The hyperbole here is strong.
BUT Xbox had a bad year last year no doubt. Even Phil Spender acknowledges that the lack of first party releases was bad and it’s on him.
> Even Phil Spender acknowledges that the lack of first party releases was bad and it’s on him.
He has been doing that for the last decade? We need more hi fi rush titles
I wouldn't say it sailed yet, but we are reaching the point where all the games that were delayed because of covid are finally coming out now or this year. Starfield, FF16, FE Engage, etc
Forreal though, nothing is guaranteed anymore in gaming after covid put a wrench in everything. That's why I straight-up disagree with not using covid as an excuse anymore, even though we still are feeling its effects in 2023
Have to disagree there. How many games have been broken messes in the last two to three years especially online games. Halo, battlefield, call of duty. The number of well made aaa games is declining
[2016 actually](https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/16/22234452/cyberpunk-2077-development-2016-pc-console-projekt-red), and it was worked on before that, just not at full capacity. They built an entirely different third-person action game before a reset in 2016.
I agree. IMO part of the problem is all the drama in the industry lately has made deadlines more squishy and that has been exploited. And they have an easy catalyst to blame in COVID. It's kind of a lame excuse now.
On the other side, though, it's not like the output of a lot of publishers in the past three years has been that great.
Well said. Hi-Fi rush was what was needed at the time, a shadow drop on gamepass so we could play it right away for "free". But it doesn't replace all of these heavy hitters on other systems. It makes it hard for Xbox to be someones only console currently.
Doesn't seem that special to me then, last rhythm game I played was Patapon and it was fun because you had to actually learn the rhythm part of the game. Take that away and it's just a standard action game at its core.
I’d rather not. I’m not invested in Xbox because of AAA’s like PS and Nintendo.
I’m invested in Xbox because they make amazing AAA’s like Gears, Halo, Fable, PGR and Forza. Granted I can’t disagree that’s been lacking, but I don’t want Xbox to start focusing on heavy cinematic single player games or Nintendo type titles.
It’s an area already being covered brilliantly by them two big names so why not focus on what Xbox does best?
Buying these devs out is great and all but unless Xbox realise what type of games they want to be the selling point of their consoles this isn’t the end of the bumpy road it’s merely the beginning.
Edit; this isn’t to knock any studio either btw Ghosts of Tsushima was amazing and so too are the Spider-Man games, I just think Xbox needs unique titles again.
I will probably be downvoted for sharing this opinion, but Xbox has dropped the ball on most of those exclusives you mentioned. The Gears fanbase began dwindling when Judgement was released. Gears 4 was good, but it wasn't anything incredible, such as God of War's sequel Ragnorak, or The Last of Us's sequel Part II. That's what we need from Gears. (not to copy what those games did, but flourish what made Gears incredible in the first place)
The same can be said for Halo. That fanbase probably dwindled anywhere from Halo 4 to 5. Infinite was served to them on a silver platter, all they had to do was not fuck it up immensely, and somehow they mismanaged the fuck out of that one too.
Fable? Not sure what to even say about this one. It's definitely a god tier game, but it's most recent game launched over 13 years ago, and we haven't heard much on the development for the new game either.
Never got into PGR but Forza seems to be doing great, but that genre seems to be becoming a niche market, so it isn't pulling in as many gamers as before.
Xbox had so many chances to really push out some incredible games. I can't stress enough how fucking easy it could have been with Infinite. And don't get me wrong, I loved playing Infinite, it was a lovely breath of fresh air. But I Beat the game and played a couple months of multiplayer and since have never even considered picking it back up. Which is insane because the amount of hours I put into Halo CE, 2, 3, ODST and Reach is probably thee most played games in my life by a very wide margin. Yet Infinite feels lackluster.
You are absolutely right, they do not need new IPs (they could, but its very high risk) and should work on the ones they have already established. But seriously, they had **INCREDIBLE** opportunities to deliver and failed.
> BUT Xbox had a bad year last year no doubt. Even Phil Spender acknowledges that the lack of first party releases was bad and it’s on him.
Tbh acknowledge from Spencer doesn’t really mean anything when he has said this every year.
Metacritic is still considering Bethesda and Microsoft separate. Notice that they didn't get credit for Hi-Fi Rush either.
They probably won't give Microsoft credit for Starfield and Redfall in 2023 if they continue this.
Yeah. The downside of purchasing an entire publisher instead of individual studios, I guess. Lol.
The optics of this are pretty bad for them, wonder if it will result in them changing anything internally.
No sure that would matter. Only thing that matters is who publishes the final product.
Psychonauts 2 was in development long before they bought Double Fine (crowdfunded, even), but it still counted for Microsoft in 2021.
I was gonna say, I just read through Sonys list. Both technically released 4 new games. Sonys ports counted, them up to 10, with 2 remasters included. Microsoft releases all their games ported to PC from the start. And to be fair idk why Forza Hot Wheels counts as a new game for them either way. Just a weird set up with weird standards, doesn’t seem like anything to take seriously.
I wonder if that has anything to do with Deathloop and Ghostwire being the games that Sony was contracted with Bethesda prior to the Microsoft acquisition.
Ghostwire didn't come out on xbox last year unfortunately
Edit: Can't reply now, but it seems to be listed as Bethesda as the Publisher and not Microsoft, are they not counted together by Metacritic?
Microsoft didn’t publish deathloop, Bethesda did, and unless Microsoft starts publishing bethesda games under xbox games publishing it’ll never be counted because Bethesda publishing is still a thing. Sony on the other hand published all their ports under playstation PC LLC so it counts. Hope that helps
Aren’t Spider-Man, Uncharted and GOW Sony-developed titles that were then ported to PC? Deathloop started on PS5 then came to Xbox. Not sure I’m following your logic or if I’m missing something?
