XBox One Needs to Embrace the Niche

So the Playstation 4 is off and running and Sony is doing everything absolutely right. Good lineup of games, best deal amongst the three systems, re-releasing a PS3 gem known as The Last of Us for the PS4, still releasing games on the PS3, and a diverse appeal that has allowed for them to control the European and Japanese market. Even though Microsoft still owns America, it’s honestly not that much of a gap. As of March 28th 2014, Sony owns three of the best-selling games in North America.

In the case of Microsoft, it took them a while to finally gain some momentum towards second place with the release of Titanfall, a hybrid shooter that has heavy elements of parkour. It is new, its fresh, and its approaching a million copies sold and being attached to nearly 25% of all the XBox One systems sold. In terms of success it is essentially Halo-lite, the holdover before the next Halo installment. Similar to how Quest 64 kept the N64 at bay until Ocarina of Time, Titanfall is destined to keep the Microsoft fans entertained until the next big shooter.


And this is where Microsoft needs to focus: its niche. The XBox One needs to become an action shooter system.


Taking on the PS4 directly with the same third-party games can clearly no longer work. Grand Theft Auto 5, Metal Gear Solid 5, Dark Souls II, and FIFA sell far better on Sony systems when against Microsoft. As a matter of fact, most of the third-party franchises do better on Playstation systems. Want to know what sells better on Microsoft? Call of Duty, Battlefield, Bioshock, Elder Scrolls and Fallout. There are statistics proving that action games with plenty of gunplay appeals far better to the Microsoft owners, and North American gamers in general.

So in order to even stand a chance to win the eighth generation with no Japanese appeal, the XBox One needs to create an arsenal of exclusive games that appeals to its audience to keep them happy and potentially draw in new fans interested in the niche genre that dominates the XBox brand. Standing toe to toe against PS4 won’t work, you need to separate yourself in a way the Wii separated itself from the PS3/XBox 360 battle.

You need more shooters. Embrace your niche. Its the key to survival.

The niche is what kept the Dreamcast afloat, with its entourage of excellent fighting games and excellent sorts games. The Gamecube kept pace with XBox because its niche of deadly first-party games allowed them to cover all their weaknesses. And the XBox survived mainly because of Halo and all the imitators in the early 2000s.

Microsoft, you have Titanfall now. You still have Halo. You still have the unused Perfect Dark. You have Left 4 Dead. You have Fable (although its going downhill). You still technically own the heavily unused Jet Force Gemini. Time to reload your lineup and start immersing it with more and more shooters.

Microsoft Game Studios may have absolutely no shot at matching the diversity and depth of Sony’s firat-party division (and to be honest, although they are catching up they are still leagues under Nintendo’s first-party arsenal), they can still deliver a fantastic set of games. Halo 5 needs to happen soon, Perfect Dark 3 needs a return, Left 4 Dead 4 should be in progress, Jet Force Gemini 2 might be a decade too late but still needs a revival, and some new IPs wouldn’t hurt either.

Going a little bit to the past can also help. Blast Corps is a Rareware classic that needs a sequel; Doom could also use a new installment, and let’s not forget the IPs of James Bond, Jason Bourne, Black, and Half-Life are still floating around potentially looking for good suitors.

Whatever direction Microsoft takes, it needs to separate itself from the similar lineup as the PS4, and become the more action-packed system between the two. The XBox One needs to conquer America by becoming the Movie Blockbuster Gaming System and delivering plentiful heaps of action games to combat the superior pricing and variety of the PS4. Until then, the best the XBox One can do is second place.

What GTA V Taught the Gaming Industry

Grand Theft Auto 5 and its revenue of nearly 2 billion dollars should be a lesson to the rest of the gaming industry. GTA V and its 32 million copies sold should be a revealing message to all the competitors and companies involved with the gaming industry. Nintendo should take notes. Microsoft should take notes. Activision should take notes. Everyone should take notes because the future of gaming is not the eighth generation, but actually what occurred within the contents of the disk in the instant masterpiece.

For starters, Grand Theft Auto 5 is a massive, massive, massive game. Video games should strive to be as big, diverse, and intimidating as GTA V. There is so much space to roam between missions and locations that it even drew some complaints amongst critics on the internet. Rockstar knew that in order to build upon the success of GTA IV (Which by the way despite the length and size was a few layers below Vice City and San Andreas) they needed to think bigger, they needed to raise the stakes; they needed to build upon what has worked.

Five years was spent on this game. Five slow, grueling years had occurred since conception leading up to the anticipated release. $115 million was spent on the game, with an absurd $150 million extra spent on marketing.


Rockstar’s blockbuster sequel-like strategy needs to be imitated much more often.


