Every major IP is now on PlayStation. You can’t undo that. The point of no return has already been crossed. The hardware sales have already tanked. Game over. Multiplatform is here to stay, we all know it.
Ditch the mandatory requirement for Game Pass Essential, price match the PS5 (expandable storage included), and get rid of dashboard ads if you want a major competitive win for consoles. It’s the only realistic path forward.
Have the XSX price match the PS5 in all regions, for both the digital and physical editions, and do a proportional XSS price cut too.
Subsidise the Expansion Cards to more closely match the current standard NVMe SSDs market price.
Make online multiplayer free for all games. Revamp Essential in some other way to compensate for the lost ‘value’.
Copy many more store/community features from Steam. It’s the premier global storefront for a reason.
Strictly enforce a quality mandate amongst first party studios that no game can perform better on PS5 vs XSX (PS5 Pro excluded for obvious reasons).
There’s nothing that can realistically be done about exclusivity, we’re already past the point of no return in that regard. So compensate for this disadvantage by making XSX|S compelling for other reasons.
I still think it’s a bit weird that Phil left before the 25th anniversary. With it being merely 9 months away I just assumed he’d remain on for that and then leave on a high note.
@Fiendish-Beaver the thing really is DOA if it doesn’t even offer basic backwards compatibility. A key pillar Xbox has built their brand upon for the last decade. If it really is just Windows 11 with the Xbox FSE overlay slapped on top and can’t play any XSX games then there’s simply no reason for me to buy it when I already have a gaming PC (which I can convert into a mini ITX SFF build if needed to play on the TV in the living room). Who would such a device appeal to? It’d be so insanely niche that it’d be pretty much instantly become irrelevant in the market. I’ve gotta keep holding onto hope that when Sarah said it’d be fully backwards compatible that she actually meant those words and wasn’t intentionally misleading us. Cloud streaming does not count as backwards compatibility!
Lowering the price to match the PS5 would be a start. Not really much else I think they’ll realistically be willing to do to save the XSX|S from the current doom spiral in hardware sales and I don’t think there’s a high likelihood they’ll be willing to price match the PS5. The exclusive ship has obviously already sailed, so that’s not up for debate. This is all just a bunch of PR waffle really. Actions speak far louder than words, so I’ll believe it when I see it.
I’m sceptical. Seems like a coordinated effort to scapegoat Sarah. Which isn’t to say she didn’t push for the ‘everything, everyone and their dog” is an Xbox strategy, but she would’ve needed sign off from Phil and Satya to go ahead and clearly they loved the idea. So no, I don’t believe for a second that she was the sole architect of the current Xbox situation. And as for Microsoft being disappointed at hardware sales… lol no. They knew exactly what they were doing. It was all intentional to slowly wind down XSX|S. You don’t bin off exclusives, raise hardware/game pass costs, and explicitly market how you don’t need to buy an Xbox and then expect no repercussions from those actions. They’re not that stupid. As for supposed change of direction, I don’t buy that either. What can they even realistically change course on? The multiplatform ship has already well and truly sailed. XSX|S sales cannot meaningfully recover. It’s all just fluffy but ultimately meaningless PR talk. Satya is still in charge at the end of the day.
@IOI yeah he did seem to lose his soul over the last few years. His heart didn’t seem in it anymore after the Activision buyout.
@Millionski yes this focus on AI is concerning. Xbox feels like a very different brand from when I bought my XSX in 2021, only 5 years ago.
@RBRTMNZ seems Sarah peaced out after getting snubbed from the top job by the AI drone. Choosing to give no public statement implies she’s got beef with how this all went down.
@GuyinPA75 yeah it’s just I’d to play Planet of Lana 2 when it comes out. I guess I’ll see how I feel when the time comes. Assuming the reviews are good for the game!
My Game Pass Ultimate expires 2nd of March. They added in all these extra rewards quest perks over the Essential tier last year and now they’ve made them all worth less in one fell swoop. Something I’ll have to consider when I decide whether to renew Ultimate or simply stick to Essential.
@Neither_scene that’s exactly what I mean, sorry if it wasn’t clear. Price it too high and the audience will end up being very niche. So I suppose it ends up being a question of just how mass market Microsoft want this device to be.
@fatpunkslim for HBM3E. HBM has hardly ever been used in consumer gaming products because it is much more expensive than GDDR memory and the latter does the job well enough, even for flagship GPUs like the RTX 5090. I would be flabbergasted if Microsoft would use such premium memory in their Xbox products, when they could use them in their much more profitable enterprise products instead and are currently crazy in love with everything AI.
