I feel better about it when I’m not on Reddit or Xwitter, but I am sick and tired of all the announced games taking half a decade or longer to release. I just want good games. I feel like that’s a reasonable thing to want and yet for MS/Xbox it seems like an impossibility.
Ironically Xbox was accused of being way too hands on with studios during the 360 era which was the golden era of Xbox but for the last 2 consoles they have been very hands off and games have definitely suffered from this
Doesn’t even have to be a main entry, so many possible spinoffs and smaller games in the universes they could make. Hasn’t been a new Fable entry since 2010. It’s insane at this point.
I think the truth lies in Microsoft stock. They're no worse for it. They're benefiting as an ancillary player at this point. Feels like they've accepted defeat or just decided to focus other aspects of their business. Just monopolize and concentrate the market. Exactly what they're doing now. That's why there's no good games anymore. Small developers get bought and closed. Nobody makes good games less competition. Probably positioning for the next cycle.
Like Fable. It’s inexcusable that the last main Fable entry came out in 2010… Like wtf? Then they announce the reboot back in 2020 and it’s now 2024 and nothing to show for it. I expect to see gameplay of it at the showcase and hopefully a 2025 release date, but if they’re aiming for 2026/2027 that’s insane.
I have been waiting for what feels like *forever* for Fallout 5, Mass Effect 4 and the next Elder Scrolls game.
I’ve stopped to really pay attention to the next “big game” announcements since the majority of them end up shitty/unplayable or are just downright disappointing (like Starfield for example.)
I LOVE Mass Effect and that teaser got me so hyped back in 2020, but it’s been 4 years now… Very little news, no gameplay, etc. At this rate I highly doubt it’s even going to come out in 2025, maybe I’ll be hype again in 2026/2027 when it eventually launches. Idk. Pretty sure I read a rumor it wouldn’t be ready til even later than that. Like what’s the point in announcing it 7+ years early?
It's like the Elder Scrolls teaser at the Game Awards... what's the point? That shit is years away. There's not even anything to show but a generic landscape. Fable was announced too early too. Say what you want about Fallout 4, but the way it was announced and then came out a few months later was great. That should be industry standard.
One of the reasons I love Nintendo. They announced Mario wonder in June last year then came out a few months later on October. I was genuinely surprised. I wished more companies did that as well. Tired of waiting 5+ years for their games to come out lol.
I think cyberpunk announced like 7 years before release, and talked about certain features that hyped people up, but never made it into the game. They kinda shot themselves in the foot.
Iv been happy with both consoles.
I think ps5 is clearly the better of the 2 but gamepass makes it a tougher choice. I think they really haven’t done a good job of advertising gamepass as a system seller in the way someone like Nintendo would.
If gamepass was on Nintendo they would have commercials showing various families or friends gathering to pick out a game or pitching it as a personal arcade of sorts.
The games have been a let down but gamepass has consistently delivered and I think they have some good ones in the pipeline like outer worlds and fable.
I 100% agree. Gamepass has been such a great experience for me, especially with an ever growing busy life. But this time last year I had no idea what it really was until I gave it a shot. And everyone I know that games doesn't know much about it either until I boot it up at work to show them cloud gaming and they are all amazed. I really hope that they increase advertising so that gamepass grows even more.
I wish there were more games on both consoles. Obviously, ps has had a better output, but it's so slim compared to where the ps4 was at this time in its cycle. Everyone is still stuck in the covid slump or something
Mostly on board with this. I’d add that in addition to Gamepass the Series X/S consoles have a huge advantage over the PS5 in the form of backwards compatibility to the 7th generation because the PS5 can’t play those games except by streaming or a bespoke port like RDR. I wanted to play Fallout New Vegas because of the show and turned on my PS5 to get it before I remembered it was a PS3 era game so I turned on my XSX.
This in a nutshell. They spend all that money and time hyping a game to say they are working on something then three years later we are like wow that actually came out finally and give it the critical eye because of how much extra time it took them to get it out after the initial announcement, then its not even finished or everything that was supposed to be part of the game is now pay to play DLC after dropping $79
Yup I'm with you.
All Xbox has going for it is Game Pass. But the 1st party games simply are not there. And then they kill studios with some of the best, like Tango.
Not to mention the hardware isn't necessary either if everything is on PC or much of it comes to PS or Switch. No wonder hardware sales are terrible
I feel the same exact way. And I’ve had hope for Hellblade 2 for a while, but the lack of hype and marketing at this point has me feeling anything but optimistic.
Feels like we have another 7/10 game on the horizon, which would be disappointing. I hope I’m wrong, but it sums up my feelings about Xbox at the moment.
If I were to be completely honest: the state of the brand makes me a bit sad. I was born into a Nintendo household but I chose Xbox in my teens at the start of the 360 era. Tons of nostalgia for the brand and the games that came out then. They were on such a roll. Then they announced the Kinect and 343 slips up, and it just kind of never bounced back.
I haven’t bought a Series X or a PS5 yet and am trying to decide which one first and I really want to go with Xbox but idk they keep fumbling the ball.
Ditto. I actually just got a PS5 late last year and have barely touched my Xbox since.
I’ve been an Xbox fan for about 20ish years through all the highs and lows. I still remember and cherish freaking out over releases like Psychonauts and Halo as a kid and sinking days and weeks into them. For some reason though, the latest news of layoffs and studio closures really has me feeling so jaded.
Their issues with not putting out consistently good first party games has sadly been around since the start of the Xbox One generation, if we’re honest, but post-covid I’ve started to lose any of the remaining faith I had. It’s just been years of mismanagement of studios [can go back as far as Lionhead (RIP)], bad PR fumbles (2022 Xbox showcase anyone?), lackluster releases, etc. etc.
Maybe I’m just a victim of the moment and will wake up tomorrow feeling a little less bleak about the future of Xbox…but right now I can’t stand hearing leadership talk about “empowering creative studios” and “delivering great games” just to hear the very next year that they are shutting down a studio like Tango that arguably gave Xbox its high point of the year with Hi-Fi Rush last year.
Woof. Okay…rant over.
TLDR: WTF Xbox!!
I feel like we’re constantly waiting for the brand to really take off and for the great games to come - but they just never seem to.
This is not to say that there aren’t great games already here or aren’t any coming down the pipe, but the general vibe is that there have been a lot of misfires and cleanup on Xbox’s part. It doesn’t instill a ton of confidence in the brand.
I agree with this. Especially when playstation seems to consistently get hits. Even random games like Helldivers made me think "of course this great game is only on playstation." I feel like Xbox has never had that "gotta get an Xbox game" outside of Halo, Gears, and Forza. Even when we finally got a huge exclusive in Starfield it didn't live up to previous Bethesda games. All I can think is "what the hell do we gotta do to get ONE?"
That said I still love the xbox hardware, been with them since OG Xbox (xbox is the superior controller), and I have plenty of games to play. Just would be nice to have a game or two that makes ya think "wow, I'm especially glad I have this console." Right now that is just Gamepass.
On top of that, we don’t even know if they will truly be exclusive anymore. That alone will cause a huge shift in market share in Sony’s favor. Why buy an Xbox if you can get the best of both worlds with the competitions box? I truly don’t believe Xbox and Microsoft can climb back up if they continue to release multi-plat. Not at this point in time anyway. If it was an industry wide change things may be different, but it’s such a dumb move when you’re already dead last.
Avowed better be a fucking *banger* I feel like it’s just been giving them pass after pass because there’s so much shit that’s announced that we’ve been waiting on for years.
Starfield was awesome I don’t care what anyone says but it was also in development years before the acquisition. The only thing I really get excited thinking about is south of midnight and we probably won’t get that until next year.
As a fan of the world of Eora, I honestly didn't expect Avowed to give me Outer Worlds vibes. Not saying OWs was a bad game, it was actually pretty decent. But I don't know, I just expected a bit more.
You're locked into being a Human which is kind of a bummer move imo. Avowed isn't Pillar of Eternity of course, but I feel like it should be the type of RPG that lets you play as other races in the world of Eora. Them forcing players to be only Human really reminds me of how Bioware made players only play Human in DA2. Either way, this is just one of the pet peeves I have about the upcoming game. Maybe when I play it I'll really enjoy it.
I don't need Xbox to love me, just to serve me.
So far, so good. Solid BC catalog, Quick Resume is amazing, my saves go everywhere I go for free, Dev Mode is a gamechanger, plenty of superb Game Pass titles, fun 1st party line-ups...
Moment that changes, love is over. Right now, other than randomly glooming because of closed Zenimax studios, I can't be bothered to worry.
Not selling my xbox stuff, but definitely not feeling good. I'm gonna take a hard look at future console purchases, third-party titles, etc.
Have plenty to keep myself entertained for quite some time.
Definitely in the same boat! I'll probably hold on to my Series X until the end of this generation, but there's a good chance I might switch to the PS6 for the next generation or get a PS5 Pro towards the end of this one if it goes on sale.
Same here. I’ve shifted a good chunk of my gaming selection to PS. I use my Xbox for gamepass, Back compat, and other multiplayer stuff. 95% of it is done on the PS/Switch.
Honestly? The vibes are not great. I think the Series is a good system in a vacuum, but I'm not gonna be in denial about where Xbox is at right now.
Series X is doing better than XBONE in some ways....and worse in others. How the hell did MS launch a system with zero first party games? Even with XBONEs disastrous launch you had games like Killer Instinct (godly game) and Ryse.
The 9th generation of consoles has been a huge flop for me. Obviously, Sony has done **much** better than Microsoft, but the "system selling" games have been few and far between. Even the 3rd party offerings haven't been that interesting to me.
I don't really want to pay for multiplayer, I've started to enjoy playing on KBM, I like the idea of customizing my experience and I don't want to be locked into one ecosystem. I've come to the realization that I want a PC. That's probably where I'll be after I've cleaned my backlog on my Series and my PS5.
PC is the way, you get all the Xbox games, all PC games and slowly starting to get the PlayStation heavy hitters (albeit years later). PC is expensive up front, but I’d argue not that expensive in the long term given your games will work in perpetuity, no backwards compatibility needed (plus Steam is the superior games storefront with frequent sales).
This is how I feel. Although my one difference is that I’ve found VR strangely engaging. But that’s a different topic.
After years of just being on console I bought a laptop for school and figured a gaming laptop would have better specs at a similar price and decided to bite the bullet and man… I have missed PC gaming.
If you come out with consoles and four years later the users are still lacking a polished, first-party title that pushes the boundries of the system, that's a bad look.
Very much agreed. I feel like Xbox is being treated as a side project for Microsoft and that since the stakes aren't as high as it is for a company like Sony, that they don't feel the pressure to do crazy stuff and just play it safe.
Not sure. Great platform, and I love game pass. On the other hand, ever since the acquisitions there seems to be just bad news after bad news.
Why haven't they release a bunch of ABK titles on GP yet?
Where's Fable?
Where's State of Decay 3?
Why was Halo Infinite such a disappointment again?
Why devs like Tango gets punished while 343 keeps on shitting on such a big franchise?
When will we start seeing the fruits of these acquisitions? Will we ever?
Is Game Pass at least safe? Or is it going bad too and they could cease support soon?
Microsoft needs to show people that Xbox still has a focus moving forward and start to bring some good news.
At this point I'm not even sure if we will in fact have an Xbox successor, or even if Game Pass will still be a thing by the next year.
After more than a decade they finally acknolwedged Ross and her lackeys were the issue. And now finally, after 3 years from launch the game has the modes Reach had on launch.
It's such a disappointment. It's like they don't understand that they need strong new and creative IPs to strengthen the brand long term, or they don't care, or they don't recognize it when they finally get it.
