Why is CoD being prevalent sad? They are games people love. Not everything has to cater to any given player. CoD is popular, and if anything this shows that MS made a great choice buying out ABK.
I didn't originally play it on Xbox (Don Mattrick made sure I would not touch anything Xbox for years), but from that list, AC4 wins among the rest, IMO.
Objectively, Ryse and Dead Rising 3 were some very appealing exclusives that I never played due to my dislike of Xbox's direction at the time. Killer instinct would had interested me if it had not been released as a F2P game. That did not help their image in my eyes, at that time.
@FraserG I was not even going to mention them, but you need to be aware that for a network site... if you guys have communication and are not isolated, you might want to discuss at some point the tone they tend to push for the sake of clicks. Hell, the opening comment in their own article posted on this topic... by the writer of the article himself... They end up actively encouraging the comment sections spiraling out like this.
This is a huge part of why MS split their efforts into PC and Console. I'm sure they want to sell consoles, but so far they get goo revenue from the region via game pass and first party PC games, they will be very happy with how things go forward.
Next year is the year that things will really bloom for the xbox division. Thats when we will see how much of a hope there is for them, although it took multiple years, and chains of solid releases, for the PS3 to gain traction in their weakest markets.
Took the combined reputation accumulated from Uncharted 1, 2, 3 and The Last of Us for the PS3 to really make a name for itself. That was a 6 year span. It will similarly take years for Xbox to achieve anything similar. And unlike Sony during that gen, Microsoft is at zero risk of going bankrupt as they wait.
For me, the most shocking highlight from this study is how big Apple and Google are in game revenue despite making zero games. Sure, its all in the back F2P games made by others giving them 30% of the IAP, but damn....
I am going to say a B- IMO. There were not that many titles that interested me, personally, just Hi-Fi Rush and Starfield, but there was a lot coming from Xbox this year. Forza, Starfield, Hi-Fi Rush, Age of Empires IV, Age of Empires II Definitive Edition, GoldenEye... on top of all the crazy high profile day one Game Pass additions... yea it was a solid year for the Xbox ecosystem even if the consoles have not managed to gain ground.
The game Awards nominations, as far as I understand, are driven by the reviewing industry voting. It is no secret that a big bulk of the industry focuses on PlayStation, with a disproportionate number of outlets being PlayStation-only. Those wont ever vote for an XBox game, and the pure-xbox outlets are not numerous enough to compensate for that.
Things might had changed a bit when Xbox started delivering all its games also on PC, but I still don't see PlayStation-biased publications (you will have a hard time convincing me some all-platform outlets are not biased when they always request PS copies to review) to give Xbox the credit they deserve, when they deserve it.
Game Awards would be better off (maybe) if nominations were driven by industry developers instead of reviewers that (no offense to anyone here) can often be simply platform fanboys.
Still have not beat it but not shocked. I, however, am shocked about both Spider-Man 2 and Mario Wonder malign the list. Mario Wonder feels odd given nomination patterns and spider-man feels like the opposite, an industry pattern-shoehorned inclusion.
Let’s face it: this is Baldurs Gate 3’s award at the end of the day.
These awards are a bit confusing... I am assuming that Game of the Year does not mean exclusive given that the PS5 got Resident Evil 4 to earn that award, but how come a game can be the best platform game of the year and a whole different one still be "overall best game of the year"?
Just wish I could install Adblock addons. My main use of Edge on Xbox is for achievement guide info, since it’s very convenient to just click search the web for help from the achievement window, but True Achievements is loaded with horrible ads, many of them video, that make navigating the page a pain on the TV.
This is not acceptable. I honestly hope there is loud enough backlash to this as there was when they attempted the old stupid Xbox live gold price hike stunt.
Phil, we wanted you to get ABK so you would get rid of Kotick, not for you to adopt his stupidity!!!
Seriously, if my Wingman stops working, I will seriously consider canceling Game Pass and going back to PlayStation 5 as my primary platform. This is not even about me loving the thing that much, but about this being a huge bad sign of the current direction...
I insist, if MS wants to win big in Japan, and hell, just plain out have a big W, they need to "miniaturalize" the Series S, somehow slap a battery in there alongsides a monitor like the one in this article, and sell it not as a handheld, but as a "laptop" style portable.
