Have you forgotten the core, Microsoft?

First of all, sorry for any grammar failes in this blog. I just used Google translate to translate it from Norwegian to English.

I've been a PlayStation guy in my entire life. I have a PlayStation 2 that I got for Christmas a few years ago, I have two PSPer, a PS Vita and PlayStation 3 I've always liked Sony for their focus on the game and especially the core players.

For about 3 years ago (though I do not remember the brutal error now) so I bought my Xbox 360 after playing a few hours and tried out a friend's Xbox 360 I liked the machine very well. I liked the sleek design, I enjoyed the different games and I loved the beautiful dashboard that was very different from the dark XMBen both PS3 and PSP users. I liked the whole machine out of his well. We played Halo 3, Crackdown, Perfect Dark, Fable 2, the first Gears of War, even the most beautiful games. So I decided to purchase the pro / premium model of the Xbo 360

The pleasure was incredible when I opened the package in the mail and when I turned it on, I was simply amazed at how much exciting there. Simply "cool shit". After a few days I bought 1 year of Xbox LIVE gold. I downloaded all the demos that were available on the PlayStation Store. I bought along a couple thousand points. So I downloaded exciting titles such as Shadow Complex, Braid, Castle Crashers, Perfect Dark and more. In tilelgg I started to buy into hardcore games I'm most looking forward to as Halo, Gears of War, Fable, in addition to that I began to buy most multiplatform titles to my Xbox. Fun it was.

Then came the Kinect that I was allowed by Microsoft to test a few months before release. It disappointed me incredibly much. Too imprecise it is. So I just let the dust down.

But now I go to my situation today.

I am deeply disappointed with the direction Microsoft has taken his Xbox. Both last year and this year's E3 has been major disappointments. Where are the games? Where is the hardcore games? due. Kinect the damn computer, Microsoft is a way I never would have imagined they would go the way of getting attracted casual market, the road to get his Xbox into a multimedia TV machine. Microsoft has forgotten the core players? Those who made the Xbox a success? Those who made the Xbox is where it is today? I understand that Microsoft earns many millions of casual market, but it feels like that they almost forget the core players.

Sony has billions in losses. Nevertheless, they spew out exclusive games. Yet they come with Beyond: Two Sould and The Last of Us. Yet they have the amazing PlayStation Plus service, which costs 55£ of the year where you get tons of free games, games that cost exactly 40£ kr, 55£ kr, 26£ kr, a lot of discount, exclusive demos, exclusive demos, online clouds, and lots more. Microsoft has billions / millions in profit, yet they do not come with anything other than a bunch of Kinect games and apps that does not work in Europe and which are not hardcore people do not care anything about. ESPN, Hulu, sports apps, movie rental channels, many stupid apps that you can get for free with a few keystrokes on your PC or by turning on the TV. Now recently announced Microsoft's Major Nelson a list of a sale coming to Xbox LIVE in June. In this list we see games like Dark Void, Facebreaker, Conan and a few others that cost around 50 $ on sale. 50 $! Although the sale is a bet on Xbox LIVE Marketplace overpriced. These games can be obtained in the residual waste to the supermarket for 2£ each or free with Gamer's Gate Void service.

What you get for the Xbox LIVE really? Demos launched which launched just after the PSN for free, you get no exclusive demos on Xbox Live either, online gaming is free on the PC and the PS3 and arcade games have rarely selling. The only reason I even pay for Xbox LIVE Arcade games are coming and some games I play online. You get so much more from PS Plus, which also costs less than the Xbox LIVE.

What's up, Microsoft? I like the Xbox Live service, but as a gamer is not just worth the money now as before. From what I understand the Xbox built up before playing, but it takes more and more steps away from playing the focus for each year that passes. I am a person who bought the Xbox because it was advertised to be the ultimate gaming platform, now it's far from the ultimate gaming platform. Gears, Halo, Fable, same old thing. And Fable is now the kinectifisert (Fable: The Journey). I want new IPs that Sony comes with, I want my gaming focus. I am concerned about the direction of the Xbox.

I will probably always be a PlayStation person, simply because Sony shows that they care about core gamers, they take care of the players. I was just after E3 free games from PS Plus was worth over 100£, and I only pay 50£ a year for membership. So, until Microsoft comes and meets us core gamers are the PC and PlayStation me.

[SignifiedSix]

Lol, of course its by a fanboy. Has it ever popped into your head that Microsoft is probably saving exclusives for next gen? Probably not.

