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I bought the original for local co-op, but I'm not sure if I can justify buying the new one since it's online co-op only (and offline single-player, of course). It's a shame I can't play with xCloud on my potato PC and downloaded on my Series S together for online co-op.

The appeal of an ad-tier demonstrates the declining buying power of the average consumer — something that Microsoft should be aware of when setting expectations and goals.

I'm of the opinion Microsoft should actively try to fill the gaps that the third-parties on their platform fail to fill themselves, and it looks like this cancelled Crash Bandicoot game would have done exactly that.

I gave up on Microsoft Rewards well over a year ago and I don't imagine these upcoming changes will affect that.

If true, it would really be in Microsoft's best interest to transition toward a "gamer's variant" of Windows to compete with SteamOS, making Xbox "consoles" a baseline standard for developers to aim for.

@MrMagic / @NEStalgia : I'm in Canada and received an email today saying I'm going to be charged $4 more for Game Pass Ultimate starting in September. I assume y'all in the UK and the US will get similar emails soon.

I knew this price-hike was coming when, six days ago, there was an article titled "Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, And Tony Hawk Rumored To Hit Xbox Game Pass 'Very Soon'" on MSN.com.

@carlos82 : Answering your question from earlier: The other profiles had my Xbox set as their home but I could not switch to them during the outage, although I seemed to be able to use my default profile in offline mode. It was very weird.

@carlos82 : Maybe — I'm not sure. I have four accounts on my console (for our four family members) and while I can tell you none of them are setup with other consoles in any shape or form, I can't confirm right now if the three we can't access are actually setup with our console as their home console specifically. When the network goes back online I'll check.

@carlos82 : You can't switch profiles in offline mode though, so if your saves are sitting under a secondary profile on the console you're out-of-luck (which definitely seems like a major oversight).

I know it's a long-shot, but I want a new Resident Evil title with similar gameplay as the (local) co-op in Resident Evil 5.

Do I think the Xbox division is going to collapse or stop turning a profit? No.

Do I think Microsoft is going to maximize the appeal and overall gameplay experience offered by Xbox? Once again, no.

It's difficult to speculate about what exactly will happen though because there a lot of relatively new variables at play these days: GPU manufacturers are targeting the AI / big data sector ahead of gaming, high speed internet is becoming increasingly common, the buying power is decreasing for the majority of the population, etc. etc.

What I'd like to see happen though is this: Microsoft releases a "gamer's variant" of Windows to compete with SteamOS, but it would have better compatibility being based on Windows. Xbox consoles are still sold, but become a baseline standard for developers to aim for on the new OS.

I mentioned this yesterday on another post but it's worth repeating here:

Ten countries (including the UK) collectively account for 77% of global video game revenues, and every single one of them (and several others) have passed legislation within the last four years to ensure high speed internet is available to all their citizens. Under the government's "Levelling Up" policy, gigabit broadband will be available to 85% of the UK's population by 2025 and 100% of the UK's population by 2030. From this we can conclude that game streaming services will become a viable option for more consumers in the next 5-6 years.

@rustyduck : High speed internet will be widespread a lot sooner than you realize.

The UK, USA, China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, France, Canada, Italy, and Brazil collectively account for 77% of global video game revenues, and every single one of them has passed legislation within the last four years to ensure high speed internet is available to all their citizens. In the UK, gigabit broadband will be available to 85% of the population by 2025 and 100% of the population by 2030 (as part of the government's "Levelling Up" policy). Several developing nations have recently passed similar legislation as well, such as India, Vietnam, the Philippines, etc.

@Markatron84 & @Mince : To be fair, the PS7 would be released sometime around 2036 to 2038, right? By that time the vast majority of consumers in the developed world (and many in the developing world too) will have 1Gbps internet at a minimum, there's a real possibility the average size of indie video games will exceed 50GB (never mind bloated AAA games), and corporations have plenty of their own motivations for releasing games exclusively on streaming game services (elimination of piracy, total control of mods, monthly revenue, etc.) Does anyone seriously believe we'll have any physical video games by the time the PS7 comes out?

I'm surprised they couldn't hit the desired price-point — retailers are able to sell Raspberry Pi 4 boards for about $50 USD and it's more than capable of handling Xbox Cloud Gaming, and I'd expect Microsoft to be capable of doing a lot better with a device with similar specs.

