Comments 284

Re: Microsoft's Mobile Gaming Store Is Being Tested Internally At Xbox

AverageGamer

@Markatron84 Capcom and Ubisoft ports was $30($40 in the case of RE7) for games that barely ran and was limited to the highest end devices. People will buy games if they make sense for the platform, cheap, and run well. Older games are perfect for this as they are lighter on the hardware and can be price between $5-10.

"if you can't get Assassin's Creed to sell, what can you?"

The funny parts it that the SpongeBob remake ports on mobile have sold better than Assassin's Creed...

Re: Xbox Gaming On Amazon's Fire Stick Is Getting Mixed Feedback So Far

AverageGamer

@NEStalgia They also aren't just pushing Cloud gaming through Amazon. They've been pushing it through Samsung, and Meta with the Quest 3 getting support last year in December.

The issue is that MS themselves can't directly support their own game stream service. The EU and Uk regulators won't let them. So, Microsoft are stuck having to find ways around that... MS technically don't even own the right to stream their own games. Ubisoft own the cloud streaming right to CoD.

Re: Xbox Gaming On Amazon's Fire Stick Is Getting Mixed Feedback So Far

AverageGamer

@NEStalgia I just want to point out that Series X hardware blades launched it 2021, with the upgrade being completed by Oct of that year.

This is also when they were splitting up the Series X blades into running 2-3 Series S instances instead... This was around the time of Forza Horizon 5 and Halo Infinite launch as everyone (myself included) was complaining that games weren't the Series X version. So that had nothing to do with the ABK purchase and was something they was doing years before.

Re: Xbox Gaming On Amazon's Fire Stick Is Getting Mixed Feedback So Far

AverageGamer

@Xbox_Dashboard "Cloud gaming will never hit the desired levels of latency that on board gaming can."

Cloud streaming could never beat the latency offered by a Native PC game with keyboard and mouse, but cloud streaming services like GeForce Now has already come close to and have beaten latency offered by consoles 2 years ago. I don't know the modern number now, but with stuff like Reflex and the new gen of GPU it probably better than anything we have on Xbox Series X and PS5.

Re: Xbox Gaming On Amazon's Fire Stick Is Getting Mixed Feedback So Far

AverageGamer

@OldGamer999 They keep pushing cause it a viable solution when everything works well.

The big issue is that companies are all failing on one or more aspect that could make streaming great.

Stadia = Great hardware, terrible game library. xCloud = Great library, terrible hardware. GeForce = Fantastic hardware, an okay library but too heavily depended on you already owning the games which make it a big ask for people who don't already have a massive steam library.

It also doesn't help that these low-cost streaming devices like Firestick aren't all great for game streaming. Game stream still require decent hardware with a very good NIC/Wifi Card and an SoC cable of good decoding. Most devices don't have this.

Re: Xbox Is Giving Away Free Forza Horizon 4 Codes For Eligible Players

AverageGamer

@Banjo- My dream car is a manual Mustang GT in Ben 10 green (lol) with black stripes. I know, pretty basic, but I enjoy mustangs. But car in game was the PP1 with the 2018 refresh they did for S550 generation. I added sport spring in game, so it was slightly lowered.

But in 2019, the speciality color for that year was a green that basically matched the green that I picked in game and came stock from factory with black stripes. I ordered one brand new from Ford it the same PP1 configuration, active exhaust, with the upgraded interior, and of course in manual.

Re: Rumour: Xbox Showcase To Feature First-Party Shadow Drop, Details On Portable Console

AverageGamer

@NEStalgia "I think most of the selling point of the X Elite is the transition layer though. Most of these games, especially BC will be through that layer."

Microsoft and Qualcomm have improved the emulation, but we'll see if it as good as Rosetta. They have tried multiple time and have failed... But there will still be a performance hit vs native ARM apps.

I don't see them making the ARM jump simply because they would be too lazy to recode their bloatware and other pointless junk just yet for ARM. Better to stay with x86 for compatibly reason until the market increases.

We already see where at least Asus is going. They plan to repackage basically the same hardware in a slight nicer package for $800

"I mean I would hope your $1000 ipad pro could beat a $250 Series S..... Though with Apple I wouldn't doubt if it didn't. "

We're not talking about price... We're talking about the massive technical improvement that we've seen in mobile chip. Where a tablet can now beat out a system with active cooling. It doesn't matter what my iPad cost since it has a screen, camera, speakers... etc. It also isn't being subsidized like Series S.

Re: Rumour: Xbox Showcase To Feature First-Party Shadow Drop, Details On Portable Console

AverageGamer

@NEStalgia 30FPS in BG3 is super impressive. That a very heavy CPU game, not necessarily GPU bond. They ran AI upscaling mostly due to the fact a lot these snapdragons chip is going to be put into laptops with ridiculously high near 4k panels. Games won’t look good on these panels without the AI upscaling. Even on Ally with a 1080P screen you need to run BG3 with FSR to get “higher” than 30FPS.

Also, I would like to note that their performance test is most likely using an x86 to ARM translation layer, not a native ARM version of BG3 that can port from Mac. So, there is definitely going to be some performance loss there.

“"800p at 60fps medium settings" would far exceed a Series S, so I'm dubious of that.”

I wouldn’t doubt that. The Series S wasn’t that impressive of kit when it released, and we are easily reaching the point that it can be surpassed by these mobile chips… People say the Series S GPU is the equivalent of 5500xt. At this point, the M4 in my iPad Pro is faster than the Series S.

