Reminds me of that classic Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercial, except instead of the joyous union of two awesome things like chocolate and peanut butter it’s like combining two awful things nobody really wants except money loving executives desperately pushing an agenda to strip the end user of all rights.
‘Hey! You got your corporate greed in my comparatively inferior to native play cloud gaming experience!’
My Xbox is mostly full. As someone who buys to own, I have most of my frequently played titles permanently installed. To be fair, there isn’t that much to look forward to in a first party sense, and I do most of my third party gaming on Playstation, so it’s not a big deal to delete something once in a great while to make room.
Definitely the first game. In a strange way the Fable series has mirrored the trajectory of the Xbox brand. The first game was unique, original, and didn’t feel quite like anything else on the market. The sequels tried to broaden their reach and capture mass appeal in a very by-the-numbers way, losing so much of what made Fable 1 so charming. Fable’s 2 and 3 felt watered down, and in addition there were some poorly implemented mechanics and systems on top of that.
All the games on the list look good, but I’d wager only two look so astonishingly gorgeous that they really stand out from the pact. But this is an Xbox oriented website, so I’ll end my comment here.
No big surprise. Both are great games, but one is mass market consumer accessible, one is a hardcore action/rpg with a lengthy story. It takes more than driving around in circles to hold my attention; if the hour tracker is even remotely accurate on PS5 I’ve spent about 4x as much time in Yotei as in Forza.
Hard to say anything bad about this list at all. These are all fantastic games. I fall in the camp of Splinter Cell being a ‘Poor Man’s Metal Gear’, but back then that’s almost all we had as far as tactical espionage action (and when MGS2 eventually did launch, it was worse than the PS2 original☹️).
Good luck suffering through the achievement list, it’s a tedious nightmare of a chore. Loathed the poorly curated list so much over on Playstation I didn’t even bother with Rebirth.
"Traveling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, boy—without precisely optimized code there’d be never ending load screens or countless bugs and glitches or a crash to dashboard, and that’d end your game real quick, wouldn’t it!”
First an best memory, and one that sadly died the moment the 360 launched, was of how unique and different that original Xbox was. It didn’t feel like Sega, Nintendo, Sony or any of the brands that fizzled (3DO, CD-i, jaguar etc). It felt utterly unique and like it was carving out its own space. So many og Xbox games captured that feeling, I had so many great experiences.
Then the corporate console launched. The one calculated in board room meetings to target mass market consumers, to be ‘hip’ and ‘cool’ and ‘social’. It was formulaic, by the numbers, like corporate suits checking off boxes they observed from behind a two way mirror. The 360 immediately killed off that spirit of uniqueness and in its place set up a false idol of bland mass appeal, and spelled the beginning of the downward spiral for the brand. Not in sales, obviously, but in the Rocky Balboa ‘underdog’ passion that first machine brought to the fight.
I’m dying to see both the performance metrics and sales figures for this.
Last CoD on a Nintendo platform was on WiiU, so any sales numbers would have been automatically skewed by the poor sales of the console itself. Switch 2 might be brand new, but it’s a much more established system building off unbelievable momentum from Switch 1. It’ll be a far more accurate assessment of the number of fans and interested people on a Nintendo system than WiiU could ever provide.
@fatpunkslim he mentions the timed Xbox exclusivity for FH6 a sentence after the quote you cited. I think it’s more of a general statement, as in PS5 fans can tune in to the direct and see a lot of new info on this great next installment and thus have something to look forward to.
How is series X “the best of the best right now”? There’s no qualifier given. PS5 is cheaper, has almost every exclusive the X has plus many more of its own, and is the de facto 3rd party platform meaning developers optimize titles for it first (translation: X might be more powerful but you rarely if ever see any meaningful difference in real world scenarios).
Short of a few bells and whistles that are an afterthought to the core experience, I don’t see how Series X is “the best of the best right now”. And that’s all without mentioning the Ps5 Pro, which currently has the power crown.
Praying Fable doesn’t pull an Avowed and reappear after so long with a completely different, hideous visual downgrade. If they don’t butcher the aesthetic it had when last they showed it off, I’m quite excited for Fable.
On the other hand, I didn’t even remember what Beast of Reincarnation was, and after looking it up I don’t care at all about that.
@tho_mi To my recollection, all of Sony’s first party single player games are fully on disc and do not require an internet connection to start. That is categorically a “better” way to publish games than any other way, so you are incorrect.
Someone should tell them this is possible with a brand new media format: the disc. Most games will fit entirely on one of these shiny circles, and since they cost pennies to produce it isn’t a big deal to mint two if necessary.
Regarding the controllers—is that it? Is that the only advancement? There is no word in any human language to accurately describe how little I care about anything cloud related. I was hoping future improvements to a first party Xbox controller might include something more game changing like Hall effect sticks, adaptive triggers, haptic feedback or an included internal rechargeable battery.
