Talking Point: What Did You Think Of Gamescom 2024 Overall?

Somehow MS managed to turn what should have been a very positive event into something controversial/negative.

Why they chose to announce Indy for PS5 now is a total mystery (no problem with the port, but why sabotage their own Christmas/holiday console sales by announcing now - just wait until the spring ffs!)….and in the process drag up the ‘what’s the point of an Xbox’ argument in the process.

Avowed 30fps on the final day also a downer for team green, whatever your views on frame rates. Few, if any, announcements or surprises (new Sniper Elite but not much else). The new hardware is expensive and underwhelming, no sign of a handheld.

On the positive side at least there’s a release date for Indy.

Gamepass this autumn/winter looks good - Age of Mythology, Black Ops 6, Stalker 2, Flight Sim 2024, Indy, Avowed and Atomfall, etc…so it’s not all doom and gloom by any means, even with the usual confused and unclear Microsoft messaging.

Overall I thought the whole thing was rubbish. I thought the presenters were annoying, cringey and their voices just got on my nerves. I get why they did the interviews with the devs so they delved deeper into their games, going in depth about them etc but it was just too much chin wagging and I was honestly just bored.

I only watched some of the opening night and just quickly went through the three days of the show skipping through the majority of it. How is Gamescom any different to E3? It looked like a similar set up but on a smaller scale.

Phil Spencer suggested there was plenty more they could have shown during their showcase a few months back. That created the expectation that there'd be some significant things shown off at Gamescom, but actually it was all rather low key with no real surprises or anything else. I'm quite disappointed.

Better than I expected

I thought the event was very informative for the games we knew were already releasing. I didn't expect much new stuff to be showcased as we near the holiday season. I'm really hyped for Indy, but I need to clear up some space on my series X first. 😋

Some more DOOM would have been nice.
The only Xbox studio game I’m really looking forward to. Because it’s Id and from the Xbox showcase you can already see the quality and you know it will be 60fps as well.
And yes sorry to say, it will be on PS5 or Pro for me.

Still no road map or clear plan of what Xbox will do next or long term … everything is up in the air every month … if games release on PlayStation why won’t I just get ps plus and wait for a Xbox game to discount on PlayStation store ?? If xbox makes game at 30fps release it better not be 60fps on PlayStation smh also why is Phil so anti AAA exclusive because competition is important

Only good thing I got out of this event was the early access launch date for Path of Exile 2.

The Xbox specific stuff just wasn't exciting or enticing and some of it pushed me away from the game they are supposed to be hyping up.

Would’ve been a smart time to tease a handheld or tease a AAA exclusive from the Xbox team to show Xbox still have a pulse … maybe a push to make movies like Sony ? With crash and other cool ip I can see the potential of movies especially if there’s sonic movies there can definitely be a crash btw what happened to that horror game they were making ?

@OldGamer999 I’m liking the way doom looks it seems to change the formula and have a little halo vibe idk maybe I’m wrong but it didn’t look much like a confined up and down movement

@TheSimulator
Phil is anti exclusive because they are going multi platform and Phil also had opportunities to mention next generation Xbox, but not a word.

It’s because I’m really starting to believe there won’t be another Xbox under the tv console.
Though I think they are still not sure themselves.
Remember it’s only what I think, but as each month goes by the evidence going forward is getting stronger for the multi platform Microsoft games studios sort of raises its head.

@OldGamer999 but I’m just wondering why would you still not want to go exclusives since it’ll make game pass look even better … or he’s fine with paying millions to have a game Xbox doesn’t own for game pass which can’t be sustained

Aaron Greenberg needs to reevaluate their marketing strategy, urgently. It’s not possible that after an event like this, your brand is in worse perception than before. What the heck.

Instead of talking about the games, now we are talking about how Xbox is damaging users confidence.

Aaron, please.

@TheSimulator
Because you get the game on GPU ultimate mainly first and also as a subscription fee rather than paying £70 per game roughly.

Also game pass hasn’t taken off in the way I think xbox wanted considering the millions of devices it is available on in a streaming service way.

I think the ABK and lack of Xbox console sales especially outside of the USA and lack of game pass subscriptions has made them change their stance and moving forward to multiple platform console wise.

