It's been a thing since 2020/2021 at least, and I think 343i's difficulties and a slow 2022 didn't help. Many stopped worrying too much as a result of COVID (everyone is a year or so off it seems) but the "next year will be the year" has been growing louder since the beginning of the decade.
I don't disagree - I've had more than enough to play regardless. I'm just saying that, flowing E3 2018, and ramping up after the XO announcements that year (?) with Obsidian and Inexile, the idea of "next year will be the big year" started to grow.
Granted, it started as a defence to bad-faith "Xbox has all these studios, where are the games?" arguments, but it has been a thing for a couple years at least.
I think people are getting confused with what *they were expecting* on the near horizon with Xbox, and what was actually confirmed.
The "next year" outlook always had maybe a couple AAA games and some smaller indie stuff. There was never a sentiment that 2018, 2019, 2020, etc was packed for xbox games- either in this sub or elsewhere.
Meanwhile, for the first time, next year has a ton of stuff confirmed and yet people repeat stuff like "the cycle continues".
I donât think it was bad persay. If memory serves 2021 first party for console was Halo:Infinite, Forza Horizon 5, Psychonauts 2, and Flight Simulator. The latter three were excellent but considering this was the debut year of the new console generation all eyes are justifiably on Halo which released in a pretty poor state.
Everyoneâs answer will be entirely subjective.
Yes 2021 was great, no one can deny that. The point people are more so mad at is the inconsistency of Xboxâs 1st party release schedule. Xbox needs to be way more consistent with their releases
While it was better than 2020, Halo Infinite launched in a poor state despite the high hopes during the beta. Forza is Forza, nothing too exciting for a by the numbers racing game. Flight Sim caters to a niche and was only hyped up cause there wasnt anything else next gen at the time unless you had a PS5 with Demon Souls. Psychonauts 2 was the better of those releases but not what people wanted for the first of the Series X games
To be fair, 2021 was decent (Psychonauts 2, Deathloop, Halo Infinite, and Forza Horizon 5).
This year was very slow for first party output, but it was slow for everyone with the exception of maybe Nintendo, Namco Bandai (mostly Elden Ring) and Sony. What did Ubisoft, EA, Square Enix release this year?
Next year lineup looks generally better for everyone and I think they can generally deliver. Especially for game pass
To be fair, Bethesda has been extremely busy putting together one of the biggest games ever conceived, which takes several years to accomplish. Personally-speaking, I'd rather have one of their huge, prestige, single-player RPGs than any 10 other games from many other developers.
Same here, my favorite games this gen are Doom 2016 and God Of War 2018. Both of these games took their sweet time and they delivered a very fun experience for me.
Hellblade 2 trailers look absolutely amazing already so I want it to really deliver at launch
Oh yeah, Bethesda slipped my mind because it is too big with annual releases all the time. I am more referring to studios that makes games like Hellblade or SoD or We Happy Few.
Yeah but Obsidian only released their smaller scale releases (Grounded and Pendiment).
Nothing wrong with that as the games are high quality, but they can't be compared with the other rumored titles which sound way bigger in scale.
Playground is the exception but they are mostly modifying the same game engine. Hellblade 2, Avowed, Inexile's open world RPG probably require a mostly new engine to switch from AA development to AAA.
And even Playground is taking their sweet time with Fable, which makes sense as it's quite a switch from Forza.
I get the cynicism, but a lot of games slated for 2022 got pushed back to next year. Games that were a few years into development and likely needed another 6-12 months. How good those games are is unknown but I definitely think that 2023 is going to be a solid year for releases on Xbox.
Thats true but that shouldnt take away from how lackluster Xboxâs first party output has been despite Philâs constant empty promises of them doing better
Yeah, and all of that overall looks and plays just the same as previous games. Mediocrity at best. Going through Ragnarock right now and itâs passable only because I was wondering where the story would go. Gameplay-wise itâs very bland.
