Is this the worst Xbox generation ever? What do you rate this Xbox generation so far

[JAHGamer]

With Forza Motorsport coming out, that's a wrap on Xbox releases for 2023. Is this the worst generation for Xbox so far? What do you rate their generation? Personally I DO think this is Xbox's worst generation so far. Which is exactly why Sony can keep raising prices and getting away with it.

So far I'd give the Xbox generation a 3/10. 3 years in, they only have 1 game I can recommend and that's HiFi Rush.

2020 - Consoles launched with ZERO launch titles, no new controller, and no new UI, a brand new console that felt exactly like playing on the old console. Series S has received countless complaints from countless developers, saying that it was a mistake and that it's an underpowered bottleneck which will hold Xbox back for the entire generation.

2021 - Supposedly "Xbox's best year", Forza Horizon 5 had great graphics and was well received, Flight Sim got ported to console after being on PC for a year, but Halo Infinite was and still is one of the biggest fails in gaming, ever. It was supposed to be a launch title but was delayed an entire year and still released incomplete missing several game modes and only had 4 maps. Their best game, Psychonauts 2, wasn't really even theres and also released on PS4. They somehow won Metacritic's Publisher of the Year thanks to Deathloop, which was a 1 year timed PS5 exclusive that wasn't even available on Xbox

2022 - Pretty much just Pentiment (?¿?) that year. Grounded finally came out of early access after 2+ years.

2023 - HiFi Rush was amazing, but Xbox didn't do nearly enough to support it and still no physical release. Redfall was a joke and took 6 months to get a 60fps patch. Starfield was hyped to the moon and severely failed to meet expectations, it was almost as ugly as Redfall, has mediocre gameplay, no actual space flight, nothing to explore, 30fps, has non stop loading screens, and too much more to name. Forza Motorsport 8 was heavily downgraded, buggy, incomplete, and has a whole host of other issues, next gen only yet looks worse than cross gen GT7. It currently has over 60% negative reviews on Steam and only 3k players 1 day after release. For comparison, Forza Horizon 5 opened with over 80k players and still 2 years later has more players than FM8 does (8k vs 3k). Microsoft also raised the price of their subscription service and GamePass Ultimate now costs $17 a month, GamePass console was raised to $12 a month and still has no online play, pretty much forcing people to upgrade to Ultimate. 2023 was supposed to be Xbox's big come back year, but their 3 hyped games flopped miserably, and their only good game was a shadow drop out of nowhere. And the "World's Most Powerful console" had 2 of their big 3 games locked at 30fps

Even though the Xbox One generation started out terribly, they still had steady game releases, and some of them were surprisingly decent (Dead Rising 3, Ryse: Son of Rome, Killer Instinct, Sunset Overdrive, Titanfall 1, etc). They also had true exclusive games and weren't bogged down by PC and a crappy subscription service. 10 years later, Xbox still has awful DRM policies in place and still have poor physical game support. But now they rarely release games and when they do, they mostly suck. So I have no idea why people act like the Series gen is better. Things seriously started going downhill once Phil Spencer took over, it's gotten so bad that the only way they think they can stay relevant is by buying up as much as they can.

 

[John Elden Ring]

I didnt think it was possible for Xbox to be worse than in the XONE era but here we are.

If it wasn´t for Game Pass, the Series X/S would be a worthless product with their play anywhere gimmick.

 

[Systemshock2023]

Let's be honest I am sure that back in the day PS warriors were dissing those games that were surprisingly decent. I remember... 900p vs 1080p was seeing as a massive difference in resolution.

While PC gamers were laughing our asses off I mean, these guys were playing sub HD sub 30 fps games just a little while ago and now 900p vs 1080p is a massive difference?

Based on what it did to the brand, there's no way Xbox one generation is not seen as the worse:

More expensive console, less powerful, terrible PR (a bit undeserved but you can't go and say the "we have a product for you if you are not online" line and don't expect to be bashed.

AND they carried that momentum until today. They have and are taking steps to fix Xbox so I don't think the series generation is that bad. But it has to end really well, they have no excuse after all the acquisitions and time that passed.

