470°

The Xbox One’s Incredible Comeback

Alex DS. from Link Cable Gaming writes: "While Xbox fans and gamers have plenty of reasons to be excited about the future, I wanted to take a bit of a look back at how we got to this point, how the Xbox One’s early struggles led them to completely revamp their business model and set them up for success down the road."

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gamingtext2020838d ago

Like always it’s going to come down to the games. Until MS releases that “must-have/system seller” title, it’s bit premature to say it’s a comeback.

You knee jerk fans are acting like Nintendo and Sony is just going to sit idle and not release any titles because MS is the process to make this acquisition with Activison/Blizzard.

LoveSpuds838d ago (Edited 838d ago )

Even with Xbox acquisition of Bethesda and Activision, Xbox is still behind Sony and Nintendo in respect of turnover and profit, which is bonkers to think about really. Its crazy just how profitable Sony and Nintendo's gaming divisions are raking in!

I cannot help but think that MS have a firm eye on King and will look to use them to get a huge foothold in the mobile market. There is no downplaying the importance of COD even if it isn't as relevant a franchise as it once was but otherwise, I was more impressed by the purchase of Bethesda that Activision as in my opinion they have better studios and a better catalogue of IP.

Army_of_Darkness838d ago

Candy crush, call of duty and WoW are probably the top 3 reasons why MS acquired Act Blizzard.They are indeed huge money makers! But personally, it does not effect me in any way because I've never had interest in any of those franchises. If ms however, bought Capcom or square enix I'd have to definitely get a decent gaming pc.

Lightning77838d ago

"Even with Xbox acquisition of Bethesda and Activision, Xbox is still behind Sony"

Why would they suddenly be ahead? Nothing's changed yet.

CYALTR836d ago

"Xbox" didn't acquire anything, Microsoft did and their profits absolutely dwarf those of either Sony or Nintendo. My point is that MS can operate their gaming division at a loss for as long as they want, they have that much money. What they are trying to do is take their gaming division and make it align better with their other ventures. MS is a software company, always has been, it is what they do best.

It will be interesting to watch.

onisama838d ago

Horizon 5 and halo is most have.... I think its just about what must have is for your own taste

Rocosaurus838d ago

For me MS flight sim is an absolute must have.

MIDGETonSTILTS17838d ago

Nah, Horizon isn’t a must have. Plenty of ppl don’t care about racers, even the best racers.

And Halo is considered old by kids nowadays.

MIDGETonSTILTS17838d ago

Would it kill M$ to develop some new IPs? How often does Sony do a fifth sequel?

darthv72838d ago

@Midget... GT and GoW come to mind. Reboots and spin offs count towards the overall franchise numbers.

MIDGETonSTILTS17838d ago

I don’t count God of War 2018 as a fifth, and racing games will always have a ton of sequels, it’s their nature.

Bungie left 343 because they didn’t want to do Halo 4.

Army_of_Darkness838d ago (Edited 838d ago )

@Darth

The thing is, Sony releases new IPS just as much as their old franchises so it balances out, therefore nobody really complains when you see 6 God of War games and 7 Gran Turismos because we get Ghost of tsushima, Last of Us, death stranding and Horizon zero Dawn as new ips to compliment them... MS however, has really no new ips and only relies on Halo, Forza and Gears of War... We can also add COD into the mix now 😉

darthv72838d ago (Edited 838d ago )

@army, I get that but midget asked so I answered.

@midget, the 2018 GoW would be the 7th. Like i said, spin offs count towards the franchise numbers. GoW had 3 numbered games, 2 psp spin offs (later ported to console) and a prequel. Oh and a mobile and 2 compilations if you really want to count those. All of which were before the 2018 reboot. Now that i think of it... LBP is up to 6 entries now. 3 main numbered games, 2 portable spin offs and a reboot (so to speak).

And for what its worth. Gears has 5 main games, 1 prequel and 1 spin off (RTS). Halo has 6 main games (Master chief centered), 1 prequel, and 3 spin offs (2 are RTS) 1 mobile and 1 compilation. Forza has 7 main entries, Forza Horizon has 5.

