| super_etecoon said: Hi all, I'm not an XBox gamer, but I am interested in what fans think of the current Microsoft mood. It seems to me the height of XBox fandom was during the middle years of the 360's lifespan. At that point almost everyone that I encountered in real life was playing on their 360 (even more so than people I would encounter that played the Wii). What was the point that the slide in popularity and positivity began to take hold? I certainly have a few theories of my own, but I'd like to hear where true XBox fans side on this issue. And if you don't think there has been a slide, by all means state that and why you don't think there has been one in terms of popular sentiment about the console. |
The peak of Xbox was early-middle Xbox 360 (aside from RROD). The darkest era of Xbox was by far 2013 - 2017.
The decline started with Xbox One, it had a strong start (likely due to 360 fans) but then it plummeted in sales and never quite recovered, their studios were a mess (what few they had), almost everything released either flopped or was critically panned, Lol. Halo 5 did significant damage to the franchise and caused a huge detour to plans, Crackdown 3 killed its franchise, multiple titles were cancelled (Scalebound, Phantom Dust, Fable Legends), we lost Lionhead, almost every month people were speculating about Xbox being shutdown, Lol. It was not a nice time.
Now I'm very optimistic about Xbox's future, I'm interested in the vast majority of their upcoming exclusives, I'm extremely excited as an WRPG fan who was demanding for years that Microsoft bring back Fable and become invested in WRPGs again. I've not been this optimistic about Xbox since the 360 era, sure, there are a few stumbles in getting there but it was never going to be perfect when they had to basically rebuild themselves after the disaster Xbox One era.
The individual studio acquisitions showed a renewed commitment, Zenimax confirmed they aren't leaving, Activision-Blizzard cemented it, signed and sealed it, they're here to stay, which isn't something I was confident in saying during the Xbox One era, I'm simply not that worried as long as Satya remains CEO. He has made his commitment clear.
They won't ever beat Sony again, they won't even come near Sony again, Imho. But that's okay, they don't need to, they've changed their business model, it doesn't mean Sony is doing their business wrong, it doesn't mean Xbox is doing theirs wrong. They're both focusing on their own measures of success now and Xbox deviated in order to survive but that turned into a good thing because it led to a massive renewed investment in the brand and led to Game Pass which is awesome.
Frustrating it is taking long for the AAAs to hit but I don't know how anyone can look at what they have planned and say that absolutely nothing in that list excites them, Lol. They're covering so many genres, so many sizes, from AA to AAA in the foreseeable future and they've made their long term commitment clear so, it's a matter of when, not if. Starfield alone for me is more exciting than half of Xbox One's exclusive line-up, Lol.
Lots of quality shown already in their AA releases, a lot of variety as well. But they're lacking the AAAs that move consoles, as much as the AAs are good, it needs AAAs, but they are coming. For quite a few of the studios they acquired, I can't wait to see what they pull off with a larger budget.
Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 21 April 2023
