Richnj

Halo Infinite is already funded through Game Pass and the sale of the full price campaign.

I am inclined to believe that the money made from cosmetics is going to fund more cosmetics to sell you, adding in the features that use to come standard, and golden toilets (or whatever it is the rich spend their money on).

Ubisoft;

Abusive: Tick
Exploitative: Tick
Lazy: Tick
Has seen revenue increase: Tick

Shame too, because I'd normally snatch up a product like this, but just can't justify funding their business practices.

"It's free"

People need to keep in mind that this game isn't free. No F2P is free.

1) It's been carved up (as with most games today), and the campaign and cosmetics are still paid content. You get access to the game, and the rest of the content is dangled in front of you to tease more than £60 out of your wallet.

2) Someone is paying for that content. The whole reason that publishers go this route in the first place is because it's more lucrative. The whales end up funding your play, and normally at great financial and emotional cost to themselves.

Everytime you see people complain about microtransactions and their cost, it's because they are the ones being targeted by this exploitative practice.

As far as I'm concerned, playing F2P games (just like buying games made under abusive circumstances) is immoral, because my entertainment comes at the cost of others.

Had a feeling this was coming since they have a sale on just the original right now.

Expect some delisting soon.

"it’s optional and doesn’t affect the experience of others"

I've heard this BS before.

@NEStalgia I think FF and KH are bad examples here since the PS1 and PS2 had releases that were full exclusive. I had to check but KH 1 and 2 were PS exclusive, and the series didn't come to another home console for 11 years. FF had around 4 releases and nearly 10 years worth of exclusives between FF starting to skip Nintendo and landing on xbox.

I think it takes multiple releases over a long period of time to get that association.

@KilloWertz As @Ihavenomouthandimust points out, we don't know if it would have been a best seller on Xbox though. Again, take RE4, it sold quite poorly on Gamecube. Both the OG Xbox and Gamecube didn't have the install base to support these 3rd party exclusives. RE4 may have been a critical success, but it wasn't until it hit other platforms that let the game find wide spread success.

If GTA3 had been a full exclsuive, it could have killed off the franchise, or even the genre (we may be calling open world adventure games "Saints Row Clones"). A timed exclusive would have just seen that success delayed.

Aside from shutting down studios like Ensemble and Lionhead (and maybe letting Bungie go, instead of powering the studio to create Destiny), and not letting Rare be their Nintendo-esque sub-division, I like the position Xbox are in today. Not sure I'd like Xbox having the big "I am" attitude of the other two.

Executives being clueless. As usual.

Also, I'm assuming this is for being a timed excluisive, and if so, this means nothing. Nothing would be different today.

Timed exclusives are the worst kind. They just temporaily deny access to the game, and not make the platform look anymore enticing. Look at Bioshock, Mass Effect, Resident Evil 4, or even Deathloop. Great games, but they end up on on every platform anyway, and they don't change the strength of that platform. Even a game like RE4 couldn't change the fate of the Gamecube.

Seeing this franchise return feels like the world coming to its senses.

That joke is top tier.

@iplaygamesnstuff This is why I have my "wait a year" policy. I was always an early adopter prior to the 7th gen. I was super pumped up for Destiny 1 and MCC, and preordered both as soon as I could. I paid £90 for the deluxe edition of Destiny, and it came out broken, and clearly retooled from what it was meant to be. Then they reduced what DLC was coming in the expansion pass and expected us to buy seperate expansions. And £60 MCC was completely and utterly broken, and 343i refused to acknowledge the extent of the problems, offered a quick apology and ODST, and acted like it was fine. £150 for products that were totally sold on lies. And of course, none of this was reflected in the reviews (one of the reasons I don't put faith in reviews anymore).

And the last 7 years have only strengthened my belief that (nearly) no game is worth picking up in the first year.

@awp69 No one wants you to not enjoy it. We all hope you do. But the game has had 6 years dev (4 of which were covid free), and it is releasing without co-op, or split screen, or forge, so it's hard to dismiss people when they say the game wasn't ready. Especially with co-op and split screen, since after Halo 5, 343i had to make a promise about their commitment to the features.

@Dezzy70 My inclination is that it's the management. I'm sure the grunts work hard and tirelessly.

It would take every grunt to be bad for them to screw up development. But it only takes a handful of managers (or one studio head) to do the same amount of damage.

