It’s disappointing hardware-wise in quite a few aspects in typical Nintendo fashion, but as others have pointed out it’s the first party games that really matter for Switch. That’s why I’ve preordered one; exclusives can absolutely sell consoles when done right. It should be able to keep pace with current Steam Deck easily enough, but Steam Deck 2 will definitely leapfrog this quite substantially.
Most of this info already leaked so not a surprise, the real disappointment for me is the OS memory allocation. I don’t see why 3GB is reserved for Switch 2 OS when Series S can do it all in 2GB? That GameChat is already proving to be something of a curse, bloating up the OS like that.
I’ll enjoy my Switch 2 when it arrives next month regardless, I just can’t help pouring over specs and asking ‘what if?’ because I’m a hardware nerd and that’s just what I do!
Already preordered one for launch day. It’s nice having a handheld console to bring along on trips away from home - and access to Nintendo exclusives, obviously.
Hopefully I can soften the blow via Microsoft Rewards. Not sure if I’ll be able to cover it all as I intend to splurge the points I currently have saved up for Lies of P: Overture and potentially a couple other games. I guess whether I buy Borderlands 4 at launch will depend on how positive the reviews end up being.
@PlatinumMikey strangely Nintendo is the best at this currently, despite the online narrative of them overcharging (which is more related to US market). Their $80 Mario Kart World is priced at £67 on the eShop. They aren’t just doing a lazy $1:£1 conversion and I have to give credit to Nintendo here for that.
@Scrubchub it took a few hours to grow on me, the game has quite a slow start I think. Once you get access to a greater variety of weapons and traps though the gameplay really gets interesting. The story also becomes a lot more compelling once you get to Meridian. So I’ve been enjoying it more as I get further into it. Nearing the end of the main story now, still have the Frozen Wilds area to explore though. The remaster is absolutely stunning, the lighting quality and use of colour is just lovely. Great game.
For singleplayer I’m still working my way through Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered, it’s quite a long game but very fun. 25 hours in so far. Not one I’ll 100% all missions, but I’ll do all the main story content and the most interesting side missions. It’s easily one of the best looking games I’ve played graphically, it’s stunning - a bit of pop-in is my biggest complaint.
For co-op I’ve just started a second playthrough of Lords of the Fallen. It certainly performs better than at launch, but honestly still has major stutters in many places sadly. I was hoping for a smoother experience given how much the version 2.0 update was hyped up. I think they still need to work on some patches for the shared progression feature as it seems to cause major performance issues.
@Banjo- I don’t see why XSX is considered the premium version of XSS, but PS5 Pro is the successor to the PS5 instead of the premium version of PS5?
I don’t personally care about physical games by the way, I’ve been an all digital gamer for years, so I’m not criticising Microsoft here for releasing XSS - I’m totally fine with that console being digital only.
They appear to still be available for UK thankfully but this is very bad for the regions affected. I’d be pissed if a whole bunch of games suddenly vanished from my wishlist and I was unable to purchase them for an extended period of time.
I would buy PlayStation games on Xbox, help them to dominate Xbox charts, but Sony says no. Won’t even permit third party developed games like Stellar Blade on Xbox… 😭
Well Elden Ring is my favourite game of all time. So I’m certainly an enjoyer of open worlds, but not necessarily all open worlds. I bounced off Breath of the Wild after only 10 hours or so. I’m currently playing Horizon Remastered and definitely getting into the groove now, but it took a while to grow on me - and I’ve no interest in 100%ing all side content and collectibles.
Aside from Elden Ring, many of my other all time favourites are linear in nature - with varying degrees of freedom. Though even Elden Ring has a certain linear structure to it compared to true sandboxes, as much of the world is inaccessible until you meet certain prerequisite criteria.
I guess I really enjoy having freedom, though I often need some structure to that freedom - I don’t often click with true purely sandbox style open worlds. I think maybe this is why I failed to really get into Breath of the Wild (though I intend to give it another chance on Switch 2).
So I can’t really say I that have a strong preference one way or the other. I enjoy both flavours of game and everything in between. It really depends on the details of the game itself whether it will click with me or not.
If they can get Xbox games working on PC then that’s the ultimate dream the I suppose. Everybody wins. I get to keep my game library and save files, while also enjoying new games on this console-ised PC that they seem to be developing. I can also enjoy Sony games on Steam. They definitely will need to drop Game Pass Core though, that multiplayer paywall crap simply won’t fly on PC.
The problem is that though this sounds great, it also sounds too good to be true. What’s the catch?
@Fiendish-Beaver nope, not me! I’m not enough of a GTA fan to need it day 1. I’m happy to wait until a PC version for that 60fps experience. I’m a rare type of gamer who doesn’t own a single GTA game on any platform. GTA 6 might be the first, but certainly not a 30fps only version.
