@InterceptorAlpha "Only a couple mediocre launch window games"
I still remember the pony meltdown when FFXIII was announced to be on 360, lol.
XV gets a bad sales rep. It sold 10 million and broke even in 2 weeks. It sold "only" 1.4 million on Xbox, but it also sold "only" 5 mill on PS, making Xbox just shy of 20% of console sales which isn't horrible. PC makes up the other 4+ million. Still crushed that they killed the rest of the story DLC for a 10mil selling game.
@Fiendish-Beaver @Pabpictu There's "rules" for how it's supposed to work, but meanwhile have a 4k60 fast IPS LG display on which 40 looks wonderfully solid and 30 is a juddering migraine inducing mess. The rules say 40 shouldn't work and 30 should be fine. The panel says 40 is fine, and 30 will make you go blind. I don't have VRR (well not true it's a Freesync display which PC and XB support, but I have my Xb going through HDMI switches that claim to support it, but end up showing a blank screen if I try so I'm not using it.)
If it works as well as Hogwarts did, I found the 40fps mode ideal even on a 60fps display where 30fps always has HORRENDOUS judder, and 60 is smooth. 40 felt like what some other people must see for 30. People, and companies really really underestimate just how different modern displays are from each other and how it affects what you see and how some fps are unusable on certain displays. Some people have a display where 30 looks fine. Some like me have a display where 30 looks like a broken rotoscope with a bent axle.
@JustinSane The problem with modern gaming is, in the old days, in PC gaming, if your game ran janky and choppy or low res on your GPU the companies basically just told you "too bad, you should have bought a top of the line GPU instead." Today, when your console game runs janky and choppy or low res on your console, the companies basically just tell you"too bad, you should have bought a top of the line GPU instead."
So bizarre how Square Enix went from ignoring Xbox and partnering with Sony alone for all this content during all the time where Xbox was showing upward momentum, to the detriment of that momentum often, to now making a huge push into trying to build a base on Xbox, while Xbox momentum is in nosedive freefall.
And they're putting their money where their mouth is, too. The paid sponsor ad on my dashboard last night was for FFXIV free trial (if I saw it while launching XIV, does it count as an ad?) They're actually paying to advertise FF on Xbox. Square Enix. Paying. On Xbox...
If they'd done this years ago Xbox might be in another place today.
Of course it could be all talk, but their mention of building support for the franchise on Xbox seems like they legit know where to start and the hole they're starting in which is a good omen that they're not going to do a Square Enix, dump a few games, watch low sales, and then bail again.
@Grumblevolcano Still floors me that Forspoken had such a long exclusivity lock. Between Forspoken, Concord, and Bungie, I'm starting to think the old running joke about Jimbo and the scotch was just true commentating.
That's weirdly polarizing, and reminds me when Kotaku had the critic that openly hated Xenoblade while most praised it, also review XC2. Spoiler: He hated it just as much.
"Of course, being an Xbox first-party release, Avowed is playable day one on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, although we can't guarantee its arrival date on Xbox Game Pass Standard; a new lower-priced subscription tier which is expected to be out in-full by the time Avowed launches."
...The fact that this paragraph must exist. Oof.
If you can't answer in 10 words or less "what is Game Pass" the plan and marketing is total fail.
@OldGamer999 To be fair this is the studios first big game. I can understand it being shoddy from noobs more than the big established studios. Plus Nvidia basically paid for it to be broken on AMD, so there's that.
And yeah, PS5 60fps isn't so much "broken" as much as "Doesn't exist, It's just tarted up 30fps anyway." They just used frame generation to double the fps and called it a day even though the tech is NOT meant to be used on sub-60fps content. It's meant to get 120 from 60, not 60 from 30.
Friendly reminder that this is an Nvidia sponsored game, being used as a marketing showcase for Nvidia. Console shmonsole, good luck getting the thing to run well on anything AMD.
@GamingFan4Lyf He's supposed to be cocky, he's basically Chinese Icarus. Same general parable to teach a life lesson from a different culture.
@Titntin IDK if these upcoming ms games are really built to utilize the current console or not. My point is the games Sony as so far released are games built around last gen regardless if they chose to lock it to PS5 or not. We know both consoles do those types of games at 60 just fine. It's the newer ones that are 60 or bad 30.
yeah, I really, REALLY don't get what happened to the typical PC dev. From HL2's breakthrough physics to....modern..... how did we go backwards from 1999 onward?
@Titntin I said Sony hasn't released a PS5 game only PS4 games with PS5 upgrades - Elden Ring isn't a Sony game. And Returnal's PC requirements are: i5 6400, GTX1060, SSD optional (recommended.) It runs on a Steam Deck. Very much a game built to PS4 standards.
Now, that doesn't mean that Avowed couldn't run on an X1 (or at least 1X, base X1 was worse than PS4 so it's a bad comparison.) But people comparing games never developed against X1 standards vs games built around PS4 with enhanced graphics running in 60fps mode aren't comparing apples to apples.
Of course Starfield shows a lack of effort with "no 60fps mode on console" followed by adding it, so there's more than one problem. But I still think for a fair comparison we need to wait for the REAL developed-for-PS5 games to someday (maybe?) arrive before comparing. If GoT2 is 60fps with PS5 gfx standards, there's something to it. If it's 30fps only, then it's an industry/hardware generation problem not an MS problem.
@Titntin Yep, not just OLED. My fast refresh IPS is nearly unplayable at 30 unless it's a game with no camera panning. Interestingly at 40 it's fine - played hogwarts that way, but at 30 it's unplayable.
@Scirius Let's just take a moment to remember Sony hasn't actually released any PS5 games other than a few games artificially locked to PS5. They're all PS4 games with a graphical enhancement pack for PS5.
@Simplejohn LOL yeah, Wukong's "60" is actually "30" with framegen, which AMD states shouldn't be done. Though TBF, Wukong is an Nvidia sponsored game, so one would expect it would perform trash on anything AMD which includes XB/PS. Probably would run better on an Nvidia powered Switch LOL. (Similarly Starfield runs garbage on Nvidia. It's AMD sponsored.)
@LMN118 Even most PHONE games are 60+fps...
@Tecinthehead Series S isn't the problem. The games are built for PC, and it needs to target a large variety of PCs including those worse than the Series S. Sony will be doing this too, as they target PC too now (not at launch, but the games are best built for it at the start) All publishers will. Also remember Cloud is MS' future goal and right now that's running Series S hardware. Finally competent hardware strategy would be to differentiate Series S from Series X by showcasing Series X running 60fps where Series S only runs 30. It's not Series S fault.
Meanwhile PC players will complain they can't get it over 120fps with Ultra RT.
@Ralizah Yeah, but Nintendo's using Nvidia hardware.......
Seriously though it does amaze me that Nintendo's running full physics simulations on a potato, and the last PC developer that ran full physics was probably Valve in HL2 that ran on a Pentium III. Somehow in the timespan of 20 years PC devs went from full physics models on a P3, to being unable to do so at all with 16GB DDR4, 12 cores, and 100MB cache. WTF happened to PC devs?
(Ok, to be fair, this is Obsidian and their games were always sloths in performance, but still...)
@OldGamer999 TBH I blame Sony for that. Xbox just did the X1X, that was their "upgrade" console, they were set for YEARS with that. It was Sony that prematurely went into "transition" and stopped releasing PS4 games, to "transition" for like 2 years into PS5, and then only after PS5 announced did they suddenly open up the floodgates to all the PS4 games they'd held back "surprise, we didn't transition at all!" MS had to cobble together the Series to keep up, but I don't think MS was in a generational switch position at all. And then we found out, neither was Sony, they just painted the PS4Pro2 white for market reasons.
