Bleachedsmiles

Everyone treating Mastodon as the fling to try and get over twitter…yet constantly messaging twitter telling them how much they don’t care about it anymore.

Meanwhile twitter is telling them to just leave and stop obsessing over them as it’s getting creepy and sooner or later one of you is gonna end up dead.

@uptownsoul They have to optimise for pc loads. There’s been countless examples of poorly optimised pc ports…most notoriously Batman. Horizon zero dawn also had a big backlash over its port last year.
Porting to pc is no more as simple as porting to series s - you still have to make sure everything’s working as it should

And then you have compatibility issues to account for through all the various different graphics cards etc

@uptownsoul that was in reply to #16 where you complain that if devs focus on optimising for series s it costs more time and money… neglecting the fact that even without series s in the picture they’re still doing extra work releasing pc day 1 versions

@uptownsoul That goes for every platform. As does the majority being casual gamers.
Publishers go where the money is.

I’m not sure what your point is though?

@uptownsoul At the same time you have to remember that Xbox game studios, as well as the majority of 3rd party, have opted to release pc versions day 1 - optimising for various specs…from highest to lowest. How often are we hearing complaints at the resources that’s taking? Remove the series s, remove last gen consoles, and they’re still developing to try and get to run on potatoe pcs with equivalent specs to series s today.

@Dezzy70 The sales also show over the last 2 years the series s has sold far more than the x. Has especially helped Xbox numbers grow in Japan. Has more than likely gotten Xbox more gamepass subs than the series x…

It really wasn’t that long ago that the series s was a genius master stroke of Microsoft…it being so readily available whilst the series x and ps5 were impossible to get hold of. Remember those days?

I agree the series s is going to hold things back going forward. But the reality of this game is you’re complaining about the series s costing the devs time and resources…when it’s also a cross gen game…
Get some perspective.

And it’s not development time. It’s optimisation time. When games are developed for last gen in mind 2 years in to this current gen, are we really complaining the series s is the thing holding games back?

@Tasuki @Tasuki influences are clear as day.

I can honestly say when I think of Xbox I don’t think about them as ‘rushing out games’ when it feels like they’ve delivered a handful of games over the 8 years since Phil has been head. But those that have been released have certainly released lacking.

How Phil has only just learned in the last couple of months that announcing and releasing games before they’re ready is bad I don’t know. Maybe we should be thankful it’s only taken him 8 years?

Guy is just bad at his job. He should be put on the marketing team instead - he’s great PR face, little more.

Overpriced. Good thing didn’t come out this year. Needs to be no more than the cost of a firestick, nowtv box etc. And similar size.

Looking good. It would have been so much more impressive if they could manipulate the characters movements other than facial presets though.

I wonder how many generations away we are before demos like this can turn into practical games…

Well…that’s depressing

Phil is always doing this. Usually to wide applause from the Xbox community who take it as a badge that they’re so much morally better than PlayStations fanbase.

And it’s all very well having the head of Xbox praising every single number 1 selling PlayStation exclusive this year…if you’re supporting your own platform with AAAs that are getting equally applauded. Only, 2022 Xbox install base has been offered zero first party AAA support…let alone ones that are reaching number 1 in the charts time after time after time…

Said it before, say it again, it’s effortless to be humble from last place.

Personally, I want to keep hearing congratulations…but I want it followed by it inspiring them to make their own bangers. That they want to compete and take first place. There has to be some bite there too.

@uberdaddypig The main point of ray tracing is to make developement faster (you don’t have to put cubes everywhere and work out baked lighting). And raytracing isn’t just confined to visuals…it can also help with sound.

For the gamer there’s probably been less than a handful of games where we’ve seen a noticeable difference from using ray tracing so far. I think that will also depend on the game. Racing games when using mirrors in cockpit view should show the biggest difference (no more disappearing track details etc). It is a shame there seems to always have to be a compromise between that and performance. Hopefully when games are finally built from the ground up with out last gen in mind we’ll start seeing things like ray tracing implemented better.

This game is so far away…

Blah blah blah. Surely everybody knows this by now? Surely everybody knows the real arguments always been about the marketing rights and how it’s distributed by now? Surely everybody knows the most money is in the mobile division that comes with this deal by now?