[Nes_Daze]

Really? Now why would they be "saving exclusives" for so long? It has been quite a while since Sony took the lead in software. Second, how do you know that's why their system lacks new exclusive ips? Do you work for them? Maybe they just know they can get a way with releasing a few exclusives, because they have been.

[ABizzel1]

No they still care about the core, they're just not their focus.

[maniacmayhem]

Or maybe the system is on its last leg (six years)and MS is focusing on another system.

How do you know MS isn't doing this? Do you work for them?

[rob6021]

Saving timed exclusives and only for a the first part of next-gen, just like this one. I think we know their game well now.

[Blastoise]

Saving them since like, what? 2008?

[HarryMasonHerpderp]

so true.
What good is it having an 360 if they are "saving exclusives" for next gen?

[Godmars290]

Wasn't the same said around the 360's launch?

[dedicatedtogamers]

As for me, I'm just tired of the excuses. I used to own a 360. Got rid of it (due to RRoD) about the time Mass Effect 2 came out, and ever since then, I've not once seen a compelling reason to pick one back up. Of course, my situation is my own. The 360 is a great console to buy if it's your first, if for no other reason than to explore it's huge back-catalog of great games.

But as of right now, I'm sick of the excuses. "Microsoft is saving them for the next system" one guy says. "Why don't you get Kinect?" another says. "Multiplats are bettar anyway!" a third guy says. Why all the excuses? The elephant in the room is that - for the past three years - 360 hasn't had very many (if any) games outside of Forza, Halo, Gears, and Fable. And since those games haven't compelled me to get a 360 three years ago, why would they now?

Say what you will about Sony (and to a lesser degree, Nintendo), but at least their consoles still have new, interesting games coming out for them. Microsoft has quite obviously given up on the fanbase that made the 360 popular in favor of a quick cash-grab for the soccer moms who've grown tired of Wii Fit.

That said, if you like indie games and you don't want to get a PC (for whatever insane reason), a 360 makes a great indie-game machine, because they've never stopped making good indie games for it. Is that enough for me to buy the system? Nope. 95% of the indie games on XBL that are worth a look are on Steam already, but again, if you don't like the idea of playing on PC, well, 360 is an ok alternative.

[tee_bag242]

I bought my 360 soley for Forza and Left for Dead 2. I have built up a big collection of games over the years anyway but none were really console exclusives

I still play Forza but this new one from e3 is simply milking the NFS crowd. Im tired of the MS milking.
L4D2 I now play on PC because I grew bored of waiting for the new maps..which still havent come (so I play them on PC now).
Its partly Valves fault, but more so MS since they dont allow Valve to pass DLC for free to their users.
MS are a nasty company for alot of the Devs to deal with in these areas.
The problem as I see it is, instead of buying off random 3rd party companies for timed exclusives they should have invested that money in creating new IPs.
They have nothing now. These XBlive games are rubish junk. 90% of the those are games started their life being designed for Phones. Nothing for me to look forward to because i dont get off on Halo 4 reach around. I played Halo 1 & 2 and that was enough.
But I'll still play Forza.

[Nes_Daze]

I see what you mean, I bought an Xbox360 4 months ago, made the mistake of buying it with madden 12 and Live. I wish there was a way of switching that Live account for a Plus account. Those minor features in live are great, but not worth $50 when I can get free games with Plus and much more. I will surely buy an MS product again next gen to try it out, but right now, I just can't keep up with two consoles, so PS3 is the best option for me.

[Kratoscar2008]

Thanks a Lot, you have made up my mind to never own an X-BOX (Its not sarcasm).

People could say you are a fanboy but you clearly arent, the X-BOX brand has been a failure as of late, apart from Halo, Gears, Forza and Fable there is little reason to own an X-Box in the future or now.

Where the Hell is killer Instinct? MS owns probably one of the most imaginative developers out there and why i havent seen a new KI or Conquer game? Big Epic failure.

[Ravenor]

MS owns the name and zombiefied shell of what was one of the most imaginative developers out there.

RARE ISN'T THE SAME PLACE, COULD WE ALL STOP SAYING "Ohhh but where is Rare?" They aren't going to do any more then what they are currently doing.

[Kratoscar2008]

i have wished NINTENDO had buyed RARE, is a shame really, for some reason NINTENDO didnt get rare after Goldeneye success.

