Xbox Game Studios Stupidity Hate Thread Game Pass Edition

[Tanner Glass]

The new Xbox console has a chance and realistically it's last chance because it's unlikely that Microsoft is going to want to lose so badly in the space twice in a row.

It's going to be an uphill battle because of the monumental bad job they've done for the last few years, but Nintendo and Sony have also been shitting the bed (although not as hard) - all it would take is a solid year or two of good actual PR, a solid console, and Christ forbid one or two good exclusives. Sony didn't exactly win the console war with PS5 and neither did Nintendo with Switch 2 (although they'll always have their own slice).

A mediocre Indian woman with 0 background in gaming is a pretty terrible Step #1, though.

 

[Problematic User Forever]

I don't know what Xbox can do at this point. They've cancelled everything except a Halo Campaign Remake and Fable? Call of Duty has been falling out of favor for like 3-5 years now.

Even if Bethesda could bring back the magic and make Elder Scrolls VI into Skyrim 2 would it be enough? When everyone has just gotten used to having Skyrim for the past 15 years?

This isn't even getting into the idea that nobody is going to give up their PSN accounts with all sorts of downloads and purchases 12 years into the digital era.

 

[GeorgeFloydFentanylStash]

I don't know what Xbox can do at this point. They've cancelled everything except a Halo Campaign Remake and Fable? Call of Duty has been falling out of favor for like 3-5 years now.

I don’t think M$ can bring back the magic they had from 2001-2009. We use to line up for releases at midnight at that time. How can you really bring that back in the digital era? You can’t

That mystic is gone. Halo was fun when 1-3 were released. What can Halo do at this point with Master Chief? I don’t think there is a story left to tell for MC. Just release a MP game like we had during it’s hayday and be done with it.

I do find releasing a Halo game without a MP mode is really a Huh moment. Like what’s the point if we can’t have MP?

As far as Fable, they shot themselves in the foot when they shoehorned multiculturalism into a game that has feel of a European fairy tale. Atleast that is how I Fable has felt for me.

The newest CoD that I enjoyed was Cold War. But even then, the CoD formula was starting to get tired. And nobody is going to be ditching their digital library to jump on a burning ship like XBox.

 

[Pissmaster]

I don't know what Xbox can do at this point. They've cancelled everything except a Halo Campaign Remake and Fable? Call of Duty has been falling out of favor for like 3-5 years now.

Even if Bethesda could bring back the magic and make Elder Scrolls VI into Skyrim 2 would it be enough? When everyone has just gotten used to having Skyrim for the past 15 years?

This isn't even getting into the idea that nobody is going to give up their PSN accounts with all sorts of downloads and purchases 12 years into the digital era.

They'd have to reinvent the brand from the ground up. Everyone who truly cares about Xbox built that care for the brand way back when the original or Xbox 360 were current, which has gotten to be a very long time ago. Is there anyone out there at all who's a die-hard Xbox fan that started playing Xbox with One or Series? The only new fans I could imagine are kids whose dads were already fans, so they grew up playing an Xbox One, or people that got one for free or very cheap, and that's their whole gaming world.

Original Xbox was released in 2001, and Kinect was released in 2010. Nine respectable years, and I'd say its golden age was 2006-2009. 2010-2026 gave us the very generic Xbox One, a second Kinect absolutely no one wanted, and then the very generic Series consoles. Nine years of being something lively, and sixteen years of being as exciting as a microwave or a VCR. The party is long, long over. A high-caste Indian woman who's touched more dicks than discs isn't going to bring it back.

 

[The Last Stand]

The new Xbox console has a chance and realistically it's last chance because it's unlikely that Microsoft is going to want to lose so badly in the space twice in a row.

It's going to be an uphill battle because of the monumental bad job they've done for the last few years, but Nintendo and Sony have also been shitting the bed (although not as hard)

The way I could see the next Xbox catching up for the Xbox brand would be if they follow Steam's model by making a hybrid PC/console like the Steam Machine. However, with the bad PR from Windows 11, they shot themselves in the foot for a quality PC experience.

 

[Problematic User Forever]

Exactly.