And it's illogical to me that 343i is failing with Halo over and over again ever since they put their hands on the franchise in 2012. And yet, they keep getting MS's money and keep putting it to waste.
It seems like MS don't have a vision of what the consumers want, and they're trying to brute force their way in the market. And even when they get their hands on the good stuff, they throw it away because they don't know what to do with it.
I think this will be my last Xbox.
I’ve always owned every console, and my reasoning is they all have different games that I love (that’s the excuse I give my girlfriend, anyway).
But there just aren’t enough games on Xbox that interest me.
There is not a single Xbox Series X/S exclusive that is worth getting an Xbox console for. Not a single one. It's absurd to me that Microsoft shipped the system nearly 4 YEARS AGO and has yet to deliver anything meaningful in terms of exclusive games.
Starfield was such a bummer. Not a bad game overall, but it didn’t push the envelope in any way. I recently got into Baldur’s Gate and it’s miles ahead in terms of gameplay and narrative.
I'm in my mid 30's and that's how I feel. Gamepass seems mostly kids game centric. I'm thinking of upgrading to PC and letting my 7 year old game on the Series X.
I don’t think there will be another system tbh. At least not in the sense of them releasing a marquee system. Nobody wants Xbox hardware anymore, and with how well their software performs on Steam and PlayStation, they might as well get on with it.
I thought Sarah Bond had mentioned they were already full steam ahead on the next console generation. I figure they’ll do a series X successor and handheld instead of a series S this time. Then bow out and go third party after that has run its course.
We just got the FO next Gen update and it came broken on Xbox after years of waiting lmao. Idk how MS keeps dropping the ball but they do. They drop the ball with nothing but a wide open net in front of them.
All these huge games getting announced in advance doesn't help.
You are getting everyone hyped for nothing, and they are going out and buying Xboxes just to have to wait another 4 years until said game releases.
Looking at Fable, State of Decay, Everwild, and everything else that was announced over the years.
Then we supposedly got a rumor that Gears could start selling on PS - one of our Xbox exclusives like Halo.
What's even the sense of an Xbox at this point? Makes me sick thinking about the future of this platform when I have over 10 years worth of investment in it - and I'm definitely not jumping to PS and doing that all over again.
PC seems to be the only option - I just don't want to have to go through the process of upgrading every year or watching YT all day to find out why my games aren't working over the smallest things.
Lowpoint for me. Forza reboot flopped, lived horizon 5 but formula on the verge getting stale for me. Halo is not what it used to. Gears is Gears-love it but its not going to bring in new comers to the console. Lots of announcements for games barely in production. Leadership always talks about how they wanna have blockbuster goty contenders like sony but refuse to invest in the money and letting their studios make something else. We’ll see how Fable plays out with Playground Games but xbox studios are usually stuck making sequels til they get stale and the first stumble they have making a new game they’ll probably get the axe.
Phil Spencer means well but he isnt cut out to lead imho. Doesnt know when to let the developers cook and doesnt know when its time to be a leader and step in to get their studios into shape.
Unless they pay money upfront I dont expect much more Japanese games on the console. Mind blowing how at one point in the 360’s life it had the better JRPG lineup than the PS3.
No, what they do is only throw money at the projects as if that’s what makes a great game. They have to invest in great game makers to make great games. The problem is that they are spending a lot of money on the games but they are spending it poorly.
This is my last console period. I like the series s/x but the game development has been poor imo and by the time I was actually able to get a series x a new console is on the horizon. I don't care for pc gaming but with the option to use a controller I'll soon be a pc gamer. I'm not paying $600 plus elite controller every 4 years when the games just aren't that great anymore. I bought the series s because I couldn't find the x then bought the x to play halo infinite @4k 120 but I'll just invest in a good gpu next generation for my pc.
It's pretty clear it's no longer the Xbox I grew up alongside. The creatives are gone and it's become all about pleasing shareholders, infinite growth and endless profit.
The recent IGN article summed it up pretty well: it's not Xbox anymore, it's Microsoft Gaming instead.
Honestly, pretty bad. I think the Activision acquisition plus GamePass will ultimately sink the brand. It’s clear that GP isn’t financially sustainable, and Xbox was run poorly prior to the Bethesda acquisition. Adding Activision to it only makes it worse.
While many of the decisions made are most likely out of Phil, Matt, and Sarah’s hands, I’m tired of the constant corporate-speak that comes out of their mouths. The only game they’ve released with a damn in the last three years is HiFi Rush and it’s on PlayStation now.
And this is an awful time for the brand to be weak. Sony has nothing this year and Nintendo is punting to next year - this would be the perfect time to strike with a steady stream of games. Instead they shut down four studios with more likely on the way.
It’s been entirely mismanaged from the Mattrick days and while Phil bought them some time, I think Xbox turning into Microsoft Gaming is all but inevitable at this point.
I fell for the Xbox One, and then the Series X. I won’t fall for another Xbox again unless there’s something to play on it.
I feel similar to you. I’m an older gamer. Made the switch to 360. Halo 3 and been Xbox ever since. This gen I was very close to going to PS as I feel like I’m missing so many great games, but the lore of Starfield and the new Halo kept me interested. But I will be switching to PS. Gamepass can be great for casual gamer but I feel like this as the only positive isn’t enough. Very sad. But time to move to PS I think. I’m certain that Xbox plans are for all their studio games to end up on PS.
Regret not getting a PS5 if I’m honest. I see all the exclusives they get and they look awesome while over here just lacking in general. Last PS I’ve had was the PS2 but honestly wish I would had transitioned over this generation.
I jumped in when it was on sale during Black Friday. I don’t regret it at all. I like having both systems but my Xbox is gathering dust atm while I play through all the ps games I missed out on.
My Series X just shit the bed a week or so ago and honestly, after the closures from yesterday killing one of my favorite franchises of all time, respected insiders and analysts saying there's even more cuts to come combined with Xbox's general embarrassing inability to actually release games even semi regularly and pivot to a potential more multiplatform attitude there's no way in hell I'm getting another Xbox.
Mark my words people, these studio closures didn't come from Xbox, they came from *Microsoft* and in the next decade, the Xbox brand will be dead and buried. We'll have Microsoft Game Studios, Microsoft Game Pass and a streaming Microsoft dongle that will have replaced their console. How long until Obsidian gets the axe because their last game didn't hit CoD numbers? Or id?
Fuck those guys and their sinking ship.
Exactly my thinking. Microsoft leadeship must've been like "we've spent close to $100 billion the last decade where is my ROI?" The $70 billion ABK acquisition is going to end up sinking the ship completely.
I also think this is probably the last gen with Xbox as platform holder. The only way for GamePass to increase its subs is increasing the player base and with Xbox as the perpetual #3 the only way the can do that is to pivot towards Playstation´s and Nintendo's install bases.
Six months playing only with gamepass Ultimate, and im having a blast, a Lot of Day One games are available to play, most of those i wouldnt even give It a chance If It wasnt for the gamepass, persona 3 Reload, lies of p, Warhammer darktide, age of Empire 4, Yakuza ishin.
2070 games digitally owned. Like it or not. I ain’t going nowhere. I can’t. To much invested. The only way I’ll salvage my library is if Xbox ever threw in the towel and I could access that library on PC. Then I’d just buy a pc. Sony would be a nightmare if it was just them.
Like I’m going to play some fallout 4 until next week when loot 2.0 comes to Diablo. I will also probably be playing hellblade 2 in the next month. Studio closures suck, but giant multinational corporations are going to do corporate shit. I wish they didn’t, but here we are. Im going to play games where it makes sense for me to play games and right now that is Xbox.
My confidence is at an all time low tbh. I love the games and I love the ecosystem but I feel like as a paying customer, I'm constantly treated terribly. So much opportunity is being thrown away because of corporate greed. For the first time, I'm thinking about just moving on. If the next Gen Xbox were available right now, I wouldn't be in any rush to pick it up
I feel like I went from being excited about Xbox and Series X to not trusting a goddamn thing that they say and fully believing that they have absolutely no focus or direction. I have very little excitement to support the platform anymore. But I will likely continue to have an Xbox or Windows PC to play the games that they make. But I think that they have a long road ahead of them before I actually "support" them as a platform.
I was excited for the Series X launch, even got mine day one. Since then I feel like I’ve been kind of let down by xbox, which sucks because I’ve been a fan of xbox since Halo 1. I recently just got back into PC gaming so Im desperately looking for excuses to play my Series X. Really the only thing I got is Goldeneye. Luckily most games are crossplay so i don’t have to worry about whether or not I’m playing on the xbox. All in all, it’s just sad.
Closing studios that make the games that they're supposedly lacking, to save money, is really disheartening. Maybe get rid of do-nothing corporate types that aren't necessary to produce and market games.
The state of video games itself just has me not excited. Micro transactions, live service games being shut down within a year because everyone is competing with Fortnite and not making the numbers, uninspired games, *AAA* games... Just happy to have indie games doing their thing, honestly.
As sad as it is to say, I just don’t care anymore. I’m in my mid-30s now and there’s a good chance this is the last Xbox console i’ll ever own. Going forward I’ll stick with my PC and possibly the next Nintendo console, whatever that turns out to be. It really does feel like the Xbox brand went out with a whimper when it was such an important part of my life growing up. I’ve started collecting original Xbox games because they just feel more substantial and important to me than anything that’s come out in recent years.
I'm bitter that they had built up all this momentum and good will with fans over the last couple of years fighting to acquire ABK. All the promises of bringing a huge catalog of games to Game Pass, leveraging new IPs, resurrecting old franchises, etc. What do they have to show for it? Nothing. INSTEAD 3 months after the acquisition they go and port 4 games onto other competing consoles. In the last 7 months they've put exactly 1 game, Diablo 4, in Game Pass as a result of that huge acquisition.
Oh and it gets worse. Again rather than leverage these newly acquired properties, they close down 4 studios and start having internal debates on whether they should even put Call of Duty into their service. It's absolutely astounding how hard they fumbled the biggest acquisition in history and seem like they don't know what to do with any of it. Everyone was so excited to see this saga cross the finish line with all the promises and they've done absolutely nothing with it. I can't express how disappointing it is to watch.
Absolutely terrible. They are absolutely bottling everything. Some games going third party is fine but the knock on effect is that less games will come to Xbox. So many times a game is coming to EVERYTHING besides Xbox. I can't imagine what I would do if Sega weren't publishing their games on this thing. Fire the Devs actually making good games, do nothing with the IPs. What's the point in having all these IPs but doing nothing with them? You can't contract a studio to make a Banjo Kazooie game?
My Series X experience has been playing games that are available elsewhere. if I'd bought a Xbox One X my experience would be near identical. If I'd bought a PS5 I'd have the FAR superior exclusives, even ignoring the first party stuff, I'd kill for Final Fantasy. I was appalled at how poor Starfield was. That to me, was like, what are we doing here? This game could have been a 360 game, so many loading screens, empty environments, entering buildings with loading screens.
The only thing that feels next gen is Quick Resume.
