Dear Microsoft,
I own your Xbox 360, and I was an original owner since you launched it back on November 21st, 2005. Well, actually I was a few days late to the party. I got stiffed on my preorder and had to hunt one down. Maybe if you gave out a few thousand less units away to people who didn't care about them in the first place, I'd have made the first allotment, but that's water under the bridge. Hey, looks like you've turned seven! Sorry, I just noticed. Happy belated birthday, 360!
Anyway, I just wanted to say that I've been a close supporter of your system for most of those seven years. I, like thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, maybe even a million plus one gamers, were victims of the infamous red ring debacle. You handled it very well, replacing our systems for up to three years at no cost to us. My machine broke down four times, and each time you replaced it without me having to go out of pocket once. Although, you did make me use my own box on the very last replacement. I can easily forgive you for that, though.
Your release was really special to me. It was a solid release, and I had a lot of fun with King Kong, Perfect Dark Zero, and Condemned really blew my mind. Oh yeah, and there was Ridge Racer 6, of course. That game right there got me signed on for the first time as an Xbox Live member. I thought the service was great! You had a lot of cool features, and I made a lot of great friends and got to play with friends I posted with prior to me joining. When Dead or Alive 4 was released, I had even more fun playing online. It was great!
A year later, I bought a Wii and a PS3, but it was always the 360 I gravitated towards. I knew deep down that the PS3 was the stronger system and it would get a great number of better games, but I kept buying games for your system, even if a PS3 version was found to be superior. I loved my Wii, but I only went to it when I wanted a break from the traditional gaming experience. My urges were quickly sated with the Wii, and then I jumped right back in (get it? Jump In?) to the 360.
I loved your controller. It was and still is one of the most comfortable controllers I've wrapped my hands around. I love how you could swap battery packs and even use AAs if you were too cheap to buy packs, something the other guys are still screwing up with. I appreciate not having to plug my controllers in when they get low on charge, and even if I had to, your charging cord was of ample length. The controller was a large part of why I tended to buy 360 versions of multiplatform games over the PS3.
And then there were achievements! Oh, how they were fun! I remember spending countless hours doing things I'd have otherwise had no interest in doing just to raise my gamer score. I used to get so excited when I got 1000 points out of 1000 on a game. I really thought it meant something. Turns out, I was wrong. All I ended up doing was spending too much time on a game I should have put away when I could have been working on another of my many games. That's not your fault; that was all me.
But enough thanking and enough praising. I'm hear to write to you that the love is lost. The unconditional love is still there; you'll always have a place in my heart. I have been forced to remove you, though, as my primary console. The PS3 was been my gaming machine of choice for the past several months, and I thought it only fair that I should let you know. I'm sorry it took so long for me to tell you this, but I am doing it now so please forgive me.
I should have been with the PS3 from the very start, but I neglected it for the first couple of years. One day, I just looked at my collection for the 360, and then at the PS3, and I almost shed a tear seeing how paltry the former was compared to the latter. In an attempt counteract this, I began to buy multiplat versions for the PS3, only buying MS exclusives for the 360, but I have to put the blame on you, MS; this is where you failed.
It turns out I had a lot more fun with PS3 exclusives than I did with yours. Sure, there's Gears of War and Halo, but it seems that's all you have to offer me nowadays. With the PS3, I had Uncharted, and inFAMOUS, and God of War, and Resistance, and Killzone 2 and many more. And even some of the big Sony exclusives you managed to throw enough money at to bring over on the 360 couldn't tempt me back to your camp. You tried with Final Fantasy XIII, but it was much better on the PS3, and all on one disc. Even with HD compilations, nothing you had could match what Sony gave me, which was the ICO and Shadow of the Colossus collection. You'll never, ever, no matter how hard you try, put out a first party game that can match the wonder and grandeur of The Shadow of the Colossus.
Now Halo 4 is out, and I am finding myself unable to care. I need to be honest with you, Microsoft. I don't remember the last time I turned on my Xbox 360. I bet you I have some XBL friends that probably think I'm dead by now. And speaking of Xbox Live, you know why I had to quit you, right? Why are you still even charging for basic online gameplay? Sony's been doing it for free for years. Why couldn't you have adjusted your business model to be competitive by making online gaming free for Silver members and then charging for everything else? Does it still seem right to you that someone has to pay for Xbox Live and then pay again for Netflix? That's why you haven't seen a cent from me in almost a year. I'm sorry, but I just can't do it anymore.
It's not just Xbox Live and the lack of first party titles that interest me that's made me put you to the wayside. You lack focus. I will admit, I was intrigued by your Kinect. It had a lot of promise, so I ended up buying one, but the sad thing is it's still in the box. I don't have the room to accomodate it, but if I did, I doubt I'd be playing much on it. So many games have struggled too hard putting the Kinect to proper use and I just don't believe it paid off. Then, there's the whole SmartGlass crap which I'll probably have to download an update for if I ever get around to turning my 360 on again.
I remember hearing once during your last E3 conference that looking at your mobile and tablet devices while watching shows and playing games is supposed to be more immersive? I'm sorry, but it will be disconnecting. You have to divert your attention from the TV screen to your smaller screen, and then back to the TV again. It's ok to say no when some young upstart comes into a board room with a new idea if it doesn't sound good to you. Come on, you know you thought SmartGlass was stupid, too.
You started off strong, Microsoft. You really did. But you fizzled out. There's nothing left for me if I continue to stay with you. I'm happy with Sony and with the recently released Wii U, Nintendo is once again sparking a love for the company I haven't felt in years. Is there still a place for you in my future? I don't know. It depends on how well you do with your next console. I'll most likely buy your console at launch, but that's not because you've made it. I buy every console at launch, or try to at least, because I like to experience it all. Don't think if I buy your next console, it's because you and I still have something special. Sorry if that sounded harsh.
I'm just too busy with Sony and Nintendo now. They've got the PS3 and the Wii U to keep me company. Sony's even managed to keep me busy for a few months with the Vita, and Nintendo dominates my handheld time with their amazing 3DS. You on the other hand have absolutely nothing to offer in the handheld realm. I guess you don't have enough money to buy your way into that market, huh? Well, maybe that's for the best. Nintendo's unstoppable in that department, and I think even you could see the risk wouldn't pay off. You could always try, though. I'm sure you can't do worse than the Vita, but please don't view this as a challenge!
I hate writing this. I really do. I want to turn the 360 on again. I want to go out and buy Halo 4 and play it and have fun with it, do it just for one last thrill. But as they say, the thrill is gone. Maybe some day, I'll pick up that super comfortable white controller with removable battery pack again, push that big round button in the middle and see that sleek Xbox 360 logo roll its way across my screen again, but I have no idea when, and I'd rather not waste anymore of my gaming time wondering when.
So long, and thanks for all the achievements...
Lucas
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