@Fiendish-Beaver I suppose they will use the APU in cloud server farms too, so can make return on R&D investment that way. Something that only just came to my mind. So yeah I suppose selling X number of units isn't as important as it would've been otherwise.
10 million is probably very optimistic considering Series X has sold roughly the same as the Wii U at a much lower price point than we're all expecting this device to be. The market for a four figure priced Xbox will be significantly smaller than that still!
I don’t really see how the PC pivot helps Microsoft here really. Yeah it allows them to target much higher price points, but all that means is a much more niche audience. The number of PC folks with 5090s and 9850X3Ds is relatively small in the grand scheme of things. There’s no easy way around this issue. Hardware needs to be affordable whether it’s PC or not. If not enough folks buy it then they won’t get the return on investment on R&D, so there’s a fine balance to be struck, they can’t price it to the moon.
@themightyant when you add up all the countries then Little Nightmares 3 almost certainly did get over 500 reviews in total, but it still doesn’t explain how it beat out Split Fiction which not only had multiple times as many reviews but also rated significantly higher overall. Germany was the most sceptical country I could find and they rated the paid version 4.8 and friend pass version 4.7! Most other countries awarded an average of 4.9! It makes no sense to me. Xbox snubbing Hazelight for some reason 😤
Just makes you wonder how may other deserving games ended up getting snubbed too by whatever wacky criteria they’ve used here.
You know what I’m confused how Split Fiction isn’t on this list for the highest rated category. It’s 4.9 stars with 2.5K ratings in US and 4.9 stars with 592 ratings in UK (I also checked Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Brazil and all versions are highly rated there too). How the hell did Little Nightmares 3 beat it? I enjoyed LN3 but come on, what is this list? 😮
@TuscanUK it’s probably because the store categorises Warzone as an ‘edition’ of Black Ops 7 (or more accurately vice-versa). So the ratings are skewed by Warzone, which is more highly rated than the separate store listings for BO7 especially in countries such as India (4.2 star rating). It’s stupid that the ratings are counted this way for COD and BO7 is seemingly unfairly buoyed up by Warzone, but it’s the only logical explanation I can come up with.
@FraserG I’m still getting the bug where the Store gets amnesia and forgets I already told it that I’m happy to get notifications for my wishlisted games. Almost every single time I launch the Store it asks me if I want notifications for the wishlist, the ‘don’t ask me again’ tickbox does nothing 😭
Sounds good, but the Push Square reviewer has said that it doesn’t look like Friend Pass is supported at launch. So that’ll have to be a purchase for later in the year then.
@somnambulance earlier announcement so people have had longer to add to their wishlist and also a significantly cheaper asking price which always helps popularity
@Fiendish-Beaver yeah totally understand what you mean. I like the console experience for the controller + TV style of play. The new system needs to replicate the current experience closely but also needs to offer the full capabilities of a PC. Tricky balance, really hope they succeed!
@Llamageddon it would be the same as current PC game reviews, where the reviewer states the hardware specs they’re using and it’s left up to the reader/viewer to interpret the results and apply that to their own hardware. Certain specialist outlets like Digital Foundry and Hardware Unboxed often do PC game benchmarks using a wide array of hardware. Many reviews do call out Steam Deck specifically too, so I imagine the first party Microsoft offering will also get similar treatment if it ends up being as popular as the Steam Deck.
@Millionski we can only hope they aren’t sleazy enough to try to pass off cloud gaming as backwards compatibility. My interest will be almost non-existent for these devices if they can’t even run Xbox games. At that point I’d be better off converting my current DIY PC into a mini ITX SFF build.
Cloud streaming is not backwards compatibility. My disappointment will know no bounds if they actually try to pass off cloud gaming as a viable solution to the BC issue.
Big caveat is whether these third party offerings will have full backwards compatibility as the in-house one supposedly has. Presumably they’re almost certainly going to be using ‘off-the-shelf’ APUs from AMD rather than Microsoft’s custom Magnus chip. And if the custom silicon isn’t needed for the backwards compatibility, well then that’ll raise the obvious question of whether we’ll see the Xbox support roll out to all Windows 11 PCs and if not then why not? The answer of course would be money, but it wouldn’t be a good look.
Furthermore, I would be somewhat wary of these third party offerings as they might try and layer additional bloatware over the core UI. Hopefully Microsoft would have some guidelines to ensure they can’t go too far with this, but the ROG Ally already splits up system-level controls between Windows and ASUS’s Armoury Crate/Command Centre apps so the precedent is already there.
Could end up being a great strategy in theory, all depends on the execution.
It’s nice to hear that Microsoft don’t plan on ditching XSX|S the moment the new device launches, because the way they’ve been acting has definitely given across the impression that they’re desperate to move on and forget about current hardware. XSX|S deserve to have the same lifespan as the XBO has been enjoying.
