Hey Microsoft, Let’s Talk Next-Gen

Ever since Sony surprised everyone with their PS4 conference Microsoft has been scrambling around to get their next-gen Xbox announcement ready and it looks like they’re ready for the spotlight to shine on them. Later in May, just a few weeks before E3, Microsoft is going to give us the details on whatever the next Xbox is going to be called (I’m in favor of Xbox π) and I decided to write up what I’d like to see them improve upon in the next generation.

Repair Your Relations With PC Gamers

Microsoft is seriously missing out on a lot of gamers who could be buying their games if they weren’t so stubborn about GFWL. Besides the issues with the software itself (I’ll discuss that later) MS just isn’t porting many games they make on the Xbox that I’m sure PC gamers would love to try out. Microsoft, I’m not sure if you think that not putting games on PC hurts the competition but in reality you’re only hurting yourself. It wasn’t only the Xbox owners that helped catapult Halo to the juggernaut franchise it is now, PC gamers helped with that too when you put two amazing ports on PC. Why did you stop putting Halo titles on PC when there’s always been a community there wanting your games? You’d think from the massive explosion of hype that came from the rumor of the Halo titles heading to Steam that MS would wise up. Start caring about PC gamers too and they’ll buy your products.

Fix the GFWL Program

FIX GFWL
FIX GFWL
FIX GFWL
I don’t know how I can stress that point enough, but the client simply doesn’t work. You’ll get game crashes, saves mysteriously deleting, and numerous other issues you can learn about by just asking anyone who has used it. The service is fine when it works and I don’t mind having it on any of the Steam games I own that require it, but when it starts acting up I start acting up. Besides that, the client itself is completely useless and it’s incredibly obvious nobody spent any time working on it. Do you know what you see when you start up the GFWL Marketplace client? A white screen telling you to go to Xbox.com if you want to view the marketplace. Nobody could even be bothered to implement an actual marketplace in the GFWL Marketplace client. Not only that but there is absolutely nothing to do in the client besides booting up games from it, deleting/installing said games, and you can look at some settings I guess. The client is a joke and I can’t believe somebody actually got paid to make this which someone then stamped with the MS seal of approval. If you can’t even be bothered enough to make your own client work why should I (as a consumer) be bothered to look at your products?

Since we’re still on the GFWL subject, how about you take a look at your catalog of games and update the prices over there? Why the hell does everything on that page cost double the price than what I can pay on Steam or for console versions at a retail store? Batman: Arkham Asylum costs $50 and that’s not even the GOTY edition which is the default version of the game on Steam, which costs $20 by the way. Think I’m lying? Go ahead and see it for yourself. Usually companies compete with each other by matching prices to steal customers from each other, but it seems like Microsoft is trying to scare people away instead. In the age of Gamestop and used game prices I can pick up Gears of War for $5 but if I wanted to play it on my computer I’d have to fork over $20 instead. They could easily get my money if they priced their games realistically.

Drop the XBL Subscription

I understand that you’re making easy money from the millions of morons out there, but imagine what it would do to your public image if you dropped it. It still blows my mind that people still pay for a service that offers nothing significant enough to warrant the price tag when everyone else offers the exact same quality service for free. Instead, change XBL Gold into something like Playstation+ where I can spend $50 a year and get bigger discounts on games during sales, early demos, exclusive beta access, and more importantly free games. Also, price match Sony or go slightly lower to entice gamers to subscribe to your service and not Sony’s. Don’t be egotistical and claim your service is infinitely better so it demands a higher price. I would never drop $60 on a service that only lets me play my games online and use my video services such as Netflix when I can give my $50 to Sony and get all these awesome benefits along with my already free online.

