Online services shutting down entirely for a full-priced game (with micro-transactions) after just two years is insane and should probably be illegal. I get that it’s 2k and the people who play it usually buy the new ones each year, but still… and the most expensive version of this year’s edition is freaking $150.

@Kaloudz my main exposure to this is the new PC port of Mario Kart Wii that has been around for a bit, and the things that are possible with it, that talented people who truly care can do with it, are genuinely impressive to me.

This is super off topic, but seeing the the Xbox brand name in all caps in the embedded tweet is really unsettling to me. Something about it being XBOX instead of Xbox, even though it’s been consistently changed, still makes me viscerally uncomfortable.

@Yomv7t I don’t genuinely care, I was just making a joke, based on how often he’s referenced Samson in his recent videos as a joke.

Realistically no way this works out cheaper than what exists now, especially for Ultimate subscribers like myself. I don’t get the people clamoring for day one XGS games to go away. That’s literally the draw of Ultimate for me, and I’m sure many others as well.

I wonder what videogamedunkey thinks of this news…

LOL at there being a community note on the embedded tweet.

In all seriousness though, what’s the point of two digital deluxe editions, other than screwing over consumers?

Assuming this is being done to maintain parity with the eventual Switch 2 release?

Also I hope I’m first. 🤭

My sentiment is the same as everyone else’s here: it’s a decent game, but it’s the scene same, just with a different setting, and after the novelty wore off, I burned out hard. I even got every achievement aside from the grindy ones (bonus boards, stars from PR stunts and stories, promotions, horizon play levels, and the series history Reward), and so I felt like I did a lot.

Here is hoping DLC will bring me back, or maybe the possibility of a Mythic achievement will be enough.

It’s interesting to see the adoption of virtual memory, similar to what Apple has used for many years in their devices. This could be a real game-changer for the industry, as getting more out of the same hardware means that costs could decrease all around, thus leading to less of a sticker shock for future consoles, which is obviously especially critical in this current moment.

Do I need to have played Minecraft Dungeons 1 before playing Minecraft Dungeons 2?

I could’ve sworn Rocket Racing was supposed to replace Rocket League?

And to think I’m only at 9075 gamerscore after about 5 years of being on Xbox…

Saw habie147’s video on this a few weeks ago and have had my eyes on it since. Very excited for this one to come to Xbox, even if I know going in that I’ll be trash at it, and just want to appreciate the realism.

@Romans12 I said something similar to my one friend the other day actually, that it seems like I’ve heard almost nothing about this year’s CoD, at least in terms of sentiment or excitement.

Still no ability to remove the row of ads on the dashboard. It’s genuinely ridiculous that it’s 4 ads now. Because yes, “Browse the store” is an ad. The UI would be so much cleaner.

Having an official controller without ABXY labels is…an interesting choice…

I mint still play the modern warfare 4 beta, but I think modern warfare 3 and black ops 6 and 7, especially the blatant use of AI-generated assets, really spoiled the franchise for me, along with my opinion of Activision.

I answered as my first game being Halo CE, but technically it wasn’t, as I didn’t begin playing Halo until I got my first Xbox in May 2021.

That being said, Halo CE was the campaign I started with on MCC, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget the time and place where I first played it, but I’ll save those details for the 25th anniversary in November.

@Nalverus Thank you for the detailed reply. I never knew halo 1 was only 2-player campaign co-op, I guess I just assumed it was 4. I guess I’m still confused how you can do 4 player multiplayer online in Campaign Evolved but only 2 players on split screen?

And, yes, I was asking about why there was no split screen on PC.

Does anyone know why local split screen is limited to two players only? Is there a technical reason for it? Also why it’s not coming to PC?

That and the cutscenes no longer being real-time, in-engine are the two biggest disappointments for me here I think.

Yep, The Verge is on point I’m sure: Xbox is being prepared to be spun off or sold. It makes too much sense.

@InterceptorAlpha Wonderful! Hopefully I find some folks to play it with!

So this is similar to PEAK in that the fun you have is all about the crazy stuff you and your friends get up to?

I really wish I had people to play these sorts of games with…

I’m extremely out of the loop here. Weren’t these games already available on PlayStation? Why do they need to be ported?

If day one XGS games we’re completely removed from Game Pass Ultimate, what would be the USP of Xbox over PlayStation?

As far as I’m concerned, even though Xbox owns CoD now, it as a franchise is and will continue to be a completely separate entity from XGS games, because the people who play the newest CoD every year only play CoD, and the rest of us are perfectly serviced by the older games being on Game Pass for very casual play.

Put another way, if Game Pass ultimate loses the day one games, I’m sure the subscription drop-off from myself and others will be quite large, because at that point there’s zero reason to give Xbox subscription money beyond online play, and personally I would almost certainly play on Xbox far less than I currently do.

