VOODOO85

Why is this sourced from an "insider" and not just MS's own article about this:

Q: "Will all console games added to the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate library also be available with Xbox Game Pass Standard?"

A: "Some games available with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on day one will not be immediately available with Xbox Game Pass Standard and may be added to the library at a future date. This could be up to 12 months or more and will vary by title."

So nothing new here from Jez as usual

The Switch install base makes it worth it for them financially

I don't see Sony bringing any 1st party IP to Xbox as it's their USP right now and they wont want to lose that

@Kezelpaso Oh i know who Levine is, it's just that there is a typo in first paragraph where it says "Ken Kevine & Co"

Who's Ken Kevine ?

EDIT: and nice Jericho reference too

Anybody here remember the whole Gamem8ker marketing for the console. Such excitement leading up to it. Condemned was the first game i played on launch day, great game too

@MrMagic who are we talking about here. I know Mikami left but this wasn't his game

XSX is the best in terms of hardware and not just from a point-of-view of technical capability but in terms of everything from the controller to the build quality etc

In terms of software, it's the 360 era. So many games and they were simpler back then too with less monetisation, GaaS etc. A lot of new IP came around during the 360 as well as indie games thanks to things like XBLA

I never use cloud gaming so this doesn't have an effect on me personally and I don't think it will change much either

The fact the Bread Smith quote states:

"Microsoft will not be in a position either to release Activision Blizzard games exclusively on its own cloud streaming service—Xbox Cloud Gaming - or to exclusively control the licensing terms of Activision Blizzard games"

Makes me believe that ABK games will still be on xCloud - just not exclusively

I'll take a double order on Starfield with a side order of Cocoon please

@Lup me too. Thought they were announcing a new match type coming to the game to coincide with a Gamepass announcement. It's still new enough that it would be a surprise GPU addition but i can see it happening down the road

@UltimateOtaku91

Sony's purchase of Insomniac means no more Sunset Overdrive on Xbox

To be fair though, that's an IP owned by the studio themselves so I don't see it as being unfair or anything.

@Deformedpye whilst i agree with the sentiment that sometimes games are announced too early. This is a Nacon Connect show and therefore SoD3 wouldn't be here with it being Xbox first party game

Easily Psychonauts 2 for me. One of the best games i've played for a while now and my GOTY for last year. Looking forward to hearing what Double Fine will be bringing next but doubt it'll be Psychonauts 3 which is a shame but i'm sure whatever they bring will be worth a look

Nope Hermes don't deliver any more

This is on my "to-buy" list but with a backlog to work through, i keep putting it off as Ubisoft games tend to go 5% cheaper with every sale

In no rush to get this so if it comes to GP in the next few months then even better

I wouldn't mind Blinx making a return but there are many other MS owned IP i'd rather have before Blinx

The whole "we've reached our limit" might be a bit of a white lie but i can see how it could be kinda true

They can't just add any game as publishers have to agree to their game being given away for free. They're also limited to 360 games that are backwards compatible etc so whilst there will still be some games that have never been given away - there likely aren't so many that the service can go on for much longer

However, as someone that didn't claim many of these games until the last couple of years, i'd love them to allow any of the former GwG games to be available once more before they end the 360 aspect of GwG

Been playing Matchpoint which i've now "completed" in the sense that i've reached rank 1, maxed out my stats and won a couple of majors etc

What much more is there to do in the career mode really ?

Also catching up on some old games such as GoW, Darkness and MX vs ATV Alive

Was tempted to get Road 96 this past week, glad i didn't now

I tried the tennis out, i quite enjoyed it and it seems to be simple enough to pick up but with a nice bit of depth to it (or at least the potential to have)

One i'll add the the backlog of games to get through but at least with Tennis, it's easy enough to play a game or two when in a more chill mood

Will give Matchpoint demo a try (fingers crossed for Top Spin kinda feel) whilst also looking forward to As Dusk Falls and FC5 - although i really need to get through some of the earlier Far Cry titles

I'm not expecting 4k/60/RT from this so know that to get 2 of those 3, i'll have to sacrifice the other but i can't wait for this still

