Microsoft Needs To Get Real

"Gamer-rider.com writes: I really dislike feeding into rumors, but I'll take the bait anyways since Yusuf Mehdi himself said the Xbox 360 is changing from being a gaming console, to an "entertainment console," something synonymous with Sony and the PlayStation brand. The rumors are that the next Xbox will be heavily influenced by apps and non-gaming related things, and that's all good because I'm sure there's a market for it. But for a bit of perspective, Sony and the PlayStation brand did something similar, but they did so in an era when Smart TVs, Smart Phones, and Tablets and many other gadgets simply didn't exist. Nowadays, we have TVs with built-in wifi receivers that can stream Netflix, check out Facebook, Twitter, etc. In my opinion, I think there exists the danger of very quickly becoming irrelevant when you alienate your core audience by focusing on offering things that are more easily accessible elsewhere."

[dangert12]

I am not keen on Microsoft, but what they are doing seems to be working for them.

[JoySticksFTW]

I don't disagree, but it seems to be working for them short term.

Like MS only catered to the hardcore gamers short term for two straight generations.

I bought a 360 for Mistwalker games, Dead Rising, Crackdown, GeOW, and Mass Effect. And except for Gears, those titles either dried up (MW), went south (CD2), or went multiplat.

Now 360 gamers are left wondering if they'll be supported short-term to be pushed aside for Kinect and entertainment focus when 720 launches.

Even reputable sites like neogaf are already debating whether their 360 gamers will jump over to PS4 next gen, mostly due to Sony's track record of continuously providing content for the hardcore gamer and now PS+. And if the PS4 design leaks are to be believed, it seems designed more towards gaming than extras.

Me, I probably won't get either system day one anyways. I still have too many games in my backlog from this gen, so I'll probably get both eventually during sales or price cuts. But honestly, it's going to be hard if not impossible to hold back.

[stragomccloud]

MW didn't dry up. Microsoft cancelled the last game under the 3 game contract, neither party really wanted to finish the game anyway, so MW abandoned ship for Nintendo and made "Last Story" an amazing game~

By the way, Microsoft also brought down Ensemble studios. That was a sad story. After years and years of working under Microsoft, Ensemble was dropped before their final game(Halo Wars) was even released.

[Tei777]

lol, as little as microsoft has done to deliver exclusive support to the 360. Its still been very much alive. Exclusives only matter to those who need to validate their console purchase.. If you have a 360 and are enjoying the likes of Dishourned, Ac3, COD, Battlefield, Skyrim, Bioshock... essentially everything other then sony 1st party titles why does it matter?

For me personally the annoyance is in the fact that the 360s 1st party line up was so strong from 2007-2009. I assume many people bought the system expecting this to continue...

Also I'm sure many sony fanboys brag of exclusives they don't even play lol

[Cupid_Viper_3]

@Tei777

I'm sorry but you seem to contradict yourself in that post there.

First you said: " Exclusives only matter to those who need to validate their console purchase"

Then you said: "For me personally the annoyance is in the fact that the 360s 1st party line up was so strong from 2007-2009. I assume many people bought the system expecting this to continue... "

I think that's the whole point to buying a product over the next. Why should I buy GLAD garbage bags over the other ones on the market even though they all carry garbages. Because GLAD garbage bags are stronger, and I don't ever want to have to be picking up garbage with my bare hands from the floor while taking it out.

I believe that it is pointless for me to buy an xbox 360 if I already own a PS3 if all I'm going to play is the multi platform games. That money would be put to better use by buying games with for the PS3.

[Tei777]

Haha, let me not contradict myself this time!

What I ultimately mean is that if you're enjoying you're 360, why does it matter how many exclusives it has? All that matters is that it has the games you want to play. If those games lay on another system (the last of us), then yeah sure you may regret your purchase. I mainly just trying to get at the point that people sometimes like to brag about exclusives regardless of whether they're going to buy them or not. If all you're favourite franchises are multiplatform (GTA/COD/elderscrolls/Assasins creed- sales suggest this is the case for many) then exclusives are merely a cherry on the top.

The latter point I made is a bit confused. Its only really valid if you're a 360 owner, who bought a 360 over a ps3 to play games like the original Bioshock or Mass effect which were 360 exclusive at one point. Now they're multiplatform you may feel cheated. If you don't care about microsofts other franchises (halo/gears/fable), then maybe you will look back in hindsight and wish you bought a pS3 instead and picked up Bioshock+mass effect when they were latter ported.

[grayfoxx881]

"Exclusives only matter to those who need to validate their console purchase."

That's a pretty ignorant comment. I, like many others, bought a 360 because of Halo 3. It was a great game with awesome multiplayer, that's why it sold so well. Some exclusive games matter because they truly are great games. Get your head out of your ass.