Yet here we are…same conversation

If Phil put as much effort at ensuring games came out as he does to his social media presence we’d be eating good this Christmas over on Xbox.

Loved the first one…wasn’t perfect, but thought what they had a achieved was remarkable, and solid grounds for a sequel.

I’m only a few hours in on this new one…and so far I’m a little disappointed. It looks great, a step up from the series/ps5 version of the last game. More open levels. But with that there’s been a bit more frustration as often it’s not been clear on where to go. I’ll be stealthily moving through a level to the point of tedium looking for where I need to go next. Eventually I give up and run around, being chased like some sort of benny hill sketch, till I find that one out of the way door I was supposed to go through. Naturally this will often lead to death before I make it through said door…then I find I’m at the mercy of the auto saves that have loaded me back to where i was mid chase a few times…so I’m instantly spotted again.

I’ll stick with it as I’m still early on in the game. But it’s just not grabbing me in the way I thought it would…yet.

These marvel licences are clearly up for grabs…you’d think with the success Sony has seen with acquiring the spiderman licence and now wolverine MS would wake up and secure their own marvel exclusive…but nope. Sometimes it blows my mind how Xbox seemingly drop the ball on things from the outside looking in seem like no-brainer…like say, keeping hold of the cod marketing contract.
Clearly way smarter people than myself work at Xbox

@Dezzy70 I really think we need more than Forza out of Xbox’s many studios next year…imagine if they can only deliver that…that would have been a pretty lacklustre year 3 had redfall and starfield not been delayed. I still have hope we will see hellblade 2 next year - a game that in no uncertain terms will ‘look next gen’ and push the hardware…unfortunately the reality will probably be 30fps…so even one of the best looking games released on these consoles they’ll likely still be some backlash. But man, that’s the game to switch on and show off a new console with…it’s just a shame it will take till at least 3 years into the gen till we have it.

Gold has been dead for years. I don’t think it’s ever really been able to compete with the quality of psplus. And you can certainly trace back the dive in the quality it did have to the birth of gamepass and Xbox subsequent clear focus there.
Trouble is there’s far more gold subs than gamepass. And Xbox are trying their hardest to make gold as unappealing as possible so that you’ll move to gamepass. They even tried raising the price of it - it’s only real selling point being to give you access content you’ve already paid for.

It’s crazy archaic. But it’s also a lot of money now to leave on the table just because gamers have finally woken up and wondering why they’re being charged for online still

So now is the time to finally let gold actually benefit you by using it to get super cheap gamepass. And typically, as soon as it does actually benefit us, you now all want gold to go. 🫥

I hope when he says they’re looking into future platform stuff they’ve no plans to start talking about midgen refreshes any time soon…that will be annoying if to finally get the promises of this gen we’re asked to spend another 500 for a mid gen console.
2 years in and I’m not even sure if devs have up to date dev tools yet that can start taking advantage of the current hardware. It certainly doesn’t look like the current consoles have been pushed to their true capabilities yet… unless they have and have been vastly over promised to us.

@Tharsman delays happen. Gow, GT7 etc all got delayed to this year…but that doesn’t translate into Sony offering no first party support last year. Where as MS seemed to have put all their eggs in one basket with starfield and redfall. They also have a long record of delayed games (way before covid was a thing), cancel games, announcing games far too early, and having these quiet years where they’ve barely supported their hardware with first party…and then you add all the story’s from dev studios themselves about lack of management…stories about studios falling apart with people leaving… all this goes towards the ‘bad management’ perception that Xbox and Phil has.

Less than 100mb on the disc? Definitely worth preserving the physical copy of that. Well worth owning

@carlos82 stadia was a different model - stadia you paid a sub and had to pay full price for the games you streamed. Xcloud obviously isn’t that model - you pay a sub and get access to all the games on that subscription service.

Cloud gaming has proven benefits on dedicated hardware…if you’re a gamepass subscriber and not taking advantage of cloud gaming on your Xbox you’re seriously missing out. Not only are the benefits game changing in allowing you the ability to near instantly try any game on gamepass without having to download first…offering plenty of opportunity to discover new titles. Cloud gaming is also hugely beneficial to everyone who’s taking advantage of Microsoft’s reward points scheme.

