Here’s How Microsoft Can Fix The Xbox One’s Exclusivity Problem

One Angry Gamer "Fixing the Xbox One’s general appeal in the market when it comes to software exclusives is a lot simpler than dumping money into the coffers of the AAA studios who blow smoke up the bums of shareholders and spit on the faces of the core community like tweenies click “Like” on the Facebook pages of teenage heartthrobs."

[DarkOcelet]

Get more first party studious and have better policies .

[Hellsvacancy]

You would of thought MS would of done that by now, they're just taking the same route they did last gen, the "lets throw money at it" route

[Breakline]

It's very risky to develop a new IP. It's a lot more complicated than you'd think to authorize to your higher ups to spend money on something you don't have a great reason to believe will succeed. Established franchises on the other hand are much more reliable. It's just business.

[Why o why]

Take more risks

Allow more creative freedom to studios they already have

Spend more of that infinite moolah on a wider variety of projects in regards to genres.

Be consistent for the WHOLE gen

[Charybdis]

True people say Phil has focus on games but developing aaa games takes more than 1 year we will need to see proof which is kinda difficult at the moment when we can only trust in his promise. With games taking at least 2 years to develop and Microsoft lagging behind I can can see microsoft throwing even more money at third party developers in order to fund development of new ip such as titan fall and ryse, additional free conten (free tracks/ modes/maps/etc) or exclusivity arangements of already well known ip, unless of course they planned this before the new management changes.
edit:
Its surprising to see that thus far microft has taken the high road to fund new third party new ip without forcing third parties to sell their ip rights to Microsoft. hoping that these ip s which had financial help and supprt from Microsoft will make it to other platforms in due time

[lunatic0001]

it just blows my mind that ms doesnt realize that its sitting on some classic franchises...why not finally bring back franchises like a sequel to banjo tooie,sequel to conker, maybe a full prefect dark remake, even try negotiating to make a sequel to lost odyssey, which was a really good jrpg on the 360...hell why not make a badass brute force game since i havent seen this franchise since original xbox...it did suck but i would still like to see what they can do to make it awesome...but what does microsoft do....get tomb raider exclusively....for a little while -_-

[Ezz2013]

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

release Rare for a start

[redwin]

Disagree with all the indie talk, I think getting a few great and distinctive titles like the are doing now is great. What they need is new AAA exclusives and I think that's what they are doing. Exclusive IP, exclusive IP, exclusive IP. I remember the time of exclusive like conker, halo, old republic. Those were the years, let's do them again.

[Lawboy2]

Ppl are idiots...they ve added four new studios already

Black tusk
343i (did halo 4 but still new)
Leap pioneers
Project next

It's not the studios that is the problem...it's that gamers don't like the games that the first party are making....it's funny most ppl don't even know the first party games outside of halo gears and forza....ppl keep hollering that Microsoft needs to reinvest but why?

Think about what would sell more

Titanfall or lococycle
Dead rising or max cob
Tomb raider or fighter within
Ryse or kinect sports rivals

Every first party game that has released the xbox Fanbase didn't buy...so what is Microsoft to do...just keep losing money huh....smh

[iamnsuperman]

"It's not the studios that is the problem...it's that gamers don't like the games that the first party are making..."

But that is a studio problem for not making compelling software. I don't know where you got the idea that Microsoft software hasn't sold but if true that is a development problem not a gamer issue.

I think the issue is (which is something you do sort of mention) is why is Microsoft in short third party investments when those franchises may not have a long term exclusivity. Sure Titanfall we sell more than lococycle (really bad comparison by the way) but Titanfall as a franchise may never stay exclusive to the Xbox. Long termly throwing money at a problem might not solve any long term issues (fixing an outcome without sorting out the source). Reinvesting might be a better option as you can have a franchises that last and that can help build an identity where exclusives stay exclusives (something Microsoft doesn't really have).

At the end of the day Titanfall (hypothetically) may sell millions of consoles with the first release but this is mute when Titanfall 2 comes and goes multiplatform.