[Tei777]

I didn't mean it like that. If say you're really into Halo + a few multiplatform titles and nothing the ps3 has to offer then it really doesn't matter that microsoft rarely supports the 360 in exclusive content. I was just trying to make the point that exclusives for the sake exclusives doesn't amount to much. It all just comes to down to being able to play games you like, their exclusivity doesn't make them better.

The PS3 has had an abysmal year of 1st party titles. Around 10 were released in 2012 and they all flopped. Not trying to hate on ps3 (its actually my prefered console), just using it as an example. The 360 has tons of amazing games on it and still coming out for it, they're just not exclusives. RIP articles like this are ridiculously over the top lol

[mcstorm]

I love this fan boy rants. How many exclusives did the ps3 have in its first few years compared to the 360?

At the end of the day people should buy what they like not what everyone else says they should buy. I have a surface as it offers me more than what an iPad or android tablet dose but I don't go around telling other people they should not get an android or iPad because it works better for me.

Its all about choice people. If you all spent less time going on about what you don't like in life you might enjoy the things you do enjoy in life a little more.

[ILive]

You are still a tool regardless, tei777. Ask yourself this: will it make any f**king sense if two consoles are in the market to only offer multiplats? Exclusives are meant to seperate the consoles, followed by the features. My friend that is only a 360 owner has nothing to look forward too after dead space 3. He does not want gears judgement because he is still content with 3. From now and perhaps till september, he has nothing to play. None of the multiplats coming between then interests him. Many 360 owners are likely in the same state, while ps3 owners got ni no kuni in jan, will get god of war in march, and last of us in june.

[jetlian]

exclusives only matter at the beginning.Once you buy a system you have it theres nothing more you have to do. If your friend only wanted those games he's screwed but its not costing him more than his original investment.

Whos says said 360 owners want ni no kuni,Gow,tlou either? The number of the exclusives doesn't make a difference either way. their could be a ps3 only owner that want gears.

[Kevlar009]

With more people using Live for Videos and Music than online games, I don't think MS wants to go back into just the gaming business. They see more money in marketing Xbox as your one stop destination for your entertainment needs. Games will certainly be a part of it, but don't expect a "games first" policy, look to see less exclusives compared to PS4, or WiiU.

I'm interested in games first so I'm fairly certain I will pass on the next Xbox (if my assumptions hold true)

[G20WLY]

Really sorry, I disagreed by accident. I think you're spot on.

Looking at games (and isn't that why we're all here?!) it has to be Playstation for me next gen. With the smart TVs getting ever smarter and TV outs for tablet PCs, Microsoft is playing a dangerous game with the Xbox brand, I think.

Some argue that PS has too many exclusives, but if that gives gamers a choice and they keep coming regardless, that has to be a good thing, right? I don't want only one or two AAA exclusives a year and have to choose between macho 3rd person or macho 1st person shooter - it's not enough. There's a massive gap in the spectrum, with that at one end and kiddies Kinect games at the other.

For me, it's games first and entertainment features are a secondary bonus; not the other way around! And it'll be the same for me next gen.

[GribbleGrunger]

There's definitely some validity in this argument. It could be that all of Microsoft's resources are being channelled into the 720, but they certainly need to at least offer some new content to current 360 owners. Multimedia content is great if it doesn't become the only thing they offer. Microsoft have probably got some amazing things in the offing but right now they've gone disturbingly quiet about new IPs.

[AtomicGerbil]

I'll admit I'm no fan of Microsoft for various reasons, but on this subject I have to unbiasedly agree. Sony and Microsoft are in direct competition regarding gaming and if one irreversibly drops the ball, the other will have very little reason to improve.

BTW, I'm not disregarding Nintendo I just don't consider them direct competition(By which I mean games not sales, I'm not a shareholder sales don't interest me). Although if Microsoft do spectacularly mess up, I'm sure Nintendo would step up and absorb all those Xbox fans who for whatever reason would rather be a rotting corpse than own a Playstation.

[juandren]

The only reason there are Xbox fans who wouldn't want to own a PlayStation is because they want their console to succeed. Don't think they will give up gaming if PlayStation is the only one left for core gamers.

[AtomicGerbil]

Strange comment. Please enlighten us as to why the Xbox could be considered a guaranteed success over a Sony or Nintendo product?

[juandren]

Wtf are you talking about? :/

[AtomicGerbil]

I don't know if we've both misinterpreted things here.

I was suggesting there are Xbox fans out there that wouldn't buy a Playstation if that was their only choice because they have an unusual hatred for Sony, regardless of Microsoft's similarity of being a huge business centric corporation. Wanting an Xbox to succeed is irrelevant if it no longer offers an up to par gaming experience, so I'm confused by the meaning behind your comment.

[juandren]

We both know that most Xbox fanboys are blind as sh*t. It's not so much them wanting Xbox to succeed as it is them wanting the PlayStation to fail.