That's why I always said moving towards publishing made sense when everyone was getting pissed off a year or two ago. You don't have the brand for a console anymore. Licensing the name out to shitty computer handhelds makes sense. Throwing production into another console at this point? What the fuck is wrong with you, Microsoft?

 

[Swine Schwein]

Xbox 360 days were exciting because there was a lot of high-profile new shit coming out all the fucking time and everything wasn't pozzed with this retarded fake corporate pretend shit.

And I mean new IPs with no franchise baggage. Games like The Darkness and Condemned were the shit, loved it. Sprinkle in some Bioshock, AssCreed and other stuff that was brand new. Halo 3 and Forza Motorsport 2 not being shit helped of course, but it just felt like every week there was something amazing coming up. X360 wasn't so much about exclusives for me, just a convenient platform that had the games I liked, controller that felt good and what seemed like a good online infrastructure with the Xbox Live, even if I had to pay for it.

Even if MS now owns half the fucking studios in the universe, they can't stop their own cancer from eating everything up. Every DEI program and promotion is biting them in the ass, and the rest is fucked by increasingly ineffective corporate environment where you have 1000 people making sure that 5 people can't do their job properly.

Now it takes 29 years to make a game. What game is that? GTA 8? No, that game is Avowed or Redfall. Fucking lol. SUFFAH

 

[Kether]

As far as Fable, they shot themselves in the foot when they shoehorned multiculturalism into a game that has feel of a European fairy tale. Atleast that is how I Fable has felt for me.

i mean the UK has been doing that for 20 years now, and the only difference is that they mostly kept it somewhat realistic and kept the lead hero white. In fact i'd say 99% of the whining wouldn't have happened as long as the hero was a white guy (in the ads, obviously anyone can create whatever look they want)

think about merlin. hell doctor who had his first 5 companions be a white wigger, a black guy and a black woman and a bisexual immigrant from america, and a middle aged girl boss And that show aired back in the 2000s. No one gave a fuck.

 

[Pissmaster]

Exactly.

That's why I always said moving towards publishing made sense when everyone was getting pissed off a year or two ago. You don't have the brand for a console anymore. Licensing the name out to shitty computer handhelds makes sense. Throwing production into another console at this point? What the fuck is wrong with you, Microsoft?

A new console could only possibly mean another Series-style console with the same UI and features, only this time you'll get hardware equivalent to the release year's midrange PCs. Thirty-two jiggabutts of RAM and a cromulent GPU that can pump out the same slop we've come to know on Xbox, only this time it's in 4k60 with ray tracing. All yours for just $999.99, optical drive sold separately and available at a later date. Except it'll go unreleased, and quietly canceled 2 years later. Leaks will show it was never actually planned and all that was made was a render for promotional purposes.

Hey, it works for Apple. There's a new iPad every year, and you buy one when you can't install a new app you need, and your battery starts to ache. Planned obsolescence is a bitch. It's not fun or exciting to get a new iPad, it's an expensive pain in the ass. That'll be Xbox 5. Not fun, not exciting, and definitely not necessary if this were an honest world. Ms. Brahmin Pajeeta doesn't blink when it's time to drop another grand on a brand new iPhone that does the same exact shit as last year's model, and wonders why you poor dalits don't feel Xbox should be the same way.

 

[Fucker Carlson]

There's no fucking way they're doing another console lol. That would be so unbelievably retarde- oh wait this is Microsoft they'll totally do it

 

[Super Hans v2]

The way I could see the next Xbox catching up for the Xbox brand would be if they follow Steam's model by making a hybrid PC/console like the Steam Machine. However, with the bad PR from Windows 11, they shot themselves in the foot for a quality PC experience.

I don't see the point because the two options MS has is either that A) an extremely gimped PC experience, because it would need to lock out Steam and everything that would invlove or B) be an open platform, in which case fucking nobody would use the Windows Store, which means no software revenue rentseeking like on console.

It's lose-lose for them. Best option is to just quit.

