Xbox Game Studios CEO Phil Spencer stands onstage on the 2015 Game Awards.Photo: Allen Berezovsky (Getty Images)
It wouldn’t be the primary time, however Xbox followers are upset within the wake of final night time’s broadcast of The Game Awards. The drawback? While opponents like Sony scooped up award after award, the Xbox model and Xbox-related video games had been nearly nowhere to be seen.
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Ironically, this 12 months’s Game Awards passed off in LA’s Microsoft Theater. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer did the truth is attend, and although an Xbox-published sport gained an award and a variety of upcoming Game Pass titles and options had been introduced, Xbox followers felt like their console’s guardian firm allow them to down. The Federal Trade Commission—which simply hours earlier than the Awards sued to stop Microsoft’s pending merger with Activison Blizzard—possible didn’t thoughts Microsoft’s introversion, however the firm’s long-suffering followers are uninterested in ready for the writer to point out up.
Read More: Feds Sue To Prevent Microsoft’s Activision Deal From Going Through
“Zero showings since June pretty much,” one well-liked tweet in response to Xbox’s forthcoming Game Pass titles stated. “Y’all hate your fans.”
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The sentiment appeared to echo in all places. “Very surprised with Xbox not having a presence at The Game Awards,” Kinda Funny host Parris Lilly tweeted, “IMO it’s a missed opportunity to set the table for what’s to come in 2023.” Wirecutter editor Arthur Gies observed Microsoft Gaming’s wallflower standing too, tweeting “Xbox was the quietest i think i’ve ever seen at the Game Awards.”
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But Microsoft hasn’t been capable of ship the inspiring exclusives its followers maintain praying for shortly—Bethesda’s big Xbox-exclusive motion role-playing sport Starfield missed its 2022 due date, as did Arkane’s first-person shooter Redfall. We’re on the level the place even Microsoft admits Sony and its PlayStation have “better quality” exclusives.
Instead of making an attempt to match that high quality, and regardless of a large, promising Halo Infinite replace and the success of 2022 exclusives like Pentiment, Xbox appears to be emphasizing Game Pass as its moneymaker. That could also be disappointing for diehards craving for some creativity from the model, nevertheless it’s in all probability the most secure factor for Xbox to do whereas its mess of an Activision Blizzard merger chugs on. The FTC is frightened {that a} merger would make Microsoft an excessive amount of of a gaming Goliath, and particularly mentions Starfield and Redfall in its press launch describing why it thinks so.
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“Microsoft decided to make several of Bethesda’s titles including Starfield and Redfall Microsoft exclusives despite assurances it had given to European antitrust authorities that it had no incentive to withhold games from rival consoles,” the press launch says. “With control over Activision’s blockbuster franchises, Microsoft would have both the means and motive to harm competition by manipulating Activision’s pricing, degrading Activision’s game quality or […] withholding content from competitors entirely, resulting in harm to consumers.”
So, as its authorized troubles double, Microsoft will in all probability proceed to lurk within the shadows. Fans are shedding both means.
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