LtSarge

@Gr81 That's actually something that I've wanted to point out as well, i.e. Sony literally drove out Sega and now they're not a console manufacturer anymore, much less developing games as they used to (I'm talking about their in-house teams, not studios like Atlus, Relic and so on). As much as people want to talk about how Microsoft is ruining Sony, how about the fact that Sony has ALREADY ruined another company.

And you know what the reason for that was? Because PlayStation appealed to a lot more people than Sega. And guess what, Microsoft is looking to appeal to a lot more people with Xbox compared to Sony. That's just how businesses are, either you get with the times or you're left behind. Ultimately, PlayStation turned out to be good for the gaming industry and so will Xbox.

This guy has basically become the Donald Trump of the gaming industry. People have been upset with current circumstances in the industry but until now they've lacked a figurehead to represent them and now they have this guy.

The impression I get from reading his arguments is that he doesn't know enough about Microsoft and their Xbox division to pass fair judgement. He's an outsider, someone who sees a foreign threat and responds accordingly with hostility.

The problem with a lot of these people is that they simply haven't cared about Microsoft or Xbox until now. For a long time now, Xbox hasn't been a significant competitor in the gaming market since the 2013 fiasco. Now that they're making a comeback, all of a sudden everyone thinks they're a threat. But if you've been following Microsoft and Xbox all this time, you'll have formed a fair opinion about them:

• Microsoft cares about games because they need them to succeed in order for their business model, i.e. Game Pass, to succeed. They want to focus on all kinds of games and revive older franchises. This is a very positive thing for the industry.
• Microsoft is focused on convenience, affordability and accessibility. They want you to play anywhere, whether it's on Xbox, PC, mobile devices via cloud streaming and so on. They're offering affordable options like Series S and Game Pass, and ways for all kinds of people to enjoy them. This is also a very positive thing for the gaming industry, as Sony has increased the price of video games and only lets people play their games via their PlayStation systems. That's not good for the industry at all, you're restricting people from playing video games by having all these hurdles. This isn't the 90s anymore, games should be available on as many platforms as possible.
• Microsoft lets their studios take their time with creating games, thereby encouraging creative freedom, and giving them the resources they need to make the best games they can possibly make. This is made possible because they have a subscription model, which doesn't put pressure on the studios to create games as quickly as they can compared to the traditional model. This is also very positive for the gaming industry as games often come out rushed and broken.

I can provide more arguments (like how they are the only company of the big three who actually cares about game preservation by having backwards compatibility and a universal system that they will keep in mind when creating their next console) but the point is that you gain a much better understanding of companies if you're actually paying attention to their work throughout the years. And this is coming from someone who actively follows Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox.

Will be playing Diablo 3 on PS4, Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom on PS3 and No More Heroes on Wii U. Enjoying these games a lot, especially Diablo. It's my first time playing this series and I'm absolutely loving it. It's so much fun!

If I may speak a bit generally about this topic, I don't think it really makes sense to pick just any setting for a GTA game. It's not like Forza Horizon where you can have the game take place in all kinds of locations such as Australia, Mexico, Japan etc. GTA is a game about crime and chaos, which is why the American settings have worked well. I see that some people have mentioned South America in the comments and I agree with that as well, that would be a fitting setting. But I don't agree with stuff like Japan because that's not a country where (unorganised) crime and chaos is common. It would be genuinely weird to play as a Japanese person, walk up to a car and steal it. Doesn't make sense at all to me and I wouldn't even be surprised if Japan took offense to GTA taking place in their country because it's a very peaceful nation.

So personally, either a North American or a South American setting would be nice. I'd love to see a return to Miami in the 80s. Maybe have a second location in Colombia considering how huge drug cartels were during that period. I think it would be a lot of fun to do missions for people like Pablo Escobar.

@Kooky_Daisuke That's actually an interesting point because I've heard from numerous folks that the main reason for why they don't want to subscribe to Game Pass is because they want to own physical copies of the games. But just as you say, digital games are becoming more and more popular and it's much more convenient as well as cost-efficient to subscribe to a service like Game Pass and play all these games digitally instead of buying each one individually. Which is why I'm glad Game Pass exists because I wouldn't like an all-digital future where you have to pay €60 for digital copies of games. But €15 a month to play hundreds of games, including day one releases, now that's a future I'll happily be on board with.

