I’m curious if a PS5 version of Starfield will be announced after Shattered Space releases in September. If I recall correctly the rumor was that it would be announced after the DLC launched, and the majority of the “take it with a grain of salt” rumors have turned out to be true.
This sounds like a unforced error that Xbox painted themselves into a corner with by saying all first party games would release on GamePass day one. This won’t bring over PlayStation owners who love COD because buying it outright will be cheaper. Same for Xbox, unless it’s someone who has GamePass and then it’s canibalizing sales, which will be reflected in earnings reports, pissing off shareholders wanting immediate returns on the Activision acquisition.
And there’s no way to make it console exclusive until the Xbox?/PS7.
Edit: Of course, there could be a shifting of goal posts as well. If Xbox restructures GamePass tiers and only makes COD available on the top tier that costs more. That would require every GamePass subscriber to pay additional money for the COD tier without the benefit of their stacked discounts. Microsoft still keep their day one promise, while requiring current GP subscribers to pay up to get access. Sony did something similar when they created the Plus tiers. I had 3 years left on my sub and had to pay the up charge for the entire remaining term.
I’ll give this a try when released on PlayStation. It’s sounding more and more like pretty much every Xbox exclusive will be going multiplat. “No red line”
That Activision deal has really turned on the Xbox faithful. Xbox was humming along just fine until the $69 billion deal became headline news and got the attention of the shareholders. Now we’re seeing the repercussions.
I know CoD generates a lot of money, but if subscription growth across all subs decreased from 2% gain to 1% gain year over year, I don’t see a price increase helping that. It’d be more of a value add to just own the game.
@themightyant That’s the thing! Hellblade released on PS4 and PC in August 2017 and Xbox One in April 2018. It didn’t hit one million copies sold until June 2018. Hi-Fi Rush had over two million players engaged (it’s all about player engagement, right?) within 3 months.
Outside of Greenberg’s comment, Todd Vaughn of Bethesda called Hi-Fi Rush “one of the most successful launches for Bethesda and Xbox in recent years” which adds more questions to the shuttering of Tango.
Now the question becomes, what does success look like?
I don’t see how you can base results on sales when it’s an Xbox exclusive offered Day One on GamePass! 2 million sounds like a nice number, but obviously not in GamePass dynamics.
@Banjo- This site is getting more PlayStation interest because it has news relating to PlayStation now that Xbox has opened up to be a third party publisher. And (for me at least) it’s NBA playoffs.
@NEStalgia
Dude, outside of the supply chain constraints it’s doing just fine. It’s all in the link I provided.
PS4 Y1 - 7.6M
PS5 Y1 - 7.8M
PS4 Y2 - 14.8
PS5 Y2 - 11.5
PS4 Y3 - 17.7
PS5 Y3 - 19.1 (not a 30% decrease)
PS4 Y4 - 20.0
PS5 Q1-Q3 - 16.4 with a projection lowered from 25 to 21. Still growth year over year and definitely not another 30% reduction.
PS5 is doing just fine and growing each year. Xbox is not. The numbers don’t lie.
EDIT:
To expand on the numbers, we know Xbox was selling 1:2 against the PlayStation. So that means in 2021 Xbox sold approximately 5.75 million consoles. Reduce that by 30% for 2022 and they sold just over 4 million consoles. Reduce that another 30% for 2023 and the number drops to 2.8 million consoles.
Think about that number. Only 2.8 million consoles sold in a fiscal year. That is nuclear bad. But Xbox had 7 games in PlayStation’s top 25.
@NEStalgia
A cut in projected console sales doesn’t mean that Sony is underperforming. It means that they’re readjusting projections. If you go to Sony’s website it’s clear that console sales are increasing.
11.5 million console sales in fiscal year 2021 which would be on the 2022 report.
19.1 million consoles sold in fiscal year 2022.
This year is only current through the third quarter (Q3), but is sitting at 16.2 million without 3 months of data. So it’s hard to see decrease instead of growth.
Meanwhile, 30% decline and another 30% decline. Let’s be real please.
Wow. I didn’t realize Xbox console revenues dropped another 30% year over year. I thought that was a big deal when they announced the 30% decrease this time in 2023, but everyone assumed it was due to the Starfield delay. Yet a year and Starfield later, they announced another 30% decrease from last year’s 30% decreased numbers. That is bad no matter how you paint it.
