Former Blizzard president and Xbox exec Mike Ybarra has been producing some critical tweets after being let go from Xbox, but his latest is rather amusing. You may have seen that Xbox president Sarah Bond recently called exclusive games “antiquated,” citing community-led games like Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft. However, Ybarra, has hit back at that and responded by saying “Someone go tell Nintendo that.” Continuing on a conversation on X he also defended the Kyoto-based company after someone called them out, saying “Nintendo has continually dominated with outstanding games. Sure some platforms flopped, but they always took risk and came back very strong. It is the opposite of antiquated. It is risk and return.”
Former Blizzard president says ‘tell Nintendo that’ after Xbox president says exclusives are “antiquated”
the loss of exclusives has done such obvious bad to the industry. While we can all irk at the idea of a 1st—Party buying a 3rd—Party game’s launch rights for its respective platform, seeing 1st—Party studios at SONY and Microsoft put their games on competing hardware is not good. Competition breeds better products. Yes, it’s more expensive for those who want everything, but I think that’s an easy sacrifice if it also comes with higher-quality games offered on each platform (which we saw a lot in the 6th and 7th generation).
It really has, it just means now these studios have to compete harder now in there specific genere. The problem with exclusives is once they established an IP they could get away with being lazy because it was exclusive to that said console and many people started to notice this and hence in todays era many people dislike exclusives because they promot laziness and lack to innovation as there is actually a lack of competition.
*hasn’t
Which is exactly what makes pokemon legends Z-A so garbage.
Except it is not garbage
except it is a dumpster fire of garbage
“Higher quality”? Nintendo games are held back significantly by their system.
Also, exclusives are the opposite of competition. That’s why Nintendo gets away with so much, they don’t allow any competition. If they released their games on pc, they’d be competing against a billion other games on pc. But because it’s “exclusive” to a single console, you must buy that console to play it. Who is Nintendo software competing with? Itself. Meaning it doesn’t have to care about quality or quantity. You want to play it’s game, you use it’s console. How is anyone mistaking this for “competition”?
The competition in hardware doesn’t matter because pc is always better. It’s an artificial market. They’re discussing software.
People defending less options for themselves are just part of the Nintendo “fanbase” (cult).
Lol, held back??? They make gorgeous games with what they have…both Zelda games, the Mario games are as good if not better than anything Playstation or Xbox put out…held back LOL…have you seen the sale #s for Nintendo…if they are being “held back” id hate to see what it would look like if they tried
“better than anything sony or microsoft put out”
How many of these games won game of the year again?
They’re not in competition, therefore they don’t need “Game of the Year” accolades.
Delusional you are- yoda
Yes higher quality doesnt translate as which system has more power. Your thought process seems abtiquated on this. Nintendo put out consistently high quality games regardless of higher resolution or more advanced engines etc others are using. They consistently innovate(not so much with switch 2) and push the industry to places it wouldnt otherwise be. Thats not to say they are perfect, very unhappy with them bricking switch 2 consoles and not allpwing modding etc, but based on just theyre games, there is not many companies that can compete in terms of quality and consistency
It’s not hard to understand. Competing consoles put out their own games at their own quality levels. If Nintendo was such terrible people and they didn’t want to compete then how do they manage to win every time a new console comes out. I’ve been watching these console Wars since I was a kid and video games didn’t exist so sorry not sorry but exclusive non-exclusives selling games not selling games it comes down to how much quality you pack into the title if you put out garbage it’s not going to sell if you put out a great game it’s going to sell and Nintendo continuously puts out great games and they are not hampered by their Hardware they’re just not as up to date and as Hardware intensive to run as modern games and that can be a good thing I got news for you Nintendo games are fun.
You’d be on point if your whole paragraph wasn’t just a continuous run-on sentence.
Yeah, and there’s a Reason Nintendo almost went out of Business after the Wii U failed.
Console Exclusives don’t sell hardware anymore.
