Cakefish

Panzer Dragoon Orta ❤️
A masterpiece for its time that has aged remarkably well. The world, the lore, the art, the atmosphere, the music - it’s all so well done.

I really wish we could get a new Panzer Dragoon game.

@BacklogBrad I was going to say something very similar (to your first comment). If Game Pass weren’t profitable then it wouldn’t have survived for this long in its current form. It really is as simple as that I think. Xbox is no charity.

Microsoft have no qualms shutting down studios, making employees redundant, cancelling games, raising prices of hardware and games all in the name of the sacred profit margin. They are cutthroat. I don’t see why Game Pass would be an exception to this rule.

Maybe! Depends if there’s interest from my brothers firstly, as it’s co-op game so it’s not just my decision alone.

The late August timing is problematic for me personally though as I’ll be away from Xbox for much of September. By the time I get back Borderlands 4 will be out and if that reviews well we’re likely to prioritise it. Then Little Nightmares 3 comes out not long after as another co-op game on our radar.

I’m travelling tomorrow, so Horizon: Forbidden West is going on pause for now. Switch 2 will be my companion all week, I just bought Sonic x Shadow Generations to have something new and shiny to play on it.

Alas, you cannot save what is already dead.

@Millionski thing is, if it truly has Steam then it won’t matter if it flops in terms of sales, because it’ll still get all the games regardless! That would be the beauty of merging with PC. I wouldn’t have to sit here constantly port begging for Stellar Blade anymore, it would just be there and just work.

Yes ‘safe’ hmmm 👀
Feels like nothing is truly safe now honestly. Well except Call of Duty. That one is definitely safe.

It’s not fake… but here’s all the ways that it’s fake.

@Millionski oh yeah I’m certainly not holding my breath for anything first party, but third party developed exclusives… well this announcement brings a little spark of hope. Stellar Blade on Xbox, make it happen Sony!

How about Stellar Blade? Pie in the Sky or a real possibility?

Woah. Well that was unexpected. Has anyone checked on hell lately? Has it frozen over? And why do I see a flock of pigs galavanting across the sky?

I was reminded that a few months ago Phil was saying this:
https://www.eurogamer.net/yes-rares-everwild-is-still-in-development-and-xbox-is-committed-to-giving-the-team-the-time-it-needs

Awkward! 😬

And Jez Corden also got this spectacularly wrong: https://www.purexbox.com/news/2025/05/microsoft-has-strong-confidence-in-rares-everwild-says-xbox-reporter

Sounds like Double Fine are safe… for now. It’s troubling that mass layoffs and studio closures are a frequent occurrence now at Xbox.

This is developing faster than poor Ben or Fraser can possibly keep up with, but the latest is that The Initiative has been closed and Perfect Dark cancelled.

Every cloud has a silver lining

So… Rare is now doomed to just toil away in the Sea of Thieves live service mines for all eternity? This is sad. Incredibly sad.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner so Rare just doomed to be a Sea of Thieves live service slop factory for all eternity? That would be a very dark outcome.

Hoping that Double Fine will make it through 🤞

Best that can be wished for is no full studio closures I guess. Let’s see what this day of misery has in store

Wooooo! Go Split Fiction! 🥳
My GOTY of 2025 so far, for sure.

I haven’t had chance to play Clair Obscur yet. The backlog of games is so very long.

Excited for Wuchang, I hope it’s good.

I’ll reserve judgement until after tomorrow’s mass layoff and studio closure announcement that is rumoured to happen. Actions speak far louder than words. That’s when we will know what Xbox truly values. Do they value high quality games like Psychonauts 2 or do they value annualised, micro-transaction infested slop? Let’s see. Double Fine is the canary in the coal mine. If they die, then it signals that Xbox are set on a dark path. Psychonauts 2 is my favourite first party XSX game and Keeper is easily the most interesting Xbox release in all of 2025. Don’t you dare harm Double Fine!

Ah yes the good old announcement of an announcement.

I hope Wuchang will end up being good. I'll need some more soulslike nourishment after I finish Lies of P: Overture.

Split Fiction, easily.

The only other 2025 game I’ve played on Xbox this year is South of Midnight. It was alright, fairly decent, but couldn’t hold a candle to the co-op masterpiece that is Split Fiction.

My overall 2025 GOTY will very likely end up being a toss-up between Split Fiction and Metroid Prime 4.

@Ricky-Spanish thanks man! Yeah the hot nights are especially unpleasant when ill! I’m happy to report that after stuffing myself full with painkillers I’m feeling a bit better now.

I’m playing the fun game of fighting some sort of cold virus thing. Why have I caught this in the middle of summer? Ugh. I feel petty crap today. Bleh.

1) Do not close any talented studios via mass layoffs. Hands off Double Fine!

2) Zero Game Pass price rises or messing about with the Core to Ultimate conversion offer. That would be appreciated.

3) No nerfing of Microsoft Rewards points. It’s already not as good as it was in its prime, let’s not degrade it any further.

4) I want to see more OS updates that focus on QOL additions to the home screen, dashboard, store, games & apps etc. Don’t stay still, keep improving the Xbox OS. I hope Xbox Ally doesn’t consume all of their focus, leaving XSX forgotten and unloved.

That’s about it I suppose, I’m not being too demanding here I feel.

@Isolte can’t argue against those points because I agree, but I think that’s exactly why they are working on this controller-friendly UI on the Xbox Ally. That’s the first step, I think that handheld is being used as a testing ground. It’s basically copying Valve’s Steam OS, which isn’t a bad idea in my opinion because everybody and their dog raves about how good Steam OS is.

Problem is that for every game that has it, you can point to several other games that don’t. This issue will only be solved once Xbox and PC are fully merged into one.