Just to get an idea, using simple math, let’s say Xbox console revenue in 2022 was $1 billion. A 30% decrease the next year would put the console revenue at $700 million. With another 30% decrease that would put console revenues at $490 million. That’s a steep decline.
The long term question becomes where do you feel more comfortable building your digital library? GamePass is great, but outside of Xbox first party games there’s no guarantee as to what will be available. This will become more and more impactful as new generations join the gaming culture.
Microsoft and Sony are releasing consoles that I think will be hard sells.
For Xbox, it would be hard to justify purchasing if you’re new to the Xbox ecosystem as there’s such bad messaging from Microsoft on the future of Xbox. And Series S would be a better fit for a GamePass console.
For Sony, I don’t understand the justification for a Pro. This generation is constrained by the Series S and Microsoft’s parity clause. So the only true benefit outside of potential exclusive games is scalability, and I don’t see that being enough to justify a Pro.
@Moby Sony and Sega had the first crossplay game two months before the original Xbox hit the market. And there’s a reason Xbox is just now getting Final Fantasy 14. Microsoft wouldn’t support crossplay when it released and Sony would.
So for Xbox, our brand pivot — as we attract and maintain relevance with a younger audience — is ‘Xbox is a place where I can find the great games I want to.’ -Phil Spencer
Not console, but games. Like Sega. Or EA. Or Ubisoft. Or Capcom. Or…you get the point.
@Rodimusprime13
Perhaps it’s Sony? The quote literally says "I don't know why we bothered supporting it", so it’s a game that was released on Xbox (although it must not have sold well based on the quote).
Outside of Destiny, which has always been on Xbox, the only other PlayStation property on Xbox is MLB The Show, and we all know why Sony allows it. MLB licensing rights.
I doubt it’s Larian, although the parity clause for Series X / S created a development issue that Xbox eventually backtracked on because…Xbox. (Not to be dismissive of the PlayStation “we believe in generations” before releasing multiple first party games in the PS5 gen on PS4.)
Probably why there is no mid gen Xbox upgrade. If there’s difficulty developing for X with S, imagine an X upgrade. Better to leave the Series system behind and start a new console generation. Or go third part dev/publisher.
After all, as Phil Spencer says, “Xbox is a place where I can find the great games I want to.’ Not console. Games.
Interesting Polygon article covering some of the Microsoft mentality. Here are Phil’s quotes from the article.
The math on a game has definitely changed
…
exclusivity gets pressured as the cost of the game goes up.
…
everybody else’s customer is your success state…You can’t succeed unless you draw in customers from other publishers and other platforms. And because you’re not finding new customers with the games that you’re building, everybody’s kind of fighting over the same-size pie.
…
I’ll say the thing that has me most concerned for the industry is the lack of growth. And when you have an industry that is projected to be smaller next year in terms of players and dollars, and you get a lot of publicly traded companies that are in the industry that have to show their investors growth — because why else does somebody own a share of someone’s stock if it’s not going to grow? — the side of the business that then gets scrutinized is the cost side. Because if you’re not going to grow the revenue side, then the cost side becomes challenged.
…
We’re a business. I’ve said over and over. I don’t get any luxury of not having to run a profitable growing business inside of Microsoft. And we are that today. But just across the industry — you mentioned it, and in sitting here at GDC, I reflect on friends of mine in the industry that have been displaced and lost their jobs and how just, I don’t want this industry to be a place where people can’t, with confidence, build a career. So that’s why I keep pivoting back to: How does this industry get back to growth? But to your question, for us as Xbox or any of the teams that are out there, it is really an outcome of an industry that’s not growing. It can grow and it will grow again. But you see this time right now and the implications have human impact. And we should all reflect on that and think about it.
…
two years of lack of growth in the gaming industry at the top line. You start to ask yourself, Well, I don’t want to grow at the expense of the industry, I want to grow as part of the industry, and what do we need to do as an industry to get back on the growth path?
…
I will say, every decision we make today and tomorrow is for the better of Xbox. I know sometimes things get weaponized, that there’s some evil in the background that’s making us do things — ‘Phil hates exclusives and that’s why we’re like PlayStation and Switch now.’ Every decision we make is to make Xbox stronger in the long run. It doesn’t mean everyone’s going to agree with every decision we make. But it is fundamental for how we make decisions.
