8BitDo Unveils The First Official Wireless Arcade Stick For Xbox

Wireless and arcade stick don't seem to go together, but it does sound convenient. No mention of what buttons, sticks, or even gate shape used of a little dubious though. It at least has a universal mounting plate but at 120 of you have to buy your own sanwa parts too, that's a hefty price.

Great news! Will get one the black version to used wired, especially for some casual Street FIghter 6 online battles.

Also to get ready for the new Mortal Kombat and Tekken games

@NEStalgia if it’s like their PC/Switch one you can plug it in to used wired.

I’ve got their already existing one which looks very similar to this minus the audio output and it working on Xbox. It’s a nice stick for the price (even if this one is a bit more expensive) and it’s very customisable. I don’t play fighting games but it works well with arcade conversions and just generally 2D games.

So, it’s wireless via a usb dongle… wonder if it would still work on Switch and PS5, even if unofficially.

@NEStalgia should i get this? I have been wanting back into fighting games but can’’t imagine I’d be very good on a controller. I am interested in SF6 and MK1. I trust your opinions with my wallet when it comes to controllers.

@Glassneedles Any idea what buttons/sticks they're using? And is it a round, square or octogate?

@Green-Bandit It doesn't look physically bad, but it depends on what the buttons and sticks are. Like with the Horii, they're ok, and the sticks are "fine" but the buttons (Horii uses their own sticks and buttons) are very not-fine, and much more consumer grade than the good, solid ones. If it has good hardware, then It looks recommendable...but it all comes down to what's inside. It's a good sign that they designed it with the expectation of swapping the hardware, it implies it could be the good kind of off the shelf hardware. EG Horii doesn't usually have easily swappable bits, the defunct Razers and the Madkatz's before them had the good Sanwas stuck but also were designed for customizing.

I'm still sad the old Razers were discontinued. They were beastly though the cable connection was dodgy at times.

Worst case, if you like the shell is of course just swapping in all your own hardware to upgrade it, but that adds a lot of cost.

@NEStalgia I bought it as my first arcade stick so not an expert or anything. Just had a quick google and couldn’t find an answer on what buttons/stick were in them. A review (geek out.ph said “Sanwa feeling” so I don’t imagine they are top of the line or anything. On Reddit as well they recommend upgrading to Sanwa parts.

I got mine as it was £75 and worked well on switch and pc. Speaking as a newcomer to sticks I quite like mine and if I get further into them I can always upgrade the stick and buttons.

Looking at the Xbox one it seems it’s a bit more expensive, I don’t know if that takes it into the price range of more premium ones or not.

@NEStalgia oh and mine is an 8 way stick with a square gate. Apparently I can easily modify this but haven’t even taken it apart yet.

@NEStalgia ok well that is something to think about for me at least. I wouldn’t mind getting back into fighters. SF6 looks pretty good minus the silly single player stuff. That just doesn’t look good to me. Suppose i could skip it and just play arcade.

@Glassneedles Yeah, it's hard to tell from the pics. I'm assuming from the price it's "Chinese generic clone Sanwa" parts. It's POSSIBLE the stick is a Seimitsu style, with the square mounting plate it's definitely not Sanwa, but impossible to tell if it's Seimitsu or generic clone. $120 is "cheap" for an arcade stick, though, so name brand parts sound probably outside the budget.

At least it's square gate. I personally prefer round, smooth action, good for everything, but my Razer has square and it's workable. Octogate is ideal for shmups but terrible for fighters. Square is good for SOME fighters (Tekken) and awful for others (Hadouken half circle!) But round seems rare outside Happ type sticks, stock.

@Green-Bandit at $120 it's not so bad. Cheaper than an Edge and if you decide you like the kit you can just stock up on parts and mod it. The chassis is the most important part, really. Though it's sad it lacks that sweet art the Hori has. My Atrox has "ok" art, it's just the Razer logo in green under the plexi but still gives it that arcade feel. So my bias leans me to designs that have a plexi top so you can put any art under it. Those don't seem to exist right now though. Just feels "right" you know?

Hah, the Like a Hadouken mode looks pretty fun to me. After like 35 years of SF it's fun to shake it up with something new. And they brought DeeJay back....SFV was so blah without my main....I had to play Ryu.

Wait a second, are wireless 3rd party controllers for Xbox now a thing? I don’t follow it that closely but this is the first wireless one I’ve heard of other than Scuf. Let’s get a wireless 8bitdo Pro 2 now!

@NEStalgia the Edge should have been $130. Yeah some cool artwork would make it way cooler. Good point i could over time make it better. Seems like a decent stick from what i have seen online. Without it in my hands it’s hard to tell.

