Comments 3,101

Re: Matt Booty Explains Xbox's Plans For Exclusive Games Going Forward

BacklogBrad

@abe_hikura

arent all halo games going to be multiplayer focused? Its a pretty crucial part of the franchise. Leaving it out of the upcoming remaster was a terrible choice but if they do it again with the next real Halo, we should riot.

The first halo game they ever make without multiplayer will be on ps5 but they claim its only going to be multiplayer games on ps5. Its like a bad parody at this point.

The new regime continues to provide more questions than answers every time they speak.

Re: Matt Booty Explains Xbox's Plans For Exclusive Games Going Forward

BacklogBrad

So Gears isn't a big multiplayer game? Is it not big or not multiplayer?

This is so stupid. They are already contradicting their new criteria, literally the first game they announce. They spent 2 years telling us how reaching the most players was all that mattered. Constant 180s from xbox. Its safest to assume that whatever they say will be the exact opposite in the near future.

Gears would only benefit from the ps5 port that they nearly completed before canceling. What a waste.

Re: Xbox Confirms Its Two New Console Exclusives Are Not 'Timed'

BacklogBrad

@Deshalu steam machine and helix had very little to do with the decision. The low sales and poor performing ports were a black eye for Sony who sees their games as the high water mark for quality. Releasing games that didnt run well and sold poorly made them look bad. It looks terrible when their flagship ip like god of war ragnorok have 30,000 peak concurrent players at pc launch while similar games are vastly outperforming it.

Playstation leadership themselves said the profit margin on their big budget games was not enough to sustain them with just ps5 sales. The scary part is what does that mean now that they are giving up on pc already? Lower budget games? We are already seeing the studios closures, game cancelations and the retreat back to the safe bets only.

That is what exclusivity brings, safe bets only. I absolutely do not want xbox to go back to a small number of ip on rotation.

https://www.polygon.com/sony-ps5-pc-games-sales-ended/

Re: Xbox Confirms Its Two New Console Exclusives Are Not 'Timed'

BacklogBrad

@Deshalu playstation never gave their pc strategy a chance to succeed. The timed exclusive delay made it so no one was excited for the games when they finally made it to pc. They could either play a brand new game or a $70 port of a game from a year or two ago. Not to mention the ports themselves were poorly optimized for pcs.

Xbox's day 1 pc strategy is way better than what Sony was trying to do.

I wouldnt call them a monopoly either. Nintendo and steam are doing better in my opinion.

Re: Xbox Confirms Its Two New Console Exclusives Are Not 'Timed'

BacklogBrad

@Deshalu I am on playstation (and nintendo) sites complaining about their exclusive strategy.

The amount of people that use "Playstation does it" as an excuse are mind-boggling. Its like the logo situation from last week, just because Sony intentionally misleads people does not mean xbox should mislead us too. We need to stop cheering for anti consumer behavior.

Re: Xbox Confirms Its Two New Console Exclusives Are Not 'Timed'

BacklogBrad

Hate this decision. The games should be everywhere, especially games with Co op and competitive multiplayer like gears.

I feel bad for the developers that had stated they were excited ps5 players would get to play their games. https://www.purexbox.com/news/2025/11/xbox-developers-are-reportedly-thrilled-to-release-their-games-on-ps5

Fingers crossed clockwork revolution does well enough to justify inexile's exisitance as an xbox studio.

Re: 'It's A Tough Topic' - Xbox CEO Shares Her Latest Thoughts On Exclusives

BacklogBrad

The new CEO says listing all the platform logos the games will release on in the trailers is a mistake. She also says games need to reach the widest possible audience but platforms also need exclusive content. What a confusing mess. The messaging is going backwards. We the consumers are left with no answers and more questions every time they speak.

Im getting snake oil salesman vibes from Asha. PR spins without substance. The intention to remove logos, and conflicting statements make it seem like being misleading is intentional.

Re: 'It's A Tough Topic' - Xbox CEO Shares Her Latest Thoughts On Exclusives

BacklogBrad

It would be interesting to get an updated quote from Satya Nadella on exclusivity. If he is still opposed to them, then I dont think it stands a chance. Microsoft will still want xbox to be as profitable as possible and exclusives do not let the games reach their full potential.

I worry that exclusives will lead to less games and more dormant ip. That is the most likely outcome with exclusivity. Xbox would be laser focused on the safe games and we would be back to the same very few ip on rotation.

Re: Talking Point: What Level Are You In Forza Horizon 6, And How Many Cars Do You Have?

