700°

It's Microsoft's Fault That Videogames Are Bad

It behooves first party publishers to provide top quality productions that make their consoles worth buying. Nintendo and Sony have both produced amazing games to sell us on the PS4 and Switch.

Microsoft, however, is different. Microsoft has decided to act no better than a grasping third party "AAA" publisher. Even worse, it set the tone of a generation and contributed - perhaps more than any other company - to the nasty normalization of excessive monetization.

It's Microsoft's fault that videogames are bad.

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1671d ago Replies(2)
Srhalo1671d ago (Edited 1671d ago )

I have been saying this kind of stuff forever.

Honestly he skipped over much of the most egregious things Microsoft does and has done, but it's still good work.

Short term memory people and people who don't understand why people don't want an xbox need to keep being reminded of this stuff.

I don't know why anyone supports them, from the very beginning Microsoft has don't nothing but be a damaging influence on gaming. Pretty much all the bad trends you see today were initially born from Microsoft's greed. They have zero interest in gaming as an art or any desire to make a good game just because they can.

1670d ago Replies(21)
NarutoFox1670d ago ShowReplies(1)
Imortus_san1670d ago

Do you even kow that Microsoft did MS DOS and windows and is responsable for gaming existing like today, what a joke of a comment you have.

Godmars2901670d ago

Did you know that DOS was practically given to what would become MS by IBM which was a hardware company which didn't want to branch out into software?

battlegrog1670d ago

Dont forget apple probably wouldn't be around anymore if it wasn't for ms funding it

AmUnRa1670d ago (Edited 1670d ago )

Yeah and MS was "using" the OS from IBM changed it, and called it heyr own. That is the true history....

rainslacker1670d ago

DOS was around before MS distributed it. It wasn't even required to have MS-DOS in the earlier days of boot disc gaming on PC, as the game developers would distribute their own drivers.

MS is responsible for the way modern PC games are made, and to their credit, DX was something that PC gaming sorely needed. If such a thing hadn't come about, then there is no way GPU's could have gotten to the point they are without some other company doing it. This may not seem like such a big deal now with only two competitors in the 3D GPU market, but there used to be a lot of GPU vendors, and having a fight over which one could make the best drivers, which would likely lock others out, would have held back PC gaming for a really long time.

Not that MS didn't also hold back PC gaming by locking DX behind newer versions of windows, but that's another matter.

However, the discussion presented by this video, and being discussed here, isn't about what good was done for gaming by any individual company, but rather, the things MS has done, which has led to bad practices against the consumer which were introduced by MS. I'm not going to say MS is guilty of being the first with all the things presented, because I know they didn't come up with all these schemes. But they were among the first of some of the examples posited to push them as a central part of their marketing and distribution ethos.

MS does indeed have some good things they've brought to gaming. But at the same time, some of those things may, or rather would have come about either way. Network account centralization being among their biggest achievement with the Xbox brand. Centralized achievement systems(although it's subjective if that's good). Things like standard hard drive in the console would have come either way.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that MS is at fault like being presented in the video. I think the entire industry played a part in getting to where we are today. MS may have introduced and normalized some things we don't like, or have just accepted are the norm now, but chances are, most of that stuff we would be dealing with anyways. What MS did was finding solutions to "problems" that existed within the industry. Those solutions benefited them, while annoyed us. If MS hadn't found those solutions, then someone else would have. MS just took a lot of ideas from others who failed at makign them a thing.

1670d ago
madpuppy1670d ago (Edited 1670d ago )

This is wrong, Bill Gates purchased MS-Dos from Seattle Computer Products for $50,000 and licensed it to IBM for it's first Personal Computer.
That was essentially the creation of Microsoft as a company. Bill Gates Mother was a powerful business woman with very close ties to the Leadership of IBM at the time....Nepotism at it's finest. If it wasn't for Bill Gates mommy, Microsoft may have never existed.

