Grumblevolcano

@IOI @teknium_ @Widey85 It's probably about the Activision acquisition, the beginning of the major silence (which started with the Game Awards no show) lines up with when the FTC made their move.

@BAMozzy We already have a January release confirmed, Age of Empires 2 for console on January 31st.

I would've chosen Goldeneye if it was in the list but as it wasn't, I went for Age of Empires.

@IOI I was being cautious not to predict too many delays out of the already confirmed release windows (that list was already predicting that Starfield and Forza Motorsport would be delayed out of the 1st half of 2023).

2023's lineup pretty much comes down to what extent you believe Microsoft will achieve the "12 month" goal they set for the June 2022 showcase. Minecraft Legends, Redfall, Starfield, Forza Motorsport and ARA History Untold were all in that showcase.

@Romans12 My guess for the 2023 lineup is:

• January - AoE 2 (console)
• February - FH5 Expansion 2
• March - Ghostwire Tokyo
• April - Minecraft Legends
• May - Redfall
• June - ARA History Untold
• July - Goldeneye
• August - AoE 4 (console)
• September - Forza Motorsport
• October - Hellblade 2 or an unannounced game
• November - Starfield

@Would_you_kindly Online multiplayer free for all games is the best option of course though the last time we thought they'd do that they tried to almost double the price of Gold instead. Seems pretty clear they're either going to keep Gold or replace it with that rumoured ad Game Pass tier of which Gold is a lot better.

Only if the replacement to Gold isn't that horrible rumoured ad Game Pass tier. I'd rather stick with Gold than get Game Pass.

Given what happened with Silent Hill, probably a safe guess that the long awaited announcement will be a PS5 exclusive remake of MGS1.

Hardware = C - Impressed by how well backwards compatibility works though I wish they didn't stop last year. As for the rest of the console, the Series X sticking with the XB1 OS makes it very clunky and if you have enough installed the problems of the XB1 start to resurface in the Series X like "[insert game] took too long to start". Switch is much faster going into a game despite being a lot less powerful.

Subscriptions = Overall D (Game Pass C, Gold F) - Xbox Live Gold has been a joke these past few years for the most part. I'm not a Game Pass subscriber but looking at the lineup I feel Game Pass has been a mixed bag. 2022 could've done with more bigger games but on the other hand if you fill it with lots of big games then fewer people will check out the indies. Finding the right balance is difficult.

Events/Showcases = F - Too much announcing stuff way too far in advance meanwhile the 2022 June Showcase which focused only on June 2022 - June 2023 was very underwhelming. Microsoft doing multiple smaller events throughout the year instead of 1 big one in June would be better.

Games = Overall D (3rd party B, 1st party F) - Have to give Microsoft some credit for being able to get more JRPGs on Xbox more recently that would usually skip Xbox like Persona 3/4/5, Crisis Core and Octopath. Sony is clearly blocking stuff so there's only so much that Microsoft can do. There was a good selection of 3rd party games as a whole but the 1st party side of things was dire. Especially a shame that Microsoft forced Halo Infinite to be released before it was ready because of anniversary celebrations and the holiday season.

Overall = E

Given Microsoft had no announcement presence at the Game Awards and Sony had little announcement presence at the Game Awards, it looks like 2023 will be another year of the main news about either being them trying to convince regulators how bad their upcoming lineup is to sway the Activision acquisition outcome in their respective favours.

It seems there isn't a 2nd half of December Game Pass batch after all.

Something else seems off about this, not just that they brought up a Sony IP (Bloodborne). Wasn't it already confirmed that Silent Hill 2 Remake was launching same day PS5 and PC with 1 year timed exclusivity? This isn't your FFVII Remake type deal where timed exclusivity means coming to PC later.

So it seems like either Microsoft's trying to mislead regulators or a more powerful Switch is going to reveal that Sony has been literally only blocking Xbox. FFVII Remake for example wouldn't be able to run natively on the current Switch but a more powerful Switch would be able to.

@GunValkyrian @Sebatrox I wonder whether it's just Xbox or Nintendo as well. A more powerful Switch existing would be an eye opener for Sony's exclusivity plans in general. With Square Enix, nowadays the only games that don't come to Switch are the ones that wouldn't be able to run natively on the Switch anyway.

@themightyant https://www.purexbox.com/news/2022/04/damning-report-takes-aim-at-xboxs-state-of-decay-3-studio

@themightyant I think there also needs to be more assurances on the staff side of things, especially given the reports on Undead Labs (an Xbox Game Studio) earlier in the year. Union neutrality is a good start but Microsoft need to do more to fix the horrific state of Activision like getting rid of Kotick and getting rid of the annual new CoD cycle. The expectation for Activision under Microsoft should be a massively better experience than Activision on its own, not just a slightly better experience that's accepted because of how dire things actually are.

Reducing the frequency of CoD would be challenging given how Sony would likely see it as CoD being taken away from Playstation (decreasing the frequency gradually until it's gone completely) but allowing the devs to work on something else and with less pressure would naturally be a good thing.

5/10, the content is getting there but the game is a lot more unstable. I think Infinite should've been an ODST style release where the focus is the campaign and the box includes the full MCC/Halo 5 so those who want multiplayer have something.