Just because something has a long running history of releases doesnt make it a bad thing. There must be some appeal to it to have such longevity. Just look at final Fantasy series.

MIDGETonSTILTS17837d ago

Play God of War 3, and then play God of War 2018; they are different games entirely.

By comparison, play Gears of War 2 vs 5. 5 clearly is built on the mechanics of 2. This was not the case for God of War 2018.

GoW 2018 is part of the franchise, but it is not a fifth sequel like Gears 5. They went back to the drawing board entirely with EVERYTHING, which was really my point of avoiding fifth sequels like Gears 5 and Halo 5.

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KillBill838d ago

Has little to do even with the Activision acquisition. Zenimax acquisition put them in the process of dropping bombs soon enough. Xbox simply has more studios now that are... developing more and bigger titles than what Sony has lined up. Sony doesn't usually hold their cards close to their chests and has often promoted titles many years out... yet we have heard nary a peep out of them lately.

Sayai jin837d ago

GamingText,, what's with the toxocity? If anyone thinks Nintendo or Sony will remain idle, theb they're fools. Also, if anyone think MS is done, then they're fools as well. There's no doubt that Nintendo and Sony will continue to be juggernauts and release stellar games. No one said they were being idle. Again, that would be foolish.

I think peole are still lookjng at gaming in dated terms. Here, MS just paid 2 billion more than Nintendo's market cap, half of what Sony is worth as a whole, caused Sony'sstock to tumble by 20 billion in a day. MS clearly sees the likes of Amazon, Google, Tencent, etc as more of their long term competitors.

Nintendo and Sony will continue to be market leaders and pivotal to gaming. MS has headed oit into uncharted waters and they are far from done, If people haven't leanered yet, almost anythjng is possible. The only thing for sure is that we don't know when the next big news will hit.

neutralgamer1992837d ago

I don't know how we can say the comeback because even after the acquisitions most of those studios have yet to release any big titles. Could you say it has potential absolutely when you own that many IP's along with that many studios like Microsoft does now there's some real potential to be honest with you

And I don't think Microsoft is done acquiring studios for publishers I think their eyes on Ubisoft next and I could definitely see them go after Sega since recently their relationship has become really strong

But I also think Sony has a strategy that they're focusing on their main thing is having control of the IP so even all these new startup studios which were started by ex Activision employees along with other start up studios with big well known developers behind them. They own the IP they can have another studio make sequels and if studio is successful they can acquire them

Doing my research (because I was interested to see what Sony can counter with) for the last week or so one thing I realized is Sony has between 20 to 30 billion dollars that they can spend on acquisitions. And one thing became crystal clear for Sony PlayStation is their bread and butter so they are willing to spend more because that's where they make most of their profit which is kind of ironic because when PlayStation was started most of the Sony divisions did not like PlayStation and thought it was childish. And on top of that 20 to 30 billion PlayStation makes the most money out of all publishers when it comes to hardware and software so I could definitely see them spend $20 billion dollars this year

Unlike Microsoft I think Sony will reveal their next acquisitions during the next PlayStation event which is rumored to be next month and is the biggest one yet. I really believe that Sony are in the process of acquiring square enix and Capcom. Even if they were to offer both companies what Microsoft offered Activision which was 45% above market value they would only be spending 18.5 billion dollars to acquire both and in my humble opinion both of them are equal to Activision and Bethesda because they have some of the most well-known IP's in gaming history

But then I started to think do we really want to go down this path where most of these midsize publishers are bought out by Sony or Microsoft. Then we are left with the greedy 3-4 publishers who are after Micro transactions in casino type game mechanics

Warner Bros
Ubisoft
Sega
Capcom
Square enix
Namco
Embracer Group(don't sleep on this group they own some awesome IP's like Darksiders and saints row but to acquire them would cost almost the same as Activision) they own so many IP's people just don't realize how big they are

