Xbox Congratulates Nintendo On The Release Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom

Good good, I know that they are a one-minute tweet but let's focus on Xbox Game Studios, Microsoft!

It should have been Nintendo.... how much for a 2 year Game Pass exclusive instead of a congrats lol

@FraserG But it looks like Master Chief inside a vault in Immortals Fenyx Rising to me for some reason.

Good choice, anyway. Nintendo will sue everyone that uses a picture of Link to congratulate them...

"Congrats to Nintendo on Launching TotK, and a reminder who's your daddy at the EC if you want CoD for the next decade."
-Sincerely, Xbox.

This is why I love Xbox, the non toxic vibe

It's becoming embarassing how often Phil congratulates Nintendo and Sony for great game releases while Xbox doesn't release anything deserving to be congratulated on since 2021.

Hopefully these guys get to play the game as well as its such a good game.

@Magabro Phil isn't one of the ones congratulating zelda though....

Save the platitudes and fix Redfall. Quickly

Wholesome stuff. Also, pack it up boys. GOTY has already been decided. I joke, but it's really difficult to see anything squeezing it out.

Just how xbox was congratulated on redfall

People kicking of about Redfall running at 30fps yet creaming themselves over Nintendo for releasing a standardHD game running at 30fps.

Yeah Microsoft! Take a good look at that game and make a good game yourself.

This is one of the expansives zelda dlc pack in 4 years lol.

Copy/paste adding style. Easy work.

@Chaotic_Neutral Look at the console specs and you will understand why the switch can't do more than 30fps on bigger games. But the Xbox series X is the most powerful console around so there's no excuse. Although I think Redfall would of done fine at 30fps as its not a major flaw but the flak its getting is for other reasons.

@Magabro Phil didnt congratulate anyone. It was Larry Hyrb, Xbox and Sea of Thieves.

Can't wait until the kids are in bed and I can finally play some Zelda!

@Kaloudz Exactly, two bad games and everyone thinks they can't make games properly although I do admit they are rubbish at managing their studios in terms of having development problems and getting releases out consistently, but not in terms of final quality, there's also people that tally up all the third party game pass flops such as Scorn and High on Life and blame Xbox for those too. You have too feel for Xbox right now as no matter what they do they will get hate for it, Starfield could end up being a 8/10 or 9/10 and it still wouldn't be good enough if its not game of the year.

How about stop praising others and sort out your own studios? It can’t be that hard surely?

@UltimateOtaku91 Specs aside, Zelda has some superb frame pacing. Not all 30fps is created equal. When the frames are generating at a consistent and equal pace, games like Zelda or RDR2, 30fps is plenty acceptable, especially for 3rd person games imo. You start talking 1st person games with 30fps AND poor frame pacing, and you start having problems. It's why sometimes certain 30fps games just seems smoother than others. But good frame pacing is a product of good programming, which not every game gets the benefit of having.

Never cared about Zelda, to be honest. But I know it's super popular, so good for the people that enjoy it.

@UltimateOtaku91 feel for xbox I don't think so they have bought this on themselves no excuses with all the studios Microsoft why they havnt released many if any exclusives phil just doesn't seem to get we buy consoles for exclusive games I've got a Nintendo for exclusives and a ps5 as well I'm not sure what the point of an xbox is at the minute to be honest hopefully this changes soon fingers crossed

@SplooshDmg Yep, ive been playing since yesterday and I haven't noticed any problems and 30fps when done right is perfectly playable, mostly unnoticeable.

Us Xbox fans have been waiting for a masterpiece to play !

@UltimateOtaku91 Got the game this morning, been playing it all day lmao. Still on the great sky island and loving it so far, can't wait for what's in store. It is perfectly playable at 30fps despite what some others may think.

@Razputinman That first sky island is huuuge for a beginner area. How did you get on fighting that flux construct (if you did).

@UltimateOtaku91 I haven't got to that part yet haha, I'm literally just taking in the scenery and walking around. Killed a fair few soldier constructs and got a few koroks though.

@Tasuki Why even bring Sony into this?! Just let positive news be positive for a change. Everything ain't console warz!

@UltimateOtaku91 I think it's because people now are entitled, look for any excuse to be negative, are overly dramatic and for some reason can't remember all of the years of good games in the past (especially the ones that are backward compatible with current hardware). How can anyone in their right mind say or agree with, "Xbox has no games"? While I'm sitting here looking at my Xbox games collection and realize I don't have enough time left in my life to play them all.

Also, people seem to have already forgotten all about covid, which disrupted the entire world for multiple years and is still affecting the world today and probably will for the next few years.