BacklogBrad

@Skinny-Pete tried playing around with upgrading (or downgrading) my cars and playing with different starting positions and it didnt help. You can fit the pacific ocean between the "above average" and "highly skilled" difficulties. It sounds like playground is trying to fix the difficulty issue on their end. Speaking of upgrading cars, that is another complaint. Why the heck do we have to go to a festival location to do that? So annoying to try a race, get smoked, fast travel to festival, upgrade car, fast travel back to race, get smoked again, turn down difficulty, win by absolute landslide.

The fast travel bug doesn't seem to be save related. It will just start spaming the pause menu after a fast travel and unpausing the game becomes impossible until restarting the game. I found a few threads online about other people having this issue, and the consensus seems to be reboot or just keep fast traveling and if you're lucky it will fix itself after like a dozen fast travels. I have only tried the reboot since many people said the fight fire with more fast travel method didnt work for them.

Re: Talking Point: What Level Are You In Forza Horizon 6, And How Many Cars Do You Have?

BacklogBrad

Im at 32 hours and level 185 with 155 cars but I think I'm about ready to call it quits and move on.

This game has some serious flaws that keep it from being my favorite forza horizon game. I think I would put it around 3rd or 4th on my ranking of FH games. Im keeping my original 8/10 but that is starting to feel generous.

The biggest flaw is difficulty settings. They need more levels between each difficulty or a 1-100 slider. I feel like I have to choose between winning every race by 15+ seconds or losing every race by a similarly huge margin. It is seemingly impossible to get a competitive solo race offline.

Has anyone else been plagued by the fast travel bug? I get that at least once a day now, sometimes multiple times per play session. Very frustrating bug that seemingly can only be fixed by closing and rebooting the game. It seems to be happening more frequently lately so maybe it is similar to Oblivion where the later you get in the game, the less stable it gets. Or maybe I'm just fast traveling that much more now that I have all the mascots, bonus boards, etc.

Re: 'Lost 255 Hours Of Progress' - Forza Horizon 6 Players Warn Of Xbox & PC Saving Issue

BacklogBrad

The hours claimed is suspicious for how recent the game is. Even when giving him the benefit of the doubt and assuming xbox was counting hours when offline. Maybe they left their Xbox running the entire time and that somehow corrupted it. Maybe the enitre thing is fiction, it is reddit after all (wasnt that where the infamous vape incident was posted trying to claim their series x was overheating). Either way, I am going to play as i normally would. If I lose progress I will own up to not believing this one out of however many millions warning.

Not sure I would be that broken up about it either. After 30 hours, there isn't much left to do. I won every race, have every stamp/wristband, almost 700 achievement score. Its down to how much i want to play online or mess with leaderboard stuff. Im pretty much done with it until i intentionally reset my progress in like a year.

Re: Opinion: Forza Horizon 6 Has Changed My Mind About Quick Resume On Xbox Series X|S

BacklogBrad

Forza horizon is one of the few titles I dont use quick resume much on. That is mostly because I have it installed on 4 different devices and have been splitting time pretty evenly between them.

Play anywhere and cloud saves are xboxs best features in my opinion. I love being able to pick up the save immediately on so many different devices. High end pc if I want to nerd out about specs, series x in the family room if I want to relax on the couch, series s with an xscreen in my bedroom, and a Rog Ally on the go. The exciting thing is that it should only get better with helix.

Re: Our Final Predictions For The 2026 Xbox Games Showcase

BacklogBrad

I doubt they show any controllers or new initiatives and only show games.

While everyone was focused on the logo comment, Matt booty dropped this quote. "We're focused on the games now. We have a great lineup over the next 12 months and that is what the showcase will focus on. The broader strategic questions and anything to do with helix will come at a later time."

Re: 'It Was A Miss, And I Own It' - Xbox CEO Hints At Removing PS5 & Switch Logos From Showcases

BacklogBrad

Removing the logos will be the miss. Creating confusion about where the games will be is not the right answer. I guess it is too much for them to be honest in game trailers.

Xbox needs to realize the twitter/bluesky crowd just want their click bait trash. This was fake outrage for engagement. Now these losers will get more click bait about whether the games will be on ps5 or not. We learned that the new xbox regime will roll over for any fake hashtag outrage.

Re: Xbox Is Gaining Momentum With US Gamers, As Highlighted In New YouGov Report

BacklogBrad

Im worried the "tough decisions ahead" are what to do with the small studios like double fine and ninja theory. Im worried their days might be numbered.

