Spencer talked about how the Kinect led to diversifying Xbox’s portfolio of games, with titles like Kinect Sports and Happy Action Theatre, among a slew of other similar games.

“Prior to that, it’s not like everything was M-rated games, but when we started doing things like Kinect Sports and things from other developers – [like Double Fine‘s] Happy Action Theatre and the dance games –that really opened our eyes to the breadth of what the Xbox could be,” Spencer said (as reported by VGC).

He also went into how Kinect shaped the future of Xbox by showcasing what a gaming platform can mean to players. According to Spencer, Xbox’s moves in the accessibility space, such as the Adaptive Controller, can largely be attributed to the Kinect’s influence.

“I look at the accessibility work that we’ve done – whether it’s the Adaptive Controller or software work that we’ve done – and I think you can draw direct lines back to Kinect,” he said. “Not specifically the device itself, but just about what a gaming platform can mean to more people. And that’s a journey we’re still on.”

The Kinect launched for the Xbox 360 in 2010, and was a pack-in device for the launch variant of the Xbox One- which of course, had huge ramifications for the platform.

Spencer recently made an interesting declaration: that Microsoft is going to be more clear and transparent this console cycle, and that the reveal of the games people can expect to play on the Series X is “soon”. It is, obviously, an exciting comment, but it is also something that inspires some confidence in the Xbox brand going into the next generation, and demonstrates that they may have learned from the mistakes that have sunk them in the past.

The more straightforward part of that statement is, obviously, about the games. Those game announcements and reveals are coming soon, hopefully – general expectation appears to be that Microsoft will show some titles off next month – and that brings with it a level of excitement. Not least because this is the first time we get to really see what a bespoke next generation Xbox Series X game might be like (our only glimpses at the next generation so far have been Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2), but also because this will probably be the first time we see some results from Microsoft’s recent spate of acquisitions.

In response to the criticisms about the company’s failings on the first party and exclusive games front, Microsoft has bought out a lot of promising looking studios – from Ninja Theory to Playground Games – and this will be the first time we get to see some real fruits of their shopping spree (the few games we have seen from these studios since their purchase have been smaller scale experimental projects, such as Bleeding Edge).

But the more interesting part of the statement is Spencer’s declaration that Xbox will be more transparent and “authentic” this generation, not least because it is an implicit admission of mistakes, as well as a tacit admission of not being that the previous generation. While under Phil Spencer, Xbox’s marketing and messaging has generally been clear and straightforward, the Xbox One’s fate was sealed very early on in the console generation, when Microsoft’s confusing and frankly arrogant messaging surrounding the then upcoming console (from the always online DRM to its relative lack of power next to the PS4 to the forced inclusion of Kinect) ended up damaging the console’s perception with the public strongly.

It never recovered, and among many of the more casual gaming public, a lot of misunderstandings surrounding the console remained (such as a belief that you could not play used games on the console, because the Xbox One had originally been planned to not allow that).

As I said, this is something they slowly became better at over the course of the generation. By the time they were introducing fan favorite initiatives such as backward compatibility, Play Anywhere, or Game Pass, there was a refreshing earnestness and honesty about their messaging. We were told exactly what we were getting, and nothing more.

But even in spite of that, there were some lingering remnants of the tendency to muddy the waters – their refusal to share sales numbers for their consoles or games, for example, opting instead for more nebulous indicators of success, such as Average Monthly Users (though this is at least somewhat justifiable in context of Microsoft’s broader company-wide pivot to services). Or take the confusing implication that the Xbox One S is a 4K console in early marketing (it can play 4K movies and videos, yes, but it cannot play games in 4K) – though, once again, that seems to have stopped of late (and especially since the One X started being marketed).

There has been an element of mistrust towards the company by a lot of users this generation, then, in part because of Microsoft’s early failures with the Xbox One, and in part because even under the otherwise impeccable stewardship of Phil Spencer, there have been times when Xbox has felt frustratingly opaque. And while attributing the console’s struggles this generation to just that would be extremely simplistic – we have already discussed so many other reasons for that in just this piece alone – it is still a reason for why the brand saw a relative decline compared to the Xbox 360 heyday.

So, back to Spencer’s statement, then: he promises more authenticity and transparency going forward. And assuming this isn’t just lip service – which we have no reason to think it is, judging by Spencer’s excellent track record on following through on his promises so far – this is yet another promising indication that the company is willing to reflect, introspect, and learn from its mistakes. This is yet another sign that Xbox is willing to not repeat its own failings, and to actively work on improving itself.

