TheFrenchiestFry

That's terrible lol

Is that really the best they could do? Couldn't they just use that Series X emblem on the right of the box as the logo like what Nintendo does with the Switch boxes? Who wants Calibri font straight out of Microsoft Word on game box art lol

@Senua Eh I wouldn't say Netflix is at nearly the high it once was compared to say, the early-mid 2010's. It's especially been getting flack for allowing mediocre or questionable content onto its service while cancelling all the really good or promising stuff like I'm Not Okay With This or Anne with an E, and as of late Disney+ and especially Prime Video have been really stepping it up with their original content so they are extremely formidable now

I ultimately believe we're headed to a future where streaming isn't going to replace traditional consoles but co-exist with them instead, and Microsoft is probably fully aware of that since they've fully transitioned Xbox out of just the console hardware and basically into any device with Microsoft's backing like PC and mobile. Sony and Nintendo will continue to do what they do and continue with producing solid software and hardware, with Sony also occasionally tapping into the PC market to branch out their audience, but Microsoft has the ambition and the resources to pull that all off so they'll do what they do as well. I'm really not worried about any of the three companies as of late. Sony's still doing pretty well on the hardware side of things and the Switch is still crushing it in terms of software and hardware sales every month

I do think Sony is due for some acquistions though. I'm not expecting on the level of Zenimax but a big name regardless that has a lot of history with them like Insomniac did

@Snake_V5 Sony's done this before though? They congratulated them on the Xbox Series X/S launches as well

In fact certain SIE employees like Cory Barlog (Santa Monica Studio) have publicly shown that they do in fact own consoles from rival manufacturers

@mousieone They actually have a lot of things in development post-SMT V

For one P-Studio already confirmed in late 2019 that they were in active production on Persona 6, and it's likely it'll be officially announced during the 25th anniversary this year since it's also been 5 years since the original Persona 5 launched in Japan

There's also the matter of stuff like Project Re:Fantasy from Studio Zero and the next main entry in the Etrian Odyssey series which was teased in 2018 as well

I do think there's room to fit ports of older Atlus titles in as evidenced by Nocturne HD but they do have a lot on their plate

@BearyBad I ain't holding my breath on Persona stuff until at least the 25th anniversary or after SMT V is out on Switch but Atlus works in questionable ways as evidenced by them porting P4G only to PC and not PS4 so we'll see

This looks like a great spiritual successor to the Suikoden games and looks visually striking as well

Surprised this is a Game Pass title but it's nice to see Xbox get more aggressive with pursuing Japanese content and specifically JRPGs, even if this is multiplatform as well

@Tharsman WB Games was about to be spun off and sold to another company and I believe both EA and Microsoft were in the bidding at one point but if anything I don't view the Discovery merger as a liklier sign of it happening again

They also have a lot of multiplatform content in development in comparison to where Bethesda was when Microsoft acquired them, and being part of WarnerMedia I doubt that means they need the money either. Besides it would also seriously complicate things if WB Games was seperated from WarnerMedia and sold to Microsoft since then that would leave the fate of stuff like Wizarding World or DC Comics games completely up in the air as well since that's owned by the conglomerate and not them

@Tharsman I never got this mindset that Game Pass meant not paying for games

Like yeah it's a cool alternative to straight up buying the games but it's still a freaking subscription service and if you want to own the game after sampling it it's probably going to be priced the same as a PS5 game if it's next gen. We're already seeing that with Battlefield and that's probably going to be the case with the XGS games exclusive to Series X and S

@Tharsman Oh yeah PushSquare's editors have been in full meltdown mode over both Starfield and Outer Worlds all day

That's not to say NintendoLife and PureXbox haven't produced similar bait before but like it's been several months already. I wasn't expecting a Microsoft-owned or operated studio that purchased Zenimax for more money than Disney purchased for Lucasfilm or Marvel Entertainment to not go all in on making those games exclusive

@Tharsman Jeff also talked ad nauseum about the WB Games devs being acquired by Microsoft but we pretty much know for sure that's probably never happening now thanks to the announcement of Discovery and WarnerMedia merging in mid-2022

There might be time to slip in a last minute deal but a restructuring is already being planned to accomodate the change based on reports from Hollywood trades like Variety and THR specifically for the WB Pictures and HBO Max arm of WM