@Millionski oops great point I completely forgot about Fable! Embarrassing moment for me there. I must have put it out of mind since the delay to 2026. Yes I am definitely very interested in Fable! Though I never played the original trilogy so not sure exactly what to expect.
I’m currently playing Horizon Remastered on PC and enjoying it a lot. I played God of War Ragnarok too recently and that was fantastic. Also highly anticipating Stellar Blade next month. I’ve also noticed a new game just released called AI Limit - again on everything but Xbox. This is the repeated pattern now, these kind of games so often seem to be on Sony’s side only. I have my PC luckily so not the end of the world, but it’s a real shame I can’t access them on console.
Not sure how Fable will compare to the above games. We don’t really know much about it yet.
So many games but they don’t have any third person action RPG kinda games. I don’t know why they aren’t catering to this audience, leaving Sony to monopolise that market for first party output. Which is unfortunate because I can’t access PlayStation games on Xbox. I used to be a big FPS player, but that changed after playing Dark Souls for the first time and ever since then my genre preferences shifted. Soulslikes are my favourite subgenre, but I also have become a big fan of the action RPG genre in general. Xbox aren’t catering to my tastes and that’s a shame. I only know of Everwild that fits this genre and that’s been stuck in development hell for half a century, I’m not convinced it’ll be anything other than vapourware. Maybe they’ll have something for me in the showcase next month, I certainly hope so.
@Fiendish-Beaver all I see is them quadrupling down on Game Pass. They seem to be pretty proud of it as they keep boasting about it in earnings calls with shareholders and prioritising Game Pass over Xbox in all their marketing. It’s also the only thing keeping the Xbox platform afloat at this point.
No thanks, too risky. I already have my favourite Game Cube game on Switch now in the form of Metroid Prime Remastered. Still hoping for Metroid Prime 2 Remastered at some point though…
@ButterySmooth30FPS nobody knows for certain currently, except Microsoft themselves. If Valve are willing to subsidise their console-esque PC I don’t see why Xbox won’t either. They want as many people on Game Pass as possible, it’s their primary mission now.
I went back through my entire Xbox play history back through 2021 and tallied up the number so I could answer this poll accurately. It’s pretty much bang on 50%. However, when I take into consideration the other platforms that I play on (Steam and Switch) that percentage falls dramatically. Why is that relevant? Time is why. The more time I spend playing on Steam and Switch is less time available for Game Pass (as I’ll always prioritise Xbox games that I actually own first). And I’m finding the available time is being squeezed, mainly because Sony is becoming increasingly active on Steam in publishing their own games and as aggressive as ever in securing third party exclusives that I can’t access on Xbox. So I’m finding I have less spare time for making use of Game Pass at the time when it’s become by far the main selling point of the consoles. Awkward!
I’m in too deep now, I’ve got a digital library of games, hardware accessories, but perhaps most importantly of all; thousands of hours of save files of which the majority can’t be carried over to PC.
For me, by far the biggest advantage of Xbox we have remaining is Microsoft Rewards. It’s not as good as it once was, but it’s still absolutely worth my time. I’m still able to buy games fully funded by Rewards points - I just have to be a lot more frugal and picky than I used to be. Whether they will continue to reduce the benefits over time until it no longer becomes a key advantage of Xbox is the question though…
@ButterySmooth30FPS It’d be like how Steam Deck undercuts the competing Windows handheld PCs. Valve can do that because they sell the software on the platform, same story with Microsoft. It would be partially subsidised by Microsoft Store users and Game Pass subscribers.
@Fiendish-Beaver I definitely agree with you that it won’t cost less than PS5 Pro (currently £700). I can’t see them pricing too much higher, but I guess it also heavily depends on what Sony does with the PS6 pricing.
@Fiendish-Beaver the 2TB XSX is £589 after the latest price rises. I think £700 is the lowest they’ll realistically go (without disc drive, just like PS5 Pro I think that’ll be sold separately) and if Sony raise price of the Pro in the meantime then they’ll certainly match whatever that ends up being. In other words I definitely don’t see it being any cheaper than the PS5 Pro.
I don’t think just because it’s a PC means it’s going to automatically cost sky-high prices though. While I think it’s important to beat the PS6’s performance target there’s a limit to how far they can take that, so it won’t be competing with high-end PCs. £1000+ would make this thing extremely niche and then they wouldn’t be able to recoup their R&D costs. It would also mean the benefit of having fixed hardware goes out the window, as no developer will optimise for something that sells fewer units than even the Steam Deck has (at >£1K I don’t think it would be able to outsell Steam Deck).
Maybe I’m just being overly optimistic, but I don’t see how it could be viable in the market priced at over a grand.