If Microsoft stop subsidizing hardware. We can really say goodbye to Xbox hardware. No one is going to bother buying overpriced Xbox hardware. Even Valve realized the importance of subsidizing hardware which is why they did that with Steam Deck.

Re: Rumour: Xbox Showcase To Feature First-Party Shadow Drop, Details On Portable Console

AverageGamer

@NEStalgia “ Only thing right now I can think of is something to do with their Qualcomm partnership and some sort of Snapdragon X Elite handheld, which could probably get 15 hours of battery vs 60-90 minutes on the Z1E at full tilt. But graphics are not the strong suit of those things, leaning hard into the NPU based AI upscaling, and those are quite pricy, appearing, for now, only on $1k laptops”

While graphic performance aren’t a big part of those chips. They are very potent chips performance wise. They should have no issues running most games at 800P with medium settings and hit 60FPS. But we have to wait for independent reviewers to get the full picture.

As for appearing only in $1k laptop… That cause laptop/hardware manufacturers aren’t subsidizing the cost of components. Those are designed strictly to make money off the hardware.

Xbox can and will subsidize the hardware cost… That is something Asus and Lenovo also aren’t doing with their handhelds. So Xbox could easily release a stronger handheld at a cheaper price point.

Re: Hellblade 2's First Xbox Update Now Available, Here Are The Full Patch Notes

AverageGamer

@oopsiezz I never saw hype for this game. The only people who was pushing this game was twitter and YouTube Xbox fanboys who wasn’t playing on buying the game anyway…

The game had barely no marketing, was only barely shown to the public, and the release date was announced less than 3 months before the actual release. Add in the fact it only $50, this was never made to be a top list seller.

Re: Poll: What Do You Think Of The Graphics In Hellblade 2 For Xbox Series X|S?

AverageGamer

@MaccaMUFC "I think the graphics look great but it can be off putting when textures can look flat and bland and it can look fuzzy/blurry, even with the motion blur turned off "

I think i a lot of this is due to the fact the game relies so heavily on photogrammetry. There something like over 370 pieces of photogrammetry in the sequel, compared to just one in the first Hellblade... So, you can easily tell what was created by a 3d artist in the studio, and what was photographed during trips to Iceland. The stuff that is photogrammetry is probably going to have a softer fuzzier appearance.

Re: Roundup: Here's What The Critics Are Saying About Xbox's Hellblade 2

AverageGamer

So excited to finally get my hands on this!! I hyped after the announcement especially when I found out my favorite band was doing the soundtrack.

Whether or not this will be a success is entirely based on budget… The first was considered a success and it only probably sold less than 2 million.

Also people stating that Ninja Theory could end up like Tango, don’t realize that games sales isn’t the only reason a studio get closed…

Re: Recent Studio Closures Tied To 'Long Term' Health Of The Business, Claims Xbox President

AverageGamer

What I’m about to say probably isn’t related to main article at all… But as the days go by, I’m starting to get why MS closed the studio that they did from a business perspective.

Alpha Dog Games was offering literally nothing of value… Their mobile games aren’t need when you now own king.

Roundhouse Studios was struggling before they were even bought out by Zenimax when they was still known as Human Head (original creators of prey). While the studio was closed… The team was moved to work on Elder Scrolls Online

MS only closed a satellite office with Arkane Austin. But that means they can focus all resources on the main office, Lyon.

While Tango made great games… It located in Japan. Xbox is not growing in Japan. Meaning anything located in the country is not going to get the proper support it needs. I’m sure Xbox Japan offices is pretty much empty with only a single person hired to just clean the halls and offices for when Phil can find time to fly over.

That bring up how often is Phil and other Xbox management able to visit Japan? Probably not often cause they also have families that they want to spend time with. You can basically visit any of the America offices in an afternoon, and be back in WA before dinner.

That means Tango is basically operating independently, without the proper leadership and supervision from head office 85% of the year.

Had tango probably been an American studio… They could have downsized or sold off/partnered with.

It better to spend that Japan budget on get Square Enix or supporting Kojima.

Re: Xbox Exec Provides Reasoning Behind Bethesda Studio Closures

AverageGamer

@endlessleep @Ricky-Spanish 343 isn’t just responsible for the halo games. They are responsible for any and all relationships with 3rd party companies… Aka they handle halo merchandise, books, tv shows… etc. And while the games haven’t been up to par. They still push a lot of sales.

Tango just didn’t have any value… Unless they planned to make action figure using the HiFi Rush ip.

Re: Digital Foundry Impressed By 'Stunning Visual Design' In Ori Dev's New Game

AverageGamer

@GamingFan4Lyf Nintendo don't even need their games to sell. They don't sell their hardware for a lost like Microsoft or Sony... Who need to make up lost profit through games sale. Nintendo is the richest company in Japan with zero debt.

@datamonkey Yeah. Isn't the saying that Nintendo has enough cash that they could lose 300 million for 50+ years, and still not be broke; and survive through multiple generations of console failures.

Re: Baldur's Gate 3 Sequel Being Planned, But Not From Larian Studios

AverageGamer

@Fiendish-Beaver It not due to tension between Larian and Wizard… It the tension between Larian and Hasbro. Hasbro has been doing massive layoffs especially within Wizards of the Coast. This had caused many of the contacts that Larian worked with during development to be let go.

Larian has been very vocal about the layoffs affecting the game industry, and their decision to move away from the franchise is probably cause of this. They don’t want to bring massive profit to a company who still turns around and fires people who the part of the team that help achieve this.