@S1ayeR74 They've all but confirmed it's a real handheld, not a streaming device, and have talked about it in context with Ally/Legion etc, so I think that's a firm bet there. They're not going for the Portal/phone/G-Cloud market on this one, they're going for the Ally market. Which is smart, and there's a market for it for sure (the PC portables are doing particularly well in Asia.)
But late to the party is the big problem. Steam Deck into Ally was really the big push into the new handheld world, and launching today would put Xbox in a competitive place still, but launching "in a few years" after all the above have had one or more refreshes plus Switch 2, just seems like such incredibly late timing. I bet it will be an excellent product that just struggles to make it into the the market because it's too late. A classic MS problem.
@HonestHick I don't think it's easy to see MS' plan because I think they don't actually have one. They just go whatever way the winds are blowing at the moment.
Sony's long term is precarious. They're in great shape so long as they stay a monopoly platform because they can skim 30% off most of the industry by doing nothing, just like Apple. That's a good model. The problem isd they've set themselves up to be knocked out of being the default platform by a challenger who intends to try hard to do so. Right now there isn't one, so they're fine. But by the time one pops up it's too late. If they tip away from being the default place for the masses to play games their model irreparably crumbles, so they need to ensure status quo forever.
MS....I still don't think they have an actual plan. They just keep their fingers in the air always to see what seems like a good plan for this quarter.
@themightyant Tech may have slowed down but I don't buy this line that a lot of tech companies have been putting out there (Nvidia...) that we're basically at the end of tech so every advancement in tech just gets more and more and more expensive forever, where instead of a $1500 computer just getting faster and faster every few years, a $1500 PC is always the exact same spec for the next 10,000 years, and each faster one will add another $500 to the price for each increment forever. Nvidia's tried to push that narrative. I don't buy it. If we're really at the end of tech, and price to dollar baseline is now fixed forever and the only direction is to add ever more for ever higher prices until we start reaching government contractor pricing for the masses, I think that's a different way of saying the tech economy is now permanently over, the tech industry will collapse, and it's now all a big old datacenter mainframe circle jerk forever. And I'm not buying that.
That said we're also at a weird point where we have these akward products where for every practical measure shouldn't exist but they keep ending up in this "there's a market for it" place, which is awkward. That includes the absurdly priced video cards (I'm excluding xx90 because that's a different situation where, while there's a gaming market for it, a big chunk of its sales is actually commercial/video editing/streamer sales where it's a far cheaper alternative than the actual commercial parts, so some of its success lies, unfortunately, in it being a budget part for a commercial market.)
I do think the greatest threat to the console market is the console market. This idea of escalating prices - paying more and more isn't how the console market has operated or what has really built its market. Being an affordable packaged box for all is what drove the console market, and the direction prices are implied to go for successive generations, I can see console pushing out much of its own market chasing some holy grail (or at least pushing it to Nintendo), If tech really has stalled without just paying more and more, I can see all but the core market losing interest in consoles, especially each younger generation for the long term, and then I can see other avenues appealing to the core.
PS5 Pro is an...interesting experiment because one of the biggest things they've marketed it for is for how great it plays your OLD games. And so much of the coverage is about what it does for old games. And where the console business relies on razor and blades sales, where software sales is the goal, that seems like a really poor way to introduce hardware.
I also do think (and I think this is what MS wanted to avoid) the whole mid-gen cycle may seem good, at initial sales, but what they're mainly doing is re-selling to the same early adopters and then filling the used market with inventory cannibalizing new normal sales and ironically reducing price expectations over time. I suspect that will have an effect on launch sales for the next generation model too where, again it'll primarily sell only to the early adopters.
OTOH, I also think I no longer understand Sony's new market, because it seems to be an Apple-esque fomo cult of uninformed buyers with zero impulse control, who will spend anything on hardware and nothing on software.
@S1ayeR74 In theory they'd get the hardware right, and the price right so that it's still theoretically viable, but, yeah, I agree, it's a long enough wait that I think it will by then seem irrelevant in the market of existing handhelds. Unless Asus keeps driving prices up into LOLland so that they look uncompetitive. They already have an $800 handheld, if they stay there and Deck and XHeld are half the price, it will still be viable.
@PsBoxSwitchOwner Yeah but overall the first party, even with major releases totals around 10% at best. That's not to say it's insignificant sales for SOFTWARE (though it is to say it's insufficient sales of software which is why they're seeking the PC market to bolster it), however, keeping in mind a lot of the people that buy one of their first party games is likely the same market that buys multiple of their first party games, even 10% of software sales is likely at best really representing 5% of the actual install base, I.E. the games have a lot of overlap so not all of the sales represent unique customers.) Which is to say 90-95% of the actual console ecosystem customers aren't really interested in the first party offerings at all on either platform.
No doubt both companies software plans and both companies being "out of touch with fans" is based on the fact that the number crunchers realized the exclusives aren't really a factor in their overall business strategies on platform anymore.
@themightyant IDK that were in a very different spot with 5 pro. Ps6 rumors are occasional meaning they'll ramp up more and more, Xbox will certainly be putting the next Gen narrative up sooner than later, real or imagined, I don't think it's in that different a place than the 1x. I feel like Ms consciously avoided that trap specifically to be able to look at next Gen sooner and reboot. Obviously they're in a different place but for core that's looking at things enough to know about "next Gen rumors" they'll know, both companies will be making overtures about the next Gen etc.
Not sure that Sony got that much more out of 4 pro. They had the extra year but most of the sales were in the launch and really stalled out after that and then they discontinued it in 2019/early 2020.
I have both the 4 pro and the 1x, and I feel like the 1x almost felt like it should have been the new generation on its own. The pricing and the capability felt like more of a generational leap than the 1x to seriesx imo. The 4 pro mostly has the advantage that it was an upgrade that didn't actually cost much more. And I kind of feel like if you're doing mid Gen, that's the way to do it. Not a 1x/5 pro situation where is like a half step new generation for a whole step in price.
He really had a lot of great ideas and intentions, just without thinking through how to actually do them or if it was even possible, haha. Nobody didn't like all the things he dreamed up, it's just that nobody, especially him, ever figured out how to actually make them 😂
Mincing through the politician speak it sounds like "We really have no idea what we're doing or where we're going but we're confident it'll all just kind of work out if we keep trying everything"
While I agree with so much of the doom and gloom of "why buy an Xbox if you can get it all and more somewhere else", I'll just point out that based on PS's own numbers of 77 million software units in Q2, a whopping 7% of that was "first party software." Bottom line is exclusives are as irrelevant as irrelevant can be to console sales in 2024. Most of the people buying consoles, even PS, just aren't buying exclusives.
Nintendo is it's own thing. It does work for them and they run largely on exclusives, but that works because they have Disney grade iconic, child-sought, legendary IP that no other company but Disney itself has. Nobody can play the same game they do. Much as enthusiasts talk about "exclusives" the numbers show it's just not really a very relevant factor in the purchasing decisions of the modern console market.
