If this bundle was on steam… I would be down to get it. It basically $23 per game which isn’t bad. Sure you can get some of these cheaper on sale, but the convince of a bundle is much nicer.

@Balaam_ That long term profit. Battlefront 2 has probably sold more copies overall than the last 3 Bioware games combined, and it continues to see spike in copies every time there is good Star Wars media.

@Fiendish-Beaver The community had a Star Wars Battlefront II Resurgence Day this year on May 23 to show Lucasfilm, Disney, and EA that a massive, passionate player base still wants a future for the franchise. No one has even remote tried to care about a new Mass Effect or boost the last Mass Effect player number to show there is still interest in the franchise.

Dang. 21 yrs at Microsoft is a long time. Guess it time for a early retirement

@fatpunkslim “I dont understand that Asha doesn't see the potential of a franchise like this”

Disney doesn’t even see potential in blade… The announcement of Blade by Arkane was when Marvel was hoping for a big comeback for the character in the MCU… and that has more or less been canned

@Ryu_Niiyama “ Limits the ability to move to lower COL areas ”

Yeah… Which something we should be stopping. These tech workers be driving up cost of living for the communities and families in areas where the average salary and pay is vastly less than the easy north of $150k-200k + stock these Microsoft employees be making.

@somnambulance You be surprise how many business and companies was still letting their employees work from home. My last job never went back to the office completely. My Father only has to show up to the office 2-3 times a week, and leave earlier whenever (supervisor/mgmt level), and my sister work from home every other week.

@tho_mi The point of subscription services is the recurring monthly payment. There are too many people who only sub for a month or two, play the game they want, then unsubs. If the service gets cheaper by lopping off peaks you don't want. You'll be more inclined to stay sub or turn on auto pay, which means they would be making more money long term even if they are charging you a cheaper price....

@Balaam_ I only play and hour or so far of the campaign, and it pretty good.

@RadioHedgeFund Apple already kinda decided they would partner with PlayStation before Xbox

@kanedase7en “ Maybe Phil and Sarah actually saw this coming, and were preparing for it?”

Of course they probably saw it coming… they were employed by one of the main companies who is causing this issue in the first place.

@wildcat_kickz Are we just going of Pure Xbox rating or? Cause I think FH6 was close... and that was this year all.

@GuyinPA75 Using game pass was a choice. They didn’t force anyone to use it. If players want to buy those games they would have. Shifting the blame to game pass just means the game just worth owning.

@madmaxrules “ I really wish the goal for Xbox was just to have a diverse range of development studios packed with artists and technicians who create great games. Let people build games they love and the audience will naturally arrive.”

They tried that… and no one came

@Exerion76 ID Software couldn't make an online game to save their live now... The campaign would have been interesting, but the online experience would have sucked.

Activision has both the talent and man power to deliver on both a campaign experience as well as a online game

@StoicSlab

With Xbox's cloud ambitions in trouble, there's not much of a reason to invest in a cloud-centric game right now.

Xbox cloud ambitions aren't really in trouble. What you're thinking of is the streaming side, but that doesn't meaning that they aren't still pushing the advantage of the large computational power that cloud offers for real-time server-side computing and dynamic gameplay elements that local hardware cannot achieve. That two complete separate things.

@Mr-Cage A cloud based only tier would cost a ridiculous amount of money and not be at all worth it. Would go against the reason they are pushing the time limits which is the massive cost of hardware at the moment not allowing scaling of the service.

The xcloud thing was part of “Everything is an Xbox" campaign, and doesn’t really fit into their current narrative of “returning to its hardware- and console-focused roots” instead of Netflix of gaming…

Tbh I see it probably going away next generation since the cloud version basically run on a Series X Blades split into multiple Series S virtual machines.

The cost of components is going make upgrading to new blades very challenging once the current hardware ran it’s course. They would have to split resources between physical consoles and the server blades.

