There's no reason to own an Xbox right now – Starfield needs to deliver
Xbox is putting all of its eggs in the Starfield basket, in the hope that it will rescue its lacklustre 2023. But if it fails to impress, what's the point in owning an Xbox?
2023 has not been a good year for Xbox, with the disappointing launch of Redfall encapsulating everything wrong with the gaming giant's offering in recent years. The open world first-person shooter was meant to release in 2022, only for developer Arkane to delay the launch until May 2, 2023.
Then, less than a month before release, it was confirmed that the game would be capped at 30 fps on Xbox Series X|S, with a 60 fps "performance mode" to be added at a later date. Alarm bells were already ringing, but those fears were confirmed on launch day when it quickly became apparent that the game had been rushed out in an unfinished state. It was riddled with problems,, as we found out first-hand in our live stream playthrough of the game.
As an Xbox Series X owner, the hilariously disastrous launch of Redfall forced me to contemplate the very point of owning the console at all, particularly when the PS5 is such an attractive proposition. Where are all the great Xbox games right now?
The harder they fall
Xbox has dominated my gaming life with iconic titles like Halo, Fable, Gears of War, and the Forza series all have a place in my heart. Despite a brief period of owning a PlayStation 1, I've been team green all the way through. Back then it made sense. But now, I'm not so sure.
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In recent years, PlayStation owners have been able to enjoy some stunning exclusives including God of War: Ragnarok, The Last of Us, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, the Horizon series and Ghost of Tsushima to name but a few. By comparison, there have been precious few Xbox exclusives released that genuinely match the quality and polish of those PlayStation titles.
Halo Infinite was highly anticipated, as an Xbox Series X|S launch title and a beloved game series. It was a sure fire winner, right? But even a game featuring Xbox's poster boy Master Chief suffered a botched launch, with missing modes and broken promises.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer has seemingly given up on releasing great games for the platform, saying in a recent interview with Kinda Funny Games that "this idea that if you just focus more on great games on our console then somehow we're going to win the console race — it doesn't really play into the reality of most people."
It's quite clear that Microsoft wants Xbox Game Pass to be the reason to buy – and continue to own – an Xbox. But that proposition doesn't have the strength that Microsoft thinks that it does; just a quick look at the games currently available on the service tells its own story. No wonder it's trying to buy Activision Blizzard along with its stable of franchises like Call of Duty, for $68.7billion, even if the CMA is blocking the acquisition for now.
After some reflection, I can only think of one reason to own an Xbox over a PS5 right now: Starfield. The AAA spacefaring RPG is set for release in September 2023, having been delayed from it's initial 2022 launch date – much like Redfall.
There is now a tremendous amount of pressure on Starfield to save Xbox; so much so that if it's anything less than an exceptionally polished blockbuster (which is unlikely considering Bethesda's history of game launches) it's hard to see where Xbox goes from here. And even if it does meet expectations, it still might not be enough.
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