Comments 1,308

Re: Xbox Introduces 'Stream Your Own Game' Feature With 50 Titles Supported At Launch

S1ayeR74

THIS is the future of Xbox, and their new service has already failed dramatically. Flight Sim launched yesterday and is an online streaming games and practically every player has slated it, because they cannot play the game even the ones who paid 200 dollars for the top end version!!
It's truly pathetic MS with its network cannot make game streaming work, and yet they are talking about using it for processing power of its next console... so now you won't even download the game.

Re: Xbox Series X Teardown Shows New 2024 Models Are More Efficient

S1ayeR74

It's a whole £20 cheaper in the UK for the new digital edition Series X... wow what a saving... The greed of MS and desperation of making back the 80 / 90 billion they've spent in acquisitions is on full display again.

If they dropped the price by £70 or £50 it would be an interesting price, but alas no. It's more expensive then the PS5 slim which let's not forget has the option of fitting a disk drive...

Re: Talking Point: How Do You Feel About Xbox's ActiBlizz Deal One Year On?

S1ayeR74

@PsBoxSwitchOwner Yeah laying off thousands of staff is never a good thing. But closing studios that have just made an absolutely brilliant hit game perfect for Game Pass with a view to making a sequel that could help drive up subscriber count, just makes little business sense all round and shows some incompetence at the top.

Re: Talking Point: How Do You Feel About Xbox's ActiBlizz Deal One Year On?

S1ayeR74

I sold my Series X because of all the forced ads on the dashboard, that was the last straw for me. And from what I've heard it's got worst with full screen ads now? Sony tried to put some kind of ads on the Home Screen last week or the week before, the community outraged and they reversed it a couple days later advising it was an 'error'.
Another example of the disaster the buyouts have caused as they need those ads to drive revenue, Sony doesn't.
I can't see a single thing to entice me back, even the new Gears won't as a lot of rumours claim it'll come to PlayStation anyway.

Re: Talking Point: How Do You Feel About Xbox's ActiBlizz Deal One Year On?

S1ayeR74

@NEStalgia Ah didn't know that, still they'll make Spencer the scape goat that's for sure. He will take the downfall for it all. It's a disgusting way to display greed to dominate a market flexing your monopolistic power and trillions in value. And kill one of your brands in the process. I agree they wanted King all along. But what a way to do it, now they won't invest in the Xbox team to cope with all the endless teams they now have to try and manage.

Re: Talking Point: How Do You Feel About Xbox's ActiBlizz Deal One Year On?

S1ayeR74

It was the worst decision Spencer and his team could have made and has ended up destroying the Xbox brand.
They should have never purchased the studios and instead copied Sony in nailing down exclusive deals for Xbox console and PC, to drive up sales. That would have lead to the growth of Game Pass.

Instead they blew nigh on 100 billion US on acquisitions, haven't got a team anywhere near capable of managing so many large studios, and it's become a dead duck with MS CEO and Board very obviously driving the ideas to drive profit now, and not for gamers either. They are way out of their depth and I won't be surprised if in a years time Spencer is fired, and if they even release another home console. It's all about a games service now that isn't growing.

And Xbox seems to totally lack any direction or plan now. It's just desperately trying to get that 100 billion back anyway it can at the detriment to its customer base value.

Re: Xbox Series X|S Console Sales Estimated At Under Half Of PS5 In New Report

S1ayeR74

@Ilyn And that's thanks to the likes of Valve, Steam is the be all and end all of digital store fronts, and it made a handheld PC to accommodate it, and now rumours are Microsoft will try to compete with that too.. So PC gamers on the whole use Steam, a few use Game Pass but insignificant numbers really, and MS might be planning to take on Steam in the handheld market too, despite thanks to Steam and its reputation and pricing the Steam Deck is by far the best selling handheld PC.

You could not make it up the way Xbox keep shooting themselves in the foot.

Re: Xbox Series X|S Console Sales Estimated At Under Half Of PS5 In New Report

S1ayeR74

They should have just stuck to how they were, introduced Game Pass but paid for exclusive deals for games on it just like Sony, and then supported the studios they already had.
But no they just had to be greedy and tried to buy their way to success, which has only lead in failure. Now close to 100 billion down in acquisitions and a board of the main company and share holders understandably demanding a return on investment, and we have a competitor who thinks Xbox is so irrelevant it's charged £700 for a mid gen refresh with no games on it!