@BacklogBrad Most likely they wasn’t planning to fix it at all. But working on Switch 2 version allowed them to rethink certain aspects and they realized they could bring those important to other platforms. We heard this so many times with Switch and Switch 2 from other developers. It a completely different methodology when designing for a handheld. It why it important for the industry to have system like Series S, Switch 2, and steam deck

@badboidre Waste of time and effort… Like others have said, they would have to do a completely different version for consoles.

But what would be the benefit of that? The Xbox player is so tiny and pointless at the moment. They would have to do a switch 2 or PS5 version to justify the cost.

But WOW is so easy to run. You can get it running off a basic Walmart laptop. You don’t need a console for it

I can’t tell if I’m supposed to like the game or not. 🤷

On one end you have the “10/10” crowd on the other end you got the “ insufferable characters” idiot crowd. Then you have everyone else in the middle like “It just a game bro” crowd.

@Master_Cthulhu70 “ However, having spent a few hours with the game now I can say Unreal Engine 5 hasn't harmed Halo in any way whatsoever.”

This cause the game wasn’t built in UE5. It still using the same outdated Blam engine that powered the OG game… Just with a flashy UE5 paint over top.

@ThatFilbo

You know what I don't need when I'm playing the digital games I bought from Steam on my PC? An internet connection. Steam doesn't care. My Steamdeck doesn't care. It's basically "Yeah, this is yours, you own it now."

That cause Steam doesn't necessarily force DRM, it basically on the developer of the individual game to enforce their DRM. Steam is just the middle man in this regard, and the not the police officer like Xbox, Playstation, or NIntendo. There are single player game on the steam that do require an internet connection for single player play.

@JustBusiness They can't change the entire story without reconning a ton of stuff. Halo is having the same issue at Star Wars... Too much side media that important to the whole story, and reconning it will angry a lot of people

@Fiendish-Beaver "albeit they had more staff"

They most likely didn't have that much more staff working on subsequent games. When you have to take in account they was helping with Rage 2, working on DOOM VR, helping Bethesda with the shooting system in StarField, and Quake Champions... etc

@Fiendish-Beaver Realistically, it didn’t take 8 years to make DOOM 2016. It took less than 5. That 8 yrs number came from the time they spent working on DOOM 4 combined with the time they spent working DOOM 2016.

Also, if you looked at how many side projects and other projects ID software assisted with or worked on while also creating the other two DOOM games. Mean that they mainly staffed up to be a support studio while still developing in house projects. If their goal going forward is to just deliver in house projects… then all those extra employees probably wasn’t needed.

@NeoRatt Recore was made by Armature Studios, not Asobo.

@Coletrain Yeah. Everything is just a case of Microsoft trying to free up cash flow. If Microsoft wasn't trying to free up cash flow... Xbox could have probably continued on like nothing is happening.

@Coletrain The thing is... It crazy when you get one post about Microsoft laying off 1000s across it game studio, but you're also getting post about Microsoft committing $2.5 Billion to the Microsoft Frontier Company

@Ryu_Niiyama The fact that you are looking at AAA massive budget, big company space for fresh idea and creativity is your own fault.

Gaming isn't going to get any more boring. indies and Independent studio, and 2nd party spaces is where the creativity should come from.

@trev666 I wouldn't worry too much about InXile. They probably could be shifted to assist with Fallout given that a chuck of the team are people who created Fallout.

@ZeD They did have one... Craig Duncan and Chief of Staff Louise O'Conno, who used to report to Matt Booty. Both have non left, so Matt Booty is overseeing day to day stuff for now.

@tho_mi With Destiny gone… Those fans, which was majority was ex halo fans will need someone where to go. Right now would be the perfect time to spit and polish the good old Mjolnir armor and get Master Chief back into the public light.

