@TrollOfWar And I also like your posts! You lay some common sense across Hookshot.

@AI-Generation They only post about Xbox in negative ways and dramatically, so of course they'll ignore anything positive about it.

@Sol4ris I understand what you mean, but in many cases, studios hire additional people for an specific project and then their work is over. I'm not saying it's ideal, but it happens a lot. I don't think that the core staff at The Coalition is at risk, being one of their best developers not just in terms of technology but games as well, like Playground Games.

@TrollOfWar To be honest, I have never played an Inxile game, so I was being completely objective. I also hope that they and the other studios find success and stability, as long as their work is well done, starting with The Coalition that has just released a gem. I'm very curious about State of Decay 3 and how Undead Labs fare.

@RiverGenie It is, and I still haven't played these, so Series X version, here I come, after Gears of War E-Day. 😁

@AI-Generation Yes, that also reminds me of Forza Horizon 3, capped at 30fps on Xbox but not on PC... and Fatal Frame II Remake (not Play Anywhere yet), 30fps on all consoles but uncapped on PC.

Someone remind those readers that the French reviewer preferred Bubsy 4D!

@Balaam_ RAM is the bottleneck of Xbox Series S according to developers, so I guess your answer is that some of them are better at optimising games for a more limited RAM.

I found this.

Gears of War E-Day uses the SSD as a new tier of memory to supplement the 10GB of GDDR6 on Series S, with a bespoke system developed in collaboration with Xbox's platform team and Advanced Technology Group.

https://www.digitalfoundry.net/features/how-gears-of-war-e-day-solves-the-series-s-memory-issue-by-tapping-the-ssd

@TrollOfWar Thanks. I appreciate it. As I said, if players don't support certain studios and games, their downfall is unavoidable, but that doesn't mean it's the players' fault. Of course, you don't have to support anything that you don't like because you also need to buy your stuff and pay your bills like me. Why should you buy all these games and not the ones you want to buy (or play on Game Pass)?

I played some of those studios' games on Game Pass. Actually, I think I have played most of them, so I kind of supported them. I even wrote reviews on "Last Game You Played". The only title I bought besides paying for Game Pass from these studios was State of Decay 2, because that's the one I really liked.

However, there are other things to consider, like the pandemic you mentioned, hiring many more people and increasing budget significantly without planning your game well in the first place, and becoming too confident and unworried because you seem to have an unlimited budget because of Phil Spencer's approval, a person I like but have also criticised because of his hands-off strategy. This is where I agree with you: failed strategic decisions from the parent company, but under a different leadership (Phil and Sarah). An strategy that bleed the profits earned by the most successful studios down to 3%.

As much as I think that Nadella is a weird choice for one of the most important companies in the world, I don't believe for a second that Nadella wants to sell Xbox, simply because he could have done it, and all their recent moves, from hiring Asha to making a new Halo studio and more Fallout games clearly demonstrate that they really want to reboot Xbox as a more efficient business, getting rid of what didn't work. I insist on Inxile for two reasons. Firstly, that studio is going to be sold if Clockwork Revolution flops. I guessed all the other studios' fate except Undead Labs. Not just me, many did. Secondly, it's not too late, so IF people like their game and want to support the studio, they should do it.

I didn't expect less from a technical point of view, and this is before being available, so they could patch a thing or two in the next weeks. I'm more excited about the campaign being the epic comeback it seemed, which is liked by all reviewers so far, except the one that preferred Bubsy 4D (literally) and dragged the score down with its 5/10 review. They prefer to post some disgusting clickbait instead of a developer rightfully getting more sales and a deserved metascore bonus. Imagine if all were like this.

@AI-Generation You too. I will of course start with the campaign as well, on my biggest OLED and with the Dolby Atmos soundbar on.

@SMJ As far as I know, all first-party games support Disc to Digital. The only exceptions are some Xbox One launch discs. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Wait a moment, the lowest score belongs to someone who rated Bubsy 4D higher than Gears of War E-Day! I'm not joking.

@Mr-Cage Push Xbox?

Sorry, I'll stop now. I had too much coffee today.

@McKeownPlayz Master troll or genius marketer? 😂

Funny that a reviewer (don't click on them, I checked on Metacritic) rated Gears of War E-Day 5/10 and Yoshi and the Mysterious Book 9/10 when even Yoshi fans said it's disappointingly easy and boring. They are completely different games, I'll give them that. It's nice to see that every other reviewer liked and even loved Gears of War E-Day, though.

@HonestHick It's finally here. You are going to enjoy it even more than you imagined!

@HelloCraigo

Gears can now sprint around Kalona without suffering scoliosis

🤣

@FreasurePlanten They are all approachable, but since this is a more modern game and also a prequel, I'd start with E-Day.