@Kaloudz @Fiendish-Beaver yeah I don’t see them breaking the four digit barrier, I think that’s just too much for the market to bear. Obviously such a device wouldn’t be aiming at the same mass audience as Series S, but I still think £1K would be a step too far. It still needs to sell a minimum quantity to be viable on the market. I’m going to fall in between both of your predictions and say that matching the PS5 Pro £700 RRP is probably the best case scenario while I see a definite hard upper limit at around £900.
@themightyant I feel like I’ve hit that time ceiling already. Game Pass keeps adding games that I don’t have time to play. Ultimately that’s because Microsoft’s tailored curation for the US mass market doesn’t match my niche tastes in games most of the time. So I usually end up prioritising a bunch of non Game Pass titles that I have more interest in, while my Game Pass backlog just grows seemingly endlessly. The next Game Pass inclusion that I’m really interested in is Wuchang: Fallen Feathers and then there’s not really anything else currently announced that really tickles my fancy for the remainder of 2025 now that Fable has been delayed. I’m still keeping an open mind to renewing Ultimate for another 18 months when mine expires at the start of March, but I’m also considering moving down to Core. That’s because of time constraints rather than the value proposition.
I doubt it. If they intend to raise the price again this year then surely they would’ve announced this along with all the other price hikes that they detailed last week? Then again, it’s not impossible I suppose as Xbox are no strangers to making awkward PR blunders. I still think that 2026 is more likely for the next price increase though.
@Kaloudz @OldGamer999 now that Xbox have given up on having exclusives I think they really need more powerful hardware relative to PlayStation, as a selling point for the Xbox consoles to justify their place in the market. I’d find it much easier to accept the smaller games library on Xbox if the games that are available run noticeably better than the PS6. So I really hope they deliver a console that performs noticeably better than the competition. I’d totally be willing to pay premium prices for such a device.
@ZeD yeah I got my OLED TV at the very end of June 2021 and I just looked up my achievements from GOW Ultimate Edition and can see that I played that in May 2021, so it would’ve been on my old LCD TV. So that explains why I didn’t notice the flicker at the time. OLEDs are great, but they sometimes make the inherent issues that games have more apparent vs LCDs that can mask these flaws with lower contrast/slower pixel response rates. I really hope that Lies of P borked VRR implementation gets fixed too when the Overture DLC arrives.
@ZeD you mean in GOW Ultimate Edition? I don’t remember seeing that myself, but it’s been a long while since I last played it and that might’ve been before I got my OLED TV (which makes VRR gamma flickering way more noticeable). I do get truly awful screen flicker in Lies of P with VRR enabled though. So thinking about it, yeah it’s true that you can’t always assume that Xbox games will always support VRR without issues. I also remember Digital Foundry reported that Halo Infinite didn’t support VRR at launch too because of some sort of bug. So I guess clarifying that the game supports VRR does actually make sense!
@Philly I know PlayStation works like that where games need explicit support to enable low framerate compensation, but I thought Xbox worked just like PC and operated on a global OS toggle with LFC enabled on all games. Maybe I’m mistaken, but I thought that was one of the hardware advantages of Xbox over PlayStation.
@FraserG yeah I agree. I think I’ll wait for the PC release for that reason. XSX has made me worship 60fps through all the performance modes in modern games and the FPS Boost scheme. The only console where I’ll begrudgingly tolerate 30fps now is the Switch.
As visually impressive as it looks I can’t really get very excited honestly because it’s probably going to be 30fps only on consoles with no performance mode. That’s the catch - and it’s a honking great big one.
I want to see them branch out into more genres. Third person action adventure/RPGs are not seeing any attention from Xbox and that just so happens to be my favourite genre currently.
Oh yeah, E-Day is 100% day-and-date PS5. Everything is going forward - including Halo. It’s a real shame that Xbox doesn’t have the cojones to actually openly admit this to long-time fans outside of super ambiguous insinuations given by Phil Spencer in random interviews, but we all see it plainly.
With the benefit of hindsight I can say that I bet on the wrong on the horse back in 2021, I should’ve invested in the blue horse rather than the green one. Oh well, far too late now, the horses have long since bolted. All I can do is make the most of what my XSX currently offers and await the details of the next generation horse.
@TheGameThrifter anyone who’s been paying attention in the past few months saw this coming a million miles away. What bugs me is how they weren’t honest about their intentions when they did the interview videocast thingy a year ago. Their initial update was so cagey and ambiguous that false narratives were soon parroted around by their social media army like wildfire. Except it was all lies and Xbox did absolutely nothing to correct these false narratives and communicate honestly to their fans: that the era of Xbox exclusives is officially over. I’m irritated they couldn’t just be honest and upfront and instead tried to slowly boil the frog - that feels disrespectful to fans honestly.
Not complaining, but I just think it’s quite funny that this is a remaster of a remaster.
And why are they calling VRR a game feature? That’s so weird, all games support VRR by default. It’s the hardware that needs to support it, not the games themselves. Odd inclusion.
It’s a decent game, but nothing remarkable in my opinion. It just didn’t click with me in the same way as others.
