Eurogamer: What is the point of Xbox? The platform holder has repeated the same terrible mistakes for over a decade. The reason is simple: its priorities are back-to-front. (TLHBFR!!!)

[FIREPOWER 765]

 

 

https://www.eurogamer.net/what-is-the-point-of-xbox

 

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Back to today, and compare Matt Booty's statement, writing to the developers laid off by these latest closures, with Lemke's in 2016. He describes the decision as being "grounded in prioritising high-impact titles and further investing in Bethesda's portfolio of blockbuster games and beloved worlds. To double down on these franchises and invest to build new ones requires us to look across the business to identify the opportunities that are best positioned for success." Eight years apart, the two statements feel remarkably similar.

As ever, with the excessively secretive world of video game development, we don't quite have the full picture. Overnight, a Bloomberg report claimed these closures and consolidations were part of a "widespread cost-cutting initiative that still isn't finished." Booty reportedly told Xbox employees that the company's studios had been "spread too thin - like 'peanut butter on bread'". Jill Braff, head of Zenimax Studios, reportedly added, "It's hard to support nine studios all across the world with a lean central team with an ever-growing plate of things to do… I think we're about to topple over."

The absurdity of that one, after Microsoft spent $7.5bn to buy all these studios, speaks for itself. It may also be the absolute truth, that these studios closed simply because Microsoft and Zenimax felt they had to cut something, and so these wild, untamable beasts must go.

Perhaps most absurd of all, however, was the reported "main factor" Booty and Braff told staff why Tango and Arkane Austin closed in particular. Both were pitching new projects, and needed to staff up and take the time to make them. Tango Gameworks was in the process of pitching a Hi-Fi Rush sequel, Arkane Austin wanted to go back to its immersive sim roots, perhaps with a new Dishonored. Xbox closed these studios, apparently, for having the audacity to try to make video games.

 

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Let's go back to Lionhead, one last time. There was never a full reason given for that studio's closure. Its employees had different theories: cost-cutting is the recurring one. "We knew Microsoft hadn't had a great year with games," one source said, in what could've been any year from the past 10, and it had become clear Fable Legends, much like Redfall's attempted updates, probably wouldn't get close enough to recouping costs. But there's another nugget of information from that period worth drawing attention to: Lionhead, just Arkane Austin, like Tango Gameworks, was fully expecting to move straight onto making the next big thing in the series it made a name from, in Fable 4.

The point here, ultimately, is that this cycle has been repeating, and repeating, and repeating, and it does not show any sign of coming to an end. Xbox buys talent, mismanages it in search of impossible scale, and cuts it loose - be that the 20-year experts of Fable, or the battle-scarred makers of Dishonored, or the invigorating new generation behind Hi-Fi Rush. Xbox's leadership clearly knows it's a problem. I believe Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond were utterly sincere when they said they looked at Lionhead and promised themselves not to make the same mistakes again. But to do that, they have to step behind this first, surface-level layer of justification for closing studios, and get to the real cause - not the decisions themselves, but the principles that inform them. The principles that say expertise, creativity and talent are less valuable than the cost to let them flourish.

Dig out the scarlet thread again, and the thing that binds all these moments together couldn't be more clear. The philosophy of a great video game platform holder is that it makes money in order to make more consoles and more games. The philosophy of Microsoft - and by dint of that, Xbox - is evidently that it only makes consoles and games in order to make money. Like so many businesses owned by gigantic, publicly-traded mega-companies, Xbox is now stuck in a cycle of thinking back-to-front. It, and I suspect much of the video game world, no longer knows why it exists.

 

 

 The point of Xbox is to ensure MS buys out the entire videogame industry and kills it while retarded lemshits like Cuckstz, Lemij, SlowJon, and MalaX cheer them on. Thank goodness real gamers can see through their bullshit and have thrown a wrench at their plans by totally ignoring Xbox and leaving it to die.

 

TLHBFAssRaped!!!

 

Edited May 9 by FIREPOWER

[MalaXmaS 651]

MS had a good 4 year streak from 05-09 in which they basically sodomized Sony to the ground. 

After that, bad decision, one after another. 

Shame, the Series X hardware is amazing. 

