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@UBERSICKO well, there is a small caveat with those 40 million people. It's 40 million people who tried/downloaded a game that at one point was the only decent new product MS had on GP. I would assume all 30 million subs (not sure about the number) at least gave it a chance, which is what they would have done for any of the games on that list if they were on GP day 1.
On the other hand on Steam, I think game has a 18k user peak over the last 30 days. I'm not saying it's not popular, it's just not as popular as the likes of Fortnite or Diablo 4.

All this seems perfectly on brand for Stalker game. Every game in the series has been released broken and compromised, but had core to become great following the excessive patching. I would have been surprised if this one was any different.

A bit delusional if you ask me.. it's a good game, but was a bit boring/sameish compared to FH4. Also, nominees are genuine juggernauts compared to FH5..

Might sound harsh, but I think only ones that should win are Hellblade 2 for Performance and CoD for MP.. wasn't a particularly great year.

This is awesome. After selling my used Xbox, it seems I still happen to have a few now. Honestly, it might be hard to run out of Xboxes.

Can't wait for NeXtBoX to be revealed as largest technical leap for a console ever at $399..
I don't want to be rude, but $1000 is just a number attached to a type of paper bill. What matters is what does that combination get you on the market at that point in time. Prices have been going up on everything and with purchasing power as it is, it gets you about the same amount of products $500 would get you 7 years ago.
I understand mind barriers and sticker shock, but realistically we are all getting shaken every week when we see re-revised prices of groceries. It's time to stop focusing on the number, and start focusing on the relative (maintained?) quality of life.

Definitely just marketing BS.
What it's gonna end up being is proprietary AI upscaling (that might be similar to PSSR, and probably worse than DLSS), and cloud computing integration (which I'm not a fan of, as it makes playing current games even less likely in the future if core mechanics rely on cloud services).

Glad Kojima owns the game now. But it is one of the most boring experiences ever, and should be studied at universities due to how a charisma and artist's brand can influence customer's decision making capabilities. If Kojima was not attached to the project, DS would be a 4/10 flop.

Not 100% of this, but I believe I've read there is/was a cutoff point after which all games published on PS5 have to also provide PS5 Pro enhancements. Also, what that means is a bit ambiguous (in principle, it needs to leverage 2 out of 3 PS5 pillars, or some similar marketing rubbish). Reminiscent of X/S parity I suppose.
As it's about to become a forced standard anyway, why not start with the BO6?

Astro bot. That game is on another level in every way that matters.
Sad to see just one MS game, but it was a particularly bad year for team green :/

I was expecting comments to be all over this, given how much everyone here seems to dislike Insomniac's creative direction and PS5 exclusives. Personally, I love them and believe Horton to be a great addition to any team.
However, I'm not sure there is any more hope left for PD. Maybe I'm wrong, but it's just been too many creative and team changes..

Recently I tried to get back to this game.. You can see gameplay parts that have made it into Spidey games, but it is also very rough around the edges and the formula was not yet polished. I bet sequel would have ruled.
Over the top aesthetic can be a bit annoying (very very large bit), but that also could have been toned down.

Not sure if it's just me, but these "chest pumps" by MS seem to be in really poor taste.

Feels like MS changes strategy weekly at this point. Maybe sticking with a plan instead of reacting to first "zero context" impression would do wonders for them.
Also, Indy acceptance by PS owners might be disappointing because it just does not look like that good of a game anymore. With every new trailer Xbox owners have cooled on the prospect too.. (if online chatter is anything to go by, which it might not be)

I'd say my purchases have been 50/50 between Switch and Playstation. I recently sold my XSS, which was always the plan unless something unexpected impressed me, but I have never purchased a single game for it. It was my GP machine as long as subscription lasted.
Doesn't seem fair I know, but I just didn't want to get locked into yet another ecosystem without any reasonable benefit (there were no exclusives for me to buy).