I never considered Fable as the fourth “pillar” of Xbox franchises. I loved the first game and am really hopeful for the new one, but I’ve never heard of anyone likening it to a tentpole title in the same way as the commonly accepted 3 pillars. Weird
Can we get a piece combining the data mentioned in this article with the cratering console sales from the other article and how it all interrelates? One downplays the relevance of console sales and one highlights the largest revenue rise in years and includes consoles in that metric.
Even after stepping down and taking on much less hands on roles Bill Gates is still far too rich to care, but I wonder what he thinks of the current state of affairs with the gaming initiative he greenlit. I doubt he’s a gamer by any real definition (although he probably holds a controller better than Jim Ryan), but he can’t be too pleased with how things all turned out.
This is glorious. Exquisite. Immaculate. This is a true hardcore gamer, an elitist, a member of the PMMR (Physical Media Master Race). That ai-slop monger Satya has no power here, his greedy fingers can’t touch this bastion of ultimate control representing this man’s hobby. This is what it’s all about folks, embedding yourself into something you love and ensuring it will not be changed or altered without your consent.
This gets a physical release but Indiana Jones and Oblivion Remastered don’t, wtf. And No, a disc with a handful of MB’s on it is not a physical release, it’s a worthless drink coaster.
Kind of excited for Replaced finally being released. When these current gen consoles launched, there were two indie games (one on each platform) I was genuinely interested in: Replaced on Xbox, and Little Devil Inside on PS. At least one of them won’t dissolve into vaporware!
This is insane. Remember, this isn’t a flat percentage taken from a recurring baseline that magically resets each year, this is 40% down from the previous year’s sales figures which were also successively down year over year. In other words it’s like cutting a sheet of paper in half, then cutting one of those halves in half again, and so on and so forth, continuing to cut it in half until you’re left holding nothing but a little speck of confetti.
@Fiendish-Beaver same passion, but couldn’t be more different with the particular types of achievements I prefer. I get no sense of satisfaction from trophies and achievements whose only draw is that they are strictly difficult. That is a complete waste of time.
Creatively thought out and implemented criteria is infinitely superior to ‘foster a competitive spirit and inflate one’s ego’ style achievements. I’ll still complete those since each and every single game on my list will either be 100% completed or I won’t bother with it, but I get precisely zero enjoyment out difficult trophies that are a tedious chore to unlock. They’re about as bad as multiplayer achievements or ones that have you doing mindless repetitive low-IQ tasks like wave survival modes.
Play less live service games (I dabble with one or two now and again as things stand, but I’d like to cut them out entirely).
Buy games only when they’re fully on-disc/cartridge and don’t succumb to fomo and blow money on digital licenses if the physical release doesn’t coincide with launch (happened once or twice and while the games were great, I didn’t feel good about the purchase decision).
Lastly, skip games that have plans to go back post-launch and force in added content that has nothing to do with the core experience of the main game, i.e. the reason I chose to play it in the first place. Specifically referring to extraneous horde modes, wave survival, multiplayer content etc shoehorned in after the fact. This one I’m not sure I’ll be able to fully resist, as some games that fall into this unfortunate category (like Ghost of Yotei) are simply too good to not play.
Fallout 3 remaster drops and it’s a broken mess like Oblivion Remastered. Rumors of a physical version will circulate, prompting the hardcore fanbase to wait it out. The “physical” version will drop near the end of 2026 and will be a worthless coaster with 25MB’s on disc, pissing off the fans. Meanwhile the game itself will have had several patches promising improved performance that will accomplish absolutely nothing, and Digital Foundry will cite Fallout 3 remaster as one of the worst performing games of 2026.
There’s a 0.001% chance of this happening but if it came with a disc drive pre installed which let me play all my old Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox one and Xbox series games offline and without an internet connection, I’d be willing to pay a premium—$1K or even higher.
If they continue to push their greedy, selfish, anti consumer agenda which strips control away from the end user to line their filthy disgusting pockets and the device has no disc drive, I can’t in good conscience pay more than $99 for it. It would become an impulse purchase, a side piece to my actual main method of gaming, and anything over $99 exceeds what it would be worth.
I like that there’s an entire year long window to claim this stuff. Nothing worse than arbitrary claim dates that close way too soon when there’s no reason for it.
Apropos of nothing, I happen to be in the middle of watching DigitalFoundry’s most recent video, ‘Best Gaming Hardware 2025’ and Richard Leadbetter just said with reference to the (Xbox) ROG Ally X: ”Istill don’t really see it as an Xbox console, I see it as a PC handheld.”
I’m of a similar mind. PC handhelds aren’t Xboxes, they’re PC handhelds. A tv is not an Xbox, it’s a tv. My phone is a phone. A car with a media screen is a car with a media screen, a pc is a pc, a ham radio is a ham radio. My Xbox Series X is, however, actually an Xbox.
This entire marketing gimmick reeks of desperation.