I think turn 10 is the first of these devs that had no excuse. Haven't played FM8 yet but that game should have been pristine from day one. FM7 was a great game so they had no choice but to put together the best racing game on the market with all the time they spent.

 

[Gamernyc78]

Since Xbox one shit just been horrendous. You can't pay me to invest in tht ecosystem.

 

[JAHGamer]

I didnt think it was possible for Xbox to be worse than in the XONE era but here we are.

If it wasn´t for Game Pass, the Series X/S would be a worthless product with their play anywhere gimmick.

GamePass is the only thing keeping it afloat, but as much as I hate subscription services in gaming, PS Plus is objectively better. Has more games, higher quality games, and still much cheaper even after the 33% price hike. If you actually cared about value, PS5 digital and ps plus premium is the value king.

Let's be honest I am sure that back in the day PS warriors were dissing those games that were surprisingly decent. I remember... 900p vs 1080p was seeing as a massive difference in resolution.

While PC gamers were laughing our asses off I mean, these guys were playing sub HD sub 30 fps games just a little while ago and now 900p vs 1080p is a massive difference?

Based on what it did to the brand, there's no way Xbox one generation is not seen as the worse:

More expensive console, less powerful, terrible PR (a bit undeserved but you can't go and say the "we have a product for you if you are not online" line and don't expect to be bashed.

AND they carried that momentum until today. They have and are taking steps to fix Xbox so I don't think the series generation is that bad. But it has to end really well, they have no excuse after all the acquisitions and time that passed.

I think turn 10 is the first of these devs that had no excuse. Haven't played FM8 yet but that game should have been pristine from day one. FM7 was a great game so they had no choice but to put together the best racing game on the market with all the time they spent.

Of course people were dissing it, it's the console wars but no one would deny that those games are 10x better than what Xbox has been releasing in recent memory. The PR was horrible but I think people were beginning to move on. Especially since Xbox made an effort to reverse a lot of their blunders with removing the kinect requirement, internet requirement, and making it cheaper. They were starting to mount a come back in the early xb1 gen with each new decent release. All their momentum pretty much died as soon as Phil took over, which was also when Xbox stopped reporting sales figures entirely. Forza Motorsport 7 was better because it didn't have a subscription service model in mind when it released, nor did it have a severely underpowered baseline to develop for. GamePass + Series S is ruining Xbox's game development and it's not sustainable. Dons mistakes were easily fixed with a price cut and software patches, Phils mistakes required an 80 billion dollar bandaid.... and that still isn't enough. It doesn't matter how much they acquire, nothing will change until Phil goes.

Since Xbox one shit just been horrendous. You can't pay me to invest in tht ecosystem.

Facts and you're definitely not alone if it wasn't for the Series S, the PS5 would be winning 4:1 in sales, maybe even 5:1.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

I didnt think it was possible for Xbox to be worse than in the XONE era but here we are.

If it wasn´t for Game Pass, the Series X/S would be a worthless product with their play anywhere gimmick.

Microsoft and Xbox leaders chose to invest their money and energy in Game Pass instead of solving their horrid management of dev studios and IPs.

It wasn't the XBOne's launch and hardware power that crippled the popularity of Halo, Fable, Gears of War and State of Decay. They were also not responsible for the lukewarm or negative receptions of Ryse, Killer Instinct, Sunset Overdrive, Quantum Break, ReCore, Super Lucky's Tale, Battletoads and Minecraft Legends.


People will keep being in denial, but these all happened under Phil Spencer, who somehow gets to keep his job (and dubious "lifetime achievement" awards) after 10 years of enormous failures.

 

[JAHGamer]

People will keep being in denial, but these all happened under Phil Spencer, who somehow gets to keep his job (and dubious "lifetime achievement" awards) after 10 years of enormous failures.

It's insane that the industry not only enable but celebrates such mediocrity. Dude has had to apologize to his fans literally every single year since taking over, yet somehow still wins awards and is touted as "la savior" He's also now spreading his cancer into the outer gaming world, pushing subscription services that devalue gaming, promoting aggressive acquisitions that hurt everyone, and trying to kill the successful traditional console model in favor of an unproven pc/cloud strategy that lengthens development and lessens quality.