@Titntin But when Peter would say he's buying a drink I'm sure he described a golden nectar of the gods with a taste where you can taste each and every bee that ever pollinated the source harvest in a self refilling mug via an overhead delivery system, but when you got there, it was just Miller's from a normal tap.
Ugh, see this is the problem Microsoft always has in hardware. They have great ideas, they actually build some great products. Their problem is they're either so far ahead of the curve there's no market yet for the product they're making and it fails, or they're so behind the curve, they take years to do anything and by the time they deliver their well designed product, the market already came and went and attached elsewhere and they look like an also-ran.
The handheld was a great plan. It was a next step for Xbox hardware, it was a competitive differentiator. Now they're going to stall it for years and wait for a new Switch, wait for maybe a PS handheld, or just wait for more and more iterations of PC handhelds to flood the market before them and make theirs irrelevant, and meanwhile let their own hardware ecosystem stagnate more.
I had high hopes for their console plans with the handheld as a sort of reboot, but....now....meah....glad I bought my Legion. I'm sure I'll have upgraded again by the time MS gets theirs out at least once, wasn't worth the wait.
IMO the 1X/4 Pro should have had at least a 5 year shelf life or more before the Series/5 came out. They were more than capable for a long time and got cut short, meanwhile the Series/5 came out with barely any real leap above those and feel like a half measure.
@themightyant "One X was always a beast bit of hardware, ahead of it's time. But it fell into an odd space where the enthusiast market would be upgrading from it in 3 years or less, and it arrived when people were talking next-gen, which limited it's market. There also weren't that many games to highlight it's power. "
That's the exact trap PS5 Pro set for itself, which is exactly why MS didn't want to do that again.
Performance leaps are a thing of the past unless quantum computing happens. My PC is basically the best money can buy in 2024, and it's not a "great technological leap" over the XSX. It just has better performance with more visual settings on, and the only real reason I bought it was for doing actual "great leap" stuff in taking normal games and making them run VR by brute force. That's a big leap, but that's not what the consoles will be doing.
I'm pretty sure it's some mixture of marketing BS, PC hybridization and/or AI. And given MS's AI obsession I'm sure it's about shoehorning AI awkwardly into games to try to make it a feature. There are some legitimatley cool features like being able to talk to any NPC in skyrim directly.
Yeah, that era was exciting. Xbox had a good platform and message with real momentum, it looked like we'd get away from the PS4 monopoly era, things were looking up.. so sad that momentum got squandered, and now ps is doing all the same bad things or worse that Xbox did under matrick and Xbox chases its own tail leaving console with no real competition again.
Says a lot about this generations direction when we're getting articles about being nostalgic for the generation we're still in.
It's a good platform though. Just unloved. If anything else though it's still a great gateway drug to PC.
@CallMeDuraSouka It's not really a game, it's a "study simulator". Not really about game objectives but about simulating actually flying real planes because your probably don't have a cup cool million laying in the couch cushions to actually own a plane if you're interested in flying one 😊
If it's not for you it just means you've never looked at an aircraft and thought "wish I could fly that, just once..."
I'm revamping my whole HOTAS setup in preparation for this! Don't have a yoke unfortunately because I have to share the mount with the racing rig so the steering wheel gets the center and the hotas clamps to either side, so not the best for civilian flight but still serviceable, good for combat flight, and decent if I pull the cams and dead stick it for a makeshift helo collective. Hoping VR works well day 1.
@OldGamer999 Nintendo has fallen into a different kind of rut where they seem to be doing a lot of copy and paste type design, with almost mobile like minimalism. People keep raving about how the switch iteration of franchises is their best ever and I don't get it. It's the most formulaic they've been, kind of sterile and corporate, and seeming to always chase the "Japanese kids love crafting things" trend ever since Minecraft blew up there.
I haven't been happy with post-Iwata Nintendo. The clock is the most interesting and Nintendo thing they've done in years....... And that was Iwatas "QoL" project, so it's actually one last bow from him.
@OldGamer999 right, they keep throwing "more" at everything. But what more can they really throw at it? And if the goal is to make visually perfect 1:1 recreations indistinguishable from reality, is anyone willing to pay the extreme prices to do that? Enough people to justify an industry? Video games becomes a weird bespoke elite luxury next to Rolex dealers? $4000 consoles to play $350 games on? That's a dead end. At some point the need to stop adding "more"and recognize live action is cheaper to make on location than trying to recreate locations in real time.
@OldGamer999 I think everyone easily gets stuck on that, which is how it's such a successful business. But I also think it's a dead end distraction that after a point delivers less and less satisfaction for ever more and more cost to consume, and ever more and more cost to produce, while also detracting from the actual purpose of the experience. Technophilia is easy to sell, but impossible to ever be satisfied with. VR is, for now the one exception where there's still leaps and bounds for improvement. I think "4k gaming" is more or less as good as it's ever going to be, visually, in terms of the ability to have costs in delivering it be worthwhile. VR has massive room for powerful hardware to improve upon it, but the problem is we've hit a brick wall for what we can do on hardware, too, without extreme costs, short of quantum computing happening. It's kind of like building airplaines faster. For decades they could make planes go faster and faster and faster. But now, once you get to the point of going faster than sound, you're not going to get many gains of any conventional fuel or craft design, and trying to go faster than light may be an impossible barrier anyway.
@DesertRanger They were using X chipsets before but splitting them into running two instances of the Series S version of the game at S performance levels.
@OldGamer999 You get that dopamine rush when you first boot up a game that looks pretty, and then an hour later you realize you're still playing the same boring committee-designed game you've been playing for years, and it still doesn't look perfect. And trying to make use of all that hardware isn't financially sustainable for developers. It's the exact dead end Yokoi warned about in the mid-90s. The whole graphics snob thing definitely drives a FOMO/obsessive personality flaw in a lot of the market, it works to sell things quickly but then never generates satisfaction as everyone waits to experience the dopamine hit again next hardware release. While never being satisfied.
I think the Xbox booze dispenser thing is basically the equivalent product.
I'm surprised that it's still THAT popular on XB, considering PS has been the go-to console for the fanbase for so long. I do wonder how many just got it on GP to try it out due to hype but still don't really gel with it. I'm not into CoD, but, hey, it's on GP, maybe I should try anyway.,
@Elbow I don't do horror, and Prey2 is definitely not for me, but yeah, that was the most bizarre situation that they just slapped the name Prey2 on a game that had absolutely no relation to Prey, thus both disappointing anyone that bought to because they were familiar with the IP, and discarding a potentially valuable IP for absolutely no benefit at all.
Though a real Prey 2 just wouldn't work without Art Bell either 😂 😢
@OldGamer999 Yeah, I don't know what the right fix is for it. It feels like the best way to game is to always stay a generation behind on games but on current hardware. If they're making the games for the next generation hardware all the time the only way to play is to buy the hardware and then only play the previous generations games on it. And then you get them all cheaper too. Even on PC. The only way to really get current Gen games to run like it's meant to run is too have the $1k+ GPUs. Otherwise, better to play older games great than new games poorly. And to be fair on PC people tend to do that more anyway, there's not much fomo , people just play good games forever.
