Daniel1221

No Forza, no party!

The simple fact is that Xbox is losing money and has spent too much on acquiring studios and new ventures like Game Pass, which was necessary to increase its competitiveness. Still, not every studio has been the right fit for one reason or another. Very surprised that Turn 10 survives - though I imagine it'll be impacted by the staff cuts and act as a support studio for the Forza Horizon series going forward. Want to send my support to every team member that is impacted by today's news, and send them all the best going forward. Hopefully this streamlining / restructing sets Xbox up to be healthier and, in turn, more competitive in the future.

@Trippylobster You make a good point: not once have I had to think about whether or not one of my games will play on my Series X, or how much it'll cost to upgrade. It's all been seamless and brilliant, which you can't say about the other 2 consoles. It's things like this, and Play anywhere, that Xbox do well but don't get enough credit for, mainly because they don't promote it enough!

@Lanmanna Of course. I suspect Helix may have an optional disc drive. That way, it allows for people to play their games, whilst also ensuring that they can keep the cost of the console itself lower. For now, it's all speculation

@Fishmasterflex96 I've always said that physical media will never die and that it will become a niche item that provides solid revenue for companies. I also said that DVDs and Blu-rays would see a similar uptick to Vinyl as more people grow tired of needing several subscription services and want greater control over their outgoings. Think we're starting to see that with games as well. If the rumoured Xbox disc-to-digital feature comes to fruition, why buy a game digitally?

Yes you may need to download a large portion of the game, but the fact is that you own it. You can sell it, trade it, use it how you want. If it gets delisted, you can still use it, all without being forced to pay inflated prices on key sites. And if Xbox does go down the route of a disc drive and disc-to-digital, it's a huge chance to gain significant market share at little cost!

@Banjo- I worry about people being able to play what they want, when they want, and how they want in the future. This decision by Sony takes something away from all three. I'm surprised no action has been taken regarding the removal of purchased movies (which has recently happened with StudioCanal titles, yet no refunds were issued). As I say, if I'm one of Sony's competitors, I'm marketing the fact that my console is more accessible for everyone

I don't think this is a smart move at all.

With games becoming increasingly expensive and disposable incomes falling, people need to see the value in something they buy more than ever. If, for example, you're able to purchase a game for £50, play it for a year and then sell it for £20, that brings the buy-in cost down and makes it a more likely purchase.

I also think this is worrying from a preservation point of view. As someone who loves racing games, it's important to buy them digitally when you can, given that licenses expire and they get delisted within a few short years. Yet, games like the Forza Horizon series are all still accessible, despite being delisted, because of the discs (regardless of how much data is actually on the disc).

We also see digital prices often be much, much higher than physical releases (especially on games that are 1+ years old), so consumers will have to pay higher prices to play games, which links back to my first point - it just isn't justifiable for many!

I'm sure that Sony will have looked at the number of digital VS physical PS5 console editions that have sold, the percentage of games played via disc VS digital, and the cost of implementing disc drives into consoles, but this just feels so anti-consumer.

If I were Xbox or Nintendo now, I would release a public statement committing to physical media because gaming should be as accessible as possible for all.

The Series X was the first console I purchased within a year of launch. I thought for the price I paid (even for a used console), and the hours I knew I'd get out of it, that it was worth it, despite the inevitable depreciation that would come. Turns out that buying it from the same place today would actually cost me more. Probably one of the best financial investments I've ever made (without trying!)

I imagine Turn 10 will be absorbed into Playground Games in some way.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner One of my biggest annoyances with the acquisition has been that there have been so many low-hanging fruit opportunities for Xbox that they just haven't taken

@Prestige-worldwide That's an interesting idea - anyone who's played Horizon 6 will be able to tell you that the handling feels a step closer to Motorsport, in a good way. Let's be honest, a sim racer is never going to have the reach that Horizon does, and even if it did, there's much stiffer competition and a shorter game life.

Disappointing, but not surprising. The ActiBlizz deal becomes more confusing by the day for me: they spent almost $70bn on them, but what have they got in return? Candy Crush will likely produce regular revenue, and COD will always sell regardless, but the latter has faced increasingly good competition, and the name has started to slowly lose power. Contrast this to the $2.5bn for Minecraft, which I'm sure has already been made back several times over, and it makes you wonder why they didn't buy more, smaller studios and helped them develop and grow, increasing the value of their investments?