…
This notion that Xbox can only be this one device that plugs into a television isn’t something we see in the Gen Z research. Because nothing else is like that for them. Some of them will have an iPhone, some will have an Android, but all the games and everything is the same. I can still get to TikTok on both of them, at least for now. All of their stuff is available wherever they want. So for Xbox, our brand pivot — as we attract and maintain relevance with a younger audience — is ‘Xbox is a place where I can find the great games I want to.’
Is it true? Who knows. I did find Phil’s specific language about the first four games not being Starfield pretty curious. Not a lie, but not a denial.
Here’s Christopher Dring’s profile. Sounds connected and GDC did just take place o. San Francisco.
“ Outside of GI, Chris has been frequently published on The Guardian, Video Games Chronicle and Time Extension. He has acted as an expert in the games market for the BBC, CNN, Sky News and other financial media.”
I mean, it’s been four generations of Xbox being in third place, with the last two being the digital library age. GamePass is great due to access. I won’t (and pretty much can’t) leave PSN due to my library.
I wouldn’t buy an.Xbox for it; but I’d probably grab Starfield for $15 if it included all the DLC. And I wonder how much “work” it actually needs. The kinks were worked out for Xbox and both platforms were developed for across many years. A little spit and shine and voila!
“All in all it's a bit of a mixed bag, and the results may appear to favour PlayStation initially.”
I would say “appear to favor” is a bit off when you have quotes like these:
“The Xbox Cloud Gaming service is simply not on the same level as PS Plus cloud streaming in terms of quality, as it stands today.”
And
“Each of these services have huge benefits in terms of access to game downloads and other features, but if we're focusing on cloud streaming alone, there's a clear winner. Between the use of PS5-grade hardware server-side, the higher bitrate and resolution, PlayStation Plus presents its catalogue at a quality level that's much closer to justifying that Premium label - even if it's behind Xbox in terms of latency.”
People’s minds are going to melt now that we know the release dates for the four games that “…will not be Starfield or Indiana Jones.” Phil kept his word. The four games weren’t Starfield or Indy. And they’ll all be released in around 60 days.
@Romans12 I’ll be playing Helldivers 2, Steller Blade, Final Fantasy 7, Granblue, Rise of Ronin and many others while you beta test future PlayStation games. Thanks!
Xbox is finally getting Final Fantasy XIV. I started that on my PS3 since Sony allowed cross platform play. It didn’t get released on Xbox because they refused cross platform play at the time. It is amazing! Well worth the time sink! And it’s a guaranteed winner, not a toss up like a Redfall or Starfield!
I think the internal Xbox memo says it all in closing:
“This is a future where Xbox is everywhere—consistent with our promise to empower players to “play the games you want, with the people you want, anywhere you want.”
Makes sense. This is what $3 trillion companies have to do. Shareholders won’t let them sit pat and say, “Well, we’ve made enough money! Let’s go play an Xbox exclusive!”
No, as memorialized by Gordon Gekko in Wall Street, “greed is good” and investors want returns on that $75.4 billion (and counting) spent acquiring Activision.
Microsoft is valued at $3 trillion. It’s a company with nearly 7.5 billion shares, with majority holders being Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street Corp. These are investment companies. They are not gamers.
Up until recently, Microsoft’s largest acquisition in its history was a little over $21 billion. It was a massive failure. (Nokia says hi!)
We’ll see what comes from Microsoft’s announcement about the future vision for Xbox. I assure you the investment firms have had their say.
It sounds like there’s an internal argument between Microsoft and Xbox, with Microsoft having the overall say. Phil’s post didn’t have any energy or excitement to it, considering the punctuation used. Very matter of fact, suggesting he’s against the move, but corporate (and the $70 billion they just committed) are pushing for the change.
It’s also been suggested that these “leaks” originated from the Xbox Team to infuriate the user base in hopes it would sway Microsoft and the shareholders. It may do that, or it may just piss off corporate.
@Reptilio I like Fallout, so I think I’d like Starfield. I really enjoyed Oblivion, but couldn’t get into Skyrim even though I bought it twice (original and VR).
Not a bad spot in Xbox exclusives over the past 10 years. It is kinda funny that The Outer Worlds scored an 85! I know, not Xbox exclusive, but future games will probably be.
