Phantom Blade Zero Dev Denies 'Nobody Needs Xbox' Quote as Outrage Over PS5 Exclusivity Brews

I mean, they aren't wrong....

I have also heard (stupid) rumors that the game will be coming out in 2026, which literally makes no sense, as why would start advestising and hands-on gameplay if it's that far out....

I mean, the quote’s not wrong. I love my Series X, and I loved my Xbox One, but it’s hard to deny that Xbox has been pretty much superfluous since the 360 days.

Id also agree that they dont need xbox.... for a game to be successful. Maybe thats how it was meant 🤷

Xbox is a dying brand. I don't take any pleasure in that because competition is good, but it's the truth.

Where is the lie?

And most x-box zealots think that slimey-Sony paid for Black Myth Wukong too smh

Why should anyone lend credence to a supposed interview with an "unnamed employee" from a Chinese studio, conducted by a Brazilian website? That's about as vague and untrustworthy as anything I could come up with. It's a bit silly that the studio even needs to provide an official statement about such an allegation.

This isn't exactly Jason Schreier-esque investigative journalism, is it?

Well... Sony Needs Xbox. Because we know what happens when they think they do not have competence: PS3 launch happens.

Referencing that article on the Brazilian website provides more context. If this part in particular is true it explains its current absence a little more, "According to the developer, the console is not popular in Asia, and in addition, Microsoft has created a very overloaded ecosystem for which it is difficult to develop games".

That sounds like another example of where Microsoft's need for a Series S version is a headache for the devs.

I mean, are they wrong? Xbox is a sinking ship, and anyone who doesn't think so, I hope you enjoy the bottom of the ocean.

@Oppyz666
PS3 launch was perfect for me. We got the most feature rich system of the time, with full hardware back compat and a ridiculous number of features…sure it was more expensive than we were used to, but it was worth it. Loved my fat PS3. A lot more than the later iterations.

For this developer and game I'd say they definitely don't need xbox, and that goes for any other Chinese, Korean or Japanese developer. It's a well known fact Asian games don't sell well on Xbox, hence why a lot skip it, and those that do make it to Xbox get overlooked if they are not on gamepass.

@DonkeyFantasy or the Xbox series launch for that matter 🤷‍♂️

Let’s be real, the future of gaming is mobile and PC. Publishers will then carve out their games into separate subscription services and we’ll be looking at the current television climate all over again.

not sure why this matters on push square the PlayStation site as it is coming to PlayStation.

should be a purexbox article i think

seems like the article was put on push square for clicks

He isn't completely wrong about that.
Xbox dev support for Asia is basically non-existent, and if you had the luck to get a Series devkit you still have to deal with stupid dev policies MS has, all that to sell less than it would sell on Switch/PS5 and PC.

And when I say stupid policies I really mean it. Things like mandatory parity which demands hardware specific optimisation, mobile compatibility if you wanna use xCloud services, etc. They even killed support for Xbone development which could be used to backport some games or some engines like MT Framework.

@LunarFlame17 There is so much truth in your statement! The 360 was the last vestige of enjoyability for me. I have a series S, but mostly just to go back and play some 360 titles I enjoyed.

@Unit_DTH Yeah, honestly, the main reason I love the Series X is that it’s a great console to play 360 games on.

He's right, I have an Xbox and it is kinda dead.
Microsoft are slowly changing tactic to just be the biggest games publisher. No one buys games on the console as they've trained people to use GP. So why would you bother releasing a new game on its tj y user base

Good on the studio for putting this fire out.

Even if you agree with the statement and there is some truth to it, it's not smart for a studio to burn bridges it may need to cross one day - assuming the comment came from an actual developer.

What times we live in, where people have to apologise for every little thing.

@thefourfoldroot1 In the i would have gladly payed more for the more complete PS3 then the cheaper stripped down version.

In the end it would have been a lot effort to put it on Gamepass with less profit. But in the end no company should ever make such a statement even if they believe that this is the case.