This isn’t the 90s and Nintendo is perpetually stuck in yesterday.
Their luck and stubbornness is going to Backfire.
They aren’t “antiquated”, they are a necessity to drive competition plus no one likes to see exclusive titles on other platforms as much as it is hilarious to see it. God of War doesn’t belong on Xbox or Nintendo, Pokémon and Zelda don’t belong on Sony or Microsoft and Halo and Gears of War doesn’t belong on Sony or Nintendo. Would it benefit them to port their exclusives to other platforms? Yes but in the short run.
I mean you dont need exclusives to be competitive. The reality is its the studios job to be competitive against those in its same genere, like wow vs ff14 for example. Exclusives were just a this is why you should play on this console, which is what drove alot of people to PC since they could access most if not all platforms through PC. And Console sales suffered for it, so thats why exclusives are going out the window. Because they need in todays current market better incentives other than exclusives to attract new customers who could honestly care less about the exclusive but rather the features that the system offers that benefit them.
A long time ago (and I’m talking more than 20 years ago, when Microsoft wasn’t even present), I had read a report on ‘why wouldn’t Nintendo, Sony, and Sega team up to create a single, unified console?’ Well, the conclusions were clear-cut: it would have been detrimental both to the industry (publishers would only have to report to a single manufacturer) and to players (games would be full price… and this regardless of the publisher). So yes, one can understand Microsoft and Sony’s strategy of dropping exclusivity, but in doing so, they are harming themselves. On my side, I no longer see the point of buying their consoles since I would find the same games on PC and/or Nintendo. Whereas with Nintendo, we will never see their games anywhere other than on their own consoles.
Nintendo launching toaster-spec consoles with bogus security is what lets people emulated them easily, which makes PC the best platform. In fact, with a decent m series mac and an adblock you can see bintendo games on your Mac lol
Really? Nintendo games only ever on their console? Yet Nintendo games have been the most pirated since the dawn of time lmao. Even switch games are cracked day one now lol
The article is not about piracy and emulation.
Umm Blizzard has been going downhill on a steep incline for a decade now. So no I think their business advice is what is antiquated 🤭
Except that it concerns the FORMER president; when you don’t read an article, you would do better to stay silent..
I did read the article. He left Blizzard in 2024. If you don’t know that 2024 was in the last decade then maybe the Internet isn’t the place for you.
You really didn’t read the article. He’s actually defending Nintendo. He’s saying that exclusives are not antiquated.
So true.
Nintendo is an actual successful game company with a successful business model unlike Microsoft and honestly Sony too. People attacked the Switch but unlike PS5 the Switch was profitable not sold at a loss. Exclusives sell the console Nintendo gets people to buy their consoles because of that add on the handheld component they have numerous legacy IP too something Sony and Microsoft abandoned for a certain group of loser console warriors who felt all games should look “realistic” and overly expensive not just production but actors too and now licensing.
Microsoft will end after this generation go software only like they always wanted and Sony will let go of PlayStation during PS6. Nintendo won the console war and PC will be the choice for high end gaming moving forward. The Tencent lawsuit will kill Sony the Chinese could take larger measures against them first Tencent could terminate all partnerships with Sony in anime, music, tv, gaming, and film, other Chinese companies like NetEase do the same, and block Sony from the region. It’s crazy people defend Sony with that lawsuit, outside China yes it’s theirs in China they allow bootlegging and counterfeits to go that far saying they can’t release it at all and they want to destroy evidence of it is insanity shows how PlayStation management is not smart just bias and tied to emotion given Hulst helped create Horizon.
Y’all have been saying Xbox is going to End after This Generation for 3 Generations.
Keep trying though
The Switch is a crappy console, though. A crappy console that misses out on most of the heavy hitters because it lacks the necessary power to run them. The only real reason the Switch sells so well is because parents and grandparents looking for a gift for children see it and decide that it’s an attractive device for kids.