There were some good picks (mostly 360/OG Xbox) but overall Games With Gold was a big disappointment this year.

@themightyant Pretty sure the timed exclusivity on FFXVI which ends on December 31st 2023 will be about PC later just like FFVII Remake. Such as: June 2023 (PS5) -> January 2024 (Epic Game Store) -> July 2024 (Steam)

@themightyant @NEStalgia Some of Sony's acquisitions like Insomniac and Housemarque have been about protecting studios that develop Playstation exclusives from being acquired by others. Mainline Final Fantasy seems to be heading in the direction where ports and remasters are multiplatform meanwhile remakes and new games are permanently Playstation console exclusive.

@Tharsman Most Square Enix games come to Switch nowadays, for example this year alone these came to Switch:

• Kingdom Hearts cloud versions (hopefully native versions come when Nintendo gets more powerful hardware)
• Voice of Cards The Forsaken Maiden
• Triangle Strategy (Switch exclusive)
• Chocobo GP (Switch exclusive)
• Chrono Cross
• The Centennial Case
• Live a Live remake (Switch exclusive)
• Various Daylife
• The DioField Chronicle
• Life is Strange Arcadia Bay Collection
• Nier Automata
• Harvestella (Switch exclusive)
• Tactics Ogre Reborn
• Romancing Saga Minstrel Song Remastered
• Dragon Quest Treasures (Switch exclusive)
• Crisis Core Reunion

Nowadays if a Square Enix game doesn't come to Switch, the vast majority of the time it's a Playstation exclusive. There are exceptions like both PS and Xbox got Stranger of Paradise and Star Ocean this year but it's less common.

@themightyant It'll have a domino effect like if the deal goes through then Sony will be allowed to acquire Square Enix which will hurt Nintendo a lot more than Microsoft's CoD deal will help (CoD is pretty much a no-name in the Nintendo space compared to Square Enix JRPGs). Microsoft have already said Activision isn't the end of acquisitions so it just basically confirms that Microsoft will only stop with acquisitions when forced to by regulators.

I think Microsoft did well with Inside Xbox and X0 pre-pandemic (2018/2019) in terms of style but usually didn't have the content to support it. If 2023 is a strong lineup for Xbox, a return to multiple announcement events per year would work very well.

@Green-Bandit There's still FH5 Expansion 2 in the mix, I really doubt Motorsport is releasing before that and we know expansion 2 isn't releasing until February at the earliest given both the December and January Series have already been detailed. Also the E3 trailer said Spring 2023 for Motorsport.

@BAMozzy Microsoft started all this CoD exclusivity stuff in the 360 era, every CoD from MW2 to Advanced Warfare had all its DLC 1 month exclusive to Xbox. It's very clear that at the very least there'll be some kind of Game Pass exclusive perks similar to the monthly Halo Infinite drops if the deal goes through.

@Kaloudz It said December 31st 2023, pretty much 6 months timed exclusivity but don't forget that a similar thing happened with FF7 Remake (Intergrade had 6 months exclusivity followed by 6 months Epic Game Store exclusivity, followed by Steam release and still no sign of Xbox release).

@Tharsman Probably remasters of the 360 games. While Alan Wake Remastered is a big mess on the Switch (isn't it a mess on all platforms?), most of the 360 games brought to Switch run well.

I think on the Xbox specific side we'll see a Redfall trailer with release date (hence the early announcement of $70 releases going forward), Goldeneye shadow drop (December doesn't have a NSO Expansion Pack game so Goldeneye would fit in) and some Game Pass ads.

No thanks, I'll wait for the inevitable sale. Microsoft should receive the same level of criticism that Sony got over the past 2 years.

@Green-Bandit I wasn't suggesting that CoD would leave PS as such, rather that no platform gets new CoD games outside of the ones already in development for awhile because Microsoft decides to make Warzone 2 the CoD platform like how there's no more Halo games until 2031 because Infinite is lasting for 10 years.

@Green-Bandit A time period doesn't give an indication of quantity. For example if you look at Halo in 10 year time periods you have the following.

• Decade 1 (November 15th 2001 - November 14th 2011): Halo CE (2001), Halo 2 (2004), Halo 3 (2007), Halo Wars (2009), Halo 3 ODST (2009), Halo Reach (2010)
• Decade 2 (November 15th 2011 - November 14th 2021): Halo CE Anniversary (2011), Halo 4 (2012), Halo Spartan Assault (2013), Master Chief Collection (2014), Halo Spartan Strike (2015), Halo 5 (2015), Halo Wars Definitive Edition (2016/2017), Halo Wars 2 (2017)
• Decade 3 (November 15th 2021 - November 14th 2031): Halo Infinite (2021)

So Sony could deduce that CoD under Microsoft is Warzone 2 being supported for a decade meanwhile the only new CoD ends up being the remaining one covered by the existing marketing exclusivity deal. Microsoft would still be keeping their word but Sony would be a lot worse off.

@NEStalgia Disagree, releasing a game when it's not ready just because of a console launch is bad. That said, delaying Series X|S launch to holiday 2022 would've worked though as almost everything released for Xbox since November 2020 has been crossgen.

