Eurogamer:Microsoft still hasn't made the case for Xbox Series X

[Fatboi1]

Microsoft still hasn't made the case for Xbox Series X

Let's get the obvious comparison out of the way, now that we can compare the summer's two great trailer showcases - separated this year by six weeks rather than the usual day and a half: Sony edged it.
Neither PlayStation nor Xbox delivered a slam dunk when making the software case for their new hardware launches this year.

Xbox's showcase last night was bookended by a gameplay demo of Halo Infinite - a very tangible prospect, to be fair, but one which you will be able to play on Xbox One and which was reportedly captured on PC - and a teaser reveal for a new Fable that, while cute, had little to add to the rumours of its existence that have circulated for years. Much of what filled the space between them was interesting, exciting or both, from the emotional lockdown trailer for Tetris Effect: Connected to the news that Fatshark was taking its trademark co-op chaos into the Warhammer 40K realm with Darktide. But most of it was frustratingly opaque.

Stalker 2's debut trailer was, it turned out, target footage. Forza Motorsport was present as a graphics demo with an ominous note that it was "early in development". Rare's Everwild, on second showing, remained as mysterious as it is lovely to behold. Xbox Studios prospects State of Decay 3 and Avowed got CG teasers only. There was, overall, a striking lack of gameplay footage - and, astonishingly, we still can't be sure that we have seen a game running on Xbox Series X.

Bearing in mind Halo Infinite's underwhelming looks, all of a sudden Xbox's pro-cross-gen stance sounds less like a strategy than like a rationale to explain away a last-gen game that got itself delayed into the launch window for the next console, and thus had to release on both - Zelda: Breath of the Wild style. (To be fair, we should note that PlayStation 5's launch game, Spider-man: Miles Morales, is an update and extension of a PS4 hit. Maybe you just can't launch with a proper generational exclusive in 2020.) But then, this view doesn't square with developer 343's assertion that Halo Infinite is a "platform for the future" that should last 10 years without getting a traditional sequel.

It is hard to believe that, as a new console generation approaches, Microsoft is once again fluffing its lines. The hardware reveal went well - unsurprisingly, since it had been so carefully rehearsed with Xbox One X a couple of years previously. But we have yet to see anything that shows those impressive stats in action, and corporate strategy seems once again to be getting in the way of what players want to see and hear.
This is not to say that the nightmare of 2013's Xbox One launch is about to be repeated. Then, a fuzzy Trojan-horse strategy about media convergence and owning the living room seemed to have little to do with video games. Now, Microsoft's vision for the future gaming is both far-sighted and persuasive, with its emphasis on streaming technology, device agnosticism and reaching the largest possible addressable audience.

If Satya Nadella's company isn't doing well at persuading us to buy consoles and games, that's probably because it doesn't really want to. What it wants to sell us is Game Pass subscriptions.
And yet, 2013 still has an important lesson to teach us. Microsoft fluffed it so hard then because it thought a pitch to the core gaming audience no longer mattered. It was wrong. This audience of tastemakers is still the hub the wider gaming community revolves around, and it really matters what excites them - what excites us. If your games don't thrill us, if your pitch seems driven by theory rather than passion, you are in trouble. Xbox still has work to do.

 

[CrookedAzzNikka]

I’ll just leave this here:

 

[Crude Abolitionist]

Still buying day 1.

Can't wait for Halo Infinite

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

I’m glad someone else caught the BOTW comparison with halo.

I mentioned that in another thread. Microsoft doesn’t have next gen software available so they’re trying to market it as cross gen inclusiveness.

 

[MeachTheMonster]

Still, Sony was more convincing. It had, in Resident Evil Village, the patronage of one storied third-party franchise (just the one). It had a few arresting curveballs, like Ghostwire: Tokyo, Pragmata and Little Devil Inside,

All these games will release on Series X.

Apparently Sony stans write articles for Eurogamer too

 

[Fatboi1]

All these games will release on Series X.

Apparently Sony stans write articles for Eurogamer too

 

[Tenchi Ryu]

Depends on what you looking for

If you need a system seller then probably not, you might as well wait a year or two. Me specifically I’m getting it day one to vastly improve performance to my library of xbone and BC 360 games....games like monster hunter and FF15 that got unlocked framerates bout to get ate up by the Series X and that’s exactly what I want for the immediate return

 

[The Mad Titan]

Can't wait for sony stans to pick up a PS5 at launch and play spiderman 1.2 and be bored in a weeks time.

 

[Fatboi1]

Can't wait for sony stans to pick up a PS5 at launch and play spiderman 1.2 and be bored in a weeks time.

 

[Goombreh]

Somebody post that smiley

 

[Barnett114]

Can't wait for sony stans to pick up a PS5 at launch and play spiderman 1.2 and be bored in a weeks time.

 

[TripleAgent]

Depends on what you looking for

If you need a system seller then probably not, you might as well wait a year or two. Me specifically I’m getting it day one to vastly improve performance to my library of xbone and BC 360 games....games like monster hunter and FF15 that got unlocked framerates bout to get ate up by the Series X and that’s exactly what I want for the immediate return

Basically. Halo, the Destiny upgrade, and whatever improvements I get on anything else I play.

 

[NZA]

I’ll just leave this here:

this looks like when you finally got the component cables for your gamecube

 

[The Mad Titan]

Depends on what you looking for

If you need a system seller then probably not, you might as well wait a year or two. Me specifically I’m getting it day one to vastly improve performance to my library of xbone and BC 360 games....games like monster hunter and FF15 that got unlocked framerates bout to get ate up by the Series X and that’s exactly what I want for the immediate return

These dudes know this, it's just not what they want to hear.

When you have a company actually going out there way to accompany the consumer and create a lane of their own, push the industry forward all while making money and all you get is click bait ads and articles from people asking whats the value or why they should get an xbox. Then it's just time to stop talking, nothing xbox say's or no matter how much value they provide it's not going to change these dudes minds.

Once the Ps5 and XsX, just let the 1st year of gaming and services speak for themselves.

 

[old pig]

they literally did the opposite for me yesterday and made a damn good case for me not buying one