Just imagine their next Halo is an amazing the best ever top quality AAA FPS.
Now imagine offering that in the future to 90 million PlayStation and 100 million Nintendo consoles.
As Phil said we run a business.

@fbnaulin
It’s because you are seeing it as a Xbox console brand.
It’s a publisher now.

It really has been a good, and Xbox has shown a huge amount of material, they are far above Playstation and Nintendo in games and projects, after all the acquisitions made they have huge dimensions as a company and the amount of games coming to Xbox and Gamepass in the coming months is spectacular.

However, I think it's inevitable that Xbox fans will have a bad memory of Gamescom, Microsoft's business model (and the industry) is changing, and not to everyone's liking.

One word: Regression
For Xbox, for most of the known publishers and studios.
The only things that were standouts:

-Stalker 2 "dynamic 4k" 60fps mode for Series X
-Monster Hunter Wilds being proper current gen
-Black State from an unknown indie studio pushing Unreal 5 even further than Black Myth Wukong at Game Science.

For real what is up with indie studios showing up the big developers with Unreal 5 development? Good for them but I just don't understand how it's happening OFTEN.

@OldGamer999 tbh after this showing of Avowed and Indy the same. Well besides Perfect Dark and Gears E-Day but they were completely missing.

@OldGamer999 yea but if Xbox can’t make good AAA games what good is game pass ? I think Indiana will get hate for the stiff first person to be honest and if people dislike the direction it’ll be another fumble

@Pabpictu Phil said everyone should get use to changes and the way games are released but PlayStation and Nintendo aren’t throwing the white flag anytime soon they will squeeze the life out of Xbox and be happy when it’s dead

@TheSimulator
It’s simple if they can’t make quality AAA games then they won’t sell GP subs or games on other devices.
It’s the reason the Xbox and consoles have fallen, they need to make games people want to play.

But they have KING for mobile and COD so they will make some money.

Personally I thought it was OK - nothing that I wasn't really expecting or surprising.

I don't get the 'controversy' surrounding Indiana Jones - it's still coming First to Xbox, still 'exclusive' this Holiday season and will be the 'lead' platform for Call of Duty. That gives Xbox quite a marketing opportunity - Xbox, the ONLY console with Indiana Jones, Call of Duty, Stalker 2, Flight Sim 24 etc this 'Holiday' season and all those games are on Game Pass Ultimate too.

The selling point of Xbox Consoles is that those games are ALL on Xbox Day/Date, can all be played 'free' via Game Pass Ultimate and will be the ONLY Console this Holiday with Indiana Jones.

By the time it releases on PS5, Xbox gamers will have had the chance to play it, to finish the story etc. All the walkthroughs, the guides, twitch/youtubers etc that will post videos so it will be 'old' news by the time it releases. People still don't count games like Deathloop or Ghostwire as 'new' games for Xbox when they released - they were too focussed on the fact MS had 'little' to offer rather than celebrate they could finally release on Xbox. Sony uses timed exclusives (as deathloop, ghostwire, Kena etc) prove because they know that it matters who gets to play 'first'.

I'd argue that having CoD, Indy, Stalker 2 etc (despite the fact that these will be on PS5 too with CoD Day 1 on PS5) as well as Avowed, Fable, Perfect Dark, Forza, Gears, Halo, Clockwork Revolution, Doom, the Dark Ages etc etc coming with many of those 'exclusively' if not first on Xbox will sell Console Hardware and/or Game Pass Subs...

@BAMozzy nobody cares about who plays first anymore . Ps has enough exclusives and ps plus to keep them busy until the timed games are released … Xbox is dealing with devs not wanting to port games over and no release window which is a bigger issue than anything ..

@BAMozzy
Being honest they couldn’t sell Xbox consoles outside the USA that well when they were Xbox console exclusives.
So they won’t do any better now.
And Doom is day one PS5 as well.
And with PS5 Pro it will probably the best way to play these Xbox studio games.

The console world now belongs to Sony and Nintendo.

@OldGamer999 what’s crazy is if doom has the haptic feedback and nothing for Xbox but different color controllers

Honestly it had some decent vids, but i was really hoping for an xbox handheld so im kinda meh.

