Resetera: is this Microsoft's best year ever?

[the-pi-guy]

Psychonauts 2 (89 OpenCritic)
Forza Horizon 5 (92 OpenCritic)
Halo Infinite (87 OpenCritic)
Microsoft Flight Simulator (92 OpenCritic - Came to PC last year but Xbox this year)
Age of Empires IV (83 OpenCritic - Currently only on PC)
Deathloop (88 OpenCritic)

https://www.resetera.com/threads/2021-has-been-arguably-the-best-year-for-xbox-1st-party-releases-ever.523962/

Discuss

[kitler53]

it is,.. and that's kind of sad that this is the best MS has ever done.   

[Legend]

Lol I thought this would be a joke.

It's a well rounded year but outside of Psychonauts I don't think any will stand the test of time. Also including Deathloop and the console port of flight sim is a stretch.

[the-pi-guy]

Lol I thought this would be a joke.

It's a well rounded year but outside of Psychonauts I don't think any will stand the test of time. Also including Deathloop and the console port of flight sim is a stretch.

Has any year of MS's been particularly good?

[Legend]

Has any year of MS's been particularly good?

2007
Halo 3 and Mass Effect.

[BananaKing]

Having to include a game that released last year and somehow a game that didn't even release on their platforms is a stretch. Plus psychonuts and death loop are games they bought. Mid or late development. Ms has nothing really to with those games.

Anyways its not really a particularly strong year, just last year Sony has TLou2, Ghost, dreams, Demons souls, Spiderman MM and astro bot.

[the-pi-guy]

Anyways its not really a particularly strong year, just last year Sony has TLou2, Ghost, dreams, Demons souls, Spiderman MM and astro bot.

It's definitely not "the best year for anyone ever", we are just talking about Microsoft here though.

What year has Microsoft had a better year for first party development?  

2007
Halo 3 and Mass Effect.

That is only two games!

[Legend]

It's definitely not "the best year for anyone ever", we are just talking about Microsoft here though.

What year has Microsoft had a better year for first party development?  

That is only two games!

2 of the greatest games ever made!

If we use OP's logic it's actually:

Halo 2 (PC)
Halo 3
Mass Effect
Gears of War (PC)
Crackdown
Forza Motorsport 2
Project Gotham Racing 4
Viva Piñata (PC)
Viva Piñata Part Animals

Looking at this list 2021 is below average: List of Xbox Game Studios video games - Wikipedia

[the-pi-guy]

2 of the greatest games ever made!

If we use OP's logic it's actually:

Halo 2 (PC)
Halo 3
Mass Effect
Gears of War (PC)
Crackdown
Forza Motorsport 2
Project Gotham Racing 4
Viva Piñata (PC)
Viva Piñata Part Animals

Looking at this list 2021 is below average: List of Xbox Game Studios video games - Wikipedia

Aye, 2007 has a solid list.  

I'm surprised no one mentioned it on Era sooner.  

[the-pi-guy]

After considering the evidence:

There have been better years overall, quality + quantity wise. I think there are some issues with this year in particular though. Most of these games are sequels. Halo is past its prime. It's not as exciting as Halo 3 was. Age of Empires wasn't quite as good as hoped.

I would say this is a pretty good year overall though. Microsoft has bought a lot of developers in the past few years. I think the big question has been, are they actually going to be able to do anything good with them? Still a hard question to answer, a lot of their stuff is years away. Seems like a decent early indication though.
Better than recent years.


A lot of people in that thread are being very inconsistent. Stuff like "this doesn't count because it's third party" *third party developed, but published by Microsoft*, but by that argument so are 2 of the games on the above list.