'When Everybody Plays, We All Win.' We have heard Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox say this quote several times in the last four to five years. I believe he's been saying this quote since Xbox decided to bring all their exclusives to PC back in 2016 or early 2017. I mean it is actually great and fun when everyone is gaming, but does Phil really mean what he says? Yes, he and his team have added almost all the Xbox exclusives on PC and then they provide access to xCloud. With xCloud, gamers can play Xbox games on any screen. But can you natively play Xbox games on a PS4, PS5, or on Nintendo Switch?
It was recently reported that RedFall, an upcoming Xbox exclusive, was in development for PlayStation 5 before Xbox bought Bethesda and Arkane Studios. After the acquisition, Xbox told the developer to cancel the PS5 version of RedFall and just focus on Xbox and PC versions. So as long as you are not playing Xbox games on PlayStation or Nintendo consoles, Phil Spencer is satisfied. Yes, Xbox does release some games on PlayStation and Nintendo consoles, like Minecraft Legends, Minecraft Dungeons, Cuphead, and Ori games (only on Switch) but not all of them.
Going back to RedFall. The game is releasing tomorrow with only a 30 FPS option on Xbox Series X/S. The game will have a 60 FPS option down the road. But why is a next-gen game releasing on a powerful hardware like Xbox Series X without a 60 FPS option? Most of the gamers think that the developers didn't get enough time to release a complete game even though the game was delayed by a year. Some, like myself, think that the Xbox Series X/S aren't really developer-friendly consoles. No matter what we think, we gamers should hear from Xbox, Bethesda, or from Phil Spencer regarding why this game isn't launching with a 60 FPS option. Xbox Series X console was marketed as the most powerful console before its release and in 2023, we are getting Xbox's own games running at Xbox One X level. Someone from IGN or Gamespot should ask Phil Spencer about this as a lot of Xbox gamers are not happy with this current situation.
Obviously, I don't know Phil Spencer personally, but I have watched a few of his interviews and presentations and I have always enjoyed his takes and positive attitude. Like, he really seems like a good person who is working really hard for Xbox to succeed. He took over Xbox when everyone thought that Xbox was about to go out of business after PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles launched. Luckily, Phil managed to keep Xbox still in business and has provided us great stuff like Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Elite Series 2 Controller, Xbox Smart Delivery, and Xbox Play Anywhere. However, Phil and his team rarely give exact figures on how Xbox as a brand is doing. PlayStation provides exact figures on how the console is doing in terms of sales. As for Xbox, you have to read articles by Forbes, Bloomberg, or some other gaming media to get an estimate of how many consoles Xbox has sold. Yes, we have been told by Phil and his team that they are not judging success with the number of units they are selling, but by looking at the number of subscribers of Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Live Gold. Yet, we know that you still keep track of the units you sell, but you don't wanna share because it won't look good when compared to PlayStation and Nintendo.
Before I further raise my concerns about Phil Spencer's leadership and his direction, I would like to talk about ourselves, the Xbox Gamers.
How are we feeling right now about the current overall situation of Xbox? I'm pretty sure we were all excited and just couldn't wait for the future of Xbox when Xbox Series X was revealed during the Game Awards of 2019. Then our excitement went through the roof during the Xbox Games Showcase in July 2020 when games like Fable, Forza Motorsport, and Avowed were shown. Four months later, at the 2020 Game Awards, Xbox revealed Perfect Dark being developed for Xbox Series X/S by an All-Star developer team, the Initiative.
I am very much looking forward to all four of those games. The only game out of those four that we know is releasing soon is Forza Motorsport. For the other three games, we have no idea how far they are in their development. My thing is why show games before the start of the generation that we gamers won't be able to play within the next three to four years? It is 2023 and I still think we won't be able to play Fable and Avowed until late 2024 or maybe sometime in 2025. Yes, there are other games to play right now and we will have a lot to play come May and June. Also, I know we have RedFall coming out tomorrow and Starfield is coming up in September. Those two games are going to be major exclusives for the Xbox brand, especially considering the fact that we haven't had a major AAA first-party exclusive since December 2021. However, I'm just focusing on games that were shown to us by Xbox back in 2020 and earlier.
Yes, we all know that other publishers take years to release one single game, but Xbox has a console that is competing with PlayStation and Nintendo consoles. Both PlayStation and Nintendo release great exclusive games for their customers on a consistent basis. They don't make any excuses for going one full year without any major exclusives since they always produce. So what's the deal with Xbox struggles with exclusives? Why did Xbox not have a single first-party AAA exclusive in 2017 and in 2022? I wanna ask this from Phil Spencer but I won't get an answer since he is probably too busy right now with the Activision Blizzard acquisition. This acquisition was first announced by Phil Spencer in January 2022 and is still not completed as it was going through the legal process and it just recently got blocked by UK's Competition and Markets Authority.
The acquisition is definitely important for Xbox, but what's more important is providing consistently excellent games to their loyal and new gamers. You can't keep promising us big things and ask us to be patient and play indie games on our $500 console that can run big AAA games at 4K 60 FPS. At some point, you gotta look at PlayStation and Nintendo and see that they don't play 'the waiting game' with their players. They just produce GOTY material. Both PlayStation and Nintendo show games coming soon and coming down the road. Xbox mostly shows games that are YEARS away!
Someone, please reach out to Phil Spencer and ask him the tough questions. Ask him where is Fable? Ask him if Avowed is coming out in 2024, 2025, or after the Xbox Series X/S generation? Ask him if Everwild is going to get canceled just like Scalebound did? When can we expect games from studios like Compulsion Games, The Coalition, and Inxile? Ask Phil Spencer what's the deal with Hellblade II? The game was revealed in 2019, then we saw a clip from its gameplay in 2021, and in May 2023, we still don't have a release date.
There are so many tough questions that no one would ask directly from Phil Spencer and Xbox. We will criticize Xbox in our podcasts and in our articles, but when it is time to interview Phil Spencer or other prominent figures at Xbox, we will just smile, praise Phil Spencer, and ask him if he's happy with the work his team has done so far.
We all want Xbox to succeed but we need to hold them accountable for all the mistakes they have been repeating since the Xbox One generation. No more waiting game. No more mediocre games. No more 30 FPS games. Let's produce consistently and let's start now!
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