@NEStalgia The Switch version is $90 US so even cheaper. If you look online there are plenty of pictures of Switch disassembled in greater detail than the 8bitdo released pictures. I doubt they are reinventing the wheel here when they already have a very similar stick.

Looking at it it looks broadly feature compatible. It has the same toggle so the stick can function as either analogue stick or the D-Pad. It makes it a lot more versatile since some games map exclusively to the analogue stick or D-Pad.

The software for it is pretty good, you can fully remap the buttons and even set up macros on it. I have seen people say the macro set up is fiddly and it isn't as useful as it could be but it's there.

Build quality is pretty solid for the Switch one and based on all the 8bitdo controllers I have (which are a lot of them) it should be solid on this.

I actually prefer it looking plain rather than having art for a particular game on it, but your idea of having plexiglass you can install your own art behind is pretty damn good too.

I had been looking at installing a cross gate in mine since I really like Pac-Man but seeing how I would need to dismantle it and change it over each time put me off that.

Also since I have a DualSense Edge too I thought I'd chime in and say I'd recommend this over an Edge any day. I like mine but it really does not feel premium enough for the money, with the Elite controller it feels so much nicer in your hands than a regular Xbox controller and the Edge just doesn't have that.

niceeee i put an order in for the white one

It's about time.

Since the launch ofthe Xbox Series X|S I've had three complaints about controllers: There are no gyroscopic controls, there are no easy ways to use hall effect joysticks, and compatible arcade sticks start around $250. At least this addresses the last one, I think I'll get two for game nights.

I just don't trust 8bitdo products, last time I got a wireless arcade stick off them it was probably the worst arcade stick I ever bought.

The new fighting games are very much tuned for controllers. These fighting sticks are cool, and feel good at times, but even the new controls they have made for Street Fighter... It is completely tuned for controller play.
If you are looking into getting into these new fighting games, I would not suggest spending over a hundred bucks on one of these sticks and just try getting used to the games on controller and try the new control schemes they have now.

Yes i want this one heard good things about it.

@101Force

Xbox One sticks are backwards compatible with the Series X/S or just use Brook adapter if you already have a stick.

It would be nice if at least the elite controllers had hall effect sensors.

@Green-Bandit If you want technical information, mine is Mad Catz Street Fighter V Arcade Stick Tournament Edition S+. With Vewlix-style and Denshi design, it has Sanwa parts, used in Japanese arcade cabinets. Specifically, Sanwa OBSF-30 buttons and Sanwa JLF ball-top stick. Sanwa is more sensitive than Kuro and Seimitsu.

The Mad Catz Arcade Stick Tournament Edition 2+ and S+ have two successors:

https://www.madcatz.com/en/Product/Detail/te3

https://www.madcatz.com/en/Product/Detail/ego-arcade-fight-stick

I recommend them 100% and I don't agree with people that say don't try them and stick to controllers. I started playing fighting games with controllers and high-quality arcade sticks make fighting games more enjoyable and you feel like you have more control over them. I wouldn't like to play with small-size or low-quality arcade sticks, though.

Modern fighting games have simple setups for controllers but they are not as enjoyable, for me at least. It's not a lot of money compared to those that are racing games enthusiasts and have to buy all the equipment: dashboard and wheel, seat, pedals, etc. I'm more a casual racing player.

@NEStalgia The articles says that the 8BitDo Arcade Stick can be used wired.

And Mad Catz is not defuncted.

I really want this.

@Banjo- The real Mad Katz went down in 2017. The current "mad Katz" is some Hong Kong holding company that was a distributor that bought the trademarks, but they just sell generic junk.

@NEStalgia Generic junk? Check the two links above.

@Banjo- Woah, when did they start making those again?? Just a year ago they certainly weren't!

The long story of it is the guy that designed these for mad Katz had moved into making basically the same thing for razer when mk went down. That explains razer not making them anymore, he must have gone back to mk? I did not knew that, and yes, @green-bandit those are what you want!

Edit: looks like EGO only. TE3 is Asia only, and is also unavailable at Amazon Japan so may or may not actually exist now.

@Green-Bandit @NEStalgia I haven't seen these successors in person but they look great. Perhaps the company was saved from being yet another Chinese junk manufacturer.

I found Mad Catz Ego on several Amazon sites. I would buy it if I didn't have mine.

UK (£214.97):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Madcatz-EGO-Arcade-Joystick/dp/B08DJBW44S/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?crid=27AYDIVJHFXUX&keywords=mad+catz+t3+arcade+stick&qid=1685920056&sprefix=mad+carz+t3+arcade+stick%2Caps%2C146&sr=8-2

It's also available on Amazon from other European countries for less money.

