BrilliantBill

Pretty solid overall. Wish Cronos was Day 1 on GP. But it is ok.

@Fiendish-Beaver I have a foggy memory that I had played a few minutes of the very first one ages ago. I remember it being very old Schoo.

But I guess it isn't exactly Gears of War 2 or Halo 3, where despite the age the game is very playable and enjoyable.

@themightyant The battle Royale is so cliche and common right now that making a decent functioning one shouldn't in and of itself be the biggest achievement. Almost everything 343 made for Halo has been "decent enough". That stretch between 7/10 to 10/10 is what they struggle with.

@Balaam_ Both 343 and BGS have ancient inefficient game engines that just has to go. 343 finally took the bait. But with Todd Howard there I doubt that happens with BGS anytime soon.

But for me I always wondered why CD Projekt decided to switch to UE5. Unlike Bethesda, their engine powered a truly stunning RPG game and games before that and even today with Path Tracing it is one of the best looking games in existence on PC. Shame. But they surely know better.

@GamingFan4Lyf Specially considering he says it was a huge technical challenge, but doesn't mention they never overcame the challenge anyway and still completely failed to make a functioning Space RPG game. I would argue Mass Effect games back on 360 did a better job of that.
At this point I wish they bit the bullet like basically everyone else and just went with UE5. But Todd Howard wouldn't go for that I guess.

@OldGamer999 I guess the amount of time needed to model all the objects and environments in 3D is becoming exponentially longer and it gets worse in each console generation.
But probably actual reason as always administrative bottle necks with management decisions and approvals etc. A complete change in Engine probably also means most of them went through a whole learning curve again as well.

@somnambulance Problem is that Sony will probably not change a single thing as they will feel they have a winning strategy and they don't need to change things. A line up of story focused AAA games every 4-5 years from each studio and again padded by remasters and remakes. Biggest change they will do is probably going Day 1 on PC for most or all releases.

@themightyant I would say new consoles are revealed in 2026 event (perhaps even just with Project COOL-STUFF type of naming). They are then released in 2027 holidays. Also they will announce a Halo game to launch with it so Phil can finally have his "We will launch new Xbox with Halo" moment which he missed last time. All games well into 2028 and even 2029 will be cross-gen because you need a large enough total addressable market . Sony will probably launch a year later in Holidays 2028. But it will cost them nothing and they will be fine anyway.

Way too much ambition I guess.
@NEStalgia Redfall is one of those "What the hell was that?" games people will talk about for years to come.

Any character voiced by Mass Effect trilogy Alumni is a big plus for me.

@BAMozzy There was rumour on Twitter about the Halo CE Remake, saying that the new strategy is to remake games individually and sell each full price instead of Trilogy Remasters. If you look elsewhere one-by-one remakes in franchises are the new norm (SH2, MGS3, RE games did it etc).
I think there will be eventually remakes of 2 and 3 as well. Probably done by another team other than Coalition.

@BAMozzy The aesthetic and styling of most assets/characters/models between Gears games is very similar. Something like a Retro Lancer created for a theoretical Gears 2 Remake could also easily be used for E-Day. I think they have explored all the ideas (Gears 6, Gears 2 Remake,...) before landing on this.

@JoyfulFire My theory is that it is recently moved to 2026. Microsoft probably feels that between Fable, Doom TDA and CoD 2025 they already have enough for 2025 anyway. Also all games in 2025 will be swallowed by GTA6 anyway.

@HonestHick Coalition said that Gears 4/5 are 100% canon no reboot/retcon etc. But then Phil went ahead and said that the leadership changed in Coalition and they don't want that old vision. Which smells very strongly of soft retcon and also exactly same as what happened from Halo 5 to Infinite. To be fair Infinite was revealed as a "spiritual reboot" which isn't the case with E-Day.
Maybe Phil got carried away a little in that IGN interview. But generally I also think it is a "launch the game around the same time as movie/aninmated series for new fans" situation.

@NEStalgia I can easily see her being the next one after Phil as CEO. I also can feel Phil (see what I did there) retiring in 2-3 years or moving to some other position in Microsoft. And ofc for that practicing to "take the heat" is part of training for the job? Hence this interview?

@abe_hikura Xbox is dedicated to always thinking industry is changing and transitioning. Kinect on 360, TV-focused digital-ownership only Xbox One, and now all the cloud and subscription madness. It goes like this: 1)Xbox always finds some random thing that claims is the future of gaming industry 2) Claims they are preparing for that future (shutting down studios and ruining what works) 3)Said future never arrives (as seen with Kinect, TV and Entertainment focused consoles and now with GP being stuck at 30 millions subs and never growing). Microsoft roams around aimlessly until they detect the next "future thing", which spoiler alert, they have also detected wrong.