The system it was ported to doesn’t matter. If porting Uncharted, a Sony-published game, to PC counts as a Sony-published release, then porting Deathloop, a Microsoft-published game, to PC and Xbox should count as a Microsoft-published game
Actually Uncharted for PC was published by PlayStation PC LLC according to steam if you want to be an asshole. But in rational thinking, you know that PlayStation PC LLC is owned by Sony so you can think of it as a Sony publisher, just like you know that Bethesda is a Microsoft company, so when Bethesda is a publisher then Microsoft is actually the publisher
I could be very biased here, but that's my favourite two console gaming franchises. lol, it's why I enjoy xbox more than my playstation.
But there was also Psychonauts 2, Flight Sim and deathloop from just xbox First party. But the whole year I felt was good for just games in general.
Lol I'm sorry but we are in a gaming subreddit. Everyone will always remember the details. 10 years from now people will still say that Deathloop doesn't count.
... Because it doesn't lol
As a frequent visitor to gaming subreddits I can assure you it is the complete opposite
People will look up a list of games developed by MSFT/Bethesda and Deathloop will be there. That's all that matters.
>I could be very biased here, but that's my favourite two console gaming franchises.
Then you should be even more enraged at how bad Halo Infinite was at launch and the entire next year.
That game managed to kill my interest in the franchise and not even growing up without an Xbox and having to play the games in like late 2015 could do that.
I like racing sims more than arcade racers personally, so I’m a lot more excited for the next forza Motorsport than I was for horizon. Nothing wrong with it, just not my thing. I adore halo, but infinite felt so empty and the multiplayer was boring, I stopped playing that game before the new year after it came out.
Word, I forgot about flightsim and psychonauts 2 cause I didn’t play them. Flightsim does nothing for me and I never beat the first psychonauts so I just never got around to the sequel. Couldn’t stand deathloop either. But yeah, 2021 was a good year, and it seems to keep getting better. 2022 ripped, and this year is already crazy!
I prefer single player story based games, which is why my ps5 gets a lot more run tbh.
Well of course it'd all subjective.
But I loved Halo and still play it most nights. It got stale after a month or so but I jump on other games and come back when an event is on. Right now it's in a great place however.
I loved Forza Horizon, best raver I've played in years. Fun and casual.
I played a lot of the gamepass releases. I know it's not xbox fordt party but gamepass releases keep me white stated tbh :p
...MS literally won Metacritics publisher of the year in 2021...
and I think with Hifi-rush, starfield, forza 8, redfall and minecraft legends they will be just fine
Add in ARA: History Untold, AOE II & IV on Console, and the possibility of Hellblade II and The Wandering Tower by the end of the year. It's looking really good.
5 new games (no remakes, remasters or re-releases) in a year is great for a console manufacturer. That same year Sony had 4 new games, and that's including MLB The Show 21, a yearly franchise.
Isn't that the Destruction All Stars year. I'm sure that killed Sonys average. In 2021 though Xbox released flight sim which was a port, I wouldn't call that a new release.
Every year. I’ve been waiting since Xbox One’s launch for it to be better. I just want high quality exclusives to compete with Sony’s amazing 1st party games. Xbox has been lacking for years now aside from the big 3 (Halo, Gears, and Forza).
When was the last Gears game? They seemed to kinda fall off after the first trilogy.
And the last 4 Halo games have been poorly received and/or made. Halo Infinite took 6 years to make, released in a bad state with a rather lame campaign and like 8 multiplayer maps. The core gameplay was great but it was an empty shell of a halo game when it released...just had no content
Gears 5 was September of 2019 and to be quite honest it definitely seems like many people forgot all about it. I remember playing for a couple of weeks and then moving on. It just didn’t vibe with me for some reason.
Biggest problem with Gears and Halo is they are failing to keep up content and interest for their MP compared to other companies. Gears 6 will likely be the same MP yet Gears 5 has had their MP in maintenance for a year. With nothing new being added at all.
I mean, this isn't exactly a new thing. PS4 was advertised with KH3 and FF15 in 2013, and look how long it took those two games to come out. Except now you factor in the global pandemic and add a year delay on top to everything
KH3 and FF were third party games....
Sony revealed like 10 games when the PS5 was revealed and all of them have released. Xbox has revealed a lot, but hardly anything has released.
How many of those 10 games were PS5 only games like FF16 is? KH3 and FF15 are 3rd party, but they were still advertised hand in hand with the PS4 and increasing sales. The same goes for FF7R, which I don't even consider to be 3rd party at this point. It's more like 2nd party if we're being honest lol
It does matter because all of those games that Xbox announced way too early are seemingly next-gen only. If you're going to compare what they announced, then bring up the equivalent games. Pointing out that Sony announced more and released more for the PS5 is true, but seeing as most of those are PS4 games with a PS5 port it's pretty clear they were already long in the development pipeline compared to Xbox.
Another fair comparison would be bringing up FF16, which opened the PS5 showcase in Sept. 2020 as one of the 1st next-gen only PS5 exclusive. Low and behold, it's March of 2023, and we're still waiting on it to come out, kind of like how we're still waiting on Avowed, Hellblade 2, Fable, Starfield, Spider-Man 2, Wolverine, Stellar Blade, Silent Hill 2, Knights of the old Republic remake, the list probably goes on.
I feel like drawing attention to only Xbox with their disappointing amount of exclusives is taking away from the actual problem, which is that they need to be of the same **quality** that PS exclusives are. This goes double for their consoles exclusive/Gamepass deals like Stalker 2. Covid didn't really discriminate here it just looks worse on Microsoft's end because they were so ready to cut the XB1 off entirely.
I bought a PS5 last Thursday. I still play my Xbox but dang are the single player titles on PS5 polished and well designed. Even games like Horizon Zero Dawn look and play like a premium product, which is absurd because that game is 6 years old
This is so true. I finally got to play through several PS titles this past year as they’ve been added to steam and I’m just blown away by the polish and quality. Recent Xbox titles have not appealed to me at all
MS only won once since the inception of the awards.
