Here's why Xbox should ditch exclusives

Xbox has faced consistent criticism (from myself included) for its lack of exclusives compared to PlayStation, and is likely the core reason why the PS5 is reportedly outselling the Xbox Series by such a large margin.  The Financial Times reports that the PS5 is currently outselling the Xbox Series X by nearly three-to-one margin.

[Elda]

If that's the case then then there's absolutely no reason to buy an XB console.

[isarai]

I mean they're halfway there with everything also being on PC.

[BeHunted]

Same with PlayStation. No reason to own a PlayStation console.

[S2Killinit]

Article makes it sound like xbox is in a position to get any more irrelevant than it already is.

Although it might be MS’s plan all along to destroy consoles gaming altogether.

[Lightning77]

Half way there? It's called an ecosystem. PC, tablets, phones even TVs aren't competing with Xbox. It's an extension of Xbox.

[XBManiac]

An in the cloud... on TVs, handhelds, phones... What exclusivity do they speak of?

[Cacabunga]

Their exclusives stink, no one wants them

[Eidolon]

Has there really been a reason to get an XSX if you have a good enough PC already? Aren't most if not all games released on PC as well? A big selling point for XSX, though, is it's a cost-effective all-in-one gaming solution with physical media.

[Elda]

Like you stated. There are folks like me that don't want to invest in a PC, just playing on a gaming console play on a gaming console.

[Eidolon]

I prefer console, have a PS5 only this generation. I graduated into PC gaming, no regrets, can still use controllers. XSX would be nice, though, so I can play Game Pass without closing out stuff on my PC.

[Jingsing]

The way Microsoft are going there won't be any need to have a PC or a Console and I for one won't be helping them do it buy funding their horrible ambition. Phil Spencer will do his politician act to lure you in and give you the comforting words some people need to hear about how they will support consoles and pc but the truth is they are all in on Cloud Gaming.

[Stuart5756]

'A big selling point for XSX, though, is it's a cost-effective all-in-one gaming solution with physical media. '

Lol.
I like 'cost-effective', I like 'all-in-one', I like 'physical media'. But me no likey XSX.

[ChasterMies]

Nothing will change for Xbox owners if Microsoft goes full 3rd party. The Xbox will still play all the same games.

[crazyCoconuts]

Assuming some percentage of Xbox gamers are there because they have history/loyalty to the platform, I guess the question is how much would actually change if Xbox put their exclusives out on PlayStation? GamePass fans would probably stick around as would families that are already embedded.

[EvertonFC]

Xbox main/biggest problem is that there is ONLY roughly 50m Xbox gamers out there, I think it's become very apparent since 2013 how many Xbox gamers double dipped with RroD going off very poor sales of the Xbox one and now series S/X.

[darthv72]

The only reason to buy an xbox is if you prefer the simplicity of the console setup and play. Actually... that is the only reason to buy any console really. A PC can pretty much play / emulate them all but to what extent would a person go in order to achieve that. Having the right CPU, case, power supply, GPU, memory, drives (optical/ssd/hdd)... screens and input devices.

I've been in this fold since almost the beginning. 1977 was my jumping in point to gaming on Pong clones and then the VCS. From there I have always been a console player first and PC player second. Even to this day I still prefer the console experience so naturally i buy into the different platforms on the market when i could just invest more time and $$ into beefing up the PC side and just calling it a day.

But... there is just something so elegant about that console side that the PC will never have. Oh sure you can get fancy cases to make the PC look less like a PC but its still a PC with no identity or individuality. Consoles have always had that despite their ever moving towards the PC space.

[crazyCoconuts]

Also, not every gamer/family has the technical chops to figure things out on PC, especially when things go wrong. Consoles are certainly not going away.

[shinoff2183]

I still prefer console also. It's just more convenient to be honest. Sure there's pc titles I'd like to play and I've got a few and played on a laptop through my TV with a console controller but console games keep me busy enough. We're also seeing alot more pc games coming to consoles these days. Alot more then before.

[BehindTheRows]

Pure comedy!

You can literally build a PC to your EXACT liking. The case, the parts, the software. A console is a closed platform with far less customization options and very little room to expand beyond storage and plates. It’s not even close.

[EvertonFC]

Pretty much no reason to buy one now 🤗😏🤭

[Barlos]

If you have a decent gaming PC, there's twit no need to buy an Xbox anyway.

[YourMommySpoils]

There never was a reason.