@NEStalgia I don't think it's necessary to find a perfect substitute for Spencer's successor, but it's certainly necessary to find one who won't ruin all the work that he has done. As long as Sarah Bond's vision for Xbox is aligned with Phil Spencer's, then that's good enough for me.

This man saved Xbox from near-death and turned the brand into an absolute powerhouse. He absolutely deserves this award.

@Shigurui It's not fixed though as I've seen Reddit posts from 2020 saying that you have to download one patch, cancel the process, download the next one and so on if you're trying to download all of them at the same time. People have said that this takes 4 or even 8 hours. I'm not going to bother with that.

I personally prefer Forza over Gran Turismo, always have. Back when I started playing these games, I gave Forza Motorsport 2 on the 360 a go and was hooked instantly. Then I played Gran Turismo 5 on PS3 and it was the opposite experience. It was hard to progress in that game, you had to have certain cars, which meant that you had to grind a lot in order to access the next races. And this was early on in the career mode! Moreover, the menu was a mess and it didn't have a rewind feature. I tried giving Gran Turismo 6 a shot but it's apparently not even playable on PS3 anymore since there are so many patches to download that you can't even download them, it just stops downloading after a while.

So yeah, I've pretty much given up on Gran Turismo and I vastly prefer Forza, both Motorsport and Horizon. I mean, the rewind feature alone is enough to keep me wanting to play these games because I'm not that good at racing games. But I enjoy them a lot, especially when I put on a podcast in the background and then do a bunch of races. It's great fun and I'm looking forward to playing the next Forza Motorsport.

@Bleachedsmiles I do have to agree with you because I get the impression that Microsoft gives their studios too much freedom to the point that very little gets done. But it could also be that a lot of the games that are on their way were announced way too early. I remember people complaining a few years ago about an Xbox showcase where Microsoft only showed CGI trailers with no gameplay whatsoever. It could be that the games were still early in the development and Microsoft shouldn't have announced them. But they needed to put out those trailers to attract more people to come work for those studios. So I don't know, but it does feel like with 343 at least that they should've been more disciplined.

@Carck Normally, I'd agree with you but considering we live in a world where Microsoft has acquired Activision Blizzard, a public company and one of the largest third-party publishers on the gaming market, anything is possible now. I'm sure Microsoft would find a way to acquire Sega if they really wanted to make it happen and if Sega is willing to sell.

@BulkSlash I've seen this argument being mentioned on several sites and it seems like a possibility most definitely. After all, Microsoft has been going after publishers that have some form of issues. ZeniMax had apparently financial problems, Activision Blizzard obviously has all these scandals and while Sega might not have financial issues, leaving the arcade business means that they've lost a good source of revenue. Ubisoft could also be a potential candidate given that they've also had their fair share of scandals. So based on this pattern, it seems like Microsoft could be looking at Sega or Ubisoft next.

The "leak" was almost correct then: https://www.purexbox.com/news/2022/01/xbox-store-hints-at-potential-leaving-dates-for-many-game-pass-titles

Seems like it's fair to assume that most of those games will also be leaving around those dates.

@StonyKL Play what games like before? Starcraft is dead, World of Warcraft is dying, Activision just absorbed Vicarious Visions into Blizzard so you will see less Crash Bandicoot and Tony Hawk titles and who knows what will happen with their other studios like Toys for Bob, Activision will keep milking Call of Duty every year as all those talented developers go under-utilised instead of working on other games. Not to mention all the other terrible stuff like Bobby Kotick would still be in charge and the company culture won't change.

I'm definitely hoping the acquisition goes through.

Very interesting that they're finally adding Contrast to Game Pass, which is Compulsion Games' first game that they've made. Perhaps an announcement for their next title is imminent?

@StylesT I read a post over at Push Square where someone compared this deal to the ZeniMax one:

"Sony paid $3.6 billion for one studio that owns one IP.

Microsoft paid $7.5 billion for 8 studios with 11 IPs.

Either Sony got ripped off or Microsoft got one hell of a deal."