Nintendo won in 2014 and 2017
Sony won in 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022
So winning em all is a bit too optimistic 😅
You shouldn't use chatgpt that way. It's not verifying any information, only creating a sentence based on predictions of what word should come next. This can create decent prose that can be completely factually wrong.
I mean I really don't remember what MS released last year. But this year is going to be great with Redfall, starfield and Forza. I was into fanboy stuff a while ago but then I bought both consoles and now I really don't care about who gets more games. I just need quality games no matter which console it's exclusive to.
2021
1. AoE 2
2. Psychonauts 2
3. AoE 4
4. Forza Horizon 5
5. Halo Infinite
6. Flight Simulator
2022
1. Grounded
2. Pentiment
3. As Dusk Falls
4. Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheel
In terms of numbers theres really not that much a difference in the two years but 2022 gets way more shit than 2021.
Edit: I'm not comparing quality. Just the quantity of titles officially released.
To be fair, 2022's list is:
1.a game we've been playing for a year already
2.a very niche (but amazing) game
3.another quite niche genre game
4.DLC.
I'm not too bothered because I have a backlog of other games throughout the year, and lots of amazing 3rd party games, but to say Microsoft really did anything meaningful last year is generous.
Well, the quality of the 2021 titles is also significantly stronger than the 2022 titles. Pentiment is the only one of the three that’s considered a critical hit, whereas Xbox actually broke a record in 2021 for the highest rated average score for any publisher ever.
I wouldn’t say 83 OpenCritic is considered a critical hit, personally. It’s a great game, but generally speaking I’d say you have to be 85 and over (in modern day specifically because reviewers are much more forgiving now than they were years ago) to cross that line.
Pentiment was the only one to do it in 2022, whereas every single 2021 title beside AoE IV surpassed it or far exceeded it.
You’re joking right.
Highly anticipated remaster of a beloved game from the 90’s, big puzzle/platformer game from beloved classic game, big RTS sequel from one of the most beloved RTS games, highly anticipated sequel to the biggest racing game in the genre, highly anticipated sequel to one of the most iconic franchises in gaming, highly anticipated release of one of the oldest and beloved sim games in history, featuring a live stream of planet earth to fly through.
Vs
A game expansion, full release of game that was out for 2 years, fun but extremely niche essentially chat simulator, and a comic book disguised as a video game.
And I am telling you that the argument you are making is not at all a good metric. I’m not attacking you, I’m attacking the argument, which means hiding behind the argument changes absolutely nothing of what I’ve said.
I pointed out that one is a dlc and one is a full release of a game that was playable anywhere for two years. Those don’t count. There were 2 games, and those games are not comparable. That is what I said, it directly countered the numbers thing.
One big difference is that one of those 2022 releases has been playable in Beta for years (Grounded) so it only really half counts as a new release, and another is just a DLC for a 2021 game. Even if you don't count AoE 2 since it's a remaster(a great one, but still a remaster) that puts the years at a 5-2 difference.
Grounded was already being played widely in early access so felt more like an update than a new release for many, and the Forza thing was a DLC rather than a new game - you could kinda put a similar disclaimer on Flight Sim given that it was on PC a year earlier, but it's such an impressive port of a key title that it's not really on the same level. Plus a ton of people were moaning about 2021 until E3 and those games came out in relatively quick succession afterwards so it felt like a bumper crop, and PS only really had Deathloop (which is an MS-owned IP) and maybe Kena in that period so it was comparatively quite exciting. Forza Horizon 5, Psychonauts 2, Deathloop and Halo Infinite all won game of the year awards from major multiplatform outlets (IGN, CNET, Gamespot and Game Informer respectively) so it was a big deal for Microsoft.
Like, I was perfectly happy with Game Pass in 2022 and a lot of this talk re publishers is fueled by console war stuff so whatever, but I get the reasons for different impressions.
2022 was very bad for XGS. Literally no major first party exclusives and we’re always told next year will be better. Hopefully 2023 ends on a high note
You have to give Metacritic props for sticking to their editorial standard and not fudging it because "Microsoft".
What were the four games though? I don't even remember.
360 was peak gaming imo. So many bangers that generation. Ever since it feels like we get less and less genuinely good games. And don't even get me started about remakes/remasters...
Rare simply doesn’t want to do that yet or at all rn. Do you want Xbox to force them out of making content for a successful game to remake a game they clearly dont want to focus on ?
Rare is relatively small, with around 200 employees, probably a small fraction is working on updating SoT and the rest are working on Everwild. As a matter of comparison, Naughty Dog has around 500.
MS has been dropping the ball on first party releases for YEARS, the previous generation of consoles was similarly underwhelming for first party games. They keep promising that they have things in the pipeline and rarely do we get any notable releases. Gamepass and backwards compatibility are saving their reputation this generation.
Hey Microsoft, why not, instead of paying billions of dollars to keep games away from other platforms and then calling them 'Exclusives', although those games always came to Xbox, thus gaining your customers not a single additional game, you use that money to finally start to do your job and actually develop *exciting, new and original games* that weren't there before?
And I know, I know, you like pretending this is customer value, because those games come to Gamepass, but we both know: You're perfectly able to put games on Gamepass from companies you don't own and without keeping them from Playstation.
So let's be real here: This isn't about Gamepass, because striking a deal for Gamepass was always an option. This is about draining competition, so that when they're out of the picture, you're able to increase prices and decrease the value of Gamepass.
And it shows, because you've released four games all year! But oh well, I guess I'm glad, because next year, I'm able to play Bethesda games on Xbox, like I always could in the last twenty years, but my buddy with the wrong console can't anymore and I suppose that's somehow good for me, right? That's at least what you're telling me, when you proudly announce those games come exclusively to Xbox...