Godmars2901670d ago

@rainslacker:
"I think the entire industry played a part in getting to where we are today."

That's not a legitimate excuse. As a console maker, as the holder of the leading platform when the 360 ruled, MS greatly influenced the industry. EA was all but a subdivision of Xbox.

@madpuppy:
Wow. DOS's history was worse than I recall...

rainslacker1670d ago

@God

I wasn't using it to excuse MS of anything presented in the video, or being discussed here. Just that the original poster was off base, and I went into more detail about all that.

I don't excuse, or even really blame MS, for the stuff in the topic at hand. Maybe for paid online, but the rest probably would have happened with or without MS. Just look at how publishers followed the mobile market practices to monetize their games, and while the console makers enabled them to be able to do that on console, they probably would have been pressured to do so anyhow.

For all the blame one may throw at MS, the industry as a whole is trying to move to make more money. I'd expect that from a business or an industry. The problems come in that those moves aren't lining up with what is in the consumers interest, even though these companies, and the industry, will try to present it as something that is good for the consumer, because it gives them more, even though it's less, but with a price or some consideration attached.

+ Show (5) more repliesLast reply 1670d ago
Saranya1670d ago

Don Mattrick(also Steve Balmer), he's only one to made Xbox brand failed.

Rachel_Alucard1670d ago

Satya Nadella is outdoing them in failing somehow.

JeffGUNZ1670d ago

The amount of bias you have skews your judgment. I will make this simple; every business everywhere wants to make the most money it can. The fact that MS is the evil one because they started charging for Live, but Sony gets a pass for them following is laughable. Do you even remember how better Xbox Live was to PSN back in the day? Xbox Live had so many features PSN lacked early the last generation until PlayStation began charging. Now, both services are fantastic. Regardless of that, Sony is just as guilty for greed as MS. All companies are guilty of it. It is amazing to me to still see people have this blind loyalty to a gaming console they happen to prefer. I love my PS4 and my Xbox One X, but I don't give a crap about Sony or MS enough to spew this fanboy nonsense. If MS provides a product/game I desire, my support falls in that purchase. Same with Sony. I mainly game on my PC, but it is laughable for people to throw all the blame on MS for starting this stuff and by some odd train of thought, justifying their platform of preference for following suit. Can't we all step back and agree companies don't care about us and only care about money? Do you think these guys running Sony or MS are only in it for the joy they bring to you? Get real, they want more money.

We exist in a world where games are being pushed out not completed and patched weeks to months later. We live in a world where season passes and Microtransactions are now taken over rewards that we used to unlock by just playing the game. We as gamers have been throttled with bullsh*t over the last decade and all we do is pick one company and blame the other. It's sickening to see this, why are we all not united against this hogwash?

SegaGamer1670d ago

I don't know how anybody can disagree with you, it's all facts.

Rachel_Alucard1670d ago

Who made it a norm in the industry for Sony and Nintendo to do it in the first place? Oh yeah.

DaDrunkenJester1670d ago

@Rachel

So you're saying MS has so much influence that both the gaming giants Sony and Nintendo couldn't have fought back on it?

Are we also going to blame PSNow for creating subscription based gaming on consoles since it was the first and clearly influenced the likes of GamePass and EA Access?

gangsta_red1670d ago

Excellent post and it just shines a light on the hypocrisy of this site and certain users who constantly like to blame one company and give the other(s) a past.

That is what's so funny about a theme I've been seeing when trying to only blame MS. How MS is forcing other companies to do the same. It's downright hilarious to even read it.

As if MS could force or strong arm Sony or Nintendo to do the same tactics.

Do you know how much praise Sony or Nintendo would get if they both offered free online or no microtransactions. But no, they too followed the trends and saw potential profit in services and followed suit.

They were going to do it with or without MS's entry into the gaming market and people are fooling themselves if they don't think so.