@Tatoun ignore all the side content and focus exclusively on the Faction quests and the main quest. The main quest starts slow but starts becoming interesting at a point I cant talk about because spoilers.
The Crimson Fleet faction quest is amazing, but depending on your choice's things can get HARD near the end (space combat can be hard if you are at a disadvantage).
These quest lines are not extremely long, but they are the thing that really make the game shine.
@abe_hikura From what I understand, due to how this game was financed and some local laws over tax exemption or what not, this title cant be cancelled even if they wanted to.
@themightyant I did basically say that its not ideal for MS, due to limited resources. But the Game Pass model does work for big publishers and studios. EA and Ubisoft both do their own Game Pass day one services.
The only thing holding MS from getting big Triple A from big publishers (the size of the studio itself is less relevant because almost no studio is "big" enough without the backup of a publisher) is the size of GamePass. At some point they might reach the subscriber base needed to be able to actually offer 300 million cash up front to a big publisher to put some big known IP on the service. In the meantime, even big publishers, despite having great marketing track record, have proven to be more than willing to put new IP triple A on the service. (Outriders, Exoprimal). GamePass "markettiong" potential can help boost even large publisher titles.
@themightyant @Mephisto2869 Starfield managed to snatch the 7th best selling game spot of the whole year being on GamePass, that’s keeping in mind it was not on PlauStation. Lies of P also sold crazy numbers for a new IP despite being on GP.
I’m not sure “it’s not good” in this situation translates to “it’s bad” in any way. These games prove that should a game be desired enough, it will sell well regardless if it’s in GP or not. This does not mean every triple-A title out there can launch on GP. Big TripleA titles launching on the service cost MS a huge bundle of cash, they can’t afford paying for too many such deals.
I would be disappointed but there is plenty to play. UBisoft needs a steady stream of games and dlc if they want to keep me subscribed to their UBisoft+ service, though.
The more I see of this game the more it piques my interest. Hopefully it does not end up disappointing, although I’m willing to forgive a lot of yank on this one.
B, in huge part because after so much drama before the MGS3 remake was announced, many insisted it was going to be a PS5 exclusive yet here we are, with Xbox delivering us the first in-engine footage.
Also, Robocop is looking amazing! Can’t wait for that one!
Oh and also loved to see that Animal Crossing-style mini game reveal for Infinite Wealth!
This is a fantastic game. It’s not a traditional MMO due to its heavy emphasis on story. I tend to prefer playing it on PC for DPS parsers but I might actually play a fair share on Xbox if only for the achievements.
When COD: BO4 released, without a campaign, it was the worst selling COD in a decade.
It still was the second best selling game of the whole year. And that only because Red Dead Redemption 2 also launched that year, taking the #1 spot. I don't argue that some players do indeed only play the campaign, I myself would play the campaign and never jump online, but we are the minority for this IP.
£6 more per month is now just £72 more a year to play COD, basically the same as buying the game on Xbox, or PlayStation... plus you get the rest of Game Pass.
...if you already own an Xbox, in that case this won't sell that person an Xbox, it will just sell them Game Pass.
My point is not that this game won't sell Game Pass, it's that it won't sell Xbox consoles, not on its own. If I already have a device that can play CoD, it's cheaper for me, even over the long run, to keep playing the games on that device until a generational upgrade is at hand. Even then, only a small percentage might convert due to digital libraries they can't trade.
It's up to actual console exclusives like Fable and Elder Scrolls 6 to sell more Xbox consoles.
I’m in the group of people that was extremely disgusted by Xbox treatment of fans , and there was no way I would had hooked up an always active microphone and camera on my livingroom during the whole NSA spying on citizens fiasco that was going on at the time, so I am in the 99% of dont-haves.
I ended up only starting to look back after BC was announced, Kinect was made optional, xbox one sold without it, and even then didn’t really start playing much until Xbox One X. It took until Series X reveal for me to finally go back full xbox.
Also Game Pass is £10pm, only Ultimate costs £13pm.
Minor nitpic:
GPU is required for anyone that wants to actually play CoD since it’s primarily an online game, so £13 is the correct figure to look at in context.
1 month if GP Console is £8.99
1 month of GP PC is £7.99
If someone already have a PC, they are extremely unlikely to buy an Xbox to play CoD on GP, they will just play it on GP PC.
