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Xbox is in a strange place right now, and I’m not the only one to think so. In fact, people with more important opinions on the subject that I seem to agree: if Microsoft does not gather his shit on the equipmentThe box as we know it is cooked. Laura Fryer, the former director of the Xbox Advanced Technology Group for the original Xbox project in May 2000 and former executive producer for Microsoft Games Studios to the Xbox 360 Days, placed it frankly in a recent video.
“Obviously, as one of the founding members of the Xbox team, I am not satisfied with the place where things are today. I do not like to look at all the value I have helped to create slowly,” said Fryer said in a video on youtube. “I am sad because, from my point of view, it seems that Xbox has no desire – or literally can no longer – ship equipment. So this partnership completely concerns a slow outing of the equipment company. Personally, I think that Xbox equipment is dead.”
The partnership to which Fryer refers is, of course, the Xbox and the Asus Team-Up which will see the exit from ROG Xbox Ally Handheld It was announced at Computex earlier this month. The criticism of the game and fans industry is that Microsoft has not designed the portable device, rather outsourcing the work in Asus, which has changed its existing ROG Ally X Pcs by handThen slap the Xbox software on it. Was it laziness in the Microsoft and Xbox part? Or is he afraid to engage in Xbox equipment?
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Ouch. As rough as these words may be, it is difficult not to agree. Out of the door, current generation of Xbox consoles, Series And Xwere almost beaten by Sony and the PS5The latter snatched a commander 70% of the market share During the first five years of the lives of the two consoles. There are many reasons for this, and probably the most important thing is that PlayStation had the exclusive titles that made people really wanted to buy a console. But pining it over the exclusives of the game does not paint the full painting. Part of the problem is that Xbox, for all its players spent with a glory of capital “G”, has become boring. So yes, Xbox is in a strange place right now, but people still want consoles, which means it is time for them to become even stranger – yes, I also talk about equipment.
First of all, let’s start with the boring box that Xbox is home to all this x in. He’s zero. It’s a snooze This makes the design of smartphones from one year to the other innovative. Of course, it is sterile and can dress with your decor of new construction in town, but it is also – with the disadvantage – from the head. If you sell people who play games, they should know that it is a console and Not a VCR You forgot to sell in 1997. Say what you want about the PS5 (it’s ugly; it’s the only correct opinion), but Sony took a swing with. He made sure that all those who bought one had the impression of buying a console, and to love it or not, you eat with your eyes. If you want to give people a reason to buy your console, maybe try to give them a reason. Nintendo did this with the Switch in 2017And as far as I know, it is Go (check the surveillance) really f * cking well.
Speaking of the switch, Xbox should probably find a way to differentiate its hardware functionality in terms of functionality. As dominant as the PS5 has been in the console sector, it is always fundamentally the same machine as the Xbox. It is a shame, given that Xbox had many opportunities to have equipment brought in new fascinating directions over the years. In order not to be Kinect’s guy, but fucking Microsoft Bungle XR He missed XR with the HoloLens. In the multiverse, there is a chronology where Xbox used its Experiences with XR Via the Kinect and Hololens to tear off the value of the trembling hands from the quest helmets of Sony and Meta. It is not this chronology, as we all know, but if it really wants to give Xbox a future that deserves to be funded, there may still be room to take these more daring expeditions to games and refresh them for the age of today.
The last thing Xbox must do to become weird is a little more nebulous – it needs a new identity. Of course, Game Pass was a radius of light from a differently weak perspective for Xbox, but transforming the consoles into subscription machines does not shout exactly: “We see you the players and we hear you.” Xbox can always continue to sell subscriptions to game passes, do not get me wrong – I love the game game and be able to broadcast games on devices like the Quest 3 I feel like a revelation for me. But the emphasis on Xbox is the thing that brings you to the thing gives the material a reflection afterwards. The game on a console on which you spent $ 500 should feel native; He should feel complete; It should look like an Xbox, Not a PC. This goes back to the exclusives of the game, in part. Sony had no problem becoming weird with its exclusives –Death of deathFor example, is one of the strangest games to which you can play, and now Death Stranding 2 is a PS5 exclusivity, which is apparently devastating some players. Suck for them, but it’s a kind of huge victory for PlayStation. It is also more proof that Xbox does not need to be the Netflix of the game; He needs strange magnetic titles that ensure that his console feels experiential.
As you may have gathered, it would be a huge change for Xbox, and it is questionable that Microsoft even has the will to make everything work. I know that the last years have been dull for Xbox, but people still want consoles, and the Recent success of switch 2 Almost proves that. Nintendo, for its part, has not won this success in an easy way. He took a bet with the switch by redefining his equipment, swiveling inwards towards the games, and ended up freeing the decisive console of our generation. This is quite saying that the ball is in your courtyard, Microsoft. Are you going to go out with a bland and forgettable box? Or become weird and, at the very least, do you swing?
