SplooshDmg

@GamingFan4Lyf Honestly, at this stage, it's hard to tell. There was an internal slide taken from MS that has been presented in this case showing the three phases of Game Pass. Phase 1 was obviously deals, deals, deals! Phase 2 was strengthening retention. Now we're probably onto Phase 3 which is maximizing returns. Phil had made the comment before that Xbox has to make a profit, but I'm not entirely convinced it has been through these first two phases of Game Pass. I do think they've probably been investing heavily into growth and maybe not seeing returns on it yet. However, that said, I think this is why MS is so interested in ABK, in particular. Mobile and PC. Which like you just mentioned, don't require them to develop a special box for. They could probably just turn course on a dime and decide to stop making consoles and still rake in money.

This news absolutely ruined my day. I'll give it a week though, and the modders will surely implement DLSS that will still get better results than FSR 2.0.

@GamingFan4Lyf I think the thing is, regardless of whether they get ABK or not, MS isn't stopping. I really, truly feel like a reality where MS gets ABK and the games are largely still multiplatform is probably a better outcome for a platform like PS, than MS continuing to buy smaller studios like Ninja Theory and Obsidian. There is basically no argument for regulators to block a smaller single studio's purchase, not right now anyway. However, I think in ways huge swaths of smaller studios will have larger competitive effects in the console space, and a pain far more obvious to PS players than this ABK deal.

@themightyant It's barmy when you consider MS paid $100 million just for their year of timed exclusivity for Tomb Raider. Phil finally said the other day what I've thought all along. Which is that they really aren't interested in expenses, they're interested in assets. Which really, when the deals look this, who could blame them?

I hope MS buys SEGA, just so I can get that Marcus Fenix and Sonic at the Olympic Games that I've always dreamed of.

@NEStalgia Really? It's normalized here now. Chicken breast is back to $1.69 a lb and eggs are $1.20 a dozen. You probably haven't seen prices like that since the 80s. Right?

Oh, wow. There ain't nothin good happening in this comment section.

@NEStalgia Does the watch come with chickens? Because my house has chickens. If the watch doesn't come with the chickens, then it sounds like someone got ripped off.

@NEStalgia @BrilliantBill I'm so glad I'm just a hillbilly and I have absolutely no idea what a Saville Row suit or Omega watch is.

@NEStalgia Random, but I just wanna say that I got to the side quest with Tiki=Waifu, and this game really might have been made just for me. Also, TMS: FE Ellie > TLOU Ellie. Not even close.

@NEStalgia No, it would be the Windows Store versions, but the Windows Store version should have cross save with Xbox consoles, like other 1st party games do. The whole Xbox Play Anywhere thing. GeForce now is entirely bring your own games. They said a little bit back that certain PC Game Pass games will be available through GeForce Now eventually.

@NEStalgia Well, I'm pretty sure MS is working to get the Xbox app working with GeForce Now in some greater or lesser level. So there's the possibility you could drop Game Pass, and just buy Starfield on Xbox/Window Store, then Stream it though GeForce Now. Jury is out on that one until we get more info, but that could maybe be a possible outcome.

@Alpha_Pulse I really love dirt cheap games. I mentioned to someone above that I've been playing Pillars of Eternity (on Game Pass), which really only runs anywhere between $5-10 depending on the platform and edition. I just picked up Dragons Dogma on Switch for $4.99. Before you know it, you have a backlog piled as high as a skyscraper, AND subscriptions to contend with. It's almost like it's all part of their nefarious scheme...

@NEStalgia Yeah, I definitely think MS basically just tossed Nvidia the keys to cloud gaming and that was that. Apparently MS gave Nvidia a somewhat different agreement than the smaller platforms like Boosteroid, but those details weren't really elaborated on publically. (I don't think)

Real deal mod support is kinda limited on GFN too, from what I understand. I believe all you can really work with is what is available through Steam Workshop. Which isnt exactly... Great. You'd basically still just be limited to whatever modding is available through the game itself, because the Steam Workshop stuff for Bethesda basically doesn't exist.

Are you actually going to play it on Xbox, tho? I thought the unhallow 30fps was going to purge your eyes from your skull?

@Moonglow I know they opened it up some finally, but I know for sure that Skyrim Script Extender isn't compatible with the Windows Store version of Skyrim, which is a dependency for a lot of Skyrim mods. So, it does have mod support, but I can't really call it full mod support because some mods are still written only for Steam, and in this case, it's a huge one. Vortex will detect Windows Store versions of games now, and a lot of mods do work, but imo it's just still nowhere close to Steam.

