Industry Trends #2: A look at the “Big Three” (Microsoft)

 

Who are the big three? Well the big three refers to the major console makers in the gaming space, Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. This is a three part series where I am going to examine and give my thoughts on each of these companies as I currently view them and maybe even give them a little ranking at the end. I’ll start with the youngest of the big three, Microsoft. Microsoft was not a stranger to the gaming space before entering the console market; in fact they were one of the biggest game publishers on PC long before the Xbox existed. They had many hits such as Age of Empires, MechWarriors 3, Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator and Starlancer. 

Microsoft’s first console was the Xbox and it was a ground breaking console in many ways. For starters it was the home of Halo, what would go on to be one of the biggest gaming franchises of all time, a game so popular it was featured on prime time news in a positive manner. 

Additionally the Xbox brought Western PC developers to the console gaming space, many of the developers who create some of the most popular games today, started by porting their games to the Xbox. A good example would be Bethesda, who ported Morrowind (from the now widly popular Elder Scrolls Franchise) to Xbox as well as Bioware, who didn’t port, but actually made an exclusive (albeit timed) RPG for Xbox known as Knights of the Old Republic. While that wasn’t their first console game (MDK2 was) it was their break through console game.  

 

Thirdly the Xbox brought mainstream appeal for online gaming to consoles via service known as Xbox live. Eventually the other two major console manufacturers would create their own online platforms like XBL. It should be noted that dreamcast had the capabilities for online play but it was the Xbox that truly brought it to the console audience, mostly through Halo. Microsoft truly shot to prominence with the Xbox 360, with its wide variety of games, very appealing price point and robust online system it was the clear console of choice. However it was hampered by a design flaw that resulted in the Red Ring of Death (damage to the console due to overheating). Despite this the Xbox 360 continued to sell extremely well, with games like Gears of War, Halo, Mass Effect, Bioshock and Ninja Gaiden being very popular amongst gamers and not available on the playstation.

However Microsoft lost focus as the generation, choosing to chase an audience that Nintendo had garnered with the Wii and eventually many gamers felt like they didn’t care about them anymore. Fast forward to their current console, the Xbox One, Microsoft continued their mistake of marketing to the “casual” audience and not the core gaming audience, this combined with an Xbox live price hike, an underwhelming showcase of launch games, an extremely high price point (a mistake sony had made with the ps3), a very negatively received DRM scheme and being less powerful than the playstation 4 caused many people to switch their primary console from Xbox to Playstation. 

With the negativity around the Xbox brand at this point Microsoft decided to part ways with Don Mattrick, the person who was largely responsible for getting them into the bad position they were in and replace him with Phil Spencer. Phil Spencer’s love for games and his passion for bringing content reinvigorated the Xbox fan base and had many people on the sidelines optimistic about the future of the Xbox One. However Mr. Spencer has not been able to adequately deliver on his promises, especially when it deals with exclusive games, in fact the opposite has happened. Many announced exclusive games, such as Scalebound and Black Tusk Studios new IP and were cancelled, so there was even less to look forward to than before. 

The games that were released such as Quantum Break and Recore weren’t very well received either while some like Crackdown have been in development for so long, not many people have faith they will be good either. It’s sad that a company that once used to be a pioneer in the gaming space has now garnered so much ill will from the gaming community that it seems like they are no longer real competition to Sony, a company that only flourishes when someone is truly challenging them (more on this in my Sony post!). I hope that they can gather themselves and come back stronger in the future! As always, if you like this, upvote, resteem or just leave a comment! Also look out for my other posts that will be featuring Sony and then Nintendo. 

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