The 10 Worst Things Microsoft Has Done As A Gaming Company

10 Worst Things Microsoft Has Ever Done

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Welcome to MojoPlays! Today, we’re looking at the 10 worst things Microsoft has ever done. Will Microsoft ever work out what players want?

Gamers are a diverse bunch, and in 2009 headlines broke that some LGBT gamers weren’t allowed to have the word “gay” or other references to their sexuality, like “lesbian” or “transgender”, in their gamertags. When questioned on this decision, Microsoft said it was to stop people from being homophobic to make online gaming feel more inclusive – but one LGBT player was actually suspended for referring to herself as a lesbian in her Xbox profile. In 2010 it was changed so that people could include their own sexualities in their tags and profiles if they wanted, but banning someone for talking about their identity is hard to forgive. One guy even got banned for using his name, “Gaywood”.

All-digital consoles took a long time to catch on, but Microsoft finally broke through with the all-digital Xbox One S, which skipped the disk drive. Though it had a lower price tag, this move could be worse for consumers in the long run. Buying physical, pre-owned games and trading them in when you’re done is a great way to save money, and a disk drive could pay for itself. But with the Xbox Series S and the PS5 All-Digital edition both launching in 2020 as cheaper options, the One S set a precedent for companies forcing you into purchasing from their digital storefronts. Digital games might be more convenient, but you’re stuck buying old games for unfair prices.

Since the Xbox One, Microsoft’s library of exclusive games for its flagship consoles has dwindled to nothing. Nearly every “Xbox exclusive” also comes to PC, meaning there’s no reason for PC gamers to buy the console as well. This is in stark contrast to what Sony has been doing: building a library of critically acclaimed exclusives ever since the PS1 that really are system sellers capable of tackling the PC market. There are still some benefits that Xbox consoles have - notably Game Pass - but Game Pass is also available on PC and few of Microsoft’s first-party titles can stand toe-to-toe with Sony’s roster. When will they learn that the games themselves are the most important thing?

Ideally, you won’t ever knock your Xbox 360 over, but accidents happen and if you kept your Xbox upright – bearing in mind it was upright in all its marketing material – you may have run into this issue. The console had a bad habit of accidentally burning your game disk while trying to read it. The same thing could happen if the console was just moved slightly while it was running. Though you could argue that this was the fault of people not looking after their stuff properly, it was a widely reported issue – and when the 360 had so many other problems, it really starts to look like negligence on Microsoft’s part.

When you buy a video game console there are a few things you expect, and this was the case even in 2005 when the Xbox 360 Core launched without a hard drive or a wifi adapter. You had to buy these separately to get even halfway decent storage and the ability to play games online wirelessly. And because you had to buy these accessories directly from Microsoft you were stuck paying a small fortune for things that should have been included. And unlike the PlayStation 3 which came with a Bluray player included, Gamers were forced to buy a $199 add-on of the ill-fated HD-DVD format if they wanted to play HD Movies.

DRM

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Were you hoping to play pre-owned or borrowed games on your brand-new Xbox One? Well, Microsoft had other ideas. Originally, the Xbox One was announced to be always-online so that your Xbox could constantly check-in and make sure you actually owned the game you were playing and couldn’t lend it to friends. Unsurprisingly, the public backlash was immense. First was the fact a lot of people didn’t have stable internet connections and playing single-player games offline is completely valid, and second was Microsoft’s brazen attempt to destroy the pre-owned market. DRM was thankfully dropped, but nobody has forgotten that they thought they could get away with it.

Kinect

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The Nintendo Wii ushered in a new era of motion controls, but Microsoft’s Kinect was never able to compete. Not only was there almost no demand for the controller-free device, but it had hardly any games and needed a huge amount of space to work. People were also concerned that Microsoft was spying on them with the Kinect’s camera and microphone, especially when Microsoft tried to make it mandatory for the Xbox One. Public opinion quickly turned and, despite including the Kinect in an expensive Xbox One bundle, it was eventually scrapped. So many years later and nobody’s missing it.

The Xbox One

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The 360 was a games console through and through, which is why it was utterly baffling when Microsoft decided to market the Xbox One not as a console at all but as a one-stop entertainment center. The focus on making good video games almost disappeared completely, and instead Microsoft pushed the fact you could use your Xbox to stream TV and little else. Combined with the fact it was more expensive and less powerful than the PS4 at launch, had none of the exclusives, and, again, the DRM, the Xbox One was doomed from the beginning. It never had a chance of competing with the PS4.

All-digital consoles are the most recent precedent set by Microsoft, but back in the 2000s, they set an entirely different one: charging players for online subscriptions. This may be the norm now, but the PS3 and the Wii didn’t charge players to play online; you’re already paying for the internet in the first place, after all. You do get some bonuses from subscriptions like free games and discounts, but a lot of people still aren’t happy about essentially paying twice for internet access – three times if you include the cost of the game itself. Then in early 2021, Microsoft tried to double the price of Xbox Live Gold in an effort to shuttle more people onto Game Pass Ultimate. They backed down almost instantly, but it says a lot that they considered this at all.

Red Ring of Death

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In retrospect, it’s insane that the Xbox 360 went to market with catastrophic problems that could immediately brick your console with no warning whatsoever. For years, people playing on launch model 360s lived in fear – and if you still have your classic console, you probably still do – because at any moment, your console could turn itself off and show the infamous Red Ring of Death. While it’s possible for a console to come back from this, a lot were permanently damaged, and it wasn’t helped by the fact the red ring could signal any number of issues. Microsoft paid $1.15 billion to recall and repair failed consoles and still faced a lawsuit because of the console’s failures.