USA ($202.32):

https://www.amazon.com/Mad-Catz-Authentic-Arcade-GAPCCAINBL00/dp/B08HFNSCMV/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?crid=2T888KCU2TH7H&keywords=mad+catz+ego+arcade+stick&qid=1685920210&sprefix=mad+catz+ego+%2Caps%2C255&sr=8-2

I am sure that the 8BitDo Arcade Stick has generic parts or made by 8BitDo because otherwise they would say it in Features and Product Details. They don't say anything about the parts.

On the other hand, the parts of the Mad Catz Ego are described on Amazon: "Tournament-grade Sanwa Denshi components (joystick and action buttons) for unrivalled accuracy and timing."

One great thing about this Mad Catz Ego is that it's the first Mad Catz arcade stick with a format switch for connecting it to different consoles. No adapters needed!

@Banjo- yeah without a stick a fighting game to me feels odd. I am old enough to have played MK and others in the arcade and that control setup feels right to me. I would have already bought SF6 if i had a stick. But i wouldn’t give it proper playing time due to Diablo 4 coming out 4 days behind it. I am excited to see MK1 gameplay. Thanks for the controller advice. Me and NES talk controllers all the time. Like to much HAHA

@Banjo- @NEStalgia looks like we can add Banjo to our controller talks NES. Banjo is a good dude, i love his posts and input. Very insightful. Banjo me and NES talk controllers done to like the smallest of details. We tore it up on PUSH when the EDGE was coming out. I still ended up buying one even tho Sony controllers hate me hands and thumbs. Xbox controllers fit me like a glove. I can game all day on them and my eyes will give out before my hands. 40 mins or sometimes less on Sony controllers and i am not liking the feeling in hand. Anyways, yeah this fighting stick looks great and with SF6, Tekken and MK on the way. There’s never been a better time for me to invest into a fighting stick. Back in the day i used to play fighters a lot. Like i mean to the point where i was so far into the meta i knew how to play very competitively. I have years of rust to knock off if i try and get back into it that way. Tekken Tag on PS2 was one of my favorite PS2 games ever.

@Green-Bandit Thank you! I appreciate your comment because sometimes (not on this thread) I feel like I'm wasting my time explaining things in detail. As long as it helps someone, I'm happy.

@NEStalgia is an expert on controllers and old hardware that I don't even know. He is also specialised in accidentally destroying HDDs 😁. The three of us seem to hate PS controllers because they are not well designed for human hands, are they?

The PS5 controllers seem to copy the Xbox a bit but don't seem as comfortable, you know more the DualSense and Edge than me. The only PS console I have is the PS4 with a broken DualShock4 so I'm using a Brook Wingman XE2 adapter and my Xbox Elite 2 controller for the only two PS games that I still play: Street Fighter V and Wipeout Omega Collection. Sorry, I play Street Fighter V with the arcade stick so just one PS game (compilation) that I still play on PS with a controller.

@Banjo- The way i look at it is you are never wasting your time being informative, polite, smart and respectful. You can’t control what others choose to do with the information. I found it helpful cause while i am a console controller geek. I know a fraction of that in fighting sticks. So i have learned a lot from both yourself and NES. I do like a good fighting game tho and it’s been too long. On an unrelated note but probably understandable, i can not wait until the 11th for the Xbox Show. I really think it’s going to be good. If it isn’t I really at this point have no one to blame but them and myself and while i won’t quit on Xbox it will be close to the last nail in coffin as i can take. This HAS to be the TIME it starts to flip and makes gamers around the globe go wow did you see that game on Xbox!!

@Green-Bandit Thanks. For the record, I don't mean on this thread but generally. My favourite controller is the Xbox Elite Series 1 and 2. I hope that this Xbox show is great. It can't be worse than Sony's but players need to see what Xbox Game Studios are doing. The Xbox hardware and controllers are the best but they need to release polished games. QA doesn't always work well at Xbox. I'm also hoping for some Square Enix news since they're doing weird things lately.

I've had a brief go with the Switch version of this and it's a pretty good stick. I currently run a Mayflash f500 Elite which I find to be quite a bit better with it's Sanwa buttons and stick an optional octagonal gate (which I've fitted). It also has great compatibility across PC, Switch, Xbox and Playstation, even PS5 with an adapter and it's been great for Street Fighter 6 and takes me back to when I first played the Street Fighter 2 World Warrior arcade machine. I did try the PS5 controller but it's a bit rubbish for these kinds of games, has anyone here tried those Hori Fighting Commader pads? As I'd quite like to have a 6 face button pad again

@Banjo- the games is all they are missing on the Series consoles. This show can erase a lot of that if the games look great and seems next gen. If they can do 2-3 years worth of shows like that, Xbox will be a force again. Not to mention market the heck out of COD on GP. If they do that i can live with the results. Just a few more nights of grinding levels on Diablo 4 then the showcase will be here. Really really hope i ain’t hyping myself up to much.