@dskatter You’re 100% correct, but I don’t think that’s what @iluvgames is referring to by the word ‘production’. I think the statement was meant to be understood that design discussion, feature set, bells&whistles etc are all being planned and prepped with AMD and hardware manufacturers, with actual fabrication to happen in the future. Thats my guess as to what the person meant, because like you said there’s zero chance they’re actually building machines at this moment to hoard them until 2027 lol
I wouldn’t drive to an IMAX theatre only to sit in the parking lot watching a movie on my phone, and I have less than no interest in streaming anything to any other screen besides my nice tv the consoles are already hooked up to. Who are these people that prefer a lesser, inferior experience? I get if you’re traveling, on vacation etc and don’t want to lug a console around with you but that’s a niche use case and Microsoft wouldn’t be pushing streaming this hard just for that occasional purpose.
There’s a crucial point not being brought up and discussed here.
Both Nintendo and Sony are selling more, but that’s within the context of them both continuing to make more consoles because they intend to continue to sell more. All the sources I’ve read/heard chiming in on the console sales numbers for Xbox—whether reliable or unreliable—have all expressed a similar notion, namely that hardware production has slowed to a trickle (if not outright ceased), and that Microsoft has been selling off the remaining stock at these inflated prices to recoup what they can.
If true, this certainly alters the perception of these figures. This isn’t a case of 2 million consoles sold wherein Microsoft continues to build more as they aim for an upward trajectory; this is a fire sale, this is them bailing out of the plane and pulling the chute with no clear indication they’ll even waste their time making more machines. That’s a downward trajectory.
I sincerely hope they’re both pushed back. Let’s actually extract some value from these current machines first, I mean real current gen only experiences and not the ‘last gen but better’ up ports we’ve mostly seen so far. We need a good solid year or two full of games that literally could not run on a PS4 before anyone even thinks it’s time for PS6.
Nothing is computationally ‘free’. All this stuff comes with a performance price. Usually it isn’t noticeable, but if these platform holders actually cared about the end users they’d give us more fine grain control and let us turn these things off.
10 years from now we’ll all be reading the same article all over again, except it’ll be someone who jailbroke the NextBox Magnus and excised the ai functionality like the useless tumor it is and—lo and behold—the thing will run faster.
There were rumors prior to release of a physical copy in the works, so it didn’t make sense to waste money on a digital license now only to potentially be able to buy an ownable copy later. Playing it on gamepass softened the eventual blow of Bethesda/microsoft’s anti consumer, greed based decision to only put a worthless few GB’s on the “physical version” instead of doing their job and minting two discs if that’s what it takes.
I ended up not wasting money on a digital license and skipping the blatant lie of a “physical” release entirely. For once, Gamepass proved useful to me.
Oblivion Remastered (shocking, I know, but you can actually finish this bug filled, glitch riddled mess of poorly optimized code. There is a credits screen; you aren’t doomed to eternal crashes and soft locks).
THPS 3+4
Unless I’m forgetting something, those are the only actual Xbox games I’ve finished (as per the article title). I’ve played more, but I’m either taking them at my own pace to savor them, they were so awful I abandoned them, or else I’m chipping away at achievements which can take time.
I counted 9 games in the 11-25 list that deserve the top spot more than E33. People think I hate the game, I don’t. It simply isn’t GotY material and it’s irritating to watch an unwarranted amount of praise be heaped on something when a number of better games are snubbed. It’s 2011 all over again.
Nope. E33 is good, maybe even great—but it takes more than just a great game to wear the mantle of GotY. If none of the other high level contenders released this year then perhaps this would earn the spot, but there are 4-5 more worthy titles on this very list that should sit in the number one position.
But maybe all this unwarranted hype is a blessing in disguise; I’ve long lamented the trend in RPG’s of turn based battles falling out of favor and shifting to real time battle systems in an attempt to chase the modern audience. Perhaps we’ll finally see the pendulum swing back the other way. If that’s partially due to the success of E33, then it has my thanks.
Bought 18 games (no I have not gotten to all of them yet…) and 90% were physical, full game on-disc. Only game I went digital with was Oblivion Remastered, because of the lazy, self-serving, anti-consumer way they botched the “physical” release.
@RegnumSolipsi Unlikely. If this were still 5~ years ago when it was assumed to be an Xbox exclusive, then perhaps. But look at how well the Spiderman games did on PlayStation, and Wolverine and Marvel Tokon are poised to do just as well. This proves one thing, that there’s a market for high quality Marvel related games over there. And by market I mean real quantifiable metrics, i.e. individual unit sales.
Assuming Arkane does their usual job and Blade launches in the same ballpark as those aforementioned games as far as quality is concerned, it’ll sell on PlayStation at the very least. That’s enough of a reason for Satya squinting through his greed goggles to not cancel it.