I haven't played a Forza Motorsport truly since FM5 (back in 2015). I have recently went back and finished up some of them (FM5, FM2 and currently playing through FM3) in anticipation for this one

For me, i gave it a C grade. I was happy they focused on short-term releases and got more gameplay than we're used to

A common criticism of these Xbox shows is that they'll show a CGI trailer of a game that is years away (think ES6, Fable, Perfect Dark etc) so glad they went the other direction

However, i think it suffered a little because of this as there were no surprise 1st party announcements of big franchises. I was hoping to see at least one thing that would really surprise from something like Gears or a Rare IP being revived (Banjo ?) to perhaps an update on something like Hellblade, State of Decay etc

It's a double edged sword really but i thought the balance could have been better. If they'd not announced the whole "everything you see is coming in next 12 months" thing and added in a big announcement or an update on a big franchise, this would have been a better show imo

@fbnaulin will be from June 2nd

This doesn't surprise me at all, a lot of the criticism from events last year was well placed and i'm glad some publishers have learnt from that

When E3 was in full gear, there was only really EA, Ubisoft and Bethesda that could hold an hour long conference on their own and even now, some of these bigger publishers seem to be putting out less and less games than they did 5-10 years ago as games are getting more complex and expansive etc

@Bleachedsmiles

EA have their own "EA Partners" program which are not platform holder partners. Could be SW Jedi Fallen Order 2 or possibly Titanfall 3 if the nVidia leak continues to be accurate

For EA Partners, see: https://www.ea.com/ea-partners

So from the sounds of it, the 1 year extension to allow FIFA 23 to go ahead (by EA) is for the simulation category only.

Meaning that in theory, another developer could do FIFA Jam (like NBA Jam but FIFA) and another dev could do FIFA Manager (like Football Manager) - i realise there was a FIFA Manager series back in the day, also by EA

If this was also in the pipeline going forward whereby the EA developed FIFA 23/24/25 etc weren't the only games with the FIFA name, i can't blame EA for going the way of EA Sports FC

@Tasuki they have licensing for names etc independent of FIFA themselves. From the article:

"Our unique licensing portfolio of more than 19,000+ players, 700+ teams, 100+ stadiums and 30 leagues that we’ve continued to invest in for decades will still be there, uniquely in EA SPORTS FC."

Loved this game back on the OG Xbox, i'm sure if i played it now i'd get the nostalgia trip but it'll be dated on all fronts

I wouldn't mind another Star Wars game with the same general ideas though, but just "modern"

I won't be getting this at full price but if there is a Gamepass perk for X months free or its half price for GPU members then I'll consider it

I think we'll get a teaser for a new IP from The Coalition early in the show and then the "one last thing" at the end will be Gears 6 with release window in 2023

Other than that:
SoD3 gameplay
Senua dated
gameplay for Contraband
an IP revival but not from Rare's vault

We'll see the obvious things too but I expect another conference that emphasises the value of Gamepass

@PartyMarty it's an RPG but i haven't actually started it yet

Already have Chernobylite in my backlog as got it at a good price knowing the next-gen version was on it's way. Hadn't realised it's release was due in April (actually thought it was already available) so might try that out soon

@AFCC well if Xbox sells more digital but Sony sell more overall, then it pertains to logical reason that Sony must have sold more physical than Xbox.

@Titntin that was an interview with Don Mattrick and i believe it was Geoff Keighley who was interviewing him and you can see Geoff is taken aback by the answer which was "we have a console for them, it's the Xbox 360"

Personally, i was ready to go fully digital with XB1 and liked some of their ideas around being able to share a digital library and things such as that

I can see why overall it wasn't great though as the always-online thing isn't great for people in areas where broadband connectivity isn't as reliable as it could or should be

@BundyDanger

I actually disabled HDMI-CEC as I have the wireless Xbox headset which acts as a controller with regards to the console, so if I switch those on to watch something on my laptop upstairs, it'll switch the console on downstairs and turn TV on, switch input etc which is annoying, especially if someone else is watching TV downstairs at the time

