Krzzystuff

@johnK folks need to stop with the pre orders and make the devs earn that money. Social media is pushing FOMO and it's letting publishers/devs get away with shipping beta builds.

@Trmn8r this is very true. The past few years they could get away with it a bit more as there wasn't as much coming out and everyone had Covid impacts. But now with so much coming out you need to shine from day 1. If you're subpar you're getting forgotten immediately. It's harsh but really they should be launching a finished product.

Outside of HiFi Rush has there been a game released this year that was actually finished? Honest question.

I still don't trust that any game is ready at launch and it's why I don't even bother playing them until month's after launch when it's actually good to go.

After all the drama and it being in the news constantly they are going to have to do a cool roundtable presentation like they did with Zenimax to get the hype up around this. It's just ABK fatigue at this point.

Get Diablo in gamepass and make a new rock n roll racing and I'll be happy....oh and a Santa outfit for CoD as a GPU perk naturally.

I managed to finish up Beacon Pines last night before it left. I gotta say it was a fantastic game. The mixture of the "cute" art and dark theme was surprisingly a good match.

Just to spite the FTC I hope there's a Santa skin as a GPU park for CoD

Totally makes sense. Vast majority of people are casuals and don't care about the best hardware. They just want to play the games. The new gen of gamers care even less as they are used to playing games on phones and tablets. I only got the X cuz if the disk drive myself.

@ZYDIO it's not as good looking with the two tone colours but honestly i won't be looking at it, I'll be watching the screen. I just need them fancy sticks, all the other stuff is a bonus as well but just care about preventing stick drift.

@GeeEssEff well they certainly can't sue themselves lol. If this was the FTCs fault they definitely should be suing their asses cuz it's a lot of data they didn't want to show to the public, competitors especially. Still sucks a lot for them but it's their fault so all they can do is let the person responsible go really.

Isn't there supposed to be some sort of fancy tech that they were supposed to utilize to make game's smaller? Or is this already the smaller version?

Controller with anti drift sticks is hopefully real. It's the only thing i cared about from the whole leak lol

I don't think this was a PR stunt as I'm sure they were looking at revealing this stuff at a show of some sort. Looking like an MS clerical error that will likely result in a job opening as this was pretty massive

So random question but can MS go after the FTC for this? It's a massive leak of confidential documents that they certainly didn't want their competitors to see.

So are the thumbsticks the magnetic ones that are supposed to eliminate stick drift? If so I'm getting one for sure. I'm not upgrading the series X, I'll wait until next gen and just get a new console.

@Kaloudz field of view, i think it lets you pull away further from the character so you can see more? Someone will need to confirm.

I'm working through backlog so when I do get around to Starfield I'll have all the buttons!!!

I'm holding off on buying another controller until they add in those anti drift sticks that everyone keeps talking about. I have drift in a second controller of mine now, out of warranty, so I'm going surgical on it to see if I can fix it. I'd happily buy a wireless one with the magnetic sticks though.

Performance mode it is most likely. Might give the RT option a go as well just to see how much it dips and if it's worth it.

Just rolled credits on Quantum Break and I'm finishing up the alternate paths on a Injustice 2. Then I'm doing a pallet cleanser with Planet of Lana or HiFi Rush before I start MK11 finally. Take that backlog!!!

Bought the series X for gamepass. Was saving up for a PS5 and then I just got won over slowly by gamepass and the back compat. No looking back since then.

@Savage_Joe I don't think they will be making a Series S like console next gen. I expect it will be a replacement for the X and maybe a streaming only device but from a developer standpoint it's just one console to develop for.

First party needs to show off what the S can do to prove to the community it's not the box, it's just lack of Dev time being committed to it. As others have said already Xbox is the smaller install base and requires extra work so they won't be prioritized, they will likely need to work with devs earlier in the process to show them how to easily utilize the S. But by showing it running a next gen game at an impressive performance should take an excuse away from the console warriors that it just can't do it.