I think the other problem we've hit is like Hollywood, everything has already been done before. There's not as much room to innovate, what works and doesn't in the market has already been worked out. And new stuff costs too much to make. So like Hollywood, and music, if everything good already exists, just keep selling that in New packages. We don't need a new Frank Sinatra or Louis Armstrong. We already have their recordings forever and ever. I think when a media industry matures, it hits a point where it's hard for the new to hold a candle to the huge collection of the very best collected in all history. That's also a business problem gaming is facing.
Yeah, it's a mixture of two, or three things. First they're focusing SO much on adding so much DETAIL at the expense of extreme processing cost. More particles, more detailed meshes, larger higher res textures, more shaders, more complicated shaders, longer draw distance, higher LOD, more detailed shadowing, more objects on screen, etc. etc. etc. They're building the world they WANT to build, rather than the world that works on the hardware it's running on. A focus on cramming as many visual details as possible over performance or resolution.
Second, optimization doesn't make them any money, so why waste money on it? Build it, it runs, slap lowest quality settings to make it functional, market doesn't care, won't affect pre-order sales, so who cares? As always, stills are what sells the game, so as long as it renders one frame a day for stills, good enough.
And then the third reason is, on PC they have DLSS, on PS5 Pro, and thus PS6 they'll have PSSR. We can safely assume Switch 2 will get DLSS in some flavor. And it's safe to assume NeXtBox has whatever it gets that's similar. Further with the time of development, I susupect these studios are no longer making games for PS5's or XSX's, and frankly they're not even making games for NV40xx anymore. They're making games for the hardware of NEXT decade with the intention of getting initial sales today from FOMO, then selling the "remaster" that runs the way it should have 5-10 years from now. Current games are for playing tomorrow's games today (jankily.) now.
To be honest, I'm not even sure it's about mulitplatform taking away from optimization. We have platform exclusives on both platforms that are optimized very poorly. While we also have PC focused games that don't even work great on top end PC hardware. I don't think "multiplatform" is depriving optimization. I think "cost-benefit" on any platform is depriving optimization. They know the sales come from the launch preorders and most of that market doesn't care, so, it's an unnecessary expense.
Business took over gaming, and figured out you can make more money selling shoddy products with lots of marketing. And the creatives just can't help themselves by throwing in the kitchen sink because they can. Bad combination.
@TheSimulator PC Mag's favorable preview is quoted in the article. Just a critique on the combat in there.
I don't think we can pull the "Xbox gamers accepting everything" schtick when this is also a PS5 game with hype there too, and realistically, Machine Games doesn't make console games at all, they make PC games that get console ports.
I keep getting shocked by how well this game is being received. Everything in the run up has seemed like a pending disaster in motion, so it's really amazing that it seems like it's doing everything right.
Though lack of choice in a Bioware RPG doesn't sound right, but FFXVI turned out alright despite not being a real FF entry, is still a good game if you don't try to think of it as one.
That's a cool concept, but seems unnecessarily complicated, probably failure prone, and I'm not sure who it's really for. Though LOL that even this has Hall Effect and the big 3 just can't figure that out.
I trust obsidian. I can't think of a single obsidian game that ever failed on its promise, ever, nor Black Isle before it. They've had jank when they run out of budget, but they still make a worthwhile game even then (kotr2). The key team are the legends of CRPGs. I'd be stunned if they missed.
Although I don't think he's doing AI for subscriptions. He's pushing local AI. I think he's a reactionary. See sees the trend and doesn't want to be behind that trend, then sacrifices everything to go all in on that trend. Then when the trend inevitably falters, he jumps on the new one that's out there. I think it's not about any particular direction, is just about buying relevance to maintain dominance.
Which is awful leadership. It's great smoke and mirrors to string investors along too stupid and cash drunk to realize he's undermining the company. But leaves a hollowed out house of cards.
@TheSimulator That's why handhelds can be plugged into a big screen......
The rate of tech at this point means gains are small and even small gains are a massive price. If we're taking 10-15 years (2 generations) I really can't see much demand for a gaming set top box when dozens of other devices will do the same thing or more. We're almost there already. The covered set top box still has a market but it's a small market that will continue to shrink as they keep charging more until a point where it's just not a sufficiently profitable market to pursue.
I half do and half don't agree on exclusives though. On in hand, yeah that creates an environment where there's not a specific selling point for their product. Otoh looking at even Sonys own numbers, it's VERY clear that exclusives are not what is selling their consoles. Their exclusive sell to the same smallish corner of their own install base over and over, but don't account for MOST of their install base. Which is why they're looking at distributing on other platforms as well. Reality is the console market, at large doesn't care at all about halo OR uncharted. They care only about Roblox, gta, NBA, fortnite, and other social hangouts. Which is a key reason consoles are on a short fuse. The majority of the people buying consoles aren't really buying it for any of the reasons enthusiasts would say consoles matter, and the companies eventually go where the business really is. Especially with software sales tanking and half the studios vanishing.
@TheSimulator I think consoles will be obsolete unless they invent as something new other than as budget gaming PCs in a VCR shell. Largely because single purpose devices in general are largely obsolete and consoles are kind of a relic. Going forward we have PC, laptops, phones and tablets that are more capable than an xss, handhelds that dock and really ARE consoles. streaming devices, and hardware isn't advancing at a rapid clip in gaming hardware. A "set top box" to play video games, as it is, already seems like an anachronism, in 10-15 years? It'll seem quaint as a cable box.
@TheGiraffe aww that sucks. You had a really weird issue there. It's definitely not normal. It seems like for whatever reason the upscaling wasn't enabled or activating or something, or games weren't able to change resolution in start like they're supposed to in full screen. Most people don't experience that....
Fwiw Xbox is just Windows underneath, so it's literally doing the exact same thing you were trying to do so on your PC. We know it's possible!
@TheGiraffe Yeah the problems you're having, you definitely shouldn't be having, there's a "something" that's not set up right somewhere, and it should be system level, not in game, if it's affecting multiple games.
If I'm understanding right, you have the game set at 1080p res, and in Windows settings, the display is set as 3840 x 2160 , right?
That's the normal default way most are using it. Game lower, display higher, dlss (or default driver scaling if dlss isn't supported) scaling. Do you have just the tv connected or is there a second display connected? (I.e. could it be an issue with cycling multiple different display resolutions?)
I mean if you're a Bethesda fan we've gotta get your rig running, Bethesda without mods is like a bridge without suspension cables 😂
One other thing that comes to mind is if you DO set the display to 1080p, do games look properly scaled? (I'm getting confused between AMD and Nvidia but remembered that for AMD, you actually DO want to set the res to a lower res than the display for RSR to scale, it knows the real resolution and scales only if you set it below real res. BUT games should be switching res on startup if in full screen mode.
@TheGiraffe ohh, so not really game issues but display issues. That makes s little more sense. Still it's strange you're having issues. If the PC knows it's a 4k display, and the game is set to 1080p, is dlss enabled? Or if the game doesn't support it, you may want, oh what's if called, the Nvidia version of rsr that scales things not supported by dlss, it's in the Nvidia control panel. But what you're doing is normal, it's what most people are doing. Even on 4090 you're best off at 1400p and dlss to fill the 4k.
