This is my opinion too. I don't see how the Xbox brand had any edgyness to it all
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Has Xbox successfully shed its "edgy, masculine, GAMER" brand?
- Thread starter Babu93
- Start date
How are we supposed to judge this? From how we view them ourselves? To me they're becoming synonymous with Game Pass: They're the Netflix of gaming.
In terms of first party games they certainly have the most diversified portfolio, releasing games in practically every genre whether it's RTS, cinematic games, MMOs, or anything else. There's hardly a genre they don't have something in and if we count ABK and look at the 13 titles (8 AAA games, 5 AA or smaller titles) they've got announced for release over the next year, while there's games like Call of Duty, Diablo 4 and Starfield, you also have smaller or weirder titles like Pentiment, As Dusk falls, Minecraft Legends and Ghostwire Tokyo on Xbox. Even Deathloop Xbox doesn't really strike me as being that edgy.
In terms of first party games they certainly have the most diversified portfolio, releasing games in practically every genre whether it's RTS, cinematic games, MMOs, or anything else. There's hardly a genre they don't have something in and if we count ABK and look at the 13 titles (8 AAA games, 5 AA or smaller titles) they've got announced for release over the next year, while there's games like Call of Duty, Diablo 4 and Starfield, you also have smaller or weirder titles like Pentiment, As Dusk falls, Minecraft Legends and Ghostwire Tokyo on Xbox. Even Deathloop Xbox doesn't really strike me as being that edgy.
The main big Xbox channels are all entry points for far rights rethoric with the "PS hate" as an excuse
Eh, I don't think they have totally moved away from it but they have made significant steps to distance themselves from that image that tends to harbor particularly toxic fans.
Their exclusives are finally kind of going in the direction of being more diverse but the xbox itself still feels like a shooting and sports brand first given the popularity of those exclusives. I imagine that with all these recent aquisitions we'll see that slowly change as new games come out.
I definitely hope tha they continue on this trend, moving away from the toxic elements and giving space to more diverse voices and opportunities.
Their exclusives are finally kind of going in the direction of being more diverse but the xbox itself still feels like a shooting and sports brand first given the popularity of those exclusives. I imagine that with all these recent aquisitions we'll see that slowly change as new games come out.
I definitely hope tha they continue on this trend, moving away from the toxic elements and giving space to more diverse voices and opportunities.
A lot of that is videogame culture on the whole - the branding catered towards that, just as many PC gaming brands still do.
The name Xbox and the glowing green LED vibe of the original machine, the giant man hand controller and the launch titles including DOA3 are all good markers of that for the time.
It does seem that Xbox is very much trying to present itself in a way that doesn't cater just to those people, the same for Sony.
Personally , I still think gaming still feels very much like that unless you step just outside of the mainstream titles.
Attending a games show or midnight launch in any country gives you a good indication of what the gaming public looks like and it's feels just as undiverse as your typical big sport crowd.
Brazil? I heard about an Xbox fan group there extremely toxic but can't remember the name.
They indeed promote Bolsonaro BS on their streams.
Spain, the "anti feminist" videos about HFW and TLOU2 are plenty and its a rabbit hole to the main far right party of the country, VOX
Almost nothing about their recent showcase gave me this impression, especially first party wise. It was very standard Xbox.
Yup.
The fact that Aaron Greenberg engages with dimwits like Sasel (of course he's a Vox voter) is fucking amazing tho
Outstanding content creator 😖
User Banned (1 Week): Inflammatory Generalizations
Yeah, no need to do an extended research to see the correlation between Xbox and the far right sadlyYup.
The fact that Aaron Greenberg engages with dimwits like Sasel (of course he's a Vox voter) is fucking amazing tho
Fucking amazing content creator 😖
I think this perception is caused by some loud toxic fanboys, but to say that they represent the Xbox community in Brazil is just ridiculous. Said influencers don't even have a big following.
There is no big Xbox influencer in Brazil, and the one you're referring to is just so known because of how shitty he is.
To be honest, I'd argue gaming in general is a lot less "gamer bro" overall than it was during the PS3/360 era, and this is just a reflection of that.
I'm really not a fan of their social media strategy these days, but it seems to be working for them.
I'm really not a fan of their social media strategy these days, but it seems to be working for them.
I don't think Aaron has the time to do a background research on all the people he interacts with on social media.
