AverageGamer

@Sakai “ Microsofts infamous hands off approach seems to work with some developers, and not with others.”

You know what funny about this. We yelled at Microsoft for generations that they need to be hands off instead beating developers with a stick like they did during Xbox and Xbox 360 generation. Now they’re hands off and letting the developers create what they want to create. It not work, so we’re back to beating developers with a stick. It almost like developers can’t be left up to their own devices and need to be micro managed.

@armondo36 “ there will need to be a MAJOR restructuring, possibly starting with Phil himself.”

Wasn’t there already a major restructuring? The moment he came into head of Xbox they did major restructuring allowing him more control over the brand, and placing him directing under Microsoft CEO. This is what has allowed them do so many of these purchases since they now had direct access to Microsoft bank account and was limited on spendings budget like before.

@NEStalgia Are you really using a turn based tactical x-com game with card based elements as reason that FF should be turn based? Talk about a bit of a stretch.

@Total_Weirdo Let hope it more polished... Cause Breath of the Wild ran like straight crap on launch.

@Moonglow As a PC user, I wish our issue was as simple as the game not running at 60FPS. I have a feeling this is about to another craptastic UE port that will either eat VRAM, barely run at 60FPS, and will be a stuttering mess. I went ahead and canceled my preorder.

@Widey85 The only one they ever had was God of War. Death stranding is an outlier as the PC version isn’t published by Sony, so it on Geforce Now.

@Widey85 Sony games aren’t offered on GeForce Now. The only Sony game on the service ever was God of War, and the was pulled 3-4 months after.

@Kaloudz Wasn’t it reported only recently that Gears 6 basically just started development? Sure it been forever since Gears 5, but it not like the studio haven’t been busy. They was working on The Matrix game, assisting with UE5 development, and was working on two other games that was cancelled due to their studio getting hit by the Microsoft layoffs.

@Kaloudz "I'm just speaking theoretically. Besides, I know a few folks from Ubisoft and they never have a bad thing to say. In fact Ubisoft, from my journo days, were the best people to work alongside."

Maybe years ago, I could have probably agreed with this, but not anymore. Especially after all the stuff that has come out and continues to come out about Ubisoft 's Toxic Work Environment that even they have acknowledged in annual financial document but continues to not be acknowledged by most people... Funny how blizzard is continually under fire but no seems to care about any other studio that is dealing with same thing.

"Regardless, as a consumer, all of what you said goes to the wayside. It's not appropriate. My relationship with Ubisoft (as a HUGE) fan, starts and ends at buying and playing their product. Whatever sits beyond that is a them problem, not a me problem. Same with any other dev."

Unfortunately, as some who works in the Tech industry and have multiple close friends who work for big name video game companies. My opinion on stuff doesn't just stop at consumer level.

@Kaloudz So, add more work for underpaid and under appreciated developers to do. There also the financial side of having two completely separate builds which remember Ubisoft isn’t exactly financially stable at the moment.

@rhyno_888 PlayStation is barely a competitor in the subscription service space. PlayStation main focus is still trying to sell you games at $70 a pop. Xbox focus is not selling you games for $70. Their focus is selling you a subscription to Game Pass which is literally trying to be the “Netflix of gaming”

PlayStation cloud gaming is also still limited to PlayStation and PC. You can’t stream to mobile devices, tvs… etc like xCloud. If you was able to stream this from xCloud to mobile devices would you still use Netflix? Most likely not.

Xbox is a direct competitor to Netflix now not PlayStation.

EDIT: It like Phil said, they’re not competing against Nintendo or PlayStation and have dismissed them. They’re competing against Google (RIP), Amazon… etc.

This is why the main concern for the ABK buyout is Microsoft gaining to much advantage in the cloud space.

@awp69 Netflix doesn't want to give xbox more ammo against them in the upcoming subscription/cloud gaming war.

@grumpypotato Nah. Microsoft is finally stepping and righting the ship. First Bonnie Ross, then Kiki Wolfkill, and now Frank O'Connor. Everyone who has been responsible for the failure of the halo franchise is now being shown the door.

EDIT: He responsible for bullcrap like: It's kind of like porn," "You know it when you see it."; We had people who we hired who hated Halo because of 'X,'”; Created the character mister chief who criticized player for not liking req packs.

Good riddance!

@UltimateOtaku91 They've been trying to become a game publisher for a few years now. They own the developers that make Oxenfree, and have been the publisher for multiple mobile games like Hextech Mayhem: A League of Legends Story

@NEStalgia I wouldn’t say “It’s not the tech”. While UE is a great engine to work with. It also have never had the greatest history of fantastic performance when it came to consoles.There also the massive issue with UE games being a stuttery mess on PC the last 3-4 years. Gears game are probably the only games where I can truthfully say I’ve 100% been happy with their performance for an UE title. Which is why TBH I’m not happy with every one rushing to use UE, and everyone begging for title to be developed in the engine.

@TryToBeHopeful Yes. The game is good enough to stand on it own separate from the books or movie; and you don't to have watch or even seen the movies to understand the game.

@NEStalgia It supposed to be Unreal Engine 4

@BrilliantBill Gamers relationship with Halo, as well as Destiny, is an abusive relationship.

@Dezzy70 Sony is too busy trying to their TVs and Mobile division afloat to worry about what Playstation is doing. Once it starts affecting their wallet then they'll tell Jim and his team to stay out of it.

@Green-Bandit I really hope that Microsoft never gets into the messy environment of license games. It would bring no actual real benefit to them. Having to share profits with the company who actually own the IP, contracts that consistently change, and more games that are finite on gamepass.

