I don't know where you got the idea that the cancellation was mostly or only important to non-Xbox gamers. That honestly sounds like an excuse to try and downplay the relevance of it's cancellation. For the most part it seemed like the sympathy and remorse was pretty evenly split between all corners of the gaming scene. Instead of seeing it as "Well, a ton of people outside the Xbox community cared about it's cancellation, so obviously it didn't have an effect in the Xbox community!" You should really see it as - "The ripples caused by this game's cancellation show the failure to cater to a lot of demographics." Because, let's say for instance you were even right about this (I wouldn't say you are) , didn't Microsoft lose a bunch of potential customers because of that? You yourself are saying that other communities care about the game, who's to say they wouldn't buy an Xbox because of it. It's incredibly rare for on game to sell a console granted, but even one game in a handful of exclusives can make a difference.
I'm not sure the argument of sales even makes a lot of sense. Microsoft still produced games that were catered to Xbox gamers like Quantum Break, Halo Wars 2, Sunset Overdrive, and Dead Rising 4 and none of those sold well. Should those have just been cancelled? Hell no. Even from a convenience standpoint I don't think it holds up, a ton of work was already done on the game when it was cancelled. Microsoft's "core" market is constantly falling short - their biggest IP are selling worse than before and their new IP are failing. Maybe it's time to set a new direction for the company, seems to be working pretty well for their indie studios.
The whole thing about how people still talk about it "as if it was a GOTY contender" is such a frustrating dismissal of the game and it doesn't even make sense. I can write entire paragraphs about why Hob was such a great game and better than most Triple A games. But I wouldn't say it was a contender for my game of the year. So what? How many games are, realistically, GOTY contenders? They are rare, that's why they're "GOTY" contenders and not game of the day, game of the week, game of the month contenders.
Well, even though I just wrote a somewhat long rant, it's fine to have your opinion. But I wasn't replying to you because you said the game wouldn't sell well. I mean, that might have been part of it, but my reply would have ended up being a lot different had you just said that. It's obvious what I was mainly replying to - " Who actually wanted to buy that? " I did. This kind of excuse needs to stop. Maybe Microsoft were justified in their decision, maybe not, it's not really my place to pretend like I know what Microsoft should have done. I can only really add my opinion from an uneducated perspective on what I think Microsoft should have done, and that's why even if it's unnecessary I wrote this long ass rant. But you know, I DID think the game looked good, I DID want it.
