Cikajovazmaj

Hopefully it's something different compared to PS5 Pro, and MS and Sony would finally go in distinct directions. If nothing, it would make it easily justifiable to us as consumers to support both platforms.

Ignoring obvious bias here, Jim is most likely right. For those who don't remember, Phil was very vague about wording of the COD multiplatform deal first time he mentioned it (no feature parity, release dates, or anything really was defined). And every subsequent time he was adding in little breadcrumbs of additional details. I'm sure in the background these were worked into offered contract in parallel..

@Rangers420 @eire-shabba yeah, I was looking to try this out, but as XSS owner.. rather not.
It reaches very low res and applies FSR, which with such little information to work with looks way worse than if it was just off (similar to Atlas Fallen, which also produces a grainy mess). Shame, cause it's for sure worth that price on XSX.

@OldGamer999 well, if you are a Mario fan Wonder wowed me
Anyway, literally nothing for me on this show. I can't even remember half of the games, and the show was an hour ago...

@Sol4ris actually I don't get the 40 ms latency argument either. It's a cloud service latency test, cloud vs native on that seevices console version. It's like 8ms..

Honestly, as a huge cloud gaming sceptic constantly reading about the power of xCloud on this site, I'm here to read the excuses.
I'm surprised Sony put in arguably better offering, but am glad they are both visibly and quantifiably rubbish.

Might be the game that needs 120FPS mode the least... can't wait for another pointless war to wage.

You can't have your "I'll play it digitally on GP for free" and eat physical too.
Not sure what the issue is.

Way I read this is, people are not really playing with their Xbox a lot.
As I have yet to meet somebody successfully/acceptably using XCloud outside of just fiddling and trying it out, only logical conclusion is that users basically fiddle less than 10 times more on their Xbox.
In all seriousness, streaming is not going to work for 70% of the planet for 5, maybe 10 more years. Just stop aggressively pushing it, you are just souring people on it before it's time.

Probably clearing the warehouse before imminent mid-generation refresh (I'm sure MS will offer an alternative to PS5 Pro, even if it was not their Plan A).

In retrospect, most annoying and confusing thing about this whole situation is how fast it is happening. MS held their new strategy podcast days ago, and games are already releasing. This means MS has decided on going multiplatform at least 9 months ago, probably year. They just delayed making it known to their users until ultra last minute.

While I think they should have done it and everybody deserves to be able to get their own dosage of democracy, Phil knows why it's not on Xbox. Same reason he is taking 4 old and on decline live service or smaller games to PS5, not heavy hitters at their peak.

Great news. I'll be playing it on PS Plus (as I only have pleb XSS), but it's a way bigger addition/better game then it is getting credit for.

@Sakai I don't have any issues with either console when not running a game (typically, I even dock Switch to wired connection if I start a download while not actively playing).
But turning on a console, getting notified there is a 10 GB patch for a game I want to play, and then not being able to play anything else while I wait (as it'll tank the speed) is ridiculous. I have no idea how that ever passed QA at MS.

@Sakai @GeeEssEff @Shushibda personally, without game running neither of the consoles ever experienced slow download speeds for me. Rather they all max my internet connection. But Xbox, while running a game at the same time, is just bizarre (it sometimes drops to 1,5 Mb/s, that is a lowercase b).

In anticipation of upcoming Thursday, I'd be surprised if there wasn't a mob of journalists in front of Xbox offices waiting for Phil's assistant to go out and get a sandwich.. so they can over-analyze the future of Xbox from the type of mustard Phil takes 2 days before a podcast.

Finally (if true)!! Background download speeds has been one of my biggest complaints when it comes to XSS (followed by Quick resume flakiness).

@Banjo- if they announce or even mention new console in any way, this early in lifespan of Series consoles, that would be basically waving the white flag and admitting defeat.
I don't see that happening. (Pro type of console I don't consider new)

Microsoft is handling this so poorly..
Currently, I'm listening to Old Gods of Asgard and imagining Alan Wake writing scenario for Xbox business update event. That is how bad it is!

Time to bookmark this page...

Not many ways MS could have handled the situation worse. Real case study level of incompetence. Unless it's actually gonna end up being worse than the leaks, so Phil is waiting for copium to settle, before part 2..

@R1spam honestly, I had my Series S set for sale once my current (converted) GP is up. This whole MS dropping hardware thing is just going to lower the second hand market price, but hopefully it's not my problem by then.
And just as you, I see Rog Ally (successor) in my future

I sort of hope Sony follows suit and abandons exclusivity. Maybe first hitting their own hardware before optimizing for PC/Xbox, but yeah, death to platform locks.
That will leave Nintendo though, which will probably go extinct before they open up to other companies hardware..

What is going to be interesting is if these games end up joining PS Plus at some point (as most older Bethesda games have). I'm sure MS is making a hefty sum out of those installs and probably won't mind it... but internet will be on "fire".

Microsoft needs to address this today, before firm opinions are formed. Everybody has their own interpretation of what these leaks mean and Xbox should provide guidance before those settle in.

@Banjo- technically they don't have the OS, as Windows has proven to be challenging when it comes to slimming down and optimizing. But if anybody could have resources and know-how to pull it off, it would be MS.

Seems to me like a more viable option would be Windows competitor to SteamOS and hardware certification program for Game Pass. They practically already did the endorsement/certification for Rog Ally, why not make it a thing (MS is not looking into producing hardware as a primary driver anyway).

@Sol4ris while I'm totally with you on Sony being just as greedy, and I'm sure they'll follow suit as soon as they feel they can without too much backlash, PS5 Slim actually streamlines production and does not lock anybody out of physical copies (notable improvement compared to previous 2 SKU offering).

