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We’ll talk more about that shortly.
In any case, today, Redfall found itself the unwitting focus of another storm of Xbox criticism.
Redfall
Ever since then, it feels like Xbox has wholly been on the back foot.
Redfall has had a difficult marketing cycle.
However, the discourse has been made all the more toxic by its platform-centricity, namely its Xbox exclusivity.
Redfall
And recently, that’s exactly where Xbox fans' hopes have been pinned lately.
It’s simply untrue to say Xbox hasn’t delivered high-quality games more recently, though.
The problem often boils down to the fact that the wins feel diffuse and often come with caveats.
IGN enjoys exclusive preview access to Redfall, and it has produced a cloud of negativity over the game, as you can see from the dislike ratio above.
Are people being unfair?
My favorite, and most egregious example of this, is Minecraft’s Super Duper Graphics Pack.
Though, other platforms cancel games, scale back projects, and occasionally miss the mark too.
Crackdown 3’s “cloud destruction” tech is another big example of Microsoft over-promising, and under-delivering.
Why does Xbox seem to get the majority of the flak, and is it fair?
It’s not like Microsoft’s chief competitors are strangers to controversy.
Nintendo and PlayStation have disappointed their fans, too, over the years.
Xbox Series X and Series S
But, I’m kind of scraping the barrel here.
The reality is, Sony and Nintendo just seem to be more capable of delighting their fansmore consistently.
The Super Mario Bros. movie just became the highest-grossing animated movie opening of all time, beating Frozen 2.
The Halo TV show has a 41/100 user score onMetacritic.
The Minecraft movie has been AWOL since its initial reveal in 2014.
PlayStation’s The Last of Us TV show is one of the highest-rated video game adaptations of all time.
Redfall controversy aside, the Xbox Series X|S consoles are great machines.
Xbox Cloud Gaming and its technology are impressive and improving every month.
Does any of this even matter?
Xbox is in third place in the so-called console war, with PlayStation and Nintendo seemingly unstoppable.
Will the hotly anticipated Starfield come with similar “caveats” as other Xbox promises?
The obvious explanation there, is games and the consistent delivery of said games.
Will the discourse over Redfall impact its sales?
Do its sales even matter in the Xbox Game Pass world?
Will Redfall launching at 30 FPS impact the Xbox platform in any meaningful, negative way?
Sentiment filters down, though.
As a fan, it just becomes a little tiring.
It’s not like Xbox consoles are exploding or catching fire.
And it’s not like Microsoft isn’t investing in trying to fix some of this stuff.
Whatever the reason, as customers, we don’t see that.
It’s not for lack of empathy.
“What Xbox and its developers are trying to do is incredibly complicated across a high-tech globe-spanning operation.