@alasakarama idk. It hard to gage what should and shouldn't warrant a large budget and long development time. South of Midnight had a very unique theme, art style, and story. A game that did very good job at getting it setting correct. It one of those things that a lot of the budget and time maybe went to hiring, and speaking to the right people to make sure that what they was aiming for was authentic as possible. Probably a lot of traveling to onsite locations to get visual examples.... etc

@Balaam_ If it wasn't for Gamepass... The studio probably wouldn't have been bought by Microsoft, and would have probably closed down years ago after the mix reviews of We Happy Few

@HonestHick Of course every company is trying boost profits and up sell user into higher tier. If you aren’t doing that… Then you aren’t running a business. But again, PS Plus isn’t the core of Sony business. PlayStation isn’t prop up on the success of PS plus unlike Game Pass was for Xbox. The fall out we are seeing with Xbox is cause Game Pass isnt working. They now have to pivot back to console being the main profit for their eco system. Had Game Pass continued to be successful and bring profit. Xbox wouldn’t be in shape.

@HonestHick But Sony isn't banking on PSN being a big hit. They aren't pushing those services as the back bone of their entire console eco system. It just an extra on top of a already good console and library of games. Xbox/Microsoft was very much banking on their service. Game Pass was supposed to be the saving grace of the Xbox eco system, it was their entire marketing. It was supposed to push the entire industry in a very different direction

Wasn't Ori 2 on Game Pass? So he basically saying his game was the equivalent of slop then?

Better to leave of your own accord instead of going down with the ship.

Hopefully they enjoy their retirement 🫡

@Skinny-Pete They most likely don’t own Brutal legends IP. So they best thing they got going for them is another psychonauts

@Sol4ris Maybe Microsoft is planning to sunset Gamepass. Recent price cuts, studio closure... etc.

Game Pass was a product of Phil Era. That will be his legacy for the xbox brand. Now that Phil is gone, time to phase it out and move on.

Interesting statement. What is the potential if the deal works? Do they potentially spin off the org and write it off... or do they eventually see a downsizing and reorganization, with them selling some parts off?

@themightyant I already know the pros/cons of Auto SR. You just made a longer more detailed version of my comment. Now mine just looks like a TLDR comment. 😂

@DesertRanger Microsoft’s Auto SR isn’t even remotely on the same level as DLSS, FRS, PSSR2, or even intel’s XeSS. Auto SR will be good for BC games 360/One/OG Xbox games.

But they will be going the universal route and sticking with whatever AMD has instead of custom in house like Sony prefers to do.

@cragis0001 Horizon Zero Dawn hit 4.5 million, but it took five years to hit that number. God of War also took 3 yrs. Forza and Sea of Thieves hit their number in faster period and a far less time.

HellDivers is expectation, not the rule, but that game was a cultural phenomenon.

@Banjo-

look at Forza Horizon 5 selling more than Sony's output. However, it's the only port that sold over one million on PS, and it could be affected by the novelty factor

Isn't Sea of thieves sitting at 3 million sales on PS5. I think Oblivion Remastered also reported 1.2 million copies on PS5. The last I heard Grounded was in the 700K+ range, so probably has crossed that 1 million mark by now. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was selling faster on PS5 than it did Xbox and Steam.

This isn't the same situation that Playstation games are selling poorly like on PC. Xbox games are selling actually well on PS.

Extremely poor decision from Microsoft. See y’all in 12 month when they layoff more people and close more studios/satellite offices.

@darylb24 The purpose of a platform is to make development easier for developers. If the developer needs enough time, more money, or better talent then the issue the system.

We know that theoretically the Series S is strong enough, so why are developers having issues achieving good results? That fall back on Microsoft and Series S

@themightyant "Might some do better in November, not everyone likes or plays GTA."

Everyone may not like or play GTA6, but media take over that will have will be crazy... I can already see and hear all the ads, news articles, video, my parents calling me to see if I bought it cause they done seen a nightly news segment on it about how a man murdered 3 people to obtain his copy of the game.

@ZeD And this doesn't include any smaller projects that they could still have planned for this year that hasn't been announced, and also the PS5 version of FH6... Which I assume they would also like to market.

@Decoy_Snake No body has that expectations of console. Which is why they should be prices accordingly. Not at the price point of entry of mid-high desktop or laptop.

"Photoshop or 3D rendering on a handheld that'll be used primarily for gaming."

There is probably more people buying these devices as laptop than there are people primarily buying as gaming devices.

If you want a handheld primarily for gaming... These are terrible devices. Buy a Switch 2 for that.