[tehpees3]

Kratoscar is right. Microsoft have IPs. They just don't use them. This article saved me the trouble of addressing this. Just 3 years ago Microsoft made their position known. Now look at them. From my view it doesn't even seem like they know where they are going any more.

Some think that Microsoft will just drop Kinect like a rock but they won't. Its playing a big part in their way forward (almost to the point where people have argued they shoe horn features in). They put out a few exclusives a year and then rely on multiplats. All the time they are putting into this kinect shovelware could be better used to making other sequels they seem to have forgotten about or bringing new IPs. And the best you can come up with is a Nike game? Really?

I am almost certain the next xbox will be next generations Wii.

[MacDonagh]

I've been disappointed by Microsoft for a long time due to their preoccupation with the Kinect and the lack of interesting IPs. The only thing that has kept me going for the last few years at all was the indie marketplace with their plethora of unique interesting games, but they've gotten to the stage where instead of encouraging would-be indie developers by giving them a stage to show off their creativity; they have decided instead to give Sky, various video/music apps and advertisements for MW3 top priority instead. I'm not saying that everything the Indie marketplace has created has been amazing, but Apple Jack, Aban Hawkens and so many titles deserve far more recognition than anything else they currently got in the marketplace.

[jessupj]

I've been saying this for a while now and I saw this coming a long time ago. MS doesn't have any passion for gaming, they're purely concerned with profits, so as soon as I saw the success of the wii I knew it was only a matter of time before MS wanted some of that juicy casual pie for themselves.

Sony on the other hand, has a real passion for gaming. I bought my PS3 early on and while it was a bit rocky for a moment there I had no doubt Sony would pull through.

And look where we are now...

MS has made it very obvious where their priorities lie. Honestly, if you're serious about gaming, you'll get a ps4 next gen.

[Ravenor]

Oh man, I guess I must have hallucinated that Wonderbook presentation at Sony's event.

Sony and MS are all about profits, don't delude yourself into thinking otherwise. It's unhealthy.

[jessupj]

lol

Yes, that one little presentation out of that one E3 means sony only cares about money...

Of course Sony cares about profits, but they also care about games. If you can't see that I honestly don't know how to could explain it to you. But if you enjoy playing halo, gears, forza and fable over and over then good for you.

[Ravenor]

Funny, I say something that could be construed as negative towards Sony, so I must be some kind of Xbox troll.

The most interesting games Sony had like Unfinished Swan and Dyad, weren't at the press conference. What they did show game wise at the conference with the exception of The Last of Us was pretty samey. Beyond might be okay, but I wasn't the biggest fan of Heavy Rain.

To say Sony cares about games is like saying Ferrari cares about wheels. Of course they do, without games or wheels these expensive chassis and engines go nowhere and do nothing and nothing will be sold. Sony cares about games purely because games have the potential to create profit.

If there was no money involved, Sony, MS and Nintendo would drop each and every one of us without a second thought and barely a thank you. It's a business, and this isn't a magical land. Business is about money, plain and simple.

[olLANDSHARKlo]

You guys keep saying free games from $ony, you do know if you don't pay the $50 every year the games are disabled and you can't play them anymore, CORRECT? You are pretty much renting games for $50 a year from $ony. I just bought uncharted 3, a exclusive from naughty dog. It's more cutscenes, than actual gameplay, thought I was watching a movie. Zipper interactive was shut down. No more socom or mag exclusive, GT5 was a disgrace, you have kids game little big planet, that gets old in 5 minutes. resistance is a terrible shooter, and Infamous is repetitive and boring in 5 mins. Killzone isn't too bad, but terrible controls. I don't understand the $ony fanboys rant on having all these exclusives. Halo sells more copies than all $ony exclusives together.

[pixelsword]

No offense, but those complaints don't really apply to anything substantial.

$50 a year to rent multiple games is a lot better than $50 a year to merely play online and talk to friends, which I don't do while I play anyways.

I don't think you've played Uncharted with a comment like that,

Xipper is down, but Socom and MAG can be done by other people, just like Halo is done by someone other than Bungie.

GT5 was said by a famous car gaming site that the gameplay looks better than cut-scenes for PC games, and that's saying something.

You probably haven't played LBP, so your point is invalid due to inexperience and also if it was bad, they wouldn't have made a second game plus a racing game based upon the first game.

You probably haven't played Resistance 3, because you can't say how Resistance is a bad shooter, and you don't even bother to put a number down. I own all three and enjoy all three, except I wish R3 had more people like R2, but that's my only gripe.