@Fiendish-Beaver Code Vein 2 is good I think! Though unfortunately it doesn’t run all that well on XSX currently. Not unplayable by any means, but it is quite noticeable at least to my eyes. However the good news is that the devs have already committed to specifically improving performance on consoles in upcoming patches.
My advice to you is to make sure you level up your character and gear on the tutorial island a lot — you’ll need everything you can get! Bosses quickly get quite tricky. The final boss of the tutorial island is like Margit in Elden Ring, a proper skill test for the early game. I actually haven’t defeated it yet. It’s optional though, just like Elden Ring. So my advice is to treat it like Elden Ring, I think the devs want you to explore and upgrade your character before tackling certain bosses, it’s very intentionally designed like Elden Ring in many ways. Elden Ring is my favourite game of all time so I absolutely don’t mind this, but just be prepared for a bit of a difficulty jump from the first game!
I was playing Code Vein 2 but have decided to put it on pause. Not because I wasn’t enjoying it, I definitely am. I just have an extended three week long work trip in two week’s time and I don’t want to feel rushed trying to cram a 50 hour game into such a short timespan (and I don’t want to leave it half finished either). I want to take it at my own pace and really absorb the open world and combat mechanics properly. I saw the devs have committed to patching the game to bring specifically better performance and combat balance adjustments by the end of March. So it makes more sense to me to save my first play through for when I return, when it’s in a more polished technical state and for when I’m not feeling like I’m under so much time pressure.
Not sure what I can pivot to in the meantime. It has to be something much more bitesized and manageable within two weeks. I still have Katamari to keep me occupied but I also want something a bit more narratively and mechanically substantial too, I have the soulslike itch! Wuchang and Stellar Blade are both too long as well though, so they’re both on my to do list for later this year.
Well Game Pass is definitely going to need another big revamp when the nextbox is released because if it’s a PC that makes Game Pass Essential entirely redundant other than for legacy support for the XSX|S.
Doom TDA is inevitable and I could see Hellblade 2 showing up eventually.
Question is whether new games such as Fable, GOW: E-Day, and Halo Remake are possible.
Personally I think Psychonauts 2 would be ideal, but realistically Double Fine don’t have resources to do a port and I’m sceptical that Xbox will bother allocating resources to a third party porting company when there are much bigger franchises that are eligible to port.
@fatpunkslim I’ve just looked up this deal with SK Hynix you reference and there’s some huge caveats to it. Firstly, it’s intended for AI purposes such as for Microsoft’s recently announced Maia 200 AI chip. Will a Microsoft run by Satya Nadella really be willing to allocate some memory to the significantly less profitable Xbox hardware division? Highly unlikely I’d say. Secondly, the deal appears to be for HBM specifically according to all the reports. That memory type is very rarely found in gaming devices (AMD’s 2015 Fury X cards were the only real example in the consumer mass market to date), because it’s more expensive than GDDR and so is typically used for enterprise grade cards instead. So again, I just can’t see an AI-crazed Microsoft willing to spare any allocation of this very expensive memory type for their consumer-facing gaming division. It’s most likely Xbox will be looking around the GDDR market just as Valve, Nvidia, and AMD are for their consumer-grade gaming products.
Confused by the Play Anywhere mentions. It’s redundant when all Xboxes are just fundamentally Windows PCs at their core. There’s no competitive advantage over Steam there.
Interesting debate on the viability of Microsoft Store on this device, but I think what’s being overlooked is that there will no longer be a large install base of users to generate sales via Microsoft Store in the same way as previous Xbox gens. We know this will be a niche ‘premium’ device. So where’s the incentive for devs to put their games on Microsoft’s Store? There isn’t much of one. We see that with the current PC market where Steam is the default and there are countless games that only be exclusively accessed via Steam, even when they’re available on XSX (i.e. not Sony exclusives). So I struggle to see how Microsoft Store can assert itself as the default storefront for this device when it’s simply missing so many games and it’s tricky to see what will incentivise game companies to fully embrace it when they already aren’t on the exponentially larger PC market as a whole.
Okay I had to look up what “ abusing our Platform and Services” actually meant because it sounds super vague, but apparently it means phishing for passwords and personal information.
Proper library management like on XSX (e.g. ability to hide demos and unwanted games from the library - Candy Crush appears in my Xbox App library on PC and there’s no way to purge it WTF)
Support Xbox Storage Expansion Cards for backwards compatibility (otherwise it’s just e-waste)
Quick Resume support should return
It also needs to do things differently from XSX of course:
No paid multiplayer paywall (it’s a PC after all)
Steam integration needs to be frictionless enough to not be a major hindrance to accessing games that way (I don’t want to be fighting the UI every time I access my games)
Support regular NVME SSD storage expansion (proprietary storage expansion was mistake on XSX)
@FatGuyInLilCoat you’ve summed it up perfectly. It’s what immediately sprung into my mind when reading this article. So moronic of them to turn around and do a surprised pikachu face after promoting Game Pass so heavily.