That adorably all digital XSX just around the corner with Ubisoft classics..
Seriously though, I wouldn't care about physical medium as much if I was able to backup my digital game and restore it WITHOUT network service running. But as it stands right now, buying digital vs physical is just not getting you the same product.

Some real bangers in that list.. I'm sure MS is gonna add few unannounced games through the month though.

@Markatron84 that shot is exactly why I mentioned that. I mean, do they think other developers are not proud of their work?

I'm in a serious minority here, but it didn't quite work for me. End of the day, it's just 4 (5) games, when Nintendo chews through 20 games per show (understandably not first party).
It also didn't really get me excited for anything new, as developer-testifying marketing doesn't do it for me (close shot, talking to the camera about how your game is amazing piece of art).
I'll be checking Hellblade 2 and Indy, but I would have done that either way.

Big license, I happen to love Indiana Jones. Seems like they got a lot right and first-person perspective could work (fistfights have epic potential). However, I really hope it avoids being a predominantly stealth game. It wouldn't be character-accurate, but ideally, it ends up being way more action-oriented.
Uncharted comparisons are unavoidable I guess, and I would prefer it to follow the pace of those games (as over the years they went from unlicenced poor copies of Indiana Jones to the synonym for ruins exploration genre of approximately the same name value and weight).
I just don't want this game to be a series of Mary Jane Watson missions as nobody in their right mind wants that.

Really looking forward to Hellblade 2, these are great news.
However, I wouldn't expect shadow drop tomorrow. That is what always happens with Xbox events, people over-hype themselves based on rumors and then get disappointed even if they should not be.

@Deljo technically not a very good month for either service 😉

I tend to be pretty in the weeds when it comes to gaming, but I have not heard of 4 out of these 7 games. Turnip and Persona are good additions though.

@Lup 100% agree (not Xbox specific though, it's society in general).
Completely fine to be a psycho and brutally kill and torture thousands of virtual innocent bystanders in an open world game, just as long as no ni**les have been shown..

Wow, just wow. Good job team green, maybe use a rocket launcher next time you are shooting yourself in the foot to make an even bigger splash.

Xbox really messed up BG3 launch as much as possible. Next level of bad luck (or maybe incompetence).

@Banjo- I don't think you quite understood my argument. I'm not denying that quoting 200 games added to the service is the easy way to quantify service value.
But what actually matters to "you" is how much of the 200 games you can realistically consume. For some people that is 200, and that is cool, they are getting extreme value. For others, which I would argue is majority, number is way lower. Most people pay to have options, when amount of content they actually consume they could have bought and own for same cost.
Again, just my opinion, and I'm not saying it is true for everybody. Especially not for people on this site, as most are not casual/weekend gamers.

EDIT: Actually, analogy to what I'm trying to explain. Going to a "all you can eat" restaurant, they offer 50 different meals a day. But most people will realistically only get one, but they won't get to eat at their own pace, keep their leftovers, and for them it's questionable if such type of restaurant is worth it.

@J_Mo_Money agreed, factually correct, but also misleading. What is of relevance though is how much of $9000 worth of games has average gamer actually consumed.
Subscription services are great at creating false sense of value. For example, many of my friends have been paying Netflix for years, averaging one movie/series a month. They are not getting their money's worth..

@J_Mo_Money I would suggest reading on perceived vs actual value.. there is no way anybody is going to get $9000 of value out of GP. Most people get a single game per month out of it. Which is still decent, and if it's a day one release even better.

I honestly don't understand this post.. all games included don't cost as much as 2 months of GP (it's actually not much over a single UGP month). And you get to keep the games and play at your own pace (which you're not going to beat in a single month if you happen to be employed middle-aged human being).
I mean, it's cool to have options and ability to "try out" many games, but these subscription services actually fail exactly against heavy discounted longer quality games ($5 can get you 2 months of awesome experience most of the time).

Not bad selection at all. I'll be looking into RE and Super Mega Baseball, but can appreciate rest of the list has some mass appeal too.

Earlier this morning I've seen the title of this article and knew comments section would not disappoint. I returned like 3 times since then, so good job PX.

HiFi Rush by a country mile. Also, probably the only game I'll remember from that list.
FM was a good game too that unfortunately exists in the same universe as GT7. Everything else, quite mediocre.

Realistically I would expect such scenario.. not because the game is truly bad, but because expectations have been set too d*mn high (and not delivered on).
It's not my GOTY, I don't think it's even in top 10. But with cooler head and opened eyes, it's also not terrible. It's mediocre (as heavy of a burden as that is).

I feel like that list is definitely missing Forspoken (had to check it was released in 2023., seems like I've been hating on it for longer than a year) and Redfall. Both major duds!

Gave it a D for decent. Wasn't really anything for me there, except Hi-Fi Rush (an A game). I expected more from FM, but it kind of turned me off quite quickly.. so yeah, not great, but at least something.
I'm really happy for the people who see first party 2023 releases as A grade though. You are enjoying life far more than I do!

@Kaloudz some of that I do agree with, and as usual I don't think developers are to blame (being one myself). Almost always it's the management and stakeholders that are to blame for day one patches, year one overhaul, etc.. and I do think that should be punished and called out for what it is. Companies selling a box with a game coming later should feel the sting, unless we want that to continue being a standard practice.
Except in case of a minor indie team, you are never looking out for the developer by buying their product unconditionally. It's just normalizing the faulty behavior for the management.

Delaying score, and giving out 10/10 after save issue has been fixed seems like a cheat. By that account, Jedi Survivor score could have waited until 6-7th patch, or Cyberpunk 2077 until version 2.0..
It's a great game, but launch state is launch state, and should be scored accordingly for all games equally.