I'm curious about troubleshooting it because what you're doing is really just the most normal scenario that normally "just works". I'm wondering if the TV is sending changing resolutions during HDR change or something and it's messing it up
@TheGiraffe that's so weird Like defective hardware weird. Any specific games? That just doesn't match my experience at all. Using mostly steam but some Xbox store/game pass, everything's worked as easy as Switch. (Old games may be an exception. GoG is the best place to buy old games, they test/patch them, steam doesn't.)
There's a few of us ally users here and I haven't heard of anyone else having issues like that. I think you're the first dissatisfied owner I've heard of!
@IOI you too? That on earth problems did you have with Ally? I've used it every day and not one oddity. Obviously it's not a starfield save dd2 box but that's to be expected.
Headlines about Satya's huge package are not what I wanted to wake up to.
@LX_FENIX He's made endless (empty) promises on AI. That's literally the only thing driving their stock value, and he's seen as the messiah that makes it all (imaginarily) happen.
@gollumb82 "What do those people do with all that money? What do they need so much of it for? "
How cheap do you think it is to buy your very own politicians and law packages? Inflation means politician ownership and upkeep costs more than ever!
@OldGamer999 @TheGiraffe I won't listen to either of you dissing vr! It's the most exciting thing to happen to gaming since 3d! Seriously it's spoiled me so much that 2d games feels so archaic to me. I'm even playing octopath in VR. It's like being in a pop up book
@TheGiraffe I know PC isn't fit everyone, but out of curiosity, what games have you had endless troubleshooting and bugs with on a modern nv40 rig? Are you, like, only playing Jedi Survivor and tlou or something? 😂
I was a core pcmr back years ago and left to console due to the nightmare of troubleshooting. But due to Xbox being uncertain and Sony being Sony, I've gone back and have been plenty surprised. Between a z1 Ally, z1ex Legion, and an nv40 big rig, everything has been shockingly flawless. Only little kitty big city and the Xbox windows store drm in general have given me trouble. The only jank has been using vr injection in non vr games which is a hack and a half that involves some troubleshooting and a racing rig peripheral soup with vr which can get messy but that mostly seems to be vr related with window focus issues because of 3 layers of vr software for wireless.
So hearing about constant troubleshooting seems off to me for a current rig like that. Maybe hardware problem level off... Just curious what you're seeing.
This is like Pepsi offering 2 liters of coke with every 12oz can of Pepsi. I sort of get their intentions and plans, and it even makes sense, but then they react in ways that seems like they don't actually understand the model they're deploying and what it's numbers look like. They can't seem to figure out if they care about their consoles or just want to offer a prefab budget PC, and then they can't figure out why their subscriptions shrink.
It doesn't look like it goes with the console. I don't understand why it involves the console at all. I don't understand why you can use a remote to dispense a bottle that you need to walk up and retrieve.
The one advantage is it does make the Xbox drinking game where you take a shot every time they say "Game Pass" during an showcase event much more convenient and on-brand.
To the people thinking liquid damage, though, it just dispenses bottles if the picture is right, it doesn't dispense liquid directly, so there's not much risk there. There's also no point though. Seems like a novelty gag gift thing.
@themightyant No, always-on Kinekt is still worse.
@Utena-mobile True but if you search YouTube for Honda Civics you'll only find videos of people tuning their suspensions, clutch mods, and shiny new spoilers, but most people just buy them and hit the gas.
True point though, if you don't know that you don't need to know that, the Internet will make it seem like you do. And of course the ability to do so is major feature. But yeah most of the time you just download and play same as console. Then again the first thing I do on console is so into settings and check the options 😂
@Utena-mobile Why do you have to mess around with settings? You rarely have to. Most games auto detect decent or ideal swings analogous to what devs would choose for consoles. Messing with settings is for fine tuning further to your liking. Old games aside. And uncommon hardware like Ally aside. But even there usually its fine out of the box.
@Banjo- 😂. I still say if totk was made for VR controls it would actually be a great game. As it is it's like trying to play Flight Simulator with a racing rig.
@HarmanSmith If it's Atlus, it ain't just double dipping you'll be doing!
Comments 6,822
Re: Xbox's Phil Spencer Confirms Handheld Plans, But Don't Expect One Anytime Soon
@S1ayeR74 They've all but confirmed it's a real handheld, not a streaming device, and have talked about it in context with Ally/Legion etc, so I think that's a firm bet there. They're not going for the Portal/phone/G-Cloud market on this one, they're going for the Ally market. Which is smart, and there's a market for it for sure (the PC portables are doing particularly well in Asia.)
But late to the party is the big problem. Steam Deck into Ally was really the big push into the new handheld world, and launching today would put Xbox in a competitive place still, but launching "in a few years" after all the above have had one or more refreshes plus Switch 2, just seems like such incredibly late timing. I bet it will be an excellent product that just struggles to make it into the the market because it's too late. A classic MS problem.
Re: Xbox Boss Says Everything Is On The Table When It Comes To PS5 Ports
@HonestHick I don't think it's easy to see MS' plan because I think they don't actually have one. They just go whatever way the winds are blowing at the moment.
Sony's long term is precarious. They're in great shape so long as they stay a monopoly platform because they can skim 30% off most of the industry by doing nothing, just like Apple. That's a good model. The problem isd they've set themselves up to be knocked out of being the default platform by a challenger who intends to try hard to do so. Right now there isn't one, so they're fine. But by the time one pops up it's too late. If they tip away from being the default place for the masses to play games their model irreparably crumbles, so they need to ensure status quo forever.
MS....I still don't think they have an actual plan. They just keep their fingers in the air always to see what seems like a good plan for this quarter.
Re: No Man's Sky Developer Explains Why The Xbox One X Is Still 'Very Capable' In 2024
@themightyant Tech may have slowed down but I don't buy this line that a lot of tech companies have been putting out there (Nvidia...) that we're basically at the end of tech so every advancement in tech just gets more and more and more expensive forever, where instead of a $1500 computer just getting faster and faster every few years, a $1500 PC is always the exact same spec for the next 10,000 years, and each faster one will add another $500 to the price for each increment forever. Nvidia's tried to push that narrative. I don't buy it. If we're really at the end of tech, and price to dollar baseline is now fixed forever and the only direction is to add ever more for ever higher prices until we start reaching government contractor pricing for the masses, I think that's a different way of saying the tech economy is now permanently over, the tech industry will collapse, and it's now all a big old datacenter mainframe circle jerk forever. And I'm not buying that.
That said we're also at a weird point where we have these akward products where for every practical measure shouldn't exist but they keep ending up in this "there's a market for it" place, which is awkward. That includes the absurdly priced video cards (I'm excluding xx90 because that's a different situation where, while there's a gaming market for it, a big chunk of its sales is actually commercial/video editing/streamer sales where it's a far cheaper alternative than the actual commercial parts, so some of its success lies, unfortunately, in it being a budget part for a commercial market.)
