10 Biggest Xbox Mistakes of All Time (So Far)

The Xbox brand has done a lot of good over the years, but their various blunders are pretty wild to look back on in their magnitude.

[piroh]

Ironically number 9 can save them at this point (releasing games on multiple platforms)

[ChasterMies]

By “save them” you mean make more profit for Microsoft. Xbox will still be a dying hardware platform.

[darthv72]

....only 10?

[OtterX]

You could add the naming scheme for the consoles, it just confuses customers. I know they wanted to avoid traditional numbering bc it would always be lower than their competitor, but this whole 360 then One then Series thing is confusing af. Imagine a Soccer Mom trying to figure this stuff out. I still mistakenly call the Series X the One from time to time on accident.

[RNTody]

Don't forget about the Xbox One, Xbox One X and Xbox Series X! Good luck to Soccer moms around the world.

[S2Killinit]

They did that on purpose to confuse and direct attention away from the generational numbering.

MS doesn’t like reminding people that they joined the industry after others had already been involved in gaming.

For instance, they called the xbox “360” to combat PlayStation “3” because they wanted to seem like “more” than “3”, so instead of xbox 2, they opted for xbox 360. Also this had the additional benefit of selling consoles to uninformed parents who might purchase a “360” instead of a “3” by mistake, or because they thought 360 was more than 3. Kind of a disingenuous move.

They have been continuing with their confusing naming patterns for pretty much the same reasons. Frankly, it fits with who and what they are as a brand.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I can understand their reasoning, but whoever came up with that naming scheme should be fired, bad naming schemes have killed consoles (I'm pretty sure it was the major reason for the downfall of the WiiU). They should have had unqiue names like Nintendo and Sega have had for their consoles, far less confusing for the consumer.

[rob-GP]

@FinalFantasyFanatic "They should have had unqiue names like Nintendo..."

lol, you mean:

NES, SNES
GameBoy, GameBoy Advanced, GameBoy Colour, GameBoy SP
DS, DSi, DSXL
3DS, 3DS XL, New 3DS, New 3DS XL
Wii, Wii U
Switch, Switch OLED

[Cacabunga]

Phil Spencer is the worst that has happened to Xbox.
They built a respectable brand up to Xbox one. Then this guy took over and things became a joke

[Reaper22_]

He still has his job. Something you can't say about Jim Ryan.

[Cacabunga]

Both bad execs. One is on job and one thankfully retired.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I didn't like either person, both people damaged their respective brands and produced worse outcomes, but Phil did save the Xbox brand from being retired by Microsoft. Although in hindsight, he should have just let it die, rather than languish in limbo like it is now.

[Rainbowcookie]

Yeah but the one that was "bad" didn't even affect sales.

[bunt-custardly]

Phil Spencer was also on the team back when 360 was around, alongside Shane Kim, Peter Moore etc. I think the damage that did the most harm was the Don Mattrick "Always Online" console (ahead of its time basically). They handed Sony and Nintendo a free-pass when that was revealed. It went downhill from there. Then the corporate machine went into full swing to try and recover. They have to a degree as a games company for the masses, and less so for the core gamer. Outside USA, the Xbox brand does not sell as well as Japanese based consoles (citation needed).

[Cacabunga]

Want a decision maker. The always online and TV plans was a disaster yes, but they caught up by announcing 1st party games that gamers actually kept the hype going.. until this moron took over and introduced the PC day one release.. e all know where that ended..

[S2Killinit]

I dont think they were ever a respectable brand, not since the beginning, when their goal was never to be involved and share in the gaming space. I think the OG xbox was an exception because MS as a brand was still getting its foot in and so the people behind that were people of the gaming industry.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

The 360 was the brand in its prime though, everything went downhill towards the end of that generation. Its staple games like Halo, Forza and Gears are what kept the console relevant and afloat for so long.

[MaximusPrime_]

Really good video.

I remember the days with RRoD was big news on here, N4G.

Microsoft had it turbulence number of years.

Looking at the success of Sea of Thieves despite being 6 years old, time to release Halo, Forza horizon 4 & 5 on PS5. It'll help their revenue

[shinoff2183]

2 of the 4 games they did already sold really well. So it's definitely going down. Idk about halo or forza but I feel those studios they've bought in the last 5 years, their coming

[ChasterMies]

I found this video painful to watch. Can someone list them out?

Top 10 for me from are:
1. 2013 reveal presentation
2. Bundling Kinect 2 with Xbox One
3. RRoD or why rushing to market with hardware is always a bad idea.
4. Buying studios only to close them.
5. Ads on the Home Screen
6. Letting Halo die.
7. Letting Geard of War die.
8. Every console name
9. Charging for Xbox Live on Xbox 360 when Sony let PS3 players play online for free.
10. Cancelling release of OG Xbox games after the Xbox 360 launched.

