Kotaku: The Xbox One In 2015 Was A Great Machine, Better Than PS4 In Many Ways

It must be frustrating for the people who work on the Xbox One, to have turned one of the worst-pitched gaming consoles ever into a machine that’s in several ways better than its competition. Lately, Microsoft has done so many things well. They’ve improved their box in so many ways. Surely they ask: Will you not love the Xbox One, already?

They are trying so hard.

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I have to hand it to Microsoft this year- while Sony generally coasted and had an off year, with not too many quality exclusives, a focus on multiplatform games, and games not releasing for a very long time, and enacted several anti consumer policies, Microsoft were on top of their game- they had several quality exclusives, they tried to make the Xbox One ownership experience better, and they also did several things that really were for the players, instead of just talking about doing them, like Sony does.

Will this continue on in 2016? I don't know. Right now, though, in 2015? I think MS did a hell of a good job.

Well duh, yeah.

I agree.....it will continue because they are still behind ( by a lot ) and they want to make up some ground. It's nice to see MS fighting this hard.

Yup, their back was to the wall and that's the way I like'em, They practically needed to move heaven & earth to get back in the game, well done, keep it coming MS.

Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder.

Waiting til August to have an actual system exclusive is considered trying, now. Good to know.

Struggling to see what they did besides backwards compatibility and release another yearly batch of Halo and Forza rehashes.

I guess those new IP Xbox One games like, Scalebound, Quantum Break, Sea of Thieves, and ReCore are rehashes huh?

Those released this year?

Such a great console that no one wants em. In fact, even MS is ashamed of their sale numbers.

When someone says that, they usually imply that whatever else they release wasn't even worth mentioning. It's like if a sports game get a 10/10, it's still won't make me interested in it. Though this guy is usually a troll so wtv.

Next year. Quantum Break has a release date in April 2016 which is the first out of four new IP Xbox One.

Cool. They are irrelevant in this topic then.

What year does the topic title say? 2015 or 2016?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I bought a One this year because BC pushed me, but I've mostly been playing native One games. Halo 5 is exceptional and has been worth a large part of my purchase by itself.

Pretty happy with my PS4 still. It's been quiet for me though. Early in the year I had a blast with The Order and Bloodborne, but I've enjoyed other exclusives like DriveClub and Until Dawn much less.

Hell, I need to play my PS3 too.

I will say that after Phil Spencer took over Xbox One division, he has been showing and really trying to stay in competitive during these darkest times, so credit where it's due. Everyone knows that Xbox One will never catch up to PS4 sales worldwide, [serious it ain't gonna happen] they however at least a worthy competitive to Sony and after all, good competition is good for the gaming industry. Sorry but I don't consider Nintendo a competitive to both MS/Sony. Will they try when NX is release? Well were gonna see.

I like my PS4 but the Xbone has some appeal too, especially after this year. I hear a lot of great things about the Halo 5 multiplayer.

Next year overall will be a great year (assuming no ore delays or broken games at launch).

Yeah like I'm going to a Kotaku article.

I'm going to sit back and watch all the Sony fanboys rush in here with their pitchforks to cause a riot in this one.........This should be good, I can see and hear them coming already lol.

I have both, xb1 has been better in 2015.

Pitchfork and torches.... Flame Shield Up !!! :P

I already see some of the usually suspects in here already, but there's more to come lol.

Awesome for Kotaku.

But whatever.

@Blabadon: What's the issue with until Dawn?

@charizard1605: what I posted on EB

"Game blows its load with its best secrets too early. Between that and how its schlocky tone wears off too quickly, the gameplay doesn't really entice me to want to "unravel all its secrets" or see all the endings. It's a fault partially to blame on being a product of the YouTube/wiki era, partially because Supermassive didn't take some cues from Telltale's better games (and I'm assuming Dontnod now) on how to pace it all.

Some ideas are great, like having to use button prompts to grab an object on your own which can be tense as ****, but that wears off as the jump scares become less prevalent. The only gameplay mechanic that I really loved was the "Don't Move" shit where moving your DS4 could result in an early death.

Because yay, death actually matters in this game, but only so much because the characters are written like teenagers from someone who may have never seen or been a teenager before, and this makes me care very little about some of them at all. Only one is written anywhere near properly to being considered a protagonist, the rest either vary between being shitty but redeemed by the writing or just poorly written in general.

Game's just not very engaging aside from a few story beats. It's not bad, has some redeeming writing here and there, looks pretty decent, but it's just not good, like at all, after a while. It was much better with a friend and a beer though."

I gave it a 5/10

Consumers benefit most from the underdogs. PS4 is about as lazy as the Wii. Games? we don't need no stinkin games.