@InterceptorAlpha the black series s isn't a different SKU for the devs as it's the same guts with more memory. Series S is the majority of the sold consoles so it's not getting replaced. They won't be making a third SKU with different guts. This is it for the gen asides from more memory and maybe smaller sizes. Sorry but your idea is horrible, you're thinking that basically killing off support for the majority of your install base is a valid plan? I'm not sure if you're serious but if you are.... you're not good at business.

@InterceptorAlpha how would adding a 3rd sku make things better? The S is here for the whole gen and it is what it is. They won't do and "pro" versions this gen. Maybe more storage, smaller sizes, but same specs.

@Sol4ris I do think if it was just the X we wouldn't be having these delays though. So yes they are in 3rd but if it wasn't for the series S they wouldn't be holding back these titles. The S is still the weak link in the chain. It's why I really hope 1st party can deliver on it.

@RazputinAquato either way, the series S better shine on first party games to show that it's the devs not the system. And I don't think they will have 2 skus again. Likely a stream box n a proper system so there's just one to develop for.

@Pimpernel I definitely don't think we'll be getting two skus again next gen and expect the cut off between the generations to be much faster. It does seem that devs are still focusing on PC n Sony first and Xbox is being left to the end due to the series S.

I hope that first party can show some great stuff on the series S to show what it can actually do when it's utilized.

They are definitely returning a lot of titles previously in the service. Seems lighter offerings until the quarterly big game(s) drop

@InterceptorAlpha the S is the larger install base so it's not going anywhere. I'm not techy so can't actually say if it's holding things back or if it's just more work but I do wonder if they will have the 2 sku approach again next gen. We will have to see if first party can actually start utilizing all the features talked about at launch and show that the S can handle current gen games. I believe it's hard for them to send support teams since they haven't utilized it internally yet from what we've seen.

But it's here to stay for this gen and adding more SKUs won't make things better as the base Series S will still exist in the market.

@Feffster I just got my email for the one month GPU code and my buddy got his like 5 hours ago. So it's all going to be processed today just give it some time.

@Cacky_Raphael they did reinstate it for a few hours but it turned out that they accidentally loaded 3 month codes for the price of one month. Hasn't been up since they took it down again. I have points ready to go for more GPU time so hopefully it's reinstated at some point. I have over 2 years stacked but would like to just keep it going.

Trying to wrap up Quantum Break. Just finished act 4 so on the last one now. Really a fantastic game.

Lot of folks were speculating that Square was supposed to be purchased by Xbox before ABK once the poorly redacted details got spilled on acquisition targets. So if Square was expecting to be purchased and all of a sudden they were left high n dry it would explain the rumours about their relationship getting really poor and it being xboxs fault. Also might be why square had to offload the NA studios on the cheap just to get debt off their books. A bit tin foil but timing seems to line up.

Does anyone have that ability to buy GPU gift cards with rewards points or is it out globally? I know they put the 1 month cards back as an option a few weeks ago but it was actually 3 month codes so they took em down again.

I think it's cuz it had 2 female leads out of the 3 videos? Lol not sure what level of trolling he was going for

@x3King84 pretty sure this is just to save face for the CMA. They could have closed around them but that would definitely give them a lot of unwanted bad blood and scrutiny in the UK when they do their next acquisition.

Personally I'm petty and think they should have closed around them and just not changed anything in the UK until the CMA decision. They sat on their hands until the last second and then started to try and actually work on a solution when they realized they were going to be stuck holding the hot potato. Now the rest of the world has to wait because they failed at stalling it out of existence. Thanks Nigel!!!

I don't get fomo so it's odd to me to play extra to play something a few days earlier. If you are into that go for it. Ill likely play it months after as Q4 is always crazy with work and my gaming time will shrink.

Yeah they had alot of complaints about the text size from the beginning. I can understand your frustrations with it.

