Xbox leadership and the Xbox brand evaluation *spawn

[Johnny Awesome]

Well they didn't show as much as I'd hoped, but still pretty good:

Hellblade 2 performance and trailer were amazing
OD primer
Blade
First Berzerker: Khazan
Fallout TV show
Xbox 1st party won more awards (3) than Sony 1st party (1)

 

[eastmen]

Well they didn't show as much as I'd hoped, but still pretty good:

Hellblade 2 performance and trailer were amazing
OD primer
Blade
First Berzerker: Khazan
Fallout TV show
Xbox 1st party won more awards (3) than Sony 1st party (1)

I'd expect a lot more at their june/e3 event. They don't really need the game awards as much as the game awards needed them for announcements. I am wondering if hellblade will be before e3

 

[chris1515]

Well they didn't show as much as I'd hoped, but still pretty good:

Hellblade 2 performance and trailer were amazing
OD primer
Blade
First Berzerker: Khazan
Fallout TV show
Xbox 1st party won more awards (3) than Sony 1st party (1)

First Berseker: Khazan is a third party game...

Out of Hellbalde 2, I was impress by nothing.

OD is the worst first realtime trailer for a game of Kojima. All MGS first trailer and Death Stranding reveal trailer are by far better. Blade 2 is only a cinematic for a game releasing probably 2027 to 2029.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Well I was impressed that MS beat Sony at the game awards. I guess MS 1st party isn't so bad after all.

 

[RobertR1]

My personal view. MS’ best exclusive atm is Flight Sim on the PC. Studio has done a great job there. For me a lot of hope is riding on playground executing Fable 4 well. I’ve given up on Halo and Gears at this point.

 

[cheapchips]

I’ve given up on Halo and Gears at this point.

343i still sounds like a mess. Gears 5 was well received wasn't it, especially the expansion?

Somewhat ironically, I really enjoyed a playthrough of most of Infinite. I've never managed to get more than a few levels into any Gears game.

 

[Nisaaru]

I never really understood the attraction of Gears. Every time I tried them they felt so dull. Like some imaginary arcade shoot em up with some modern graphics but without all the stuff which makes 3PS action adventures and real FPS so immersive.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I never really understood the attraction of Gears. Every time I tried them they felt so dull. Like some imaginary arcade shoot em up with some modern graphics but without all the stuff which makes 3PS action adventures and real FPS so immersive.

Gears was the seminal cover-based shooter of the seventh generation, arriving early (2006) that generation and really showing off the 360's hardware as well as how 3D action-combat games had evolved. Space marines, chainsaws, monsters, lots of violence and spectacle!

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Gears 5 and Gears Tactics are awesome games. Not for everyone, but what is?

 

[eastmen]

343i still sounds like a mess. Gears 5 was well received wasn't it, especially the expansion?

Somewhat ironically, I really enjoyed a playthrough of most of Infinite. I've never managed to get more than a few levels into any Gears game.

Gears 4 was really well recieved but 5 suffered a bit from the weird half step into an open world type game. Hopefully with 6 they either go full open game or go back to a liner style.

I loved infinite single player but i was never big on halo multi player

 

[RobertR1]

https://www.uploadvr.com/microsoft-killing-windows-mixed-reality/ MS is just so bad at executing hardware platforms. From having some of the best VR devices based on WMR and then never really evolving it, then doing some weird shit with hololens which had no direction, now it’s back to abandoning another platform.

This is right as when apple feels the industry is mature enough to jump into, Meta is selling millions of quest 2/3 devices and others niche players are carving out a usecase.

Meanwhile, WMR devices can lay down with windows phone, zune, Kinect and tbd.

 

[metacore]

Yeah, I remember some windows presentation few years ago, WMR was hyped as almost next office for engineers etc, almost seemed like they had a plan how to push that.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I think that sort of leadership is generally lacking. Hard pushed to think of any companies with a vision that carry it out successfully. There's a lot of latest, greatest announcements that lead to flops and abandoned projects after a few years.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

https://www.uploadvr.com/microsoft-killing-windows-mixed-reality/ MS is just so bad at executing hardware platforms. From having some of the best VR devices based on WMR and then never really evolving it, then doing some weird shit with hololens which had no direction, now it’s back to abandoning another platform.

This is right as when apple feels the industry is mature enough to jump into, Meta is selling millions of quest 2/3 devices and others niche players are carving out a usecase.

Meanwhile, WMR devices can lay down with windows phone, zune, Kinect and tbd.

WMR may be dead for consumers, but MS (like most of the VR/AR industry) has doubled down on supporting and continuing with innovation for the enterprise sector. Hololens and VR/AR support in Windows will continue, just not for consumers.

Just look at Pico, they've cancelled plans for their latest consumer headset and are instead focusing on the enterprise sector.

The reason that MS and most VR/AR companies are focusing on enterprise is because that's the only sector where they can make money. There just is not enough consumer interest to support a profitable VR/AR business. Even META which controls 50%+ of the market continues to be unprofitable WRT VR/AR.

VR market keeps shrinking even as Meta pours billions of dollars a quarter into metaverse

Sales of VR headsets and AR glasses in the U.S. have plummeted nearly 40% this year, while Meta has invested billions of dollars into the technology

www.cnbc.com

It's not like a 3500 USD VR headset is suddenly going to make consumer interest in VR take off. Apple is selling a headset for that much because they are going for ultra low volume enterprise customers and people with deep pockets. Apple knows there is currently little consumer interest in VR/AR headsets (due to cost and size) so they are going after the high margin markets (enterprise, creators and people with lots of disposable income) with low sales volume.