This article is framed in an odd way. What’s ‘the catch’? If the game is good and the roadmap looks good, you’d want to buy this. That way, you’d own it and be able to play it whenever you like without worrying it’ll be taken away from you. No downside, no catch.
A ‘catch’ is something like paying a monthly fee simply to rent it, only for it to be removed and your access revoked, with you being left unable to enjoy it.
THPS 3+4. It’s such a fantastic remake that kind of just came and went without much fanfare or acclaim. The trophy/achievement list is excellent, great visuals, the new levels aren’t half bad and the control is nearly flawless (as long as you’re playing on a controller with a better Dpad than that abomination on the Xbox controller…).
I think the last bowling game I played on console was Wii bowling. I’d be interested in trying this just to see how accurate the physics are and if the presentation does justice to the rich heritage and pageantry of the sport. Is there a special seating section cordoned off and designated specifically for Bowlers’ Wives?
Not to defend anyone who deserved to have their account banned, but regarding the instances when it was unwarranted: This is yet another reminder why buying physical media to secure permanent ownership is superior to digital rental services. Of course, if the platform holder makes anti consumer decisions like choosing to not put the full game on disc when there is no reason it can’t, then that does complicate things.
Out of every high level gaming executive that ever worked for any of the main platform holders over the years, from Atari all the way to the modern era, there is no one I’d be more fascinated to hear from after their retirement than Phil Spencer. We’ve heard some really eye opening stuff from figureheads like Steve Balmer and Shuhei Yoshida, but I doubt any of that could compare to the behind-the-scenes knowledge Phil Spencer has been privy to.
I eagerly await his retirement, not because I want the guy out of his position or anything like that, but simply so that he can spill the beans and start talking about the chaos and pure absurdity that’s been going on with the platform since toward the end of the 360 era. I want to hear all about the reasoning behind countless inept decisions, the endless flip flopping strategies, the self sabotaging corporate mandates and the eventual torpedoing of the entire platform many gamers cherished since 2001. All that stuff needs to come out, and when it does it will irrevocably change a lot of people’s perspectives on just how negative an influence the trillion dollar parent company had on a brilliant little gaming startup called Xbox, which had been lovingly nurtured into being by a group of people passionate about the hobby and who really knew what they were doing.
Comments 692
Re: Report: Microsoft Is Set To Launch An Xbox Cloud Gaming Ad-Tier This Year
Reminds me of that classic Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercial, except instead of the joyous union of two awesome things like chocolate and peanut butter it’s like combining two awful things nobody really wants except money loving executives desperately pushing an agenda to strip the end user of all rights.
‘Hey! You got your corporate greed in my comparatively inferior to native play cloud gaming experience!’
Re: 50 Backwards Compatible Xbox Games That Are 'Disc Only' In 2026
Ah, the superiority of physical media. Warms my heart
Re: Poll: What Are Your First Impressions Of Star Wars Outlaws On Xbox Game Pass?
No discernible difference between the rental gamepass version and the version available to buy.
Re: Talking Point: Xbox Series X|S Owners, How's Your Storage Looking In 2026?
My Xbox is mostly full. As someone who buys to own, I have most of my frequently played titles permanently installed. To be fair, there isn’t that much to look forward to in a first party sense, and I do most of my third party gaming on Playstation, so it’s not a big deal to delete something once in a great while to make room.
Re: Resident Evil 4 Fans Should Be Well-Served By Requiem's Third-Person Action Next Month
Let’s hope Survival Horror fans will be well served with old school sensibilities and design. Less RE5, 6 and 8. More RE1
Re: Poll: Ahead Of Developer Direct 2026, Which Is Your Favourite Fable Game On Xbox?
Definitely the first game. In a strange way the Fable series has mirrored the trajectory of the Xbox brand. The first game was unique, original, and didn’t feel quite like anything else on the market. The sequels tried to broaden their reach and capture mass appeal in a very by-the-numbers way, losing so much of what made Fable 1 so charming. Fable’s 2 and 3 felt watered down, and in addition there were some poorly implemented mechanics and systems on top of that.
Re: Assassin's Creed Shadows Almost Had Full Ray Tracing On Xbox Series S, But Its RAM Caused Issues
Missed article pun: For those who forgot, the Series S has memory issues.
Re: Two Xbox Game Studios Titles Will Compete For The Same Outstanding Visuals Award At VES 2026
All the games on the list look good, but I’d wager only two look so astonishingly gorgeous that they really stand out from the pact. But this is an Xbox oriented website, so I’ll end my comment here.
Re: Forza Horizon 5 PS5 Sales Beat Sony's Biggest 2025 Exclusive In Europe, Other Xbox Games Make Top 20
No big surprise. Both are great games, but one is mass market consumer accessible, one is a hardcore action/rpg with a lengthy story. It takes more than driving around in circles to hold my attention; if the hour tracker is even remotely accurate on PS5 I’ve spent about 4x as much time in Yotei as in Forza.