@Matthewnh unfortunately it doesn’t work like that. The hardware architecture of both nextbox and PS6 are set in stone now, the major design features can’t be changed (well not without completely scrapping everything and starting over anew which they obviously won’t do). If these consoles release in let’s say 2030, then it’ll just be a Switch 2 situation where the internal hardware ended up being pretty dated by the time it eventually launched.
Now whether this actually matters considering the PC hardware market is equally impacted by the RAMageddon is a very valid and fair counterpoint to raise and also it’s not like Switch 2 has struggled to find success despite the older tech. My point here though is that a longer gap until the next generation launches won’t actually result in better hardware as all the R&D was done based on the original assumption of launching in 2027.
I always said late 2027 but that was before the RAMageddon, so a delay to 2028 unfortunately makes a lot of sense. I do not expect any proper announcement/reveal this year if the release is indeed pushed back beyond 2027.
While the biggest franchises did bother with ports (Final Fantasy and Death Stranding) I worry that these slightly more niche ones won’t, even after the exclusivity period expires. Where are Stellar Blade and AI Limit for example? Still not bothering with Xbox. I really don’t like this annoying inconsistency with third party ports and with sales of Xboxes flatlining this situation is very unlikely to get better anytime soon. We’ll see what happens, but I won’t be surprised if six months pass and there’s still complete radio silence — hopefully I’m wrong on this prediction.
I bought MIO on Switch for some upcoming travels later this month but if I didn’t specifically want it portable I would’ve played it on Xbox, so I personally think it’s a great addition. Reviews have generally been very positive overall. I’m looking forward to playing it.
Comments 1,277
Re: Xbox Boss Questioned On Whether Exclusives Could Return In The Future
It’s too late lol
Every major IP is now on PlayStation. You can’t undo that. The point of no return has already been crossed. The hardware sales have already tanked. Game over. Multiplatform is here to stay, we all know it.
Ditch the mandatory requirement for Game Pass Essential, price match the PS5 (expandable storage included), and get rid of dashboard ads if you want a major competitive win for consoles. It’s the only realistic path forward.
Re: Xbox Says 'Hardware Announcements Are Coming Up' As Team Looks Ahead To Next-Gen
This new hardware has been ‘coming soon’ for two years already thanks to extended rumour cycles 😭
The word ‘soon’ has lost all meaning lol
Re: Talking Point: You're The New Head Of Xbox, What Do You Do Now?
There’s nothing that can realistically be done about exclusivity, we’re already past the point of no return in that regard. So compensate for this disadvantage by making XSX|S compelling for other reasons.
Re: Seven Amazing Things Phil Spencer Did During His Reign As Head Of Xbox
I still think it’s a bit weird that Phil left before the 25th anniversary. With it being merely 9 months away I just assumed he’d remain on for that and then leave on a high note.
Re: 'Return To Our Roots' - Xbox CEO Reiterates Her Goals For The Future
@Fiendish-Beaver the thing really is DOA if it doesn’t even offer basic backwards compatibility. A key pillar Xbox has built their brand upon for the last decade. If it really is just Windows 11 with the Xbox FSE overlay slapped on top and can’t play any XSX games then there’s simply no reason for me to buy it when I already have a gaming PC (which I can convert into a mini ITX SFF build if needed to play on the TV in the living room). Who would such a device appeal to? It’d be so insanely niche that it’d be pretty much instantly become irrelevant in the market. I’ve gotta keep holding onto hope that when Sarah said it’d be fully backwards compatible that she actually meant those words and wasn’t intentionally misleading us. Cloud streaming does not count as backwards compatibility!
Re: 'Return To Our Roots' - Xbox CEO Reiterates Her Goals For The Future
Lowering the price to match the PS5 would be a start. Not really much else I think they’ll realistically be willing to do to save the XSX|S from the current doom spiral in hardware sales and I don’t think there’s a high likelihood they’ll be willing to price match the PS5. The exclusive ship has obviously already sailed, so that’s not up for debate. This is all just a bunch of PR waffle really. Actions speak far louder than words, so I’ll believe it when I see it.
