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Games Inbox: Xbox leaving the gaming industry, Suicide Squad madness, and Nintendo Switch 2 reveal-GameCentral-Entertainment – Metro
The Thursday letters page thinks that Xbox boss Phil Spencer has outstayed his welcome, as one reader warns PS5 owners about Starfield.
How much trouble are they in? (Picture: Microsoft)
The Thursday letters page thinks that Xbox boss Phil Spencer has outstayed his welcome, as one reader warns PS5 owners about Starfield.
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Slow departure
These last few days with Xbox have been crazy. Not only for how mad everyone has gone over what are, for now, just rumours but because it feels like literally anything could be true, from no change at all to Xbox literally leaving the games industry. Considering they’d need to find someone willing to pay $69 for Activision Blizzard they’re not going to leave gaming anytime soon but remember only a few months ago when Phil Spencer said they would ‘exit the gaming business’ if Game Pass didn’t do better?
I’m sure at the time he was just saying whatever he thought the court wanted to hear but these rumours are happening in large part because Game Pass isn’t doing anywhere near as well as expected. So is Phil going to keep to his word?
I think we all know the answer to that, but I think that this and the low console sales have caused those above Phil’s head to think that this whole thing has been a bad idea. That’s why we’ve seen those massive job cuts and… whatever it is exactly they’re going to announce next week.
I doubt Xbox will go completely third party any time soon, but I do believe they’ll slowly go that way. Equally, they won’t give up making consoles just yet, but they will start to think they’re better off just being a third party publisher – maybe even spin off Xbox as a separate company.
At that point it will basically be Activision Blizzard as it was before (minus 1,900 jobs) under a different name. Although I think the first thing to go will be Bethesda, as I suspect they’re getting a lot of blame for this internally, for the failure of Starfield. I think Phil’s going to be out soon too. His legacy is not an impressive one when you look at it and realise Game Pass and Activision Blizzard was all his idea.
Kentle
Things can always be worse
Is there a case for a lawsuit for Xbox owners against Microsoft, who go back on their pledge of commitment to Xbox as a platform and its exclusives? Seeing as all these rumours about games on PlayStation are going around.
OK, I jest. Personally, though I don’t care about it. I have an Xbox Series X and have tons of games on it and it will continue to get big support from publishers so I’m not worried on that front. Nope, it’s just about Microsoft’s commitment to the platform and their plans for it.
I find all the people on YouTube announcing Xbox as dead, though, a bit amusing. Just wild hyperbole when Microsoft haven’t actually said much at all. But gamers should be careful what they wish for.
Let’s say Microsoft abandoned the hardware scene in the future, it leaves a gap. Who would fill it? Google? Amazon, even worse with streaming subscription boxes or Apple. Imagine an Apple iConsole over a £1,000 and with a fraction of the Xbox Series X’s power. And if Sony are being accused of arrogance, apathy or laziness now imagine how they would be with no Xbox around.
icelticghost
Past failures
All this Xbox speculation and uncertainty will only hasten their trajectory towards going multiformat. They’ve thrown the reputation of Xbox onto the fire. Regardless of what the outcome is next week, which I suspect won’t be as bad as the rumours have suggested, the damage is done. Just like the Xbox One debacle, once you lose the faith of a fanbase it’s extremely difficult to repair. You could argue Xbox has been paying for the Xbox One disaster ever since. It’s crazy how this rumour mill has been allowed to continue.
Bethesda should have remained multiformat from the beginning. Just the same as Activision. At least those messages are clear. Xbox fans would be disgruntled over not getting exclusives. But that’s a situation that pales in comparison to what is occurring right now. The irony is, there would have been none of the drama with regulators if they had set a precedence with Bethesda, which continued to be multiformat. They’d have made more money and the reputation of Xbox wouldn’t be in the state it currently is.
Anon
Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk
Erysichthon gaming
I would’ve bet a Switch announcement in March or April, so that all sounds believe able to me. A full reveal at E3 time in June but an admission that it exists before that, which is how Nintendo has always done things in the past. That’s as far as my predictions go though, I know better than that when it comes to Nintendo.
I am absolutely fascinated to see how they do though and really pulling for them to knock it out the park, not just because I like their stuff but to the see the comparison between them and Xbox, as they devour themselves in public.
It’ll be especially interesting if Nintendo pulls things off well because as far as Phil Spencer was concerned they were just another trophy head for his wall, because he knew best about how to run their business. That email looked bad at the time but now it seems like their current woes are punishment for their arrogance.