The combat becomes pretty repetitive rather quickly with limited enemy variety, and the skill tree doesn’t really help with that. The level structure is quite basic and formulaic and the same can be said for the platforming challenges. The music, art style, and voice acting are all legitimately great and that’s what holds the game up for me.
The story wasn’t as compelling as I was hoping for and I think that’s largely because the ending feels a bit rushed and hollow. My favourite character by far was the catfish and I loved the back-and-forth banter between him and Hazel. So I was super disappointed how he just disappears late into the game and only has one single line of dialogue in the post-credit scene. He was very involved in the narrative up until that point so it felt so odd that he just gets essentially forgotten by the narrative after a certain point, just so the story can focus on Hazel’s incredibly unlikeable grandmother instead.
So it’s good overall but I wouldn’t call it great, too many flaws for that. Music, art, voice acting are absolutely on point but the formulaic combat, platforming, level design, and disappointing final act of the narrative drags it down for me. I don’t regret playing but I think I’d be regretting my purchase if I had bought at full price - just to be brutally honest here.
@OldGamer999 true, true. I’m one of those willing to spend a lot on the hobby. My answer to the question the article poses was “no I’d spend even more on PS5 Pro instead” 😅
@BacklogBrad If Valve manages to roll SteamOS out to all PCs before Microsoft launches the next generation Xbox device then I really think that could be a compelling alternative. I could build a little ITX PC for my living room with SteamOS.
I remember when the digital PS5 was being sold for £309 and XSX was selling for £359 back in late 2023. Now XSS 512GB is £300! How did it all go so wrong in just 1.5 years?
Hmmm well not only has the price gone up but there’s the whole ‘we aren’t doing exclusives anymore’ thing. Which is significant. So if I were going for a console in 2025 I’d get the PS5 Pro honestly. More performance, exclusive games, and cheaper expandable storage. Quick Resume and Microsoft Rewards are great things for sure, but would not be enough to sway me.
Comments 1,092
Re: Switch 2 Tech Specs Revealed, Here's How They Compare To Xbox Series X|S
It’s disappointing hardware-wise in quite a few aspects in typical Nintendo fashion, but as others have pointed out it’s the first party games that really matter for Switch. That’s why I’ve preordered one; exclusives can absolutely sell consoles when done right. It should be able to keep pace with current Steam Deck easily enough, but Steam Deck 2 will definitely leapfrog this quite substantially.
Most of this info already leaked so not a surprise, the real disappointment for me is the OS memory allocation. I don’t see why 3GB is reserved for Switch 2 OS when Series S can do it all in 2GB? That GameChat is already proving to be something of a curse, bloating up the OS like that.
I’ll enjoy my Switch 2 when it arrives next month regardless, I just can’t help pouring over specs and asking ‘what if?’ because I’m a hardware nerd and that’s just what I do!
Re: Talking Point: Xbox Fans, How Many Of You Are Buying A Switch 2?
Already preordered one for launch day. It’s nice having a handheld console to bring along on trips away from home - and access to Nintendo exclusives, obviously.
Re: 2K Studio Says Next Game 'Might' Be $80 Due To Doubled Development Budget
Hopefully I can soften the blow via Microsoft Rewards. Not sure if I’ll be able to cover it all as I intend to splurge the points I currently have saved up for Lies of P: Overture and potentially a couple other games. I guess whether I buy Borderlands 4 at launch will depend on how positive the reviews end up being.
Re: 2K Studio Says Next Game 'Might' Be $80 Due To Doubled Development Budget
@PlatinumMikey strangely Nintendo is the best at this currently, despite the online narrative of them overcharging (which is more related to US market). Their $80 Mario Kart World is priced at £67 on the eShop. They aren’t just doing a lazy $1:£1 conversion and I have to give credit to Nintendo here for that.
Re: 2K Studio Says Next Game 'Might' Be $80 Due To Doubled Development Budget
@PlatinumMikey $70 are already priced at £70 here on Xbox/PlayStation. So $80 will be £80 😭
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (May 10-11)
@Scrubchub
Planet of Lana, Donut County, Cocoon, Jusant.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (May 10-11)
@Scrubchub it took a few hours to grow on me, the game has quite a slow start I think. Once you get access to a greater variety of weapons and traps though the gameplay really gets interesting. The story also becomes a lot more compelling once you get to Meridian. So I’ve been enjoying it more as I get further into it. Nearing the end of the main story now, still have the Frozen Wilds area to explore though. The remaster is absolutely stunning, the lighting quality and use of colour is just lovely. Great game.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (May 10-11)
For singleplayer I’m still working my way through Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered, it’s quite a long game but very fun. 25 hours in so far. Not one I’ll 100% all missions, but I’ll do all the main story content and the most interesting side missions. It’s easily one of the best looking games I’ve played graphically, it’s stunning - a bit of pop-in is my biggest complaint.