I do think the greatest threat to the console market is the console market. This idea of escalating prices - paying more and more isn't how the console market has operated or what has really built its market. Being an affordable packaged box for all is what drove the console market, and the direction prices are implied to go for successive generations, I can see console pushing out much of its own market chasing some holy grail (or at least pushing it to Nintendo), If tech really has stalled without just paying more and more, I can see all but the core market losing interest in consoles, especially each younger generation for the long term, and then I can see other avenues appealing to the core.
PS5 Pro is an...interesting experiment because one of the biggest things they've marketed it for is for how great it plays your OLD games. And so much of the coverage is about what it does for old games. And where the console business relies on razor and blades sales, where software sales is the goal, that seems like a really poor way to introduce hardware.
I also do think (and I think this is what MS wanted to avoid) the whole mid-gen cycle may seem good, at initial sales, but what they're mainly doing is re-selling to the same early adopters and then filling the used market with inventory cannibalizing new normal sales and ironically reducing price expectations over time. I suspect that will have an effect on launch sales for the next generation model too where, again it'll primarily sell only to the early adopters.
OTOH, I also think I no longer understand Sony's new market, because it seems to be an Apple-esque fomo cult of uninformed buyers with zero impulse control, who will spend anything on hardware and nothing on software.
Re: Phil Spencer: I Can't Talk About Black Myth: Wukong's Xbox Status
Weird question, we all know, the devs already said it's coming to Xbox.
Re: Xbox's Phil Spencer Confirms Handheld Plans, But Don't Expect One Anytime Soon
@S1ayeR74 In theory they'd get the hardware right, and the price right so that it's still theoretically viable, but, yeah, I agree, it's a long enough wait that I think it will by then seem irrelevant in the market of existing handhelds. Unless Asus keeps driving prices up into LOLland so that they look uncompetitive. They already have an $800 handheld, if they stay there and Deck and XHeld are half the price, it will still be viable.
Re: Xbox Boss Says Everything Is On The Table When It Comes To PS5 Ports
@PsBoxSwitchOwner Yeah but overall the first party, even with major releases totals around 10% at best. That's not to say it's insignificant sales for SOFTWARE (though it is to say it's insufficient sales of software which is why they're seeking the PC market to bolster it), however, keeping in mind a lot of the people that buy one of their first party games is likely the same market that buys multiple of their first party games, even 10% of software sales is likely at best really representing 5% of the actual install base, I.E. the games have a lot of overlap so not all of the sales represent unique customers.) Which is to say 90-95% of the actual console ecosystem customers aren't really interested in the first party offerings at all on either platform.
No doubt both companies software plans and both companies being "out of touch with fans" is based on the fact that the number crunchers realized the exclusives aren't really a factor in their overall business strategies on platform anymore.
Re: No Man's Sky Developer Explains Why The Xbox One X Is Still 'Very Capable' In 2024
@themightyant IDK that were in a very different spot with 5 pro. Ps6 rumors are occasional meaning they'll ramp up more and more, Xbox will certainly be putting the next Gen narrative up sooner than later, real or imagined, I don't think it's in that different a place than the 1x. I feel like Ms consciously avoided that trap specifically to be able to look at next Gen sooner and reboot. Obviously they're in a different place but for core that's looking at things enough to know about "next Gen rumors" they'll know, both companies will be making overtures about the next Gen etc.
Not sure that Sony got that much more out of 4 pro. They had the extra year but most of the sales were in the launch and really stalled out after that and then they discontinued it in 2019/early 2020.
I have both the 4 pro and the 1x, and I feel like the 1x almost felt like it should have been the new generation on its own. The pricing and the capability felt like more of a generational leap than the 1x to seriesx imo. The 4 pro mostly has the advantage that it was an upgrade that didn't actually cost much more. And I kind of feel like if you're doing mid Gen, that's the way to do it. Not a 1x/5 pro situation where is like a half step new generation for a whole step in price.
Re: Xbox's Phil Spencer Confirms Handheld Plans, But Don't Expect One Anytime Soon
@Titntin That's an awesome story!
He really had a lot of great ideas and intentions, just without thinking through how to actually do them or if it was even possible, haha. Nobody didn't like all the things he dreamed up, it's just that nobody, especially him, ever figured out how to actually make them 😂
Re: Is Xbox Successful Right Now? Phil Spencer Shares His Thoughts
Mincing through the politician speak it sounds like "We really have no idea what we're doing or where we're going but we're confident it'll all just kind of work out if we keep trying everything"
Re: Xbox Boss Says Everything Is On The Table When It Comes To PS5 Ports
While I agree with so much of the doom and gloom of "why buy an Xbox if you can get it all and more somewhere else", I'll just point out that based on PS's own numbers of 77 million software units in Q2, a whopping 7% of that was "first party software." Bottom line is exclusives are as irrelevant as irrelevant can be to console sales in 2024. Most of the people buying consoles, even PS, just aren't buying exclusives.
Nintendo is it's own thing. It does work for them and they run largely on exclusives, but that works because they have Disney grade iconic, child-sought, legendary IP that no other company but Disney itself has. Nobody can play the same game they do. Much as enthusiasts talk about "exclusives" the numbers show it's just not really a very relevant factor in the purchasing decisions of the modern console market.
Re: Xbox's Phil Spencer Confirms Handheld Plans, But Don't Expect One Anytime Soon
@Titntin But when Peter would say he's buying a drink I'm sure he described a golden nectar of the gods with a taste where you can taste each and every bee that ever pollinated the source harvest in a self refilling mug via an overhead delivery system, but when you got there, it was just Miller's from a normal tap.
Re: Xbox's Phil Spencer Confirms Handheld Plans, But Don't Expect One Anytime Soon
Ugh, see this is the problem Microsoft always has in hardware. They have great ideas, they actually build some great products. Their problem is they're either so far ahead of the curve there's no market yet for the product they're making and it fails, or they're so behind the curve, they take years to do anything and by the time they deliver their well designed product, the market already came and went and attached elsewhere and they look like an also-ran.
The handheld was a great plan. It was a next step for Xbox hardware, it was a competitive differentiator. Now they're going to stall it for years and wait for a new Switch, wait for maybe a PS handheld, or just wait for more and more iterations of PC handhelds to flood the market before them and make theirs irrelevant, and meanwhile let their own hardware ecosystem stagnate more.
I had high hopes for their console plans with the handheld as a sort of reboot, but....now....meah....glad I bought my Legion. I'm sure I'll have upgraded again by the time MS gets theirs out at least once, wasn't worth the wait.
Re: No Man's Sky Developer Explains Why The Xbox One X Is Still 'Very Capable' In 2024
IMO the 1X/4 Pro should have had at least a 5 year shelf life or more before the Series/5 came out. They were more than capable for a long time and got cut short, meanwhile the Series/5 came out with barely any real leap above those and feel like a half measure.
@themightyant "One X was always a beast bit of hardware, ahead of it's time. But it fell into an odd space where the enthusiast market would be upgrading from it in 3 years or less, and it arrived when people were talking next-gen, which limited it's market. There also weren't that many games to highlight it's power. "
That's the exact trap PS5 Pro set for itself, which is exactly why MS didn't want to do that again.
