SplooshDmg

@mousieone Oh, I don't think they'll let it go either. But like you said, I have no idea what the future looks like now. We are treading into seriously wild territory that will maybe take years to wind down.

@mousieone From the looks of it, they used MS's own argument against them. Sony has 70% of the console market share, therefore Xbox doesn't threaten to foreclose PS. Xbox has 70% of the cloud market share and would then own ABK, one of the single largest suppliers of video games, which they think is a problem. The CMA doesn't seem willing to accept behavioral remedies for the cloud concerns. Not that I'm happy about it or anything, but that just seems to be what they're running with.

@mousieone Oh, I def want it to be over. I personally don't think they should even appeal. I think it's surely a fruitless effort. I'm just saying I liked the idea of the UK and EU both approving, then MS just closing even with the FTC lawsuit against them. So, you know, yesterday's news. That would have been fun. This appeal process is the opposite of fun. Just take the deal out back, put it down, and let's get this out of the news and out of our lives.

@BrilliantBill Yeah, in no way do I think this fails and MS quits buying stuff. In some ways I think this failing might just turn into the worst possible out for other consoles, as I think MS will just keep buying and adding them to the exclusive roster. So, guess we'll wait and find out. Ahhh... Waiting. It is the Xbox way.

@mousieone Yeah, the CMA appeal COULD work, but I'm not confident it will, and I'm definitely no fan of Ms. Khan, as she just seems a bit of a nutter. But SCOTUS just dealt a pretty big blow to the FTC as a whole, so that's a thing at least. However, I was really hoping for the reality where MS just closed any way, regardless of the FTC. That surely would have been the most interesting outcome.

My real concern for dragging this out is that Xbox seems to be giving this way too much attention while everything just sorta seems like it's on fire. When Nvidia realized regulators weren't going for their ARM purchase, they just cut bait. The fact that MS is so willing to just keep going kinda says that this is way to important to their overall strategy now, and it might not happen. Seems rather troubling.

@BrilliantBill They gave it the old college try, and like you, I applaud the stones on them. But we have seriously tested the limits now on what can and can't be bought. MS has wasted a crap load of time, and probably could have bought up SE's western studios had they not been fooling with this mess. What they thought would be a boon has probably now just been a burden.

@Chaudy MS has every right to appeal, but like you, I just don't see it changing much now. The only difference I see it making is this merger dying a long and slow death, rather than just taking it out back and putting it down.

The dream is dead. Oh well, moving on now.

@BrilliantBill Right, they've always been quality games, and surely sold at least a two or three million copies, I would think. However, I feel like they're now just being flung onto this wild stage where exposure and expectations are now astronomical because it's first party now. When this game started development, these folks never could have seen this coming.

I'm a pretty hardcore BGS fan. I love Todd and the sweet lies he tells me. I can't get over the people dogging the Starfield graphics. It's just like you said, Skyrim was nothing breathtaking to look at. However, it was absolutely a blast to play. Would it really be an official Toddy if it weren't held together with duct tape and bubblegum?

@FenIsMightier I mean, was Arkane ever really a big deal before the buy out? Not that their games weren't of quality with their own fan base, but they never really moved mountains in the market. I think they've just been thrust into the spotlight because they're now 1st party and under the microscope of the console war. I kinda feel bad for them, in that regard. Their lives probably used to be pretty peaceful. Lol

Me, personally... I bought Sam & Max Save the World Remastered on PC for a buck fifty. I'm gonna be playing some Sam & Max and Fire Emblem instead.

I've just never liked an Arkane game, so I'm passing as I doubt this will be any different. However, hopefully it turns out solid and the everyone else looking forward to it enjoys it.

@BrilliantBill Yup. I play Genshin Impact everyday. It's my before work morning ritual, which usually amount to about thirty minutes a day. Still, add all that up and you're looking at somewhere between 15-20 hours a month I spend playing that as well. My biggest thing is that I DO want MS 1st party games, but I also want Nintendo first party games, and occasionally one from Sony too. A sub makes me feel like I'm way too locked into one device, or maybe playing a game on the PC I'd rather have on Switch. There's just too many drawbacks to paying upfront for games I don't really need or even want.

