Coletrain

@BattleMonkey I'd like to think Sony will take one last swing for it, after all, at the moment their hardware and platform are the same thing so they need more consoles out there. I guess Xbox don't because they already have a foot in the PC ecosystem. (EDIT: and cloud subscription model could get a lot bigger)

If Sony went super high on console pricing then I don't know where they go from there, I don't see them putting out a PC storefront any time soon so the lines would keep going down with them relying so heavily on 3rd party software sales within PSN

@Elbow kingdom hearts, good shout I haven't re-bought that yet! I've been playing the pixel remasters on Rog ally, absolutely perfect for them 👌

@Elbow good call. I'm working on 16 at the moment, got 1-9 hanging around too. Can't wait for remake and rebirth. It's a good year for FF fans on Xbox!

@BattleMonkey yeah, but not because of worse specs than ps5 pro, but because Sony needs quick hardware sales for next gen market entry. Even in 3 years time, $750 isn't going to fly with a lot of consumers outside of the forums bubble we live in, so I would predict Sony sticks with the loss leading model. What are you thinking bud?

I'd pay up to £800 based on what we know of the device, but it will all come down to what it's doing Vs spending probably £550 on a ps6

@fatpunkslim I get where you're coming from, Xbox has had a fantastic year in terms of games, starting the windows FSE, 3rd party game pass games etc. I've enjoyed the heck out of my Xbox, as always.

Still, there's little doubt in my mind that all the media coverage has damaged Xbox's brand from a consumer point of view. Now I just want them to reposition, decide what their lane is and HOPEFULLY build a bit of goodwill in 2026

I bought hogwarts legacy physical, but everything else is reward points plus insane discounts. My backlog is embarrassingly huge right now.

I checked my ps account (as a former PS4 owner) and my Xbox digital library is 3 times bigger due to the insane discounts and cheap ecosystem Xbox offers

Phew, more time to get through remake intergrade in a relaxed manner 😃

Hear hear! I love it for exactly the same reasons. Sometimes the gameplay doesn't need to be the focus, and I can think of no better narrative driven game this year

Played this really unknown indie game, Clair Obscur or something? That deserved more love probably.

My serious pick is South of Midnight. I adored the art style and the music/cutscenes were top notch, love when studios are creative like this

RIP Vince, you've created some of my favourite gaming memories from COD4 to Titanfall 2, and recently the jedi games. Rest easy sir.

Finishing FF16 finally (must be nearly done, 70 odd hours in now!) and diving into GTA definitive editions (I know they're a bit rubbish now, but guilty pleasures and all that)

@kanedase7en Xbox ecosystem is the best by a mile, discovered that myself 4 years ago so welcome too!

That said, there are some Nintendo franchises I can never turn my back on so I'm happy to have both

Been playing the demo, it plays perfectly. I cannot wait to play this game again. Last played on PS4 but never played the intermission part.

Been playing a lot of FF16 this year and this demo has given me a timely reminder that the remake is an absolute gem of a game, makes 16 look amateur in comparison!

I've gone 90% Xbox, maybe 5% pc handheld and 5% switch 1.

I do love the novelty of play anywhere on my Rog ally, but the series X on a TV is the most pleasing console I've ever played

SoM but haven't played keeper yet and I think that would top it. Wonderfully creative output this year

All as expected. I ran the demo on Rog ally at 60fps, 15w and 18w mode, handles 720p and 900p like an absolute champ

LFG! Special game, can't wait for the full release

@FraserG think there's a typo in first paragraph with the year!

Anyway, on the game, it isn't my kind of thing but at least it isn't a total F2P piece of crap so I can only wish Bungie the best

@Fiendish-Beaver seems to be the only question that our gaming media (journalists?) aren't asking directly to the developers. They're happy to make the same ascertain you and I would and decry that it didn't have extra time in the oven, but there has to be a really simple explanation (even if it's just that the publishers didn't care any more)

@Fiendish-Beaver yeah that's a very good idea. The original reviews for cyberpunk 2077 for example were rightly awful, then some outlets did a 2nd review for the 2.0 update and it started getting 8/9/10s and lo and behold it's sold millions since that update

Oh no, not another generic black myth / Wu Chang clone that we will miss out on for a year and not buy anyway, how will we cope!

It's one of those games, it looks fine, but it's a brand new IP and limiting early sales on an unknown IP is a strange play nowadays. Even rise of the ronin didn't do super well, and that was from an established developer. Weird weird weird.

I like the idea of it being a city sandbox with bespoke indoor areas for missions and side stories. Lord knows remedy aren't short on a bit of creativity though

Controller looks ok, but that MGS delta one that Xbox is doing as a social media competition is a thing of beauty. I want that one on sale not this one.