In fairness, MS' insistence that Halo remain the flagship AAA franchise doesn't help. There's so much pressure to develop and retool old gameplay mechanics in to something that is both old and new is guaranteed disaster. Horizon is just all new to itself and it doesn't have to worry about being the mascot for the publisher. This is why something like Pyschonauts 2 can be so good. Smaller budget, smaller team, smaller worries, better game. Downscaling the budget and development, and expectations of Halo should have happened when 343i took over.

@Dezzy70 If this is 343i trying to have a laugh at the fans, it's going to backfire. This will be another bulletpoint for the "list of reasons to prove that 343i are incompetent".

Might just stay off xbox tomorrow since the servers will most likely be dead.

@UltimateOtaku91 "Otherwise Microsoft would become a developer and allow its games to go onto playstation/Nintendo consoles digitally and physically without gamepass."

So the goal is to open up the closed platforms. MS opened up their windows app store for other storefronts, and Epic is going in hard to Apple to try to open up iPhones. MS might always provide hardware, in the same way they provide Windows hardware, but the platform and the hardware won't be tied together.

The key here is understanding how MS see their platform vs how Nintendo and Sony see their platform. Sony and N continue to see a platform and their hardware as one in the same, two sides of the same coin. MS see their platform as the Xbox Network. Which, like Windows, can be delivered across a range of hardware.

So rather than go the way of Sega, where they stop being a platform holder, and only be a developer and publisher, MS will continue to be a platform holder. Only, they are pushing to be able to provide that platform across as many different devices as possible.

MS do not see Sony or N as competition in a 1-1 sense, because they see Sony and N as potential business partners who can provide them business. Not unlike how Sony provides MS with business by paying for their servers for PS.

It's a vastly different to the console war that was engaged in in previous gens, where the console that sells the most becomes the dominate platform and makes the most money at the expense of the other.

I don't think buying Bethesda was done to hurt anyone, it was done to make Xbox more enticing for partnership.

No offence to PJ and this review in particular, but I feel like I've been reading the same review, from every site, since Halo 4.

"best since Halo 3", "combat is better than ever", "pushes the series forward", "some story issues". The message just repeats.

Yeah, but the Bungie of today aren't worth holding on to.

Asking "what has 343i being doing for the last 6 years?" is still a valid question. Obviously they've had (being generous) two years of covid, but that still leaves 4 years of pure dev time.

I have for a while, 100%, believed they rebooted the development in 2018, and even if 343i don't "owe a dissertation" on what they have been doing, some open and honest dialogue (which was one of the promises going forward after Halo 5) about the behind the scenes issues might help the fans understand what's going on.

The other solution is, of course, to not release an unfinished game. Doom 2016, was started in 2007, rebooted in 2011, and then not reannounced until 2014, and released until 2016. The game was better for it.

But then again, the players get their game, the devs get their money, and they both get to moan at the other until they all forget and move on to the next product. The system works.

@NEStalgia That's true. I just think branding and free online matters when it comes to the casual market.

And I think between game sales, Game Pass, and (reluctantly) microtransactions, are more than enough revenue streams, and are strong enough to justify dropping gold and the online pay wall.

I criticised Sony for pulling a Nintendo and locking its legacy titles behind a service paywall with tiers, but can I actually note that it is consolidating its two services (albiet with said tiers) and that is something MS should be doing with its two services.

Hopefully this gives Xbox the push it needs to drop gold, fold GwG in to GP and make online play free.

All I know is that IGN will rate it no lower than a 9.

@Tharsman I would pay an extra £50 for black series S with a disc drive.

Head of design feels the pain, when he designed it to be this way.

@Dezzy70 "But due to unforeseen and unfortunate circumstances it has found it’s self selling well."

It's not unfortunate nor is it unforeseen. You are just hyper obsessed on everyone buying an owning an xbox series X for some reason. You have your xbox series X, and that should be the end of it. Enjoy it, and stop worrying about others buying it. That's not your job.

The S is selling because it's cheap and great value for money. Not everybody wants to, or can afford to, drop £450 for a console. Some people are buying for their kids, some don't use 4K, some would like to spend the extra £200 on accessories and games instead, and others would just play casually and that kind of cost investment doesn't make sense. And all of that is fine. Not everyone needs to do your hobby the same way you do.

