Games Inbox: Is it true Xbox has never been more healthy?

The Thursday letters page isn’t sure PS5 owners want to play Halo and Gears Of War, as one reader suggests an alternative to the Steam Deck 2.

To join in with the discussions yourself email [email protected]

Delusions of grandeur
I don’t think I’m the only one that’s sick of hearing from Phil Spencer at this point, but I think it’s obvious from the photo in this new interview that the stress of his job is starting to take its toll. I can’t say I’m all that sympathetic though. Given how much time and money he’s had access to I don’t see that he’s done anything to improve either Xbox or video games in general.

The comments about no red lines was interesting, but no less than is expected at this point, while his other comments were the usual guff about needing industry growth and mobiles being the way to do that – even though more recent news suggests that bottom is falling out of that market.

Spencer just seems washed up at this point and, frankly, so does Xbox. I don’t even know what it’s supposed to be anymore. It’s barely a console and streaming is just a sideshow for now, so that doesn’t make it any more than a third party publisher with delusions of grandeur.

And I do think that has always been Spencer’s problem. ‘The Xbox business has never been more healthy,’ he says. But how do you figure that? Activision Blizzard has never been more healthy but Xbox itself seems to have outlived its usefulness and as an Xbox Series X owner that makes me bitter and angry.
Coldsbane

Long wait
I’m sure that I’m not the only one that got some second-hand cringe from that new Phil Spencer Xbox interview. The guy seems increasingly off his rocker, especially if he thinks Xbox is doing better than ever. I also think he’s fooling himself if he thinks anyone still cares about Gears Of War or, especially, Halo.

The most interesting thing was confirmation of a handheld console but the warning that it wouldn’t be out for a while. Now this could just be a lie, like much of what Spencer says, but if it’s going to be later than 2026 what happens to Xbox in the meantime?

I really don’t see anything on its current slate becoming any kind of a big deal, unless Fable is both incredibly good and on PlayStation 5 from the start. 2026 seemed believable because it was obvious the Xbox Series X/S had failed but leaving it to fend for itself for much longer is going to cause even more problems.
84Colbat

No more secrets
I see we’re back to imaging that Sony has some secret store of new single-player games it’s suddenly going to announce out of the blue, now rumoured to be in early December. I’m going to make my own prediction, not based on industry contacts but simple logic and observation: Sony ain’t going to announce anything.

Maybe you’ll get a PlayStation Blog post about new action figures or something, which seems to have been partially leaked, but that’s it. There’s not going to be any State of Play for the 30th anniversary, you’ll be lucky if you get a new trailer.

Sony might be acting odd but not so odd that they’d keep lots of announcements in their pocket for a random rainy day. The more games they announce the more appealing their console looks, and they want it to look as appealing as possible ahead of Christmas so they can actually sell some for once.
Kikibomb

Email your comments to: [email protected]

Unsexy news
Very sad to see Tequila Works filing for insolvency, as I thoroughly enjoyed the game The Sexy Brutale. It is a little gem and one of my favourite games of all time, which I think they published or/and help make. It is very similar to Gregory Horror Show, with a very good story and interesting gameplay, which I have got the platinum for.

Tequila Works also made the beautiful looking RiME, which I have on physical in my backlog to play and they also created Gylt, which was a Stadia exclusive for a while and then got released on other platforms and it is on my wishlist to play.
Andrew J.

GC: Tequila Works did publish The Sexy Brutale, and helped with development, but the lead creator was Cavalier Game Studios, who still seem to be going but haven’t announced any new game in some time now.

Unequal terms
As a PlayStation 5 owner I can’t wait to play all those amazing Xbox classics I’ve been denied for all these years like, erm… Microsoft Flight Simulator, maybe? I shouldn’t be mean but I’m just not sure what Microsoft thinks it has to offer the PlayStation 5, beyond Activision Blizzard games that were always multiformat anyway.

I’m not interested in Halo 8 and Gears Of War 7, or whatever we’re on now. Those series are well past their best and I really can’t see any of the announcements so far turning out to be anything particularly interesting.