I mean, I'm leaving Game Pass regardless. I think the current slate of 1st party games will add a lot of value, but I'm short on time, not cash. Having dump trucks full of games really doesn't amount to much since I only have time to play so many of them.

@NEStalgia The Dunning Kruger Effect is real. That's how.

I mean, if you have just fallen off the SRPG wagon, then there's nothing to see here. The characters are like, not typical FE characters at all. It's like, a bunch of very, very idol influenced character design, along with returning favorites like Marth and Michiah. It's like, Fire Emblems Greatest Hits Vol. 1 + a splash of weird wannabe JPOP characters. You can at least save scum it now and reload your game if you don't like your move. Either way, I'm so glad I bought it. I absolutely love it. I still need to finish TMS FE. I'll get there sooner or later, but so far I love it too.

@NEStalgia Also, Fire Emblem Engage is spectacular. The gameplay is probably the best FE gameplay, period. In so many ways, it's cringe anime sorta like Tokyo Mirage Session. It really feels more like an FE spinoff, than a main entry, and maybe it is? I love it tho, even Toothpaste Chan.

@NEStalgia But ask most of those people what they think and we're toxic fan boys and miserable old men teetering somewhere between irrelevance and death. So, it doesn't really matter to them. I can at least appreciate that a lot of online MP games are mostly built around a core gameplay loop, so it's at least more gamey than FFXVI featuring eleven hours of cutscenes. There's an influencer on Twitter named Shepshal Nick, and the guy will flat out tell you he skips all the cutscenes in every single game. Period. I applaud the man at least because he's sending the message that all he cares about is actually PLAYING the game. Which seems to be the opposite of most these days.

@NEStalgia Without a doubt, that moment really tossed the whole 'good guy MS' into question. Straight up Scooby Doo unmasking the villain moment.

"And now to see who you really are...
Greedy corporation! How could you?!"

@NEStalgia It's truly just silly how games that are twenty five plus years old, that I've already beaten ten times over, are still way more fun than the overwhelming majority of games being released today. We really are going backwards in terms of actual gameplay. I will never get over Niel Druckman saying that TLOU2 wasn't meant to be fun. ITS A GAME. IF ITS NOT FUN, THEN WHAT ARE WE DOING? They just don't make em like they used to.

@NEStalgia I do remember the one month when we got Gears 5 and REmake. That blew everyone's collective mind. Then they tried to raise the price of Gold the following month. I still to this day think those two events had something to do with one another.

@NEStalgia We have a thing at the office that we call the SWAG method. Which is a Systematic Wild Ass Guess.

I'll thank you, and then tell you that the smaller cage underperformed.

Have I ever mentioned that Symphony of the Night is REALLY fun?

@NEStalgia This is true. However, those were the years when Xbox had already jumped head first off a skyscraper and I didn't have an Xbox. So, I never knew that Gold.

@NEStalgia I think there's some tax credits available for using smaller more environmentally friendly cages. I'll check the tax software and see if maybe we can work FatalBubbles into refund territory, and then he can just buy the PS5 outright. That or I can just make some stuff up. Either one works.

I'm not sure I've played a game with gold ever.

@NEStalgia Nope. That was my father. Did I mention my mother was a hamster?

@NEStalgia It surely explains why I smell like meatballs and lingonberries.

@NEStalgia My mom actually bought me from IKEA, so I am entirely modular and sustainably sourced.

@mousieone You could always recruit a laborer to help you stuff me in that cage. That seems like a reasonable ask if there is to be an exchange of services.

@mousieone I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about that time you threatened to put me in a cage.

@NEStalgia Who's snarkier? Mousie or Mythra? Don't even say Eunie, because Eunie kinda sucks. God, I hate XC3.

@FatalBubbles Don't feel bad. Mousie is mean to me too.

@NEStalgia Beats me. I'm part of the problem and the solution. I bought Fire Emblem and Atelier Ryza 3 this month. Then I funneled some money into the Genshin gacha machine. I checked and I have played Genshin every day for six straight months now. Not sure when or if I'll kick the habit. It's tough gettin off drugs.