I personally think PS4 will trump the "720" easily. However, I don't think anybody will give up gaming just because the only console left for them is the one they hate.

I despise Microsoft (I feel they are messing up an eco system that was perfect), but if (God forbid) the PS4 failed, I would buy the 720.

[rainslacker]

No, they wouldn't give up gaming, and they will eventually go to a system that had games appealing to them. Believe me, as a Sony fan, if Sony was focusing on the casual crowd, and offering little in the way of core support, and MS was offering heavy core support, I would own an Xbox right now.

While I think competition is good overall, I still don't discount the fact that a single dominate console is nice as well. Looking at the PS2 gen, there is a reason it was called the golden age of gaming. The only downside is that it caused Sony to become somewhat complacent and it hurt them early on in this generation. If Sony had come out the gate full steam with the PS3, this gen would have been much different. As it stands, Sony was playing catch up for the first couple years of the PS3 life cycle, and that didn't go unnoticed by gamers or the press. I'm happy they turned it around though, and am looking forward to what both MS and Sony will bring to the table for next gen.

[DivineAssault]

MS stopped getting my support years ago.. The tombstone is pretty accurate imo

[EffectO]

Sony fans still live in some alternate reality,good good.

[DigitalRaptor]

The alternate reality where Microsoft are not supporting the 360 much with core exclusive IPs?

Yeah..

[GusBricker]

How many consoles did they sell at the last black Friday again?

Yeah...MS is totally dead.

[Rip-Ridah]

I'm fairly confident that the author and most gamers are referring to the core support for "games" not "sales" being dead. What you have to understand is that not everyone is a fanboy making blind, baseless assumptions and accusations. (I know you didn't say that. I'm making a point.)

Many were supporters of the original Xbox and Xbox 360. Microsoft is displaying a pattern that it will support its console in its early years, then seemingly dropping support for it in its latter years. That has to be of concern for most level headed people. Screw me once, shame on you. Screw me twice, shame on me. If I allow you to screw me a third time, I'm simply a dummy.

[Hicken]

How many of those sales did you put in your 360 and play again?

I hate Microsoft. HATE THEM(in the gaming industry, anyway; prefer them to somebody like Apple, though). However, rather than leave the industry, I would like to see them FOCUS on it correctly.

That means providing games to their core userbase. That core userbase isn't particularly interested in apps and Kinect games. Certainly, there is a large market out there for both things, but neither of those markets were supporting Microsoft through their early years and struggles.

I'm not saying abandon the casual crowd. I'm saying don't rely on them as much as they are now. It's not sustainable, nor is it fair to the core fans who ALWAYS buy your stuff.

Yes, that means fanboys. I don't have a problem with fanboys because they're at least die-hards that support their company and thus the industry. Not always in the best way, but without fans and fanboys, there isn't much of a gaming industry.

Edit: Are you kidding me? Their last few years have shown how much Microsoft thinks of the core, as opposed to the casual. That's called RELYING. How much software they sell doesn't matter nearly as much as WHAT software they're selling. And even more important than that is the software they have UPCOMING.

"Trying to tap into" the casual market would be more like what Sony did: giving the casuals something to pick up. Microsoft has- late in this gen, anyway- thrown their lot in with the casuals. It's pretty hard to argue against that right now.

I'm in here commenting because I LOVE GAMING. I think that qualifies me to comment on whatever article I see fit. You won't find me in an article that I don't know anything about, which is why I'm rarely- if EVER- in a PC article, or embroiled in a specs debate.

If they had different practices in the industry, I wouldn't hate them. Which is why, smart guy, I comment on articles ABOUT them: I WANT to play more games, so I WANT them to do things to make me want their stuff.

Is that really that hard to grasp?

[MikeMyers]

How exactly are they relying on the casual crowd when we see software sales awfully familiar with PS3 software sales each month? Yes they rely on 3rd party publishers but so does Sony. Maybe not as much but they certainly do as well. They aren't relying on the casual crowd but rather trying to tap into that market too. It's not like you're going to contribute much if you go into discussions with that much baggage and hate.

I never understood why people who are quite happy with Sony's direction worry so much about what Microsoft is doing and if you 'HATE THEM' so much then you should simply ignore topics about them.

[Jek_Porkins]

Microsoft is doing the exact same thing as Sony and Nintendo, they just advertise it better. The games will be there, they've opened a ton of studios to ensure of that, they put so much money into their games that the quality is stellar, just look at Halo 4 and Forza Horizon, those came at the tail end of the Xbox 360 and are now two of my all time favorite games!

Nintendo has apps, Sony has Apps, Nintendo tries to capture both audiences, so does Sony and Microsoft.

Don't hate on Microsoft for advertising that they want to be in living rooms and that their consoles can do more than game.