I wholeheartedly agree with this. Because seriously, that's a whole lot of money for a whole lot of nothing if we look at it from a consumer perspective. And the thing is, ZeniMax has studios that are constantly pumping out new IPs, like Deathloop, Ghostwire Tokyo, Redfall and Starfield. Bungie will be working on one IP until 2024 and then who knows what will happen. Absolutely ridiculous.

I also read that Sega's market cap is just as much as what Sony paid for Bungie! If you're going to acquire a company, you might as well go for ones like Sega. They have so many dormant IPs that need revival and I'm personally hoping that Microsoft acquires Sega so that they can restore these great franchises.

@themightyant But that's the thing, you've already given a good reason for why Sony acquired them, which is that they've secured an IP that gives Sony an increased revenue stream. It totally makes sense. I'm just stating that this is such a poor acquisition for PS users.

I mean, just look at how many games Bungie has released since 2010 after Halo Reach. Two! They've released two games in 12 years and if they're ending Destiny 2 in 2024, then that'll be 14 years. I'm sorry, but Bungie is basically like Rockstar now. We'll be getting a new game once in a blue moon.

@themightyant What are these "games" you speak of? Bungie is only developing Destiny and they've already said that they won't be releasing a new game in the series for many years to come as they want to keep supporting Destiny 2. Which is free-to-play!

Bungie was primarily a Halo developer and they got some IPs from the 90s, but other than that they don't have anything meaningful to bring to the table for us consumers. They'll continue being a multi-platform developer and they have barely any IPs. Even if they were bought to keep them away from Microsoft and other publishers, it's still one IP.

This is genuinely one of the most pointless acquisitions for PS users.

@BAMozzy @themightyant @Cikajovazmaj So Sony is buying them primarily because of their revenue stream.

I'm usually all for acquisitions as long as they bring benefits for consumers. When Microsoft acquires a company, like Activision-Blizzard, that means a lot of older games will be added on Game Pass. Furthermore, all future titles will be added to Game Pass on day one. Plenty of benefits for me as an Xbox user.

Compare that with this acquisition, which is only beneficial for Sony and not for me as a PlayStation user. Don't really see how any of us should be excited for this as it literally doesn't change anything.

I genuinely don't see the point of this acquisition.

Bungie will keep making their games available on platforms outside of PlayStation.

Their main original IP is Destiny.

Destiny 2 is free-to-play.

Exactly what is PS users gaining here?

Consider the possibility that maybe the store has been getting a lot of questions about games like Call of Duty being on PlayStation or not in recent weeks and they're just tired of answering those questions so they put up a sign. I mean it could be because of anything really, but I personally don't see this as something that was done with malicious intent.

Will be playing Diablo 3 on PS4, Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom on PS3 and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time on Wii U.

I kinda wanted to try the Diablo series after all this talk about Activision Blizzard the past week. Been playing Diablo 3 for an hour now and it's so much fun and really addicting. Looking forward to playing more of it!

I think it's going to be nice exploring Activision Blizzard's vast catalogue of IPs through Game Pass since if there's one publisher I've barely played any games from, it's AB. Diablo, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Starcraft, I haven't played any of these IPs! Hopefully the ones that aren't on console will be ported to Xbox, such as WoW. I'd just love to give them a try after all these years.

The argument that a lot of people are putting forth on Twitter right now is that people who play on PC Game Pass get to play the games online without having to pay for an online subscription, while console users need to pay for online. Not to mention that it doesn't fit with Microsoft's philosophy of letting everyone play anywhere.

I agree with this and in short, Microsoft should just remove Xbox Live Gold as well as Games with Gold, make online multiplayer free for console users and maybe even reduce the price of Game Pass Ultimate if Gold is being removed in order to make the service more enticing.

@OskarRex Ah, well that would explain a lot then. It's too bad that they didn't make another one. Would've liked to see them expand upon the ideas of the first game as there were a lot of great ones.

@FraserG That wouldn't surprise me considering I actually bought the game on PS3 back in the day but only recently played it. I never would've bought it today in all honesty, lol.

However, I definitely would give it a try now that it's free with GwG.

