Sea of thieves
State of decay 2
Forza Horizon 3
Crack Down 3
Ori blind forest
Ashen
Possible Halo 6

All these games + best console version of multiplatform games. Not to mention all these exclusives have a lot of longevity because of multiplayer and constant updates. Unlike the sp only games that Nintendo and Sony pushes out.

Sony delayed most of their games too. Hell, Sony first two years of big games was Infamous, Killzone shadow fall and Knack.

1. That's still really not a very strong list. Ori and Forza Horizon (4? I assume you meant) are likely to be really good, but State of Decay and Crackdown aren't heaving hitting franchises and neither of the new games have looked very promising thus far. Sea of Thieves and Ashen are wild cards here I think, since Ashen is Aurora44's first game, and Rare hasn't made anything like Sea of Thieves before. They could be great, they could flop and we really won't know until they launch. And I don't think you see Halo 6 in 2018, Microsoft doesn't really launch games in the year they announce them and we haven't heard about Halo 6 yet.

But really it comes down to the fact that none of those are really heavy hitters except for Halo. I mean, like half of those are no more substantial than the niche Japanese games people always harp on Sony for.

2. Only a very small portion of Xbox One owners are getting the best versions of console games. In fact, the vast majority of Xbox One owners are getting the worst versions of multiplatform games.

2018 will be better than 2017 was. But it's still a really weak year.

delayed is not the issue, its delayed and left the year barren. While sony have delayed plenty of games, they still had enough in each year to satisfy the gamers. Microsoft had almost nothing last year and the year before was not spectacular to say the least.

I think Sea Thieves is an awesome concept...but I'm curious it's lasting power. Without things to grind for and unlock, how fun is it REALLY going to be after a month or so? Concept seems great...but curious about the structure around it. That's my concern and I think others as well.

State of Decay is fine, hopefully it feels more AAA now but we will see. Crackdown 3 multiplayer may not be huge, I don't remember the other ones having huge mutiplayer updates. I'm honestly not excited by Forza at all, it's yearly updates and just doesn't have the excitement anymore. Halo 6 would be interesting but as others have said, they need to knock it out of the park.

Sea of Thieves is the big question for me though. 

Gamers can repeat that "best place to play" line, but it's hit or miss what you get with Xbox One X. Not all developers are going to spend tons of time enhancing this huge AAA games to maximize its power, and certainly not right away (patches may come later).

You can push the mutliplayer aspect I guess, but 2017 proved multiplayer still isn't a defining factor. Tons of single player games killed in 2017 and Sony has 2018 primed for more.

MS's issue isn't going to be solved by buying a couple of small studios imo, they're going to have to break out the cheque book and do a major deal, something like straight up buy activision or EA, which wont really happen so I can't see them getting out of the "no gaemz" position that the X1 has been in for the last 2 years now.

Absolutely scathing article though, reads like someone from Engadget is properly annoyed with the X1 for what it has delivered and what it failed on, a very rough start to 2018 if that is the consensus of the platform in the gaming media world.

Ashen is only timed „console exclusive“ btw. Definitely an interesting looking game. 

I can’t speak for “people”, only myself and what I saw here. And I don’t remember much of that kind of talk here. That said, Persona 5 is certainly not a mainstream title. The issue is some of you guys take offense to the term niche. I mean, STAGE just called it a stigma. It doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It’s just not a title that appeals to most people. Doesn’t mean it’s not a good game.

You dismissed two big Xbone 2018 titles in Crackdown and SoD just because you think they look meh. I don’t see how that is any more “fair” than dismissing a chunk of a list as niche Japanese list warz filler. I mean, the person you’re quoting is not wrong. A lot of that list is nonsense just to fluff up the numbers.

And hey if you like those games then awesome, enjoy them. But let’s not act as if gamers are clamoring for some visual novel, or a Patapon 2 remaster, etc etc.

Gotta laugh again at the article calling Scalebound “incredibly promising” LOL.

Exclusives are always going to be an issue.

Crazy thing is there are so many high quality multiplatform titles that current XBox owners will be just fine. 2018 looks just fine for Xbox even without a bunch of exclusives.

Every game I bought this holiday (with the exception of Forza) was multiplatform. I bought all of them for my X over my Pro because they load faster and are visually better. Of course I own all the consoles and can make that choice.

But if you only own one console, there are enough quality multiplatform titles in 2018 to keep owners happy. That and Gold subscriptions seem to be enough for MS.

2018 doesn’t look much different for me with the exception of a few Sony and Nintendo exclusives I will be picking up for my Pro and Switch.

Xbox will continue to sell and thrive off of multiplatform titles and a few quality exclusives sprinkled in.