How the Xbox brand can rise up once more

[GameHED]

Take advantage of sony becoming censor-happy:

Over the years MS lost ground with gamers because the ps4 let you easily hand your games to a friend without the need to always be online and the fact that sony didn't focus so hard on tv tv tv tv which was a big blow to the Xbox platform at the start of this console generation. But now that MS is going for the high end game console buyer (who has larger amount of money to throw around) I think one way they can define themselves if the guy that let's more mature content on the system and gives the buyer less restriction overall. Have options in the console to censor so the users can determine themselves what rating games can be played on it rather than being the censor themselves.

As gamers get older and older more adult content will be made by companies to appeal to the older people. Sony seem more aimed at the teens now and scared of offending the public being the winning platform that reaches the most number of people.
Making games that are more edgy and risky in content may be the answer to regaining back favour with all the former xbox owners who moved to sony at the start of the generation.

What I predict in the future is games will be more relaxed about sexual content and become closer to the PC where there is less worry about the games appearing on the platform once the baby boomer generation finally dies off. It was that generation that brought in feminism, abortion, political correctness, communism in our films, sex drugs and rock and roll and as they got into power they thought (for political reasons) they could be moral authorities to replace the religious authority who used to be the ones to slut shame people, and over time the younger generation has been able to call out their bullshit ideas. (through criticising the hypocrisy that exists - eg in film you have adult content in them but ported to game it somehow is still seen as unacceptable because they view videogames as hobby for children still which is an outdated view since most gamers are in their 30-40s. You see evidence of this misunderstanding whenever the mainstream media dinosaurs try to still blame doom and the matrix for school shootings hehe)

If MS wants to be considered the "cool" brand they need to take advantage of the fact that they care less about being the controlling parent and show the public: "we don't preach down to our gamers and give you total control over what the players wants to see" and take pride in being the rebel who is going for men.

Their biggest mistake imo was when they tried to make their machine like the Wii with their dashboard having Mii-like characters on the interface to appear too much like nintendo or apple. You are not those companies. You are after the guy who wears black, listens to heavy metal, and watches horror movies and seeks out dark games like Mortal Kombat and read manga comics like Berserk or Evangelion and are nihilistic people. That is the brand image they have to get back: not just a platform for watching some tv or as a family entertainment platform only. (most people buy it as a high end gadget for themselves not for children who are more likely going to pay smash bros or splatoon on switch than Gears of War)

When a new Senran Kagura game appears you can proudly boast: Uncensored material (even put a warning on the front telling people "not for children") This will help you build your brand image among the gamers who really do care about unbutchered versions of games. (weebs mostly, but also star wars fans who have always obsessed about missing things or changed things due to how it affects their perception of characters - ie late edit to OT and not being able to get the original 70-80s version of movies in stores) This is what made the original Xbox (halo 1 and ninja gaiden 1 days) appealing: the power, plus the appeal of playing games that were different from games on other machines in some way (it was dominant in the FPS genre by far at the time) whereas sony stuck to safe genres that were the usual staple of kid-friendly platforms. Because FPS is common on either platform today however, MS needs to gain an edge that defines them or makes them stand out a bit from Sony which to me is that they have more gritty and dark material on it. And they champion the niche independent games by relaxing the censorship and allow creators to be more expressive. (nintendo tried that with grasshopper manufacture games)

If sony have their Spiderman, (appeals to comic readers who are into kiddy heroes), MS can have their open world Manga universe games that go for the original japanese look more. (perhaps an open world Berserk game that is the equivalent of Yakuza but with weapons) They go back to their old plan of trying to be liked in japan and give the right companies a money hat to develop games on it that are exclusive to Xbox. Even though nintendo wasn't liked much by hardcore gamers in the west when wii came out, they eventually fixed that weakness when Wii U came out and Switch followed through with that by trying to appeal to western market and hardcore gamers again with Bayonetta. They adapted. But MS still is not expanding to the eastern market the way nintendo expanded into the west. The way to do that: seek out the developers that need money and want to make original stuff but need the money. (sort of like Obsidian is in the west after Bethesda screwed them over)
Once they can bring back confidence sony won't have such an easy time for next generation. (hopefully it will be more like Sega vs Nintendo in the 16 bit days with a roughly even split)
If sony is MCU, MS can be DC dark universe.
related:

[Twiztid Elf]

Forza Horizon 5 at launch of Xbox Two, featuring Japan.

[t0mby]

If they could nail some of those Japanese tracks from Driveclub..... Schmickem!