For co-op I’ve just started a second playthrough of Lords of the Fallen. It certainly performs better than at launch, but honestly still has major stutters in many places sadly. I was hoping for a smoother experience given how much the version 2.0 update was hyped up. I think they still need to work on some patches for the shared progression feature as it seems to cause major performance issues.
Re: Xbox's DOOM: The Dark Ages Seemingly Has Tiny Amount Of Content On Disc
@Banjo- I definitely agree on that part, PS6 and XBN will both be digital with optional disc attachments sold separately, that’s almost guaranteed.
Re: Xbox's DOOM: The Dark Ages Seemingly Has Tiny Amount Of Content On Disc
@Banjo- I don’t see why XSX is considered the premium version of XSS, but PS5 Pro is the successor to the PS5 instead of the premium version of PS5?
I don’t personally care about physical games by the way, I’ve been an all digital gamer for years, so I’m not criticising Microsoft here for releasing XSS - I’m totally fine with that console being digital only.
Re: DOOM: The Dark Ages Release Date, Release Times & Early Access Details On Xbox
Well, it’s day 3 really lol
I do wonder just how far publishers will stretch these premium advanced access shenanigans in future.
Re: Lots Of Xbox Games Have Suddenly Been Delisted In Some Countries
They appear to still be available for UK thankfully but this is very bad for the regions affected. I’d be pissed if a whole bunch of games suddenly vanished from my wishlist and I was unable to purchase them for an extended period of time.
Re: New Sales Data Highlights How Xbox Is 'Dominating' PS5 Right Now
I would buy PlayStation games on Xbox, help them to dominate Xbox charts, but Sony says no. Won’t even permit third party developed games like Stellar Blade on Xbox… 😭
Re: Xbox's DOOM: The Dark Ages Seemingly Has Tiny Amount Of Content On Disc
@Banjo- “Sony was the first to get rid of physical with PS5 Pro”
I don’t understand? Xbox Series S exists?
Re: Talking Point: How Do You Feel About Linear Vs. Open World Games On Xbox?
Well Elden Ring is my favourite game of all time. So I’m certainly an enjoyer of open worlds, but not necessarily all open worlds. I bounced off Breath of the Wild after only 10 hours or so. I’m currently playing Horizon Remastered and definitely getting into the groove now, but it took a while to grow on me - and I’ve no interest in 100%ing all side content and collectibles.
Aside from Elden Ring, many of my other all time favourites are linear in nature - with varying degrees of freedom. Though even Elden Ring has a certain linear structure to it compared to true sandboxes, as much of the world is inaccessible until you meet certain prerequisite criteria.
I guess I really enjoy having freedom, though I often need some structure to that freedom - I don’t often click with true purely sandbox style open worlds. I think maybe this is why I failed to really get into Breath of the Wild (though I intend to give it another chance on Switch 2).
So I can’t really say I that have a strong preference one way or the other. I enjoy both flavours of game and everything in between. It really depends on the details of the game itself whether it will click with me or not.
Re: Xbox's New Job Advert Is Amazing News For Backwards Compatibility
If they can get Xbox games working on PC then that’s the ultimate dream the I suppose. Everybody wins. I get to keep my game library and save files, while also enjoying new games on this console-ised PC that they seem to be developing. I can also enjoy Sony games on Steam. They definitely will need to drop Game Pass Core though, that multiplayer paywall crap simply won’t fly on PC.
The problem is that though this sounds great, it also sounds too good to be true. What’s the catch?
Re: GTA 6 Tech Is Seriously Impressive, But It's Looking Like A 30FPS Game On Console
@Fiendish-Beaver nope, not me! I’m not enough of a GTA fan to need it day 1. I’m happy to wait until a PC version for that 60fps experience. I’m a rare type of gamer who doesn’t own a single GTA game on any platform. GTA 6 might be the first, but certainly not a 30fps only version.
Re: Here's A Look At The Updated Xbox Game Studios Roadmap From May 2025
@Millionski oops great point I completely forgot about Fable! Embarrassing moment for me there. I must have put it out of mind since the delay to 2026. Yes I am definitely very interested in Fable! Though I never played the original trilogy so not sure exactly what to expect.
I’m currently playing Horizon Remastered on PC and enjoying it a lot. I played God of War Ragnarok too recently and that was fantastic. Also highly anticipating Stellar Blade next month. I’ve also noticed a new game just released called AI Limit - again on everything but Xbox. This is the repeated pattern now, these kind of games so often seem to be on Sony’s side only. I have my PC luckily so not the end of the world, but it’s a real shame I can’t access them on console.
Not sure how Fable will compare to the above games. We don’t really know much about it yet.
