What will be "The Year of the Xbox"

Kleegamefan · Feb 2, 2019

It's been well documented Microsoft are making lots of good moves and are positioning themselves expertly for the next generation.

From forward-thinking platform initiatives like xCloud and GamePass, to quality studio acquisitions like Ninja Theory and Obsidian to engineering standouts like the Xbox Adaptive Controller and Xbox One X down to the small quality of life details like VRR and Xbox Community Content, the depth and breath of Microsoft turnaround of the Xbox platform is in my view certainly progressive, comprehensive and impressive.

That said, I ask you, when will everything come together and bear meaningful fruit?

When will it be Microsoft's turn to be included in game of the year discussions? Or become the next games media darlings?
Garner all them 90+ metacritic scores?
Be celebrated at the VGAs, BAFTA and D.I.C.E.

In other words ; what will be the Year of the Xbox?

For some reason I believe 2022 (the 3rd year))is going to be a banner year for Xbox. It will be past the post -launch games lull and will be the Year some of the first 2nd generation Scarlett software start arriving from Microsoft's licensees and 1st party studios acquisitions.

This could be similar to PS4s 3rd year, 2015, in which we received Bloodborne, Until Dawn, The Witcher 3 and MGS5!

I feel 2022 is the year Xbox will REALLY get a lot respect, IMO.

Caiusto · Feb 2, 2019

Jaded Alyx · Feb 2, 2019

Impossible to know at this point.

You're basically operating on hunches and wishes.

Doom_Bringer · Feb 2, 2019

gogojira · Feb 2, 2019

On one hand, they're doing a lot of good things and making moves that might help them out eventually. That's nice and cool.

On the other, their competition is doing fantastic now. Saying 2022 is the year of the Xbox sounds awful. They better move quicker than that.

GamerDude · Feb 2, 2019

I think it will be the year that Halo Infinite launches early and the new Fable launches late. I'll say 2020.

Crayon · Feb 2, 2019

Three years in is a bit late. They should probably make something happen before like 18 months from now when a bunch of people decide what they're going to stick with or what they're going to switch to.

Chuck the Bean · Feb 2, 2019

Caiusto said:
2007

I laughed

Cocolina · Feb 2, 2019

Caiusto said:
2007

lol, yep

Thiago · Feb 2, 2019

Caiusto said:
2007

We're done here.

Astandahl · Feb 2, 2019

Caiusto said:
2007

Kleegamefan · Feb 2, 2019

Jaded Alyx said:
Impossible to know at this point.

You're basically operating on hunches and wishes.

Fair enough. I do really feel they have some really talented studios in their stable which could, at last, bring us something OTHER than just more Halo, Forza and Gears.

Dr Pears · Feb 2, 2019

They really need a megabomb new IP, they really struggled to push groundbreaking new IP this gen. And their tired old franchises like Gears and Halo need a God of War 2018 level reboot.

Servbot24 · Feb 2, 2019

2022 is a good guess. I think it's definitely a few years away. We're not getting much this year, and next year Halo will be the headliner, which is fine but it's hard to imagine Halo winning GOTY these days. By 2021-2022 hopefully they should be firing on all cylinders. That said it's very hard for me to congratulate MS for maybe having better games in a few years, I need to see it to believe it and then I'll say they've done a good job. Who knows if it will be a Wii U situation, where Nintendo basically abandoned it for a couple years and we assumed they were stockpiling games for Switch. Which didn't really turn out to be the case with Switch having pretty standard good and bad stretches.

Kleegamefan · Feb 2, 2019

Caiusto said:
2007

Bravo

chrisPjelly · Feb 2, 2019

With their newly acquired studios, maybe in three or 4 years?

Servbot24 · Feb 2, 2019

gogojira said:
On the other, their competition is doing fantastic now. Saying 2022 is the year of the Xbox sounds awful. They better move quicker than that.

Especially when they haven't had a banner year in as long as I can remember. This is why I don't quite get all the forecasts for success XBox is getting. The OS stuff is great but new games are 20x more important.

Conor419 · Feb 2, 2019

2007 had Halo 3, Mass Effect, Crackdown and PGR4.