92 - Forza Horizon 5
92 - Forza Horizon 4
92 - Ori and the Will of the Wisps
91 - Forza Horizon 3
90 - Microsoft Flight Simulator
88 - Ori and the Blind Forrest
87 - Halo Infinite
87 - Forza Motorsport 6
87 - Hi-Fi Rush
86 - Forza Motorsport 7
86 - Forza Horizon 2
86 - Titanfall
86 - Pentiment
85 - Halo: The Master Chief Collection
84 - Halo 5: Guardians
84 - Gears of War 4
84 - Gears 5
84 - Rare Replay
84 - Starfield
Edit: Updated to reflect Starfield’s return to 84.
Wow. And I thought the Xbox One numbers were bad. In January 2016, 2 years and 2 months into the Xbox One cycle, Microsoft had sold 19 million units. 2 years and 7 months into the Series X | S cycle and they’ve only sold 21 million units?
Starfield can’t even help with that, especially when Microsoft’s console parity clause is preventing much more anticipated games like Baldur’s Gate from releasing on the Series X.
I’m glad Sony brought in Bungie to help with the live service games. The Naughty Dog news makes it sound like they’re doing their job, and preventing additional wasted efforts. Hopefully they look at the two shown at the PlayStation Showcase and make similar assessments once actual gameplay exists.
Luckily, Sony has large enough teams across the majority of their studios to split the work between live service and single player games at the same time.
Sackboy (by Sumo), Demon’s Souls, Miles Morales, Ragnarok, GT7, Astrobot, Horizon, Returnal, Ratchet & Clank, and the incoming Spider-man 2, plus the remasters, haven’t been a bad 31 months.
I find it humorous that Digital Foundry has a Hogwarts Legacy face off, but Eurogamer still refuses to publish anything Hogwarts Legacy related. A gaming site completely avoiding the best selling game of 2023. Too funny.
Comments 70
Re: Reaction: PS5 Pro's Extortionate Price Justifies Xbox's Lack Of A New Console
But when they zoomed in 30x I could tell the foliage edges were much smoother! Day 1!
Not.
Re: Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Comments On Indiana Jones PS5, And Microsoft's Plan Moving Forward
I’m curious if a PS5 version of Starfield will be announced after Shattered Space releases in September. If I recall correctly the rumor was that it would be announced after the DLC launched, and the majority of the “take it with a grain of salt” rumors have turned out to be true.
Re: Xbox Console Sales Struggling As Hardware Revenue Nosedives At Microsoft
Xbox as a brand isn’t going anywhere. If you want an actual console, you’ll need to go PlayStation or Nintendo, or both.
Re: Four Years Later, People Are Still Getting Confused By Xbox's 'Horrible' Console Names
The last Xbox generation should be named Xbox Series One S | X.
Re: Xbox Game Pass Gets Price Increases And New 'Standard' Subscription Tier
$240 a year to not own games. $1,440 over the course of a 6 year generation…without additional price hikes.
Re: Report: Call Of Duty 2024 Will Launch Day One On Xbox Game Pass
This sounds like a unforced error that Xbox painted themselves into a corner with by saying all first party games would release on GamePass day one. This won’t bring over PlayStation owners who love COD because buying it outright will be cheaper. Same for Xbox, unless it’s someone who has GamePass and then it’s canibalizing sales, which will be reflected in earnings reports, pissing off shareholders wanting immediate returns on the Activision acquisition.
And there’s no way to make it console exclusive until the Xbox?/PS7.
Edit: Of course, there could be a shifting of goal posts as well. If Xbox restructures GamePass tiers and only makes COD available on the top tier that costs more. That would require every GamePass subscriber to pay additional money for the COD tier without the benefit of their stacked discounts. Microsoft still keep their day one promise, while requiring current GP subscribers to pay up to get access. Sony did something similar when they created the Plus tiers. I had 3 years left on my sub and had to pay the up charge for the entire remaining term.
Re: Activision Is Opening A New Studio To Build 'Genre-Defining' Games At Microsoft
At the rate things are going, I wouldn’t be surprised if Sony pays to make it a third party exclusive.
Re: Starfield Comparison Shows Differences Between 30FPS & 60FPS Modes On Xbox Series X
I’ll give this a try when released on PlayStation. It’s sounding more and more like pretty much every Xbox exclusive will be going multiplat. “No red line”
https://www.eurogamer.net/microsoft-bosses-reportedly-pushing-for-no-red-line-around-which-xbox-games-launch-on-playstation
Re: Talking Point: Is Sarah Bond Hinting At Eventually Moving Away From Xbox Hardware?
