By Zach Fox
Microsoft pulled off something very strange with the X-Box 360. Something quite special and positively unique: it didn’t piss anyone off. Not really anyway.
PlayStation vs. Microsoft pitiable fanboy patheticness aside, the X-Box 360 performed a veritable Houdini act by both being there (to the tune of roughly 70 Million sales worldwide and a very creditable 2nd place this generation) and also not there for everyone else. No matter what was owned or preferred, the Wii was omnipresent enough to be noticeable, whether for better or worse. The 360 though was a little like Switzerland, amicably standing by, picking up the odd shell from a PS3-headed attack, while making a metric ton of money.
Hanzla from eXputer inquires: "If Xbox can care about preserving its games and legacy, what exactly is wrong with Nintendo, trying to kill game preservation single-handedly?"
Ahh yes the good old game preservation of saving all your games to a removable hhd on the Xbox 360, taking it round your mates house, setting up multiple tvs to
Be met with “save data corrupted, please re download”
Or how about removing 360 games
From the store
, download them now or else, and, better hope to god that save data doesn’t corrupt, or it’s lost for ever
Nice one ☝️
This is just a scammy PR move to distract from the fact they are going digital only and trying to push streaming and subscriptions only.
No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft.
Without discs there is no preservation, preservation can't be done by the rights holders it can only be done by the consumers, anything else is a lie.
Nobody wants this. Sales or the lack of it in the case of XBOX is very telling. I wonder how the adorably all digital series X will fare. Adorably dismal perhaps?
Only time will tell, but for from someone like me suspecting that Xbox is trying to gracefully exit the console market, that "forward compatibility" team is trying to get Xbox games playing on Windows PCs. I mean, it's nice that they're not planning on exiting with a "enjoy your games while the hardware still works" message, so that's nice. They still have a brand to protect via Microsoft so probably feel obligated to have a better exit strategy.
Microsoft's future in the video game space is murky right now, so let's break it all down.
Not anytime soon. But they're on that path.
One thing not mentioned in the article is Microsoft's money bags. If Sega had Microsoft's money, they would have still been around as a hardware manufacturer. Xbox as a platform only survives because of the money bags. They can continue making consoles for the core and port to PC.
The multiplatform strategy is only the result of arrogance and misguided leadership that blew up in their face. They thought gamers would jump on Xbox in droves if they knew that many of their favorite games would be only on Xbox. But that's not happening at all. Sales didn't increase. They decreased. Why? Because the dumb asses thought giving away these expensively made games in a cheap service would also turn the tide.
Gamers on other platforms are willing to buy quality. They don't need to be handed nearly free games in a service that aren't even finished and sometimes average in their development. Gamers buy Nintendo games. They buy Sony games. Microsoft groomed their base to not buy games. Even the quality ones. It has always been their plan to go digital. But most gamers still like single player gaming. Still like physical releases.
Microsoft's problem has always been that they don't produce high quality games at the same output as Nintendo and Sony. Actually, they should be producing quite a lot more because they're worth over 2 TRILLION. How they don't have more is ridiculous and no excuse. Buying publishers to take away from competition only backfired. Because it still takes millions of dollars to continue to make those games from the publishers they snatched. Their only choice was to crawl back to their competitors to help sustain those developers because Nintendo and Sony platforms were the ones buying games.
Am I sorry for Microsoft? Hell no! They deserved last place for putting in the least effort. They deserved the fallout for buying up the industry and didn't make a single blip on the radar against their competitors where they now need those same gamers they took away games from to support them. Part of it may have been to cash in on their competition. But the result is the slow death of their platform. They may go 3rd party. They may keep making hardware. I don't give a shit about them to worry about it. I only give a shit about the destructive nature of their industry moves that only negatively affect gamers. They could sell and drop out of the industry and I wouldn't blink. Probably laugh. But not blink. They deserve whatever comes to them. At least Sega put in the effort when it came to games. They just had poor leadership. Microsoft has poor leadership and barely makes memorable games. That's a killer combination. And not in a good way.
Not sure about that. It's been two decades and I still think about Power Stone, Shenmue, Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Seaman and others, but I'm not sure I'll remember Xbox Series X/S games in a few years from now... Maybe I'll remember about the franchises that the Xbox brand spawned, but I don't believe that the Xbox Series lives up to the late Dreamcast or even to the Xbox name itself. I do have great memories about the 360 with Blue Dragon, Gears 2 and Lost Odyssey though
No, Dreamcast was ahead of it's time and most still have very fond memories of it that had one. It also had some good games on it even in it's short lifespan. Xbox has none of these qualities.
Microsoft has announced the Microsoft Rewards app on Xbox will be discontinued in April and has confirmed that weekly streaks will also be coming to an end.
Anyway here is why Microsoft got themselves into a hole in my opinion.
If Microsoft includes a Kinect Sensor in the Nextbox they will probably cut back on specs of the Xbox making it weaker than Sony and/or Valves offering.
At the start of this gen the Xbox 360 had many unsual but good quality games unfortuanately besides an avalanche of new Kinect titles, they have all but dried up besides Halo and Gears. Sony on the other hand has pushed many new AAA ips that can be used next gen.
Xbox live is a rippoff compared to Sony's Playstation Plus and I can guarentee that overall most savvy people who swithched to Ps3 due to the better and more cost effective experiance will probably stay with Sony based on their although bumpy, overall good track record this gen.
If Microsoft want to make a media hub for the living room they will fail. Has anyone heard of Samsungs Smart TV, it does everything and more than the Xbox 360, it even has an arm flailing recognition system like the Kinect and Smart TV's will come down in price. Microsoft has alot of cash (unlike its rivalsTthey must focus on creating games because that is what the Xbox was made for in the first place.
I think the next Xbox will do better than the wii u. I'm sure it's going to be a great game console. I'm more interested in what Sony is going to do to compete with Microsoft. I can't wait till Microsoft/Sony release official word on there next console.
Not interested if they dont have any good core exclusives.. Not Halo & Gears either..
I have them both, xbox360 is laggi with new games, it aint as powerfull as is ps3.