Re: Xbox Fans Ponder What 'Largest Technical Leap' Means For The Series X Successor
Performance leaps are a thing of the past unless quantum computing happens. My PC is basically the best money can buy in 2024, and it's not a "great technological leap" over the XSX. It just has better performance with more visual settings on, and the only real reason I bought it was for doing actual "great leap" stuff in taking normal games and making them run VR by brute force. That's a big leap, but that's not what the consoles will be doing.
I'm pretty sure it's some mixture of marketing BS, PC hybridization and/or AI. And given MS's AI obsession I'm sure it's about shoehorning AI awkwardly into games to try to make it a feature. There are some legitimatley cool features like being able to talk to any NPC in skyrim directly.
Re: Sega Delisting Multiple Xbox Games This December
Whoa that's a lot of games. I wonder why? Shame. And not Nights into Dreams!
Re: Soapbox: Four Years On, I'm Already Nostalgic For The Early Xbox Series X|S Era
Yeah, that era was exciting. Xbox had a good platform and message with real momentum, it looked like we'd get away from the PS4 monopoly era, things were looking up.. so sad that momentum got squandered, and now ps is doing all the same bad things or worse that Xbox did under matrick and Xbox chases its own tail leaving console with no real competition again.
Says a lot about this generations direction when we're getting articles about being nostalgic for the generation we're still in.
It's a good platform though. Just unloved. If anything else though it's still a great gateway drug to PC.
Re: PSA: Our Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Review Will Be Delayed At Launch
@CallMeDuraSouka It's not really a game, it's a "study simulator". Not really about game objectives but about simulating actually flying real planes because your probably don't have a cup cool million laying in the couch cushions to actually own a plane if you're interested in flying one 😊
If it's not for you it just means you've never looked at an aircraft and thought "wish I could fly that, just once..."
Re: PSA: Our Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Review Will Be Delayed At Launch
I'm revamping my whole HOTAS setup in preparation for this! Don't have a yoke unfortunately because I have to share the mount with the racing rig so the steering wheel gets the center and the hotas clamps to either side, so not the best for civilian flight but still serviceable, good for combat flight, and decent if I pull the cams and dead stick it for a makeshift helo collective. Hoping VR works well day 1.
Re: Rumour: Blizzard Could Be Remastering Another RTS Classic
That brings back serious memories! Would definitely love to revisit this.
Re: Xbox Hardware Revenues Down Again Despite Content & Services Growth
@OldGamer999 Nintendo has fallen into a different kind of rut where they seem to be doing a lot of copy and paste type design, with almost mobile like minimalism. People keep raving about how the switch iteration of franchises is their best ever and I don't get it. It's the most formulaic they've been, kind of sterile and corporate, and seeming to always chase the "Japanese kids love crafting things" trend ever since Minecraft blew up there.
I haven't been happy with post-Iwata Nintendo. The clock is the most interesting and Nintendo thing they've done in years....... And that was Iwatas "QoL" project, so it's actually one last bow from him.
Re: Xbox Hardware Revenues Down Again Despite Content & Services Growth
@OldGamer999 right, they keep throwing "more" at everything. But what more can they really throw at it? And if the goal is to make visually perfect 1:1 recreations indistinguishable from reality, is anyone willing to pay the extreme prices to do that? Enough people to justify an industry? Video games becomes a weird bespoke elite luxury next to Rolex dealers? $4000 consoles to play $350 games on? That's a dead end. At some point the need to stop adding "more"and recognize live action is cheaper to make on location than trying to recreate locations in real time.
Re: Xbox Hardware Revenues Down Again Despite Content & Services Growth
@OldGamer999 I think everyone easily gets stuck on that, which is how it's such a successful business. But I also think it's a dead end distraction that after a point delivers less and less satisfaction for ever more and more cost to consume, and ever more and more cost to produce, while also detracting from the actual purpose of the experience. Technophilia is easy to sell, but impossible to ever be satisfied with. VR is, for now the one exception where there's still leaps and bounds for improvement. I think "4k gaming" is more or less as good as it's ever going to be, visually, in terms of the ability to have costs in delivering it be worthwhile. VR has massive room for powerful hardware to improve upon it, but the problem is we've hit a brick wall for what we can do on hardware, too, without extreme costs, short of quantum computing happening. It's kind of like building airplaines faster. For decades they could make planes go faster and faster and faster. But now, once you get to the point of going faster than sound, you're not going to get many gains of any conventional fuel or craft design, and trying to go faster than light may be an impossible barrier anyway.
Re: Xbox Hardware Revenues Down Again Despite Content & Services Growth
@DesertRanger They were using X chipsets before but splitting them into running two instances of the Series S version of the game at S performance levels.
@OldGamer999 You get that dopamine rush when you first boot up a game that looks pretty, and then an hour later you realize you're still playing the same boring committee-designed game you've been playing for years, and it still doesn't look perfect. And trying to make use of all that hardware isn't financially sustainable for developers. It's the exact dead end Yokoi warned about in the mid-90s. The whole graphics snob thing definitely drives a FOMO/obsessive personality flaw in a lot of the market, it works to sell things quickly but then never generates satisfaction as everyone waits to experience the dopamine hit again next hardware release. While never being satisfied.
I think the Xbox booze dispenser thing is basically the equivalent product.
Re: Apparently, More Than 50% Of Xbox Series X|S Users In The US Played Black Ops 6 Near Launch
I'm surprised that it's still THAT popular on XB, considering PS has been the go-to console for the fanbase for so long. I do wonder how many just got it on GP to try it out due to hype but still don't really gel with it. I'm not into CoD, but, hey, it's on GP, maybe I should try anyway.,
Re: Arkane Founder Says Xbox Shutting Austin Studio Was 'Stupid' And 'Not A Good Decision'
@Elbow I don't do horror, and Prey2 is definitely not for me, but yeah, that was the most bizarre situation that they just slapped the name Prey2 on a game that had absolutely no relation to Prey, thus both disappointing anyone that bought to because they were familiar with the IP, and discarding a potentially valuable IP for absolutely no benefit at all.
Though a real Prey 2 just wouldn't work without Art Bell either 😂 😢
Re: Xbox Hardware Revenues Down Again Despite Content & Services Growth
@OldGamer999 "I preordered the PS5 Pro in the end and it’s has started the despatching process."
You're weak.
That is all.
Re: Dragon Age: The Veilguard 'Quite Solid' On Xbox Series X And S, Says Digital Foundry
@OldGamer999 Yeah, I don't know what the right fix is for it. It feels like the best way to game is to always stay a generation behind on games but on current hardware. If they're making the games for the next generation hardware all the time the only way to play is to buy the hardware and then only play the previous generations games on it. And then you get them all cheaper too. Even on PC. The only way to really get current Gen games to run like it's meant to run is too have the $1k+ GPUs. Otherwise, better to play older games great than new games poorly. And to be fair on PC people tend to do that more anyway, there's not much fomo , people just play good games forever.