Maybe it has something to do with the massive class action suit that would be brought if users weren’t able to access/utilize their digital library.
Re: Xbox Reiterates Every First Party Title Is Coming To Game Pass 'Day One'
Price hike inbound. Up your subs now.
Re: Xbox Reportedly Considering Game Pass Price Hike To Accommodate Call Of Duty
That Activision deal has really turned on the Xbox faithful. Xbox was humming along just fine until the $69 billion deal became headline news and got the attention of the shareholders. Now we’re seeing the repercussions.
Re: Xbox Reportedly Considering Game Pass Price Hike To Accommodate Call Of Duty
I know CoD generates a lot of money, but if subscription growth across all subs decreased from 2% gain to 1% gain year over year, I don’t see a price increase helping that. It’d be more of a value add to just own the game.
Re: Tango Gameworks Founder Responds To Xbox Shutting Down Studio
@themightyant
That’s the thing! Hellblade released on PS4 and PC in August 2017 and Xbox One in April 2018. It didn’t hit one million copies sold until June 2018. Hi-Fi Rush had over two million players engaged (it’s all about player engagement, right?) within 3 months.
Outside of Greenberg’s comment, Todd Vaughn of Bethesda called Hi-Fi Rush “one of the most successful launches for Bethesda and Xbox in recent years” which adds more questions to the shuttering of Tango.
Now the question becomes, what does success look like?
Re: Tango Gameworks Founder Responds To Xbox Shutting Down Studio
I don’t see how you can base results on sales when it’s an Xbox exclusive offered Day One on GamePass! 2 million sounds like a nice number, but obviously not in GamePass dynamics.
Rough period for game developers everywhere.
Re: Microsoft CEO Comments On Xbox's New PlayStation Store Success
@Banjo-
This site is getting more PlayStation interest because it has news relating to PlayStation now that Xbox has opened up to be a third party publisher. And (for me at least) it’s NBA playoffs.
Re: Microsoft CEO Comments On Xbox's New PlayStation Store Success
@NEStalgia
Dude, outside of the supply chain constraints it’s doing just fine. It’s all in the link I provided.
PS4 Y1 - 7.6M
PS5 Y1 - 7.8M
PS4 Y2 - 14.8
PS5 Y2 - 11.5
PS4 Y3 - 17.7
PS5 Y3 - 19.1 (not a 30% decrease)
PS4 Y4 - 20.0
PS5 Q1-Q3 - 16.4 with a projection lowered from 25 to 21. Still growth year over year and definitely not another 30% reduction.
PS5 is doing just fine and growing each year. Xbox is not. The numbers don’t lie.
EDIT:
To expand on the numbers, we know Xbox was selling 1:2 against the PlayStation. So that means in 2021 Xbox sold approximately 5.75 million consoles. Reduce that by 30% for 2022 and they sold just over 4 million consoles. Reduce that another 30% for 2023 and the number drops to 2.8 million consoles.
Think about that number. Only 2.8 million consoles sold in a fiscal year. That is nuclear bad. But Xbox had 7 games in PlayStation’s top 25.
The writing is on the wall.
Re: Microsoft CEO Comments On Xbox's New PlayStation Store Success
@NEStalgia
A cut in projected console sales doesn’t mean that Sony is underperforming. It means that they’re readjusting projections. If you go to Sony’s website it’s clear that console sales are increasing.
11.5 million console sales in fiscal year 2021 which would be on the 2022 report.
19.1 million consoles sold in fiscal year 2022.
This year is only current through the third quarter (Q3), but is sitting at 16.2 million without 3 months of data. So it’s hard to see decrease instead of growth.
Meanwhile, 30% decline and another 30% decline. Let’s be real please.
EDIT:
Forgot the link so you can see the facts.
https://sonyinteractive.com/en/our-company/business-data-sales/
Re: Microsoft CEO Comments On Xbox's New PlayStation Store Success
Wow. I didn’t realize Xbox console revenues dropped another 30% year over year. I thought that was a big deal when they announced the 30% decrease this time in 2023, but everyone assumed it was due to the Starfield delay. Yet a year and Starfield later, they announced another 30% decrease from last year’s 30% decreased numbers. That is bad no matter how you paint it.
Just to get an idea, using simple math, let’s say Xbox console revenue in 2022 was $1 billion. A 30% decrease the next year would put the console revenue at $700 million. With another 30% decrease that would put console revenues at $490 million. That’s a steep decline.
