Topic: General Xbox Series X|S Thread

@TheFrenchiestFry depends... Sammy was willing to sell off the ailing arcade business.... We don't know what divisions they might split off. I'd say Sammy and ubi... Quite a few others seem vulnerable to takeovers. And remember the risk of hostile takeovers. Ubi almost succumbed to vivendi a few years back. We don't know what's going on behind the scenes, but the big companies smell blood in the water easily.

Not saying Sega really is there, but at this point any company not an A list cash rich company is at risk I'd think. The big money has come out to buy themselves a market and consolidate everything. For Sammy, Sega is doing ok.. But just ok, and a big cash infusion might be a better immediate proposition. There's a lot that we wouldn't be aware of behind the scenes with these companies.

Conversely i don't think personally, Sega is strategically useful in any real way to Microsoft and has no direct benefit. But i think Microsoft is mostly interested in keeping friendly partners from ending up in competing hands. Google and Amazon are going to be playing very very hard ball. Those firms only play dirty whatever they do. And Tencent has been carving a very obvious path

@MaccaMUFC Yeah, i still am optimistic for 4k60. And I'm never optimistic!

It'll vary. I think the commercial engines: unreal, unity, etc. Will really optimize within maybe 2 years. The in house engines like Anvil and Frostbite (or even now first party Bethesdas Creation) are going to lag behind for years.

Rtx will be a limitation. Supposedly the gpu architecture both consoles are based on struggles with rt on pc, finally fixed by the new cards that launched after the consoles. But otherwise, the new features in both new consoles are going mostly unused so far by the big games. All these games started development before x1x even existed. And the xb Series dev kits only released a few months before launch! So legion and yakuza etc are more or less a "super x1x enhanced" patch more than a true xsx game.

The brute force is working pretty nicely though, all other things being equal.

Nice to see a little win for the Series X with hitman 3. Something I think we’ll see more of as the generation moves on.

@NEStalgia I think Sega does offer something very strategically enticing for Microsoft - a lot of IP's of course and a big reason for Japanese gamers to buy into their ecosystem and really compete with Sony and Nintendo in the Asian market.

Not just the Asian market of course but Microsoft don't really have a lot of 'Family Friendly' games and of course Sega is a massive Global brand name in gaming with a long history. MS obviously had a good partnership with Sega when they dropped out of the Hardware business - the OG Xbox provided a platform for a lot of Dreamcast games and Sega wanted the OG Xbox to be Backwards Compatible with the Dreamcast too.

Times have changed of course and now Sonic has been on all platforms inc Nintendo which no-one would have thought possible in the 90's but that doesn't mean to say that purchasing Sega, if it was possible, wouldn't be of massive direct benefit to Microsoft. I don't think it would happen - but then I never thought that Zenimax would be acquired either. I know that maybe a few studio's had 'underperformed' in terms of expected sales - I don't think Fallout 76, Wolfenstein: Young Blood, Prey etc met expectations and the reputation was dropping after recent stories too but still with Doom and the main Wolfenstein arc games as well ESO etc, I didn't think they would be on the market. So you never can tell...

Game Science Interactive, the Devs behind Black Myth: Wukong could be a good acquisition. Relatively unknown but that trailer created a big interest in that game and certainly looked like they have a lot of potential. Chinese of course which could be politically difficult but another massive potential market...

SEGA could be acquired at any time but at this point I doubt it's too likely. They've firmly established themselves as one of the biggest third party publishers worldwide, whereas Bethesda Softworks' core audience is obviously mostly Western-oriented despite its sizable Japanese following, which made it more befitting for an acquisition by a company with a console that appeals to way more of the Western crowd than the Japanese crowd

I think in terms of acquisitions, the big name Japanese publishers like SEGA/Atlus, Square Enix and Capcom are completely safe. They won't be touched by anyone, even Nintendo. There's bound to be stuff like agreements where Microsoft attempts to court these publishers for deals or specific games since they want the value of Game Pass to be boosted, like what's happening right now with Yakuza and soon, PSO2 in addition to the Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy games, but acquisitions feel far less likely. There are other ways Microsoft can approach boosting the Japanese catalogue of their library to make them more appealing to that audience

@TheFrenchiestFry One thing that MS could do is purchase a portion of these studios without buying the entire company. It sort of ensure content and you don’t have to own the whole thing. I mean people forget Sony owns part of Epic.

