Xbox 360 Genre-balanced library?

[OniBlackMage]

Most people would say that most of the 360's library is comprised of shooters (FPS and 3rd-person). Certainly the majority of their best selling franchises are, but what about compared to the entire library? Speaking as an avid RPG player, I can say that there quite a fair number of exclusive RPGs to the 360, more than the PS3 and Wii, and many of them quite fun. So, I'm satisfied there, but I would have liked to have seen a few more horror games, or maybe even some platformers.

Do you feel the 360 had fair representation for all tastes in their games, or were there some genres you felt could have used a lot more releases?

 

[WorkingGamer]

I did not purchase an incredibly large selection of games but there did seem to be more shooters being advertised and clearly sold in stores. I don't think it's library consisted mainly of shooters in fact far from it but it may feel that way when they're the most things people see.

 

[Ersatz]

I think part of the reason shooters are so "front and center" in Xbox marketing is that Microsoft is trying to justify the expense of the Xbox Live subscription. No other console requires you to pay such a stiff fee in exchange for playing online, so they have to earn it by offering the best multiplayer content. And in terms of console games, multiplayer = shooter. There's basically no exceptions.

I actually don't play shooters, and have a pretty diverse library of Xbox games. Incidentally, if you're looking for a horror/platformer, there's no game better than Catherine. Scary, plot-heavy, addictive game play...one of the very best games for the 360 in my opinion.

 

[lindbergh]

I am actually vouching for the PS3 as the console that had the most balanced genre library of games. Yet, I do think that it's a close fight between the PS3 and the Xbox 360. But of course, we can only answer this question based on our assumptions and estimates. If we can get hold of a concrete figure as to the number of games in a specific genre for all of the consoles, that's the time when we could tell which among the three has the most balanced game library.

 

[Medza]

Every person has a couple of genres that they enjoy and tonnes that they don't. There's nothing unusual about not liking certain genres, for example I don't like sport games, you won't see a single Fifa or Madden game in my collection. The Xbox 360 definitely didn't cater to all tastes, but it did cater to its paying audience. As a fact, there are more people that like to play fps games on their Xbox than say strategy games. Think about how many fps games you can recall , and then how many strategy games. You will find a lot more fps's than strategies, and that's perfectly fine, because there are other consoles such as the PC that cater to those genres.

 

[Clark Bruce]

I will agree that the Xbox 360 lineup mostly consisted of shooters and other genres could have definitely could have used more representation on the system. For example, I'm a huge JRPG fan and would have loved to see more of those games on the system. I also would have liked to see more adventure type games on the system as well. Hopefully the Xbox One will end this issue and we will see all types of games on the console.

 

[Claptrap]

PS3 has more variety because it balances the amount of western games with exclusive japanese games. All of Nippon Ichi's games have been Sony exclusive lately, for example, and they're pretty damn good. I think the PS3 is more balanced in the end.

However, I think that saying that the 360 only has shooters is a huge lie. All systems have a lot of shooters right now because they're all multiplatform and really popular, but they are far from the only genre that exists on any of the systems.

 

[Esperahol]

The 360 was my main console, and I don't like being stuck with one genre or another. Therefore I can say that it has a pretty good library - you have shooters (my least favorite), you have RPGs (mostly western), you have horror (my favorite, but tragically underrepresented), and you have a mess of other things [platformers, strategy, casual, weird, and fusion]. I think 360 did the best on fusion of types of games.

 

[BitesizeCrayons]

I'd say for the major genres, sure, but there are some under-represented subgenres, such as JRPGs. This is more of a reflection of the waning impact of JRPGs in the west, however, as other platforms aren't exactly rich with them either. Anyway, since the 360 has great games in every genre, the fixation on shooters isn't so bad. The problem isn't so much that shooters subtract from other genres, it just kills creativity within the shooter genres themselves, although they've had influence in other genres as well.

 

[fantanoice]

I honestly haven't had a huge look at the library since my console RROD'd (this was around 2009-2010ish) and I don't remember seeing much on offer other than Gears of War and Left for Dead back then. From what I know, it did get more diverse over time (the XBLA and indie section in particular), though I think overall the other platforms ended up with more diverse libraries, especially the PS3 with added support of the Japanese market.