I also own Infamous, and that's a really good game; as soon as I get some free cash, I'm buying that one as well. It's the only decent superhero game out this gen bar none.

Most Killzone 2 player didn't complain about bad controls, and even if they did, that was Killzone 2. Killzone 3's controls are as tight as any shooter you can name, so that also proves you haven't played that one either because you also didn't list which killzone because you probably didn't know, or you did know and you knew that you were full of it by bringing up an old game. That's like saying Halo's graphics sucks compared to Killzone 2.

I'm a fan of Halo, so I don't mind saying the real deal about Halo: Halo is great, but it will always sell a lot more because not only is it a great game, but it's a great game on a console with very few exclusives.

It's also not a stretch to say that Gears of War will also sell more than a lot of Sony exclusives as well. If you got two things to look forward to all year, it's going to sell well and you'll have enough money to recover in between the two things. I like shooters, so it's those two. If a person liked racing games, it's that one, so it will sell well. Nine to twelve exclusives each year for five years straight is a financial strain: you find the exclusives you like and stick to 'em. Killzone, Resistance, Uncharted, blah blah blah and some multiplats.

[Imalwaysright]

"only decent superhero game out this gen bar none." Do yourself a favor and play both Batman games.

[pixelsword]

@ Imalwaysright

You're not right this time; at least not to all Batman fans.

Infamous and Batman about the same for me in terms of quality in game mechanics, but Batman could've been better in several ways in terms of character treatment.

* Batman had a really good plot, but from someone who used to be a comic book fan of batman, they've kinda let me down in several aspects. The Joker is like lucifer, in that his ego is so big that he thinks he's The Almighty or can be that way. That being said, The Joker wouldn't use the formula on himself at the end because he believes he's the equal to Batman in every way and that he doesn't need an edge. Batman has his gadgets, Joker has his. That fact alone made the ending anti-climatic. Oh yeah; on top of the fact that some fans argue since the Joker is immune to all poisons, it's debatable if it would have even worked on him.

The Joker and Batman represent balance. Batman knows that the Joker isn't insane: Batman knows The Joker is evil. The Joker knows that Batman on some level *is* insane.

* Bane has genius-level intellect, made several martial arts styles, and is a brilliant tactician, but they had him lumbering and dashing at batman. For Bane to have been done right, they should have had him fight Batman toe to toe.

* The Riddler's riddles had no traps that I can recall, as I don't think Batman was ever in danger in solving any of them. To do the Riddler properly, to solve his riddle is to disarm a trap. Taking pictures is hardly worthy of The Riddler.

* Croc moves faster as is more deadlier in the water and he can track someone by scent for miles; the fact they had him running around when he could have totally attacked underwater made that part a little lame.

* Victor Zsasz's M.O. is slitting the throats of his victims, and not once, if memory recalls, does Zsasz put a knife to anyone's throat.

So yeah; Batman was awesome if you just watch the Batman movies; if you've actually read some of the stuff and know something about the character, in terms of details, it ain't all that.

...and it's the details which fans love.

Infamous on the other hand is a clean slate, it didn't try to reinvent the wheel like Prototype did, it had several tried and true plot devices in terms of storyline. Infamous, for one thing, didn't have the burden of accuracy like Batman did, but it did have a burden of giving the feeling that you've read about 20-50 comic books to get to know the character and his abilities, and I think it pulled it off well. The second thins is that you got to grow with Cole not only in terms of his abilities, but in his appreciation of having superpowers and his feeling of responsibility towards the city; that's the difference. Infamous had a very good origin plot, intrigue, betrayal, vengeance, persecution, loss, redemption, Greed, and a smidgeon of drama here and there with a buttload of action.

So yeah, for people who like to read comic books, Infamous was to me the better of the two in that respect.

Batman was really great, but it needed someone to fact-check characters, and it needed a little more work in terms of putting the personalities of the comic book characters in the game.

Was it a great game? Yes! Was it the best comic-book based game? Yes! Was it the best game for fans of the Batman comic book? Not really.

[jessupj]

Must...resist....feeding.....t roll

[A-Glorious-Dawn]

This is one of the most dedicated trolls I've seen on this site.

The comment history contains substantial hatred.

It must suck to be like this....

[TheRealHeisenberg]

I have to agree for the most part but I do have hope that MS will get it together. If not, I still have the PS3 and Wii.