@Green-Bandit I find it hilarious that between you, me, @Glassneedles and a few others, the only time I ever here anyone ever talk about actually owning a Dualsense Edge is on PureXbox lol. Nobody on Push bought one....I think the real PS fans all moved onto also having an XB when the sea change happened a gen or two ago, the ones that didn't are the brand warriors more than the actual PS fans.

Yeah the Mad Katz sticks Banjo talks about, there's a long history to that, basically the guy that designed them for MK originally (last decade) was someone famous for their stick builds on the internet basically, so they started making similar high end builds stock with MK. Then MK went down and it all ended and the sticks were like $800 on ebay. Then he got picked up by Razer to make....basically the exact same sticks. That's the Atrox I have (and the Panthera PS4 equivalent.) Then apparently in the past few years those vanished without at trace. I thought it was all totally gone, but apparently MK must have started up making them again, which means they should all be basically the same stick. The original MK, the Razer variants, and now back to MK. Same hydraulic hinge opening, snap-in Sanwa parts, piexi art cover, etc. Weird history. The Hori sticks are "ok" but feel like trash next to those.

Personally I don't love the octogate, but that's easily changeable and is based on preference.

@Banjo- Yeah, especially with FG there's just something satisfying about slamming a stick around that makes the visceral feel of fighers actually fun. I don't think they're fun on controllers at all. The visceral nature of it is half of what made the genre great in the arcades. Input devices matters for the feel of the game. The arcades understood this.

I think gaming is weird enough at that point that I wouldn't even be surprised if an S-E exclusive dropped for Xbox. Heck by their own admission they just shop around their games to whoever will pay the most. Why not?

@NEStalgia It's Mad Catz, not Mad Katz. I just checked my arcade stick to see if that was the old name. You write fighting games and MK and I think that you're talking about Mortal Kombat! Long posts but still driving me nuts with the acronyms 🤣.

I agree with everything that you said. Fighting games are more physical with arcade sticks. They become more visceral and real. When I was a kid I thought they were difficult to control but that's only because at the arcades you can only play a few times with a few coins (at least myself when I was a kid), the difficulty is high, you don't know the games and casual boys like me never stood a chance. On consoles, fighting games are okay with controllers and you get to learn the special moves and combos but get a good arcade stick and you fall in love with the freedom and sporty style. I wasn't sure at first but it's the best investment and I'd get the Mad Catz Ego or an equivalent one if I didn't have the T2 S+. Quality is very important in this case and it was one of my best purchases ever. It makes controls easier and more satisfying.

For Zeus, can't Square Enix stop being a bitch and just be like any other third party? 😅

@Green-Bandit The future is bright with ABK games on board soon and, hopefully, upcoming Xbox Game Studios titles being more polished than others at launch such as State of Decay 2, that later become one of the greatest Xbox games, and Redfall that also launched in a disappointing state.

Many of the Xbox studios should have big projects in their hands, I don't doubt it but I'm still needing things I don't see like Banjo-Kazooie, Conker, Viva Piñata... Fable is the most exciting of the games that have been announced already. If only Rare and Activision made games like that once acquired!

@Banjo- That's what they get for weird 1337 spelling of words. Though Katz's deli seems like the kind of place that should have arcade cabinets still, so maybe it's freudian.

If you want peak visceral FG, you had to have played the US cabinets. Instead of the Sanwa/Seimitsu cabs we hadd the Happ sticks with the round gates, heavy spring/fast center, and tall, large bat top. They were meant to be slammed around lol! No ball tops, you just grabbed a fistful of heavy spring-loaded stick and played with your whole forearm lol. You could hear the sound of heavy plastic slamming on steel all the way to the food court

LOL, Square....there's just something fundamentally broken about a publisher who goes seeking publishers for their games, more or less..... That they think that's normal is frightening. Like imagine EA going around saying "well we brought Mass Effect 5 around for talks with several platforms and Luna offered us the best deal, so that's where it will be exclusive." The whole point of being a publisher is to....publish games...everywhere...and not have to shop for publishers. Didn't they get that memo?

@NEStalgia Wow, kind of Wii Sports, then.

The Mass Effect is a very good example and it's frightening indeed that Square Enix see that business attitude as acceptable. They admit that as a publisher that also publishes third-party games. It's worrying.