Melvin
Mass Xboxedus
People need to chill about this Xbox exodus stuff.
I play my Xbox games on my bloomin’ iPhone at work half the time, this is just another market for their main product to make money in a market downturn.
Also, Bethesda have been surprisingly outspoken since they got bought by Microsoft, about wanting to bring Starfield to PlayStation.
Especially since Call Of Duty is staying on PlayStation.
Starfield just wasn’t the system seller Microsoft seemed to of hoped. Surely it’s prudent to make as much money as they can, that being the case?
If this helps stem the flow of never-ending game dev redundancies at the moment, is it really the end of the world?
Either way, a tenner says Fable 4 is still a timed exclusive this Christmas and unexpected Game of the Year nominee.
Tundrastrider
GC: So far, there’s nothing to indicate the new Fable will be out this year.
As predicted
So yet again something that gamers predict years ago – that Suicide Squad will suck – has proven to be true. What a surprise. Seriously, you’ve got to wonder who is in charge of some (most?) of these games companies if they can’t see these problems coming.
Although as GC pointed out, the whole concept of the game seems weird. Why does a game about a bunch of villains forced to work for the government look like Ratchet & Clank? And why are non-powered characters going up against the Justice League? It just doesn’t make sense.
Either use different characters or use these characters in a different sort of game. Again, anyone could’ve told you that.
I’ve been watching footage of the game and I can see exactly where the criticisms of the missions and enemy designs is coming from, they look Xbox 360 level – and not a good Xbox 360 game. We know Rocksteady are better than this so what happened? A disaster on every level.
Ansel
Doing a Don
Just wondered if you’d approached Sony for comment on Xbox going multiplatform, I imagine when Phil does a ‘Don’ Mattrick next week, or possibly a Gerald Ratner, in terms of tanking the Xbox brand Sony’s shares are going up!
Sony also has a great opportunity for a short marketing video highlighting the fact that one console only plays their own games whereas a PlayStation plays all the games! Just like that great here’s how to swap PlayStation 4 games videos.
Rob
PS: So glad I haven’t jumped into this gen yet, who knew Xbox would be the one to say go buy a PlayStation 5 to play all games!
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Management issues
My takeaway from this latest Xbox circus is that there’s a major failure of management. If all your execs are running around saying different things and most of the company has no idea what’s going on, then that is the guy in charge’s fault. The buck stops with Phil Spencer and he has gone well past the point where he is no longer fit for office.
I’ll ignore his cringey ‘gamers’ friend’ persona and just point out that since he took over, roughly a decade ago, following the disastrous Xbox One launch, the Xbox has done nothing but move backwards. The Xbox One never recovered and never had any true classics, while the Xbox Series X/S is somehow doing even worse – not because it’s not a better console but because there still aren’t any decent exclusives. Sure, there’s Forza and some indie style stuff but nothing that works as a system seller.
He’s wasted $69 billion on buying Call Of Duty but, as we see, that doesn’t help the Xbox at all. He would’ve been far better to spend that money on buying third party exclusives. It’s exactly what Sony is doing right now, with things like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and Microsoft can very easily afford it.
The rest of the money should’ve gone on setting up new studios or buying other small ones. Buying a company even the size of Bethesda does you no good because they’re multiple studios already, with their own leadership and complicated relationships. There’s no way to easily control them or put Microsoft’s own stamp on them.
That’s not what Sony or Nintendo do. They buy small studios and build them up into exactly what they need. Phil Spencer should know this but as usual the thinks he knows better, despite it being proven time and time again that he doesn’t. He needs to go and Microsoft needs to get in someone more humble and whose solution to problems is something other than throwing money at it.
Ashton Marley
Inbox also-rans
I hear rumours that Phil Spencer might be leaving as the Xbox boss and will be replaced by Bobby Kotic. Wouldn’t that be good?
Mark Matthews
GC: No.
As a Game Pass subscriber I can assure you that putting Starfield on PlayStation 5 is likely to be more of a threat than a promise.
Tacle
This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Gadfly, who asks what is your favourite superhero video game and what new ones would you like to see?
Despite what you might imagine, superhero games are relatively rare and even the Marvel name is no guarantee of success. But if budget was no issue, what kind of superhero game would you like to see and who would you like to make it?
You can also include other non-superhero comic books but try and explain how you think the gameplay would work and what would make it different from a regular video game.
Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk
The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.
You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.
You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.
MORE : Games Inbox: AAA video games in crisis, Suicide Squad worries, and Midnight Suns disappointment
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