After one of the worst weeks in its 25 year history, Xbox seems like it’s on the ropes and a reader isn’t sure they want to see what happens next.
I wasn’t going to try and write anything about what’s been going on with Xbox this week, because I didn’t think I could really add to it. It’s clear Microsoft is acting its usual uncaring self towards the livelihoods of thousands, it’s clear they’re only really interested in gaming in terms of whether they can dominate it or not, and it’s just as clear that none of them really know what they’re doing.
That’s obvious to everyone and all I can really add is the usual stuff about me loving the Xbox 360 back in the day and wasn’t it great when everyone was really into Halo? Lots of you reading this probably have those memories and I hate to break it to you (and Microsoft) but that was 20 years ago, and those days aren’t coming back.
Realising how long it is since Xbox was on top, it brings home to me what a mess they’ve made of things and how Phil Spencer only ever made things worse, even though he seemed to know what he was talking about. At least he wanted the business to grow though, but I think it’s looking increasingly obvious that the new boss has been told to wind things down.
Although it seems that Game Pass is the biggest cause of Xbox’s downfall, since It’s super expensive to do but it doesn’t attract enough people to make it all worthwhile, it was obvious to me that the Xbox Series X was doomed the minute it didn’t launch with Halo or any games that anyone cared about.
Worse than that, Xbox said, as if it was a good thing that everyone would approve of, that there would be no Xbox Series X exclusive for, I think it was two years. So if you bought a new Xbox Series X console at launch you could guarantee it wouldn’t be used to its full potential for at least two years. The fact that when Halo Infinite eventually came out it was rubbish, hardly seemed to matter compared to that, because the Xbox Series X was already bleeding out by that point.
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You could easily say the console was dead on arrival, because at no point did it ever look like it was going to be a contender and then when Starfield came out and was a dud, that was it, you could tell that’s when they gave up and said let’s just release everything multiformat on PlayStation 5.
That’s a sad way for Xbox to go out but we’ve been there before with Sega, so we know it doesn’t have to be the end. But now I think it is for Xbox, even if it’s going to be a slow, agonising death filled with denial and false hope. Whereas my memory with Sega is they just shrugged their shoulders and got on with the job of being a third party publishers almost immediately.
I don’t particularly blame the new Xbox boss for the last few weeks of madness, she’s been given a job and they knew she didn’t know anything about games when they hired her, so she’s trying to speak to people and fans to get ideas of what to do. The whole exclusivity thing is stupid, and everyone can see their rules for it don’t make any sense, but at this point I get the feeling even hardcore Xbox fans have lost hope.
It’s a death of a thousand cuts, very literally because after all that nonsense about making Xbox (sorry, XBOX) great again we’re now into the cold reality of the situation: massive job cuts and studio closures.
It’s Wednesday afternoon as I type this and there hasn’t been any new news for a couple of days but as far as I’ve read we’re looking at probably Ninja Theory being shut down or sold off, as well as maybe two or three studios – the smaller ones like Double Fine that make art house games that never sell (which makes you wonder why Microsoft bought them in the first place).
I don’t know if there’s any accurate prediction of how many people are going to be laid off but it seems to be in the thousands rather than hundreds… again. And not just the smaller developers but people from Bethesda and Activision as well. Talented people that have been making games we all enjoy for years and then are thrown out at a moment’s notice because Microsoft’s graph isn’t going up quickly enough.
And then what’s left after that? A bunch of crippled studios with not enough people to do the work needed, that are constantly fearing for their job and planning to leave Microsoft as soon as they can. Good job Microsoft, you’ve killed Xbox. Except it’s not a quick death and I’m not sure I’ve got the stomach for watching it happen over the next few weeks.
By reader Xane
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