After The Xbox Showcase, Game Pass Is Looking Stacked In 2023

Ghostwire as well right? Or does it have two year exclusivity (like Deathloop seems to have, because it wasn't announced for the year, unless they can't market it yet).
Otherwise we live in the age of delays so I can't get hyped for this given that 2022 was supposed to be a good year as well.

Not really much this year disappointing unfortunately and these 2023 dates are not guaranteed either.

Microsoft was very careful not to have any actual confirmed release dates after the Starfield delay.

I really hope that next year they can finally produce a steady first party release schedule. Needs four releases throughout the year. Fed up with the excuses year after year.

Next year does look to be a super year for sure! And if the delays to games like Redfall and Starfield makes them better games then it would have been totally worth waiting for too.
Also, for this year, Pentiment has "stealth" game of the year written all over it.

And this is 'just' the Year ahead that they can actually talk about at this point in time. Both Deathloop & Ghostwire: Tokyo should release to Game Pass after MS honours the deal they had with Sony prior to acquiring those studios. Both clearly stated 'Console Exclusive for a 'minimum' of 1yr on Sony's advertising.

On top of that, it is 'expected' that MS's deal to acquire A/B should complete (if all things going to plan of course). Speculation has been quiet of late, but initially, it seemed like end of 2022/23's Financial year to about June 2023 is the speculated date range for completion.

Of course if/when that does complete and MS own all of Activisions Publishing rights, they can publish all their games they have a license to publish. That means all of the A/B owned IP's (CoD, Diablo, Prototype, Crash, Spyro etc) will be added to Game Pass like they did when they acquired Bethesda Publishing rights. I don't expect external licensed game like Marvel (Spider-Man, Hulk), James Bond (Skyfall) or Hasbro (Transformers) games to come to Game Pass/BC bcause of the external license issues. However, if that deal goes through before Diablo IV releases, then that could be on GP day and date but if its soon after, it will probably be the headline game of a list of games added on the day the deal closes.

Point is, we only got the 'year' ahead that MS can talk about at this point in time. I do expect that if we reflect back on the past year at next years E3 showcase, we will be thinking that MS will have a 'difficult' job to match the previous year with ALL the 'games' coming - not just the brand new, never released before 1st Party AAA's but EVERY playable game releasing on Xbox and/or Game Pass.

@Cherip-the-Ripper Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo both have 1 year exclusivity but the absence of both in the showcase makes it seem like Microsoft can't talk about Xbox version until the exclusivity is over (September 14th 2022 and March 25th 2023 respectively) so there'll probably be a bit of a gap between the exclusivity ending and the Xbox release (I'd guess October 2022 for Deathloop for example).

Looking like I wont have enough time to cope with all the 2023 goodies coming. It should be an exciting year.
I do hope Ghostwire comes to xbox soon. Im fortunate to be playing it now, and whilst I can see this wont appeal to some, I'm mesmerised by the virtual tokoyo they have made - its like they have modelled and textured every single object in a city! Its also very japanese and im a real sucker for it. I hope its on xbox soon so those of you interested can see for yourself..

Just a shame about 2022. Nothing interesting me at the moment unfortunately.

I thought Microsoft did the right thing only showing Games aiming to release in the next 12 months. And most are coming to Game Pass. There were enough announcements for 2022 to keep me busy too in the meantime but we know there will be a bunch of other games coming too.

Hopefully 2023 will stop the drought every other year scenario that Xbox started this generation with (2020 & 2022 were bad years, 2021 & 2023 are good years)

This is definitely the year I put a dent in my backlog. A small dent to be sure, but a dent nonetheless.

@Titntin yeah Ghostwire is underrated imo. It was such an amazing experience. I even got the platinum for it. I hope when its on gamepass more people will try it. It's such a relaxing experience and the mythological atmosphere in Shibuya was relaxing. If people approach it in a relaxing way and not a full blown action game and are into Japanese stuff they will surely enjoy the game. I can't recommend it enough.

And people will finally shut up about Xbox not having games. Right?

Nah. If it goes one month without a first-party release, we'll be right back where we were.