EVERYTHING about this generation is what pushed me back to PC. I hate GPU prices, I hate Jensen, I hate them locking software features behind $1k hardware, but as much as I hate it, this generation both MS and Sony played inside industry baseball, destroyed an entire generation of gaming, and left the consumer with the invoice. It'll take a decade at least for that sour taste to wash away.
Before piling on the Xbox hate wagon, we need to wait and see what Sony's single player PS5 only games will run like, should they ever actually release any. If they get 60, then Xbox dropped the ball, but I suspect the industry is doing as the industry always does, 30fps if you don't buy a Pro console. It's not just Ex-Box. It's this entire generation releasing too soon and sucking because of it.
@OldGamer999 Remember that Horizon and SM were both built for PS4 and "upgraded" to PS5. Yeah, HFW:BS (lol) is "PS5 only",but how do you end up with a PS5-only DLC for a game built for PS4 as the lead platform? Artificial restriction for money that's how. I don't think Avowed compares to that. We saw the RTX comparison yesterday, something tells me the game is high load. SHould it be? IDK. But it looks like it is.
Also curious if it's CPU or GPU bound. Seems like most open world RPGs are CPU bound on both platforms. Because the CPUs in these consoles are still a POS like last gen, just less so. I think they're focused on small form factors and small power supplies, so the TDP budget goes to the GPU part of the APU and the CPU gets what's left over which doesn't gel with the modern open world designs.
Still, sucky hardware, sucky dev decisions, sucky generation. The beat goes on.
@Rainz I agree with what you said - at least externally. But, it's also a misunderstanding in the public thinking. Nintendo doesn't "cut" jobs often because they don't actually employ most of the people that work on their games. Their internal teams are more or less core management teams, the rest of the staff is all outsourced on contract work. So they create and cancel contracts, which in turn ends up in job cuts from the contractors but Nintendo gets praised for clean hands because the employees weren't technically theirs.
The switch definitely did open up a lot of avenues in the industry and started the protable wave, though it's also a house built on marketing mostly. At the end of the day Switch is a GBA2 with an HDMI port. But they sold the concept expertly and it influenced the industry in a great direction.
Iwata was visionary (and the Switch was Iwata's baby), I want Nintendo to thrive, but there's so much internet soft focus filtering over who the company is and how they operate that it's just amazing to me. Switch 2 will be interesting. First non-Iwata console since the N64. Do they chase the industry or stay unique?
@Fiendish-Beaver Yeah, Phil used to be like an excitable child with gaming, he was just always excited about everything. These days he looks visibly uncomfortable. He used to be very direct in his statements and how he's a wishy-washy word salad working in a circle around what he's saying like a politician.
I do think Nadella is as always ahead of himself. I think they think not only are consoles not for them, but I think they think consoles are over in general. Kind of like when they thought physical media was over in 2013. But as you said, GP itself is their flagship, but it's tied to the console for the forseeable. They're running their own competition against themselves.
I definitely agree, Spencer knows the console business well. He's got to be aware of the effect on consoles at this point. I think Nadella just sees ABK's old revenue and wants to align their MS Gaming revenue to match it. To Nadella that means just replace Xbox with ABK and suddenly the old revenue line looks like the new revenue line. The guy doesn't understand platforms even though he runs a platform company. That's why Google, and Facebook, and Playstation, and OpenAI and everyone runs circles around them. But somehow they have more money because they invest it like a bank.
It's really awkward watching the change in Phil TBH. I think my faith in XB was tied to my trust in Phil's vision. As his vision became stifled so did my faith in XB.
@Fiendish-Beaver Yeah, I said often, back during the good days in the X1X era leading into Series launch that "I want Xbox to fail" because they're best as an underdog fighting for customers, and that "The day Phil retires is the day everything good about Xbox ends and it goes back to the bad old days."
I was a relentless optimist, as I always am , because Xbox stopped being the underdog even while failing, and Phil lost all power which was taken over by the nasty suits and went back to the bad old days even while Phil's still there.
@Fiendish-Beaver "he'll be replaced with a company Yes Man..." Booty. If not one of the Activision flunkies, it'll be Booty. That guy has seemed like the worst kind of snake in the grass from day one. Very much a corporate climber.
@WhiteRabbit I love Astrobot, but Astro, Sackboy, even Spyro and Daxter and Sly. Somehow none of this ever created that Disney-like eternal cult fandom and kid appeal Nintendo brands do. I don't think even Nintendo could create any of that today. True lightning in a bottle. It was the genius of Miyamoto that built it, and I think he's still the only one there with that level of once a century innate creativity, preceded only by Walt Disney himself. Plus the pure luck of associating with Masuda when they did. I wonder, without Pokemon, would Nintendo be Nintendo even with Mario?
Even without making consoles OR video games, Nintendo would still be an empire built on their IP/characters/brands. Movies, clothing, tourist destinations. They'd have a business on their identity. Even PS just never built anything like that. No company has. Other than Disney. Even WB not so much.
@OldGamer999 Would it matter? If they say no PS5 now, they'll just announce PS5 in January. If they say PS5 now, who knows they might rescind it in May. You'll know the strategy as soon as they do!
@GADG3Tx87 Games for Windows Live was post-Xbox not before it. That was part of Vista. Xbox launched (and therefore was developed before) 2001 in the Win98/2k/XP era. Xbox was a response to the rapid rise of Playstation and 3D console graphics starting to steal developer dependence from Windows/Direct3D monopoly towards OpenGL which then steered consumer dependence, while gaming was a huge source of new Windows sales.
TL;DR the timeline is wrong, but the idea is right, Xbox always existed only to secure computer games depending on Windows/DX. It got weird in the 360 era where it became a true "console" in its own right. Maybe by accident.
@OldGamer999 If Xbox were a pirate ship it would sink itself then decide to float then decide to run aground, then teleport to deep sea, then become a pontoon plane with one propeller but proclaim it has the most powerful engine.
At this point, running adrift is guaranteed to sink the ship. They need to pick a direction, run the engines at full speed. Either they hit an iceberg or they find Atlantis. Just get to the crow's nest, plot the best course, and make all haste to it. It's got to be better than filling the hull with water one red Solo cup at a time.
@WhiteRabbit That's true, though that's also what got them in trouble in the 80's (all games on Nintendo must be exclusive! Want FIFA on Nintendo? EXCLUSIVE ONLY!) LOL. Today, it's easy to focus only on your own platform when you have household name child demanded IP that sells itself and people will spend vaults to get. That's what both XB and Sony are missing. They keep buying more military games with guns. They forgot how Nintendo did it. Go for the kids, you get the parents. Astrobot as an exception, I daresay even TLoU, arguably Sony's biggest property now, or GoW would really sell hardware by itself. Certainly not Halo and Forza. Pikachu and Mario? Yep. They have an easier go of selling hardware via software.
@Pabpictu "they are the most valuable company in the world, they did not get there by luck"
No, they got there by being absurdly wealthy by being a monopoly in the 1990s and then having smart banker types invest that money into acquisitions and investments to generate massive amounts of passive income, and were recently boosted to the top by positioning themselves at the center of the AI tulip mania investor windfall (but using someone else's licensed product.) Not by luck. But also not by leading in tech. At least since 1999.
@WhiteRabbit I do get tired of people white knighting Nintendo. Yes, they're the most traditional still. Yes they're not always teetering on bankruptcy. But they have a captive audience that they milk as hard as possible on an industrial scale like Disney. We're talking about a company that was slapped down for antitrust behavior, while not even being a public corporation at the time. An act so rare MS is one of the only companies in the past 25 years to have had it happen as well.
Much as I hate to see an Xbox without Phil, I kinda wish he'd retire rather than drag his own image through the mud until he descends from the second Iwata down to "standard industry snake."
He now talks in circles, speaks made up nonsense, and constantly contradicts himself. It's sad to watch him go from what he was years ago to this hollow corporate puppet.