CoD will sell Game Pass, but Game Pass does not sell Xboxes, it’s the other way around. Xboxes sell Game Pass to an audience that prefers a setup box under their TV instead of a PC or streaming.
At the end of the day, game pass PC is way cheaper than Game Pass Ultimate (if you want to play CoD online you will need that tier.)
Xbox will use other games to sell Xboxes, like Starfield and RedFall🤪. Seriously, though, games like Forza Horizon or Fable will only be on Xbox if you want to play them on a setup box, that’s what MS plans to use to sell Xboxes.
I had (still have) an Elite model and I had the RROD happen once around 2009 or 2010. Had it replaced or fixed (no clue if I got the same one back but it looked the same) and never had the issue again. I decided not to tempt faith and bought a 360 E last year to replace the Elite under my TV. It’s rare that I turn it on but there are still a few games in my backlog I want to play someday and would hate for my Elite to die for good.
@themightyant it's an educated guess based on the timing of the Activision Spider Man games delisting. I think similar happened when Marvel Ultimate Alliance rights were acquired by Nintendo, the remasters vanished.
I dont have ties to game publishing, but do have connection with book publishing, and its very unlikely that anyone would buy the rights to a game in X series without some level of exclusivity.
There are some "wider" nets, like, doubt Marvel will ever again give full Star Wars license to anyone the way they did with EA for a few years, but specific sub-ip branches? That's more likely to get timed exclusivity (that Disney can refuse to renew at any point.)
That aside I meant to mention in my previous post that its always possible that MS could influence Sony to carve a space to re-publish older Spider-Man game anthologies so long they also get ported to PS5, and have some label like "Classic Spider-Man Anthology" or what not. With ABK on their pocket, MS now has a **lot** of bargaining powers.
@themightyant I have said as much plenty of times, but as far as I can tell, Sony does have the rights to exclusively publish games with the headline title Spider-Man.
Anyone could make a Daredevil game, with Spider-Man as a cameo or playable alt character, but I doubt their contract is so weak that anyone else can simply publish another Spider-Man titled game. What leads me to think this? The fact that ABK was forced to delist every single Spider-Man game they had the day Sony got the license.
Sounds like they realize that even if they fix the game, the chances of getting a service game to succeed in the current service game bubble are next to none.
Just compile all the assets and code you have and flip them into a mindless single player dino killing game!
@themightyant The transformers stuff might actually happen just not anytime soon. Hasbro openly expressed interest on having all their video games (at least the ABK ones) on Game Pass back when there was some noise about ABK potentially having lost all the source code (it was clarified the source code has not been lost). Thing is the BC program is for all purposes closed, so the most likely chance is the games get ports or remasters, and that takes time.
The 007 games are a bit harder, I have heard a lot the license is harder to work with these days and the only reason IOI got the rights to make their game is they are not just making a pew-pew-kill-everything game. But we can hope, maybe those are also possible to resurrect.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance is tricky because Nintendo currently holds that license. Wolverine and Spider-Man the same with Sony. X-Men Legends might be realistic.
Hulk Ultimate Destruction is also a possibility, it was published by Vivendi Universal Games that ended up being folded into Activision.
I own most ABK stuff that I would like to play, like Prototype, Crash and Spyro. Some of them gifts, some of them i got a long long time ago.
I never bought a CoD game though and I kinda would like to play some of the campaigns so there is that.
Diablo 2 Remake was another one I would like to play but avoided because it came out after the point I decided to boycott anything touched by Kotick, so maybe I finally get around to playing it.
Pie in the sky? Get the rights to re-list the Transformers and 007 games, and make them BC!
Pie in the moon? Every single Marvel ABK game (from Spider-Man to Wolverine and X-Men Legends)
An interesting side effect of the Ubisoft cloud deal is that there is zero chance Ubisoft will be acquired by Microsoft now. There is just no way the CMA will allow such a merger to go through precisely due to this cloud deal.
On the other hand, depending how long the deal is (its 15 years but there might be clauses that prevent MS to unilaterally refuse a renewal) there is a non insignificant change that Ubisoft just became extremely desirable acquisition target for Amazon, as they would own the rights to get CoD on Luna.