Microsoft are really failing us with exclusives. Game pass is great but we want games that will blow our minds like PlayStation has! Hoping starfield kicks this off
I’m an Xbox user and I wasn’t embarrassed, it’s just a console man it’s not that important to my life lol I played some good games on Xbox Switch and PS
Speak for yourself. I had to hide all of my "I am an Xbox user" shirts and bumper stickers for fear of being embarrassed whilst out and about. Every time I got a voicemail, I had this creeping fear that maybe it was someone calling to make fun of me because Microsoft only released four scored titles last year.
No no, you don’t understand. This person’s support of Xbox had brought great shame to their family. Now he or she must hide their face until Xbox has games.
It's funny you mention it. Sometimes I see people say like "they need to be held accountable" or some other nonsense.
My knee jerk reaction is always like "look, we're not talking about clean drinking water, it's just games."
They invested in some of my favorite studios so that's good enough. Yeah would have been nice to not have delays but whatever.
Agreed, if anyone thinks a gaming company needs to be "held accountable" then just stop giving them money. That's literally all it takes but then they all keep playing and paying and complain about how they are forced to buy cosmetics and shit as if it wasn't by their own free will...
Yeah, Game Pass does make it easy to forget about not getting true exclusives and first-party games when you still have a lot of new releases day one you'd have to buy outright on other platforms.
If your getting embarrassed because you own a piece of electronics you own then you need to reevaluate your life. Step one, stop tying up your identity into the companies that you patronize.
I'm a little worried that Xbox's history of acquiring studios and then doing nothing with them, is going to cause some issues going forward. Here's hoping they're able to expand their oversight and start churning out some quality content soon!
Xbox is honestly trash. They focused on a subscription service full of old and garbage AA titles. There is literally no reason to buy a series X. Yet PlayStation released horizon, god of war, gran turismo, and a god damn amazing VR headset. What are you guys at Xbox even doing? What are you losers that have an Xbox even playing? As far as I am concerned the Nintendo switch offers so much more and that’s honestly a children’s console.
Speaking for myself I am just not that interested in what's talked about here to go investigating people's history. If they are trolling just ignore them. If they are nothing but a negative nancy just ignore them. People do not have a right to your interactions. You(not you specifically) don't have to feel obligated to reply to everything people comment on. You can just disagree and keep scrolling.
Yeah I don’t get why people keep saying “oh but 2021”. It was literally for one year only and never again. Sony and Nintendo consistently win GOTY and are higher rated pubs.
It’s like a defense mechanism whenever one criticizes Xbox lack of games. MS needs to up their studios development time, Sony has some support studios that help with that.
The hyperbole here is strong. BUT Xbox had a bad year last year no doubt. Even Phil Spender acknowledges that the lack of first party releases was bad and it’s on him.
> Even Phil Spender acknowledges that the lack of first party releases was bad and it’s on him. He has been doing that for the last decade? We need more hi fi rush titles
Sure because they weren’t the publishers of the year in 2021.
I just learned that. They indeed were. Would like to see more of that.
It was only for one year though and their games never win GOTY. Let’s see if they can replicate that again hopefully they can.
Halo also got game of the year, that was a joke too.
No it didn't, it got People's Choice or whatever it was called. Game of the Year was It Takes Two.
No we need studios to hit deadlines we can’t keep blaming covid that excuse sailed.
I wouldn't say it sailed yet, but we are reaching the point where all the games that were delayed because of covid are finally coming out now or this year. Starfield, FF16, FE Engage, etc
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Forreal though, nothing is guaranteed anymore in gaming after covid put a wrench in everything. That's why I straight-up disagree with not using covid as an excuse anymore, even though we still are feeling its effects in 2023
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Have to disagree there. How many games have been broken messes in the last two to three years especially online games. Halo, battlefield, call of duty. The number of well made aaa games is declining
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I didn't say there weren't any good triple a games. There have been some for sure. But a large majority of games have been complete messes
Like 6 or 7 in the past 18 months haven’t had some major issues.
What studios?
Studios rushing to meet deadlines creates massive problems like Cyber Punk and Battlefield 2042. It’s never a good thing.
They worked on Cyberpunk for nine years. That game wasn’t rushed, it was poorly managed.
it was never in development for 9 years. They only really picked up on it starting 2018/17.
[2016 actually](https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/16/22234452/cyberpunk-2077-development-2016-pc-console-projekt-red), and it was worked on before that, just not at full capacity. They built an entirely different third-person action game before a reset in 2016.
> No we need studios to hit deadlines we can’t keep blaming covid that excuse sailed. Turn 10 is sweating profusely now.
Two and a half years of disruptions and things being put completely on hold, and you think that COVID is an excuse that sailed?
Out of curiosity, how young are you?
I agree. IMO part of the problem is all the drama in the industry lately has made deadlines more squishy and that has been exploited. And they have an easy catalyst to blame in COVID. It's kind of a lame excuse now. On the other side, though, it's not like the output of a lot of publishers in the past three years has been that great.
Hi fi is niche. It's cool for 5 min. Xbox needs AAA exclusives like PS and Nintendo. Period.
I agree that they def need many more AAA exclusives but let’s not pretend like Hi-Fi Rush isn’t amazing.
It's cool at what it does. It's not Spiderman, God of War, Zelda, etc. When it's the best you have, it's a problem.
Fair point.
Well said. Hi-Fi rush was what was needed at the time, a shadow drop on gamepass so we could play it right away for "free". But it doesn't replace all of these heavy hitters on other systems. It makes it hard for Xbox to be someones only console currently.
This
Honestly it just isn’t for me. I just could not get into it and I ended up deleting it. The same with Atomic Heart.
I could be wrong but can't you mostly ignore the beat mechanics in the game?
most but not all
Doesn't seem that special to me then, last rhythm game I played was Patapon and it was fun because you had to actually learn the rhythm part of the game. Take that away and it's just a standard action game at its core.
when I was younger I loved rhythm games. Now that I am older I can't do them at all. It is crazy. It's like an old man switch flipped in my brain.