@NEStalgia GeForce Now is pretty sweet. The performance is utterly bananas. Tom Warren has tested the crap out of it, and it's basically the cream of the crop by a country mile. It seems that MS is sort of culling their own cloud ambitions and are essentially making a customer out of Nvidia and getting Nvidia to do all the heavy lifting. With what these data centers cost, it honestly just make more sense for the actual processor manufacturer to build the streaming side. Azure is one thing, but building these Xbox server racks is something totally different, and it sounds expensive.

@NEStalgia Should be. Phil said at the trial yesterday all Xbox games are going to GeForce Now regardless of whether ABK closes or not.

But honestly, right now, the only ones I know of that are must haves for me are Starfield, Avowed, Outer Worlds 2, Fable, and Clockwork Revolution. Probably whatever id is cooking up too. But the thing is, I'm pretty patient. There aren't many games I'm so excited for that I have to play day one. I'd almost just rather wait for sales and get them on Steam. I could buy Starfield for Steam on CDKeys for $58 right this second. PC games are basically always cheaper at launch due to third party sites selling lower.

@Artois2 Honestly, that's really the problem. I think if I had nothing but an Xbox console, it'd be a no brainer. But trying to spread my time out across a PC, Switch and PS5, it just really makes it hard to justify any of these subscriptions. I was looking through PS+ earlier, and sure there are some good games there, but I went right back to playing Tokyo Mirage Session on Switch that I paid $30 for.

What really gets me on PS and Switch is the need to pay for the basic sub for cloud saves. I'll do that for Nintendo, but Sony I'm not so sure. I have a pretty hard time justifying paying Sony $45 a year to have the privilege to have cloud saves for the three PS5 games I play each year.

@NEStalgia See, this is my predicament. It's not cheap at all. On a good month, it's a good value, especially during a month like Starfield month. But reality is I'm playing Switch, I'm playing something on Steam, I'm playing something on PS5. Even just subbing for a month here or there to play a single $70 game, I'd still just rather have the game on Steam. Even if I pay for a month with MS rewards, I could have also cashed those rewards out for Walmart gift cards and laundered them into eShop credit.

The only game I've played on Game Pass lately is Pillars of Eternity, and that game costs like $5 on sale. Then I found out that PC Game Pass does not cloud save all games (WTF right?) and I had accidentally deleted my save file by resetting my system, because I went nuclear and deleted my WindowsApps folder in a what I'm calling a rage quit (it made the Windows Store even less useable than normal). But even EGS has cloud saves for all games, and EGS basically sucks. I'm trying to convince myself to stay on the Xbox app for the decent value, but good God, the QoL on this app is terrible. I think they make this app so dysfunctional to make Windows looks more functional by comparison.

@Tharsman I nearly pulled the trigger on the premium edition on CDKeys this morning. As of right now, I think the Windows Store version is moddable, but with limitations. Those locked down read only directories won't even let me inject ReShade into the Skyrim exe because I don't have permission to. As far as I understand there isn't a way to give yourself permission either. But the real problem is the Windows Store versions of games have an entirely different exe than the Steam version, so really, the mods being made for Steam are designed to be compatible with Steam.

I'm pretty torn. I like Game Pass, but it's also sort of a novelty to me. I'm half tempted to just buy Starfield on Steam, even though my PC Game Pass is paid until April. PC Game Pass doesn't really do modding, so... That sorta screws Starfield in that regard.

@NEStalgia Really, the craziest part to me is that I'm not sure if the FTC ever even used the word consumer. They said Sony and PS5 a lot, but never consumer. I really can't tell if this merger is to protect the consumer, or just Lina Khan's own personal vendetta to fight big tech, even if it means her client is the mob.

@Tharsman Yeah, it's interesting to know that MS will agree to the split if they believe the game is critical to the platform. Which lends to me that this isn't the only time this has happened. One has to wonder if perhaps some Japanese publishers want a higher split on Xbox, maybe just due to a possible lower volume of sales. Which would of course create a lower risk situation for the publisher. This has all been pretty illuminating, but next week is surely going to be wild. Kotick is a sleeze, but can you even imagine what he's going to say sitting in that seat? I'd imagine he might have some of the biggest bombshells of them all.

@Tharsman That's a good point. There was an example used that ABK didn't put CoD on Switch now because they believed it wouldn't be profitable. If Nintendo told them to take their split and sit on it, I'm sure that negotiation ended there.

I was waiting for Phil Spencer's dad to abruptly enter the court room and say, "Are ya winnin, son?"

@Banjo- He's a better comedian than actor, I'd say. While we're at it, we can bring in the hologram of Antonio Vivaldi to play the world's smallest violin for him.

@Tharsman I wish Jim could appear in court as a hologram, you know, like those hologram concerts they do for dead musicians. Somehow that would just be a lot funnier than a video recording.

