Microsoft taking measures to learn just WHY most developers don't release games on Xbox.

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“If you are making video games, we’re interested in hearing from you,” said Dr. Deborah Hendersen, a principal user researcher for Xbox. “If you aren’t on Xbox, we’d love to know why. And honestly, if you are using our competitor’s products, you probably have a great perspective we could learn from!”

Between a lack of communication, Game Pass potentially training Xbox players to not buy games, and low hardware sales, there’s plenty of reason to avoid Xbox and focus on Switch and PS4 or PS5.

kotaku.com

Microsoft Has Started Asking Devs Why They're Skipping Xbox

It seems Xbox has noticed the trend of games not launching on or avoiding its consoles entirely
kotaku.com kotaku.com

Interesting.

But from that article & the excerpts I've posted, it seems pretty obvious.

Then there's bunch of other factors like exclusivity deals by Sony (i.e. several Final Fantasy titles & a lot of Japan-made games).

There's also the user-base thing, where if my math's accurate only Playstation outnumbers Xbox 2:1 across both previous gen & current.

My theory? MS "suits" sometimes get in the way on the creative side of things & devs of course aren't fans of that.

For instance Scalebound by Platinum Games. If I'm not mistaken that game was about ready to go. Man that game rocks so much it's like Legend of Dragoon meets Panzer Dragoon in open world becoming first of its kind & I remember being really upset they cancelled that 🤬 😭 😡 !!!

Thoughts on this everyone.
 
I think user base, especially Japanese related games, is the number one answer. Paired with higher cost to make games, longer dev cycles; devs need to get their game to market as fast as possible.
 
Jason Schreier did say that plans change rather quick over at xbox, which might keep developers from releasing on that platform or xbox themselves just cancel those plans.
 
HexTheVoid said:
Half of the issues are caused by Xbox Series S underpowered specs. Should have never released that console
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I always wondered why they released two systems with different specs at the same time. I get the whole trying to provide a cheaper buy-in price with the S, but man, I can only imagine devs hated the idea of having to make it run on two different current gen systems with different specs from the same company. I know devs will still do that with releasing games on current and previous gen, but still.
 
rshandle said:
I think user base, especially Japanese related games, is the number one answer. Paired with higher cost to make games, longer dev cycles; devs need to get their game to market as fast as possible.
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For reals dude.

And to as MANY audience & wider market as possible.

Truly fascinating stuff that PS2 beat Xbox 1, while 360 beat PS3, then PS4 beat Xbox 3 & now PS5 is beating Xbox 4.

It's like Steph Curry & LeBron in NBA finals, 3-1 head to head championship record against one another.

With MS buying Bethesda & Activision-Blizzard, you would think they should be the ones leading the pack but...

Here we are.
 
I worked in QA. Certification on PlayStation is way way harder than it is on Xbox and that's usually the most troubling aspect of releasing a game. However for the current-gen games, the series X is pulling them back. It took games like Baldur's Gate 3 and Black Myth Wukong to notice.
 
Rhaegahr said:
I worked in QA. Certification on PlayStation is way way harder than it is on Xbox and that's usually the most troubling aspect of releasing a game. However for the current-gen games, the series X is pulling them back. It took games like Baldur's Gate 3 and Black Myth Wukong to notice.
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You mean Series S I assume? Yeah I’ve always thought DirectX 12 should give series consoles some advantage. How they ended up getting Baldur’s Gate running on Series S was pure wizardry. To see them talk about major breakthroughs, the Series S can accomplish a lot but it takes a lot of effort to optimally optimize
 
Developer tools apparently. Seems like many devs have stated that it is easier to port games to PS. Odd considering MS is a software company and you would think with all the Windows experience, they could figure it out.
 
GiGAHEART said:
For reals dude.

And to as MANY audience & wider market as possible.

Truly fascinating stuff that PS2 beat Xbox 1, while 360 beat PS3, then PS4 beat Xbox 3 & now PS5 is beating Xbox 4.

It's like Steph Curry & LeBron in NBA finals, 3-1 head to head championship record against one another.

With MS buying Bethesda & Activision-Blizzard, you would think they should be the ones leading the pack but...

Here we are.
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Bethesda and Activision aren't doing any good for them either because Startfeild was a failure ( most returned game along with Cyberpunk) and MW3 was the meme of last year so they aren't in a good state. The only way they get back is if the start making Xbox only games, games that don't even come to pc I think that would be the best thing for the whole console market
 
Will never understand these "concerns" despite the fact that third party support including Japanese games is literally the strongest it's ever been. People are still stuck in 2005 and believe that the console market is growing when in reality, it's shrinking for Microsoft and Nintendo while stagnating for Sony. So many people want to believe that Xbox is failing yet they make more profits with less revenue than Sony does. Yep, they're definitely failing. LOL.

Consoles at best simply retain what they had the previous generation. PS4 sold around 120m. PS5 will sell around the same. That's not growth. That's stagnation and simply retaining what you had the generation before. Xbox will probably sell around 40m Series X/S consoles when all is said and done which would be a decrease from Xbox One but unlike last generation, they don't care about ONLY the console. Microsoft wants you in their eco-system and it doesn't matter how they get you because they're still making money off of you.

Nintendo is doing amazing with Switch but it comes at the cost of a separate handheld business. Nintendo Wii and DS had over 250m units sold and this doesn't even include the extra 75m or so from 3DS. That's an estimated 325m units combined. Switch is over 140m. Nintendo won't even hit half of what they once did.

The only way the hardware manufacturers are going to grow is by expanding outward to other platforms. Microsoft as usual is ahead of the game because just like the original Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, everything they've done despite being bashed for most of it turned out to be true and factual years later. This time will be no different and it's already happening. Sony is putting their published games on Xbox, PC and even Nintendo Switch.

Consoles are great and I love them but in soon to be 2025, games take way too long and cost way too much money to where these companies can release their games on only their platform. Between Sony and Microsoft it's going to eventually come down to what the platform and eco-system offers you as opposed to exclusivity. The biggest games are all multi-platform games, mainly live service which is why Sony is trying to nail a few of them.

Xbox isn't going anywhere and Microsoft doesn't need to sell 100m+ or even 50m+ to be massively successful because every console has an expiration date where as the software (meaning the IP's) don't and it's all about growing and expanding your IP's. Eventually, exclusivity will be dead and obsolete and what it will come down to is what each platform offers you that gets you to stay on that platform.

The sooner this day comes, the better the gaming industry will be for everyone.
 
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