[Lawboy2]

@ superman

Yeah I know there bad comparisons...I just wanted to show what types of games that the first party have been producing this generation

Second it's not that clear that it is a studio problem, I'll give the example of max and the curse of the brotherhood..after it was free with GWG everyone said that the game was extremely good but without it being free I personally don't believe the xbox Fanbase would have tried it....(which is something I applaud the ps Fanbase for they actually are patient with studios and aren't afraid to try new things) the xbox Fanbase likes fast and shooter types games

Also we all know that those first party game sales were abysmal

Finally historically this has always been the case with Microsoft....buy third party's up....look at the great titles for xbox...gears made by epic third party...halo made by bungie third party...forza horizon playground games third party...Alan wake remedy third party

[Sharius]

lol, what? are you serious?

when gamers don't buy first party game that mean IS studio problem, infact when game don't sell well IS every studio's problem

[Lawboy2]

@ sharius

Not necessarily...it depends on the Fanbase...a lot of ppl are afraid of change

And that is not true there are plenty of great games that go unnoticed because ppl don't want to try the games out or because it's not what they are used to so they don't buy the game....u never know it's not always the studio

[ger2396]

4 of those games were made by 3rd party studios. What does that tell you about their studios? With the exception of halo 4, the other studios haven't released any thing yet.

[redwin]

Those new studios are coming with new ip's and they will be pushed hard and will sell like they did with Titan Fall.

[come_bom]

"Here’s How Microsoft Can Fix The Xbox One’s Exclusivity Problem"

More 1st party studios is a good idea, but I guess it's not their way. Their main problem is they need to get more exclusives, real exclusives that you only can play on the console, even if they are 3rd party. What's the point of purchasing a console to play timed exclusives.

[Eddie20101]

Phil is towing the same old Microsoft line, except with smile. Microsoft's goal is to control all your home entertainment, why, to get advertising money. They are catering for now because they are behind this gen, if they get the upper hand in the US again, (That's a very big if) trust me they will be back to their old practices again.

[FanboyKilla]

a bunch of sony fans sitting in a circle, having a discussion , about how to fix ms problems. lol wonder how this is going to end?

[dj3boud]

Leave Rare to their own devices and let them make a game. that's your solution.

[chrisarsenalsavart]

That would be the best way to spend money imo.

[medman]

@breakline
Don't you realize that every successful franchise started out as a new ip at some point in time? What you say makes no sense. As a longtime gamer and someone who has always owned multiple consoles, I'm bothered by the fact that Microsoft has made it a trend where their first party games are heavily shooter focused, with very little experimentation from those studios. Sony has great variety across their first parties, conversely. Also, Microsoft has failed with two successive consoles to provide compelling first party content late in each consoles life cycle. It's a poor indicator of what may lie ahead if the past is any guide. I really don't like to see Microsoft buying timed exclusivity because I believe the money would be better spent investing in new ip, or new tech. Timed exclusives aren't selling me a console. It's just more of the same from Microsoft, and that is what is most disappointing.

[Insomnia_84]

"Getting a hold of something new, innovative or disruptive in mass quantities is what Microsoft needs to recover the Xbox One’s appeal on the exclusive software front."

This is the problem with Microsoft, they always go for the "safe" route. Sony in the other hand is the risk taker and it is why we have games like Little Big Planet that are now very successful.

That's just the way Microsoft operates and it's why they are always late to whatever they get into and end up failing. For a company with slogans like "Be What's Next" and "Innovation" they fall short!

[mrpsychoticstalker]

There's no problem to be fixed, this site always tries to downplay the success of the Xbox. It's pathetic. Yes it s true is selling less than the competition, but it was to be expected selling In just 13 territories and at a much expensive tag.

TThe exclusives are coming, whether they are timed or full time exclusives the Xbox is the place to play First.

[DarkOcelet]

Ok tell me this , from 2010 ,aside from Alan Wake , what new exclusives did the 360 have except sequels to Gears ,Halo ,forza and fable . I mean they gave up all support for the mediocre kinect which everyone hated , what i am saying is this , like you said exclusives are coming but for how long and will they be more sequels or are we going to see more new stuff , i mean for an Rpg fan it sucks to have a 360 , yes it had two awesome rpg's that are Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon but what else .. to think they have all that money and all they could do was more sequels :/.

[EvilWay]

the Kinect sold millions so I don't know about people hating it. It was gimmick

[WilliamUsher]

"this site always tries to downplay the success of the Xbox"

There's a difference between downplaying success and simply not having enough exclusives to appeal to the core and casual market.

Sony and Nintendo have been seeking out tons of indie exclusives wherever they can, and Microsoft trails with a handful of interesting titles. Sony already has a pool of more than a thousand registered indie devs and they're securing more each quarter as they try to replicate the PS2's diverse software library.

Microsoft will NEED strong, original exclusives if they hope to have any chance of establishing marketing dominance. Timed multiplatform exclusives (especially for already established sequels) really won't win them over many new fans.

