A blog post on Microsoft's game developer website has highlighted the firm's intention to learn why Xbox is being skipped over in favour of other platforms.
It's no big secret that certain developers have faced struggles with the Xbox ecosystem in recent times. The biggest example is Baldur's Gate 3, which was delayed on Xbox because of the Series S console's inability to competently run the game in split-screen mode.
There have been problems in other areas, too; the studio behind Enotria: The Last Song made public its struggles to communicate with Xbox, leading to a lengthy delay. Similarly, the makers of 2D metroidvania HAAK are bringing the game to PS5, but skipping Microsoft's platform entirely.
This new push from Microsoft to improve its relationship with developers is perhaps a result of missteps such as these. It's "all about giving game developers what they need to feel empowered and supported by Xbox," reads the blog post.
Xbox's principal user researcher Dr. Deborah Hendersen says she wants to hear from "everyone who works on games or helps support game studios because if we can make your life easier, it makes gaming better".
Most interestingly, the scope of the research extends to those not making their games for Xbox. "If you aren't on Xbox, we'd love to know why," Hendersen says. "And honestly, if you are using our competitor's products, you probably have a great perspective we could learn from!"
It all sounds good to us — better communication and an open-minded view on feedback can only be a positive thing. What are your thoughts on this? Discuss in the comments section below.
[source developer.microsoft.com, via playstationlifestyle.net]
Comments 91
Gamepass, smaller market, Series S limitations, declining market share, juice not worth the squeeze.
Harder dev tools along with a far less active user base when it comes to actually buying games.
The wider majority of Xbox hardcore do not touch a game unless it’s spoon fed to them via Game Pass Ultimate.
Gamepass - why get a limited fee where there's more potential for more money by actually selling your game + the series S is holding back xbox - tool ages for baldurs gate 3 due to compatibility issues between series S and X
Pretty simple, devs want to make money. Microsoft has trained their audience not to buy games.
Playstation is better to develop for as the requirement to make a game compatible with inferior hardware isn't there. Throw Gamepass into the mix and it's to see why devs head to Playstation. Why take a percentage from Gamepass when you can actually sell your games.
Maybe because Xbox is primarily a thing in the US, while PS has appeal worldwide?
I mean it's really not hard to see that dev's don't want to develop games for the potato that is the Series S
It’s the economy, stupid.
And in this case the economy is the install base, which is so bad for Xbox Microsoft won’t even tell us what it is. Why develop a game for an install base so small the company won’t even tell you what it is?🤷🏻♂️
Quite the mystery...
XB is entering Yoshida PS4 Sony phase. Humility brings prosperity. The next XB, based on AMD cpu and Nvidia GPU is going to slay.
Bit late isn't it?
@Max_the_German true, Xbox always had non existent presence in Kuwait. I’m the only fan. (Can’t even select it as a region on your account either funnily enough, my acc is set to NZ cuz early timezone yay)
@TheDudeElDuderino preach 🙏
I remember when the conversation was reversed with the PS3, but we will see if Microsoft is able to rally. It feels like some of the damage is becoming permanent (gamepass, overall install base, etc.)
@rjejr good point here I hate modern prices 😭
@rjejr c'mon R, you've been here long enough that you know xb series consoles, although far behind ps5 sales, can't be considered, by any stretch of the imagination, small install base.
Attach rate tho, yeah, something to talk about.
I almost find this laughable if I'm honest.
If Xbox cannot see the difference right now there is no hope for them.
Sony literally have to just be good enough and Xbox cannot touch them.
You throw in a total lack of coherent, transparent strategy and there is no reason to take any risks investing in that eco-system as a consumer or developer/publisher.
On top of the already mentioned reasons, I would add the console sales numbers: PS5 crushes Xbox Series in every part of the world.
Any game released on PS5 would benefit from more potential buyers by default, adding an important weight to the platform decision making.
In other news, "Microsoft investigates why children enjoy sweets over vegetables."
Game pass is an amazing deal for gamers, but not for the game devs, I get the idea of the series s but it has factually holding back this gen.
Isn’t it just as simple as games selling better on PlayStation?
@Medic_alert you forget who was the dev darling and who was the pariah during the xb360/ps3 era. Xb had the devs eating from the palm of its hand... yet, just before the dawn of ps4, Sony changed its tune and became something different, correcting its course and preparing the way of the busines for ps4. Same thing is happening now with XB. They are not doing this as a measure for this gen. It's the next one, which MS will start one year earlier than Sony.
@TheDudeElDuderino It wouldn't suprise me in the slightest if this were to be the case. Funny how pro-consumer corporations get when they're behind. Competition is always a good thing, so would hate to see them shrink even more.