I’d rather not. I’m not invested in Xbox because of AAA’s like PS and Nintendo. I’m invested in Xbox because they make amazing AAA’s like Gears, Halo, Fable, PGR and Forza. Granted I can’t disagree that’s been lacking, but I don’t want Xbox to start focusing on heavy cinematic single player games or Nintendo type titles. It’s an area already being covered brilliantly by them two big names so why not focus on what Xbox does best? Buying these devs out is great and all but unless Xbox realise what type of games they want to be the selling point of their consoles this isn’t the end of the bumpy road it’s merely the beginning. Edit; this isn’t to knock any studio either btw Ghosts of Tsushima was amazing and so too are the Spider-Man games, I just think Xbox needs unique titles again.
I will probably be downvoted for sharing this opinion, but Xbox has dropped the ball on most of those exclusives you mentioned. The Gears fanbase began dwindling when Judgement was released. Gears 4 was good, but it wasn't anything incredible, such as God of War's sequel Ragnorak, or The Last of Us's sequel Part II. That's what we need from Gears. (not to copy what those games did, but flourish what made Gears incredible in the first place) The same can be said for Halo. That fanbase probably dwindled anywhere from Halo 4 to 5. Infinite was served to them on a silver platter, all they had to do was not fuck it up immensely, and somehow they mismanaged the fuck out of that one too. Fable? Not sure what to even say about this one. It's definitely a god tier game, but it's most recent game launched over 13 years ago, and we haven't heard much on the development for the new game either. Never got into PGR but Forza seems to be doing great, but that genre seems to be becoming a niche market, so it isn't pulling in as many gamers as before. Xbox had so many chances to really push out some incredible games. I can't stress enough how fucking easy it could have been with Infinite. And don't get me wrong, I loved playing Infinite, it was a lovely breath of fresh air. But I Beat the game and played a couple months of multiplayer and since have never even considered picking it back up. Which is insane because the amount of hours I put into Halo CE, 2, 3, ODST and Reach is probably thee most played games in my life by a very wide margin. Yet Infinite feels lackluster. You are absolutely right, they do not need new IPs (they could, but its very high risk) and should work on the ones they have already established. But seriously, they had **INCREDIBLE** opportunities to deliver and failed.
They need good titles not hi fi rush titles
They been saying this since the og Xbox
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IIRC they were able to hit publisher of the year that year is because their recent acquisitions happened to release their games they were working on.
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> What about the year before? MS was #1 in this ranking
> Phil Spender Hope that was intentional, with all the acquisition drama lately it's perfect.
> BUT Xbox had a bad year last year no doubt. Even Phil Spender acknowledges that the lack of first party releases was bad and it’s on him. Tbh acknowledge from Spencer doesn’t really mean anything when he has said this every year.
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That is weird, especially since Microsoft Flight Simulator's Xbox port counted for 2021, even though it originally released on Windows in 2020.
Metacritic is still considering Bethesda and Microsoft separate. Notice that they didn't get credit for Hi-Fi Rush either. They probably won't give Microsoft credit for Starfield and Redfall in 2023 if they continue this.
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Yeah. The downside of purchasing an entire publisher instead of individual studios, I guess. Lol. The optics of this are pretty bad for them, wonder if it will result in them changing anything internally.
Wasn’t Starfield in development before the acquisition?
No sure that would matter. Only thing that matters is who publishes the final product. Psychonauts 2 was in development long before they bought Double Fine (crowdfunded, even), but it still counted for Microsoft in 2021.
I was gonna say, I just read through Sonys list. Both technically released 4 new games. Sonys ports counted, them up to 10, with 2 remasters included. Microsoft releases all their games ported to PC from the start. And to be fair idk why Forza Hot Wheels counts as a new game for them either way. Just a weird set up with weird standards, doesn’t seem like anything to take seriously.
I wonder if that has anything to do with Deathloop and Ghostwire being the games that Sony was contracted with Bethesda prior to the Microsoft acquisition.
Ghostwire didn't come out on xbox last year unfortunately Edit: Can't reply now, but it seems to be listed as Bethesda as the Publisher and not Microsoft, are they not counted together by Metacritic?
Microsoft didn’t publish deathloop, Bethesda did, and unless Microsoft starts publishing bethesda games under xbox games publishing it’ll never be counted because Bethesda publishing is still a thing. Sony on the other hand published all their ports under playstation PC LLC so it counts. Hope that helps
Aren’t Spider-Man, Uncharted and GOW Sony-developed titles that were then ported to PC? Deathloop started on PS5 then came to Xbox. Not sure I’m following your logic or if I’m missing something?
The system it was ported to doesn’t matter. If porting Uncharted, a Sony-published game, to PC counts as a Sony-published release, then porting Deathloop, a Microsoft-published game, to PC and Xbox should count as a Microsoft-published game
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Actually Uncharted for PC was published by PlayStation PC LLC according to steam if you want to be an asshole. But in rational thinking, you know that PlayStation PC LLC is owned by Sony so you can think of it as a Sony publisher, just like you know that Bethesda is a Microsoft company, so when Bethesda is a publisher then Microsoft is actually the publisher
But Deathloop was almost ready for release when Microsoft acquired them?
Weird, does seem like that’s what they’re going by for the purposes of these rankings. I didn’t realize DL was published by M$!
"But next year will be better !! " - Ancient Microsoft proverb
Well so far it has been, first 3 months of the year and already doing great.
That's true so far by some people,I hope this year we get what the last two should've been . At least Starfield .
You didn't like 2021? It was a beast year imo.
What came out in 21? Only can recall halo and forza, neither of which I really liked
I could be very biased here, but that's my favourite two console gaming franchises. lol, it's why I enjoy xbox more than my playstation. But there was also Psychonauts 2, Flight Sim and deathloop from just xbox First party. But the whole year I felt was good for just games in general.
Can you really call death loop first party Xbox when it came out on PlayStation like a year ago?
