AverageGamer

@MaccaMUFC "I think the graphics look great but it can be off putting when textures can look flat and bland and it can look fuzzy/blurry, even with the motion blur turned off "

I think i a lot of this is due to the fact the game relies so heavily on photogrammetry. There something like over 370 pieces of photogrammetry in the sequel, compared to just one in the first Hellblade... So, you can easily tell what was created by a 3d artist in the studio, and what was photographed during trips to Iceland. The stuff that is photogrammetry is probably going to have a softer fuzzier appearance.

So excited to finally get my hands on this!! I hyped after the announcement especially when I found out my favorite band was doing the soundtrack.

Whether or not this will be a success is entirely based on budget… The first was considered a success and it only probably sold less than 2 million.

Also people stating that Ninja Theory could end up like Tango, don’t realize that games sales isn’t the only reason a studio get closed…

@BacklogBrad People were expecting MS to do a Sony level marketing campaign... Ads on bus, massive statues in the middle of nowhere, McDonald's happy meals... etc

It a $50 game with no physical edition... Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice had a nonexistence marketing campaign and did really well. This will do fine as well.

@Banjoisfanboy 7 to 8 is ridiculous for a AAA game that cost $70+... This is sits more in the AA range and has a $50 price tag, so 7-8 hours is fine.

Man... Everyone talking about the review embargos. I'm pissed that the game doesn't go live till 4AM EDT. I was hoping to get off work and play some. 4AM is when I'm just about ready to go to bed.

This is giving me strange Cubix: Robots for Everyone flashbacks

What I’m about to say probably isn’t related to main article at all… But as the days go by, I’m starting to get why MS closed the studio that they did from a business perspective.

Alpha Dog Games was offering literally nothing of value… Their mobile games aren’t need when you now own king.

Roundhouse Studios was struggling before they were even bought out by Zenimax when they was still known as Human Head (original creators of prey). While the studio was closed… The team was moved to work on Elder Scrolls Online

MS only closed a satellite office with Arkane Austin. But that means they can focus all resources on the main office, Lyon.

While Tango made great games… It located in Japan. Xbox is not growing in Japan. Meaning anything located in the country is not going to get the proper support it needs. I’m sure Xbox Japan offices is pretty much empty with only a single person hired to just clean the halls and offices for when Phil can find time to fly over.

That bring up how often is Phil and other Xbox management able to visit Japan? Probably not often cause they also have families that they want to spend time with. You can basically visit any of the America offices in an afternoon, and be back in WA before dinner.

That means Tango is basically operating independently, without the proper leadership and supervision from head office 85% of the year.

Had tango probably been an American studio… They could have downsized or sold off/partnered with.

It better to spend that Japan budget on get Square Enix or supporting Kojima.

@thefly0810 “ Sure, Redfall stunk up the joint, but Arkane Lyon also made Deathloop, Prey and Dishonored too.”

Arkane Lyon only made Deathloop and Dishonored. Working on the upcoming Blades game.

Arkane Austin made Prey and Redfall… Austin is the studio that closing

@Ricky-Spanish True… But games only make profit once every couple of years. Merchandise is an endless profit machine especially if you release a highly popular TV show.

@endlessleep @Ricky-Spanish 343 isn’t just responsible for the halo games. They are responsible for any and all relationships with 3rd party companies… Aka they handle halo merchandise, books, tv shows… etc. And while the games haven’t been up to par. They still push a lot of sales.

Tango just didn’t have any value… Unless they planned to make action figure using the HiFi Rush ip.

@thefly0810 “ If I was MachineGames, I would be sweating bullets over the upcoming release of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.”

Machine Games at least have wolfenstein to fall back to.

@NEStalgia And that only cause most businesses are too cheap to upgrade, or the professional grade display they bought like pre 2010s is still fine for modern work loads.

Most high-end modern Pro Display, studio displays, and Apple’s XDR display is 16:9. Even something like the EIZO ColorEdge is 16:9 display

@NEStalgia "Most monitors are 16:10, not 16:9 so it makes it even worse on normal PCs vs TVs"

What monitor is 16:10? Most monitor are 16:9... This isn't pre 2010. 16:10 is a dead aspect ratio only really still found in photographers, video editors, digital artists, and businesses... Like super old stuff.

@antifyre The only issue with a New Vegas sequel is that the TV show isn’t exactly paint a pretty picture for the City. Granted, there still 12 years of unexplored events between the game and the time the show takes place… But how do you get players excited about exploring the area again if it goes to crap later on?

