Microsoft just made big mistake with the Xbox Series X
That sounds harsh and overly critical a few third-party launch event, but I say that with the utmost love for the system: so far, I felt like Microsoft was build up the Xbox Series X because of the gamer’s dream console with ray tracing, solid-state drives, 60 frame-per-second gameplay as a typical and lightning-fast loading times.
And its first look event was alleged to be a culmination of all that employment, I had thought, with marquee games from its most trusted partners like CD Projekt Red, Activision and EA. that is what you'd expect from a third-party showcase, right?
Instead what we saw was vague new IP that feels scarily almost like vaporware we’ve seen at E3’s past and pre-canned cinematics from Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla.
I hate to mention it, but i feel Microsoft just made its first big mistake with the Xbox Series X.
Xbox Series X gameplay reveal: what happened?
The mistake in question revolves round the Xbox Series X gameplay reveal that Microsoft announced in early May and happened over a scant half-hour on May 7.
On every social channel, Microsoft made it sound like this is able to be the instant gamers had been expecting – our first deep dive into the games Microsoft had been curating for Xbox Series X. Exciting! I assumed.
What transpired instead was a cavalcade of trailers from newer developers that, in some ways, didn’t appear as if they were pushing the hardware to its limit. Even the one headline game, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, missed the mark when it focused almost exclusively on story exposition in its 2-minute ‘gameplay’ trailer rather than ... you know, cutting-edge gameplay.
There were some standouts among the new games shown like Bright Memory Infinite, a particularly fast-paced first-person shooter that takes the gameplay of Bulletstorm and matches it with the near-future setting of a Black Ops game, and Call of the ocean, a search game assail an idyllic island, except for every good trailer there have been two disappointing or, worse, cringe-worthy trailers for a bland new thriller or twin-stick shooter.
There’s value in showing new IP, obviously, because it shows that you’re partnering with new and varied game studios to supply plenty of games for niche audiences, something that Microsoft and therefore the Xbox team have struggled with within the past. But because that wasn’t interspersed with flagship titles or familiar franchises, it reflected poorly on Microsoft’s fledgling console.
This is a golden opportunity for the PS5
Teasing gamers with a drip-feed of announcements may go for a minute, but very quickly that excitement will address resentment.
On the opposite hand, until now, Microsoft was making all the proper moves with the Xbox Series X by unveiling the hardware and controllers with unparalleled authority and confidence. it'd be that those were flukes from Microsoft’s marketing team - but, until today, it appeared like Microsoft had really honed into what gamers wanted.
The problem with a misstep like this, a minimum of if you’re on Microsoft’s marketing team, is that it presents a chance for Sony to win gamers back if it can move fast: we’ve heard rumors that Sony will have a showcase of its own either in late May or early June and if it uses that showcase for games like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 or Horizon Zero Dawn 2, Microsoft are going to be in serious trouble.
And don’t forget that, as unimpressive as today’s showcase was, all of these games will likely be available on PS5, too. They’re all third-party in any case.
The bright side is that Microsoft says it'll have another first-look event in July - this point with the first-party Xbox Studios titles like Halo Infinite – so there’s another chance to right the ship.
Here’s hoping the first-party games look tons better than these third-party games.
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