It was a fun year of gaming. My Xbox 1 got the bulk of my time with MCC through beginning of year until bloodborne, then witcher 3 PC basically through most of summer, then mgs5 ps4, then rare, halo 5, rise of tr. I also played ori in march on X1, arkham in June-July on X1. Also spent time on gears ultimate, fast n furious forza horizon. Console is great, games are fun, people are buying much to a few idiots chagrin here

@Blabadon: That sounds like a shame. I was really looking forward to playing it too :/

I suppose I'll hold out in hopes of it eventually hitting PS+. The poorly written characters sound like a dealbreaker, especially in a game that is so intently focused on its storytelling.

There was a time no one thought PS3 would ever catch up to the 360 in sales.

Yeah, Xbox did alright this year.

@charizard1605: I mean, certainly play it, story based, gameplay light games are certainly more subjective than gameplay heavy ones.

For example I think Danganronpa 1 and 2 are absolutely trash in cartridge form, but they're still loved.

@davillain-: None of those are out yet.

@charizard1605:

It's not on the X1.

I think it will continue for as long as they are behind in sales and I think Sony will continue to just ride in cruise control and be more anti-consumer for as long as they have a comfortable lead in sales. I don't expect Xbox to be able to catch up to the PS4 in sales this generation no matter what they do, so I expect this to continue for the entire generation.

I love it when a company is behind in sales and they have to work their assess off and be pro-consumer to try to gain some ground like Xbox has been doing since the PS4 started kicking their ass. As a Xbox One owner, I feel like I've benefited a lot from this. On the other hand, I hate when a company has a dominant lead in the market because it always leads to them becoming lazy and anti-consumer like Sony has become since they reclaimed the lead. As a PS4 owner as well, I feel like Sony is screwing me with their anti-consumer behavior and not working as hard as they could be since they know that they are already in the lead and can just keep riding off of their launch momentum instead.

Kotaku.......lolol

I agree the Xbox One continues to have one of the greatest come backs in console gaming history after the terrible initial pitch. Slowly but surely more consumers are realizing Sony's recent anti-consumer tactics and Sony is betting their entire Playstation gaming division on virtual reality crap. Sony are pretty slow in realizing their mistakes, so I really think if they continue their anti-consumer tactics and really making VR a priority, these will be their downfall as Xbox One continues to pass them by. I mean right now Sony raised prices on their game sales in some regions while Xbox is releasing yet another full retail game free to play for the weekend starting today, it's Elder's Scrolls Online.

What is happening is people have such low expectations for the xbone and unrealistically high expectations of PS4 due to the sales of each that it clouds their judgement of reality.

Water is wet, and Sony is broke.

File this under duh and this thread should be locked, get a mod.

Huh? Plenty of exclusives have come out other than driveClub.

This is all just opinions. Everyone has one. As I have yet to see a reason to pick up the console I don't agree with this premise. MS releases their big games at the end of the year and the rest of the year is barren. So I can't see how hard they are trying. Granted if someone isn't tired of yearly releases of the same titles they would pick up the system. Those games don't appeal to me.

In the end Kotaku's opinion is meaningless though.

Just because people say Xbox One had lots of quality exclusives this year doesn't actually make it true. They released Forza and Halo, every other high scoring game was a multiplat or remaster.

PS4 hardly took the world by storm, but it also had some quality exclusives like Bloodborne, Until Dawn and Disgaea 5.

I don't know, I feel like it's becoming trendy to knock on Sony again because of the BC situation. Microsoft absolutely deserves props for finding a way to bring in old games through software, but that doesn't magically make the One's exclusive library this year impressive.

Ori in March, the Fast and Furious stand alone expansion for Horizone 2 and State of Decay Year One Survival Edition in April, I think Smite went into open beta in May or some time in the summer, Massive Chalice in June, Rare Replay and Gears Ultimate in August and then Forza, Halo 5 and Tomb Raider for the fall. And thats not including all the other multiplats that yes, do exist on the xbox one. So no, the rest of the year wasn't barren for Xbox One owners. If they don't appeal to you, thats fine(it doesn't seem like any games appeal to you) but its stupid to say that the Xbox hasn't been getting a steady stream of games all year.

Expansions, beta, old game collections, multi and the same series that I already said MS continues to release, Gears, Forza, and second tier Halos. I guess you have proven my point for me though I didh't need your help.

Ok ... X1 better in many ways ... hmm ! So was Wii U in 2014 but .. did it matter in the end ? No! Lets see if MS has what it takes to make it matter. Playstation isnt doing as bad as many people want or think it does. Metacritic says it all.

@LJS9502_basic: Smite released fully later in the summer but game was available to all xbox one owners since before that. Massive Chalice and Ori are both new IPs. One is a MOBA, one is a Platformer and one is a turn based strategy game. Bu...but MS lacks teh variety!!!! What point were you trying to make? That you're ignorant of what the Xbox actually offers? You dont need me to make that point for you.

SO great that nobody wants it...LOL.

MS should really stop paying people to talk favorably about their flop of a machine.

It would probably be better if you actually read posts before replying to them. Your rants are beyond ridiculous since you're arguing something unassailable. Opinion. Duh.