man it’s amazing how microsoft managed to completely fuck themselves out of the best position they could possibly have been in in the gaming industry
like, back in 2008, “Xbox” was synonymous with “video games.” you didn’t say “wanna come over and play video games,” you said “wanna come over and play xbox”
then the xbone incident happened and that just fuckin’ flew out the window. like, almost overnight all of their brand recognition and loyalty just dropped. it’s wild.
tbh that’s more a reflection on the consumers than anything
video games is a business where most of the base will ditch you the moment one thing doesn’t happen one minute after it’s said it was supposed to be done
companies may fuck up, but there’s really no loyalty or general logic anymore. it’s just “what’s the most perfect thing I can get at this moment in time” and “if it isn’t 110% perfect, fuck it all”
I feel like you’re underestimating the power of console brand loyalty, as well as how severely Microsoft fucked up with the announcement and launch of the Xbox One. (If anything is a powerful testament to the power of brand loyalty, for instance, it’s the never ending Nintendo apologia even during the low days of the WiiU.)
Deep brand loyalty has been ingrained into videogame culture since the days of the SNES and the Genesis. An entire generation of marketing was built on taking potshots across the road at the other company, trying to make them look bad while making yourself look cool. Things got a bit muddied when the aborted Nintendo+Sony deal resulted in Sony entering the console market on their own in earnest, but the folding of Sega and Nintendo’s refusal to stop doing their own thing (the graphical prowess of the Gamecube was kneecapped by their insistence on using weird proprietary discs based on mini-DVDs) meant that we eventually wound up once again with a heated two-horse race between Sony’s PlayStation 2 and Microsoft’s new Xbox. PS2 had the library advantage, but Xbox had superior hardware and much better online support, not to mention Halo.
The tension between the two only grew stronger in the following generation, where Sony fell into the same trap that Nintendo did (weird proprietary hardware in the form of the Cell Processor that wound up scaring developers away) and lost ground to the Xbox 360, with Nintendo not even pretending to compete on account of going for the grandma audience with the Wii. This left the core console market as a two-sided affair, which is the perfect recipe for an “us versus them” brand war. The Blu-Ray/HD-DVD format war also factored into a strengthening of the battle lines, as did the general perceived demographics of the consoles. The PS3 was the Japanese anime game device, whereas the Xbox 360 was the American multiplayer shooter platform. You either picked one or the other, and brand loyalty shitposting hit an all-time high, with arguments about consoles exploding or having no games on them.
As much as I love the PS3, there’s no denying that the Xbox 360 was the clear winner in the North American market. The only reasons the PS3 didn’t crash and burn with its disastrous price and lack of library were because it got Metal Gear Solid 4 and because the early Xbox 360s had a catastrophic overheat failure rate, which made the expensive PS3 a slightly more appealing option once word of the overheats got out. By the time Microsoft ironed out the hardware problems, the PS3 had finally gotten more games on it, but it still wasn’t enough to defeat the 360 in terms of sheer popularity. 360 was easier to develop for and had the killer app of Halo 3, and the rest is history.
The Kinect is partially to blame for Xbox’s downfall, but not just for existing. The Kinect circa Xbox 360 wasn’t a massive success, but neither was the PS3′s Move controller+EyeToy setup. It was a case of both companies experimenting with motion controls after the Wii struck gold, but doing it too little and too late. Where the problems hit was when Kinect was included as a mandatory part of the Xbox One. In theory this was a good idea for developers since they could count on the Kinect being part of every unit and thus develop for it more confidently, but this backfired due to the Kinect itself being unpopular with the Xbox’s core demographic and inflating the price of the Xbox One, making it $100 more expensive than it would be without. On its own, this would have been an awkward handicap, but not insurmountable. The biggest shot in the foot for Microsoft was that they paired it with absolutely anti-consumer policies.