Thank God the Switch 2 is coming, for me it's going to be Switch and Steam Deck, because I can't see PS6 being less then £650 and who knows what state Xbox will be in. What a messed up generation this has been.

Re: Analyst Expects Xbox Game Pass To Bring In 'Almost $5.5bn' In 2025

S1ayeR74

If that’s 5.5 billion, I’m sure I read somewhere they spend 1 billion acquiring games per year to put in Game Pass. Even taking overheads and operating costs into account that’s quite the profit margin they are making. Purely down to the ActiBliz and Zenimax purchases so they need to be greedy and increase profits massively to pay off the investment. Which means consumers paying more.

Re: FTC Calls Out Xbox's New 'Degraded' Game Pass Tier & Price Increases

S1ayeR74

@Utena-mobile I said that from the start, I did think they spent so much to get King Mobile as they are making billions and it’s from the mobile market that’s worth a lot more then the console one. But it’s obvious MS is struggling to make the money back quick enough hence the studio closures, staff lay offs and restricting and price increases of the services.

Let’s not forget, they also spent 7.5 billion for Zenimax, as a department Xbox isn’t even generating anywhere near that! Let alone 69 billion! Personally I think next gen Xbox will be all digital only and will desperately be controlling prices to try and get the investment back.

Re: FTC Calls Out Xbox's New 'Degraded' Game Pass Tier & Price Increases

S1ayeR74

The CMA and FTC were right to scrutinise the buy out like they did, probably should have gone further. MS did state they would not increase Game Pass prices amongst other things due to the buy out. And they’ve now done the complete opposite, closed studios, laid of thousands of people in the gaming sector of the business, and increased prices. Is it any wonder the regulators will now be on their backs over this.

Re: Analysts Claim Xbox Game Pass Price Hikes Were 'Inevitable', And That An Ad-Tier Could Be Next

S1ayeR74

@Blofse I already did that, sold my Series X when they changed the dashboard from a lovely fully customisable experience, to endless forced ads I cannot turn off and my games library buried a I get them somewhere. And now they are bringing Ads to Windows, outside works PC I ain’t touching MS. I have my Game Pass Ultimate at rapid up till 2026 so will stream any games I want to play, but I won’t extend it beyond that. Had a Steam Deck twice but couldn’t get in with it? Think the screen was too small for me, will wait to see what the next one is like, but I have a PS5 now and a new high end Mac that runs Diablo 4 great, although I need to use emulation software.

Re: Xbox Game Pass Gets Price Increases And New 'Standard' Subscription Tier

S1ayeR74

@FuzzieGinge88 Don’t forget, that 69 billion for Acti was on top of the 7.5 billion for Zenimax. The investors want to see a return on that as does the board, and whether Satya or Phil is making the decisions on that is hidden in rumours only. They just announced their Xbox app for Firestsick owners, which is a cheap device really, and then announce another price increase to use the service in the app.
I don’t believe a word MS says about Xbox anymore (this deal won’t mean Game Pass increases.. increase Game Pass price twice in a year), and I won’t be shocked if next gen is their last ever with physical consoles, despite what they say the console sales figures are way low, we all know it. Because they’ve made it too easy to play without an Xbox.

Re: Xbox Game Pass Gets Price Increases And New 'Standard' Subscription Tier

S1ayeR74

@Krzzystuff Don’t forget though, as I understand PC Game Pass does not get access to as many games as the console version hence the price difference, plus you are paying for online play on console too, they still charge you to play online games on Xbox consoles, can you imagine them doing that on PC and the outcry it would create?

Re: Xbox Game Pass Gets Price Increases And New 'Standard' Subscription Tier

S1ayeR74

@Vaako007 sadly for you that is no longer Xbox’s primary business model, Game Pass and game rentals all the way from them now. If they do go all digital next gen, which is rumoured currently, then they will control when games are delisted, Forza Horizon 4 will be delisted this year for instance, and when they disappear off GP. Not like the 360 days…

Re: Xbox Game Pass Gets Price Increases And New 'Standard' Subscription Tier

S1ayeR74

It’s become obvious they have screwed the pooch a bit, they’ve spent over 80 billion on acquisitions and they want returns. And they now putting COD in Game Pass day one will lose them a lot in sales.
It’s now £180 a year for Game Pass Ultimate, but £120 a year for PSN Plus Premium, so you are paying a lot more for those games on Game Pass. I actually slightly prefer the PS model as you get game trials of big games not in Game Pass, and if course you cannot play your games collection on Game Pass unless it’s in there. PS5 remote play works great, not sure of Xbox does the same?