[level 360]

Think Microsoft is doing this to both attract and subliminally take the shine away from their formulaic game title line-up unlike Sony who I think is more brave in letting new game developers showcase their talents.

It might or might not help them since most television screens presently selling have now the availability of some of those app and features as standard.

[baldulf]

Microsoft started this gen really strong, with a lot of quality games and very varied too.

But they haven't released anything decent since years ago besides Halo/Forza/Gears. It seems they have not interest on any IP that doesn't sell at least 4 million units.

And Kinect is a cancer.

[hazelamy]

i have to agree, especially when they're charging a fee to access services that are free on other devices, barring the cost of the services themselves, which you also have to pay for on top of the gold sub.

they're charging people for the right to pay other people for their services.

honestly, i'm surprised all these companies aren't pissed off, ms are charging people to access their services.

i imagine the movie studios would be pissed off if they started charging people to go into their stores before they even get a chance to buy any dvds.

be a bit of a piss take if ms continue doing this and then actually implement that bs anti preowned thing.

we wouldn't be allowed to profit from somebody elses work, even though we legally own that copy after buying it, but they can.

but then this whole industry has become about double standards, one rule for the industry, millions of rules for the consumers.

[clintagious650]

I dont know how MS is going to do with the nextbox but u can almost be GUARANTEED that xbl will always be a paid service because ALOT of MS money comes from xbl. MS are the masters of disguising & manipulating gamers into buying the 360 with timed exclusives that will say, "Only On Xbox" or exclusive dlc which comes on the 360 1st before other consoles for KNOWN 3rd party games. They are so good at advertising this that your average person looks at that & buys into it. Look there is nuttin wrong with MS making money but to sit there & actually own a 360 & be a core gamer, u cant seriously be happy with what MS has offered so far & they had a year head start over sony which should already tell u that they could careless what the core wants, they will focus wherever the MOST MONEY comes from which is kinect. Look for kinect halo games with the nextbox.

[killerorca258]

Microsoft openly admitted that they only made xbox to "steal some of Sony's profit". MS just want to take a bite out of every pie in the gaming market: touch controls, motion controls, asymmetrical gaming i.e Wii U, entertainment hubs, and any other markets that will emerge in future.

[Stoppokingme]

MS are just like any other business, they focus their attention mainly on profit margins, sales figures, and ways to increase these two things.

What they need to do is put their ears to the ground and listen to what the fans have to say. Sure if you want to attract average consumers go ahead with kinect 2.0 for nextbox. But if they really want to make a killing try beating Sony at their own game by making quality games and exclusives.

After all business is about producing a better product than your competitors, and lately MS is not doing that.

[NYC_Gamer]

MS needs to bring some quality core exclusives and studios next gen

[Thatlalala]

Sure MS has not put out as many exclusives as Sony but the ones that have came out since 2009 are quality. Who really cares if Sony have 2 or 3 more exclusives, when majority of the community still just trudges through mediocre-mulit-platorm-annual- relase crap.

[NYC_Gamer]

So,us gamers shouldn't want more quality exclusives from MS?what the majority plays won't change the fact that many of us want more core exclusives..MS needs to shift some focus away from Kinect and media to bring us something fresh not just Halo/Gears/Forza..

[Thatlalala]

What the majority plays is what we call "Demand". Some of you may come on here and think and speak otherwise, but the rest of the world speaks with their wallets, what do you think MS, Sony or any other game studio listens to. It is a business.

[greenpowerz]

PS3 fanboys feeling bold because of the PS4 announcment. This article is nothing more than a collection of lies made up in a pro Sony damage control effort.

Using IDK's bogus report on PS3 sales as if Sony cought up to MSFT after being behind almost 3 million and then sold 6 million PS3's this holiday to match the 360 LMAO>

Haters will attack MSFT for media offerings because MSFT has more and does a better job intergrating them into the core xbox experience.

Kinect is attacked because MSFT had made adavanced tech that was a system seller and a Japanese company did not causing japanese lovers to be angry as if it's against the rules and should be the other way around.

PS3 had no core games in 2012 for the holiday and not much else during the year yet some how PS3 fanboys still spew the same talking points about the 360 not having games, with fanboys feeling justified because the can wave their list of games made up of mostly games that have been delayed for a 1/4 1/2 of an decade, shovelware and jap nonsense.

[urwifeminder]

Looking forward to the new MS console between that and pc i will be most happy.

[Automatic79]

I totally agree that the focus should not be on entertainment. I feel that having xbox live as a service with all the features should be secondary to Microsoft and games should be the number 1 priority. What Microsoft needs to do is have focused media briefings with upcoming titles so that core gamers can be satisfied. The main issue is that Microsoft needs to be more open about games so that gamers can feel that there system has it all and is not just focused on entertainment.

[chrismichaels04]

i agree 100%