@Moonglow I don't expect them to "hand" things over to any other studios. Every one of their studios are busy right now. What I expect is MS injecting additional funds to the Activision side of ABK to increase development bandwidth within the company.
Example: It's easier to double the size of Toys for Bob than its to create a brand new Toys for Bob style studio from scratch.
As far as "handing over", at least under Phill, he seems to be of the philosophy that he does not like to assign work, but instead approve/reject pitches brought forward. There was, though, that whole deal with Playground Studios and Fable, where we have heard that they pitched a fantasy game and he simply suggested if that game could simply use the Fable IP instead of trying to be a brand new IP, so its not like he wont encourage using IPs they already own. Just no assignments.
@BacklogBrad ABK is in an interesting position because their management (ignore Bobby for a bit) is actually extremely efficient but was working with a limited budget that forced CoD prioritization.
With a [potentially] larger budget they can expand teams significantly, much more efficiently and effectively than MS has done trying to build up The Initiative. There are a lot of studios shutting down and downsizing as of late, so there is a lot of talent out there to pick from, provided they have the budget to hire and expand teams.
(bring back the BC program for games that have yet to be release)
ABK was extremely friendly with Xbox back comp program, they were one of the few that didnt just put everything they could on the program but also sold 360 games on green XBO boxes at retail to leverage their games being on the program.
I guess my point is if an ABK game is not in the program its due to licensing or technical limitations.
Comments 3,850
Re: Talking Point: What Kind Of Reveals Are You Hoping To See At The Game Awards 2023?
Hopeless (for this kind of event) but I keep waiting for Shin Megami Tensei 3/4/4a/5 coming to Xbox.
Re: These Are The Top-Selling Games In The Xbox Black Friday Sale 2023
Why is CoD being prevalent sad? They are games people love. Not everything has to cater to any given player. CoD is popular, and if anything this shows that MS made a great choice buying out ABK.
Re: Pick One: Which Of These Xbox One Launch Titles Is Your Favourite?
I didn't originally play it on Xbox (Don Mattrick made sure I would not touch anything Xbox for years), but from that list, AC4 wins among the rest, IMO.
Objectively, Ryse and Dead Rising 3 were some very appealing exclusives that I never played due to my dislike of Xbox's direction at the time. Killer instinct would had interested me if it had not been released as a F2P game. That did not help their image in my eyes, at that time.
Re: Four Years Since Its Announcement, Rare Continues To Hire For Everwild
Feels like way longer than 4 years....
Re: October Sales Data Suggests Xbox Series X|S 'Struggled' In Europe, But There's A Catch
@FraserG I was not even going to mention them, but you need to be aware that for a network site... if you guys have communication and are not isolated, you might want to discuss at some point the tone they tend to push for the sake of clicks. Hell, the opening comment in their own article posted on this topic... by the writer of the article himself... They end up actively encouraging the comment sections spiraling out like this.
Re: October Sales Data Suggests Xbox Series X|S 'Struggled' In Europe, But There's A Catch
This is a huge part of why MS split their efforts into PC and Console. I'm sure they want to sell consoles, but so far they get goo revenue from the region via game pass and first party PC games, they will be very happy with how things go forward.
Next year is the year that things will really bloom for the xbox division. Thats when we will see how much of a hope there is for them, although it took multiple years, and chains of solid releases, for the PS3 to gain traction in their weakest markets.
Took the combined reputation accumulated from Uncharted 1, 2, 3 and The Last of Us for the PS3 to really make a name for itself. That was a 6 year span. It will similarly take years for Xbox to achieve anything similar. And unlike Sony during that gen, Microsoft is at zero risk of going bankrupt as they wait.
Re: Xbox Revenue Would Overtake PlayStation With ActiBlizz On Board, Says Data Firm
For me, the most shocking highlight from this study is how big Apple and Google are in game revenue despite making zero games. Sure, its all in the back F2P games made by others giving them 30% of the IAP, but damn....
Re: Talking Point: Overall, How Successful Has 2023 Been For Xbox?
I am going to say a B- IMO. There were not that many titles that interested me, personally, just Hi-Fi Rush and Starfield, but there was a lot coming from Xbox this year. Forza, Starfield, Hi-Fi Rush, Age of Empires IV, Age of Empires II Definitive Edition, GoldenEye... on top of all the crazy high profile day one Game Pass additions... yea it was a solid year for the Xbox ecosystem even if the consoles have not managed to gain ground.