This is excellent news - as impressive as the showcase was, I felt it lacked real variety in first party games, and more games like Crash will help with that to no end!

@Banjo- It's definitely better than usual across the board, but from Xbox studios themselves? The majority of first-party games are hack-and-slash or shooters (and again, they have a place!), which is a real shame because so many talented teams and IPs are underutilised, and low-hanging fruit from the Activision deal. How difficult/time-consuming would it be to compile the Skylanders games into a collection or two, without needing the figures, for example?

@disk_junky I'd disagree on your point about DLC, because they certainly have a place, but I do agree that the majority of the show felt very samey, which I think is a big weak point at the moment: there's not enough variety

Started strongly, but nothing - apart from Spyro and the Magpie game - appealed to me. The majority of the others blend into one for me (no hate, just not for me!) - Only having 2 console exclusives being a selling point by Booty was laughable (commit to it or not!). The 25th console looks lovely.

I think the majority of people will find it hard to justify an upgrade at this stage, especially when so many games are still releasing on Xbox One / PS4. With that being said, if Xbox can undercut PlayStation on price, market the console effectively, and have at least some exclusives, they have the opportunity to undoubtedly close the gap

One thing that would be nice (although highly improbable) would be the option of being able to play delisted games you own physically without having to insert the disc every time, instead being able to use it as a digital game (if that makes sense?)

I've seen a lot of debate about whether a racing game should be considered for a GOTY award. Guess what - I enjoy racing games but am not fussed about Sony's story heavy games. Does that make one game better than the other? No. You can still respect that a game is good, even if it isn't your cup of tea. For me, FH6 is likely to be my GOTY, but I understand why others would disagree

@BacklogBrad The problem is that the way one car at the top of A-Class performs on a tarmac circuit race would be completely different to another at the same level, let alone dirt and cross country events. It's always a nice idea in concept - and at least with F1 (don't have any experience of Nascar 25, RIP Kyle Busch) you can do time trials and find conversion calculators online which can help, but one I don't think would transfer to Horizon, especially with its much wider playerbase in terms of skillset and experience - a sliding scale would probably complicate things too much

@BacklogBrad The Formula 1 games have a sliding scale of 1-110, but I find I have to change them track-by-track given the fluctuations of AI and my own driving.

On FH6, they need to review the Horizon Play achievement: 100 levels is likely to take hundreds of hours - the progression gets too slow and mundane. I get an achievement being something to aim for an achieve, but when it's just constant grinding, it loses its value

@NeoRatt You raise some very good points, and I certainly agree regarding exclusive games: Xbox have a track record of producing great games in the last few years, and Sony will obviously be making a healthy sum from their cuts - but unfortunately, I can't see that happening

I agree it's not consumer friendly, but that's why the companies do it - they'll often take a loss on consoles to essentially lock you into their ecosystem, and healthily profit from that during the console's lifespan - and as the failure of the Xbox One launch has shown, the effects can be multi generational

@NeoRatt Xbox decides to port games to other consoles; nobody is forcing them. If you look at the success of Horizon 6 on Xbox and Steam alone, porting it to PlayStation is only going to generate millions more. Ultimately, it comes at the cost of potential hardware sales. I'd prefer to have more exclusives, especially given the cost of consoles these days.

It likely is this reason, plus I don't know how well they sell, especially considering the cost of porting games, and the fact they're not evergreen like online games.

@NeoRatt Funny you say this, Bloomberg are reporting that Sony are going to stop porting their narrative single-player games to PC. Very interesting, especially given how well Forza Horizon 6 has done on Steam in this early access window alone

@MaseSco The Horizon 4 DLC is far better. Some like it, others don't, but if you like LEGO, the included cars and map are good fun!

Thanks for the heads up - already had Horizon Chase Turbo, but not the Senna DLC, so just snagged that for £5

@GeminiX53 Having a one tier system would be great for marketing alongside consoles (particularly Series S) and make it easier for casual players to sign up

@GeminiX53 @Jenkinss I'd personally say there's a good middle ground. Why not be able to choose x new 1st party releases per year as part of your membership? As long as you have a sub active, you have access to all game pass games, plus the first-party games you choose.

