Alpha_Pulse

@Titntin appreciate that mate! I do try to be as neutral as possible! I agree with you, I love when games lean into the hardware features except Killzone Shadowfall when the health bar was actually on the DualShock 4 light on the top of the pad… really poor execution. I also think if it can be ported to another console then why not? It doesn’t have to be set in stone what and when they are ported only if it’s possible and when possible.

Edit: I also didn’t like blowing into the DS for some of the Zelda games. I had a few funny looks from the fiancé playing those…

This guy is great for the cloud and digital world but when it comes to games I’m afraid he doesn’t really know much about history. Exclusives originated from hardware architecture being wildly different and essentially costly to develop on other platforms. Exclusivity has been around since the beginning with Sega and Nintendo both continuing this practice. Xbox themselves began in the very same way so it is a bit absent minded of him to blame Sony. He should point his fingers at Nintendo rather but even then he’d be wrong. These days it would be much easier to go multi platform with hardware being more akin to PC but still there are features of each console that they will want to tap into with their first party games to show off and make full use of.

It’s all very boring this isn’t it? My kids make very similar arguments to all of these execs across MS and Sony. “I pushed him because he pushed me”. At least my kids can make friends again afterwards. You can taste the salt with all the tears being shed in that courtroom.

Yeah that email is very very unreasonable. My counter is I want everything… right…

I would actually support it if he agreed to putting some of the PlayStation Studios content over to Xbox with feature parity (obviously not haptics and adaptive trigger unless MS made a controller). That should have been Phil’s counter.

@Kaloudz when it does go through all he needs to do is use his noggin. He has Bungie in his arsenal and if anyone is going to put up any competition in the FPS space against CoD and BF I think Bungie could do it.

I’ll never believe anything that comes out of Jim or Phil’s mouths. Of course fanboys will continue to lap it up though defending their mega corp and why they are so friendly and nice and just want love and cuddles. They have one priority and that is their bottom line. I would do the same in their positions because no doubt any shift in either direction will affect their bonus targets.

@old-dad get back to? You do know MS and Sony entered the gaming industry at more or less the same time so there was never really a time when only one made the “games”.

@ZuneTattooGuy I agreed with most of the things you’ve said in this comment section apart from this one. The most consumer friendly option is offer a choice. Those who want to buy and those who want to rent. There is nothing wrong with either. I use a combination of the two. The subs allow me to try games I might never have purchased but the games I want and love I buy at retail happily. Both models have proven to work and there is room for both.

Looking at that email I think there is nothing new. This is a proven strategy that works for MS if this email can be taken to mean they plan to buy the market and force Sony out. I don’t necessarily think this email says that though and what Booty does say is actually true. They could just buy up chunks of the premium gaming market and force many gamers into their ecosystem. It would be much better if they just delivered quality content.

I think the response from MS about the email being sent a couple of years before means nothing though. It’s not like you would build a strategy to buy out publishers to push out the competition and then buy something within a short space of time. It takes a while to make these kind of decisions.

Either way I don’t really think this means anything but I also don’t think it helps them.

@Cashews my friend is a technology strategist at MS and he thinks the same thing. MS don’t go about hiding it really either. This has been their strategy for many years, they were proud of it at one point until it started to have a negative impact on their reputation. The strategy has proven to work though they are all about building ecosystems so it is hard for you to leave it. They are also great at building strong ties with influential people and organisations - especially those dependant on their expertise. They are very good at what they do make no mistake.

@Moonglow I would agree with this if they acted as a publisher and went multi platform. I was gutted when Sony got Bungie thinking they would take future Destiny games exclusive but alas they did not. Other than that the only bad thing about MS taking ABK is their approach to studios and not giving them the love and care they need. I can only hope that if this goes through that they then focus on the quality of content delivery over the next few years.

@Moonglow you are talking about a small community of very vocal fanboys who aren’t representative of the gaming community just a small part just like the extreme Xbox fanboys. A lot of neutral people don’t want this consolidation not to spite anyone but quite the opposite. We want more people to be able to enjoy the games. Consolidation of the industry is not good no matter how many people talk about companies in the past being bought out. Sony will retaliate with ABK and then MS will buy more and the cycle will go on until one of them is eventually blocked. Admittedly it does affect me because I buy everything but some might not have that choice and if their favourite games are split across multiple platforms then this isn’t the ideal scenario for anyone. This is just a very toxic and biased view.