When the Xbox One was announced, the plan was that it had to be always-online to work, and wouldn’t support used games. Always online is a tall order for some customers (especially those with data caps), and always online with a mandatory camera+microphone device is extra skeezy. The used-games lockout was also very anti-consumer, since it would also potentially prevent you from sharing games with your friends. The real kicker though was when consumers asked about an offline option for the Xbox One, they were told that Microsoft already had a product for people who couldn’t have a constant internet connection: The Xbox 360. They essentially told all their customers to fuck off and stick with the old hardware if they didn’t want to be constantly online. The fact that marketing focused more on TV apps, sports, and media box stuff instead of gaming only further seemed to tell the core gaming audience to piss off.
The sum of all this is that Microsoft was announcing a console that was more expensive than it needed to be to accommodate a peripheral that the core audience didn’t want, all the while seeming to actively antagonize the core gaming audience who would buy it in the first place. That’s enough to give people pause about where their loyalties lie.
The final nail in the coffin was Sony’s response to Microsoft’s tone-deaf announcement. Having been humbled down from their high-horse during the PS3 days and eager to regain ground, the PS4′s announcement was pretty much a direct “take that” at Microsoft. Their console was announced at a price $100 below the Xbox One with no mandatory motion bullshit, and their presentation on how to share games on the PS4 was a simple 3 second demonstration of physically passing the disc from one person to another. There was no used games lockout, no always online bullshit, and no wasting time on sports and TV to the detriment of games. Hardware wasn’t a limitation either, since both the PS4 and Xbox One were based on x86 PC architecture and had more or less comparable specs. Microsoft couldn’t even rely on Halo to move consoles because the IP got handed over to 343 Industries, who proceeded to shit on the lore and alienate Halo fans. It could also be argued that the popularity of multiplayer shooters had given way to what we now know as the Soulsborne genre, and PS4 had Bloodborne as its killer app for added incentive.
As one might expect, the combined effect of Microsoft pushing their audience away and Sony eagerly pulling them in resulted in many people flipping to PS4, leaving Xbox One in the dust. While Microsoft eventually realized the error of their ways and tried to reverse course by axing the Kinect and disabling always-online via a patch (ironic considering you need internet to download a patch in the first place), the damage had already been done and they lost loads of market share.
To add insult to injury, Microsoft since then seems to have been intent on digging their grave even further. While Halo has lost the draw it used to have, Microsoft still had some tantalizing exclusives up its sleeve, such as the Remake and Remaster of the cult hit Phantom Dust, Crackdown 3, Cuphead, and the Platinum-developed Scalebound. Microsoft evidently decided this gave them too much of a chance to recover, so they cancelled the Phantom Dust Remake after sabotaging it with changing goalposts (reports say they cancelled it BEFORE announcing it publicly, which is extra baffling), released the Remaster for free on Windows 10 (probably to get people to upgrade to Windows 10, which was facing its own consumer crisis), released Cuphead on Steam instead of as an Xbox exclusive after a long status of being MIA and presumed cancelled, left Crackdown 3 also MIA, and most terrible of all cancelled Scalebound and ended their partnership with Platinum only to later announce it was un-cancelled and being developed internally by what we can only assume is a much less capable mercenary crew of devs frankensteining together the existing assets into some kind of shambling mess.
The Xbox One’s downfall isn’t just consumers being fickle, impatient, or impossible to please. This is quite possibly an example of full on corporate suicide, where a company completely out of touch with what their core demographic wants proceeds to push that demographic away, and burn any possible bridges back for good measure.
This is an amazing in-depth look at the dive that Microsoft has taken over the past few years, but what baffles me the most (in the best way, I assure you), is the fact that this was pulling the receipts on everything Microsoft fucked up on, to prove the last guy wrong, in a very well-structured and down-to-earth manner that engaged me. Moontouched-moogle just shot out an essay on a whim whereas I can’t do that with a week’s worth of planning.
