@mac_da_man not played it yet but almost all those sound like decisions based on design. E.g. if enemies weapons are on the floor then they have to fight with weapons you can use, that limits design choice. If arrows weren’t infinite would the game be more fun? Probably not.
I think almost all games have a lot a nonsensical things like this like carrying far more than you should be able to in invisible pockets or health bars. Ultimately it’s a game and realism isn’t usually the goal. Realism is usually, though not always, dull by comparison.
Looking forward to this, but currently playing something else will jump on in the coming weeks.
It’s an interesting one because the traditional media has been pretty positive, but a few of the YouTubers I follow like SkillUp, ACG, LSM, Kinda Funny have been a bit more mixed mentioning quite a few flaws.
Wondering where I will fall out when all is a said and done. But the beauty of Game Pass is we can find out for ourselves risk free.
@BigRedPaper I agree with you. But if you read the whole thread (sorry there’s a lot of into) there used to be more 90%+ games added (because there were more games) and the average score of games was exactly the same.
Regardless if you read my last post before this, I say objective numbers like the stats I gave don’t tell the whole story and I think Game Pass is mostly really good at the moment, though I am a bit concerned by less games and lack of choice. There’s more chance that if I don’t like their big title there will be less for me each month. Thankfully I like the games they are putting out
@abe_hikura They are almost always often more expensive than if you had bought the games in a sale last week. They put the prices back up to full price for this 'Sale'. But perhaps there's a good deal hidden in there somewhere.
Very sensible move for Microsoft considering the position they are in. They have around 20,000 developers and 30+ studios now, that's too many mouths to feed for a console that has sold around 32 million.
More important developers want their art to be played by as many people as possible. If they want to hold onto their best devs they will want to keep them happy.
This strategy will make Microsoft a lot more money in the long run.
@Fiendish-Beaver Thanks for the declaration of love. I'll tell my missus, might get me something if she knows there's competition... and if she gives me the boot, good to know I have options! 🤣
I try to be objective and present facts, sources and links as often as possible because I think there is far too much emotion caught up in video game discourse. At best people letting their hearts rule their heads; but in reality far too often it's people pulling information our of their backsides. It's harder to argue against facts.
But I do have to add that I really don't think the stats tell the whole story here. It is interesting and informative but for something like Game Pass how you feel about it IS important. Objectively it is true there are half as many games and it costs twice as much to get Day 1 games... but we all knew that the old prices and value couldn't last. Right? It offered too much for too little.
So for me while it's still important to see the service has dropped off we each have to ask ourselves if it still represents good value to us. For you perhaps not, but for me it does. I actually think it's quite strong right now despite the fact there are fewer games simply because the games being added are ones I specifically want to play... or at least try. Indiana Jones, Eternal Strands, Ninja Gaiden 2, Citizen Sleeper 2, Avowed. That represents great value to me over 3 months. But your mileage may vary.
@Kaloudz I think it's about BOTH quantity and quality. The reason why quantity is important is we all like different things and the less games there are the less CHOICE we have, the less chance there is a game we want to play. There have been months where 8 games have released but none of them interested me, whereas if there had been 16 maybe one would.
Of course I want quality first, but as I demonstrated there used to be more games, more higher scoring games (due to there being more games) and hence a wider variety. That doesn't mean it used to be "better" that is subjective based on the games you like, but it did use to have more choice each month, that's undeniable.
@Kaloudz To be clear while I find all this data interesting it doesn't tell the whole story. What is more important is if you feel you are getting good value.
And weighing up the whole service in data like this isn't all that useful ON IT'S OWN. But we can be misled by our emotions and not realise what we are actually getting, hence I think it's useful to have factual data like this to compare and contrast. Especially when we can see we are consistently getting less games.
I also don't think adding up the monetary cost of games on the service is very helpful as that isn't how we consume games, no one plays them all, we only play a few.
Instead what I do personally is keep a list of all the games I play on Game Pass, and at the end of each year I look at it and see if I thought that represented good value to me. It always does. But for someone else it might not. There is no right or wrong answer.
@FatGuyInLilCoat Yes i'm not worried YET, as it still represents good value to me. But I am keeping a close eye on it, if the numbers continued to slip I will call it out.
@Kaloudz 'Better' is a subjective take. This was merely an objective data driven analysis of each year versus the last 6 months when things have noticeably slowed down. (Which was why I looked into it in the first place @FatGuyInLilCoat)
All of the data above is the 'mean' average, not the 'median', i.e. finding the total of the values and dividing by how many values there are. Whereas the median would be listing all the values in order and finding the middle value. Although the median Metacritic doesn't change anything as it's:
2020 = 79
2021 = 78
2022 = 80
2023 = 78
2024 = 79
There are other ways to look at quality e.g. the number of games that are 90+ but that would be more likely to favour the older dates when there were more games added to Game Pass (more chances to have a high score) so I didn't include that. But in case you are interested here's the number of 90+ Metacritic games each year.
2019 - 7
2020 - 8
2021 - 7
2022 - 4
2023 - 3
2024 - 2
Again this won't tell the whole story. But it is all interesting.
