Grumblevolcano

I think Foamstars and Forspoken are pretty much guarantees. Former is going FTP in October so they'd release on Xbox to try and increase the playerbase. Meanwhile the latter's exclusivity ends in January 2025 and sounds like the kind of situation where Game Pass may give the game a second wind.

@SleeplessKnight I think it might be that they wanted day 1 on PS5 (like DOOM The Dark Ages) but the only way to achieve this would've been to delay the PC/Xbox version to Spring 2025, hence they settled for PC/Xbox timed exclusivity.

@x3King84 The Forza forums has this official post about a new game mode:

"FH5 at Gamescom 2024
See you at Gamescom!

Our booth will be showing a completely new, exciting game mode inspired by our community and their creations.

Plus, we will also be showing our latest in-game partnership!

Visit us at Gamescom and stay tuned to our official channels for more announcements happening at the event.

Tune in August 21 for FH5 on the Xbox @ gamescom Livestream"

https://forums.forza.net/t/fh5-at-gamescom-2024-new-game-mode-tba/727847

The game probably will come to PS5 at some point but unlikely to be announced this week.

It got delisted from the XB1/Series X|S store around the same time it got delisted from the 360 store.

@themightyant I figure things will change from parity clauses to the handheld just not running more demanding games well as that's what is expected on the PC side of things.

@InvaderFromSpace GTA6 is likely going to cause complete chaos with release schedules. I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if Game Pass gets another price increase in September 2025 but the only 1st party game for the rest of that year is CoD 2025.

Considering Activision always gave Geoff a long gameplay demo of CoD's campaign for Opening Night Live, I figure the tease is about Black Ops 6's campaign.

@somnambulance Shattered Space DLC, Avowed and Indiana Jones have stage presentations on the show floor. You just can't play it yourself much like Starfield couldn't be played last Gamescom.

@NEStalgia @HonestHick Microsoft's outdated controller decisions are also holding back PS. Like the gyro situation, gyro in shooters is expected by the Switch audience thanks to the gigantic success of the Splatoon franchise and 3rd parties usually deliver but gyro support rarely happens on PS because of parity with Xbox controllers.

@Markatron84 They wouldn't be consoles though.

@Markatron84 The comments still fit if future Xbox hardware is just a line of PCs.

When a release year isn't given, that has always meant 2+ years away in the past so I figure this'll be a next gen launch title alongside FH6.

@smoreon Naughty Dog remastered TLoU for PS4 which was playable on PS5 via backwards compatibility and then did a $70 PS5 version with no upgrade path. I figure if this rumour is true, it would be something like that.

@NEStalgia It's an honest comment. If Operation Latitude is real, it makes sense to just put PS5 logos next to the games that are coming to PS5. Announcement after the event only really makes sense if there's only a few multiplatform 1st party games.

As for the hardware, I've said previously about how I think Xbox's future is a PC that can run Xbox games in the cloud. It would explain the teases about the subsidized model not working and PC stores on Xbox, fit in with the already announced announcement of all owned games playable in the cloud later this year and make the jump to ARM easier.

Native support for Xbox console games on ARM devices sounds like a licensing nightmare.

@NEStalgia It's an easy setup regarding appearance in the showcase, the handheld gets used to explain the multiplatform strategy. You have lots of PS5 logos in the showcase and then the Xbox handheld is revealed to be a PC (including access to the multiple launchers like Steam and EGS) that can also play your Xbox console library via the cloud.

Then whenever Switch 2 is announced, those games coming to PS5 are also coming to Switch 2.

Xbox being present is probably about CoD this time as that franchise commonly appears at Geoff's events.

@NEStalgia I think they'll approach it that the yearly CoD releases from now on are just paid DLC for Warzone (like what Ubisoft does with Just Dance). That voids the whole day 1 on Game Pass argument considering Game Pass doesn't get Forza expansions, Starfield Shattered Space, etc.

People really need to stop standing up for Phil Spencer, this is the same person that wanted to use share manipulation via a former Microsoft board member to force Nintendo into being acquired. He is a vile person and the sooner he's fired the better.

This trailer reminds me of when 343 ended Halo 5 support to return to MCC. I feel they'll try to revive Halo by bringing MCC to PS/Nintendo.

Horrific that this keeps happening and this case in particular is no doubt a result of Microsoft being allowed to acquire Activision. Phil Spencer gets his growth from CoD/WoW/Candy Crush so everything else rots away.

@HonestHick The impression I got was that the future of Xbox console is PC. You get a Xbox branded handheld that's basically the ROG Ally with the Xbox logo on the device and some Xbox branded desktop PC that's super powerful and expensive. If you want your Xbox library, you can play it via the cloud but you can also play PC games natively via Steam/Microsoft Store/Epic Games Store.

It would be nice if they gave some updates on the games they announced in 2019/2020.

If you look very closely at the image (the large version on Xbox Wire is easiest to see), the second redacted part says Black Ops.