And all of that is well known. MS have known, and talked, about the sweet spot console pricing to sell a console to families over a decade ago. MS knew full well that a budget console could easily be marketed towards those that buy cheap and those on the fence.

@Dezzy70 MS don't need to make Surface hardware to sell windows, office, and other services, but they do.

I've been comparing Xbox Network to Windows, and Xbox hardware to Surface hardware for a good two or more years at this point.

The point is that the Xbox consoles, like Surface hardware is an option. They appeal to their little markets and that's all that's needed. The X covers high end console lovers, and the S gives a cheap option to access the content and services. But the services aren't dependent on the success of the hardware like PlayStation and Nintendo consoles are.

Xbox could sell 10m X units lifetime, and it wouldn't matter. The Xbox user base could still be bigger than Nintendo and PS combined if Xbox corner that PC/Game Pass/Cloud Market as early as they are trying to.

This is the reason I avoid F2P and playing a title within the first year.

Games are so undercooked now, it's not worth getting invested in anything too early.

And this is why the progression and unlock systems of Halo 5 and Inifnite are worse than that of Halo 3 or Reach.

You've lost an element of game design. Spider-man for the PS4 just had armours unlock for earning levels or completing certain side missions, and it was fun.

Having to pay to dress up your character is not fun.

The worst part of this is that Bungie must know that no one is going to delete this stuff just because they forced Marty to ask them to. So, this is purely just a show of force towards Marty and any would be future leakers. And this just makes Bungie look worse.

Either that, or Bungie didn't realise this video was going to come off as a hostage situation, and they are just watching from thier offices with grimace.

I prefer Gamerscore to Trophies because of the variance in value of the achievements. Trophies only offer 3 tiers plus a game completion award. Achievements on the other hand can (assuming a reasonable 5gs increment and achievements going up to 200gs for one achievement) vary by like 40 tiers. So you could do something very easy and something very hard and be rewarded the same bronze trophy, but on xbox, you'd see a difference in what you were rewarded.

That, and having every game worth 1000gs by default, rather than a random number of trophies, gives each game's award system equal value.

The only problem with the achievement system is that when you get to like 200k above like I have, the numbers just kinda blur in to each other.

And I liked the 360 dash that showed you how many games you had 100%'d.

Literally, the achievement system would be perfect with an extra platinum trophy like reward.

@gollumb82 I would buy Fear and Fear Files for full price, but neither game is available to download. I think they are disc only. Which would suck.

Halo 3 gave me my look within a month of playing. I played it for 3 years straight (and now continue to play it through the MCC, edit: oh and we still leave Halo 2 in rotation despite only having colour customisations that get overridden anyway).

Halo 5 made unlocking my look near impossible and I gave up after a month.

There's something to be said for having the focus being on creating an experience that's designed to be fun in of itself vs using cosmetic unlocks to artificially extend the life of your game.

@Medic_Alert PS4 for my first instance. It's a little cheaper there and I'd want to save the Xbox versions for the upgraded and finished experience.

I've watched the DF review of the 1.23 patch, and it's sub 30fps and has pop in, but that stuff really doesn't bother me. As long as it isn't constantly crashing or running at sub 20fps (ala Fallout or Elder Scrolls on PS3) I could play it. I'm actually the kind that enjoys jank. Gives me a good laugh (I call Keyes from Halo "Captain Ceiling Tiles" because I once caught him stuck in the ceiling on the pillar of autumn).

I think I'm just trying to figure out if I want to wait for the rest of the fixes still coming out, and even the DLC that's scheduled.

Well I still have my 'wait a year' policy, so keep these updates coming and I'll pick it up next Christmas.

Speaking of 'wait a year' I'd like to pick up Cyberpunk now that it's been over a year and is on sale, but I'm not sure a year has been long enough. And I don't want to have to start a 'wait 2 years' policy.

@Medic_Alert I came here to say this too.

I've always said that ODST 2 should have been 343i's first project.

OK then.

Ubisoft has also had sexual harassment claims, yet apparently they've done nothing to change the issues. Also, completely unrelated but Ubisoft also saw an increase of revenue since those claims.

I'm sure the mistreatment of employees being profitable and the continued abuse are not related.

If the PS5 had support for legacy titles (even just to a similar extent that xbox has) I would have bought one at launch (or atleast tried to).