Tencent (probably the worlds largest gaming company) was on the verge of cancelling all VR projects until they partnered with Meta to bring Quest to China in a last ditch hail mary to try to salvage some of their investment into VR game development.

Regards,
SB

 

[Sonic]

Hmm. And here I was thinking AR could help make a comeback to classical laser tag type games. A large arena with different obstacles and what not. Use the AR to theme it different environments. There would be different type games and even Call if Duty type things. Capture the Flag is an easy one. Have different respawn points in the arena etc.

One thing is clear the commercialization of the tech is outside the hands of the mass market. But a niche in a city where there's a large population density maybe supportable.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Hmm. And here I was thinking AR could help make a comeback to classical laser tag type games. A large arena with different obstacles and what not. Use the AR to theme it different environments. There would be different type games and even Call if Duty type things. Capture the Flag is an easy one. Have different respawn points in the arena etc.

One thing is clear the commercialization of the tech is outside the hands of the mass market. But a niche in a city where there's a large population density maybe supportable.

That's the kind of out-and-about experience that might work. Move VR/AR to the arcades and run it as a business. The question is then whether it'd be cost effective and get enough players at enough income?

 

[Cyan]

This is completely unrelated but listening to DF on the direct try to blame Don Matrick 13 years later is low key disappointing. Phil Spencer took over the lead of Xbox game studios in late 2009 - early 2010. Coincidentally, that’s when Xbox games took a downturn for the worse. The quality and quantity drastically decreased and started the long loss of creativity that bled into the Xbox one generation. Later in 2014, he took Xbox as a whole after Matrick was canned.

Now if you’re going to try to blame Mattrick for that Xbox one direction, then Phil spencer shares a huge portion of that blame. To attribute it to Don Mattrick alone is frankly unrealistic. Phil was part of the leadership team. So now, Phil Spencer has been very influential in Xbox for 14 years and under his leadership, Xbox has gone full circle in terms of mindshare to the og xbox era levels of mindshare. The games are worse and lack serious quality, the corporate strategy is fighting with itself, the brand is tarnished. I’m sorry but when you’ve had the helm for almost a decade, you can’t keep blaming Matrick.

you have my utmost respect, given the current situation of the Xbox. As a Microsoft fan I am really disappointed with the leadership of the Xbox department. I am criticizing them all the time as of late and it's just because I am worried at how crappy is the staff at handling the situation.

Sometimes I wonder if it's just Phil Spencer or someone else. Or maybe Bob Kotick abducted a pretty average executive like Spencer. Could it be that is actually Kotick in charge of Xbox, and for image reasons (because of all the Activision scandals) he pulls the strings from the shadows???? all those moves by Xbox since the acquisition of ABK, seem very Kotick like

 

[XboxKING]

His persona might be crumbling, but Phil Spencer was truly one of the most valuable assets Xbox produced in the past 10+ years.
Most gamers didn’t know any people with media training so to have Phil Spencer be put at the front it really is understandable why people thought he was their friend. He’d say stuff like

“I am a gamer myself and we strive to create the best products in the industry. Next year will be our most amazing year ever. We will have the strongest and most technologically advanced exclusives our brand has ever had, truly showing the value of the Xbox brand. We will push the industry forward with our innovative gameplay and we really are here for the developers to support their amazing creative vision“

When he said this in 2014, most believed him.
After he had a variation in 2015, we all knew that next year was going to be the best year ever.
In 2016 after hearing this and the promise of Scorpio and the best place for VR? It was going to be so amazing.
2017 came and we were promised the titles that would take advantage of it.
2018 again had Spencer do his song and dance and this revitalised our belief in the xbox ecosystem
2019 saw the reveal of xbox series x, now they had the technology to finally do what they promised.
2020 had the mediocre release, but we were promised the games in development would show us what was promised
2021 arrived and still, a true promise by our friend in gaming Phil Spencer
2022 same as any other year
2023 again, same promises only now xbox would soon be firing on all cilinder

now it is 2024 and most fans understand that Phil Spencer is basically a shady used car salesman. A very good one at that lol

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Your post is ridiculous. All 3 major console corps have underdelivered at one time or another and Phil has delivered more than most for Xbox gamers:

GamePass is amazing value for Xbox gamers
Acquiring 30 studios for future game content for GP - A firehose of content this year - Hellblade 2, Avowed, Indiana Jones, FS2024, Ara, Towerborne, Starfield Shattered Space, CoD Black Ops in 2024 (Sony dreams of that lineup) + Forza, Grounded, Halo & Sea of Thieves content
Great hardware in the X|S at the price points they target
Games on PC Day One
Tons of Japanese RPGs like Eiyuden Chronicles, FFXIV, Persona series etc... on GP

Phil's done a good job. The PR messaging could be better, but I've never been happier as an Xbox owner under Phil's leadership.

From a business standpoint I think going into the generation with half the userbase Sony has in the digital ownership era and the fact that 1st party studios acquired since 2018 are just now getting AAA games out has definitely hurt, but persistence and patience could still pay off. Nevertheless, missteps in 2022 in particular probably put them 5-10 million units behind where they realistically could have been. So Phil's not perfect, but I'm still glad he's running Xbox.

 

[Nesh]

Too much reliance on Gamepass and releasing everything on PC day one was a big foul in my book.

It is a similar foul that is deteriorating the Playstation brand.