I said it on the PX thread, but, they didn't say anything that MS itself didn't spend a year screaming through a megaphone to get the ABK deal through. "You don't need an Xbox" is more or less the official slogan of the platform. It's even in the marketing, what little marketing they have. Not really a fan of this game or this dev, but, really, they could have claimed they were officially marketing Xbox by saying that, it's nothing Aaron Greenberg doesn't say regularly.

@thefourfoldroot1 Nothing about the PS3 launch was excusable, it's up there with "WiiU reveal was fine!" I say that as someone who also loves the PS3 phat, and still thinks PS3 was the best console over PS4 and 5.

But it was obscenely priced, was a mockery of console consumers, was as tone-deaf to the market as the X1 reveal, and on top of it all, came with a gimped controller that they'd later bill us again to fix, just because they didn't want to back down from their lawsuit and stuck consumers with the bill. And that was before true "ponies" came into existence that eagerly bend over.

The only reason I could justify buying one at that point is I was "downgrading" from PCMR and consoles seemed to finally have "arrived" as a "cheap" PC replacement, with a PS3 selling point being that it could run Linux, officially, and my prior rig cost like $2500-3000, and that was in '00s money, and I wanted to get far far away from that cost cycle and troubleshooting cycle. If I were a console buyer at the time instead of a downgrading PC gamer?? I'd have given Sony the biggest middle finger of all middle fingers ever, just like they'd just given everyone else.

Didn’t realise Phantom Blade 0 was PS exclusive console wise to be honest.
So that’s this, Where Winds Meet, Lost Soul Aside as PS console exclusives then.
Black myth wukong is timed exclusive due to the Series S, the same as BG33 was

@Kanji-Tatsumi record revenue sales say otherwise

@UltimateOtaku91 "It's a well known fact Asian games don't sell well on Xbox"

Sega, Capcom, even Square-Enix, franchise-pending seem to disagree. There seems to be certain types of games that don't sell on Xbox, yes, but I wouldn't bundle "Asian games" under one big tent. Xbox has a myriad list of problems, most of them self-inflicted, but there's also no reason to do the "antifanboy" thing. Let their own problems speak for themselves. They don't need artificial ones added to the pile. At least if you're going to make it a hobby to sabotage Xbox, try to get on their payroll first. They're always looking for outstanding new talent to denigrate their brand publicly in executive positions. You can be Amy Hood's new pet!

@Anthony_Daniels Like with Otaku above there's nuance. The rhetoric of "they've trained their user base to not buy games and wait for Game Pass" isn't quite right. Their game sales are pretty good relative to their small install base. It's just that they have a small install base in general, so their game sales are naturally going to be comparatively low. It's also that many game charts we see are physical charts and since most XB sales are digital, they're non-existent on said charts, looking worse. And it's also that, among that small install base, a significant chunk bout in BECAUSE of Game Pass. Not that they were going to buy games but then were taught not to, but that they bought the console, namely S, because of that low entry barrier that is GP and it fit their needs. PS has a market for that too with plus, but with a much bigger install base, and less marketing emphasis on Plus than MS on GP, it doesn't register as much in appearances.

Again, not defending where they are. I loved the platform they were. I don't love where it's going, and I'm replacing it with PC going forward. But the inaccurate rhetoric is also grating. Most of the cited problems aren't really the real problems they have.

@personauser93 I think as long as the PC market is loyally devoted to Steam, it'll be hard to force subscription onto the PC ecosystem short of intentionally sabotaging their own games by overpricing them outside subs. Fortunately PC gaming is a stoically obsolete retro-future community, and it's a better place for it where the 90's reign supreme forever and ever. Plus, I don't see the whole subs thing taking over in Asia, and Asia is massive on the PC gaming chart.

The guy isn't alone with that answer.

1. MS doesn't care for Asian market. Years after years they never bother to do something drastic that can make Xbox brand popular in Asia. Here in my country, there's still no official release for Xbox and anyone who buy an Xbox either they imported from Singapore or Japan. So, Xbox is basically "not exist" in Asia and i wouldn't blame Asian devs for prioritizing PS, PC, Switch, or mobile.