Next year, I expect to be on fire.
Re: Killer Instinct 10th Anniversary Dev Stream Airs Later This Month
Just in time for many fighting game fans to not be able to use their fighting joysticks thanks to new unlicensed peripheral policies!
Re: Reaction: Looking Back, Xbox Has Had Some Strange GOTY Omissions Over The Years
The game Awards nominations, as far as I understand, are driven by the reviewing industry voting. It is no secret that a big bulk of the industry focuses on PlayStation, with a disproportionate number of outlets being PlayStation-only. Those wont ever vote for an XBox game, and the pure-xbox outlets are not numerous enough to compensate for that.
Things might had changed a bit when Xbox started delivering all its games also on PC, but I still don't see PlayStation-biased publications (you will have a hard time convincing me some all-platform outlets are not biased when they always request PS copies to review) to give Xbox the credit they deserve, when they deserve it.
Game Awards would be better off (maybe) if nominations were driven by industry developers instead of reviewers that (no offense to anyone here) can often be simply platform fanboys.
Re: Starfield Fails To Make Shortlist For 'Game Of The Year' At The Game Awards 2023
Still have not beat it but not shocked. I, however, am shocked about both Spider-Man 2 and Mario Wonder malign the list. Mario Wonder feels odd given nomination patterns and spider-man feels like the opposite, an industry pattern-shoehorned inclusion.
Let’s face it: this is Baldurs Gate 3’s award at the end of the day.
Re: Starfield Wins Xbox GOTY At Golden Joystick Awards 2023
These awards are a bit confusing... I am assuming that Game of the Year does not mean exclusive given that the PS5 got Resident Evil 4 to earn that award, but how come a game can be the best platform game of the year and a whole different one still be "overall best game of the year"?
Re: Xbox Rolls Out 'Experimental' New Feature To Microsoft Edge App
Just wish I could install Adblock addons. My main use of Edge on Xbox is for achievement guide info, since it’s very convenient to just click search the web for help from the achievement window, but True Achievements is loaded with horrible ads, many of them video, that make navigating the page a pain on the TV.
Re: Poll: Will You Be Buying Baldur's Gate 3 For Xbox Series X|S?
Eventually I’ll buy it, but my queue is full for the rest of the year.
Re: Report: Modern Warfare 3's Campaign Had 'Shortest' Dev Time For A New Call Of Duty In Years
I’m confused how this happened. Dont they have 3 studios cycling through the games precisely to make sure every game gets at least 3 years dev cycles?
Wasn’t this year supposed to be Treyarch‘s turn?
Re: Alan Wake 2 'Excellent' On Xbox Series X & The Best Console Version, Digital Foundry Concludes
Oh oh…. I predict a twitter outrage calling Digital Foundry biased once more…
Re: Xbox's Plan To Block 'Unauthorised' Accessories Has The Fighting Game Community Concerned
This is not acceptable. I honestly hope there is loud enough backlash to this as there was when they attempted the old stupid Xbox live gold price hike stunt.
Re: New Xbox Policy To Block Unauthorised Accessories
@Banjo-
I say I suggest everyone to contact Microsoft instead and convince them how stupid of a policy this is.
Re: New Xbox Policy To Block Unauthorised Accessories
OK I got to say: this is a HUGE L.
Phil, we wanted you to get ABK so you would get rid of Kotick, not for you to adopt his stupidity!!!
Seriously, if my Wingman stops working, I will seriously consider canceling Game Pass and going back to PlayStation 5 as my primary platform. This is not even about me loving the thing that much, but about this being a huge bad sign of the current direction...
Re: Xbox Series S 'xScreen' Getting Carbon Black Version To Match 1TB Model
@Strawbnyan mkay
Re: Xbox Series S 'xScreen' Getting Carbon Black Version To Match 1TB Model
I insist, if MS wants to win big in Japan, and hell, just plain out have a big W, they need to "miniaturalize" the Series S, somehow slap a battery in there alongsides a monitor like the one in this article, and sell it not as a handheld, but as a "laptop" style portable.
Re: Starfield's Monthly Active Users For September 2023 Only Beaten By One Game On Xbox
@Tatoun ignore all the side content and focus exclusively on the Faction quests and the main quest. The main quest starts slow but starts becoming interesting at a point I cant talk about because spoilers.