Re: These Are The 10 Highest-Rated Original Xbox Games Of All Time, But Do You Agree?
Hard to say anything bad about this list at all. These are all fantastic games. I fall in the camp of Splinter Cell being a ‘Poor Man’s Metal Gear’, but back then that’s almost all we had as far as tactical espionage action (and when MGS2 eventually did launch, it was worse than the PS2 original☹️).
Re: I've Never Played Final Fantasy 7 Before, But I'm Liking The Remake On Xbox So Far
Good luck suffering through the achievement list, it’s a tedious nightmare of a chore. Loathed the poorly curated list so much over on Playstation I didn’t even bother with Rebirth.
Re: Star Wars Genesis Creator Explains Why Viral Starfield Mod Is 'Never' Coming To Xbox
"Traveling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, boy—without precisely optimized code there’d be never ending load screens or countless bugs and glitches or a crash to dashboard, and that’d end your game real quick, wouldn’t it!”
Re: Talking Point: As Xbox Celebrates 25 Years, What's Your First Ever Xbox Memory?
First an best memory, and one that sadly died the moment the 360 launched, was of how unique and different that original Xbox was. It didn’t feel like Sega, Nintendo, Sony or any of the brands that fizzled (3DO, CD-i, jaguar etc). It felt utterly unique and like it was carving out its own space. So many og Xbox games captured that feeling, I had so many great experiences.
Then the corporate console launched. The one calculated in board room meetings to target mass market consumers, to be ‘hip’ and ‘cool’ and ‘social’. It was formulaic, by the numbers, like corporate suits checking off boxes they observed from behind a two way mirror. The 360 immediately killed off that spirit of uniqueness and in its place set up a false idol of bland mass appeal, and spelled the beginning of the downward spiral for the brand. Not in sales, obviously, but in the Rocky Balboa ‘underdog’ passion that first machine brought to the fight.
Re: Call Of Duty On Switch 2 Looks Imminent As 'Nintendo' Files Appear In COD App
I’m dying to see both the performance metrics and sales figures for this.
Last CoD on a Nintendo platform was on WiiU, so any sales numbers would have been automatically skewed by the poor sales of the console itself. Switch 2 might be brand new, but it’s a much more established system building off unbelievable momentum from Switch 1. It’ll be a far more accurate assessment of the number of fans and interested people on a Nintendo system than WiiU could ever provide.
Re: Forza Horizon 5 Hits Huge Sales Milestone In Its First Year On PS5, According To New Estimates
@fatpunkslim he mentions the timed Xbox exclusivity for FH6 a sentence after the quote you cited. I think it’s more of a general statement, as in PS5 fans can tune in to the direct and see a lot of new info on this great next installment and thus have something to look forward to.
Re: Eight Free-To-Play Games To Look Forward To On Xbox In 2026
“to look forward to” —hey, that’s not how you spell avoid
Re: Is It Worth Buying An Xbox One In 2026?
How is series X “the best of the best right now”? There’s no qualifier given. PS5 is cheaper, has almost every exclusive the X has plus many more of its own, and is the de facto 3rd party platform meaning developers optimize titles for it first (translation: X might be more powerful but you rarely if ever see any meaningful difference in real world scenarios).
Short of a few bells and whistles that are an afterthought to the core experience, I don’t see how Series X is “the best of the best right now”. And that’s all without mentioning the Ps5 Pro, which currently has the power crown.
Re: Poll: In Order, Which Games Are You Most Excited For At The Xbox Developer Direct?
Praying Fable doesn’t pull an Avowed and reappear after so long with a completely different, hideous visual downgrade. If they don’t butcher the aesthetic it had when last they showed it off, I’m quite excited for Fable.
On the other hand, I didn’t even remember what Beast of Reincarnation was, and after looking it up I don’t care at all about that.
Re: Phil Spencer Reveals 'Xbox 25' Logo And Shares Video Message Ahead Of Developer Direct
@tho_mi To my recollection, all of Sony’s first party single player games are fully on disc and do not require an internet connection to start. That is categorically a “better” way to publish games than any other way, so you are incorrect.
Re: Xbox Has Begun Licensing Old Games For Physical Cartridges, And More Are Coming In 2026
Someone should tell them this is possible with a brand new media format: the disc. Most games will fit entirely on one of these shiny circles, and since they cost pennies to produce it isn’t a big deal to mint two if necessary.
Re: New Xbox Hardware Is Reportedly Set To Arrive In 2026
Regarding the controllers—is that it? Is that the only advancement? There is no word in any human language to accurately describe how little I care about anything cloud related. I was hoping future improvements to a first party Xbox controller might include something more game changing like Hall effect sticks, adaptive triggers, haptic feedback or an included internal rechargeable battery.