Remember when everyone was saying 2022 will be the best year for gaming. Its now 2023 lol. Could very well be 2024

@Royalblues Totally agree with you. I grew up during a time when I had few games to play and had no money to buy. Today I have hundreds of different games to play on gamepass, Epic gives 1 free game every week, PS+ gives two or more games every month and Amazon Prime Gaming gives 5 or more every month. All this paying just a few dollars or none if you want.

For me every year has been an amazing year! I see people complaining because this is a poor year for gaming, nothing to play and blah blah blah and I just can’t understand. How can this people manage to play all the backlog?

If those in the uk are already on gamepass ultimate but interested in getting another year of it for £41 cdkeys are selling 3 months on gold for £5.99. Each one converts to 50days of gamepass ultimate…so buy 7 for a year.
Worth going for if, like me, you’re good for gamepass till 2024 but figure odds are they’ll raise the price of it before your sub runs out and you take advantage of the vpn deals again.

@Foxx_64740 to be fair I’ve not seen a single person say this has been a poor year for gaming…if you’re on PlayStation you’ve had a pretty big year…especially if god of war hits this year.
I’ve seen plenty say this is a poor year for Xbox first party support - which is hard to argue against when there’s been non so far… and will be zero new games from Xbox studios all 2022 apart from that smaller game by obsidian?

@Foxx_64740 Didn't you know, first-party games are the only games that exist. Oh, also the only games to exist came out four months ago or less. No other games exist.

And to the people who complain about Xbox all the time, why aren't you playing the trillions of games you have elsewhere instead of wasting your time complaining?

Triggered! You should all know not to poke a bear with fanboyitus.

@Bleachedsmiles I agree with you that this year MS Studios has not launched any games. My point is there are so many games to play that if some of them get delayed (just like it happened with Horizon, God of War, Redfall, Starfield and the list goes on) we will be just fine. And seeing ppl complaining about this just intrigues me, but it’s just my opinion anyway.

For me, if MS is taking too long to release games, I just turn on the other console and play something else whether a first or third party game.

@Foxx_64740 third party support has been pretty decent and looks like it will continue to be strong throughout the year. Xbox gamers aren’t going to go without games to play.
But not all are as privileged as us to own multiple consoles. And I do think that those that have saved up for a console sold to them £450+ do have every right to feel disappointed or even puzzled at the fact there’s pretty much no first party support in its second year.
And then you have the fact that Xbox has two platforms…the other being it’s subscription model - which survives month by month. You have to have heavy hitters in there. You have to have exclusives to keep people subscribing. Can’t deny this year so far has had a few months pretty quiet on the gamepass front…and with no big first party AAAs coming to it this year (remember it’s main selling point they market gamepass on is day 1 first party) it probably hits gamepass harder.
And does again cast light on management issues within Xbox.
Games regularly get delays. Which is why you need to think ahead and not put all your eggs in one basket. Xbox don’t seem to learn this. More people that ‘complain’ (raise concerns) the more likely it will be that Xbox does learn from it and we, the gamers, all benefit from it.

Ms don’t care if you don’t play your Xbox. They do care if you don’t keep paying for gamepass.

Yep. Game pass is definitely gaining more speed after a bit of a lull in recent months (in my opinion).
I'll be restarting my subscription very soon. Looking forward to ninja turtles, Tunic, Atomic Hearts, A plaques Tale 2, Cacoon, Velheim, Pentiment, and Silksong (the big one!)

@NotoriousWhiz I say that every year....

Gamepass was the worst thing about the show. It's an anchor for pushing the hardware.

If Starfield was a $70 game, I wouldn't see the hard cap SOME bethesda/xbox fans are making, but since it's basically free, people let things slide and this just keeps going on and on with other games. Goty winner is out of the question even for 2023.

I said I wanted to confirm if Gamepass was an anchor that wouldn't keep pushing the hardware forward and I can't tell yet because they didn't show most of the studios games. Idk if that's a gamepass thing or xbox's horrible management. Guess we'll see next e3 (yisus). I hope I see 2024 release windows with next year's e3s (more than Just Hellblade 2) because right now the only good perceived games xbox has and will release are car sims. Call me a fanboy or not. It is what it is. Gamepass and horrible studios management will make xbox a punching bag yet again. Forza's footage was on PC too.