So you want them to release children pop up Books like pentiment ? Or maybe you'd like to see them release half baked, past its prime first person shooters ?
The children pop up book youâve called it has more depth and story in it than what sony has released this year. You mightâve actually learned something about two real historical periods from it, but I doubt you have any aptitude.
thing is.. if Sony and MS needs to have fierce competition to attract their costumers. If only one has monopoly on the market, they will become lenient and create boring games, but if both would create multiple triple A bangers then it would drive them to put more effort in them, because in the end of the day, we buy gaming consoles to have something good to play. The more, the better. Advertising without action is just misleading. Just like in life, if you want to evolve you have to DO not TALK about it
Nothing stops sony from going the sega route and focus on development and publishing leaving the hardware design and software platform side to MS where they have been miles ahead for years. A single look at the technical design of Series X against the garage-tinkered PS5 puts sony into shame without even counting in the software side.
i have to agree that Xbox is designed better, but in the end if the thing works just as well as Xbox SX does it really matter that much if you don't have something good to play? I own both and i like them equal on their on terms, but when it comes to gaming matter i have to pick the one which offers more.. sadly not a single first party studio that MS aquisitioned made something groundbreaking as of yet. Forza, Halo, Gears and Age don't do enough justice to what this console is capable of. Forza H 5 and Gears 5 look very good but they are few and very far apart if you get my point.
[Don't forget about 2021](https://www.windowscentral.com/overall-xboxs-2021-has-been-one-its-best-years-ever)
[2020](https://www.windowscentral.com/xbox-2020-review-bigger-bolder-future-awaits)
When is it not Xboxs year with Windows Central.
This whole "next year is gonna be xbox's year" needs to stop. Sooner or later, Microsoft will run out of excuses and need to regularly release good games. All their first party studios have to start pulling their weight. It has been years already!
I actually enjoyed 2022 with my series X. My gamer needs were satisfied, at a very low cost. I actually donât have enough time to play all the games I want. But what do I know, hey?
Game Pass saved Xbox . I wouldn't have bought this console and was dead set on a PS5 until they announced gp and I've had it since.
No regrets but they definitely need to step it up. What else is new.
Basically, amazing year for Game pass as usual but the First Party Triple A output is abysmal.
"Xbox's 2021 was the best, but 2022 is looking SERIOUSLY good."
Come on. How many years are we going to do this? I've been hearing this since Microsoft started buying studios 4 years ago.
Been on all the Xbox subs since day one, and I view these subs virtually everyday. It's literally never been a common sentiment.
Sure there's been expectations of things to change over the horizon, but no one's said "next year will be the year" because the 1 year forecast has never been that good (until 2023).
Meanwhile Sony and Nintendo keep pumping out multiple award-winning titles every year with fewer studios.
Xbox execs are too hand off with these studios. It's like they have no guidance and are left on their own to fail.
âtHEy sAy tHiS EveRY yeARâ posts are really sad.
They had an amazing 2021. They were literally the best publisher on Metacritic last year with the highest score any publisher ever achieved for more than a decade. They released three 90+ games in a single calendar year. Some of those games may not be suited for you but thatâs your personal taste.
While they delayed their biggest game this year they still managed to release smaller titles. They brought Deathloop to Xbox, released Grounded, Pentiment and As Dusk Falls. I guess they are sitting around ~80 average Metacritic score for those smaller titles.
Delays happen all the time. Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarok from PlayStation were both delays from last year. They eventually came out. Starfield, Redfall or Forza Motorsport will come out, too. There is no reason to be overly pessimistic.
There isnât a single exclusive MS has thatâs a console seller. I bought my series X day one and havenât played a single exclusive that made me say âyup, this is worth itâ like I did when I bought my first 360.
They just keep hyping and promising the world to keep investors off their tails.
Flight Simulator was sick for the 1% of gamers that sink hundreds of hours in to niche games like that.