Re: Microsoft CEO Comments On Xbox's New PlayStation Store Success
The long term question becomes where do you feel more comfortable building your digital library? GamePass is great, but outside of Xbox first party games there’s no guarantee as to what will be available. This will become more and more impactful as new generations join the gaming culture.
Re: Phil Spencer On Porting Exclusives: 'Every Decision We Make Is To Make Xbox Stronger'
@Moby Just a little education on console history. Cheers!
Re: Leaked Images Reveal 'First Look' At White, All-Digital Xbox Series X
Microsoft and Sony are releasing consoles that I think will be hard sells.
For Xbox, it would be hard to justify purchasing if you’re new to the Xbox ecosystem as there’s such bad messaging from Microsoft on the future of Xbox. And Series S would be a better fit for a GamePass console.
For Sony, I don’t understand the justification for a Pro. This generation is constrained by the Series S and Microsoft’s parity clause. So the only true benefit outside of potential exclusive games is scalability, and I don’t see that being enough to justify a Pro.
It’ll be interesting to see how they sell.
Re: Phil Spencer On Porting Exclusives: 'Every Decision We Make Is To Make Xbox Stronger'
@Moby
Sony and Sega had the first crossplay game two months before the original Xbox hit the market. And there’s a reason Xbox is just now getting Final Fantasy 14. Microsoft wouldn’t support crossplay when it released and Sony would.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capcom_vs._SNK_2#:~:text=Players%20from%20both%20platforms%20could,regions%2C%20but%20without%20online%20support.
https://www.eurogamer.net/final-fantasy-14-a-realm-reborn-isnt-coming-to-xbox-due-to-microsoft-not-allowing-cross-platform-play
Re: Phil Spencer On Porting Exclusives: 'Every Decision We Make Is To Make Xbox Stronger'
Not console, but games. Like Sega. Or EA. Or Ubisoft. Or Capcom. Or…you get the point.
Re: Major Game Maker Reportedly Questioning Xbox Support Amidst 'Falling Sales'
@Rodimusprime13
Simply look at Metacritic.
601 PS5 games.
352 Xbox Series games.
Please retort. The popcorn is popping.
Re: Major Game Maker Reportedly Questioning Xbox Support Amidst 'Falling Sales'
@Rodimusprime13
Perhaps it’s Sony? The quote literally says "I don't know why we bothered supporting it", so it’s a game that was released on Xbox (although it must not have sold well based on the quote).
Outside of Destiny, which has always been on Xbox, the only other PlayStation property on Xbox is MLB The Show, and we all know why Sony allows it. MLB licensing rights.
I doubt it’s Larian, although the parity clause for Series X / S created a development issue that Xbox eventually backtracked on because…Xbox. (Not to be dismissive of the PlayStation “we believe in generations” before releasing multiple first party games in the PS5 gen on PS4.)
Probably why there is no mid gen Xbox upgrade. If there’s difficulty developing for X with S, imagine an X upgrade. Better to leave the Series system behind and start a new console generation. Or go third part dev/publisher.
After all, as Phil Spencer says, “Xbox is a place where I can find the great games I want to.’ Not console. Games.
Re: Major Game Maker Reportedly Questioning Xbox Support Amidst 'Falling Sales'
Interesting Polygon article covering some of the Microsoft mentality. Here are Phil’s quotes from the article.
https://www.polygon.com/24108700/phil-spencer-interview-2024-xbox-exclusives-layoffs
Re: Major Game Maker Reportedly Questioning Xbox Support Amidst 'Falling Sales'
A couple of years old, but seems appropriate for today.
https://twitter.com/Chris_Dring/status/1501607291312820225
Re: Major Game Maker Reportedly Questioning Xbox Support Amidst 'Falling Sales'
Is it true? Who knows. I did find Phil’s specific language about the first four games not being Starfield pretty curious. Not a lie, but not a denial.
Here’s Christopher Dring’s profile. Sounds connected and GDC did just take place o. San Francisco.
“ Outside of GI, Chris has been frequently published on The Guardian, Video Games Chronicle and Time Extension. He has acted as an expert in the games market for the BBC, CNN, Sky News and other financial media.”