Re: Xbox Reporter Teases What Might Be Shown At Developer Direct, Including A Potential Surprise
I never considered Fable as the fourth “pillar” of Xbox franchises. I loved the first game and am really hopeful for the new one, but I’ve never heard of anyone likening it to a tentpole title in the same way as the commonly accepted 3 pillars. Weird
Re: The UK Games Industry Had Its Biggest Year Since 2020 Last Year
Can we get a piece combining the data mentioned in this article with the cratering console sales from the other article and how it all interrelates? One downplays the relevance of console sales and one highlights the largest revenue rise in years and includes consoles in that metric.
Re: Today Marks 25 Years Since Bill Gates & The Rock Unveiled The OG Xbox
Even after stepping down and taking on much less hands on roles Bill Gates is still far too rich to care, but I wonder what he thinks of the current state of affairs with the gaming initiative he greenlit. I doubt he’s a gamer by any real definition (although he probably holds a controller better than Jim Ryan), but he can’t be too pleased with how things all turned out.
Re: Exclusive: Xbox 360 Fan Talks To Us About Completing Their Collection After 20 Years
This is glorious. Exquisite. Immaculate. This is a true hardcore gamer, an elitist, a member of the PMMR (Physical Media Master Race). That ai-slop monger Satya has no power here, his greedy fingers can’t touch this bastion of ultimate control representing this man’s hobby. This is what it’s all about folks, embedding yourself into something you love and ensuring it will not be changed or altered without your consent.
Re: Hi-Fi RUSH Physical Editions Will Be Available To Pre-Order For Xbox Later This Month
This gets a physical release but Indiana Jones and Oblivion Remastered don’t, wtf. And No, a disc with a handful of MB’s on it is not a physical release, it’s a worthless drink coaster.
Re: Feature: 30 Xbox Series X|S Games To Look Forward To In 2026
Kind of excited for Replaced finally being released. When these current gen consoles launched, there were two indie games (one on each platform) I was genuinely interested in: Replaced on Xbox, and Little Devil Inside on PS. At least one of them won’t dissolve into vaporware!
Re: Xbox Console Sales 'The Worst On Record' In 2025 As Microsoft Shifts Focus (UK)
This is insane. Remember, this isn’t a flat percentage taken from a recurring baseline that magically resets each year, this is 40% down from the previous year’s sales figures which were also successively down year over year. In other words it’s like cutting a sheet of paper in half, then cutting one of those halves in half again, and so on and so forth, continuing to cut it in half until you’re left holding nothing but a little speck of confetti.
Re: Three Casual Xbox Games Arrived For 'Free' Over Christmas, Easy Achievements On Offer
@Fiendish-Beaver same passion, but couldn’t be more different with the particular types of achievements I prefer. I get no sense of satisfaction from trophies and achievements whose only draw is that they are strictly difficult. That is a complete waste of time.
Creatively thought out and implemented criteria is infinitely superior to ‘foster a competitive spirit and inflate one’s ego’ style achievements. I’ll still complete those since each and every single game on my list will either be 100% completed or I won’t bother with it, but I get precisely zero enjoyment out difficult trophies that are a tedious chore to unlock. They’re about as bad as multiplayer achievements or ones that have you doing mindless repetitive low-IQ tasks like wave survival modes.
Re: Talking Point: What Are Your New Year's Resolutions For Gaming In 2026?
Play less live service games (I dabble with one or two now and again as things stand, but I’d like to cut them out entirely).
Buy games only when they’re fully on-disc/cartridge and don’t succumb to fomo and blow money on digital licenses if the physical release doesn’t coincide with launch (happened once or twice and while the games were great, I didn’t feel good about the purchase decision).
Lastly, skip games that have plans to go back post-launch and force in added content that has nothing to do with the core experience of the main game, i.e. the reason I chose to play it in the first place. Specifically referring to extraneous horde modes, wave survival, multiplayer content etc shoehorned in after the fact. This one I’m not sure I’ll be able to fully resist, as some games that fall into this unfortunate category (like Ghost of Yotei) are simply too good to not play.
Re: Xbox Developer Direct Has Always Had A Surprise, But What About January 2026's Showcase?
My prediction:
Fallout 3 remaster drops and it’s a broken mess like Oblivion Remastered. Rumors of a physical version will circulate, prompting the hardcore fanbase to wait it out. The “physical” version will drop near the end of 2026 and will be a worthless coaster with 25MB’s on disc, pissing off the fans. Meanwhile the game itself will have had several patches promising improved performance that will accomplish absolutely nothing, and Digital Foundry will cite Fallout 3 remaster as one of the worst performing games of 2026.
Re: Talking Point: How Much Would You Be Willing To Spend On The Next Xbox Console?
There’s a 0.001% chance of this happening but if it came with a disc drive pre installed which let me play all my old Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox one and Xbox series games offline and without an internet connection, I’d be willing to pay a premium—$1K or even higher.