The main reasons why a games streaming service hasn’t taken off yet is because the Infrastructure either wasn’t there (streaming capability’s), it was device limited, or it had the stadia model (nobody wants to buy games you can only ever stream…not today anyway).
Should Xbox be able to get cloud gaming on smart tvs via an app they will of course see an increase in gamepass subs. But make no mistake, cloud streamings being invested in by MS so much because mobile is the bigger picture.

If keystone does have hardware inside it, say a harddrive, it would still be a cheaper alternative to a series s…bare in mind it wouldn’t need the same graphics/memory

Gamepass subs were always destined to increase in price - they’ve been threatening to for years. And it make sense to do so when they finally start delivering on the promise of these first party AAA games hitting the service day 1. (This is why nobody should want them to get rid of gold now).
You also have to take into account the value proposition - Sony, by encouraging the adoption of £70 has actually added greatly to the value of gamepass. So day 1 3rd party deals and day 1 first party releases next year should easily ensure theirs still lots of value there should a price increase happen (which it will).

Price on their first party games raising to £70…I’m not sure. But again, if starfield is £70 and also day 1 on gamepass…we’ll, adds to the value of gamepass doesn’t it. And they want subs…so maybe they will raise the price of games to herd more people onto gamepass.

I honestly can’t see them raising the price of hardware though. We’re destined to see discounts on those consoles blackfriday.

@Would_you_kindly you’ve a more chance of the guys on the likes of pushsquare calling MS out on cod being still £70 than you have of them praising MS for losing the price back to £60… I’d put money on that.

@carlos82 odds are there would have been two options…one with a controller, one without…both no doubt a lot cheaper than a series s.

The commercial sense is pretty obvious - gets more people subscribing to gamepass.

An app on every smart tv would be better though. But I think keystone was supposed to have some hardware inside it to allow downloading games too. I’m not sure.

Interesting change in tone from Phil recently regarding gamepass. I got the impression they were all in on releasing some kind of streaming stick. Xcloud was suddenly gaining a lot momentum this year. Then there were rumours before June that Xbox were pretty set to release a streaming box this year…and then a Samsung tv deal seemed like cloud gaming was pretty much there. So very surprising a streaming device is now years away…

It’s all very odd. The amount of articles this year alone with Phil ramming home how games shouldn’t be locked to one device. How cloud gaming is set to open up games to more people. Gamepas gamepass gamepass…

Now it’s almost like ‘gamepass isn’t that successful guys, calm down’, ‘cloud gaming is years away guys, calm down’.
I wonder if there’s some timing at play here…

Never a good sign is it. Reminds me of BioWare.
It’s been crazy long since their last release (also never a good sign). And suicide squad basically looked like sunset overdrive…rather than anything set in Gotham…will be interesting to see how Arkham fans take to it. Personally I was left very underwhelmed by how it’s gameplay looked when they last showed it off.

Leaving together though…maybe a sign they’ll start their own indie studio. They should have held out for some acquisition money first though.

Phil is seeing what happens when you can’t meet release dates and go a year without hardly any first party support.

What would probably help overall growth would be to finally start telling people outside of gaming sites and twitter that the Xbox and gamepass exist. It’s going to be super interesting to see how the sales of cod are should ms own the marketing rights again now…already seeing it (alongside the PlayStation brand) on busses and billboards here in the uk. It makes a difference

@Dr_Luigi ok, then let me be even more clear - when I talk value I do so in regards to the information offered. Not the value of revenue my replying to you may bring the site. Nor the value of the exercise my fingers get as I write to try and explain something that, with in its context, has been pretty clear from the start. But such is the internet.

The point of view offered here from this dev offers as much practical value as this stuff always has. It doesn’t translate to the vast majority of the games on the system.

@Dr_Luigi say what son? I’m sure you’re trying to troll me… but I’m bored, so I’ll bite.

Ok…first, me clicking on this article again and again isn’t reinforcing that what this article says, what the indie devs say, even what the guy saying ‘it could run on a potatoe’, is of value… my clicking on this article again and again is in reply to YOU…🫠

The arguement that something must contain something of value if you clicked on it itself holds little validity - you’ve heard of click bait right? What’s the title read? Did you open it expecting the said 4k 120fps game to run on a potatoe? …did you learn about any new techniques or software tools that has allowed devs to squeeze more out of the little series s? No?… because it’s a fluff piece designed to balance some negativity the series s has been getting lately. There’s no real information in there that translates to any game beyond potatoe man 2 or whatever this game is called.