@kuu_nousee AMD has really dropped the ball when it comes to dedicated hardware upscaling. They started talking about it as a new thing just now. Basically, handicapped this whole generation of consoles. Switch 2 is gonna end up having DLSS and "big" consoles won't 🤦‍♂️

@kuu_nousee disappointing as it might be, ML in Series consoles was more marketing than useful piece of hardware. I believe that was agreed upon multiple times by DF folk and such, mainly capabilities of that hardware are too low to be used in any upscaling capacity.
Which is to be expected, as it's on par with GTX generation of cards which are not powerful enough for DLSS or even decent TSR.

@kuu_nousee more I think about it, more I feel like PS5 Professional might not be overpriced in todays economy. Personally I don't need it and will not get one unless through a wild ISP deal or similar, but compared to MS offering it looks like a better option.

I'm gonna choose to believe no significantly different version (modular disc) has been developed and pricing looks as such, because all that RND money has went into handheld console development. At least I hope that is what it is

@8bit4Life @Titntin as somebody who just recently sold mine.. they are not flying off the shelf. Had to take a bit of a hit just to move it before a flud of second hand consoles hits the market (xbox disappointment and PS5 regular upgraders).
Just to chime in on Nintendo layoffs discourse, I love that company (although it hates it's fans) but I think that is part of Japanese culture more than stakeholders bottom line. There is a very strong consciousness about common prosperity/good in that country, on all levels, that it would be a suicide in public eye to go against it.

Insert a mandatory "sony, xbox, holding a beer" joke here.

@Rog-X I have no idea why you would go back to this comment almost a month later, except maybe because you didn't agree with my assessment of the Xbox Tokyo Show quality.
Either way, there are no more exceptional conversion rates, or far cheaper 3rd party options. Maybe if I was willing to region hop.
But, it's just not worth it for me. And I FULLY believe there are people who play 40+ games a year, and they will get their moneys worth, as GP will provide decent quality with Netflix convenience.
I've played through like 4-5 games, 2 of which were Trek to Yomi (7$ at the time I played it) and Hellblade 2 (which is a 5 hour game). Many games I tried out, and did not stick with. I could have done the same thing through YouTube for free. So yeah, at current 3rd party and conversion rates it doesn't make sense for me.

Edit: Number 3 was Psychonauts 2. That was a fun game, I'm actually sad I don't own now 😃

Host was great, show however left things to be desired.

This was a good joke when Phil said it, made me giggle. Now the social marketing is taking out all the fun out of it.

@Romans12 two years of GPU cost me 90 USD. Once that ran out, I've sold my Xbox and I'm sure I'm not the only one.. maybe that should be reported?

That s*cks. MS keeps making these rounds, with no sign of actually turning business around.
I'll get hated for this, but my GPU subscription ran out a few days back and I did not extend it. Actually, I quickly sold my Xbox too.
Main reason is I don't believe in the current platform or it's longevity. Good luck to everybody affected and I hope they find new jobs soon, but I won't be investing into a sinking ship.

This makes a second very public immediate reaction by MS after they were called out. Very sad and terrible business practices.
Does this mean everybody should vent poor treatment publicly to get support teams attention?

@Pabpictu these games are basically gamings equivalent of a B slasher movie. And quite a lot of people (myself included) happen to love those, as long as they are properly priced and self- aware.

I'm a bit suspicious of the result when letting UE5 "optimize" for itself.. historically it turned image quality to "you know what" on XSS as it would lower resolution too low for FSR to be able to help. TSR seems to be too taxing for XSS, so that crutch is out of the window.. it's basically manual optimization and tweaking, or "water painting" image.

Somehow, Palpatine returns, and PX will find a way to blame multiple developers for getting their games stuck in MS release pipeline, instead of a service provider (MS) who's obligation is clearly to streamline and help with this process.
Actually, MS supposedly has Advanced Technology Group, a team that helps get games to Xbox, but it seems to only be helping teams who's games are going directly to GP..

Unfortunately, I won't be around for it as my GP subscription has finally ran out (and no way am I extending full price). This was one of the games that I would like to checkout, but probably wouldn't stick with it till the end.

On the subject of subscription, is it me or did MS at some point turn auto renewal back on for me (I disabled it manually again on the last day)?

Tried it out for a while.. not for me. But then no CoD really is, so that tracks.
However, I haven't played CoD in years and BO6 felt just as they ever did. Honestly, I couldn't tell these games apart.