@Kaloudz I feel that someone should have taken the grenade for Redfall before it released. It was touted as a major release and a simple tweet could have mitigated the scorn…. Or maybe an explanation when you tried to install- the options are available….

@UltimateOtaku91 I think my quote a few months back was “Starfield needs to be GOTY for 2023 to not be disappointing.” Most of this stems from me buying a Xbox S for Starfield in December…

@Dan1283 I don't buy consoles for exclusives. I could not care less if a system has exclusives or not. I could not care less if a certain game is exclusive to any system or not. I buy consoles for the ease of use. I get a console, plug it into the TV, load up a game and play it. None of the nonsense associated with PC gaming that I don't have time for. I don't have to spend thousands of dollars and hours upon hours of configuring and troubleshooting. I don't have to wonder how the game is going to run on my machine because of my hardware. I can just get the game, load it up and play.

@Meehanuk_1987 I'm pretty sure when the Activision deal is over with, the floodgates will open. I think they're just holding back and trying to paint a picture to benefit them in the acquisition. If they appear weak and incapable of producing games or whatever, then it will appear that they need Activision. I'm just guessing and they must be doing a good job at it because everyone is buying it.

@ZYDIO That's what makes Series X awesome, it's the best of both worlds, PC's power, maybe less power but certainly more efficient and console's easy of use. It also has the free backwards compatibility, normal in the PC world.

I agree but I'd add that, regarding exclusives, depending on each player's preferences, Microsoft's exclusives may well be better than Sony and Nintendo's but the truth is that most people don't buy a console for exclusives except Nintendo's. That was proven last generation when PS4 sold that much because the Wii U and Xbox One launches weren't great but if you check the sales charts, most people were playing FIFA/MADDEN, GTA, Call of Duty, Fortnite and Minecraft.

@AlwaysPlaying Why would you buy a Series S for Starfield? I think you're sitting yourself up for disappointment. If you're getting an Xbox for Starfield, you got to go with the Series X.

xbox is sad at this point , stop trying to gain good PR with nothing to show for it; stop bigging up the competition and FIGHT BACK ! smh !

@AlienigenX dude they weren’t always like this til they hit rock bottom . when you’re on the losing team , or the ugliest person in the group you really don’t have a choice but to be nice to others or they’ll just roast you .

@Magabro exactly! glad someone sees through the BS!

@Banjo- Exactly, all of that. I may sound hypocritical, but I'm tempted to buy a PlayStation sometimes because of the games they have that are not on Xbox. I don't follow through because I still have scars from being burned by Sony. They took away all of my purchases and banned me from playing online because some punk little kids said I was using abusive language on the voice chat. The funny thing is, I didn't even have a microphone at the time and Sony had no recording or proof of any of it, yet followed through with the entire process. There was nothing I could do and I lost at least $1,000 worth of purchases. So I will never do business with Sony ever again for that reason. There are a few more reasons but I won't get into it.

@nomither6 That's the thing, I don't think Xbox or Nintendo are competing with anyone or each other and Sony is over there competing with Xbox and Nintendo. So it's kind of weird.

@ZYDIO That's awful, being accused of nasty things without proof. I had issues with the customer's service when I bought a PS4 early after launch and I had heard more stories about how they treat their customers so for me it was like asking me to go and buy an Xbox One and that's what I did LOL.

Rightfully so. Totk will be a game of the year contender.

@ZYDIO i’ve been banned from both Xbox & PS , lost both of my 2010 accounts . you’ll rebuild eventually.

“ I don't think Xbox or Nintendo are competing”

They’re competing whether they like it or not, whether it’s direct competition or the competition of selling their products and garnering consumer interest . all 3 of these corporations are fishing in the same pond (industry) . The same industry where people decide which console to buy and which console they want to play multiplats on .

@Banjo- Yeah, they were quick with it too. Apparently that's just how they are and I think it's completely wrong. How can a company steal from a customer because of hearsay? That's okay though, I'm totally fine with Xbox. I've had Xbox since day one and I have been enjoying every minute of it. Oh and when this happened to me was in the PlayStation 3 days.

@ZYDIO so the reason redfall doesn’t meet expectations is so ms look weak? I’ve heard it all now

@ZYDIO I asked Sony for invoices of my digital purchases and they answered that they don't provide invoices which is illegal where I live but in Sony's world that doesn't seem to matter. The problem is that if they don't provide invoices you don't have rights as a customer. Microsoft provides invoices but even if they didn't I would trust them because they are the most reliable, the only reliable of the three, regarding digital purchases and digital rights. Similarly, I don't like buying Nintendo's games digitally because even if Nintendo acknowledged my purchases who knows if the software would work on their next console. Haven't they sold the same games on Wii U and Switch without cross-buy in spite of merging the NNID (Wii U) and Nintendo (Switch) accounts?