@uptownsoul I can't comment specifically on that since I don't own a Series X|S but I do know pretty much every first party PS5 game from PlayStation Studios either got that feature in a post-launch update or launched with it except I think Demon's Souls, which just has the individual fidelity and performance toggles

Maybe it's a thing on Xbox as well and I'm not fully aware of it because I just play my Xbox stuff on PC and don't know how it looks or plays on Series X|S but if they don't have it now, it's probably going to be fully embraced soon

@uptownsoul I'm so glad both PS5 and the Xbox consoles are prioritizing giving players options in terms of performance or fidelity preferences. It's great

The one indie game and 2021 release I was really pumped for during the showcase. Sounds like Live, Die, Repeat mixed with a murder mystery and domestic drama

Look I get Chaos is the counterpart to Cosmos in FF lore but seriously they said it so many times lol

Is PS5 still getting its upgrade because I believe they promised it for both consoles

This actually looks pretty alright.

Starfield, A Plague Tale, STALKER 2 and Outer Worlds 2 were easily the highlights of the conference for me but they're all either 2022 or TBD so that's a bummer. The only thing from this year that really excited me was 12 Minutes

Also note to game developers/publishers: Stop announcing new IPs with vague cinematic trailers that don't even fully represent what to expect from said new game. It works for franchise entries because of familiarity, but not with characters and locations I don't even know about yet.

I swear cinematic/"in-engine" trailers are becoming increasingly more commonplace and it's getting annoying

EDIT: Oh and Eiyuden Chronicle, that game continues to look superb

Anyone who missed out on this the first time needs to get on this game ASAP

The best roguelike I've played as of recently

@jarvismp There DEFINITELY were third parties and indies. In fact they took up a good chunk of this entire conference like Battlefield 2042, Back 4 Blood, Far Cry 6, Hades, STALKER 2, 12 Minutes etc.

I know a ton of Xbox diehards are probably going to disagree with me but I was honestly expecting way more from this conference personally

The Game Pass announcements were great and Starfield getting a release date was also reassuring, but as someone who isn't a Forza guy or who plays Halo for single player, I was kind of disappointed at the sheer lack of content that wasn't years away or happening or that only got cinematic trailers when they were meant for next year anyway, and only a few of the indie games really interested me like 12 Minutes

I'd give this like a C or maybe a C+

Why would I play this on Xbox Series X or PS5 over the Wii though

@gingataisen I know who you're talking about but to be fair, he seems to have a strong bias for DDR anyway

Which you know I'll take DDR any day over Just Dance but still

@Tharsman Rocksmith isn't a game, Extraction & Riders were already announced and Blood Dragon is a remaster

It's really just Just Dance, Mario + Rabbids and Avatar in terms of actual new games or games we didn't know about, and only one of those was genuinely unexpected since one was leaked and the other was f*cking Just Dance

This was such a weird thing to close on.

Like I know Avatar made a bajillion dollars but were they expecting this reveal to have the pull of something like Spider-Man for PS4 when it was announced? I thought Avatar mostly got big off of the effects and the usage of 3D but those fads kind of wore off eventually

This feels like the kind of thing I would've been interested in around maybe 2010 or 2011

@Dezzy Practically a hair away from vaporware despite Michel Ancel saying it was still making good development progress even after he left Ubisoft

The Avatar, Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon and Mario + Rabbids reveals were the only thing that really piqued my interest

Ubisoft seems to be going further into live service territory so at this point they're barely holding my interest as a publisher

Avatar looks fine but no gameplay

I'm actually really excited about Mario + Rabbids though I shiver at the thought of Rabbid/Luma cross breeding

The Vaas expansion in Far Cry 6 looked pretty neat as someone who thought the most engaging of that series was Far Cry 3 partially because of Vaas

yeah that's basically it this was a total slog. I honestly can't wait for the Microsoft and Square conferences tomorrow now

Probably give it like a D

Great. That means the entire series is now on Game Pass including all the Kiryu entries as well

I've already double dipped on PC after getting the games as they originally released on PS4 but great for those who've wanted to get into the series for the first time

