Xbox… WTF are you doing?

[@MadnlooneyJR]

Not the most positive video we’ve done but most of this needed to be said. I myself playfully dig out Nintendo and PS all the time so Xbox doesn’t get a free pass. They seriously need to sort themselves out quick and get back on track. Here’s hoping the showcase is at least good and hope everyone enjoys the negative ramble this week 😂 Let us know your thoughts are things as bad as they seem?

[@UnnecessaryRambling]

I try to avoid the negative BS as much as possible, but this is just so batshit crazy.

[@ptg3765]

One of the things that is most frustrating is... if sales are number 1, then where is the physical of hi-fi rush?? I did not buy it because there was no physical. Alan Wake 2 is in the same basket.

[@UnnecessaryRambling]

It seems like MS/Xbox no longer have any metric of identifying what is or isn’t successful for them. Which has to be such a joy for the other teams they own

[@MadnlooneyJR]

I have no idea what on earth is going on with their physical choices. Many games didn’t receive physicals for a while then it started again. Then they partnered with LRG and releases a handful of games then went silent for like a year and a half then dropped a bunch all in a 3-4 month window. They don’t give all their own made games physicals it’s just a joke there’s no structure like I mentioned in the video. It’s as he loves to say good ole Phil done by a cases by case basis 😂 I was shocked to see many Yakuza games getting physicals along with P3R but then Hellblade doesn’t get one neither does Hi-Fi it’s just lunacy. It feels like I’m the only moron dumb enough to still buy physicals for the damn thing 😂

[@pandagrog8957]

This was probably the most heartless, soulless, and worst PR move they could have ever made. Their entire brand during the Activision and Bethesda deals was "were not like the other companies" " we believe in small games, and we wont close down studios like EA/Ubisoft". That was just a lie. Arcane Austin made Pray one of the best games of the 2010s. They made one dud cause Bethesda pushed them into making a shitty live service game = closed. Tango makes games that dont have financial or critical success in Evil Within (arguably) and Ghostwire Tokyo. But they make Hi Fi rush that gets shadow dropped right into gamepass making less sales. But its a immense critical success even winning a game award for sound. But they also get closed. Xbox shadow dropped the fucking game with no advertising beforehand and cried about the sales. Like what... Well this creates a anxiety for all xbox developers now. They will start asking questions like, what if we cant create a successful money making game? will we get closed?. This results in the art/creativity slowly getting sucked out of projects in order to leave more room to make money. Then we get Ubisoft all over again. Where yes, every single game is sellable and makes a good amount of money. But they are very very safe and so bland that eventually doing the same thing over and over again will make less and less money and end up crushing the company. Cause if getting a fucking game award the year before cant even stop your company from being closed, its doomed for anyone who fails slightly. I agree with yall, that the first party games from Xbox that are coming out wont solve the issues. Cause they just are not money makers. Hellblade is waaay to artsy. Avowed is based off of POE which is very obscure to the general audience. Stalker is not a popular franchise at all. Which makes it even more confusing as to why they closed Tango. They legit were pitching a sequel to HiFi Rush which was perfect for francizing. It already had a well established community, and it also made perfect sense for a TV show too. It makes me incredibly worried about the future of games from Xbox. I think we will get the most creative/risky games out of them in the next 3 years cause they were already in dev. But games that have just started development will see massive changes. Like for example, if a team was creating a new IP that might be risky, Xbox might just move them over to creating a Fallout, Elderscrolls or Gears spinoffs.

[@UnnecessaryRambling]

You’re spot on about it creating anxiety for their other studios… Inexile, Ninja Theory, Double Fine, Undead, etc. all have to be shaking in their boots right now. None of those studios make massive commercial hits. But they were sold a false dream, of game pass being sustainable enough to support their more creative, less profitable titles.

[@MadnlooneyJR]

At this point the safest bets for them would be get these last projects out and just focus on established IP that’s popular. They have to start getting cutthroat with their decisions as there’s so much indecisiveness in everything they do. Just please 🙏 don’t suck everything into the COD sweatshop……. 😬

[@Kashsneakers]

Really sucks to see how unstable the gaming industry is just wish there could be lower expectations on sales

[@UnnecessaryRambling]

Forsure man. Gotta give praise to companies like Nintendo & Capcom for having competent enough leadership to avoid a lot of these traps

[@MadnlooneyJR]

It’s madness how often they completely screw up Switch 2 becomes more enticing each time they do this 😂🤦‍♂️

[@BruceStephan]

Xbox isn't to blame and ask it's the evil Microsoft

[@MadnlooneyJR]

I’d agree to a certain point with that. These most recent decisions definitely fall on Microsoft more so than Xbox. However Xbox has been given two generations to get their act together with Microsoft letting them do things their way for the most part. Clearly buying talent and adding it day one to Gamepass didn’t work as that was Phil’s trump card. I think it’s just a really bad time for anyone interested in Xbox or a part of their ecosystem such as myself. They’ve lost so much ground across everything it’s a wonder if they’ll claw any back at this point. Do you yourself use an Xbox and if so what’s made you stick around and what would you like to see them do to improve?

[@BruceStephan]

@@MadnlooneyJR Again Xbox isn't to blame it's the company that developed and sold it . I only got an Xbox for Halo . The Xbox versions of GTA only look a little better . The controls of GTA are better on the PS2 for which it was made for in the first place . I'm still pissed people ignored their 🐂💩 solutions for the redring 360 problem . I waited for the HALO3 packin deal and they still didn't fix the problem . They just gave replacements and counted the replacements as new customers . 360 lost the lead a lot sooner once the PS3 finally arrived for sale .

[@UnnecessaryRambling]

Id agree in this situation, but game pass’s failure to grow, the lack of high quality first party content over the last decade, the lack of console growth over the last decade…. That all can’t be blamed solely on Microsoft. & that all led to where we are now. But no doubt, Microsoft deserves a ton of blame

[@bellissimo4520]

To be fair, Xbox DID spend 70 billion bucks from Microsoft. You can't expect them to throw around this kind of money from the mother company without any accountability and responsibility. Basically, the moment they decided to make these acquisitions and ask Microsoft for the money to do them - they sold themselves out. It was a stupid gamble on the Xbox side (Satya Nadella certainly never had plans to buy Activision).

[@MadnlooneyJR]

@@BruceStephan For the most part the problems that the 360 suffered from were hardware and not software. It also dropped the ball big time in its push into the JP market as it’s hard to convince people to switch platforms period. We didn’t particularly touch on the 360 as it’s not really what’s caused the major problems we have today. The problem me and many people have is that they have given nothing but lacklustre titles or cancellations. Their vision of gamepass is the answer hasn’t worked in convincing people to get the console so now they are cutting off studios to save costs. This will keep happening unless honestly a miracle happens. It would require Sony probably to royally screw up big time. Which is extremely unlikely but to stop myself from rambling both parties are to blame and something clearly needs to change.