But of the six new studios, weren't four of them already making exclusive Xbox games like Forza, State of Decay, and Gears? It's not like Microsoft was ever in jeopardy of not having Forza and Gears so I don't think it's all that big. Ninja Theory can be solid but the others? Ehhh... maybe it works out for them. And with them killing Lionhead, truly one of their best studios ever as far as 1st party game content goes, I'm just not sure they're on the right path yet.

Nah, it's pretty great actually, fantastic exclusives, game pass and lots of retro released has made the X1X one of my favorite game systems of all time (Sega Saturn reigns supreme 🙂).

agree. But after a 4 yer delay,  this I believe was supposed to be one of the good ones. After seeing the new studios acquired, I believe gears forza and halo will be their only big games to make game pass a bit appealing. After that will be low grade fodder to bolster the numbers while droping collective quality. 

This really is gona hit hard next gen. 

Overall much better. Switch and PS4 are two of the best consoles of all time and this era (late Ps3/wii/360 and all of PS4/WiiU/Switch/XBO) is a new golden age of gaming, the best it's been since SNES/GEN. we got indies, we got AAA games, we got free to play and online only and fantastic singleplayer. We've got every genre with some new ones being made, old ones being brought back, etc. Gaming has never been so varied, gaming has never been this good. 

I mean, for Xbox it's been pretty crummy, that line was really only big between 2005-2009 (with 2001-2004 also being pretty big on the original Xbox for Halo only), but overall I'd say this console generation is the best ever! 

yea, Im sure theres a lot of fans out there. There are with any game despite what reviers say. I dont think there will be any real impact on te xbox or its fans untill next gen starts. This collection of low quality games compared to the competition will really hit hard on people on the edge. also the group who already jumped in the xbox bandwagon for a while and its to late so they have to justifie their purchase, but when a new gen starts then they will be honest and ump ships and start looking back at this gen with regret. 

What fantastic exclusives? I'm not saying that as a jab, I genuinely want to know. OF the past four 'exclusives' (which I have to use air quotes for since PC), three of them were massive disappointments. Last year had Sea of Thieves (near universal disappointment), State of Decay (Glitchy shoddy, cobbled-together mess), and Forza Horizon 4 (One glowing beacon in the wastes.) and so far This year has Crackdown (early reviews have it pegged at WORSE than Sea of Thieves or State of Decay.) 

So I'm genuinely curious what exclusives you're talking about because the console has been failing miserably in that department and that's pretty universally agreed upon. 

Fair point. Though there are benefits that come from being a first party regarding funding and flexibility with the staff that Microsoft had little to no control over before the acquisition.

As Phil Spencer put it about the Forza team, "the studio has been limited to Forza Horizon games, but it will now bring its “open-world expertise to an entirely new project.”

Moreover, there's also the risk of losing out on exclusive games. Take Quantic Dream for example. "Chinese Internet conglomerate NetEasesecured a minority investment into Quantic Dream in January 2019 for an undisclosed amount.[25] With this, Quantic Dream's chief operating officer Guillaume de Fondaumière stated that they would no longer be limited to PlayStation exclusive titles.[26]"

Lionhead may be a worrying factor, though from what I hear they haven't produced much worthy of praise in a while. The cancellation of Scalebound didn't look good though. So who knows. 
Maybe the backlash against MS's first party decisions became unexpectedly large some time after those decisions were made, once competing consoles began to produce many highly critically acclaimed/anticipated single player games.

To me it sounded like Phil Spencer's announcement at E3 was in direct response to that. Showing that they're listening to the fans.

They opened The Initiative. Purchased Undead Labs (State of Decay), Playground Games (Forza Horizon & Fable). The other studios were Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games, InXile and Obsidian, none of which were working on Xbox exclusives. You're thinking of The Coalition for Gears but Microsoft have owned them since 2010. Obsidian, InXile, Ninja Theory have produced great-amazing titles in the past. The only studio I don't have any confidence in is Compulsion. Plus most of these studios have multiple teams.

Lionhead was great in the past but pretty much beyond Fable II they lost their way, recent Lionhead was nothing really to be excited about, In all honesty I have more confidence in Playground than if Lionhead was still around for Fable even with Playground not having any experience in RPGs, they've shown they can grow a series into something amazing and create a great team of people.

OT: I predicted a 70 for Crackdown 3, little optimistic but the reviews aren't exactly surprising, I'm pretty sure I'll still have fun with it though as a fan of Crackdown 1.

I forgot they got inXile. That's a great get for Microsoft. Love their games (except for Torment, but eh, I suppose I was way too hyped up on that one).

If you were a fan of the original, I'd say watch this video before you put this one aside...