Phil Spencer. When he became head of xbox, I though it was great. It was the chance to save the xbox brand, and start rebuilding it from the rubble that Don Mattrick started. And at first, it appeared that way. Throughout 2014 and 2015, it was all rosy and happy. Great new exclusives, B/C, great new feature's, and everything was going well. But now, I feel Phil has reversed all of that, with stupid policy and a goal towards making a quick buck, all at the expense of xbox.
Now throughout the holiday season, we had this "greatest games lineup" marketing. I found it to be BS, since 2007 was the best year for Xbox exclsuives. But it was pretty good, and certainly beat Sony. But their execution was a disaster. When I was in vacation in the US, I saw virtually no Xbox ads. Star Wars and COD for playstation, but nothing for xbox. Last year, it was almost the exact opposite. They decided not to market any first or third party games, and it bit them in the ass. And instead of fending that off with a price-cut, they took it, and where handed their own feet. When Sony cut the price to 299 in December, the Xbox brand had its pants down, and their response was an embarrasing but desperate reply to it, copy it. And when it came to software sales, I'm pretty sure every single exclusive game in the exception for Rare Replay and GOW released disappointed in software sales. Halo 5 sold 1/2 the copies of Halo 4 in terms of retail, Forza 6 was a huge decline from Forza 4, ROTR was just collateral damage,
But fine, I could take that. Sales don't personally matter, and frankly it was a great holiday. But I think it had far more damage to Microsoft itself than me. For starters, sales are no longer reported, and everything about the brand's future is all vague. I feel Phil only decided on a PC push once he realized how crappy the holiday's where on comparison for what he hoped. While 2014 was a third battle of kharkov, 2015 was a kursk, and the offensive simply collapsed. Now this is just a wave of surrender, but in a very sleasy way.
But back on point. So now we see this PC push, and it scare's me. Microsoft is not just planting the seeds for another GFWL disaster, but they're also slowly going to kill the Xbox brand with it. They're trying to push their own inferior platform, and I guarentee it won't work. I'll be surprised if any game reaches 6 digit figure's there. So now instead of just pissing off PC gamers, you piss off your console gamers. You lose both bases, and it ends in disaster. I guarentee this won't work, and once Microsoft has the money, they'll run. But it isn't just their piss poor "PC push" (though its a good part of it), its their how vague they're about the future of the xbox brand that scare's me most. Rumour's everywhere going from "upgradable xbox's", to xbox becoming a steambox, ect. This all seems so stupid, as neither stategy would work! And maybe I'd feel reassured if Microsoft denied these rumour's, but if anything, the Xbox executives have been fueling the fire. Spin, damage control, lies. Just today, Phil promised not "all" exclusives where going to PC. But from what I've heard before, I won't trust PR. So we can keep Halo 6 and possibly GOW 4? Wow, 2 exclusives, that's so enticing!
And I wanted to also add this. Many of the new feature's that where announced have either gone down the drain, forgotten, or are not nearly where they were suppose to be (likely due to it not having enough effect on sales, or because it allowed for sales, but won't matter anymore). B/C for example. When announced, I literally yelled, and jumped up and down with excitement. Next thing I did, came to this site, and absolutely went insane over it! But now, well lets see here. We saw 4 games come out in February (all arcade), and so far 1 for March. Considering they promised weekly games, I feel as if Microsoft didn't bother planning this out, and now they've been backed into a corner. We have 2 games that are confirmed to come out from now till April for B/C, and that's it! 2 games! We where promised 100s for the future. Do you mean 100s of crappy arcade games that nobody plays and we have to wait years for? Should I enjoy playing Dorito racer or whatever crap that was! My hype is gone, just gone! There are so many games missing from this, and unless E3 see's the full ME Trillogy, RDR, and a bunch of other surprises, I declare it dead. We have 20-30 AAA games that work with B/C, and that's it. That's far from 100s. Monthly feature's? Dead as well! Windows 10 proved to ruin the UI and remove many feature's, and make it clear anyone who bought a kinect that they were was shafted! Disgusting! The only thing that's still good is Games for Gold, which require's a gold membership.
I don't know what to say anymore. I've been an avid Xbox fanboy for years, and I've been the first to come at its defence! I was perma-banned from this site for defending the godforsaken brand, and I felt it was right! Well now I wish I could take it back. For the first time ever, I am in a state of hate towards the brand. I can't be nice to it, when we keep seeing Phil say "oh well since Xbox isn't doing well, fuck everything #PCmasterrace". I really just want to punch his smug face, more than the weizled ass we know as Mattrick. Its taken years to reverse this stigma, and now in just mere weeks its being all reversed. Now maybe I'm wrong, and things will go well. But with Phil's future vision of the brand, I feel this is exactly what Don Mattrick did. A future that's just crappy, a future in which I can't support the brand. This is the last straw Microsoft, piss me off more, and I'm done! I will march with Nintendo, as they have yet to disappoint me!
Edit: I didn't mean this in a sales point btw (at least for the most part). I just mean in terms of the brand and my feelings, just to clarify.
Made a bet with LipeJJ and HylianYoshi that the XB1 will reach 30 million before Wii U reaches 15 million. Loser has to get avatar picked by winner for 6 months (or if I lose, either 6 months avatar control for both Lipe and Hylian, or my patrick avatar comes back forever).