Also, the only real announcement for xbox was indy on ps5? Im all for games on other platforms, but it shouldnt be your one and only centerpiece announcement.

@TheSimulator The truth is that Nintendo is a very difficult company to predict, they always go in completely different directions than the rest of the industry, who knows what they will do.

But Playstation is clearly following the path of Xbox, PS5 is already completely dispensable as hardware, and it must be so for Sony to be able to present decent quarterly results, almost everything is already available on PC, and in fact games like Helldivers 2 have their user base mainly on PC. I would bet without too much fear of being wrong that in the next Xbox we will see Playstation games massively, either because they are released by Sony itself or because Steam, Nvidia and / or Epic libraries are integrated into it.

I think the company that has started this direction of what the future of gaming hardware may look like is Valve with Steam Deck (and then Asus with ROG Ally). We don't talk about them much, but they are consoles, and they have virtually every game out there, Xbox, Playstation, and PC games, they have the best library, far above traditional consoles. I think that in the future if we continue to call anything consoles, it will be machines like these, whether portable or desktop.

I was there myself today and enjoyed it. I really felt that Nintendo and Sony were missing. XBox had the most games to show and play. Had a good time today.

@TheSimulator
I would expect it to have haptic feedback and trigger tension.
Remember when Xbox studios makes a game for other consoles just as PC it’s up against other games as well, so it needs to make them very good to sell well.

It was Concord levels of bad. Terrible show. Xbox in particular had a poor showing.

@OldGamer999
I have a feeling that Indy, avowed, doom, south of midnight and fable will all be 8/10 and above and I think that they can’t get out of the console business unless they put game pass on PlayStation. I’m thinking that their next console will be a combination of Xbox and pc where you can play steam games too which will allow Xbox players to also play PlayStation games.

The actual death of Xbox presented as "but here's one more thing!!" was my least favorite part of Gamescom, which is saying something because I really hate the dorito pope.

@BAMozzy ah yes. The free GPU that is £180 per year? To get the day 1 stuff. Always peddling that nonsense.

How is Indy/stalker/doom going to sell subs/hardware when anyone who owns a ps5 (and not an Xbox) doesn’t now need to sub/buy into Xbox to play these games? The math doesn’t add up - especially as all the available figures show Series consoles plummeting fast, growth in subscription is stagnant.

I didn’t watch it but from the news roundups… I didn’t care for anything other than the firm release date for Indiana Jones.

All of these shows have been utter garbage. People were championing the demise of e3, & this what you get: the watered down soda of events everytime you tune in to one of these, with Keighley's big boof plastered over every one.
Hope y'all are happy!

@Prestige-worldwide but I wonder if PlayStation would be salty and stop Xbox from having it play on the console

@TheSimulator
I doubt it because it’ll be through steam since an Xbox is just a modified computer I think it’ll be difficult for them to block them on Xbox.

Total snooze fest in my opinion. They didn't really show anything we didn't already know about. There almost didn't really need to be a show. And with Phil Spencer's ending interview I'd argue it's done more damage than helped the brand. leaving a lot of people less confident in investing in Xbox than before. Say what you want about Sony but atleast their users know where they stand. Xbox have no roadmap or clear goal for the future. And it stops me from wanting to invest in their platform with buying games, the way I still prefer to do things.

The whole thing was very disappointing.

I give it a 2.529032258/5, apparently. Or at least, that's what my big spreadsheet says.

Not enough giraffes

@PsBoxSwitchOwner They aren't going to buy an Xbox anyway - its about getting Sales of hardware to all those this Christmas and there after - the fact is that Indiana Jones itself isn't a Microsoft owned IP and yet its still on Xbox First!

Maybe when the Nextbox releases and PS6 is its rival, Some Playstation owners now may jump to Xbox because games like Doom, CoD, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Diablo, Wolfenstein, Crash Bandicoot, Minecraft etc are all on and marketed by Xbox as well as all their other IP's like State of Decay, Halo, Gears, Forza, Perfect Dark, Fable, Clockwork Revolution, Avowed, South of Midnight, Flight Sim etc are also on Xbox.

