@FraserG keyboard and mouse came today and already have a screen so good to go.

@FraserG Whilst this has been out of my price range - considerably so - I was able to pick up a used Rog Xbox Ally at the weekend for £300 and I’m really happy I did.
I’ve had an up and down relationship with XBOX in recent years but love the ecosystem and having seen the updates and direction, I am happy to be back in the room.

I also write my own poetry and wanted a mid level PC but again cost was an issue but after 3 days, I’m absolutely loving the Rog Ally. It’s better than I realised and after 40 plus years of gaming , I’m finally embracing PC gaming as well as XBOX again.

As someone with bi polar, knowing that there are sites and people like yourself who I feel can trust , I’m really happy with my purchase and excited to be back in the XBOX ecosystem.

Thanks for that.

It very much seems that XBOX are getting everything ready for the transition to the next hardware release. These are some brilliant updates and it feels like they are really pushing down on the accelerator.

There is no doubt in my mind that XBOX can have success next time BUT there are 2 huge things I see standing in its way - the first being price obviously, but the second is marketing, especially in the UK. In the UK if I’ve seen more than 1 advert for XBOX on TV in the last 8 years, I’d be surprised. They have to more if they want it even get close to PlayStation and Nintendo.

I sold my Xbox nearly 2 years ago as I wasn’t playing it enough but kept Xbox Game Pass Ultimate as Cloud at home on my IPad Pro ran superbly well. But 15 hours a month is crazy. Basically it’s the end of Cloud for Xbox. It seemed to be one of their biggest routes to keep the Xbox brand going but they are clearly ditching that now.
Most games are going to take longer than 15 hours to complete.

I get that not many play cloud - around 1 million according to Jez Corden on Game Pass - but it just makes it totally redundant and whilst 1 million isn’t a lot of people to Microsoft, it’s 1 million who have just been given a huge reason to no longer subscribe.

@Dromosus This is an Xbox …… and then it’s not …. And now it’s definitely not. 15 hours……. I usually play that in a week on my iPad. Oh well.

@abe_hikura It just seems that every time Xbox move forwards by one step, they hurtle backwards at high speed!!!!! It doesn’t matter what they do, they seem to be intent on self destruction mode

Bye bye Game Pass. Cancelled

Those prices are insane. I get that there are issues in the market right now but those leaps are ridiculous. Next gen is going to die before it starts because no one will be able to afford it.

XBOX will go all cloud. I don’t see any situation now where they can make money from hardware.

Xbox is a PC from now on. And Cloud. They dont even need to make a console or PC hybrid. They may as well let 3rd parties make the hardware and collect the money from subscriptions. And I truly think that is exactly what they are going to do

Xbox is going full AI. Mark my words. Come ten years time it will likely have hardly any employees and AI will run it all. Cloud will be Xbox now. Helix will come but it will never be mass market and Xbox will simply focus on game time.

@NishimaruX it was such a desperate comment to mention hours played. It’s not a benchmark of success in any way. It’s another prime example of Sharma following the Spencer line of media spin - I’ll say some good stuff …. But then I’ll ruin it very quickly.

I want Xbox or XBOX to succeed again but I don’t see how they can with a piece of hardware over £1k in price. It just doesn’t seem that they will fully bounce back.

Hardware at these prices will never have mass market appeal. Ultimately they have the cloud left to dominate. And that’s it.

@Romans12 exactly. She’s a other useful puppet

@Alucard1337 Come on, Phil didn’t have any power. He was a useful puppet, as was Bond and Booty who I’m still mystified as to why he kept his job. Sharma started well and then her mask slipped.

@MrStark But how will Xbox grow in hardware sales when the next hardware is going to be £1.5k? Maybe £1.2K but if it does launch with a disc drive, it’s going to be a phenomenal cost that the mass market just isn’t going to entertain. She can spin , and boy is she a spinner, all she wants but 3 exclusives alone isn’t going to blast Xbox back to the very top. It just isn’t.

It’s going to sell gangbusters at that price. Even scalpers won’t be bothered with this. It’s out of hand

All very ‘nice’ sound bites

@Scummbuddy give me a key card over nothing at all any day of the week. The physical era is closing. Sad times.

@Weebleman They seem to be restructuring downwards. I can see there being nothing left the way they seem to be heading. Very sad to see from all viewpoints.

They do protest too much me thinks! Also anytime else heard the breaking rumour that Game Pass deals with Indie devs have been paused?? If that’s true Xbox has just potentially killed off a load of devs. What are they doing?