 

[regalterry]

I don't know what Xbox can do at this point. They've cancelled everything except a Halo Campaign Remake and Fable? Call of Duty has been falling out of favor for like 3-5 years now.

Realistically, nothing.

As you said, they were doomed the moment digital libraries became a thing. Why would I ever want to give up my Steam library and switch over to Epic? The same exact thought process is going through the minds of everyone that decided to stick or switch over to the Playstation or Nintendo when MS shat the bed with the XBox One.

Even if Bethesda could bring back the magic and make Elder Scrolls VI into Skyrim 2 would it be enough? When everyone has just gotten used to having Skyrim for the past 15 years?

TES VI is a minimum of 4-5 years away, and it's not going to be a console exclusive. Plus, Bethesda is a spent company existing in a market where everyone has moved on from their games, and the more time passes, the more outdated and ugly their next game is going to look.

MS as a whole has lost the ability to deliver killer apps - barring id, and even they are stalling, all their first-party developers are creatively bankrupt, politically compromised and awash in jeets, and it's only going to get worse.

 

[GeorgeFloydFentanylStash]

TES VI is a minimum of 4-5 years away, and it's not going to be a console exclusive.

My theory is that TESVI is pretty far along and the reason why they haven’t released anything is because of the GTAVI hype. Maybe Bethesda wants to hog up all the hype for VI. Maybe there is a handshake deal between R* and Bethesda to not release anything for TESVI before GTAVI

I’m going to predict that if GTAVI releases this year, we’ll get something during TGA that is for TES.

 

[Tanner Glass]

My theory is that TESVI is pretty far along and the reason why they haven’t released anything is because of the GTAVI hype. Maybe Bethesda wants to hog up all the hype for VI. Maybe there is a handshake deal between R* and Bethesda to not release anything for TESVI before GTAVI

I’m going to predict that if GTAVI releases this year, we’ll get something during TGA that is for TES.

My theory is that Todd Howard is keeping TESVI close to the vest after Bethesda fell on it's face on FO76 and Starfield and has no real confidence in Bethesda to release anything without him directly working on it.

I imagine that it's personal for him and with Skyrim being so revered he doesn't want TESVI being the usual garbage - he may even be considering leaving Bethesda after this and likely wants to go out on a high note.

 

[Baraka Obama]

My theory is that Todd Howard is keeping TESVI close to the vest after Bethesda fell on it's face on FO76 and Starfield and has no real confidence in Bethesda to release anything without him directly working on it.

I imagine that it's personal for him and with Skyrim being so revered he doesn't want TESVI being the usual garbage - he may even be considering leaving Bethesda after this and likely wants to go out on a high note.

My theory is that TESVI is the usual garbage and they're not sharing anything because it is embarrassing at this point.

 

[Asian tech support]

My theory is that Todd Howard is keeping TESVI close to the vest after Bethesda fell on it's face on FO76 and Starfield and has no real confidence in Bethesda to release anything without him directly working on it.

I imagine that it's personal for him and with Skyrim being so revered he doesn't want TESVI being the usual garbage - he may even be considering leaving Bethesda after this and likely wants to go out on a high note.

Real thonkening hours. If Todd is to be believed, Starfield itself was a very personal project and he definitely kept it close to the chest (to the detriment of the game). According to Will Shen however, Starfield development was such a disorganized catastrophe that Todd was reduced to a human bottleneck which I can't reconcile with his narrative of the project being his baby. If he truly cared, he would have made it happen one way or another, so in other words, I don't believe him or at the very least, when Starfield's trajectory deviated heavily from his original vision, he was sharp enough curtail any personal investment early.

I suspect that had Starfield knocked it out of the water, Todd would have retired, his legacy secured. Fortunately for him, he's been in the game long enough to recognize a stinker when he sees one. Really, I think he doesn't want to leave the studio to Emil. If TES6 is a stinky poo, I could see Microsoft coaxing him into retirement.

 

[TheHarbinger]

My theory is that TESVI is the usual garbage and they're not sharing anything because it is embarrassing at this point.

