Boogaloo_Jenkins

Not gonna lie, I like the bullet points. Here's hoping this can trickle into the games I love.

In this economy??? Idk like $50

@Fiendish-Beaver I think she's calling out the many means Xbox makes money through its games. COD, Candy Crush, Kiln, and Sea of Thieves are all crazy different experiences that demand time and cash in different ways.

Likewise, it sounds like there are a lot of different internal processes the developers use. Which makes sense with all of the acquisitions.

Why/how can Double Fine and Obsidian push out games so much faster than our other studios? They're smaller, but does it makes sense to push out 3 AA games in the span of 4 years instead of a single AAA title?

What's wrong with a year's worth of exclusivity?

Can you image what 2025 could have been for console sales and game pass sub if Doom, Oblivion, Gears, Outer Worlds 2 and (maybe) COD released on Xbox first?

@themightyant I meant introductory as in that's the price/tier they market to their audience. They market Ultimate as de facto for the average consumer without building value in their other tiers. Everything else is a downgrade.

If GP only has marketable value on its Ultimate tier, then two things happen:

1) Users don't have anywhere else to go in the ecosystem (except downward).
2) Users are much more willing to cancel outright than downgrade.

MS needs to build the value of their lower tiers and market them, transitioning users to Ultimate over time. The "land-and-expand" model doesn't work when the only the highest tier is even worth looking at.

There's a difference between "race to the bottom" and "sustainable growth model."

Game pass needs to find a price point that can introduce gamers into their ecosystem and then upsell them over a lifetime.

They won't be able to do that at an introductory price of $30 monthly.

Throwing this out there - Coming from a corporate marketer - that logo animation was 100% AI generated.

The Alters. It's fantastic and was so under the radar, I don't even see it getting mentioned on these types of lists.

I bet it's some corporate BS.

AKA 18% profitability from Microsoft and Xbox on a "per game" basis, but with an additional 12% from internal publishers like Activision (which they HAVE to mandate to hit their own publisher profitability margin that MS separately set for them). 30% total.

Point is - MS can be technically right... but also manipulating metrics and margins to mislead the public.

MK seems a little too much these days. More power to whoever's into it, it's just no longer for me.

Can you imagine how the year would have looked if Xbox didn't go multi-platform? Wow. 2025 would have been THE year.

15 exclusives? Timed or otherwise, I don't think that's ever been done.

Sim is the only game that gave me a different kind of emotional payoff.

I beat doom 3, I knew what to expect… but SoM was unique on every level

Cancelled. I went from Ultimate to zilch. I was playing Silksong on GP, but I saved myself 10 bucks by buying it outright.

Side note: the value of Silksong is INSANE

I loved Jusant! I played it with my daughter and she was utterly entranced by it all.

@Nintendo4Sonic Remember, that's only what we know about too.

WHO KNOWS what else was cancelled.

Weird that we got less press for Keeper than we did Hellblade 2

That logo looks AI generated. That said, best of luck Sackbird!

I could own the entire Ubisoft Classic library in perpetuity for $25 on a year end sale sooooo no. Not worth the GP addition and price hike.

Bought a Series S for $200 as a Game Pass machine. Now? I simply cannot justify that price.

MS in 2026:

"Game Pass Ultimate: Now only $23.99. Bundle and save on over 150 new games!"

3 months later...

"Due to increasingly difficult market conditions, Game Pass will now be sold at a monthly rate of $33.99."

Wow big month for Xbox! NG4, OW2, and Keeper

@Millionski Wait what? Where did you find that news, push square?

Darn. It was probably a live service game, but I was still curious about this one

I’m loving all of the South of Midnight shoutouts! It’s not perfect, but it truly is a special game.

Personally, my top 3 include:

South of Midnight
Blue Prince
Doom the Dark Ages

If they drop the Xbox PC app on the series s and x... They may start selling the series s and x.

Hey but why? Why would anyone buy a new console? There are still third party games releasing on Xbox One and PS4

I've been hyped for this game after watching Mickey 17! I'm on a work trip atm but have the game pre-loaded for when I'm back.

2025 was the juggernaut year for xbox. If 2026 is going to be a somehow going to up 2025, color me excited

RIP console wars 🪦

They really are an incredible company. Their releases are truly AAA. But, unlike the other gaming giants, Capcom has managed to pump them out timely and (presumptively) within budget.

Cheers Capcom 🥂

Sad to see. In retrospect, the 2010s were really good for gaming and growth in the industry. I hope we can get there again!

Aha I see what you did there Ol' Micky Softy.

You increase the price of your games across the board and THEN announce a remake of your top franchises on Playstation. It's almost like you KNEW PS owners were going to buy this. Crazy hustle.

Game Pass has given more this month than Ubisoft+ gives in a year.

A lotta yall saying avowed, but I gotta say South of Midnight. Its reminds me of those early game cube / ps2 games like Beyond Good and Evil and Prince of Persia but with a completely fresh art style and setting.

What's interesting is that Cyberpunk runs notably worse on switch 2 than series S, which is surprising to me

I'm sure Spencer briefed Nadella on this reality. If they moved to a multi-plat model, console sales would plummet even further.

We all knew this, and I'm sure the Xbox team mapped out forecasts detailing this until their new "PC thinly veiled as an Xbox" generation gets released.

For whatever reason, they see more growth potential on this route.

I simply cannot wait to earn achievements for spell-checking my Word Docs.

I'm sure the story is good... but the constant load screens were just too much for me to really get into it

Heyo I was about to buy this later tonight, score! Thank you to my favorite coporate jargon dispenser: Phill Spencer!

Hear me out on this one–

Custom...gadgets. Have a gadget store, an R&D department, or whatever. Give me the option to build and upgrade HUNDREDS of traversal and combat gadgets.

So tears of the kingdom... but Batman

@TheEstablishment I totally agree with you, but I disagree with the full blast third party approach MS seems to enjoy. An exclusivity window of one year would be enough to boost game pass subscriptions.

Case and point–I subscribed to peacock to watch the super mario bros movie. It's on other platforms now, but I'm still subbed to Peacock because I came to like the platform.

Timed exclusivity works and I don't understand why MS seems to be ignoring that for major releases like DOOM.

@Prestige-worldwide I think it dilutes the game pass brand long term.

I assumed that halo would come to PlayStation eventually through a PS-native game pass client, but why would anyone sub to game pass without compelling exclusive content?

Like it or lump it, MS is the leader in games streaming services. They need to start acting like that and less like third in the console business.

Netflix doesn’t share originals because it dilutes their service value.

I'm curious about that skull and bones player engagement award–Does it have a dedicated fanbase of 5 or did the internet over-hate?

This won't be for everyone but damn it's for me. It looks SO good!

@TeiGekiLord which one?

South of Midnight and Ninja Gaiden 4 look great. Loved the day 1 shadow drop. Expedition 33 looks like a work of art. And Doom... Doom gave me testerone-inducing chills.

Gotta give it an A for the macho chills

Stealth Dropping a ninja action game is almost poetic. Well done.

If I were to bet–I'd say we see an "X-Deck" style portable device this year, but not a truly next-gen console.

Buh-buh-buh-blade perhaps?

South of Midnight just looks interesting,

Even if the gameplay is an assassin's creed-esque affair, I could look at the 15 on 30 on 60fps art style all day. I know it's not for everyone, but I love it.