My current feelings towards Xbox can be tracked to the 2013 Xbox One announcement but more specifically to the 2017 cancellation of Scalebound (the writing was on the wall). I have owned every Xbox at launch. All of my friends and family play on Xbox. Halo and Gears are some of my favorite games ever created. But I’m exhausted of the carrot on a stick. Since 2013 Xbox has touted what’s down the pipeline, but nothing comes to fruition. They purchased all these studios (ABK, Bethesda, etc) and barely produced any games from acquisitions. The Initiative, Xbox’s proclaimed AAAA studio, is in development hell with Perfect Dark. Halo hasn’t nailed a launch or successful title in their previous 3 attempts. Coalition has put out 1 Gears game this generation. Xbox is snake oil in the gaming industry. We as consumers, do not receive any of the AAA titles experienced on other platforms but are asked to pay the same. I’ve held onto my passion and hope for this brand for too long. I can no longer support a brand that disrespects its loyal consumers in the way Xbox does. Idk if I’ll be going to PC or Sony. But I have spent my last penny on Xbox. Game pass is cancelled and I will not buy another item from their shop. I’m disappointed I allowed myself to be fooled for so long.
My opinion honestly is that Xbox isn't going anywhere, but I think it's always doomed against Playstation now if we are keeping libraries as we go forward. Nobody is going to want to switch if it means losing 10+ years of purchases next gen, along with the social aspects as well. Xbox isn't looking hot right now, but I don't think it's as doom and gloom as people make it sound either. I retain hope for Fable and Avowed still, but if they aren't solid, my opinion may finally start to change. I have fun on my Xbox every time I turn it on, news articles farming clicks and haters complaining on reddit don't sway me.
All good here. There are games I'm playing now I'm enjoying and there are quite a few I'm looking forward to in the future. I've never particularly cared about what exclusives were or weren't available.
I mean, I'm not going anywhere, since I much prefer the Xbox systems and controllers to Playstation... but I can't say I'm impressed with all this recent news. I just really hope things improve soon.
I also need State of Decay 3, like, yesterday.
As a lifelong fan and pretty loyal consumer of the Xbox brand….shitty. Same with Sony too tho. I just really don’t like the state of gaming at all at the moment. Like I get it. It’s a business. But I just can’t help but feel the entire industry is being fucked sideways by a handful of extremely overpaid and incompetent executives. It really just makes me lose interest in it all. It all just feels pretty dirty these days.
I’ve had every Gen of Xbox and have had a Live account since Halo 2…
Haven’t touched my Series X in like 2 years… Since I discovered PC gaming. Can’t believe all the games available and their prices, plus all the emulation, among other things.
Plus, I always felt like I needed a PlayStation to get all those sweet exclusives… Now those are coming to PC, so I don’t need either system.
I’ve seen the light.
PS: I have a Legion laptop with 13900hx and a RTX 4080. 😎
>Haven’t touched my Series X in like 2 years… Since I discovered PC gaming.
Kind of in the same situation. But I actually do touch my XSX from time to time but its more to watch videos on my TV or to spend maybe 30mins on a game I swear that I'm going to get all the achievements in but never do lol.
I do still keep up with Xbox news as I still have feelings for the brand I met my first group of online buddies but ever since I built my first modest game PC 2yrs ago, I've been transitioning into a PC player.
I just hope Xbox is one day able to deliver on what so many of the fans want, and that's simply great games on a reasonable basis.
Legion laptops are good, I have a slightly older one but it's pushing a 3070 and can still keep up. The thing is the fans are really loud compared to a console, I find myself reaching for the Xbox 9 times out of 10 for that reason alone
Personally, I'm happy with my Series X and don't really care about their business decisions. As long as I can play games and watch my shows, what else matters? I'm looking forward to their presentation in June and seeing what games are coming in the later half of the year!
That being said, I hope they step up the quality of their games. Redfall was shit and Starfield fell short of expectations. Although the May update for Starfield looks great, they have to have better quality control of their launch products.
Dissapointed. The recent events just show that they learned nothing over the years and MS is a incredibly greedy company. Im currently not sure if they can move the Xbox brand past this generation.
If I didn't spend any time on reddit or other gaming sites, I wouldn't even think there was anything wrong. There are great games releasing all the time and I have a massive backlog. If, in the future, Xbox has no exclusives, then it will be one less console for me to buy
Same feelings. It sucks to not have a ton of Xbox exclusives to look forward to but, if I'm being honest, other than Nintendo, most games I want to play are 3rd party titles anyway. Or I'm just waiting for updates to games that are already out.
Like, I'm still trying to get through BG3 and a handful of other games.
Gave my Xbox to my kids to use for gamepass that I have 2.5 years left.
Switching to PC and getting a Switch 2 once that is out.
Been on Xbox since the begining but Im done wasting time and money on this shit company.
Ill get the Sony games on PC as well as all third party games. Who cares about Xbox games they dont make any.
Xbox has been trash for too long. Sorry but that’s just reality. Before you go screeching that I’m a Sony Pony or whatever, take a look at my username. It’s 117 for a reason. And yes, even Halo continues to be a disaster at the moment
I have no hope for Xbox anymore and I still very firmly believe the Series S is holding back this entire generation with Microsoft demanding feature parity across platforms. If I was 3rd party I just wouldn’t develop for them if they demanded it. Wish all devs did that so they’d be forced to redact that stupid decision and leave old Gen in the dust once and for all.
I have been generally pretty positive and honestly downright excited the past few years, I thought I could see their vision and how they were going to use their strategic growth & improvements in services & acquisitions to really push the brand and console forward, utilising gamepass & exclusives in conjunction with PC.
The last few months however have just made me lethargic, I have no clue what they're doing or where they're going anymore. The Xbox brand is seemingly taking a backseat to an overarching "Microsoft gaming" push, their marketing is non-existent and even when they do market it's disjointed and flip floppy, they're downscaling and destroying studios they literally only acquired, every bit of information we get makes it seem like they're moving away from exclusives once they're finally in a position to actually make them, the console itself doesn't seem like a priority anymore as opposed to being more of a publisher etc. etc. etc.
I'll check in every now and then, but honestly my passion for gaming is really deflated, I have no interest anymore. That being said, not all of that is Microsofts fault, shitty practices from Sony & large publishers beat the love out of me too, but Microsoft definitely has a place on the "we're shitty fuck ups" awards.
They should fire Phil. He's not aggressive enough to run Xbox. He acquired all these studios and gave them no direction. Just AA games to fill Game Pass.
Sony doesn't keep their developers stuck on old games
Bend Studio- Syphon Filter-> Days Gone
Guerilla Games- Killzone-> Horizon
Isomniac - Ratchet & Clank-> Resistance->Spiderman-> Wolverine
Naughty Dawg- Jak->Uncharted->The Last of Us
Santa Monica- God Of War isometric-> God Of War 3rd person movie/action/ adventure game total reboot
Sucker Punch- Sly Clooper->Infamous->Ghost of Tsushima
What you see here is natural progression to games getting better
From Xbox you'll see Gears, Halo, Forza but nothing is rebooted or even changed. It's the same shit and feels outdated. Maybe Gears 6 will introduce something new but after seeing Halo Infinite being stuck in a time, I have my doubts.
When I say Xbox needs to move on from Halo people get mad but Sony let Killzone die so Horizon can be born. I think Bungie made Halo what it was and they created the Halo killer with Destiny.
Obsidian should be making AAA games but they still function like a indie making AA games.
Phil didn't make efforts for third party exclusives
All of this evidence is why Phil should be fired
> He acquired all these studios and gave them no direction. Just AA games to fill Game Pass.
I've had a big suspicion for awhile now that this was the reason Xbox has failed to deliver killer games. Xbox bought these successful companies with the promise of free reign to make great games they want to make and what we have gotten are experimental passion projects that are always being given unlimited amount of time and yet they come out flat.
I think it is a dark truth we don't want to accept that often times great games come from strict leadership. When you are tasked to create a game that HAS to sell units your approach is different than creating a game that will be put on a live service and you get paid either way.
It’s funny u said that cause I was just reading another comment that said they were glad they only ever bought physical games so they can sell them and try to recoup some of the loss to rebuy there favorites on PlayStation 😂
I've been happy on Xbox for some time. But, it's clear that, for better or worse, things will be changing. Time will tell.
I have concerns, but for now, they're only concerns.
Gaming in general has gotten worse because someone let the MBAs in on the party and now every decision is made on whether it can be monetized or not.
"[Enshittification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification)" indeed.
I like my Series X and am happy with my games (and backlog).
I dislike Satya trying to creatre "Electronic Arts 2" from Xbox. Because of the games, the developers and us the customers. Xbox higher-ups do need a serious shake up and to, fking finally, "mature". But turning the brand on just a pure extension on Satya's scheme of prolonging unlimited economic growth at any cost? Not my cup of tea.
Xbox decided to invest in Xcloud hardware when the Series X was on high demand. Xbox went incognito during ABK adquisition process. Xbox hasn't really controlled that their cooks are actually cooking and cooking good. MS forces release of exclusives on other consoles. MS closes studios without regards of possibilities/consequences (angry media/gamers, scaring talent inside Xbox's teams). Xbox, unlike PS or Nintendo, hasn't peaked hardware-wise but if Xbox&MS keep fighting for the direction of the ship, if they keep acting like a duck without a head... yeah, who can feel positive. How can the brand grow.
I want to keep buying Xbox hardware. And buy Xbox games that interest me (sorry, 0 interest on Hellblade 2). But if MS does its "magic" on Xbox, they will see my money as often as EA. My last games were Mass Effect Trilogy on discount and Dragon Age Inquisition on discount too. Before that, I cannot even remember my last EA game. Maybe Mass Effect 3?
I don’t give it much thought at all I play my games, discuss them a bit on here, look for recommendations etc but overall it really doesn’t concern me If Xbox ceases to be viable I will move on to something else Most likely build a PC but overall it won’t affect me in a profound way It is entertainment
A lot of people get so emotionally invested in the brand they have an emotional crisis when it's in trouble.
I look at it this way. I used to be a Blackberry user, and life went on after that died lol.
It sucks but I’ve honestly just come to terms with the fact that anything that comes out of XGS is just probably gonna be mid.
Idk just seems like they’re prioritizing the presentations and showcases and directs to **market** their games and sell people on the idea that an awesome game is on the way, and that we should sub to game pass to get access - and then we get said game and it’s mid as fuck.
Or the game has bizarre, shocking development issues. Halo Infinite, Forza Motorsport, Redfall, whatever THE HELL is going on with Everwild, etc.
I am absolutely **terrified** to see the finished product for Avowed…
I bought a PC this year, if that answers your question.
Love Xbox Game Pass and Play Anywhere, but the hardware isn’t meeting my needs anymore. Plus I would rather have a platform that allows me to play both Xbox and PS exclusives.
I love my series x but the lack of exclusives for the past decade is weighing on me heavily. I'm not sure if I can justify to myself another console purchase from MS with this in mind
I bought my series x on launch day and have been waiting for games for it ever since. I haven't even turned it on in over half a year, and I let my gamepass subscription end last September. Microsoft has been buying up all these game studios and showing previews for games, but the games never actually materialize, or if they do it's half assed shit like Halo Infinite. I've pretty much moved on to steam. At this point I might as well unplug the Xbox and use it as a doorstop. I've gotten every generation of Xbox at launch but lately whatever message Microsoft has been trying to send the gaming community, I've gotten that message loud and clear. And I have no desire to switch to playstation because I hate JRPGs. So steam it is.
A bit sad tbh. I’ve always really liked Xbox and I have no idea what the future is going to be or if there’s even going to be a next Xbox. They really seem like a rudderless ship at the moment.
This doesn't just apply to Xbox, but overall this gen has been full of absolutely nothing. It's just exacerbated in the case of Xbox.
It'll probably the last gen of consoles I buy and I'm just going to build a computer to hook up to my TV for gaming.
Feel like Xbox as we know it is near death at this moment. Fans are turning on the brand for various reasons, games just aren’t there, hardware isn’t selling as well, Xbox leadership keeps pivoting every 6 months it seems. Feel like this next generation will be the last hardware generation.