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/authors/christopher-dring
Re: Microsoft 'Feared' The End Of Console Gaming As Early As Xbox 360, Says Peter Moore
I mean, it’s been four generations of Xbox being in third place, with the last two being the digital library age. GamePass is great due to access. I won’t (and pretty much can’t) leave PSN due to my library.
Re: Starfield To PS5 Rumours Played Down Following Recent Xbox First-Party Ports
I wouldn’t buy an.Xbox for it; but I’d probably grab Starfield for $15 if it included all the DLC. And I wonder how much “work” it actually needs. The kinks were worked out for Xbox and both platforms were developed for across many years. A little spit and shine and voila!
Re: Digital Foundry Tests Xbox & PlayStation Cloud Gaming, And The Results Are Mixed
“All in all it's a bit of a mixed bag, and the results may appear to favour PlayStation initially.”
I would say “appear to favor” is a bit off when you have quotes like these:
“The Xbox Cloud Gaming service is simply not on the same level as PS Plus cloud streaming in terms of quality, as it stands today.”
And
“Each of these services have huge benefits in terms of access to game downloads and other features, but if we're focusing on cloud streaming alone, there's a clear winner. Between the use of PS5-grade hardware server-side, the higher bitrate and resolution, PlayStation Plus presents its catalogue at a quality level that's much closer to justifying that Premium label - even if it's behind Xbox in terms of latency.”
Re: Obsidian Blasted By Xbox Fans For 'Prioritising' PS5 & Switch Versions Of Pentiment
People’s minds are going to melt now that we know the release dates for the four games that “…will not be Starfield or Indiana Jones.” Phil kept his word. The four games weren’t Starfield or Indy. And they’ll all be released in around 60 days.
But what’s next? And when?
Re: Xbox Reminds Fans 'More Than 10 Major Releases' Are On The Way
@Romans12
I’ll be playing Helldivers 2, Steller Blade, Final Fantasy 7, Granblue, Rise of Ronin and many others while you beta test future PlayStation games. Thanks!
Re: Game Pass Hits 34 Million Subs, Service Will Remain Exclusive To Xbox
So roughly a 2.7 million subscription loss since ‘22.
Re: Xbox Reminds Fans 'More Than 10 Major Releases' Are On The Way
Xbox is finally getting Final Fantasy XIV. I started that on my PS3 since Sony allowed cross platform play. It didn’t get released on Xbox because they refused cross platform play at the time. It is amazing! Well worth the time sink! And it’s a guaranteed winner, not a toss up like a Redfall or Starfield!
https://www.eurogamer.net/final-fantasy-14-a-realm-reborn-isnt-coming-to-xbox-due-to-microsoft-not-allowing-cross-platform-play
Re: Reaction: Xbox's Commitment To Console Gaming Is Pleasing, But Big Questions Linger
@Romans12
Like a frog being boiled.
Re: Reaction: Xbox's Commitment To Console Gaming Is Pleasing, But Big Questions Linger
I think the internal Xbox memo says it all in closing:
“This is a future where Xbox is everywhere—consistent with our promise to empower players to “play the games you want, with the people you want, anywhere you want.”
Makes sense. This is what $3 trillion companies have to do. Shareholders won’t let them sit pat and say, “Well, we’ve made enough money! Let’s go play an Xbox exclusive!”
No, as memorialized by Gordon Gekko in Wall Street, “greed is good” and investors want returns on that $75.4 billion (and counting) spent acquiring Activision.
Re: Xbox Reportedly Has 'No Plans' To Stop Making Consoles
Microsoft is valued at $3 trillion. It’s a company with nearly 7.5 billion shares, with majority holders being Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street Corp. These are investment companies. They are not gamers.
Up until recently, Microsoft’s largest acquisition in its history was a little over $21 billion. It was a massive failure. (Nokia says hi!)
We’ll see what comes from Microsoft’s announcement about the future vision for Xbox. I assure you the investment firms have had their say.
Re: Xbox Fans Urged To Remain Calm As Emotions Run Wild On Social Media
It sounds like there’s an internal argument between Microsoft and Xbox, with Microsoft having the overall say. Phil’s post didn’t have any energy or excitement to it, considering the punctuation used. Very matter of fact, suggesting he’s against the move, but corporate (and the $70 billion they just committed) are pushing for the change.
It’s also been suggested that these “leaks” originated from the Xbox Team to infuriate the user base in hopes it would sway Microsoft and the shareholders. It may do that, or it may just piss off corporate.
We’ll know more sometime next week.
