It took just a day for some clear patterns to emerge in the Xbox Player Voice feedback forum, with the clear-cut leading request being bringing back Xbox console exclusives. A player named Carlos Hernandez shared a request to bring them back, claiming that Xbox isn’t selling enough consoles because there’s no reason to buy them when the games can be bought and played on competing systems. Within a day, that request has received nearly 10,000 upvotes, and over a thousand comments.
Because console makers make money by selling consoles, and exclusive titles are bait meant to entice players to buy into the platform? It seems like it lines up really well with how Xbox makes its money, but I don’t see how players benefit at all.
I’m not saying every comment is fake; I’m sure some people on that forum genuinely feel strongly about Halo or whatever remaining an Xbox exclusive, but that can’t possibly be their number one most important thing they want Xbox to do. I don’t have any evidence but my gut says there’s some skullduggery going on. I don’t think it would be too hard for Microsoft to manipulate a forum they control either, and the incentives seem pretty clearly aligned with Microsoft. It’s just very convenient for them that this article exists.
Consoles are typically loss leaders. They make money on the games, accessories, etc. If Microsoft dropped exclusives, it means more money making games with less money losing consoles… It’s purely a business profitability move, not a gamer move.
Sony probably realized people would much prefer Steam and PC overPS and saw a drop in console sales which hurt game sales. So they’re back tracking to exclusives to being back money.
See Microsoft is software where Sony is hardware. That’s why Xbox is dying. Like Sega. Just focused on software and IPs…
I could have worded that more clearly. I’m not saying consoles are themselves profitable, but that shipping consoles is the first step in building the captive audience that buys the games, accessories, live services, etc. that make consoles profitable. That vendor lock-in allows console makers to then milk buyers for the entire lifetime of the console.
If consoles were more like PCs i.e. anyone could play any game from any studio that cared to publish for the platform, console makers would have to focus on making their hardware stand out on its own. Which is particularly funny because, at least back when I was buying console gear (xbox 360 / beginning of the xbone was about the era I fell away from consoles) Microsoft was actually making really good peripherals. I still have my 360 controllers and I break them out for PC games whenever I have a bunch of people in the same room. they’re nice to use.
Instead, we get profit-maximizing tactics like taking a game that people want and putting it behind a several-hundred-dollar paywall, forcing people to either pony up for another 99% redundant console, or not playing the fun game everyone else has. No judgement to those who choose the latter, I bought the original xbox because Halo looked fun and my friends were playing it and guess what? It is a really fun game. I still play it from time to time. I just like it a lot better now that I don’t have to buy another expensive hunk of proprietary hardware.
I personally do not believe Microsoft would control this in some way, or try to manipulate the public view with fake posts or replies. It is possible, and it would be characteristic of Microsoft. And there is even a motive to do so, in order to get back to exclusives and say “look we listen to the community”.
But to me, having a motive isn’t enough to make me believe. So without strong evidence that Microsoft is pushing this and manipulating the forum of user voice, I will not believe that… for now. And trust me, I’m not much of a Microsoft fan at all. Don’t take this as a defense of corporation. I just can’t believe everything by just having a motive.