For those that are curious, Hydrophobia is a pretty cool game but it's basically a tech demo. The story feels incomplete, like someone cut out the beginning and ending of it. The combat is decent, but what makes this game cool is the water. You're stuck on a ship and it's constantly flooding with water, so sometimes you have to run away before the place floods or you have to swim long distances before you reach the other side. Sadly, one of the coolest mechanics of the game is introduced way too late. But if you're willing to check out a 3 hour fairly mediocre game with cool water physics and set-pieces, then I'd say give it a go.

@GADG3Tx87 That's not what I'm trying to emphasise here. What I'm trying to say is that it really is no one's fault for being angry right now, it's the corporations that are affecting them. Microsoft is doing their thing, which is fine, but it's affecting the behaviour of people who are usually calm and well-mannered. It's affecting purely PlayStation users because Microsoft are making acquisitions that have more impact compared to Sony. So even though it's not their fault, I still can't be around those people anymore. The likelihood of Sony making an acquisition that will upset Xbox users equally as much is low but it could still happen. That's why if I want to turn to a community now with more positivity, I'll turn to the Xbox community and not the PlayStation one. Because that's just how things are right now: Microsoft will keep making these huge purchases, Xbox users will be happy and PlayStation users will get more displeased. Microsoft simply has more capital to spend than Sony, thus it's more likely that PlayStation users will keep getting more upset compared to Xbox users.

@Royalblues I'll still be playing PlayStation games, it's just the community that I won't be able to stand if it continues like this. At least I can expect positivity here because these acquisitions obviously benefit Xbox users. But even that's not guaranteed since Sony can make acquisitions of their own that will make Xbox users angry. It hasn't happened yet because Sony naturally can't match Microsoft in terms of capital. But who knows, maybe they'll buy Square Enix and everyone here will freak out.

It's just such an awkward phase for us gamers right now.

This past week has truly shown me that the situation with the PlayStation community just keeps getting worse. The amount of negativity I've seen is just unreal. And the thing is that Microsoft will keep making more acquisitions and that's just going to fuel their anger even more. At some point in the future, I do think I'll stop being a part of the PS community because the situation will just become unfeasible at that point. I visit gaming sites because I want to share my passion for video games with others and to be met with constant negativity is something I don't want to see.

@Casco Ah okay, got it. Well, I do expect the deal to take longer to finalise than the ZeniMax one (which took roughly six months I think) considering it's a much bigger purchase. So maybe we'll see it done by the end of 2022/early 2023.

@Casco I thought it was the fiscal year July 2023 and June 2024? Could be wrong though.

I mean this won't matter to Microsoft anyway since the acquisition won't be finalised until June 2023 at the earliest, so a lot of these agreements will be already fulfilled by that point.

If you've watched the Xbox documentary from last December, then you would know that that's not true at all. They have absolutely been competitors.

Going forward though, I do think Microsoft is going to want Game Pass on as many platforms as they can, hence fulfilling the "we want everyone to play our games" idea.

@FraserG Had to double check now that you mentioned it since Microsoft did give away a lot of racing games on 360 via GwG. But apparently I don't have it.

I won't be playing the game online, so does it have a decent single-player component at least?

Let the back compat purchases continue!

I'm considering getting a lot of the Lego games on 360, such as Indiana Jones and Pirates of the Caribbean. Might also get Split/Second and Star Wars The Force Unleashed II.

Has anyone played Split/Second and know if it's worth getting for €5?

Just Cause 1, Nights Into Dreams, Timesplitters 2 and Future Perfect, Killer is Dead, XCOM Enemy Within, Midnight Club Los Angeles Complete Edition, Aliens vs Predator, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Dark Void, The Darkness 1 and 2, The First Templar, Prey (2006), Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands and Supreme Commander 2.

I pretty much bought all the games on sale.

@Rural-Bandit No I mean you're absolutely right. I was actually going back and forth in my mind in terms of things that made sense and that's the thing, since it's a Fable reboot, you don't really need to play the Fable trilogy. And if Gears 6 comes out, then it would be nice to go through the old games again in preparation for that. So in that regard, you're definitely correct.