No matter what consumer face he almost halfway puts on, it recently comes down to "we're running a business", "change is coming", "the health of Xbox" (is it healthy?), "the health of the platform" (srsly?), and finally from this interview "pressure from within to give back to the company." Handfuls of statements about what they won't do (that then they do within months), and no firm statements on anything at all that they will do. If Phil wants to say they intend to not sell traditional consoles, just say it and tell us what he WILL be selling.
@RadioHedgeFund I absolutely think Xbox becomes a PC, internally. However I don't think it will have Steam. And when Phil talked other storefronts he notably mentioned everything except steam. If they intended Steam that's the first thing they'd have said. There's little incentive for Valve to lose a cut for Microsoft as their own market leader by a landslide, and there's no reason for Microsoft to just sell PCs they don't make any sales revenue on unless they price it like a PC, in which case....just buy a PC? An $1099.99 Surface Gaming. Fine, one and done sale.
I imagine they don't REALLY want to support Epic either but because no publishers want to play ball with Windows store they kind of have no choice but to use another store on a PC-Xbox.
@OldGamer999 That's the crux of the problem, "we don't know what direction" they're running. It may be good, it may be bad, but we don't know. And I honestly think they don't know. They're just going to try things and stick their fingers up and see what way the winds blow and keep changing the destination. And that's the entire problem. You'll know the destination when they know it and they'll change the goals every 6-10 months for years to come depending on results of every experiment. Maybe that's a good thing. Keep the industry on its toes. Lousy to be a customer of though.
But this is all Nadella. He's done this to every single MS division. Chase the quarterly, sacrifice the entire platform behind it. How many once #1 brands were destroyed by execs like that? They're a dime a dozen. Shareholder's best friend. As long as you're a short term shareholder. Guaranteed the Series Y's USP will be Copilot. I ----ing guarantee you.
@cburg Satya Nadella does not play "long games." His whole MO is built around maximizing short term gains at the cost of everything else, even main pillars and myopically chasing every trend and fad that shows up in the rear view mirror. It's why the day traders love him, even as he collapses they company's main revenue generators. Phil tries to frame it as a long game which is disingenuous if you recognize the Nadella playbook. Nadella would make Windows into a launcher for Mac if he thought it would give him +5% on the quarter.
@OldGamer999 Yeah, before I decided for sure on the PC jump, I'd considered going all PS as well. But the more I thought about it and thought about how Sony would behave without a real competition (remember raising the PS5 price, an unprecedented move in console history, everywhere except the one country Xbox is viable) I don't actually feel any more secure with money invested into PS than into Xbox. Xbox MAY go belly up and get out of making consoles. Or Xbox MAY transition into Windows based devices of various shapes. Or Xbox MAY do what you said and make everything cloud based. OTOH an unchecked Sony WILL mug you at gunpoint the moment they know all your base is belong to them.
So I'll give over 50 years of income to to the OTHER green team. Who needs food and clothing anyway? Jensen's leather jackets are made of gamer people. At least my Steam library will work on the potato PC I'll be able to afford 20 years from now lol
I can't recommend anyone invest in Xbox with where they are and how things look, but I couldn't recommend anyone invest in Sony either. Flip a coin? Ask Phil? Flip Phil?
@OldGamer999 I think the worst thing Xbox has done isn't actually the strategy, or even the constantly changing strategy. It's constantly lying about it and changing what they said before so that their credibility is now shot, and when they tell the truth about their plans you can't trust it's true. They've reiterated over and over that preserving your digital library is the key. That's why I bought in in the first place. But do they really mean that? We can't know anymore because the trust the consumer has in their statements is 0 now and that's their own fault.
I think if the debate is between Xbox and PC, it's a no brainer at this point. Xbox is shaky, and PC is the obvious path forward where you lose nothing (other than mountains of cash and 6 cubic feet of room space) and gain everything.
But when the debate is XB or PS it's a lot more unclear. The outlook for being a PS consumer may not be any better than being an Xbox consumer as a library investment. We know those two don't play nice, and if MS makes good on their hollow promises it may still work out to be the best bet. Or not. It depends on what Xbox does vs what they say and what PS does when they have unlimited power.
@OldGamer999 I think Xbox just has had a stable presence in the US since the beginning. A bit more marketing overall (still next to none now but lots back in the day), it's just more of an extablished, entrenched, omnipresent brand here than presumably anywhere else. Probably more attributable to Peter Moore and a lingering effect than anyone else, really.
I agree, Xbox is actually extremely healthy in the US. The problem is being healthy only in one market is still certain doom on a corporate level. No console can exist with 3rd party support selling in one country. (Then again the Wukong Steam sales beg to differ lol.) I think as long as they have a hook in the US though, they have a solid business to a degree.
@fizban3332 I don't believe the did a stock swap, IIRC they gave them the cashout value of their shares, so those investors may have chosen to reinvest in MS at MS prices, or not.
@Banjo- It's not about xbox users jumping because games are on PS5. It's about there not being enough Xbox users to begin with and at this point selling new customers on it is nigh impossible. Which will make life for users worse in time (or make the platform irrelevant totally.) Thus jumping now before it gets worse isn't a bad plan.
A lot of empty words. A lot of words that make him look like a liar worming around other words he said in the past that he's now counteracting. But the key words here are the direct admission (wrapped in a lot of bubble wrap) that he's ultimately appeasing corporate expectations and that's what's driving these decisions. We all knew it. But he finally said it. Even if he had to pretend he wasn't saying it.
If we extract the statement to remove the "slimy corporate things" from it, we get "Satya and Amy said jump, and I know not to ask how high."
@Spider-Kev Yeah, anyone that follows gaming intently knew it was pending. And the pay service was supposed to launch a few months after the console. But then it didn't and ran, what, 2 or 3 years before going paid?
But the average consumer let alone the average NINTENDO consumer? Everyone had to have been blindsided but a surprise paywall years into the system. If it were any other company it would have been like Matrick 2013 all over again. Even at the time on NL we all thought Nintendo just created a disaster of backlash. But no, not Nintendo. Nintendo and Disney can do whatever they want to people and people will thank them for doing it. I have a soft spot for Nintendo, but oh how I hate the company behind it.
@InterceptorAlpha Getting back to this post, but you have me super intrigued by Morrowind, particularly if it takes the beautification mods, and coop too. Wonder how painful it is getting it all set up. Had planned on Skyrim (finally to play Skyrim after buying thrice and still not playing lol.)
What makes Morrowind VR better than Skryim (fully modded?)
@Spider-Kev Exactly! Most players didn't know the disclaimer was there but it was. Yeah, the notice was there for day one. It's been an eternity since "Switchmas" but the online, and games like Splatoon 2's testfire early on had the asterisk about an NSO subscription will be required at a future date for all online content. They always put that warning there in the fine print, but the launch was delayed for years and most players never read the fine print, so a lot got slammed with what they had for years being taken away and paywalled one day. But they did technically warn people.
@Vaako007 Only partially true. PC has been growing rapidly, while consoles are sinking (including PS), and it's regional. Consoles were only ever the big thing in North America, Western Europe+UK, and Japan. Japan's out (other than Nintendo handhelds), and most of Asia, Eastern/Central Europe, and South America have always been primarily PC. I know Sony doesn't see PC as a competitor (yet), but at some point they have to face the music that their base is shrinking too, they already know this and aren't profiting enough from it on games. And that's why they're doing PC at all.
Similar to the theme of "PC is niche" is the Stellar Blade dev's comments that they expect higher sales on PC than on PS5. We can make fun of PC gamer stereotypes here of course, lol, but a lot of that is "Asia=PC." It's not the niche, the consoles are niche there. As we see console market share erode in the West, it's rewriting the theme.
Nintendo is Nintendo. IDK how long they can get away with it, but they do. I see them competing more with mobile. PS trying to coexist with PC. Xbox in all likelihood will become a PC.