 

[John Elden Ring]

Microsoft and Xbox leaders chose to invest their money and energy in Game Pass instead of solving their horrid management of dev studios and IPs.

It wasn't the XBOne's launch and hardware power that crippled the popularity of Halo, Fable, Gears of War and State of Decay. They were also not responsible for the lukewarm or negative receptions of Ryse, Killer Instinct, Sunset Overdrive, Quantum Break, ReCore, Super Lucky's Tale, Battletoads and Minecraft Legends.


People will keep being in denial, but these all happened under Phil Spencer, who somehow gets to keep his job (and dubious "lifetime achievement" awards) after 10 years of enormous failures.

It's because the Xbox Game Pass model is extremely profitable, so much so that Sony, Nintendo & Netflix went ahead and are rushing to copy it (with the price increase and everything)

 

[JAHGamer]

It's because the Xbox Game Pass model is extremely profitable, so much so that Sony, Nintendo & Netflix went ahead and are rushing to copy it (with the price increase and everything)

>extremely profitable

maybe in an alternate universe? Sony didn’t copy them when they had it first and they only put old games, Nintendo only puts super old games. They both know day/date first party games is a horrible idea.

 

[alphachino]

I'd rate this Xbox gen at:

1 Phil Spencer Pinocchio nose out of 10.

 

[Entropi]

Xbone was an embarrassment with its comedy sketch of a reveal, weak hardware and higher price. The problem was that Playstation’s game output was very slow for the first 3-4 years of that generation, so content-wise, both were similar for a long time.

Still, I get this feeling this generation Xbox is in worse shape. The ABK acquisition might improve things for them, but I hope it sinks both instead for the greater good of the game industry.

 

[John Elden Ring]

>extremely profitable

maybe in an alternate universe? Sony didn’t copy them when they had it first and they only put old games, Nintendo only puts super old games. They both know day/date first party games is a horrible idea.

That's the reason why they keep pushing it, otherwise they would have ditched it like the Kinect.

 

[Loy310]

Its always been bad. Last gen we saw how bad their marketing was, this gen we get to see how bad their devs are.

 

[Gamernyc78]

Most streaming services are not profitable and it's a long haul game. Netflix obviously stayed for the long hall and now claims 4 billion profit margin out of 8 billion revenue but they are the outliers, not the norm. Microsoft is obviously trying to be the Netflix of gaming and reap those types of profits in the long hall but gamepass in no shape or form reaches anywhere near as many homes as Netflix does. In a few more years we'll see if it's a good, long term investment.

 

[JAHGamer]

That's the reason why they keep pushing it, otherwise they would have ditched it like the Kinect.

They’re pushing it because they had literally nothing else. “Our hardware sucks, our games suck, and our console is useless, maybe if we give 100+ games away for only $1 that could entice some people to join us”. It’s not a success but they’re hoping and praying that one day it will be successful but it’s nowhere near there yet. Still stuck at 25m after 6 years….

 

[Gamernyc78]

They’re pushing it because they had literally nothing else. “Our hardware sucks, our games suck, and our console is useless, maybe if we give 100+ games away for only $1 that could entice some people to join us”. It’s not a success but they’re hoping and praying that one day it will be successful but it’s nowhere near there yet. Still stuck at 25m after 6 years….

Yeah that stagnation and lack of growth is going to kill them. The thing with maus and the dummies that parrot "oh Microsoft doesnt care about selling consoles" is the dumbest shit I ever heard or seen. Computer gaming is niche and casuals flock to consoles where the growth can be had! The more consoles you sell the higher the likelihood those new owners will buy gamepass. It's common sense! They are fucking themselves over not gaining more hardware market share.

 

[JAHGamer]

Most streaming services are not profitable and it's a long haul game. Netflix obviously stated fir the long hall and now claims 4 billion profit margin out of 8 billion revenue but they are the outliers, not the norm. Microsoft is obviously trying to be the Netflix of gaming and reap those types of profits in the long hall but gamepass in no shape or form reaches the homes things like Netflix do.

