Xbox Apparently Thinks Making Hellblade 2 Exclusive Was 'A Mistake'

Literally know numerous people(casual gamers) who were just waiting for established franchises they where interested in ...e.g Doom, Elder Scrolls before buying an Xbox.....but Microsoft have bottled it once finally getting into a strong position exclusive wise...them said people won't be getting an Xbox now when they will obviously come to playstation

They should have also focused more on combat oriented sections of the game, and not allowed a five hour campaign with hardly any interaction to be their prime flagship console seller. The graphics and audio design are great, but the core gameplay mechanics are not, and ultimately a game must be a game and must be fun to play. I liked the game personally, but it was lacking in many areas. And it’s not as if they won’t release the game on PlaySation eventually, but that isn’t going to turn over a lot of money (I believe).

Jez thanks for that utterly exclusive insider news you must be having dinner with the main people in MS/XBOX for that insight.................please be careful letting such critical information available to the general public and remember do what you can to stay relevant.

Hold on, back up. You mean whatever profit is being raked in off gamepass subscriptions isn’t enough to offset the expense of producing a title like Hellblade 2? No way that can be true. People on social media have been claiming for years the gamepass model just plain works. Those people can’t be wrong.

I refuse to believe that prioritizing establishing your home console base and focusing on game sales over ignoring that in favor of pay-to-rent and releasing on competitor’s hardware is a viable business model in this day and age!

Jez Corden must be extra desperate for attention lately

I don't think PS5 sales would have been healthy either.

Better reviews would have helped it a tonne.

I know some loved it for what it is but personally I thought it was a beautiful mirage - an image of what could be an amazing game but no actual game behind it.

It would be smarter to keep games like Doom and Indiana Jones exclusives and keep smaller IPs like Hellblade multiplatform...

@Balaam_ It Just Works... the official slogan of something that absolutely does not work. 😂

"Said Jez Corden". Okay, we can ignore this.

"I heard they consider"

Yer that's a really great non fact.

The funniest thing is when he says that it was being considered but that plans might have changed, so whatever happens he'll always be right.

I still have an GPU sub but just play through my Gcloud on the TV and sold my Xbox for a PS5 for my physical games.
Xbox are literally going 3rd party and will make their own streaming handhelds and there will be 3 party ones as well.

Essentially, my G Cloud is my Xbox now. But I just have no reason for my Xbox itself really.

It’s sad and I do get why they are going all in on cloud and multi format, but zero exclusives will only reduce console sales for Xbox next gen. They will be worse than this.

I love Xbox but the just think they are going away from what their core gamers really want.

Lmao, there’s one official comment (by Nadella) and within hours the usual grifters come up with their “sources” claiming to know more than anyone, that’s Jez Corden and Jeff Grubb, at least Grubb is sometimes right…

At this point, perhaps making the Xbox was a mistake. Jez should say "going forward, there is a 50% chance of all Xbox exclusive games being non-exclusive. Win - win.

@Ilyn Todd Howard resents that remark.

Also, can we all agree that nobody really gives a sh*t about anything Jeremy Corden has to say? He's the patron saint of heresay. Let's stop giving him the publicity and let's certainly stop giving him any credit for having any kind of insider information.

I overheard someone in the pub say that it was a great decision and it really paid off for them.

They did not market the game anyways so If they literally announce it on xbox showcase and post a twitter post about it coming to PS, it will be enough but prob more sales due to PS installbase.

Following this logic - keeping anything exclusive is a mistake lol. By a definition you can earn more by releasing on other platforms where also GP not available so you are getting straight up sales.

I am 99% sure when next xbox launches, there will be NO exclusivity whatsoever. Not even some exclusivity, no 3rd party exclusivity and so on. and that makes sense with their new strategy. I still think mass exodus from xbox wont happen tho, but definitely less people will be interested in next xbox

@Thumper well they would ve gotten at least some sales. On xbox people tried it on GP and un-installed the same day. It did not do anything: no sales and no help for GP either. Project was cooked for years and died on arrival.