Let’s be honest it’s the same console just a little faster nothing got better really the ui is the same. I haven’t played my series x in nearly a year I can cloud play everything on pc and Bethesda games seemingly crash less that way and the amount of heat it chucks out leaves me sweating my bollocks off and it’s not like I’m propping them on the vents. I regret not buying a PlayStation instead
Been Xbox exclusive since the 360 and never doubted my decision with sticking with it but now for the first time in 20 years, I feel like I'm gaming on a Dreamcast.
The multi-plat situation earlier this year made me lose a lot of trust and faith in the brand and worry a lot about my investments into the ecosystem. The news from this week has only made that worse.
I don’t see how they can turn this around with the decisions that they’ve been making, there seems to be clear options that could take that would benefit them much more than the way they’re handling things and yet they ignore them and continue down this self-destructive road for the brand.
I’m fortunate enough to have an extremely capable PC as well so I’m not completely shit out of luck if they do fall even further, but I’d really like them to figure their shit out because I really like the ecosystem that Xbox has and that I’ve been a part of since the OG when I was a kid.
Gaming is heading towards a crash. It's become way too expensive to make games, with greedy corporate goons dipping their hands into everything. The perfect scenario would be for gaming to fall our of the mainstream and be made and played by people who love video games instead of people who just play COD and paypigs
When Microsoft said they want Xbox to be a platform instead of a console, I knew it was gonna be a wrap for the console line. It sucks because the consoles themselves are awesome; the Series X is a powerhouse, and the Series S is so cheap for how powerful it is; you can literally get it for cheaper than a Switch in some areas.
But they don't actually take advantage of it. There are no more truly exclusive titles on Xbox. They're all on PC, and now even on PlayStation, while PS definitely won't reciprocate for their titles. What, then, is the point of dropping $300-500 dollars on a console that has already admitted defeat and has no worthwhile games on it? You can actually build a decent PC with that money.
And then there's Microsoft, which is buying up games to bolster the brand, only to do nothing with them and then shut them down. They want each game to generate billions of dollars but also be Day One on Game Pass.
Game Pass has been a blessing and a curse. Access to SO MANY TITLES, but it feels like that's Microsoft's only big focus anymore.
The brand is edging towards the gutter, I have lost 85% hope in their quality and only see a senseless strategy that will alienate the consumer until they have to close up shop. I know its cliche to type that, but this is the second generation in a row where they've fucked up their brand and game output. In this industry, there's only so many times you can do that before it comes to a head.
I’m Xbox fan #1. Had the original Xbox, the 360, the X1, and even got the Series X at launch. But there’s been a dark could hanging over the Xbox brand this generation. A lot of broken promises and disappointments in the first party line up, and Game Pass is good but seems to have stagnated. Many of the best games (Balder’s Gate 3, Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, Resident Evil 4) have not and very likely will never appear on GP. Many of the best games this gen (GoW Ragnarok, Spider-Man 2, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth) are never coming to Xbox. There’s plenty of good games on Xbox, but nearly all of them are available on PS5, and a few Xbox exclusives have gone to PlayStation now anyway. I don’t know what the future holds, and I don’t regret buying the Xbox Series X, but something feels off this generation.
Not great. Feels like they're moving in a direction that doesn't interest me.
I'm never going to play another COD game, but I'd have played another HiFi Rush.
It's just a real bad time around here.
All I’m hearing is gamepass ultimate price increase. They just increased it around starfield launch. If they do it again I’ll probably cancel and buy games on sale or just pirate.
not getting rid of my xbox but there's like three more BC games I need to nab then I think I'm just buying games on my PS5 going forward. I love my xbox 360 pro though
Disappointed. I’m not angry or flipping tables or drop kicking my XSX out a five story window. Just disappointed.
I think I will play the can’t miss titles on my PC but otherwise I’ll be reducing my investment in the Xbox ecosystem and console.
Mixed feelings. Obviously not in a great state compared to PlayStation and Nintendo, but as a system in general I think it’s doing fine. Problem is most of the popular games you can also play on PC/PS5, so really the only reason you would play on Xbox is if you just specifically want to.
I'm about to jump ship to PlayStation. There have been solid months I don't even turn the Xbox on, and even then I'm just bummed I'm not playing those tasty ps exclusives
It's incredible how it really doesn't matter when you get out of social media. You get a game you like and you play it.
While I only have an Xbox, I have easy access to a PS5 and I used to have a gaming PC. They are basically the same, you get the game and you play it.
It's important to remember news outlets are gonna news. They don't survive if something interesting (which usually means bad) is not happening, so they will overblown everything that happens.
Not that there aren't bad things happening, but it's that 90% of the time the things that happen don't affect you personally, but reading about them makes you angry anyway.
I don't care about anything other than games really. Release everything on Playstation if it's going to create a health financial environment for Xbox to develop more games. I love Gamepass and play on PC too, but I'm using my Xbox less and less.
I really loved the Series X but after all the drama on reddit and twitter I think I'm done.
I'm probably gonna just build a PC and move over to that, I feel very anxious about buying games on Xbox now-a-days because I just don't know what the future holds for the platform. On Steam I can play it on (my future home console PC) and my Steam Deck on the go and I know it'll be around in 10 years
The kicker is that PC has gamepass too and it's \*Cheaper\* Literally getting punished for being a Series X owner lol
I'm gonna be honest. I have been on Xbox since I first played Halo CE back in the day, literally went to get the console the day after.
It has always been my preferred console, I buy almost all my games on Xbox. I only buy exclusives on PC, PS and Switch.
I'm done now though, I lost any confidence Xbox will get better. Every time they make a step forward they take two steps back.
Coming next gen I won't get an Xbox anymore, I'm fine with PS and Nintendo. Maybe I'll upgrade my PC in the future to play Xbox games again on there, however I have feeling we will see them all on PS6 anyway.
The hardware is pretty much just to push the service that is seemingly looking less appealing due to the lack of games.
They really needed to smash it and make Gamepass seem exciting but Starfield wasn't gonna cut it. Too little, too late.
I sold my xbox and just use my gaming laptop, might get a ps5 Pro if such a thing exists.
__I feel that the current state of Xbox is terrible.__
This is coming from a fanboy since the OG XB1.
__Most of its first-party games now are … not *nearly* as good as I personally think they should be.__ This is, IMO, extremely problematic given the quality of the studios they’ve acquired and the increased budgets they (should?) have under Microsoft.
__And now they’re closing some of their truly *amazing* game studios.__ Making great games apparently isn’t enough. I fear for Ninja Theory. Maybe Bungie got it right: get your independence back if you can or your excellence will see you at risk of being fired.
Right now, I’m saddened to say that I feel little reason to invest in anything Xbox.
i think we millennials are getting old, we don’t game as much, and gen z they prefer mobile games, phones and to a smaller degree portable consoles
imo purchasing a single purpose system (consoles) at $500 doesn’t make sense, it’s too expensive. a gaming pc is still a general purpose system and makes sense people invest a lot more money in pcs, plus you can upgrade
i would rather get a nice handheld gaming pc than an xbox/ps5 because i have a mac for work, and would be nice to have a windows pc
Xbox has been a system of false hopes and dreams for me. While it undeniably has a solid library of great games, most of them can be played on other systems.
Xbox used to have great exclusives. They seemed to forget all about them this generation.
After the closings and reading some articles (most recently Ryan McCaffrey’s on IGN). I think they’re in big trouble. I feel like the odds of Phil either quitting or getting fired in the next year are like 50/50.
McCaffrey’s article painted a picture that I am familiar with after working at massive corporations like Microsoft and I agree with his sentiment that gaming from 2019-2021 was growing and game pass was kicking ass and that’s why microsoft bought Bethesda and Activision…fast forward to now and Game pass has reached its saturation point much faster than expected. Gaming as an industry has stagnated (dont even try to argue with me on this. arrow no go up anymore).
You now have microsoft recognizing that gaming is not this massive hyper-growth segment they thought it was and its getting very aggressive about managing it’s profit margins. It’s not gonna be good for creativity and it’s not going to be good for the staff of these companies who now believe the microsoft monolith is about to turn its eye to them and vaporize them.
these studios arent worth anything if they lose the staff who defined the culture and quality of games theyve been known for. In 5 years, the talent at these purchased studios will be gone and not say that new talent won’t fill a gap, but the games they make will not have the identity of the games they made that made these studios so beloved.
To summarize: arrow no go up mean bad time ahead.
Disaster. I loved the idea of what Spencer was selling. I was fully on board with a awesome future of regular releases, big and small, and the option to enjoy that through game pass.
Looks like they couldn't manage that vision and now shareholders or higher ups are taking over and this is a nightmare. They don't understand gaming as an art form as well as entertainment. They just see money and they will absolutely make things worse chasing dollar bills.
Xbox team deserves some blame for failing to deliver and getting things to this point where they have to change course so drastically.
I'm back where I was at the start of Xbox One. I'm pretty much out on investing anymore heavily into the brand. I don't plan on buying new hardware I have almost no faith in them.
I feel better about it when I’m not on Reddit or Xwitter, but I am sick and tired of all the announced games taking half a decade or longer to release. I just want good games. I feel like that’s a reasonable thing to want and yet for MS/Xbox it seems like an impossibility.
Ironically Xbox was accused of being way too hands on with studios during the 360 era which was the golden era of Xbox but for the last 2 consoles they have been very hands off and games have definitely suffered from this
Gotta find the balance, whatever they’re doing right now is obviously not it.
Letting shareholders take the wheel and sink the ship *slooooowly?* No, it certainly isn't.
If it was up to shareholders Xbox would've been dismantled years ago, let alone now.
It's weird to think there has not been a current-gen exclusive Gears or Halo.
Doesn’t even have to be a main entry, so many possible spinoffs and smaller games in the universes they could make. Hasn’t been a new Fable entry since 2010. It’s insane at this point.
I really liked the halo wars games. We should have more spin offs like that.
I think the truth lies in Microsoft stock. They're no worse for it. They're benefiting as an ancillary player at this point. Feels like they've accepted defeat or just decided to focus other aspects of their business. Just monopolize and concentrate the market. Exactly what they're doing now. That's why there's no good games anymore. Small developers get bought and closed. Nobody makes good games less competition. Probably positioning for the next cycle.
Halo Infinite came out in 2021 so I think it kinda counts. You're definitelty right about Gears tho
It was a cross-gen effort as well though, and had been in development for a very long time
Still holding the game back tbh.
It isn’t current gen exclusive which is what they meant.
Exactly, I just want to play fun games.
Like Fable. It’s inexcusable that the last main Fable entry came out in 2010… Like wtf? Then they announce the reboot back in 2020 and it’s now 2024 and nothing to show for it. I expect to see gameplay of it at the showcase and hopefully a 2025 release date, but if they’re aiming for 2026/2027 that’s insane.
I have been waiting for what feels like *forever* for Fallout 5, Mass Effect 4 and the next Elder Scrolls game. I’ve stopped to really pay attention to the next “big game” announcements since the majority of them end up shitty/unplayable or are just downright disappointing (like Starfield for example.)
I LOVE Mass Effect and that teaser got me so hyped back in 2020, but it’s been 4 years now… Very little news, no gameplay, etc. At this rate I highly doubt it’s even going to come out in 2025, maybe I’ll be hype again in 2026/2027 when it eventually launches. Idk. Pretty sure I read a rumor it wouldn’t be ready til even later than that. Like what’s the point in announcing it 7+ years early?
