The most popular suggestion from their consumers was to re-implement an overt anti-consumer tactic? The hell?
this post was submitted on 20 May 2026
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I don’t give a shit about exclusive, bring back couch co-op instead of forcing every person in the household to buy an Xbox and Live subscription just to play a game together.
All people actually want is free multiplayer.
I'm still shocked that so many want exclusivity. I'm against excluding players and forcing to use a specific console. In example I am not buying a Switch or Playstation to play games that are available only on that platform, and so, many others don't want to or can't. I understand why companies want exclusivity, but why the hell does the community and players want it? Exclusivity is anti consumer!
Tribalism is one hell of a drug...
I'm genuienly convinced at this point that you could apply a sociological analysis framework of 'religion' to branded platform fanboys and conclude that they are indeed religions.
Rituals? Shibboleths? Group Identity vs Other? Apologia/Theology? Divine symbology? Appeal to transcendental authority?
Yep yep and yep.
back in the day, it meant that the game would actually be developed and optimized for the platform. Not necessarily just so it would be hard to purchase.
With all the platforms being nearly identical in power, there is no real optimizing to do... unless you are going to somehow get HD rumble or center touchpad as your core gameplay.
Yeah, but anti-consumer is soooo IN right now.
This reeks of manipulation. Console makers have an interest in making exclusives look attractive to studios. Players are interested in exclusives because... why? If you already have an Xbox why do you care if a title is exclusive or not?
I don't trust it.
Consumers are unfortunately, just that fucking stupid.
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Yeah I absolutely believe Xbox fanboys would be in favor of anti-consumerist practices. Not because I think they're stupid but because one of the main points of contention of the "console wars" were exclusives. Nintendo has exclusives, Sony goes back to exclusivity so obviously monke brain goes "we need exclusivity". Console gamers want to go back to petty tribalism so their suggestions are going to be reflections of the same tribalism they want to return to.
Have you looked at the page? It would be a BIG effort to fake it, and the suggestions read like the kind of stupid shit only real players come up with. "Make Xbox Love free" was one of the top suggestions... why would Xbox even put that on there, much less fake it to the top?
Because console makers make money by selling consoles, and exclusive titles are bait meant to entice players to buy into the platform? It seems like it lines up really well with how Xbox makes its money, but I don't see how players benefit at all.
I'm not saying every comment is fake; I'm sure some people on that forum genuinely feel strongly about Halo or whatever remaining an Xbox exclusive, but that can't possibly be their number one most important thing they want Xbox to do. I don't have any evidence but my gut says there's some skullduggery going on. I don't think it would be too hard for Microsoft to manipulate a forum they control either, and the incentives seem pretty clearly aligned with Microsoft. It's just very convenient for them that this article exists.
Consoles are typically loss leaders. They make money on the games, accessories, etc. If Microsoft dropped exclusives, it means more money making games with less money losing consoles... It's purely a business profitability move, not a gamer move.
Sony probably realized people would much prefer Steam and PC overPS and saw a drop in console sales which hurt game sales. So they're back tracking to exclusives to being back money.
See Microsoft is software where Sony is hardware. That's why Xbox is dying. Like Sega. Just focused on software and IPs..
I could have worded that more clearly. I'm not saying consoles are themselves profitable, but that shipping consoles is the first step in building the captive audience that buys the games, accessories, live services, etc. that make consoles profitable. That vendor lock-in allows console makers to then milk buyers for the entire lifetime of the console.
If consoles were more like PCs i.e. anyone could play any game from any studio that cared to publish for the platform, console makers would have to focus on making their hardware stand out on its own. Which is particularly funny because, at least back when I was buying console gear (xbox 360 / beginning of the xbone was about the era I fell away from consoles) Microsoft was actually making really good peripherals. I still have my 360 controllers and I break them out for PC games whenever I have a bunch of people in the same room. they're nice to use.
Instead, we get profit-maximizing tactics like taking a game that people want and putting it behind a several-hundred-dollar paywall, forcing people to either pony up for another 99% redundant console, or not playing the fun game everyone else has. No judgement to those who choose the latter, I bought the original xbox because Halo looked fun and my friends were playing it and guess what? It is a really fun game. I still play it from time to time. I just like it a lot better now that I don't have to buy another expensive hunk of proprietary hardware.
I personally do not believe Microsoft would control this in some way, or try to manipulate the public view with fake posts or replies. It is possible, and it would be characteristic of Microsoft. And there is even a motive to do so, in order to get back to exclusives and say "look we listen to the community".
But to me, having a motive isn't enough to make me believe. So without strong evidence that Microsoft is pushing this and manipulating the forum of user voice, I will not believe that... for now. And trust me, I'm not much of a Microsoft fan at all. Don't take this as a defense of corporation. I just can't believe everything by just having a motive.
I work for Microsoft, and a lot of my former co-workers are still in the Xbox org. And can assure you they absolutely don't have the ability to fake any of that.
No exclusives is great for everyone, but everyone has to do it or the one platform without exclusives is pointless.
If you ever hear yourself begging for more exclusives, please kys.
It's both sad and hilarious seeing all these frogs jump into the pot of boiling water and pushing other frogs into it while they are at it.
So in other news Xbox players want the console wars back? Guess their console still sucks if they rather waste hours a day screaming into the void of comment sections than playing a game. They have a certain reputation for a reason.
Sony is no longer putting single player games on Steam. Microslop is told to go exclusive. Yet somehow in a few years I bet Steam will be getting one hell of a back catalog ported to it. Again.
Why would anyone care what hardware another player is using?
In 2026, Xbox makes way more sense as a games marketplace / publishing platform. I’d love to see the console aspect evolve to something like the Steam Machine, shipping with Microsoft’s software out of the box but with the openness / flexibility to install other OSes if the user so chooses.
The next Xbox is supposedly going to be just that. Maybe they wont let you install another OS, but it will be pretty much a PC, where you can play PC games (Steam, GOG, etc) as well as Xbox games.
I know I shouldn't be saying this, but I'd much rather just everyone publish their shit on steam lol.
At least so far, its my favourite storefront, mostly because they've never fucked me over, and it just works, and their hardware is awesome, and they value repairability, customization, and compatibility. No sub needed to play online. And so on.
Yes yes, they're still a big evil corp, but the least evil IMO and give me what I want. No nonsense, just play games. On whatever you want. With whatever controller you want. On basically any OS you want.
I once used an Xbox one and the UI made me want to vomit. Its basically ads everywhere. On a standard computer with steam, you can pretty much play anything that was ever released on LC since forever ago. You don't need to worry as much about newer hardware changing things and making your old games stop working.
Nothing about the kinect? Or possible VR? Or bringing back kitchy event community games like 1v100? Avatars? Picture-in-picture to watch videos while waiting for a game? Better social features?
Just the obviously unhappening "make it free" and "no halo for ps"?
avatars was one of them yes
There is one case for console exclusives I can think of.
Say a great singleplayer game, like Titanfall 3, or Hi-Fi Rush 2, is pitched. There’s a question from investors: “How will you monetize it?” Because even if it has a $60 price tag or higher, those ventures carry enough risk that they often want to have a strong profit margin on them; an opportunity for growth , not just capacity to make another sequel later. Hence, all the terrible efforts to make forever live service games.
With console exclusives, the clear answer is: This sells the console, which sells the other exclusives. And it means any forever-game people play, we get the 30% cut.
I would prefer it if studios answered with “We just want to make a great game!” or “Y’know what, $60 is enough!” But since we’re not getting those answers, exclusives seem like another approach.