[purple101]

this is implying they have exclusives to ditch,

and also thus, implying they would do better if those exclusives, would somehow sell more elsewhere,

there not even selling on xbox, nobody wants this pos box

[Zeref]

Lol pretending Xbox doesn't have exclusives in 2024 gotta be the most pathetic thing I've ever read 😂

[Vengeance1138]

Name one lol bet you can't.

[BehindTheRows]

Name them. What is only releasing on Xbox in 2024?

[purple101]

Well…yeaaah, they defo got 2 or 3

But do we want them…?

In certainly not jumping out my seat in joy, to dump money, on avowed and hellblade 2

From what I’ve seenAavowed looks very much like a Zelda clone, but running on a ps3

Hellblade looks phenomenally good art-wise, but is a short-ish length, single player game.

Soooo.. yeh
Skip both

Got a backlog to keep me busy anyway

“Ghost of Tsushima” directors cut on ps5 being my next one!!! (never got round to buying it on ps4) now I’ve got a new telly and with Dualsense, it should be all the better for it

[wiz7191]

@Vengence .. lmao yall are definitely delusional I can name a few , Hellblade 2 , Avowed , South of Midnight , Towerborne , Ark 2 .. that’s only the first party gamess , expect for Ark .. it’s plenty more to come lol have fun with that remaster

[Vengeance1138]

@wiz

Where are the exclusives in that list? Literally none lol

[Lightning77]

Right let's ignore all the games coming out this year.

Pretend and make believe is what y'all do best.

@Vengeance HB2, Avowed, South Of Midnight, 33 Immortals, Stalker 2, Flight Sim 2,

Double Fines new MP possibly.

Now stay quiet.

[EvertonFC]

I think the above were referring to Xbox exclusives not Xbox and on PC.
We all know Xbox has games this year but like I said the guy mentioned Xbox exclusives which isn't technically right being on PC too.

[Vengeance1138]

@lightning You literally just named ZERO exclusives lol all on Xbox AND PC. What a fail! lol

Educate yourself kid, Xbox has no exclusives, not one.
Now... stay quiet or you'll humiliate yourself again.

[JackBNimble]

EvertonFC
Well the same can be said for playstation too then

[Michiel1989]

@everton So Days Gone, God of War, Spiderman, Horizon and Uncharted aren't exclusives now? Sony 1st party games will come to pc so according to your logic we should now called them timed exclusives?

[Lightning77]

"In certainly not jumping out my seat in joy, to dump money, on avowed and hellblade 2"

Because it's not on your favorite piece of plastic that's why. Let's not pretend it's anything else but that.

"Hellblade looks phenomenally good art-wise, but is a short-ish length, single player game."

I hope the length is at least a good 30 ro 40 hour experience but we don't know yet. So now you don't like SP games now? Man that's rich that's all I see your kind hype for the past 10+ what changed suddenly?

[Chevalier]

"Lol pretending Xbox doesn't have exclusives"

How is it moving goalpost? Literally say EXCLUSIVES. Stop trying to say it's a narrative change when it's literally in this statement. Xbox doesn't have exclusives. FACT.

[Lightning77]

@Vengeance Thats how it's been since 2016. The goal post is they count again because it's on PC....

Damn I I guess a handful of PS games aren't exclusives since they're on PC also as well as future LS games. Just like a rabid fanboy you are you owned yourself, that didn't take long, wow....

[Vengeance1138]

Whatever helps your Xbox fanboy narrative lol
How many times are you going to humiliate yourself today? Starting to lose count!

[Lightning77]

@Vengnce so first it was Xbox has no games. It's evidently clear ppl like you don't know anything outside of your favorite console considering I listed said games because it's well Known knowledge Xbox has games this time around. You said "educate" yourself oh boy you're the one to talk. Then it's those xbox games don't count again because it's on PC. Despite the fact that PS has a handful of their games on PC and future LS stuff will be on pc. So who's really embarrassing themselves here? Think hard about it.

Xbox fanboy narrative that's right, if you bring even the tiniest bit of logic that obliterates your fanboy stances they're the fanboy now. Very smart and wise way of thinking there buddy.

[Vengeance1138]

@lightnig LOL cope and seethe 🤡 I can feel your tears as you type haha.
Glad to know I touched a nerve getting you all triggered lol Xbox fanboyism at it's finest.

[Vengeance1138]

@lightning Hahaha omg are you sending me little love messages now in DM lol

Guess I really did own you like a rented mule lol always fun taking down the false logic of an Xbox fanboy with ease!
Living rent free in your head. Stay in school kid.

[jznrpg]

They haven’t released much of note in the last decade and lately they have been on a further decline in sales of consoles and quality.

