ps4. I understand your assumption, but it's based on hope not preformance.
You are basing that on a faulty premise. Nothing can undo the damage MS did to themselves at the start of the gen. The performance is there. The X1 has seen an uptick in performance since BC & gamepass were added. It isn't like exclusive games have got better, and the boosted performance came before E3 and the studio news.

You have to keep in mind I am talking about game based services here.

As I said before, I tgink we are botg right.

As for Ninty...they beat to their own and have never been in direct competition with the other two...atleast not since the wii anyway.
 
There has been no uptick in performance if you're talking sales of the XBox One. If anything, sales have been slowing (relatively speaking) the further this generation has progressed.

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/64602/xbox-one-sales-hit-41-million/index.html

41 million vs 91.6 million

For a long time, MS could at least claim they were selling at a slightly better than 1:2 pace with it's rival PS4. Sometime in the last 12 months, that claim no longer holds any validity. Gamepass and BC have little to no effect on hardware sales.

41 million in a little over 5 years on the market.
 
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