The problem for Microsoft is that Xbox needs PlayStation but PlayStation does not need Xbox, as we see with Lego Horizon Adventures being on Switch but not Xbox Series X/S. Sony doesn’t care if Halo is on PlayStation 5 or not and I’m not sure many gamers do either.
Roller

True sequel
RE: Shahzaib Sadiq getting upset about no Steam Deck 2 yet. Check out this article from Reviews.org Australia with two of the Steam Decks designers. The Steam Deck is about to released in Australia (19th November).

They talk about their thoughts for Steam Deck 2 and the handheld PC space in general, where they don’t see themselves as a one stop shop. One quote from it about the Steam Deck 2 is this:

‘So we really do want to wait for a generational leap in compute without sacrificing battery life before we ship the real second generation of Steam Deck. But it is something that we’re excited about and we’re working on.’

As the reader said these things in an Inbox letter, about the PS5 Pro, I think he’ll see their point: ‘The PS5 Pro is a paperweight,’ ‘A minimal update, reflections that will barely even be noticed, when moving through the next set of levels and puddles in Spider-Man 2. That is truly phenomenally mystifying and it totally justifies the ludicrous price tag? No, it never has and never will.’

Being overly dramatic seems to be the MO but no need in this case, about the Steam Deck 2. As the reader mentions, there’s essentially the Steam Deck Pro in the market, in the form of the Pro priced £800 Rog Ally X.
Simundo

Impulse purchase
I’m still not clear on why Microsoft has had to delay its big new mobile app. According to Phil Spencer it’s because they need to do more research into the industry. But did they not have a plan for all this before they paid multiple billions for Activision Blizzard?

I thought getting control of King was one of the main reasons for doing it but now, a year later, they’re still looking into it? I carefully research a game before I spend £70 on it, I would’ve thought a company like Microsoft would’ve been a bit more cautious before spending so much money on something they apparently didn’t even know what they were going to do with it.
Korbie

Non sequitur gaming
Cute review of the new Lego game. Agree that doing one for Horizon seemingly makes no sense, it’s not like they have a movie, TV show or even kids cartoon of it in circulation. Though once they had decided to do it, I thought it’d turn out reasonably well; Horizon would transplant to the Lego video game formula pretty well.

Noted you reviewed it on the PlayStation 5, I’d be interested to see how it performs on the significantly less capable Switch. Putting it on Nintendo’s platform is a no-brainer though, given the demographics, just hope it’s not a phoned-in job. Sonic games sell the best on Switch yet even the recent Generations remake is a noticeable downgrade from the Xbox and PlayStation versions.

As for Xbox, I have a feeling the reason it isn’t on Microsoft’s machine has more to do with pure business than any kind of platform exclusivity or loyalty. Xbox has obviously struggled this generation, shifting less than half of Sony’s 60 million odd units. Also, looking at recently released information about player stats and sales, most of those console owners are either just playing Fortnite and other live service titles or subscribe to Game Pass and play whatever is on there. So it probably just wasn’t worth the cost and development to bring over to Xbox; Sony were probably right to assume that nobody would buy it.

Pretty sad really that it’s ended up like this for Microsoft, Sony certainly need the competition to keep them on track but that even financing ports to Xbox isn’t financially viable for publishers unless they cut a lucrative Game Pass deal… doesn’t look good for the future of the hardware.
Marc

GC: The small map areas and lack of destructible scenery is clearly a limitation introduced for the Switch, so we imagine it works okay. It’s not a bad game, it’s just weird that it exists.

Inbox also-rans
So when can we say definitively that the Switch 2 isn’t going to be announced this year? It’s the middle of November on Thursday and I cannot believe for a second it’s going to happen now – it’s got to be January.
Ryan

GC: It’s not New Year’s Eve yet.

I saw some Resident Evil 9 rumours saying that the game stars Leon S. Kennedy and Jill Valentine on an island fighting something called Goat-Man. I notice you didn’t report on this, does that mean it’s not true?
Layu

GC: There’s nothing to suggest those rumours are accurate, no.

Email your comments to: [email protected]

The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

MORE : Games Inbox: What will happen for the PlayStation 30th anniversary?

MORE : Games Inbox: Is Silent Hill 2 the best remake ever?

MORE : Games Inbox: Will the PS5 Pro delay the release of PlayStation 6?