Runa216 said:
Was just talking to a friend about PS games and exclusives, noting that Sony 'gets away' with tripe like forspoken because they've always got something to fall back on.
like, we were mentioning that neither of us like Gran Turismo or Uncharted or The Last of Us (Three of Sony's biggest franchises right now), but that was fine because we both love shit like Bloodborne and Horizon and Spider-Man and new god of War and Ratchet & Clank. Led to a bit of a discussion about Redfall because we were talking about the vastly different responses to Redfall and forspoken. both got similarly poor reviews, but the narrative is so unique from different perspectives.
Like, Forspoken comes out and seems to be pretty much maligned. Few people loved it, and it got a lot of flack for various reasons. but Playstation fans didn't really care too much because the PS5 was on the cusp of getting PSVR2 and only a few months away from Final Fantasy XVI, with stuff like FFVII Rebirth and Spider-Man 2 on the horizon.
but then Redfall comes out and...wow. Worse reviews yet I see so many people online/twitter going on about how 'this is all some anti-Xbox conspiracy' or that people are biased against Xbox or something. and like...no? Individuals may be biased. But the entire game review medium as a whole? Naw. so why are people acting this way? Obviously it's console loyalty to a point.
Xbox notoriously and famously just doesn't get many exclusive games to call their own. So EVERY game they get is the next big chance to redeem them. So when they have a flop like Redfall, they have to find excuses as to why it's not that bad...because that's where they invested and that's what they want to believe because they have to. IT's not like Nintendo or Playstation where a flop is worth a shrug and a 'let's move on'. One flop to Xbox is 50% of its games that year. And that really does suck.
I criticise them a LOT (Rightfully so, as finally the rest of the gaming discourse seems to be catching up), but I want them to succeed. It was actually disheartening to see Redfall do so poorly. and it was worse to see the lengths people would go to cope with that disappointment. It really shouldn't be like this. Nintendo is notoriously detached from their fanbase outside of Smash Bros and they keep cranking out classics because they don't really give a shit what everyone else is doing. They do their own thing and there's a certain art to that, and it's one of the reasons I love them so much. sony does this 'let's throw literally everything at the wall and see what sticks' approach, which does lead to a lot of bad shit but also leads to a lot of good shit, resulting in a hefty, wide berth of potential and diversity in their line up. But Xbox? They have a niche audience (Pretty much exclusively western audiences, with a love for sports, racing, and shooting....) yeah, they release other stuff too but it's always indie stuff. Hi Fi Rush is a blast, as is Vampire survivors and Pentiment is wonderful. Grounded is pretty awesome, too, but those games do not sell consoles, games like Halo and Forza and Gears and Fable and Elder Scrolls do...
Which makes it so much more sad when something like Redfall flops. It really NEEDED to be great and it was NOT. and that's a shame because 'what if Left 4 Dead but vampires with Arkane's unique elements' sounds like a home run. and it wasn't. And that's sad.
all they have left all year is Starfield...and given Bethesda's track record since the release of Skyrim I am not faithful it will be good. I hope it does, but still.
Meanwhile, I'm struggling to find the time to play the upcoming Tears of the Kingdom and Final Fantasy XVI. Three companies enter this summer, and two come out ahead. And that's sad. a three-pillar medium/industry would be ideal and would really balance things out. They need to stop apologizing and just do better. |