Now people are getting used to not buying games and now no more FF for Xbox, or wait thousands for years of persona. Unless MS buys the company lol. It's easier for Sony to convince publishers of exclusivity (I think callisto has some stuff too). I hope sf6 actually sells on xbox because I don't want to hear no crying about exclusivity going to PS.

That being said, Kojima is making the better game for Xbox and we're getting bored to death stranding 2 instead. I think Plague tale 2 and Wo Long will be good games and ARE on gamepass DAY 1, but those don't have big budgets, which budget and profit is the anchor that gamepass creates. It's a shame. They have the talent and the amount of talented studios and I wish Gamepass didn't exist and head management wasn't horrible so we could see the true potential of Xbox games.

Peace, see yall next year's e3, or at TGA if they put anything there.

Really hope Diablo 4 comes to gamepass 🤞🏼🤞🏼

@Royalblues that really restates a think I keep saying here and push. Why is it that only exclusives exist to some? "No exclusive so nothing to play!" What, the other 300 games that combined outsell the exclusives 10:1 suddenly don't exist? Of Xbox never released a single first party exclusive ever again, it would still be a good platform. If Sony just cut all of Sony ps studios, their balance sheets would barely be affected. Heck they'd probably rise due to losing huge expenses until it affected platform adoption. It's not Nintendo, it's not like no first party means theres nothing but shovelware. Most game sales aren't first party exclusives for either platform.

In most cases I think it simply means "I've spent $1000 on 2 condoles so I'm only playing the one with exclusives.

But then again, why are only the exclusives the ones that matter. Of my top 25 most wanted games, like 4 or 5 are first party exclusives.

Not actually interested in any of them except maybe Forza & a plague tale but that still doesn't have a release date

@Chaudy people seem to forget we've already had big games this year like horizon fw & elden ring & there's still a bunch of great games coming like God of war Ragnarok , dead space , the Callisto protocol & Hogwarts legacy I guess if it's not published by Microsoft or on gamepass it doesn't count lol

"Stacked" is subjective, so I'm not even going to get into that. It's a played-out dead horse. I'll just say of that list, it's just Forza and Starfield and neither are more than curiosities for me at this stage. (I picked up GT7, enjoyed it for about two weeks, and then dropped it. So perhaps Forza is a perfect Game Pass game?)

But I'm also a bit loathe to hand-wave a week 2022 by saying "2023 is the year!" In part because people hand-waved away a weak 2021 by saying "2022 is the year" — and it turned out to be even weaker. Even outside Microsoft first-party stuff, Game Pass at least got things like Outriders and Scarlet Nexus.

Like, seriously, I was watching a Spawn Wave video where he was talking about how (paraphrasing) "Next year is when Microsoft really gets going with Game Pass and delivering on that promise of Day One first-party titles," and my wife, who watches with me, said "Didn't he say the same thing last year?"

At some point it just feels like excuses are being made for Microsoft. The Series X will be entering its third year ok the market in 2023. What is there to show for it? Go back and compare the PS2's second year. Hell, go back and compare the original Xbox's second year. It's night and day.

This generation has been a damp squib.

@NEStalgia

In most cases I think it simply means "I've spent $1000 on 2 condoles so I'm only playing the one with exclusives.

That's exactly what it means.

But I also don't get your reasoning.

Of Xbox never released a single first party exclusive ever again, it would still be a good platform.

If you're looking at two platforms, and all the games available on one are on the other one, and the other one also has games that are exclusive to it, why wouldn't you go with the latter?

I'm generally not a fan of exclusives at all. Can you imagine if Sony Pictures said their movies would only work with Sony Blu-ray players or stream on Bravia TVs? I don't even like how content is exclusive to streaming services, but I understand that "channel" model is ingrained and hard to break.

But the current situation is what it is, and I can understand why people are pissed at Microsoft if they've bought a Series X and a PS5. (I'm one of them, after all.) When you look back at the original Xbox or the 360, there were good reasons to own all the consoles. Now, I'm pretty sure I could get by with a Switch and a PC and a little patience.