@NEStalgia Something else Grubb pointed out is that he suspects the failure of Halo is having a bit of a ripple effect. I mean, this is the company that had Halo currency credits printed and hanging on the shelves at Wal-Mart and now they're nowhere to be seen. Consider Jim saying that CoD money fuels Sony's 1st party development. I think MS was really counting on some big MTX money from Halo, and now it's just floundering and burning money. I think this is why ABK is so important, I think Game Pass is sustainable, but I also think MS is desperate for enormous MTX revenues coming in from somewhere to fuel the bottom line, which is now putting more pressure on other places because they haven't secured that yet.

@Bleachedsmiles Eh, I'm not entirely sure. This is Mikami, he's highly employable. Guy could go anywhere he wanted to. Considering how many people have come and gone now, it's kinda hard to say something isn't going on. 343i is a mess, but that seems in part because no one at the top knew what the heck they wanted and have just frustrated that entire studio to no end.

There's just a mixed message here. One day Xbox is talking about letting creators make these passion projects, but behind the scenes they are maybe complaining they aren't making enough money. This has been the key issue with Xbox for ten years now. Nobody at Microsoft has any idea what Xbox is or needs to be. We really have no idea how MS is trying to quantify success with games on Game Pass. Hours played? Times downloaded? How are they measuring the value to the service? And did it do enough?

@Bleachedsmiles I know that, Hi-Fi Rush is the product of John Johanas, however Mikami was more than just a key member of Tango. If the studio you founded has its most successful release in a good long while, and then the suits sitting on the top floor tell you it wasn't good enough, I think any employee at that point is going to be frustrated. Was he going to hammer away in another game and then just get told the same thing? I'd like to take a glimpse at the alternate universe where Hi-Fi Rush was marketed normally and multiplatform and see what that looks like.

@Bleachedsmiles I think this news following the exit of Mikami seems kinda sus. Sure, I'm grasping at straws, but perhaps MS was critical of the Hi-Fi Rush's engagement and revenue and Mikami just facepalmed. I mean, I fired Hi-Fi Rush up for about thirty minutes, admired it's quality, then decided it wasn't for me and never looked back. I'm one of those 2 million. I'm a statistic!

@Bleachedsmiles Considering how non-existent Xbox's marketing is, you really have to wonder how Greenie has been there so long. Xbox has a bad habit of keeping people around that they maybe don't need to.

@nomither6 I mean, I would certainly think so. Doug Stanhope kinda said it best though. "Anything I don't understand or can't do is stupid".

@mousieone As weird as it sounds, I'd probably be more inclined to play a sports game than actually play sports or watch sports. I mean, at least Madden is a bad video game, and bad video games I guess are still better than no video games. Now if we're talking like, Mario Tennis, I'm totally in.

@Ralizah Yeah, sports culture is crazy to me. Every time WVU wins a football game here, there's sure to be couches set on fire. It's like... Bizarre.

FO76 has honestly turned into a decently solid game. It's always online, but you can play all the quests solo, and they're still half decent FO quests with some interesting storylines. It's far from Bethesda's best work, but for really serious FO fans, it's easy to recommend these days.

I HATE FO4 POWER ARMOR. Oh. My. God. I hate it. That was something I hated so much in FO76. There was a power plant that was a pvp target and you could charge power cores at it. You'd spend all this time taking over the plant and powering it up, then someone would just knock you off and start charging their cores. Absolutely maddening stuff.

Crafting was somehow better in FO76. Building structures had a lot more purpose. It was actually kinda fun even. I built some pretty massive structures and I enjoyed it. But I basically never even fooled with it in FO4. It just felt so.. tacked on to that game. The weapon and armor crafting felt a lot better too, because in ways FO76 really felt more like a survival game. I think in some ways it actually had the best wasteland vibe of any FO because you really had to scrounge and find basically everything you needed.

@mousieone I mean, tolerable human beings are difficult to find in person. I just get on the internet and find anyone else that loves Kaname Date, and then I'm good.

@NEStalgia I'm more of an Estelle Getty fanboy. I can only hope I get to be as edgy and cranky as Sophia one day.

@mousieone I really don't. I just do not care about Marvel/DC superheroes. I'd probably rather watch The Golden Girls than The Avengers.

I mean, I know it's perfectly normal to not like popular things, but this rabbit hole goes a whole lot deeper than just entertainment. I'm just making quick, easy examples based on hyper popular things to empathize with NES that I understand his frustrations, probably more so than most.