With rumours of Xbox going all digital next gen and Sony not, it seems Xbox will be all about you renting games, and Sony will still be about you owning them such as it is. I can also see Xbox increasing prices again, one things for sure I’d never believe a word that comes out of Microsoft’s mouth about Xbox!… Phil flat out lied about Game Pass price increases.

When my GP expires, it’s stacked at the moment, I’m out and won’t pay for it again. I can only see it going up and up in price.

Re: Digital Foundry Explores Why Some Games 'Run Better' On PS5 Than Xbox Series X

S1ayeR74

@themightyant Sadly the narrative Microsoft was forcing o to everyone at launch time, was that the Series X was the ‘most powerful console in the world’ ever. That sentence leads you to think it’ll be better and perform better. Which was never the case in reality. If they never made the Series S and force games on that system, and hadn’t changed all their dev tools at the beginning of the generation, then they may have had a noticeable lead in performance.

Re: Gears Creator Cliffy B Discusses What He'd Like To See In Gears Of War: E-Day

S1ayeR74

@Fiendish-Beaver Sounds reasonable. I should have just kept my Series X.
My Series X was a present and I sold it as I stupidly didn't like MS direction or the forced ads on the home screen and for some Christmas money and for a PS5.
I think my best bet is to keep the PS5, just buy a Xbox myself, buy physical games on PS5 and then ask for money for my birthdays and Christmas's and then trade in the PS5 for next gen, kinda round about way to get a next gen console as a present as they will probably cost near £500 I expect. And then just sell the Xbox.

Re: Gears Creator Cliffy B Discusses What He'd Like To See In Gears Of War: E-Day

S1ayeR74

My favourite game series of all time and one of the games that is making me want a new Series X. Gonna sell my PS5 to come back to Xbox, should never have left. Both platforms do things right and wrong but only Xbox has my favourite game series....

Having said that will Gears E Day be a current gen title or next gen? As MS announced they are deep in next gen development. When will the next Xbox launch? 2026?

Re: Xbox: 'You Are Going To See More Of Our Games On More Platforms'

S1ayeR74

@PsBoxSwitchOwner Your mistake is assuming the games will be rubbish. Firstly I am a massive Gears fan, I can tell you that alone made it difficult to sell my Xbox, secondly I only have time and thanks to the PS5 size and the fact if you stand it up you risk dry spots on the processor with no Liquid Metal, the space for one of these consoles. I may get the next Switch when it’s out but that’s it apart from a home console.

And thirdly I saw plenty of gameplay too, so it is inaccurate at best to claim they were all CGI trailers.

Re: Xbox: 'You Are Going To See More Of Our Games On More Platforms'

S1ayeR74

@awp69 I sold my Series X for a PS5, got it at Christmas and what have I played on it? Dead Island 2 and COD.. dabbled in TLOU2 remake but I've played all the Sony exclusives I care about already on PS3 and 4 already. I'm regretting my decision a bit now, I'm going to wait and see what the new Xbox consoles are like as they may have some upgrades like smaller NM chips and new WiFi etc.

Re: Xbox Announces Three New Series X|S Consoles Launching In 2024

S1ayeR74

@TheSimulator Hmm, it comes down to personal preference I think, having used both I find the dual sense to be more solid feeling in the hand, the resistive trigger things are cool but just a gimmick, and it's battery life is utterly pathetic, of course Sony will sell you one with longer lasting battery.. Xbox controller works perfectly fine, doesn't feel as solid and substantial but of course its battery life is miles better. I get on alright with both really.

Re: Xbox Apparently Still Needs Smaller Games For 'Prestige And Awards'

S1ayeR74

What he means is cheap games, those closed studios apparently wanted to make new games like a HIFi Rush sequel, but also that would mean hiring more staff for a bigger team. And obviously MS doesn’t like that idea, so it closes them down and will use other small teams to make small games. And if any of them dare suggest they hire more staff no doubt the firing axe will heavily fall onto them too.