It has been ten months since the generation of Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 started. I was very lucky to secure an Xbox Series X on the first day of pre-order and I received it on the third day of its release. Got a brand new 77 inch 4K TV about a month later to enjoy the new generation of gaming to its fullest. I have so far played games like Assassins' Creed Valhalla, Immortals Fenyx Rising, Gears 5, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Cyberpunk 2077, Resident Evil 3, Control, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and a few more on my awesome Xbox Series X. Been enjoying my new console a whole lot. Up until July, about two months ago, I was very excited for the present and the future of Xbox. Then I realized that Xbox really hasn't produced a next-gen Triple-A game for its new console yet.
Yes since May of 2020, Xbox has shown a good decent amount of Triple-A games but hasn't released one yet. PlayStation on the other hand has released about six Triple-A games already. Games like Spiderman: Miles Morales, Demon Souls Remake, Godfall, Returnal, Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart, and Deathloop (timed-exclusive) all have been released since the launch of PlayStation 5. Since the launch of the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles, Xbox Game Studios have released Microsoft Flight Simulator and that's about it. Also, Microsoft Flight Simulator was originally released on PC a year before it was released on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. Has or would PlayStation ever release their own game on PC or a different console before they would release it on their own console? I don't really need to answer that because we all know the answer to that question.
A quick note here, I wasn't excited at all about the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator on Xbox consoles since all you do in that game is 'fly' a plane. There is no challenge, no enemies, no combat, no story, pretty much nothing in that game. All you do is just fly and enjoy the beautiful scenery of this Earth. If I wanna look at the beautiful scenery of this world then I could just go on YouTube and look up the beauty of all seven continents of the world.
Another thing that I have been really disliking about Xbox and their team is that after they reveal their brand new exclusive games to get their fans excited about, they go months and months without even mentioning a single little update about those games. Last year in May of 2020, Xbox first displayed games like Scorn, Stalker 2, Bright Memory Infinite, The Medium (timed-exclusive), The Ascent, Second Extinction, and Crossfire X. Of all those games, only The Medium and The Ascent have been released so far and both of those aren't Triple-A games. They did release a beta for Second Extinction on Xbox Game Pass but it is just a 'beta' after all. Where is Bright Memory Infinite? When is it releasing and is it going to be on Xbox Game Pass? Where is Crossfire X? I thought it was supposed to release this year? Any word on Scorn? Does anyone know anything about the gameplay of Scorn? What in the world is going on with these games?
All the games I mentioned above, they were all produced by developers who are not part of the Xbox Game Studios. However, the current situation with Xbox Game Studios is pretty much the same or worse. In 2019 during the Game Award show, team Xbox first revealed the next-gen console, the Xbox Series X. Along with the console, they revealed a trailer for Hellblade 2. Boy, that trailer was amazing. Since then (December of 2019), we haven't seen any gameplay or new trailers for Hellblade 2. Team Xbox hasn't even provided us the year when this game could possibly release. Then seven months later, we had the big Xbox Games Showcase where games like Halo Infinite, Forza Motorsport 8, Psychonauts 2, some more CrossFire X, Avowed (that was my favorite reveal), Everwild, Grounded, few more indie games, and Fable (reboot) were presented to us gamers. Five months later, during the 2020 Game Award Show, Xbox revealed another new game. They revealed Perfect Dark which is being developed by the All-Star team, The Initiative.
The majority of those games look amazing and I can't wait to play them. I'm super excited to play Halo Infinite, Avowed, Hellblade 2, Fable, and Perfect Dark and also looking forward to trying out CrossFire X, Stalker 2, and Everwild. The problem is that besides Halo Infinite, I don't know when these games are going to release. I along with many Xbox fans have no clue where these games are in their development process. My thing is why does Xbox or any gaming publisher reveal games when they are more than two to three years away from being released? Why tease fans with such promising games when you know the gamers won't be able to play them for possibly five-plus years? If you are going to announce a game to the world, make sure you release the game within the next two years. Don't show a game and then tell us that we need to wait somewhere between three to ten years before we get to play it.