I don't get sports AT ALL. I had a client ask me if I watched the game last weekend, and I told him, "If I've ever watched a sporting event, I don't remember it and it was on accident." But really, I'd tell you that Marvel and football are on the same level to me. They're both just utterly silly nonsense and I hate them.

@Ralizah Yeah, I'm pretty excited to see Todd taking steps back from some of the less savory changes in FO4. I mean, I liked FO4 well enough, but it's absolutely the weakest game in the ES/FO roster. I'd argue that I seriously like FO76 (post Wastelanders) more than FO4. I'm sure I'll like Starfield either way, but like you, I'm ready for some Skyrim/FO3 levels of bliss again.

@NEStalgia Hey, you don't gotta convince me. You do the berries. I'm just saying, I'm not sure humans were ever really meant to have internet access, but here we are staring into this rectangular nightmare bickering about God only knows what. I'm just trying to make the best of a weird situation.

@NEStalgia As I've mentioned before, I have Asperger's. I'm weird, I'm rigid, I like stuff a certain way and I have been driven bananas by neurotypical normies my entire life. Mostly because everyone around me is just doing things in ways my brain just doesn't understand, and this is applicable here. I don't get why people like what they like, but they just do. It makes no sense to me why people love Spider-Man and everything Marvel, but they just do. To me it's just brain-dead fluff devoid of anything interesting whatsoever, but I don't really broadcast that, not anymore at least. I eventually just had to accept that I just don't understand the normies and why they aren't interested in talking about quantum mechanics and slice of life idol anime, and that's okay. It's made my life immeasurably simpler by not arguing with them about random arcane subjects constantly.

@NEStalgia I think the thing is, you aren't exactly wrong, but it sounds like what you are trying to peddle off as some sort of Sony trickery, is actually just the path to success in this industry. Consumers don't care if a game really needed new hardware, they just determined that it looked interesting, then they stared long and hard into the jaws of capitalism and bought it. Ghost of Sushi didn't really need to be updated, but at least there was a proper DLC and it ran considerably better on PS5. That's better than nothing, and the PS5 version was rock solid. MS could have marketed an updated Gears 5 a whole lot better, but it was just a free update. I mean, I like the free part, but there's a lot of little things MS just gave away that could have been marketed as an actual product and reason to buy the thing. MS is just terrible at marketing. But hey, at least they're sure to let us know when seven new controller colors are available for preorder.

Don't most Xbox game take a decade to develop?

@mousieone I hear ya, I mean, I'm a multiplatform kinda guy, so I'm always for as many games in as many places as possible. But it just seems like that's never really going to entirely happen. There's a myriad of reasons why something misses somewhere, and we just never really know what happened, and it's frustrating.

@NEStalgia All that said, though... That's just it. What is Sony REALLY doing other than kicking back and collecting their dump trucks of money? That's the problem. They've done basically everything wrong, outside of release a steady cadence of games. I think Xbox has gone all in on a strategy and somewhere along the way the duct tape and bubblegum started giving out and now they're taking on water, and I think they just have nothing to work with right now. It's just wait for ABK to close and pray.

I kinda disagree though, I think a lot differentiates PS and XB right now. You know I'm no lush for Sony 1st party games, but those games matter. If games aren't a differentiating factor in the success of the platform, then I don't know what's going on at Xbox, because they should be thriving, and they aren't. You know how resistant I was to get another PS5. I didn't want one, but now I have one, because if I didn't, I was just shooting myself in the foot. Most of the games I play on my PS5 just aren't on Xbox at all.

@NEStalgia I draw the term unhealthy from this. Xbox is great for certain users. Kinda like you said above, the more games you play, the better Xbox becomes. Because you are squeezing value out of Game Pass. However, what does Xbox offer right now that isn't Game Pass? It's kinda limited. The driving news for Xbox right now is a merger to get games on Game Pass, and what's coming to Game Pass. I say unhealthy because it's too many eggs in one basket, and everyone else that isn't interested in GP is just sitting around waiting. It's a great platform for some. That's just not healthy imo. Not that it can't change in the future, and I think it will. But we're running out of fumes to burn. This ship needs some gas, bad.