That kind of underlying attitude is what Microsoft needs as it heads into the next generation, if it hopes to match Sony on a more even footing this time around. Addressing every individual mistake from the Xbox One era, as Microsoft has done so far, is extremely important, of course – but that’s a bit like patching up holes in a boat after it’s begun to sunk. It’s good you’re doing it, but you should never have let it sink in the first place.

This attitude of wanting to be better overall, however, is a lot like steering the ship so well it never got those holes in the first place – and right now, that’s what Microsoft seems to be doing. And that’s a good thing. That means they won’t have to spend as much time on reacting to their failures next generation, as they have had to this generation. It means they will be spending more time with a better output of games, and better overall value offerings for players. And that only adds value to video games as a medium, as a whole.

That is, of course, good news for anyone that likes games – you get more great ones in the bargain. It’s also, obviously, good news for Xbox fans, since they can look forward to a far better generation than the one they just had. And even hardlined PlayStation fans stand to benefit from this, because Sony is at its best when it is trying to combat and quench the Xbox – such as through the late PS3 era, or the entirety of the Xbox One generation. Microsoft being good only pushes Sony to be even better (and so it goes back and forth).

Literally everyone benefits. Just look at how much healthier the industry is when Nintendo is not flailing like with the Wii U, but thriving with the Switch. As it is there, so it is with Xbox too.

So yes, with this recent statement, Spencer has only given us all more reason to be optimistic for the future of Xbox. And in the process, hopefully, he has given everyone – even those who might swear by PlayStation or PC or Nintendo – a reason to look forward to what the next generation brings. Bring it on.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

THE CRACKDOWN 3 HYPE

Crackdown 3 was in development for a long, long time. It was delayed multiple times, it changed developers, and just had a messy development all around- but throughout it all, Microsoft continued to promise the world to Crackdown fans. For starters, they would not stop talking about the “power of the cloud” and the cloud-powered destruction in the game- which, in the final product, was only in the multiplayer, and was quite underwhelming at that. The game itself was also sourly disappointing, and somehow managed to even be a step back from its predecessors. Before its launch, Microsoft talked about how they wanted Crackdown to sit alongside the likes of Halo and Gears as one of their premier franchises- but clearly they did not put their money where their mouth was.

]]> https://gamingbolt.com/9-times-team-xbox-went-back-on-their-promises/feed 0 438545 https://gamingbolt.com/15-terrible-video-game-controllers-of-all-time https://gamingbolt.com/15-terrible-video-game-controllers-of-all-time#respond Fri, 06 Mar 2020 09:17:34 +0000 https://gamingbolt.com/?p=423839 Developing video games is tough but for all the work that goes into graphics, sound, gameplay and programming, the controller is one’s main gateway to appreciating it all. Even the greatest games can be mired by terrible controllers. So of course, we’re going to be taking a look at 15 of the most horrendous controllers of all time and what made them so uniquely awful.

Xbox “Duke”

For the record: original Xbox controllers were not Frisbees. After all, throwing a Frisbee at someone wouldn’t knock them out cold like “The Duke”, such was the weight and thickness that the OG Xbox controller possessed. If nothing else, it was solid and suited incredibly large hands. And really, there was nothing else. At least Microsoft redesigned the controller to be smaller and more comfortable down the line.

Ten years ago, Minecraft wasn’t a thing, Fortnite wasn’t a thing, Twitch wasn’t a thing, Game Pass wasn’t a thing, Xbox Live was the only service that charged for multiplayer, most games were linear cinematic titles leading to people to long for more open titles, Skyrim and Dark Souls hadn’t come out and irreversibly changed the landscape of games available on the market, Pokemon hadn’t even transitioned to 3D (!), Halo was still developed by Bungie, God of War hadn’t even completed its first trilogy (let alone begin its second one), Assassin’s Creed had just been reinvented for the first time with Assassin’s Creed II, Hideo Kojima was still working on Metal Gear with Konami, Diablo 3 had not yet come out, League of Legends hadn’t blown up in popularity yet, DOTA 2 didn’t even exist, BioWare was on top of the world with Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age Origins, Valve hadn’t even put out Portal 2 (let alone gone on a hiatus from making single player games that would become the stuff of memes), and Angry Birds was the most popular mobile game in the world.

That excessively long run-on sentence probably gives you some idea of just how different things were back then, because video games have honestly, legitimately, changed a lot in this period. It’s been a momentous and extremely important decade for the video games industry – new genres have been created, new stalwarts of popular genres have arisen, new IP has launched, beloved franchises have been reinvented, and so much more.