Re: Xbox's 'Pivot Away From Console' Had Been Failing And Questioned At Microsoft, Claims Report
I’m sceptical. Seems like a coordinated effort to scapegoat Sarah. Which isn’t to say she didn’t push for the ‘everything, everyone and their dog” is an Xbox strategy, but she would’ve needed sign off from Phil and Satya to go ahead and clearly they loved the idea. So no, I don’t believe for a second that she was the sole architect of the current Xbox situation. And as for Microsoft being disappointed at hardware sales… lol no. They knew exactly what they were doing. It was all intentional to slowly wind down XSX|S. You don’t bin off exclusives, raise hardware/game pass costs, and explicitly market how you don’t need to buy an Xbox and then expect no repercussions from those actions. They’re not that stupid. As for supposed change of direction, I don’t buy that either. What can they even realistically change course on? The multiplatform ship has already well and truly sailed. XSX|S sales cannot meaningfully recover. It’s all just fluffy but ultimately meaningless PR talk. Satya is still in charge at the end of the day.
Re: Phil Spencer Announces That He's Retiring From Xbox
@IOI yeah he did seem to lose his soul over the last few years. His heart didn’t seem in it anymore after the Activision buyout.
@Millionski yes this focus on AI is concerning. Xbox feels like a very different brand from when I bought my XSX in 2021, only 5 years ago.
@RBRTMNZ seems Sarah peaced out after getting snubbed from the top job by the AI drone. Choosing to give no public statement implies she’s got beef with how this all went down.
Re: Phil Spencer Announces That He's Retiring From Xbox
Phil didn’t even want to stay on a few months longer for the 25th anniversary that they’ve been hyping up?
Sarah’s gone too.
Replaced by an AI executive who previously worked for Meta.
I have a bad feeling about this…
Re: Microsoft Rewards Quietly Increases Its Prices For Xbox Gift Cards
@GuyinPA75 yeah it’s just I’d to play Planet of Lana 2 when it comes out. I guess I’ll see how I feel when the time comes. Assuming the reviews are good for the game!
Re: Microsoft Rewards Quietly Increases Its Prices For Xbox Gift Cards
My Game Pass Ultimate expires 2nd of March. They added in all these extra rewards quest perks over the Essential tier last year and now they’ve made them all worth less in one fell swoop. Something I’ll have to consider when I decide whether to renew Ultimate or simply stick to Essential.
Re: New Report On PS6 Delay Throws Next-Gen Timing Into Doubt
@Neither_scene that’s exactly what I mean, sorry if it wasn’t clear. Price it too high and the audience will end up being very niche. So I suppose it ends up being a question of just how mass market Microsoft want this device to be.
Re: New Report On PS6 Delay Throws Next-Gen Timing Into Doubt
@fatpunkslim for HBM3E. HBM has hardly ever been used in consumer gaming products because it is much more expensive than GDDR memory and the latter does the job well enough, even for flagship GPUs like the RTX 5090. I would be flabbergasted if Microsoft would use such premium memory in their Xbox products, when they could use them in their much more profitable enterprise products instead and are currently crazy in love with everything AI.
Re: New Report On PS6 Delay Throws Next-Gen Timing Into Doubt
@Fiendish-Beaver I suppose they will use the APU in cloud server farms too, so can make return on R&D investment that way. Something that only just came to my mind. So yeah I suppose selling X number of units isn't as important as it would've been otherwise.
10 million is probably very optimistic considering Series X has sold roughly the same as the Wii U at a much lower price point than we're all expecting this device to be. The market for a four figure priced Xbox will be significantly smaller than that still!
Re: New Report On PS6 Delay Throws Next-Gen Timing Into Doubt
I don’t really see how the PC pivot helps Microsoft here really. Yeah it allows them to target much higher price points, but all that means is a much more niche audience. The number of PC folks with 5090s and 9850X3Ds is relatively small in the grand scheme of things. There’s no easy way around this issue. Hardware needs to be affordable whether it’s PC or not. If not enough folks buy it then they won’t get the return on investment on R&D, so there’s a fine balance to be struck, they can’t price it to the moon.
Re: Roundup: All The Xbox Reveals From February 2026's State Of Play
Kena was my favourite and it’s exclusive because of course it is 🫠
At least I can get it over on Steam, which I definitely will be.
Re: Xbox Announces Excellence Awards Winners, Including For 20 Best-Selling Games
@themightyant when you add up all the countries then Little Nightmares 3 almost certainly did get over 500 reviews in total, but it still doesn’t explain how it beat out Split Fiction which not only had multiple times as many reviews but also rated significantly higher overall. Germany was the most sceptical country I could find and they rated the paid version 4.8 and friend pass version 4.7! Most other countries awarded an average of 4.9! It makes no sense to me. Xbox snubbing Hazelight for some reason 😤
Just makes you wonder how may other deserving games ended up getting snubbed too by whatever wacky criteria they’ve used here.