I, myself, have followed or liked some things from console warriors, but then blocked these accounts when seeing what they were about.
First party games they showed:
- Redfall
- Forza Motorsport
- Microsoft Flight Simulator
- Ara History Untold
- Minecraft Legends
- Ara: History Untold
- Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels
- Pentiment
- Grounded
- As Dusk Falls
- Sea of Thieves Captaincy Update
- Starfield
That really wasnt my intention to associate all Xbox fans of Brazil to this group, sorry if it was understood like that.
But at the same time he (they?) made news in some horrible fashion and it stuck with me.
They're games have come a long way. Things like Pentiment not only wouldn't get made by MS before, it certainly wouldn't be highlighted in their past conferences. They still lean a bit too much into shooting games, but it's been a massive improvement from 10 years ago.
Phil's stage presence seems oozes lots of Dad-energy, so that probably helps as well lol
Phil's stage presence seems oozes lots of Dad-energy, so that probably helps as well lol
How are Pentiment, Ara, Grounded, a Dusk Falls, Minecraft Legend etc a very standard Xbox? Unless you mean the new standard they have these last years.
I assume this earlier impression during 360 and before era was due to their biggest franchises being shooters (Halo, Gears, main console for CoD gamers) and racing (PGR, Forza). But atleast on MS side of things the association will naturally decrease over time as their output becomes more diverse with all the studio acquisitions.
Maybe having/creating some big franchises will female/non-binary lead will help with this too, like Kait?
Maybe having/creating some big franchises will female/non-binary lead will help with this too, like Kait?
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This is just my anecdotal and personal experience but growing up in the OG Xbox/360 era I knew just as many, if not more girls who played Xbox (and games in general) as boys. I saw the stereotypes and "dudebro" stuff be associated with Xbox in the mid-2000s online but it never rang true in my day-to-day life as a kid. I also resent that Gears has been lumped into the dudebro category because I think there's much more to the franchise than that, but I'll refrain from posting a screed about that for now.
But in college I definitely saw a bit more of that after I stepped out of my bubble into the wider world. I remember bringing a girl (who was one of my old Smash Bros. friends from high school) onto the campus and one of the guys we were hanging with made some snarky "I didn't know GIRLS played video games lol" comments. I asked him later why he said that and he said he had genuinely never met a woman who played games, which was shocking to me.
I guess all I'm getting at is that our own upbringing can reflect what we see as edgy and masculine too. Sure, a game like Gears can have wildly proportioned guys yelling about stuff but it never really felt like a "boys only no girls allowed" game to me because I knew plenty of girls growing up who played it.
But in college I definitely saw a bit more of that after I stepped out of my bubble into the wider world. I remember bringing a girl (who was one of my old Smash Bros. friends from high school) onto the campus and one of the guys we were hanging with made some snarky "I didn't know GIRLS played video games lol" comments. I asked him later why he said that and he said he had genuinely never met a woman who played games, which was shocking to me.
I guess all I'm getting at is that our own upbringing can reflect what we see as edgy and masculine too. Sure, a game like Gears can have wildly proportioned guys yelling about stuff but it never really felt like a "boys only no girls allowed" game to me because I knew plenty of girls growing up who played it.
I think all platforms are just diversifying. That's really the only way you grow. It's helped them all shed some of the labels people have put on them in the past.
I still know more casual gamers who think Nintendo console is the pg console, Xbox is the western/shooter console, and Sony is the eastern/jrpg console. They don't really play many games though so whatever's.
I still know more casual gamers who think Nintendo console is the pg console, Xbox is the western/shooter console, and Sony is the eastern/jrpg console. They don't really play many games though so whatever's.
Major Nelson was actually very useful from the launch of the 360 until about maybe 2010. Remember, the 360 launched in a time before Twitter and people were still transitioning from getting their gaming news from magazines. So the fact that you could go to his website and he would post when demos were up, DLC was available, etc. was pretty huge at the time.
It was pretty clear when he had to defend the XBox One rollout at the beginning of that generation that people were moving on from viewing him as a source.
Pretty much my experience. And Sony courted them. Hence why they locked up CoD and have grabbed the fighting game community as well (who are just as dudebro as the CoD guys)
It's funny, Gears was the archetype, but FPS games like CoD used to be seen as the dudiest and Broiest in the Xbox 360 era and yet when Sony got the marketing a lot of folks switched up. The fact that CoD is year on year is easily the best-selling game on PlayStation tells its own story. Everyone is a bro lol
Anybody that thinks Xbox still has a dude bro type energy in present day has their opinions stuck a decade+ in the past.