@BAMozzy Sega has a lot of IP, but it's a lot of IP they've allowed to wither, and not much of it has a lot of real value on the market anymore except for a certain niche of mostly older gamers that MS already mostly has, anyway. Yeah, they could reboot older IP, but they already have older IP from Rare, and even themselves they could reboot. Not really worth the expense just to do that. Sonic certainly has more brand appeal than Banjo today, and the movies are reviving that somewhat even though it's not the brand it once was. But so much of the rest of Sega IPs would take a lot of work to make useful. MS is playing the long game, but there's lots of money better spent for faster returns.

But.

If it looks like Sega's vulnerable, they'd rather have those IPs than letting someone else get them. Sony's somewhat forefeited the Asia market, and the Japan market doesn't exist. XCloud has a lot more chance of success in Japan than Xbox or PS, true. Sega IPs could help there. But the Japan market (the consumers, not the producers) is almost meaningless even as a monopoly these days. If they want "Asia market" it's China that's all that matters. I'm not sure Sega means much there. At the same time, Japan content sells outside Japan very well, Sony has abandoned it for the moment because it's run by an absolute moron who can't see past the quarterlies and has no understanding of the market at all, and a move like Sega could mean entrenching in the world of Japanese content in a direct way that gains them traction with (the few remaining) Japanese consumers, and thus devs while it doesn't seem like there's much demand for them over at Sony.

I still don't think it's super likely. But if Persona ends up on XB (and if Persona ends up on XB and not Nintendo....) I'd rethink that. If it just goes multiplat it doesn't mean anything. If it comes to one and not the other, it means something. It also means you don't want to be anywhere near Nintendo fans for a good year or two...

@TheFrenchiestFry Square Enix is a much bigger company sitting on more capital than Sega's games division. They're tiny compared to the Sammy conglomerate itself, but the games division itself, Sega's been a shell for quite a while. OTOH, Square's taking on losses right now so who knows how stable they really are. I wouldn't think they'd be for sale at all, but it's hard to tell with these big companies. They're wealthy on paper, but when 150% of that is leveraged and they start taking losses, they can be one bad sale away from a takeover or insolvency at any time. I haven't heard any rumors about Square, while there's tons of rumors about Sega, though. Though apparently Square almost did sell to MS years ago, so who knows. I think, with Sega, their games division hasn't turned major profit in a long time, it's clear they don't pump capital into it, and they're already breaking up divisions to sell off. They don't have a particular reason to sell the games division, but at the same time, selling off a division that doesn't generate tremendous profit as triage for an overvalued cash infusion to save other divisions, if an offer's on the table, wouldn't be a first in business. To us Sega is this important games company. To Sammy it's a side activity. Which.....is a lot of the problem. Capcom seems stable for now, but it wasn't long ago they couldn't fund their own entry in their biggest franchise..... A lot of companies seem stable in the industry, but gaming looks a lot like American retail in the 90's. It looks healthy on the outside but it's overleveraged on the inside and everything is propped up by cardboard and IOUs. Lots of businesses seem stable until Amazon or Tencent walk up and offer to buy up shares at 130% value. Who'd have thought Ubisoft would almost get rolled over by Vivendi a few years back? It only didn't because Yves mounted a guerilla resistance from the inside to make the transaction as unprofitable as possible for them until they went away. Vivendi did terrible things to Activision, after they brutalized Sierra. They buy out companies just to use them as debt-holes to save their other companies.

Speaking of hitman next gen, does anyone know if there's an advantage of running hitman 2 within hitman 3 on series x, or is it just a convenience?

I figure now that 3 is out it's time to finally play through 2... But wondering if it's worth buying 3 first?

Still haven't decided if i get 3 on ps5 for the vr mode or xsx for the hitman 2 upgrade.

@NEStalgia PS5 doesn’t have native support for VR yet (according to DF). So you’re stuck with playing the PS4 version with blurry low res graphics good luck with that.

While on the topic of Hitman, I’ve just completed the cross-over of my progression from Hitman 2 over to Hitman 3, retroactively unlocked all mission achievements from both Hitman 1 and 2. Now I can access all the missions from Hitman 2 seeing as I bought the gold edition and by downloading the Hitman 3 Access Pass: Hitman 2. But I cannot access the missions from Hitman 1 because I never owned the GOTY Edition but I did own the Complete First Season but it’s directing me to Hitman 3 Access Pass: Hitman 1 GOTY Edition which it says I own but when clicking on Manage, nothing shows up on either Installed or Ready to Install? What gives because right now I am baffled.