@SoulChimera this is the only thing I know about this game and the franchise.

EDIT: it was completely unrelated. https://www.wired.com/2010/12/michael-jackson-vuvuzela/

The mention of “premium in-game currency” in Gears is setting off some alarm bells in my head.

That being said, I think I might purchase the upgrade for Halo CE to support Halo Studios, especially since it’s $20 instead of $30 or $40, and treat the early access as a nice bonus.

Thank you so much for putting direct store links on this page! I wish that was done for the sale articles too…

There are still some games that aren’t available, but I like @Lup’s idea of wishlisting them!

Spinning up toys to life again doesn’t really seem financially viable in this day and age. Even Nintendo only releases a few Amiibo a year now.

@Balaam_ @Lrapsody @Kaloudz very curious for y’all’s thoughts on why this isn’t for you. What is it even about? (In all the years of this promotion I’ve never actually played it)

So it seems like the eighth generation of consoles will go out with 12-13 years under its belt. That’s kind of insane to think about. For gods sake I was in freshman year of high school….

@ScottW Oh thank goodness. I haven’t been able to redeem Microsoft Rewards points for years because it would never accept my phone number, I believe because it was tied to an old Microsoft account that I had deleted years ago without even realizing my phone number was attached to it. That being said, I tried to redeem my points earlier this week and I still wasn’t able to, so I don’t know what’s going on.

@somnambulance Passkeys, which are the only forms of login credentials that use biometric authentication, are stored at the hardware level, in a secure part of the computer chip that’s not accessible by the rest of the system, let alone websites or apps. They’re like using a physical key to lock your front door, if the physical key was stored inside the door and unable to be accessed by anyone except yourself, and even then only by using your fingerprint or facial mapping.

@TrollOfWar beat me to it! I was going to say, “the thing that was used for chatpads?”

Why is there no share button on the elite controller 3?

@Stocksy wondering about steam deck myself.

@Millionski if I’m using another brand of handheld but it has the same chip as the Xbox Ally (non-X), would I likely be able to get those results?

@darylb24 “A way to trade in your digital games for credit would be great”

A reminder that we almost had this at the beginning of the Xbox One.

Any word on what we can expect from it on ROG Xbox Ally?

Back in my day, we used to pay $60 and get a full game. 😂😭

I will once again make the joke about Game Pass Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Enterprise editions.

Not just giving Discord nitro kinda sucks in my opinion.

@Tasuki split screen IS there, but only via online, iirc because the Xbox One couldn’t run it without issues.

Wow, the top row of four gamerpics almost feels like a modern reinterpretation of each of the first four generations of Xbox consoles…

Second from left is my favorite, personally, but I also am deeply nostalgic for 2010-2013 (and 2013-2017, but that’s entirely different.)

The rollback to the highs of 2009 intensifies! Now all we need are the Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Business, Enterprise, Ultimate, and Server 2009 versions!

“Our new north star will be daily active players."

This scares me a bit, because it seems to suggest that FOMO and engagement tactics like grinding battle passes or challenges or daily sign-on bonuses will be prioritized over quality experiences.

I will remind everyone once again that Phil and co. were also this much of a breath of fresh air 10 or so years ago, and we all know how that turned out.

I’m not completely pessimistic, but I am very cautious here.

Every time I read these articles about Asha Sharma doing positive things, I can’t help but think of how Phil Spencer also did positive things in the beginning (unbundling the Kinect, backwards compatibility, etc) and we all know how that turned out.

Not saying this won’t be different, but I really don’t want to be blindsided in 5-10 years either.

Really, Xbox should just be allowed to be independent from Microsoft as a corporation.

This whole breaking news cycle has really convinced me that, as much as none of us have liked the decisions made at Xbox over the last few years, most if not all of them were done by the higher-ups while Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond had their hands tied. It’s sad to see this happen, and I can’t imagine having someone from the AI team be the head of Xbox will lead anywhere pleasant.

All the more glad I decided to move over to Steam the other week now.

Wow, this is bittersweet. For one thing, I haven’t used them in a long time. For another thing, they are how I made some of my first friends on Xbox, just a few months after I got my first Xbox console in 2021, a few of which I’m still really good friends with today, so it’s understandable yet unfortunate to see that the feature is going away. But hey, at least I still have the friends I (literally) made along the way!

Edit: I wonder what will happen to the clubs in Forza Horizon. Weren’t they directly connected to this Xbox social clubs feature? (Or did I just happen to join one similar to a club I was in and not even remember?)

@Cakefish just like the infamous "stay signed in" on Microsoft's websites! It never remembers!

@Markatron84 That's so weird!