Interesting about the hardware side of things, they predicted that hardware would decrease for January - March back in January which naturally turned to be a result of the multiplatform rumours and announcement. Further decrease in April - June makes it seem like the next batch of multiplatform games will be announced in May/June.

@GamingFan4Lyf Revitalizing the multiplayer. There's very few people around in the 360 originals (mostly bot only lobbies) and if you do find larger lobbies, there's usually a cheater problem (360 online in general has a problem with cheaters nowadays).

The Coalition's announcement timing in the past was announce at E3, release during the Fall the following year. Gears of War 4 was announced at E3 2015 and released in October 2016 meanwhile Gears 5 was announced at E3 2018 with September 2019 release date.

So this timeline would suggest that Gears 6 releases Fall 2025. Maybe there's some truth to the 2026 next gen rumours considering Gears 5 acted as the final major release before Series X|S.

I wonder if this will be able to play games. From what I recall, the last limited edition Xbox branded hardware that could play games was the Halo Infinite Series X in 2021.

Basically do what they did to make original Xbox games work on the 360 but for both original Xbox and 360 games working on newer hardware. You didn't have to worry at all about stuff like Project Gotham Racing licensing running out affecting backwards compatibility, you just stuck your Xbox disc in your 360 and it ran.

Clearly that isn't their strategy though given all that "adorably all digital" nonsense.

Hate the current Xbox OS to be honest, pretty much only exists to force more ads on the user. You can avoid some of the problem with the OS if you only play at max a few games, but some obnoxious things remain like the full screen ads on console startup and games getting the "too long to start" error.

Switch is the only current system with a fantastic OS though with the only problem being the eshop is too slow. Very basic but that's a good thing as the focus is getting you into your game as fast as possible.

@NEStalgia Surely they must have known that leaving the door wide open such that anything could be ported after the initial 4 would result in the narrative that most is coming over? So if it isn’t most, wouldn’t it have made more sense to set some boundaries to prevent that narrative.

@S-Bacc My owned library is why I stuck with Xbox (backwards compatibility both in the traditional sense and edge cases where it’s more than just being able to play old games on new hardware at no extra cost). If exclusives went fully multiplatform I’d buy the exclusives on Nintendo hardware (prefer the ecosystem over Xbox) but still use Xbox for specific 3rd party games that have always been multiplatform.

What I was trying to get across was about the news cycle. I think all this trying to hype up next gen is a result of the exclusives going multiplatform situation and all the news surrounding it. If the multiplatform situation didn’t happen I doubt next gen would’ve even been teased by now outside of the accidental September leak about 2028.

@HonestHick We don’t know specifics but I would say that if it did end up being that multiplatform as a whole was smaller scale, their messaging on the matter was poor.

@awp69 I disagree, I think at some point in time it’ll be day and date just like what happened for PC. They’ll see the big money from shorter gaps until there is no gap.

As for your other point, the whole situation is pretty much that dependent on what people invest in the Xbox ecosystem for will decide how Microsoft’s multiplatform experiment turns out.

@GeeEssEff I think it’s to do with the news cycle, the kind of news which came after the February podcast was:

• Rumours about lots more Xbox exclusives coming to PS5
• Xbox exclusives run best on PS5
• Some major 3rd party games like MH Stories 1+2 skipping Xbox
• 3rd parties question if there’s any point releasing games on Xbox
• 3rd party Game Pass deals drying up

Combined with that currently the only XGS release this year before Fall is Hellblade 2 next month (which is already getting blasted for not being 60fps), I can understand the strategy for hyping up next gen to try and focus the news cycle away from stuff that can be interpreted as the end of the Xbox platform incoming.

@GeeEssEff I don’t think they have much of a choice at this point given they chose the multiplatform option.

• Want to play Xbox exclusives with the best performance that consoles can offer? You can buy a PS5/PS5 Pro and also get access to PS exclusives
• Want to play Xbox exclusives anywhere? You can buy a Switch 2 and also get access to Nintendo exclusives

So the teasing seems targeted at trying to convince people that it’s worthwhile investing in the Xbox ecosystem even in the absence of exclusives.

@ZYDIO Most is an exaggeration. Yes, they did do a good job with backwards compatibility in 2015 - 2019 and the bonus batch coinciding with Xbox’s 20th anniversary in 2021 but there is still a lot being lost. Not just games but DLC too.

Granted, if this announcement turns out to be a tease where at the June showcase they announce that Series X|S is getting full backwards compatibility with all 3 previous Xbox generations (even stuff like Project Gotham Racing, peripheral games like The Beatles Rock Band, Kinect 360/XB1 games and broken games like Sonic 06) with that being their workaround for the 360 shutdown in July then fair enough.

But their current actions are leaning in the opposite direction. Killing off physical and closing down stores that haven’t been rescued on modern platforms yet.

As for your comment about Sony and Nintendo, you can currently still redownload Wii/3DS/Wii U content you purchased and Sony backtracked on the PS3/Vita store shutdowns (PSP content can still be bought and played on PSP via the PS3 store). I wouldn’t be surprised if things change in the near future though.