I hope Microsoft have learned their lesson with Halo Infinite (that really should've been the big holiday 2022 title) and delay Starfield further if it needs more time.

@themightyant 2020 prior to Series X|S launch was packed:

• February 2020 - Wasteland Remastered
• March 2020 - Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Bleeding Edge
• May 2020 - Minecraft Dungeons
• June 2020 - The Bard's Tale: Remastered and Resnarkled
• July 2020 - Grounded (early access)
• August 2020 - Battletoads, Tell Me Why, Wasteland 3

There were also big DLC and content updates (e.g. Outer Worlds DLC and ODST Firefight for MCC in September 2020) in that pre-launch window. Also there was a lot of PC stuff like Gears Tactics in April , Flight Sim in August and most of MCC throughout the year (Reach was December 2019, the rest was 2020).

Honestly it seems like Microsoft's approach is:
1. Big game drought to convince regulators it's fine to acquire a big publisher
2. When acquisition seems likely to pass according to Microsoft, schedule the release of a load of content from existing studios to make room for the big publisher (e.g. January - June 2023)
3. Return to step 1 while putting the big publisher's legacy content into Game Pass when the acquisition goes through

Microsoft usually announce their games extremely far in advance so I'd guess Perfect Dark, Fable, State of Decay 3, Avowed and Everwild are all 2025 games. Hellblade II had actual gameplay last year so perhaps 2nd half of 2023 for that.

@Tharsman Wasteland 3 and Minecraft Dungeons were over 2 years ago (August 2020 and May 2020 respectively). The only ones missing from the list that did release since Series X|S launch are the Bethesda ones (Deathloop PS5 and Series X|S, Ghostwire Tokyo PS5, Quake Remastered).

I'd have to go for Gears Tactics, it was somewhat close between that and FH5 but the latter's focus on Festival Playlist (i.e. the live service element) brings it down.

I miss the times of FH3 where instead of the Festival Playlist existing, the base experience was a lot more packed and permanent.

@gamer5634 I never use Quick Resume, I don't like it.

@FatalBubbles I played 2 matches yesterday and desync seemed much worse than normal. I then proceeded to collect the rest of the skulls in campaign with mission replay and the game crashed requiring a restart when going for the penultimate one.

@Tharsman Intergrade was PS5 in June 2021, Epic Game Store in December 2021 and Steam in June 2022 so I'd guess FF16 and FF7 Rebirth will be the same gap between platform releases.

The first Sonic Adventure because it had more variety than the others like it's the only one with a fishing story mode.

I think it'll be a good game but performance issues will bring it down, especially on the weaker systems. So I went with 7/10 for my prediction.

Expansion 2 in early 2023 makes me think Motorsport will be June 2023 or later. Back when Motorsport and Horizon were alternate years, Horizon DLC 2 released 5-7 months before Motorsport.

• FH1 1000 Club was April 2013 with FM5 in November 2013 (7 months)
• FH2 Fast and Furious was March 2015 with FM6 in September 2015 (6 months)
• FH3 Hot Wheels was May 2017 with FM7 in October 2017 (5 months)

There's a November MCC update so perhaps there's some Halo 4 stuff in that update? Would be really cool if they added in Spartan Ops matchmaking like they had in the 360 version of Halo 4.

@Trmn8r It's not currently on Xbox (was only PC/Switch) so this is a situation of a game coming to Game Pass same day as the game comes to Xbox in general.

Forza Horizon 5 Expansion 2, Goldeneye and Age of Empires (2 and 4) are the things I'm most excited about regarding Xbox's future 1st party lineup.

@BBB I think they're keeping quiet because of the Activision acquisition, probably is also why there's lots of CoD ad spam on the Xbox dashboard. Much like a Playstation Showcase with lots of exclusivity may strengthen Microsoft's arguments in favour of the acquisition, showcasing a strong upcoming 1st party Xbox lineup may strengthen Sony's arguments against the acquisition. So you end up with a situation where both companies are being extremely cautious with what they announce.

Hopefully this isn't a repeat of January 2021 where they tried to price hike Gold in an attempt to force people to Game Pass.

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2021/01/22/update-on-xbox-live-gold-pricing/

This is an exciting announcement. Hopefully 1, 3 and Mythology follow after for console meanwhile PC gets more of those essential 1st party Xbox exclusives like the rest of the 360 Gears games, Rare Replay and Halo 5.

Remakes would just end up in PS exclusivity nonsense like the FFVII Remake trilogy and the Silent Hill 2 Remake given the Core Design Tomb Raider games are very much associated with Playstation.

2 multiplatform collections (PC, Xbox, PS, Switch) would be a lot better. 1 being the Core Design Tomb Raider games and the other being the 7th gen Tomb Raider games. Jim Ryan pretty much said years ago that he doesn't care about old games, it's the remakes of old games he cares about.

I could see Series S going the cloud route, the Xbox streaming device even looks like a tiny Series S.

We're probably going to see a lot more of this where current gen only games are 30fps on PS5/Series X|S and 60+fps is only for the PC version.