[lynux3 2,165]

[Casual 743]

2 hours ago, MalaXmaS said:

MS had a good 4 year streak from 05-09 in which they basically sodomized Sony to the ground. 

After that, bad decision, one after another. 

Shame, the Series X hardware is amazing. 

People always leave out that Sony absolutely handed MS these years. They were in the dumps making bad decisions themselves which is like 75% of the reason MS succeeded. 

[-GD-X★ 7,814]

the best xbox was the OG one, especially with the duke controller . it was a massive leap over the other consoles. it truly was like having a pc in the living room.  some of my best gaming experiences were with project gotham racing 2 and crimson skies. also, it had some awesome niche games like otogi 1 and 2.  broadband online play, a hdd for music, superior multiplats by a large margin 99% of the time...i feel like the console doesn't get enough credit.

[MalaXmaS 651]

29 minutes ago, Casual said:

People always leave out that Sony absolutely handed MS these years. They were in the dumps making bad decisions themselves which is like 75% of the reason MS succeeded. 

Funny you say that because the opposite is happening right now. 

[Playstation Tablet 1,746]

Just port everything to PS5/Switch 2 and release an XBox that plays steam games for a nich market and call it a day. Xbox is dead.

[Remij 4,718]

Jesus.. he's still talking about Xbox and Phil...  Nope not obsessed at all...   

[Casual 743]

48 minutes ago, MalaXmaS said:

Funny you say that because the opposite is happening right now. 

Difference is Sony and Nintendo both have histories of doing just fine when other viable options exist.

 

Microsoft has only every succeeded when everyone else in the industry was laying down and taking it.

[FIREPOWER 765]

16 minutes ago, Remij said:

Jesus.. he's still talking about Xbox and Phil...  Nope not obsessed at all...   

 I'm reporting the news retard. Go jump off a bridge if negative Xbox news articles bother you that much.

 

 

 No one in the thread mentioned Phil until you did just now 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 9 by FIREPOWER

[Remij 4,718]

Just now, FIREPOWER said:

 I'm reporting the news retard. Go jump off a bridge if negative Xbox news articles bother you that much.

 

 

Get the fuck out of the thread if articles questioning the existence of Xbox triggers you. No one in the thread mentioned Phil until you did just now 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He's an Xbox reporter now... live 24/7 round the clock!  He gets the information straight from Phil's ass crack   

[JonDnD 2,698]

So we have xbox reporters and analysts here at sw. Nice :)

[jehurey 3,299]

5 hours ago, JonDnD said:

So we have xbox reporters and analysts here at sw. Nice 🙂

what do you think you've been doing for the past 10 years? Local Sony town CRYer

[JonDnD 2,698]

Killing you, lol

[TLHBO 2,170]

"Dig out the scarlet thread again, and the thing that binds all these moments together couldn't be more clear. The philosophy of a great video game platform holder is that it makes money in order to make more consoles and more games. The philosophy of Microsoft - and by dint of that, Xbox - is evidently that it only makes consoles and games in order to make money. Like so many businesses owned by gigantic, publicly-traded mega-companies, Xbox is now stuck in a cycle of thinking back-to-front. It, and I suspect much of the video game world, no longer knows why it exists."

 

 

It's almost surreal to see these media outlets who sucked the teat for so long, finally saying what people like myself have been repeating for well over a decade now.

 

Congrats on finally catching up, Eurogamer.

[FIREPOWER 765]

4 hours ago, TLHBO said:

"Dig out the scarlet thread again, and the thing that binds all these moments together couldn't be more clear. The philosophy of a great video game platform holder is that it makes money in order to make more consoles and more games. The philosophy of Microsoft - and by dint of that, Xbox - is evidently that it only makes consoles and games in order to make money. Like so many businesses owned by gigantic, publicly-traded mega-companies, Xbox is now stuck in a cycle of thinking back-to-front. It, and I suspect much of the video game world, no longer knows why it exists."

 

 

It's almost surreal to see these media outlets who sucked the teat for so long, finally saying what people like myself have been repeating for well over a decade now.

 

Congrats on finally catching up, Eurogamer.

Yea, it's insane. They were sucking off Phil and the idiots MS for a whole decade. They finally wake up now after failing to do their jobs for so long and now want some recognition