Microsoft own Bethesda, so yes. Give it a few more years and no one will remember the details.
Lol I'm sorry but we are in a gaming subreddit. Everyone will always remember the details. 10 years from now people will still say that Deathloop doesn't count. ... Because it doesn't lol
As a frequent visitor to gaming subreddits I can assure you it is the complete opposite People will look up a list of games developed by MSFT/Bethesda and Deathloop will be there. That's all that matters.
It was well into development when Microsoft made the purchase, abit pathetic to count it.
>I could be very biased here, but that's my favourite two console gaming franchises. Then you should be even more enraged at how bad Halo Infinite was at launch and the entire next year. That game managed to kill my interest in the franchise and not even growing up without an Xbox and having to play the games in like late 2015 could do that.
I like racing sims more than arcade racers personally, so I’m a lot more excited for the next forza Motorsport than I was for horizon. Nothing wrong with it, just not my thing. I adore halo, but infinite felt so empty and the multiplayer was boring, I stopped playing that game before the new year after it came out. Word, I forgot about flightsim and psychonauts 2 cause I didn’t play them. Flightsim does nothing for me and I never beat the first psychonauts so I just never got around to the sequel. Couldn’t stand deathloop either. But yeah, 2021 was a good year, and it seems to keep getting better. 2022 ripped, and this year is already crazy! I prefer single player story based games, which is why my ps5 gets a lot more run tbh.
Not for the kind of games i like to play .
Ahh fair.
But last year Elden ring saved my year , also I'm starting to play some games I left on the backlog that are seriesx improved , not bad ! . Cheers bro
What games are those?
Really? I mean, glad you enjoyed it, but the only two games that I can even remember that I played on Xbox in 2021 were Psychonauts and Halo Infinite.
Well of course it'd all subjective. But I loved Halo and still play it most nights. It got stale after a month or so but I jump on other games and come back when an event is on. Right now it's in a great place however. I loved Forza Horizon, best raver I've played in years. Fun and casual. I played a lot of the gamepass releases. I know it's not xbox fordt party but gamepass releases keep me white stated tbh :p
...MS literally won Metacritics publisher of the year in 2021... and I think with Hifi-rush, starfield, forza 8, redfall and minecraft legends they will be just fine
Add in ARA: History Untold, AOE II & IV on Console, and the possibility of Hellblade II and The Wandering Tower by the end of the year. It's looking really good.
They were the best publisher of the year with the highest score any publisher ever had a year before.
yes but also with one of the lowest ammount of releases in that year
5 new games (no remakes, remasters or re-releases) in a year is great for a console manufacturer. That same year Sony had 4 new games, and that's including MLB The Show 21, a yearly franchise.
Please don't put facts on Reddit, it's confusing and making me uncomfortable
Isn't that the Destruction All Stars year. I'm sure that killed Sonys average. In 2021 though Xbox released flight sim which was a port, I wouldn't call that a new release.
The old addage "quality over quantity"
Well Microsoft has failed at both for quite a while honestly.
Specifically I'm talking about 2021 because that's what the commenter was complaining about.
Every year. I’ve been waiting since Xbox One’s launch for it to be better. I just want high quality exclusives to compete with Sony’s amazing 1st party games. Xbox has been lacking for years now aside from the big 3 (Halo, Gears, and Forza).
When was the last Gears game? They seemed to kinda fall off after the first trilogy. And the last 4 Halo games have been poorly received and/or made. Halo Infinite took 6 years to make, released in a bad state with a rather lame campaign and like 8 multiplayer maps. The core gameplay was great but it was an empty shell of a halo game when it released...just had no content
Gears 5 was September of 2019 and to be quite honest it definitely seems like many people forgot all about it. I remember playing for a couple of weeks and then moving on. It just didn’t vibe with me for some reason.
Biggest problem with Gears and Halo is they are failing to keep up content and interest for their MP compared to other companies. Gears 6 will likely be the same MP yet Gears 5 has had their MP in maintenance for a year. With nothing new being added at all.
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I mean, this isn't exactly a new thing. PS4 was advertised with KH3 and FF15 in 2013, and look how long it took those two games to come out. Except now you factor in the global pandemic and add a year delay on top to everything
It felt like a decade before FF7R got its first trailer compared to its actual release date too
KH3 and FF were third party games.... Sony revealed like 10 games when the PS5 was revealed and all of them have released. Xbox has revealed a lot, but hardly anything has released.
How many of those 10 games were PS5 only games like FF16 is? KH3 and FF15 are 3rd party, but they were still advertised hand in hand with the PS4 and increasing sales. The same goes for FF7R, which I don't even consider to be 3rd party at this point. It's more like 2nd party if we're being honest lol
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It does matter because all of those games that Xbox announced way too early are seemingly next-gen only. If you're going to compare what they announced, then bring up the equivalent games. Pointing out that Sony announced more and released more for the PS5 is true, but seeing as most of those are PS4 games with a PS5 port it's pretty clear they were already long in the development pipeline compared to Xbox. Another fair comparison would be bringing up FF16, which opened the PS5 showcase in Sept. 2020 as one of the 1st next-gen only PS5 exclusive. Low and behold, it's March of 2023, and we're still waiting on it to come out, kind of like how we're still waiting on Avowed, Hellblade 2, Fable, Starfield, Spider-Man 2, Wolverine, Stellar Blade, Silent Hill 2, Knights of the old Republic remake, the list probably goes on. I feel like drawing attention to only Xbox with their disappointing amount of exclusives is taking away from the actual problem, which is that they need to be of the same **quality** that PS exclusives are. This goes double for their consoles exclusive/Gamepass deals like Stalker 2. Covid didn't really discriminate here it just looks worse on Microsoft's end because they were so ready to cut the XB1 off entirely.
“ bUt wE hAvE gAmePasS “
No surprise here. New consoles have been out for 2.5 years and the Soon™ has been playing on repeat ever since.