[Hereandthere]

The biggest is pictured here

[anast]

It's only a 20 minute video. they aren't going deep enough. The mistakes have been catastrophic.

[bunt-custardly]

I wonder if the same author will do a "Crazy good things Xbox did that they want you to remember" video?

1. Xbox Live service on OG Xbox was ground-breaking for console market despite Dreamcast from SEGA offering online capabilities
2. the introduction of key gaming series like Halo, Forza, Gears, Fable etc.
3. The massive marketing campaigns like Zero Hour for the 360 launch, Peter Moore with GTA IV fake tats
4. Innovative ideas like Kinect
5. The acceptance of past mistakes with RROD and the ability to try and fix that (willingly or otherwise).
6. A continued "attempt" at bringing Japanese games like Blue Dragon, Lost Odessey to NA/Euro market outside of PS dominance (despite failing)
7. Streaming Xbox games without the need for a console
8. Gamepass for those on tight budgets

I expect a lot of downvotes for this but I like the banter. Would be good to see similar articles for Playstation and Nintendo, someone.

[jznrpg]

Marketing is considered a good thing?

Fixing RROD is something they had to do. It wasn’t a good thing it was mandatory or they would have been sued to hell.

Streaming is horrible - it’s part of their plan to kill off console.

Online was done elsewhere and I’ve played on every major online console (except last 2 Xbox’s) and the differences are unnoticeable. This is just a talking point from Xbox fans.

GamePass has ruined them and their newest acquisitions.price will go only go higher over time and quality will go down.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I don't think you can spin a some of those as good things.

Key gaming series - These kept them afloat, but they became too reliant on those franchises, and said franchises became stale, I don't think anyone is going to fondly talk about Halo 5 or Infinite, 5,10 years from now like they have of the first few games.

Marketing - I don't even remember these.

Kinect - It was kinda cool, but they made a mistake trying to force it on people during the Xone era, but that was one of the few things they came up with, can't think of anything else really.

RROD - that was so bad, it inflated sales numbers, and they refused to talk about failure rates, even now, we have wild estimates between 33% and 60%, all we know is, it was really high.

Gamepass - providing cheap gaming at the expense of your own survival and that of the developers who jumped onboard? This is one of their biggest reasons for failure, I don't think Sony should have followed suit with their own equivalent either.

[Deeeeznuuuts]

Just 10? But no, seriously, they messed up big time after the 360, never really had an Xbox console, other than the original but I didn't have it for long as I just didn't use it as much as my PS2 but I always enjoyed playing them when I went round to a mates house, too many hours to count on Halo, loved viva piñata, gears of war, Forza and really thought they could do something, they had the talent but since the 360 it's just been absolutely abysmal.

I'm glad games like sea of thieves, hi fi rush and hopefully more are coming to playstation, that's probably the best thing for me that has come out of this but that's it, other than that, it's been a complete mismanagement.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I loved the Halo Lan parties, despite owner a 360, I was never a fan of the console, but those parties were great fun.

[WiiU-Dude]

My feeling is their biggest mistake is not understanding what is the heart of gaming...the games. They have been in video games now at least 23 years. That is way more than enough time to build internally and organically their own IPs. Halo was brilliant and they hit the road running with Halo being so good out of the gate. Forza and Gears are fantastic too, but they have been inconsistent to non-existent after that. There is absolutely no excuse for this. They have had plenty of time to develope more original IPs even if some failed, keep trying, but they didn't do that now they have no true exclusives beyond Halo, Forza and Gears really. Yes they have a few others, but those 3 are defining and synonymous with the Xbox brand. Now they are going multi plat. They are not a true video game entity like Nintendo and Sony if you ask me. Microsoft had failed. They contribute in other ways to push the industry, but it isn't where it truly matters. Games.

[Knightofelemia]

Microsoft actually needs to sit down and truly think on what they want to do and how to run Xbox. Right now as it stands and as it shows they don't know WTF they are doing. Except dragging the Xbox brand nose first deeper into the ground. I mean its true there are barely any exclusives that make me say hey I should buy the machine. Locking the Coalition and 343 to just certain franchises I think has to be very boring on their end. If Microsoft doesn't turn shit around before or if they do drop a next gen Xbox. People are just going to bypass the XBox as a whole.

[Tankbusta40]

Number 1: Phil Spencer

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

All fair points, although the chonkyness of the OG Xbox has its own charm, even though we made of Xbox controllers and their users who preferred it. Really surprised Game Pass wasn't mentioned, considering that was a huge financial sinkhole for Xbox, because people could game on the cheap and not buy physical/digital copies of games.

I also feel that the Activision/Blizzard acquisition is going to be one of the final nails in the coffin for Xbox as a hardware company.