@nomither6 Here's the odd thing. When they banned my account and took away my purchases, I could still log into my account so it was still active. I just had no games and could not play online. I closed my account shortly after that. Why would I rebuild my purchases with a company who just stole them from me? Why would I buy the same thing again that I already purchased? Especially from the company who stole them from me in the first place. I will never trust that company again and I hope people read this and learn from my experience.

@Banjo- I must add, MS has a great customer support - at least from the experiences I've had so far. Quick responses and problems solved easily most of the time.

@Artois2 Yeah, that's basically what I'm saying. They release a couple crappy games to make themselves look weak. The crazy thing is is after the fact they can go back and patch the game and make it awesome whenever they want. I'm just saying that it could be what they're doing, I really have no idea. It's pretty smart if you think about it.

@ZYDIO yeah if that’s what they are doing it is very smart but I don’t buy it

@HarmanSmith Same here. My experience with Microsoft's customer service has been good.

Xbox staff doing what Xbox does best, congratulating games on other systems for being great 🤣

I have no interest in BOTW2 and it would be nice to see these people congratulate their own teams like this. Instead they’re all sending messages to that Redfall lady on Twitter, annoying her telling her how sh*t it is.

@Banjo- That's another reason that I choose Xbox and Microsoft. I actually do have another PlayStation account that I created for whatever reason. It's odd how this is coming up today because just the other day I was at a retro game store and they had a PlayStation 3 for $30 that would not play discs but everything else worked. It reminded me of that account and how I had a few purchases on there that I got with a gift card. So I didn't have any real money in it and I thought about getting it just to play those games. Then I remembered all the ***** and change my mind just out of principle.

@Cassislight Breath of the Wild is actually 6 years old so this would be DLC six years later, not 4 🤣. Whatever, it's already the best video game ever made just like Breath of the Wild was in 2017, for me the most overrated game in history 😅. I can't say the same about Tears of the Kingdom because I haven't played it but it wouldn't surprise me if it was another massively overrated game. I say this as a long-time Zelda fan.

@ZYDIO Yep, sometimes you have to think twice!

@Banjo- I really wanted to play breath of the wild but the only chance I got was playing it on the demo machine at Walmart. I still play it occasionally while I'm at Walmart if the demo machine hasn't been destroyed, because yes they still have Nintendo switch demo machines at Walmart that have been there for years and they play Zelda. Breath of the wild is the only game that I would play on switch and I can't justify buying a switch for one game. Plus, I can't stand the controllers.

@ZYDIO Yeah I agree about covid, that has obviously put devs 1-2 years behind schedule and why there's so many unpolished games now than there has ever been.

@Razputinman sorry haha, wait until you get to the ground level though, the game opens up so much you're going to have a blast. Hope you enjoy it. 👍

@ZYDIO I have a Switch but I played Breath of the Wild on Wii U, where the tiny villages still run like a slideshow, they were only fixed on the Switch version. It's not really a Zelda game, it's more a sandbox game with a loose story, minimalistic music and boring NPC and side quests. The villages, stables, "dungeons" and customisable island are all disappointing and the fun is basically playing with the fire and the physics although the latter are incredibly frustrating when climbing. Combat and bosses are also disappointing. The UI is clunky. Actually, I had more fun finding efficient ways to destroy the guardians surrounding the castle. I loved breaking their legs and turning them upside down. That was the highlight of my playthrough that was long and 100% completed except for half of the Koros (900 collectibles).

@UltimateOtaku91 I think everybody just needs to wait it out, but at the same time let the developers know that this is not acceptable. I think gaming will get back to awesome in the next few years, at least I hope so.

@ZYDIO they get away with it because it’s in the ToS that everyone agrees to after skipping through it

@ZYDIO I got the S as my TV barely a 1080p plasma. My gaming room heats up to 120F when I play - just pity me … Starfield on a S is the least of my worries lol

I am so over these congratulation tweets for rival platforms.

@Banjo- Well, with all that being said I won't waste my time with it. I'll just play the Nintendo 64 games instead. I still haven't played them, I watched people play through parts of them though. I've played the first three games back in the day and Twilight Princess on the Wii, so I guess I need to play Skyward Sword also. I didn't play that because Twilight Princess made my wrist hurt and I didn't want to go through that again.

@nomither6 and everyone makes fun of me for actually reading through them. I bet nobody knows this, if you read through the terms of service when you purchase an Apple product you will find that you don't own the Apple product, you only have permission to use Apple's property. At any time Apple could request that you return their property and they would not have to reimburse you at all. The best part is that if Apple wanted to, after requesting their property back and you refuse, they could file charges for theft. I learned that while working for them. I quit working for them shortly after learning that and after learning what a crooked company they are.