Aokiji · Feb 2, 2019

Kleegamefan said:
This could be similar to PS4s 3rd year, 2015, in which we received Bloodborne, Until Dawn, The Witcher 3 and MGS5

Kleegamefan · Feb 2, 2019

Servbot24 said:
2022 is a good guess. I think it's definitely a few years away. We're not getting much this year, and next year Halo will be the headliner, which is fine but it's hard to imagine Halo winning GOTY these days. By 2021-2022 hopefully they should be firing on all cylinders. That said it's very hard for me to congratulate MS for maybe having better games in a few years, I need to see it to believe it and then I'll say they've done a good job. Who knows if it will be a Wii U situation, where Nintendo basically abandoned it for a couple years and we assumed they were stockpiling games for Switch. Which didn't really turn out to be the case with Switch having pretty standard good and bad stretches.

Yeah. Good point

Betty · Feb 2, 2019

They need to have games that can out hype stuff like Pokemon, Zelda, Spider-Man, God of War, Final Fantasy, etc, and I just don't see it.

Possibly whenever Obsidian's first true Xbox exclusive releases.

pswii60 · Feb 2, 2019

Whichever year Ori and the Will of the Wisps is releasing.

gogojira said:
On one hand, they're doing a lot of good things and making moves that might help them out eventually. That's nice and cool.

On the other, their competition is doing fantastic now. Saying 2022 is the year of the Xbox sounds awful. They better move quicker than that.

Indeed they can't afford to have nothing big during the first couple of years of next gen. But it depends what they're doing with external devs too, stuff there might be coming quite a bit sooner. First party isn't just their internal studios.

Betty said:
They need to have games that can out hype stuff like Pokemon, Zelda, Spider-Man, God of War, Final Fantasy, etc, and I just don't see it.

Possibly whenever Obsidian's first true Xbox exclusive releases.

It feels like that now, I get it. But despite what many here might suggest, a truly epic new big budget Halo game would be exactly that - of which Infinite appears to be as a semi-reboot. It's fair to say Microsoft's first party games this gen - FH and Ori aside - have mostly suffered from a lack of budget/resource/support/ambition. They fix that and put out quality head-turners and the hype will follow. They need big new IPs though to expand their portfolio - they've tried many new IPs this gen from Sunset Overdrive to Quantum Break but none of them have really hit the mark. But I wouldn't count them out now they have a budget and support of wider MS - especially given even Nadella keeps talking about them aggressively funding content. Interesting times ahead.

But you're absolutely right that Sony has the content right now, they're starting from a huge advantage. Microsoft will do best to invest in genres and types of games that Sony is neglecting, to differentiate themselves.

WhtR88t · Feb 2, 2019

IMO it needs to be more than a year worth of quality titles, hardware and services. They have a lot to prove, they're off to a good start with Gamepass, BC, the studio acquisitions etc, but they need to keep improving and building up their community again. They just need to be consistent for many years with quality games. They're kinda 1 for 3 right now in their history of video games (360 'won' and was awesome, but OG Xbox and One weren't the greatest).

Consistency builds trust and they haven't been consistent with stuff over the years. Makes me hesitant to jump immediately onboard with whatever they're planning next.

GamerDude · Feb 2, 2019

pswii60 said:
Whichever year Ori and the Will of the Wisps is releasing.

So this year then?

I don't think 2019 will be The Year of Xbox, but I do think it will be a great year for Xbox with Ori 2 and Gears 5. Best year for Xbox since 2016.

Blade Wolf · Feb 2, 2019

No seriously, it's 2007.

Deleted member 36622 · Feb 2, 2019

Servbot24 said:
2022 is a good guess. I think it's definitely a few years away. We're not getting much this year, and next year Halo will be the headliner, which is fine but it's hard to imagine Halo winning GOTY these days. By 2021-2022 hopefully they should be firing on all cylinders. That said it's very hard for me to congratulate MS for maybe having better games in a few years, I need to see it to believe it and then I'll say they've done a good job. Who knows if it will be a Wii U situation, where Nintendo basically abandoned it for a couple years and we assumed they were stockpiling games for Switch. Which didn't really turn out to be the case with Switch having pretty standard good and bad stretches.