2. Xbox is dying in Europe. Some publishers even asked is it worth it to keeps supporting Xbox?
https://kotaku.com/publishers-not-sure-xbox-ports-europe-sales-low-gdc-1851367132

Developers don’t need Xbox. Xbox needs developers.

Apparently it is a misquote anyway, @get2sammyb. It has since been clarified that what was actually said is 'there is no demand' (for an Xbox version), which has completely different connotations. Either someone deliberately (and sensationally) misquoted, or it was an error in translation...

After the events of February, this continuing to happen isn't surprising in the slightest.

True and Based

@Oppyz666 been teetering on that possibility for a good while, so I’m pretty dang nervous about what mess Sony concoct for the next system.

@Fiendish-Beaver translators have been really cruddy lately. Either companies are going for the cheapest people around or there’s genuinely no care for professionalism.

@NEStalgia
I’m not sure what your argument is. You say it was an excellent console and a good price for what you got. If you’re just saying it was more expensive than consoles generally were (or you thought they should be) 🤷‍♂️ so what. The tech was there.

Not sure what you refer to about the controllers. My launch ones were fine. PS4 controllers on the other hand, crumbling analogue sticks on both and had to get them replaced.

I have a Series S and a PS5, but I can't remember when was the last time I fired up my Xbox. Most of the games that are released nowadays are also available on PS5, so I didn't feel the need. Okay, there's Game Pass, but I prefer to own the games I play.

@Jamesblob

The PS3 console, that like the PS5 today had no games for a long time? The PS4 and PS5 today doesn't even have backwards compatibility with PS1/2/3 titles.

The feature of free online multiplayer is gone too. Your post has only reminder me of how far Sony has fallen too especially with the PS5.

PS5 has very few actually next gen exclusive games too. How's it different to the Xbox right now?

This "next gen" generation so far has only been a success for cross platform titles that are on PC too.

@jrt87 Get a PC. You'll get Sony and Xbox games plus true backwards compatibility including emulators for games like Ninja Gaiden Black.

@Oram77 too many grifting YouTubers who want to be edgy with making up release dates and spreading false rumors. It's a scourge.

@thefourfoldroot1 It was an excellent console, but it was priced completely wrong, and the Sixaxis is offensive.

"A good price for what I got" - no, not really. I found it acceptable because I was downgrading from something much more expensive, however it was still painfully overpriced for what it actually was, and the development problems leading to most 3rd party games running like garbage are what required me to ALSO get an X360 even though I originally did not want to. I love the PS3 for what it became, and I love some of the "out there" launch titles (Heavenly Sword, Folklore, etc) but the launch was an assault on customers.

If you're forgetting the launch controllers (other than the fact that I just despise the cheap feeling, highly uncomfortable form factor) the problem was they had an ongoing lawsuit with Immersion, resulting in them not including industry standard rumble, and thus did not launch with "Dual Shock 3" but rather "Sixaxis". Then when they settled their suit with Immersion, they started selling the DS3, so anyone that wanted a proper normal rumble controller with their really expensive PS3 had to then buy the controller separately at full price to "upgrade" to what then became stock controllers - with now much cheaper consoles (Sans BC) making the consumer pay for their lawsuit stubbornness.

I love the PS3, but the launch is inexcusably insulting. I miss Ken Kutaragi's vision of Playstation, but he jumped 3 sharks, 2 dolphins and a family of baby seals with that launch.

@Rambo-kind It truly is pathetic

I wish I could give two squirts of vimto but I dont. The only people who need an xbox are those that already bought one and seeing as most of their top titles look as though they are coming to PlayStation it kind of makes the comment very relevant if it actually was said. So who needs xbox?

@NEStalgia
Lawsuit stubbornness? That’s a strange interpretation. It was a cost analysis to not raise the price of the console even more (something you already thought was too high).