@Senua heh, tell me about it. I haven't even submitted my request for the usb camera adapter yet... I'm hearing theyre not even arriving for some. They're limiting to one per household....i have 2 in the household, and they aren't selling them at all other than if you buy a whole new psvr unit (that they've all but declared eol). I'll probably end up using my pro as a dedicated psvr rig and not worry about any improvements ps5 may deliver. It's blurry, but then again the limitations of the headset itself don't really offer much better at best. But..... While i don't use it often, i can't deny it's a cool bit of fun with the right games (skyrim is amazing)...... And the idea of real vr Hitman is really appealing, blurry or not. The game design is so good for it.

But....i also know i rarely rig the camera up and would otherwise rather play on xb. Plus i have 2 in xb with all dlc that i haven't played through yet. (My save for 1 is on ps4 though. Played it like a month before i got my 1x.....)

I still dream of the day ms says you can use pc headsets with Series. Probably won't happen but it would be awesome.

And i still can't figure out if 3 enhances the missions from 2 the way 2 did for 1. 2 already looks and runs great on xsx.

@MaccaMUFC if you launch hitman 2, does it let you choose hitman 1 destinations?

@NEStalgia Yes I am able access Hitman 1 destinations in Hitman 2, it’s just not letting me access them in Hitman 3. I’m thinking I may have to upgrade to the GOTY Edition for Hitman 1 to access the destinations in 3. That shouldn’t be the case though when I paid full price for the Compete First Season when it first released. It’s like buying an ultimate edition of a game that you expect it to include everything but then being told you need to pay for new upgraded version to access the stuff you already paid for in the ultimate edition!

@MaccaMUFC Yeah, I checked mine and have the same issue. I saw the 1 missions in 2, but the pack for 3 shows as $30. (I haven't bought 3 yet)

It seems like an issue that it's tied to the product on the store, and they removed the old complete product and replaced it with goty instead. Which doesn't sound right. Though i guess it's not a big deal since it still works in 2.... Did 3 add much to how it runs?

It really screws over the early buyers though. 1 was a mess thanks to sqeenix weirdly publishing it and then bowing out. I assume it's related to that somehow, maybe square owns that original version and they can't use the license listing. I hope they fix that somehow....

Do you guys think I should wait until I can get a Series X before I play Yakuza Like A Dragon?
I wanted that to be my first Series X game, butttt it might be a minute till I can finally get a Series X and I do want to play it pretty badly.

I guess I could always catch up on Yakuza and play 3,4,5 when they come to game pass before Like A Dragon.

@NEStalgia If that’s the case that we’d have to buy the Hitman 1 GOTY Edition Upgrade to play the missions on 3, then I’d probably buy it as it would be more convenience than having to download Hitman 2 just to play the missions from 1. But as an early buyer paying for the most expensive complete edition, I’d still feel like I’m being screwed over. There is an Hitman 3 Access Pass: Hitman 1 Complete First Season on the MS Store, which is the edition I bought for Hitman 1 but it says it’s “not sold separately” only the Hitman 3 Access Pass: Hitman 1 GOTY Edition is available but like I said it says I own it (even though I’ve never bought it) but I can’t do anything with it as nothing shows up in the Installed or Ready to Install.

I’m not sure if Hitman 1 and 2 are optimised for Series X with native 4K and 60fps in Hitman 3 but I’d like to know if they were.

@MaccaMUFC yours is a little different than mine. Yours says you own it... Mine doesn't. But i got my version of 1 as a preorder bonus for the gold edition of 2. I previously had 1 on ps4 and decided to unite the series on xb since it cost nothing to do so.

So they're may be 3 groups. Goty owners that it shows they own the pass and it works. Complete owners that it says they own the pass but it doesn't work. And complete owners that got it by preordering 2 and it doesn't even show it as owned, since it's neither version, it was just a pre-order distribution. Ugh!

@MaccaMUFC i found one thing that said you have to download the hitman 1 legacy pack within hitman 2 before you can import 1 through 2 into 3.... And that that requires an ioi account since it's done through their website..... But ours already works in hitman 2 so I'm not sure that's retirement.