The Crimson Fleet faction quest is amazing, but depending on your choice's things can get HARD near the end (space combat can be hard if you are at a disadvantage).
These quest lines are not extremely long, but they are the thing that really make the game shine.
Re: Ubisoft's Pirate Game Skull & Bones Gets New Release Window, Again
@abe_hikura From what I understand, due to how this game was financed and some local laws over tax exemption or what not, this title cant be cancelled even if they wanted to.
Re: Publisher Thunderful Reiterates Positives Of Xbox Game Pass Releases
@themightyant I did basically say that its not ideal for MS, due to limited resources. But the Game Pass model does work for big publishers and studios. EA and Ubisoft both do their own Game Pass day one services.
The only thing holding MS from getting big Triple A from big publishers (the size of the studio itself is less relevant because almost no studio is "big" enough without the backup of a publisher) is the size of GamePass. At some point they might reach the subscriber base needed to be able to actually offer 300 million cash up front to a big publisher to put some big known IP on the service. In the meantime, even big publishers, despite having great marketing track record, have proven to be more than willing to put new IP triple A on the service. (Outriders, Exoprimal). GamePass "markettiong" potential can help boost even large publisher titles.
Re: Publisher Thunderful Reiterates Positives Of Xbox Game Pass Releases
@themightyant @Mephisto2869
Starfield managed to snatch the 7th best selling game spot of the whole year being on GamePass, that’s keeping in mind it was not on PlauStation. Lies of P also sold crazy numbers for a new IP despite being on GP.
I’m not sure “it’s not good” in this situation translates to “it’s bad” in any way. These games prove that should a game be desired enough, it will sell well regardless if it’s in GP or not. This does not mean every triple-A title out there can launch on GP. Big TripleA titles launching on the service cost MS a huge bundle of cash, they can’t afford paying for too many such deals.
Re: Ubisoft Delays Large-Scale Game, Reports Suggest It's Star Wars Outlaws
I would be disappointed but there is plenty to play. UBisoft needs a steady stream of games and dlc if they want to keep me subscribed to their UBisoft+ service, though.
Re: RoboCop: Rogue City Warns There Will Be Trouble If You Fail to Comply
The more I see of this game the more it piques my interest. Hopefully it does not end up disappointing, although I’m willing to forgive a lot of yank on this one.
Re: Poll: How Would You Grade The Xbox 'Partner Preview' October Event?
B, in huge part because after so much drama before the MGS3 remake was announced, many insisted it was going to be a PS5 exclusive yet here we are, with Xbox delivering us the first in-engine footage.
Also, Robocop is looking amazing! Can’t wait for that one!
Oh and also loved to see that Animal Crossing-style mini game reveal for Infinite Wealth!
Re: Amazon Reveals April 2024 Release Date For Fallout TV Show
Yea but will the show have a day one patch to fix frame rate issues or will we have to rely on mods? 🙃
Re: Xbox Announces 'Partner Preview' Event Taking Place This Week
I keep waiting for Shin Megami Tensei Xbox ports… 🤞
Re: Square Enix Confirms Early 2024 Launch For Final Fantasy 14 Beta On Xbox
This is a fantastic game. It’s not a traditional MMO due to its heavy emphasis on story. I tend to prefer playing it on PC for DPS parsers but I might actually play a fair share on Xbox if only for the achievements.
Re: Talking Point: Which Xbox Game Would You Love To Play Again For The First Time?
Hmmm…. Either Grand Theft Auto 4 or Assassins Creed 2.
Re: Reaction: Seriously, Microsoft Doesn't Care About Using Call Of Duty To Sell Xboxes
@themightyant
It still was the second best selling game of the whole year. And that only because Red Dead Redemption 2 also launched that year, taking the #1 spot. I don't argue that some players do indeed only play the campaign, I myself would play the campaign and never jump online, but we are the minority for this IP.
...if you already own an Xbox, in that case this won't sell that person an Xbox, it will just sell them Game Pass.
My point is not that this game won't sell Game Pass, it's that it won't sell Xbox consoles, not on its own. If I already have a device that can play CoD, it's cheaper for me, even over the long run, to keep playing the games on that device until a generational upgrade is at hand. Even then, only a small percentage might convert due to digital libraries they can't trade.