@fatpunkslim This is just an objective data driven take. Of course subjectively people may prefer the games now. Both can be true.
Quality can be judged in different ways, it can be entirely subjective, but to have an easily quantifiable number that is already on the spreadsheet, I have gone with Metacritic average above. I had to double check the data because every year was scarily close, between 77.1% and 77.5% Metacritic, but as I said that's likely a combination between great curation and regressions to the mean. In other words the more games you have the closer it will get to the same average score.
AA/AAA this is hard to quantify as they are vague subjective concepts, as there is no definition for what these actually are. But if I had to take an educated guess having looked at the data closely... I suspect we used to get a lot more AAA titles before, but they were probably older third party games. e.g. we used to get a lot of AAA games like Mass Effect, Dead Space, Crysis, Batman, Far Cry etc. that were a few years old. Though a 6 year old Far Cry was just added...
Old/New: There is an 'Age' column (i.e. the age of the game when added) that I did look at adding to the analysis but there are too many entries with incomplete data (e.g. no release date) which would ruin the analysis, so that's not something I can analyse quickly. There's also a few games like Diablo 1 (28 years old) that might significantly skew the average.
Again this isn't anything definitive, it's just objective data, but it is interesting.
@Kaloudz I have all the stats on that actually. All taken from the community run Xbox Game Pass Master List spreadsheet. I analysed and shared this recently so have it to hand:
2019 - 203 games added = 16.9 per month
2020 - 264 games added = 22 games per month
2021 - 265 games added = 22.1 games added per month
2022 - 195 games added = 16.3 games added per month
2023 - 142 games added = 11.8 gamed added per month
2024 - 145 games added = 12.1 games added per month
BUT worryingly over the last 6 months (Aug - Jan) that has been reduced further to just 56 games added or 9.3 games added per month, when it was 22 a month two years ago.
Additionally the usual rebuttal to this is that the QUALITY of games is better now OR there are more Day 1 games... but both are objectively false. The average Metacitic score on Game Pass is scarily consistent. (Great curation + regression to the mean)
2019 average = 77.5% Metacritic
2020 average = 77.4%
2021 average = 77.4%
2022 average = 77.1%
2023 average = 77.1%
2024 average = 77.4%
And the number of Day 1 games is currently falling:
2021 - 51 games day 1
2022 - 69 games day 1
2023 - 48 games day 1
2024 - 41 games day 1
Now don't get it twisted i'm not trying to rubbish Game Pass, as I said it still offers good value to me personally, but I think we need to be open and honest about this. Even if subjectively you prefer the games now (that's fine, everyone is entitled to their opinion) that doesn't change the fact that objectively it's a fact that the number of new games is shrinking while it's also getting more expensive.
@Kaloudz FWIW = For what it's worth.
(My bad, I hate it when I don't know acronyms)
And while I agree with you about Game Pass right NOW, I am concerned that the number of games added has halved in the last two years (less choice, even if more than I can play) and the price has doubled. I don't want those trends to continue. If it keeps going up, or number of games added keeps dropping, it might make sense to save the £500+ console cost, plus game pass and just buy games elsewhere.
However as a heavy user it is currently still good value to me. But while I love Game Pass I don't think it's for most gamers. Most play so little that they just want to pick and choose the handful of games they play. I don't think it's likely to ever be like Netflix or Spotify, games are too long.
@Kaloudz @Fiendish-Beaver FWIW I fit into that demographic that has all consoles and will probably still buy an Xbox next gen just for Game Pass, as I prefer console / TV nowadays and it still represents good value to me. (edit) But I think this market for people like me is quite niche.
Though I am also considering getting back into PC gaming and building a TV based PC as my Game Pass platform but i'm waiting to see what Microsoft are doing next gen before committing.
E.g. if it will be a console/PC hybrid, as some have posited, which makes sense on paper but has SO MANY possible issues especially to do with licensing our existing libraries, cost, efficiency etc.
This makes sense for any games going multiplatform.
@FraserG I wonder if you will also publish what platforms Xbox games are coming to in future here on Pure Xbox, as we usually have to google this separately.
@fatpunkslim Well done for including the full quote. 👏👏👏
It's more nuanced than suggested, though I can still understand people not liking even the full quote.
@Kaloudz There definitely are doom bringers and naysayers, but I think it's more nuanced than that. I do think there is a valid concern for people who care about the CONSOLE, who don't want to play on cloud and PC, that if they don't try and bring in new players to the console specifically then it could wither over time. People are understandably concerned about that.
My view is still the same that I think this is a smart move for Microsoft that will pay off big time in terms of revenue and profit, but there is a risk it COULD sacrifice console somewhat in doing so. I don't think that WILL happen, but I think they have opened themselves up to that risk and it's a legitimate concern.
Simply put, some people only care about console and are worried. (sorry not sure why it was cut off)
I didn't know anyone with an OG Xbox, it just wasn't on my radar. But I had a PS2 and was waiting for and saving for a PS3 when I went round to my mates and saw Gears of War, it was so far beyond anything I had ever seen, I instantly went out and spent my PS3 money on an Xbox 360 the very next day.
@Titntin Do you think they are going to match, or frankly get anywhere close to, 75 million in 4+ years if they are going multiplatform?