That's actually more or less what happened.

Breath of the Wild saved for Switch launch, Mario + Rabbids was a Ubisoft pitch for Wii U and then saved for Switch, and i remember there were few other cases. (i wouldn't be surprised if the Battle Arena in MK8dx was originally designed as DLC for MK8)

The real problem with Microsoft was not just the number of studios but how they handle these projects, how much impact has Microsoft on these exclusives? and are they happy to rely on the same meh comfort food? Like would they take another State of Decay or another Crackdown which is a more of the same? They have a number of IPs which desperately needs reboot or more ambitious sequels in my opinion.

Look at Nintendo, they scrapped MP4 entirely, and they are restarting now because they thought the project was not meeting their expectations and not on par with the trilogy, under Microsoft that would have probably been cancelled by now and for a reason, throwing in the garbage 2 years of development is a big cost.

Deleted member 22750 · Feb 2, 2019

it could be 2020 in USA

if they release a 12 flop 399$ nextxbox

lol

Deleted member 16657 · Feb 2, 2019

I honestly don't know who Xbox is supposed to appeal to right now. I would wager most Xbox owners would like to go PS5 next gen for the exclusives, and they can even play PS4 exclusive they might have missed this gen. If someone were to press me for five good reasons to pick up an Xbox over the other options, I don't think I could give them.

SweetNicole · Feb 2, 2019

Caiusto said:
2007

First post delivers.

upinsmoke · Feb 2, 2019

For me they need to put out a couple of real GOTY contenders in a year to be considered a stellar year and Forza, Halo and Gears aren't gonna cut it like they did 10 years ago. No chance

They need to be braver in there AAA games line-up.

Dominic Snyder · Feb 2, 2019

I don't remember seeing that one on my dinner placemat.

Lant_War · Feb 2, 2019

Betty said:
They need to have games that can out hype stuff like Pokemon, Zelda, Spider-Man, God of War, Final Fantasy, etc, and I just don't see it.

Possibly whenever Obsidian's first true Xbox exclusive releases.

Are we forgetting Halo and Gears exist or something

Cocolina · Feb 2, 2019

kind of wishful thinking that Ori 2 and Obsidian will be the things that make the Xbox rise to the occasion

DarkFlame92 · Feb 2, 2019

we have to look at the chinese calendar

TheKeyPit · Feb 2, 2019

Kleegamefan said:
When will it be Microsoft's turn to be included in game of the year discussions?

Poor Forza Horizon...

Hudsoniscool · Feb 2, 2019

Without getting into any console war stuff I feel like 2020 could be the pinnacle turning year for Xbox as a whole(not just the console but the whole brand).
2020 will see the release of Microsoft's biggest budgeted game ever(halo infinite). The onslot of the first party titles from the newly purchased studios will begin in 2020. A couple releases but likely lots of reveals from all the new teams.

2020 will see the release of not 1 but 2 next gen consoles that will hopefully be the pinnacle of design. Xbox one OG had bad design honestly. Underpowered, oversized, power brick, ugly, overpriced, and forced accessories. Truly a disaster. The one S came out and fixed what it could. The most eye pleasing of any Microsoft console among other things. The x released the following year with great design again. Also the smallest console by Microsoft ever. If their recent trend continues andaconda and Lockhart should hit it out of the park.

the X cloud is to be in beta this year. Full release by the end of the year or early 2020. Xbox will have the ability to reach much more gamers through it.

Phil has said pc gaming is now being focused on. I expect a revamped store. I expect pc, Xbox consoles, and x cloud to be more integrated together. Some of this work done this year but i expect most of the kinks to be ironed out in 2020. Age of empire 4 should line-up with the new revamped and rebranded store in 2020.

This has nothing to do with any of Microsoft's competitors. It could also be the pinnacle year for Sony and Nintendo.

Dojima · Feb 2, 2019

Can't really predict exact year but they're definitely going in the right way. If I have to pick I'll go with next gen

Possum Armada · Feb 2, 2019

Jaded Alyx said:
Impossible to know at this point.

