Maybe my mind's playing tricks on me, but it feels like Xbox has always lacked a variety of IPs.
Coming soon...
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Xbox series X and PS5 likely the dullest generation yet?
- Thread starter fonejacker
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I've made that case for years, but some people did want to listen. The difference being that Microsoft tried the most to have variety back then with OG Xbox. After that, they barely did anything, aside from Halo, Fable, and Gears.
I’m not much for racing games (exception being the Burnout franchise,) but Forza is pretty incredible. Some car manufacturers toyed with the idea of using [games like] Forza to simulate newer vehicle models before building full-scale concept vehicles. Granted, I’m not mechanically inclined enough to appreciate the guts of the intended experience like optimizing the stuff under the hood for performance, but I fancy myself an artist, and spent an inordinate amount of time (a couple hundred hours, probably) creating custom paint jobs. I made a few cars I was really proud of that netted a few hundred downloads, IIRC.
OT, until we’re prepared to pay upwards of $1,000 for a console, making the loss they take on hardware sales worth cramming some PC-like power under the hood, I think we’ve technologically crested making each iterative generation less and less impressive, i.e.: OG Xbox to the 360 blew our minds; 360 to the XBone blew our wallets. I imagine the next generation is going to have more impressive specs (obviously,) but the difference in gaming quality is going to be nominal, particularly if the industry stays this course of predatory practices and the only things on offer on our shiny new consoles are more of what we’re already railing against today.
I’d like to see more exclusive IPs, personally; generally a higher focus on games and less on features. Sony and Microsoft need to bring to the table solid reasons to own their console over the other, and fewer gimmicks that make the difference in owning one over the over pointless. TV? Really, Microsoft? I’ve never been less underwhelmed with a feature reveal: I can use my Xbox One to watch the TV I already watch? Thanks?
This is why I am putting my eggs in Sony's basket this generation again. The PS4 era showed that they were willing to bank and promote a rather ridiculous level of exclusive games with the focus on simply being games. Bloodborne, God of War, Horizon, Persona 5, FF7R..... I mean as a JRPG fan I don't see how I could even consider anything Microsoft is doing as even remotely interesting.
However in the interest of fairness i will post this video I found.
I can't disagree with this video more. But I think it is a fair argument to have.
Basically the claim here is that Microsoft is ultimately going to win the console war, because of an emphasis on value they seem to be determined to offer. The Game Pass keeps adding features and games, and for a reasonable monthly fee you get all the new games Microsoft releases plus tons of old games so long as the licenses hold out.
The key word there is OLD games. Like I said in the previous Xbox Showcase thread. Microsoft can't seen to understand that old games only serve as a novelty, they aren't a core selling point for the vast majority of people. New content being offered on the Game pass is only valid if the new content actually happens and isn't Crackdown 3. If the game is Quantity over Quality then Microsoft surely has the upper hand.
But focusing on your past generational games, back when your games were good, is the same problem a high school football star has after he's watched up in his hometown as a bartender. Sure he was cool once, but now he is just Al Bundy trying to relive the four years of his life in which he was cool.
Meanwhile, Sony was the nerd that got picked on and laughed at, only to go to school and grow up to be a suave and successful doctor or something. Sony focuses on the future and learns from the past rather than living in it. They know that games are what make a console, and that's what they focus on. Notice that the PS5 hasn't really announced many new features. No special gimmicks really (unless you count a SSD as a gimmick), it doesn't serve as an all-in-one mediacenter like the XBone wanted to be. It's just a box that plays newer games faster. That's basically it. Simple, and easy for the customer to understand and that's what's going to set them ahead again.
Game Pass might be a great thing for some, but will the casual console buyer look for an Xbox because of the Game pass? Who will go to a store to buy the console that requires a subscription fee to be any good? Not to mention the disaster of trying to figure out which of the 7 Xbox's is the best xbox.
I largely agree with you. Old games actually do offer some value, just not enough to carry a brand new console that should have new titles of its own to merit its existence. But the appeal of access to potentially dozens of titles one might have passed on or wasn’t willing to pay $60 for a couple years ago is an undeniable draw and pads your library just enough that you can offer “more,” particularly given new generations tend to be slightly underwhelming out of the gate. That said, I do respect a console that looks ahead and is willing to eschew handcuffing itself to the past. If 7 years is the average lifespan, I want a console that’s looking 7 years ahead for my purchase, and that’s done with killer IPs I can’t get anywhere else; I don’t know why it’s become so difficult for the big players to understand that. Maybe they’ve gotten complacent, banking on their inevitable “Halo” or “God of War” to be enough, but the industry at large has so much more to prove now than the iterative titles everyone expects to carry them. Give us fucking games and not just disposable vehicles for us to deliver more money to you!
I’m not looking for a winner. I’d prefer to own both consoles and both perform well if I’ve the expendable income as I enjoyed with the 360/PS3 generation, each with exclusives that made them worth my time. But at this point, given the greed-focused state of the industry, I really can’t be arsed to own EITHER of them. I’ve never been less excited for a next-gen. I bought my Xbox One on day one, driving 40 miles for the midnight launch. Now? You could GIVE my a PS5 or NextBox, and it might sit in the box for months before I could be bothered to open it simply because I’m so extremely reticent to give my money to an industry that simultaneously never feels it’s got enough of my money and puts in less and less effort to DESERVE my money. I don’t care if you console is powerful enough to launch, land and operate a Mars rover; if the games are the same old shit, in both terms as a figurative “thing” and literal bad games, then why would I spend $$$ on your platform?