Second, why must we learn something? Why why why…followed by, who says people aren’t learning something. I dunno man, it’s a fluff piece, like I said. And reminds me of when fan channels go on the defence. It’s entertaining…but that doesn’t mean it holds information of any actual value.

And like I first said, if ‘news’ stories like this are needed now, 2 years in, there’s already clear signs of trouble.

@Dr_Luigi no…my reply wasn’t In response that ‘it’s just another point of view’…it was in response that it’s ‘fair discussion’ - regardless, a different point of view …or a fair discussion…you’re supposed to learn something otherwise it’s just noise (which this is…and which is why you’re originally replying to me saying it’s a fair discussion…and now saying ‘why does it have to teach you anything’)
You can pick and choose what you add validity to - stories from devs that say the series s is struggling…or stories that say the series s can easily do 120 4k on my game. The actual proof is in the pudding. Let’s see how it starts to handle current gen games going forward. So far, struggling.

I’m not ‘overly wound up’. I’m just not seeing the value beyond acting as a safety blanket for series s owners in this story…because there is no real value in it (other than puzzled bemusement)
My original message wasn’t to you. My reply was to your reply. If you don’t want a discussion then rather me avoiding these stories that give me such joy in their stupidity….just don’t reply to messages I place pointing out said stupidity. 🤔

@Dr_Luigi it really isn’t. What have you learnt from this? Anyone with even the slightest intellect that’s a gamer understand different games work on different engines. Have different priorities that take up different degrees of resources.
You haven’t learnt anything from this story only that some budget games, if they have graphics from 4 generations ago…will likely run well on a current gen console. Did you not already know this? Did it make the claims from other devs working on completely different games any less valid for you?

This story is akin to a safety blanket. It’s meaningless in what it’s actually saying…but is designed to make you feel better for your console of choice. It’s like those cringy YouTube videos fan channels do. Have you heard of YouTube? Do you ever watch fan channels? Play the game of checking out their thumbnails every time the opposing console gets a well reviewed game, or an exclusive etc…the thumbnail will read like “shocking new super upgrade for series x/s/PlayStation 5”…you know, a nice warm safety blanket to reassure and comfort

What even is this story? I feel I’ve learnt nothing from this. This story is basically the least graphically demanding a game is the better it will run 👍…well Jesus, stop the press!
Are we already at the point, 2 years in its life cycle, where we’re already so insecure about the capabilities of the series s that we have to latch on to some indie dev telling us it can run a ps1 game at 4k 120fps…to prove the consoles good (honest guv!)?

When news articles like this are considered needed to defend the series s capabilities we know that consoles going to be in for a rough ride going forward…

Prey failed to keep my attention. Deathloop is an overrated forgettable game with performance issues. And this…just doesn’t have me interested enough to bite yet. Since dishonored series I feel like Arkane have lost something… I don’t know if there’s been a change of leadership or if they’re just being stretched too far… but I think if they don’t nail this they’re probably no longer the big ‘get’ from the ms acquisition I was confident they’d be.

I just don’t know how redfall is going to successfully work. As a single player game you want to build up atmosphere…this requires a slow burn (setting up the scare)…this does not translate well in co op when everyone just rushes through a level.
As a multiplayer game you want characters that play drastically different and have abilities that complement one another. You also want plenty to kill so nobody feels left out …. This does not translate well to sp…playing alone with only the one ability…how well does that translate if the games built for multiple abilities working together.
And vampires attacking you in herds? No thanks…vampires aren’t supposed to be mindless. They’re cunning. And waves of enemies never cause scares.

I can see what they’re trying to do. Deliver a game with two distinct ways to play. But unless the ai and enemy encounters drastically change between sp and mp then I just can’t see how it will pull off either mode with any great success tbh

Struggle to take anyone serious that tells me Death loop is a 10/10 game… no way, no how. It’s one of Arkanes weakest games.