@AlwaysPlaying Oh, ok. I knew there had to be some kind of logical reason for that decision. Ha. Maybe open a window or something? You seem very determined. I could not and would not play games at 120°F.

@ZYDIO wow i never knew that as i don’t read ToS either !😂 i just heard about it through someone else and it made sense, lol!

im not surprised about apples policy (or any corporation honestly) & if apple wants my- oh , excuse me, their, iphone back they’ll have to pick up the broken pieces off the ground.

@nomither6 That is exactly what I thought. It doesn't say what condition it has to be in when you return it to them. Haha. You could even say you lost it or a million other things. I think it is completely unreasonable and narcissistic of them to even put something like that in terms of service. Not to mention, completely disrespectful.

@Kaloudz as of now(2023), hifi rush is Xbox high rated game exclusive.

@ZYDIO" Xbox has no games". That's the perspective of some people (ahem.... ahem...Sony fanboys... ahem). With all due respect.
Also, your right if COVID didn't struck, we might be seeing Xbox exclusive last year and today.

Phil doing marketing for sony and Nintendo better than he and marketing division at microsoft is doing for xbox.... This is embarrassing

Some of these replies take me back to being in the playground in the 90s with kids shouting about SEGA and Nintendo. Can't people be happy about great games being released (Late night last night playing Zelda.)
I have all the current gen consoles thanks to a retro console clear out and some very aggressive ebay bidders. Used my Microsoft reward points to buy a cheap PSVR. I have enough games to last me several life times on my Xbox, switch and PlayStation consoles. I'm happy just enjoying gaming. I'm excited to see what's next for Xbox. Looking forward to the "Not E3" Nintendo direct. Possibly Spiderman 2 on PS5.
Xbox will be fine. They have some amazing studios to produce games and we will start seeing the fruits of their labor soon. People really just need to chill.

@TakeItEasy What has 2 comments Not by Phil Spencer got to do with Phil Spencer ?

Tears of the Kingdom is getting 10's everywhere yet is a 30fps game which is 'perfectly' fine, playable etc - yet if Xbox announce anything is running at 30fps, its a 'major' problem, its a FAIL, its 'unplayable' etc etc...

This just proves that 30fps is 'good enough' for any game - especially as the majority of Game of the Year games (as Zelda is likely to be too) are 30fps on Consoles...

@Kaloudz I don't mind knowing how well a Game is running, how well optimised it is etc but I do object to people making wild statements - that 30fps is 'unacceptable' or 'unplayable', a major disaster for a game/dev/publisher etc.

Especially when those people cite numerous '30fps' games as their favourites, the 'best' games they have played, the games that 'Microsoft' needs etc etc. The vast majority of Game of the Year winners/nominated games are '30fps' on consoles at launch - good enough to 'win'.

All I hope is that Analysis by Digital Foundry for example that highlights technical issues, flaws in the frame pacing, fame delivery etc puts pressure on the Devs to release games in 'better' condition. We don't get 10-20fps games anymore (Goldeneye/Perfect Dark MP on N64 - that people played for hours and hours on end), but 30fps is not a 'disaster'.

I think you are right, @UltimateOtaku91, to a point anyway. Redfall would have been fine at 30fps, had it not gone back on what it originally said (or was said to be). A delay to sort the FPS would likely have helped with its other issues too as not everyone on the project would have been upgrading the FPS, leaving others to fix some of its problems during the delay. However, what I think the 30fps fiasco, and the uproar that it caused, did, was focus the eye on the game, drawing in more heavy criticism than it would otherwise have received. It's something I hope developers/publishers take from the release of Redfall; if something about the game is drawing particular ire before its release, understand that the game will come under even deeper scrutiny, so it just might be worth fixing that initial problem first, as it just might save your fall from grace...

@Beermonkey I couldn't have said it better myself.

@Fiendish-Beaver Whilst I do understand your perspective, I also think that the vast majority are OK with 30fps and would opt for 'Quality' mode over 'Performance' regardless.

That in itself may sway Publishers to ensure that a Quality 30fps mode is 'ready' at launch with any 'performance' optimisation coming after. Consumers are 'used' to updates to 'older' games releasing more 'performance' - we saw it with X/Pro patches for example and then with Series, those games often actually 'run' at 60fps instead of the 40-60fps those 'performance' modes offered on 1X.

On top of that, you also have games getting updated to unlock 60fps on newer hardware long after they initially released at 30fps. In these cases, these games all released at 30fps, didn't really impact on their reception and the '60fps' Performance upgrades only helped with positive PR.