The incredible thing, additionally, is how much has happened to each of the three console makers this last decade/ But the best way to understand just how much things changed is to look at each part of the gaming market individually, and see what things were like back then, and what they are like now. So without further ado, we’re going to do exactly that.

PlayStation

In 2010, PS3 was still trailing Xbox 360 and Wii, but was on a strong upswing, thanks to a series of inspired exclusives (LittleBigPlanet, Metal Gear Solid 4, Killzone 2, infamous, and, of course, Uncharted 2). Sony had yet to introduce PS Plus, and on the handheld side of things, they had carved out an extremely sizeable portion of the market to themselves with the PSP, which had become the market leader in Japan in terms of third party support, if nothing else. The PS3’s reinvention had started a year before, with the PS3 Slim, a new logo, the “It only does everything” ads, and a renewed focus on Sony expanding its first party portfolio to account for the exclusives that third parties would no longer make for them (given the rising costs of HD development, and the encroachment on PlayStation audiences by Xbox 360), although the actual quality of their output was a bit hit or miss (if wildly experimental). Sony was publishing games for PC, via Sony Online Entertainment. PS Move had not yet come out, though Sony had announced it, and promised to support it in the long term. Which, I suppose, technically they did, given that it is now an indispensable part of the PSVR package. Finally, Sony’s big push at the time was stereoscopic 3D gaming, and they were trying to push sales of 3DTVs with 3D enabled PS3 games.

Things have changed for PlayStation immensely since then. PS4 is now the market leader, and the incumbent going into the next generation. Sony treats online services as an integral part of its PlayStation offerings (PSN made more money in 2016 than all of Nintendo). There is no PlayStation handheld on the market, thanks to the spectacular failure of PSP successor PS Vita. And Sony is now the publisher of some of the best games in the world, with almost every single year since 2012 having had a Sony published title be a Game of the Year contender. This is without counting the fact that several Sony games, such as God of War, Bloodborne, and The Last of Us, are widely considered among the best games ever made. Sony’s emphasis on gimmicks is now at a minimum, and they appear to have doubled down on a few core things that they know work – mostly, their home consoles, great single player games, deals with third parties, and VR (I suppose some may think VR is a gimmick, but that’s not where I am at). And, after almost a full decade of publishing games only for PlayStation – they sold off Sony Online Entertainment early in the decade, which would go on to become Daybreak Entertainment, and spectacularly miss the boat on battle royale games, even though they had a hand in pioneering that genre – they are finally going to start publishing PlayStation first party games on other systems. Titles such as Death Stranding and Detroit: Become Human have already hit PC thanks to third party publishing deals, but MLB The Show is planned for Xbox and Nintendo in 2021.

It’s been a tumultuous decade for Sony, and at one time, the company was written off, and PlayStation assumed to be going defunct. But through those trials and tribulations, a much stronger Sony was forged, and today, PlayStation is the de facto leader of the console market, something that seems unlikely to change at any time in the near future.

Xbox

Believe it or not, Xbox has had an even more eventful ten years than PlayStation. In 2010, Xbox was the console leader in most big markets around the world, and enjoyed immense gamer goodwill thanks to Microsoft’s strong lineup in the first few years of Xbox 360’s life. The console had great exclusives from first and third parties alike, and the Xbox 360 S, a revision for the console, addressed its hardware deficiencies such as the Red Ring of Death. Microsoft was riding high on Windows 7, and planning on entering the smartphone arena with Windows Phone. Their franchises, such as Halo, Fable, and Gears of War, were among the best in the industry.

At the same time, however, Microsoft was starting to lose favor. Its exclusives were beginning to dry up, and Microsoft was falling into a pattern of relying on the same few franchises. It let a lot of partner studios who made Xbox exclusives, such as BioWare and Bizarre Creations, go. The company categorically refused to make any serious commitments to PC gaming. Xbox seemed to be far more interested in following the path to easy money with Kinect, which would be the bulk of their focus for the next few years. And Microsoft generally seemed far more interested in nickel and diming customers, with being the only company to charge for online play, and locking even basic functions such as browser and Netflix access, behind the Xbox Live paywall.

What a difference those ten years have made. Microsoft crashed hard with the Xbox One at launch, largely because it was a weaker console than the competition, but more expensive, thanks to an ordained focus on Kinect, plus media such as TV and movies, and little in the way of compelling exclusives. Microsoft continued to struggle with the Xbox One for years – the console had little in the way of actual meaningful exclusives, and third party games ran better on the competition without exception. Meanwhile, they regressed on most of the progress they had made in global markets with Xbox, to the point that Xbox became irrelevant in most non-Anglosphere markets. And Windows 8, which was their OS for the modern world, was an unmitigated disaster, while Windows Phone failed to take off.