For better and for worse, with "high speed internet everywhere" legislation being passed in the UK, USA, Brazil, etc. in the past few years it's clear that cloud gaming will eventually become the norm.

@Scenes : No, it wouldn't. You have to push buttons — holding kick and punch in the arcade, or holding one of the two assist buttons in previous console ports — to swap teammates. And if the screen is expanded from 4:3 to 16:9 while maintaining sprite/tile aspect ratios then players would have to travel the same distance to reach the edge of the stage, there would just be less screen panning.

Note this kind of upgrade could be easily implemented in a lot of other tournament fighting games without any detrimental effect too, due to the way screen panning is typically implemented in those games.

This is a shame, but the real crime here is that yet another fighting game with a 4:3 aspect ratio and panning stages hasn't had the play area / stage expanded to fill a 16:9 aspect ratio while maintaining sprite proportions. It would be so incredibly easy to do with this genre without detracting anything from the gameplay, making for a better experience overall.

Dragon Quest 3 (along with Dragon Quest 4) is arguably the greatest JRPG of all time, so that's an instant-buy for me. Dragon Quest 1 & 2 are pretty rough around the edges though, being the first JRPGs, so unless the remakes are complete overhauls I'm not sure they'd be my cup of tea.

The pessimist in me thinks these games will be added around the time a price hike is announced.

It's been 8 months since the acquisition of Activision Blizzard completed and we still haven't heard anything about those games being added to Game Pass. I can only assume now that Microsoft is waiting to add them around the same time a price-hike is announced.

The 2TB Xbox Series X SE is $599.99? That's an interesting choice since the upcoming PS5 Pro is expected to be $599.99 as well.

But when are pre-existing Activision Blizzard games releasing on Game Pass?

Have they made it easier to cancel? I'm not looking to cancel Game Pass, but I frequently cancel video streaming services (as I only subscribe to one at a time and rotate through them) and it's truly ridiculous — insulting, even — how many hoops you have to go through to cancel some of them.

I mentioned this on another post but it applies here too:

I'm convinced the only way forward for Microsoft is to release a "gamer's variant" of Windows to compete directly with Steam OS (but with better compatability, being a variant of Windows), making Xbox consoles effectively a baseline PC standard for developers to aim for.

Anything less than that, such as this half-hearted approach to a console ecosystem where Microsoft's IP are still released on the PS5 or Switch, is quite simply going to drive away Xbox fans and kill the brand overall.

I'm convinced the only way forward for Microsoft is to release a "gamer's variant" of Windows to compete directly with Steam OS (but with better compatability, being a variant of Windows), making Xbox consoles effectively a baseline PC standard for developers to aim for.

Anything less than that, such as this half-hearted approach to a console ecosystem where Microsoft's IP are still released on the PS5 or Switch, is quite simply going to drive away Xbox fans and kill the brand overall.

This is potentially cool, but I would have preferred the original six games with their original graphics with tweaked levels to properly support 16:9 — something I'd like for a number of SNK games, particularly their tournament fighters. If they really wanted to go above and beyond they could have implemented the option to play semi-procedurally-generated levels built out of pre-designed level "parts".

The next Gears of War ad should feature the original / Tears for Fears version of the song, rather than the Gary Jules version.

I'd prefer a new tier of Game Pass to play Black Ops 6 (or most third-party, AAA day one games, for that matter) if it meant avoiding a price increase for Game Pass.

I was attracted to the Series S for its price. And while it has provided me with some great gaming experiences, Microsoft has made some disappointing decisions with its IP and its support for underrepresented genres on the platform.

As it stands now, I don't plan on getting a console again. I'd like to get an APU — probably a Strix Halo or its successor — in "the next console generation", paired with Steam OS or Chimera OS.

I'd rather not have day one COD releases if it means the price of Game Pass remains unchanged.

@theduckofdeath : If Game Pass isn't selling consoles, and PC Game Pass in particular isn't still growing, I'd argue there's a problem with the service as a product and raising rates isn't the way to go. And speaking of PCs, entry-level GPUs and even some APUs loaded up with Steam OS or Chimera OS are starting to look pretty attractive as an alternative to console gaming.

This would be an incredibly bad idea if there is any truth whatsoever to the earlier article about how "Subscription Services Like Xbox Game Pass Appear To Have 'Stalled' In The US", unless Microsoft is comfortable with a net loss in subscriptions.