@BartoxTharglod ‘next year is the year’ - every single one of them said that last year. Most here probably said it too. ‘Wait till next year’ is the running joke. You can’t help it. They’re all saying it today. I was watching a channel who’s convince next year will be the most stacked Xbox year ever because of the 6 months we don’t currently know about…destined to get hell blade 2, avowed, Indiana jones, perfect dark…even fable!
We’re going to be eating good. Especially if you’ve gamepass with all these AAA day 1.

I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if we get nothing from Xbox studios second half of 2023. They’ll have cod fill the gap. And we’ll all be in the comments saying ‘wait till next year’.

@NEStalgia Indeed, and I'm going to take my own advice, and play some games. One thing I'm glad about is the fact that there is more diversity among gameplay between all the first-party titles on Xbox and Nintendo.

I think I'm going to call it for now on pX. I've honestly grown tired of being here. I'm going to get my Xbox news from Xbox Wire from now on, where there isn't a comment section to get mired in.

Just a waste of time. It seems the point of many of the negative comments is to try to dissuade people from buying one console or another, meanwhile both companies are trying more and more to be like each other, with Microsoft trying to catch up on games and the other two trying to catch up on services. We'll see where the industry will be in 5 years.

You take good care, NEStalgia.

Welp works for me. By then hopefully a series x will be easy to find in my area. In the mean time the switch and gamepass on my xbox one suit me just fine. I will likely get a pa5 next year as well.

@NEStalgia that’s just fanboy bragging rights. Understand not everybody can own all systems. Also understand each system comes with its own community. A lot of the time it’s not about the company of the console, it’s about the company you gain from supporting it. Theres huge attraction there to be accepted within a community. And the most vocal are often the more ‘hardcore’ gamer… and, if we’re honest, gaming for most hardcore is likely a form of escapism. So if you find something in life that’s accepting of you you tend to embrace it and defend anything perceived to attack what that bit of plastic actually represents for you. It’s far less about the actual games. Or who makes the hardware.

I do believe exclusives are more important now than they’ve ever been though. Maybe they’re less important in selling hardware to the player (like you say, the biggest selling games on every platform is usually 3rd party) but I do think they’re more important than ever for the likes of Microsoft and sony. Xbox wants gamepass on everything… they’re investing in first party studios and timed exclusives more than ever not in effect to sell consoles but to get you subscribing to gamepass. If gamepass had the exact same games on it as psplus well…why go for gamepass? Particularly if you already have a PlayStation. In that ecosystem.

Of course exclusives are still important in making that decision to pick one console over the other to get you into that ecosystem. Hardware features will only take you so far. Moment gamepass is on PlayStation…alongside god of war ect…well as nice as quick resume is most are likely not buying an Xbox over PlayStation. But then Xbox don’t really care if you buy their console…it’s not the priority. We’ve known that for a long while now.

@BartoxTharglod That's just it though. Exclusives on either platform make up a single digit percentage of it's content, don't make up the top games on either platform by sales or play time, and, using Sony as the more relevant example, despite selling well, compared to install base, most of their console owners aren't playing the exclusives at all. Realistically exclusive games aren't what most console buyers bought their console to play. It matters only to a subset of the market.

Overall, the platform, features, services, drm functionality etc is what differentiates the pc twin consoles not the dozen or two games out of thousands available on one and not the other. I can see why someone would buy a ps instead of xb if it has games important to them exclusive or xb instead of ps for Bethesda etc. But it's not Saturn vs psx anymore. The library really isn't the main factor in buying the console for most of the market. 90 plus percent of the library is identical. The fact we can jump between pxb and push and talk with everyone about most of the same games except a few defines modern consoles really.

If somebody owns an Xbox, there's no reason to not be thrilled with all the games available and coming just because there's a few coming to another console they can't play while there aren't any during a period of time that they can play that can't be played on another console. The BIGGEST games of the year are still new, incoming, and on both consoles.