RELEASE THE HYPE ENGINE!

@somnambulance I also always went for a coffee break or something when it was the SoT section in Xbox showcases. I absolutely never saw its appeal.

@Fiendish-Beaver Basically former PS CEO Shawn Layden also explained it recently in an interview. If your games cost 200million dollars to make, you have to look if you can sell it to a larger market (total addressable market as suites call it). Sony has no need to bring their own exclusives to Xbox because their own market on PS5 + PC is large enough.
With Microsoft, their own market is small (half the size of PS) and even plus PC it is still a small market (or rather, the market isn't that small, their games are just not that successful on it). So they have to add ca.60 million PS5s to that market as a way to increase their chances.
Problem is if they don't do this, either they have to make far cheaper games, which they cannot cause making high-level AAA games costs what it costs, or they have to go to multiple platforms. At this point it is just a case of "inevitable".
I guess had Microsoft launched S/X with a rich library of exclusives out of the gate + much better marketing this could have been avoided. But we will never know for sure.

@OldGamer999 The fact that games now take 4-8 years while consoles release every 7 years (or even 4 years if you count refreshes like PS5 Pro) is just weird to me. Games should take 3 years max.

@cardcrusher29 I felt like Strange New Worlds was overall solid. But please less Discovery-like stuff Paramount.

@K1LLEGAL He has done more Marketing for Xbox than all marketing people in the history of Xbox.

The show is improving massively every episode. Truly spectacular work.
@Fiendish-Beaver Friendly reminder to beware of possible spoilers! Some big things are happening that people may want to talk about.

Any eventual Halo game that is not a "Master Chief and Cortana" story has to be developed by someone outside of 343 and another studio. It is kind of hard to convince Microsoft they should make a ODST etc spinoff when they consistently struggle in shipping a single feature-complete "classic" Halo game on launch.
Microsoft drummed up Halo Infinite to launch with Series X and they totally missed their mark after a 5-6 year dev cycle sadly.
@ParsnipHero Have there been periods where people didn't like Bungie's games?

@Fiendish-Beaver Most of the speak there was peak "corporate speak" anyway. I am glad they did this and cleared up some things about future of Xbox hardware and status of GamePass Day 1 etc. But there had to be a solid guarantee that some games will never jump ship to other platforms.
But the problem is that, the games that Xbox fans adamantly want to keep exclusive (Like Halo, Gears, Starfield,...) are also the games that have the biggest potential to make huge money elsewhere.

If the FTC leaks are legit, which based on what Digital Foundry people said they kind of are and makes sense. They plan to use Deep Learning upscaling and AI frame generation plus more advanced raytracing. A fully retraced locked 60fps 4K game sure sounds very possible.
@PsBoxSwitchOwner That one is probably as true as the Halo on PS5 rumours. this year Sony does PS5 Pro, they release an all-digital SX and then in 2027 both show up with new consoles I think.

@IOI He also covered his bases by saying "Don't take this as a sign" and "Indiana Jones and Starfield aren't coming to PS5" etc. It is just a long game of wait and see. I think as long as they don't port the old-school essential Xbox IP such as gears and Halo, they can get away with it.

@themightyant I think key point is is the bit where Phil said "for the titles to continue developing and follow ups the business side of it has to work" (paraphrasing a bit). I think as many have said before, AAA game development where studios of 500 people take 4-7 years to make a game is just ... too expensive. Something has to give. Even Sony CEO recently said they feel the need to find growth elsewhere. PS5/PC day and date releases will be a thing some day I am sure.
@Cakefish My feeling is it wasn't just 4 games, the original pitch was for many games, but the ones that are further back are not mentioned for now.

@Kaloudz I personally don't see the similarity to Anne Hathaway but yeah Hollywood beauty standards often choose similar faces.
Yeah if you start with 4 the return to the muted Chief of Halo 1 & 2 is very hard. I started with Reach, generally loved 1 but struggled with liking 2 and then 3 was really lovely (except that one mission where you retrieve Cortana). Halo 4 was a fresh breath of air. I am conflicted about 5 like almost everyone else. I also really loved Infinite.

@Jenkinss Her Halo 5 look is pinnacle of the "Look how they massacred my boy(girl)" meme. that and the ugly-crying "Goodbye John!...."
Halo show's season 2 is hell of a redemption arc. I just hope they renew for Season 3 and don't leave us in the wind now that it is getting better.