@Banjo- With square it explains why so many have it wrong about them. We assume a publisher's default is to publish on every available platform and assumed if they don't it's because a particular platform is undesirable to them or another particular platform is paying for special privileges. And in reality it's that Squares default is that every game should be shopped for a single benefactor platform to publish it for them. They're not really a publisher at all anymore, they're just a bloated studio. Maybe they should have EA publish for them. Then they can be on multiple platforms again. FFXVIII: An EA Originals(TM). Squeenix deserves that indie love from the major publishers.

Not quite Wii sports. Just a much larger than the Japanese style sticks (because bigger is better) with a full-hand shaped top, and a really heavy loaded spring, and no gating:

Not the best picture but here's an ok look at a USA SF2 cabinet. It doesn't give a sense of the very heavy spring and fast snap to center but it shows the grip size:

@NEStalgia yeah all those “hardcore” PlayStation fan’s didn’t buy an Edge and i know why and no it’s not all cause of the price. PS fan’s dislike competitive games. They see no need for back buttons to play single player games. You do NES cause you have a real dislike for clicking L3 & R3 hahaha and by dislike i am being generous! But look at the reaction on Push about Sony making more variety in games and moving into multiplayer and live service. PS players want single player games and stock controllers and while that’s fine to an extent. Us Xbox gamers are used to competitive online games and pro controllers as a user base more than PS’s user base. I mean i don’t need to tell you i barely even like the dual sense controller and i still bought one at a premium price. That i rarely use. As for what you and @Banjo has taught me with the fighting sticks, i really appreciate it, cause while i can hold my own with anyone talking regular controllers, i don’t even try and pretend to be up to knowledge about fighting sticks. I can’t even remember the last one i had. So this has been a good catch up in that space and i have enjoyed the input. 😊

@Banjo- i am super excited for Fable and would buy a Banjo game day 1 if it was made right. I do believe we will see polish and great games over the next few years. They are in great position to have many studios releasing games back to back to back and keeping Xbox in the news in a good way and over time, players will come to see what all the noise is about. This will sound silly or dumb to you and i take that in stride as i know talking about Redfall comes with a stain, but i liked parts of the game and could see what they were attempting to make and while it isn’t realized, it’s closer than others might think. Now will they give it the Sea of thieves and State of Decay love after launch? I am not so sure, but i do think they will update it some and drop the DLC with the new characters. I enjoyed killing the vampires in the game, so i hope they at least fix it up some. I beat it and got 50% of the achievements. But boy did it struggle in areas. They can’t have more launches like that. But i don’t think they will and i think this showcase will show what they are capable of. Been with Team Green since day 1 of the OG and not looking to leave. Plus MS needs gaming to be a big part of it’s core business. It makes sense for them. As Apple and Google control the more personal area’s of tech and MS own the business side with windows. This is a important area for them and i am happy to see them doubling down and investing in gaming and being here for a long time.

@Green-Bandit The irony is the only competitive game I touch is Splatoon and there's no fancy pro controller for that lol. Though it has gyro which is more pro than elite V2

For me of course you don't need a competitive game to get more out of a better controller, not... The ps core group can be weird, Sony is to be worshipped, any price increase is to be defended, but the edge should fail and psvr2 should fail and the Q should fail and cloud should fail 😂. I thought it was bad to like Xbox in that group until I liked psvr.... Now Xbox feels like a friendly topic in comparison 😆

Single player or not it's still hilarious to me that nobody will touch an edge there!

@NEStalgia HAHA i agree. Yeah I know you don’t play a lot of competitive games and i play less and less of them seeing as i don’t care about Fortnite or Apex and Halo infinite i logged 200 hours into multiplayer until i learned no new maps were coming out and updates were far and few between. But i agree 100% with you and i think that’s the point most are missing, you don’t need to be a pro or play super fast twitch shooters to get something out of a pro controller. You know that, i know that cause we have them and yet 98% of Push would have Sony stop making Edge controllers for all they care. PSVR2 should be praised for what it does and yet others again want it to fail, as i would like a few games to come out and make me buy one, side rant, i want the new VR Apple showed today, the Vision Pro. Xbox for sure need’s to update it’s tech in it’s controller and gyro is one of them. Just keep the shape the same, cause i have been on Diablo 4 a lot already and the Xbox controller just melts into my hands. On PS5 i would have been slipping off the controller and had a sore wrist 5-6 levels in.