@Kaloudz I’m right there with you buddy!

@Kaloudz most of the FF games when it comes to the final boss I’ve never had to grind for. It’s usually for the super bosses that I end up spending an extra 15-20 hours to get everything ready but this guy was just on another level.

7 still and I think always will be my favourite FF game and RPG. It holds so much nostalgia for me that I cannot see anything taking that spot. I get the same feeling when I boot it up each time and I have played it on every platform thus far. I am just waiting for the frenzy if gatekeeping purists who are ***** on 16 to tell me that 7 isn’t an RPG because it doesn’t tick every RPG box 😅

@ZuneTattooGuy I would much prefer a statue too.

@ZuneTattooGuy it’s like books. There is still a market for this because some people like the arrangement of them on shelf. I personally went digital as soon as it was available and is my preferred choice but I know some who prefer physical - especially from a price point of view for aged games.

@Hellostranger why would you even opt to remove a choice like that? How would anyone benefit from that yourself included?

I imagine eventually physical sales will trickle out but while there is still a market it should be an option.

@Kaloudz yep get the reference. I used to watch it with my older brother when we were kids.

Yeah the boss in 13 on a first playthrough was a joke. I was in my first year of university when 13 came out and I remember starting the fight with him early evening and repeatedly fought and lost until I beat him in the early hours. I didn’t grind enough on Gran Pulse before I jumped to the end. Big mistake…

@Kaloudz I am partial to a scone or two… 😂 it is indeed sir the whole trilogy through backwards compatibility. It was in gamepass at one point too.

@Kaloudz UK. I used Dinner as a universal term for having my tea 😂

I know yet XSX is the only current gen console that can play the FFXIII trilogy. It triggers me so bad that I have all of the FF’s on my PS5 except XIII which I have on Xbox.

@RPE83 I know it’s frustrating. Then it will be Sony responding in kind and the Microsoft responding back and so forth. I guess it will eventually play into both of their hands because you will have to buy both consoles in order to ensure you have access to a large chunk of the games available.

@Kaloudz hahaha choked on my dinner reading that crumbles my biscuits reference 😂 yeah you make a good point. It’s all cloak and dagger. I can imagine FF16 and Remake and Rebirth will land on Xbox at some point but they haven’t been forthcoming about it.

@SplooshDmg Dragons Dogma is an excellent RPG! Yeah I’ve seen Pillars as low as £2 or less on Steam!

@Jaxx420 I know honestly I feel like such a hippy about the whole thing but seriously “why can’t we all just get along” 😂.

@Kaloudz 100% agree. I like THE exclusives not that they are exclusive. My friends are all split across platforms too so this is going to make things more annoying as time goes on.

@Jontargh yeah there’s loads of dirt cheap games now so it sometimes saves you a lot of money. I think my backlog of games is bigger than gamepass currently so these subs are not helping me through my pile of shame… if anything they add to it…

@themightyant 100% agree with this. Not many selfish personalities. I can’t wrap my head around the stance being exclusive or multi platform anyone would opt for the former. I can see some of the arguments on the Xbox side because Sony keep making deals for times exclusivity but I would still never opt for any IP that’s has been multi platform for many years to suddenly only be available on one or two platforms. With cross play it keeps online games up longer! There are benefits to all for multi plat. What makes me laugh for people crying for exclusivity on the Sony side is there’s actually no benefit because it doesn’t sit on Plus day one. We are still paying £70 for it so may as well be multi platform anyway. There is no other benefit other than people coming to sites like this to say haha which is just creating more toxic environments. I would rather come to sites like to debate opinions on games.

It’s like the article on here for Xbox GamePass going up a couple of quid. The first comment on the articles was pretty much “I am happy to pay because I still don’t have to pay £70 day one like a certain other platform”. The very first comment was someone in full defence mode! It’s just sad! Why not just say yes it’s great value I would 100% pay the increase.