Not really sure what to make of this because the immediate preservation problem is self-inflicted, namely Microsoft shutting down the 360 marketplace in July. “Adorably all digital” is also a really bad look on that front.

They likely chose Sea of Thieves as the key test because PS5 preorder numbers probably already exceeded Microsoft’s expectations.

@NEStalgia I think if the problem was already solved for Xbox/360 backwards compatibility versions natively on PC, we would’ve had a Rare Replay PC port by now considering that it and Halo 5 are the XB1 XGS games that aren’t on PC which don’t require Kinect and aren’t delisted.

Halo 5 would’ve needed fixing up the XB1 version first meanwhile Rare Replay already runs very well on Xbox.

@NEStalgia I was looking at it more like a result of architecture differences much like how Microsoft couldn’t do proper full backwards compatibility for Xbox and Xbox 360 games on XB1/Series X|S. The best they could do is a case by case scenario where if a game ran properly and Microsoft managed to get the licence, it could be released via the backwards compatibility program.

In addition we've found out that some 3rd parties hate backwards compatibility because it decreases potential sales for ports/remasters/remakes of games that would be already available via backwards compatibility which would make the licensing part even harder.

So it doesn’t really sound feasible for any kind of Xbox console/PC merging other than a PC that can play Xbox console games via the cloud.

@NEStalgia PC is a Microsoft platform because of Windows. On the hardware side you’d have PCs that can play PC games normally and your Xbox library is in the cloud.

@somnambulance To be fair, I’m not sure Game Pass is a focus for them anymore. Of course they’ve made deals with 3rd parties in the past which still need to be honoured but between Activision games being an extremely sluggish rollout and the article about Game Pass deals drying up, it doesn’t feel like Game Pass is a focus anymore. I think the focus is being a multiplatform publisher and that’s why they’re having to be careful about messaging.

@somnambulance I think the mixed messaging is a result of the reaction to the multiplatform stuff that’s appeared so far.

It was said during the podcast that it was moved forward so we know for a fact that the original plan was for the 4 games to be announced before the podcast. Pentiment + Grounded Switch via Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase and the PS stuff via shadow dropped trailers and blogpost.

Given the general reaction to the rumours was very much a sense of Xbox going the way SEGA did in the early 00s, I think very clear cut “everything is going multiplatform” messaging would have a Don Mattrick XB1 reveal style impact.

It feels like the mixed messaging will disappear by the end of June though as that’s the end of Microsoft’s fiscal year.

I think Spring 2025 with the next trailer appearing during Playstation Showcase 2024.

@NEStalgia The leaked roadmap in September shows it at the very least was an intention for Xbox physical to go away in 2024 as the digital only Series X would replace the current Series X. The reports this year are suggesting the strategy still going ahead like how Limited Run are doing physical releases instead of Microsoft and about Microsoft telling Walmart to send Starfield to landfill.

@OldGamer999 @Sol4ris I think they'll go for the increase to 2TB of storage, stay at current Series X price.

It doesn't look like there's a space for optional disc drive like Sony did with the PS5 Slim so I get the feeling that the leaks back in September about this replacing the current disc Series X are still accurate.

@Fiendish-Beaver Judging by how February went, I think Microsoft's waiting for Nintendo to reveal the Switch's successor before the multiplatform floodgates fully open.

Rumours about multiplatform exploded which caused a business update to be moved forward with very vague details outside of 4 games going multiplatform. Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase revealed Pentiment and Grounded for Switch with the full multiplatform details (those 2 also coming to PS4/PS5, PS5 release for Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves) happening later that day. So if the rumours never happened, the Direct would've been the source of the multiplatform strategy.

So my guess would be that Switch successor reveal will be the debut announcement of more Xbox exclusives going multiplatform and at that point, the floodgates are completely open.

@awp69 More consoles doesn't necessarily mean Xbox. Nintendo seems to have new hardware in the somewhat near future so it could be for that. Alternatively, there's a situation where games are getting PS4 ports after releasing on current gen (e.g. RE4 remake, Jedi Survivor) so it could be that instead.

@NEStalgia "What does Sony consider to be major IP?" is the big question in all of this. In any case, considering the PS Studios lineup is averaging 1 game a month there's probably a Playstation Showcase around May which'll reveal what's happening after April. So far 2024 for PS Studios on PS is:

• January - TLoU 2 Remastered
• February - Helldivers 2
• March - MLB The Show 24, Rise of the Ronin
• April - Stellar Blade
• 2024 - Until Dawn, Concord

@NEStalgia That's not technically true regarding upcoming PS Studios lineup. No new major IP releases between April 2024 and March 2025 doesn't mean nothing's happening. Just means it's smaller IP, new IP and remasters/remakes. PS5 can still have a good lineup.

@Krzzystuff Given all your Xbox library will be in the cloud later this year (not just Game Pass games), I feel they'll approach it that the next gen Xbox is literally just a Xbox branded PC that can play PC games natively and Xbox games in the cloud.

I contemplated getting an expansion card in the past (held off for a discount) but nowadays I only have 1 game installed on my Series X so no need for me to get one.