Fearing The Xbox 360’s Future

Monday, December 15th, 2008 at 12:14 pm in Rants · Comments

I don’t usually find myself watching The HipHopGamer Show, mainly because hip hop isn’t my scene. Now if it was called The SillySkaDancingGamer Show, I might tune in a little more often. Regardless, their latest episode caught my eye because of the title ‘Microsoft Slowing Down? Sony Stays Hardcore While Xbox Test The Casual Market‘. It’s something I’ve found occupying my mind a little recently, so much so that a friend and I had a rather interesting discussion about it the other day.

If we’re being categorical here, then I consider myself to be a hardcore gamer. I’m not averse to shooters, and I won’t play a game on anything below the hardest difficulty. I game near enough every day, and I spend a little too much time caring about my GamerScore. The 360 has a reputation attached to it as a hardcore gamers console, while the Wii is for the more casual gamer, and the PlayStation is, well, meant to be accessible to pretty much everyone judging by its variety in games, but the price says otherwise.

Anyway, Shane Kim talked about what’s in store for the Xbox 360 in 2009, suggesting a lot of it will be focused on luring in the casual market, and games catered for Microsoft’s hardcore market will fall a little by the way side. Personally, I’m not too excited about 2009 just yet, but I do have enough games from 2008 to keep me busy if we do see a stream of movie trivia and singing games and not much else. So if worst comes to worst and there’s nothing new to buy into, I could get that copy of Grand Theft Auto IV I’ve been meaning to buy since early summer.

So I’m scared. Yep, I’m apprehensive, worried, and hesitant about the year ahead and the proposed new direction Microsoft is steering the 360 towards (those nasty Avatars being just the beginning). Will they forget about ‘us’? Or will they cater to both ‘groups’ successfully? With roughly 20 million 360’s sold as of September ‘08 without too many party games in sight, we can assume the 360 has a large base of loyal hardcore gamers - ones who have tolerated 2 Red Rings of Death, hell, even 3, 4 or more RRoD. Would the casual market boast such loyalty, or would they say ’screw buying a faulty console, pass me a nunchuck’?

I can only hope Microsoft has plenty up their sleeve for those of us who have an unhealthy appetite for shooters, RPGs, or whatever else is considered too heavy for a casual gamer. Essentially, I hope that while they’re inevitably chasing the Nintendo Wii’s fan base, they’re not alienating the rest of us.

So here’s to an uncertain 2009 as far as Xbox 360 hardcore games are concerned, unless we see Alan Wake creep up after all, and maybe a new FPS IP or two. I know there are some hyped games in the pipeline, such as Halo Wars, but I’m Master Chief’s smallest fan… As in I’m not a fan at all. I hope I’m just being my typical self here and over analysing and needlessly worrying. But if not, I wonder where this will leave us?

Tags: Alan Wake, Avatars, Grand Theft Auto IV, Halo Wars, Microsoft, Nintendo Wii, RRoD

7 Responses to “Fearing The Xbox 360’s Future”

reemixx

# December 15th, 2008 at 12:39 pm

Why worry? Just take it as it comes. If there’s some good games in 2009, play ‘em. If not, play something else or do something else entirely. Life’s too short to be adding stresses to something you do for recreation, no matter how big the ‘hardcore’ label you attach to yourself.

If you want my opinion, the Xbox 360 is the leading console, and developers aren’t going to back down when there’s so much money to be made. If they cater to a more casual audience, then good. They should. I welcome that with open arms. And even if they do that, the Xbox 360 is still going to be the ‘hardcore gamers’ console of choice. It’s already earned it’s rep. I doubt that’s going away any time soon. Something drastic would have to happen for that to change.

I’m very much not a ‘hardcore’ gamer. I play for fun, for the experience, for immersion in a different world. That said, the Xbox 360 is still my console of choice, simply because of the games available. There are many games of every thinkable genre, and I can pretty much guarantee you that it will remain that way in 2009. The Xbox 360 is one thing Microsoft have done right (and from the very beginning, too) so they’re not going to sabotage their position and all the money they’re raking in by doing something stupid. They know their user base.