@Cakefish The one problem is our expectations. We look at Nintendo, Sega, Sony, and formerly Xb and expect a certain business model. Software drives hardware drives software, install base = more software, and revenue is dependent on install base. For MS' new business model they're not building the model around hardware install base, or really software sales on the hardware. To us this means it's doomed. To them, I don't think they care, the console is just a box to buy subscriptions and software on. Just another revenue stream. It doesn't need to have a big footprint, it's just one stream among many. To us this looks disastrous. To them it's fine because it's not driving their profit line now. That means the console is in a better place than it seems because it's basically just a peripheral to them. Doesn't need to sell great. But it also means they can discontinue it to realign goals at any moment without notice, and it's a chaotic mishmash experience to own it. I do still think future Xboxen are PCs, built like laptops or mini-ITX or NUCs, with a custom UI/launcher. Might work out fine. Or not.
@FatGuyInLilCoat While nobody knows what's going on, stopping talking would be catastrophic. They need to just stop openly lying.
@BacklogBrad If a contract was in place for exclusivity (it was), if some new row appeared that caused Disney to bluster over it ex post facto, it would be due to cratering platform sales and open retreat in most markets that aren't America, and thus insufficient distribution market since the deal was inked. It's still on MS for wetting the green bed.
@abe_hikura Worse, with this and Doom, the two biggest Xbox releases this year both confirmed to PS5 before launch, even if they're special cases, it not only sets an expectation it'll all come to PS, but they've also shot their credibility so even if they say a game won't, everyone will still expect it will. And it probably will.
To appreciate the scale of this move consider this:
3rd party timed exclusives on PS and Nintendo and even Xbox do not announce the existence, let alone release window of other platform ports until after the exclusivity period expires.
Sony does not release even PC ports of exclusives for at least a year currently.
Microsoft announced the PS port along with their own XB date, put a time window on it, and it's only 6 months+ exclusivity. For their own first party game.
Even as someone that likes the idea of ending exclusives, and understands exclusives are not what sells consoles anymore, even Sony, that's a massive self destruct button. They can' not really provide a compelling reason to play on their platform instead of competitors. That's a problem. "Game Pass' but that has, clearly, not resonated with consumers as a successful enough reason alone.
@AccessibleDaydream Game Pass 10 was supposed to be the last Game Pass upgraded forever, but then Game Pass 11 arrived one day and said you have to throw out the Xbox you bought 2 years ago because it needs one with a different chip.
LOL I can't stand anything Mac, but, I forgot about those commercials and they were sooo spot on! That was one of the best marketing moments in PC history.
@Spider-Kev In fairness, Nintendo kind of bait and switched. Yeah the fine print said you'd have to pay for online since day 1 but it wasn't ready yet, but for the masses the bought in and then suddenly had to pay annually for what they already had. When Sony tried "but the fine print said it on day 1" with Helldivers 2 PSN logins on PC they got rightly blasted. Nintendo gets a medal.
@Fiendish-Beaver @OldGamer999 Standard Nadella playbook. Trade tomorrows growth for today's dividends. And the shareholders will vote him Emperor For Life because of it.
@x3King84 Indeed it is.... indeed it is.
@Fenbops Maybe but I think Lego Horizon was basically the litmus test. It's the all ages way of getting audiences on board their big franchise, and it's on "everything but Xbox."
@Fenbops Playstation already saw how much money there is to be made by ditching exclusivity and are now going to PC and Nintendo. They won't bother going to Xbox, while Xbox kills off its own market, why would Sony spend money porting to a console that's actively killing itself?
The reason PS fans shouldn't rejoice though is once XB is irrelevant in the US and Sony rules the market, they will make owning a PS a miserable experience too. PS not FULLY sucking is dependent on XB surviving.
The end of exclusives is great. If you're a PC gamer. Soooooo glad I started making the move back after the last round of doom and gloom.
Somehow, "play an unspecified selection of games at an undetermined future date, possibly, for just one dollar" doesn't roll off the tongue like the old slogan.
"Play less games, much later, for the same price you paid last year" has a better ring to it, doesn't it?
The pricing split kind of reminds me of those used listings on eBay and Amazon. You know, the one where you see
Used: Acceptable condition- may be worn and show signs of wear, missing original package, missing accessories, device is tested to function, includes base components only. $449.99. Next to the new in box one for $479.99.
Also, while watching the video I realized how convenient it is that this site is already green. As Xbox collapses and becomes a PC publisher, the site can just rebrand to PureNvidia and replace the little X-ball watermarks with swirly-eyes.
Comments 6,846
Re: 1997 PS1 Classic 'Croc' Is Getting A Remaster For Xbox This Year
Clearly PlayStation is deciding on what games to bring to Xbox on a case by case basis.
(Not gonna' lie, this is great, though!)
Re: Final Fantasy Dev Insists The Future Is Bright For Square Enix Games On Xbox
@Jenkinss "Short memories in the Xbox community."
We drink to forget.
Re: Final Fantasy Dev Insists The Future Is Bright For Square Enix Games On Xbox
@InterceptorAlpha "Only a couple mediocre launch window games"
I still remember the pony meltdown when FFXIII was announced to be on 360, lol.
XV gets a bad sales rep. It sold 10 million and broke even in 2 weeks. It sold "only" 1.4 million on Xbox, but it also sold "only" 5 mill on PS, making Xbox just shy of 20% of console sales which isn't horrible. PC makes up the other 4+ million. Still crushed that they killed the rest of the story DLC for a 10mil selling game.
Re: Digital Foundry Compares 30FPS, 40FPS & 60FPS Modes In Star Wars Outlaws For Xbox
@Fiendish-Beaver @Pabpictu There's "rules" for how it's supposed to work, but meanwhile have a 4k60 fast IPS LG display on which 40 looks wonderfully solid and 30 is a juddering migraine inducing mess. The rules say 40 shouldn't work and 30 should be fine. The panel says 40 is fine, and 30 will make you go blind. I don't have VRR (well not true it's a Freesync display which PC and XB support, but I have my Xb going through HDMI switches that claim to support it, but end up showing a blank screen if I try so I'm not using it.)
Re: Digital Foundry Compares 30FPS, 40FPS & 60FPS Modes In Star Wars Outlaws For Xbox
If it works as well as Hogwarts did, I found the 40fps mode ideal even on a 60fps display where 30fps always has HORRENDOUS judder, and 60 is smooth. 40 felt like what some other people must see for 30. People, and companies really really underestimate just how different modern displays are from each other and how it affects what you see and how some fps are unusable on certain displays. Some people have a display where 30 looks fine. Some like me have a display where 30 looks like a broken rotoscope with a bent axle.
@JustinSane The problem with modern gaming is, in the old days, in PC gaming, if your game ran janky and choppy or low res on your GPU the companies basically just told you "too bad, you should have bought a top of the line GPU instead." Today, when your console game runs janky and choppy or low res on your console, the companies basically just tell you"too bad, you should have bought a top of the line GPU instead."
Re: Final Fantasy Dev Insists The Future Is Bright For Square Enix Games On Xbox
So bizarre how Square Enix went from ignoring Xbox and partnering with Sony alone for all this content during all the time where Xbox was showing upward momentum, to the detriment of that momentum often, to now making a huge push into trying to build a base on Xbox, while Xbox momentum is in nosedive freefall.
And they're putting their money where their mouth is, too. The paid sponsor ad on my dashboard last night was for FFXIV free trial (if I saw it while launching XIV, does it count as an ad?) They're actually paying to advertise FF on Xbox. Square Enix. Paying. On Xbox...
If they'd done this years ago Xbox might be in another place today.
Of course it could be all talk, but their mention of building support for the franchise on Xbox seems like they legit know where to start and the hole they're starting in which is a good omen that they're not going to do a Square Enix, dump a few games, watch low sales, and then bail again.
