Thank you for writing this. I don't know how much of the story happened and how much is fictional, but it certainly made me feel something. I had a pit bull when I was a kid who was the most beautiful and majestic and protective dog I've ever known. I still dream of her sometimes. This story reminded me a bit of her.
Aielman15
The problem at this point is not so much that they don't have games - they have released plenty in the past few years and most have been received positively.
The problem is that they released those games too late, and by that point, the ship had already sailed. After a streak of disappointing years with the XOne, they needed strong titles to pair up with XSeries. Instead, they released jack shit for an entire year, and after that the disappointment just grew further with the likes of Halo Infinite, Starfield and the weird vampire game nobody asked for.
By that point, everyone already got themselves a PS5, a Switch, a gaming PC or a handheld device. Xbox needed to show their fans they believed in their mission and were capable of delivering strong titles on their platform, but everyone saw their releases and said "Meh".
The strong titles eventually came, but by that point they had already decided to port them over to the competition to offset the cost, and everyone saw the writing was on the wall for the platform.
Spencer can go on stage spewing whatever bullshit he wants, but nobody outside of the most diehard Xbox fans believe that the platform has a future - and it's very hard to convince people to invest on your platform when it's not certain how many more years it will be supported, and whether your store will remain accessible or shut down a few years down the line.
The cat on the side of the tv:
Thank you for another post! Whenever the next one comes, I'll be there to read it. Wish you the best!
I think it was only around 50/60% last week? Big congrats to you'all!
Reminder that the petition requires 1M signatures total across the EU to pass, so you should still sign even if your country has reached 100%.
Should've asked directions to the crucified slaves on the side of the road. That's what they're for.
Some of these pictures are so artistic, they fill me with creativity!
Also, 3000! What a crazy number! That's dedication.
Number 4 is cool, I'll make it my mood today.
I think it looks a bit like Flapjack? :P
Unfortunately, that's not my area of expertise. I don't follow streamers or YouTubers (Italian or international), nor do I have a close enough relationship with any of them that I'd be able to talk to them and convince them to mention this petition to their fans.
The one and only time some friends and I attempted to interact with a few local content creators (to publicize our free fan games we poured hundreds of hours into and NEVER attempted to monetize in any way), we either got ignored, insulted, or received vague answers that went nowhere. It soured me towards Italian content creators and vowed to never interact with them again.
It saddens me that my country (Italy) has such a low percentage of signatures. Most of us are either ignorant of anything happening outside of our borders, or straight up doomers who don't believe anything can ever change for the better.
Big congrats to my fellow northern cousins. I was expecting Poland, who has a healthy videogame industry, to gather a good enough number of signatures, but 160% is wild! It's refreshing seeing so many people joining the petition - It's not even about videogames: this initiative will have huge repercussions on the lifespan of other, unrelated products and, in general terms, planned obsolescence.
I totally agree! Reading is such a beautiful experience because half of it happens inside of your head, and you somehow get to experience the words on the page in a more personal way that's not really possible with any other medium.
If you ever end up writing a complete book (or have written one already), hit me up. I'll buy it if I can. I really enjoyed this short story.