It seems to me that they are sacrificing console sales with this strategy and many players will just go where the most games are... unless as I said they can do something revolutionary... but that's hardly Micrsoft's MO. I'd love to see it though.
As for shareholders I don't think they care how many boxes are sold. They care about the bottom line, which going multiplatform is going to make soar.
@Jenkinss Do you think the Series X|S is bombing? I don't.
Sure it's being outsold by the competition but 32+ million is nothing to sniff at when Microsoft aren't JUST about console sales, but PC, Cloud etc. too.
That is very different to the Wii U which only sold around 13.5 million in a similar timeframe (4 and a bit years) and they fully relied on console sales. More importantly the Wii U had lost most third party support, Nintendo HAD to launch a new console as their business was failing, Microsoft aren't in the same position at all.
Moreover I don't think a new Xbox console will sell any better unless they do something revolutionary. Do you?
@HonestHick I get what you are saying and you make some good points, I just still think 6 years is a bit soon. Usually we see a late wave of games that really push the hardware, will we not see this on XSX before Xbox Next? Regardless I will likely be there day 1 for any new hardware.
@HonestHick Of course the Series S|X will be supported for a few more years cross-gen, but fans will always want to be be there day 1. It just feels like the hardware has hardly been pushed at this point, and as games are taking longer to make than last gen, if we have a 6 year cycle it will mean the hardware is barely ever pushed before we've moved onto the new thing, that seems a waste.
@deadmaker It looks great to me, though some of the acting looks a bit dodgy. But a dystopian London with Arthurian characters and Inception like warping worlds looks wonderful.
Will be interesting to see what Microsoft do with the $22.49 purchases, companies occasionally honour their own mistakes.
@PeaceSalad Thanks for the suggestion mate, but I've tried that - I've tried them all - but it won't let me turn them in. I know where the prompt is meant to appear, but it doesn't as Gina's not there.
It's a known bug they said would be fixed in a later update, but that was back in December.
Brilliant game, well deserved. Though I wish they would fix some of the bugs, I still can't complete the codes quest and "Tuned In" achievement in Sukhothai as Gina has disappeared and is stuck elsewhere on the map. It's a known problem on their forums, as are a couple of other bugs, but they haven't updated since 1.3.1. It doesn't ruin a brilliant game, but it does leave a bitter taste in the mouth.
It's currently sitting about where I expected 83 on Opencritic from 58 reviews. I skimmed the review just to check performance, because like @PsBoxSwitchOwner I want to go in as blind as possible.
Masterpiece. Now that it's been fixed (it was a bit rough at launch on Xbox One) it's an easy 9+ out of 10 and one of the very best Metroidvanias out there.
I'll be happy if it's around The Outer Worlds (85) but I think it might just beat it, if it releases in a good state, else just below. All the previews look great and I have high hopes for this one. Regardless of the scores I suspect it's going to be right up my street.
@Old_Man_Harper Not all sales are not equal. I think part of it is deciding whether a sequel will be greenlit is often decided on early 'full priced' sales, and seeing what the market is for the game on Day 1. So it is still important. They will likely include long tail projections based on those early sales too when it 'fails', though a game can get a larger second wind than they expected, or vice versa.
Note that Day 1 full price sales count more than later 30%, 50%, 70%, 90% off sales. I look at a game like Witcher 3, which is fantastic and a huge success, but when they say it has sold 50+ million copies I do question how many of those were at low prices? It had 1.5 million pre-orders and sold an impressive 10 million in its first 10 months, already turning a profit. But then tripled that to 33 million in the first 30ish months, and later 50+ million. But how many of those were sold at $4.99 for the base game or $9.99 with all DLC? I know I triple dipped.
@Kaloudz Many good games have long tail sales nowadays where it sells X million in the first 6 months but 2X million over the next couple of years. Hopefully this continues to do well for Remedy.
Personally I was waiting for all DLC and a physical release bought it was soon as soon as that was available.
At first I though all the plugged in consoles were red-ringing... which would have been tragically hilarious, but it's apparent;y because they don't have an AV cable plugged in.
Makes sense. If the work is already done to get them working on cloud, there's no reason to stop them being on Cloud just because they leave Game Pass.
@RiverGenie You missed the point. Of course we are happy the game updated and we got to play a less buggy version day 1 - though it still very buggy in my experience - but what is the point of having a pre-load for around 150GB in the case of Stalker 2 and then getting us to download another almost 150GB a few days later overwriting the whole file? (I forget the exact size of the second update but it was similar in size)
But more importantly the Xbox pre-load / update system didn't work properly. I had pre-loaded the 150GB specifically so that I could play the game immediately on release, that's the point of it right? But instead when I tried to play it said I had to download another 150GB.
@Kaloudz At this point I generally have more faith in my ability to remember to turn the console on earlier in the day and manually start an update than I do in the pre-download service which in my experience doesn't always work as intended.
@Nexozi I used to feel like this, but at some point you have to accept this is an impossible task that requires a mindset change. I suspect you don't download Netflix or Spotify and think I have to watch/listen to everything I can on it, similar with Game Pass. There's only so many hours...