It's up to actual console exclusives like Fable and Elder Scrolls 6 to sell more Xbox consoles.
Re: Less Than 1% Of Xbox Players Own The Coveted 'Day One' Achievement
I’m in the group of people that was extremely disgusted by Xbox treatment of fans , and there was no way I would had hooked up an always active microphone and camera on my livingroom during the whole NSA spying on citizens fiasco that was going on at the time, so I am in the 99% of dont-haves.
I ended up only starting to look back after BC was announced, Kinect was made optional, xbox one sold without it, and even then didn’t really start playing much until Xbox One X. It took until Series X reveal for me to finally go back full xbox.
Re: Reaction: Seriously, Microsoft Doesn't Care About Using Call Of Duty To Sell Xboxes
@themightyant
Minor nitpic:
GPU is required for anyone that wants to actually play CoD since it’s primarily an online game, so £13 is the correct figure to look at in context.
1 month if GP Console is £8.99
1 month of GP PC is £7.99
If someone already have a PC, they are extremely unlikely to buy an Xbox to play CoD on GP, they will just play it on GP PC.
Re: Thanks To Starfield, UK Xbox Sales Enjoyed A Huge Increase In September
It has been fascinating to see people trying to spin the success of Starfield in a negative light over the last couple of days.
Re: Reaction: Seriously, Microsoft Doesn't Care About Using Call Of Duty To Sell Xboxes
CoD will sell Game Pass, but Game Pass does not sell Xboxes, it’s the other way around. Xboxes sell Game Pass to an audience that prefers a setup box under their TV instead of a PC or streaming.
At the end of the day, game pass PC is way cheaper than Game Pass Ultimate (if you want to play CoD online you will need that tier.)
Xbox will use other games to sell Xboxes, like Starfield and RedFall🤪. Seriously, though, games like Forza Horizon or Fable will only be on Xbox if you want to play them on a setup box, that’s what MS plans to use to sell Xboxes.
Re: Report: Starfield Was The Best-Selling U.S. Video Game In September
Best selling game of the month despite it also being on Game Pass is beyond impressive. It’s ridiculous.
Re: Talking Point: Did Your Xbox 360 Ever Get The 'Red Ring Of Death'?
I had (still have) an Elite model and I had the RROD happen once around 2009 or 2010. Had it replaced or fixed (no clue if I got the same one back but it looked the same) and never had the issue again. I decided not to tempt faith and bought a 360 E last year to replace the Elite under my TV. It’s rare that I turn it on but there are still a few games in my backlog I want to play someday and would hate for my Elite to die for good.
Re: Talking Point: Which Activision Blizzard Series Do You Want To Play Most On Xbox Game Pass?
@themightyant it's an educated guess based on the timing of the Activision Spider Man games delisting. I think similar happened when Marvel Ultimate Alliance rights were acquired by Nintendo, the remasters vanished.
I dont have ties to game publishing, but do have connection with book publishing, and its very unlikely that anyone would buy the rights to a game in X series without some level of exclusivity.
There are some "wider" nets, like, doubt Marvel will ever again give full Star Wars license to anyone the way they did with EA for a few years, but specific sub-ip branches? That's more likely to get timed exclusivity (that Disney can refuse to renew at any point.)
That aside I meant to mention in my previous post that its always possible that MS could influence Sony to carve a space to re-publish older Spider-Man game anthologies so long they also get ported to PS5, and have some label like "Classic Spider-Man Anthology" or what not. With ABK on their pocket, MS now has a **lot** of bargaining powers.
Re: Talking Point: Which Activision Blizzard Series Do You Want To Play Most On Xbox Game Pass?
@themightyant I have said as much plenty of times, but as far as I can tell, Sony does have the rights to exclusively publish games with the headline title Spider-Man.
Anyone could make a Daredevil game, with Spider-Man as a cameo or playable alt character, but I doubt their contract is so weak that anyone else can simply publish another Spider-Man titled game. What leads me to think this? The fact that ABK was forced to delist every single Spider-Man game they had the day Sony got the license.
Re: Former Xbox Game Pass Title 'Second Extinction' Is Being Permanently Delisted
Sounds like they realize that even if they fix the game, the chances of getting a service game to succeed in the current service game bubble are next to none.
