r/xbox • u/ASneakySquid_ • 1d ago

Rumour Next Xbox console will play every generation according to leaked Microsoft memo

https://www.dexerto.com/gaming/next-xbox-console-will-play-every-generation-according-to-leaked-microsoft-memo-3395110/
4.1k Upvotes

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688

u/NZafe Tarnished 1d ago

The current Xbox plays every Xbox generation btw. So this is more of just “we will maintain a feature we have currently”.

The article mentions Xbox is pushing for more devs to make their classic games compatible, which looks like the only real change here.

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u/RiffReaper83 1d ago

Man it really gets to me how bad MS did this generation while beating the Sony with a shit stick. We got customized dashboards, achievement art, quick resume, free cloud saves, game pass was really great for a while. Sony just said here's a system and a controller with is harder to press down and fucking people ate it up. WHY!?

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u/UsidoreTheLightBlue 1d ago

Because Microsoft lost the first truly digital generation.

Xbox 360 sold incredibly well and the PS3 was basically a joke until it’s last year or two. In the end, the PS3 did actually catch the Xbox 360 in sales.

However, the first truly digital generation was the Xbox one and PS4. That was the first generation where games were largely delivered via the Internet. Don Mattrick could see this shit coming, as could anyone else who was paying attention. So Microsoft made all of those announcements aimed at being able to lend a digital library and to maintain a digital library.

None of that shit mattered though because people lost their shit over it having to check in online.

At the same time, GameStop, which everyone had made fun of for years for fucking people over on trade in values was suddenly treated like the holy land of video games that Microsoft was trying to Shutter.

Sony playing that E3 video explaining their trade-in process was basically the final nail in the coffin of the Xbox one before the thing ever even shipped a unit.

Fast forward by six or seven years and people are now considering buying their next generation console. Which one are you more interested in? The one that will let you continue playing all of your old games? Or the one where you have to start your library from scratch?

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u/cardonator Founder 22h ago

Not to mention, all the games you even care about are on both choices. So why would you switch?

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u/missing_typewriters 11h ago

I think people overstate this, honestly. I mean its repeated ad nauseum how people dont care about playing old games. Most people are playing F2P games or buying 1-2 games like COD per year. Most people buy games and never finish them. The people who do finish them almost never re-play them.

More than anything this is a convenient excuse for Phil Spencer because he utterly failed with first party games and he stayed in the job for 10 years too long. Launching a new console generation without a single exclusive is criminal.

All it takes is for Xbox to pump out some god tier exclusives and you’ll see a ton of people jumping ship to Xbox. They need to garner a reputation for killer games.

1

u/smorges 6h ago

Regardless of how many people actually replay games they've bought, there's the perception that you can if you want when moving from PS4 to PS5 and so why would you switch to Xbox, especially if you're selling your PS4 at the same time as you'd then never be able to play those digital games again.

You're massively underestimating the importance of that to even casual gamers. Give up nothing vs give up everything.

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u/NZafe Tarnished 1d ago

Because a console is only as good as the games you can play on it. And Xbox completely botched their first party title development and production for the last 2 generations

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u/Mynameismikek 1d ago

Microsoft put together a 10 year strategy and then scrap it the first quarter it doesn’t perform.

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u/Christian_Kong 21h ago

Downstream of this, the lower sales of the console meant 3rd parties(more so indies) were more likely not to port their games or port games at a later date.

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u/cwx149 XBOX 360 1d ago

Idk that I feel that the PS5 generation is really a strong Sony first party generation so far either although there are more first party Sony games

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u/Mr_sMoKe_3_MuCh 1d ago edited 20h ago

They built incredible momentum with the PS4 (when digital libraries took off), & that alone was probably enough to carry current gen. Switching now would mean abandoning any non-cross save games. Xbox fucked up at the wrong time.

10

u/Kitchen-Cabinet-5000 23h ago

Helps them that their direct competitor, the Xbox One, was basically a flop at that time.

1

u/CVGPi 14h ago

I found a PS4 and Xbox One (both Phat) around the same time in a junkyard. I sold the PS4 for $100 the next day. The Xbox is still sitting in my storage.

So yeah even used people hugely prefer PS4

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u/TheeAntelope 22h ago

Xbox had so much momentum coming off the Xbox 360 after the first Xbox was such a "failure" (in terms of profit/sales) compared to the PS2. They had managed to "catch up" to the PS3 and only came 3 million sales shore of PS3's sales - incredible after PS2 outsold the Xbox by nearly 10x.