I've not been too impressed by the pre-download service. Some games like Stalker 2 gave a massive download in advance, then made us download an equally massive update... what was the point? Others even though I downloaded the pre-download haven't downloaded the rest of the game by the time I go to fire it up. It's definitely an area that needs some improvement. But i'll try it again.
@Kaloudz 120Hz is mostly only available on higher end TV models from the last 10ish years. I'm not sure if it will become the new norm for ALL TVs as it's mostly only really gaming that uses it. But it is the norm for higher end models.
The reason we usually only have the option for 30fps OR 60fps is that TV panels would be 60Hz and for frames to display evenly they could only be at a whole number multiple of that 60, so 60fps (1x) or 30fps (2x) or 20fps (3x) on older consoles like N64 for Zelda: Ocarina of time, or even 15fps (4x).
A 60Hz Tv can't display at 40fps (1.5x) at evenly paced frames so it is disabled as it would look horribly choppy.
Whereas a120Hz TV can display at 120fps (1x), 60fps (2x), 40fps (3x), 30fps (4x), 24fps (5x), 20fps (6x), 15fps (8x) etc. it gives more choice to developers.
@Kaloudz Yes. Basically the frame time (like 25 milliseconds or 0.025 of a second for 40fps) is how much time the console has to render and display the next frame (30, 40 or 60 every second). So the more time it has to render each frame the more visually rich each frame can be.
This is why the 30fps version will be the 'Quality' version as it has a whole 33.3 milliseconds (0.033 seconds) to render each frame, whereas 60fps 'performance' version has half the amount of time at 16.6 milliseconds (0.016 seconds) to render the scene in each frame.
40fps is a nice sweet spot that FEELS much smoother to play to most users than 30fps but allows more time to render better visuals. It's a great balance between visuals and performance and personally my preference when done well.
@Medic_alert We've seen this before in a few games. A well documented one was Ori and the Will of Wisps which is a wonderful game, but at launch ran pretty badly on Xbox One, including seconds long freezes on opening the map. They smoothed these after launch but it still wasn't great with lots of performance dips.
However after having to optimise for the Switch where they had to find more efficiency they back ported some of the learnings to Xbox One and it now runs like a dream on that console, as well as helping them achieve even more on the later Series S|X ports.
There's a couple of really good Digital Foundry dev discussions on this game and in one (the second I think) they go into detail on this.
@Kaloudz Most of the RE: games have MTX for outfits and early unlocks of infinite weapons etc. that you can get in the game for completing with S Rank (speedrun)
Comments 6,725
Re: Avowed Launch Update Now Live For Xbox, Here Are The Full Patch Notes
@mac_da_man not played it yet but almost all those sound like decisions based on design. E.g. if enemies weapons are on the floor then they have to fight with weapons you can use, that limits design choice. If arrows weren’t infinite would the game be more fun? Probably not.
I think almost all games have a lot a nonsensical things like this like carrying far more than you should be able to in invisible pockets or health bars. Ultimately it’s a game and realism isn’t usually the goal. Realism is usually, though not always, dull by comparison.
Re: Avowed Launch Update Now Live For Xbox, Here Are The Full Patch Notes
Looking forward to this, but currently playing something else will jump on in the coming weeks.
It’s an interesting one because the traditional media has been pretty positive, but a few of the YouTubers I follow like SkillUp, ACG, LSM, Kinda Funny have been a bit more mixed mentioning quite a few flaws.
Wondering where I will fall out when all is a said and done. But the beauty of Game Pass is we can find out for ourselves risk free.
Re: Phil Spencer Says Xbox Is Done Trying To Convince PS5 & Switch Players To Move Over
@BigRedPaper I agree with you. But if you read the whole thread (sorry there’s a lot of into) there used to be more 90%+ games added (because there were more games) and the average score of games was exactly the same.
Regardless if you read my last post before this, I say objective numbers like the stats I gave don’t tell the whole story and I think Game Pass is mostly really good at the moment, though I am a bit concerned by less games and lack of choice. There’s more chance that if I don’t like their big title there will be less for me each month. Thankfully I like the games they are putting out
Re: Xbox Is Running A Strange Buy One, Get Two Free Sale Right Now
@abe_hikura They are almost always often more expensive than if you had bought the games in a sale last week. They put the prices back up to full price for this 'Sale'. But perhaps there's a good deal hidden in there somewhere.
Re: Xbox & Activision Seemingly Set To Release New Tony Hawk Remaster
THPS 1+2 was wonderful. 3 + 4 would be a Day 1 purchase.
Re: Xbox's New Strategy Is 'Right' For The Business And Needs To Be Embraced, Says Former Exec
Very sensible move for Microsoft considering the position they are in. They have around 20,000 developers and 30+ studios now, that's too many mouths to feed for a console that has sold around 32 million.
More important developers want their art to be played by as many people as possible. If they want to hold onto their best devs they will want to keep them happy.
This strategy will make Microsoft a lot more money in the long run.
Re: Talking Point: If GTA 6 Releases This Year, What Does Xbox Do With Fable?
Just move it a month or two away.