@Rural-Bandit Yeah I mean, it's plausible that either one of the franchises will see a remastered collection. A Marcus Fenix Collection makes a lot of sense as well. I just feel like we've already seen Gears 4 and 5 keeping people interested in the series, and even the Gears 1 remaster that came out on Xbox One in 2015. So to me, it makes more sense to bring back Fable this way.

I mean, it has to be Fable. The franchise has been pretty much dead since the 360 era, while Gears has seen plenty of life on One and it's already going great for that series. There's more of a reason to remake the Fable trilogy in order to generate hype for the Fable reboot as well as interest for the franchise as a whole.

@Epux_fhouwuo I'm definitely interested to see what Microsoft will do with Call of Duty. Because they definitely don't want so many studios working on one single franchise.

But the thing is, how will the CoD fans react to the games only coming out every 2-3 years? Will that make the series even more popular since it's not coming out as often as before? I draw the comparison to GTA or Elder Scrolls where it's like a national holiday every time a new entry from those series come out. Perhaps making CoD come out less often will strengthen the franchise?

@xMightyMatt14x The CoD page on Wikipedia compiles the "subseries" nicely I think, under table of contents: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_of_Duty

You got the World War II games, the Modern Warfare games, the Black Ops games and the standalone titles. I think this would be a good list to follow if you ask me.

But yeah, definitely check them out once they're added to GP. You have so many great campaigns to look forward to!

@isturbo1984 Ohh, okay that makes a lot more sense. I'll definitely be playing WaW first before I get to BOII and eventually BOIII. I'll basically skip BO4 then!

@gollumb82 Haha yeah, but can you imagine the lovely Captain Anderson say things like: "Alright Shepard, we're going to be f****** up some b****** now. Move out soldier!". I just can't

@gollumb82 Did you know that the voice over guy for Anderson also voiced a gangster in the first Saints Row? I genuinely can't see him as a gangster! I guess he was just all over the place back then, lol.

@UltimateOtaku91 I don't know how important it is to play the World War II games in order (i.e. CoD 1, 2, 3 and so on), but you definitely need to play the Modern Warfare and Black Ops games in order. I didn't even realise that World at War was the first game in the Black Ops story arc until @isturbo1984 pointed it out. I've already played through the first Black Ops so I guess I'll have to wait until WaW gets added to GP before I continue with that arc.

There are some standalone games though like Ghosts, Advanced Warfare and Infinite Warfare.

@isturbo1984 I've been wanting to play the campaigns of CoD 2, 3, World at War, WWII, Vanguard, Modern Warfare (2019) and more, so hopefully I'll get that chance when the games arrive on Game Pass!

Out of curiosity, do the Black Ops games after the second one have campaigns? I vaguely remember hearing that they dropped it in one of the titles at least.

@gollumb82 Well that's the thing, if Microsoft adds all the previous CoD titles on Game Pass, then people would finally have a good reason to check out the campaigns because you wouldn't need to fork out so much money for such short experiences. You could probably even finish all CoD campaigns in one month of Game Pass.

I genuinely hope that more people will get to experience the older CoD campaigns and realise how fantastic they are. Even if you're not interested in multiplayer, the single-player portion of those older titles is just so good!

@UltimateOtaku91 I've played Ghosts, the Modern Warfare trilogy and Black Ops 1 and they have excellent campaigns. Highly underrated if you ask me.

Hopefully this means that he's interested in expanding on the single-player portion of CoD and giving the studios more time to work on that. Maybe they'll go the Halo route and create open worlds with different objectives.

It'd be interesting to see if Microsoft will allow the multiplayer portion of CoD to release on PlayStation while keeping the (hopefully) more expanded single-player mode exclusive to Xbox. Because we all know the casual audience on e.g. PlayStation don't really care about single-player CoD.

I mean it doesn't have to be specifically a fighting game but any other game really where all these IPs cross over. It would be a huge waste of opportunity if we didn't see a crossover game from Microsoft after all these acquisitions.

Will try to wrap up Mass Effect Andromeda this weekend and I also finished up Steins;Gate 0 yesterday. Might throw in some Fez here and there as well since it's such a relaxing game to play. Great smaller title to play in between all the big ones!