Re: Roundup: Here's What The Reviews Are Saying About Xbox Horror Title 'Reanimal'
@ILuvGames it’s my brother so I trust him, but we’d be doing it online rather than via local coop because we live opposite sides of the country!
Re: Xbox Announces Excellence Awards Winners, Including For 20 Best-Selling Games
You know what I’m confused how Split Fiction isn’t on this list for the highest rated category. It’s 4.9 stars with 2.5K ratings in US and 4.9 stars with 592 ratings in UK (I also checked Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Brazil and all versions are highly rated there too). How the hell did Little Nightmares 3 beat it? I enjoyed LN3 but come on, what is this list? 😮
Re: Xbox Announces Excellence Awards Winners, Including For 20 Best-Selling Games
@TuscanUK it’s probably because the store categorises Warzone as an ‘edition’ of Black Ops 7 (or more accurately vice-versa). So the ratings are skewed by Warzone, which is more highly rated than the separate store listings for BO7 especially in countries such as India (4.2 star rating). It’s stupid that the ratings are counted this way for COD and BO7 is seemingly unfairly buoyed up by Warzone, but it’s the only logical explanation I can come up with.
Re: Xbox Signs Out Multiple Players At Once, Seemingly Related To Age Verification Issues
@FraserG I’m still getting the bug where the Store gets amnesia and forgets I already told it that I’m happy to get notifications for my wishlisted games. Almost every single time I launch the Store it asks me if I want notifications for the wishlist, the ‘don’t ask me again’ tickbox does nothing 😭
Re: Xbox Signs Out Multiple Players At Once, Seemingly Related To Age Verification Issues
I’m still signed in, maybe because I (begrudgingly) verified my age a while ago using face scan.
Re: Roundup: Here's What The Reviews Are Saying About Xbox Horror Title 'Reanimal'
Sounds good, but the Push Square reviewer has said that it doesn’t look like Friend Pass is supported at launch. So that’ll have to be a purchase for later in the year then.
Re: Xbox Has A Top-Three Most Wishlisted 2026 Game On Steam Right Now
@somnambulance earlier announcement so people have had longer to add to their wishlist and also a significantly cheaper asking price which always helps popularity
Re: Report: Xbox Working With OEMs To Build Next-Gen Options For 'A Range Of Price Points'
@Fiendish-Beaver yeah totally understand what you mean. I like the console experience for the controller + TV style of play. The new system needs to replicate the current experience closely but also needs to offer the full capabilities of a PC. Tricky balance, really hope they succeed!
Re: Report: Xbox Working With OEMs To Build Next-Gen Options For 'A Range Of Price Points'
@Llamageddon it would be the same as current PC game reviews, where the reviewer states the hardware specs they’re using and it’s left up to the reader/viewer to interpret the results and apply that to their own hardware. Certain specialist outlets like Digital Foundry and Hardware Unboxed often do PC game benchmarks using a wide array of hardware. Many reviews do call out Steam Deck specifically too, so I imagine the first party Microsoft offering will also get similar treatment if it ends up being as popular as the Steam Deck.
Re: Report: Xbox Working With OEMs To Build Next-Gen Options For 'A Range Of Price Points'
@Millionski we can only hope they aren’t sleazy enough to try to pass off cloud gaming as backwards compatibility. My interest will be almost non-existent for these devices if they can’t even run Xbox games. At that point I’d be better off converting my current DIY PC into a mini ITX SFF build.
Re: Sony Is Hosting A Huge State Of Play This Week, Do You Think We'll Get Any Big Xbox Reveals?
I hope to see more Tides of Annihilation
Re: Report: Xbox Working With OEMs To Build Next-Gen Options For 'A Range Of Price Points'
@Millionski they made a big deal out of it last year: https://www.purexbox.com/news/2025/06/with-its-next-console-xbox-is-making-a-big-commitment-to-backwards-compatibility
Cloud streaming is not backwards compatibility. My disappointment will know no bounds if they actually try to pass off cloud gaming as a viable solution to the BC issue.
Re: Report: Xbox Working With OEMs To Build Next-Gen Options For 'A Range Of Price Points'
Big caveat is whether these third party offerings will have full backwards compatibility as the in-house one supposedly has. Presumably they’re almost certainly going to be using ‘off-the-shelf’ APUs from AMD rather than Microsoft’s custom Magnus chip. And if the custom silicon isn’t needed for the backwards compatibility, well then that’ll raise the obvious question of whether we’ll see the Xbox support roll out to all Windows 11 PCs and if not then why not? The answer of course would be money, but it wouldn’t be a good look.