@Grumblevolcano Still floors me that Forspoken had such a long exclusivity lock. Between Forspoken, Concord, and Bungie, I'm starting to think the old running joke about Jimbo and the scotch was just true commentating.
Re: Roundup: Here's What The Critics Think About Visions Of Mana From Square Enix
That's weirdly polarizing, and reminds me when Kotaku had the critic that openly hated Xenoblade while most praised it, also review XC2. Spoiler: He hated it just as much.
Re: Here's Over An Hour Of Fresh Gameplay From Xbox RPG Avowed
"Of course, being an Xbox first-party release, Avowed is playable day one on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, although we can't guarantee its arrival date on Xbox Game Pass Standard; a new lower-priced subscription tier which is expected to be out in-full by the time Avowed launches."
...The fact that this paragraph must exist. Oof.
If you can't answer in 10 words or less "what is Game Pass" the plan and marketing is total fail.
Re: Rumour: Black Myth: Wukong 'Memory Leak' Has Caused Xbox Series X|S Delay
@OldGamer999 To be fair this is the studios first big game. I can understand it being shoddy from noobs more than the big established studios. Plus Nvidia basically paid for it to be broken on AMD, so there's that.
And yeah, PS5 60fps isn't so much "broken" as much as "Doesn't exist, It's just tarted up 30fps anyway." They just used frame generation to double the fps and called it a day even though the tech is NOT meant to be used on sub-60fps content. It's meant to get 120 from 60, not 60 from 30.
Re: Rumour: Black Myth: Wukong 'Memory Leak' Has Caused Xbox Series X|S Delay
Friendly reminder that this is an Nvidia sponsored game, being used as a marketing showcase for Nvidia. Console shmonsole, good luck getting the thing to run well on anything AMD.
@GamingFan4Lyf He's supposed to be cocky, he's basically Chinese Icarus. Same general parable to teach a life lesson from a different culture.
Re: Obsidian Confirms That Avowed Runs At 30FPS On Xbox Series X|S
@Titntin IDK if these upcoming ms games are really built to utilize the current console or not. My point is the games Sony as so far released are games built around last gen regardless if they chose to lock it to PS5 or not. We know both consoles do those types of games at 60 just fine. It's the newer ones that are 60 or bad 30.
Re: Talking Point: Does Microsoft Have A '30FPS' Problem With Its Xbox Series X|S Output?
@Ralizah Confirmed!
yeah, I really, REALLY don't get what happened to the typical PC dev. From HL2's breakthrough physics to....modern..... how did we go backwards from 1999 onward?
Re: Talking Point: Does Microsoft Have A '30FPS' Problem With Its Xbox Series X|S Output?
@cburg Those poor people in Ukraine had to go through trying to make Stalker 2 try to run 60fps on Series X. At some point you just give up.
Re: Obsidian Confirms That Avowed Runs At 30FPS On Xbox Series X|S
@Titntin I said Sony hasn't released a PS5 game only PS4 games with PS5 upgrades - Elden Ring isn't a Sony game. And Returnal's PC requirements are: i5 6400, GTX1060, SSD optional (recommended.) It runs on a Steam Deck. Very much a game built to PS4 standards.
Now, that doesn't mean that Avowed couldn't run on an X1 (or at least 1X, base X1 was worse than PS4 so it's a bad comparison.) But people comparing games never developed against X1 standards vs games built around PS4 with enhanced graphics running in 60fps mode aren't comparing apples to apples.
Of course Starfield shows a lack of effort with "no 60fps mode on console" followed by adding it, so there's more than one problem. But I still think for a fair comparison we need to wait for the REAL developed-for-PS5 games to someday (maybe?) arrive before comparing. If GoT2 is 60fps with PS5 gfx standards, there's something to it. If it's 30fps only, then it's an industry/hardware generation problem not an MS problem.
Re: Obsidian Confirms That Avowed Runs At 30FPS On Xbox Series X|S
@Titntin Yep, not just OLED. My fast refresh IPS is nearly unplayable at 30 unless it's a game with no camera panning. Interestingly at 40 it's fine - played hogwarts that way, but at 30 it's unplayable.
@Scirius Let's just take a moment to remember Sony hasn't actually released any PS5 games other than a few games artificially locked to PS5. They're all PS4 games with a graphical enhancement pack for PS5.
Re: Talking Point: Does Microsoft Have A '30FPS' Problem With Its Xbox Series X|S Output?
@Simplejohn LOL yeah, Wukong's "60" is actually "30" with framegen, which AMD states shouldn't be done. Though TBF, Wukong is an Nvidia sponsored game, so one would expect it would perform trash on anything AMD which includes XB/PS. Probably would run better on an Nvidia powered Switch LOL. (Similarly Starfield runs garbage on Nvidia. It's AMD sponsored.)
@LMN118 Even most PHONE games are 60+fps...
@Tecinthehead Series S isn't the problem. The games are built for PC, and it needs to target a large variety of PCs including those worse than the Series S. Sony will be doing this too, as they target PC too now (not at launch, but the games are best built for it at the start) All publishers will. Also remember Cloud is MS' future goal and right now that's running Series S hardware. Finally competent hardware strategy would be to differentiate Series S from Series X by showcasing Series X running 60fps where Series S only runs 30. It's not Series S fault.
Meanwhile PC players will complain they can't get it over 120fps with Ultra RT.
@Ralizah Yeah, but Nintendo's using Nvidia hardware.......
Seriously though it does amaze me that Nintendo's running full physics simulations on a potato, and the last PC developer that ran full physics was probably Valve in HL2 that ran on a Pentium III. Somehow in the timespan of 20 years PC devs went from full physics models on a P3, to being unable to do so at all with 16GB DDR4, 12 cores, and 100MB cache. WTF happened to PC devs?
(Ok, to be fair, this is Obsidian and their games were always sloths in performance, but still...)
@OldGamer999 TBH I blame Sony for that. Xbox just did the X1X, that was their "upgrade" console, they were set for YEARS with that. It was Sony that prematurely went into "transition" and stopped releasing PS4 games, to "transition" for like 2 years into PS5, and then only after PS5 announced did they suddenly open up the floodgates to all the PS4 games they'd held back "surprise, we didn't transition at all!" MS had to cobble together the Series to keep up, but I don't think MS was in a generational switch position at all. And then we found out, neither was Sony, they just painted the PS4Pro2 white for market reasons.
EVERYTHING about this generation is what pushed me back to PC. I hate GPU prices, I hate Jensen, I hate them locking software features behind $1k hardware, but as much as I hate it, this generation both MS and Sony played inside industry baseball, destroyed an entire generation of gaming, and left the consumer with the invoice. It'll take a decade at least for that sour taste to wash away.
TL;DR: I blame Jim Ryan.
Re: Talking Point: Does Microsoft Have A '30FPS' Problem With Its Xbox Series X|S Output?
Before piling on the Xbox hate wagon, we need to wait and see what Sony's single player PS5 only games will run like, should they ever actually release any. If they get 60, then Xbox dropped the ball, but I suspect the industry is doing as the industry always does, 30fps if you don't buy a Pro console. It's not just Ex-Box. It's this entire generation releasing too soon and sucking because of it.
@OldGamer999 Remember that Horizon and SM were both built for PS4 and "upgraded" to PS5. Yeah, HFW:BS (lol) is "PS5 only",but how do you end up with a PS5-only DLC for a game built for PS4 as the lead platform? Artificial restriction for money that's how. I don't think Avowed compares to that. We saw the RTX comparison yesterday, something tells me the game is high load. SHould it be? IDK. But it looks like it is.