The perplexing part isn't that people are upset that specific games are coming to ps and not xb. Everyone knew that even they bought their console. The complaint is they "have nothing to play" on xb simply because theres nothing new that can't be played anywhere else. Even though it's getting all but a few of the same new games ps fans are excited about... It's just weird.

@Royalblues It'll be sad to see you go. But I definitely understand why... Happy gaming to you!

@NEStalgia There's a bit to go over here, so bear with me. Also, apparently it's "too long" so I'll have to do it in three comments.

Okay, so first I think you're misrepresenting the data here.

Exclusives on either platform make up a single digit percentage of it's content, don't make up the top games on either platform by sales or play time, and, using Sony as the more relevant example, despite selling well, compared to install base, most of their console owners aren't playing the exclusives at all. Realistically exclusive games aren't what most console buyers bought their console to play. It matters only to a subset of the market.

This would only hold true if the 20 million people who were, for example, buying Horizon Zero Dawn were also the same 20 million people buying God of War or Spider-Man or The Last of Us or Final Fantasy 7 Remake. It's an easy to assume when you see hardcore gamers going on about every major release, but it's not necessarily the case. These are Venn diagrams with overlaps. For example (and anecdotally), I'm gonna buy Final Fantasy XVI, but I've got zero interest in Horizon Forbidden West or The Last of Us remake.

The other thing is that you appear to be downplaying the attach rate of some games while playing up others. Take Modern Warfare: it sold 30 million across all platforms. For reference, the (former?) best-selling CoD was Black Ops at 32 million across all platforms. Horizon Zero Dawn did 20 million on a single platform. And let's not even look at Mario Kart 8 Deluxe doing 50 million on Switch.

Speaking of Mario Kart, despite being a fairly ubiquitous title with widespread, mainstream appeal, even that can't reach more than 50% of Switch owners. And that just goes to show that no game really for everyone, and that no one game or subset of games matters more than another. Maybe at launch, given something like Breath of the Wild, but early adopters in any technology are always a different matter.

@NEStalgia

Overall, the platform, features, services, drm functionality etc is what differentiates the pc twin consoles not the dozen or two games out of thousands available on one and not the other. I can see why someone would buy a ps instead of xb if it has games important to them exclusive or xb instead of ps for Bethesda etc. But it's not Saturn vs psx anymore. The library really isn't the main factor in buying the console for most of the market. 90 plus percent of the library is identical. The fact we can jump between pxb and push and talk with everyone about most of the same games except a few defines modern consoles really.

This is again where I think you're downplaying the importance of exclusives. It's not that every single exclusive has to appeal to every single console owner. It's enough for one "must play" to be there that isn't on the other console. That might sway your decision. If you're a big JRPG fan and you're looking at an Xbox or PlayStation, sure FIFA/Madden, Call of Duty, Fortnite, etc are on both platforms. But is Final Fantasy XVI? That might be enough to push you in one direction. In fact, the more homogenous the libraries become, the more those exclusives standout and matter. Why did I pick up a PS5 when I already owned an Xbox Series X if 90% of the library is identical? Because I was looking at Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown, Kena Bridge of Spirits, and Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergade and going "I don't want to miss out on that."

And of course it matters. If it didn't, Microsoft wouldn't have gone out and spent billions acquiring studios to secure a range of exclusives. Indeed, Microsoft/Mattrick once thought like you, shuttered most of the internal studios and prepared to rely on third parties, and now they're having to backtrack.

If somebody owns an Xbox, there's no reason to not be thrilled with all the games available and coming just because there's a few coming to another console they can't play while there aren't any during a period of time that they can play that can't be played on another console.

If someone only owns an Xbox, sure, there's probably enough to keep you happy. I wasn't saying, and have never said, that someone who only owns an Xbox is somehow not going to find it useful. What I've always said is that I don't know why you would choose an Xbox when you can pick a PlayStation. Right now, you miss very little going with Sony, and miss a lot more with Xbox. And God help you you end up picking both.

The BIGGEST games of the year are still new, incoming, and on both consoles

I really think you're downplaying how big some of these exclusives are, while overselling how big some of the third party games are.