Part of the reason why GTA V has sold phenomenally is because of its bigger, superior sequel complex. The video game industry is run on brands; brand names can carry games into overwhelming numbers before a single negative review hits the airwaves. But these brands also need to learn to evolve into bigger and better things. You cannot too quickly release a new game in the franchise and have it look like the game before---unless you have an excellent continuing storyline or have a killer multi-player to back it up.

The sequel rehash image is what killed gaming franchises like Guitar Hero, Need for Speed, Burnout, Tony Hawk ProSkater, Metroid, Star Fox, Street Fighter, Prince of Persia (twice), Double Dragon, Tekken, Mortal Kombat (fighting games immensely suffer from this because it’s hard to actually improve a fighting game franchise outside of increasing characters), Madden, NFL Blitz, NBA Jam, and is beginning to cripple franchises like Donkey Kong, Zelda, Kirby, Gran Turismo, and to an extent even 2-D Mario games (Mario games don’t move hardware sales like they used to).

GTA V is currently the ultimate proof that gamers are indeed willing to wait years upon years for a video game as long as the product is good. The sequel factor does not wear off like it does in the movies when an upcoming installment takes too long to release. It had been 21 years since Kid Icarus games, yet the sequel still managed to sell over a million copies on a handheld that was slumping at the time. Although the gaming industry is a tough place and time is sometimes of the essence, every once in a while you need to take your time with a heavy-hitter title so it doesn’t become a disappointment and cripple the brand name.

The formula is very simple, even though there are few companies nowadays following the recipe: for the sequels to a good/popular game you need to increase the stakes, increase the budget, increase the exposure, increase the scope, and never rush it. GTA V was released in the backend of the seventh generation with brand new hardware releasing right around the corner and still managed to break a billion dollars faster than any form of entertainment in history. It is a game that pretty much doubled in size, and tripled the amount of characters, therefore increasing the variety, and the overall length of the game. You knew from the getgo you were getting your money’s worth.

Gran Turismo 6 on the other hand also came out at the backend of the seventh generation a mere three years after GT5 and suffered from a few setbacks (graphics issues, crashes still look iffy, a few restrictions), and has been outsold by its previous installment by 8 million copies and even losing out to the prologue of GT5. Hell, even the PSP Gran Turismo sold better.

Gamers can see success from a mile away, and gamers can see disappointment from a mile away. GTA V looked amazing, looked like the new step forward in the beloved franchise, and was rewarded with at least 2.5 billion in the bank by the time this year is over. Now look at Skyward Sword, selling only 3.7 million copies for a system that has an install base of 100 million and with the Zelda brand that has seen its previous game sell nearly 7 million.

GTA V’s success can be duplicated by everyone involved in gaming. All it takes is the same amount of effort, dedication, and care. So everyone, take notes. It will benefit you, the creator, and it will benefit us, the consumer.

The Botched Release of Killer Instinct

Microsoft, do you ever actually listen?


Do you ever actually pay attention?


You had been warned about your decreasing market share, your decreasing popularity, and the rise of Sony in the Console Wars. You were warned about the lack of IPs, especially the lack of IPs that isn’t a shooter. You were warned about the price tag being a bit high and needing to justify it. Killer Instinct could have been your answer.


And you blew it. Badly.

Killer Instinct is a popular franchise amongst the hardcore fighter crowd that had not seen a sequel since the N64 days. Killer Instinct is among the final old-school fighters from the 90s seeking a chance to re-enter the gaming spotlight. This was one of those rare IPs that actually belongs exclusively to Microsoft and the XBox family. Giving the third installment a nice polish, associate it with a good marketing campaign, and you could see a great launch game---potentially a vital bundle for the XBox One.


Instead, Microsoft decides to make it “free,” include only a couple characters and forcing you to buy the others, and then ultimately contain less content than any fighter out there not named Virtua Fighter. The muddled release of the fame surely confused gamers, frustrated others, and confounded the rest.

Why didn’t they just make it a complete game? I can guarantee you gamers would have invested the $60 towards a full Killer Instinct game. I can guarantee you that an upgraded installment of Killer Instinct would have sold well. The original for the Super Nintendo sold 3 million copies, and that was on a console that wasn’t known for its fighting games. Microsoft isn’t a system full of fighters either, so that could have given KI even more of a chance to succeed. You could have taken it a step even further by bundling it with your system, which is now the most expensive of the big 3 in the eighth generation.

Bundling an anticipated game with a system never fails; just ask the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Nintendo Game Boy, and Nintendo Wii. It could have eased the pain of the $500 price tag. But instead you turn Killer Instinct from a AAA potential title into a random free-to-play scam game with fewer characters than the original, less to do than most fighters, and an overall sensation of incompleteness.



Good going guys.Your current last place status is well-earned.