A reader reacts to the suggestion that Microsoft has been asking fans if major franchises like The Elder Scrolls should become Xbox console exclusives.
If you’re a gamer for any length of time you will have seen Xbox go from the spunky newcomer, that made the PlayStation 3 look out of touch and expensive, to an increasingly desperate second-stringer that lurches from one bad idea to another, never seeming to stick with one plan for more than five minutes.
I had an Xbox One, but I never got an Xbox Series X/S and I am very glad of that. Everything that’s happened to them this gen has made me never want to have anything to do with the system again. Just as importantly, it’s made me lose all respect for the Xbox team, in terms of their constantly flip-flopping decisions and those awful grins all their execs wear while talking such nonsense (and laying off thousands of people).
None of this is news and I wouldn’t have written in but then I heard the news that they’re polling fans to see whether they should make their games exclusives or not. Microsoft, I have got to tell you, if you’re so lost that you’re asking your ultra hardcore fans to make decisions for you then you should just pack up shop right now.
Let’s face it. Anyone that still has an Xbox Series X/S and is still invested enough to be answering questionnaires from Microsoft has got to be a hardcore fan and I’m not sure they’re going to give the most logical answer to whether a game should be exclusive not. They want the glory days of the Xbox 360 being on top back and they won’t accept that that’s never going to happen.
I mean, maybe it could if something weird happens next gen. Sony goes crazy(-ier) or Microsoft have some unique tech, but I can tell you what won’t put Xbox on top: making their games exclusives.
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They already tried it once this year with Gears Of War: E-Day, which sunk like a stone the minute it came out. It got nowhere on Steam and because so few people own an Xbox Series X/S it didn’t sell much on that either. Although of course Microsoft has been training people for years not to buy games anyway, but just to play them on Game Pass.
You don’t even have to worry about whether Gears Of War is over the hill (I think it is), it’s just not physically possible for it to sell enough to be a hit. And that’s ignoring the fact that the rumour was the budget was $300 million or more.
So that’s their first attempt that’s failed and now they’re asking fans if they should make Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Doom, Diablo, Physint, and Minecraft exclusives? Minecraft?! Microsoft might own Minecraft, but Xbox is the least popular format to play it on. How can they even ask that sort of question?
Even Fallout and The Elder Scrolls is crazy. Skyrim will be nearly 20 years old by the time the sequel comes out and yet Microsoft thinks it would be a good idea to try and release it only on Xbox and PC? Even if Microsoft were happy to burn money to earn more fans that doesn’t make any sense, because a) they said they weren’t going to do that anymore and b) it doesn’t work!
I really wish Microsoft would sell off their console business. I don’t really care to who. Sony needs proper competition and they haven’t had it for two generations now. Just as importantly, these major franchises need to be out of the hands of crazy people. Nobody cares about Halo and Gears Of War nowadays but The Elder Scrolls and Fallout should not be sacrificed like this.
By reader Iceman
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