Furthermore, I would be somewhat wary of these third party offerings as they might try and layer additional bloatware over the core UI. Hopefully Microsoft would have some guidelines to ensure they can’t go too far with this, but the ROG Ally already splits up system-level controls between Windows and ASUS’s Armoury Crate/Command Centre apps so the precedent is already there.
Could end up being a great strategy in theory, all depends on the execution.
Re: Microsoft Apparently 'Expects' The Xbox Series Era To Last, Despite Next-Gen Plans
It’s nice to hear that Microsoft don’t plan on ditching XSX|S the moment the new device launches, because the way they’ve been acting has definitely given across the impression that they’re desperate to move on and forget about current hardware. XSX|S deserve to have the same lifespan as the XBO has been enjoying.
Re: Report: Next Year Is 'Best Case Scenario' For New Xbox Console, Microsoft Still Unsure On Price
Windows 11 support confirms the death of Game Pass Essential as a mandatory multiplayer paywall. What glorious news!
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 7-8)
@Fiendish-Beaver Code Vein 2 is good I think! Though unfortunately it doesn’t run all that well on XSX currently. Not unplayable by any means, but it is quite noticeable at least to my eyes. However the good news is that the devs have already committed to specifically improving performance on consoles in upcoming patches.
My advice to you is to make sure you level up your character and gear on the tutorial island a lot — you’ll need everything you can get! Bosses quickly get quite tricky. The final boss of the tutorial island is like Margit in Elden Ring, a proper skill test for the early game. I actually haven’t defeated it yet. It’s optional though, just like Elden Ring. So my advice is to treat it like Elden Ring, I think the devs want you to explore and upgrade your character before tackling certain bosses, it’s very intentionally designed like Elden Ring in many ways. Elden Ring is my favourite game of all time so I absolutely don’t mind this, but just be prepared for a bit of a difficulty jump from the first game!
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 7-8)
I was playing Code Vein 2 but have decided to put it on pause. Not because I wasn’t enjoying it, I definitely am. I just have an extended three week long work trip in two week’s time and I don’t want to feel rushed trying to cram a 50 hour game into such a short timespan (and I don’t want to leave it half finished either). I want to take it at my own pace and really absorb the open world and combat mechanics properly. I saw the devs have committed to patching the game to bring specifically better performance and combat balance adjustments by the end of March. So it makes more sense to me to save my first play through for when I return, when it’s in a more polished technical state and for when I’m not feeling like I’m under so much time pressure.
Not sure what I can pivot to in the meantime. It has to be something much more bitesized and manageable within two weeks. I still have Katamari to keep me occupied but I also want something a bit more narratively and mechanically substantial too, I have the soulslike itch! Wuchang and Stellar Blade are both too long as well though, so they’re both on my to do list for later this year.
Re: Report: Microsoft Is In The Early Stages Of 'Expanding' Xbox Game Pass
Just hopefully not expanding the price 😅
Well Game Pass is definitely going to need another big revamp when the nextbox is released because if it’s a PC that makes Game Pass Essential entirely redundant other than for legacy support for the XSX|S.
Re: Xbox Is Reportedly Releasing A Brand-New Controller Revision In 2026
Feel free to take some inspiration from Switch 2 Pro Controller - those thumb sticks are actually real nice, so smooth and silky.
Re: Three Xbox Games Dated For Nintendo Switch 2, Starfield Also Rumoured For PS5 In April
Doom TDA is inevitable and I could see Hellblade 2 showing up eventually.
Question is whether new games such as Fable, GOW: E-Day, and Halo Remake are possible.
Personally I think Psychonauts 2 would be ideal, but realistically Double Fine don’t have resources to do a port and I’m sceptical that Xbox will bother allocating resources to a third party porting company when there are much bigger franchises that are eligible to port.
Re: Multiple Games Announced For Xbox Following February 2026's Nintendo Direct
Nice to have a date for Planet of Lana 2. I think I will extend my Ultimate subscription (due to expire early March) for one more month to play that.
Re: Valve Admits Its New Console Plans Have Been Affected By Component Crisis
@fatpunkslim I’ve just looked up this deal with SK Hynix you reference and there’s some huge caveats to it. Firstly, it’s intended for AI purposes such as for Microsoft’s recently announced Maia 200 AI chip. Will a Microsoft run by Satya Nadella really be willing to allocate some memory to the significantly less profitable Xbox hardware division? Highly unlikely I’d say. Secondly, the deal appears to be for HBM specifically according to all the reports. That memory type is very rarely found in gaming devices (AMD’s 2015 Fury X cards were the only real example in the consumer mass market to date), because it’s more expensive than GDDR and so is typically used for enterprise grade cards instead. So again, I just can’t see an AI-crazed Microsoft willing to spare any allocation of this very expensive memory type for their consumer-facing gaming division. It’s most likely Xbox will be looking around the GDDR market just as Valve, Nvidia, and AMD are for their consumer-grade gaming products.