Xbox has so many developers that they can easily task someone else to work on the franchises.. I mean what is Roundhouse Studios doing at the moment? If they give it the right studio, they could easily have a game out soon… New Vegas was made in 18 months and is considered the best game of series.

@GamingFan4Lyf Nintendo don't even need their games to sell. They don't sell their hardware for a lost like Microsoft or Sony... Who need to make up lost profit through games sale. Nintendo is the richest company in Japan with zero debt.

@datamonkey Yeah. Isn't the saying that Nintendo has enough cash that they could lose 300 million for 50+ years, and still not be broke; and survive through multiple generations of console failures.

@Fiendish-Beaver It not due to tension between Larian and Wizard… It the tension between Larian and Hasbro. Hasbro has been doing massive layoffs especially within Wizards of the Coast. This had caused many of the contacts that Larian worked with during development to be let go.

Larian has been very vocal about the layoffs affecting the game industry, and their decision to move away from the franchise is probably cause of this. They don’t want to bring massive profit to a company who still turns around and fires people who the part of the team that help achieve this.

In most case buying the game is the tip in and of itself. But there are a lot of very good indie developers who vastly under value their work to be able to break into market.

These small studio and team should definitely be tipped. Maybe set up a ko-fi or buymeacoffee.

But TBH... I already view microtransactions or DLC/expansions as "tips". Which is why I tend to buy a lot of microtransactions or DLC since I don't think most companies warrant further support.

@CutchuSlow Cause not everyone interested in the current set of title available on the market or one set to release, so people are ready for the next big event to see if more titles get announced that they’ll enjoy.

@NintendoByNature Man… I wish we existed in the a different timeline where Insomniac Games wasn’t owned by Sony, and was stuck in Marvel Game mine pits.

@BAMozzy They was rumor to be working on 2 unannounced games other than gears 6. Both has now been canceled which why they were affected by the layoffs last year. They are now full speed ahead on Gears 6.

@Neither_scene "They have no experience of managing development studios, but I doubt they could do any worse than Microsoft has been for the last decade."

They actually do have some experience managing a development studio... They have their own internal studio, NVIDIA Lightspeed Studios, who have been responsible for a lot of RTX remakes, the Wii ports to the Nvidia Shield, and other ports.

@OldGamer999 Wasn't the whole point of making Phil CEO of Microsoft Gaming, and separating the Xbox division from the Windows division to allow more freedom in decision making? The only person higher than Phil is Nadella... Phil probably does get to make a lot of the decisions. So, I wouldn't count Phil out so easily of these not being his choices. Granted his decision have to make shareholders happy.

@RIghteousNixon Yup. Financial stability vs creative freedom.

@LX_FENIX Not every studio wants to be independent. Gearbox was independent before the Embracer purchase, and it seems it just not the life they want.

@GamingFan4Lyf Yeah… This a Sony style purchase. Borderlands has literally been a backbone franchise of 2k for over a decade. The fact it took them this long to purchase gearbox is amazing. But Take-Two is stingy, so not surprising.

@CutchuSlow There is still plenty of reasons to get a steam deck without needing a steam account. The Steam Deck make for a very good Linux machine, and you don't need a steam account for that. There also come issue of parents/grandparents trying to buy them for younger folks.

@CutchuSlow I never said only accessible through a PC... Even downloading the app or buying it from their website still requires a Steam account. Even almost 3 years into the Steam Deck life, it is still very restricting on who and where people can purchase the steam deck. It not available in major store or retailer. Good luck buying one if you outside of Steam region of support. Australians still can't technically buy one without a bunch of hassle.

@CutchuSlow I think it could sell if done well. Most handheld PC are vastly out of most people’s price range, and the Steam Deck can only be purchased through Steam… So that only accessible by PC gamers.

A lot of the rumor are saying a native device, so no relying on the cloud and console. MS need to make this a Xbox OS device, not a Windows PC. We don't windows hogging system resources and having to put up with its terrible sleep/hibernation. MS funding and partnerships with hardware manufacturers will allow them to get the handheld into an affordable price range something the Asus and lenovo can't really do. Plus it will probably be available in more stores unlike the Steam Deck which is still limited to Steam...

@TheSimulator First, it would probably be 343 directions and not Phil’s. But they’re not gonna limit their potential audience by making it gory.

@TheSimulator They're not going to do an adult gory one cause Halo is not adult orientated. Even the games aren't rated M anymore. They're rated T now.

@TheSimulator They mostly already did that with Halo Legends

Ubisoft can finally move pass this game and the baggage associated with it. Hopefully the singapore government is happy with their trash game.