Rachel_Alucard1670d ago (Edited 1670d ago )

At no point am I saying Sony is better in any comment. But to dismiss the one who created it just because their competitors decided to follow what the west does a decade and half later is pure fanboying.

Imalwaysright1670d ago (Edited 1670d ago )

Rachel_Alucard

Oh the irony. You were defending Sony and Nintendo a few comments above and even made the pathetic point that they were just following because they thought it was the norm in the west. I felt some of my brain cells dying when I read that utter crap. They followed because it makes them money, that is it. They are not exempt from blame. No one is.

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AspiringProGenji1671d ago

“The xbox has coasted by on being the system you get because your friends have it” -Dunkey 2019

notachance1670d ago

to put it in a perspective..
how many users here are new XB fans that started from XB1 era and not a remnant from previous gen?
compare that to the number of new fans of PS4/Switch

battlegrog1670d ago

Been enjoying xbox since the first, never bought a microtransaction in my life. This article's stupid or maybe video game players are. They have contribited more than some few shaddy moves that someone else did or would have done regardless of who took the lead on it first. People are in control ofwhat they do

DerfDerf1670d ago

It's definitely gamers as a whole. Unfortunately quite a few of them are simply idiots.

1670d ago
notachance1670d ago

@ndonnine if n4g loves click bait and bullshit this site would consist of 90% MS fanboys because that's what they're doing all this gen

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Soybetaboy1670d ago

Wow what a reliable source
Let me quote some guy and call it "FACTS".

AspiringProGenji1670d ago

Except I didn’t call it facts

CorndogBurglar1670d ago

It's in quotes. And he named the person that said it. He never claimed it was a fact. Do you think anything with quotations around it is supposed to be a fact? That isn't how things work.

Soybetaboy1670d ago

Then why bother quoting.....exactly

Godmars2901670d ago

Sadly, those were the days when COD dominated the gaming scene. Did its own level of damage to creativity as all companies made clones.

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PhoenixUp1671d ago ShowReplies(4)
Father__Merrin1670d ago

xbox OG was excellent especially the clancy games, 360 was superb loved it, xbox one was drab from the begining with hardly any games of note just the same games from last generation ie gears forza halo. microsoft now are selling on average 40k consoles per week its a dying console and ppl on here still feel the need to support them even with no games, whilst the competition soars ahead.....

Godmars2901670d ago

Sadly, MS's tone deafness regarding game development has been on display since OG Xbox. They may have started big with and even had some successes with the likes of Ninja Gaiden and Splinter Cell, but when multiplayer came to Halo, that was pretty much it.

RizBiz1670d ago

What was superb about the 360? It's impressive failure rate?

1670d ago
nitus101670d ago

@someone72

I still have my fully working FAT PS3 which I brought day one of release.

Father__Merrin1669d ago

it had a massivly impressibe library of games 2007-2009 i much favoured it over ps3 at the time

1670d ago Replies(1)
Show all comments (228)
110°

"Invincible" AAA Game Crowdfunding Campaign Launched by Skybound

Skybound Entertainment has launched the crowdfunding campaign for its AAA Invincible game with a minimum investment set at $100.

phoenixwing14h ago

These ppl are terrible. expecting gamers to pick up the dev costs with high as he'll initial investment. When they probably already have the funds considering they already hired a team of 30 and have the creator backing them.

Inverno11h ago

They seem to be crowdfunding the idea of a studio rather than an actual game. It's already at near half a million and there isn't even concept/any kind of proof of concept. People throwing so much money at something that'll most likely be too big for crowd funding alone and will have em partner up with a publisher.

PhillyDonJawn6h ago

I was just saying, they need to make this a game

-Foxtrot1h ago

Big IPs like this shouldn’t need crowdfunding

390°

Former Blizzard President Suggests Players Should Have Option to Tip Developers

Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra recently suggested an interesting concept that has sparked a debate among gamers - the idea of being able to tip developers after completing a game.