Yeah that stagnation and lack of growth is going to kill them. The thing with maus and the dummies that parrot "oh Microsoft doesnt care about selling consoles" is the dumbest shit I ever heard or seen. Computer gaming is niche and casuals flock to consoles where the growth can be had! The more consoles you sell the higher the likelihood those new owners will buy gamepass. It's common sense! They are fucking themselves over not gaining more hardware market share.

Thing is, 4 billion for Netflix is bad when a single good movie can generate over 1 billion dollars at the box office…and yeah Netflix is the outlier, everyone else is scrambling, jacking up prices, forcing ads, and begging people to go back to the theatres. Netflix is “successful”, but it still decimated the film/tv landscape. Gaming can’t afford to take that same hit, there are way more high budget video game releases than movies every year, subscription services will never work. Microsoft knows they’re the only ones that can afford to eat losses for years. This post does a good job putting things into perspective

“Profits at the biggest entertainment companies fell almost 90% over the last decade (from $23.4B to $2.6B).”

The ABK acquisition might improve things for them, but I hope it sinks both instead for the greater good of the game industry.

Diablo, OW2, Starfield, Redfall, Forza, are all flops…ABK and Xbox are both on their last legs let’s hope you’re right and they take each other out

 

[Johnic]

@John Elden Ring

Source on GP being profitable? other than Phils lying in a statement. Because their own internal documents show it's losing them money. They're about 70 million subscribers away from that.

GP is merely sustainable to a company like MS and we don't even know for how long. GP never made them a cent of profit.

Unless we're doing the whole revenue=profit thing again.

 

[Zzero]

Its on track to beat the One, who's notable releases can be counted on one hand.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Let's be honest I am sure that back in the day PS warriors were dissing those games that were surprisingly decent. I remember... 900p vs 1080p was seeing as a massive difference in resolution.

While PC gamers were laughing our asses off I mean, these guys were playing sub HD sub 30 fps games just a little while ago and now 900p vs 1080p is a massive difference?

Based on what it did to the brand, there's no way Xbox one generation is not seen as the worse:

More expensive console, less powerful, terrible PR (a bit undeserved but you can't go and say the "we have a product for you if you are not online" line and don't expect to be bashed.

AND they carried that momentum until today. They have and are taking steps to fix Xbox so I don't think the series generation is that bad. But it has to end really well, they have no excuse after all the acquisitions and time that passed.

I think turn 10 is the first of these devs that had no excuse. Haven't played FM8 yet but that game should have been pristine from day one. FM7 was a great game so they had no choice but to put together the best racing game on the market with all the time they spent.

This is basically a blanket statement of blind faith where none should be given, and I strongly doubt you'd be doing this if say Sony were in a similar position. What has Microsoft actually done in totality to fix the larger-scale issues with Xbox Series? Outside of buying 3P publishers and relying on once-multiplatform content to masquerade as (console) exclusive releases?

I'd of probably felt that meaningful steps were being taken after the last Showcase, if that didn't turn out to be smoke-and-mirrors. A worst course of direction of Avowed, the Fable "gameplay" being CGI, Hellblade 2 showing zero advancements in game systems or mechanics four years since initial reveal, Clockwork Revolution trailer aping from Bioshock Infinite to the point of plagiarism, the obvious Forza Motorsport downgrade, etc.

Also, notable exits such as Mike Brown and several key Playground Games folks seemingly out of nowhere, Shinji Mikami's sudden exit from Tango Gameworks, the idiocy of releasing a black Series S with more storage at $349 (though Sony are similarly idiotic by raising the new PS5 Digital price to $449 instead of keeping it at $349 to completely snuff the Series S out of market relevance. Hence why at times I feel a genuine new competitor in the console space would be beneficial across the board but I digress), the idiocy of planning for an all-digital Series X refresh at $499 with almost no notable improvements outside of Wifi 6 support, and a recent job listing for State of Decay 3 showing that game may not even release until 2027!

Oh, and raising the prices on their struggling hardware sales AND stagnating subscription service, while also emboldening the worst of console fanboyism online by leaps and bounds with this ABK acquisition saga.

So no, the steps Microsoft have been taking to 'fix' the problem, if anything, have just been turning out to make the situation worst. And it's been that way because the people at the top of Xbox, simply don't know how to actually, genuinely fix the problem.