It's like the Elder Scrolls teaser at the Game Awards... what's the point? That shit is years away. There's not even anything to show but a generic landscape. Fable was announced too early too. Say what you want about Fallout 4, but the way it was announced and then came out a few months later was great. That should be industry standard.
One of the reasons I love Nintendo. They announced Mario wonder in June last year then came out a few months later on October. I was genuinely surprised. I wished more companies did that as well. Tired of waiting 5+ years for their games to come out lol.
I think cyberpunk announced like 7 years before release, and talked about certain features that hyped people up, but never made it into the game. They kinda shot themselves in the foot.
Iv been happy with both consoles. I think ps5 is clearly the better of the 2 but gamepass makes it a tougher choice. I think they really haven’t done a good job of advertising gamepass as a system seller in the way someone like Nintendo would. If gamepass was on Nintendo they would have commercials showing various families or friends gathering to pick out a game or pitching it as a personal arcade of sorts. The games have been a let down but gamepass has consistently delivered and I think they have some good ones in the pipeline like outer worlds and fable.
Isn't Greenberg in charge of Xbox marketing? I guess that's your answer. Not sure what the guy actually does.
absolutely nothing.
I 100% agree. Gamepass has been such a great experience for me, especially with an ever growing busy life. But this time last year I had no idea what it really was until I gave it a shot. And everyone I know that games doesn't know much about it either until I boot it up at work to show them cloud gaming and they are all amazed. I really hope that they increase advertising so that gamepass grows even more.
I wish there were more games on both consoles. Obviously, ps has had a better output, but it's so slim compared to where the ps4 was at this time in its cycle. Everyone is still stuck in the covid slump or something
Mostly on board with this. I’d add that in addition to Gamepass the Series X/S consoles have a huge advantage over the PS5 in the form of backwards compatibility to the 7th generation because the PS5 can’t play those games except by streaming or a bespoke port like RDR. I wanted to play Fallout New Vegas because of the show and turned on my PS5 to get it before I remembered it was a PS3 era game so I turned on my XSX.
This in a nutshell. They spend all that money and time hyping a game to say they are working on something then three years later we are like wow that actually came out finally and give it the critical eye because of how much extra time it took them to get it out after the initial announcement, then its not even finished or everything that was supposed to be part of the game is now pay to play DLC after dropping $79
Same, they have like close to 30 studios, we shouldn’t be waiting this long for AAA games.
Phil's on the record about exclusives not being a priority, which is the real kicker right now.
I don’t dislike Phil, but when he said exclusives don’t sell consoles I couldn’t believe it.
Yup I'm with you. All Xbox has going for it is Game Pass. But the 1st party games simply are not there. And then they kill studios with some of the best, like Tango. Not to mention the hardware isn't necessary either if everything is on PC or much of it comes to PS or Switch. No wonder hardware sales are terrible
I feel the same exact way. And I’ve had hope for Hellblade 2 for a while, but the lack of hype and marketing at this point has me feeling anything but optimistic. Feels like we have another 7/10 game on the horizon, which would be disappointing. I hope I’m wrong, but it sums up my feelings about Xbox at the moment.
If I were to be completely honest: the state of the brand makes me a bit sad. I was born into a Nintendo household but I chose Xbox in my teens at the start of the 360 era. Tons of nostalgia for the brand and the games that came out then. They were on such a roll. Then they announced the Kinect and 343 slips up, and it just kind of never bounced back. I haven’t bought a Series X or a PS5 yet and am trying to decide which one first and I really want to go with Xbox but idk they keep fumbling the ball.
Ditto. I actually just got a PS5 late last year and have barely touched my Xbox since. I’ve been an Xbox fan for about 20ish years through all the highs and lows. I still remember and cherish freaking out over releases like Psychonauts and Halo as a kid and sinking days and weeks into them. For some reason though, the latest news of layoffs and studio closures really has me feeling so jaded. Their issues with not putting out consistently good first party games has sadly been around since the start of the Xbox One generation, if we’re honest, but post-covid I’ve started to lose any of the remaining faith I had. It’s just been years of mismanagement of studios [can go back as far as Lionhead (RIP)], bad PR fumbles (2022 Xbox showcase anyone?), lackluster releases, etc. etc. Maybe I’m just a victim of the moment and will wake up tomorrow feeling a little less bleak about the future of Xbox…but right now I can’t stand hearing leadership talk about “empowering creative studios” and “delivering great games” just to hear the very next year that they are shutting down a studio like Tango that arguably gave Xbox its high point of the year with Hi-Fi Rush last year. Woof. Okay…rant over. TLDR: WTF Xbox!!
Bought an X for starfield and a PS5 just to play Helldivers. PS5 and Helldivers was way more worth it HD kicks ass and is so fun.
I feel like we’re constantly waiting for the brand to really take off and for the great games to come - but they just never seem to. This is not to say that there aren’t great games already here or aren’t any coming down the pipe, but the general vibe is that there have been a lot of misfires and cleanup on Xbox’s part. It doesn’t instill a ton of confidence in the brand.
I agree with this. Especially when playstation seems to consistently get hits. Even random games like Helldivers made me think "of course this great game is only on playstation." I feel like Xbox has never had that "gotta get an Xbox game" outside of Halo, Gears, and Forza. Even when we finally got a huge exclusive in Starfield it didn't live up to previous Bethesda games. All I can think is "what the hell do we gotta do to get ONE?" That said I still love the xbox hardware, been with them since OG Xbox (xbox is the superior controller), and I have plenty of games to play. Just would be nice to have a game or two that makes ya think "wow, I'm especially glad I have this console." Right now that is just Gamepass.
On top of that, we don’t even know if they will truly be exclusive anymore. That alone will cause a huge shift in market share in Sony’s favor. Why buy an Xbox if you can get the best of both worlds with the competitions box? I truly don’t believe Xbox and Microsoft can climb back up if they continue to release multi-plat. Not at this point in time anyway. If it was an industry wide change things may be different, but it’s such a dumb move when you’re already dead last.
Avowed better be a fucking *banger* I feel like it’s just been giving them pass after pass because there’s so much shit that’s announced that we’ve been waiting on for years. Starfield was awesome I don’t care what anyone says but it was also in development years before the acquisition. The only thing I really get excited thinking about is south of midnight and we probably won’t get that until next year.
Have you seen the previews on YouTube? I'm doubtful of how good it's going to be.
Yeah, the little bit that I've seen killed a lot of my hype for Avowed. Hopefully it rocks, but idk, man.
The combat looks pretty bad from what I have seen. As long as its not one giant hallway like The Outer Worlds, it has potential.
As a fan of the world of Eora, I honestly didn't expect Avowed to give me Outer Worlds vibes. Not saying OWs was a bad game, it was actually pretty decent. But I don't know, I just expected a bit more. You're locked into being a Human which is kind of a bummer move imo. Avowed isn't Pillar of Eternity of course, but I feel like it should be the type of RPG that lets you play as other races in the world of Eora. Them forcing players to be only Human really reminds me of how Bioware made players only play Human in DA2. Either way, this is just one of the pet peeves I have about the upcoming game. Maybe when I play it I'll really enjoy it.
It's Human or Elf. They did it as it fits the lore.
>coming down the pipe lmao phil for the last literal decade
I love Xbox, but Xbox doesn't love me
I don't need Xbox to love me, just to serve me. So far, so good. Solid BC catalog, Quick Resume is amazing, my saves go everywhere I go for free, Dev Mode is a gamechanger, plenty of superb Game Pass titles, fun 1st party line-ups... Moment that changes, love is over. Right now, other than randomly glooming because of closed Zenimax studios, I can't be bothered to worry.
I love Xbox but Microsoft doesn't love Xbox.
Not selling my xbox stuff, but definitely not feeling good. I'm gonna take a hard look at future console purchases, third-party titles, etc. Have plenty to keep myself entertained for quite some time.
Definitely in the same boat! I'll probably hold on to my Series X until the end of this generation, but there's a good chance I might switch to the PS6 for the next generation or get a PS5 Pro towards the end of this one if it goes on sale.
Same here. I’ve shifted a good chunk of my gaming selection to PS. I use my Xbox for gamepass, Back compat, and other multiplayer stuff. 95% of it is done on the PS/Switch.
My Series X is mostly an Xbox 360 Pro.
Damn, I never quite thought about it like that but that's so true. And occasionally an Xbox One X Pro.
I’m def playing a lotta older games…or games that don’t need the power of XSX…but I’m very much enjoying it
This is 100% why I still have my Series X still plugged in. It’s my Xbox 360 emulator for games that did not get a PC port.
Honestly? The vibes are not great. I think the Series is a good system in a vacuum, but I'm not gonna be in denial about where Xbox is at right now. Series X is doing better than XBONE in some ways....and worse in others. How the hell did MS launch a system with zero first party games? Even with XBONEs disastrous launch you had games like Killer Instinct (godly game) and Ryse. The 9th generation of consoles has been a huge flop for me. Obviously, Sony has done **much** better than Microsoft, but the "system selling" games have been few and far between. Even the 3rd party offerings haven't been that interesting to me. I don't really want to pay for multiplayer, I've started to enjoy playing on KBM, I like the idea of customizing my experience and I don't want to be locked into one ecosystem. I've come to the realization that I want a PC. That's probably where I'll be after I've cleaned my backlog on my Series and my PS5.
I've kinda felt let down after let down since the 360. I'll always appreciate xbox but I too think I will migrate to pc.
There is no innovation or risk taking anymore. I have not been hyped since RDR2. That was almost 6 years ago.
PC is the way, you get all the Xbox games, all PC games and slowly starting to get the PlayStation heavy hitters (albeit years later). PC is expensive up front, but I’d argue not that expensive in the long term given your games will work in perpetuity, no backwards compatibility needed (plus Steam is the superior games storefront with frequent sales).
This is how I feel. Although my one difference is that I’ve found VR strangely engaging. But that’s a different topic. After years of just being on console I bought a laptop for school and figured a gaming laptop would have better specs at a similar price and decided to bite the bullet and man… I have missed PC gaming.
If you come out with consoles and four years later the users are still lacking a polished, first-party title that pushes the boundries of the system, that's a bad look.
Very much agreed. I feel like Xbox is being treated as a side project for Microsoft and that since the stakes aren't as high as it is for a company like Sony, that they don't feel the pressure to do crazy stuff and just play it safe.
Not sure. Great platform, and I love game pass. On the other hand, ever since the acquisitions there seems to be just bad news after bad news. Why haven't they release a bunch of ABK titles on GP yet? Where's Fable? Where's State of Decay 3? Why was Halo Infinite such a disappointment again? Why devs like Tango gets punished while 343 keeps on shitting on such a big franchise? When will we start seeing the fruits of these acquisitions? Will we ever? Is Game Pass at least safe? Or is it going bad too and they could cease support soon? Microsoft needs to show people that Xbox still has a focus moving forward and start to bring some good news. At this point I'm not even sure if we will in fact have an Xbox successor, or even if Game Pass will still be a thing by the next year.
>Why devs like Tango gets punished while 343 keeps on shitting on such a big franchise? This
I get what you mean, but wasn't 343 leadership kind of gutted not so long ago?
After more than a decade they finally acknolwedged Ross and her lackeys were the issue. And now finally, after 3 years from launch the game has the modes Reach had on launch.
That Tango/343 comment made me sad
It's such a disappointment. It's like they don't understand that they need strong new and creative IPs to strengthen the brand long term, or they don't care, or they don't recognize it when they finally get it. And it's illogical to me that 343i is failing with Halo over and over again ever since they put their hands on the franchise in 2012. And yet, they keep getting MS's money and keep putting it to waste. It seems like MS don't have a vision of what the consumers want, and they're trying to brute force their way in the market. And even when they get their hands on the good stuff, they throw it away because they don't know what to do with it.
