By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
aTokenYeti on 21 April 2022
Edit Thread
hinch said:
Kneetos said:

While Microsoft were never in 1st place console wise, I would argue that they were the best of the 3 during the ps360-wii days

Call of duty had exclusivity deals with Microsoft, and even some Japanese games made it over there in the case of blue dragon.
It wasn't until the end of the generation where Microsoft shifted the 360 from more of a console to more of a "service" box. If Microsoft kept up what made the 360 a better choice then the ps3 then sony might have been in 3rd place that gen.

As an aside I would like to point out that the xbox 360 sold the most software that gen, so saying xbox got "dead last" just because they sold the least HW, and not even by that much, seems a bit unfair

Idk man. They actively pushed for paid online walled gardens with Xbox Live. MS also were the very first in offering micro-transactions or DLC in the 360 era - https://www.usgamer.net/articles/the-history-of-gaming-microtransactions-from-horse-armor-to-loot-boxes and advised Bethesda to increase prices of their Horse Armor - which they did. First for timed DLC. Not to mention adverts plastered all over the dashboard (home screen). Urgh.

While they were never really on top, during their peak.. MS added some really crappy things which was later standardized for us 'gamers', that were never were a thing before. I'd shudder to think if they did make it to the top. But F MTX's though and those who pushed for that BS.

In the context of the time period I don’t think charging for Xbox Live was unfair. The other two console makers didn’t offer anything remotely comparable and they were building out that infrastructure from scratch. We have gotten so used to the status quo where XBL and PSN are basically identical, but they really didn’t achieve parity until very late 7th gen/start of 8th gen, and Xbox users were more than happy to pay for what was, for the majority of the 7th generation, a vastly superior service. 

In 2022 though I don’t think either company should be charging for online anymore. 

And on the subject of micro transactions in games: those were coming whether we liked it or not, that was not an “innovation” invented by Microsoft but simply the logical next step in games monetization.