@themightyant I will absolutely spit on your monkey paw dreams. The true ending of that game is best left in my imagination. Lol

@Green-Bandit I like how Matt Booty's completely redacted email from 2019 that apparently had nothing to do with this merger case was a smoking gun, but somehow an email that shows plain as day Jim Ryan has been flying around the globe for the last year spouting stuff he likely didn't really believe is basically just 'an opinion piece'. Lmaoooo

@themightyant I mean, didn't pretty much all those people just leave with Kojima, though? When Kojima himself broke up with Konami, the entire studio broke up with Konami. I'm also entirely of the opinion that Kojima basically is MGS. There aren't many franchises I think exist entirely because of one person, but I def think MGS is one of them.

@themightyant With Kojima gone, that sounds like a real monkeys paw wish. 😂

@NEStalgia Bayonetta 1 actually ran at a pretty solid 60fps on the 360. It was baffling how bad the PS3 version was. I'm sure it was entirely the cell processors fault too.

I've been playing the 3D Remake of Final Fantasy IV on PC, and the battle scenes are 20fps. You can use a hex editor and jiggle the data files to increase the framerate to 30, but the battle speed is completely physically tied to the framerate and it speeds the battles up like crazy. I can only imagine how rage inducing this game would be to you. Just think. 20fps on a 43" QLED. On a $2500 PC. 😂

@NEStalgia I dunno. Bayonetta 1 was like 20fps on PS3, and Astral Chain and Bayonetta 3 were both 30fps. Nier Automata was also 30fps on base consoles, and it tried for 60 on the One X, I think? Not sure about the PS4 Pro. But Platinum has a pretty long history with 30fps, and utterly rubbish programming.

@Zoidpilot4 I don't think Autism/Asperger's has anything to do with it. I have Asperger's, and really, if anything I find the console wars difficult to understand because they are notoriously illogical. So, I couldn't really say that the average console fanboy needs to be assessed any more than the average hardcore sports fan. The pitfall of blind tribalism is a very human behavior, and it's easy for even smart people to slip into and act very, very dumb.

But really, there's also the angle that just because this is an Xbox fan site that every comment has to be positive and in favor of everything Xbox is doing. I have every platform, and I'm heavily skewed toward Xbox and Nintendo first party, but Xbox has done A LOT to test even the most serious fans faith. I'm still here, though. However, I'm going to call them out when they deserve it. I.e. Redfall.

@NEStalgia I mean, at least I have some quality entertainment for what has been a dreadfully dull week at the office.

@NEStalgia I mean, if MS won't take CoD away from Sony, Sony will take CoD away from Sony. Regardless, Jim is going to be sure that MS takes CoD away from Sony!

@NEStalgia I dunno, maybe. I kinda think Carlin was right. People spend money they don't have, on crap they don't need, to impress people they don't like. I'm far from rich, but I'd tell you I live pretty comfortably mostly because I don't blow all my money on nonsense and I put a lot of effort in at home to mitigate further expenses like food, etc. Even my overpriced GPU was a calculated purchase with money I actually had, for a thing I actually use. I'm not sure if capitalism has outlived its usefulness, or if consumerism has just gone completely insane. Maybe a bit of both, really.

Part of the inflation is just driven by banks lending money, and even cranking up the prime rates, some people are still buying. We had a gal that was a self-employed property appraiser that finally just shut down her business because real estate around here has finally moved to a crawl. Really, I think we as a civilization need to rethink a whole lot about our priorities, and what we truly need and what we truly don't. We know corporations are greedy, that's no secret. However, I do think the average person thinks they are maybe entitled to a lifestyle that was really never sustainable to begin with.

@NEStalgia Well, considering the birth rate in most developed nations is rapidly declining, that is going to bring about its own economic issues eventually, I'd say we're even seeing it some already. Something really has to give on that end eventually, because the economy will ultimately shrink with the replacement rate shrinking.

I am subbed to GP until well into 2024, but I'm highly considering just buying Starfield on Steam. Mod support on the Xbox PC app is... Minimal. I really hate to think I'm missing out on the Starfield modding community.

I mean, in reality, are they wrong to say that? It's not really a lie. However, being third still gets you a place on the podium. Regardless, MS managed to launch a new console brand and it's still here 20 years later. Third or not, MS has still managed to find a level of success in this industry that a lot of others haven't, and there's merit in that.

This all seems pretty petty, considering Microsoft provided Sony pre-release Series hardware kits to San Diego Studio to develop MLB.

@NEStalgia I have a hard time disagreeing with your assessment of the current economy. Basically, the whole thing is buggered up, and at this point... Who knows what it's going to take to fix it.