Just compile all the assets and code you have and flip them into a mindless single player dino killing game!
Re: Talking Point: Which Activision Blizzard Series Do You Want To Play Most On Xbox Game Pass?
@themightyant The transformers stuff might actually happen just not anytime soon. Hasbro openly expressed interest on having all their video games (at least the ABK ones) on Game Pass back when there was some noise about ABK potentially having lost all the source code (it was clarified the source code has not been lost). Thing is the BC program is for all purposes closed, so the most likely chance is the games get ports or remasters, and that takes time.
The 007 games are a bit harder, I have heard a lot the license is harder to work with these days and the only reason IOI got the rights to make their game is they are not just making a pew-pew-kill-everything game. But we can hope, maybe those are also possible to resurrect.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance is tricky because Nintendo currently holds that license. Wolverine and Spider-Man the same with Sony. X-Men Legends might be realistic.
Hulk Ultimate Destruction is also a possibility, it was published by Vivendi Universal Games that ended up being folded into Activision.
Re: Talking Point: Which Activision Blizzard Series Do You Want To Play Most On Xbox Game Pass?
I own most ABK stuff that I would like to play, like Prototype, Crash and Spyro. Some of them gifts, some of them i got a long long time ago.
I never bought a CoD game though and I kinda would like to play some of the campaigns so there is that.
Diablo 2 Remake was another one I would like to play but avoided because it came out after the point I decided to boycott anything touched by Kotick, so maybe I finally get around to playing it.
Pie in the sky? Get the rights to re-list the Transformers and 007 games, and make them BC!
Pie in the moon? Every single Marvel ABK game (from Spider-Man to Wolverine and X-Men Legends)
Re: Six Games Are Confirmed For Xbox Game Pass In November So Far
Really been looking forward for Thirsty Suitors!
Re: CMA Criticises 'Tactics Employed By Microsoft' Despite Agreeing To ActiBlizz Deal
An interesting side effect of the Ubisoft cloud deal is that there is zero chance Ubisoft will be acquired by Microsoft now. There is just no way the CMA will allow such a merger to go through precisely due to this cloud deal.
On the other hand, depending how long the deal is (its 15 years but there might be clauses that prevent MS to unilaterally refuse a renewal) there is a non insignificant change that Ubisoft just became extremely desirable acquisition target for Amazon, as they would own the rights to get CoD on Luna.
Re: Xbox Says The 'Work Has Begun' To Bring Activision Blizzard Titles To Game Pass
I hope Phill contacted Hasbro the day they hinted at their desire to get their old Transformer games on Game Pass.
Re: Activision Says Xbox Can 'Take Games In The Library And Remake Them' Post-Acquisition
@Moonglow I don't expect them to "hand" things over to any other studios. Every one of their studios are busy right now. What I expect is MS injecting additional funds to the Activision side of ABK to increase development bandwidth within the company.
Example: It's easier to double the size of Toys for Bob than its to create a brand new Toys for Bob style studio from scratch.
As far as "handing over", at least under Phill, he seems to be of the philosophy that he does not like to assign work, but instead approve/reject pitches brought forward. There was, though, that whole deal with Playground Studios and Fable, where we have heard that they pitched a fantasy game and he simply suggested if that game could simply use the Fable IP instead of trying to be a brand new IP, so its not like he wont encourage using IPs they already own. Just no assignments.
Re: Activision Says Xbox Can 'Take Games In The Library And Remake Them' Post-Acquisition
@BacklogBrad ABK is in an interesting position because their management (ignore Bobby for a bit) is actually extremely efficient but was working with a limited budget that forced CoD prioritization.
With a [potentially] larger budget they can expand teams significantly, much more efficiently and effectively than MS has done trying to build up The Initiative. There are a lot of studios shutting down and downsizing as of late, so there is a lot of talent out there to pick from, provided they have the budget to hire and expand teams.
Re: It's Finally Over! Activision Blizzard Is Now Officially Part Of Xbox
@GamingFan4Lyf
ABK was extremely friendly with Xbox back comp program, they were one of the few that didnt just put everything they could on the program but also sold 360 games on green XBO boxes at retail to leverage their games being on the program.
I guess my point is if an ABK game is not in the program its due to licensing or technical limitations.