Re: Phil Spencer Says Xbox Is Done Trying To Convince PS5 & Switch Players To Move Over
@Fiendish-Beaver Thanks for the declaration of love. I'll tell my missus, might get me something if she knows there's competition... and if she gives me the boot, good to know I have options! 🤣
I try to be objective and present facts, sources and links as often as possible because I think there is far too much emotion caught up in video game discourse. At best people letting their hearts rule their heads; but in reality far too often it's people pulling information our of their backsides. It's harder to argue against facts.
But I do have to add that I really don't think the stats tell the whole story here. It is interesting and informative but for something like Game Pass how you feel about it IS important. Objectively it is true there are half as many games and it costs twice as much to get Day 1 games... but we all knew that the old prices and value couldn't last. Right? It offered too much for too little.
So for me while it's still important to see the service has dropped off we each have to ask ourselves if it still represents good value to us. For you perhaps not, but for me it does. I actually think it's quite strong right now despite the fact there are fewer games simply because the games being added are ones I specifically want to play... or at least try. Indiana Jones, Eternal Strands, Ninja Gaiden 2, Citizen Sleeper 2, Avowed. That represents great value to me over 3 months. But your mileage may vary.
Re: Phil Spencer Says Xbox Is Done Trying To Convince PS5 & Switch Players To Move Over
@Kaloudz I think it's about BOTH quantity and quality. The reason why quantity is important is we all like different things and the less games there are the less CHOICE we have, the less chance there is a game we want to play. There have been months where 8 games have released but none of them interested me, whereas if there had been 16 maybe one would.
Of course I want quality first, but as I demonstrated there used to be more games, more higher scoring games (due to there being more games) and hence a wider variety. That doesn't mean it used to be "better" that is subjective based on the games you like, but it did use to have more choice each month, that's undeniable.
Re: Phil Spencer Says Xbox Is Done Trying To Convince PS5 & Switch Players To Move Over
@Kaloudz To be clear while I find all this data interesting it doesn't tell the whole story. What is more important is if you feel you are getting good value.
And weighing up the whole service in data like this isn't all that useful ON IT'S OWN. But we can be misled by our emotions and not realise what we are actually getting, hence I think it's useful to have factual data like this to compare and contrast. Especially when we can see we are consistently getting less games.
I also don't think adding up the monetary cost of games on the service is very helpful as that isn't how we consume games, no one plays them all, we only play a few.
Instead what I do personally is keep a list of all the games I play on Game Pass, and at the end of each year I look at it and see if I thought that represented good value to me. It always does. But for someone else it might not. There is no right or wrong answer.
Re: Phil Spencer Says Xbox Is Done Trying To Convince PS5 & Switch Players To Move Over
@FatGuyInLilCoat Yes i'm not worried YET, as it still represents good value to me. But I am keeping a close eye on it, if the numbers continued to slip I will call it out.
Re: Phil Spencer Says Xbox Is Done Trying To Convince PS5 & Switch Players To Move Over
@Kaloudz 'Better' is a subjective take. This was merely an objective data driven analysis of each year versus the last 6 months when things have noticeably slowed down. (Which was why I looked into it in the first place @FatGuyInLilCoat)
All of the data above is the 'mean' average, not the 'median', i.e. finding the total of the values and dividing by how many values there are. Whereas the median would be listing all the values in order and finding the middle value. Although the median Metacritic doesn't change anything as it's:
There are other ways to look at quality e.g. the number of games that are 90+ but that would be more likely to favour the older dates when there were more games added to Game Pass (more chances to have a high score) so I didn't include that. But in case you are interested here's the number of 90+ Metacritic games each year.
Again this won't tell the whole story. But it is all interesting.
Re: Phil Spencer Says Xbox Is Done Trying To Convince PS5 & Switch Players To Move Over
@fatpunkslim This is just an objective data driven take. Of course subjectively people may prefer the games now. Both can be true.
Quality can be judged in different ways, it can be entirely subjective, but to have an easily quantifiable number that is already on the spreadsheet, I have gone with Metacritic average above. I had to double check the data because every year was scarily close, between 77.1% and 77.5% Metacritic, but as I said that's likely a combination between great curation and regressions to the mean. In other words the more games you have the closer it will get to the same average score.
AA/AAA this is hard to quantify as they are vague subjective concepts, as there is no definition for what these actually are. But if I had to take an educated guess having looked at the data closely... I suspect we used to get a lot more AAA titles before, but they were probably older third party games. e.g. we used to get a lot of AAA games like Mass Effect, Dead Space, Crysis, Batman, Far Cry etc. that were a few years old. Though a 6 year old Far Cry was just added...
Old/New: There is an 'Age' column (i.e. the age of the game when added) that I did look at adding to the analysis but there are too many entries with incomplete data (e.g. no release date) which would ruin the analysis, so that's not something I can analyse quickly. There's also a few games like Diablo 1 (28 years old) that might significantly skew the average.
Again this isn't anything definitive, it's just objective data, but it is interesting.
Re: Phil Spencer Says Xbox Is Done Trying To Convince PS5 & Switch Players To Move Over
@Kaloudz I have all the stats on that actually. All taken from the community run Xbox Game Pass Master List spreadsheet. I analysed and shared this recently so have it to hand:
BUT worryingly over the last 6 months (Aug - Jan) that has been reduced further to just 56 games added or 9.3 games added per month, when it was 22 a month two years ago.