Yes the sub fee is part of that, but you have to pay nearly half of that just to play 'online' every year on BOTH consoles anyway. This Holiday, the only console with Stalker 2, Indiana Jones and Flight Sim is Xbox - CoD too of course and there is more than £180 fee - plus in that 'year' you have a LOT of Day 1 and other great games - EA Access too of course and can play 'Anywhere on my Gaming Laptop, RoG Ally or even just stream to my Samsung TV.

It's £75 a year just for Online gaming Or £10 a month if you pay that way and £80 a year or £10 a month on PS5 + £70 a Game too...

You have to remember Indy was announced before they bought the Studio and Indy is not their IP, neither is Blade - but having them first and 'exclusive' on Xbox, also makes Xbox the 'lead' platform and all the Marketing for, is going to sell Xbox hardware. Selling them months, if not years later in some cases, is just extracting money from those that can't or won't buy an Xbox regardless. Its generating revenue for 'Xbox'.

And 'Play it First' or Only on Playstation for 'timed' exclusivity worked for Sony. None of these games now will ever be associated with or ever be 'first' on PS again and they'll all be in Game Pass Day 1 which still saves you money over playing on the 'alternative' platform - plus I also get to play them on PC too at no extra cost!

Those games are 'Free' as in NO EXTRA COST on top of the Game Pass Subscription which compared to the 'cost' of the games it offers, is a lot 'cheaper' than the cost to play on PS5 or its equivalent PS+ and you may not get these games in PS+ for another 'year' after they have released on Playstation as MS won't put them in there Day 1...

So if you want to play CoD, Stalker 2, and Indiana Jones this Holiday, the Cheapest Option is Xbox (It's also the ONLY Console too for two of those) and with a Game Pass Subscription - Plus you'll get to play games like Flight Sim, Doom, Avowed, Fallout, Gears, Halo, Forza, Wolfenstein etc etc for 'Free' too as part of that 'Game Pass' package.

Buy a Playstation 5 and then pay £70 to play CoD, another £80 for Online Access (required even for Single player), wait for Stalker 2 and Indiana Jones to eventually release at another £70 each, don't have anything else to play unless you upgrade to PS+ Extra or Premium and can't play on PC unless you buy there too...

It's like a huge kick to the nuts every time they have an event now. I've been a long time xbox fan, don't get me wrong I have a ps5 but I only have it to play the single player exclusives. I have alot of games digital and this just sucks, they spend all that money to acquire these game studios to make the xbox exclusives they're missing and then go and put them on the rival console. What was the point of buying the studios then, cause they would of made the games multi plat anyways. It's just disappointing, they do t listen to there consumer base at all. They just look at spread sheets and graphs all day I guess. Smh

I loved xboxs showcases. But it was deft hyped up too much...even on the Xbox side. I thought it was gonna be a "crazy games showing at gamescon that no one has ever seen before" but it was pretty meh.

Pretty good show if you own a Playstation.

@BAMozzy essential plan starts at 10 for ps where are you getting 80 bucks from your also forgetting those games will eventually be discounted as many will just wait and play what PlayStation has to offer first to save

The adaptive controllers were awesome. I’ll always appreciate that Xbox puts on a huge show which is something the other two don’t do.

@TheSimulator Officially, PS Plus Essential: $9.99 monthly / $24.99 quarterly / $79.99 yearly where as Game Pass Core too costs $9.99 monthly or $74.99 a year just to play online and $19.99 for Game Pass Ultimate per month is effective $10 for all those games + EA Access if its $10 per month just for 'Online' on either console.

Every game is eventually discounted - but Game Pass allows you to play games when they release, when they are at their most hyped and most relevant. No-one cared about 'Deathloop' when that finally came to Xbox - it was old news, had been discussed enough and the gaming world had moved on. Ask most Xbox gamers about 2022 and none will mention Deathloop as game Xbox released on their platform - its a 2021 game.