But seeing how wishy-washy they've been lately, who knows what next gen has to offer. 🤷♂️
@TheDudeElDuderino US and UK have decent install base. Europe and Asia have absolutely miniscule install base. A lot of the games skipping Xbox seem to have national appeal; WuKong - made by Chinese dev and popular in China, Enotria - made by Italian dev. Then there's all the Japanese games like Gundam Breaker 4 and all the JRPGs I can't keep up with. For those studios it would be a lot of work to develop for series s/x for such a small amount of potential players
When you have an audience on PlayStation 5 over double the main rival, developers are going to prioritise making games for a console where they are more likely to turn a profit. Also. Microsoft are more focused on game pass and although it’s a guaranteed money earner for a developer initially, the money they receive will pail in comparisons to what they would receive by making sales in number, especially for an awesome game like Lies of P, which only recently left Gamepass, yet that championed over a million sales very quickly on PlayStation and PC ( I assume). With all these questions being asked, Microsoft themselves are going to focus on releasing games on PlayStation given the untapped sales that can be reached. Each generation will further entrench the mass market users that there is no need for any other console than a PlayStation and less and less developer will run the risk of losing out on sales and just focus where the money can be made.
If Microsoft is a serious company, then they need to spend at least a billion dollars to buy a couple of investigation and survey agencies to conduct the necessary research
@TheDudeElDuderino I don’t think power is really the point
@get2sammyb that and resources saved developing for a single sku... soon to be two sku's but the difference isn't so large as that between X and S.
The Series S has been such an arse ache for this generation.
They have conditioned their audience to not buy games. Simple as that. It's crazy how every trailer of a major games there's tons of comments with "is it coming to gamepass???". Even saw that on GTAVI lol. So why would you squeeze out a current gen game to run on a Series S to sell maybe 50 extra copies.
@Oram77 I don't think either of those things are necessarily true in such an absolute sense.
Gamepass has been a massive boon for some small developers, it has allowed games to be bigger, better and even released at all because of the guaranteed income.
However, the deals aren't big enough to pull in too many block busters so most big publishers skip it until the game is on its last legs sales wise. It is a mixed bag at best however.
The series S may or may not be causing an issue but I don't think it is the reason devs are skipping it. If anything the bigger, more power intensive titles do appear on Xbox, it is often smaller games - that could run on the S, that skip the platform.
I think Gamepass as good as it's been for day 1 really has biten them in the backside and actually made it a little worse for them in the long term when supporting it's own console. Now they have had to go multi platform to get money back
I mean, where do you start? 😂
It really is quite baffling that Xbox have seemingly spent the best part of nearly a decade now trying to focus on getting their own library up to par, spent an absolute f-ton of money on some of the biggest publishers and IP you can think of.. and they still have hardly any titles I want to play. Quite incredible
I could tell them that for free. If this is true, it shows how clueless they really are.
@Dragon83 so we can say the regular ps5 is holding back sony now right? I mean you say the series s is holding it back cause it's less powerful so by that theory then the regular ps5 is holding back sony cause it's less powerful than the ps5 pro.
Nintendo had this issue once. So they took a look around and made a system people want to buy games for and play on that isn't just "The Other Guy But Lesser".
Mystery solved. Where's my cheque?
@nitraM that just isn't true though. Almost all big games come to Xbox, it is the smaller ones that do not - ones that could run on the S without issue.
@Frost22 not even remotely in the same space
@get2sammyb It most definitely is that simple.
I am pretty sure they already know the reasons without doing any research.
@Jayslow who says we don't buy games? We absolutely buy games.
@Frost22 the pro isn't even out yet. If it released the same time as the PS5, then yes we can say that. By the end of this gen games will struggle on base PS5 just as we see on PS4 vs PS4 pro
@Boucho11 same thing
@roe and most of them are coming to PS anyway..
@SlipperyFish not yet but the second it is the same rule applies unless you're a hypocrite that is.
@DonJorginho harder dev tools? Possibly, but then that would also be true of pc - both use direct x. PlayStation use bespoke development tools unique to their platform unlike Xbox which shares commonality with pc. It’s one of the reasons why PlayStation bought nixxes, they specialise in porting to pc (which ironically would probably make them fairly adept at porting PlayStation games to Xbox).
I think it’s more likely that optimisation is harder for the limited power of series s compared to ps5 and obviously the Xbox series install base is half the size of PlayStation 5’s.
This might be the most obvious thing in the world. I'm guessing these conversations with devs look like "yes, we understand your concerns, and you probably won't make any sales, but we can eventually put your game on GP. Isn't that great?"
@TheDudeElDuderino I would say Gamepass changes the equation a little. Although how it’s changed next generation is yet to be seen. We have seen small devs praise gamepass and mid sized devs regret gamepass. It’s a huge gamble on revenue for them. Next gen will be interesting and we will see if Xbox can gain market share in the console space.
