By Nelson Schneider - 06/25/23 at 03:33 PM CT
The theatrics and drama revolving around Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard-King just got a little bit Truthy. In response to Sony’s insistence that losing the third-party support of the conglomerate publisher Microsoft wishes to buy, the Big M pulled out an argument that gamers have always known to be true: Microsoft has lost the Console Wars.
In an apparent attempt to paint itself as “The Little Guy” struggling in last place with a meager 16% of the console market (which, as an unrelated aside, is still 3-4 percentage points higher than he proportion of Negros in the American population), Microsoft actually admitted that Nintendo and Sony completely dominate, leaving the House of Gates to pick at scraps. We’ve known Xbox is a joke since the very beginning, though. While a handful of Xbox fanboys – and Xbox boss, Phil Spencer – continually deflect and avoid the topic when confronted with Xbox’s legacy of gaming failure, nothing can cover up the fact that there’s no generalized sense of nostalgia revolving around Xbox and its IPs, nor is there a significant emulation scene. As a matter of fact, the OG Xbox was primarily used as an emulation box and media center itself, since old non-Xbox games and digital video were more compelling than actual Xbox-exclusive content.
Of course, we’ve had 4 Generations of Xbox now, but not because Xbox was profitable or successful by any metric, but because Microsoft is one of the biggest corporations in the world, and are insistent on making a mark on gaming, even though gamers have rejected them time and time again. Of course, they have made a mark, by introducing and normalizing the subscription-based compartmentalization of digital goods and services. Not exactly a legacy to be proud of.
Instead of worrying about console gaming and the perpetual failure of Xbox, Microsoft should be paying closer attention to PC gaming. The company seems to take for granted that Windows, and formerly DOS, are the de-facto operating systems for PC gaming. However, with Valve’s recent dabbling with Linux and the Proton compatibility layer, there’s finally a viable competing operating system available for the first time in history – and it’s both free and open-source.
I ultimately agree with Microsoft’s position on the Activision-Blizzard-King merger. The company will not suddenly have a monopoly on the most important gaming IPs, and will not suddenly have a stranglehold on non-Xbox consoles through its ability to exercise exclusivity rights for titles like ‘Diablo,’ ‘Call of Duty,’ and ‘Overwatch.’ Nintendo currently dominates Microsoft without access to any of these IPs, simply due to the acknowledged lack of interest in the Nintendo fanbase and the inability of Nintendo’s budget hardware to handle bloated, resource-hungry modern games. Even with more rights to more IPs, Xbox gaming will remain a flop, largely due to the parent company’s complete lack of understanding or willingness to produce compelling titles and roll out features that the customer base actually wants.