In my opinion

UBI
Warner Bros
Namco
Sega
Square enix
Capcom

These 6 Will be sold within the next 18-24

Lightning77837d ago

I think that's a interesting summary. I can see Sony doing a merger though perhaps something contractual. A flat buy out isnt something Sony is in the position to do at the moment only because they lost 20 billion due to MS buying Activation Blizzard. A contractual merger with Square, Named or From software is possible. I would say Sega buy the thing about Saga is they've merged with MS for its cloud based and AI technology.

neutralgamer1992837d ago

Lightning77

How you figured Sony lost 20 billion by Ms acquiring Activision? Maybe I am missing something. Trust me COD and Diablo will still come out PlayStation because those games are too big to lose sales. Maybe have a look at COD sales and you will realize PlayStation has led the sales for a while so Ms isn't giving up free money

Only fanboys think let's keep this game away from PlayStation when Phil has said again and again that's not their goal. Now could I see a time exclusive early release on Xbox yes absolutely. It would benefit Ms that they can have starfield on Xbox exclusive for a year than release it on PlayStation with dlc and charge full price. If Ms keeps games away from PlayStation they will lose billions on yearly basis

Also Sony definitely has cash to acquire 2-3 mid size publishers(by midsize I mean Capcom, square enix, Sega, Konami, Warner Bros)

I think people look at Ms being so big and think Sony is poor or something. PlayStation generates the most money in gaming

And the biggest reason Sony will acquire some publisher is because they need PlayStation to survive and thrive while Ms can and has in the past existed and made profits without Xbox

Godmars290837d ago

Now I'm just hearing MS going into mobile, letting their influence in the console market either lapse or dry up entirely. That they could still suffer a "drought" of console games.

Or, they just move more towards bringing mobile MTs to consoles.

darthv72837d ago

"Tasty" (candy crush reference if you didn't know)

CYALTR836d ago

I really think you are missing the point of the MS model. Now at this point, I can not say if it is a good model or will work, but they really don't care about selling systems that much anymore. Obviously you want to have a good system in the market, but their play is more about getting Game Pass available to more people, so they won't even need a "system" to play on.

Again, I'm not sure if this will work for them or not, it is a long term play, so we won't really know, but MS does have the resources available to see this through, and have given no indication otherwise.

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Orchard838d ago

I don’t know if I’d say that the Xbox One really made a comeback - but the smart decisions they made in the second half / during the Phil Spencer era certainly set them up for success with Series X|S. And Microsoft seems more committed to gaming than ever.

838d ago
Petebloodyonion838d ago

I agree and like I said there's a difference between the Xbox 1 console who's reliable but pretty forgettable and the Xbox brand where Gamepass and the Xbox ecosystem is creating incredible value and potential.

ThatsGaming838d ago

Xbox One didn't make any comeback. XB as a brand has made a comeback but the XBO will go down as one of the most disappointing consoles. By the end of the generation essentially XB had "stopped the bleeding".

837d ago
ThatsGaming837d ago (Edited 837d ago )

@Witchcraft
Nope. If you look at their yearly sales I don't think there was a lot of fluctuation in XBO sales on a yearly basis. I will agree that the XB brand improved a lot in consumer minds by the end of the generation, but for there to be a comeback of XBO, it would have to have sold substantially more in 2019-20 then it did during the 2014-18 years.

837d ago
generic-user-name837d ago

Can we stop pretending Spencer's era didn't start 4 months after the launch of the X1?

Orchard837d ago

No one is claiming that, but re-directing/steering a huge ship like Microsoft takes years - it doesn't happen overnight.

sinspirit837d ago

Phil Spencer era was during the entire XBox One lifespan, and Phil Spencer was in charge of all game development in 2010 and since. He was the reason for lackluster gaming in the late 360 years, and all the XBox One years that passed with very long release schedules and disappointing titles. He was also in charge of their Europe gaming division before then, and surprise. Rare and Lionhead which both lost their way under him and one shutdown for good.