Thanks for the review! Honestly, I like playing old games as much as new ones, but Gears of War E-Day is one of those titles I can't wait for! Could be because it's one of my favourite Xbox IPs and because it looks like a proper and epic comeback.

I'm sure that GTA VI will run like a dream on Helix compared to the current generation of consoles. Hopefully, the game becomes Xbox Play Anywhere once the PC version is released.

@Mr-Cage It happens everywhere, indeed, and makes sense when those studios (The Initiative, Double Fine, Ninja Theory, Compulsion and Undead Labs) increased their workforce massively and took a very long time and a huge budget to develop just a middling game or nothing at all.

Examples: the little work that was done on Perfect Dark was thanks to Crystal Dynamics (third party); Compulsion Games took seven years to develop South of Midnight that underperformed on Xbox, PS5 and Swich 2; Undead Labs released a trailer that was not created by them and they had only made a Word document with ideas, etc.

Halo Studios is still alive, but they needed external assistance to finish Halo Infinite despite their huge budget and, well, fans were literally asking for a change. I was looking forward to State of Decay 3, so I'm glad they are going to finish it and release it on Game Pass. Let's hope that the other studios also manage themselves more wisely and release good games in the near future.

This is the world we live in. If people want studios to be successful, they'd better support them, but the same people that fake outrage or sadness admit that they haven't played any of their games or that they don't even care about Xbox Studios. Before people start "suffering" deeply because Inxile is being closed, they'd better support Clockwork Revolution, because this is another studio that benefited from an increased budget, A-class additional recruitment and long development time. If you don't support those studios, fair enough, but don't be surprised when they are closed. Inxile also needs to bear fruit.

This might sound harsh, but this is life and anyone here would do the same in their shoes. No publisher keeps a studio for seven years just to bleed money.

Amazing feature that has transformed how some games play. That and 4K make some Xbox 360 games look like free remasters. Unfortunately, not always it's technically possible and some publishers just won't approve it. There have been many backwards compatible enhancements, some of them invaluable because the games are console exclusives, but of course I'd like to see more. The first original Xbox game that was supported, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, became an HD, 60fps remaster on Xbox One and Series X|S.

@Shmoo The only one that doesn't support FPS Boost is Fable II, Fable Anniversary Edition and III do!

@HonestHick I also appreciate you so back at you! No matter how badly some want it, Xbox is not doomed! Gaming is fun on any platform, but as long as Xbox remains the best, most flexible and consumer-friendly console-PC ecosystem, I'm here to play first and third parties on it and celebrate its games and features on Pure Xbox with you and the rest of great Xbox players around here. 🤗💚

@Shinato2024 I agree with that, reviews are more subjective these days. Besides, some games are rated by certain outlets depending on the publisher or politics, and there are also some overly controversial reviews just looking for clicks, and contradictory reviewers. I would also prefer to read the more technical reviews of years ago, because I can agree as much as disagree with another person's taste. However, if they are fair and well written, I still enjoy reading them.

Actually, it was Kojima who contacted Xbox after Sony cancelled Physint. I'm surprised how elegantly she replied a question as stupid as unexpected.

Sony closes studio or cancels game = Sony has interrupted involvement with... Please send your condolences on their loss.

Xbox closes studios or cancels game = Think of the children! Bloodbath!

Helix might be a "niche" product, but there will be a family of devices according to Asha, plus PC. Helix doesn't need to sell 50m because it won't have exclusive software. Just look at Surface. That's why there will be Xbox consoles in the future even if Sony sells more units.

I guess the price of Helix will be relatively good considering its performance, but we're used to cheap consoles... or were.

@abe_hikura I guess you are referring to this recent decision that involves moving some studios to Activision's direction. They have their own identity but they are part of Xbox, so they are not on sale either and, honestly, it wouldn't make sense to sell the makers of Call of Duty (Activision), Overwatch and Warcraft (Blizzard) and Candy Crush (King), platforms she has praised along with Minecraft. Precisely Inxile, an Xbox Game Studio, is more at risk, depending on the success of Clockwork Revolution. This is, in between, another studio that has hired additional staff and whose game has AAA budget and long development time.

Regarding Zenimax, there might be changes because of the management and dragged development at Bethesda. I expect something along these lines, but not selling this part of Xbox either. Staff reduction, change of management, something like that wouldn't surprise me considering the state of Bethesda, that has been like this since before being acquired by Xbox.

@Balaam_ They have reduced staff (after the acquired studios became overgrown), merged some studios and got rid of a few (Compulsion, Double Fine, Undead Labs, Ninja Theory and Arkane)
but they still have the best studios they had before this reboot. In any case, the previous configuration was bleeding money and almost neutralising the billions earned with the successful studios, hence the overall unsustainable 3% margin. To say that Xbox is not Xbox now is like saying that the only Xbox that has ever existed was the one between Phil/Sarah and Asha.

