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[DoubleClutch]

Xbox has had a lot of blunders over the years. For many of us, it will always be part of some of the best gaming memories.

The first Xbox was great and Live changed multiplayer gaming forever.

Then came 360 which for the first few years of its life was the prime place to play games. Better than PC, PlayStation, Wii… eventually PCs caught up, Cell became easier to develop for, and Sony started knocking it out of the park with amazing exclusives. There was the RRoD but they seemed to be doing the right thing to fix it, and near the end of the lifecycle it seemed behind them.

But then Xbox One came around and it was confusing starting with the name. Kinect was controversial, the platform lacked the oomph of PlayStation, and the marketing was hated by fans (such as the always online DRM, push for streaming, and the deal with it stuff).

To me the Xbox One launch was the turning point for the brand and when its steady decline began.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

you don't fuck a brand by just making one mistake

so, all of the above

 

[Elfstar]

Lack of compelling exclusives or even just exclusives for way too much time.

 

[Insanemaelstrom]

Can't speak for the others but for me personally, Xbox just didn't have many games I was interested in. The few that I was interested in, were also available on pc day and date( and were generally better suited to pc than consoles).

I bought a ps4 because it had games I was interested in, I bought a ps5 because I liked the games I played on my ps4

 

[Sentenza]

Confusing naming conventions surely didn't help a lot.

 

[violence]

The controller is too noisy and bright.

 

[RoboFu]

xbox one was such a big fuck up at launch. They really just threw away everything they built up with the 360. Sony got very lucky that Xbox one crashed so hard at launch. Yeah yeah you can say they sold more units overall but not in the major countries and defiantly not for a profit. Sony was in a very low place after the ps3. They had no hit movies, no hit TVs, and lost a ton on the ps3.

 

[clarky]

Launching new hardware without a 1st party title for what was it? 18 months?

 

[Magic Carpet]

The Price,
I think they should have gotten that Series S below 200 bucks.
They should have pushed the hell out of the Series S in 'S'outh America.
Once they saw how the performance of the Series X was on par or less than the PS5 they should have lowered the price of the Series X.

 

[clarky]

xbox one was such a big fuck up at launch. They really just threw away everything they built up with the 360. Sony got very lucky that Xbox one crashed so hard at launch. Yeah yeah you can say they sold more units overall but not in the major countries and defiantly not for a profit. Sony was in a very low place after the ps3. They had no hit movies, no hit TVs, and lost a ton on the ps3.

I'd argue the Series was worse. At least the One had some games.

 

[Edmund]

Their fans and their parasocial relationship and worship of the C suites.

 

[Big Baller]

 

[LectureMaster]

Their internal confliction on strategy.

It felt like Xbox was not really clear what to achieve and how to make it happen.

Whether their games should be on other platforms; Game pass vs. sales figures; Continuation of traditional hardware, etc.

Rumour: Microsoft Employees 'Completely Confused' About New Xbox Strategy, Says Insider

"Most employees I have spoken to..."

www.purexbox.com

Xbox is changing and it’s confusing everyone

Microsoft’s gaming strategy continues to evolve and it’s all about going beyond the console.

www.theverge.com

Xbox's Strategy Just Doesn’t Seem Coherent And It’s Worrying

When I used to learn Business Studies I learnt about the value of businesses communicating their strategy effectively to consumers so they can buy into the vision and create a long-term relationship with an organisation which leads to repeat purchases.

pixelparables.substack.com

 

[Cert.in.Death]

Same reason as ever: why do I have to have THIS box?
And the answer is - and always has been - the games: first party software shat the bed and Xbox went out with it.

 

[Urban]

XboxOne was the most crutial one, because in that generation people invested heavy onto their digital library.

 

[simpatico]

Bone launch. They never recovered. I still think a simple Xbox 720 instead would still have them in the driver's seat. They had as much momentum as you can get.

 

[jm89]

 

[DoubleClutch]

Launching new hardware without a 1st party title for what was it? 18 months?

Yes, the drought was roughly that long and brought about a whole bunch of memes.

It was ludicrous that for all its money and being a software first company, Microsoft completely neglected software.

It had Sunset Overdrive a year into the cycle… exclusive but not first party.