[Jazz4108]

Ms is trying to appeal to everyone andnot just core gamers. Is obvious to them if you want to stick around and make money you can't focus on one group. Sony is learning this but they may go bankrupt first. Enjoy the games that you have instead of complaining and trolling on who's system is better.

[Imalwaysright]

With the money they have surely they could cater equally to both the hardcore and casual. Right now their main focus right is clearly the casual crowd and because of it i wont be buying the nextbox at launch. Ill wait 1 or 2 years to see what their business strategy will be.

[wages of sin]

Microsoft has exclusives, people don't like to include them because they introduce caveats to validate their point.

XBLA and Kinect exclusives count, as well as 360 games that make it to PC. Why shouldn't they? Can I play it on my PS3? No? than it's an exclusive.

Furthermore, having a bunch of exclusives doesn't make them good. Sony is just like MS in that regard: they have about four, core franchises that are their heavy hitters. MS just chose not to lose money on other exclusives that people don't really buy; they leave most of that to XBLA or third party. Sony rose to power on the backs of third party but now somehow, they don't matter? Especially when most third party AAA's are better than PS3 exclusives that I've played, at least outside of those core games (GoW, UC, GT, LBP?).

[sjaakiejj]

If I can play it on PC, it's not an exclusive, as I don't need an Xbox to play it, and it'll probably look and play better on PC as well.

Exclusive titles are those that I can't get on any other platform.

[DiRtY]

People need to stop praising Sony for failing with exclusives. Twisted Metal, Starhawk, Modnation Racers or Sorcery did not sell wel at all.

It is just the internet hyping it up. If only half the people here on N4G hyping a gmae like Starhawk actually bought it, it would have twice as much sales.

Fact is: PS3 gamers don't spend $60 for most of their exclusive games.

[SamPao]

you also need to realise that exactely those games you are mentioning do NOT need to sell like crazy because they have very small developement teams
(this is basically like with every other playstation exclusive, except games that get delayed a lot like GT5 :D)

[BelieveinGhosts]

I agree with the article. After all i have both consoles and i will turn on my xbox 360 for the first time in 2 years when Halo 4 is released.
However people dont seem to realise that sony has also been guilty of forgetting about its core audience to a lesser extent than microsoft. An example of this is how sony has treated one of its greatest franchises which is Socom. When Socom confrontation was released, it was full of bugs and glitches.
It was immediately clear that an extra year of development was needed to release a truly great socom game. We hard core socom fans wondered why would sony rush a game that could only be rivalled by Metal gear solid and Gran Turismo on PS2 in terms of sales.
The simple answer is that sony only cared about using socom to push sales of its new wireless headset.It didn't matter that the game was only 60% complete.
Then came the release of socom 4, to our surprise again Sony decided to bundle it with a "Sharpshooter" and play station move controller. Again they were using Socom just to push sales of Play Station 3 peripherals. Not only was this bad enough but it turned out Socom 4 had become a casual 3rd person COD inspired game.
At the time of Socom 4's release, COD MW2 had released a few months earlier and had for the first time included a 3rd person mode! This is part of the reason that sales of Socom 4 were so poor. Casual fans would not leave COD just to get a worse 3rd person experience in Socom 4.
We socom fans were outraged at the direction the socom franchise was heading so we demanded that sony release Socom 2 HD. We were ignored for a long time but we were still hopeful that it would eventually be anounced. To our shock, the latest news we heard regarding socom was that Zipper had been shut down by Sony and that the online servers for Socom 1,2 and 3 will be shut down too later this year.
I dont know if any of you guys are socom fans but imagine if one of your favourite exclusives such as Uncharted, resistance, Gran Turismo, Metal gear Solid or Gears of war got handled so badly, which ultimately lead to its downfall and destruction.

[Kratoscar2008]

Its this gen the problem, for some reason in this gen fans doesnt matter, just see these games:

dead space
resident evil
silent hill
marvel vs Capcom
coD

and more games, its not just Sony, Capcom was one of the most beloved developers and you see what happened in this gen with, almost all developers and that includes Sony have changed their focus toward fans.

Luckyli in Next Gen Sony change that attitude and give you Socom fans the game that you want.

[Tyre]

Most longtime XBL users feel the same fantomena, good opinion piece, ur right! The Core gamers have been used by Microsoft under false pretence to build a marketspace in the Gaming Industry and now we're disposable. It seems like Microsoft was out to steal the direction of the gaming world towards their camp. Luckily Sony doesn't give in to it, they were here since early on and show that they know gamers better than Microsoft. PS Plus is a real service for gamers.