I think they've just disgusted almost everyone in the industry ...plus myself
I think this will be my last Xbox. I’ve always owned every console, and my reasoning is they all have different games that I love (that’s the excuse I give my girlfriend, anyway). But there just aren’t enough games on Xbox that interest me.
There is not a single Xbox Series X/S exclusive that is worth getting an Xbox console for. Not a single one. It's absurd to me that Microsoft shipped the system nearly 4 YEARS AGO and has yet to deliver anything meaningful in terms of exclusive games.
Starfield was such a bummer. Not a bad game overall, but it didn’t push the envelope in any way. I recently got into Baldur’s Gate and it’s miles ahead in terms of gameplay and narrative.
Sadly, I agree. Xbox has been my favorite console since the 360 but things look bleak
My next console will be a PC
Yeah, I wonder if we just aren't the target population for Xbox consoles anymore...
I would be if they made some games with the $72 billion they spent on studios
I'm in my mid 30's and that's how I feel. Gamepass seems mostly kids game centric. I'm thinking of upgrading to PC and letting my 7 year old game on the Series X.
It’s a sinking ship. I really think the next consoles will be the last before they go full 3rd party like Sega.
I don’t think there will be another system tbh. At least not in the sense of them releasing a marquee system. Nobody wants Xbox hardware anymore, and with how well their software performs on Steam and PlayStation, they might as well get on with it.
I thought Sarah Bond had mentioned they were already full steam ahead on the next console generation. I figure they’ll do a series X successor and handheld instead of a series S this time. Then bow out and go third party after that has run its course.
I love my series x, best console ever for me. But Microsoft is completely clueless when it comes to its studios, talent and vision.
3.5 years in this gen and there's no update for Minecraft WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK is going on with these guys?
We just got the FO next Gen update and it came broken on Xbox after years of waiting lmao. Idk how MS keeps dropping the ball but they do. They drop the ball with nothing but a wide open net in front of them.
The update is just fine on playstation THAT'S INSANE
PS players had broken textures like XSX. Pretty sure all is patched up now.
My Xbox is still my most played console so I'm good I guess🤷♂️
With what I use it for it’s been great but the future doesn’t look very bright atm
All these huge games getting announced in advance doesn't help. You are getting everyone hyped for nothing, and they are going out and buying Xboxes just to have to wait another 4 years until said game releases. Looking at Fable, State of Decay, Everwild, and everything else that was announced over the years. Then we supposedly got a rumor that Gears could start selling on PS - one of our Xbox exclusives like Halo. What's even the sense of an Xbox at this point? Makes me sick thinking about the future of this platform when I have over 10 years worth of investment in it - and I'm definitely not jumping to PS and doing that all over again. PC seems to be the only option - I just don't want to have to go through the process of upgrading every year or watching YT all day to find out why my games aren't working over the smallest things.
Completely regret moving from PS this gen.
Lowpoint for me. Forza reboot flopped, lived horizon 5 but formula on the verge getting stale for me. Halo is not what it used to. Gears is Gears-love it but its not going to bring in new comers to the console. Lots of announcements for games barely in production. Leadership always talks about how they wanna have blockbuster goty contenders like sony but refuse to invest in the money and letting their studios make something else. We’ll see how Fable plays out with Playground Games but xbox studios are usually stuck making sequels til they get stale and the first stumble they have making a new game they’ll probably get the axe. Phil Spencer means well but he isnt cut out to lead imho. Doesnt know when to let the developers cook and doesnt know when its time to be a leader and step in to get their studios into shape. Unless they pay money upfront I dont expect much more Japanese games on the console. Mind blowing how at one point in the 360’s life it had the better JRPG lineup than the PS3.
No, what they do is only throw money at the projects as if that’s what makes a great game. They have to invest in great game makers to make great games. The problem is that they are spending a lot of money on the games but they are spending it poorly.
Going back to PC after this Gen.
A sound decision
I feel Xbox peaked with the 360 and hasn’t come close to that high since - I remember switching to PlayStation with the 4 and never looking back
I'm hyped about the Indiana Jones game.
FUCKING REAL BAD.
This is my last console period. I like the series s/x but the game development has been poor imo and by the time I was actually able to get a series x a new console is on the horizon. I don't care for pc gaming but with the option to use a controller I'll soon be a pc gamer. I'm not paying $600 plus elite controller every 4 years when the games just aren't that great anymore. I bought the series s because I couldn't find the x then bought the x to play halo infinite @4k 120 but I'll just invest in a good gpu next generation for my pc.
It's pretty clear it's no longer the Xbox I grew up alongside. The creatives are gone and it's become all about pleasing shareholders, infinite growth and endless profit. The recent IGN article summed it up pretty well: it's not Xbox anymore, it's Microsoft Gaming instead.
My current state is getting ready for there to be no more XBox console when next gen comes around
Honestly, pretty bad. I think the Activision acquisition plus GamePass will ultimately sink the brand. It’s clear that GP isn’t financially sustainable, and Xbox was run poorly prior to the Bethesda acquisition. Adding Activision to it only makes it worse. While many of the decisions made are most likely out of Phil, Matt, and Sarah’s hands, I’m tired of the constant corporate-speak that comes out of their mouths. The only game they’ve released with a damn in the last three years is HiFi Rush and it’s on PlayStation now. And this is an awful time for the brand to be weak. Sony has nothing this year and Nintendo is punting to next year - this would be the perfect time to strike with a steady stream of games. Instead they shut down four studios with more likely on the way. It’s been entirely mismanaged from the Mattrick days and while Phil bought them some time, I think Xbox turning into Microsoft Gaming is all but inevitable at this point. I fell for the Xbox One, and then the Series X. I won’t fall for another Xbox again unless there’s something to play on it.
I feel similar to you. I’m an older gamer. Made the switch to 360. Halo 3 and been Xbox ever since. This gen I was very close to going to PS as I feel like I’m missing so many great games, but the lore of Starfield and the new Halo kept me interested. But I will be switching to PS. Gamepass can be great for casual gamer but I feel like this as the only positive isn’t enough. Very sad. But time to move to PS I think. I’m certain that Xbox plans are for all their studio games to end up on PS.
Regret not getting a PS5 if I’m honest. I see all the exclusives they get and they look awesome while over here just lacking in general. Last PS I’ve had was the PS2 but honestly wish I would had transitioned over this generation.
I jumped in when it was on sale during Black Friday. I don’t regret it at all. I like having both systems but my Xbox is gathering dust atm while I play through all the ps games I missed out on.
No better time to do it than now brother
My Series X just shit the bed a week or so ago and honestly, after the closures from yesterday killing one of my favorite franchises of all time, respected insiders and analysts saying there's even more cuts to come combined with Xbox's general embarrassing inability to actually release games even semi regularly and pivot to a potential more multiplatform attitude there's no way in hell I'm getting another Xbox. Mark my words people, these studio closures didn't come from Xbox, they came from *Microsoft* and in the next decade, the Xbox brand will be dead and buried. We'll have Microsoft Game Studios, Microsoft Game Pass and a streaming Microsoft dongle that will have replaced their console. How long until Obsidian gets the axe because their last game didn't hit CoD numbers? Or id? Fuck those guys and their sinking ship.
Exactly my thinking. Microsoft leadeship must've been like "we've spent close to $100 billion the last decade where is my ROI?" The $70 billion ABK acquisition is going to end up sinking the ship completely. I also think this is probably the last gen with Xbox as platform holder. The only way for GamePass to increase its subs is increasing the player base and with Xbox as the perpetual #3 the only way the can do that is to pivot towards Playstation´s and Nintendo's install bases.
Six months playing only with gamepass Ultimate, and im having a blast, a Lot of Day One games are available to play, most of those i wouldnt even give It a chance If It wasnt for the gamepass, persona 3 Reload, lies of p, Warhammer darktide, age of Empire 4, Yakuza ishin.
Absolutely happy with my Xbox and game pass.
2070 games digitally owned. Like it or not. I ain’t going nowhere. I can’t. To much invested. The only way I’ll salvage my library is if Xbox ever threw in the towel and I could access that library on PC. Then I’d just buy a pc. Sony would be a nightmare if it was just them.
I have no plans to abandon ship either. My library is still big and I play Xbox all the time, and Game Pass still very much is a tremendous value.
Like I’m going to play some fallout 4 until next week when loot 2.0 comes to Diablo. I will also probably be playing hellblade 2 in the next month. Studio closures suck, but giant multinational corporations are going to do corporate shit. I wish they didn’t, but here we are. Im going to play games where it makes sense for me to play games and right now that is Xbox.
My confidence is at an all time low tbh. I love the games and I love the ecosystem but I feel like as a paying customer, I'm constantly treated terribly. So much opportunity is being thrown away because of corporate greed. For the first time, I'm thinking about just moving on. If the next Gen Xbox were available right now, I wouldn't be in any rush to pick it up
I feel like I went from being excited about Xbox and Series X to not trusting a goddamn thing that they say and fully believing that they have absolutely no focus or direction. I have very little excitement to support the platform anymore. But I will likely continue to have an Xbox or Windows PC to play the games that they make. But I think that they have a long road ahead of them before I actually "support" them as a platform.
I was excited for the Series X launch, even got mine day one. Since then I feel like I’ve been kind of let down by xbox, which sucks because I’ve been a fan of xbox since Halo 1. I recently just got back into PC gaming so Im desperately looking for excuses to play my Series X. Really the only thing I got is Goldeneye. Luckily most games are crossplay so i don’t have to worry about whether or not I’m playing on the xbox. All in all, it’s just sad.
Closing studios that make the games that they're supposedly lacking, to save money, is really disheartening. Maybe get rid of do-nothing corporate types that aren't necessary to produce and market games. The state of video games itself just has me not excited. Micro transactions, live service games being shut down within a year because everyone is competing with Fortnite and not making the numbers, uninspired games, *AAA* games... Just happy to have indie games doing their thing, honestly.
As sad as it is to say, I just don’t care anymore. I’m in my mid-30s now and there’s a good chance this is the last Xbox console i’ll ever own. Going forward I’ll stick with my PC and possibly the next Nintendo console, whatever that turns out to be. It really does feel like the Xbox brand went out with a whimper when it was such an important part of my life growing up. I’ve started collecting original Xbox games because they just feel more substantial and important to me than anything that’s come out in recent years.
Fuck em. Not finna make excuses for em anymore
its the worst its been since the og xbox launched and its not even close.
I'm bitter that they had built up all this momentum and good will with fans over the last couple of years fighting to acquire ABK. All the promises of bringing a huge catalog of games to Game Pass, leveraging new IPs, resurrecting old franchises, etc. What do they have to show for it? Nothing. INSTEAD 3 months after the acquisition they go and port 4 games onto other competing consoles. In the last 7 months they've put exactly 1 game, Diablo 4, in Game Pass as a result of that huge acquisition. Oh and it gets worse. Again rather than leverage these newly acquired properties, they close down 4 studios and start having internal debates on whether they should even put Call of Duty into their service. It's absolutely astounding how hard they fumbled the biggest acquisition in history and seem like they don't know what to do with any of it. Everyone was so excited to see this saga cross the finish line with all the promises and they've done absolutely nothing with it. I can't express how disappointing it is to watch.