Couldn't be more obvious. Todd loves nothing more than doing interviews and speeches to be the center of attention. Promising hundreds of endings or the next big thing in whatever franchise. Dropping new exciting games at E3 and hearing the crowd scream for the next idea or feature. If there was anything of quality to show for the next Elder Scrolls there would have been a public speech at some Xbox event already. Todd would be on stage prancing and showing how the new A.I. generated quests work or whatever dogshit Microsoft has them implementing.

Grummz is a gigantic faggot and anyone that thinks you had to play CT in 95 to actually enjoy it is a bigger faggot that Grummz.

Chrono Trigger on all platforms to this day combined to sell five million copies total. Skyrim sold 14 million copies on just the Xbox 360 for perspective. Chrono Trigger was huge at the time of the SNES but in the long run is a much more niche game compared to modern RPGs. And far more people have played Chrono Trigger a decade after its launch than during the SNES era. It was never this massive game where everyone played it.

I highly doubt that anyone but the most hardcore gamers in the 90s actually played Chrono Trigger to 100% completion with all endings. If you were around then, the save points system of older RPG and games was usually extremely inconvenient, and was a common complaint as to why people didn't finish an RPG. And figuring out the endings without a guidebook or usenet, when things like Gamefaqs were in their infancy, was another hurdle. And likely impossible. I didn't complete Chrono Trigger 100% until the Playstation 1 version came out and I printed out a guide from Gamefaqs.

 

[Tanner Glass]

Real thonkening hours. If Todd is to be believed, Starfield itself was a very personal project and he definitely kept it close to the chest (to the detriment of the game). According to Will Shen however, Starfield development was such a disorganized catastrophe that Todd was reduced to a human bottleneck which I can't reconcile with his narrative of the project being his baby. If he truly cared, he would have made it happen one way or another, so in other words, I don't believe him or at the very least, when Starfield's trajectory deviated heavily from his original vision, he was sharp enough curtail any personal investment early.

I suspect that had Starfield knocked it out of the water, Todd would have retired, his legacy secured. Fortunately for him, he's been in the game long enough to recognize a stinker when he sees one. Really, I think he doesn't want to leave the studio to Emil. If TES6 is a stinky poo, I could see Microsoft coaxing him into retirement.

I would imagine that Microsoft (unless TES6 is a gigantic bomb of epic proportions) does not want him to retire - they're probably leaning/angling to get him in a higher position as MS Corporate to help wrangle their absolute shit pile state of studios they've acquired, based on how prominent he's been featured in Microsoft's various events and marketing campaigns.

I have no idea if he would want to do that though, and after Bond and Spencer exited - it doesn't look like a fun job to even try and have.

 

[Pissmaster]

Chrono Trigger on all platforms to this day combined to sell five million copies total. Skyrim sold 14 million copies on just the Xbox 360 for perspective. Chrono Trigger was huge at the time of the SNES but in the long run is a much more niche game compared to modern RPGs. And far more people have played Chrono Trigger a decade after its launch than during the SNES era. It was never this massive game where everyone played it.

It's hard to compare those sales figures, considering it's been playable in emulation on most PCs since about 2000. It also didn't get official translations until the 2008 DS version, so non English & Japanese speakers had to pirate it before then.

Something else often forgotten is that 90s JRPGs tended to only be sold at specialty stores and Toys R Us, not Target or Walmart. The high megabit count + battery also drove their prices up to $80. It was released in August '95, while N64 was September '96, so it probably wasn't on shelves for more than a year. So it really wouldn't surprise me at all if at least half of the people who've played Chrono Trigger pirated it.

 

[GeorgeFloydFentanylStash]

My theory is that Todd Howard is keeping TESVI close to the vest after Bethesda fell on it's face on FO76 and Starfield and has no real confidence in Bethesda to release anything without him directly working on it.

I imagine that it's personal for him and with Skyrim being so revered he doesn't want TESVI being the usual garbage - he may even be considering leaving Bethesda after this and likely wants to go out on a high note.

That’s also a good theory. He was so sure that SF was going to be an epic success. If I had an ego like his, I too wouldn’t want to leave until I ship a quality product.

We’ll see. I really only like the fallout series and can’t get into ES.