Totally! They actually tried to do what Playstation does, and learned how absurdly stupid it is. Playstation could be billions richer right now if they didn't keep their exclusives away from xbox players. Xbox tries it and they're like "Woh! That was the dumbest thing we've ever done. Sony is really dumb. Why were we dumb by copying the dumb thing Sony does?"

@StylesT only dummies like Playstation over xbox

@JaffeGaffe

Or people who have a preference.

@JaffeGaffe

Sony's "dumb moves" have made them the market leader and caused Microsoft to try anything to overtake them lol.

That's what they're taking away from this? Sad... Especially when almost no one in access media claimed lack of PS5 support was the issue. Pretty sure the issue was no one wanting a bombastic walking simulator that cost too much to make and took to long to develop. Especially when most critics claimed this sequel was worse than it's predecessor on a audible and gameplay level.

@JaffeGaffe not sure what you mean about copying Playstation? Hellblade 2 was not the first xbox exclusive. Or am I missing your point? Did you mean compared to what seems like their current, more multi platform approach. I say seems like because as in the thread quoted in the article, it varies by game - as far as currently announced. Obviously evolving rapidly. (Also, I grant xbox exclusive is incorrect since they always launch on pc)

Eh, it's not a good game. Amazing graphics but PS5 owners aren't missing much.

Does anyone remember the months leading to this game launching? There was so little marketing that it barely made any news that it was digital only.

I do feel like this website should be called PureJez or PureCorden.

I like him but he has been wrong plenty of times before so his insider is inconsistent at best.

Information provided by 'Trust Me Bro' and 'Honest Ponest .com'

It doesn't mean PlayStation and Nintendo need to follow suit. It doesn't mean Xbox is blazing a trail. Remember, this is all the continuous cycle of Xbox lying and continually trying to deceive their customers, throughout the Xbox One console cycle, mind you. Phil Spencer had his process treating consumers like guinea pigs. They'd run the test, when there was massive lashout Phil Spencer, or his favorite pet Aaron "Executive Fanboy" Greenberg (who now that I mention has been unusually silent the last little while, maybe since Matty Booty and Sarah Bond-- Ill get to her in a second) would come out and "apologize" and then follow it up with "you see, we're listening. We're making Xbox for you based on your feedback" which really means: We couldn't pull one over on you because you're a little too smart for us, we'll try again next time. And sure enough, they would. It was this vicious cycle. They tried to pull the PlayStation out of LISTENING out of PS4s playbook, except Sony didn't try to deceive people and then backtrack. Around the time The Last of Us Part II came out, Xbox was serious, then, about hiking the price of Xbox Live to $120/yr and people lost it, but Xbox tried to do it without any notice. Then they did their thing. PlayStation was laughing behind the scenes still sitting at $60/yr watching Microsoft take the revolver and shoot themselves in the foot and blow their other foot off.

This isn't Microsoft as some prognosticator, they're up s**t creek and stuck because they treated fans and consumers poorly so they have to try something else, but you can't earn that back and this is proof of it. It's in about not getting exclusives, buying Activision for a check they really couldn't cut was the absolute final blow but, they were really desperate at this point.

Look at Nintendo, for example. Nintendo has nothing of their gaming career falls through. They go back to making playing cards and board games. They've got a lot to lose. If the gaming industry is really in that bad of shape, why is the most revered gaming company STILL 100% EXCLUSIVE TO THEIR OWN CONSOLE!?! Why are Nintendo not on PC? Because it must not be as bad as everyone says it is. Switch 2 is rumored to be 4K and I doubt it'll financially hurt them like devs are complaining about now.

PlayStation crashes, they're end-to-end. They go back making TVs, smartphones, audio equipment, publishing music, and making movies and TV well, and now anime. So, if Nintendo is still 100% console exclusive, what's PlayStation worried about? Google failed streaming. Sony tried it with Gaikai that became PlayStation Now after Gaikai and OnLive found streaming didn't work that came from SEGA in the 90s that found it didn't work. Sonys walked that path already is doing so now, and it doesn't matter because people's internet STILL sucks and if internet tries to keep up, games are gonna advance and never be able to keep up so..... Handhelds? PS Vita anyone? The Steamdeck and Switch both took from the genius of the PS Vita. PlayStation wants to go back to that, the PS Portal is really a joke, but that wasn't PlayStation going all in.

