Jez Corden is wrong about Xbox. They don’t need to increase quantity of exclusives when they desperately need to increase quality. They need hits.

https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/xbox/if-the-activision-deal-is-blocked-whats-next-for-xbox

In his analysis of what Xbox should in the case of ABK acquisition falling he mentions many things Xbox could do but he never focuses on the real problem which is quality.

The idea that the Xbox One never had exclusives is wrong. I wanted an Xbox One even though I was PS3 and PSP owner because of Ryse: Son of Rome's visuals. They were stunning but yet like all of Xbox exclusives, they failed in one reason or another of being a hit.

List of notable Xbox One era exclusives:

1. Halo 5 Guardians
2. Gears 4
3. Gears 5
4. Sunset Overdrive
5. Ryse: Son of Rome
6. Quantum Break
7. State of Decay 2
8. Crackdown 3
9. Scalebound (Cancelled)
10. Fable Legends (Cancelled)
11. Turned down opportunity to basically have Insomiac make Spider-Man. Instead they literally gave Sony a massive exclusive which Sony has expanded upon with Wolverine and a new Marvel multiplayer game all from Insomniac.
12. ReCore
13. Sea of Thieves
14. Forza Motorsport 5, 6 & 7
15. Forza Horizon 2, 3 & 4

List of notable PS4 era exclusives:

1. Bloodborne
2. Uncharted 4: A Thieves End
3. Horizon Zero Dawn
4. God of War
5. Spider-Man
6. Death Stranding
7. The Last of Us Part II
8. Ghost of Tsushima
9. Days Gone
10. Infamous Second Son
11. Gran Turismo Sport
12. Uncharted: Lost Legacy

In terms of employees and studios Xbox Game Studios is already larger than PlayStation Studios and probably Nintendo. But it's the latter two who's games are seen in a higher regard than Xbox's, even considered for some of their titles to be one of the best games ever. Xbox needs quality not quantity. With more quantity they'll be like Ubisoft, whose larger than PlayStation Studios, Xbox Game Studios and Activision Blizzard combined in terms of employee count. But being so bad, companies don't even want to buy them in this time of companies being acquired left and right.

Quality can sell a remaster of a 2002 game millions of copies at $40. Quality is the reason why Nintendo is at the top of the console industry, even topping PlayStation. Why? Because the Switch is the only platform in the world to be massively successful all because of first party titles. Quality can keep a game from 2014 selling millions of copies at $60 in 2023. The game I am talking about is Mario Kart 8. It has sold more than even Red Dead Redemption 2 and that has been released on so many platforms while Mario Kart 8 released on the Wii U and then ported to the Switch. Mario Kart 8 sold 8.46 million copies on the Wii U that only sold 13.56 millions units. On the Switch it has sold 52 million units, helping it surpass the PS4 years in advance and making it the 3rd best selling console of all time.

I'm not saying Xbox doesn't don't have good games. They do but not any hits. Even Sony's games aren't commercial hits like Nintendo but with each big release they are increasing commercial sucess, with God of War: Ragnarok selling 11 million copies faster than all other PlayStation Studios games it's a success. Xbox needs to not strive to become like Netflix because that's a dead end of low margins at best. Xbox talked about Forza Horizon 5 having like 20 million players but that like when PlayStation talked about Uncharted 4 having 37 millions players as both games were avaliable on extremly cheap subscription services essentially boosting numbers. This especially the case of Forza Horizon 5 as it released day one on Game Pass while Uncharted 4 released on PS Plus 4 years later. Even still 37 + 20 million is less than Mario Kart 8 which if combing Wii U and Switch sales is at more than 60 million, while never being on a cheap subscription service on selling at an low price on sale. Even though Nintendo's games are on sale, they will never even close costing just $10 like Sony has done with their best games: God of War, The Last of Us, The Last of Us Part 2 and Uncharted 4.

There is nothing stopping Microsoft from making quality games, not PlayStation not governments nor anyone one else. It's only the decisions that Microsoft makes, that decides the fate of these games so please stop making bad decisions. Halo has been a faliure since Bungie left and even that decision is Microsoft's fault. They like Sony could have let Bungie their crown jewel do whatever they wanted to make and would have benefited greatly like Sony has done as Destiny is a massive success. Halo Infinite was successful at launch failed to keep players coming back because of lack of content. The Halo show could have still helped but even with that Microsoft failed. While Cyberpunk 2077 failed at launch but with support which included timely updates to coincide with the show which was great help it become a massive success. Though Microsoft failed with season 1 maybe with season 2, shorter seasons and a battle royale mode all being good could revive the game but again that's all on Microsoft's decisions.

The article is especially wrong considering the fact that Xbox Game Studios is about to release so many new games and new content to old games in 2023. Quantity is there but the real question is how many will be hits?

1. Hi-Fi Rush
2. Minecraft Legends
3. Redfall
4. Elder Scrolls Online's new Expansion
5. Forza Motorsport
6. Starfield
7. Possibly Hellblade 2
8. Content for Halo Infinite
9. Content for Sea of Thieves
10. Content for Minecraft
11. Content for Fallout 76
12. Age of Empires II and IV Console Release.

PlayStation Studios:

1. The Last of Us Live Service
2. Spider-Man 2
3. MLB The Show 23
4. Possibly 2 Live Service games based of Sony saying between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024, they except to release 3 live service games. Though one of which could be from a 2nd party studio.
5. Horizon Forbidden West DLC
6. Horizon Call of The Mountain (VR)
7. PC Releases of The Last of Us Part I, Returnal and more.