The only reasons they can consider going multiplat is because because of their multiplat acquisitions. But i have little, scratch that , no faith in MS making games better that they acquired

[XiNatsuDragnel]

That's pretty saying let's go third party imo.

[Eidolon]

It's a Game Pass shilling opinion article. But honestly, I don't think there has been exclusives for the console anyway, and at this point they're a Game Pass platform which includes PC. One point in the article is they have sucked for so long that it's probably beneficial to put games on other platforms to make profit, because their console sales are lagging behind by a lot.

[Lightning77]

They make money on everything else except the console itself if we're looking at the quarterly reports. If content and services go down then theyll be in trouble. They make way more on services and the expanded ecosystem then the console itself.

So they'll be fine.

[Knightofelemia]

What exclusives? You need exclusives first before you can ditch them. And no you need exclusives to entice the gamer into buying your product. No exclusives you will be which Microsoft is just dead last in sales. I myself if there are no exclusives to draw me in I go some where else and to someone else who has the exclusives to entice me into buying their product.

[Lightning77]

Are you saying they don't have exclusives as it's on PC also? Or no games at all?

If it's the latter then lets pretend that they don't since that's what we're doing here it seems.

[Knightofelemia]

Did you read the article? The title does say Xbox yes or no?

[Barlos]

Xbox should just ditch Xbox.

[The Wood]

They will, its not selling like they planned and its getting gapped hard by the competition due to sub par management of the hardware and software. They'll pivot to being a 3rd part publisher sooner or later. This is what happens when laziness of quality output is the MO from gen to gen. How the ** do you start a new generation with ** all in the first couple of years of notable exclusives .. This, compounded with last gens weak af showing, has to be a factor as to why sony is currently wiping the floor with the xbox brand

[PrinceOfAnger]

I Don't need both PS5 or Xbox PC have everything even nintendo games

[S2Killinit]

PC doesn't have PlayStation nor Nintendo. But they do have everything on xbox.

[Cockney]

@uceh pray tell me how Is spiderman 2 on pc? Are the graphics a lot better?

[PrinceOfAnger]

PC doesn't have PlayStation"

Ratchet rift apart
Returnal ?
Soon horizon forbidden west ?

are u living under a rock ?!

[S2Killinit]

Not living under a rock. But those examples of previously released games does not = PlayStation is on PC.

Wouldn’t you agree?

[Terry_B]

..what exclusives? They don't have any since years.

[Bathyj]

Xbox needs to ditch the console altogether and just go third party publisher. Leaving room someone else to enter the market and provide some decent competition. I think Valve should have another crack at the steam box since PC gaming is so popular now and they would have a better shot with Xbox gone plus Microsoft games would all be on Steam box. I'm not interested in PC gaming but I would buy a console that played all PC games.

[-Foxtrot]

Valve had a great chance to get into the console business properly when Microsoft had that awful Xbox One reveal in 2013. If Valve dedicated themselves and used their resources they could have made an impact.

If they started making games again they’d have L4D, Team Fortress, Counter Strike, Half Life, Portal, Dota. Then you’d have any new IPs or revived ones cancelled like The Crossing, not to mention any potential remakes or remasters of Half Life and it’s side games like Blue Shift.

Also they have Steam, imagine having your Steam account go between your console and PC with some games you’ve downloaded that are console compatible, that library would grown eventually to support even more games.

Potential full mod support aswell like on PC

They could have provided some huge competition.

[Michiel1989]

I mean you can just buy a pc in a smaller case, hook it up to your pc and play with your controller. They don't need to make a console for this. It's how I play my steam games that I wanna play with a controller.

[Lightning77]

"Leaving room someone else to enter the market and provide some decent competition."

No, it doesn't matter who competes with Sony because you'll cry about them to.

Don't pretend that you won't either.

[Einhander1972]

Wow for a non-fanboy you sure are deep in this article in an extremely one-sided way.

The "condole war" exists because Microsoft from DAY ZERO created xbox for one reason, to take Sony's market share. And this isn't my view, this is what Steve Balmer and the rest of the clowns were saying when they were launching the original xbox.

Xbox is the first console that released by providing the exact same games as the competition, they more or less forced publishers to support their console. Prior to xbox, Nintendo, Sega, NEC, Atari ect. all had unique game libraries. But Microsoft leaned on legal threats to insert themselves into the industry, similar to how they are trying to force their own marketplace and game pass onto Google and Apple devices even though the platform holders do not want to allow it.

