Cikajovazmaj

It's a genuine surprise Grounded is not flying at 60-120 FPS on both current gen consoles. Game ain't that much of a looker..

Far better game then reviews would suggest, or at least it was to me. PS2 comparison makes sense, as it's rooted in that simpler time of gaming by design.
I don't think this was ever an exclusive, just a small studio targeting less platforms. But I might be wrong. Either way, Xbox is missing games in the genre and this one is a valuable addition.

Time to preserve them titles by porting to Sony and Nintendo platforms..

If MS needs to decide their strategy based on a single old game re-release... They are way more sc**wed then I thought

Finally the big heads are rolling. Instead of firing 2000 grunts that only made what they were told to make.
Good luck to him and others leaving, but fresh perspective is very much needed on Team Green.

30 fps can look differently depending on game design and engine. An example of a similar game where I would expect 30 to work would be A Plague Tale 2, which ended up being terrible at the target for me.
However, I've played through first Hellblade at 30 fps and it was absolutely fine. I expect the sequel to be ok too.

Definition of mediocrity. It's a X360 era, nothing special game. Unfortunate, as the western setting is actually cool and full of potential (and I don't ask for much, I recently played through Call of Juarez Gunslinger and had fun).

Instinctively I feel bad when I see these articles, but once I open 'em it becomes clear that if I really wanted to play games to be removed, I would have done it a long time ago.

Diablo 1 & 2 used to be my favorite games, but then 3 came along and turned it into something.. different. Haven't really cared as much for it since.
I hoped 4 would pull me in, but yeah, gave it a few hours and choose to play Sea of Stars over it :/

Taking over the title of the most useless console refresh ever from PS5 Pro, just mere days after leak.. MS you have done it again.

Would be totally fine without it...

@HonestHick Xbox might also have to figure out how to get their budget work because nobody likes to infinitely lose money. All these moves lately indicate MS is working very hard at trying to fix it actually.
I'm not sure all 3 will be fine, and in a way I don't care. Video games market is in a need of tectonic change, a disruption on a level of what PS1 was to SNES. I don't know, maybe AMD or NVIDIA accept the risk and enter market with their own vertically integrated platform.

Couple of opposing (not really) thoughts.. I see a scenario where every storefront would be available on any console hardware+PC as an Xbox consumer utopia, while at the same time it would almost certainly be the eventual death of Xbox hardware as we know it. Quite frankly, it might also be the end of GP as we know it, since the existing model has not reached much traction on the "open" PC platform.
It's a tricky situation as I don't believe MS is in a position where GP is so much better then competition that they can advocate open market, in a way Netflix can for example. GP appeal is in XSS being a $250 box to play many games natively without lag. If users can get a better or similar library elsewhere, but still use your cheap hardware, they will (which is why I think that hardware has to die out in "open" scenario, and subscriber number might plummet instead of rise).

I'm actually worried about what this means for Game Pass. Assuming MS hardware is discontinued, what would be my incentive to get GP? Sony and Nintendo will keep their services, will GP become a perk (like EA)? I'm assuming neither is letting standalone GP service on their platform. PC GP has been in the gutter, so that ain't a way forward..

Depending on how things play out, I would be interested. Honestly, I'll decide based on what next Nintendo thing is, but I'm planning on only a single handheld device and Xbox GP machine could be it.

Whole thing feels like negotiation tactics to me.. which, good for them, fair game.

Pretty sure there would be something in ID@Xbox deal requiring you to release on Xbox for getting a "porting to Xbox" grant 😃
I mean, seriously, this is not a street market deal, it's MS contracting with an Indie dev. They had their a$$ covered.

@Burnfeeling not sure how winning this would be.. it would burn every bridge with current user-base they had (Series console would end up being a 4-5 year flop that had negligible number of first party releases).
What would raise a average consumers confidence in Xbox as a brand to invest in a new machine? I would prefer them to go different market route, PC handheld with "Windows for gaming - patent waiting approval" OS.

Hopefully it's something different compared to PS5 Pro, and MS and Sony would finally go in distinct directions. If nothing, it would make it easily justifiable to us as consumers to support both platforms.

Ignoring obvious bias here, Jim is most likely right. For those who don't remember, Phil was very vague about wording of the COD multiplatform deal first time he mentioned it (no feature parity, release dates, or anything really was defined). And every subsequent time he was adding in little breadcrumbs of additional details. I'm sure in the background these were worked into offered contract in parallel..

@Rangers420 @eire-shabba yeah, I was looking to try this out, but as XSS owner.. rather not.
It reaches very low res and applies FSR, which with such little information to work with looks way worse than if it was just off (similar to Atlas Fallen, which also produces a grainy mess). Shame, cause it's for sure worth that price on XSX.

@OldGamer999 well, if you are a Mario fan Wonder wowed me
Anyway, literally nothing for me on this show. I can't even remember half of the games, and the show was an hour ago...

@Sol4ris actually I don't get the 40 ms latency argument either. It's a cloud service latency test, cloud vs native on that seevices console version. It's like 8ms..

Honestly, as a huge cloud gaming sceptic constantly reading about the power of xCloud on this site, I'm here to read the excuses.
I'm surprised Sony put in arguably better offering, but am glad they are both visibly and quantifiably rubbish.