@TheDudeElDuderino I didn't forget, it just isn't relevant in my view.
Xbox did a lot right in the 360 era, Sony did a lot wrong and still out sold them in the end.
Then Xbox decided to take their momentum and continue to shoot themselves in the foot over and over again and now they have no toes left and wonder why they can't chase after Sony?
Like I said, Sony only have to be OK right now and they are miles ahead of Xbox.
@Frost22 yes. The same rule does apply. Cross-gen releases are slowing down PS5's potential as well.
Purely anecdotal, I know 3 xbox s/x owners and not one of them have bought a game this gen.
@Frost22 be closer to say ps4 than ps5
Because more people buy PS because there are more exclusive games (although not a much as there used to) and therefore more dev priorise the console that sells more
Investigation done. Your welcome, Microsoft
@Frost22 yeah I didn’t buy first party games as they were free at launch on Gamepass.
But all the third party games I paid for.
I wasn’t going to wait six months or a year and hope they came to Gamepass.
In the same way people still buy third party games on PS5 rather than waiting and praying.
No idea where those myths come from about Xbox owners being conditioned not to buy.
I only stopped buying third party games on Xbox when MS announced they were selling their exclusives on PS5, at which point I ditched the XSX entirely.
I am not hating on Xbox but sometimes I do feel we should open an investigation on why third parties are still developing for it. Doesn’t seem profitable at all to develop a Xbox version of their games, unless it’s not pay-rolled. In my life I have seen consoles I owned, like the Dreamcast, Gamecube and WiiU, all with way higher attach rates, left in the dust way sooner by some publishers.
I think Hi-Fi rush explains all the problems to a tea for Xbox.
You shadow drop a game with no marketing, no hype and you drop it into gamepass day one.
Critically it sticks the landing and is arguably the best Xbox exclusive of the generation.
You release it digital only despite stating just last year you want to make it easier for smaller devs to release physical games on your system.
Then when it doesn't sell well, you port it to rival platforms to make up the short fall and then immediately go on to shutter the studio because it didn't meet business expectations- something it had zero chance of doing under the Xbox business model.
If that doesn't explain why no one has any faith in Xbox any more I don't know what will.
@Nei it's has a over 30 million install base. That's not small
@Nei because if the game is already developed based on PS5 and PC sales alone, it’s just the marginal cost of the conversion to get it on Xbox.
So even at low volumes it will be profitable to sell on Xbox as they only have to offset the conversion cost.
@Nakatomi_Uk untrue
Microsoft has really scored an “own goal” with GamePass, I feel.
Why would developers write software for Xbox, if Microsoft are only going to give it away for free?
I have no actual bias, however. I own both a PS5 and a Series X. The PS5 is getting far more use right now, but I will eventually get around to playing Starfield’s Shattered Space expansion.
@Boucho11 exactly, series x was already supposedly the most powerful console this gen (debatable) and it didn’t help them slay that’s for sure!
I thought it was all because of these secret deals that PlayStation had made?!
I think problem also lies in design of UI. PS5 have chaotic user interface, but Xbox is pure hell. That mix of icons of games, advertisement, dlcs, options etc. is like crazed PC. And of course GamePass is stop sign for most of developers.
For that money they could probably fund 1;2 indie projects
@Matthewnh From what I've heard about Shattered Space, I wouldn't bother, Unless of course you like the style of the game
I understood that MS was leaving the console segment to become a publisher. Why are they still hitting the dead horse?
I put a longer post about this over on PureXbox but the YouTuber SkillUp did an investigative article on this earlier this year speaking to many developers annonymously, from solo devs to mid-sized studios. The main takeaway was:
But it's more nuanced. I recommend reading the whole article here.
Also Series S was also NOT the main problem as they were usually targeting Steam Deck or Switch with lower hardware minimums.
I think most people have nailed it here, a far smaller user base exhibiting no growth, Gamepass makes putting any effort in pointless, two SKUs - one of which is drastically underpowered. a far more complicated dev environment, and a souless submission process.
And as people have also rightly pointed out, Sony is in a 2 SKU position now. But in a way more balanced form. And they've been here before with the PS4 so everyone knows what to expect.
With the PS3 Sony got what they deserved. They handed the 360 the market by being a year late and to difficult to develop for. Luckily for MS they didn't have to actually do anything to succeed in that otherwiise they would have found some way to screw it up.
Which they did with the Xbone, by thinking they actually get gaming, they ended up handing it back to Sony. Big style.
And now they are on a pay to win streak because they still are incapable of understanding what gaming means to players. Honestly the market would be so much better off without them, leave room for someone else who actually is about games and not data aquisition to rise to the challenge.