I think even myself would welcome competition as long as it was an independent platform that didn't specifically exists to eliminate PlayStation. Just like I happily game on PC Steam and GOG, as well as on my Switch.

You clearly do not understand why people dislike Microsoft and why the competition with them is so vitriolic, it's not because of PlayStation or it's fans, heck it's not even because of xbox fanboys, it's literally because Microsoft themselves created the animosity and continue to this day to aggressively "console war" with Sony.

As a multi-console owner non-fanboy Microsoft going multiplatform shouldn't bother you at all, yet it seems to bother you extremely, weird...

[shinoff2183]

I'd be cool with valve cause I know what I'd be getting. Not the wolves in sheep's clothing like ms.

[Bathyj]

I would expect a reply like that from the likes of you. Would it surprised you to know that I used to love Xbox? The OG Xbox I used to buy all my multiplats on it and I loved their exclusives.

Xbox used to be a great console and I even supported the 360 even though I had five of them through hardware fails. Don't blame me that they have been a terrible console manufacturer and provided horrible support basically since the Kinect was announced.

I would gladly support a worthy competitor to Sony, there just are none. I don't want to be a single console owner. That's just how it is. Up until Xbox went downhill and I kind of outgrew Nintendo because they don't want to push their hardware anymore, I used to buy them all every generation. I've been a gamer for 40 years. I'm not a fan boy, I just go where I like playing.

Hate the game not the players. It's easier for you to just call me a fanboy because it lets you ignore all the things that are wrong with Xbox rather than look at them and admit theyre true. It's going to be a sad day when you guys all realize that the worst platform holder for the last 20 years is now in charge of all the beloved IPs which they simply bought and didn't create and they don't know what to do with them except run them into the ground.

[Lightning77]

@Ein because what he said makes no sense. I know logic goes over your head.

"Microsoft themselves created the animosity and continue to this day to aggressively "console war" with Sony."

they're competing too hard. Wow... The same type of competing that Sony has done since the beginning, aggressively took Sega out of buissness. Riiiight ok. That's what you're complaining about.

"As a multi-console owner non-fanboy Microsoft going multiplatform shouldn't bother you at all, yet it seems to bother you extremely, weird..."

Has it ever occurred to that I don't want to to have one console like you? Forced in one ecosystem a single solitary platform. I want indulge in both, separate games. Plus if one isn't doing great I'll always have the other.

I don't want increased prices, increased prices for digital storefronts, peripherals, accessories etc anti consumer movements. That's I want both and have both. I know you'll pay an arm and a leg for the one platofmr yeah I don't, not even a little bit. I hope that didn't go over your head also.

[Miraak82]

Sega screwed themselves by trying to extend the life of the genesis with add-ons like Sega-cd and 32x and then shadow dropping the Saturn which royally pissed off consumers and retailers alike , by the time Dreamcast came out it was already too late for for them . Their failure had nothing to do with Sony.

[BehindTheRows]

SEGA took themselves out. But, you knew that. You just have to SonyToo because, just like he accurately said, you are deeply embedded in this. You are everything you call other people.

[Chard]

PC plugged into TV + Steam Big Picture mode + Bluetooth controller = console experience

[CrimsonWing69]

I don’t think people understand the point of exclusives. If your platform doesn’t offer any exclusives, whatsoever I have absolutely zero reason or incentive to invest in the platform.

Xbox is already barely interesting to me. Take away the few good exclusives it has and I’d treat the platform like Google Stadia.

[ChasterMies]

That’s ridiculous. An Alienware PC doesn’t have exclusives and people buy it. Steam Deck doesn’t have exclusives. What matters isn’t the exclusive that no one else can play but instead access to great games. Microsoft owns enough game studios that Xbox will always have access to great games. Nothing will change for Xbox owners if Microsoft releases all of those games to PlayStation or Nintendo.

[CrimsonWing69]

There’s nothing in Steam that isn’t on console!? I can’t tell if you’re trolling or not.

You’re talking about PCs that all have access to Steam, Epic Game Store, GoG, etc. Those are all platforms that have *gasp* their own exclusives. Do you know why they have exclusives? I’ll give you a hint, it’s so people actually support their platform over a competitor.

Also, let’s be real all those Microsoft studios they own, you have to ask yourself why they went out of their way to get all these studios. Here’s another hint, it’s for freakin’ exclusives.

[Lightning77]

Cool let's asked Nintendo and Sony to do the same then. Since noting will change for them either according to your logic.

[P_Bomb]

2024 should be a better year for them software wise. I wouldn’t abandon ship just yet.

[Juancho51]

Every game is on PC what exclusives do they even have?