Games Inbox: Why are Xbox consoles selling so badly?
Demand is at an all time low (Microsoft/Metro)
The Friday letters page doesn’t think BioWare is to blame for Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s failure, as a reader suggests rebooting Nintendo’s forgotten Zelda clones.
The point of no return
Reading the sales results for Xbox over the last few months it is really hard to see any positives and you can tell Microsoft tried their very best. I saw the same story repeated on other websites and I really struggle to understand their takes. How is a 2% increase, during the busiest time of the year, and during the biggest marketing campaign for the biggest Call Of Duty ever, something that could be considered good?
It seems very clear that Black Ops 6 had little to no effect on Game Pass subscriptions as a whole but what saddens me the most is how bad console sales have got. We’ve seen massive drops for two years in a row now and there’s no coming back from that.
I’m sure there’s lots of complicated reasons for it but it all boils down to the same thing: games. Xbox has had very little for most of the last two generations and PlayStation, up until recently, has had loads. It’s a shame Xbox has started to get into gear now, just as the situation becomes irreversible but things like last week’s Developer Direct needed to happen a decade ago – at which point they could’ve kept them as exclusives.
It’s beyond too late now and it’s very obvious that Microsoft knows that Xbox Series X/S is currently a dead format walking.
Vabon
Zero to lose
I’d just like to say that while I agree Resident Evil Zero is not a particularly good game, I would still welcome a remake. I think this would be the perfect chance to take an existing game and make it better, rather than just remaking it with better graphics. Resident Evil 2 and 4 were already great so all they had to do is not mess it up, but Zero is different.
You could change as much as you want and very few people are going to complain, as not many people care or have even played it. So make it all set on a train or have the train crash somewhere other than the mansion. Maybe make it more open world, rather than fixed camera angles – have them running around in the woods maybe, like the intro to Resident Evil 1.
See how much you can shake up the formula with a game no one cares about and you’ll have some good practice for future games and it won’t matter if it doesn’t quite work.
Grackle
Goodbye game
I’d be fine with a Wave Race 64 sequel as the Switch’s goodbye game, but I can’t see that happening. To be honest I don’t think the rumour is true but if I was going to bring back an obscure Nintendo franchise, I’d go for one of the forgotten Zelda clones on the NES, either StarTropics or The Mysterious Murasame Castle.
They’re very obscure but go look at them on YouTube and you’ll see that they are blatant clones of the early Zelda games. Murasame Castle very occasionally gets referenced in other games, but I don’t remember StarTropics ever being mentioned again, not even in Smash Bros.
Just a thought, but I think it’d be fun for them to make a small scale version of Breath Of The Wild for either franchise and see how different they can make it while using the same tech and gameplay.
Rosebud
Payment options
Sounds very likely to me that the rumours of GTA 6 costing $100/£100 are because of some kind of double pack with GTA Online 2. To be honest I’m fine with that. Although that’s easy for me to say because I don’t care about the online part.
No one wants to pay more for games, but I can accept that some are so expensive to make that it’s very hard to make a decent profit on, I believe Spider-Man 2 was in this area. So, if I can buy the single-player of GTA 6 for £70 and then the online for £30 or so I’m fine with that.
Personally, I’ll only get the single-player but some people might like to do the opposite. I can’t imagine those thinking of doing both are going to feel that ripped off, considering how much they must like the series to even consider going that far.
Stryker
Super lawyer bros.
If Nintendo can try and sue that restaurant for calling itself Super Mario, what would it make of this shop I saw while in Aiya Napa in August 2024 that actually uses Mario’s image?
Inside, it had brickwork like in the first Super Mario Bros game.
And yes, that is Nathan Drake on my T-shirt.
LeighDappa
GC: There’s also a whole bunch of ice cream vans that don’t realise they’re playing with fire.
We’re imagining a lot of mushroom based meals (LeighDappa)
That is pretty cool (LeighDappa)
Reversed fortunes
Those Xbox sales results are seriously terrible. To think that was over Christmas too, when they were selling the most popular Call Of Duty ever. But what does that matter when most people are playing it on PlayStation 5? Microsoft’s attempts to put a spin on it all is just embarrassing too. What’s the point of picking out things like an increase in PC subs when we know, from their own figures, it didn’t make any difference. A 30% increase from nothing is still nothing.
I really don’t see that there can be any argument for continuing Game Pass anymore. If Call Of Duty didn’t move the needle then literally nothing will. If most Game Pass subscribers are also Xbox console owners then selling less and less consoles means you’re in real trouble. Especially as Xbox owners are increasingly only hardcore fans and they’re going to be well aware that jumping ship to PlayStation 5 is probably a good idea at this point.
I don’t mean to kick a man when it’s down but gaming needs leadership and it needs close competition for PlayStation and Xbox is providing neither. The whole Xbox concept is collapsing in on itself. Microsoft may have bought Activision, but in reality it feels more like it happened the other way around.
CharlieBoy
Available now
It took a good 18 months but out of nowhere boomer shooter Turbo Overkill made its way to all consoles from PC on the 29th. Only £16 too, well worth that price tag.
Or try the free demo on all consoles to see if it’s your cup of tea.
Simundo
First impressions
Yeah, there is no way that BioWare is making it out alive if Mass Effect 4 is anything other than a massive hit. I’d like to think it will be, but I can’t imagine working under such stressful conditions, with staff cuts, and probably budgets cuts, is going to encourage their best work.
It’s a crying shame because they used to be one of my favourite developers and Mass Effect 2 is one of my favourite games. I was never into Dragon Age as much, but I think The Veilguard suffered from two very basic problems, both created by marketing and not the developer.
The first was the rubbish name. Dreadwolf wasn’t great but The Veilguard just screams generic fantasy. It made me laugh when that other indie game GC reviewed this week also had a Veil in it! The other problem was the terrible reveal trailer that made it look like some childish Fortnite spin-off.
That’s obviously exactly what they were aiming for, and I can imagine some dumb marketing person insisting that if they make the graphics cartoony then Fortnite fans and younglings will flock to the game. Which, of course, they didn’t.
When the first thing you’ve got to do after your reveal trailer comes out is insist that your game is not a silly comedy game then you know something’s gone wrong. They never recovered from that, I feel, and then even had to go on record after to say that the new Mass Effect will have realistic graphics. A shame.
Wolf
Inbox also-rans
$100,000 for a GameCube that doesn’t work? I’ve got one in loft that doesn’t work that I’m prepared to sell for considerably cheaper.
Corporunner
A library of old video game magazines? I don’t know who had the time and money to organise that but I am very glad to hear it. Or at least I will if I can ever get access to it!
Lester
