Xbox Year in Review: A year of accomplishments bodes well for Microsoft in 2024
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To infinity…
That’s why Redfall was such a roiling shame. Published by Bethesda and developed by the studio behind Dishonored and Deathloop, howArkane’s vampire-slaying, gun-touting,totally not-a-horde-shooterFPS managed to fall so dramatically short of expectations is something even Phil Spencer could not explain. Like most of us, theXbox boss was “disappointed” by Redfallin all its buggy, half-baked glory, and promised back in May that efforts would be made to improve things. Subsequent updates might have cleaned it up considerably for the handful of people still playing, but the damage had already been done. The game was critically panned, our ownRedfall reviewdeeming it “rushed, unfinished, and unsatisfying”. For that reason, it’s fair to say that Redfall is an indelible black spot on Xbox’s record that sticks out as perhaps its lowest point of the year.
Xbox might have ‘lost the console wars’, but it’s won plenty of other battles besides.
Enter: Starfield. The interstellar RPG of epic proportions finally launched in September, alongside a slight price increase for Game Pass subscribers. This did nothing to deter people from signing up to play it on day one, though, withover one million concurrent playersloading in on release day. It’s the firstBethesda Game Studios-developed title to launch on Game Pass as an Xbox exclusive, and with a host of new Bethesda games still on the horizon, it’s a strong start.
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The two-year long battle ended in success for Xbox whenMicrosoft succeeded in acquiring Activisionin October. Alongside this, Phil Spencer has promised"100 percent parity" for PS5 Call of Duty playersgoing forward. This has been enough to soothe Call of Duty exclusivity worries for now, even though new Bethesda games aren’t expected to launch anywhere but Xbox and PC platforms.
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