It would take the company years to rebuild. Leadership changes across the board later led to a more focused Microsoft, more willing to do whatever was necessary to be successful. And so, to be successful, Microsoft ended up changing the rules to success. No longer was Xbox bound to hardware units sold as a metric for success. No longer would the strength of its lineup be defined by how many games it played that couldn’t be played anywhere else. Microsoft worked about on systemically reversing all their decisions that had hurt them so badly in the market: they reversed the perception that they were hell bent on nickel and diming, with several incredible initiatives such as Play Anywhere, Backward Compatibility, and Game Pass. They addressed the weakness in their console hardware, and the Xbox One X is the most powerful console in the world right now. They started supporting PC gaming in earnest, committing to bringing every single Xbox game to PC, reviving several PC-centric franchises such as Flight Simulator and Age of Empires, and even finally capitulating and not making their games exclusive to their store. Game Pass is even on PC now!

And most importantly, they finally invested in games. While Halo and Gears are still nowhere close to where they used to be, and Fable is flat out dead (though on the fast track for a revival, allegedly), they purchased almost a dozen studios to beef up their lineup of studios, placing them in a strong position to do well next generation. And, of course, with their savvy combination of Xbox Live, Game Pass, and bringing Xbox services to all hardware and platforms, including PlayStation and Nintendo, they turned the Xbox from a hardware based platform to a software based one, a transition that is looking to be key for the future, and that they are way ahead of the curve on. Xbox may never be the market leader in terms of consoles sold, but they’ve reinvented themselves and put themselves in a position of power to the point that that won’t matter for ensuring continued success anyway.

Nintendo

And, yes, Nintendo somehow manages to top even Microsoft in terms of how much happened to them these last ten years. In 2010, Nintendo was leading the market with the Wii, but it was a Pyrrhic victory – interest in the platform was declining, software sales were in free fall, and third parties had essentially abandoned them. The DS was too old to keep things going, and Nintendo had announced a brand new successor, the 3DS, which had bowled the world over with its promise of glasses-free 3D gaming. In terms of games, Nintendo was on top of the world – Super Mario Galaxy 2 is widely considered among the best games ever made, and on the horizon was Metroid: Other M, a promised cinematic action reinvention of the beloved franchise…

It all went to pot really soon. The 3DS tanked at launch, due to having nothing in the way of games, and an eye watering price of $250, causing Nintendo to slash its price by a third less than six months later. This aggressive move, along with doubling down on 3DS support, and putting out a slew of inspired games, such as Fire Emblem Awakening and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, revived the handheld, and it would go on to sell a respectable 75 million units – which is still the lowest selling Nintendo handheld of all time, and lower than even the PSP.

In terms of consoles, the Wii was followed by the Wii U in 2012, which stands as the single greatest mainstream console failure of this century. Confusingly branded and terribly marketed, while straddled with an expensive controller the value proposition of which was apparent to no one, not even Nintendo, the Wii U ended up selling about 10% of what its predecessor had, and in spite of a short surge of third party games in its first year on the market, got dropped even worse than the Wii had. Nintendo themselves struggled to get anything out on the Wii U, especially because they were spread too thin trying to keep both it and the 3DS afloat single handedly, and, finally intuiting what their future would be, they decided to focus on their portable, allocating the bare minimum towards their console, and nothing else.

In terms of games, it has been such a roller coaster ride. Some of the lowest points of popular Nintendo franchises came this decade, such as Fire Emblem Fates, Pokemon X/Y, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and Metroid: Other M. But Nintendo also proceeded to reinvent itself in a bold new image, and with games such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Fire Emblem Three Houses, and the promised Metroid Prime 4, more than redeemed itself in the eyes of its jilted fans.

Nintendo finally awoke to the potential of services, first trying to put out a surprisingly competent first party social network on the Wii U, dubbed the Nintendo Network with a message board called Miiverse being its chief component; and then regressing from that in almost every way with the Nintendo Switch, still charging money for it, and… getting away with it?

And yes, the Nintendo Switch, let’s talk about that. One of the boldest, freshest, and most exciting consoles ever, the Switch is a hybrid home console/handheld, which can act as both, and owing to that and its modularity, is incredibly versatile. The console has been an incredible success, having already sold just shy of 50 million units in under three years, and outpacing the PS4, which is one of the highest and fastest selling consoles ever. The Switch has seen insane attach rates for Nintendo games, and some of the best entries in their long running franchises. But it has also seen third parties return to Nintendo, with western third party support being an unlikely bright spot – games such as Skyrim, DOOM, Wolfenstein, Crash Team Racing, Fortnite, Mortal Kombat 11, and The Witcher 3 of all things being on their console, and selling well.