Yes you can wait for ANY game - some maybe waiting eternally for some games to come to Playstation but would rather wait indefinitely to play Halo or Gears or Forza for example than buy an Xbox - after all, if they really wanted to play those, they'd have bought an Xbox. The People buying Indiana Jones on PS5 won't likely be Xbox owners or hyped enough to want to play it when it releases this year to buy an Xbox. If it doesn't release on PS5, they won't give Xbox any 'money'. If they wait until the game is heavily discounted, its no different to waiting for a movie to come to terrestrial TV, not paying for a cinema ticket or 'renting' on a Sub service, not buying it on DVD/Bluray but by then, its 'old' news too....

Yes - if you have a PS5 already and don't own an Xbox, then its cheaper just to buy the game when it eventually releases on PS5, but will miss out on it this year. PS5 owners also won't get Avowed, Fable, Perfect Dark, Clockwork Revolution, State of Decay, Gears E-day etc and waiting for games like Stalker 2 as well. This Holiday, the ONLY console with both Indiana Jones and Stalker 2 is Xbox so if you haven't decided between Xbox or Playstation yet, maybe Xbox has the better line-up and future games coming first and foremost to their hardware.

Playstation may get Indiana Jones sometime next year but its not getting it this Holiday so those wanting a Console for Christmas may want Xbox because of all those games actually out on Xbox and the games coming in 2025 when Sony's line-up seems rather lacking and being bolstered by MS's games that are all Xbox games first/foremost. Sony can't market CoD or say their Playstation is the 'home' of Call of Duty anymore, its now an Xbox game, same with Diablo, Fallout, Doom, Elder Scrolls etc - even if they do release on PS5 too.

That may make some buy an Xbox next gen, even though they can still make do with PS5 this gen as CoD is still on their hardware. It maybe not enough to convince a PS5 owner to spend £400+ on Series X hardware this late in the Gen, but next gen, the 'home' of all those games is Xbox - they are all MS owned Games and can be discounted 'lower' as they don't have to give Sony 30% - even if they are 20% cheaper on Xbox, MS makes more money so can 'discount' more. By the time Indy releases, it could be cheaper on Xbox as its 'discounted' as an old game versus a 'brand new' release on PS5...

I’ve been gaming since a child grew up reading oxm magazine following Xbox playing their games.

I don’t understand the constant negativity about what games over people are playing.

The comments section on these posts are so negative and depressing.

People play games on the box you prefer it’s a device for entertainment it’s not a sports team.

It’s that simple.

Couldn’t care less myself if PlayStation gamers can play Indiana jones it 100% doesn’t affect my life in any way or any one else’s

Think I’m popping over to Xbox era website this place is negative toxic and miserable

@Meehanuk_1987 damn bro here’s a tissue

@TheSimulator Thank you much appreciated 😩😂

It was PS showcase level bad

Gamescom for me cemented that there is going to be little point in owning an Xbox for new games moving forward. Certainly purchasing any next-gen Xbox or handheld Xbox is no longer a consideration for me; but I will continue to enjoy my library (for as long as their activation servers allow it). It looks like my 20 odd year association with Xbox is likely coming to an end.

MS are clearly going to end up handing the performance hardware crown to Sony, either as a direct or indirect consequence of their strategy. I am sure they believe they can dominate publishing with their AB acquisition and all their other studios. God help them when/if CoD ceases to be popular.

@OldGamer999 They don't 'need' to sell as many Consoles anymore - that's also a factor! The Xbox Console is literally a'4-tier' Platform right now with their 'Cloud' as the 'basic' tier - certainly not the 'best' for hardcore Gamers but good enough for all the casual 'mobile' or whatever device (My TV, Amazon Firestick) you may choose to play on

The next two tiers are the Consoles - the Series S being the 'entry' tier for playing the next generation of games at a 'budget' price (or standard $300 'Console' Price for years as the Xbox One S or PS4 were around the same price. It's also the 'low end PC' Spec that their games will ALL be built to cater too using the Hardware features and DX12 Ultimate they have built these consoles for.

The Series X is the 'Premium 4k' Console with tha premium price tag that the PS4 Pro and Series X tried to keep to and currently, the highest tier Console to match Sony's Premium priced Console - targeting the Gamers who most likely frequent sites like this.