I think the other problem we've hit is like Hollywood, everything has already been done before. There's not as much room to innovate, what works and doesn't in the market has already been worked out. And new stuff costs too much to make. So like Hollywood, and music, if everything good already exists, just keep selling that in New packages. We don't need a new Frank Sinatra or Louis Armstrong. We already have their recordings forever and ever. I think when a media industry matures, it hits a point where it's hard for the new to hold a candle to the huge collection of the very best collected in all history. That's also a business problem gaming is facing.
Re: Dragon Age: The Veilguard 'Quite Solid' On Xbox Series X And S, Says Digital Foundry
@OldGamer999 Because they DGAF, that's why.
Yeah, it's a mixture of two, or three things. First they're focusing SO much on adding so much DETAIL at the expense of extreme processing cost. More particles, more detailed meshes, larger higher res textures, more shaders, more complicated shaders, longer draw distance, higher LOD, more detailed shadowing, more objects on screen, etc. etc. etc. They're building the world they WANT to build, rather than the world that works on the hardware it's running on. A focus on cramming as many visual details as possible over performance or resolution.
Second, optimization doesn't make them any money, so why waste money on it? Build it, it runs, slap lowest quality settings to make it functional, market doesn't care, won't affect pre-order sales, so who cares? As always, stills are what sells the game, so as long as it renders one frame a day for stills, good enough.
And then the third reason is, on PC they have DLSS, on PS5 Pro, and thus PS6 they'll have PSSR. We can safely assume Switch 2 will get DLSS in some flavor. And it's safe to assume NeXtBox has whatever it gets that's similar. Further with the time of development, I susupect these studios are no longer making games for PS5's or XSX's, and frankly they're not even making games for NV40xx anymore. They're making games for the hardware of NEXT decade with the intention of getting initial sales today from FOMO, then selling the "remaster" that runs the way it should have 5-10 years from now. Current games are for playing tomorrow's games today (jankily.) now.
To be honest, I'm not even sure it's about mulitplatform taking away from optimization. We have platform exclusives on both platforms that are optimized very poorly. While we also have PC focused games that don't even work great on top end PC hardware. I don't think "multiplatform" is depriving optimization. I think "cost-benefit" on any platform is depriving optimization. They know the sales come from the launch preorders and most of that market doesn't care, so, it's an unnecessary expense.
Business took over gaming, and figured out you can make more money selling shoddy products with lots of marketing. And the creatives just can't help themselves by throwing in the kitchen sink because they can. Bad combination.
Re: Roundup: The Previews Are In For Indiana Jones And The Great Circle
@TheSimulator PC Mag's favorable preview is quoted in the article. Just a critique on the combat in there.
I don't think we can pull the "Xbox gamers accepting everything" schtick when this is also a PS5 game with hype there too, and realistically, Machine Games doesn't make console games at all, they make PC games that get console ports.
Re: Dragon Age: The Veilguard 'Quite Solid' On Xbox Series X And S, Says Digital Foundry
I keep getting shocked by how well this game is being received. Everything in the run up has seemed like a pending disaster in motion, so it's really amazing that it seems like it's doing everything right.
Though lack of choice in a Bioware RPG doesn't sound right, but FFXVI turned out alright despite not being a real FF entry, is still a good game if you don't try to think of it as one.
Re: Turtle Beach's New Xbox Series X|S Controller Comes With 'Two Layouts'
That's a cool concept, but seems unnecessarily complicated, probably failure prone, and I'm not sure who it's really for. Though LOL that even this has Hall Effect and the big 3 just can't figure that out.
Re: Xbox's Avowed Is A 'Meaningful' RPG With Plenty Of Choices, Says Obsidian Dev
I trust obsidian. I can't think of a single obsidian game that ever failed on its promise, ever, nor Black Isle before it. They've had jank when they run out of budget, but they still make a worthwhile game even then (kotr2). The key team are the legends of CRPGs. I'd be stunned if they missed.
Re: Satya Nadella's Huge Pay Package Generates Headlines Following Recent Xbox Layoffs
@GuyinPA75 😆. It's true though.
Although I don't think he's doing AI for subscriptions. He's pushing local AI. I think he's a reactionary. See sees the trend and doesn't want to be behind that trend, then sacrifices everything to go all in on that trend. Then when the trend inevitably falters, he jumps on the new one that's out there. I think it's not about any particular direction, is just about buying relevance to maintain dominance.
Which is awful leadership. It's great smoke and mirrors to string investors along too stupid and cash drunk to realize he's undermining the company. But leaves a hollowed out house of cards.
Re: Xbox Is Adding New Options For Uploading & Editing Custom Gamerpics
This will definitely not result in bans at all probably.
Re: Microsoft CEO Gaming Division Update: 'We Continue To Extend Our Content To New Platforms'
@TheSimulator That's why handhelds can be plugged into a big screen......
The rate of tech at this point means gains are small and even small gains are a massive price. If we're taking 10-15 years (2 generations) I really can't see much demand for a gaming set top box when dozens of other devices will do the same thing or more. We're almost there already. The covered set top box still has a market but it's a small market that will continue to shrink as they keep charging more until a point where it's just not a sufficiently profitable market to pursue.
I half do and half don't agree on exclusives though. On in hand, yeah that creates an environment where there's not a specific selling point for their product. Otoh looking at even Sonys own numbers, it's VERY clear that exclusives are not what is selling their consoles. Their exclusive sell to the same smallish corner of their own install base over and over, but don't account for MOST of their install base. Which is why they're looking at distributing on other platforms as well. Reality is the console market, at large doesn't care at all about halo OR uncharted. They care only about Roblox, gta, NBA, fortnite, and other social hangouts. Which is a key reason consoles are on a short fuse. The majority of the people buying consoles aren't really buying it for any of the reasons enthusiasts would say consoles matter, and the companies eventually go where the business really is. Especially with software sales tanking and half the studios vanishing.
Re: Microsoft CEO Gaming Division Update: 'We Continue To Extend Our Content To New Platforms'
@TheSimulator I think consoles will be obsolete unless they invent as something new other than as budget gaming PCs in a VCR shell. Largely because single purpose devices in general are largely obsolete and consoles are kind of a relic. Going forward we have PC, laptops, phones and tablets that are more capable than an xss, handhelds that dock and really ARE consoles. streaming devices, and hardware isn't advancing at a rapid clip in gaming hardware. A "set top box" to play video games, as it is, already seems like an anachronism, in 10-15 years? It'll seem quaint as a cable box.
@TheGiraffe aww that sucks. You had a really weird issue there. It's definitely not normal. It seems like for whatever reason the upscaling wasn't enabled or activating or something, or games weren't able to change resolution in start like they're supposed to in full screen. Most people don't experience that....
Fwiw Xbox is just Windows underneath, so it's literally doing the exact same thing you were trying to do so on your PC. We know it's possible!
Re: Microsoft CEO Gaming Division Update: 'We Continue To Extend Our Content To New Platforms'
@TheGiraffe Yeah the problems you're having, you definitely shouldn't be having, there's a "something" that's not set up right somewhere, and it should be system level, not in game, if it's affecting multiple games.