@Green-Bandit At $3500 for a VR headset Apple can keep theirs lol. For that price you could buy yourself a psvr2, buy one for 5 friends, and still have money left over ..... And everyone complains about psvr2s price.... And they aren't necessarily wrong... Sure there's enthusiasts from the porche and Rolex crowd that will buy one but it's obvious at that price point they're targeting medical, government, military, engineering business, not consumer entertainment no matter the marketing.

Man I played Diablo 3 on the ds4... You want pain? That's it right there 😂. Missed my mouse so much!

It's much worse than that, Square Enix accept Sony's money for specifically excluding Xbox and Game Pass, as revealed by some documents related to Final Fantasy VII Remake and others. There are many documents that Sony don't want to share, not even with the judge after resorting to regulators and causing Microsoft to be in court in US.

Square Enix first talk with Sony and ask them, "How much for this?" Sony answer, "This much for excluding Xbox". If feeling generous, Square Enix ask Phil, "We are offered this by our first choice which is Sony, would you like to pay triple for publishing this game for Xbox... not exclusively?" If you read between the lines, that's what Square Enix do. Microsoft is last on their list and Microsoft has to pay much more and don't even get the games exclusively because that would make Sony angry. Yes, their last statement makes clear that Square Enix is not ashamed to say that they are bitches but everybody knows who their favourite pimp is.

Back to the arcades, I've seen those sticks before somewhere (internet?) but I haven't used them.

I am not sure about motion controls, I like the Wii Remote pointer but I don't think that the Wii U Game Pad or Switch have managed to make them right. And didn't you or somebody else say that the Wii U Game Pad is better because it uses the magnetic fields? The Wii Remote Plus is also fun but it had to be calibrated often. In short, only the Wii Remote pointer, which seems like the NES Zapper (that I have never tried) is a perfect motion control. As a side note, I hated how hard Nintendo tried to shoehorn motion controls into Wii games. However, I agree with you and @Green-Bandit that the Xbox controller should have gyroscopes as another feature and I might use it in some games if it feels right.

@Green-Bandit I'm glad that you are also excited about Fable and a possible Banjo-Kazooie game! I haven't played Redfall yet but I've played Sea of Thieves and State of Decay 2 much and those are very good examples of games that have been polished to perfection. However, those circumstances hurt the Xbox brand because they got bad reviews at launch, not to mention the disappointment of players, that is also exaggerated by some PS trolls that are PX residents.

I don't think that Microsoft expected bad things to happen but it's their responsibility so that's when I say that QA has failed. The Xbox Game Studios have too much freedom. Look at The Initiative, still a mess that has Crystal Dynamics developing their first game. I would also like Microsoft to demand some genres and IPs instead of letting studios do what they want to do, for the sake of variety and to prioritise gamers over developers. Of course, don't go as far as Sony's Naughty Dog that is a hell of a company according to the ex-employees. Just tell Xbox Game Studios what they should be doing and have some effective QA. As you said, they are taking the video games business seriously as they should and they have invested billions in Xbox Game Studios, so don't let the output be mediocre!

@NEStalgia well i do see people say apple’s price vs PSVR2, but they are two different products. Apple’s is a personal computer with full os and many many other things, in fact gaming is just something it happens to do. But it is cutting edge tech and trying to become the virtual PC of the future. I have no use for it at the moment. Man i couldn’t play Diablo on PS4 cause of the controller. Not sure if i could play D4 on the dual sense. Maybe but i am sure i would like it as much. I could be wrong.

@Banjo- couldn’t agree more. I honestly think after a while naughty dog will break. Yeah they have spent billions and i think Starfield is about to steal the summer show’s. Even over Spider-Man 2 cause that just looked like more of the same, which isn’t an insult cause it’s a great approach to the series. But by Spider-man 3 they will need to change it up or it run’s the risk of going stale. Starfield has a real chance to show the world AAA big games come to GP and MS is finally ready to start showing it has quality games in its portfolio.

@Green-Bandit If the media wasn't so biased, Starfield would be the game of the year over Spider-Man 2 and Tears of the Kingdom. Who knows, Starfield might be game of the year, after all!

@Green-Bandit As an entertainment product it's going head to head against a $500 and $550 product at $3500. As a general computing product it's basically Zuck's vision of the Metaverse at 4x the price, 3 years late, and after the world rejected it, laughed it out of the market, and crashed Meta's trade value in the process, but of course the Apple designer label will make it more popular.

