Breakdown of key points from the recent statement released by the Head of the Xbox Backwards Compatible Games program in regards to its future, how the system works and the demand for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.
Windows Central: "We caught up with incoming CEO Asha Sharma and newly promoted CCO Matt Booty to learn about what the future holds for Microsoft's gaming operation."
Technically, they've never brought it back. It's been downhill since Xbox One, which was its zenith. It hasn't 'gone back' since nor did it decline in such a fashion before.. We're dealing with a single peak company here, not multiple.
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What about after they dropped the kinect and added in BC, and then later the One X? That was definitely better than when it launched. That gen had many peaks and valleys for XB. This gen... not so much.
Those all happened at the same time. Kinect and BC was all at the introduction of Xbox One. They were still working upward from there, just not competing as well as they liked with PS4. But removing Kinect continued upward gain after that. It was truly the end of Xbox One and this generation where they've seen decline. It's been a very crash and burn situation.
Both Sony and Microsoft are just ruining their rep this generation. Microsoft with subscriptions over hardware, Sony with the focus on Live Service over what made them great.
Technically, they've lost every generation they've participated in. Only the Xbox 360 brought them close, but they still ended up in last place behind PS3 and Wii by the time it was all said and done.
If youre talking selling scnsoles, selling the most doesnt mean you win a generation.Thats just means you sold more consoles. Microsoft sold more xbox 360s than they did the original xbox. Sony sold less ps3s than they did ps2s and they sold them at a loss for almost the entire generation. They narrowly outsold the 360.Microsoft regressed with the xbox one and did even worse with the series x. But all that doesnt mean as much anymore because you dont need eother one to play the games. It a different industry now and its not so much about the hardware anymore.
That's what I was thinking. Even with the red ring of death, the Xbox 360 was relatively their top console.
Wii was a behemoth and PS3 flew off the shelves. 3rd sucks if it's a bad console generation, but that generation was pretty solid. I loved my phat PS3.
From 3rd place, it certainly looked like they were still headed in the right direction.
Then they fumbled.
The decline was simply not promising the AAA games. Not buying studios to deliver great games. The kinect, tv, price stuff could and was all walked back but it was the lack of games. No games exclusive mascot and identity first party games means no reason to buy said console.
Halo and Gears were reaching the later year's and getting stale. They needed new AAA something that they'd failed to do. Sure you can say they have games now. Right, that's like saying someone Went to war finally coming back after years of promises that you'll return only to finally return with a missing, hand, leg different person. Same with Xbox, MS forced them to go multiplat, not the same brand anymore cool you have games but at what cost?
IMO I dont think Asha and Matt are planning for this gen. No point what's done is done this gen but are planning for the next console, whatever that looks like. (again assuming she and Matt have actual say)
Chris, MS introduced BC for XBO in 2015, two years after it launched. There was a positive uptick for it. And while they reversed course on requiring kinect at launch, they fully removed it in 2017 which was the same year they introduced the One X. I remember that year saw an uptick as well.
When? Xbox to Xbox 360?
They’ve been pretty much on a windy slope since the Xbox One reveal but even then s*** started to hit the fan with TV, Sports and Kinect at the end of the 360 days.
I’d argue Xbox completely lost their major advantages over the competition halfway through the 360 era. They came out of the gates, swinging and winning, with 360 being a HUGE success, especially in the West. Then, Nintendo had a hit with Wii & motion-controls, and Microsoft looked at that and said; “Hey, we’d like a piece of that pie as well!”. That’s when they changed course and started shifting towards Kinect. Which obviously was a huge flop.
That decision/change in direction pretty much was the exact same moment when Sony course-corrected their many errors with the PS3, so suddenly Sony made a bunch of good decisions to take advantage of Xbox dropping the ball. Lower console-price, free online MP, and PS+ which was offering 6 (or more) ‘free games’ each month.
By the time that generation ended, PS3 had won back a huge amount of gamers, plus they had the momentum.
Then, obviously, XBO was announced, and I think we all know how that went. They never recovered, and they keep making just absolutely terrible decisions.
I agree, the 360 was only ahead during the first half of that generation. The PS3 had a rough start especially with their console price and various models. But halfway through with price reductions and games like infamous and the last of us they were pulling ahead.
Xbox during the 360 and beyond have been nothing but a plague on console gaming with the practice of buying their way into multiplatform and exclusives which made Sony eventually do the same thing. Now they're both just buying studios and then shutting them down. And I say this as a SEGA fanboy who went through sega bowing out of the console market due to Sony's success.
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Gamesbeat caught up with Blackley to extract some wisdom about Microsoft’s journey in games, what he thinks Sharma should do, and where gaming can go next. Part of his message is hopeful, but Blackley sees a lot of peril on the road that Microsoft is following. And it makes him worry about the future of gaming.
"I expect that the new CEO, Asha Sharma, her job is going to be as a palliative care doctor who slides Xbox gently into the night."
LOL
Anyway, let's wait and see maybe Mia Khalifa will surprise us.
I’m on the fence about her. I’ll give her chance, but if she is there to finish things off. Well what can you do.
After seeing the article of the possible sunsetting of Xbox as said by Seamus Blackley I believe, I went onto X because of a post I saw. It was a gif of Vegeta powering up, the poster commented as Vegeta yelling “Don’t take my fiercest competitor away from me.” Standing there in his blue Sayian/Freiza corps outfit. So it got me to thinking, so let me ask a question to N4G.
If Vegeta is PlayStation, who would Xbox and Nintendo be in the Dragon Ball universe?
Who would be Master Roshi?
I have my own opinion of course, I just want to see what others think.
The industry veteran has been tasked with leading the next phase of growth after overseeing the successful launch of Arc Raiders.
The fact that BLOPS 2 is being considered ahead of MW2 which is older is quite telling.
I have a feeling they will "remaster" blops 2 and sell it with treyarchs next cod. Similar to the Infinite warfare/cod 4 bundle
What happens to the backwards compatibility when Microsoft stop supporting the Xbox One online? Does that mean it no longer works?
or is this just Microsoft doing PS2 Classics but the only difference is they let you put in a disc to download the game.
I thought true backwards compatibility was done at a system level and supported 95% of the total library and doesn't require you to download the game again.
Stop looking backwards and look forwards Microsoft.