The point remains the same. Xbox is going this route they're in deep. This is what they call The Console Graveyard.

Microsoft has not put any effort into promoting its game software in the last few years.
I think it is no wonder that this is not a hot topic and does not sell well.

Idk but steam charts been trash since release

Mistake or they should do further sales/poll checks/surveys/read comments that are helpful on articles or Youtube or elsewhere. Sure it's a lot of reading, sure the comments can be hit and miss of useful but if social media staff do their posts, read comments and know enough how they are going.

Their decisions are all over the place.

With combat, story telling, themes, etc. what audiences really want. Devs & themes/worlds/characters always pushed when we also want to play a game as well. I get what Hellblade is going for but even still.

Do they understand their audience? Do they listen to feedback or the whichever was into Hellblade then other games/OS changes and more audience in comparison of size of people? Do they think outside the box/look at their data correctly?

Indy Great Circle has it's differences but also it's Indy. Hellblade has it's but how many of those cross over? Compared to other characters, worlds, themes, gameplay, genre, etc. Time of releases as well. Too high of sales expectations as well. Time between games/other games coming out.

Filling up gamepass and how many appeal to people? Or how many 'fill in time' for a game they were actually excited for.

Then further guessing is possible of how it will do. How the money will flow, how the audiences think, which audiences on the platform. Like it's not that hard to already have an idea how these will go even if not 100% accurate enough of a sign.

I mean even if not the same, how do anime games/Japanese games do on Xbox versus PlayStation/Nintendo. Well how about many types of games Xbox has that can be seen as appealing as a PlayStation of their current line up and what factors they have in their games.

Xbox can try and branch out or have many studios on many types of projects, but like PS1-3, not all appealed to everyone.

They did to me not for nostalgia but various genres/interesting gameplay ideas, same reason I like Nintendo now and never really experienced much of them before but have more now that I can get their consoles/games retro or Switch.

I liked the variety and I didn't grow out of kids/cartoony games.

I don't care for most games on Xbox currently, the variety is there and it's great but they aren't my thing really.

But I'm 1 person, versus the many others that were interested in Hellblade 2 or other games.

It could be the pacing, if like me the camera, it could be the style of game, marketing. It's a number of factors.

For audience size of the game. Those watching the Ninja Theory YT channel videos, the trailers, those that bought other games similar to it on Xbox.

Why put a game out there and not do further research. Did companies forget we have data, but we really don't want to use the data that much or understand the users on our platform regardless of branching out to other types of games, knowing which would buy an Xbox to play this game, played it on PC, Gamepass in general access to it and how much the PS5 audience would play this game versus the 1st and played it enjoyed it/dropped off.

Compared to the Xbox audience that played it enjoyed it, dropped off.

Especially if people find the first game better than the second game after playing a certain amount of time or beat the story and wasn't into it after they finished it.

Give away the system sellers to Sony and keep the other niche ones on Xbox. It's all an Xbox. At least Sony and Nintendo genuinely care about creating rich, unique experiences and take full advantage of their hardware's unique capabilities. Xbox really could make games more immersive through physical products and peripherals but they just gave up after the Kinect. They make more variants of their Xbox controllers than games. I want Hall joysticks and a new controller from Xbox. The Stellar and Lunar shift controllers I bought have irreversible drift 😭 so mad about that because now they're $65 paperweights. Have them saved in case I want break them open & try a last ditch effort to repair. MS won't even take them back for a paid repair, smh. Anyway, Hellblade 2 will come to PS5 and probably Switch via the cloud. It's a slow game so could work on cloud pretty well compared to faster paced games.

A RUMOUR ISNT NEWS.
Site keeps sinking further in to bs. How hard is it to stick to games, maybe review more than one a fortnight.

Some people on here need to understand that nobody has time to read their Holy Bible length comment.

I think it could be a mistake.

But on the other hand I think that Indiana Jones should be exclusive to Xbox.