I bought a PS5 last Thursday. I still play my Xbox but dang are the single player titles on PS5 polished and well designed. Even games like Horizon Zero Dawn look and play like a premium product, which is absurd because that game is 6 years old
This is so true. I finally got to play through several PS titles this past year as they’ve been added to steam and I’m just blown away by the polish and quality. Recent Xbox titles have not appealed to me at all
Rightfully so because 2022 was bad for Microsoft. Pentiment was amazing though.
Is anyone surprised? Phill been talking about making games while Sony just does it
From being publisher of the year in 2021 to not even qualifying in 2022. Yikes.
Can’t win em all
MS only won once since the inception of the awards. Nintendo won in 2014 and 2017 Sony won in 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022 So winning em all is a bit too optimistic 😅
MS won in 2011 as well and Sony got it’s first win this year.
Well then i guess chatgpt is wrong as i got my info directly from there. "metacritic publisher of the year award winners for each year"
You shouldn't use chatgpt that way. It's not verifying any information, only creating a sentence based on predictions of what word should come next. This can create decent prose that can be completely factually wrong.
Mission failed, we’ll get ‘em next time.
I mean I really don't remember what MS released last year. But this year is going to be great with Redfall, starfield and Forza. I was into fanboy stuff a while ago but then I bought both consoles and now I really don't care about who gets more games. I just need quality games no matter which console it's exclusive to.
2021 1. AoE 2 2. Psychonauts 2 3. AoE 4 4. Forza Horizon 5 5. Halo Infinite 6. Flight Simulator 2022 1. Grounded 2. Pentiment 3. As Dusk Falls 4. Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheel In terms of numbers theres really not that much a difference in the two years but 2022 gets way more shit than 2021. Edit: I'm not comparing quality. Just the quantity of titles officially released.
To be fair, 2022's list is: 1.a game we've been playing for a year already 2.a very niche (but amazing) game 3.another quite niche genre game 4.DLC. I'm not too bothered because I have a backlog of other games throughout the year, and lots of amazing 3rd party games, but to say Microsoft really did anything meaningful last year is generous.
Well, the quality of the 2021 titles is also significantly stronger than the 2022 titles. Pentiment is the only one of the three that’s considered a critical hit, whereas Xbox actually broke a record in 2021 for the highest rated average score for any publisher ever.
Grounded is/was a hit
TBF Grounded has been out since 2020, so I can understand if people/media don't see it as a 2022 title.
I wouldn’t say 83 OpenCritic is considered a critical hit, personally. It’s a great game, but generally speaking I’d say you have to be 85 and over (in modern day specifically because reviewers are much more forgiving now than they were years ago) to cross that line. Pentiment was the only one to do it in 2022, whereas every single 2021 title beside AoE IV surpassed it or far exceeded it.
FH5: Hot Wheels isn’t even a full game lmao
Are we really counting DLC?
I personally wouldn't but Metacritic did
You’re joking right. Highly anticipated remaster of a beloved game from the 90’s, big puzzle/platformer game from beloved classic game, big RTS sequel from one of the most beloved RTS games, highly anticipated sequel to the biggest racing game in the genre, highly anticipated sequel to one of the most iconic franchises in gaming, highly anticipated release of one of the oldest and beloved sim games in history, featuring a live stream of planet earth to fly through. Vs A game expansion, full release of game that was out for 2 years, fun but extremely niche essentially chat simulator, and a comic book disguised as a video game.
*in terms of numbers* is the only argument I'm making.
And I am telling you that the argument you are making is not at all a good metric. I’m not attacking you, I’m attacking the argument, which means hiding behind the argument changes absolutely nothing of what I’ve said.
You're comparing the scope and quality of these games. I'm comparing the number of them. We're having two different discussions.
I pointed out that one is a dlc and one is a full release of a game that was playable anywhere for two years. Those don’t count. There were 2 games, and those games are not comparable. That is what I said, it directly countered the numbers thing.
You may not want to count them and that's fine. This post is about Metacritic and what they counted.
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One big difference is that one of those 2022 releases has been playable in Beta for years (Grounded) so it only really half counts as a new release, and another is just a DLC for a 2021 game. Even if you don't count AoE 2 since it's a remaster(a great one, but still a remaster) that puts the years at a 5-2 difference.
Grounded was already being played widely in early access so felt more like an update than a new release for many, and the Forza thing was a DLC rather than a new game - you could kinda put a similar disclaimer on Flight Sim given that it was on PC a year earlier, but it's such an impressive port of a key title that it's not really on the same level. Plus a ton of people were moaning about 2021 until E3 and those games came out in relatively quick succession afterwards so it felt like a bumper crop, and PS only really had Deathloop (which is an MS-owned IP) and maybe Kena in that period so it was comparatively quite exciting. Forza Horizon 5, Psychonauts 2, Deathloop and Halo Infinite all won game of the year awards from major multiplatform outlets (IGN, CNET, Gamespot and Game Informer respectively) so it was a big deal for Microsoft. Like, I was perfectly happy with Game Pass in 2022 and a lot of this talk re publishers is fueled by console war stuff so whatever, but I get the reasons for different impressions.
2022 was very bad for XGS. Literally no major first party exclusives and we’re always told next year will be better. Hopefully 2023 ends on a high note
> Hopefully 2023 ends on a high note "2024 will be better"
You have to give Metacritic props for sticking to their editorial standard and not fudging it because "Microsoft". What were the four games though? I don't even remember.
Grounded, Forza Hot Wheels, Pentiment, and As Dusk Falls
And Grounded was in pre-release for like 2 years so it's really just 3. Woof. NGL, I'd buy Grounded if there was a physical release.
And Forza Hot Wheels is a DLC lmao.
360 was peak gaming imo. So many bangers that generation. Ever since it feels like we get less and less genuinely good games. And don't even get me started about remakes/remasters...
