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McDonaldsGuy on 19 January 2015
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S.T.A.G.E. said:
McDonaldsGuy said:

A lot of people hate the Xbox and wish Microsoft never entered the gaming market, but look at what they've done for gaming:

- Achievements. First one to do achievements, brilliant innovation. Achievements give games lasting value to many people and also sold many games (I won't lie I have bought games just for the achievement points)

- Hard drive standard (except for a small percentage of 360 Core machines)

- Xbox Live. Seriously, the gold standard for online gaming. So many innovations - friends list, party chat, Xbox Live Arcade/Store, great matchamking, etc. etc. Compare it to the PS2's online! Now online gaming is probably the biggest part of gaming now, and Microsoft is the one that really pushed for it by including ONLY broadband for the Xbox instead of dialup (Sega's huge mistake)

- Halo. Halo was groundbreaking and super popular. Pretty much paved the way for the FPS generation. Even if you don't like it or its influence, you can't deny the facts. Some say Goldeneye was the game that did this but I think it was Halo 2 when the FPS era really took off. Not to mention Halo is the first $350 game ever (what I mean is most people bought an Xbox just to play Halo, the Halo box)

- Gears of War. A true killer app. The 360 needed one badly in 2006 and Gears of War also paved the way for many shooters last gen.

- It also helped promote WRPGs on consoles, which are now also a huge genre and bigger than JRPGs now

- Then there are other little innovations (albeit inevitable ones) like the guide button, dashboard, Kinect, etc. etc.

Microsoft forever changed gaming by forcing console gamers to do what PC gamers would never do and thats pay for online gaming. Online was coming in some capacity in the future, but Microsoft brought in properly. Sega had been trying for years to accomplish this since the genesis.

I'll give you the Xbox Live dashboard. That is innovative.


Microsoft bought both Halo and Gears. They didnt invent either game. 

They bought the Kinect after Sony turned it down.

WRPG's were on Playstations before they were a thing. Ever heard of Deus Ex and Champions of Norrath?   Most of them couldnt be handled by consoles until the 360 era. You're right that Microsoft caused a mass exodus of WRPG's, but it was a mass exodus of PC games period. They had no real exclusives, so they had to use PC games to make it seem like they had them. Thats not innovative and they were coming anyway. See Carmack interviews from the game Rage. Consoles were finally ready for PC level games at that point and he considered the profitability to be there too. 

Microsoft caused a great drought of PC exclusives until Valve launched Steam.

Sega was super innovative and they were great but they bundled the Dreamcast with a 56K port, not an ethernet port.   A HUGE mistake. But it was Xbox Live that really pushed online gaming. It cost money but for a console it was worth it. PC gaming is great and all but I got many more memories with friends with Halo 2 and 3 than ever PC gaming.

Look at Sony's online for the PS2. Barely servicable (they can say they had online and that's it). In fact PSN was pretty much trying to copy Xbox Live. 

Champions of Norrath is okay, but nothing big like KOTOR, Morrowind, or even Jade Empire. Now this is important cause WRPGs are bigger than JRPGs now. As great as the PS2 was, it was a product of its time. The Xbox truly opened many doors.