Immortality is a unique experience…but everything is left to chance. Aimlessly playing video clips trying to find a link and indulging in some pretentiousness. This isn’t their strongest game either - the likes of Her and Telling Lies seemed better structured where you felt you were making real progress off the back of your own detective skills. Immortality felt like I was more a voyeur than anything. It’s not a bad. But a perfect 10/10 game?

Persona 5 I haven’t played yet.

Elden ring is my game of the year so far. And as close as you can get to a 10/10. But it isn’t perfect…it has its faults and short comings.

One of Xbox’s weakest years and somehow you guys have managed to find four perfect scoring games in this lacklustre Xbox year… talk about stretching.

@Sol4ris nothing is hard to understand. Read what you’re replying to.

@Sol4ris you want us all to get the same treatment but want these games part of gamepass and PlayStation only owners to have to pay full price for them…ok

Sony is getting what they’ve paid for. Just like MS got their own monies worth when they held the cod marketing. Why on earth would Sony all games to go to gamepass day 1 that they’re currently marketing? Makes zero business sense.
And clearly makes all the business sense in the world to exploit these 3rd party marketing deals by preventing them coming onto gamepass and by offering additional exclusive and timed exclusive content via them…otherwise they wouldn’t keep doing it.

Nobody is friends here…no matter what Phil Spencer tries to tell you. They’re competing with one another. Sony knows cod will still come to PlayStation. It’s always been the marketing rights leaving them they have the biggest issue with. Xbox shouldn’t have slept away a generation and should have retained those marketing rights…gamepass would already be benefitting from cod.

Never will understand why people here get mad at Sony for protecting their PlayStation install base.

The only ones you should get upset at over games not being able to come to gamepass for years is Microsoft for dropping the ball on securing these marketing rights. And they only did that because they didn’t care enough about ensuring the Xbox install base gets the best treatment when it comes to these big franchises. This mistake is on them, not Sony.

The Xbox install base will pay for every lacklustre management decision made last gen for a few more years yet…these marketing deals are still something Xbox continues to drop the ball with.

@Dezzy70 erm yes…June 2023…is that not what I basically said?

I’ll be surprised, and yet not, if hell blade 2 doesn’t come out next year.
I would imagine they’ll also have the heavily rumoured Gears remake in there somewhere…which personally I’m not interested in…other than watching all the Xbox centric channels that fed on the last of us remake now singing the praises of ms giving them a Gears remake.
And of course Ghost wire is likely to be in there somewhere.

Also, they’ll be 3rd party deals filling in gaps.

And even if they have nothing to put out on the second half of the year…what makes you think MS cares about that enough to delay games further and spread them out? They didn’t last year when Forza horizon and halo hit within months…they knew they had nothing first party for the first 6 months of 2022 back then…and now we’re looking at a year where it’s taken them 9 months to release a game from their Xbox studios - and that was one that was available to play for nearly a year prior.

If there are further delays to the 3 you named I don’t think it will be because MS is being smart and spreading out the releases to fill an empty second half of 23. I think it will be because they simply weren’t ready in time - which is a pie in the face after the sales pitch or their June conference

@Dezzy70 if any of those games get pushed back beyond the 12 month window they spent the whole of June promoting then it will be a big face palm moment and Xbox deserve the ridicule they’ll gain from it.
You’d think every game they showed in their June conference would already be at the polishing phase (they’ve been worked on for years…like that guy says, it’s been 7 years since the last Forza). The whole point of denying us any surprises in June was because they apparently finally figured out announcing things early then following announcements with delays wasn’t exactly the best marketing for the brand.

I’m hoping the fact that we haven’t heard of what’s coming the second 12 months is because that’s being saved for next Junes show…and so on, and so on…thus finally creating a scenario where come ‘e3’ we get announcements of games that are out within months rather than 5-10 years down the line like we have been seeing.

@TheElectroFunky That’s weird. Tbh I’d be very surprised MS isn’t aware of people like me and our master hacking skills of buying official gold cards for countries such as Turkey when we’re not in said country. I honestly don’t think they care. At the end of the day they want gamepass subs growing - this is why they do so many 1 month for 1 pound offers. They’re not losing money as more people on gamepass means more value with their stocks.

As for the site I used I used PayPal.

@Dr_Luigi I got 2 years for just over £60 I could have got a better deal and gone for 3 years but hadn’t done it before so didn’t trust just how easy it was. So I get the reluctance to use a VPN and purchase from a foreign site.