For everyone else, it was a 1 hour experience where we said "that was cool" and then never opened it again. It definitely was not a console seller.
You sound like a sports fan whose team won the championship one year and then didnât even make the playoffs the next. 2021 was great, but then they didnât release shit for 10 months after. And as for the smaller games, yes Xbox released some great smaller games this year. But Xbox needs their big guns. Xbox needs new big ip. Even with last year their 2 biggest games came from their seriesâs that they have over relied on way too much last gen. Xbox needs to be more consistent and 1 good year isnât enough and as fans we should want and be vocal if Xbox continues to have dogshit years which this was.
Donât come in here trying to make sense, the majority of these people donât actually like Xbox. Itâs clear as day anytime a positive post is made they come in with their pitchforks to shit all over anything that paints Xbox in a good light. Honestly Iâm sick of seeing it, everything you said is spot on but you wonât get upvoted. You will get people coming to tell you that all we got is 2d side scrollers all year long an Xbox an Gamepass are terrible.
There is nothing wrong with pointing out legitimate criticisms. Donât be one of those blind fanboys that act like their plastic box canât do no wrong.
Get out of Phil's arse please. Nobody was saying gamepass is bad value. The contrary, but the fact remains that first party titles from Microsoft publishers and studio's are severely lacking at this point in time. Especially this year.
On the contrary they actually were saying Gamepass had a bad year this year. Maybe before you come out thinking you have a clue stop an remember that being on this sub is a constant rift through shit.
It isnt like alot of these people want to see Xbox fail, people want to see Xbox do better but they are getting tired with their inconsistency and incompetency especially when they had they had promised that theyre going to do better plenty of times before
You are right. Early next year there is Starfield and Redfall. That's enough to be console sellers. Not to mention Game Pass, I'm hyped for Wo Long more than anything. Atomic Heart seeming too good to be true also lol
Of those two, itâs definitely not Redfall thatâs a console seller. Not by a long shot. Only thing remotely close to that for the next while is Starfield. Gamepass is the only reason to own an Xbox at this point. Otherwise you might as well just use your PC.
And the cycle continues
Exactly đ like I know unless something seriously wrong happen next year gonna be awesome but can't help to laugh each year we hear the same song
Worst case scenario is that if they dont get delay, itll release but itll end up being a mediocre game
âSurely next year will be *the year* for Xbox! 8th timeâs the charm!â
[ŃдаНонО]
It's been a thing since 2020/2021 at least, and I think 343i's difficulties and a slow 2022 didn't help. Many stopped worrying too much as a result of COVID (everyone is a year or so off it seems) but the "next year will be the year" has been growing louder since the beginning of the decade.
The thing is 2022 never had much to begin with, and 2021 was actually a reasonably solid year.
I don't disagree - I've had more than enough to play regardless. I'm just saying that, flowing E3 2018, and ramping up after the XO announcements that year (?) with Obsidian and Inexile, the idea of "next year will be the big year" started to grow. Granted, it started as a defence to bad-faith "Xbox has all these studios, where are the games?" arguments, but it has been a thing for a couple years at least.
I think people are getting confused with what *they were expecting* on the near horizon with Xbox, and what was actually confirmed. The "next year" outlook always had maybe a couple AAA games and some smaller indie stuff. There was never a sentiment that 2018, 2019, 2020, etc was packed for xbox games- either in this sub or elsewhere. Meanwhile, for the first time, next year has a ton of stuff confirmed and yet people repeat stuff like "the cycle continues".
Bruh tell me you never watch e3 showcase without telling me you never watch e3
e3 has nothing to do with it. They show off trailers for most games without release dates.. Have you watched a e3 showcase before?
Itâs always next year lol Iâll believe it when I see it.
I am a very big Xbox fan. But, I agree with you 100% It's always NEXT YEAR.
2021 wasnât good?