It's always Xbox's year next year. Sigh.

I had no expectations for it, so in that regard, yes...

I did think the gunplay was excellent and it was one of the very VERY few multiplayer shooters that I completed a couple of battle passes for. But the campaign lacked any real variety and became a bit of a tick list after a while.

Yeah I jumped from PS4 to XSX so had zero exposure to 360 era. Really nice to catch up on gears and halo stuff. Even played GTA4 and portal 2 this year, couldn't have done that on a ps5!

Suppose in a way it worked out well for MS anyway, since they're selling lots of Xbox games to ps5 users nowadays.

I've grown numb to seeing this kind of stat though, when the developers I like stop supporting Xbox then it'll be time to move, otherwise I'm happy to wait to see what next gen brings

@GamingFan4Lyf @Banjo- might be childish, but as soon as I played the demo and saw that the merchant was a snake called Trowzer, I was in... Gameplay I loved too, very old school

@GamingFan4Lyf gonna say, yooka-replaylee is actually pretty good and a much nicer way to play yooka-laylee. Deffo gives me 90s platformer vibes and I love it

Yep, I'm also in for this one, looks really cool

It's a game that I had my eye on (purely as a massive burnout fan) but the final reviews didn't look great. That said I am still interested in a deep sale pickup

Nice to see SoM and Blue Prince on this kind of list, I adored both

@TrollOfWar that's a very apt comparison. Especially because the Google pixel range from 4a onwards have been excellent pieces of kit, just nowhere near as popular as iPhones and galaxys.

It's a shame really, because there probably won't be any titles that ever show just how powerful the series X hardware is as they're always catering for lower hardware (I don't mean the series s by that, more base ps5 and lower end PCs)

@Fiendish-Beaver I could be wrong on this, but I believe that the incentive with play anywhere is the preferential terms of the MS store over the Xbox one, which I think is 88/12 rather than 70/30. Again, could be wrong, but that's what I'd imagine the incentive is

You have to wonder what it is people will gravitate towards in the end. Xbox is by far my favourite ECOSYSTEM in terms of game prices, rewards, play anywhere, free cloud saves etc.

But Sony and Nintendo make bespoke experiences which resonate more because they're focussed on a single piece of hardware.

I think Xbox becomes a wildly successful publisher and software OS provider in the near future, with hardware being just a little bonus

@TheGameThrifter only thing that seems to get a liiiitle bit better on series x is UE5 titles, and that's probably more down to Epic updating it than anything MS has done

@OldGamer999 I have a much younger brother in his mid 20s, him and his mates have been exclusively PC gamers since they were about 12/13. Could be the way the market is going, enough industry bods seem to think so anyway

Sunset overdrive and FFIX, used a small amount of reward points and spent £4.79. happy with both purchases!

If this was something MS cared about they'd be competing with Sony on black Friday prices to try and increase console owners. Clearly, the priorities have shifted and if this raises the prices again (more likely in the US than anywhere else, which have been more resistant to price increases) then they won't care.

They're likely moving more towards the components they need for the next gen

@ValentineMeikin it's on there now. Not an insider thing for Rog ally

@ValentineMeikin ah right cheers mate. I'm not using the insider program so guess I'll wait a little longer

This announcement had got me confused a little. So, as a normal Rog ally owner is this not coming out today?

Extremely important. Sometimes I just prefer a handheld night, even if it's on the same sofa as where the TV is. Can't wait to play ff7 remake hybrid style, and metaphor too when I get to it

@themightyant same, I just don't have a use for it right now. Steam prices are great, but this still just represents a different locked ecosystem to me, and I already have access to steam on a handheld

If anyone's ever been on the fence about PoP the lost crown I can confirm that for a tenner it's a steal!

@themightyant yep, not a chance it competes on specs with ps6 or nextbox. I'm struggling to see the long term vision other than a beta testing device for steam OS on the big screen!

I won't speak to American pricing because they've gone nuts. But a decent pre built in the UK with a 4060 or 5060 and last gen CPU, with 16gb ram and 1tb SSD might run between £600-850.

On that basis I'd say about £550 feels right for the 512gb model and £700 for the 2tb.

Don't think it'll challenge the current gen consoles but it's a really cool option, especially as a desktop gaming device. I really like the look of it as a 1080/1440p machine

@M20B25 yeah it was really unique and there's only really Xbox trying new things recently (I can see Keeper already mentioned in the forum), feel like if it was on ps5 it'd be in the mind sphere more and be included in the awards a lot more

@Medic_alert agreed. I can't remember the last time I paid full price for a game, it's almost never worth it