[GameHED]

Microsoft definitely deserved to fail in the east for the obsession with pushing the motion sensing stuff which required a big room to take advantage of. (which the japanese don't have)

But they have no reason to be scared anymore of trying to expand into that territory. They fucked up. But now it's time to do what Sega has done with the west. IE bring their best effort to attract the east. With 4K graphics and the fact that they've come back to giving us an Xbox that is a hardcore gaming machine again, they can start focusing on attracting triple A japanese developers again and see what getting an exclusive will do for them over there. If Sega could bring Yakuza to the west and capcom can finally get the Monster Hunter franachise started here and it gets noticed thanks to being next gen enough, then MS need to use those example and try to dominate japan again. IF they can do this, sony isn't going to have such an easy time like they have had for this generation where they could take advantage of MS fuck up.

What I think for the next Xbox: find a company to work on jrpg that is the equivalent of Xenoblade universe. (but 4k graphics - like monster hunter its open world and there is grinding but you swap out the monsters for mechs whose pilots give up after defeat. Think of it like Gundam universe but the suits are tailored for certain environments to be used. Unlike monster hunter you don't wear the bits on your body but pilot the armor which has its own feel in movement. (not just cosmetic change in its look but all specs effect things like the rotation speed, dash speed, the weapon loadout it can have, the reaction speed to attacks (faster = less delay in defense against an attack - think of it like the reflexes of the muscles in the EVA) and attack speed. (the ability to hit quickly and end the move quickly allowing combos to be chained for high damage in a short space of time - bigger DPS = better record kill times)

Figure out what makes Gundam series popular, make an open world game, then create monster hunter style leveling up system that is completely dependent on skill. But it is much like survival game (wars have caused resource scarcity so your can't just spam the best ranged weapons all day but like the Fallout games you might have to resort to rushing people down stealing their weapon mid-combo and using it against them as seen in Zelda Breath of the Wild.)
The reason survival is fun: you can get creative with kills like set up traps, ambush them, use others to wear their health down before getting the final killing shot to save your own ammo, or just kill the pilot by waiting until they get out of the thing to take a pee. (the machine is like the horse, and the pilot is the rider. Killing the rider means no need to worry about the horse the rider uses to try to kill you)

MS should just research the best games in japan to figure out what they like, hunt for the best developers, find out what they can do to create a superior clone. (just as DragonBall FighterZ is the better MVC game to capcom's own MVCI game lol)
Every piece of equipment should feel totally different so that people have to guess what type of strategy they can use. (like the Castlevania SOTN style games.) I really think a monster hunter style game set in a universe where people have had to pilot machine to mine resources and explore and fight on other worlds is the thing. You get the survival elements of a zeldaBOTW, the upgrading of diablo, and the boss fighting of a monster hunter game, (replace the monster with giant mechs which dwarf your own but which can be taken down gradually once you focus on weak points, break parts of its body (eg blowing up feet may cripple mobility for a while before it repairs itself) and study its limits. What terrain is it weak in? Fight it on that type of floor and in conditions that benefit your more. eg a digging under the floor boss isn't going to like you hovering and flying above it while shooting it like a attack chopper, but it will be good at killing ground based mechs which need stable footing to aim guns. The digging boss can surprise that type by impaling itself from below ground into the ground mech which has its belly lying on the floor ready to be drilled into. However.....a ground based mech can go prone and avoid being seen and snipe other mechs while it lies flat on the ground, but a hovering style attack chopper mech is easy target for anti-air attacks (ie homing missiles etc) The player could ignore tactics if they wish by grinding to make their machine more powerful so that despite being weak in one area overall, it just outclasses the thing that is trying to kill it. But on harder difficulty versions of enemies you will still struggle.
There is a thirst for games with good graphics and the japanese have way too many cartoon looking ones. MS can offer more gritty realistic version of Xenoblade. (no cel shading or cute things. It's more like Gear of War and Appleseed and a bit of metal gear in presentation of the story) It has to be a japanese game, for japan, but able to be accepted in the west by people who like hardcore games like the Dark Souls and Bloodbourne games where patience and persistence is the order of the day whilst it is deep enough that careful consideration before deciding on something actually makes a difference in how you play. (such that replaying with a different strategy will prove this because the game is reacting to these decision by making certain things tougher or easier on you based on what you focused your energy on and what you neglected to pay attention to - eg making your mech too heavy meaning you don't stagger much after a blocking action, but you can barely dodgeroll or boost jump far now to get close to a boss's face to get critical hits and instead just go for bigger base damage on general parts of the boss's body when you attack thanks to forgetting about the limited window you are given to harm those sensitive spots which means you won't cripple its vision or knock main sensors that gives it better aim when working)