Microsoft has been very happy about the success of the Xbox One X. With the company reporting its fastest pre-order drought in Xbox history, Microsoft definitely had the hype train rolling for its fans. At E3 2016, Microsoft confirmed that by the launch frame of the Xbox One X, there would be over 50 launch titles ready for the release of the Xbox One X. However, in a gaming enthusiast forum, fans quickly started questioning how Microsoft touted the 50 titles at launch.
With the original topic of the forum quickly starting to divert from IGN’s negative review of Lucky Tales to the 50 launch titles, Microsoft’s Exec, Albert Penello decided to step-in and clarify the issue and decided to reply to a few arising questions.
Serious question. Most modern consoles launched with ~20 titles on day one. I’m not talking back-compat – I’m talking new titles that take advantage of the new platform. This can be re-masters, games that ship on past-gen and new gen, or new-gen exclusives. Quick search: X1 had 22. PS4 had 23, Pro had 30. Going back; 360 had 18 and PS3 had 14. Playstation 1 had 10.
We had over 50 Xbox One X Enhanced titles on launch day; 67 as of today.
When I check this list – I see nothing all the way back in the neighborhood of 50.
http://gaming.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_video_game_console_launch_games
What am I missing?
Once Albert Penello decided to chime into the discussion, the discussion started rolling about what Microsoft defines as a launch title. He replied with:
Interesting. In every console launch I have been a part of, the number of “launch titles” has always been a metric. As you know, I was doing a number of interviews prior to launch, and at the top of many lists of questions was “how many launch titles will you have that take advantage of the new console?” In fact, many people leading up to launch were suggesting that developers would not heavily support this console. So my assumption based on the number of questions I was getting was that the launch title metric was still important.
So – I did some research and realized that we were going to have more “launch titles” than any other console.
Now – if you were to count “playable titles” that honor would go to the PlayStation 3 by a wide margin, having the HW ability to play the PS1 and PS2 games would have put it in the thousands.
If I ever said we had more total titles to play, I misspoke. I think what we said was that we had more Launch Titles, which is quantifiably true, and I think I explained what I meant by that number on GB as well.
He then pulled out Sony’s launch and how the media was calling PlayStation 4 Pro games “launch games”. While it does seem to have some weight to it, the topic definitely seems to be swaying back and forth if Sony and Microsoft should have called their launch titles…. uhhh… launch titles. He said:
I made that caveat above. Titles that take advantage of the new platform. I looked at how the industry talked about PS4 Pro, and they also talked about “launch games”.
I used exactly the same historical definition used for any console, including PS4 Pro.
BTW I should not have hijacked this thread with a different point so I apologize.
For this point, I disagree since I watched the industry use the exact same term for the PS4 Pro launch.
Sony themselves talked about 40 launch titles. So if I say 50 launch titles, why am I spinning?
https://blog.us.playstation.com/2016/11/03/39-games-enhanced-for-ps4-pro-launch/
I’m really trying to understand how anything we said was spin, damage control or PR. We used the same terms.
Being an enthusiast gaming community forum, there was an absolute chance for the discussion to never end until the admins from the ResetEra forum finally locked the thread. Eventually, putting an end to the discussion.