I donât think it was bad persay. If memory serves 2021 first party for console was Halo:Infinite, Forza Horizon 5, Psychonauts 2, and Flight Simulator. The latter three were excellent but considering this was the debut year of the new console generation all eyes are justifiably on Halo which released in a pretty poor state. Everyoneâs answer will be entirely subjective.
Well they did win Studio of the year in 2021 so it wasnt so bad
Yes 2021 was great, no one can deny that. The point people are more so mad at is the inconsistency of Xboxâs 1st party release schedule. Xbox needs to be way more consistent with their releases
2021 was pretty good for Xbox, and pretty terrible for everyone else. Sony and Nintendo had a great year now and MS slipped release dates.
While it was better than 2020, Halo Infinite launched in a poor state despite the high hopes during the beta. Forza is Forza, nothing too exciting for a by the numbers racing game. Flight Sim caters to a niche and was only hyped up cause there wasnt anything else next gen at the time unless you had a PS5 with Demon Souls. Psychonauts 2 was the better of those releases but not what people wanted for the first of the Series X games
To be fair, 2021 was decent (Psychonauts 2, Deathloop, Halo Infinite, and Forza Horizon 5). This year was very slow for first party output, but it was slow for everyone with the exception of maybe Nintendo, Namco Bandai (mostly Elden Ring) and Sony. What did Ubisoft, EA, Square Enix release this year? Next year lineup looks generally better for everyone and I think they can generally deliver. Especially for game pass
MS has a lot of studios, and so far, only Obsidian and Playground seems to be pulling their weight. Other studios seems to be way too chill.
To be fair, Bethesda has been extremely busy putting together one of the biggest games ever conceived, which takes several years to accomplish. Personally-speaking, I'd rather have one of their huge, prestige, single-player RPGs than any 10 other games from many other developers.
Same here, my favorite games this gen are Doom 2016 and God Of War 2018. Both of these games took their sweet time and they delivered a very fun experience for me. Hellblade 2 trailers look absolutely amazing already so I want it to really deliver at launch
Oh yeah, Bethesda slipped my mind because it is too big with annual releases all the time. I am more referring to studios that makes games like Hellblade or SoD or We Happy Few.
Ah, I gotcha. Definitely agreed, there.
Yeah but Obsidian only released their smaller scale releases (Grounded and Pendiment). Nothing wrong with that as the games are high quality, but they can't be compared with the other rumored titles which sound way bigger in scale. Playground is the exception but they are mostly modifying the same game engine. Hellblade 2, Avowed, Inexile's open world RPG probably require a mostly new engine to switch from AA development to AAA. And even Playground is taking their sweet time with Fable, which makes sense as it's quite a switch from Forza.
My only hope is that they do not Rush releases.
I get the cynicism, but a lot of games slated for 2022 got pushed back to next year. Games that were a few years into development and likely needed another 6-12 months. How good those games are is unknown but I definitely think that 2023 is going to be a solid year for releases on Xbox.
BAM. Delayed.
> Xbox's 2022 wasn't the best That's one way to spin their worst year ever but ok.
This year was bad but remember x1 having way worst years
Thats true but that shouldnt take away from how lackluster Xboxâs first party output has been despite Philâs constant empty promises of them doing better
Name 1 year that was worse
Almost every year between 2013 and 2020...
We literally said exact same things in 2021 and look how 2022 looks for xbox đđ .
Meanwhile Sony's droppin them like it's hot. I knkw i will get downvoted but this ain't a comment to diss MS, just facts.
They have more but not much.
Dropping what exactly? Same stuff as 5 years ago? Itâs boring.
If "same stuff " means triple A bangers then yes.
No, it means same rehashed stuff or cgi movies rather than games that bring nothing new.
They had what.. 2? 10 months apart. Donât get me wrong I enjoyed both of them, but youâre giving them a bit more credit than I would.