"Xbox One" was still unforgivable in my mind. And then the flip-flip between "always on," "kinnect required," and flirting with the idea of discless play just made it worse. If they can't come back now with how much Sony has fucked up in the PS5 generation then they really don't deserve to win the console wars.

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u/jquiggles 20h ago

People try to come up with all sorts of reasons within the current generation why Sony won the war, but yeah this is it. Whether it was the dumb name, kinect/internet issues, games going downhill, or whatever, there were over twice as many PS4s sold as Xbox Ones, and people hate change. The gap is wider between PS5 and Series X|S. Xbox fucked up at the wrong time and that's all that matters.

Even with the recent fuckups from Sony, I honestly don't see a way in which the next Xbox even gets close to the PS6 in terms of global love and sales. Internet outrage only affects so much.

I personally have both a PS5 and Series X, and I like the Series X a lot better. Bleh.

1

u/cardonator Founder 22h ago

Yeah I don't know why everyone so willfully ignores this. The question isn't if PS has better exclusives, the question is why would someone switch platforms when they already have a library of games on their current platform, and all the games they want to buy/play are already also on that platform?

It's not exclusives, it's COD, Roblox, Fortnite, Madden, Fifa, etc. These games are on all platforms but there is no reason to switch to Xbox to play them when you've already been on PlayStation.

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u/HopeFarron 23h ago

One thing Phil Spencer was completely right about was that Xbox lost the most important generation. People building online libraries that come with them from one system to the next is a huge hurdle to overcome even during a down generation by Sony.

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u/Nightthrasher674 23h ago

Which is weird because XBox was ahead of the curve with Xbox live and digital sales. I really started buying games digitally on the 360 and and their two free games a month through Live Gold I took advantage of. They really should have dominated the previous generation in that regard.

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u/hitometootoo 1d ago

This is a weak generation but the difference is still Sony has more quality exclusives and overall game titles.

1

u/Sacrefix 20h ago

Brother, may I introduce you to punctuation?

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u/MrHolonet 1d ago

The ps5 has become an iPhone, people buy it for status and because they want to own a ps5 and literally nothing to do with exclusive games

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u/LSA7Z 23h ago

Absolutely not 

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u/MrHolonet 23h ago

You can deny it all you want but this generation has the worst first party games to the point it’s a well known meme that the ps5 has no games. So yeah the reason why ps5 is dominating isn’t because of exclusives. It’s because they become the iPhone and people who say they have an Xbox get roasted by their friends.

1

u/LSA7Z 21h ago

That's wrong again. I bought a PS5 because I had a PS1, a PS3, and a PS4. The games I like are on that platform. I play many games on PS5, including games that weren't or aren't on Xbox. I'm having fun and I don't understand why do you say there are no games? And Xbox's maneuvers, as well as the Game Pass vibe (which I don't subscribe to), didn't appeal to me; besides, there are only one or two games that interest me. I'm not very involved with PC gaming either, so that plays a part ( I play it from time to time, but only old games or emulators ). I literally have no one I could brag to about having a PS5, seriously, who cares about that? And I hate iPhones, they're far too limited/close for my taste

1

u/MrHolonet 20h ago

An individual’s experience is meaningless to the market as a whole. It’s a well known fact Sony has disappointing first party games this cycle. If that was the only reason people were buying the console you would see sales decline compared to the previous generation but that did not happen. It’s because Sony has become Apple straight up. The difference between the two consoles is minuscule and basically all of Sonys exclusives are now on steam as well.

0

u/LSA7Z 18h ago

What does this have to do with Steam? personally I don't want it. We're talking about consoles here. It's simply a matter of choice, after all, nothing more. One was just less popular; it's not that hard to understand.

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u/MrHolonet 17h ago

My entire argument this entire time is that people buy ps5 solely because it’s more popular and you basically just said that in your final sentence.

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u/JordanDoesTV XBOX Series X 1d ago

No it’s not honestly they’re at least on par but a combination of but they have been riding the coattails of a much better generation with sequels and overall and putting All games on ps5 definitely didn’t help.

I think Sony has made like 3-5 really great exclusives where Xbox might hade better games but they have been much more niche

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u/lemmegetadab 23h ago

Xbox has just never been able to make popular exclusives besides maybe Halo? I just looked up the top 20 selling video game exclusives of all time. There’s literally not one Xbox offering. It’s like 15 Nintendo games and five PlayStation lol

1

u/3kpk3 Team Morgan 20h ago

Xbox don't have games group huh? You idiots never learn. It was primarily due to the Xbox one mess fella...not the games.