If I'm understanding right, you have the game set at 1080p res, and in Windows settings, the display is set as 3840 x 2160 , right?
That's the normal default way most are using it. Game lower, display higher, dlss (or default driver scaling if dlss isn't supported) scaling. Do you have just the tv connected or is there a second display connected? (I.e. could it be an issue with cycling multiple different display resolutions?)
I mean if you're a Bethesda fan we've gotta get your rig running, Bethesda without mods is like a bridge without suspension cables 😂
One other thing that comes to mind is if you DO set the display to 1080p, do games look properly scaled? (I'm getting confused between AMD and Nvidia but remembered that for AMD, you actually DO want to set the res to a lower res than the display for RSR to scale, it knows the real resolution and scales only if you set it below real res. BUT games should be switching res on startup if in full screen mode.
Re: Microsoft CEO Gaming Division Update: 'We Continue To Extend Our Content To New Platforms'
@TheGiraffe ohh, so not really game issues but display issues. That makes s little more sense. Still it's strange you're having issues. If the PC knows it's a 4k display, and the game is set to 1080p, is dlss enabled? Or if the game doesn't support it, you may want, oh what's if called, the Nvidia version of rsr that scales things not supported by dlss, it's in the Nvidia control panel. But what you're doing is normal, it's what most people are doing. Even on 4090 you're best off at 1400p and dlss to fill the 4k.
I'm curious about troubleshooting it because what you're doing is really just the most normal scenario that normally "just works". I'm wondering if the TV is sending changing resolutions during HDR change or something and it's messing it up
Re: Microsoft CEO Gaming Division Update: 'We Continue To Extend Our Content To New Platforms'
@TheGiraffe that's so weird
Like defective hardware weird. Any specific games? That just doesn't match my experience at all. Using mostly steam but some Xbox store/game pass, everything's worked as easy as Switch. (Old games may be an exception. GoG is the best place to buy old games, they test/patch them, steam doesn't.)
There's a few of us ally users here and I haven't heard of anyone else having issues like that. I think you're the first dissatisfied owner I've heard of!
Re: Microsoft CEO Gaming Division Update: 'We Continue To Extend Our Content To New Platforms'
@IOI you too? That on earth problems did you have with Ally? I've used it every day and not one oddity. Obviously it's not a starfield save dd2 box but that's to be expected.
Re: Satya Nadella's Huge Pay Package Generates Headlines Following Recent Xbox Layoffs
Headlines about Satya's huge package are not what I wanted to wake up to.
@LX_FENIX He's made endless (empty) promises on AI. That's literally the only thing driving their stock value, and he's seen as the messiah that makes it all (imaginarily) happen.
@gollumb82 "What do those people do with all that money? What do they need so much of it for? "
How cheap do you think it is to buy your very own politicians and law packages? Inflation means politician ownership and upkeep costs more than ever!
Re: Microsoft CEO Gaming Division Update: 'We Continue To Extend Our Content To New Platforms'
@OldGamer999 @TheGiraffe I won't listen to either of you dissing vr! It's the most exciting thing to happen to gaming since 3d! Seriously it's spoiled me so much that 2d games feels so archaic to me. I'm even playing octopath in VR. It's like being in a pop up book
@TheGiraffe I know PC isn't fit everyone, but out of curiosity, what games have you had endless troubleshooting and bugs with on a modern nv40 rig? Are you, like, only playing Jedi Survivor and tlou or something? 😂
I was a core pcmr back years ago and left to console due to the nightmare of troubleshooting. But due to Xbox being uncertain and Sony being Sony, I've gone back and have been plenty surprised. Between a z1 Ally, z1ex Legion, and an nv40 big rig, everything has been shockingly flawless. Only little kitty big city and the Xbox windows store drm in general have given me trouble. The only jank has been using vr injection in non vr games which is a hack and a half that involves some troubleshooting and a racing rig peripheral soup with vr which can get messy but that mostly seems to be vr related with window focus issues because of 3 layers of vr software for wireless.
So hearing about constant troubleshooting seems off to me for a current rig like that. Maybe hardware problem level off... Just curious what you're seeing.
Re: Microsoft CEO Gaming Division Update: 'We Continue To Extend Our Content To New Platforms'
@IOI Fbox.
Though I still prefer Ex-Box.
Re: Microsoft CEO Gaming Division Update: 'We Continue To Extend Our Content To New Platforms'
Sheesh 🙄
This is like Pepsi offering 2 liters of coke with every 12oz can of Pepsi. I sort of get their intentions and plans, and it even makes sense, but then they react in ways that seems like they don't actually understand the model they're deploying and what it's numbers look like. They can't seem to figure out if they care about their consoles or just want to offer a prefab budget PC, and then they can't figure out why their subscriptions shrink.
Re: Rumour: Xbox's PS5 Ports Have 'Slowed Down' Following Indiana Jones Announcement
Xbox has announced more games on PS5 than Sony has in as much time. How is that "slowing down"?
Re: Xbox Legend Major Nelson Shares Fun Fact About The Halo Series X's 'Celestial Design'
So Xbox's decisions really do come from outer space?!
Re: Southern Comfort Unveils 'First Ever Adult Accessory' For Xbox Series X
Who are the ad wizards that came up with that?
It doesn't look like it goes with the console. I don't understand why it involves the console at all. I don't understand why you can use a remote to dispense a bottle that you need to walk up and retrieve.
The one advantage is it does make the Xbox drinking game where you take a shot every time they say "Game Pass" during an showcase event much more convenient and on-brand.
To the people thinking liquid damage, though, it just dispenses bottles if the picture is right, it doesn't dispense liquid directly, so there's not much risk there. There's also no point though. Seems like a novelty gag gift thing.
@themightyant No, always-on Kinekt is still worse.
Re: Talking Point: Xbox & Nintendo Switch Owners, How Do You Split Your Third-Party Purchases?
@Utena-mobile True but if you search YouTube for Honda Civics you'll only find videos of people tuning their suspensions, clutch mods, and shiny new spoilers, but most people just buy them and hit the gas.
True point though, if you don't know that you don't need to know that, the Internet will make it seem like you do. And of course the ability to do so is major feature. But yeah most of the time you just download and play same as console. Then again the first thing I do on console is so into settings and check the options 😂
Re: Talking Point: Xbox & Nintendo Switch Owners, How Do You Split Your Third-Party Purchases?
@Utena-mobile Why do you have to mess around with settings? You rarely have to. Most games auto detect decent or ideal swings analogous to what devs would choose for consoles. Messing with settings is for fine tuning further to your liking. Old games aside. And uncommon hardware like Ally aside. But even there usually its fine out of the box.
Re: Talking Point: Xbox & Nintendo Switch Owners, How Do You Split Your Third-Party Purchases?
@Banjo- 😂. I still say if totk was made for VR controls it would actually be a great game. As it is it's like trying to play Flight Simulator with a racing rig.
@HarmanSmith If it's Atlus, it ain't just double dipping you'll be doing!