Games Inbox: Does PlayStation and Xbox have incompetent leadership?

The Wednesday letters page is shocked by the news coming out of both Microsoft and Sony, as one reader calls for more Xbox mobile games.

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A day to remember
Well, what a day it’s been for incompetent, out of touch business execs, eh? First, we had the ex-Blizzard boss dropping some truth bombs on Phil Spencer and the shambles he’s made of Xbox. I’m glad he said all that because it’s very obvious that Phil is trying to pretend that all the bad things happening to Xbox are unavoidable problems with the whole industry, when it’s really just him.

Problem is, he’s probably convinced himself to believe it by now, so there’s even less chance he’ll fix it. In my opinion he and all his people have got to go. Xbox needs completely new management and no more excuses.

Then we have the eternally quiet Sony who have shut down Concord after just 11 days. 11 days! Now, to be fair, this could be an example of good leadership. Maybe the two new joint-CEOs of PlayStation have done the sensible thing and shut down Concord before it drags on any further, and also shut down all the other live service projects and gone back to making proper games.

Maybe they have, or maybe they’ve just commissioned a dozen new ones. We don’t know because they won’t tell us anything!

I’ll say one thing, if I was an investor in either company I’d be baying for blood at the moment. Xbox has wasted so much money it’s unreal and Sony has compromised its biggest money-spinner for absolutely no reason. Talk about lions lead by donkeys, this industry can be so gross sometimes.
Lempton

Learning opportunity
So it appears Concord is no longer with us. Don’t think anyone is going to be to upset about that but I’m wondering what the games industry might learn from it – then I remember what a cesspool that industry actually is and know they’ll learn nothing.

So that being said can I be the first person to say I’m really, really looking forward to the bigger, better ‘Concord 2’ coming our way soon.
Chris

GC: We wish we could say your cynicism is misplaced.

The wrong multiplayer
I don’t understand why Sony produced Concord when they could’ve released The Last Of Us Factions on PC. A mere PlayStation 3 port would’ve done well. The PC community still desires Factions. How could Sony be releasing top Sony franchises like Uncharted, The Last Of Us, and Horizon on PC and leave out something for the multiplayer community?

Let me state that Factions is the best multiplayer game I’ve played. We need to send a petition to Sony. We must have this game on PC.
Henry

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Mobile progress
From my armchair CEO position, with no real knowledge of what anyone’s roles at Microsoft involve, I’m beginning to think Phil Spencer has had his time.

This isn’t because of Xbox or Game Pass though. I don’t really fault the decisions he made there. There’s no scenario where Xbox suddenly outsold the PlayStation 5. Game Pass is good and its only real failure is that there just aren’t any more Xbox players to sell it to. My criticism is everything else.

We’ve been hearing for the best part of a decade that Microsoft is thinking bigger than consoles and mobile is the biggest part of gaming. So where are the mobile games? Where’s the equivalent of Call Of Duty: Warzone but with Gears, Halo or any of the other IP they could have leveraged. Netflix publish third party games, where’s Game Pass’s mobile subscription with native mobile games? It’s like they tried streaming and then gave up.

PC feels like it’s doing better, but it’s been a long, slow progress and they’ve not really dented Steam. Things like the Xbox app also feel more like a third party app rather than something from the creator of Windows. Surely making a version of Windows that works well for portables should have been something they should have been ahead of the curve on, not something that’s yet to have any progress.

The guy’s job title hasn’t had Xbox in it since 2017, yet outside of Xbox they just seem a little lost.
Tim

An industry transformed
Great to hear that Xbox seems to be bringing back Activision’s Transformers games, hopefully as multiplatform remasters. I also assume it must be to do with the 40th anniversary but it still seems a little surprising as that’s not something I’d expect most people to know about.

The first two Cybertron games were both great and I’d really like to see a modern sequel that was set on Earth, which is what Fall was setting up. Unfortunately, if they weren’t successful enough to deserve another game at the time, when games were much cheaper to make, I don’t see the chances of that today.

You’d need a massive Star Wars Outlaws style budget to make a proper job of it, but I just don’t think Transformers has that sort of draw. Or maybe it does in theory, but I don’t think enough people would assume a game of it was going to be good enough to buy, which is just as big a problem.
Allego

Pro performance
I have read all of your dear opinions on the mid-generation upgrade of the PlayStation 5 but I think it’s better to get something like that in front of Grand Theft Auto 6 and Marvel’s Wolverine.

You know that from the beginning of the ninth generation they had a lot of advertisements on their console – Microsoft and Sony. They said that the consoles will indeed get 8K support (which we don’t need at this point) and simultaneous 4K/120fps support.

The developers weren’t able to do the first but if the PS5 Pro gets them ray-tracing, as titles like Cyberpunk 2077 need, alongside 60fps, then the console will be more valuable to buy. Digital Foundry (which I truly believe is an Xbox influence programme) says that GTA 6 will not be running at 60fps on PS5 Pro. That is absolutely false, the console is made to run GTA 6 when the game drops. A year before the next gen Xbox’s launch that will make the console one of the must-have ones.

I have played Alan Wake 2 on Xbox Series S on 30fps and that was disaster. Then I think we’ll need to get a PS5 Pro to run the games at 4K and 60fps. Or 1440p and 120fps at least.

What your opinion?
Cerberus

GC: Xbox influence programme? C’mon.

Little bit of politics
It’s not good news for Wolfenstein if that Thatcher Doom mod was removed for covering real world politics!

That mod was the least of the mods I thought would get removed, plenty of other mods freely available on Xbox covering a raft of other company’s IP!
Rob

Truth accepted
Mike Ybarra shouldn’t have left Blizzard to go elsewhere. He should be in charge of Xbox. He gets it! He has always been outspoken. Which is why he probably left Microsoft for Blizzard in the first place. I get the impression Xbox leadership are a bunch of yes-men. No wonder Cliff Blezinski never received a call from Phil Spencer to help out with Gears Of War. He doesn’t fit the mould.

I’ve come to the conclusion Xbox leadership are completely clueless. Everything Mike Yabarra stated is echoed by the fans. Gamers can be armchair CEOs at times. But when the fans can recognise Xbox’s failures, and the people in charge don’t, that’s a problem.

Sony will undoubtedly stick the boot on Xbox’s neck, starting with the PS5 Pro. It won’t sell in huge quantities but when you can play better versions of Xbox games on PS5 Pro it will be a PR disaster. I believe Sony will mandate PS5 Pro support, just like they did with PS4 Pro. Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 is when the fun and games begins!

I’ve had Xbox consoles since the OG Xbox in 2001. I have a huge collection of digital games tied to Xbox. But I recently sold my Xbox Series X because I have utter contempt for the current regime and no faith in their multiformat strategy. Xbox has become a laughing stock. If they thought Xbox console sales were bad before, they’ve seen nothing yet. They will become the equivalent of Concord!
Si

Inbox also-rans
I literally couldn’t believe that Concord headline, I am shocked that it’s true. I mean, it’s probably the sensible decision but what a disaster. What is going on at PlayStation nowadays? Or Xbox for that matter.
Soda

How is it that the Reader’s Features that sound the crazies and most over-exaggerated end up seeming weirdly prophetic and truthful just a couple of weeks later? I am shocked at the mess PlayStation and Xbox are in right now. This whole Concord business is unbelievable. Maybe we really do need Nintendo and the Switch 2 to save us.
Penfold

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The small print
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