Also curious if it's CPU or GPU bound. Seems like most open world RPGs are CPU bound on both platforms. Because the CPUs in these consoles are still a POS like last gen, just less so. I think they're focused on small form factors and small power supplies, so the TDP budget goes to the GPU part of the APU and the CPU gets what's left over which doesn't gel with the modern open world designs.
Still, sucky hardware, sucky dev decisions, sucky generation. The beat goes on.
Re: Phil Spencer On Game Exclusivity: 'We Have To Anticipate There's Going To Be More Change'
@Rainz I agree with what you said - at least externally. But, it's also a misunderstanding in the public thinking. Nintendo doesn't "cut" jobs often because they don't actually employ most of the people that work on their games. Their internal teams are more or less core management teams, the rest of the staff is all outsourced on contract work. So they create and cancel contracts, which in turn ends up in job cuts from the contractors but Nintendo gets praised for clean hands because the employees weren't technically theirs.
The switch definitely did open up a lot of avenues in the industry and started the protable wave, though it's also a house built on marketing mostly. At the end of the day Switch is a GBA2 with an HDMI port. But they sold the concept expertly and it influenced the industry in a great direction.
Iwata was visionary (and the Switch was Iwata's baby), I want Nintendo to thrive, but there's so much internet soft focus filtering over who the company is and how they operate that it's just amazing to me. Switch 2 will be interesting. First non-Iwata console since the N64. Do they chase the industry or stay unique?
Re: Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Preview - MachineGames' Latest Xbox Adventure Is Looking Whip-Smart
@Fiendish-Beaver Yeah, Phil used to be like an excitable child with gaming, he was just always excited about everything. These days he looks visibly uncomfortable. He used to be very direct in his statements and how he's a wishy-washy word salad working in a circle around what he's saying like a politician.
I do think Nadella is as always ahead of himself. I think they think not only are consoles not for them, but I think they think consoles are over in general. Kind of like when they thought physical media was over in 2013. But as you said, GP itself is their flagship, but it's tied to the console for the forseeable. They're running their own competition against themselves.
I definitely agree, Spencer knows the console business well. He's got to be aware of the effect on consoles at this point. I think Nadella just sees ABK's old revenue and wants to align their MS Gaming revenue to match it. To Nadella that means just replace Xbox with ABK and suddenly the old revenue line looks like the new revenue line. The guy doesn't understand platforms even though he runs a platform company. That's why Google, and Facebook, and Playstation, and OpenAI and everyone runs circles around them. But somehow they have more money because they invest it like a bank.
It's really awkward watching the change in Phil TBH. I think my faith in XB was tied to my trust in Phil's vision. As his vision became stifled so did my faith in XB.
Re: Phil Spencer On Game Exclusivity: 'We Have To Anticipate There's Going To Be More Change'
@Sol4ris Concord feels like the kind of game Xbox would have made. And, technically is made by a bunch of former Xbox (Bungie) devs.....
Re: Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Preview - MachineGames' Latest Xbox Adventure Is Looking Whip-Smart
@Fiendish-Beaver Yeah, I said often, back during the good days in the X1X era leading into Series launch that "I want Xbox to fail" because they're best as an underdog fighting for customers, and that "The day Phil retires is the day everything good about Xbox ends and it goes back to the bad old days."
I was a relentless optimist, as I always am , because Xbox stopped being the underdog even while failing, and Phil lost all power which was taken over by the nasty suits and went back to the bad old days even while Phil's still there.
Re: Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Preview - MachineGames' Latest Xbox Adventure Is Looking Whip-Smart
@Fiendish-Beaver "he'll be replaced with a company Yes Man..." Booty. If not one of the Activision flunkies, it'll be Booty. That guy has seemed like the worst kind of snake in the grass from day one. Very much a corporate climber.
Re: Phil Spencer On Game Exclusivity: 'We Have To Anticipate There's Going To Be More Change'
@WhiteRabbit I love Astrobot, but Astro, Sackboy, even Spyro and Daxter and Sly. Somehow none of this ever created that Disney-like eternal cult fandom and kid appeal Nintendo brands do. I don't think even Nintendo could create any of that today. True lightning in a bottle. It was the genius of Miyamoto that built it, and I think he's still the only one there with that level of once a century innate creativity, preceded only by Walt Disney himself. Plus the pure luck of associating with Masuda when they did. I wonder, without Pokemon, would Nintendo be Nintendo even with Mario?
Even without making consoles OR video games, Nintendo would still be an empire built on their IP/characters/brands. Movies, clothing, tourist destinations. They'd have a business on their identity. Even PS just never built anything like that. No company has. Other than Disney. Even WB not so much.
Re: Avowed Early Previews Are Looking Positive Ahead Of Xbox Game Pass Launch Next February
@OldGamer999 Would it matter? If they say no PS5 now, they'll just announce PS5 in January. If they say PS5 now, who knows they might rescind it in May. You'll know the strategy as soon as they do!
Re: Phil Spencer On Game Exclusivity: 'We Have To Anticipate There's Going To Be More Change'
@GADG3Tx87 Games for Windows Live was post-Xbox not before it. That was part of Vista. Xbox launched (and therefore was developed before) 2001 in the Win98/2k/XP era. Xbox was a response to the rapid rise of Playstation and 3D console graphics starting to steal developer dependence from Windows/Direct3D monopoly towards OpenGL which then steered consumer dependence, while gaming was a huge source of new Windows sales.
TL;DR the timeline is wrong, but the idea is right, Xbox always existed only to secure computer games depending on Windows/DX. It got weird in the 360 era where it became a true "console" in its own right. Maybe by accident.
Re: Phil Spencer On Game Exclusivity: 'We Have To Anticipate There's Going To Be More Change'
@Fiendish-Beaver "So, we might get Concord, but not Helldivers."
That's such an unintentional summary of modern Xbox right there.
Re: Phil Spencer On Game Exclusivity: 'We Have To Anticipate There's Going To Be More Change'
@OldGamer999 If Xbox were a pirate ship it would sink itself then decide to float then decide to run aground, then teleport to deep sea, then become a pontoon plane with one propeller but proclaim it has the most powerful engine.
At this point, running adrift is guaranteed to sink the ship. They need to pick a direction, run the engines at full speed. Either they hit an iceberg or they find Atlantis. Just get to the crow's nest, plot the best course, and make all haste to it. It's got to be better than filling the hull with water one red Solo cup at a time.
@WhiteRabbit That's true, though that's also what got them in trouble in the 80's (all games on Nintendo must be exclusive! Want FIFA on Nintendo? EXCLUSIVE ONLY!) LOL. Today, it's easy to focus only on your own platform when you have household name child demanded IP that sells itself and people will spend vaults to get. That's what both XB and Sony are missing. They keep buying more military games with guns. They forgot how Nintendo did it. Go for the kids, you get the parents. Astrobot as an exception, I daresay even TLoU, arguably Sony's biggest property now, or GoW would really sell hardware by itself. Certainly not Halo and Forza. Pikachu and Mario? Yep. They have an easier go of selling hardware via software.
Re: Phil Spencer On Game Exclusivity: 'We Have To Anticipate There's Going To Be More Change'
@Pabpictu "they are the most valuable company in the world, they did not get there by luck"
No, they got there by being absurdly wealthy by being a monopoly in the 1990s and then having smart banker types invest that money into acquisitions and investments to generate massive amounts of passive income, and were recently boosted to the top by positioning themselves at the center of the AI tulip mania investor windfall (but using someone else's licensed product.) Not by luck. But also not by leading in tech. At least since 1999.
@WhiteRabbit I do get tired of people white knighting Nintendo. Yes, they're the most traditional still. Yes they're not always teetering on bankruptcy. But they have a captive audience that they milk as hard as possible on an industrial scale like Disney. We're talking about a company that was slapped down for antitrust behavior, while not even being a public corporation at the time. An act so rare MS is one of the only companies in the past 25 years to have had it happen as well.
