Xbox: a tragedy that we lost the Xbox One generation
Microsoft CEO Phil Spencer, responsible for everything Xbox, calls it a tragedy that Xbox lost the Xbox One generation. He even believes that if the company had to lose a generation, it would be the last.
Xbox One generation
The Xbox 360 generation was probably Microsoft’s most successful, if you ask gamers. Many games came out, many good ones. The device worked as it should and maybe it’s a bit of nostalgia, but that console stirred things up in people. However, consoles are no longer super important to Microsoft and we noticed that: Xbox One became a flop and although Xbox Series X is doing well in terms of sales, you can tell from all the marketing of Xbox that it is not really concerned with that at all.
In an interview with Kinda Funny Games, CEO Phil Spencer says: “We’re not out-consoleing Sony or Nintendo at all. If your console sales aren’t great, people say that if you just make great games, everything will change, but that’s not the case. It’s not that if we all suddenly start building great games, you will suddenly see our market share in consoles change dramatically. We missed the worst generation we could have missed during the Xbox One generation, when everyone was building their digital gaming library. We want our Xbox community to feel great, but the notion that if we just focus on good games we’ll win the console race isn’t really realistic. If Starfield suddenly gets a rating of 10+++, then it is not the case that people spontaneously sell their PlayStation 5 consoles.”
Xbox is struggling
Xbox isn’t doing great right now. Although it achieves those great successes with Xbox Game Pass, the acquisition of Activision at $ 68.7 billion has more feet in the earth than the company had imagined. The British consumer and market authority has already said it opposes the takeover, while Europe is still waiting to come up with the redeeming answer in a few weeks.
Meanwhile, there is also a 30 percent drop in Xbox consoles. As rotten icing on the old cake, there is also the release of Redfall this week, which certainly did not go without problems. Bugs and other technical issues surfaced, while the game itself could not really count on critical acclaim. In short, Microsoft doesn’t have it easy.
The future of Xbox
But sitting down with the suits, you should never do that for too long. Xbox is now focusing mainly on Starfield, a game that is highly anticipated. Nor is Xbox ignoring consoles, Spencer says: “The console is the core of the Xbox brand, there’s no question about that. We’re still focused on making sure that console experience is great, but i know some people want to pass us off as a better green version of what the blue guys are doing and i’m just going to say there’s no profit for xbox by staying in someone else’s wake we need to go do our own thing with Game Pass, the things we do with xCloud and the way we build our games.”
He is absolutely right about that: don’t focus on others, but go your own way. Whether that will be with or without Activision, and with or without Redfall: it has to go on. The focus is clearly forward, to the stars of Starfield, out September 6.
Laura Jenny
When she’s not tapping, she’s traveling around the wonderful world of entertainment or some cool place in the real world. Mario is the man of her life,…