@colonelkilgore The Xbox Series launch was pretty good. They had a lot of momentum going from the Xbox One X launch into the Series X launch. They were really pushing a consumer first approach... All the accessories from the One work, flawless back compact, free upgrades on games, ton of new studios, no $70 games... etc. It just that the years following that launch hasn't been great... Everything started going downhill with Halo Infinite then they became stagnant with the ABK purchase.

@thefourfoldroot1 LOL, even NINTENDO had freaking rumble PLUS a speaker in their $199 console. I don't want to hear about Sony's cost analysis on their poorly planned $499 in 2006 console. If they couldn't afford rumble motors at launch, rumble motors they already had in the PS2 for far less cost, they planned poorly. Or they should have decided they're just too darned good for rumble and removed it for life. Selling customers the controller they witheld to wait for their lawsuit to resolve at full price was bad enough form let alone including the "too expensive" controller with the now much cheaper models.

There's really no excusing how they launched that. And there is no excusing the Sixaxis. It should be an embarrassment in PS history, not a point defending their margins.

Regardless the market voted with their wallets and collectively decided that product as it was was a no-go. We don't have to guess. We have history as proof.

@NEStalgia
I’m not sure of your logic or your facts, but I can see you feel strongly about this lol.
The sixaxis had tech far beyond its time (even beyond this time) and it was instrumental in developing the move controllers and their VR controller tech. They went for gyroscopes and accelerometers, if they hadn’t they may have budgeted for rumble initially, who knows.
I like that Sonybhave had a vision and taken risks on their controllers, and don’t begrudge any business decisions that have led to that.

@AverageGamer they had no first party games at launch… nuff said

I believe nobody needs xbox 😁

As someone who has both, Xbox is not dying. Bless y'alls hearts. 😂

MS did blow it royally on the XOne release for sure. They lost a lot of market share and loyal gamers. Sony was wise to do an about face on the pS4 with many of the same restrictions removed at launch.

That said MS is making strides to get it all back. People are stuck on console sales as the metric and MS has moved past that. MS already loses money on console sales so focusing on games aka software is where it's at. GP is massive compared to PSN and their push to make more games available everywhere is winning people over. The rumored portable could also make some serious dents. You will continue to see fewer Xbox consoles sold, but that doesn't translate into the "brand dying."

Aren't Microsoft advertising you don't need an Xbox with the app on fire TV?

I cannot be the only one who sees this console rivalry, and brand loyalty as unnecessary, can I?

Regardless of whether we are PlayStation diehards, Xbox fans, or PC supremacists, we are all gamers.

I have fond memories of playing tomb raider on the original PlayStation. Uncharted on PS4

Gears of War, and Halo on XBox.
Duke Nukem 3D on my brother’s PC, when he wasn’t looking.

I get that people have favourites, and that people are tribal. I would not have that any other way.

But we are all gamers. I feel that this rivalry - “My console is better than yours” - simply makes us all look childish.

And gives the whole gaming community a bad reputation.

@AverageGamer They were waiting for Sony to start the €70 so they would get all the flack. And with MS most of their games are monetized quite a lot so they could have stayed at €60.

Unless you want BC with 360 and OG Xbox games there is no reason to need an Xbox.

@thefourfoldroot1 rumble was missing due to the ongoing litigation with Immersion. It wasn't budget related other than not wanting to pay up to Immersion. Thus why sixaxis became ds3 on settlement.

@NEStalgia
I know but the choice not to settle was budget related, obviously. Unless you think they did it on principle.

@WhiteRabbit I said good not great. But they did give plenty of massive visual overhauls for their games free of charge.

@Flaming_Kaiser 3 years is a very long time wait for someone to do something.

@TruestoryYep "The PS3 console, that like the PS5 today had no games for a long time?"

You sound like someone who completely skipped PS3 era.