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isarai838d ago

Hasnt made a comeback yet, we're still waiting. And after a decade of MS saying "just wait guys" it's put up or shut up for me personally.

alb1899838d ago

If you are not satisfied with the Gamepass and all that is coming sell you Xbox because I don't even have time for so much.

dumahim838d ago

What does what's coming have to do with the comeback of the Xbox One?

alb1899838d ago

I'm responding to Isarai. I'm not talking about xbox one...I'm talking about xbox as a brand.

Silly Mammo838d ago

The pieces are in place for a comeback, but like always, MS still needs to deliver the goods.

OB1Biker837d ago (Edited 837d ago )

So many lies in the media it’s unbelievable. The Xbox one is dead anyway.
‘ a respectful 50 million units.’ Seriously.

gamer7804837d ago

You must have a lot of free time to have nothing left to play , since budget is of the least concerns on Xbox.

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masterfox838d ago

really?, hmm lets see their exclusives ........... nope, still no comeback , their exclusive line up are still very stagnant since since more than a decade ago, maybe two or three years in the future MS finally see some fruition in exclusives cause all those publishers buyouts, still MS doesn't give a damn about exclusives they only care for money and it doesn't matter for them how they get their pockets fill with cash, and more than ever all their investments in these buyouts they need to put all those games in other platforms, I mean is just common sense, for example by the time a new COD comes out most probably the Xbox will get at les 15 to 16 million units sold and for Sony most probably 22 to 23 millions sold, so from an economic point of view seeing such investments MS is doing do you think they will put COD exclusive and for to Gamepass only ? hahaha keep dreaming , they need to recover their investment big time, MS won't ignore all the possible retail units that can be sold in other platforms in this case Sony, they will just do the Minecraft thing all over again, in the end Sony doesn't need COD, Elder Scroll, Doom, Fallout, Candy Crush lol, WoW?, in its console in order to be number one in industry, is MS that needs the most of Sony this time around lol.

iplay1up2838d ago

COD could be exclusive to the Xbox Family. Which includes PC and Cloud Gaming. The only people missing out are those who game on Playstation only.

AmUnRa838d ago

Thats not the Xboxfamily, thats the MS gaming family under the lead from Phil Spencer Xbox is only a part of the MS gaming bramche.....

838d ago Replies(1)
Petebloodyonion838d ago (Edited 838d ago )

I'm just tired of the exclusive narrative BS that is always tailored to what 1 system offer.
Here let me prove that.

Playstation sucks they have no real multiplayer exclusives... the only thing they can rely on is Gran Turismo
but the rest is meh... What Happened to Uncharted multiplayer for the remaster? gone!
TLOU2 multiplayer? still Mia!
So sure you can talk about great Games like GOW, TLOU, HZ but nope they don't count cause I can't play with my friend so they don't exist.

Only multiplayer exclusive should matter in the (stupid) console debate
So MS on the other hand produced Sea of Thieves (still updated)
Gears 5, Halo MCC (still updated), States of Decay2, Halo 5, several Minecraft expansions, Age of Empire 4, Halo Infinite, etc... Games that are still currently played on pc and console.
Even Grounded has a community more popular than Uncharted 4 multiplayer

Again what has Sony produced? All these studios and still can't create a game like Sea of Thieves.

Now my comment isn't a jab toward Sony but just pointing out how infantile the debate can become when we select just the part we like for the discussion (like singleplayer experience for Sony, Multiplayer for MS, or family game for Nintendo).

Thus saying I prefer a style that the maker of my console is good at shouldn't mean that the other brand hasn't produced anything for the medium because I don't play that style.

masterfox838d ago

"Playstation sucks they have no real multiplayer exclusives.."

I was going to read your whole comment by after that sentence I knew it was going to be waste of time sorry, you clearly don't know what put Sony Playstation in top of this game industry since decades ago.

Sayai jin837d ago

MasterFox, I stopped after you said MS only cares about money. That's all that any company cares about...money. aka their shareholders. Smh.

gamer7804837d ago

To have cod everywhere would give them more money to invest elsewhere. Win win either way they choose with cod

836d ago
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zsquaresoff838d ago

Xbox One console was a flop, Microsoft discontinued it back in 2020 which pretty much says that it was a flop.
No spin or fluff pieces will change that.