[brotherlymoses]

Fighter within 2 will win people over. Lol

[ziggurcat]

@mrpsychoticstalker:

"Yes it s true is selling less than the competition, but it was to be expected selling In just 13 territories and at a much expensive tag."

the amount of territories is irrelevant. as it's been pointed out - a lot - those 13 territories are MS's STRONGEST MARKETS.

[OpieWinston]

Strongest markets or not comparing sales is kind of pointless when it's 13 vs 70.

[ziggurcat]

@opie:

no, because out of fairness, if you eliminated the other 57 territories, the xbone would still behind in all 13 of the territories that both systems are available.

[GribbleGrunger]

For God's sake, not this again. I'll be glad when we get that frigin' European launch out of the way. Then you can move on to some other excuse.

[MysticStrummer]

They aren't winning anywhere. Math… it's not just a rumor.

[Funantic1]

No MS needs to keeping working hard to get all the exclusives they can for Xbox owners. If they had guts like me, they wouldn't care what other fanboys had to say about it because you ain't gonna do a thing but complain. Sony needs to do the same for Playstation owners. Sony keeps turning down offers and ideas from developers. Sony could have had Titanfall and EA Access because the developers went to them with a vision but Sony turns them down while the fanboys get mad at MS for accepting. Sony needs to get aggressive.

[Hellsvacancy]

Sorry to burst your bubble but what does Sony have to do exactly? they're running laps around the other competition and it's not even been a year yet

[Brettman2008]

Agree, Sony has No Man's Sky and WiLD, for example, that are innovative and look incredibly promising. I also wouldn't call them Indies.

[Seafort]

One thing I agree with is that Sony needs to get more aggressive.

Microsoft will be doing everything in it's power to get the Xbox back on top as when you're at the bottom the only way is up.

Sony can't rest on the lead it has to keep pushing for more new IPs and use their first party studios to good effect to counter anything that Microsoft does.

Sony are probably already doing this now as I don't think anyone knows what they have in store from the worldwide studios. I'm guessing one of their games will be another The Last of Us we just don't know it yet :)

[qwerty676]

they will dont worry.

they will release a ps4 with a bigger hard drive this holiday i can almost guarantee it, and some other type of bundle.

but no need to announce stuff right now because then people would stop buying ps4s to wait for new ones/bundles to release.

[DigitalRaptor]

Hilarious.

Get some perspective. Microsoft turned down LittleBigPlanet, Heavy Rain and RiME - as well as more than half of the creative output of Rare.

Meanwhile, Sony turns down dudebro shooters. See the difference?

[rainslacker]

Ironically, Sony is the only company that had a 1st person shooter at launch. COD was of course on both systems, but that's COD.

I wonder if Sony turned down Respawn because they didn't want it to compete with KZ:SF, which seemed to get mixed reaction from the community, but was scored well overall.

Anyhow, I don't believe that MS was the only one that could offer EA/Respawn the "help" they needed to finish the game. It was way too close to release and by the time it was announced exclusive, it would have been in what's called code lock, and they would have been polishing it up. A game like that you don't wait until the last 5 months to write the net code. MS just gave them a buttload of money, offered free server support, and agreed to a massive marketing campaign. It's understandable why they did it given the hype TF had up to that point, but I think EA and Respawn came out worse from the deal, as it could have become a much more popular franchise had it been available on the PS4 as well.

What I'm hoping is that for all these exclusive deals that MS is making with 3rd party publishers, they find that they are coming out worse from it. I hate to see a decent game not sell, but I feel the trend needs to stop sooner rather than later. The fact that Crysis, likely Respawn/EA, and soon to be Square Enix find out their game isn't selling as well as it could could mean companies take a much broader look at what it is they're doing for short term gain.

[Seafort]

Microsoft needs to think long term and stop buying all these short term timed exclusives all the time.

They've never fully committed to their platform with first party studios like Sony or Nintendo has. It's like they have one foot out the door and are unwilling to jump in feet first to support and grow their console platform.

Their problem is they rely too much on the US market to push the sales and when that didn't happen this time they went into panic mode.

We'll see a lot more of these anti-consumer and anti-gamer business deals from Microsoft as they don't know how to deal with failure other than to just throw money at the problem.

It's not going to work this time. Their investors will say enough is enough and that's when Microsoft will be really in trouble. No company has unlimited cash and resources so there will always be a line that they can't go beyond.

[iamnsuperman]

If Microsoft aren't careful the short term deals will bite them in the arse later on in a cycle. From no garentee the franchises will stay with the Xbox brand to having to use existing franchises in more annual ways could end up more going to other consoles.

