lacerz

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.

We’ll know more sometime next week.

Xbox got Activision, but shareholders apparently want rapid returns on $70 billion investments. Sometimes you should be careful of what you wish for.

Interesting article on how Xbox has played its user base.

https://www.kotaku.com.au/2024/01/xbox-is-not-your-friend/

@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).

Good lord. Reading the comments, this sounds absolutely painful to play! I get the Eurogamer review.

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.

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.

This is always an option! 😉

https://www.xfire.com/gamestop-trade-xbox-series-x-for-playstation-5/

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.

Looking at the design, this must be part of their Pride Month initiative. Pretty clever!

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.

I think Phil knows this won’t be ready to release in September, much less 2023.

EDIT: Keyword…ready. I’m not saying it won’t release.

"There's games that are in development when we acquire a studio, and there's things that are either really early in development or not even conceived yet, and I think we need to improve on engaging in games that are midway through production when they become part of Xbox."

If Redfall was midway through development and Starfield was in its early stages, with both being hit by delays, how is a much larger and detailed game going to release a mere 4 months later? What they show next month better be an hour of uninterrupted and flawless Starfield gameplay. That’s the only way I’ll believe it will be ready to launch in September.

Microsoft just showed their Xbox roadmap. GPU will be the eventual only offering, and it will cost more than $20 a month.

Microsoft showed their hand prematurely. They retracted, but we now know where they intend to go. GamePass isn't sustainable without the install base to pay for the costs. The $7.5 billion ZeniMax acquisition doesn't help either. Microsoft doesn't need money, but shareholders will demand justification for the spend. Forcing people into GPU or a higher Live sub is where this is all heading...and even then GPU will see gradual increases. That ZeniMax buy is going to cost Xbox gamers a lot of money in the next few years. $240/year annual subscriptions are coming...so a console that costs you over $2,000 a generation.

@HollowSpectre
You never know. I always though Insomniac would remain independent.

@WesEds
They were owned by Microsoft until 2007. Microsoft let them go, and Bungie became an independent studio. They signed a 10 year publishing agreement with Activision in 2010, but ended the agreement to launch Destiny 2. But yes, at one time Microsoft owned Bungie.

https://screenrant.com/destiny-bungie-activision-microsoft-halo-explained/

@armondo36
The only issue with that is the method of connecting the proprietary storage is 100% owned by Microsoft. Anyone making a knock off that fit with the XSX|S would be infringing on Microsoft's I.P.

Think of it as the PS Vita. The memory was a simple SD card. Cheap and easy to substitute...but Sony used a proprietaray design that prevented other SD cards from working while also preventing anyone else from making a SD card that would work with the Vita.

Meh...the 100% always correct (never wrong, mind you) Pachter predicted XSX would be priced at $400, then "retail sources" had the XSX at $600. Just wait and see.

https://www.tomsguide.com/features/xbox-series-x-can-afford-to-undercut-ps5-heres-why

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/xbox-series-x-price-just-leaked-and-its-shockingly-high

I gave it a C here and an Okay on Push Square. I think Geoff tried to temper expectations during the pre-show, but with so little shown this year (and we're almost in September), the people that frequent gaming sites want more. And more has been in short supply.

I do believe that Microsoft's first party studios will eventually start releasing great games. I do not believe that it will happen until 2022 at the earliest.

Forza being the outliner. Most Forza games are pretty spot on.

@Ryall
Not to mention that EA Play consists of mainly sports games, with some outliers like Titanfall 2, the Battlefront series and a few others. But mostly sports.

Not surprised, but at least it wasn't cancelled...yet. It's a hard sell when your only gameplay is for a 2021 game, and everything else you show comes as a CGI trailer. 2022? 2023? When will the games come?

@Tharsman
The Tomb Raider deal was all Phil. Quit lying about hypocrite Phil.

https://www.siliconera.com/xboxs-phil-spencer-talks-rise-tomb-raider-exclusivity/

@Tharsman
All the people complaining about Sony making items console exclusive are conveniently ignoring the fact that Microsoft took a multitude of multiplatform game developers and made them Xbox exclusive. So yeah, there's that.

@KelticDevil
Definitely looking forward to Hitman in VR. Thank you Sony for being lousy and bringing us lousy games and gaming experiences!

@mousieone
Oh, so it's like Tomb Raider, which Phil Spencer created a precedence for. Gotcha.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, The Medium, The Gunk, Warhammer, 12 Minutes, Dead Static, Drive, Exo One, Lake, Last Stop, Mad Streets, Sable, Shredders, Song of Iron, The Artful Escape, The Ascent, The Big Con, The Falconeer, Tunic, Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer's Legacy...all bought and paid for timed exclusives for Xbox.

Wow, that just seems...unnecessary.

Ultimately, the games we actually got to see gameplay for looked nice, crisp, more polished, and like better versions of this gen. Nothing looked like it couldn't be done on this gen, minus a fresh coat of paint. That's not a very good selling point.

I saw new games...but these are new games that could easily come to the Xbox One. So is the Xbox vision of "next gen" purely FPS and fidelity (1080p/4K), or actual next gen experiences? It looks like Xbox has a brighter future stuck in the past.