Was Xbox's 2022 First Party Output the worst in their gaming HISTORY?

[Runa216]

ice said:

Before you start typing, let's try to take this a civilized approach. I can't think of a worst year in terms of First party experiences for a platform but let's all remember a platform is more than just exclusive games. I thought this year was actually pretty good for gamepass and 3rd parties but with the release of Pentiment it got me thinking about the 1st party output this year which includes...

• As Dusk Falls (MS IP, 3rd party dev)
• Deathloop (new port)
• Grounded (Full release)
• Ghostwire Tokyo (Not on xbox)
• Pentiment 

On the face, it's not too shabby but only Pentiment is a new exclusive from a MS 1st party dev that's a new experience.

Edit: Okay I went a bit hyperbolic with "gaming history" lol Kinda hard to do that when there's been a lot of failed consoles and platforms, but is it the worst Xbox lineup? Think that's the more interesting comparison at hand.

looking at Xbox's past years there's some low points, Kinect era 2012 is a contender

- Fable Heroes

- Halo 4

- Kinect games (including Fable the Journey)

Also Xbox One era 2017

- Forza motorsport 7

- Super Lucky's Tale

2019

- Gears 5

- Crackdown 3

2017 the strongest contender I think but at least all 3 of these years had a new AAA game. If we are excluding previously released games 2022 still ranks as no1.

2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2022 are all top contenders. Only 2021 was decent and even that's stretching it. 

I've been saying for as long as I've been here that Xbox basically dropped the ball and hasn't picked it up since Kinect. they didn't quite get their footing on the original Xbox, then basically stumble ass-backwards into a solid 2005-2010 mostly due to how bad Sony did with the PS3 launch, then they just sorta floundered for way too long. Kinect had no staying power. the Xbox One launch was disastrous with more Kinect. then halfway through that generation when they gave up on Kinect it was clear they were just riding the wave until Gen 9 started because they already lost Gen 8 (years 2017-2019), but then by some miracle they had literally no exclusives at launch in 2020 on the Series X and only got a few games in 2021 before collapsing again in 2022 when either their games went multiplat within months (Death's Door, Tunic, etc) or were delayed until 2023 (Starfield and Redfall). 

I do think 2023's gonna be their year but hot damn how could any company have this long of a bad streak and still have brand loyalty? I genuinely don't get it. 

Next year's gonna be a hell of a mess, though. All three brands have multiple heavy hitters scheduled. Between just Final Fantasy XVI, Forspoken, Tears of the Kingdom, and Starfield I'm not gonna have a lot of spare time. I genuinely feel that 2023's gonna be a historic year for games for all three brands. I just don't know how any company weathered the storm for so long like Microsoft has. 

Oh, wait. daddy Gates' money is virtually infinite and they can afford to operate at a loss for 20 years without ever going under.