Re: Here's A Look At The Updated Xbox Game Studios Roadmap From May 2025
So many games but they don’t have any third person action RPG kinda games. I don’t know why they aren’t catering to this audience, leaving Sony to monopolise that market for first party output. Which is unfortunate because I can’t access PlayStation games on Xbox. I used to be a big FPS player, but that changed after playing Dark Souls for the first time and ever since then my genre preferences shifted. Soulslikes are my favourite subgenre, but I also have become a big fan of the action RPG genre in general. Xbox aren’t catering to my tastes and that’s a shame. I only know of Everwild that fits this genre and that’s been stuck in development hell for half a century, I’m not convinced it’ll be anything other than vapourware. Maybe they’ll have something for me in the showcase next month, I certainly hope so.
Re: Here Are All The Changes & Enhancements Coming To Gears Of War: Reloaded On Xbox
@Fiendish-Beaver all I see is them quadrupling down on Game Pass. They seem to be pretty proud of it as they keep boasting about it in earnings calls with shareholders and prioritising Game Pass over Xbox in all their marketing. It’s also the only thing keeping the Xbox platform afloat at this point.
Re: Why Are People Talking About GameCube Games On Xbox Series X?
No thanks, too risky. I already have my favourite Game Cube game on Switch now in the form of Metroid Prime Remastered. Still hoping for Metroid Prime 2 Remastered at some point though…
Re: Here Are All The Changes & Enhancements Coming To Gears Of War: Reloaded On Xbox
@ButterySmooth30FPS nobody knows for certain currently, except Microsoft themselves. If Valve are willing to subsidise their console-esque PC I don’t see why Xbox won’t either. They want as many people on Game Pass as possible, it’s their primary mission now.
Re: Opinion: If Xbox Is 'Just' A Game Pass Machine, That's Still Enough For Me
I went back through my entire Xbox play history back through 2021 and tallied up the number so I could answer this poll accurately. It’s pretty much bang on 50%. However, when I take into consideration the other platforms that I play on (Steam and Switch) that percentage falls dramatically. Why is that relevant? Time is why. The more time I spend playing on Steam and Switch is less time available for Game Pass (as I’ll always prioritise Xbox games that I actually own first). And I’m finding the available time is being squeezed, mainly because Sony is becoming increasingly active on Steam in publishing their own games and as aggressive as ever in securing third party exclusives that I can’t access on Xbox. So I’m finding I have less spare time for making use of Game Pass at the time when it’s become by far the main selling point of the consoles. Awkward!
I’m in too deep now, I’ve got a digital library of games, hardware accessories, but perhaps most importantly of all; thousands of hours of save files of which the majority can’t be carried over to PC.
For me, by far the biggest advantage of Xbox we have remaining is Microsoft Rewards. It’s not as good as it once was, but it’s still absolutely worth my time. I’m still able to buy games fully funded by Rewards points - I just have to be a lot more frugal and picky than I used to be. Whether they will continue to reduce the benefits over time until it no longer becomes a key advantage of Xbox is the question though…
Re: Here Are All The Changes & Enhancements Coming To Gears Of War: Reloaded On Xbox
@ButterySmooth30FPS It’d be like how Steam Deck undercuts the competing Windows handheld PCs. Valve can do that because they sell the software on the platform, same story with Microsoft. It would be partially subsidised by Microsoft Store users and Game Pass subscribers.
@Fiendish-Beaver I definitely agree with you that it won’t cost less than PS5 Pro (currently £700). I can’t see them pricing too much higher, but I guess it also heavily depends on what Sony does with the PS6 pricing.
Re: Talking Point: Which Xbox Game Will Move To PS5 Next?
Either Halo MCC or Starfield.
Re: Here Are All The Changes & Enhancements Coming To Gears Of War: Reloaded On Xbox
@Fiendish-Beaver the 2TB XSX is £589 after the latest price rises. I think £700 is the lowest they’ll realistically go (without disc drive, just like PS5 Pro I think that’ll be sold separately) and if Sony raise price of the Pro in the meantime then they’ll certainly match whatever that ends up being. In other words I definitely don’t see it being any cheaper than the PS5 Pro.
I don’t think just because it’s a PC means it’s going to automatically cost sky-high prices though. While I think it’s important to beat the PS6’s performance target there’s a limit to how far they can take that, so it won’t be competing with high-end PCs. £1000+ would make this thing extremely niche and then they wouldn’t be able to recoup their R&D costs. It would also mean the benefit of having fixed hardware goes out the window, as no developer will optimise for something that sells fewer units than even the Steam Deck has (at >£1K I don’t think it would be able to outsell Steam Deck).
Maybe I’m just being overly optimistic, but I don’t see how it could be viable in the market priced at over a grand.
Re: Xbox Handheld Gets Leaked, First Photos And Details Revealed
That is one ugly design honestly. A distinct downgrade from ROG Ally (X) in the looks department.