Only 10 years… It feels so much longer ago. x-x

@Widey85 So quickly to reply unnecessarily to every comment.

Microsoft has repeatedly stated multiple time during the ABK purchase that this was not their last purchase. Moving their games to multiple platforms is a way to avoid the regulatory clashes and legal costs. As the only thing the regulator cares about was whether or not those games stayed available on multiple platforms. The ones who are scaling back are the one not flushed with cash.

But who was expecting ABK games on game pass this early? The deal only closed October then we went into the holiday season. Even before the deal closed we was advised to not expect anything till 2024. It takes time to go through the catalog and deal with licensing to get the games on the subscription.

Microsoft still has interest in purchasing more publishers and studios. This way they’re pleasing regulators since they won’t be removing game ms from other platforms.

Server up keep is not cheap. There a reason companies are quick to down game if they don’t sell or making enough revenue.

@Sol4ris Unfortunately it probably doesn’t look like Rocksteady is going back to what they’re know for. WB wants all their game to “Always online” so the studio is essentially dead if you don’t like this stuff. Rocksteady founder did create a new studio named, Hundred Star Games, so I would keep a lookout on what they’re making.

@Bionic-Spencer @CharlieChooChoo What is with this idea that Microsoft will rebrand Xbox gamepass to Microsoft gamepass? Nothing is getting rebranded cause no one wants a Microsoft branded product. Plus what are they going to do? Rebrand Xbox games studios back to Microsoft Game Studio? The Xbox will likely continue to stay around even after the death of the console unless some new CEO comes in and mess everything up.

@JokerBoy422 “ I'm not a Blizzard fan but people always spoke of this guy as some sort of mastermind wizard. ”

Who spoke of him as some mastermind wizard? He was only at blizzard since 2019, and was only in he current role since 2021. He was hired along with Jen Oneal just please people during the sexual harassment lawsuit. Jen O’Neal left 3 months later… But now has her own studio.

@BacklogBrad "I was hoping it was going to be the big leap forward that the long dev cycle suggested."

This is why you shouldn't base a games quality off of how long it was in development for. I'm pretty sure the only reason it was in development for so long was cause of UE5 (this is only the second year the engine official been on the market in terms of game releases) and the fact they were developing for next (current) gen console.

@InterceptorAlpha My only experience with people who still think Microsoft as the "butt of most jokes on PC" are people who has an overall issue with Micrsoft/Windows, and not particularly Xbox Games Studio & Friends themselves; or still hold a grudge about GFWL. There was bit a disinterest when they originally came to PC because everything was locked to the Microsoft store. But that went away once they started putting their games on steam. But Xbox has garnered a lot of praise from the PC side due to bringing back AoE, and Flight Sim. The quality releases of the newer Gears and Forza Horizon. Games like Sea of Thieves and Grounded player base probably skews more PC now.

@CharlieChooChoo I'm pretty sure it was leak or announced long time ago that it was going to be first person. So it's whatever for me...

@InterceptorAlpha I don’t know any PC players that aren’t watching this event when they know all the games are launching day and date with PC, myself included.

Unless you’re talking about the kind of PC player that has potato PC and stick to nothing but low budget Early Access games or LoL/WoW/Dota… etc.

@OldGamer999 TC was busy updating Gears 5 for next gen consoles, released new story DLC, was working on The Matrix Awakens, was working on a new IP (canceled), and had to wait for UE5 to release officially... They haven't just been sitting there twiddling their thumbs.

EDIT: They also had to deal with the lost of Rod which was kind important since he was the guy who in charge of Gears, so moving forward with Gears 6 isn't an easy task without him.

@SacredPYRO It probably going to have a bigger open world. Gears is a franchise that is used to show the advancement of UE, and with UE5 big thing being larger open environment with incredible detail. Open world is not going anywhere. TC is also the studio that helped with The Matrix Awakens, so everything they learned to big that open world to life will probably in the Gears 6.

The crew had it services up for almost 10 years... We're on the 3rd game. Anyone who is still playing it is far and few between. I could understand had the game been taken offline 5 years ago. But that game offers nothing that sequels didn't improve unless you want to play the boring story line they had.

Xbox really just need to do a premiant price cut. Neither console is worth their current price. Xbox need to realize they aren't a premiere console brand and need to target a lower price bracket. Drop the Series X under $400 and be done with it.

@Sol4ris TBH... Wait longer than 6th months. I said wait until ultimate edition releases with all the DLC, and the removed content that they'll add back.