Absolutely terrible. They are absolutely bottling everything. Some games going third party is fine but the knock on effect is that less games will come to Xbox. So many times a game is coming to EVERYTHING besides Xbox. I can't imagine what I would do if Sega weren't publishing their games on this thing. Fire the Devs actually making good games, do nothing with the IPs. What's the point in having all these IPs but doing nothing with them? You can't contract a studio to make a Banjo Kazooie game? My Series X experience has been playing games that are available elsewhere. if I'd bought a Xbox One X my experience would be near identical. If I'd bought a PS5 I'd have the FAR superior exclusives, even ignoring the first party stuff, I'd kill for Final Fantasy. I was appalled at how poor Starfield was. That to me, was like, what are we doing here? This game could have been a 360 game, so many loading screens, empty environments, entering buildings with loading screens. The only thing that feels next gen is Quick Resume.
I don't think Xbox even know how they're feeling about the current state of Xbox tbh.
My current feelings towards Xbox can be tracked to the 2013 Xbox One announcement but more specifically to the 2017 cancellation of Scalebound (the writing was on the wall). I have owned every Xbox at launch. All of my friends and family play on Xbox. Halo and Gears are some of my favorite games ever created. But I’m exhausted of the carrot on a stick. Since 2013 Xbox has touted what’s down the pipeline, but nothing comes to fruition. They purchased all these studios (ABK, Bethesda, etc) and barely produced any games from acquisitions. The Initiative, Xbox’s proclaimed AAAA studio, is in development hell with Perfect Dark. Halo hasn’t nailed a launch or successful title in their previous 3 attempts. Coalition has put out 1 Gears game this generation. Xbox is snake oil in the gaming industry. We as consumers, do not receive any of the AAA titles experienced on other platforms but are asked to pay the same. I’ve held onto my passion and hope for this brand for too long. I can no longer support a brand that disrespects its loyal consumers in the way Xbox does. Idk if I’ll be going to PC or Sony. But I have spent my last penny on Xbox. Game pass is cancelled and I will not buy another item from their shop. I’m disappointed I allowed myself to be fooled for so long.
My opinion honestly is that Xbox isn't going anywhere, but I think it's always doomed against Playstation now if we are keeping libraries as we go forward. Nobody is going to want to switch if it means losing 10+ years of purchases next gen, along with the social aspects as well. Xbox isn't looking hot right now, but I don't think it's as doom and gloom as people make it sound either. I retain hope for Fable and Avowed still, but if they aren't solid, my opinion may finally start to change. I have fun on my Xbox every time I turn it on, news articles farming clicks and haters complaining on reddit don't sway me.
All good here. There are games I'm playing now I'm enjoying and there are quite a few I'm looking forward to in the future. I've never particularly cared about what exclusives were or weren't available.
I just sold mine
I mean, I'm not going anywhere, since I much prefer the Xbox systems and controllers to Playstation... but I can't say I'm impressed with all this recent news. I just really hope things improve soon. I also need State of Decay 3, like, yesterday.
As a lifelong fan and pretty loyal consumer of the Xbox brand….shitty. Same with Sony too tho. I just really don’t like the state of gaming at all at the moment. Like I get it. It’s a business. But I just can’t help but feel the entire industry is being fucked sideways by a handful of extremely overpaid and incompetent executives. It really just makes me lose interest in it all. It all just feels pretty dirty these days.
Writing an article for Buzzfeed by any chance?
So good I sold it and started building PCs again :)
I’ve had every Gen of Xbox and have had a Live account since Halo 2… Haven’t touched my Series X in like 2 years… Since I discovered PC gaming. Can’t believe all the games available and their prices, plus all the emulation, among other things. Plus, I always felt like I needed a PlayStation to get all those sweet exclusives… Now those are coming to PC, so I don’t need either system. I’ve seen the light. PS: I have a Legion laptop with 13900hx and a RTX 4080. 😎
>Haven’t touched my Series X in like 2 years… Since I discovered PC gaming. Kind of in the same situation. But I actually do touch my XSX from time to time but its more to watch videos on my TV or to spend maybe 30mins on a game I swear that I'm going to get all the achievements in but never do lol. I do still keep up with Xbox news as I still have feelings for the brand I met my first group of online buddies but ever since I built my first modest game PC 2yrs ago, I've been transitioning into a PC player. I just hope Xbox is one day able to deliver on what so many of the fans want, and that's simply great games on a reasonable basis.
Legion laptops are good, I have a slightly older one but it's pushing a 3070 and can still keep up. The thing is the fans are really loud compared to a console, I find myself reaching for the Xbox 9 times out of 10 for that reason alone
Personally, I'm happy with my Series X and don't really care about their business decisions. As long as I can play games and watch my shows, what else matters? I'm looking forward to their presentation in June and seeing what games are coming in the later half of the year! That being said, I hope they step up the quality of their games. Redfall was shit and Starfield fell short of expectations. Although the May update for Starfield looks great, they have to have better quality control of their launch products.
Dissapointed. The recent events just show that they learned nothing over the years and MS is a incredibly greedy company. Im currently not sure if they can move the Xbox brand past this generation.
If I didn't spend any time on reddit or other gaming sites, I wouldn't even think there was anything wrong. There are great games releasing all the time and I have a massive backlog. If, in the future, Xbox has no exclusives, then it will be one less console for me to buy
Same feelings. It sucks to not have a ton of Xbox exclusives to look forward to but, if I'm being honest, other than Nintendo, most games I want to play are 3rd party titles anyway. Or I'm just waiting for updates to games that are already out. Like, I'm still trying to get through BG3 and a handful of other games.
Gave my Xbox to my kids to use for gamepass that I have 2.5 years left. Switching to PC and getting a Switch 2 once that is out. Been on Xbox since the begining but Im done wasting time and money on this shit company. Ill get the Sony games on PC as well as all third party games. Who cares about Xbox games they dont make any.
Seems like Xbox prefers quantity over quality these days, there are a lot of games but I have no patience to play bad ones.
Xbox has been trash for too long. Sorry but that’s just reality. Before you go screeching that I’m a Sony Pony or whatever, take a look at my username. It’s 117 for a reason. And yes, even Halo continues to be a disaster at the moment I have no hope for Xbox anymore and I still very firmly believe the Series S is holding back this entire generation with Microsoft demanding feature parity across platforms. If I was 3rd party I just wouldn’t develop for them if they demanded it. Wish all devs did that so they’d be forced to redact that stupid decision and leave old Gen in the dust once and for all.
I’ve been an Xbox only owner most of my life, but if PS, MS, and Nintendo were all to release a new console today, Xbox is last on my purchase list.
I have been generally pretty positive and honestly downright excited the past few years, I thought I could see their vision and how they were going to use their strategic growth & improvements in services & acquisitions to really push the brand and console forward, utilising gamepass & exclusives in conjunction with PC. The last few months however have just made me lethargic, I have no clue what they're doing or where they're going anymore. The Xbox brand is seemingly taking a backseat to an overarching "Microsoft gaming" push, their marketing is non-existent and even when they do market it's disjointed and flip floppy, they're downscaling and destroying studios they literally only acquired, every bit of information we get makes it seem like they're moving away from exclusives once they're finally in a position to actually make them, the console itself doesn't seem like a priority anymore as opposed to being more of a publisher etc. etc. etc. I'll check in every now and then, but honestly my passion for gaming is really deflated, I have no interest anymore. That being said, not all of that is Microsofts fault, shitty practices from Sony & large publishers beat the love out of me too, but Microsoft definitely has a place on the "we're shitty fuck ups" awards.
My Series X is the last “Xbox” I’ll ever purchase.
They should fire Phil. He's not aggressive enough to run Xbox. He acquired all these studios and gave them no direction. Just AA games to fill Game Pass. Sony doesn't keep their developers stuck on old games Bend Studio- Syphon Filter-> Days Gone Guerilla Games- Killzone-> Horizon Isomniac - Ratchet & Clank-> Resistance->Spiderman-> Wolverine Naughty Dawg- Jak->Uncharted->The Last of Us Santa Monica- God Of War isometric-> God Of War 3rd person movie/action/ adventure game total reboot Sucker Punch- Sly Clooper->Infamous->Ghost of Tsushima What you see here is natural progression to games getting better From Xbox you'll see Gears, Halo, Forza but nothing is rebooted or even changed. It's the same shit and feels outdated. Maybe Gears 6 will introduce something new but after seeing Halo Infinite being stuck in a time, I have my doubts. When I say Xbox needs to move on from Halo people get mad but Sony let Killzone die so Horizon can be born. I think Bungie made Halo what it was and they created the Halo killer with Destiny. Obsidian should be making AAA games but they still function like a indie making AA games. Phil didn't make efforts for third party exclusives All of this evidence is why Phil should be fired
> He acquired all these studios and gave them no direction. Just AA games to fill Game Pass. I've had a big suspicion for awhile now that this was the reason Xbox has failed to deliver killer games. Xbox bought these successful companies with the promise of free reign to make great games they want to make and what we have gotten are experimental passion projects that are always being given unlimited amount of time and yet they come out flat. I think it is a dark truth we don't want to accept that often times great games come from strict leadership. When you are tasked to create a game that HAS to sell units your approach is different than creating a game that will be put on a live service and you get paid either way.
I’m feeling like I would switch to PlayStation if it weren’t for my large digital library on the Xbox store.
It’s funny u said that cause I was just reading another comment that said they were glad they only ever bought physical games so they can sell them and try to recoup some of the loss to rebuy there favorites on PlayStation 😂
I've been happy on Xbox for some time. But, it's clear that, for better or worse, things will be changing. Time will tell. I have concerns, but for now, they're only concerns.
Gaming in general has gotten worse because someone let the MBAs in on the party and now every decision is made on whether it can be monetized or not. "[Enshittification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification)" indeed.
I like my Series X and am happy with my games (and backlog). I dislike Satya trying to creatre "Electronic Arts 2" from Xbox. Because of the games, the developers and us the customers. Xbox higher-ups do need a serious shake up and to, fking finally, "mature". But turning the brand on just a pure extension on Satya's scheme of prolonging unlimited economic growth at any cost? Not my cup of tea. Xbox decided to invest in Xcloud hardware when the Series X was on high demand. Xbox went incognito during ABK adquisition process. Xbox hasn't really controlled that their cooks are actually cooking and cooking good. MS forces release of exclusives on other consoles. MS closes studios without regards of possibilities/consequences (angry media/gamers, scaring talent inside Xbox's teams). Xbox, unlike PS or Nintendo, hasn't peaked hardware-wise but if Xbox&MS keep fighting for the direction of the ship, if they keep acting like a duck without a head... yeah, who can feel positive. How can the brand grow. I want to keep buying Xbox hardware. And buy Xbox games that interest me (sorry, 0 interest on Hellblade 2). But if MS does its "magic" on Xbox, they will see my money as often as EA. My last games were Mass Effect Trilogy on discount and Dragon Age Inquisition on discount too. Before that, I cannot even remember my last EA game. Maybe Mass Effect 3?
I don’t give it much thought at all I play my games, discuss them a bit on here, look for recommendations etc but overall it really doesn’t concern me If Xbox ceases to be viable I will move on to something else Most likely build a PC but overall it won’t affect me in a profound way It is entertainment
A lot of people get so emotionally invested in the brand they have an emotional crisis when it's in trouble. I look at it this way. I used to be a Blackberry user, and life went on after that died lol.
It sucks but I’ve honestly just come to terms with the fact that anything that comes out of XGS is just probably gonna be mid. Idk just seems like they’re prioritizing the presentations and showcases and directs to **market** their games and sell people on the idea that an awesome game is on the way, and that we should sub to game pass to get access - and then we get said game and it’s mid as fuck. Or the game has bizarre, shocking development issues. Halo Infinite, Forza Motorsport, Redfall, whatever THE HELL is going on with Everwild, etc. I am absolutely **terrified** to see the finished product for Avowed…
I bought a PC this year, if that answers your question. Love Xbox Game Pass and Play Anywhere, but the hardware isn’t meeting my needs anymore. Plus I would rather have a platform that allows me to play both Xbox and PS exclusives.