LG_Fox_Brazil1d 15h ago

If I had a 100% way to be sure that this money would go to a fund or a reserve dedicated only to the guys who develop the games, be them designers, artists, programmers and so on, I could think about it.

But we all know that this 'tip' would only end up in a publisher's CEO pocket to buy a new yacht, so, no, I ain't tipping anyone anytime soon on this industry

neutralgamer199219h ago

Exactly these companies were raising money for good causes and gamers were donation and come to find out they are keeping a good chunk of be pie

PapaBop10h ago

Yeah tip your developer, 5% proceeds go to developer, 95% to the publisher or whoever. Isn't tipping for staff not making minimum wage? How about they just pay their developers properly and like you know, give them fair bonuses? Too much to ask from Blizzard these days, Kotick saw to that and is now laughing all the way to the bank.

MrDead19h ago(Edited 19h ago)

It's the t**ts at the top looking at ways to cut devs wages and get the players to tip them like waiting staff, and I'll guarantee a percentage is skimmed and kept by Activision Blizzard. This is 100% for shareholder and CEO playouts.

Popsicle19h ago(Edited 19h ago)

I have to agree with this. On the surface tipping devs sounds like a great idea, but in the end it leads to pay cuts and subsidization of pay. Tips then become an expectation or the devs “can’t make a living.” Lastly, especially in the US, tip culture has gotten out of control, and it serves as an excuse not to properly pay employees. Sounds good but doesn’t end well.

1Victor15h ago

Uh so they’re trying triple dip or more we buy the game that they’re already withholding/cutting content for dlc we was told that season pass would help the developers thrive we felt for it.
Now on top of all that plus their sales bonus they want tips enough is enough whatever happens to you create/built a good game get a bonus for sales milestones you care about your game and community we reward you with more sales not for doing 3/4 of a game then save the other 1/4 for dlc and passes after

raWfodog14h ago

The 'tip' is me buying your game in the first place.

S2Killinit11h ago

Very well said. If it was possible to send the money to either the developer or some organization for the betterment of gaming, sure. But we all know that will not be the case.

Rynxie9h ago(Edited 9h ago)

No, it would go to those on the top. They will still fire developers, have a bunch of microtransactions, raise prices of games and so on.

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H91d 14h ago

So they eventually don't pay their workers and depend on our tips to pay them like the case with waiters!

Deeeeznuuuts19h ago

That kind of practice is only normal in the states, as far as I know anyway, what a backwards system

H917h ago

No it's as well in a every country that wants to amercanize

bloop16h ago

Ireland is literally the first stop across the pond and we don't have a tipping culture. The only establishments here that would expect a tip are the tourist haunts that Americans visit. Other than that, you might tip in a restaurant as a sign of gratitude for great service and waiting staff would be paid a full wage anyway.

Rebel_Scum10h ago

Tipping is not customary iin most countries dude. Get a passport lol.

Jin_Sakai1d 14h ago

Is this a joke? How about the big wigs giving up some of their pay for their hard working developers.

MrBaskerville20h ago

Maybe the CEO could earn his money based on tips.

mastershredder1d 14h ago

good god. The devs are not baristas dude. Total 1% ideals. Fing Chadosaurus.

Show all comments (74)
280°

Xbox's Preservation Step Sets A Much-Needed Example, Especially For Nintendo

Hanzla from eXputer inquires: "If Xbox can care about preserving its games and legacy, what exactly is wrong with Nintendo, trying to kill game preservation single-handedly?"

purple1012d ago

Ahh yes the good old game preservation of saving all your games to a removable hhd on the Xbox 360, taking it round your mates house, setting up multiple tvs to
Be met with “save data corrupted, please re download”

Or how about removing 360 games
From the store
, download them now or else, and, better hope to god that save data doesn’t corrupt, or it’s lost for ever

Nice one ☝️

Zeref1d 20h ago

It's better than what Nintendo and Playstation is doing. It might not be perfect but at least they are TRYING. Unlike the others.