This is where losing Phil might be a terrible thing. He loved games and you could tell he had a deep respect for passion projects that did not get as good of a return on investment. Time will tell if the new regime feels the same way. But I'm pretty worried about the "tough decisions" comment, it probably has nothing to do with exclusivity and more to do with budget cuts.

Re: 'We Are Building A Stronger Xbox' - Asha Sharma Updates Employees On Progress In 2026

BacklogBrad

Im worried the "tough decisions" are what to do with the small studios like double fine and ninja theory. Im worried their days might be numbered.

This is where losing Phil might be a bad thing. He loved games and you could tell he had a deep respect for passion projects that did not get as good of a return on investment. Time will tell if the new regime feels the same way.

Re: Xbox Delays Fable To February 2027, And It's Basically Because Of GTA 6

BacklogBrad

I get the decision but I kinda wish they would have went up against gta. I wanted the message to be we think this game is great and will do well no matter what its up against. Instead I'm left feeling like they lack confidence in their product. But again, I understand the reasoning of getting out of the way of what will likely be the one of the best selling games of all time. We live in a zero risk era of gaming so xbox and other publishers will just admit Rockstar is the superior publisher and avoid releasing games anywhere close to theirs.

Re: 'We Are Building A Stronger Xbox' - Asha Sharma Updates Employees On Progress In 2026

BacklogBrad

Hopefully they realize that exclusives are not going to help. People are not going to rush to the store to pay $800+ for a console just to play very few games that cannot be played elsewhere. The software will just underperform like the hardware.

Nintendo's best 2 eras for exclusive console games were also their worst selling systems (gamecube and wii u). In both cases they rebounded with original hardware ideas. That is what it will take to turn around the xbox hardware. Make a console that people feel is the best way to play every game.

Re: Steam Deck Has Gone Up In Price Massively, And It Makes ROG Xbox Ally Look Great Value In 2026

BacklogBrad

Next gen might as well be billed as "pro consoles" because there are a ton of people that will refuse to upgrade. Ps5 and series x will probably be getting 99% of the games for another decade because that is where the majority of player will likely stay.

It will be interesting to see what the future of dedicated gaming consoles looks like. Right now I'm doubting the viability of them.

Re: Four 'Areas Of Improvement' Are Already Being Worked On For Forza Horizon 6

BacklogBrad

I have been seeing some pop in on series x but not on pc. I get stuck on curbs and walls way more than other FH titles. I would also like to see multiplayer ditch the ghost drivers and let us collide.

The difficulty should be a 0-100 slider instead of the 5 or 6 presets. Then we could dial in the perfect difficulty. "Above average" is an easy win every time. "Highly skilled" I'm lucky to get 3rd and the leader is lightyears ahead of everyone else. But sounds like they are fixing the latter part.

The soundtrack just doesnt do it for me. I cant tolerate any of the stations so i turn it off and play my own music or podcasts. I cant think of any other racing games with licensed music that I felt the need to turn it off completely.

I would also like to see the car upgrades be made available outside of the hubs, at the very least in the pre race menu.

Everything else is great. Overall, I really love the game despite all these minor complaints. The music is the one true blemish, I can deal with the rest.

Re: Destiny 2 Is Reaching End-Of-Life Status, And There's No Sign Of Destiny 3 Yet Either

BacklogBrad

It sounds like the end might be near for Bungie. If destiny 3 is too expensive to start production on now then when will it not be considered too expensive?

Purging a large portion of the staff is going to kill the morale and hurt marathon and whatever future destiny has (if any). Will anything be left of the "expertise" that Sony wanted so bad or will that expertise have left for greener fields of other studios?

Re: 'We Don't Want It At All' - Playasia Hates The Idea Of An Xbox Disc-To-Digital Program

BacklogBrad

Bold argument to suggest that disc to digital is somehow anti consumer. Sounds like they are salty that the old days of buying our used discs for pennies and reselling for a fortune are over. Their model of screwing both the seller and buyer is way more anti consumer than a solution allowing us to play outdated tech on new hardware.

I already have my og xbox and 360 discs backed up digitally. Dumping the roms yourself is fairly easy if following a guide. I would love to see xbox providing an official disc to digital option for all discs.

Re: Digital Foundry Labels Sony's PS5 Exclusivity Pivot As A 'Defensive Move Against Project Helix'

BacklogBrad

I think pc releases were a black eye for playstation's repuatation as talented developers. They were mostly terrible ports for performance and they sold very poorly. Both of those things were of their own making but it was harming their image. Day 1 releases and stable performance would have given them a chance to sell better.

132 million active monthly users on steam and they were selling a few thousand copies. That's not a good look for what are generally considered great games.