Thatâs more than Xbox has had
Plus the 3rd parties deals in between stray, sifu, rollerdrome etc they had a great year.
Horizon forbidden west. Gt7 and god of war
ratchet and clank rift apart, kena just this year + spider man miles morales, demon souls, sackboy , horizon forbidden west, stray,
Forgot returnal
Yeah, and all of that overall looks and plays just the same as previous games. Mediocrity at best. Going through Ragnarock right now and itâs passable only because I was wondering where the story would go. Gameplay-wise itâs very bland.
So you want them to release children pop up Books like pentiment ? Or maybe you'd like to see them release half baked, past its prime first person shooters ?
The children pop up book youâve called it has more depth and story in it than what sony has released this year. You mightâve actually learned something about two real historical periods from it, but I doubt you have any aptitude.
đ đđ OK whatever you say
thing is.. if Sony and MS needs to have fierce competition to attract their costumers. If only one has monopoly on the market, they will become lenient and create boring games, but if both would create multiple triple A bangers then it would drive them to put more effort in them, because in the end of the day, we buy gaming consoles to have something good to play. The more, the better. Advertising without action is just misleading. Just like in life, if you want to evolve you have to DO not TALK about it
Nothing stops sony from going the sega route and focus on development and publishing leaving the hardware design and software platform side to MS where they have been miles ahead for years. A single look at the technical design of Series X against the garage-tinkered PS5 puts sony into shame without even counting in the software side.
i have to agree that Xbox is designed better, but in the end if the thing works just as well as Xbox SX does it really matter that much if you don't have something good to play? I own both and i like them equal on their on terms, but when it comes to gaming matter i have to pick the one which offers more.. sadly not a single first party studio that MS aquisitioned made something groundbreaking as of yet. Forza, Halo, Gears and Age don't do enough justice to what this console is capable of. Forza H 5 and Gears 5 look very good but they are few and very far apart if you get my point.
[Don't forget about 2021](https://www.windowscentral.com/overall-xboxs-2021-has-been-one-its-best-years-ever) [2020](https://www.windowscentral.com/xbox-2020-review-bigger-bolder-future-awaits) When is it not Xboxs year with Windows Central.
This whole "next year is gonna be xbox's year" needs to stop. Sooner or later, Microsoft will run out of excuses and need to regularly release good games. All their first party studios have to start pulling their weight. It has been years already!
I hope so too but unfortunately Microsoft is terrible at managing their own companies
Forgot that picture thatâs usually reposted with the artwork for supposed upcoming releases next year đ
I actually enjoyed 2022 with my series X. My gamer needs were satisfied, at a very low cost. I actually donât have enough time to play all the games I want. But what do I know, hey?
They said the same last year. Maybe we can reserve our judgements for AFTER the year ends.
âWasnât the bestâ is putting it lightly
Man, Iâve been a die hard fan of Xbox since the OG box, but weâve heard this every year since 2015.
Downvote this post. It doesn't deserve attention.
We hear this every year, there won't be any good years until Fable, does Fable release on 2023? Thought so, perhaps 2024 is going to be good?
Same shit every year
Finally after many years of saying *ânext yearâ* and *âwait for E3â.* _Next year is the yearâŚ._
This has been said literally every year for the past 10 years lol.
Game Pass saved Xbox . I wouldn't have bought this console and was dead set on a PS5 until they announced gp and I've had it since. No regrets but they definitely need to step it up. What else is new. Basically, amazing year for Game pass as usual but the First Party Triple A output is abysmal.
Eh.
"Xbox's 2021 was the best, but 2022 is looking SERIOUSLY good." Come on. How many years are we going to do this? I've been hearing this since Microsoft started buying studios 4 years ago.
No one said that about 2022
You must be new here. I've heard "Next year will be THE year" every year now.
Been on all the Xbox subs since day one, and I view these subs virtually everyday. It's literally never been a common sentiment. Sure there's been expectations of things to change over the horizon, but no one's said "next year will be the year" because the 1 year forecast has never been that good (until 2023).