Additionally the usual rebuttal to this is that the QUALITY of games is better now OR there are more Day 1 games... but both are objectively false. The average Metacitic score on Game Pass is scarily consistent. (Great curation + regression to the mean)
And the number of Day 1 games is currently falling:
Now don't get it twisted i'm not trying to rubbish Game Pass, as I said it still offers good value to me personally, but I think we need to be open and honest about this. Even if subjectively you prefer the games now (that's fine, everyone is entitled to their opinion) that doesn't change the fact that objectively it's a fact that the number of new games is shrinking while it's also getting more expensive.
Re: N64 Classic 'Glover' Is Officially Making Its Way To Xbox Next Week
@Kaloudz Feel exactly the same. What do you think is a fair price for this? / What would you actually spend?
EDIT: I just looked up and saw there was a physical Limited Run version for $34.99 which seems WAY too high to me.
Re: Phil Spencer Says Xbox Is Done Trying To Convince PS5 & Switch Players To Move Over
@Kaloudz FWIW = For what it's worth.
(My bad, I hate it when I don't know acronyms)
And while I agree with you about Game Pass right NOW, I am concerned that the number of games added has halved in the last two years (less choice, even if more than I can play) and the price has doubled. I don't want those trends to continue. If it keeps going up, or number of games added keeps dropping, it might make sense to save the £500+ console cost, plus game pass and just buy games elsewhere.
However as a heavy user it is currently still good value to me. But while I love Game Pass I don't think it's for most gamers. Most play so little that they just want to pick and choose the handful of games they play. I don't think it's likely to ever be like Netflix or Spotify, games are too long.
Re: Phil Spencer Says Xbox Is Done Trying To Convince PS5 & Switch Players To Move Over
@Kaloudz @Fiendish-Beaver FWIW I fit into that demographic that has all consoles and will probably still buy an Xbox next gen just for Game Pass, as I prefer console / TV nowadays and it still represents good value to me. (edit) But I think this market for people like me is quite niche.
Though I am also considering getting back into PC gaming and building a TV based PC as my Game Pass platform but i'm waiting to see what Microsoft are doing next gen before committing.
E.g. if it will be a console/PC hybrid, as some have posited, which makes sense on paper but has SO MANY possible issues especially to do with licensing our existing libraries, cost, efficiency etc.
Re: Xbox Will Be 'Honest & Transparent' About Platforms In Future Showcases, Says Phil Spencer
This makes sense for any games going multiplatform.
@FraserG I wonder if you will also publish what platforms Xbox games are coming to in future here on Pure Xbox, as we usually have to google this separately.
Re: Phil Spencer Says Xbox Is Done Trying To Convince PS5 & Switch Players To Move Over
@fatpunkslim Well done for including the full quote. 👏👏👏
It's more nuanced than suggested, though I can still understand people not liking even the full quote.
@Kaloudz There definitely are doom bringers and naysayers, but I think it's more nuanced than that. I do think there is a valid concern for people who care about the CONSOLE, who don't want to play on cloud and PC, that if they don't try and bring in new players to the console specifically then it could wither over time. People are understandably concerned about that.
My view is still the same that I think this is a smart move for Microsoft that will pay off big time in terms of revenue and profit, but there is a risk it COULD sacrifice console somewhat in doing so. I don't think that WILL happen, but I think they have opened themselves up to that risk and it's a legitimate concern.
Simply put, some people only care about console and are worried. (sorry not sure why it was cut off)
Re: Talking Point: When Did You First Get Introduced To The World Of Xbox?
I didn't know anyone with an OG Xbox, it just wasn't on my radar. But I had a PS2 and was waiting for and saving for a PS3 when I went round to my mates and saw Gears of War, it was so far beyond anything I had ever seen, I instantly went out and spent my PS3 money on an Xbox 360 the very next day.
Re: Xbox Reporter Says Series X|S Successor Has Been 'Fully Approved' By Microsoft
@Titntin Do you think they are going to match, or frankly get anywhere close to, 75 million in 4+ years if they are going multiplatform?
It seems to me that they are sacrificing console sales with this strategy and many players will just go where the most games are... unless as I said they can do something revolutionary... but that's hardly Micrsoft's MO. I'd love to see it though.
As for shareholders I don't think they care how many boxes are sold. They care about the bottom line, which going multiplatform is going to make soar.
Re: Xbox Reporter Says Series X|S Successor Has Been 'Fully Approved' By Microsoft
@Jenkinss Do you think the Series X|S is bombing? I don't.
Sure it's being outsold by the competition but 32+ million is nothing to sniff at when Microsoft aren't JUST about console sales, but PC, Cloud etc. too.
That is very different to the Wii U which only sold around 13.5 million in a similar timeframe (4 and a bit years) and they fully relied on console sales. More importantly the Wii U had lost most third party support, Nintendo HAD to launch a new console as their business was failing, Microsoft aren't in the same position at all.