If they continue to push their greedy, selfish, anti consumer agenda which strips control away from the end user to line their filthy disgusting pockets and the device has no disc drive, I can’t in good conscience pay more than $99 for it. It would become an impulse purchase, a side piece to my actual main method of gaming, and anything over $99 exceeds what it would be worth.
Re: Halo Infinite Is Giving Away Seven Free Items To Celebrate The Start Of 2026
I like that there’s an entire year long window to claim this stuff. Nothing worse than arbitrary claim dates that close way too soon when there’s no reason for it.
Re: A Year Later, Microsoft Remains Highly Committed To Its 'This Is An Xbox' Campaign
Apropos of nothing, I happen to be in the middle of watching DigitalFoundry’s most recent video, ‘Best Gaming Hardware 2025’ and Richard Leadbetter just said with reference to the (Xbox) ROG Ally X: ”Istill don’t really see it as an Xbox console, I see it as a PC handheld.”
I’m of a similar mind. PC handhelds aren’t Xboxes, they’re PC handhelds. A tv is not an Xbox, it’s a tv. My phone is a phone. A car with a media screen is a car with a media screen, a pc is a pc, a ham radio is a ham radio. My Xbox Series X is, however, actually an Xbox.
This entire marketing gimmick reeks of desperation.
Re: Five Reasons Why 2026 Is One Of The Most Important Years In Xbox History
@dskatter You’re 100% correct, but I don’t think that’s what @iluvgames is referring to by the word ‘production’. I think the statement was meant to be understood that design discussion, feature set, bells&whistles etc are all being planned and prepped with AMD and hardware manufacturers, with actual fabrication to happen in the future. Thats my guess as to what the person meant, because like you said there’s zero chance they’re actually building machines at this moment to hoard them until 2027 lol
Re: 50+ Games Added To Xbox 'Stream Your Own Game' To Finish Off 2025
I wouldn’t drive to an IMAX theatre only to sit in the parking lot watching a movie on my phone, and I have less than no interest in streaming anything to any other screen besides my nice tv the consoles are already hooked up to. Who are these people that prefer a lesser, inferior experience? I get if you’re traveling, on vacation etc and don’t want to lug a console around with you but that’s a niche use case and Microsoft wouldn’t be pushing streaming this hard just for that occasional purpose.
Re: Latest Sales Estimates Suggest Xbox Sold Over Two Million Series X|S Consoles In 2025
There’s a crucial point not being brought up and discussed here.
Both Nintendo and Sony are selling more, but that’s within the context of them both continuing to make more consoles because they intend to continue to sell more. All the sources I’ve read/heard chiming in on the console sales numbers for Xbox—whether reliable or unreliable—have all expressed a similar notion, namely that hardware production has slowed to a trickle (if not outright ceased), and that Microsoft has been selling off the remaining stock at these inflated prices to recoup what they can.
If true, this certainly alters the perception of these figures. This isn’t a case of 2 million consoles sold wherein Microsoft continues to build more as they aim for an upward trajectory; this is a fire sale, this is them bailing out of the plane and pulling the chute with no clear indication they’ll even waste their time making more machines. That’s a downward trajectory.
Re: Report: Xbox & PlayStation Could Delay Next-Gen Consoles Due To RAM Price Increases
I sincerely hope they’re both pushed back. Let’s actually extract some value from these current machines first, I mean real current gen only experiences and not the ‘last gen but better’ up ports we’ve mostly seen so far. We need a good solid year or two full of games that literally could not run on a PS4 before anyone even thinks it’s time for PS6.
Re: Xbox Owner Thinks They've Found A 'Major Design Flaw' That Impacts Game Performance
Nothing is computationally ‘free’. All this stuff comes with a performance price. Usually it isn’t noticeable, but if these platform holders actually cared about the end users they’d give us more fine grain control and let us turn these things off.
10 years from now we’ll all be reading the same article all over again, except it’ll be someone who jailbroke the NextBox Magnus and excised the ai functionality like the useless tumor it is and—lo and behold—the thing will run faster.
Re: Poll: What Were The Best Xbox Game Pass Additions In 2025?
Oblivion Remastered, for one reason.
There were rumors prior to release of a physical copy in the works, so it didn’t make sense to waste money on a digital license now only to potentially be able to buy an ownable copy later. Playing it on gamepass softened the eventual blow of Bethesda/microsoft’s anti consumer, greed based decision to only put a worthless few GB’s on the “physical version” instead of doing their job and minting two discs if that’s what it takes.
I ended up not wasting money on a digital license and skipping the blatant lie of a “physical” release entirely. For once, Gamepass proved useful to me.
Re: Talking Point: Which Xbox Games Have You Managed To Finish In 2025?
Oblivion Remastered (shocking, I know, but you can actually finish this bug filled, glitch riddled mess of poorly optimized code. There is a credits screen; you aren’t doomed to eternal crashes and soft locks).