DarXyde1d 19h ago

Trying? Take off the blinders for a moment, mate.

1. A failure to preserve games is just that: a failure to preserve games. Don't try to sugarcoat it: NO ONE is doing it properly. Better than awful is nothing to write home about.

2. At the time of this comment, isn't it the case that you need an internet connection to play Xbox games even if you buy physical discs that are hardly in circulation anymore? I don't have a Series X and I can't verify, but I think that is correct. I'm fairly certain you can at least play PS5 games at version 1.0 (not much of a win really when many games require day one patches). I think Microsoft's all digital, licensing approach is by far more aggressive than anyone else's. They really try to push you to game pass where you lose your entire library by umm.... Skipping a month of payments.

I don't think anyone is doing it right whatsoever. Don't get me started on Nintendo, who goes after anyone looking to preserve their games better than they ever would with extreme litigation.

Don't be a simp for any of these companies. Get it together.

PhillyDonJawn1d 19h ago (Edited 1d 19h ago )

@DarX never speak on Xbox again. You lost all credibility with your internet connection comment. Smh you have 0 clue and misinformed yet speaking on something you don't no squat about.

Einhander19721d 18h ago

What has Sony done exactly? You guys keep deflecting to Sony but I am not actually seeing any results, and ai am certain nothing that you can come up with even comes close to what Microsoft has done and what they have tried and failed to do, like tie all your disks to your account on xbone.

Microsoft removed their whole indie section when they moved to the xbone because they were going to only allow games on the service that came from a publisher, id@xbox started after xbone launched and it only exists because Sony embraced indie and Microsoft was forced to cancel their plans and reverse course.

And every single game that was part of games for windows live including disk games (I have gta 4 on disk that won't work) so hundreds of games that use that DRM no longer work unless the company themselves patched it out which of course very few did.

MrBaskerville1d 17h ago

Not trying. Tried. they killed of the backcomp program years ago. They set something up again, but sounds like it's more of an attempt to save the current library on whatever they are planning next. With luck they save everything and more, but let's see. I could see them killing off parts of the OG xbox and 360 libraries. Can't imagine that they would allow us to play Forza 5-7 in the future.

With that said, I do like what they've done and really wish they could have done more.

shinoff21831d 9h ago

Zeref

So killing off physical media is trying what exactly. Ms don't really give a fk if you think they do your kidding yourself.

Profchaos1d 8h ago

They are not trying this team is established for forward compatability the team is. It interested in preserving Xbox or 360 games.

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isarai2d ago

Is that why Hellblade 2 is digital only?

Zeref1d 20h ago

Just because it's digital only doesn't mean you can't preserve it. Just put it on an external and you have the exact same functionality of what a disc does.

MrNinosan1d 20h ago

Guess you're trolling, but if you actually think that's how it works, I'd recommend buying some braincells.

mkis0071d ago (Edited 1d ago )

Volitile vs nonvolitile data. A disc will not corrupt either. A drive can be corrupted.

Einhander19722d ago

This is just a scammy PR move to distract from the fact they are going digital only and trying to push streaming and subscriptions only.

No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft.

Without discs there is no preservation, preservation can't be done by the rights holders it can only be done by the consumers, anything else is a lie.

2d ago Replies(3)
Einhander19722d ago

Anyone remember xblig which Microsoft removed their whole 360 indie section removing hundreds of games from people?

2d ago
2d ago
Zeref1d 20h ago

Do you know you can put your games on an external and preserve them that way? There are no benefits to discs. ZERO. Idk why some of you are still obsessed with them.

DarXyde1d 19h ago

Because games like Persona 5 exist. It's STILL V1.00. On Playstation, that's a win because 1.00 is installed on the disc—no need to download anything.

If a game does not require any updates, it's all on the disc.

Extremely low bar in the modern era, of course. It's not much of a win by any stretch.

But for now, physical media does have a purpose, at least on Playstation.

