2016 FOR
ROBIN WILDE
I
8
n some ways, Microsoft
have it the worst of the
big three console manufacturers at the moment.
In the three console generations they’ve contested, they have yet to pull
ahead even momentarily, let alone win. Three
decent, but fairly distant
second places are not
the stuff on which history
books are written.
The Xbox One continues to struggle to
find a brand identity to
compete with PS4’s “for
the gamers” tag and
Nintendo’s trademark
quirkiness and charm. Its
ownership by Microsoft
means the bulk of its best
games are on the PC as
well, at which point owning an Xbox One seems
a superfluous luxury, like
an expensive painting or
quilted toilet roll.
Yes, they’ve sold more
consoles than Nintendo
- and the way they’re
going, Atari will soon
be selling more consoles
than Nintendo - but
they’re barely above
50 per cent of the PS4’s
sales. The machine is expensive, even before the
additional cost of the online services, and players resent paying £40 a
year to be screamed at
by 12 year olds on Call
of Duty.
But the loser now will
be later to win, according to Bob Dylan, and
Microsoft could yet become the comeback
kids they wish they were.
Halo was instrumental in
securing the respectable
life of the original Xbox,
and while its titles continue to sell solidly, they’re
no longer the rocket
boosters under the platform they once were,
thanks in part to Activision’s shooter franchises
in Modern Warfare and
Black Ops. But Microsoft
can still learn from their
once-mighty series.
What Halo managed
was to bring online multiplayer shooter action
to consoles in a way
that hadn’t really been
possible. Nobody can
deny Microsoft know
their stuff when it comes
to computers - that’s why
they’ve laden down the
XBO with as many extra goodies as possible
- and LIVE is still a formidable online system.
Introducing or reviving a genre which hasn’t
previously made it big
on consoles could be a
draw, although the market is still quite crowded.
We’re only two years
into the console race,
let’s not forget, and there
is still time. Unfortunately, it would take a better market analyst than
you’ll find in the pages of
this magazine to tell you
what that is.
That’s sort of the point.
The problem for the Xbox
is the lack of originality and creativity. It has
all the major third party
releases, but lacks the
extra flourishes and
decorations that make
a console really stand
out. It’s some tragedy
that Rare haven’t been
let out of the Kinect cage
since they made Viva
Piñata all those years
ago - they’re a team full
of bright-eyed creative
people with an exclusivity deal for Microsoft.
Why that talent isn’t being exploited is baf-
fling.
While the big name
franchises sell well, they
rely on mass market appeal which moves on
quickly. It can be useful
indeed to embed a hard
core of enthusiasts who
buy your consoles for
their exclusives and little
else. It’s a lesson Nintendo has learned, and it’s
why they can hunker in
their bunker tossing out
Mario spin-offs during bad spots, knowing tha-t long term
they’ll be golden
when their
long-de veloped
new IP
spikes
t h e i r
sales.
fusing and blindsiding
their rivals with an enticing introductory offer
could be a way to draw
away new arrivals and
start building a base.
Nintendo also offer a
free online membership,
but to all intents and
purposes the Wii U and
Xbox One are fishing in
different ponds.
In a year’s time, this
article should be telling
you how the Xbox came
back - and it did it by trying new things, taking
risks using the immense
capital Microsoft have
under their belt, and
trying to develop new
intellectual
property.
Sony are the company
renowned for their tech
being inspired by others - indeed, the PlayStation Eye has serious
overtones of the Kinect and Microsoft should be
making sure they lead.
The point behind the
vaguely irritating name
Xbox One was that it
was an all-encompassing home media experience. But really, it should
signify a refounding for
Microsoft. Any identity
they ever had is basically gone - who, really, could stereotype
the Xbox positively? - but
that need not be the system’s funeral.
2016 FOR C
P1&2
A
bold
step but one
Microsoft can
probably afford - is to try
for a free online service.
Sony and
the
PlayStation felt
they could
afford to
follow
suit and
charge
for PS
Plus, so
con-