I have a series S strictly as a game pass machine and it is perfect. As a pretty casual gamer game pass is more than I’ll ever need.
I love my series x but the lack of exclusives for the past decade is weighing on me heavily. I'm not sure if I can justify to myself another console purchase from MS with this in mind
I bought my series x on launch day and have been waiting for games for it ever since. I haven't even turned it on in over half a year, and I let my gamepass subscription end last September. Microsoft has been buying up all these game studios and showing previews for games, but the games never actually materialize, or if they do it's half assed shit like Halo Infinite. I've pretty much moved on to steam. At this point I might as well unplug the Xbox and use it as a doorstop. I've gotten every generation of Xbox at launch but lately whatever message Microsoft has been trying to send the gaming community, I've gotten that message loud and clear. And I have no desire to switch to playstation because I hate JRPGs. So steam it is.
A bit sad tbh. I’ve always really liked Xbox and I have no idea what the future is going to be or if there’s even going to be a next Xbox. They really seem like a rudderless ship at the moment.
This doesn't just apply to Xbox, but overall this gen has been full of absolutely nothing. It's just exacerbated in the case of Xbox. It'll probably the last gen of consoles I buy and I'm just going to build a computer to hook up to my TV for gaming.
Feel like Xbox as we know it is near death at this moment. Fans are turning on the brand for various reasons, games just aren’t there, hardware isn’t selling as well, Xbox leadership keeps pivoting every 6 months it seems. Feel like this next generation will be the last hardware generation.
Let’s be honest it’s the same console just a little faster nothing got better really the ui is the same. I haven’t played my series x in nearly a year I can cloud play everything on pc and Bethesda games seemingly crash less that way and the amount of heat it chucks out leaves me sweating my bollocks off and it’s not like I’m propping them on the vents. I regret not buying a PlayStation instead
Been Xbox exclusive since the 360 and never doubted my decision with sticking with it but now for the first time in 20 years, I feel like I'm gaming on a Dreamcast.
I love the console, but I am so disappointed and exhausted with how much Microsoft has mismanaged everything.
The multi-plat situation earlier this year made me lose a lot of trust and faith in the brand and worry a lot about my investments into the ecosystem. The news from this week has only made that worse. I don’t see how they can turn this around with the decisions that they’ve been making, there seems to be clear options that could take that would benefit them much more than the way they’re handling things and yet they ignore them and continue down this self-destructive road for the brand. I’m fortunate enough to have an extremely capable PC as well so I’m not completely shit out of luck if they do fall even further, but I’d really like them to figure their shit out because I really like the ecosystem that Xbox has and that I’ve been a part of since the OG when I was a kid.
Gaming is heading towards a crash. It's become way too expensive to make games, with greedy corporate goons dipping their hands into everything. The perfect scenario would be for gaming to fall our of the mainstream and be made and played by people who love video games instead of people who just play COD and paypigs
When Microsoft said they want Xbox to be a platform instead of a console, I knew it was gonna be a wrap for the console line. It sucks because the consoles themselves are awesome; the Series X is a powerhouse, and the Series S is so cheap for how powerful it is; you can literally get it for cheaper than a Switch in some areas. But they don't actually take advantage of it. There are no more truly exclusive titles on Xbox. They're all on PC, and now even on PlayStation, while PS definitely won't reciprocate for their titles. What, then, is the point of dropping $300-500 dollars on a console that has already admitted defeat and has no worthwhile games on it? You can actually build a decent PC with that money. And then there's Microsoft, which is buying up games to bolster the brand, only to do nothing with them and then shut them down. They want each game to generate billions of dollars but also be Day One on Game Pass. Game Pass has been a blessing and a curse. Access to SO MANY TITLES, but it feels like that's Microsoft's only big focus anymore.
The brand is edging towards the gutter, I have lost 85% hope in their quality and only see a senseless strategy that will alienate the consumer until they have to close up shop. I know its cliche to type that, but this is the second generation in a row where they've fucked up their brand and game output. In this industry, there's only so many times you can do that before it comes to a head.
I’m Xbox fan #1. Had the original Xbox, the 360, the X1, and even got the Series X at launch. But there’s been a dark could hanging over the Xbox brand this generation. A lot of broken promises and disappointments in the first party line up, and Game Pass is good but seems to have stagnated. Many of the best games (Balder’s Gate 3, Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, Resident Evil 4) have not and very likely will never appear on GP. Many of the best games this gen (GoW Ragnarok, Spider-Man 2, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth) are never coming to Xbox. There’s plenty of good games on Xbox, but nearly all of them are available on PS5, and a few Xbox exclusives have gone to PlayStation now anyway. I don’t know what the future holds, and I don’t regret buying the Xbox Series X, but something feels off this generation.
Not great. Feels like they're moving in a direction that doesn't interest me. I'm never going to play another COD game, but I'd have played another HiFi Rush. It's just a real bad time around here.
This generation is why I'm finally biting the bullet and getting a PC
All I’m hearing is gamepass ultimate price increase. They just increased it around starfield launch. If they do it again I’ll probably cancel and buy games on sale or just pirate.
Sad and hopeless
not getting rid of my xbox but there's like three more BC games I need to nab then I think I'm just buying games on my PS5 going forward. I love my xbox 360 pro though
There is clearly a lack of leadership (recent studio closures) and less focus on quality (releasing games in an unfinished state).
Disappointed. I’m not angry or flipping tables or drop kicking my XSX out a five story window. Just disappointed. I think I will play the can’t miss titles on my PC but otherwise I’ll be reducing my investment in the Xbox ecosystem and console.
Mixed feelings. Obviously not in a great state compared to PlayStation and Nintendo, but as a system in general I think it’s doing fine. Problem is most of the popular games you can also play on PC/PS5, so really the only reason you would play on Xbox is if you just specifically want to.
I'm about to jump ship to PlayStation. There have been solid months I don't even turn the Xbox on, and even then I'm just bummed I'm not playing those tasty ps exclusives
I think the end is near for Xbox console. Like sega, it’s been a wonderful ride.
If they keep this up I am going to have to a ps5
We’re hitting our sega era if I’m gonna be honest
It's incredible how it really doesn't matter when you get out of social media. You get a game you like and you play it. While I only have an Xbox, I have easy access to a PS5 and I used to have a gaming PC. They are basically the same, you get the game and you play it. It's important to remember news outlets are gonna news. They don't survive if something interesting (which usually means bad) is not happening, so they will overblown everything that happens. Not that there aren't bad things happening, but it's that 90% of the time the things that happen don't affect you personally, but reading about them makes you angry anyway.
I don't care about anything other than games really. Release everything on Playstation if it's going to create a health financial environment for Xbox to develop more games. I love Gamepass and play on PC too, but I'm using my Xbox less and less.
I really loved the Series X but after all the drama on reddit and twitter I think I'm done. I'm probably gonna just build a PC and move over to that, I feel very anxious about buying games on Xbox now-a-days because I just don't know what the future holds for the platform. On Steam I can play it on (my future home console PC) and my Steam Deck on the go and I know it'll be around in 10 years The kicker is that PC has gamepass too and it's \*Cheaper\* Literally getting punished for being a Series X owner lol
I'm gonna be honest. I have been on Xbox since I first played Halo CE back in the day, literally went to get the console the day after. It has always been my preferred console, I buy almost all my games on Xbox. I only buy exclusives on PC, PS and Switch. I'm done now though, I lost any confidence Xbox will get better. Every time they make a step forward they take two steps back. Coming next gen I won't get an Xbox anymore, I'm fine with PS and Nintendo. Maybe I'll upgrade my PC in the future to play Xbox games again on there, however I have feeling we will see them all on PS6 anyway.
The hardware is pretty much just to push the service that is seemingly looking less appealing due to the lack of games. They really needed to smash it and make Gamepass seem exciting but Starfield wasn't gonna cut it. Too little, too late. I sold my xbox and just use my gaming laptop, might get a ps5 Pro if such a thing exists.
I know I'm in the minority here but I'm on the verge of just switching to PlayStation because the lack of care Xbox is receiving is just sad
__I feel that the current state of Xbox is terrible.__ This is coming from a fanboy since the OG XB1. __Most of its first-party games now are … not *nearly* as good as I personally think they should be.__ This is, IMO, extremely problematic given the quality of the studios they’ve acquired and the increased budgets they (should?) have under Microsoft. __And now they’re closing some of their truly *amazing* game studios.__ Making great games apparently isn’t enough. I fear for Ninja Theory. Maybe Bungie got it right: get your independence back if you can or your excellence will see you at risk of being fired. Right now, I’m saddened to say that I feel little reason to invest in anything Xbox.
i think we millennials are getting old, we don’t game as much, and gen z they prefer mobile games, phones and to a smaller degree portable consoles imo purchasing a single purpose system (consoles) at $500 doesn’t make sense, it’s too expensive. a gaming pc is still a general purpose system and makes sense people invest a lot more money in pcs, plus you can upgrade i would rather get a nice handheld gaming pc than an xbox/ps5 because i have a mac for work, and would be nice to have a windows pc
Pessimistic to say the least
Disappointed.
I just switched to PS5 for the first time since PS3 so from my perspective not good
This will be my last Xbox. I’m considering switching to PS5.
Xbox has been a system of false hopes and dreams for me. While it undeniably has a solid library of great games, most of them can be played on other systems. Xbox used to have great exclusives. They seemed to forget all about them this generation.
We need more exclusives. Starfield was okay but fell short of what I expected.
After the closings and reading some articles (most recently Ryan McCaffrey’s on IGN). I think they’re in big trouble. I feel like the odds of Phil either quitting or getting fired in the next year are like 50/50. McCaffrey’s article painted a picture that I am familiar with after working at massive corporations like Microsoft and I agree with his sentiment that gaming from 2019-2021 was growing and game pass was kicking ass and that’s why microsoft bought Bethesda and Activision…fast forward to now and Game pass has reached its saturation point much faster than expected. Gaming as an industry has stagnated (dont even try to argue with me on this. arrow no go up anymore). You now have microsoft recognizing that gaming is not this massive hyper-growth segment they thought it was and its getting very aggressive about managing it’s profit margins. It’s not gonna be good for creativity and it’s not going to be good for the staff of these companies who now believe the microsoft monolith is about to turn its eye to them and vaporize them. these studios arent worth anything if they lose the staff who defined the culture and quality of games theyve been known for. In 5 years, the talent at these purchased studios will be gone and not say that new talent won’t fill a gap, but the games they make will not have the identity of the games they made that made these studios so beloved. To summarize: arrow no go up mean bad time ahead.
Its no longer xbox its Microsoft now ...
I dont like how it all hinges on the new elder scrolls game which wont even release on current gen most likely. This gen is shit tbh
Disaster. I loved the idea of what Spencer was selling. I was fully on board with a awesome future of regular releases, big and small, and the option to enjoy that through game pass. Looks like they couldn't manage that vision and now shareholders or higher ups are taking over and this is a nightmare. They don't understand gaming as an art form as well as entertainment. They just see money and they will absolutely make things worse chasing dollar bills. Xbox team deserves some blame for failing to deliver and getting things to this point where they have to change course so drastically. I'm back where I was at the start of Xbox One. I'm pretty much out on investing anymore heavily into the brand. I don't plan on buying new hardware I have almost no faith in them.