And Nintendo has also finally understood it doesn’t exist in a bubble – the company has been uncharacteristically forward thinking with its embrace of things like cross-platform play, cross-platform saves, and even putting games in its beloved franchises on mobile, with Pokemon GO being a literal world conquering juggernaut, and Mario Kart Tour doing well for some reason I will never actually fathom.

To all appearances, Nintendo was doing well in 2010, but they were in a very precarious position that ended up undermining them for years afterward. Much like Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo learned from their mistakes, and came back much stronger. Going forward, as long as they don’t deviate from the script again (they will), they should be guaranteed a steady stream of assured success (they won’t).

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

MOTION CONTROLS

Nintendo has been the originator of what are today some of the most fundamental control inputs, the prime example being analog sticks. Another type of controllers they pioneered in gaming was motion controls, which was brought about with the Wii. At first, it truly did seem like the future of gaming. The possibilities were endless, especially it tech was properly improved to capture 1:1 movements (which it was, with the Wii Remote + and the PS Move, but it still didn’t work out all too well). Ultimately, though, as it turned out, motion controls were just another phase. Sure, they’ve still managed to stick around even today, in some form of another, but as time went on, most people came to realize that while shovelware titles chose to experiment with motion controls, more traditional, hardcore gaming experiences chose to stick with regular controllers. Have motion controls replaced traditional controllers the way we thought they would? Definitely not.

E3 2013 – PS4 Priced Lower Than Xbox One

E3 2013 was not an…ideal time for Microsoft. Coming off of the Xbox One reveal in May, which had more sports and entertainment references than actual games, Microsoft further capsized at the expo. Always online, no used game support, mandatory Kinect and of course, the $500 price tag sent many in a tizzy. Cue Sony to announce in its presser that not only would the PS4 be priced $100 lower but also support used games and no online requirements.

We’ve declared the death of the Kinect, the camera accessory for the Xbox One that could never quite recreate the success of its Xbox 360 forebear, multiple times now, but this is just another nail in its increasingly nailed coffin. Today, Microsoft has confirmed that production on the Kinect adapter for Xbox One S and One X has been discontinued.

This is especially significant because the One S and One X are the only Xbox One models that are officially sold- this means that Microsoft is no longer supporting a way for new Xbox owners to be able to use the camera accessory at all. “After careful consideration, we decided to stop manufacturing the Xbox Kinect Adapter to focus attention on launching new, higher fan-requested gaming accessories across Xbox One and Windows 10,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement to Polygon.

Kinect support for Xbox has been increasingly gutted over time- no new games supporting Kinect have been released, existing Kinect games have been released with traditional controls, Kinect is no longer necessary or supported for navigating the Xbox dash, support for USB webcams an microphones has supplanted the Kinect, and of course, it is now impossible to buy the device or to use it with your console- this is it, this is the end of Kinect.

I wonder how many people will actually miss the much maligned camera, though.

Evolve

Evolve wanted to bring a survival horror experience to a asymmetrical multiplayer space, asking players to play as either the hunters in a class based shooter similar to Borderlands, or as the monsters who much like a Ridley Scott creation would sneak around, attack when least expected and morph. Some early bugs and preorder bonuses that lost a lot of trust from would be players killed off

With Xbox, Microsoft is choosing to focus on 4K gaming while also providing backwards compatibility. In an interview with the Wired, Microsoft’s Shannon Loftis, general manager of publishing at Xbox, spoke of their focus on improving the Xbox One X’s technological capabilities to an extent that a game’s visual experience itself can emotionally impact the player.

Microsoft will soon be launching their Mixed Reality headsets (a combination of Virtual Reality Augmented Reality tech) and with it a free to play Halo experience. However, they have made it clear that VR isn’t their main focus as of now since there seems to be a lot left to do before VR gaming becomes a viable experience.

Speaking on the subject, Albert Penello, senior director of product management and planning at Microsoft stated that, “We learned with Kinect and the Wii that just translating a typical game experience to VR is not a winning strategy. It’s the oddball VR-specific stuff that makes it sing. It wasn’t something we wanted to distract developers with this year.”

As of now, Microsoft’s main focus is simply to bring the best technology possible to their fans, and to also allow fans to play beloved classics on their consoles.