Rockers Delight

# December 15th, 2008 at 1:16 pm

Good advice, reemix. But to answer your question, I worry because I get a lot of enjoyment from gaming on my 360, but have little to no faith in Microsoft. I hope you’re right and that they know their user base well enough not to give up on us in favour of landing casual gamers. There’s still time for titles to be announced and released in ‘09 that will get me excited, but as it stands there isn’t much. I have to disagree with you on one thing, however, about Microsoft getting the 360 right from the very beginning, otherwise I wouldn’t be on my third console

dkoi

# December 15th, 2008 at 2:39 pm

I gotta say especially with your gaming style that you will be fine. I’m sure you’ll find a RPG to hold you over for a 100 hours, or so until you see another Shooter to snuggle up with. Microsoft doesn’t do the greatest job letting you know what’s coming out, but the user base will ensure that the games keep rolling.

I also have no faith in M$. If they have the choice between waiting and putting out a good product, or putting out a product with issues right away… well we know what they choose. But luckily in this case the third party will be there anyways.

I was just wondering, do you have any games that you always go back to in the slow times or is that when you pick up something a game you missed at release?

Rockers Delight

# December 16th, 2008 at 1:34 pm

dkoi: You’re right. There are a few RPGs out at the moment demanding my attention, so there will always be something worth playing. To answer your question, I rarely return to games at all, but Rainbow Six (the multiplayer) does have a lot of replayability for me, so I find myself returning to that in slower times. Lately, however, there have been a ridiculous amount of games out I’ve had to turn a blind eye to, so when the next drought hits I’ll have plenty of choices!

reemixx

# December 16th, 2008 at 8:28 pm

“I have to disagree with you on one thing, however, about Microsoft getting the 360 right from the very beginning, otherwise I wouldn’t be on my third console”

It’s interesting you say that. I don’t know if you know, but Microsoft made the decision to push out a mass number of consoles even though something like over 50% of them had hardware issues. They knew about it before they released them, but they did it anyway. Why? Because had they waited to produce more stock, they would have lost money, major market share, their current position at the top of the ladder, and the console probably wouldn’t have nearly the amount of games it has now, amongst other things.

Despite the major flaws in the console, it was the right choice if you look at it from from several different perspectives. It hasn’t seemed to affect them too much, either. You being on your third console is proof of this. I know a few people with the exact same story, and they’re all still Xbox 360 die hard fans.

Just think, had they not pushed the defective consoles out at that time, you might not even be an Xbox 360 gamer.

I’m also not quite sure why people say they have no faith in Microsoft when they’re talking about the Xbox 360. If anything, it is the epitome of success. Microsoft made a great console (despite flaws mentioned above), they timed its release perfectly, and major developers backed it 100% from their efforts. Anyone who knows me also knows how little I think of Microsoft with every other product they’ve made. But the Xbox 360 is the exception. So don’t lose your faith with the only product Microsoft have done right.

xenon

# December 22nd, 2008 at 1:57 pm

Release: November 22, 2005

How long is a gaming console considered to stay anyway ?
The xbox 360 is getting nearer to it´s end-of-live.

http://tinyurl.com/7vnu8t new “special” releases are much more frequent towards the end…m$ is sucking the last money out of buyers wallets.

2008 was the year the xbox should have finally made some money…
I´m pretty sure 2009 will see the anouncement of it´s Successor.

Rockers Delight

# December 23rd, 2008 at 10:41 am

Xenon: I’m adamant Microsoft will be behind the Xbox 360 for a while yet. In fact, recently I read the life span will be “one day longer than the PS3″. So that definitely implies they won’t be giving up on it any time soon and unveiling something new. Aside from hardware failure, they’ve got something good on their hands, and they know it.

Rockers Delight