Was planning on playing Avengers story at some point, I'll see if I can squeeze it in but i still haven't finished Ascent either lol. Ah well

@Markatron84 it's definitely Fitbits issues but for a small studio they definitely did a great job hopefully they learn from this one and make a great overall game next time. Graphics were amazing but it had difficulty spikes, small text, and it was really annoying that you can't adjust your weapon upgrades afterwards. I didn't realize you could only fully upgrade one weapon until I was well into the game and already upgraded some weapons from earlier in the game.

So thing about this is that regular console gamepass is a great deal now because you don't need gold on top of it but GPU is basically getting a price hike because you getting gold included was a big part of the savings. So this better keep the prices locked in for a bunch of years.

I'll give the game a go but the type of game isn't my jam really. Currently the climax of ABK is just killing anything else in gaming it seems and then starfield is stealing the show after that. I hope they do some marketing push for the game and I'm sure it will be a hit in the sim racer crowd....but definitely not a game for casuals.

They definitely need to keep making great games for select fans vs trying to get mass appeal on everything so I'm hoping the sim racers are pumped.

Pretty sure this is a way for the CMA to save face here. MS will close the deal over the weekend/Monday and CMA will determine that the additional remedies that they strongarmed MS into make the deal viable. They got a victory for consumers....CMA rules!

@Wilforce I mean they chose a judge for a trial and after she didn't give them their way because they couldn't fabricate convincing arguments they are trying to appeal. I don't know about stifling innovation but she's definitely after a personal agenda. I agree that large corporations that take advantage of employees and tax breaks aren't good for the world. But not sure this is a battle against that here.

Anyways, who's excited for Diablo in gamepass?

@GuyinPA75 I'm pretty sure Kahn is going before Congress tomorrow abd is at risk of contempt of Congress (no clue what that is) if she doesn't provide requested documents related to other FTC dealings. Pretty sure the government is backing her on either side as this is about American companies merging with an openess to unions. At this point can she be held liable for mishandling of tax payers dollars? Really is a personal agenda regardless of facts.

@GamingFan4Lyf it's all about Diablo! And StarCraft.... bring StarCraft to console

I'd wait for the actual announcement from Xbox then listen to anything that the CMA or FTC say as they clearly have no clue what's going on here and just make stuff up to suit their needs.

If Sony has a deal that specifically mentions no CoD in gamepass then yeah it won't happen unless Xbox decided to break that deal and pay Sony a fee. But these are multi year marketing deals usually right? When would they have signed it last, were they doing anti gamepass clauses then?

It could be 2025 but it also could be day n date, it's all about the contract.

@Banjo- I think the "concessions" will just be the exact same deal that MS agreed to with the EU. I don't see Microsoft giving them anything significant ad in all honesty it's the reputation of the CMA that's looking to save face here and needs MS to throw them a bone.

What I'm actually curious about is whether that 10 year deal is still available for Sony or if it's gone now. Sony needs to decide if they want to share all their fantastic engineering (I still think they slapped that thing together last minute to boost it's power) with Xbox for the next CoD. It's no longer Xbox holding CoD from playstation, it's going to be playstation refusing it or bending the knee and sending them dev kits over.

Aaaannnnndddd it's a done deal finally.

Diablo is coming to gamepass!!!! Except for those currently under the CMAs protection? Clearly they gotta do a settlement as MS was already signaling they would close around them. World knows the UK is an island.... don't need to highlight it in this merger.

I've recently taken a day off to just play games to chill out. Quickly discovered that my adult version of a day to play games was from 8:30-2:30 cuz gotta get kids from school at 3.... adulting sucks.

They definitely had some fantastic deals/way's of getting you into Gamepass on the cheap. This is a very drawn out version of the drug dealer saying that the first one is free to get you hooked on the product. Gamepass is still a massive value proposition to most folks even at regular price, but a price increase always sucks.

Again, if you have MS reward's in your area start using them abd get free Gamepass that way and look out for the discount sales for the 3 month cards. I haven't seen them in Canada but I know that the US seems to get deals on them at least once a year.... w*******

I've tried it for a quest the last time it was in GP but only played a bit. Driving sucked ass is what I recall.