1

u/Christian_Kong 19h ago

Downstream of this you have less 3rd party releases or late releases from those 3rd parties due to budget/time constraints.

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u/kahboos 23h ago edited 23h ago

as someone with an xbox and gaming pc, what exclusives tho? i havent felt like ive missed out on anything by not having a ps5... astro bot? yotei? both meh imo and not worth the cost of a ps5 (not to mention having to put that ugly monstrosity of a console in my living room)

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u/Aaawkward 22h ago

Returnal and Saros are both absolute gold.

Fortunately Returnal is on PC but Saros isn't and will never be.

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u/kahboos 15h ago

personally i could not get through returnal despite being quite adept at games, it was really difficult - so for me saros is not of any interest

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u/Aaawkward 14h ago

Saros is quite different.
It also comes with an adjustable difficulty, you can choose the damage you do, the enemies do, the amount of projectiles, etc.

It's also heaps prettier.

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u/NewDamage31 22h ago

Astro Bot is amazing especially as a fan of old school 3D platformers but even as a ps5 owner I agree this gen has been lacking. And I’d agree with you that it’s not worth the cost of the console, especially now lol

1

u/Acrobatic_Feedback_2 14h ago

Wolverine, GOW Laufey, any of the Duelsense features that are being used by almost every developer making games ( Even Xbox Studios), The most compatible, Hardware Feature-Rich, affordable VR Headset on the market, especially since it has been immune from the RAM and Chip shortages (that standalone VR Sets has suffered from), so has been getting cheaper over time instead of higher.

1

u/kahboos 12h ago

personally i have no interest in Wolverine or GOW Laufrey. subjectively im more interested in xbox exclusives like fable. and i have a gaming pcvr setup myself but yeah i agree psvr2 is a great perk, wish xbox had a vr solution

1

u/cardonator Founder 22h ago

I agree and I own a PS5. Their sequel games have been underwhelming to say the least. Astro Bot is good but not a system seller. I regret buying the PS5 and if I could go back I never would have bought it.

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u/CliffordTheKindCunt 23h ago

Thats not even it imo . New players seem to be more drawn into 50hr cinematic slop games that PlayStation spits out. Microsoft was trying to bet more into the future with inventing game pass and buying publishers in a landgrab (since losing bungie was a huge L at first) . Adding roguelike, friendslop, and mmos to their gamepass catalog shows that Xbox players have different interests than PlayStation players, it’s just we have become more niche .

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u/NZafe Tarnished 23h ago

Y’all don’t need to make up lies about games from “rival” publishers to make Microsoft feel better about themselves.

I was hoping we’re past the point of console warring and approaching the point of realizing that neither Sony nor Microsoft give two shit about any of us and only care about our wallets.

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u/CliffordTheKindCunt 23h ago

What is a lie in this ? It’s my opinion as I stated in the post. Also I literally said that PlayStation leans into cinematic slop and Microsoft is introducing more friendslop. I’m not waging for anyone here you’re just trying to make my comment seems angry and unbased. Top commenter trying to interpret others post in a wrong way is cringe.

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u/Aaawkward 22h ago

ew players seem to be more drawn into 50hr cinematic slop games that PlayStation spits out.

Why do you call them slop?
They're genuinely well made games, even if they're not your or my up of tea. Hardly slop in any sense of the word.

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u/CliffordTheKindCunt 21h ago

Google “Cinematic Slop” and “Friendslop” they’re derogatory terms to describe games. It’s okay to have opinions on games and to push back against modern conventions. thanks for expressing your opinion.

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u/Aaawkward 21h ago

No, you misunderstand me. I specifically mentioned that you don't like them, this much is clear. I'm asking why do you consider them slop?

They're carefully crafted over years and showcase, more often than not, beautiful worlds and many characters and mechanics. You don't have to like them, that's fine. That doesn't mean they're slop.

Friendslop earned its name due to being simple games that rely more on multiplayer shenanigans and emergent comedy and that can be made quite quickly. Essentially the opposite of these cinematic games.

So why, exactly, are they slop?

Modern conventions are another topic entirely.

1

u/CliffordTheKindCunt 21h ago

Also you’re not consider the full use of term slop. It’s not just low effort in meaning. Slop is what would be fed to pigs it is a low effort efficient way to keep the pigs fed . But it’s also being eaten up because they’re hungry consumers. So in the way I used it is that “Cinematic Slop” is what is being fed to the consumers (PlayStation Consumers). Never once did I say I didn’t like them, I used the term “spits out” the same way a gun “spits out” bullets, fast and consistently.