 

[Hudo]

Don Mattrick and the direction he set Xbox on with the launch of Xbox One. Also him closing down PC studios like Ensemble Studios and making Microsoft's gaming arm abandon their biggest platform: Windows.

 

[Kilau]

A platform can overcome a lot of bad stuff like PlayStation did with the hack. What it can’t overcome is removing the very reason it’s supposed to exist, exclusives.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Dude can't see a great game

 

[RoboFu]

I'd argue the Series was worse. At least the One had some games.

Cause and effect.. series has no games because of Xbox one's failures.

 

[clarky]

Yes, the drought was roughly that long and brought about a whole bunch of memes.

It was ludicrous that for all its money and being a software first company, Microsoft completely neglected software.

It had Sunset Overdrive a year into the cycle… exclusive but not first party.

Im on about the Series consoles, Xbox one had quite a few good games around launch.

 

[buenoblue]

I have a friend who every month has a new idea to get ripped and big muscles, been saying these different things for years. But he barely even works out or eats well. I tell him you just got to do the work, lift regularly and eat well there are no shortcuts.

Microsoft just don't see the value in making good games above all else. They always try the "one neat trick" approach and try to cheat it. Or spend daddy's money. Just make great games and the rest will fall into place.

 

[Bartski]

disastrous first party studio management

 

[Hookshot]

1. Halo becoming crap. 2. Fighting Sony fairly instead of using MS's money to sell at a huge lose but binding people to the ecosystem. 3. Confusing console names and a lack of decent exclusive games.

 

[DoubleClutch]

Im on about the Series consoles, Xbox one had quite a few good games around launch.

Just goes to show you how confusing the naming really is LOL!

 

[Gilgalaad]

Him

Or the Xbox Marketing Team

 

[diffusionx]

Don Mattrick and the direction he set Xbox on with the launch of Xbox One. Also him closing down PC studios like Ensemble Studios and making Microsoft's gaming arm abandon their biggest platform: Windows.

say what you will about Xbox One - it sucked, and was a POS at launch - look at the lineup of games it had in the first year or two, Xbox fans would kill to have had that in the past, oh, six or seven years

What killed Xbox and made it irrelevant was porting everything to PC day one.

 

[TropicanaTwista]

Its the games. For basically 15 years, they're first party output is laughable compared to Nintendo and Sony. To the point it wasn't even worth to invest for me as a tertiary console.

Like there legitimately might have only been 2 games over that entire stretch where I was like, damn, I wish that was in a PlayStation or Nintendo machine. The fact that Phil and Matt Booty survived this long just does not compute in my brain.

 

[clarky]

Cause and effect.. series has no games because of Xbox one's failures.

It had no games because they had no studios and management failed to secure anything outsourced

Shambles.

 

[Heisenberg007]

There wasn't a singular mistake. There are always multiple mistakes that sink a big brand like Xbox.

But if I must pick only one, I'd say Game Pass.

They bellied up their entire business model, which was to sell first-party and third-party games, with Game Pass. They bet big, Game Pass didn't deliver as per expectations, and they got f'ed up.

Even if their hardware sales were down, they could have made a slow and gradual comeback by slowly releasing high-quality exclusives and regaining market shares (exactly how PlayStation and Nintendo did). They didn't have to reinvent the wheel, just follow a proven strategy.

 

[solecon64]

I said it before and I will continue to believe this - Xbox has been boring, with absolutely no interesting games, since 2010. But the biggest flop, in my opinion, was the Xbox One reveal and launch, with Sony completely demolishing Microsoft.

Keep in mind, the industry was in a pretty bad shape back in 2013. All sorts of articles about the end of console games, how everything was going mobile and PC.

And the first year of the generation wasn't really blowing up anyone. If we look back at 2014, there's not a lot of winners. And the 3DS was kicking everyone's ass.

So with all of that, with a very negative view on console gaming as a whole, for Microsoft to come out with the Xbox One, with all of its negative press, for Sony to own them publicly so hard, that was it. They just never recovered from that.

I'm not saying they couldn't have. Them going from one bad decision to another over the past 15 years definitely didn't help. But from then on out, they were definitely playing life on hard mode.

 

[Punished Miku]

Kakuto Chojin

 

[MMaRsu]

Online only drm totally destroyed Xbox because most people went with a PS following that, and they never recovered (also because Sony had a great gen with PS4)

A shame really, Xbox 360 was amazing. Although they were shitting it up at the end of the Lifecycle already with their Kinect bullshit.