You're basically operating on hunches and wishes.

This. How the hell are we supposed to know?

IvorB · Feb 2, 2019

I think it already happened...

ClickyCal' · Feb 2, 2019

Even 2007 is debatable. Uncharted and RandC tools of destruction. I'll still give it to 360 overall.

Hudsoniscool · Feb 2, 2019

JessePJ said:
They really need a megabomb new IP, they really struggled to push groundbreaking new IP this gen. And their tired old franchises like Gears and Halo need a God of War 2018 level reboot.

Halo is getting a big reboot. 5 year dev time, 500-600 people on the game. New engine. Hinted at some form of open word or exploration by 343, revamped art style.

Deleted member 3017 · Feb 2, 2019

yuoke said:
Even 2007 is debatable. Uncharted and RandC tools of destruction. I'll still give it to 360 overall.

If those are your counterarguments, 2007 was definitely a win for Xbox.

Betty · Feb 2, 2019

Lant_War said:
Are we forgetting Halo and Gears exist or something

Considering the last Gears came and went without any fanfare and the last Halo had the most divisive reception yet, I'd say they've lost their juggernaut status and then some.

Hence the big shake-ups each series is receiving in their upcoming outings. They might be able to strike back into pop culture status but it feels unlikely at this point.

Crazier things have happened though.

Cocolina · Feb 2, 2019

yuoke said:
Even 2007 is debatable. Uncharted and RandC tools of destruction. I'll still give it to 360 overall.

If you're going to bring other consoles into this then 2007, like every year of that generation, was the year of the Wii.

Joni · Feb 2, 2019

2022 would be about the year I'd except Nintendo to launch their Switch follow-up.

Cocolina said:
If you're going to bring other consoles into this then 2007, like every year of that generation, was the year of the Wii.

Indeed. 2007 had Super Mario Galaxy

xxracerxx · Feb 2, 2019

Cocolina said:
If you're going to bring other consoles into this then 2007, like every year of that generation, was the year of the Wii.

The "year of" doesn't mean the best selling though (not in my mind, at least). It can mean things like gaining huge traction, having the best exclusives released, etc.

ClickyCal' · Feb 2, 2019

OrbitalBeard said:
If those are your counterarguments, 2007 was definitely a win for Xbox.

I'd say really only because of uncharted 1 vs halo 3. Halo 3 is considered the peak of the series.

Hudsoniscool · Feb 2, 2019

PogChamp said:
I honestly don't know who Xbox is supposed to appeal to right now. I would wager most Xbox owners would like to go PS5 next gen for the exclusives, and they can even play PS4 exclusive they might have missed this gen. If someone were to press me for five good reasons to pick up an Xbox over the other options, I don't think I could give them.

People who like online games? Xbox live?

PlayStation is great, and there's some real quality stuff their. Great single player games. last of us, god of war, spiderman, horizon. Great games that I wish where on Xbox. Notice anything about those games? All single player 3rd person action games.

I love those kind of games and that where Microsoft is definitely lacking but I love online games, racers, strategy games tooo. Assuming ps5 is backwards compatibile I'll probably get it at launch but I mainly play online games with my family and friends. And honestly the best place for me as an online gamer is Xbox.

Cocolina · Feb 2, 2019

xxracerxx said:
The "year of" doesn't mean the best selling though (not in my mind, at least). It can mean things like gaining huge traction, having the best exclusives released, etc.

And then I'd still argue the Wii would meet those subjective criteria. What I'd like to avoid is using "year of" as a comparison marker and rather as an introspection device.

ClickyCal' · Feb 2, 2019

Cocolina said:
If you're going to bring other consoles into this then 2007, like every year of that generation, was the year of the Wii.

I agree completely there, was just comparing the two.

xxracerxx said:
The "year of" doesn't mean the best selling though (not in my mind, at least). It can mean things like gaining huge traction, having the best exclusives released, etc.

A lot would argue the wii had the best exclusives that year, and it gained huge traction in 2007.

What will be "The Year of the Xbox"

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