@Ep_13 I am not referring to his delivery in his questioning with the FTC. I would say that was less about how good Phil was and how poor the FTC was with the their questions. What I am referring to is this poor Xbox 3rd place stuff as well as losing console wars and cloud is just a feature. Sony want to squeeze Xbox by buying exclusivity deals to keep games from Xbox. Xbox wants to buy publishers to squeeze Sony. Phil ain’t no white night. He is a wilf in sheep’s clothing. Jim Ryan is just a wolf. I will admit Phil is the more likeable of the two and when he is talking about games in general yes he talks sense but the amount of waffle he talks at a corporate level and how people lap it up is ridiculous. He is purposefully vague in every public forum.

@NEStalgia regardless 16 isn’t just a hack and slash, it still has a gear system, levelling system and the ability tree as well as a central character. No matter how shallow these are and how thin it scrapes the line it is still fits the definition of an ARPG. It doesn’t matter if games that traditionally don’t fit this genre suddenly fit into it because they have RPG elements in them. If anything it just splices genres together which has proven to work as is the case with GoW. Hack and slash initially but then added RPG elements. Assassins Creed did the same thing with RPG and Fallout became first person full 3D once Bethesda got into them. Castlevania moved from side scrolling platformer to hack and slash. You are trying to fit everything in a single little box called RPG and the reality is games and the genres have evolved overtime. Games don’t need to have a single definition when it comes to genres. They can be considered tags at this point. Action RPG for 16 fits perfectly because it is an Action game first and foremost but has RPG elements in it. I have checked a lot of the media since this discussion and there are some that question it’s RPG tag because of these shallow implementation but most refer to it as an RPG or ARPG. Most of the criticisms are coming from review bombing from people who can’t access the game on their platform or are salty about no turn based action. I checked A LOT of reviews before I responded to reduce my chance of being shown up. So unfortunately I cannot see the majority of critics that you have said have said this is not an RPG unless you are projecting your opinion as fact? I have seen some talking about how light it is but most don’t even question the subject at all with some just referring to it as an RPG whilst they talk about the game itself.

You talk about holding back creatives but this is the game the devs wanted to make. Sticking with the same formula over and over again stifles creativity. How will they know if the story they want to tell can be told/progressed in a different way?

@NEStalgia like I said I get what you’re saying. Square have traditionally not been afraid to mix it up. I love the old ATB style games but I think they have kept things fresh by changing. Much to the dismay of old school fans who can’t stomach the change but I have enjoyed every entry (except x-2 but that was down to boring story but liked the battle system). There are plenty of games that fit the old RPG profile so I don’t see a problem with their approach. If people don’t like it they don’t have to buy it. I’m a final fantasy fan whatever that may be. Mechanics don’t necessarily drive my behaviour with the core series I follow. Final fantasy has changed many times since the initial 7 games and even then we had a few changes to the systems with job system no job system etc. Even the second game was different from the first and a very jarring experience at that.

@Kaloudz hahahaha do you know what I hadn’t actually noticed! 😂 it’s hard not to agree Sony is playing hardball and it is just as much their fault why we are where we are. I just wish they would both just focus on making quality on their own without shafting gamers. My suggestion was purely on the basis of that being the moral high ground discounting the fact that yes Microsoft do need to stay relevant.

@gollumb82 100% behind you on that one. New games on PC are nearly as expensive as console and the parts have doubled in price in some cases. Think I missed the golden years of PC gaming. Everything seems to be developed for consoles first and ported over to PC in a ***** state too.

@gollumb82 I bought a new GPU and have been playing on PC exclusively (except for Ragnarok) for the last 12 months but I booted up my PS5 and Xbox a couple of weeks ago and it felt like coming home. I think working from home has made me hate sitting at a desk most of my day whether it’s work or games. Couch, headphones and controller seem to be a better fit for me after work. I even bought the Steelseries Nova Pro Wireless just to enhance the experience a little bit more.

@Kraven yeah FF is a spectacle indeed and keeps dropping my jaw with each new set piece. I bought Diablo 4 randomly in the early hours this morning so going to start that tonight which I can’t wait to try.

Bit more or FF16 I think and then I’ll be playing Diablo 4 for the first time which will be awesome!

@Kaloudz yeah and that’s fine and that’s great for you but there are a lot of gamers that are non toxic and don’t sit on these sites ***** on the opposition successes and failures that just want to play games on their chosen platform so it’s a big shame. I am rooting for the little guy not the poor giant corporations.