Totally expect this game to release running at 25FPS on XSS.
It would be interesting to know if MS investing all this time into consulting and helping these teams to release on XSS was actually financially worth it.

Do a crossover with Concord, that will surely work.

My guess would be situation is a bit more complicated than an exclusivity deal, which is why nobody is making any public announcements.
Most likely scenario, team developed for PC first and had issues porting to any of the 2 powerful consoles. Sony stepped in first and offered to help with porting (as a way to boost PS5 sales in China market). Team opted to go with that offer even if MS made one, as porting to Xbox meant optimizing 2 versions vs 1, and their home market has more interest in PS over Xbox hardware.
It could be something completely different though, we might never know..

@StylesT well makes me wonder what thier life is like that they get so upset/angry that a computer game doesn't have the precious 60fps...

That's turning things upside down a bit, isn't it? Nobody is upset/angry, people are just expressing their opinion that 60FPS is a crucial feature for them, and they would skip the game without it. Doesn't seem like an emotional thing to me at all.

@eduscxbox Zelda BOTW and TOTK have been universally panned for it's performance. They get a partial "pass" because they are genuinely greatest games of their time. Pure art level.
FF16 has performance issues in general play (inside VRR window), but locks to 60 during combat. I don't like this approach and consider it a fail, but at least you wouldn't lose/die due to performance and slower/lagier input.

In relation to Atlas Fallen, I just wanted to say this game is looking really poorly on XSS. Relying on FSR (1?) with such a low native resolution, in a world filled with sand and foliage.. when doing a sand skate whole screen just turns to soup. Please, at least give me an option to play in 540p without artifacts, if that is the most XSS can do.

@Fiendish-Beaver I think you meant to say Quality or Balance, as Performance is lingo for a 60 FPS mode..

@Fiendish-Beaver let's agree to disagree on that, as personally I only play PS5 on 60FPS modes for quicker and driving games and 40FPS for a more story driven titles. Also, I have gotten nausea from FPS games in 30 FPS modes before and would not force myself to play a game that way if I feel bothered by it.

@Fiendish-Beaver literally every Sony made game supports 60 FPS mode that works, and a good chunk has a 40 FPS mode which I believe to be a blessing.

@Titntin I agree his earlier games (Bullfrog era) were amazing. In my memory, that used to be the golden years of gaming (and I started my gaming adventure much earlier).
However, these days he can't make it through an interview without overpromising, compromising himself and the team, and downright making them eligible for a lawsuit.
Couple of kickstarter/mobile scams in between doesn't help. It's sad for sure, but I feel like for a while now he is not looking to revolutionize as much as just scam and quickly profit.

Have you learned nothing Jon Obsidian Snow??? Series consoles shall go down in history as home of 30FPS exclusives (title most likely held by PS3 up to this point).

Gonna be waiting for reviews and getting this on PS5 if it ends up being good. It is losing some steam in my eyes, as they are really hiding gameplay in all of these trailers. That makes me nervous.

Molyneux should be banned from gaming industry after all false promises he made over the years..
Regardless, that game looked proper bad.

@Rog-X I'm gonna take a wild guess you never had an Amiga?
Game looks perfectly fine for what it is (2D metroidvania), and I'm having trouble finding a bad review of it. I hope that this situation works in devs favor and game gets few extra sales.

Nice of MS to offer help when this case was exposed to public and picked up by mainstream gaming media. Funny how they fiddled their fingers and ignored the team for 6 months prior..
Not even saying this is MS specific, every large company is similar (working with Apple team on publishing software can occasionally be hellish experience), but MS should at least be supportive and frictionless in these customer relation services (for platform developers are their customers) if they want to attract and keep indie devs in what is clearly a dying platform.

Seems like the only one with real worth. Unbelievably, Xbox has lost ownership of only new IP I liked they created this whole gen.

Good games that still hold up. But anybody who had interest already played these and most likely also owns them..

They had that awesome Showcase and everything, but somehow I still feel like there is nothing coming up for the rest of 2024. Hopefully Indy releases.