@Dr_Luigi make sure you left your sub run out. Then find yourself some cheap gold (I use a free vpn and go turkey)…get a couple of years of gold and redeem via a browser (using your xbox account email). Sign in to your xbox and make sure you’re fully subbed to gold. Then just buy a month of gamepass - will convert everything to gamepass ultimate…meaning you get years worth for super cheap. 👍

Been looking forward to this for years. Agree with the other posts though…everything shown so far does look the same, so there’s a valid concern of it not appreciating your time. And the lack of reviews so far are never a good sign.

But I guess that’s the beauty of day 1 gamepass…get to try it as part of our sub. The only thing lost is years worth of anticipation/excitement…so erm…win?

@themightyant You clearly feel strongly about MS ‘leveraging their buying power to do a power play’. My suggestion to you then is to lead by example…don’t play these games when they come to gamepass. If they’re on PlayStation buy them there instead. The more people who opt to purchase them on PlayStation rather than play them day 1 on gamepass the more likely it is Xbox will release future titles on PlayStation.

Meanwhile those of us with less morales than your good self will put ourselves first and be enjoying the value gamepass offers us.

I wish you luck in your good fight friend 🫡

@themightyant But that’s the big sell isn’t it…it’s not less games available for those that only have one system with gamepass - gamepass is a platform that’s available to more gamers through being available on more devices than Sony and nintendos exclusives…you don’t need to be tied to an Xbox console. Before this gen is over they want gamepass coming with every smart tv…meaning more gamers than ever will have access to these games.

Your big difference of today is hypothetical. The reality today is that more games are currently being locked behind either years worth of timed exclusivity for PlayStation as well as flat out exclusivity - particularly AAA games. The eventuality of possible ‘hundreds’ of exclusives coming from MS acquisitions isn’t taking into account the scale of time. MS already have a load of studios and struggle to get out one game let alone hundreds. For Xbox to have hundreds of exclusives from these deals we’re realistically looking at waiting for a few generations to pass…who knows how the gaming landscape looks by then - both Nintendo and Sony may be 3rd party publishers by then. Gamepass may be on every platform by then. Who knows. Why concern yourself?

Competition is good. Exclusive content breeds competition. It leads to each platform investing in their own exclusives. It leads to better gaming deals, better subscription offerings. You want to really win as a gamer and reap the rewards of competition you invest in all platforms…that’s how it’s always been.
Potentially removing games from PlayStation doesn’t result in PlayStation suddenly having no games…like I said, they’re competing by buying up marketing rights…which leads to their install base getting these games first, or with more content…regardless of how many billions MS just spent on buying those publishers.
They’re also spurred on to make their own acquisitions…since ms bought Bethesda Sony have been on their own spending spree.

A lot of people rightly complain about lack of AAA this year on gamepass (particularly from xbox). But this looks fun, and the right amount of crazy. Will definitely be giving it a go.

@themightyant Almost every game announced…meaning 4?…one being Indiana jones which is already heavily rumoured to be multiplatform.
Bethesda have loads of studios under them. And of course they should keep the majority exclusive to Xbox platforms to compete. Just as PlayStation and Nintendo keep their exclusives exclusive…I really don’t see how that’s anti competitive.
Plus it’s safe to assume that had ms not acquired Bethesda we’d have seen the continued years worth of timed exclusivity on their games for PlayStation going forward. We already know discussions of starfield were there.

MS would gladly have gamepass on both Nintendo and Sony today. They’re not interested in that as it risks potentially taking revenue from them.

Sony are already competing how they’re able, and doing a great job with it, by buying up the marketing rights for every big 3rd party release…preventing it going to gamepass day 1. Ensuring technical parity…whilst also promoting content exclusivity. This will continue to work well for Sony.

If xbox want to compete but can’t be arsed buying marketing rights to 3rd party then they should definitely keep as many games they own as exclusive to xbox platforms as they’re able to… otherwise they’ll never get out of 3rd place

Personally I think until they sort out their own marketing division and show an ability to market their own games, let alone 3rd party, they could buy every big publisher out there and still stay in 3rd place.

@themightyant how do you know they’re making most of their games exclusive though?