The whole trial is a joke. The FTC are making fools of themselves with their incoherent questioning, cowardly Jim Ryan couldn’t bear to stand in court and Phil Spencer is trying to play the sympathy card.

If MS were so worried about Sony blocking games but we’re really trying not to take games away then they should have purchased Bethesda and said all games will be on Xbox day one and other platforms after a year of exclusivity. That would have allowed them to stop Sony from being greedy but also retain this “pro consumer” approach that everyone seems to think they have. Both companies only care about their bottom line - you just have to choose your poison.

The price hike was bound to come in and to be honest I don’t care as long as it funds good quality games. I think both Gamepass and Plus could go a lot higher in price for me before I turn my nose.

@Nickhyazaki yeah it’s great and everything but people might still might want to have the game in their library. I will get Starfield day one on gamepass but I would have to sub each time I want to play it on gamepass and still have to pay for the DLC too. It’s a great offer but there is also nothing wrong with buying the games. Also £70 is a reasonable price for most AAA games considering inflation would have them sitting at over £90 currently. Just because you like to sub doesn’t mean everyone else is a moron for paying the full price. Not everybody plays day one either, especially in the current age of gaming where games are launching with lots of bugs.

I have gamepass ultimate , plus premium and I buy games across the platforms too. No need to ***** on someone else’s choice.

Doesn’t bother me too much at all. The game looks good so far and I haven’t seen anything I don’t like about it yet. Even people crying about 30fps without playing first haven’t phased me. I have played a few games that play better for me in 30fps in that they add a bit more of a sluggish weight feel. I preferred Spider-Man in 30 because I didn’t feel like a piece of cotton wool swinging on a piece of string. 60 is better in most cases but in some 30 can be just as good and in a small number of cases feel better (minus the camera swivel of course).

@UltimateOtaku91 I’m still laughing at the FTC referring the Xbox ecosystem as an echo-system 🤣

@Tharsman they have a stake in Epic so I would have thought they might do something together? Can’t see it with the Sony greed but it will be interesting to see what would happen there.

@Kaloudz it’s never what the company gets - it’s the players that suffer on both sides of the fence. Both companies have bags of money and this deal whether it goes through or not doesn’t make either side irrelevant but it does affect the players who typically don’t have as much disposal income to keep up.

@Fenbops agreed. The thing is the roles could have easily been reversed. Neither party has our best interests at heart no matter how people play it in their heads. Both want to dominate and as gamers we need to make sure all parties are relevant for the sake of quality, fairness and to stop any of the parties from getting complacent. We just want good games and I don’t care who owns the IP as long as they release quality and allow as many people as possible to play. Nobody is sitting pretty in this court case and both have historically used scummy practices to shaft the other.

I actually had no idea they were still active! I loved Horizon 2. That was my first entry into Forza and sold me on it immediately.

They’d be stupid not to make it exclusive now that they own the IP. Not that I agree with it like but I’ll be picking it up. Just wish it was sooner considering I have played Skyrim and Oblivion to death.

Does anybody care about games anymore? Literally this site and PS have so many toxic fanboys it’s unreal. Slagging each other off and both think one is more insane than the other. I want my box to beat the other box - it’s actually really pathetic. The best outcome for all of this is for the deal to be blocked however unlikely, not because I don’t think MS should be able to buy up studios but because I think MS need to focus on nurturing their studios so they can deliver excellent games. Starfield is looking great at the minute so something to be really excited about as is the rest of the Xbox line up. Sony doesn’t have any kind of secret edge over MS other than that they really support their studios and deliver great games. MS can beat them back with a stick if they actually stuck with what they have and acquiring the odd studio after working with them for a while and building really strong relationships with them. Xbox has lost its identity and is now trying to buy its way to the top which they don’t need to do. They have ***** tons of talent behind them and if they doubled down on their studios over the next 5 years we would see a totally refreshed Xbox Studios with some stellar IP and highly rated games to really get stuck into. The whole console war drives a lot of us insane because like me people probably want as much choice as possible when it comes to games. I might get a lot of hate from the “hardcore fans” but the IP MS are sat in at the moment is far better than the vast majority of ABK content.

@NEStalgia so until this panel determines the new definition of an RPG it is an ARPG because that it was the developers have slapped on the game.

If we go back through all of the games considered an RPG you will find things missing from the traditional definition and that goes for the entire Final Fantasy series too.