@NEStalgia

The perplexing part isn't that people are upset that specific games are coming to ps and not xb. Everyone knew that even they bought their console. The complaint is they "have nothing to play" on xb simply because theres nothing new that can't be played anywhere else. Even though it's getting all but a few of the same new games ps fans are excited about... It's just weird.

The people complaining are either people who feel like they made the wrong choice, or people who ended up buying both and regret that decision. I know I fall into the later camp (although perhaps would have been in the former, given Final Fantasy and such). Again, "nothing to play" really means "I really shouldn't have bought an Xbox when a PlayStation would've done me fine." So far, nothing Microsoft has done since the Series X launched has convinced me I might the right choice in parting with over NZ$1000.

You're on a hobbiest site, so naturally the people who are being vocal are likely to be more invested (in terms of both time and money) and have stronger opinions.

Essentially, people are expressing buyer's remorse. It's not weird or perplexing at all.

@BartoxTharglod Obviously that "one game" it's enough to make some of us buy both consoles. But we're not normal. Normal people don't buy two nearly identical consoles. I bought my PS5 for largely the same games you did of course. But if I were buying one console as a normal consumer, the exclusives wouldn't be what I'd base my decision on precisely because I'll lose whichever way I go. I'd want what I can't have no matter what. So the exclusives aren't a huge factor for a primary system and are more a factor for a second system where you're realistically only playing exclusives. Which is still where I expect the moaning comes from. Gluttons with xb as a second system that regret buying a second system of the exclusive releases are delayed. Which is fine but be honest about the complaint being because it's a second system and one isn't playing most games on it. Someone with only an xb has little worth complaining about unless they're looking over their shoulder counting team wins by platform publisher.

It's everything else about the system, and realistically which provides the better value that would make the decision for most. At this point I'd probably comes down to plus extra vs game pass and who has better sales and used game shelves at the store. . Ie, "which one would I play more games on for my money. ". And peer pressure. Like bleached said, that community factor. Which goes back to fanboy tribalism and the whole nine yards.

It's still an incredibly odd argument. Anyone buying an Xbox knew FFXIV isn't part of that and star field is. No games are surprises everybody didn't know is different between consoles when they bought it so it's not like "oh no, I bought Xbox but didn't know games x y and z are going to be only on ps, I regret my purchase now", everybody's still getting the games they expected and then a lot more. Nobody bought an Xbox expecting street fighter 6, or everything persona, or, weirdly crisis core, on it but now they'll have it.

The exclusives are delayed, not cancelled, and even without them it's a more vibrant platform than people even thought it was when they bought in.. the no exclusives complaint is still bizarre. Again unless complaining about a second console purchased for the sole reason of playing star field in 2022 instead of 2023.... But that's a different complaint. At least nobody's sending Todd death threats like Cory got for delaying gowr.... So.... Progress?

As for me, fwiw, I was Sony first, but the features, pricing, functionality etc of Xbox digital ecosystem actually made me switch to xb as my primary system and I repurchased all of my non exclusive ps content on xb. I.e. couldn't care less about the exclusives (this is late x1 era when ms had no exclusives I was super into). So for me it really is the platform that pulled me back over and even repurchased my library I already had on ps. Including all of Yakuza. And now looks like persona, too. But I still also need my ps for that handful of exclusive games I do want (persona knocked a big one off the list though) because hobbyist and all that jazz.

If falcom comes over eventually, ps will basically end up an ff, uncharted, horizon and ratchet box ..... But... I'm a glutton. And not complaining that ps only had 2ffs for 2023 and regretting the purchase . But normal people would not buy a second console for a few series. It gets is use even with gaps.

@NEStalgia So, before I continue, I want to stress that I think two different things are being discussed at once here. The first is what factors in when people are looking to get a single console. The second is the discussion around jaded enthusiasts bemoaning a lack of reason to own multiple consoles, manifesting in decrying that one has "nothing to play". We are not talking about normies saying that. With that in mind...

Obviously that "one game" it's enough to make some of us buy both consoles.