Re: Here Are All The Changes & Enhancements Coming To Gears Of War: Reloaded On Xbox
@Kaloudz @Fiendish-Beaver yeah I don’t see them breaking the four digit barrier, I think that’s just too much for the market to bear. Obviously such a device wouldn’t be aiming at the same mass audience as Series S, but I still think £1K would be a step too far. It still needs to sell a minimum quantity to be viable on the market. I’m going to fall in between both of your predictions and say that matching the PS5 Pro £700 RRP is probably the best case scenario while I see a definite hard upper limit at around £900.
Re: Talking Point: Will Xbox Game Pass Get A Price Increase This Year?
@themightyant I feel like I’ve hit that time ceiling already. Game Pass keeps adding games that I don’t have time to play. Ultimately that’s because Microsoft’s tailored curation for the US mass market doesn’t match my niche tastes in games most of the time. So I usually end up prioritising a bunch of non Game Pass titles that I have more interest in, while my Game Pass backlog just grows seemingly endlessly. The next Game Pass inclusion that I’m really interested in is Wuchang: Fallen Feathers and then there’s not really anything else currently announced that really tickles my fancy for the remainder of 2025 now that Fable has been delayed. I’m still keeping an open mind to renewing Ultimate for another 18 months when mine expires at the start of March, but I’m also considering moving down to Core. That’s because of time constraints rather than the value proposition.
Re: Talking Point: Will Xbox Game Pass Get A Price Increase This Year?
I doubt it. If they intend to raise the price again this year then surely they would’ve announced this along with all the other price hikes that they detailed last week? Then again, it’s not impossible I suppose as Xbox are no strangers to making awkward PR blunders. I still think that 2026 is more likely for the next price increase though.
Re: Here Are All The Changes & Enhancements Coming To Gears Of War: Reloaded On Xbox
@Kaloudz @OldGamer999 now that Xbox have given up on having exclusives I think they really need more powerful hardware relative to PlayStation, as a selling point for the Xbox consoles to justify their place in the market. I’d find it much easier to accept the smaller games library on Xbox if the games that are available run noticeably better than the PS6. So I really hope they deliver a console that performs noticeably better than the competition. I’d totally be willing to pay premium prices for such a device.
Re: Here Are All The Changes & Enhancements Coming To Gears Of War: Reloaded On Xbox
@ZeD yeah I got my OLED TV at the very end of June 2021 and I just looked up my achievements from GOW Ultimate Edition and can see that I played that in May 2021, so it would’ve been on my old LCD TV. So that explains why I didn’t notice the flicker at the time. OLEDs are great, but they sometimes make the inherent issues that games have more apparent vs LCDs that can mask these flaws with lower contrast/slower pixel response rates. I really hope that Lies of P borked VRR implementation gets fixed too when the Overture DLC arrives.
Re: Here Are All The Changes & Enhancements Coming To Gears Of War: Reloaded On Xbox
@ZeD you mean in GOW Ultimate Edition? I don’t remember seeing that myself, but it’s been a long while since I last played it and that might’ve been before I got my OLED TV (which makes VRR gamma flickering way more noticeable). I do get truly awful screen flicker in Lies of P with VRR enabled though. So thinking about it, yeah it’s true that you can’t always assume that Xbox games will always support VRR without issues. I also remember Digital Foundry reported that Halo Infinite didn’t support VRR at launch too because of some sort of bug. So I guess clarifying that the game supports VRR does actually make sense!
Re: Here Are All The Changes & Enhancements Coming To Gears Of War: Reloaded On Xbox
@Philly I know PlayStation works like that where games need explicit support to enable low framerate compensation, but I thought Xbox worked just like PC and operated on a global OS toggle with LFC enabled on all games. Maybe I’m mistaken, but I thought that was one of the hardware advantages of Xbox over PlayStation.
Re: Here Are All The Changes & Enhancements Coming To Gears Of War: Reloaded On Xbox
Ultimate Edition already supports VRR? All games do, it’s toggled at the OS level. Weird that they need to specify that.
Re: Opinion: Nothing Will Come Close To GTA 6 As An Xbox Series X|S Showpiece
@FraserG yeah I agree. I think I’ll wait for the PC release for that reason. XSX has made me worship 60fps through all the performance modes in modern games and the FPS Boost scheme. The only console where I’ll begrudgingly tolerate 30fps now is the Switch.
Re: Opinion: Nothing Will Come Close To GTA 6 As An Xbox Series X|S Showpiece
As visually impressive as it looks I can’t really get very excited honestly because it’s probably going to be 30fps only on consoles with no performance mode. That’s the catch - and it’s a honking great big one.
Re: GTA 6 Trailer 2 Has Arrived Ahead Of May 2026 Release On Xbox Series X|S
Them graphics look pretty darn great.