Besides that, the cost of XBL Gold is insane considering the ads MS plasters everywhere should send them enough money to lower the $60 cost but MS remains firm in keeping it so much that they actually raised it from $50 to $60 recently. If anything you’d think paying for Gold would remove the advertisements while having a Silver account would force them on you. I understand that there are many people out there who take advantage of purchasing yearly subscription cards at a lower price in places like Amazon, but I’m sure there are many more that leave a credit card on their account. Did you know that auto-renewal is turned on by default if you have a credit card listed and buy any XBL Gold option? Guess how much it’ll automatically charge you once your subscription is up; I’ll give you a hint, it’s not the $40 Amazon charges.

I’d also appreciate not being bombarded with “$60 IS NOTHING! I/MY PARENTS MAKE THAT IN A WEEK” comments I always get hit with whenever I argue the price of XBL. Price has never been my main issue with XBL, it’s the fact that every other company offers the exact same quality service for free. And no, party chat isn’t worth $60 either. If Sony and Nintendo required a $60 fee to play online then they’d all be jerks together, but since 2005 Microsoft has been the only jerk around.

Drop the Point System

The point system is a terrible currency that only confuses your customers. I know that this is just a minor thing to complain about but switching to regular dollars instead of referring to everything as “points” would only help you.

“I love the way the point system works,” said no one ever.

Come Up With Better IP’s

Anytime my friends asked me why I didn’t own an Xbox I asked them what games it had to make it worth dropping $200+ on. Their response was always the same, “Uh… Halo and Gears of War” and occasionally they’d mention some game that I could get on my PC or PS3. Microsoft just hasn’t had as strong of a library of exclusive titles like Sony or Nintendo and it’s been obvious for years that the only thing keeping them afloat are those two franchises and Call of Duty. Microsoft needs to build a strong line-up of 1st party developers that will make quality exclusive IP’s that won’t get ported to another console after a year. Ninteodo has tons of quality IP’s they either recycle each generation or pull a name from a hat of long forgotten games that they’ll decide to bring to the modern age. Sony has been building up a collection of some of the most impressive console exclusives around and the amount of variety in their pocket just helps them even more. All of Microsoft’s major exclusives are shooters, Forza, or anything to do with Kinect which means they have zero variety when it comes to quality exclusives. Microsoft kicked things off spectacularly on the 360 but after a while half of its big “exclusives” jumped ship to either the PC or PS3 because they were made by a third party developer with a timed exclusive contract with Microsoft. They need to get their shit together and give people a reason to stick with the next Xbox that isn’t just Halo or Gears of War.

Also, if you’re going to put one of your console exclusive games on the PC then put it on your *improved* GFWL client so that way the customer is always reminded where it came from. Remind them that they’re not just playing a game off Steam, but that they’re playing a Microsoft game. Give gamers a reason to be excited to see your conference at E3 and actually surprise us with new games instead of dedicating your entire conference to the next sequel game, Call of Duty, advertising Kinect games at a conference core gamers watch, and spending more time than is necessary telling us how awesome our lives are going to be now that we can watch ESPN on our Xbox.

Speaking of Apps…

I understand that you’re trying to turn your console into a multimedia device but save that stuff for the TV commercials and minor press releases. The core gamers don’t watch E3 to hear about how they can now order pizza from their Xbox or your latest partnership with some other company that will revolutionize the way we use an Xbox. Everyone used to joke about how half of Sony’s conferences are games and the other half are PowerPoint statistics; guess what, half of your conferences are games and the other half is hyping up useless apps nobody there cares about. Another thing, if you absolutely *must* continue with the XBL subscription then allow people to continue using apps like HBO Go or Netflix without needing to pay for Gold. It’s absurd that you need to pay a subscription to use another subscription. The fact that I can use Netflix on my PS3, Wii-U, and through an app on the TV itself just makes you look like a complete joke when I’m told I can’t pull up Netflix on my Xbox because I don’t have a Gold subscription.

I don’t have any sort of bias towards any specific company, but the reason I wrote this is because I firmly believe that Microsoft has what it takes to really step their game up if they just tried. I genuinely do hope they (along with Sony) wow us when they reveal their next-gen console later in May, and here’s hoping that I have some sort of future sight powers with all the things I listed coming true.