Might be the game that needs 120FPS mode the least... can't wait for another pointless war to wage.

You can't have your "I'll play it digitally on GP for free" and eat physical too.
Not sure what the issue is.

Way I read this is, people are not really playing with their Xbox a lot.
As I have yet to meet somebody successfully/acceptably using XCloud outside of just fiddling and trying it out, only logical conclusion is that users basically fiddle less than 10 times more on their Xbox.
In all seriousness, streaming is not going to work for 70% of the planet for 5, maybe 10 more years. Just stop aggressively pushing it, you are just souring people on it before it's time.

Probably clearing the warehouse before imminent mid-generation refresh (I'm sure MS will offer an alternative to PS5 Pro, even if it was not their Plan A).

In retrospect, most annoying and confusing thing about this whole situation is how fast it is happening. MS held their new strategy podcast days ago, and games are already releasing. This means MS has decided on going multiplatform at least 9 months ago, probably year. They just delayed making it known to their users until ultra last minute.

While I think they should have done it and everybody deserves to be able to get their own dosage of democracy, Phil knows why it's not on Xbox. Same reason he is taking 4 old and on decline live service or smaller games to PS5, not heavy hitters at their peak.

Great news. I'll be playing it on PS Plus (as I only have pleb XSS), but it's a way bigger addition/better game then it is getting credit for.

@Sakai I don't have any issues with either console when not running a game (typically, I even dock Switch to wired connection if I start a download while not actively playing).
But turning on a console, getting notified there is a 10 GB patch for a game I want to play, and then not being able to play anything else while I wait (as it'll tank the speed) is ridiculous. I have no idea how that ever passed QA at MS.

@Sakai @GeeEssEff @Shushibda personally, without game running neither of the consoles ever experienced slow download speeds for me. Rather they all max my internet connection. But Xbox, while running a game at the same time, is just bizarre (it sometimes drops to 1,5 Mb/s, that is a lowercase b).

In anticipation of upcoming Thursday, I'd be surprised if there wasn't a mob of journalists in front of Xbox offices waiting for Phil's assistant to go out and get a sandwich.. so they can over-analyze the future of Xbox from the type of mustard Phil takes 2 days before a podcast.

Finally (if true)!! Background download speeds has been one of my biggest complaints when it comes to XSS (followed by Quick resume flakiness).

@Banjo- if they announce or even mention new console in any way, this early in lifespan of Series consoles, that would be basically waving the white flag and admitting defeat.
I don't see that happening. (Pro type of console I don't consider new)

Microsoft is handling this so poorly..
Currently, I'm listening to Old Gods of Asgard and imagining Alan Wake writing scenario for Xbox business update event. That is how bad it is!

Time to bookmark this page...

Not many ways MS could have handled the situation worse. Real case study level of incompetence. Unless it's actually gonna end up being worse than the leaks, so Phil is waiting for copium to settle, before part 2..

@R1spam honestly, I had my Series S set for sale once my current (converted) GP is up. This whole MS dropping hardware thing is just going to lower the second hand market price, but hopefully it's not my problem by then.
And just as you, I see Rog Ally (successor) in my future

I sort of hope Sony follows suit and abandons exclusivity. Maybe first hitting their own hardware before optimizing for PC/Xbox, but yeah, death to platform locks.
That will leave Nintendo though, which will probably go extinct before they open up to other companies hardware..

What is going to be interesting is if these games end up joining PS Plus at some point (as most older Bethesda games have). I'm sure MS is making a hefty sum out of those installs and probably won't mind it... but internet will be on "fire".

Microsoft needs to address this today, before firm opinions are formed. Everybody has their own interpretation of what these leaks mean and Xbox should provide guidance before those settle in.

@Banjo- technically they don't have the OS, as Windows has proven to be challenging when it comes to slimming down and optimizing. But if anybody could have resources and know-how to pull it off, it would be MS.

Seems to me like a more viable option would be Windows competitor to SteamOS and hardware certification program for Game Pass. They practically already did the endorsement/certification for Rog Ally, why not make it a thing (MS is not looking into producing hardware as a primary driver anyway).

@Sol4ris while I'm totally with you on Sony being just as greedy, and I'm sure they'll follow suit as soon as they feel they can without too much backlash, PS5 Slim actually streamlines production and does not lock anybody out of physical copies (notable improvement compared to previous 2 SKU offering).

That adorably all digital XSX just around the corner with Ubisoft classics..
Seriously though, I wouldn't care about physical medium as much if I was able to backup my digital game and restore it WITHOUT network service running. But as it stands right now, buying digital vs physical is just not getting you the same product.

Some real bangers in that list.. I'm sure MS is gonna add few unannounced games through the month though.

@Markatron84 that shot is exactly why I mentioned that. I mean, do they think other developers are not proud of their work?

I'm in a serious minority here, but it didn't quite work for me. End of the day, it's just 4 (5) games, when Nintendo chews through 20 games per show (understandably not first party).
It also didn't really get me excited for anything new, as developer-testifying marketing doesn't do it for me (close shot, talking to the camera about how your game is amazing piece of art).
I'll be checking Hellblade 2 and Indy, but I would have done that either way.