E3 2018: Opinion: Xbox Is Playing For Tomorrow, But It's Playing to Win

Microsoft won’t fully recover from this generation’s mistakes, but it's hellbent on not repeating them.

[Skull521]

The wrong people were in charge of the Xbox One. That's no longer the case and it shows. Xbox will be the best place to play for years and years to come.

[AspiringProGenji]

My bad I thought it already was with the X. MS still making you all play the waiting game I see

[Skull521]

Xbox actually makes games you keep playing, probably foreign to you. You probably play exclusives for 15 hours then never touch them again, so you're waiting much longer for gaming than the average Xbox user.

[AspiringProGenji]

Yeah man. Keep telling that to yourself. I envy your bliss

[Godmars290]

Things are in the process of showing change, but as long as the focus remains "games as services" then they're going in the wrong direction.

By all rights there's enough room for big budget SP and MP to coexist. Yet where Sony's seemingly found a balance, if not leaning more towards SP, MS insist MP is the only way to go based mainly on profit margins and the result of their own SP efforts - which were crap.

[SCW1982]

@Skull

Someone got a hold of his parents keyboard you guys.

[lxeasy]

Xbox definitely planted the seeds for their future. Good for them for finally investing the brand like never before. Wish the guys who are in charge of Xbox were in charge back then.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

People here said Phil is worse than Don Mattrick. They were clearly on something.

[lxeasy]

Yeah they are bugging. That's just the ps fanboys talking

[FallenAngel1984]

Tomorrow? The Xbox One’s exclusive library for the rest of the year is still extremely lacking outside of one game

[AngelicIceDiamond]

Its lacking for both.

[The 10th Rider]

The exact same thing could be said about Sony's first party the rest of this year . . . There's only Spiderman that's confirmed right now. Playground Games track record is just as good as Insomniac's, so the Spiderman and Forza Horizon 4 should be similar in quality. We might get Dreams this year, but they didn't give us a release date at E3 so maybe not. There's also a chance of the MediEvil remake, but that's a remake and, again, we didn't see it. (You can already play older titles on Xbox anyways, so it doesn't even need remakes of OG Xbox games or 360 games).

So for both Xbox and PS4 owners the rest of the year pretty much belongs to third parties.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Xbox has games alright, but tomorrow is a strech probably next gen

[blackblades]

Yep, saving them all for the next xbox which they mentioned it's being worked on.

[Vasto]

Phil Spencer has worked his way up from the bottom and is now making real change.

[JesusBuiltmyHotrod]

Whats changing? They are just going back to basic..games. Shocker..games systems are about games. Nothing is changing, they are still going to be way behind Sony Worldwide in sales,

[Vasto]

LMAO, he gets salty just from me saying Phil Spencer is making real change.

MS is so much more of a powerful company than some small company like Sony that PS sales don't even matter. 2.25 Billion made last quarter from a system that people called dead in 2013.

Just look at the difference in E3 conferences. MS destroyed Sony this E3 and the power difference was so clear.

5 new game studios, Game Pass Fast Start, Console Quality Streaming Service, Next Gen Console codenamed Scarlett and 50 Games!

Only thing good about Sony conference was that Ghost game. LMAO

[JesusBuiltmyHotrod]

Win what? LOL they are not going to win anything barring a major screw up from Sony. Heck with PS3 launching 1 year later and 16 months later in Europe and more expensive all gen, it still outpaced 360....MS is too weak outside the US.

[The 10th Rider]

PS2 sales: 155 million
OG Xbox sales: 24 million

PS3 sales: 85 million
Xbox 360 sales: 84 million.

I don't think bragging about the PS3 beating the Xbox 360 is really that great of an idea. That loss in market share is incredible. Sony made a ton of missteps and that led to Microsoft seeing an enormous boost. This gen Microsoft shot themselves in the foot with the Xbox One reveal and Sony's sweeping the floor again.

Even when you add in the gamecube and Wii, Sony went from a 77% market share in the PS2 era to like 31% just a generation later. They literally lost almost half the market.

If anything, the changes from the PS2 era to the PS3 era show just how quickly the market can change.

[Rude-ro]

Ummm there was more at play than missteps other than the fact they gave the largest marketing and media partner a one year window.
It was an all out attack from Microsoft from monopolizing third party games, media bashing, and but loads of money thrown at marketing.
Sony took on hardware architecture.,, that was their misstep.
If you are going to use the “market share” analogy, then you have to put it in current perspective as well. Where Sony has climbed back over the 50% mark this gen.

[Grown Folks Talk]

That was Microsoft's goal with the 360. Close the gap in market share. I said that long ago. People deny it, but who would realistically expect them to do anything else? Had they outsold them, it would have been welcome naturally, but the logical goal was closing the distance. Sadly for them, they wasted all that with poor or nonexistent messaging prior to the X1 release. I honestly think they'd be worlds further along had they stuck to their original plans, but they never properly gave anyone a reason to accept it. Mostly their own fault, some intentional falsehoods, some a lack of comprehension.

[The 10th Rider]

@Rude-ro,

You're last sentence highlights exactly what I'm saying. JesusBuiltmyHotrod implied that last gen shows that Sony will have the lead regardless. My point is that even though Sony will likely take the lead, the change from PS3 gen, to last gen, to this gen, shows how quickly the market can change.

[manabyte77]

They’re not playing for tomorrow. They’re setting themselves up to ram the exact same vision for the next console as Xbox One, minus the focus on media. Streaming, play on any device, all digital, focus on rental and services, no ownership, no reselling games, and forfeiture of your rights as a consumer. Except now boneheaded fanboys seem to be open and desperate to taking it up the ass this time.

[stuna1]

^^This^^

Nothing else needs to be said!!!!!!!!!!!

[Hedstrom]

You could play Halo, Gears and Forza last generation. You can play Halo, Gears and Forza this Generation. You will be able to play Halo, Gears and Forza next generation. There you have MS game plan! If youre into those game its just fine and dandy!

[Father__Merrin]

exclusive differentiating library compared to ps4 is severely lacking thats a fact. mabey next gen xbox can have a good library but this gen its been awful

[King_Lothric]

When the future comes we will talk about it. Right now all we have is the present. I know some people doesn't like the position in which their console is in the present and goes to an acid trip in the clouds theorizing about the future as an escape.

Xbox lost this generation miserably and there si no denying that. Not even the most powerful console in the universe made any difference . They should start working for next gen.