Microsoft is Worth 3 Trillion dollars and Xbox is worth $800 Billion.
How much is ” successful” Nintendo worth?
Nintendo is a trillion dollar company are making their brands more successful right now. Nintendo can handle criticism.
Who’s criticising Nintendo?
I don’t know who. It was mentioned on this article.
Nobody did. Everyone is misreading the article.
Nintendo is trash they the only company that thinks you dont own the console after you buy it which makes them butty water and they dont make games the players actually wanted but games the could have been better but they lazy and greedy. If you actually use the wrong charger they brick the switch on you and they the only ones suing for petty shit, for example a guy bought a switch 2 and destroyed it now Nintendo is suing him even though he bought it with his money, the fact Nintendo can say that you dont own it is bs. Screw Nintendo their big hit, pokemon was a direct rip off of dragon quest they dont come up with original games they take others ideas and change some things around so they dont get copy right infringment.
I implore you to fact check all your gripes with a Nintendo. Most of your criticisms range from heavily fabricated to wildly untrue. Stop blindly listening to every ragebait article you hear, if it sounds like an absurd, overreach of power, then it’s probably because it is, and the story isn’t true.
President of no system sellers lashes out against system sellers.
I think everyone is misunderstanding the situation here.
Xbox as a console brand is pretty much dead. Of course this hack would say exclusives are antiquated. They failed so hard that they had no choice but to go multiplat. Simple as that.
Congrats on proving you didn’t read the article. That hack said the opposite.
Exactly, Tidalious.
Y’all have been saying Xbox is dead for 13 years yet Games keep popping up in Gamepass almost Hourly and they are single handedly keeping the PC market and PlayStation alive.
Try again Bruv
Touché, Ybarra.
I think nintendo could afford to have less pure exclusives but the lackthereof is why xbox has been dead since xbox one
Xbox is dead yet games Pop up in Gamepass almost Hourly and they have been keeping the PC market and PlayStation alive for years.
Make your comment make sense Bro.
Comparing Nintendo to Sony and Microsoft is hilarious.
Nintendo doesnt compete with them via exclusives. They have carved out a family friendly niche. Theyre not trying to sell call of duty and quadruple a games lmfao
The reason they can launch a downgrade in mario kart and it still outsells everything, is they’ve cornered a smaller, hyperfocused market share. Kids and their parents. Family. Fun.
Smaller niche market? I don’t think you understand just how many games Nintendo sells.
It’s a fraction of the PC market, which is estimated at 90 billion in revenue (Switch is at 13 bil, Steam is at 10 bil).
antiquated definition for the uninitiated:
old-fashioned or unsuitable for modern society
There’s nothing wrong with exclusives if it’s a known IP associated with a system. The issue is that Sony and Microsoft have list the vision of having a “mascot” where as Nintendo has mascots for days. So it’s not that they’re needed, but with the game market today they are definitely helpful if done right. And Nintendo has been doing it right for decades whereas Sony and Microsoft have abandoned theirs or put them in such subpar products over the years, nobody cares about the games their mascots are in.
*lost the vision
Nintendo hasn’t made a new game in 25 years. People are just sheep and commit the next generation to poor business practices due to nostalgia
What is your concept of new? Obviously you don’t mean “new game”, Bananza just came out.
Do you mean new IP’s? Splatoon released in 2015, ARMS, LABO, Ringfit, and Snipperclips all released for the Switch, and even now, we already have DragXDrive on the Switch 2.
What other, absurd standard could you be holding them to? And ask yourself, “are any other companies able to hold themselves to this standard?” Willing to bet a lot that the answer is no.
Nintendo will survive beyond Playstation and Xbox because of their exclusives. Sony and Microsoft are currently talking themselves out of the console industry to satisfy shareholder demands for higher profits and they think that’s about about being 3rd party. Nintendo believes in having their own ecosystem and they simply do not care if it means they don’t make as much money. They are doing their own thing. Long may they do so.
Except it is not garbage