Yeah, it’s actually really hard to lose gamers’ loyalty. I’m a PlayStation girl. My husband is on Xbox. We’re both really loyal to our console of choice. Two reasons for this:
1/ exclusive games. Most of my favourite games are PlayStation exclusives: the last of us, uncharted, journey, until dawn, heavy rain and beyond two souls. Can’t wait for the shadow of the colossus remake and obviously the last of us part 2. PlayStation would have to fuck up all their future exclusive releases to make me move to Xbox. And Xbox would have to bring Fable back and get an exclusive contract for Assassin’s Creed. Otherwise, I love my PlayStation.
2/ online gaming with friends. My husband is on Xbox, his friends are on Xbox. Most of the games he plays are online multiplayers. If he wanted to move over to PlayStation, he’d have to convince all his friends to change console too. Xbox would have to massively fuck up to lose these boys.
What’s worse is that they take their concept of “races” and try to apply it everywhere else, which … doesn’t really work all that well (but when has that every stopped US Americans?).
Race doesn’t really apply to other nations based on the stronger ethnic ties in communities versus skin tone. Scottish individuals can easily look British based on skin color. But the concept of racism being discrimination based on skin color and physical features is not limited to America at all.
Europeans always claim they not racist but still do racist shit
Europe the birth place of racism which make their denial of their racism hilarious
America is racist because of racist Europeans who brought that mindset over here; I swear Europeans wanna act so superior like minorities in their countries face zero issues based on their race. All the EU rejecting the categorization thing means is that they find other ways to discriminate against minorities,its like how when dudes say females they mean in it a derogatory way. Europe not slick, ya’ll just as racist and the denial of it actually makes y’all worse
Where do y’all think we Americans got it from? Hmmmmmm?
You’re misunderstanding, I think. None of this is about saying Europeans don’t have racism. Of course we do.
It’s just a cultural and linguistics difference in how racism is expressed. I’m French and it is absolutely true that if someone says the word “race” in France- unless they are an academic and specifically referring to Anglo-American race theory -, that person is a racist and they are definitely about to tell you how “Blacks and Arabs are not as evolved, really”.
The word “race” in (mainland) Europe is an inherently racist one. Because our understanding of the word is rooted in the pseudo-science of race promoted by the Third Reich. The word “race” brings up “studies” showing black people’s brains are smaller and Jewish features aren’t as perfect as “aryan” ones.
When I moved to Ireland and went to university here as a Languages and Cultural Studies student and “Race Studies” appeared in my curriculum, I was totally shocked. The concept of race, not as a fake pseudo-scientific, biologically-justified hierarchy, but as a cultural identity formed by a shared history and shared lived experience was not a concept I had heard expressed by that word before. It took me a while to be able to say it without feeling like my mouth was dirty. it didn’t help that it’s the same word in French, just pronounced differently.
It’s not about Europeans not having racism, but about Europeans talking about racism differently because of the way our History shaped the words we use. The word “race” is a taboo one. In fact, it is used as an insult in France (”Ta race”, meaning “your race” and used the exact same way and with the same intent you’d say “your mother”). The word “race” is for nazis and zoologists. It’s only ever used in a neutral way for animals and pet breeds.The word “race” is essentially considered a slur.
Basically, if you want to discuss race in mainland Europe in a non-racist way, you’ll be using different words and phrases. You will talk about “skin colour” or “ethnicity” or even “religion” when relevant. If you try and use the word “race” to someone, many of them will think you’re calling non-white people animals or implying they’re inferior to white people.
HOWEVER, race cultural theory has been slowly carving its way in Academia in mainland Europe and it is slowly entering the mainstream as a concept of cultural identity, so you might start encountering people who will be more comfortable with the word as well as people who will advocate for the end of the taboo because when you reframe it as a social and cultural identity, it is a useful concept to discuss how to deal with racism. So yeah, things are changing slowly, but we’re not quite there yet.
