raftos

I see no problem with microsoft releasing games on other platforms, but I'm not sure I will buy another Xbox in the future. Thanks to game pass, my library is quite small after 4 four years with my series X, so it won't hurt me leaving Xbox behind.

It will be nice, but Watch Dogs 2 should get the same treatment, not only with a 60 fps option, but also improving resolution on xbox consoles. It's a blurry mess right now.

@AlwaysPlaying Thanks, mate! Tried on Edge and it worked

In Brazil, it gone really down. A R$ 30 gift card has been 10300 points and now it's 7500. But I could not reddeem one through the Bing App on my phone, it doesn't end the process. I'll try on the console later.

If nothing else has been "set in stone" apart from Hi-Fi and SoT, so it means that other games being ported to other platforms are really been considered? Because that's what I get from this.

No, it's souless. Leveling cars and parts is a chore and the campaign is boring.

We, consumers, are not as important to these companies as their shareholders. If going multiplat makes the shareholders happy/happier, bringing better results, Microsoft will go that way. An if it succeeds, Sony's shareholders will want the same. These people don't care about who's losing exclusives or not.

Microsoft releases their products on competitors' platforms, like Office for MacOS and Android, or sell services such as Azure servers for Sony and Nintendo and others. And Office and Servers are their biggest revenues. It's only natural for them to release Xbox products on as many platforms as possible. Screw us.

@FraserG Hey Fraser. If I have enough points to redeem two gift cards, can I do it and use to buy only one game on microsoft store?

Funny to see the same situation that happened with Mighty nº 9 and Mega Man 11.

@Would_you_kindly Well, maybe PS gamers can go play Forspoken?!? Maybe??

Meanwhile, PS monthly active users are falling

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/89322/playstation-monthly-active-users-maus-fall-to-lowest-point-in-3-years/index.html

Also: PlayStation Plus has lost 1.9M subscribers since relaunch https://www.polygon.com/23434321/playstation-plus-subscribers-down-2022-earnings

And Steam is bigger than both, breaking record after record of concurrent online players, with more than 130m monthly active users.

Yeah, games sell hardware. But seems like people are buying Playstations for nothing.

I don't remember any Halo having a Campaign DLC, but I might be wrong. Did 343i promised it?

@Kaloudz Devs support the dualsense features, so why not?

@Liam_Doolan Dirt 2 and 3 as well. RIP Ken.

@TheSilverFalcon @K1LLEGAL Thank mates, gonna download it today. Series X for me too!

@K1LLEGAL What about bugs and performance? Is it better now?

@Kezelpaso Bizarre. Thank you Ben!

@Kezelpaso Hey Ben, any idea of RESIDENT EVIL 2 Deluxe Edition have a "save 37,50 with game pass" tag? The game is not part of game pass, is it?

According to SteamSpy, Modern Warfare II has at least 10 million players. If we consider it's 70$ price tag and that it already surpassed 1 Bi in revenue, it seems that the main platform is PC, not Playstation.

https://steamspy.com/app/1938090

@DaveOMac Nope, only for 60 fps mode. At 120, it looks the same as before.

So this is what we'll get on game pass after the deal...

What a waste of 70bi

Bioshock in Space. And I like it.

@stvevan switch is unbeatable, at this point. I regret not buying one when I could...

@FraserG Not on the topic, but did you guys see this?

Nintendo Switch was the best-selling games console during UK Black Friday,
But down year-on-year and closely followed by Xbox

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/nintendo-switch-was-the-best-selling-games-console-during-uk-black-friday

@Akimi yeah, you're right, at least it's not in SquareEnix hands anymore. Let's hope it comes to game pass!

@trev666 Correct, but there will be another 67 billion to spend elsewhere.

@trev666 oh man, the day embracer announced the deal I was pretty sad, won't lie. I love Deus Ex and would love to play them on game pass.

Not that I don't understand this deal, I do. COD is huge, Activision's mobile games are huge too. But I don't care about their games anymore. It's a deal that brings nothing for me, differently from bethesda's.

And if this deal does not go through, it can be much worse for sony. I pretty much agrre with Jez Corden, from Windows Central:

"Microsoft could quite easily create a climate where PlayStation gamers end up deprived of more games than they would have been had Microsoft simply been allowed to complete its acquisition — and there would be little regulators could do to step in here since it would be just business deals between two free companies.

I wrote previously that Sony knows Microsoft won't remove Call of Duty from PlayStation. Minecraft exists as a prime example, pulling in a ton of cash from remaining on PlayStation, and moreover, it isn't the bad guy. Microsoft was hammered by the media for taking a timed exclusivity deal on 2015's Rise of the Tomb Raider a few years back, and it hasn't revisited that approach since. However, this whole ordeal could leave it with little choice if it's to remain competitive.