Re: Xbox Is 'Spitting Pure Fire' Right Now, Says Baldur's Gate 3 Exec
I want to see them branch out into more genres. Third person action adventure/RPGs are not seeing any attention from Xbox and that just so happens to be my favourite genre currently.
Re: Review: Revenge Of The Savage Planet (Xbox) - A Bigger, Bolder Sequel That Brings Co-Op Fun To Game Pass
@smellyplaymarky that’s genuinely insane when much more visually impressive games such as Clair Obscur have 60fps modes.
Re: Reaction: Gears Of War: Reloaded Makes Perfect Sense For Microsoft, But Not For Xbox Fans
Oh yeah, E-Day is 100% day-and-date PS5. Everything is going forward - including Halo. It’s a real shame that Xbox doesn’t have the cojones to actually openly admit this to long-time fans outside of super ambiguous insinuations given by Phil Spencer in random interviews, but we all see it plainly.
With the benefit of hindsight I can say that I bet on the wrong on the horse back in 2021, I should’ve invested in the blue horse rather than the green one. Oh well, far too late now, the horses have long since bolted. All I can do is make the most of what my XSX currently offers and await the details of the next generation horse.
Re: Roundup: All The Xbox Reveals From May 2025's Future Games Show
Just hoping Wuchang is good, I’m feeling a bit starved for soulslikes at the moment while I impatiently wait for Lies of P: Overture.
Re: Xbox Announces Gears Of War: Reloaded, Releasing Summer 2025
@TheGameThrifter anyone who’s been paying attention in the past few months saw this coming a million miles away. What bugs me is how they weren’t honest about their intentions when they did the interview videocast thingy a year ago. Their initial update was so cagey and ambiguous that false narratives were soon parroted around by their social media army like wildfire. Except it was all lies and Xbox did absolutely nothing to correct these false narratives and communicate honestly to their fans: that the era of Xbox exclusives is officially over. I’m irritated they couldn’t just be honest and upfront and instead tried to slowly boil the frog - that feels disrespectful to fans honestly.
Re: Xbox Announces Gears Of War: Reloaded, Releasing Summer 2025
Not complaining, but I just think it’s quite funny that this is a remaster of a remaster.
And why are they calling VRR a game feature? That’s so weird, all games support VRR by default. It’s the hardware that needs to support it, not the games themselves. Odd inclusion.
Re: South Of Midnight Passes 1 Million Players With The Help Of Xbox Game Pass
It’s a decent game, but nothing remarkable in my opinion. It just didn’t click with me in the same way as others.
The combat becomes pretty repetitive rather quickly with limited enemy variety, and the skill tree doesn’t really help with that. The level structure is quite basic and formulaic and the same can be said for the platforming challenges. The music, art style, and voice acting are all legitimately great and that’s what holds the game up for me.
The story wasn’t as compelling as I was hoping for and I think that’s largely because the ending feels a bit rushed and hollow. My favourite character by far was the catfish and I loved the back-and-forth banter between him and Hazel. So I was super disappointed how he just disappears late into the game and only has one single line of dialogue in the post-credit scene. He was very involved in the narrative up until that point so it felt so odd that he just gets essentially forgotten by the narrative after a certain point, just so the story can focus on Hazel’s incredibly unlikeable grandmother instead.
So it’s good overall but I wouldn’t call it great, too many flaws for that. Music, art, voice acting are absolutely on point but the formulaic combat, platforming, level design, and disappointing final act of the narrative drags it down for me. I don’t regret playing but I think I’d be regretting my purchase if I had bought at full price - just to be brutally honest here.
Re: Talking Point: Would You Still Buy An Xbox At Microsoft's 2025 Prices?
@OldGamer999 true, true. I’m one of those willing to spend a lot on the hobby. My answer to the question the article poses was “no I’d spend even more on PS5 Pro instead” 😅
Re: Talking Point: Would You Still Buy An Xbox At Microsoft's 2025 Prices?
@BacklogBrad If Valve manages to roll SteamOS out to all PCs before Microsoft launches the next generation Xbox device then I really think that could be a compelling alternative. I could build a little ITX PC for my living room with SteamOS.
Re: Talking Point: Would You Still Buy An Xbox At Microsoft's 2025 Prices?
I remember when the digital PS5 was being sold for £309 and XSX was selling for £359 back in late 2023. Now XSS 512GB is £300! How did it all go so wrong in just 1.5 years?
Re: Talking Point: Would You Still Buy An Xbox At Microsoft's 2025 Prices?
Hmmm well not only has the price gone up but there’s the whole ‘we aren’t doing exclusives anymore’ thing. Which is significant. So if I were going for a console in 2025 I’d get the PS5 Pro honestly. More performance, exclusive games, and cheaper expandable storage. Quick Resume and Microsoft Rewards are great things for sure, but would not be enough to sway me.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (May 3-4)
Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered (PC) for singleplayer and a 3rd playthrough of Split Fiction for multiplayer (Xbox).