I don't think acknowledgement is 'worship' if you want to see true 'cringe' Exec worship go back a few years when places like Neogaf used to make 100s of gifs of people like kaz hirai who to my knowledge only him and Reggie have had as many gifs made with their faces in. I mean at one Sony conference E3 one year they even showed all the gifs on-screen at an official show.
Thankfully that period of extreme exec obsession has gladly passed us by.
I don't think Xbox has really had that brand since the One. The brand they do have though is that it's American centric as opposed to their more global competitors.
In Europe the PS 4/5 is much more the dudebro console with CoD and Fifa.
In Denmark where I live, the Xbox is almost a niche thing.
In Denmark where I live, the Xbox is almost a niche thing.
Likewise in Finland. Now that I think of it, I don't even know anyone who would have owned Xbox since Xbox360. Also funny to think that in that era PS3 felt almost as niche here as Xbox is now. Not much brand loyalty, but over here platform wars have always been mostly about consoles vs. PC rather than console vs. console.
Less shootbang, more dull corporate American product for the whitecollar American middleclass.
This personified (companified?)
I need Microsoft Office to get an Xbox port.
Among people who actually play the system, the opinion has definitely changed, but I recall when I ordered my XSX and expressed my excitement in our regular group chat, I got decidedly shitted on by 2 people because "what are you, some sort of frat bro? Ohhhhhh come over we got pizza, we got Mountain Dew, let's sexually assault women"
So, suffice to say that the perception of Xbox for gamerdudebros has not gone away
So, suffice to say that the perception of Xbox for gamerdudebros has not gone away
In total XGS + Bethesda has a 12 American studio to 10 not American studios split. It's fairly even.
Similar to Sony who has 10 American studios and 10 non-American studios.
Nintendo is the most centralized given all of their developers aside from Retro and Next Level are in Japan.
I definitely do think it used to have that, and I think the fact that it's shed that a little bit inadvertently due to the decline in popularity of their flagship franchises, particular Gears of War and Halo.
Still, when I ask my girlfriend about XBOX she really dislikes it, because she still has that association. She'd never want an XBOX over a Playstation or Switch, because she doesn't feel like it's a platform that caters to her very well. Not just because of Halo and Gears of War, but because games like Horizon and The Last of Us (games with great female characters), are only on Playstation.
She doesn't associate any of the Bethesda stuff with XBOX yet. I don't think people outside of gaming enthusiasts would. They need a few more years and many shipped titles.
Still, when I ask my girlfriend about XBOX she really dislikes it, because she still has that association. She'd never want an XBOX over a Playstation or Switch, because she doesn't feel like it's a platform that caters to her very well. Not just because of Halo and Gears of War, but because games like Horizon and The Last of Us (games with great female characters), are only on Playstation.
She doesn't associate any of the Bethesda stuff with XBOX yet. I don't think people outside of gaming enthusiasts would. They need a few more years and many shipped titles.
Definetly, imo. I think Xbox has really worked out their image to be seen as an all-open platform for everyone. It has been a while ever since i've last seen Xbox been directly linked to toxicity, rispid masculinity, edginess, etc etc etc. Finally shed the 360-era imagery
Since a lot of people don't understand what "dudebro" is, let me break it down:
"Dudebro": Games I don't like.
"Not Dudebro": Games I do like.
Hope this helps.
"Dudebro": Games I don't like.
"Not Dudebro": Games I do like.
Hope this helps.
It's not just where their studios are though. Kojima and Kojipro are Japanese and their games are clearly aimed for the west for example. Similarly I think it's also not a weird opinion to say that Sony also started aiming for the west with all their games and sort of neglecting the east. But their third party partners fill the gap for them there.
🤣 thread keeps delivering.I've never seen such a dudebro game in my life.
I've never seen such a dudebro game in my life.
Nothing is more DudeBro than religion.
I've never seen such a dudebro game in my life.
Dude is clearly digging for a Doritos / Mtn Dew treasure cache.
But surely you have to seperate the image of Xbox as a company, and the image a group of fans are projecting?
Unless you believe the way Xbox markets itself actively encourages far right hate speech?