I think Halo 4 did well with reviewers are sales is because reviewers were afraid to give this franchise a bad score and gamers wanted to give it a chance. Halo 3 did have that mysterious ending after all. I don't feel Halo 5 will see the same feedback and I don't think Halo will ever be what it used to be (although it's still going to be alright).

As for Gears, could be good, but it's likely to be bad. I'm not expecting much after Judgement.

Overall I'm just not expecting much from the XB1. Last 4 years the 360's life was Halo, Gears and Forza and I have a feeling XB1 is going to be more the same. Sure it started off moderately well, but so did the 360 and XB1 has yet to announce a new IP as amazing as Gears of War was for the 360. Also Forza 5's lack of content does indicate to me that a bi-annual release is more important then quality, I don't feel MS has changed their perspective on games for the XB1.

Erm.. I don't think anyone ever said otherwise!

Halo 4 did well with sales because gamers bought it and liked it not because they were willing to give it a chance.  I don't care how well a game gets reviewed if gamers buy it and don't like it the news will spread and sales will not be impressive.  Case in point is Gears of War judgement it got positive reviews but when gamers bought it news spread that it wasn't up to par with the older gears games and it did not sale well compared to the older gear games.

I'm not a Gears fan and I can't say if the next game will be good or bad but I believe Microsoft knows how important that ip is so they are going to do everything in their power to make sure the game has a good chance of being a top tier title.  Also remember everyone thought double helix was going to ruin Killer Instinct because they had never made a good game but we see how that turned out killer instinct became a very good fighting game on xbox one.

Microsoft rarely announces games that are 3-4 years away from release and the console is still less than 6 months old so that's why we don't know more about new ips they are working on and we won't know if the IP is as "amazing" as Gears of War until the titles are released and can be judged accordingly.  Who knows maybe Quantum Break, Sunset Overdrive, Project Spark or D4 can become this generation Gears for microsoft.

I'm expecting big things from xbox one since they have been investing in building up their first party studios and they know if they just focus on halo, gears, forza, and fable this generation the sales gap between the ps4 and xbox one will continue to get larger they have to do something different.  I think they are going to really experiment to diversify their first party game portfolio so they can have new franchises to go with the established ones from previous generations.

Microsoft rarely announces games 3-4 years in advance because they usually don't have games 3-4 in advance planned, or they want to keep it a secret (like XB1's launch lineup & the next biannual Forza).

The 360 was an amazing console for the first 4 years, then Microsoft just gave up. It's unfair to assume Microsoft has changed (especially since Kinect is still forcefully bundled despite fan protests). The original XB had the same history (with the most exclusives in 2002, and less each year following).

Also Microsoft investing in 1st party studios? Remember that "new Halo" by Black Tusk? Scrapped, they are making the next Gears of War now. Titanfall? Not 1st party. Quantum Break? Also not first party and likely to release on PC.

Microsoft will only diversify their 1st party portfolio as long as they can see a sizeable profit. They won't be like Sony and introduce new IP's 5 years into the consoles lifetime because realistically a new IP that late into the generation won't add many sales.

Anything can happen, but as a 360 owner myself, I'm not expecting much from Microsoft.

Yes microsoft gave up after the first 4 years with the 360 because with their head start they had established their install base and they knew Sony would not catch them in their two strongest territories of US and UK so they figured they could take their foot off the gas.  They can't do that this time because sony was ready when the xbox one launched and sony is selling consoles at a record pace worldwide. 

I never mentioned Titanfall I don't consider that because it's already been said the sequels would be multi platform.  Quantum Break is published by microsoft and probably funded by them too.  If it goes to PC it will be because Microsoft allowed it to and they would still see money from the sales of the pc version so what do they care as long as xbox one is the only console you can play the game on.  Remedy never released Alan Wake on a home console other than microsofts so I will consider Quantum Break a true console exclusive too until proven otherwise.

Microsoft doesn't have a history of introducing new IP's 5+ years into a consoles lifetime but they have done 3-4 years in multiple times before so that leaves a decent amount of time to see some new IP's.  Sony themselves didn't get serious about their first party lineup until the PS3 when they were forced to because microsoft took away their former third party exclusive titles. During the ps2 and ps1 days they relied on third party exclusives to sell their system very few people bought sony consoles for first party titles. 

I believe microsoft will have a solid lineup of exclusive games at the end of this generation.

Once this generation gets going, it'll easily be the Xbox One.

Outside of the Sega Genesis and Dreamcast the N64 was considered one of the greatest self sufficient first and second party dominated consoles to own. The 360 on first party alone isnt in any of their leagues. Its too dependent on third party.

Microsoft couldnt pay people to put their exclusive games on their consoles. Microsoft stopped majorly producing first party after the third year, not the fourth. The first three years of the 360's life were the only years where MS had semi-adequate first party. Most of their games were second party after that or paid to keep exclusive from Sony. They also ported games from PC to fill the exclusive void. Microsoft needed the lead because they knew Sony would catch up. World wide in Sonys first year with the PS3 they outsold the 360's first year. They were only behind by a year and caught up at the end. Sony dwindled Microsofts lead from a eight million console lead to two million and then MS brought out in the Kinect in 2010. The Kinect saved the Xbox 360's ass for the last two years and then it fell off and in 2013 Sony closed the gap. There was only so long Microsoft can run. They aren't that efficient with first party because their first party isnt great at all.

Well like I said, you can't assume Microsoft will change. You can assume that they won't and maybe get lucky with a better product.

Quantum Break is Remedy, and everything Remedy has made has released on PC. Even Alan Wake which Microsoft said would not release on PC. Console exclusive =/= exclusive, you wouldn't call Just Dance an HD exclusive if it released only on WiiU/XBO (for sake of arguement). Same applies here.

Obviously Sony didn't get serious about 1st party games until the 360, there were more exclusive 3rd party games on PS2 then not.

You have high hopes for a company which has a history of ripping people off where possible. Plus if Microsoft only has 3-4 years to debut all their exclusives (from history) and a year has past and the quality of the exclusives is about par with PS4, then all that means is that in 2-3 years time the XBO is going to start sagging behind. Plus once the Japanese are finished with the PS3, then you'll see a lot of 8+/10 exclusives start to appear on PS4.

lol look at how many times microsoft changed course before the release of xbox one that alone makes your statement invalid.  Companies change all the time if it looks like it will affect their bottom line microsoft is not immune from this, neither is sony or nintendo.  Console exclusive= only available on one home console.  People considered final fantasy 7 for playstation an exclusive back in the day despite the fact that it could be bought on pc.  For whatever reason once microsoft started getting console exclusives now it does not count because it's on pc.

Yes so you agree that microsoft destroying the monopoly sony had in the gaming industry was a good thing because it forced them to focus on first party games.  I have high hopes for all of the consoles in general but make no mistake sony will rip you off just as quick as microsoft and so will nintendo.  None of them are different in that regard. And game quality has always been subjective in my instance the only ps4 exlcusive I have is infamous while I have killer instinct, forza 5, and ryse for xbox one so in my case xbox is ahead.

I agree you may start to see some of the smaller japanese titles be exclusive but it won't be 8 to 10 since japan cares mostly about portables now and the japanese games that are most popular in the west final fantasy, metal gear solid, resident evil etc will always be multi platform for this generation.