Re: Phil Spencer Addresses Xbox Speculation Ahead Of 'Business Update Event'
Xbox got Activision, but shareholders apparently want rapid returns on $70 billion investments. Sometimes you should be careful of what you wish for.
Re: Microsoft Hits Historic $3 Trillion Valuation On Same Day Of Xbox Layoffs
Interesting article on how Xbox has played its user base.
https://www.kotaku.com.au/2024/01/xbox-is-not-your-friend/
Re: Bethesda Announces Six 'Top-Requested' Features Coming Soon To Starfield
@Reptilio I like Fallout, so I think I’d like Starfield. I really enjoyed Oblivion, but couldn’t get into Skyrim even though I bought it twice (original and VR).
Re: Bethesda Announces Six 'Top-Requested' Features Coming Soon To Starfield
Good lord. Reading the comments, this sounds absolutely painful to play! I get the Eurogamer review.
Re: Bethesda Announces Six 'Top-Requested' Features Coming Soon To Starfield
Not a bad spot in Xbox exclusives over the past 10 years. It is kinda funny that The Outer Worlds scored an 85! I know, not Xbox exclusive, but future games will probably be.
92 - Forza Horizon 5
92 - Forza Horizon 4
92 - Ori and the Will of the Wisps
91 - Forza Horizon 3
90 - Microsoft Flight Simulator
88 - Ori and the Blind Forrest
87 - Halo Infinite
87 - Forza Motorsport 6
87 - Hi-Fi Rush
86 - Forza Motorsport 7
86 - Forza Horizon 2
86 - Titanfall
86 - Pentiment
85 - Halo: The Master Chief Collection
84 - Halo 5: Guardians
84 - Gears of War 4
84 - Gears 5
84 - Rare Replay
84 - Starfield
Edit: Updated to reflect Starfield’s return to 84.
Re: Roundup: Here's What The Critics Think Of Starfield So Far
Sounds like a good game, but not a great game. Some of the review headlines sum it up nicely:
‘Starfield’ has everything you could want, except a reason to keep playing
-Mashable
Bethesda ‘Starfield’ is a fabulous playable space opera with a forgettable story
-NPR
Starfield review: You will like some of it
-engadget
Starfield review: Xbox’s ambitious outer space RPG is big, beautiful, and empty
-digitaltrends
Review: ‘Starfield’ Delivers A Queer-Inclusive Intergalactic Adventure
-Yahoo!news
At least it’s hovering in the 80s. Don’t see that too often outside of Forza.
Re: As Work On Xbox Version Continues, Baldur's Gate 3 Is Now The Highest-Rated Game Of 2023
This is always an option! 😉
https://www.xfire.com/gamestop-trade-xbox-series-x-for-playstation-5/
Re: Xbox Series X|S Consoles Have Reportedly Passed 21 Million Sales Worldwide
Wow. And I thought the Xbox One numbers were bad. In January 2016, 2 years and 2 months into the Xbox One cycle, Microsoft had sold 19 million units. 2 years and 7 months into the Series X | S cycle and they’ve only sold 21 million units?
Starfield can’t even help with that, especially when Microsoft’s console parity clause is preventing much more anticipated games like Baldur’s Gate from releasing on the Series X.
Re: Starfield Special Edition Controller Box Leaks Ahead Of Xbox Games Showcase
Looking at the design, this must be part of their Pride Month initiative. Pretty clever!
Re: Report: Redfall Playtesters 'Shocked' At How Little The Game Changed During Development
I’m glad Sony brought in Bungie to help with the live service games. The Naughty Dog news makes it sound like they’re doing their job, and preventing additional wasted efforts. Hopefully they look at the two shown at the PlayStation Showcase and make similar assessments once actual gameplay exists.
Luckily, Sony has large enough teams across the majority of their studios to split the work between live service and single player games at the same time.
Sackboy (by Sumo), Demon’s Souls, Miles Morales, Ragnarok, GT7, Astrobot, Horizon, Returnal, Ratchet & Clank, and the incoming Spider-man 2, plus the remasters, haven’t been a bad 31 months.
Re: Video: Digital Foundry Compares Last-Gen Hogwarts Legacy To Xbox Series S
I find it humorous that Digital Foundry has a Hogwarts Legacy face off, but Eurogamer still refuses to publish anything Hogwarts Legacy related. A gaming site completely avoiding the best selling game of 2023. Too funny.