I Actually LIKED Zuck's metaverse idea, the one and only time I ever rooted for Zuck in anything, so I was sad when it went down in flames so hard, but if Apple's idea is to sell an ugly looking metaverse exclusively to the wealthy.... yeah....that's even more doomed than the original idea. It's one of those things that will be a fad as a status symbol and then 10 years later people will look back and mock the era hysterically. I'm a huge VR fan but...that isn't it. Yes, it's a wearable computer. I'm sure it'll find its niche. But I don't see the masses looking for wearing their computers this century. Even if it would appeal to me at a sensible price point, it surely won't appeal to the majority. Or a plurality. Or anyone but ubernerds really

@NEStalgia i largely agree, Apple isn’t building its VR to the mass market yet, cause mass market hasn’t accepted it. But they are building it for the future, as someone much smarter than me inside apple knows this is the computing future on some level. They want to be there and ahead in both tech and software and in some ways they are. Let’s just say i don’t Zuck. Like at all. But in all ways they offered no where near the level of ecosystem integration the likes of apple. I think we need to see in 5 years if Apple pulls away from this or finds a niche for it and continues to work it into mainstream acceptance a little more than it currently sits at. One thing is for sure, i am a unapologetically, huge apple fan. I believe so much in their products that if they can’t make it work no one can. Apple is so intertwined with today’s youth that their future looks bright, like windows bright. Microsoft, Samsung and Google will continue to struggle with their numbers as apple has a hold on the teenage market growing up to be tomorrow’s computing adults. When MS say’s they lost the worse Generation against the PS4 when people were building up their digital libraries. This is on that scale X’s 1000.

@Banjo- the media is very biased, but with some great games they may have no other choice but to see MS has turned the Xbox one corner and is here to stay. Zelda just isn’t my thing in the open world and i don’t know why. I wanted to love breathe of the Wild and just didn’t. The weapons breaking as easily as they did just wore me out. I tend to like open world games but Zelda and me just ain’t jiving and as for Spider-Man, i am on record saying if i wanted to be in the Marvel universe, i would just watch the movie and carry on. I am not much for the games of Marvel, are they well made and respected in the industry? Absolutely, can i see why? Absolutely, but they aren’t for me. So Starfield or something else would be my game over Zelda and Spider-Man.

@Green-Bandit The problem with Sony's games is that they are not gamey, which is more or less what you're saying and what many others say. It's like watching a film. When they try to do something more open-world and with more gameplay, Ubisoft does it better. They shut the Japanese studios down and became a Hollywood developer. Now they're becoming a MMOG developer 😂.

Breath of the Wild is the most overrated game in history. Do you want to read my review on Miiverse as a long-time The Legend of Zelda fan? Here you are.

Ridiculous divine beasts dungeons - dungeons are the defining feature of the series!; empty cloned shrines, some of them with one chest and zero puzzles; gimmicky puzzles; nightmarish user interface and armour management; lacklustre story; pause-to-play scheme; oversized and frustrating climbing; bad targeting system; boring side quests and bosses and empty and soulless world.

@Banjo- now that sums up how i felt just way better worded HAHA, it just never felt right to me from the start. But everyone and their dog gave it a 10/10 and i just didn’t see it. The problem is once everyone and their hamster gives it a 10 and i come in at a 7.5 they are going to gang up on me and call me a hater or something dumb and not true. When it really came down to only a decent at best attempt to move Zelda into an open world. As for Sony going Hollywood, i certainly can agree with that. However i will add when it’s done right i do appreciate it and enjoy it say like the Last of Us or 2018 God of War, but mostly everything else i can largely pass on it. Even God of War Ragnarok which i was insanely hyped for, i mean outside of Diablo 4 i don’t think there was another game not named diablo 4 or Red Dead Redemption that i could have been more excited for and while i liked it, i didn’t love it like i thought i would. Was a little longer than i thought it needed to be. Most bosses weren’t super fun to play against, the leveling up and stat’s are kind of sloppy and not well implemented. Something just didn’t make me want to replay it yet. The 2018 GOW and Last of Us i have beaten 2-3 times each, i beat ratchet and clank on PS5 3 times. So Sony games just don’t knock my socks off like everyone else. Maybe it’s cause i am older and less games impress me. But if for some reason i could only have 1 console, i am going with Xbox cause my big 3 are there, Diablo, Red Dead and Gears of war. Those franchises still excite me like a kid. Sorry this got wordy and probably off topic, but i certainly relate to your post and always enjoy talking with ya. 😀

@Green-Bandit I also enjoy yours posts 😁. I have never played Diablo but I assume that when Microsoft gets ABK, they will join Game Pass so I'll try them. I haven't played Red Dead Redemption 1 nor 2 either but I might, they look more appealing than GTA to me. I have played all the Gears games except Tactics that I will. Gears of War is also one of my favourite franchises, especially 1, 2, 3 and 4. Solid gameplay, great script, impressive battles and amusing situations. At least you enjoyed The Last of Us, I couldn't really enjoy the gameplay but I'm glad you did. I think that you're really happy about Diablo IV being so good. We might hear about Gears of War 6 this year or next. I hope that it's not like 5 that I didn't enjoy very much except for the DLC Hivebusters.