@Dezzy70

Haven't tested but have read elsewhere that you're correct. If Xbox is already on but you've accidentally switched to another input for example or you turned tv over to watch tv for 20 mins or so. You can now press the Xbox button to switch TV input back over to Xbox

@Dezzy70 yeh mine does this too so wondering if this is a feature to allow us to switch input to something else entirely (bluray, STB, other console etc)

Don't see why MS would want you to switch away from your Xbox console input though

So perhaps this is just a toggle to enable/disable that part of the current process

@Gr81 You can currently play the same game at the same time etc. But it's limited to 2 players and the non-subscriber must be on the Xbox assigned as the "home" xbox with the subscriber account on a 2nd console

@Tasuki Thats gameshare with yourself and is limited to your "home" xbox and any xbox you're signed into. The "home" Xbox then allows anyone on that Xbox to play using your subscription

With a family plan, depending on number of users in the plan - this would allow for say 4 people to all have access to the Gamepass library, all playing on their own Gamertags, their own console etc

EDIT: so at the minute, the Gamepass subscriber can play on any Xbox and any "family" members can play on the "home" xbox. Therefore it's limited right now to 2 people simultaneously playing. In a nutshell, this would allow more than 2 at the same time on multiple consoles

He's also said that this is their short-term decision and who knows how things will be in years to come as the industry moves so fast

I'd say that if Sony can start making more GaaS releases (a big part of the reason why they bought Bungie) and if they have success in that area. Those GaaS titles will fund their big tentpole SP games and allow them to include them Day 1 into their subscription

They can't do it at the minute due to the $$$ they pump into their big titles but in 5 years time, i can see them getting closer to what GPU is

@IronMan30

I mean, there's a PlayStation there too so it looks like just a background of everything gaming

@Lupaie79

That's the thing, if another dev picks up the FIFA branding, EA will need to educate casuals that the new FIFA 24 is not what they'll be expecting

It might be better for all we know with a new team behind it but to the casuals, it'll be different and 'not FIFA'

EA need to promote the fact that "EA Sports FC '24" is essentially the new FIFA

I'd imagine EA would love to be able to get a deal whereby nobody else can use the name for a couple of years but if that's not already part of any end of contract agreement, i can't see FIFA turning down the $$$ from a new developer

Enjoyed the first so hoping for more of the same in terms of single player game. Obviously the combat, scope , environments and everything can be expanded upon but please keep it single player focused

I tried pre-installing the other day but the apps search functionality is still crazy poor

Tried Marvel, Guardians, of the, Galaxy, the Galaxy and every other combination i could think of. Then found a SqEnix game and clicked SqEnix to bring up all their titles but still GotG wasn't listed so gave up

Glad to see somebody found a way to get it done though so thanks for this tip

I'm going to check out this series and seeing Chiefs face doesn't really bother me either way

Love quick resume and have rarely ever had a problem with it. I don't play many games with a persistent connection but had no trouble using QR on FH5 for example

And when i say i've rarely had a problem, i've had XSX since launch day and i can count the number of problems on one hand

@BAMozzy

Your maths is a little off there, when you say "Lets say you have 20 studio's, each studio has 500 employees involved in making games and each gets $5k a month (well above average),that $250k on wages."

500 employees at $5k per month is $2.5million not $250k

@Banjo

As you say, it's very much being purposefully vague, in contrast to the matter of fact statement from PS regarding Bungie

Also, it says "One of the things we’re being very clear about as we move forward with the regulatory review" - it says to me that they're saying this whilst it's being reviewed by regulators (obviously)

All their language so far has been about a "want" and "desire" to have future Activision Blizzard games "available"

They can make then available by saying to Sony and Nintendo "they're available via Gamepass if you allow that on your system"

It's then up to Sony and Nintendo on whether it can be played on their system. MS can say "well we tried, we wanted and had a desire for it to be available but Sony and Nintendo said no thanks"

Xbox Game Studios games on Playstation and Nintendo

Playstation games on Xbox and Nintendo

Nintendo games........on Nintendo

What a time to be alive