Needs to reminds you that from year 1 or 2006-07, PS3 has Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, R&C: Tools of Destruction, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Bioshock 1, COD 4: MW 1, MotorStorm, Heavenly Sword, Virtua Fighter 5, Warhawk, The Darkness, AssCreed 1, The Orange Box, TES: Oblivion, Tekken 5 DR, Resistance FoM, and Super Stardust HD, which all those games got very positive reviews. Feel free to google up those games.

The follow up year or Year 2 / 2007-08, PS3 got more killer titles such as MGS 4, Uncharted 2, GTA 4, Little Big Planet, Fallout 3, Dead Space 1, Resistance 2, Valkyria Chronicles 1, Prince of Persia, DMC 4, GT 5 Prologue, Soul Calibur 4, and Siren Blood Curse that also received well.

Even back in 2013, the year PS4 released, PS3 still received great games such as GTA 5, The Last of Us, Bioshock Infinite, Ni No Kuni 1, Dragon's Crown, GT 6, God of War Ascension, Metal Gear Rising, Puppeteer, Tales of Xillia 1, R&C: Into the Nexus, Sly Cooper 4, Killer is Dead etc.

@thefourfoldroot1 Yeah, budget related, but they deliberately "budgeted" to remove an intended component of the product as a result of that "budget" which was convenient leverage in the suit, and sold consumers an inferior product, full knowing they'd just sell the real product back to consumers later. At a profit.

That's low. It was even more amazing in a less exploitative corporate environment of the era than today. And it was an era before the "pony" die hards were around. The only reason consumers weren't bringing out pitchforks was lack of knowledge that they'd been had, and the fact that nobody actually bought a launch PS3 to begin with.

@NEStalgia
Well, I bought a launch ps3, got exactly what I thought I was paying for and so didn’t feel “had”. You seem to imply that consumers didn’t have knowledge of “what might have been” and this is why they were “had”, but I don’t sign up to that idea. For instance, I’m sure budget analysis was done and it was decided to remove pancake lenses from the PSVR2 and instead use the money on FR Tech, but I knew exactly what I was buying when I paid so don’t feel fleeced in the slightest. Would I have preferred “what could have been” at a higher cost, sure, but then we would have ended up even more with a “get a second job” VR headset than we did. Same with PS3. Which was already considered overpriced (but was in fact just over spec d for the general population in my opinion).

@thefourfoldroot1 No matter how you slice it, stripping out functionality that your own company helped standardize as normal, that your competitors also have now, to charge your customers to become financial leverage for your litigatory efforts, only to sell the self same customers back the original unmolested design at full price for a profit after they successfully funded your legal efforts, is peak sleaze.

Put another way, if Xbox Series controllers lacked gyros because MS wanted to generate leverage to win a lawsuit (instead of because they're incompetent buffoons) and then sold everyone the original controllers for full price with gyros later on after winning, the internet would never relent on the vitriol spewed at them.

You were used as leverage, being "ok" with it, doesn't change the fact that you were used as leverage.

@NEStalgia
We’ll just have to agree to disagree. Sony not wanting to have to increase the cost of an already expensive console is completely understandable to me. Then releasing controllers with the extra rumble feature when the price came down later also perfectly reasonable.
It’s not like the rumble gave people extra functionality. In my opinion their recent release of an “elite” style controller with paddles for the pay to win crowd, putting day one users at a disadvantage, was actually sleazy. What you are talking about not at all.

@thefourfoldroot1 The "pay to win" crowd uses 3rd party wired elite controllers with paddles and microswitch buttons that are competitively superior to the wayward Edge controller anyway, so them releasing their own take doesn't affect anything. But.... Sony releasing their own with half a battery, non-adjustable stick tension and merely 2 paddles for $200? Yeah, that's sleazy.

@UltimateOtaku91

PlayStation as a platform is not at all popular in China and Korea because Chinese and Koreans prefer mobile games and PC gaming the most. To be honest, Chinese and Korean developers are better off making games primarily for PC and mobile phones. People in Asia eg China, Korea don't really prefer consoles compared to the west.

Xbox simply CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!