Moreover I don't think a new Xbox console will sell any better unless they do something revolutionary. Do you?
Re: Xbox Reporter Says Series X|S Successor Has Been 'Fully Approved' By Microsoft
@HonestHick I get what you are saying and you make some good points, I just still think 6 years is a bit soon. Usually we see a late wave of games that really push the hardware, will we not see this on XSX before Xbox Next? Regardless I will likely be there day 1 for any new hardware.
Re: Xbox Reporter Says Series X|S Successor Has Been 'Fully Approved' By Microsoft
@HonestHick Of course the Series S|X will be supported for a few more years cross-gen, but fans will always want to be be there day 1. It just feels like the hardware has hardly been pushed at this point, and as games are taking longer to make than last gen, if we have a 6 year cycle it will mean the hardware is barely ever pushed before we've moved onto the new thing, that seems a waste.
Re: Xbox Game Pass Hit Indiana Jones Scoops Up Multiple DICE Awards
@carlos82 Thanks dude. Will look out for it. Fingers crossed.
Re: 'Tides Of Annihilation' Accidentally Goes Live On Xbox Without A Release Date
@deadmaker It looks great to me, though some of the acting looks a bit dodgy. But a dystopian London with Arthurian characters and Inception like warping worlds looks wonderful.
Will be interesting to see what Microsoft do with the $22.49 purchases, companies occasionally honour their own mistakes.
Re: Xbox Game Pass Hit Indiana Jones Scoops Up Multiple DICE Awards
@PeaceSalad Agreed. I had no major bugs in the rest of the game, but Sukhothai felt a little rushed/unpolished in places.
Re: Xbox Game Pass Hit Indiana Jones Scoops Up Multiple DICE Awards
@PeaceSalad Thanks for the suggestion mate, but I've tried that - I've tried them all - but it won't let me turn them in. I know where the prompt is meant to appear, but it doesn't as Gina's not there.
It's a known bug they said would be fixed in a later update, but that was back in December.
Re: Xbox Reporter Says Series X|S Successor Has Been 'Fully Approved' By Microsoft
Next year seems too soon. Series X doesn't feel like it's been fully tapped yet. Would piss a lot of people off.
Re: Xbox Game Pass Hit Indiana Jones Scoops Up Multiple DICE Awards
Brilliant game, well deserved. Though I wish they would fix some of the bugs, I still can't complete the codes quest and "Tuned In" achievement in Sukhothai as Gina has disappeared and is stuck elsewhere on the map. It's a known problem on their forums, as are a couple of other bugs, but they haven't updated since 1.3.1. It doesn't ruin a brilliant game, but it does leave a bitter taste in the mouth.
Re: Two Xbox Game Pass Titles Have Received Significant Delays This Week
@GuyinPA75 totally agree. Too many announcements for too early leading to delays for gamers and added pressure for devs. It’s often lose:lose
Re: Two Xbox Game Pass Titles Have Received Significant Delays This Week
Replaced is starting to feel like The Last Night, which was announced way back in 2014 and many said Replaced took a lot of design queues from.
Re: Two Games Announced For Xbox Game Pass Following PlayStation's State Of Play Event
Nice! Blue Prince in particular had my attention, great to get it on Game Pass.
Re: Review: Avowed (Xbox) - Flashy Action & Excellent Exploration Make Up For A Surprisingly Breezy Narrative
It's currently sitting about where I expected 83 on Opencritic from 58 reviews. I skimmed the review just to check performance, because like @PsBoxSwitchOwner I want to go in as blind as possible.
Re: Talking Point: Next Month, This Gorgeous Xbox-Published Platformer Will Be Five Years Old
Masterpiece. Now that it's been fixed (it was a bit rough at launch on Xbox One) it's an easy 9+ out of 10 and one of the very best Metroidvanias out there.
Re: Poll: What Kind Of Review Scores Are You Predicting For Avowed?
I'll be happy if it's around The Outer Worlds (85) but I think it might just beat it, if it releases in a good state, else just below. All the previews look great and I have high hopes for this one. Regardless of the scores I suspect it's going to be right up my street.
Re: Remedy Talks Upcoming Projects As Alan Wake 2 Finally Makes A Profit
@Old_Man_Harper Not all sales are not equal. I think part of it is deciding whether a sequel will be greenlit is often decided on early 'full priced' sales, and seeing what the market is for the game on Day 1. So it is still important. They will likely include long tail projections based on those early sales too when it 'fails', though a game can get a larger second wind than they expected, or vice versa.
Note that Day 1 full price sales count more than later 30%, 50%, 70%, 90% off sales. I look at a game like Witcher 3, which is fantastic and a huge success, but when they say it has sold 50+ million copies I do question how many of those were at low prices? It had 1.5 million pre-orders and sold an impressive 10 million in its first 10 months, already turning a profit. But then tripled that to 33 million in the first 30ish months, and later 50+ million. But how many of those were sold at $4.99 for the base game or $9.99 with all DLC? I know I triple dipped.
Re: Remedy Talks Upcoming Projects As Alan Wake 2 Finally Makes A Profit
@Kaloudz Many good games have long tail sales nowadays where it sells X million in the first 6 months but 2X million over the next couple of years. Hopefully this continues to do well for Remedy.