I don't think you got what I was saying there, which may be on me. I was saying that it doesn't necessarily take a suite of games to sway someone. If libraries are 90% the same, sometimes it's just something in that 10% that tips you one way. And "normal" people absolutely do this. All my normie friends absolutely make a decision based on one or two exclusives. They never once considered anything like services or DRM, such as you mentioned earlier. I'm not willing to believe my friends and family as somehow exceptional in this regard.

And while this will bleed into the issue of moaning gluttons, as you put it, it really can be summed up as asking "Why would you buy an Xbox when you can get a PlayStation?" You miss out on much more going with Xbox than PlayStation, even when they are more alike now than they have ever been. This is also reflected in sales, where the PS5 is still outselling the Series consoles despite the fact it's severly supply constrained. (This isn't even considering that the Series S is much cheaper to boot.)

Now, let's look at enthusiasts. They might sit there, looking at their two consoles, realising that one is either not oft-used or completely superfluous and think to themselves, 'Why the **** did I buy [the second one]?' Or, as is the case with me, 'Why did I buy the superfluous one originally rather than the other option?' Hindsight is 20/20, but I still feel aggrieved by the whole thing. If I knew in 2020 what I knew now, I absolutely wouldn't get a Series X. And that does make me a bit sad, actually, because I remember how excited I was, and how much I posted happily on social media the day it arrived. Fast forward to 2022 and I don't think I've actually turned it on and used it this year.

Outside of that, I've got to take umbrage with this:

Anyone buying an Xbox knew FFXIV isn't part of that and star field is.

Not sure if you meant 14 or 16 (the former is meant to be coming to Xbox — eventually...), but when Series X pre-orders went live, 16 was not confirmed to be a PS5 exclusive. And 7R was meant to be timed. Additionally, Starfield wasn't confirmed exclusive until 2021 — and ironically there's evidence to point to the fact that Sony was trying to tie it up as an exclusive like they did with Ghostwire Tokyo and Deathloop. It's one thing to know that Gears of War or Gran Turismo aren't going to the other platform. And while it was last gen, "oh no, I bought Xbox but didn't know games x y and z are going to be only on ps" is exactly how I felt when I saw Street Fighter V go exclusive. And it's how I felt when I saw Ultimate Showdown skip Xbox.

And for what it's worth, I was Xbox since Day One with the original. I camped out for it. I've got freaking Xbox tattoos. But in 2022, I am absolutely disillusioned with the brand. I've been hoping to be proven to be mistaken in my lack of faith, but I'm not seeing it at all. And like I said, it's at the point where my buyer's remorse is off the charts.

Pretty exciting times ahead on xb gp, starting now in 2022 already wow.

@BartoxTharglod Wow, your comments r too long mate, I initially thought it was part of the article. I started to read it n u have some good points there, but I lost interest halfway through, due to the excessive length of it. Just saying?

I'm looking forward to A Plague Tale 2, first was a real unexpected treat. Still plenty in my back catalogue to play too

@Would_you_kindly God of War Ragnarok and Hogwarts Legacy have no release dates just a window, Dead Space comes out in January 2023. Horizon Forbidden West and GoW means nothing If you only have an Xbox. Callisto Protocol is a game that releases at the end of this year.

So yeah what's your point? Apart from Elden Ring and Callisto Protocol, there isn't a single game you've listed that's released or has a release date. If you have Xbox only then this has been a poor year for gaming as all major first party Exclusives have been delayed and the same goes for major multi platforms such as Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League and not mention game pass titles such as Starfield, Redfall, Replaced, Contraband and many more

@Jomi1964 you thinking his comment was part of the article cracked me up 😂😂😭

Persona. Enough said.

@BartoxTharglod Hah you're officially one of the 5 of us that need multiple posts due to size! I miss when it didn't have limits 😃

I'll have to get back to this later... Phone typing box replies sucks. But it's interesting how we went from opposite ends of the spectrum to the opposite, though I don't have buyers remorse for either console... But more to say on that later...

@Cherip-the-Ripper Omg my man it's true, one cannot give mile long comments, u lose the crux of the argument u trying to make, although he had some good points there ffs lololol 😂 😂 😂 😂

And so I discovered a free game called Asphalt 9 on XB store a few days ago, what a pleasent surprise, the game is a little gem, who else knows it and likes it too???