Can you imagine what it must have been like growing up for George and Fred. Notice how I said George and Fred because we always call them ‘Fred and George’ as if they were one person – just like their mum. Their own family couldn’t tell them apart. They didn’t have perfect grades like Percy. They weren’t as cool as Bill or Charlie. They weren’t the youngest male like Ron and they obviously weren’t female like Ginny. So they created a niche for themselves – The Pranksters. Because if people weren’t even going to bother to tell them apart then they were going to make people pay attention by pranking people and acting out. Then some scruffy looking boy in their younger brother’s year (ickle Harrikins) can tell them apart.
There’s a reason George Weasley and Fred Weasley never pranked Harry Potter – because he’s the only one that bothered to try.
I SWEAR I WILL REBLOG THIS EVERY TIME BECAUSE OF THE TEARS WELLING UP IN MY SOUL
I like to thing that George and Fred thought of Harry as their little brother too way before Harry had any romantic interest in Ginny.
Harry was also the one who invested in their niche fully, rather than being annoyed by it, he celebrated them for it. That’s why they gave him the Marauders Map and then he gave them the Triwizard gold:
‘
‘Take it,’ he said, and he thrust the sack into George’s hands. ‘What?’ said Fred, looking flabbergasted. ‘Take it,’ Harry repeated firmly. ‘I don’t want it.’ ‘You’re mental,’ said George, trying to push it back at Harry. ‘No, I’m not,’ said Harry. ‘You take it, and get inventing. It’s for the joke-shop.’ ‘He is mental,’ Fred said, in an almost awed voice. … ‘Harry – thanks,’ George muttered, while Fred nodded fervently at his side’
It’s why they agreed to his request Ron get some new dress robes out of it. They’re clever not just funny ‘they always get really good marks’ but as OP says they’re not as good as Percy, Bill or Charlie. They helped Ron get him out of the Dursleys:
‘But you can’t magic me out either –’ ‘We don’t need to,’ said Ron, jerking his head towards the front seats and grinning. ‘You forget who I’ve got with me.’
They get him into Hogsmede , they (unknowingly) helped the trio break into Umbridge’s ministry office. They liked Harry for himself
‘This is all your fault,’ George said angrily to Wood. ’“Get the Snitch or die trying” – what a stupid thing to tell him!‘’
And cheered him up when things went wrong, such as Harry being accused of being the Heir of Slytherin
‘They went out of their way to march ahead of Harry down the corridors, shouting, ‘Make way for the heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through …’ Percy was deeply disapproving of this behaviour. ‘It is not a laughing matter,’ he said coldly. ‘Oh, get out of the way, Percy,’ said Fred, ‘Harry’s in a hurry.’ ‘Yeah, he’s nipping off to the Chamber of Secrets for a cup of tea with his fanged servant,’ said George, chortling
‘
Or when Ron and Hermione were made Prefects and Harry felt left out:
‘Yeah,’ said Fred slowly. ‘Yeah, you’ve caused too much trouble, mate. Well, at least one of you’s got their priorities right.’ He strode over to Harry and clapped him on the back while giving Ron a scathing look.
They tricked Dudley because they know how crappy Harry’s home is:
‘We didn’t give it to him because he was a Muggle!’ said Fred indignantly. ‘No, we gave it to him because he’s a great bullying git,’ said George
And of course:
‘Give her hell from us, Peeves.’ And Peeves, who Harry had never seen take an order from a student before, swept his belled hat from his head and sprang to a salute as Fred and George wheeled about to tumultuous applause from the students below and sped out of the open front doors into the glorious sunset.
Harry frequently heard students saying things like, ‘Honestly, some days I just feel like jumping on my broom and leaving this place,’ or else, ‘One more lesson like that and I might just do a Weasley.’
Harry’s relationships with George and Fred are some of my favourites
Nightland: Urban Nightscape Photography By Michael Streckbein
Michael Streckbein is an professional photographer and artist currently based in Cologne, Germany. Michael focuses on architecture, urban and street photography.
Pass Through Fire 