 

[clarky]

say what you will about Xbox One - it sucked, and was a POS at launch - look at the lineup of games it had in the first year or two, Xbox fans would kill to have had that in the past, oh, six or seven years

What killed Xbox and made it irrelevant was porting everything to PC day one.

Nah, having zero decent games killed them. Doesn't matter if your bang average stuff is released on PC, nobody cared either way.

 

[diffusionx]

Nah, having zero decent games killed them. Doesn't matter if your bang average stuff is released on PC, nobody cared either way.

well, they just released a game that got GOTY consideration, did it make anyone care about Xbox? No, because people could play it on PC the same day it came out on Xbox.

 

[clarky]

There wasn't a singular mistake. There are always multiple mistakes that sink a big brand like Xbox.

But if I must pick only one, I'd say Game Pass.

They bellied up their entire business model, which was to sell first-party and third-party games, with Game Pass. They bet big, Game Pass didn't deliver as per expectations, and they got f'ed up.

Even if their hardware sales were down, they could have made a slow and gradual comeback by slowly releasing high-quality exclusives and regaining market shares (exactly how PlayStation and Nintendo did). They didn't have to reinvent the wheel, just follow a proven strategy.

Day one is a fucking stupid idea that ill never wrap my head around, id love to see the actual numbers.

Do 90 days exclusive to retail, like the movies model, that might have worked.

 

[Maogp]

This guy

 

[clarky]

well, they just released a game that got GOTY consideration, did it make anyone care about Xbox? No, because people could play it on PC the same day it came out on Xbox.

Damaged is what the op said.. They've already screwed the pooch at this point.

Nobody bought it on PC Anyhow.

 

[Giallo Corsa]

For me personally that I jumped back into the Xbox ecosystem in November 2020 with the XSX after years with a PS4, it was the games no-show plus the over promising and under delivering thing.
Perfect dark, Fable, Everwild and a couple more are STILL a no-show 4 years in and since it's release we've had, what ? A mediocre Halo game, Redfall, another mediocre, undercooked Bethesda game (Starfield/not MS's fault to be honest) and...?
Indiana Jones appears to be jolly good but 1 good exclusive do not a good platform make, which brings me to : it's not even exclusive (anymore) due to the late shenanigans...

In the end, a good well built and silent console, a good backwards compatibility feature and overhyping games to hell and back can only take you so far and it's a shame...

 

[Puscifer]

All those options and not a single one is "compelling games"

 

[clarky]

This guy

Funny thing is as bad as he was fat man Phil Is arguably worse.

 

[Kenneth Haight]

There have been no “must have” games in 5+ years

 

[clarky]

There have been no “must have” games in 5+ years

Indy is really good, easily the best thing that they've put out in years but they've somehow fucked that up as well.

 

[Sephimoth]

Mismanagement, lack of big hitters.

The SECOND everything was in place for them to finally be competitive, they... give up and start porting everything to PS5.
I want them to peak again, because it'll force currently arrogant and lazy Sony to start peaking as well. I want them battling it out like the good ol' days.

 

[diffusionx]

Damaged is what the op said.. They've already screwed the pooch at this point.

Nobody bought it on PC Anyhow.

everyone agrees there is a string of issues that led Xbox to where it is today, porting everything to PC day one was like doubling down on a bunch of terrible ideas

 

[Neff]

Bone launch. They never recovered.

This. People can rightly call out Series as a non-event, but the damage to the brand and the community was fatal by the time it rolled around.

 

[Topher]

It all started with Xbox One obviously. Something that doesn't get mentioned a lot but I think it was pivotal was the DRM focus with Xbox One and the entire anti-used games strategy that was pushed. That narrative lived on long after Microsoft reversed course on those idiotic ideas.

From the list, forcing Kinect in the box caused the price to jump to $500. That coupled with the weaker hardware did a lot of damage to the Xbox brand.

But if nothing else, that list shows how poorly Xbox has been managed for 10+ years now. Hard to imagine Xbox ever stood toe to toe with PlayStation.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Just a slow rot of not having compelling games for so many years. It became a joke during the Kinect era of 2011. It became a disaster by 2022.