@Banjo- YES i am loving Diablo 4. One of the best Blizzard games in many many years, and could stand up as one of their best ever. Meta for that game will be in the 90’s. Let’s talk some Gears of War shall we. I am 90% with you. 1-3 are some of my favorite times in gaming ever. Before anyone reads this and thinks i am saying they are the best games ever made, i am not. But at that time in my life we were coming off the OG Xbox and me and my friends would take our TV’s, Xbox’s, and of course Halo to our houses and play lan parties and it was beyond fun for it’s time. Made me really love Xbox. Then as we got older and moved away for school, work and general life, the 360 was out and of course we all got one. Gears over Xbox Live became Gears and Beers with friends i could no longer drive down the street and see in person. We had so much fun playing Co-op story, Horde, online multiplayer and then just talking over Xbox live about how this is the best time in gaming history. So between that and just how well Gears 1-3 was, those are hands down my favorites and hooked me into Xbox. Gears 4 i liked the single player and of course played a lot of the multiplayer but it was just so so and of course my friends had moved on in life and didn’t game as much as me or bought PS4’s or life stuff and i was more on my own. Then Gears 5 and that is the game i just didn’t enjoy the single player. I beat it twice and tried my best to say i loved it and i just didn’t, however i felt the online multiplayer was at one point after updates the best in the series and logged 600 hours into online and was ranked in the top 20% in the world (not bragging) Gears 6 needs to come back with a banger. However truth told the showcase this week would make me so happy to get Gears collection 1-3 in all the Series X glory. That would take me back to a time in life where i just enjoyed things so much more and easier cause the internet wasn’t as full of hateful kids making the industry what it looks like today. Diablo 4 and Gears collection in the same year would truly be a gaming year i wouldn’t forget.

@Green-Bandit Thanks for sharing all that 😊. I haven't played the multiplayer of 5 a lot but I agree, it's very polished and fun. My first Xbox was the Xbox One so I don't have those memories but I can relate to easily when I think of playing Monster Hunter Tri online on Wii. Those were the times when online multiplayer was a new way to connect and have fun and that's why many people have great memories of playing Xbox 360.

@Banjo- i love Mario Galaxy on Wii. I still wish those would get a port to Switch 2. At this point all i really like from Nintendo is Mario, Mario Kart and animal crossing. That alone has me buying a Switch 2 day one tho. I would love a new Donkey Kong game. But for this week all i can think of is what will MS show at the showcase. We are getting closer buddy.

@Green-Bandit Nintendo has disappointed me so many times, especially with Switch and what they have done with their IPs lately. I have no idea what they will do regarding hardware. Switch is mobile technology that was dated as mobile technology before launch. The problem is that the games that Switch tries to run make that lack of power more evident than previous Nintendo hardware that was also underpowered. That is not limited to third-party games but first-party as well. Tears of the Kingdom looks like a blurry brown slideshow mess and that's supposed to be Nintendo's game of the year.

Only four days to see what Microsoft is preparing!

@Banjo- agreed, i am all for Nintendo not wanting to “compete” with the big boys in Sony and Microsoft. But lately it comes to their own games running so bad that review sites are giving it a pass or Zelda get’s a 7 just based on 24-30 FPS. The games just don’t do it for me no more. Yes i am getting older but it’s not like i lost interest for Nintendo, i just don’t want to play that graphic and performance level on a $2,000 dollar Oled Tv. But they aren’t targeting me, many are fine with it as they sell like hotcakes. But i have taken a step back from Nintendo as it really needs updated hardware and get some of these games running better. I am not one that thinks Nintendo need’s 4K. I would be really happy with 1440P and 60fps. That is a happy sweet spot for their style of games.

@Green-Bandit I completely agree with all that and I'm also a fan of OLED TVs and have two. I'm disappointed with what Nintendo is doing since Switch but I admit that I'm intrigued about their next hardware.

@Banjo- i am always interested in what they will do, until the actually do it HAHA. Me two, i have a LG C1 65 inch in the media room, and a C2 LG oled 55 in the downstairs living room. I almost want the smaller 43 and use it as a monitor for work and put a Xbox on that. At the moment i only have 1 Series X in the media room, but i do plan to buy another Series X for downstairs at some point.

Just imagine playing Nintendo's games on Series X in 4K 60fps if they didn't have to sell us their own crappy hardware and controllers every five years 😁.