Einhander19721d 18h ago

That is factually not how game licensing works, try plugging your hard drive into someone else xbox, It's not going to work, and it won't work if the licensing servers ever go down.

Einhander19721d 18h ago

Anyone remember games for windows live.

I have around a dozen games, some on Steam itself that will not work because Microsoft shut off the licensing servers.

BehindTheRows1d 18h ago (Edited 1d 18h ago )

I do. I STILL have games (Gears of War being the big one) I cannot access because Games for Windows LIVE is total garbage and no one has held Microsoft accountable.

Zeref1d 16h ago (Edited 1d 16h ago )

You don't have an Xbox apparently. Because you can 100 percent plug in your external and play games from it on any Xbox console lol. You just have to be logged in to prove ownership.

Chevalier1d 15h ago

"You don't have an Xbox apparently. Because you can 100 percent plug in your external and play games from it on any Xbox console lol. You just have to be logged in to prove ownership."

Damn how many times do people got to explain your idiocy to you? You can take a copy of Persona 5 like someone used as an example and play that game on ANY console WITHOUT logging in which means I can lend the game to a friend without internet and they can play my game. Can you lend your hard drive to anyone without logging in for them to play? NOPE. That is a huge difference and if you think otherwise then sorry you're an idiot.

Tacoboto1d 17h ago

"No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft."

Ubisoft is literally erasing games people bought from their libraries... My PS1-3 discs are useless on modern hardware. Nintendo's re-published and resold almost their entire Wii U library, and the eShop is completely dead with no BC mechanism in the Switch software. Microsoft publishes everything they make today day one on Steam and Xbox/Windows. Sony only brings to PC the titles they think you might want some years later and Nintendo won't even design a functional long-lasting joystick.

You're absolutely trolling and not serious if you think Microsoft today is the worst offender.

shinoff21831d 9h ago

Yay steam

Not everyone fks with computers though. The disc is still the best way as a console player. Period.

Tacoboto1d 6h ago

How do Sony and Nintendo feel about these discs from 2001-2013?

Don't be stupid, you know Xbox is the best at this today.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 1d 6h ago
Hofstaderman1d 21h ago

Nobody wants this. Sales or the lack of it in the case of XBOX is very telling. I wonder how the adorably all digital series X will fare. Adorably dismal perhaps?

crazyCoconuts1d 17h ago

Only time will tell, but for from someone like me suspecting that Xbox is trying to gracefully exit the console market, that "forward compatibility" team is trying to get Xbox games playing on Windows PCs. I mean, it's nice that they're not planning on exiting with a "enjoy your games while the hardware still works" message, so that's nice. They still have a brand to protect via Microsoft so probably feel obligated to have a better exit strategy.

Xeofate1d 14h ago (Edited 1d 13h ago )

That is not their plan, their plan is to transfer users accounts to the cloud.

Phil Spencer himself said as much a few months back, plans could have changed but I think people are reading way too much into one statement where Phil said he would allow Epic on xbox because he wants to be able to sell xbox games directly on other platforms. Aka, instead of selling Sea of Thives through PSN he wants to have an xbox store to sell his games on PlayStation without giving PlayStation any money.

Again, it's extremely unlikely that Phil plans to put PC on xbox and licensing would prevent them from just giving out other publishers games purchased on xbox copies of thier games on PC, Microsoft does not own their games.

crazyCoconuts19h ago

The thing that doesn't align with the cloud strategy is the giving up on exclusives. You'd still need strong exclusives for cloud streaming - it's still a "platform" , just with a lower upfront hardware investment. I feel like they've learned what PS learned with PSNow long ago. We're not ready to stream games and it's only gonna lose them money to try at this point

FinalFantasyFanatic1d 3h ago

I would love that, I'd buy up some of the Xbox games if they could run on PC, like the Rare Replay, Lost Odyssey and Dead or Alive Ultimate, probably a pipe dream though.

Show all comments (43)