Re: 'We've Been Talking To Microsoft' - Epic Games Wants Its Store On The Next Xbox Console
Confused by the Play Anywhere mentions. It’s redundant when all Xboxes are just fundamentally Windows PCs at their core. There’s no competitive advantage over Steam there.
Re: 'We've Been Talking To Microsoft' - Epic Games Wants Its Store On The Next Xbox Console
Interesting debate on the viability of Microsoft Store on this device, but I think what’s being overlooked is that there will no longer be a large install base of users to generate sales via Microsoft Store in the same way as previous Xbox gens. We know this will be a niche ‘premium’ device. So where’s the incentive for devs to put their games on Microsoft’s Store? There isn’t much of one. We see that with the current PC market where Steam is the default and there are countless games that only be exclusively accessed via Steam, even when they’re available on XSX (i.e. not Sony exclusives). So I struggle to see how Microsoft Store can assert itself as the default storefront for this device when it’s simply missing so many games and it’s tricky to see what will incentivise game companies to fully embrace it when they already aren’t on the exponentially larger PC market as a whole.
Re: Xbox Reveals New Safety Data, With Over 300 Million Pieces Of Content Removed In 2025
@dskatter classic Scunthorpe problem. Known about since the 90’s but for all the supposed advances in AI it’s somehow still an issue in 2026. Madness.
Re: Xbox Reveals New Safety Data, With Over 300 Million Pieces Of Content Removed In 2025
Okay I had to look up what “ abusing our Platform and Services” actually meant because it sounds super vague, but apparently it means phishing for passwords and personal information.
Re: AMD Mentions Next-Gen Xbox Console, Says It's 'Progressing Well' To Release In 2027
It’s all about execution. To appeal it needs to retain most of what makes XSX a pleasant experience:
It also needs to do things differently from XSX of course:
And that’s my wishlist.
Re: Obsidian Says Two Of Its 2025 Titles Didn't Meet Sales Targets, Vows To Learn For The Future
@FatGuyInLilCoat you’ve summed it up perfectly. It’s what immediately sprung into my mind when reading this article. So moronic of them to turn around and do a surprised pikachu face after promoting Game Pass so heavily.
Re: Xbox Series S Owner Shows What Smoking, Dust And Dirt Can Do To Your Console
So far I haven’t had to open up the XSX to clean it out as it’s still whisper quiet after almost 5 years. I don’t smoke though.
Re: Rumour: New Xbox Console Won't Release Until At Least Late 2027, Could Be Delayed Further
@Matthewnh unfortunately it doesn’t work like that. The hardware architecture of both nextbox and PS6 are set in stone now, the major design features can’t be changed (well not without completely scrapping everything and starting over anew which they obviously won’t do). If these consoles release in let’s say 2030, then it’ll just be a Switch 2 situation where the internal hardware ended up being pretty dated by the time it eventually launched.
Now whether this actually matters considering the PC hardware market is equally impacted by the RAMageddon is a very valid and fair counterpoint to raise and also it’s not like Switch 2 has struggled to find success despite the older tech. My point here though is that a longer gap until the next generation launches won’t actually result in better hardware as all the R&D was done based on the original assumption of launching in 2027.
Re: Rumour: New Xbox Console Won't Release Until At Least Late 2027, Could Be Delayed Further
I always said late 2027 but that was before the RAMageddon, so a delay to 2028 unfortunately makes a lot of sense. I do not expect any proper announcement/reveal this year if the release is indeed pushed back beyond 2027.
Re: Nioh 3 Could Mark The Series' Xbox Debut As Sony Confirms 6-Month PS5 Exclusivity
While the biggest franchises did bother with ports (Final Fantasy and Death Stranding) I worry that these slightly more niche ones won’t, even after the exclusivity period expires. Where are Stellar Blade and AI Limit for example? Still not bothering with Xbox. I really don’t like this annoying inconsistency with third party ports and with sales of Xboxes flatlining this situation is very unlikely to get better anytime soon. We’ll see what happens, but I won’t be surprised if six months pass and there’s still complete radio silence — hopefully I’m wrong on this prediction.
Re: Pick One: What Was Your Favourite Xbox Game Pass Addition In January 2026?
I bought MIO on Switch for some upcoming travels later this month but if I didn’t specifically want it portable I would’ve played it on Xbox, so I personally think it’s a great addition. Reviews have generally been very positive overall. I’m looking forward to playing it.