Re: Phil Spencer On Game Exclusivity: 'We Have To Anticipate There's Going To Be More Change'
Much as I hate to see an Xbox without Phil, I kinda wish he'd retire rather than drag his own image through the mud until he descends from the second Iwata down to "standard industry snake."
He now talks in circles, speaks made up nonsense, and constantly contradicts himself. It's sad to watch him go from what he was years ago to this hollow corporate puppet.
No matter what consumer face he almost halfway puts on, it recently comes down to "we're running a business", "change is coming", "the health of Xbox" (is it healthy?), "the health of the platform" (srsly?), and finally from this interview "pressure from within to give back to the company." Handfuls of statements about what they won't do (that then they do within months), and no firm statements on anything at all that they will do. If Phil wants to say they intend to not sell traditional consoles, just say it and tell us what he WILL be selling.
@RadioHedgeFund I absolutely think Xbox becomes a PC, internally. However I don't think it will have Steam. And when Phil talked other storefronts he notably mentioned everything except steam. If they intended Steam that's the first thing they'd have said. There's little incentive for Valve to lose a cut for Microsoft as their own market leader by a landslide, and there's no reason for Microsoft to just sell PCs they don't make any sales revenue on unless they price it like a PC, in which case....just buy a PC? An $1099.99 Surface Gaming. Fine, one and done sale.
I imagine they don't REALLY want to support Epic either but because no publishers want to play ball with Windows store they kind of have no choice but to use another store on a PC-Xbox.
@OldGamer999 That's the crux of the problem, "we don't know what direction" they're running. It may be good, it may be bad, but we don't know. And I honestly think they don't know. They're just going to try things and stick their fingers up and see what way the winds blow and keep changing the destination. And that's the entire problem. You'll know the destination when they know it and they'll change the goals every 6-10 months for years to come depending on results of every experiment. Maybe that's a good thing. Keep the industry on its toes. Lousy to be a customer of though.
But this is all Nadella. He's done this to every single MS division. Chase the quarterly, sacrifice the entire platform behind it. How many once #1 brands were destroyed by execs like that? They're a dime a dozen. Shareholder's best friend. As long as you're a short term shareholder. Guaranteed the Series Y's USP will be Copilot. I ----ing guarantee you.
@cburg Satya Nadella does not play "long games." His whole MO is built around maximizing short term gains at the cost of everything else, even main pillars and myopically chasing every trend and fad that shows up in the rear view mirror. It's why the day traders love him, even as he collapses they company's main revenue generators. Phil tries to frame it as a long game which is disingenuous if you recognize the Nadella playbook. Nadella would make Windows into a launcher for Mac if he thought it would give him +5% on the quarter.
Re: Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Comments On Indiana Jones PS5, And Microsoft's Plan Moving Forward
@OldGamer999 Home of the $60 Game Boy remaster.... And 50/50 digital library retention between any 3 generations?
Re: Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Comments On Indiana Jones PS5, And Microsoft's Plan Moving Forward
@OldGamer999 Yeah, before I decided for sure on the PC jump, I'd considered going all PS as well. But the more I thought about it and thought about how Sony would behave without a real competition (remember raising the PS5 price, an unprecedented move in console history, everywhere except the one country Xbox is viable) I don't actually feel any more secure with money invested into PS than into Xbox. Xbox MAY go belly up and get out of making consoles. Or Xbox MAY transition into Windows based devices of various shapes. Or Xbox MAY do what you said and make everything cloud based. OTOH an unchecked Sony WILL mug you at gunpoint the moment they know all your base is belong to them.
So I'll give over 50 years of income to to the OTHER green team. Who needs food and clothing anyway? Jensen's leather jackets are made of gamer people. At least my Steam library will work on the potato PC I'll be able to afford 20 years from now lol
I can't recommend anyone invest in Xbox with where they are and how things look, but I couldn't recommend anyone invest in Sony either. Flip a coin? Ask Phil? Flip Phil?
Re: Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Comments On Indiana Jones PS5, And Microsoft's Plan Moving Forward
@OldGamer999 I think the worst thing Xbox has done isn't actually the strategy, or even the constantly changing strategy. It's constantly lying about it and changing what they said before so that their credibility is now shot, and when they tell the truth about their plans you can't trust it's true. They've reiterated over and over that preserving your digital library is the key. That's why I bought in in the first place. But do they really mean that? We can't know anymore because the trust the consumer has in their statements is 0 now and that's their own fault.
I think if the debate is between Xbox and PC, it's a no brainer at this point. Xbox is shaky, and PC is the obvious path forward where you lose nothing (other than mountains of cash and 6 cubic feet of room space) and gain everything.
But when the debate is XB or PS it's a lot more unclear. The outlook for being a PS consumer may not be any better than being an Xbox consumer as a library investment. We know those two don't play nice, and if MS makes good on their hollow promises it may still work out to be the best bet. Or not. It depends on what Xbox does vs what they say and what PS does when they have unlimited power.
Re: Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Comments On Indiana Jones PS5, And Microsoft's Plan Moving Forward
@OldGamer999 I think Xbox just has had a stable presence in the US since the beginning. A bit more marketing overall (still next to none now but lots back in the day), it's just more of an extablished, entrenched, omnipresent brand here than presumably anywhere else. Probably more attributable to Peter Moore and a lingering effect than anyone else, really.
I agree, Xbox is actually extremely healthy in the US. The problem is being healthy only in one market is still certain doom on a corporate level. No console can exist with 3rd party support selling in one country. (Then again the Wukong Steam sales beg to differ lol.) I think as long as they have a hook in the US though, they have a solid business to a degree.
@fizban3332 I don't believe the did a stock swap, IIRC they gave them the cashout value of their shares, so those investors may have chosen to reinvest in MS at MS prices, or not.
@Banjo- It's not about xbox users jumping because games are on PS5. It's about there not being enough Xbox users to begin with and at this point selling new customers on it is nigh impossible. Which will make life for users worse in time (or make the platform irrelevant totally.) Thus jumping now before it gets worse isn't a bad plan.
Re: Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Comments On Indiana Jones PS5, And Microsoft's Plan Moving Forward
A lot of empty words. A lot of words that make him look like a liar worming around other words he said in the past that he's now counteracting. But the key words here are the direct admission (wrapped in a lot of bubble wrap) that he's ultimately appeasing corporate expectations and that's what's driving these decisions. We all knew it. But he finally said it. Even if he had to pretend he wasn't saying it.
If we extract the statement to remove the "slimy corporate things" from it, we get "Satya and Amy said jump, and I know not to ask how high."
Re: Xbox Begins Rolling Out 'Game Pass Standard' To Insiders For Just $1
@Spider-Kev Yeah, anyone that follows gaming intently knew it was pending. And the pay service was supposed to launch a few months after the console. But then it didn't and ran, what, 2 or 3 years before going paid?
But the average consumer let alone the average NINTENDO consumer? Everyone had to have been blindsided but a surprise paywall years into the system. If it were any other company it would have been like Matrick 2013 all over again. Even at the time on NL we all thought Nintendo just created a disaster of backlash. But no, not Nintendo. Nintendo and Disney can do whatever they want to people and people will thank them for doing it. I have a soft spot for Nintendo, but oh how I hate the company behind it.
Re: Skyrim's Massive 'Skyblivion' Mod Looks Incredible, But It's Apparently Too Big For Xbox
@InterceptorAlpha Getting back to this post, but you have me super intrigued by Morrowind, particularly if it takes the beautification mods, and coop too. Wonder how painful it is getting it all set up. Had planned on Skyrim (finally to play Skyrim after buying thrice and still not playing lol.)
What makes Morrowind VR better than Skryim (fully modded?)