Those responsible for storage and data and are holding everyone to ransom. It should be stopped. It HAS to be stopped. It’s ridiculous and just basic profiteering going totally unchecked.

All heading towards digital and cloud. Thats what Microsoft and Nvidia want.

I don’t really like key cards but at least you can have a cartridge. Either way, it’s pants for physical gamers

@Balaam_ it won’t be

@Balaam_ @themightyant More 1k devices. More of them. Xbox really are mad if they think they are going to sell all these devices to mass consumers!

No it clearly just means that they are highlighting games for the handheld market. I wouldn’t read anything more into it. And they are already up against trying to market a new console that will cost over a grand so why add a handheld that will cost similar?

@FraserG Xbox are the masters of bringing some hope and then destroying it. It’s relentless. I even DM’d Jez Corden the other day and his reply was simply ‘it’s tiring.’

These cuts will be brutal.

Let’s translate this in the simplest way possible shall we? Basically Xbox is hanging on by a thread and is the last chance saloon. It’s as simple as that.

@StonyKL I get your points but Forza has done well on PS5, the other multiplatform games are struggling. Stellar Blade on Game Pass would get players for sure. But it won’t sell.

I thought it was XBOX now

@themightyant You missed out a word ‘is’

@FraserG But how many developers will be under the belt in the next 100 days? It will be a massive drop.

Our systems are too complex…………… she says but then goes onto say that need help to produce across console , PC and streaming.

I thought that Phil Spencer was contradictory but she is off the scale here! 😂😂😂

“We are currently unable to make as many consoles as players want to buy, and we need a new business model and partnerships for hardware as we remain committed to Helix.”

Well that’s a load of horse crap!!!! You can’t even sell what you have made , never mind have an excess. How can she even begin to claim they can’t make enough consoles that people want to buy???

What is she smoking?

@SMJ exactly! I’ve not seen an Xbox advert in the UK for three years at least. How can you cut something that doesn’t exist?

@McKeownPlayz only a few games will be exclusive. Forza will remain a multi platform game for sure - they can’t afford for it not to be.

Trouble is, a handheld versions of Helix and PS6 is still going to be a grand. Whilst a Switch 2 is £500. You can see why Nintendo is opening the floodgates for third party games. Exactly why.

Isn’t it XBOX now?

Well she was saying all the right things. And then …. Wallop…. Yep. Xbox is going full AI. Fave palm time again for Xbox.

I can’t stop laughing at the mention of the game pass price reduction impact. It only came in , what? a few weeks ago. If that had an impact and they are mentioning it, is laughable. Clutching at straws.

I’ve liked was Sharma has said so far, but I’m also conscious that Matt Booty is still there and he has say alongside the now gone Bond may times and not delivered. So I’m far from convinced.

If Xbox want to grab fans to use Xbox as their number one console, something costing £1200 isn’t going to be the answer.

Sadly, even though the ‘everything is an Xbox’ campaign has been killed , I can’t see how else they will keep the ecosystem user numbers game going.

We are hearing positive things from Xbox right now buts it way too early to even suggest it’s changing for the better. We have heard Booty, Spencer and Bond say things that sounded great and then they turned out to be nothing more than lip service.

So whilst it sounds good - I’m cautiously reserving judgement to see how things pan out in reality. A console over £1k is never going to have mass appeal. That equation will need to be looked at if Xbox really wants to bounce back and we need something better than Rog Ally handhelds.

@FraserG I hope that it means Xbox are realising there is value in keeping some exclusives. You have to have competition. It’s early days but the noises from the new CEO are certainly making me feel like Xbox want to get back in the game and make a comeback no one is truly anticipating.

@FraserG A really engaging post Fraser. I think that transparency is one of the big ones.

What is biggest out of all this though in my opinion is that gaming thrives when all brands are at their strongest. A strong Xbox, a strong PlayStation and strong Nintendo are what is needed. When any one of them falls, it helps no one.

Competition breeds success and I hope Xbox will focus on the hardware again and making sure its offering is competitive.

This is very much a case of ‘no sh1# Sherlock! But is it already too late for Xbox?

She will make everything that Xbox does all about AI.

Sarah Bond talking rubbish replaced by someone else talking rubbish. Xbox can’t go ‘everything is an Xbox’ and hope to succeed to with hardware. The two are totally at odds with each other.

Basically everything from Xbox will be AI now. Everything.

She clearly went to the same school as Bond! Long, superficial statements saying much and delivering little.

@FraserG never mind all this! Spencer gone! Bond resigns! Wow!

@dskatter my ipad pro is myxbox these days. That's just the way it is. If everything is an Xbox, why even have an Xbox at all?