The Xbox One is struggling because video game exclusives still matter

[PythonFSi]

Where have all the Xbox One games gone?

We’re three months into 2017 and it’s already unusually crowded with great exclusive video games.

The PlayStation 4 is on a hot streak. Nioh, Yakuza 0, Gravity Rush 2, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Nier Automata have already landed to largely positive reviews. In the coming months, the console will also get, MLB 17: The Show, and Persona 5, along with a grab bag of big-name indie titles, including Nex Machina, Nidhogg 2, and Pyre. And Nintendo has The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, arguably one of the best launch titles of all time.
There have never been more third-party releases, and many of the best-selling games appear on multiple platforms. And yet in 2017, exclusives seem as significant to a hardware’s success as ever before.

Take Nintendo, for instance. Nintendo hasn’t exactly been great at making sure the latest mainstream titles are available for its consoles (something that will hopefully change with the Switch). But Nintendo stays afloat because while it lacks the option to play Call of Duty or the latest sports titles, it has a strong catalog of exclusive titles and continues to release excellent new entries. It’s a strategy the company is already leaning into with its latest hardware, the Nintendo Switch, which has had a great launch carried almost single-handedly by the stellar The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. While sales haven’t officially been reported, research firm SuperData estimates that 89 percent of Switch owners have bought Link’s latest open-world adventure, to the tune of 1.34 million copies.
Perhaps the most revealing example of the power of exclusives is Microsoft’s Xbox One, the console that’s struggled to find its niche with first-party games. While Sony has recently offered a variety of games in a short window of time, and Nintendo has, well, Zelda, Microsoft hasn’t quite found its footing.

Instead, Microsoft has dealt with underperforming new entries in popular franchises, false starts to new properties, and a number of high-profile cancellations. And this isn’t a case of critical darlings failing to find an audience. The top 50 Xbox One games on Metacritic contains few exclusives: two Forza games (Forza Horizon 3 and Forza Motorsport 6), the original Titanfall, Ori and the Blind Forest, and a pair of legacy remake collections: Halo: The Master Chief collection, and the Rare Replay collection.

Highly hyped Microsoft exclusives like ReCore, Quantum Break, and Halo Wars 2 have been released to semi-positive reviews, but the company has been mum on sales. The few critically lauded Xbox One exclusives, like Halo 5: Guardians or Sunset Overdrive, have quickly faded from the spotlight. Worse, some of Xbox’s biggest franchises have struggled to match the sales of previous entries.

The Xbox One’s exclusive lineup has also suffered delays, setbacks, and closures. Quantum Break saw numerous delays before its release, and Crackdown, announced years ago, won't hit until later this year at the earliest. Scalebound, Fable Legends, and Ion were outright canceled, and Project Spark was shut down. And even Microsoft’s big-name indie titles Below and Cuphead have experienced delays.

Exclusives aren’t everything. Nintendo's inability to get mainstream third-party releases on its hardware has made its wares into a secondary console for many customers — hardware people buy after they purchase a console that runs Madden and Grand Theft Auto. Where does that leave Microsoft in the current living room landscape? Without unique games, the Xbox One is a slightly less powerful, definitely less popular PlayStation 4.

Without unique games, the Xbox One is a slightly less powerful, definitely less popular PlayStation 4

What’s strange about the Xbox One’s troubles is how it’s being bested by a playbook it wrote. The Xbox 360 basically pioneered indie publishing for consoles with the Xbox Live Indie Games program and Summer of Arcade. But Sony and Nintendo have since welcomed indie developers with open arms (and sometimes open wallets).

In recent years, major indie releases hit PS4 first, while Microsoft's baffling parity clause — which required that any games that released for other platforms had to launch on the Xbox One at the same time, or not at all — drove away a number of developers. Microsoft is finally softening its stance on that issue, which is why Xbox owners can finally play Rocket League and Shovel Knight months after the hype.

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[Graal]

Yeah, I've had my Xbone 2 months and I'm already rather disappointed with the lack of exclusives while the PS4 players just seem to get them by the handful.

I'm definitely going to buy a PS4 this year.

[BeoTeK]

That being said, I still think it's a great platform to have and has it's uses. I still love mine and don't think I'll be getting rid of it any time soon.

[Solitude]

I'm very disappointed at the lack of exclusives. I see all these awesome games that the PS4 owners are getting and there's just nothing like that on the XBone.

And I've saved up for the Scorpio but if it's anything like the Slim then we'll get it six months after the rest of the world and if they do that then fuck them and I may just got with a PS4 Pro.

[blaaislaai]

I gave my xbone away to my friend to play with, she is a xbox fangirl and find no problem with the console... due to obvious reasons

[Tjitah]

Well, I must be a girl then, because I love my XBox. I bought both a PS3 and XBOX360 about four years ago, specifically to play the "exclusives". I played all three Unchartered games and hated all three (very repetitive), got all three Killzones and liked the first one, didn't like the next two. At the same time, I got all the Halo games for XBOX360, didn't like it and never got more than 10% into any of them. I got all three Gears of War and liked them but so far only played halfway through the first one. I liked the look and feel of Forza much more than Gran Turismo and spent many enjoyable hours with Forza.

But I actually ended up playing more mainstream games on my Xbox360 than "exclusives", especially games like Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed and Tomb Raider, which I didn't enjoy playing on PC with mouse and keyboard. I found the PS3 controller too small for my average-sized male hands, whereas the Xbox controller felt just right. More importantly, I hated the menus, interface and webstore of the PS3. Everything was slower, clumsier and more complicated than that of the Xbox, which was sleek and fast by comparison. At the time, free games from XBLive Gold could be kept forever, whereas on the PS3 you lost them if you didn't continue subscribing. That all changed now with the Xbox One which really pisses me off, but PS4 is the same.

Bottom line is that I have sold my PS3, kept the Xbox 360 and also recently bought an Xbox One which I absolutely love. And it has nothing to do with "exclusives". I couldn't care less about exclusives because I found that they are overrated and over-hyped, especially for the Playstation. 90% of the so-called PS4 exclusives are utter crap or Japanese anime girlie stuff. As far as I'm concerned, you don't buy a console for the exclusives. You buy it because most games nowadays are optimised and standardised for console and controller play. You also buy it because it is a very sociable way to play games, especially if you play couch co-op or online with friends etc. I still play on PC as well and love it to bits, mainly for flight sims and FPS, but some games are just so much better on console and for that I prefer my XBOX. Stuff the exclusives, who cares.