THPS 3+4
Unless I’m forgetting something, those are the only actual Xbox games I’ve finished (as per the article title). I’ve played more, but I’m either taking them at my own pace to savor them, they were so awful I abandoned them, or else I’m chipping away at achievements which can take time.
Re: Pure Xbox's Game Of The Year 2025: The Results You Didn't See
I counted 9 games in the 11-25 list that deserve the top spot more than E33. People think I hate the game, I don’t. It simply isn’t GotY material and it’s irritating to watch an unwarranted amount of praise be heaped on something when a number of better games are snubbed. It’s 2011 all over again.
Re: Pure Xbox's Game Of The Year 2025
Nope. E33 is good, maybe even great—but it takes more than just a great game to wear the mantle of GotY. If none of the other high level contenders released this year then perhaps this would earn the spot, but there are 4-5 more worthy titles on this very list that should sit in the number one position.
But maybe all this unwarranted hype is a blessing in disguise; I’ve long lamented the trend in RPG’s of turn based battles falling out of favor and shifting to real time battle systems in an attempt to chase the modern audience. Perhaps we’ll finally see the pendulum swing back the other way. If that’s partially due to the success of E33, then it has my thanks.
Re: Poll: How Many Xbox Games Have You Actually Bought In 2025?
Bought 18 games (no I have not gotten to all of them yet…) and 90% were physical, full game on-disc. Only game I went digital with was Oblivion Remastered, because of the lazy, self-serving, anti-consumer way they botched the “physical” release.
Re: Marvel's Blade Director Shares Brief End Of 2025 Update On The Game's Progress
@RegnumSolipsi Unlikely. If this were still 5~ years ago when it was assumed to be an Xbox exclusive, then perhaps. But look at how well the Spiderman games did on PlayStation, and Wolverine and Marvel Tokon are poised to do just as well. This proves one thing, that there’s a market for high quality Marvel related games over there. And by market I mean real quantifiable metrics, i.e. individual unit sales.
Assuming Arkane does their usual job and Blade launches in the same ballpark as those aforementioned games as far as quality is concerned, it’ll sell on PlayStation at the very least. That’s enough of a reason for Satya squinting through his greed goggles to not cancel it.
Re: Hell Let Loose Unveils Huge Roadmap Of Content For 2026, But There's A Catch On Xbox
This article is framed in an odd way. What’s ‘the catch’? If the game is good and the roadmap looks good, you’d want to buy this. That way, you’d own it and be able to play it whenever you like without worrying it’ll be taken away from you. No downside, no catch.
A ‘catch’ is something like paying a monthly fee simply to rent it, only for it to be removed and your access revoked, with you being left unable to enjoy it.
Re: Talking Point: Which Xbox Games Deserved More Love This Year?
THPS 3+4. It’s such a fantastic remake that kind of just came and went without much fanfare or acclaim. The trophy/achievement list is excellent, great visuals, the new levels aren’t half bad and the control is nearly flawless (as long as you’re playing on a controller with a better Dpad than that abomination on the Xbox controller…).
Re: PBA Pro Bowling 2026 Reviews Suggest It's One Of The Best Bowling Games Ever On Xbox
I think the last bowling game I played on console was Wii bowling. I’d be interested in trying this just to see how accurate the physics are and if the presentation does justice to the rich heritage and pageantry of the sport. Is there a special seating section cordoned off and designated specifically for Bowlers’ Wives?
Re: New Xbox 'Investigation' Highlights The Dangers Of Banned (And Hacked) Accounts
Not to defend anyone who deserved to have their account banned, but regarding the instances when it was unwarranted: This is yet another reminder why buying physical media to secure permanent ownership is superior to digital rental services. Of course, if the platform holder makes anti consumer decisions like choosing to not put the full game on disc when there is no reason it can’t, then that does complicate things.
Re: Xbox's Phil Spencer Shares Lengthy Video Message After Winning 'Industry Icon' Award
Out of every high level gaming executive that ever worked for any of the main platform holders over the years, from Atari all the way to the modern era, there is no one I’d be more fascinated to hear from after their retirement than Phil Spencer. We’ve heard some really eye opening stuff from figureheads like Steve Balmer and Shuhei Yoshida, but I doubt any of that could compare to the behind-the-scenes knowledge Phil Spencer has been privy to.
I eagerly await his retirement, not because I want the guy out of his position or anything like that, but simply so that he can spill the beans and start talking about the chaos and pure absurdity that’s been going on with the platform since toward the end of the 360 era. I want to hear all about the reasoning behind countless inept decisions, the endless flip flopping strategies, the self sabotaging corporate mandates and the eventual torpedoing of the entire platform many gamers cherished since 2001. All that stuff needs to come out, and when it does it will irrevocably change a lot of people’s perspectives on just how negative an influence the trillion dollar parent company had on a brilliant little gaming startup called Xbox, which had been lovingly nurtured into being by a group of people passionate about the hobby and who really knew what they were doing.