Microsoft really needs to revaluate their strategies around Game Pass, IP, third-party licensing, AAA third-party studios, and indie third-party studios.

I am looking forward to Crash Racing on Game Pass, but I'd prefer it if Microsoft breathed some new life into these older titles by adding additional features, if not new gameplay options then some simple quality-of-life improvements.

In my opinion to further Game Pass' success, Microsoft should:

1. Stop prioritizing day-one games from third-party AAA developers for the service, instead only bringing in AAA games that are a year or more older.

2. Prioritize the quality of first-party games and utilize more of the IP under Microsoft's umbrella, which are of course day-one games on the service by default.

3. Prioritize bringing in a variety of indie games, with a bit more emphasis on day-one releases for these types of games on the service.

In other words, I'd like to see Game Pass support a large and healthy community of indie developers alongside well-made, first-party games that ought to fill the gap of AAA quality.

"He's a good human" is exactly what a robot would say.

I wholeheartedly agree with Dinga Bakaba's sentiment here. Microsoft needs to foster the talent (and IP) it has, not cut it out.

Instead of shutting down Arkane, they should have used the talent there to re-make Prey as a side-scrolling Metroidvania.

I don't play on the go, so no.

I'd prefer Microsoft release a "gamer's version" of Windows to compete with Steam OS, Chimera OS, etc. that can be installed on any machine, but which "Xbox consoles" are manufactured for as a sort of baseline for playing games on the new OS.

This article just raises more questions for me:

• If I buy the game today for my Xbox Series S will I be buying access to the updated game, or will I be buying the older version of the game only?
• Will the updated game still support split-screen co-op on the Xbox Series S?
• Is the delisting/update situation with Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S similar to how the update is being rolled out to the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5?

You know what would make for a great indie showcase? One that shows off Microsoft's and their subsidiaries' dormant and forgotten IP being licensed out to indie developers to do something with.

Having said that, I sincerely hope Microsoft pushes forward with more support for indie developers, however that may be. It has clearly worked incredibly well for Nintendo and ought to work well on Xbox consoles as well.

Whatever the reason, it will be interesting to see how this affects Microsoft's strategy in the future. I suspect they'll put more effort into developing superior clock speeds, GPU, CPU — superior everything. But if I were in Microsoft's shoes I wouldn't overlook how much the ease of making games for the PS5 contributes here, multiple developers have stated the PS5 is incredibly easy to work with and that's probably a factor here too.

@NEStalgia : I was thinking more along the lines of single-player RPGs with similar mechanics to WoW... but I'd definitely be up for a new entry in the RTS series!

They ought to re-use some of the assets from WoW to create single-player games for the purposes of fleshing out the series' history and lore, introducing players to classes they wouldn't normally play, and introducing new people to the series which could ultimately bring in more players to the online game.

1. Implement local multiplayer on older titles where it may not have been possible at the time of their release, but is certainly possible with modern hardware.

2. Port older titles in Microsoft's back-catalogue and their subsidiaries' back-catalogue to Xbox consoles (with full gamepad support) that may not have been released for any Xbox console originally, eg: The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, Quake III Arena, etc.

3. Maintain existing (and expanded) backwards-compatability with all future iterations of the Xbox console.

7 Days To Die? Does this mean the console update is finally going to be released?

@GuyinPA75 : I'm inclined to suggest practices that obscure or hide the true cost of things should be eliminated from all industries, restaurants included. And I'd further suggest if a restaurant, like any business, can't compete paying its employees a fair wage without tipping then it should go out-of-business, and if an employee, like a waiter, can't perform their job well with a fair wage and no tips then they should be fired.

Having said that, you're mistaken about the origin of the terms "tip", "tips", and "tipping". I've also heard it said these terms are derived from the phrase "To Insure Promptness", but that's completely wrong as well. These terms originated from 18th English slang for "to give", which is why these terms are used for the act providing both monetary gratuities and useful information.

Articles like this just reinforce my belief that every industry needs to unionize. Tipping needs to go extinct.

The new dashboard has too much advertising and not enough customization, especially when it comes to the two group limit. I have half a mind to get a mid-range PC and Chimera OS, mind you the dashboard isn't the only reason I'm feeling that way.

I don't know anything about retail worker laws in the UK, but between this sort of practice and the effect "AI" is having on employment it seems as though everyone should unionize.