It’s a bad sign to have more puppets at The Game Awards than at the Xbox world premiere. As someone who has played and watched Xbox for 20 years, I’m not sure I’ve ever been more confused by the console maker’s decision. I tweeted My disappointment as soon as the industry’s flashiest event of the year happens awkward ending, and if hundreds of replies to that tweet tell me anything, it’s not that hot. How is that possible? Microsoft really showed nothing next year, despite promising us a great 2023 last summer. Xbox Showcase.
In June last year I stupid statement The exclusion drought lasted years before Microsoft’s great fall of 2021. In hindsight, that period was the exception rather than the new rule. Xbox fans have had a particularly dry year (thanks Obsidian’s greatif appropriate, though, Pentiment!) and also get to see PlayStation exclusives delight PS5 owners at The Game Awards all night long, from tell first arrive Final Fantasy XVI arrive dead aground 2.
Then, to add another jolt in the groin, Xbox players watched Sony-backed developers make their way to the The Game Awards stage to claim one award after another for their games. awesome exclusive game they released throughout 2022.
“
Even die-hard Xbox fans love it Kobrille express their disappointment. There was simply no Microsoft protection, and I was scratching my head. Clearly the company has a strategy. The Xbox leadership team didn’t wake up the day of the show in a cold sweat and exclaim, “Oh no, we forgot The Game Awards!” like they were Kevin McCallister’s mom in Home Alone. The only, dominant theory that has been discussed online after Microsoft’s “presence” at the show is that it was deliberately lowered under the watchful eye of the FTC, who sued Microsoft on The Game Awards day to try and thwart its $69 billion Activision-Blizzard-King acquisition attempt. I didn’t buy it. The FTC won’t care if Microsoft puts out release date trailers (with solid shipping dates for the big games being what Xbox is in dire need of right now) for Redfall, Starfield, or Forza . sports car racing. All of these games are from studios that they have owned or acquired without much concern from the regulatory authority of any country. Or, you know, announced a new project from The Coalition, id Software or Compulsion Games. The first trailer from Todd Howard’s Indiana Jones Project and MachineGames will be very interesting.
But suppose Microsoft’s strategy is really to try to be as weak as possible in the face of its competition as it seeks to appease the FTC and CMA. In that case…mission accomplished. Congratulations, I guess? Team Green looks like a third-place console maker despite acquiring dozens of new studios to produce their exclusive games over the past five years. Where are the games? If they are saved for Microsoft’s own events, then how to get new people into the tent? It was just preaching to the choir. Game Awards allow you to reach an audience that hasn’t listened to you yet – and that’s exactly who Microsoft needs to draw attention to.
“
If we look back at Phil Spencer’s Xbox Era, the era is coming to an end ninth year At this point, I honestly think he deserves an almost all-out A+. Xbox One S and X are awesome, so is Series X powerful because it’s silent and reliable, and the Series S has proven to be a breakthrough in the chip shortage supply chain. The backward compatibility initiative has been a resounding success, as has the industry-changing Xbox Game Pass program, which is great for gamers. Microsoft has also made significant positive changes to its culture under Spencer’s supervision, as Microsoft recently recognized The largest association of game developers. But from the point of view of the major exclusives Xbox has shipped in those nine years, Spencer gets the highest D, and he’s almost dangerously close to slipping at this point.
As 2022 draws to a close, allow me to paint you a meme in the words: Xbox player is Charlie Brown, Microsoft is Lucy, and the promise of big exclusives is football. Yes, the timelines are affected by the pandemic. Yes, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was direct affected many Xbox exclusives. And yes, shipping the game too soon would be a misstep. But the fact remains that Xbox is now proud TWENTY THREE studios in first-party portfolios. The fact that this year ended without exactly an AAA effort from Xbox Game Studios was hard enough for Xbox players, but for Xbox to show up at The Game Awards empty-handed like millions of gamers looking at is simply unforgivable. Microsoft is almost out of goodwill with its audience. Any hope of the company to regain lost thought sharing amid the series of missteps in the Xbox One era is rapidly slipping out of hand, with no one to blame but themselves.
Ryan McCaffrey is the executive editor of IGN previews and the weekly Xbox host of both IGN, Podcasts are unlockedas well as our monthly (-ish) interview program, Unfiltered IGN. He’s North Jersey, so it’s “Taylor ham”, not “spring rolls”. Debate him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