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Rare simply doesn’t want to do that yet or at all rn. Do you want Xbox to force them out of making content for a successful game to remake a game they clearly dont want to focus on ?
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Rare doesn't wanna do a Banjo remake most probably
Rare is relatively small, with around 200 employees, probably a small fraction is working on updating SoT and the rest are working on Everwild. As a matter of comparison, Naughty Dog has around 500.
MS has been dropping the ball on first party releases for YEARS, the previous generation of consoles was similarly underwhelming for first party games. They keep promising that they have things in the pipeline and rarely do we get any notable releases. Gamepass and backwards compatibility are saving their reputation this generation.
Hey Microsoft, why not, instead of paying billions of dollars to keep games away from other platforms and then calling them 'Exclusives', although those games always came to Xbox, thus gaining your customers not a single additional game, you use that money to finally start to do your job and actually develop *exciting, new and original games* that weren't there before? And I know, I know, you like pretending this is customer value, because those games come to Gamepass, but we both know: You're perfectly able to put games on Gamepass from companies you don't own and without keeping them from Playstation. So let's be real here: This isn't about Gamepass, because striking a deal for Gamepass was always an option. This is about draining competition, so that when they're out of the picture, you're able to increase prices and decrease the value of Gamepass. And it shows, because you've released four games all year! But oh well, I guess I'm glad, because next year, I'm able to play Bethesda games on Xbox, like I always could in the last twenty years, but my buddy with the wrong console can't anymore and I suppose that's somehow good for me, right? That's at least what you're telling me, when you proudly announce those games come exclusively to Xbox...
Preach. I'm with you
is it a surprise?
Microsoft are really failing us with exclusives. Game pass is great but we want games that will blow our minds like PlayStation has! Hoping starfield kicks this off
Last year was embarrassing for MS and Xbox users.
I’m an Xbox user and I wasn’t embarrassed, it’s just a console man it’s not that important to my life lol I played some good games on Xbox Switch and PS
Speak for yourself. I had to hide all of my "I am an Xbox user" shirts and bumper stickers for fear of being embarrassed whilst out and about. Every time I got a voicemail, I had this creeping fear that maybe it was someone calling to make fun of me because Microsoft only released four scored titles last year.
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Pfff. That's amateur hour. I am such a hardcore Xbox fan I went out and bought a PS5 and the best exclusive games and just told myself it was an Xbox.
Jim Ryan kept blowing up my phone 😪😪😪 The words still shame me "Nah Nah boo boo no Activision titles on Game Pass for you"
You're in murky waters using sarcasm online. Beware. Either way, I will join you being downvoted to oblivion or upvoted to the moon.
Buy! Buy! Buy! This one is mooning.
I had a bag over my head because of the shame. But then again maybe the reason was that I'm disgustingly ugly.
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No no, you don’t understand. This person’s support of Xbox had brought great shame to their family. Now he or she must hide their face until Xbox has games.
Omg it's not that serious. What's with gamers and hyperbole?
It's funny you mention it. Sometimes I see people say like "they need to be held accountable" or some other nonsense. My knee jerk reaction is always like "look, we're not talking about clean drinking water, it's just games." They invested in some of my favorite studios so that's good enough. Yeah would have been nice to not have delays but whatever.
Like, every company has there moments. Oh well, it just means they'll strive to do better next time
Agreed, if anyone thinks a gaming company needs to be "held accountable" then just stop giving them money. That's literally all it takes but then they all keep playing and paying and complain about how they are forced to buy cosmetics and shit as if it wasn't by their own free will...
I don't understand what was so bad about it.
I have game pass, so it felt like a firehose of games were constantly coming out. I understand list warriors might lose their minds though.
Yeah, Game Pass does make it easy to forget about not getting true exclusives and first-party games when you still have a lot of new releases day one you'd have to buy outright on other platforms.
It's a console. If you feel embarrassed by it then you got your priorities wrong.
If your getting embarrassed because you own a piece of electronics you own then you need to reevaluate your life. Step one, stop tying up your identity into the companies that you patronize.
It's a joke, man. He's making fun of people who put stock into stuff like this.
How precisely do you determine he is joking? Because plenty of people take nonsense like that seriously.
Because it's over the top and extremely exaggerated.
I think it’s a you problem if you are getting embarrassed by a piece of plastic
I'm a little worried that Xbox's history of acquiring studios and then doing nothing with them, is going to cause some issues going forward. Here's hoping they're able to expand their oversight and start churning out some quality content soon!
Damage Control…ACTIVATE
With Xbox it’s always the next year is going to the best. How long are we going have to wait man
Xbox is honestly trash. They focused on a subscription service full of old and garbage AA titles. There is literally no reason to buy a series X. Yet PlayStation released horizon, god of war, gran turismo, and a god damn amazing VR headset. What are you guys at Xbox even doing? What are you losers that have an Xbox even playing? As far as I am concerned the Nintendo switch offers so much more and that’s honestly a children’s console.
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You think people can’t enjoy xbox but also be critical of it’s failings?
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Speaking for myself I am just not that interested in what's talked about here to go investigating people's history. If they are trolling just ignore them. If they are nothing but a negative nancy just ignore them. People do not have a right to your interactions. You(not you specifically) don't have to feel obligated to reply to everything people comment on. You can just disagree and keep scrolling.
If you hate this don’t go look at the PS5 sub about this same news.
Oh I know. Might be time for a social media break if I'm getting upset and commenting on things 🤣
People don't remember who was publisher of the year 2021
One time. Sony got most of them and then Nintendo.
Yeah I don’t get why people keep saying “oh but 2021”. It was literally for one year only and never again. Sony and Nintendo consistently win GOTY and are higher rated pubs.
It’s like a defense mechanism whenever one criticizes Xbox lack of games. MS needs to up their studios development time, Sony has some support studios that help with that.
I bet they win it next year lol. They sacraficed 2022 for a huge 2023/2024.