@Cakefish I think that, everyone is thinking about games going to PS5. But Switch 2 releases this year, Switch 1 was one of the best selling consoles of all time and 2 is supposed to have power comparable to that of a PS4/X1. There is a ton of games that can ported to run on Switch 2 and sell very well and make a lot of money. Yes, even Halo and Gears. But since it isn't a direct competitor to Xbox in high-fidelity console gaming the way PS5 is, it can make Xbox a lot of money and kinda go under the radar. I think Switch is the big play here, not PS. They even signed a thing with Nintendo to bring CoD to switch for 10 years.

@Kaloudz Well, Sea of Thieves and Pentiment are both from XGS. The "Zenimax was always case by case" argument doesn't hold anymore. They will probably clarify everything soon but still, none of this is "ideal".
The only thing similar on Sony's side is Bungie's Marathon, they could have made it exclusive to PS5/PC but so far it is also planned on Xbox too. But again that is probably because Bungie had cleared it with Sony they will remain free to make their own decisions. Cool. They are developers of Halo and Destiny, two of the biggest FPS games, they get some leverage.

@Kaloudz Video games always change faces of characters in a way that is beyond better graphics and usually for no reason at all. Most famous recent example is how Spiderman PS4s face changed completely (not in a graphics better way, but a completely different person). Same with MJ in Spiderman games and Elena and Sully in Uncharted 4 and then Aloy in Horizon (Sony really does this a lot for some reason).
Cortana's changes in games were partially graphics yes, but for example the 4 changes between Halo 3, Halo 4, Halo 5 and again Infinite each is a completely different face while graphics didn't leap that hard anyway (not to mention that new other face for Halo 2 Anniversary).
She looked terrible in trailers of Season 1, but actually quite good in the show itself. The new model is just an actor performing the role turned blue (previous one was a full CGI face). I guess it is cheaper this way and looks more realistic.

@OldGamer999 IMO, lack of focus is the problem. Xbox used to create an identity around Halo and Gears and then do lots of great marketing with these franchises (images of Halo 3 marketing and bundles etc is still everywhere on the internet). Using a few tentpole franchises to dominate the mind space. During the Xbox One era, the prominence of "Xbox is just Halo/Gears/Forza" meant that Microsoft really went hard in going to other directions and IPs, instead of buying up all these RPG studios to make new IP, slightly obscure Indie and RPG (like Pentiment, HiFi Rush, Grounded), they could have made more games from Halo, Gears, Fable. Keeping the core audience engaged and brand identity alive. Instead the "big games" are now just a range of tiny indie games that never break a million copies anyway. They are not system sellers, they don't increase the GP subs or move consoles. They are mostly there to make a tiny bit of money and then perhaps win some awards.
I love indie/smaller games myself and Firewatch for example is one of my all-time favourite games. Alongside Soma. But the path to success of a console is AAA big blockbusters. Where Xbox only now is starting to deliver and here we are.

@Widey85 It still doesn't make much sense. Pentiment and Hi-Fi Rush are not the type of games that sells a significant number of copies to the point that it is worth it to break Xbox exclusivity rule. Even if each sells 1-2 Million, what big affect will it have on the big black hole that the 68Billion ABK acquisition has made?
The only games that make sense to go multi-platform are ones that can sell a lot of copies and make a notable amount of money. But then, if you are porting Indiana Jones, Starfield and cough... cough .. Halo and Gears eventually, what is the unique offering of your own platform? How are your own internal devs making games that use the "Most Powerful Console" ?
I really struggle to see the point of this. I understand that they are damned if they do (breaking exclusivity and ruining future perspectives of the console) and damned if they don't (too many studios in lengthy dev-cycles, they are burning a lot of money and need to make more). The only right way of doing this is to create a separate sort of branding or publishing label like "Xbox Originals" or "Xbox Specials" whatever, that when a game is announced, that logo establishes whether it will eventually go multi-plat or not.

Well, basically we had solid rumours that next generation of consoles is already being worked out. But if the sales of current ones is as weak as it has been so far, the next gen doesn't turn things around it might be the last. Whether gaming goes fully streaming/cloud by that time (2035ish) is another whole can of worms.

343 mentioned they are working on "projects". This could very well be one of them. But probably bulk of the work will be outsourced.
I think that it is generally a neat idea and should be done. But certainly with greatest level of care.

