Comments 1,341

Re: Three Xbox Games Dated For Nintendo Switch 2, Starfield Also Rumoured For PS5 In April

Cakefish

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: Valve Admits Its New Console Plans Have Been Affected By Component Crisis

Cakefish

@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

Cakefish

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: AMD Mentions Next-Gen Xbox Console, Says It's 'Progressing Well' To Release In 2027

Cakefish

It’s all about execution. To appeal it needs to retain most of what makes XSX a pleasant experience:

  • Support HDMI CEC and wake-from-controller input (this is essential to replicating the console experience)
  • Proper backwards compatibility (cloud doesn’t count)
  • 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)
  • No annoying ads in the UI

And that’s my wishlist.

Re: Rumour: New Xbox Console Won't Release Until At Least Late 2027, Could Be Delayed Further

Cakefish

@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: Nioh 3 Could Mark The Series' Xbox Debut As Sony Confirms 6-Month PS5 Exclusivity

Cakefish

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: Xbox Begins Testing New Monthly Quest For Microsoft Rewards Users

Cakefish

I’m currently just relying on cloud on mobile devices for these quests to avoid the electricity costs. Electricity is so damn expensive here in UK I doubt it’s worth purposely farming these quests. Last time I checked the electricity cost of Xbox + TV/PC + monitor running for the required time each day completely negated the points value.

Re: Here's A Look At The Updated Xbox Game Studios Roadmap For 2026 And Beyond

Cakefish

@themightyant yeah it means all these infographics end up looking the same. You have to zoom in and squint to see the changes from the last one… and the one before that… and the one before that… and the one before that. Seriously I just looked at all the infographics from the past year, they all look almost visually indistinguishable because they’re dominated by the historical games rather than the upcoming ones.

Re: Xbox's New Dashboard Is Going Down Well, And Some People Want It On Console & PC

Cakefish

Well the lack of any obvious adverts makes it look visually clean at first glance, but I’m not convinced it would be suitable for console. Look at that big redundant play with friends row for starters, not everyone needs that. No quick access to the settings either. Be careful what you wish for, if it comes to console it’ll be guaranteed to have adverts anyway and could be a downgrade in other areas.

Re: Microsoft CFO Admits Xbox Revenue Was 'Below Expectations' In FY26 Q2

Cakefish

Ironic they can’t even commit to towing the ‘everything is an Xbox’ line in their own financial reports. They keep calling out PC and Xbox separately 🤦‍♂️

Now I can’t help but wonder; if PC is up, cloud is up, PS5 is up… that only leaves Xbox being massively down as the only explanation for the drop? I can’t help but see that as an ominous sign for the future.

Re: Code Vein 2 Is Getting A Range Of Review Scores Ahead Of Its Full Xbox Release This Week

Cakefish

The deluxe edition was mistakenly listed at £55 for months. They honoured preorders when they corrected it, so a nice discount for all Xbox owners who got in early.

I’m okay with the review scores as it sounds like an improvement over the original, which I enjoyed, so I’m sure I’ll have fun with this too. Soulslike is essentially my favourite genre and anime styling + soulslike is still a pretty unique combination, at least on Xbox.

I won’t get a chance to play the ‘early access’ as I’m travelling cross country to visit my very ill gramp in hospital, quite possibly to say goodbye for the final time. I’ll definitely be needing a distraction at the weekend so will dive right into this then!

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (January 24-25)

Cakefish

I may dabble in Once Upon A Katamari in the meantime, but I’m really just waiting for Code Vein 2 next week.

@Fiendish-Beaver did you preorder CV2 in the end? They’ve now corrected the pricing error on the Xbox store with the Deluxe Edition, it’s now £75 as on other platforms. My preorder at £55 went through though and hasn’t been cancelled. So the gamble paid off handsomely! 😁

Re: Xbox Studios Boss Shares Update On Progress For State Of Decay 3

Cakefish

@RegnumSolipsi Phil Spencer tweeted about playing it in Oct 2024 so it was definitely playable to a certain extent (https://www.purexbox.com/news/2024/10/xbox-boss-namedrops-marvels-blade-and-everwild-following-recent-studio-visits)

@Markatron84 That’s a very fair point, I’d completely forgotten that was just a Jez story. Damn it Jez, muddying the waters like this.

Re: Xbox Exec Explains Why Some Games Are 'Day One' For PS5, And Others Aren't

Cakefish

@IOI @Fiendish-Beaver @PsBoxSwitchOwner 100% agreed. I don’t see how it’s possible to interpret this in any other way when stacked on top of all the other previous statements they’ve made and of course the Fable/Halo day one confirmations etc. The moment they said Halo was a day-and-date PlayStation franchise from now on, any lingering ambiguity died for me personally. The evidence is simply overwhelming at this point.

Re: These Are The 10 Highest-Rated Original Xbox Games Of All Time, But Do You Agree?

Cakefish

@FraserG yeah I just looked it up myself! I agree with the high metascore. The game has aged like fine wine too, maybe partly because rail shooter is a dead genre these days so nothing has superseded it (a bittersweet thought). The cutting edge graphics, timeless art design, and wonderful music also play a huge role in the graceful ageing of the game. It was the very first game I ever bought for my XSX in fact! I wish Sega would bring PD back from the dead.