The message regulators could end up sending here is "do business like Sony." While telling Activision employees, "no, you don't deserve better." It also tells fans of Activision's back catalog to accept the endless cycle of Call of Duty, Call of Duty, Call of Duty, to keep the money coming. It suggests little hope for Starcraft, Guitar Hero, Prototype, or other classic franchises to return.

Perhaps most egregiously of all, the CMA seems hellbent on preventing consumers from getting a better deal with Xbox Game Pass — despite the fact that's the body's entire reason for existing. The CMA says PC and Xbox gamers should have to pay $70 for Call of Duty instead of $10. And why? Simply because the market leader opted out of competing. It amounts to a dereliction of duty at best, but that seems to be par for the course every time a government body takes even the vaguest interest in the video game industry.

But hey, if that's what regulators want, Microsoft might play its game. If Microsoft is forced to compete on Sony's terms, it could be a world Sony may find itself regretful to be in."

Full article here: https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/xbox/why-sony-could-live-to-regret-getting-the-xbox-activision-blizzard-deal-blocked

@Sol4ris Could not agree more with you. Microsoft could have bought a lot of other companies with that money. They could have bought those Square Enix studios for 300M and get Deus Ex, Tomb Raider and more.

@IronMan30 Arkham Knight is a game that should get an update too.

72 on Opencritic: https://opencritic.com/game/13689/goat-simulator-3

@BrilliantBill I couldn't agree more about Digital Foundry. People rely too much on their analysis and go crazy and say it's unacceptable when a game goes below 60 fps, like 57-58 fps, or the resolution is below what they think is right.

Skill Up's review is very critical, and shows a very raw and poor developed game. That pop in is horrible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORcvkz9QxqQ

Well, they could read the more professional and customer-biased brazilian decision and call it a day.

@Tharsman And Steam Deck is even weaker compared to the Series S, and runs games really well when developers do a good work.

And what about the steam deck? It runs Plague Tale Requiem

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UZ3L4Lh2w4

And Gothan Knigths

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rE75PCts58

Edit: it's a 4-core CPU, 512 CU GPU, 16 GB Ram, 1.6 Teraflops (or, a better PS4)

Just look at the steam hardware survey. Many people still using weak gpus to play, even integrated ones, and devs have to scale games down for them. Not everyone is buying a brand new Geforce RTX. And more than 30% are using a 6-core cpu!

But what bothers me most is that all those upscaling techniques currently used for PC games could also be used on console games, but it's not happening. Not DLSS, obviously, bur FSR and Unreal 5 tools are already available. There's no need to waste cpu/gpu time to create a 4k image (or 1440p, for SS).

Deathloop already uses FSR for its PC version, meanwhile PS5 and Xbox series don't.

@Dr_Luigi oh, thanks, did not realized it. Never saw one in real life.

That thing behind a Halo Infinite book(?), at the right side of the picture. Is that a series S?

This is funny:

"It is also necessary to consider that, as Call of Duty is an “essential” game, as defended by Sony, then the Nintendo Switch would probably not be able to compete effectively in the market, since no title in the franchise was released for the platform (until the moment). What can be observed, however, is that the Nintendo console has been showing a good sales performance since its launch in 2017, having even surpassed the numbers of the recently launched PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S in 2021, according to estimates."

The way CADE and Brazil in general operates is very nice, very open, and shows how it really works in real world. They listened all the involved players in the market, saw Sony was the only one crying, for no reason, and decided in favor of the merger.

Of course, corruption still exists, but it's problem that will take time to resolve. But this level of transparency is something we don't see in more developed countries.

@gollumb82 they're doing this mainly for the FTC and the other competition watchdogs, the same week Jim goes to Brussels to cry over it.

@FraserG Microsoft said to Eurogamer:

"UPDATE 5pm UK: In a statement to Eurogamer, a Microsoft spokesperson has addressed Sony's statement: "It makes zero business sense for Microsoft to remove Call of Duty from PlayStation given its market leading console position.""

I believe the acquisition will go through, but it will be worse if it won't. I can see an "exclusive war" happening, with MS using plenty of those 70 bi to get as much content to game pass as possible. Sony/Jim will only get those japanese companies that never release anything on Xbox. Maybe MS could even buy "smaller" companies, "Capcom-sized" ones, just like Embracer did with Eidos/Crystal/etc, that no regulation was needed.

@Kezelpaso Digital Foundry tested split screen on both series X and One. Take a look:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnmKzYME8BM

The first one with a cool dynamic background is what I'd like to see. I still have my PS4 with the Firewatch theme.

This is the deal Microsoft should have made, with all these games coming to game pass.

I was thinking to myself: Wouldn't it be even worse if the deal fails? Because Activision surely would be bought by a chinese company or Amazon, and microsoft would have 70 bi to spend, buying exclusiveness of games, just like Sony already does, sparking an "exclusive wars" that Sony would not win.

@Nalverus it was terrible indeed. hahaha

But I played co-op a lot with a friend of mine. I think that part of the fun was trying to break the game.

Mario World on SNES