Really, I like both services in different ways. Sony gets me because they basically force me to buy a year at a time with a nice discount. Something GP doesn't do. But I can also just pay for a month of PC Game Pass with rewards points, something Plus doesn't do. They both have their own merits. It really just comes down to is there really a game I Want to play that month. However, when really get down to splitting hairs, I'm just more excited for what MS is cookin. Sony's games are good, but they often time just don't appeal to me. MS's RPG factory strongly appeals to me. Lol

I definitely wouldn't say Rift is a particularly strong R&C, but from where I stand, even bad R&C is still pretty good. I was just more chuffed that they sort of retconned a lot of how the plot from Into the Nexus concluded. I guess they sort of assumed that we'd just forget what happened ten years ago. You know, the part where Ratchet said he doesn't care about finding the Lombax's anymore and just wants to stay with Talwyn. So, no idea what happened there. Lol

I've played some Quake II RTX on Steam, and it's still just fantastic. I loved the Remaster of the first one, so bring it on!

@NEStalgia Being a tax preparer, I see what kind of money people around me are making. I've said for a while, "You're basically broke as a joke, or you're richer than God. There's just not much in-between anymore." So from where I sit, there's a lot of truth to the weathy class that can continuously afford to just pay the inflated prices and not really give a crap, while others are basically just poorer than ever.

But yeah, credit card debt is obscene right now. I've seen some of my small business clients go from basically being credit free, to having a constant 50k in credit line debt just trying to keep the lights on. So, were now seeing people who just a couple years had very little debt, basically depend on reveloving credit just to scrape by.

In truthfulness tho, I think PS+ is arguably the better value right now. I get what MS is trying to do, but at the same time, I do feel a cheaper subscription that features lots of older AAAs is basically just a digital equivalent to replace the second hand market, if and when physical media finally dies. I've been very uninterested in Game Pass for a while now, and sure, there is stuff on the horizon, but it seems this year that PS+ has been the one turning heads so far, and it paid less for it. I finally played Rift Apart, and it was pretty great. More Ratchet is never a bad thing.

@BrilliantBill I've definitely arrived at a point that I'm happy to just pay for a PC Game Pass sub when I want to use it, and even then, I can just use rewards points to pay for it. But this notion of just being subbed perpetually just doesn't sound as appealing as it used to. Like you said, it takes time to make games. There's really no guarantee I truly want to play something on game pass every single month.

@NEStalgia And you may be right, my point is more just that I think the people sitting on the top floor at Sony HQ saw people rushing in droves to buy a $1000 PS5 from a scalper. I don't think they can just un-see that.

There's also a lot of suspicion that the inflation is partially just corporations raising prices because they feel confident that they can and get away with it. Basically, what I'm trying to say is, the entire global economy is all ****ed up, and trying to put our finger on exactly why is challenging.

@Tharsman Yeah, I really just can't fathom how they release a more premium console when the price of the base hardware is heading in the wrong direction. It doesn't mean they won't, but I really think hardware makers are growing weary of the taking a loss on hardware model. Which is why I suspect prices are going up for the first time ever. Pandemic times sort of showed that people are maybe a little too willing to pay the premium for some products, and now we're here. Crazy times we're living in.

@NEStalgia Honestly, the whole thing is pretty mind boggling. Sony raised its PS5 prices and still kept flying off the shelves. It never appeared to be a boon for Xbox as people were speculating. I have to think MS basically knows that, if someone was truly going to buy an XSX at $500, they'd just buy one at $550. The $50's less on the shelf tag hasn't seemed to do much for them. But I think this seriously paints an ill picture for a Pro console. If we're talking $550 for the baseline, then what's a pro going to run? $700?

But yeah, $17 for Game Pass seems a lot less savory than $15. For what it's worth, GameFly just raised their prices the other day as well. So, MS isn't alone here, but still.... Yikes.

@NEStalgia I mean, there's a ton of angles here, and really, any of them could be right. But we've also now seen both Sony and MS RAISE the price of the base hardware, not lower it. I think the 1TB XSS was a sneaky way to just raise the price, and now the XSX is going up $50. If base hardware is creeping up in price, what are the economics of an even more powerful console going to look like? I really just don't buy that either of them are committed to this yet.

My PC Game Pass remains unchanged. Common PC Game Pass W.

@BAMozzy Pretty much my thoughts. I primarily play on PC, and my PC is 100% a 'Series X Pro' already. Mid gen consoles last gen didn't move nearly as much as the base units when it was all said and done, but high performance players typically always gravitate toward a PC, and then you have the masses that maybe really just don't care that much. I know we keep hearing about a PS5 Pro, but I'm not convinced that Xbox has to match that, because most consumers would probably still opt to buy a price reduced base console like they always have. One of Sony's reasons for the PS4 Pro was to try to not lose some customers to PC, but with them porting to PC now, they don't seem as concerned about that.