@CrashBandicoat yeah, that makes sense - I guess the consoles I was citing where a lot more diverse and any port needed more work, even though probably sold more (in proportion).
This same article is on Purexbox and it is amazing how slanted this article is.
Simple, games just don't sell on XBOX. Their market shares keep getting smaller and smaller since they simply couldn't even penetrate the Asian market for years, no matter what they do.
Becoming a publisher like SEGA did would be the right move, when your leader himself even admitted that XBOX already lost the console wars and couldn't recover.
@cuttlefishjones even then PS3 outsold Xbox in the end on the back of strong exclusives. I still think gamepass is a viable way forward but only if they focus on on a better production pipeline.
Some consulting agency is going to get paid millions of dollars to write a report with the most straightforward information you can imagine and present it to the clueless Microsoft brass.
Sometimes I really think that a group of monkeys run these game companies
Why investigate? the answer is obvious.
Duh its gamepass, everybody knows that. They have to prioritize SELLING games
It feels like even Microsoft is prioritizing PS5 over Xbox Series consoles these days.
I guess that's what happens when you train your playerbase to pay a monthly fee and not actually buy games.
Top tip MS sell more consoles - second tip for free reward people for buying games ?
PS5 61.7 million units sold.
Series X and S 28.3 million units sold.
There simple.
Add in Gamepass and Series S being a pain for some developers.
The fact that Microsoft, one of the biggest companies in the world needs to investigate this is crazy. Just blows my mind.
@tpepper1985 nailed it.
Xbox isn't a global brand resulting in poor console sales and Microsoft has conditioned its player base into not buying video games because of Game Pass. There, done. It's pretty simple.
If Microsoft needs to investigate what everyone else already knows, thats telling everything.
@Americansamurai1
100% this, which is why it is particularly infuriating when Microsoft uses their poor business decisions as justification for buying up large swathes of the gaming market.
It's too late now for this. Devs were skipping Xbox in the past for specific reasons and nowadays there are other reasons including that they (Xbox) are not even prioritizing their console and some 1P published games are releasing first on PC and later on Xbox.
Better late than never I suppose. Good luck to them (honestly) as Sony needs the competition to keep it on its toes.
I love how the comment section here answered the question immediately, yet the heads of Microsoft that only understand corporate mumbo jumbo need years of investigating to still not know lol.
At launch MS had a two tier option for hardware. The entry level into the new Xbox ecosystem was lower than that of a PS5. Long term it has definitely hurt their ecosystem since it required all games to run on both. Sony, yes had "two models", but it had the same specs minus the disc drive.
Fast forward 5 years, the Series S is holding back the Series X severely. Lesson learned.
@TheDudeElDuderino I think "yet, just before the dawn of ps4, Sony changed its tune" underscores the efforts made
The PS3 was very humbling for Sony and the people who had to steer the ship from that were not necessarily the people who put them into that position.
Sony effectively rebooted the PS3, cheaper models came alongside a rebrand, which came along a refocusing of their entire strategy which came alongside a very different energy.
This is arguably why Cerny was allowed to take on the Vita and PS4. While he worked for Sony for years on games he has always been a contractor - he works for himself rather than running a Sony department. He didn't come with wacky ideas and a big ego or corporate baggage like Kutaragi. His developer tours were focused on what he/Sony could to for their next console, what they wanted to see from Sony rather than developers being told what they were getting.
It was a long process and as much as people will criticise Sony for breathing these days, they took their beating and came out of it stronger than they ever were before.
Microsoft can't even focus on a PR direction, never mind internally. I still don't understand why they are talking about the most powerful console again when it hasn't worked before and they seem to be making decisions on the hoof constantly. They've already started nerfing the standard Game Pass tier and you have to wonder at what point they have to back off from day one releases at all.
@Haruki_NLI Nintendo also merged their handheld and console operations into one so they had a single large user base rather than trying to balance two of them.
It also allowed them to simplifying their game development.
Nintendo handhelds have always been successful, their consoles have been hit and miss. Now they are completely focused and naturally this made them stronger.
Seriously, how is Phil Spencer still head of Xbox?
Obviously, deep pocket, evil sony is money hatting developers and the trillion dollar underdog is left in the rain. It is unlikely that developers would favour a platform on which they can make more money simply because of the larger install base and a platform on which people actually still buy games. It is also unlikely that developers see different next gen specs like the xbox s and x as an obstacle rather than an interesting challenge. But who knows maybe tides will turn since developers are now forced on the playstation side to adjust their games for the hated, not out-selling ps5pro and who likes to work on a system with more bling /s
@tpepper1985 Wrong on Game Pass, devs have spoken about that and say the money they are paid for they covers their R&D costs and development costs etc. They then make profit from the sales.
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