Personally I was waiting for all DLC and a physical release bought it was soon as soon as that was available.
Re: Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Is Reportedly On Its Way To Xbox Game Pass
I would love them to remaster MW3 as they did MW1 and MW2, it's weird that they remastered two in the trilogy but didn't finish the ongoing story.
Re: Roundup: The Early Previews Are In For Xbox's South Of Midnight
Definitely looking forward to trying this, the style looks amazing, but not convinced the gameplay is going to be interesting.
Re: Random: Xbox Fan Shares Clip Of Microsoft's Console Factory Line From 2006
At first I though all the plugged in consoles were red-ringing... which would have been tragically hilarious, but it's apparent;y because they don't have an AV cable plugged in.
Re: Xbox Adds Four More Titles To 'Stream Your Own Game' Service
Makes sense. If the work is already done to get them working on cloud, there's no reason to stop them being on Cloud just because they leave Game Pass.
Re: Avowed Xbox Preload Now Live Ahead Of Game Pass Release
@RiverGenie You missed the point. Of course we are happy the game updated and we got to play a less buggy version day 1 - though it still very buggy in my experience - but what is the point of having a pre-load for around 150GB in the case of Stalker 2 and then getting us to download another almost 150GB a few days later overwriting the whole file? (I forget the exact size of the second update but it was similar in size)
But more importantly the Xbox pre-load / update system didn't work properly. I had pre-loaded the 150GB specifically so that I could play the game immediately on release, that's the point of it right? But instead when I tried to play it said I had to download another 150GB.
What is the point of the pre-load then?
Re: Avowed Xbox Preload Now Live Ahead Of Game Pass Release
@Kaloudz At this point I generally have more faith in my ability to remember to turn the console on earlier in the day and manually start an update than I do in the pre-download service which in my experience doesn't always work as intended.
@Nexozi I used to feel like this, but at some point you have to accept this is an impossible task that requires a mindset change. I suspect you don't download Netflix or Spotify and think I have to watch/listen to everything I can on it, similar with Game Pass. There's only so many hours...
Re: Avowed Xbox Preload Now Live Ahead Of Game Pass Release
I've not been too impressed by the pre-download service. Some games like Stalker 2 gave a massive download in advance, then made us download an equally massive update... what was the point? Others even though I downloaded the pre-download haven't downloaded the rest of the game by the time I go to fire it up. It's definitely an area that needs some improvement. But i'll try it again.
Re: Avowed's Full Performance Mode Options Detailed For Xbox Series X
@Kaloudz You still don't really have to worry about specs on a console, just play games and enjoy.
Re: Avowed's Full Performance Mode Options Detailed For Xbox Series X
@Kaloudz 120Hz is mostly only available on higher end TV models from the last 10ish years. I'm not sure if it will become the new norm for ALL TVs as it's mostly only really gaming that uses it. But it is the norm for higher end models.
The reason we usually only have the option for 30fps OR 60fps is that TV panels would be 60Hz and for frames to display evenly they could only be at a whole number multiple of that 60, so 60fps (1x) or 30fps (2x) or 20fps (3x) on older consoles like N64 for Zelda: Ocarina of time, or even 15fps (4x).
A 60Hz Tv can't display at 40fps (1.5x) at evenly paced frames so it is disabled as it would look horribly choppy.
Whereas a120Hz TV can display at 120fps (1x), 60fps (2x), 40fps (3x), 30fps (4x), 24fps (5x), 20fps (6x), 15fps (8x) etc. it gives more choice to developers.
Re: Avowed's Full Performance Mode Options Detailed For Xbox Series X
@Kaloudz Yes. Basically the frame time (like 25 milliseconds or 0.025 of a second for 40fps) is how much time the console has to render and display the next frame (30, 40 or 60 every second). So the more time it has to render each frame the more visually rich each frame can be.
This is why the 30fps version will be the 'Quality' version as it has a whole 33.3 milliseconds (0.033 seconds) to render each frame, whereas 60fps 'performance' version has half the amount of time at 16.6 milliseconds (0.016 seconds) to render the scene in each frame.
40fps is a nice sweet spot that FEELS much smoother to play to most users than 30fps but allows more time to render better visuals. It's a great balance between visuals and performance and personally my preference when done well.
Re: Xbox Series S 'Greatly Helped' With Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Development
@Medic_alert We've seen this before in a few games. A well documented one was Ori and the Will of Wisps which is a wonderful game, but at launch ran pretty badly on Xbox One, including seconds long freezes on opening the map. They smoothed these after launch but it still wasn't great with lots of performance dips.
However after having to optimise for the Switch where they had to find more efficiency they back ported some of the learnings to Xbox One and it now runs like a dream on that console, as well as helping them achieve even more on the later Series S|X ports.
There's a couple of really good Digital Foundry dev discussions on this game and in one (the second I think) they go into detail on this.
Re: Another Classic Resident Evil Game Has Been Rated For Xbox Series X|S
@Kaloudz Most of the RE: games have MTX for outfits and early unlocks of infinite weapons etc. that you can get in the game for completing with S Rank (speedrun)