@Fiendish-Beaver you’re right, you’re absolutely right. Though I still reserve the right to be angry at Phil if he dares touch my precious Double Fine. Of all the studios, the one that delivered the narrative platforming masterpiece that is Psychonauts 2 must be spared. There is so much incredible talent in that studio. Keeper better not be their swang song!

So when you try to access the in-game UI does it default to Xbox or Steam? I presume Xbox. Is it possible to access the Steam in-game UI via controller though?

These will be relevant not only for the Xbox Ally but also the next home Xbox (yes I’m still a believer! 😅)

@Fiendish-Beaver nah Phil can’t get off the hook that easily. As far as I know Microsoft is not run like an absolute monarchy, I doubt Satya is micromanaging Xbox to the extent where he’s dictating exactly which studios will get culled. Those decisions will be on Phil and his executive team’s shoulders.

I can only hope the fact Double Fine announced their new game just a couple weeks ago means that they are safe.

How sad that we are even discussing this when Microsoft have been boasting of record-breaking Xbox revenue in their last quarterly report.

Don’t you dare touch Double Fine Phil, don’t even think about it!

I played it on my PC due to the framerate issue. It looks far more cinematic running at ~60fps VRR than it does at locked 30fps on XSX. It’s a good thing they’re finally adding 60fps now, shame it arrived so late though.

I’m looking forward to this one. Intend to play coop with my brother.

Edit: friend pass! Very nice!

@NishimuraX thing is though if they wanted to do a Sega, why not now? Why commit to a whole extra generation of hardware that’s doomed to be a Wii U level disaster? I don’t see the logic there. I think that they do definitely want to transition away from traditional consoles in favour of PC, but in a way that retains as much of their existing customer base as possible.

@TheGameThrifter Oh I agree that cloud streaming absolutely wouldn’t count as backwards compatibility as far as I’m concerned either. It needs to be running on local hardware for sure. I think they have given up on console honestly, but as long as the real deal offline backwards compatibility is in place then I personally don’t have an issue with this.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner we’re not really fully representative of the wider Xbox customer base though. The original did quite well on Xbox when it launched last year so I think the sequel would too!

@TheGameThrifter I think that Xbox is moving entirely to being an open platform, based on Windows. I think XSX is the last of the traditional closed platform consoles. Backwards compatibility has been confirmed by Microsoft already, thankfully.

@NishimuraX I don’t see how a traditional XSX2 can be viable in the current market. We’ve all seen the sales figures for XSX|S over the past few years, and they really aren’t pretty. I don’t see how XSX2 can avoid repeating the fate of the Wii U if it just attempts to offer more of the same. I think Microsoft needs to do something truly radical for Xbox to survive. I also think it’s telling that although these rumours have been circulating for many months now, Microsoft have made absolutely no attempt whatsoever to dampen the flames.

@TheGameThrifter I do think that the XSX successor will look like the Xbox Ally, running on Windows but with a streamlined gaming UI layered on top. Just with the hardware developed in-house rather than outsourced to Asus.

I do wonder what happened to Everwild. No disrespect to Sea of Thieves, but it sure would be nice to see Rare branch out and do something different for a change.

It’ll be interesting to see if the Xbox version comes alongside the PC version or if there’s an additional delay. Hopefully the former and they release both ports simultaneously.

It’s a bit disappointing they never gave the option to centre-align the tiles if you choose to reduce the number of them on the Home Screen. They look a bit odd clustered up on the left hand side, it creates an unbalanced aesthetic. As it currently is implemented I don’t think l I’ll use that feature. Hopefully they’ll give some more options in future.

If this isn’t evidence of Steam on next Xbox I don’t know what is 👀

I think the strategy is to piggyback off Valve’s success. It’s a way to conveniently advertise Game Pass to Steam users.

If you can’t beat them, join them. That sort of thinking.

Yeah I did just copy-paste my comment on the other article here, but it’s definitely relevant here too! 😅

I kinda like them honestly, reminds me of the Steam UI in a way, which might be where they got the inspiration from!

But it’s good that we get the option to disable them if we want.

If this isn’t evidence of Steam on next Xbox I don’t know what is 👀

I think the strategy is to piggyback off Valve’s success. It’s a way to conveniently advertise Game Pass to Steam users.

If you can’t beat them, join them. That sort of thinking.

Chicken and egg situation really. Microsoft has been actively encouraging this for years now. It’s not surprising to see the numbers play out when converting console gamers into windows PC gamers appears to have been their long term strategy all along.

I have both XSX and PC. I wholeheartedly welcome the upcoming merger of these two platforms. Best of both worlds: Steam, free online play, controller-friendly UI, and Quick Resume. Sounds wonderful to me.

@NishimuraX Yes I guess I am trying to will it into existence! I’ve been very critical and negative on the direction that Xbox has been heading in over the past year and a half. I’m aware that some of the community here have found that grating. Now that I finally have reason to be positive about the brand again it feels so good!

@Titntin like you I already have a PC, but I think this is perfect for me. This would allow me to access my Steam library on my TV via a controller-friendly interface. Play Anywhere theoretically already provides this kind of functionality, but in reality it really doesn’t because only 5-10% of the Xbox library supports it (it also doesn’t do anything for all the games that skip Xbox).

If they mean what I think they mean - then hell yeah! Backwards compatibility, Steam, and death of the mandatory online paywall - what’s not to like? It’s perfection, combining the best of PC and console into one ultimate gaming machine. It’s my dream product.

Horizon: Forbidden West. I recently upgraded my PC, so I got massively distracted by overclocking and undervolting, but after finding stable profiles for CPU & CPU I’m finally ready to get back into actual gaming again!

@NeoRatt that’s how I interpreted Sarah Bond’s statement too, so I certainly hope that’s how it pans out!