@Sol4ris When it comes to social media gaming personalities, I won't mention Xbox in general but for example with Halo, I know several of them that are "I am done with Halo" once a month for years now. Literally years. Why? Because rage-bait videos get clicks. Xbox influencers quitting the platform is of similar style. Watch them get those YouTube views with the "I am Back" apology videos, or "I told you So!" videos depending on how this plays out.
Meanwhile, I have had friends who are 20 year long loyal Sony users, who fundamentally believed there is not a single Xbox game worth playing suddenly realise overnight that Halo has an amazing universe and lore.
Ofc all of this isn't meant to cope or deny the valid critic that everyone has made about this whole situation. But such things also exist.

@Cakefish It sounds like a meeting with your boss where they tell you your performance is bad and they give you 1 month to turn it around or you are fired.
@Kaloudz Basically It all depends on what games are getting ported. It was fine when it was Hi-Fi rush, Sea of Thieves? Port that to an LG Smart Fridge for all I care. Same with the entire other Live-Service stuff. But I really don't see any logic behind porting Halo, Gears, Hellblade 2 and Starfield.

@Widey85 These gaming influencers and twitter figures have already exhausted every possible rumour. Including Halo and Gears coming to PS5. It took like 4-6 hrs on a Sunday. A weekend. It is better to take a few more days and work on the exact messaging, wording, presentation etc. Maybe cancel that Halo port to PS5 for now to appease fans ? Etc.
@Titntin To be fair, Xbox has never/rarely had "good news" and its relationship with its fandom has also been "messy" at best. I personally only care about Xbox's shooter franchise pedigree with Halo and Gears alongside some of their racing output like Forza (essentially the same classic Xbox stuff everyone wanted them to get away from). I will continue to care about these franchises regardless of where they land. But the plastic box running them, I could care less.

I will definitely be watching it. The first season was an enjoyable and fresh experience and I really want to get some Halo content that isn't books.
@Kaloudz Did you manage to watch the Season 1 btw?

@Banjo- Bit of a typing habit. Haha.

@Cakefish Yes ofc you are 100% right that if the only argument for buying the Xbox Next is that they took our library hostage, it probably won't work. But at the same time, I think even on their dumbest setting they have some form of plan/awareness of how they are supposed to convince you to buy the next box.

@XenonKnight https://twitter.com/XcloudTimdog
This used to be a huge Xbox fan and now has removed all references to Xbox from their profile for example.

@Cakefish I mean, if they manufacture another console next-gen (which they probably are doing) that is where your library is safe and sound but ofc you are tied to this digital library (as you would be on a PS5 to PS6 scenario).
@themightyant It seems that the combo is the following:
-Xbox console + GP (free day 1 on all big games)
-Pay 70 bucks everywhere else (including the gigantic Switch 2 market that is coming soon!). But is that motivation enough to own an Xbox? It seems most people think that it isn't.

@Kaloudz I mean, on twitter people are organising a funeral for Xbox. I also really really want to see the real news from Xbox people. Specially regarding what this means for future plans of the platform and what IPs are considered for this.

I mean, this comment section is about to go boom.

This dude Ken Levine tends to really take his sweet time making games. He made Bioshock 1 and Infinite. Then shut down his studio and said he wanted to work on smaller games etc. Only to be back with a game that is exactly a Bioshock game in all but name.

Where PoP Remake ?

@Kaloudz I believe you should give it a try. It is not exactly a masterpiece and a certain plot line about a certain character basically leads to nowhere. But some of its bad parts are not as bad as people make it look like. Including the so called sex scene. I think it was not outrageously out of place in the context of the show.
@iplaygamesnstuff The quality varies a bit. But I would say, there is some great action, very good custom and set design, generally very good acting, very good CGI for a TV show. The writing and certain plot twists could have been better. Either way if you start now you will be in a good place to ride the hype for Season 2.

Where is my Gears show Netflix??!
@Kaloudz That AC movie was kinda mid but had so much potential. I wish they gave it a chance with a sequel.

@Kaloudz I mean, back when season 1 dropped they claimed it was the biggest thing ever on Paramount+ (trick is that there isn't that many stuff on P+ anyway but I digress). I guess he is either already sure that this season is so much better that it succeeds much more (and is renewed for Season 3) or he is really taking a gamble here.
@InterceptorAlpha Well basically, they are claiming this season is a course correction, aims to go in the direction that fans want and also they are adapting the Fall of Reach plot line here. I don't know if they always wanted to go this route or caved in under pressure from last season. But either way unless all of these claims are direct lies, they seem to be heading in a better direction.