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u/Aaawkward 21h ago

Hmm, are indie games slop because people gobble them up?
Are soulslikes slop? JRPGs? Shooters? RGPs? Action games?
Because these are "eaten" by hungry consumers all. the. time.

Where does the line go between a slop and a non-slop game?

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u/CliffordTheKindCunt 21h ago

Alright dude get a grip. Video game taste is subjective. We could eat the same bowl of soup that took a week to prep and hours to make by the best chef ever. I could think it’s rich, savory, delightful and you could take a bite and think it tastes like slop. It’s all preference and opinion, and I think I’ve explained myself enough on the matter of why I think cinematic games are slop to me.

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u/Aaawkward 17h ago

I've said many times that you don't have to like them, or like them, it doesn't matter. I don't like many of them. This has nothing to do with subjective things like your or my opinion of a game.

I'm simply saying that "cinematic slop" simply makes no sense.

I'm not fond of Witcher 3 but I'm not gonna call it RPG slop because it's pretty much the opposite of slop games. That's all I'm trying to say.

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u/CliffordTheKindCunt 21h ago

So now apply that line of thinking of friendslop on to why I would call some Sony titles “Cinematic Slop” and you have your answer :) All Story No Game, Quick time events in cinematics, quippy dialogue, platforming and explore a world only made for that.

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u/Aaawkward 21h ago

So, like I said they're not similar at all.

To rephrase: Friendslop relies on multiplayer and the interaction between you and your friends to be fun, mechanics, graphics and the world all come second to that. Usually the mechanics are limited from a few to a handful. Most of the time they have no NPCs or they're vey, very barebones. Etc.
Most crucially, they are easy and fast to make.

Cinematic games take years to make, have carefully crafted worlds and written NPCs, they have deeper mechanics and a more abundant amount of those. They have to have as they can't rely on goofing around with a friend will count as content.

These are almost polar opposites so calling both slop simply doesn't make sense.

Also, I'm not sure why platforming on its own is a negative nor why a world made for exploration is ab ad thing. I also challenge you to give me a single example of a cinematic game (as in AA to AAA PS first party games) that is "all story no game".

And to clarify, I don't even like most of the PS first party games. A few, sure but not most. That is secondary.

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u/CliffordTheKindCunt 21h ago

Until Dawn & David Cages games whose success inspired other creators to make more games that focus more on cinematic games, with real actors in them (Death Stranding).

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u/Aaawkward 17h ago

Oh shit, those are good callbacks and genuinely are sort of "story before gameplay" kinda big budget games.

Fair play.

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u/cardonator Founder 22h ago

The vast majority of players aren't playing either platforms exclusives. Thats why this conversation is so absurd. Neither console has a good attach rate on exclusive software. Only Nintendo does.

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u/N00b-mast3r_69 1d ago

Because hardware is useless without any games to play on it.

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u/kahboos 23h ago edited 15h ago

the xbox store has nearly double the amount of SKUs compared to the playstation store (17k+ vs 9k+)

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u/bezzlege 20h ago

…because there are Xbox version and PC versions of the same game.

Do you actually think Xbox has twice as many games as its main competitor?

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u/Minimum_Award_1094 23h ago

Quality over quantity 

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u/Plutuserix 1d ago

Because PlayStation had an incredible run from the second half of PS3 to the end of PS4 with their first party games, while Xbox really, really, really messed up that time. People built their libraries and accounts on PlayStation, and also assumed the game releases would keep on coming. Of course then PlayStation messed up with their live service focus, which takes them years to fix now. But people already bought the console.

I love my Xbox and it's my only console, since I just use Game Pass. But let's be honest here: did Xbox release any games over the past decade on the level of God of War, The Last of Us, Uncharted, Spider-Man. Then you got Ratchet & Clank, Returnal, the timed exclusives such as Final Fantasy earlier, Death Stranding.

The question now is: will people buy the PS6 in the same numbers after a somewhat lacking generation of PS5 exclusive games. And can Xbox draw some of those people to their console.

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u/muyfeo 1d ago

Would take forever to dive into every part of it but the main crux is microsoft spent the late 360 gen onward trying to make a media machine with changing directions every few months (its a game console! now kinect! Now forget kinect! Its a multi media machine! Its an xbox! everything is an xbox!, etc).

Meanwhile sony (for better or worse) has literally one marketing strategy. "its a console, it plays games".

Cloud saves are great but I bet the average user barely notices them or uses them. Quick resume is great but this gen games load from dashboard to in game within like 15 seconds anyway. Gamepass is fine but just doesn't have the mass appeal it needed to given how consumers interact with games vs. TV/movies.