@species8472 I doubt we'll see something that like that cause then they can't get on stage a be like "This is the most accurate created sky for this region ever in a video game"

@AtlanteanMan What sane developer is going to spend their rendering budget on animals and humans in a racing game? That would be taking resources away from the stuff that is most important which is the car and tracks or environments.

@Cyberpsycho "Microsoft have absolutely no experience in producing films and TV shows or shown any interest"

I wouldn't exactly say that. They had Xbox Entertainment Studios which was a television and movie studio. Buying Netflix would allow them to continue that on a larger scale, and they wouldn't have to rely on 3rd parties like Paramount for stuff like the Halo Tv show, and they could have full control over the Gears of War Movie which is being made by Netflix.

@Decoy_Snake remaster of Origins in time for Christmas. Sign me up.

@BAMozzy Actually, you don't have to buy through MS. Xbox allows you buy cheap digital key of sites like Green Man Gaming and instant gaming.

@Spaceman-Spiff My money is on Gears of War. That the only big franchise that Microsoft has left that hasnt released anything new and shiny for the Series consoles.

@Brazenology Most likely, but it is what it is... This is why I moved away from fixed hardware.

@ZYDIO Stuff like Doom Eternal runs on the fantastic ID Tech 7 engine. This a UE4 which generally isn't a great engine to get absolute great performance out of unless you're Epic or The Coalition.

@BBB It probably is a case of not putting enough time and energy into "optimizing"... Especially with how straight forward gaming hardware and game development has became.

Throwing in curve balls like the Series S is not fun. Developers was probably hoping to just develop for the twins (Series X and PS5) this generation...

@Fenbops The issue is how the general public while interpret closing 343, or handing the IP over to another studio, and massively downsizing 343.

Even tho everyone in the gaming community and especially the Halo community see that 343 needs to be let go... The general media will easily find a way to turn any potential layouts off at the 343 into a negative.

@Fenbops What do you expect Microsoft to do? Walk in there and start slaming fist on the table and firing people? Microsoft isn't allowed to be aggressive with studios any more especially after the whole situation with lionhead.

Plus it not like Halo Infinite isn't making them money.

@pip_muzz The only questionable developer has been 343. Rare has done well... You may not like what they did with nut or bolts, or that they decided to make kinect games. But I have enjoyed stuff like Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Kameo, Viva Piñata and Sea of thieves.

@pip_muzz TBH... I wouldn't consider it alarming. It just how modern game development is. It took 9 studios to develop God of War Ragnarok.

@Kaloudz He supposed to be a Director of Programming for xbox... So basically I guess handles livestream, podcast... etc

@Kaloudz TBH... I'm surprised he still has a job at Xbox. Everything I see or hear anything about him. It a consistent reminder I'm getting old. X-X

If it wasn't for the Series S then developers wouldn't be complaining about how their games don't sell well due to low install base on Xbox. TBH the Series S has been the saving grace for Xbox this generation besides game pass. The only people buying Series X are people with too much extra income and Xbox fans. Truth be told, if you got $400-500 to spend. You buy a PS5 or upgrade a PC.

@Kaloudz Cause those in between areas create screen judder, tearing... etc on displays that the don't support VRR, Free sync/G Sync, or when the FPS don't divide properly into the refresh rate.

@101Force "IF" Gold was for the upkeep of servers. It was never for 3rd party server... It was for Xbox Live servers, and Xbox first party game servers.

@Ralizah 40FPS is catching on with the Steam Deck cause Valve allows you to limit the screen refresh to 40hz... Most tv manufacturers don't allow you to do that. It either 60hz or 120hz if your tv supports that. Having a game run at 40FPS on a 60hz display creates inconsistent frame times that create judder. 40FPS on 120hz displays work cause 40 divides perfectly into 120hz, so you aren't creating inconsistent frame times.

@Notoriousmakavel 40FPS tend to only be better if you have a 120hz display. 40FPS on 60hz display creates inconsistent frame times that create judder. So until 120hz display become commonplace. 40FPS as base framerate won't be a commonplace thing.

@Magabro While they aren't a small indie company. When you're an independent company you can't just just go on a hiring spree without resources to do so... Platinum Games isn't excatly financially stable and was basically surviving pay check to pay check until Tencent gave them funding. The cancelation of Scalebound would have put them out of business if it wasn't for the success of Nier and Astral Chain.

@Cherip-the-Ripper Nier Replicant isn't made by platinum games.

@NEStalgia That wouldnt work consider Star Wars litteraly has "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...." at the start of basically everything... So most of events of Star Wars would probably take place before the events of Harry Potter which is set from 1991 to 1998.

@Dr_Luigi I said upwards of... Not that only $4k can do it. So of course your new $800 tv can do cause it has a processor/gpu that can handle it.

@robe The big issue with that is Microsoft would have to convince developers to jump on board with an Xbox handheld. Steam Deck works well cause it integrates the already massive Steam library of games, and requires very little work from actual developers... An Xbox handheld would be using the Xbox store (Microsoft Store) which lack many of the very popular titles.

@Dr_Luigi The only TV that support xCloud are brand new Samsung that cost upwards of $4k. Just cause a device can stream Netflix/youtube ≠ it stream games from the cloud effectively. Actual cloud gamers have learnt this the hard way. It definitely not gonna be Firestick TV cheap which at that point... Buy a Series S.

@Dr_Luigi Not excatly... It would still requires a decent processor/gpu to handle the decoding of stream especially if they wanna push for 4k streams soon

@NEStalgia They said the future... So Deathloop is the 70s of their universe.

@Dsswoosh Really gonna say that nonsense when stuff like bloodborne exists on consoles.