ChasterMies838d ago

Ahem. “Microsoft actually ended production of the Xbox One X and the all-digital Xbox One S in July 2020”.

https://www.slashgear.com/x...

Christopher838d ago (Edited 838d ago )

But not the Xbox One, the base model. So, no, it was not discontinued in 2020.

cloud 279838d ago

@Christopher, is the OG XB1 still being produced or did the production on OG XB1 end when the XBX and XBS were introduced?

Christopher838d ago

@cloud 279: They *just* stopped production of base model Xbox One. That's what the news was about on January 13, 2022. They only stopped One X and One S All-Digital in 2020. The reason they did that is because those were the closest in competition to the Series X and the Series S.

cloud 279837d ago

gotcha, thanks for clarifying

darthv72837d ago

@cloud, production of the og XB1 (aka VCR) was stopped in 2016 after the release of the revised XB1S. Then in 2017 the XB1X was released and followed up in 2019 with the XB1S all digital. both the SAD and the 1X were discontinued in summer of 2020 with the remaining 1S halting production at the end of 2020.

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Dimi1978838d ago

Not at all. The continuous, first (through services and games) and third party support of the XBOX ONE shows that MS still considers it as a relevant part of their ecosystem.Today still, even the XBOX ONE S is still a great vfm choice.

Profchaos838d ago

I would recommend a Xbox one s to anyone these days it's great that it's part of the ecosystem from the perspective of if you still own one which is a huge base but it's clearly holding everyone back.

If you tell anyone to buy it today they might get another year at most out of it before the new releases dry up

ChasterMies838d ago

Have you seen the frame rates for Halo Infinite on Xbox One S? Microsoft has left the Xbox One S behind.

darthv72838d ago

Just curious how you came to that conclusion? Was it the 50m units sold or the 7 years it was in production? There have been revered platforms with far less of both but somehow when MS does it they are seen as bad.

You do know that production can't continue indefinitely for everything... right?

generic-user-name837d ago

The Dreamcast was beloved, still a flop.

837d ago
FallenAngel1984837d ago

50 million is a flop?

Plus wasn’t there an article that said Sony planned to discontinue the very successful PS4 last year but changed its mind only due to PS5 shortages

837d ago
AmUnRa836d ago

Thats not true, Sony never planned to discountinue the PS4, they never did. They keep producing the last gen console at the begin of a new generation. The source you refere to was sucking it out of his thumb. Dont believe everything you read.
Sony themselfs had set the record strait, they sayd that is was incorrect. Why would they, the PS4 is still selling...

FallenAngel1984832d ago

@ Darth

50 million is 43% of 117 million. How is that a 3:1 ratio?

On top of that various third party publishers make tons of revenue on it which is why it’s still heavily supported unlike other actual flops like Vita and Wii U. Flop consoles don’t get that level of support

No market can ever make a console selling 50 million a flop.

Sayai jin837d ago

The Xbox One gen was abysmal all around. It us unexecusable to have the lack of games for 10 plus years. Now, looking onto the current state and the future one thing is for sure. MS has gone all in on gaming.

ThatsGaming837d ago

XB traditionally has not waited long after generations change to stop manufacturing their consoles. Flops or not.

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40°
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Petebloodyonion40m ago

And still no marketing for this :(

Barlos15m ago

Why market something that isn't designed to be sold?

This has GP rental written all over it.

Tacoboto10m ago

They just posted a 20+ minute video about Psychosis and how the game portrays that through Senua.

Regardless of what Microsoft is doing (retweeting Ninja Theory is about as low effort as it gets, and Dashboard Dynamic Themes should've come months ago), Ninja Theory themselves are at least trying.

It's sad though. That new video was a really good behind-the-scenes too, and it just came at such a bad time.

Tankbusta406m ago

How much marketing do games really need these days? People that play games know when its coming out. I really think the days of the constant tv ad etc are going the way of the Dodo. What scares me more is the lack of "previews" on big video game websites, it only got a few on April 4th and then nothing since.