This looks super TV-budget-y

Like not in the good way where it still looks like they made efficient usage of their budget and were able to make it look like it was produced with less budget constraints than it actually had like with Daredevil or Jessica Jones on Netflix, but it legit looks like a CW show based on these screenshots

The trailer better do it some justice

How is this going to even work on console with how the PC version is supposed to end

@taternuggets For the MachineGames titles, the recommended order is New Order, Old Blood, New Colossus and Youngblood

Apparently New Colossus hasn't hit Game Pass yet though so there is that

Metal Gear Rising desperately deserves some form of a remaster or re-release. If Konami is stepping back from producing new Metal Gear content or even outsourcing it to other studios like with Getsufumaden, the least they could do is bring out remasters of stuff like the PS3 Legacy Collection and Rising

As long they don't have that awful stuttering and freezing problem that plagued both their Xbox showcases from last year I'll be fine with 1080p. My gaming laptop doesn't even have a 4K screen anyway lol

People expecting it to be like another Bethesda-level acquisition will probably be disappointed

They seem to target mostly smaller developers or publishers that still have the variety they want to bolster the Xbox first party portfolio. I'm not expecting something like SEGA or Square. Maybe Moon Studios or Studio MDHR?

There's a shot in the trailer that shows another player seemingly assisting the main player character and it looked super reminiscent of the whole "invasion" system in other Soulsborne entries so I'm assuming that's going to be coming back for this game

@Fenbops GRR Martin didn't actually contribute to stuff like art direction and the general look of the game, he was solely responsible for the narrative and worldbuilding stuff

I'm digging the aesthetic a lot even if the Souls influences are pretty obvious, and I really like the design of the player character honestly

Definitely looking forward to this. FromSoft has yet to miss imo

I kind of get Ghibli vibes from that trailer

looks pretty stunning

I'd say a solid B

There's actually not that much I was actively disinterested in as I thought

Obviously Elden Ring was a great end reveal but I also dug what we saw of Tunic and a few of those PlayStation Indies like Solar Ash

Surprised with Sony's new commitment to PC that this wasn't given a Steam port right off the bat

Seems like a no brainer to me

@Snake_V5 They might be referring to both honestly. They said "platforms" as in plural

With a name like Xbox "Series" I'm expecting they're probably taking the smartphone or DS family approach of bringing out a line of consoles that co-exist, and not just an Xbox, followed by the next Xbox

But obviously console manufacturers tend to get to work right on the next next-gen systems right after launching what's considered next-gen or current-gen so we'll see

@Murray I mean if you're following Sony and you're dying to play their exclusives odds are you probably bought a PlayStation in the first place anyway for that alone

Sony's approach isn't necessarily hindering, it's just different. They clearly want to make a statement that buying their system will guarantee you access at the earliest possible point for their first party content, and then they branch out once they make all the money they can off of the people who game on their consoles. Enough people are probably buying their consoles right now that they don't feel inclined to expand immediately.

It's not as ambitious as PC-same day releases, but Microsoft clearly don't care anymore about selling the Xbox as just the console in your home if even today's announcement of them making xCloud devices for TVs was any indication. Sony still to an extent does care about marketing PlayStation as a console-first platform, but sees an opportunity in tapping into the PC market regardless when they can.

I honestly think both approaches are valid

I can appreciate that Xbox is bringing their games to more people but also that Sony also clearly cares about prioritizing supplying their consoles with content first and foremost since they clearly care way more about pushing the hardware than Microsoft does. It was honestly really smart of them to launch Horizon on PC ahead of announcing Forbidden West since that obviously would generate interest from the PC crowd for their consoles

@Vinsanity Honestly Spencer looks too honest to pull off being a "Kevin Butler"-like figure

That guy was sassy and sarcastic as hell

SCAN THE SHELF PEOPLE

(I don't really think the Switch being there will actually mean anything honestly)

@Dezzy70 Considering Spider-Man actually uses an updated version of the Sunset engine they could totally take their work from those games and repurpose them to making new Sunset Overdrive content or remastering the original game with new features and updates

Sunset was a big game in getting them to familiarize themselves with open world traversal mechanics like the ones that would be seen in Spider-Man so I wouldn't be surprised if they take their experience from that and reapply it to Sunset one day since the engine is there