This is the perfect time for Microsoft to experiment with games and see what sticks (the beginning of a new cycle). They seem to be in panic mode buying up exclusive third party rights to give a boost in sales. But this boost isn't a long term thing nor a long term solution. Spend that money elsewhere and not on short term goals. They could easily flood the market with their own wild franchises considering the rumored prices for some of these deals

[Software_Lover]

Nintendo first parties make the same games every generation, no one complains. IMHO, that was a bad comparison.

[RosweeSon]

I don't complain with nintendo but quite a few do say it's the same old same old, their loss, quality through and through with nintendo games.

[Spotie]

Nintendo gets a helluva lot of grief for reusing the same franchises. Dunno what you're looking at, but it doesn't seem to be working too well for them this time around.

Microsoft is in worse shape, as they don't have nearly as strong a stable of first party devs.

[RosweeSon]

As Jessie J said.... It's all about the money money money..... €$¥£!!

[SaveFerris]

The Xbox is a Dudebro console made for the USA, and the majority of successful franchises have been shooters, sports and racing games. And the majority of those games with the exception of Halo and Forza, have been third-party titles.
Other genres don't sell nearly as well on Xbox despite how 'good' the games are, because a majority of the owners don't want those types of games.
This is why MS continues to partner with EA Sports and COD, because the majority of Xbox owners play these types of games. In my opinion.

[EvilWay]

Buying Square Enix and Capcom would be a great start

[dmonee]

MS knows they can compete by throwing money around. The problem is, really good developers, like 2k, ubisoft, and EA, dont need it. They know a very good game released multiplatform will make them more.money then what MS will give them to keep a game exclusive to their platform in the short term. Which begs the question, how much did they pay for this tomb raider game. I would bet enougj to practically fund the whole project. But tomb raider? Why not gta v remastered or shit!, madden football?!

[NeoGamer232]

I don't see what the problem is.

Comparing MS exclusives to Sony's exclusives is not apples to apples. Sony WILL NEVER ship an exclusive on PC. Whereas, MS IS NOT AFRAID to ship exclusives on PC because they benefit from Windows and their Windows hardware ecosystem benefits from shipping games on Windows as well.

Sony fans can say they win by simply stating quantity of exclusive content because with self-publishing Sony does have more exclusives. What they fail to mention is that most of those exclusives are already on the PC. But, Xbots can claim victory for "new" published content as there have been more "new" publisher games on X1 than PS4. But, again, Xbots fail to mention that many of their games are only timed exclusive with PC. When it comes down to quality, I think it is a saw-off. Sony wins with quality on the self-published side, but MS wins on quality for publisher side.

On the first party side so far, Sony has brutal published content. Knack, Killzone, and infamous are not what I normally expect from Sony. MS is not much better with X1. They have Forza 5, Zoo Tycoon, Kinect Sports Rivals, and Crimson Dragon...

Sony has happiness in shipping TLOU, then LBP3, and DriveClub currently and thru the holidays... While MS has Forza Horizon 2, Sunset Overddrive, Halo MCC, and Project Spark. Again, people can argue both ways as to which is better... TLOU is huge on quality, Halo is large on quality but massive on quantity and easily better MP... LBP3 is probably better than Project Spark. It could be argued that the gameplay features of Forza Horizon 2 will be stronger than DriveClub but DriveClub is stronger on graphics. Which leaves Sunset Overdrive being unanswered by Sony.

Finally, Sony fans like to talk about 2015... Bloodbourne, The Order, Uncharted 4, etc... MS is not as clear as to what will ship in 2015 yet. Traditionally, MS is not clear about future years while Sony sometimes jumps the gun prematurely (The Last Guardian, The Agent, etc.). I chalk this up to MS who is cautious until their lineup is clear, and Sony who is aggressive even though they probably don't know for sure yet. To say that Sony for sure has a better 2015 lineup than MS is true today, because MS really only has Halo 5 (gameplay unseen), and Quantum Break (Gameplay just seen), and Tomb Raider (Timed Exclusive and gameplay unseen), while Sony has The Order (gameplay seen), Uncharted 4 (Gameplay unseen), and Bloodbourne (Gameplay seen). But, next year's E3 will clarify what will really come out next year. I don't put a lot of faith that everything Sony or MS says will ship in 2015 actually will.

[HanzoHattori]

Take some of that money and invest in game development instead of ruining the industry with bribes and con games.