Oh by the way, when is Elder Scrolls 6 coming out? Is it even an Xbox exclusive? Phil Spencer and his team haven't given us a clear answer to Elder Scrolls 6 exclusivity yet. To be honest, I think it is going to be a multi-platform game. Otherwise, why not just tell the gaming world already that it is an Xbox exclusive? Why are you guys scared of telling us if it is an Xbox exclusive or not? There was an episode (Episode 500) of IGN Unlocked where Phil Spencer was the guest and was interviewed by Ryan McCfarrey, Miranda Sanchez, and Destin Legarie. In the interview, Ryan asked Phil back-to-back questions, and the second question was about Elder Scrolls 6 exclusivity. We heard Phil's answer to the first question but his response to Elder Scrolls 6 exclusivity was skipped in the recording and then the Unlocked team started asking him different questions about Xbox. Why skip that part? We all wanted to know what Xbox plans are for the big game. Well, I think I know why that part was skipped. Xbox team knows it is not an exclusive and Xbox Fans will lose hope on Xbox for this generation when it comes to awesome big-time exclusives.
Xbox says that they are very transparent with their fans, but that is not the case at all. They would say that they are not competing with PlayStation and their new competitors are now Amazon and Google. Yet, they were waiting on PlayStation to reveal the prices of their consoles. Yes, I know Xbox revealed the price of their console before PlayStation did, but it was just a few days before PlayStation revealed the price of their consoles. Also, if Xbox is not competing with PlayStation anymore, then why release the console around the same time as PlayStation did? Xbox launched Series X and Series S consoles on November 10 and PlayStation released their consoles on November 12th. Not competing, but we will keep a close eye on PlayStation, right?
Another reason why I believe Xbox is surely competing with PlayStation is that when PlayStation was called out by the gaming community on social media for charging their customers twice for the upcoming Horizon Forbidden West as the customers upgrade from PS4 to PS5, Xbox representatives took a shot on PlayStation by bragging about Xbox's Smart Delivery. With Smart Delivery, Xbox players can upgrade their games from Xbox One Version to Xbox Series X/S version for free. Wait! Xbox, I like your Smart Delivery but why do you care if PlayStation charges their customers twice for their games when you are not competing with them? Shouldn't you worry about what Amazon and Google are doing? Also, you kinda mocked PlayStation when it was discovered that adding storage space to a PS5 console is a bit complicated than it is to add storage to Xbox Series X/S consoles. Xbox showed a video on social media about how easy it is to add one TB of external storage to next-gen Xbox consoles right after people started making fun of gamers needing a screwdriver and all to open up a PS5 and then add a storage device to the console. So I guess Xbox is competing with PlayStation after all.
PlayStation started this generation with Triple-A games and they are looking to release more amazing big-time games on PS5 for their fans. Xbox is set to be releasing some awesome-looking Triple-A games but I don't think any of their upcoming Triple-A games are going to be as big as PlayStation's upcoming Marvel's Spiderman-2, God of War Ragnarok, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic (timed-exclusive), and of course Marvel's Wolverine. Xbox has Starfield, Fable, Perfect Dark, Hellblade 2, Avowed, and Halo Infinite coming out within the next three years or so. Of all those games, we have only seen the gameplay for Halo Infinite. We have no idea how the rest of the games are going to play out. Does anyone know if Starfield is just a third-person shooter or there is more to that game? Fable is being developed by Playground Games, a team of developers who are amazing with 'racing games.' Perfect Dark and Avowed are being developed by two amazing teams, but we still need to know more about those games. We basically need updates for both of those games and some sort of gameplay. It has been fourteen months since we first and last saw Avowed. God Knows when Hellblade 2 would release. It has been twenty-one months since we first saw the Hellblade 2 trailer.
I know it is really hard to make games and it takes time. However, PlayStation has released some amazing exclusives in the first year of PlayStation 5 already and is bringing out more in 2022 and 2023. The games that are coming out soon for PlayStation are expected to do well because of the track record of their developers and the recent success of major exclusives during the PS4 era. Xbox has Forza Horizon 5 coming out in less than two months and it is expected to do great, however, for Halo Infinite, no one knows if that game is going to be great, good, mediocre, or bad. Every Xbox gamer wants Halo Infinite to be great, but Halo hasn't been good since Halo 4 which came out nine years ago, and Halo hasn't been great since Halo Reach was released in 2010.
There is a lot of pressure on Xbox with Halo Infinite and all their upcoming exclusives. If Halo Infinite fails, boy it will be another tough generation for the Xbox team. Even if Halo Infinite fails, Xbox could still bounce back with other exclusives that are coming out in 2022 and 2023, but it will be a tough ladder to climb. I am still very much excited about the Xbox games that are coming out and I'm hoping for the best.
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