"and that some of the creative that I see today feels more exploitive than about entertainment"

You know what else is more about exploitation than it is entertainment? lootboxes and micros. So does this mean we won't be seeing anymore of that trash in Xbox first party titles?

Gears 5 and Halo Inifnite have obviously dropped their exploititive systems from their previous games. Hopefully this is a continued direction for the company.

@SplooshDmg Games are inherent dopamine hits. If you've ever criticised gameplay or a gameplay mechanic, you've complained that the manipulation tactic wasn't good enough.

@Medic_Alert @themightyant I mean, in fairness a cost like marketing isn't profitable by itself. Yet, companies will spend half the budget on marketing because the practice is justified or "sustainable" because of revenue it helps bring in.

Many devs have stated that GP was great for their launch. The service is clearly having a positive impact on revenues.

I'm not interested in GP, but I'm glad it's doing well. It's by far the best sub service of the big three. I'd rather GP does the best and shows Nintendo and Sony how a game sub service should be done.

Would also like for it to eventually be the reason gold gets dropped.

I can think of a few games, like Borderlands Pre-Sequel, that wouldn't have legal or technical barriers from a BC release. So I'm guessing the XBox team have just hit a wall, where the number of games they could potentially release just isn't worth the time and money to chase anymore. And they just want to move forward now.

It really is a shame that we wont be getting any more, as there are some great titles that haven't been rescued.

In fairness, I didn't want an xbox, I was happy with my Dreamcast and Gamecube, and my mum was stuck on what to get me for Christmas and bought me one.

And rare credit to my mum, because my xbox became our go to console once the Dreamcast and Gamecube libraries died, and Halo 2 and xbl launched.

The OG xbox had a massive hill to climb, and again, credit where it's due, it climbed it.

I mean, it's not totally impossible that these updates came about while improving the emulation engine to include or improve many more games.

I'd pick up Mahunt, the Max Paynes and Oddworld games easily.

@Bobarino Red Dead Remdeption 1 is already BC. This game is Red Dead Revolver, which is drastically different from the Redemption games. It's not all that fun, and very awkward, but is interesting as a piece of gaming history.

Hope there aren't many stories like this following Halo Infinite's development.

Borderlands Pre-sequel is listed as Backwards Compatible on the Major's blog. BLPS was not BC before.

Need to check if clerical error or unsuspectingly confirming more BC titles coming soon.

@Alpha_Pulse Well, yeah, extreme fans are going to be hypocrites. They've always been like that. Will always be like that, but you said

"That being said I agree that there is a certain level of hypocrisy on this site when it comes to paid upgrades and now when it is Microsoft charging for it people are now crowing about it being fair."

This isn't a generalisation, this clearly about upgrades, of which, we know that MS have implemented smart delivery so that customers aren't paying twice for the same game. And Skyrim doesn't have a paid next gen upgrade either. It has a DLC bundle/AE upgrade that is available on both gens, and the next gen version is free to all Skyrim SE/AE owners. And since it was HFW that had the next gen upgrade locked behind a pay wall, that was the game that had the massive backlash and backtrack, and is the game that got brought up by other commenters as the example of Xbox fans being hypocritical, it is the game I'm going to refer to.

And again, I'm sure there's plenty of BS from either side, but this isn't one.

@NEStalgia I'm sorry. This would be one of those situations where you should have gone for a reproduction and "emulated" the experience.

@antstephenson You have to pay the subscription to play the NES and SNES, it's not really the same.

And the Xbox Mini fridge is a universal product. It cools all drinks, not just retro ones. It's not like you need a modern fridge next to it. I'm sure a lot of people who bought the xbox mini fridge, did so as a new product or to replace an older one.

@antstephenson I feel like an xbox mini would be extremely pointless. The Series S is already cheap and plays a lot of OG xbox games, either in their original forms or in updated ones. Plus it also plays One and Series games.

Expanding and improving the BC library and launching an OG themed console would be the best move I think.

Bonus points of they actually use a shell rather than paint job.

Things I would be excited for;

1) Free XBL
2) More BC titles
3) More Bethesda remasters
4) An Xbox Series H/Z (Hybrid)
5) A Black (or OG xbox themed) Xbox Series S.

Xbox has been doing everything else so right that they would have to do something crazy or or unexpected to get me bouncing in my chair.