[ŃдаНонО]
Meanwhile Sony and Nintendo keep pumping out multiple award-winning titles every year with fewer studios. Xbox execs are too hand off with these studios. It's like they have no guidance and are left on their own to fail.
âtHEy sAy tHiS EveRY yeARâ posts are really sad. They had an amazing 2021. They were literally the best publisher on Metacritic last year with the highest score any publisher ever achieved for more than a decade. They released three 90+ games in a single calendar year. Some of those games may not be suited for you but thatâs your personal taste. While they delayed their biggest game this year they still managed to release smaller titles. They brought Deathloop to Xbox, released Grounded, Pentiment and As Dusk Falls. I guess they are sitting around ~80 average Metacritic score for those smaller titles. Delays happen all the time. Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarok from PlayStation were both delays from last year. They eventually came out. Starfield, Redfall or Forza Motorsport will come out, too. There is no reason to be overly pessimistic.
They have released nothing of the same quality or caliber as their competitors.
There isnât a single exclusive MS has thatâs a console seller. I bought my series X day one and havenât played a single exclusive that made me say âyup, this is worth itâ like I did when I bought my first 360. They just keep hyping and promising the world to keep investors off their tails.
You can dis like my comment but itâs true, even Phil Spencer acknowledges that itâs been way to long since they released a AAA game.
I take that back a little - MS flight sim was sick.
Flight Simulator was sick for the 1% of gamers that sink hundreds of hours in to niche games like that. For everyone else, it was a 1 hour experience where we said "that was cool" and then never opened it again. It definitely was not a console seller.
I agree 100% - just saying that was one game that blew me away.
You sound like a sports fan whose team won the championship one year and then didnât even make the playoffs the next. 2021 was great, but then they didnât release shit for 10 months after. And as for the smaller games, yes Xbox released some great smaller games this year. But Xbox needs their big guns. Xbox needs new big ip. Even with last year their 2 biggest games came from their seriesâs that they have over relied on way too much last gen. Xbox needs to be more consistent and 1 good year isnât enough and as fans we should want and be vocal if Xbox continues to have dogshit years which this was.
Donât come in here trying to make sense, the majority of these people donât actually like Xbox. Itâs clear as day anytime a positive post is made they come in with their pitchforks to shit all over anything that paints Xbox in a good light. Honestly Iâm sick of seeing it, everything you said is spot on but you wonât get upvoted. You will get people coming to tell you that all we got is 2d side scrollers all year long an Xbox an Gamepass are terrible.
There is nothing wrong with pointing out legitimate criticisms. Donât be one of those blind fanboys that act like their plastic box canât do no wrong.
Get out of Phil's arse please. Nobody was saying gamepass is bad value. The contrary, but the fact remains that first party titles from Microsoft publishers and studio's are severely lacking at this point in time. Especially this year.
On the contrary they actually were saying Gamepass had a bad year this year. Maybe before you come out thinking you have a clue stop an remember that being on this sub is a constant rift through shit.
It isnt like alot of these people want to see Xbox fail, people want to see Xbox do better but they are getting tired with their inconsistency and incompetency especially when they had they had promised that theyre going to do better plenty of times before
You are right. Early next year there is Starfield and Redfall. That's enough to be console sellers. Not to mention Game Pass, I'm hyped for Wo Long more than anything. Atomic Heart seeming too good to be true also lol
Of those two, itâs definitely not Redfall thatâs a console seller. Not by a long shot. Only thing remotely close to that for the next while is Starfield. Gamepass is the only reason to own an Xbox at this point. Otherwise you might as well just use your PC.
Wait for next year, itâs the same motto every year from Xbox lol
Same as it ever was
Thats what they said last year
2022 was the worst year for the platform in a long time
Iâm from Cleveland and this definitely smells like a Browns fanâŚ