Re: Xbox Begins Rolling Out 'Game Pass Standard' To Insiders For Just $1
@Spider-Kev Exactly! Most players didn't know the disclaimer was there but it was. Yeah, the notice was there for day one. It's been an eternity since "Switchmas" but the online, and games like Splatoon 2's testfire early on had the asterisk about an NSO subscription will be required at a future date for all online content. They always put that warning there in the fine print, but the launch was delayed for years and most players never read the fine print, so a lot got slammed with what they had for years being taken away and paywalled one day. But they did technically warn people.
Re: Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Hits Xbox This December, And A PS5 Port Is Officially Coming
@Vaako007 Only partially true. PC has been growing rapidly, while consoles are sinking (including PS), and it's regional. Consoles were only ever the big thing in North America, Western Europe+UK, and Japan. Japan's out (other than Nintendo handhelds), and most of Asia, Eastern/Central Europe, and South America have always been primarily PC. I know Sony doesn't see PC as a competitor (yet), but at some point they have to face the music that their base is shrinking too, they already know this and aren't profiting enough from it on games. And that's why they're doing PC at all.
Similar to the theme of "PC is niche" is the Stellar Blade dev's comments that they expect higher sales on PC than on PS5. We can make fun of PC gamer stereotypes here of course, lol, but a lot of that is "Asia=PC." It's not the niche, the consoles are niche there. As we see console market share erode in the West, it's rewriting the theme.
Nintendo is Nintendo. IDK how long they can get away with it, but they do. I see them competing more with mobile. PS trying to coexist with PC. Xbox in all likelihood will become a PC.
@Cakefish The one problem is our expectations. We look at Nintendo, Sega, Sony, and formerly Xb and expect a certain business model. Software drives hardware drives software, install base = more software, and revenue is dependent on install base. For MS' new business model they're not building the model around hardware install base, or really software sales on the hardware. To us this means it's doomed. To them, I don't think they care, the console is just a box to buy subscriptions and software on. Just another revenue stream. It doesn't need to have a big footprint, it's just one stream among many. To us this looks disastrous. To them it's fine because it's not driving their profit line now. That means the console is in a better place than it seems because it's basically just a peripheral to them. Doesn't need to sell great. But it also means they can discontinue it to realign goals at any moment without notice, and it's a chaotic mishmash experience to own it. I do still think future Xboxen are PCs, built like laptops or mini-ITX or NUCs, with a custom UI/launcher. Might work out fine. Or not.
Re: Reaction: Indiana Jones And The Great Circle's PS5 Announcement Marks A Bold Step For Xbox
@FatGuyInLilCoat While nobody knows what's going on, stopping talking would be catastrophic. They need to just stop openly lying.
@BacklogBrad If a contract was in place for exclusivity (it was), if some new row appeared that caused Disney to bluster over it ex post facto, it would be due to cratering platform sales and open retreat in most markets that aren't America, and thus insufficient distribution market since the deal was inked. It's still on MS for wetting the green bed.
@abe_hikura Worse, with this and Doom, the two biggest Xbox releases this year both confirmed to PS5 before launch, even if they're special cases, it not only sets an expectation it'll all come to PS, but they've also shot their credibility so even if they say a game won't, everyone will still expect it will. And it probably will.
Re: Reaction: Indiana Jones And The Great Circle's PS5 Announcement Marks A Bold Step For Xbox
To appreciate the scale of this move consider this:
3rd party timed exclusives on PS and Nintendo and even Xbox do not announce the existence, let alone release window of other platform ports until after the exclusivity period expires.
Sony does not release even PC ports of exclusives for at least a year currently.
Microsoft announced the PS port along with their own XB date, put a time window on it, and it's only 6 months+ exclusivity. For their own first party game.
Even as someone that likes the idea of ending exclusives, and understands exclusives are not what sells consoles anymore, even Sony, that's a massive self destruct button. They can' not really provide a compelling reason to play on their platform instead of competitors. That's a problem. "Game Pass' but that has, clearly, not resonated with consumers as a successful enough reason alone.
Re: Xbox Begins Rolling Out 'Game Pass Standard' To Insiders For Just $1
@AccessibleDaydream Game Pass 10 was supposed to be the last Game Pass upgraded forever, but then Game Pass 11 arrived one day and said you have to throw out the Xbox you bought 2 years ago because it needs one with a different chip.
LOL I can't stand anything Mac, but, I forgot about those commercials and they were sooo spot on! That was one of the best marketing moments in PC history.
@Spider-Kev In fairness, Nintendo kind of bait and switched. Yeah the fine print said you'd have to pay for online since day 1 but it wasn't ready yet, but for the masses the bought in and then suddenly had to pay annually for what they already had. When Sony tried "but the fine print said it on day 1" with Helldivers 2 PSN logins on PC they got rightly blasted. Nintendo gets a medal.
Re: Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Hits Xbox This December, And A PS5 Port Is Officially Coming
@Fiendish-Beaver @OldGamer999 Standard Nadella playbook. Trade tomorrows growth for today's dividends. And the shareholders will vote him Emperor For Life because of it.
@x3King84 Indeed it is.... indeed it is.
@Fenbops Maybe but I think Lego Horizon was basically the litmus test. It's the all ages way of getting audiences on board their big franchise, and it's on "everything but Xbox."
Re: Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Hits Xbox This December, And A PS5 Port Is Officially Coming
@Fenbops Playstation already saw how much money there is to be made by ditching exclusivity and are now going to PC and Nintendo. They won't bother going to Xbox, while Xbox kills off its own market, why would Sony spend money porting to a console that's actively killing itself?
The reason PS fans shouldn't rejoice though is once XB is irrelevant in the US and Sony rules the market, they will make owning a PS a miserable experience too. PS not FULLY sucking is dependent on XB surviving.
The end of exclusives is great. If you're a PC gamer. Soooooo glad I started making the move back after the last round of doom and gloom.
Re: Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Hits Xbox This December, And A PS5 Port Is Officially Coming
"It's 4 games. Not Starfield, Not Indiana Jones. Oh wait, yes, yes it is. "
Welcome to Pure Ex-Box.
Re: Xbox Begins Rolling Out 'Game Pass Standard' To Insiders For Just $1
@armondo36 Oh, nvm I thought it came with a new colored controller.
Re: Nvidia Comparison Shows How PC Ray Tracing Will Look In Xbox's Avowed
@Fiendish-Beaver Yes, Game Pass PC is just like purchasing the game on the Windows Store - no different from Steam or Epic.
Any supported RTX series card would do. Probably 2080 and up or some such.
Re: Xbox Begins Rolling Out 'Game Pass Standard' To Insiders For Just $1
@WhiteRabbit @VoidPunk They're still trying to "innovate" paying annually to use your computer.
@themightyant "Might as well be called Game Pass FO
MOEdition"You got the first two characters right.
@armondo36 Wait, I'm subscribing to Game Pass Vista.1 Professional. what's included?
Re: Nvidia Comparison Shows How PC Ray Tracing Will Look In Xbox's Avowed
@Markatron84 lol obviously! 🤣
Re: Xbox Begins Rolling Out 'Game Pass Standard' To Insiders For Just $1
Somehow, "play an unspecified selection of games at an undetermined future date, possibly, for just one dollar" doesn't roll off the tongue like the old slogan.
"Play less games, much later, for the same price you paid last year" has a better ring to it, doesn't it?
The pricing split kind of reminds me of those used listings on eBay and Amazon. You know, the one where you see
Used: Acceptable condition- may be worn and show signs of wear, missing original package, missing accessories, device is tested to function, includes base components only. $449.99. Next to the new in box one for $479.99.
Re: Nvidia Comparison Shows How PC Ray Tracing Will Look In Xbox's Avowed
Also, while watching the video I realized how convenient it is that this site is already green. As Xbox collapses and becomes a PC publisher, the site can just rebrand to PureNvidia and replace the little X-ball watermarks with swirly-eyes.