It's clear that Redfall suffers the SAME issues as many other UE4 open world design games - inc Gotham Knights, Jedi Survivor etc. These games, when 'ported' seem to be so poorly optimised for the CPU that a 'single' core will be overloaded and cause bottlenecking limiting the Frame Rate - these don't even run at a 'locked' 60fps on the 'best' PC CPU's and even an 'equivalent' Ryzen CPU on PC can't deliver a locked 30fps.

Redfall suffered more because its First Party and expectations are 'higher'. Its 'expected' to launch 'flawlessly' where as 3rd Party games are expected to launch with 'issues' to resolve. Expected to deliver a LOCKED 60fps too - even if others struggle to deliver 60fps in 'similar' games (look at Forza Motorsport vs Project Cars for example), and add in the fact that this was the 'first' big game from MS on Console for a 'long' time added even more scrutiny on the game.

Let's also not forget that this and Starfield have been delayed, with Forza 'expected' too before E3 2023. How much would yet another 'delay' have hurt - 3 'big' games promised by E3 yet none made it. Pushing it out with a 'decent' 4k/30fps Quality mode may have been more a Priority to get 'something' out before E3 and thought that the bugs/issues would be 'resolved' by launch and never expected to be as 'heavily' criticised as other games releasing in 'similar' states weren't has badly affected. They expected an average of 7's+ - Jedi Survivor is 85/86 on Console with 'Game Breaking' bugs, similar UE4 issues etc - even Gotham Knights scored 'better' than Redfall...

Even Playstation posted a positive/nice tweet about TotK. Kinda surprised by that, considering their hyper-competitive image/tactics.

@Kaloudz 60fps brings a 'slicker' feel and more responsive gaming. In some games, its almost like going from walking on sand to walking on ice. I do think that sometimes it can also feel more weightless.

Its little things like changing direction to avoid a hit, its more responsive. Also when you turn the camera quickly, it doesn't seem to 'jump' as much - because you are getting 'extra' frames smoothing out that motion more.

However, it never stopped all those games from being amazing game of the year winners. I'd rather play at 60fps in general, if that option exists, but in some games, I'll play on Quality modes with the 'best' visual Quality as that is benefitting me in 'every' frame where as 60fps may not matter too much outside of 'intensive' combat situations and the 'downgrade' to PQ is noticeable in every situation....

I've been having a blast with the game, myself.

I absolutely agree with everything that you have said, @BAMozzy. Indeed, I am currently playing through Jedi Survivor on Quality mode, as a game looking at its best is what I prioritise, and I would assume that I am not alone in that.

What I was trying to get at what twofold, firstly, that faults other games would (to some extent) get away with, were judged more harshly in Redfall, though as you say, that is likely because the game is first-party, wherein the bar is set at a higher standard.

However, my main point was that after the considerable backlash that was experienced when they revealed that Redfall was not to have 60fps upon release, as was previously expected, that at that point they should have delayed the game further. Not because gamers would not happily have played the game at 30fps (had 60fps not been stated first) or played in Quality mode, but because the game would have been received and reviewed less favourably upon release because there was already a perceived flaw in the game (in that 60fps was not available upon release) and that as such the game would be scrutinised more severely as a result. Basically, if a reviewer has a negative view of the game before he even begins the game, he will then look for other issues to affirm that bias. Therefore, it would have been better to delay the game, fix that negativity, and thus the game would have been more positively reviewed upon release. At least, that's my theory...

I have a Series S and a Switch, best combo ever, with my GF we can play all the games we love, can't wait to buy Zelda next month

@Chaotic_Neutral too many people get hung up on fps in online forums. In reality, a lot of people just play games and enjoy them with counting frames.
A fun game is fun. Inspecting picture quality is less fun.

Gratz Zelda on occupying 90% of most gaming sites...I was hoping this one being Xbox only would be free of it lol.

@Banjo- i wouldn’t say that. PS4 sold so well because of games like The Last of Us Part 2, God of War, Uncharted 4, Spiderman, Miles, Days Gone, Ghost of Tsushima, etc. This is Playstation’s main selling point, PS5 an Series X are pretty identical on all other fronts. More people go with Playstation for the games. Seen literally hundreds of people say so on here, Pushsquare an social media.

@GunValkyria Like every year lol

Microsoft has released more compliments for rival console games than actual games. This is not the way.

This is hilarious:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muUbCLxOeFA

@ZYDIO That’s not good for their customers who spent £500 on a console that’s a lot of money

Should be showing off the games for them give them a reason to be excited for buying Xbox