2011 has been a year for many Xbox 360 gamers where we’ve been left scratching our heads wondering where all the exclusives are. Â Some might say the best are yet to come with Forza 4 and Gears of War 3 hitting store shelves this fall, but others might say that Microsoft needs to come up with some new ideas to captivate their core gaming audience like they’ve proven capable of in the past. Â Though in a recent interview with Dennis Durkin of Microsoft, it’s apparent that the company is just fine with how their console is stacking up to the competition.
In a talk with Industry Gamers, Durkin is pressed on the issue of the development capacity of Microsoft Games Studios, and the CFO believes that first party performance for Microsoft against its competitors (Nintendo, Sony) has been superior.
“I would ask you to go and look at some of your data, just to compare first party performance over the course of this lifecycle, because I think our first party performance in terms of quality bars and units per title this shift has been superior to our competition’s.”
As IG points out in their transcript of the review, Metacritic sees the ranking quite differently scoring Nintendo first party titles at a 77, Microsoft first party titles at 75, and Sony first party titles at 74.
Microsoft has put out some great first party titles for the Xbox 360 this generation, but 2011 has been a barren wasteland when looking for even a single experience that couldn’t be had elsewhere. Â Microsoft has bet heavily that the third party can carry them all the way to the fall, and they’ve just about hit the homestretch. Â Gamers don’t seem to mind either as month after month the Xbox continues to see sales dominance in the US.