Then you have PC too that has a wide range of specs but all use windows. So PC gamers and the 'casuals' are still part of that Xbox ecosystem but have no 'need' for the console. The Console is NOT the Focus, that's just the 'method' of Access. Some Gamers may well want a Console because it suits their budget or preference to play on a 'console' but Games are.

Those Games are all in Game Pass and the only Console with Game Pass is Xbox. Those games are and will be associated with Xbox. The Only console you can play games like Stalker 2 and Indy this Christmas is on Xbox and with games like Avowed, Doom: the Dark Ages, Fable, Perfect Dark, Clockwork Revolution, South of Midnight, Gears of War: E-Day etc to look forward too, let alone all those IP's in Game Pass - the Console is still 'important' in its position but Sony and Nintendo only have their 'console' as their entire 'ecosystem' - you can play EVERY Xbox game virtually everywhere except Switch and Playstation. Indy and Blade are also NOT owned by Microsoft so getting 'Exclusivity' (which may have been a Sony Exclusive like Deathloop and Ghostwire had MS not bought them - unlikely to have had any exclusivity as it was also announced before they acquired Zenimax)

MS said their plan was to make sure these games were on Xbox first and foremost and all the games will be in Game Pass so these are the reasons to buy an Xbox. Indy was unlikely to be fully exclusive and cut off the majority of 'buyers' when it's 'free' in Game Pass on Xbox - same with CoD, stalker 2 and all the other games in Game Pass - a great package for those newcomers to 'Console' gaming...

I think it was decent then again my hypemeter was just a fraction of the non E3 Xbox show and that *was*amazing.

It seemed as a cool event to me

It would have been fine except for Xbox themselves hyping it up like we'd better watch because they had earthshaking news and reveals, which they didn't.

Which is so on-brand for Xbox it's crazy 🤪

Terrible. Didn't see Xbox live streams but probably the best.

ONL/Future Gaming was just knew some of these already of major games, ok trailer, Akimbot in Future Gaming showcase knew about and looked good still. Little Nightmares/Reanimal were good. Space Marine 2 good. Civ looked fair. Otherwise most were forgettable.

Even the DK platformer I was just like eh pass, better Platformers from 5th gen to play then any repetitive nostalgia/inspired but not original and not exciting games.

Tactics games were ok. But MP shooters, action adventure and more all looked boring or knew about them and no interest. Greedfall 2 looked fine but did a bad job being convincing. Civ 7, looked good but bad way of getting new people interested. They put the most weakest presentation of dev talking/trailers and bullet points to convince new people.

But otherwise anything I didn't know about already I didn't care for.

Both F, D if being fair. Audiences that don't watch they market to and hardcore wanting more creativity then the repetition or garbage we see get disappointed for a reason because the Indies/third parties are wasting our time with boring themes/dialogue/nonsense and the game design sucks and isn't exciting or is repetitive and already played before.

@Meehanuk_1987 Yeah thinking about that myself too....

Continuing...

• dont know what to say more about these circus leftist freaks..their overal look and narrative reminds me of hippies...they are modern variation of old ones, useless for society, preaching and blabbing constantly same crap over and over and constantly complaining about everything..irony in all that is that their behavior, narrative and tendency to threat, extort or accusse easily can induce changing attitudes in all other neutral people...exactly what they tend to use every time if they dont like something...yes, rasism, sexism, whatever...
• from business perspective, wokeness couldnt raise just like that..it needs power behind (money) and mutual connection across industry...we all saw Avengers movies, do we? Leftist in industry are just like growing Hydra inside of Shield until they take over everything...very bad parasites and carcinome in companies...why gaming industry is excellent area for them? Because they can make good money doing anything useful, any physical job or job with extreme knowledge or skill in something particular, just sitting, blabbing and make problems claiming that they are there to solve non-existing problems...well, weird side haircuts and frequent hair color change cost, they need to earn money somehow..but with threats, extortion, accusation, cancelling and blabbing..surely not from decent job like building roads or agriculture or something useful for society..and what we get at the and? completely incompetent and useless new generations who dont know how to solve simple things like boil eggs and make a meal or change the damn broken lightball..thats the leftist reality..

So...point is..i want less of that in gaming..then, showcases and games will be surely better