And she is absolutely right. There's so much Xbox has that it wouldn't make sense to not adjust the business model and keep going. They have the best console engineers, amazing studios, the OS where all PC games are designed to run on, backwards and enhanced compatibility, Play Anywhere, Game Pass, Disc to Digital...

By the way, a detachable disc drive would be nice to keep the Disc to Digital function alive and as a consumer-friendly feature come the next generation.

@RTGX I could justify anything if I wanted to if I thought it was right, but I didn't do what you are accusing me of.

Because it's exactly the same as with a physical game on Xbox and PS? When playing your discs, you still need to install the game to play it, and you're not downloading the game with Disc to Digital; Xbox reads and installs it. There are no downsides to it.

@Bobobiwan Exactly! We don't know if Helix will support an external disc drive or whatever, but precisely a digital future is what makes this initiative even more appreciated and consumer-friendly. This is the way to respect not just our digital libraries beyond what Sony and Nintendo have ever done, but also support our physical libraries in digital form, and without making discs useless, because it's a reversible process.

Cool! By the way, Gears of War E-Day is also available for download right now, ahead of its release date. 109GB.

@Coletrain The Disc to Digital program is becoming a popular topic outside gaming sites because of Sony breaking (and negative) news lately.. No doubt that it affects the physical market, obviously considering that it's limited in scope.

It's ridiculous writing articles (elsewhere) about Ubisoft and Sega rejecting Xbox Disc to Digital when it still is a beta project.

@fizban3332 It was leaked during the ABK acquisition that Microsoft declared in court that Sony had been paying Square Enix for specifically excluding Xbox. It was easy to realise but it became officially recognised then. The relationship between Sony and Square Enix deteriorated since then, as they even preferred to announce games like Final Fantasy VII Revelation outside Sony's broadcasts to avoid the exclusivity confusion and ambiguity attached to games presented there.

Besides, if you check the best-selling games on the Xbox store, you'll find lots of Final Fantasy games there, even old ones, so it's not true the PS narrative that they sell poorly on Xbox.

We who like Gears of War know that E-Day is like coming home and that it's going to be a blast!

I just beat Final Fantasy VI with all the achievements after playing the rest of the Pixel Remaster collection. All but one, Master Gambler. Good lord, the game does cheat at the third slot! Grrrr... No idea how people got it. Has anybody here got this?

I'm loking forward to Gears of War E-Day! Happy weekend.

Free remaster and free PC version thanks to Xbox Play Anywhere. Can't complain!

Besides the massive ABK acquisition that is actually bringing a lot of revenue, Xbox was more bloated than we could have ever imagined. Most of the studios grew too quickly under their umbrella. There were so many layers of management and infrastructure, yet some of them were doing next to nothing for years, and relying on external development to finish their projects. Xbox really needed a reboot and become more efficient and hard-working. In that sense, more like Sony and Nintendo and less like private bureaucracy.

@SMJ The Initiative couldn't do anything with it until Crystal Dynamics came to help with the development, but I'm sure that Rare and Activision are more capable than The Initiative.

@Bionic-Spencer No problem with supporting a successful live service game with modest updates, but they could also do something else with their amazing IPs and game design ideas. It's ridiculous at this point how they ignore one of the best legacies in video game history.

Starfield is an amazing game. The side quests are better than the main objective. It makes you feel home in the universe, somehow. That said, they should really focus on finishing The Elder Scrolls VI.

Weirdly enough, Howard anticipated that the game could arrive approximately fifteen to seventeen years after Skyrim, so that would be 2026-2028. Of course, they have worked on other games and DLC, but I would love to know at what stage of development it is now.

@abe_hikura There was only one other project, Avowed 2, and it hasn't been wiped out. Part of the studio was allowed to keep working on it besides other higher-priority projects such as Fallout. Therefore, we don't know if it will ever be completed, but it hasn't been wiped out. This was decided by Asha herself in July 2026.

Besides, "forced onto Fallout" sounds a bit extreme, considering they have successfully worked on Fallout before.

Whatever boss at Bethesda is directing Obsidian now, I'm sure about two things. Firstly, Asha, as anybody else at Xbox, appreciates how efficient Obsidian is, especially compared to those other Xbox studios that took up to 7 years to make a middling game or nothing at all. Secondly, I always see Todd Howard relaxed, but this new era won't allow him to take things as slowly as a handicapped snail. I'm not saying that he will be laid off, but who would surprise Todd being moved to a different role if he doesn't speed up?

This must be related to an optional and free Game Pass tier with ads. Nothing that would bother anyone.

@RTGX It doesn't affect me personally nor takes away my enjoyment.

@Mr-Cage @HonestHick Thanks and back at you! 🤗

@RTGX

I think the negativity only becomes front and centre if that's all one engages in.

And personally, 99% of the time is not worth my time, so I don't do that.