Xbox XBOX

Microsoft

Xbox, now rebranded to the very loud XBOX, is attempting to solicit player feedback about what the brand needs to change to retain players or bring them back. It’s more than just people tweeting at new CEO Asha Sharma, however, and Xbox has set up a new public-facing site compiling feedback on the most important issues to the community.

The site is called XBOX Player Voice and can be found here. It’s a long list of suggestions/demands, with the top 10 highlighted on the first page. Many of the top requests are not a huge surprise, and it’s at least mildly concerning that Xbox possibly does not already know these, but here they are, along with excerpts of what fans are writing:

1) EXCLUSIVES (7,489 votes) – “XBOX was built off of great game exclusives, you cannot sell any consoles without a reason to buy the console compared to your competition or even sending your tentpole games over to your competitor. BRING THEM BACK PLEASE !!!”

2) Backwards Compatible (5,913 votes) – “Really would love for XBOX to star focusing on Backwards Compatable[sic] Games again”

3) Make Online Multiplayer Free to Access (5,664 votes) – “Online multiplayer availability for all games across all generations of Xbox should be free and all the features of game pass into one subscription for 9.99 like Xbox gold BACK IN THE DAY.”

4) Achievements (3,332 votes) - “I feel the achievement list should have a separate category for its DLC's. For example I originally 100% games like High on life, dead island 2 etc. But when DLC releases it shoots down from 100% and I loose[sic] the feeling of completion…. a badge for 100% completion of a game would be amazing.”

5) XBOX Gamepass Family plan (3,003 votes) – “A Family plan for households with 3 or more consoles would be amazing!”

6) Allow disc-based games with Project Helix (2,639 votes) – “There have been reports of a potential "disc-to-digital entitlement" program in Windows Central codenamed "Positron". I would like to use this forum to show to Microsoft that there is still demand for physical games and this should always remain an option at the very least.”

7) Back to Brazil (2,360 votes) – “Brazil has one of the most passionate Xbox communities in the world, but since 2023 we’ve felt a major decline in the brand’s official presence here. Consoles are no longer officially available in retail stores, and local engagement has become very limited.”

8) Xbox Avatars (2,235 votes) – “Xbox should bring back a focus on avatars again. Avatars on the Xbox 360 gave a sense of identity and uniqueness to the ecosystem. They give a good sense of individualism and customization to the platform.”

9) HDR Dashboard (1,976 votes) – “Please make the Dashboard HDR so my TV will stop freaking out when I use quick resume to switch games or navigate the dashboard for a few minutes.”

10) Playtime from ‘days’ to ‘hours’ (1,933 votes) – “Hello, can u please an optional feature for playtime? When we want to see how many hours we spent on a game, it says "for example 8.3 days". Can you please change it to only 'hours' please. That will do a great help for us, thank you <3”

That is uh, an interesting list. I’d consider maybe half of those bigger-scale issues, and then we move into much smaller territory, like separate DLC and base game achievements, and helping players not need to multiply days by 24 to get total hours. However, Xbox has shown that no change is too big or small, from dropping the price of Game Pass to changing its logo, start-up sound and capitalization philosophy.

Exclusives, obviously, are the single biggest question when it comes to Xbox changing a key part of its philosophy over the last few years. Asha Sharma, while she has moved quickly on many issues, has said that this one will require much more discussion and strategizing, and we don’t have any indication of what’s coming next.

I am definitely wondering if Microsoft will bother making a disc-based version of Helix, given that every year more and more and more games are purchased digitally, though the remainder is now about 15% disc-based. Will Microsoft bother to separate SKUs again for that?

Making online multiplayer free may be a tough sell for Xbox, which has increasingly relied on ongoing subscriptions rather than hardware sales (clearly). This would eliminate a large chunk of paying players. The lowest tier of subscription now is Game Pass Essential, which has online multiplayer access, 50 specific games and cloud gaming. That is $10 a month, so Microsoft would be giving up $120 a year from each player. Likely a tough sell, as that’s the price of an entire console across a few years. Still, under Sharma, we can’t rule it out.

I’m not sure if this site is a genuine place for Xbox to figure out what the community cares about or sort of a “we’re listening” placebo. I think they know the biggest complaints, but they may be surprised that say, people care this much about achievement allocation or HDR menus, things that could be relatively easy, fast fixes. We’ll see what they work on next.

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