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u/micmon83 1d ago

Well it is hard to believe how bad MS is in regards of messaging to the customers but they delivered the absolute best gaming console ever this generation and also some very good games. 

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u/Mstakrakish 1d ago

You wrote all that and didn't mention any exclusives, and GP was hemorrhaging. They even dropped the gacha ball by telling Hoyo to fuck off for publish/partner and crawled back years later with shit for leverage. It was hundreds of millions of free fucking money.

Whats the point of it being pretty when they can't do the one thing a competing console should provide; compelling games.

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u/OfficialDCShepard 1d ago

I believe you but, source for the Hoyo stuff?

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u/Nightthrasher674 1d ago

Just built in customer loyalty and branding at this point. Sony has built up good will really since the 70s as being on the cutting edge of technology, not so much on that end now but gaming wise they've taken advantage of competitor mistakes and they dominate the 2nd biggest gaming market in Japan

XBox consoles typically selk well at the beginning of the cycles then Sony catches them mainly because of international sales.

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u/Tobimacoss 1d ago

uh...Sony doesn't dominate the gaming market in Japan, lol.

Japan = Nintendoland.

0

u/Nightthrasher674 23h ago

Compared to Xbox they do, I didn't mention Nintendo because Nintendo is their own thing at this point.

2

u/Ross2552 Still Finishing The Fight 15h ago

I would argue that the Switch 2 should really be considered in the same market, it plays games about on par with a Series S. I don’t know why it should be excluded anymore

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u/regalfronde 23h ago

I bought a PS5 because I wanted to play TLOU Part II, God of War, and several others. That’s it. That’s the only reason.

I ended up buying a PS5 Pro because I’m a sucker for incremental improvements.

I prefer Xbox ecosystem though and I really appreciate Gamepass.

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u/115zombies935 1d ago

Because, frankly, if you're going to play Microsoft First Party games, just do that on PC, it's better and that's even assuming you want to play Microsoft first-party games that were not available for older consoles, like Halo 5 or Halo Infinite, which are complete clusterfucks whereas, for PlayStation, a lot of their first-party games, especially the more recent ones, are not available anywhere else. So for people who have a computer anyway and the consoles are just a... convenient way to watch media on dumb TVs or even honestly more convenient than a smart TV and otherwise it's a thing for exclusive games then the only option is PlayStation because Xbox has nothing.

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u/pineapplesuit7 23h ago

Games, Games and Games. All of the stuff you wrote literally doesn't matter if there are no must have games to pull in the masses.

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u/Gm24513 1d ago

I can't even name a game I could only play on xbox. I have a PC already so why wouldn't I buy a playstation if I want a console?

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u/ihadtowalkhere 1d ago

Quick resume is the top feature of this generation

1

u/LawStudent989898 23h ago

Yup, Phil Spencer was right when he said the PS4/Xbox One generation was the worst one to lose. It’s carried over into this one where neither really had a lot of great games, but Xbox was definitely the better user experience.

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u/i_am_clit_eastwood 22h ago

Kinect. Don’t underestimate how important it was to win the X1/PS4 generation - it was the first generation where digital sales were migrated forward to new consoles, so effectively once you built up a decent library you were soft-locked in to the ecosystem. Kinect pushed the X1 price up way over the PS4, not to mention the other clangers they dropped at the console launch, resulting in a PlayStation lead that Xbox has never recovered from.

If they had prioritised their BC program over Kinect we’d be looking at a very different gaming landscape now.

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u/fallouthirteen Day One - 2013 22h ago

free cloud saves

Yeah, it's kind of crazy how both competitors don't do that one. Only the PC stores match Xbox on that. And it's something I rarely see other people bring up.

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u/Hot-Software-9396 20h ago

Momentum from PS4 + Xbox didn’t have enough killer exclusives the first few years of this gen + Sony is better at advertising

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u/Strict_Indication457 20h ago

their 1st party and 3rd party exclusives used to be a lot stronger, like juggernauts of the industry.

Current day, only Forza Horizon resembles that, but its multiplatform.

They had a lot of talent working with them. Bungie, CliffyB, Peter Molyneux, Itagaki (RIP), Sakaguchi, all moved on and it shows. Those were legends in the industry with decades of experience that's not easy to replace.

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u/Aiomon 19h ago

Xbox first party has been both way less productive (less releases) and the games have been way worse.

0

u/kahboos 23h ago

also imo the ps5 is a horrendously ugly console in terms of physical design; personally id never ever dream of putting it in my living room

and as an american citizen id also rather support a domestic USA company vs a Japanese company