On another note, removing COD is an admission that it didn't fit into the Game Pass ecosystem as planned. Wonder how much of that vision drove the purchase of ActiBlizz, and how they utilise their studios going forwards

The introduction of the Eliminator had a big impact on the map design for FH5, I believe, and it led to the map feeling empty and void of any real character. I've been playing the old Horizon games recently, and thought Horizon 4 looked better than 5 as well. If I had to go back to 4 or 5 in the future, there's no doubt which I'd choose

Just got an email about some items on my wishlist. All the usual sale prices. F1 25 for £28 is absurd, when it's been £20 on Steam for at least a month

@Banjo- What a coincidence - Just started replaying some of the old FH games this last week or so, and got to FH3 yesterday!

Yikes! I'm in the UK and still able to redeem a month of GPU for 12,000 points (despite it supposedly stopping yesterday), so I have purchased some codes from there, and will use the old EA Play conversion trick as and when I feel there's enough I want to play but, given I prefer casual, simulator, and driving games, there's little value in most new releases added to the service to stay subscribed consistently like I have done in recent years

The reveal was really disappointing, and that's coming from someone who first chose an Xbox over a PlayStation when I was many years younger, purely because of the original Horizon game.

What is interesting is that whilst the game is coming to PlayStation, it's not doing so at launch. Wonder how long the delay will be, but is a good strategy in my eyes

@BleedingDreamer Hawaii's giving me strong TDU2 vibes. Shame that Solar Crown is what it is!

Keep it as it is. I like using rechargeable AAs and swapping them out as and when needed. If you prefer to use a battery pack, you have that option as well. It's better for the future of the controllers as well, given you'll always be able to use them wirelessly

@Brigurugi I'm predominantly a racing game guy and yeah, Codies has become awful since being purchased by EA. The F1 games now have virtual currency and have added stupid features that nobody cares about after 5 minutes, all whilst they've removed other features from the game. The career mode on the recently released F1 25 has some new features but nothing that makes you want to play the game. That, and 3 tracks in reverse are the main selling points this year. Yikes.

I mean, this is the same Nintendo that's charging for its tutorial game as well. People will moan but will still pay the prices, so I get why they do it. I really don't think this will impact Xbox players. Most will continue to play via Game Pass for the majority of their games and third party games are reduced within what feels like weeks these days

I'm a Formula 1, have been for just over a decade now, and used to love the new grand every year. The last 5 or so have just felt so repetitive and the lack of proper innovation has been disappointing. We've gone from new bonus and alternate tracks, as well as classic cars, to the F1 Life rubbish they keep pushing, and a story mode which feels so out of place and boring to me. Would be nice to see something to make me want to play the game but, this is unlikely to happen, especially as Codies is now owned by EA (they would've been a great fit for Xbox!) and I'll probably wait until it hits Game Pass about 10 months from now, especially as you should have significant changes to the 2026 game, given the IRL regulations.

@SuntannedDuck2 Was thinking of Driver myself - SanFran was such a unique game and would fit into the Xbox portfolio nicely

This looks good, reminds me a bit of Motor Town (which is obviously based on vehicles more), which I hope will be ported. Speaking of which, FH5 is not getting a physical release on PS5, wonder if that hints at Xbox's release plans going forwards?

I've started playing the original Forza Horizon again for the first time in many years! Seeing the news of older, delisted games, such as FH3, appearing on the store reminded me I've been meaning to play it again for a while, and I've been having a blast with the nostalgia! Well wishes to Fraser as well!

I'm sure it's nothing more than a simple error, but it would be nice to see a remake / remaster of some of the older Horizon titles. FH1 is 15 in 2027, they could rename is Horizon Colorado, and make some simple tweaks to modernise the game with features from newer games. Would sell well, and be nice to see. Would be an obvious slam dunk to do, which is the exact reason I have no hope of it happening

Pretty much agree with everything this article talks about. If Xbox users get the game day and date on Game Pass, and a period of exclusivity, then I'm at ease with the idea of iconic franchises going to PlayStation. What irks me is the lack of clear communication from Xbox instead, we're getting snippets from interviews and leakers. The theory of higher revenues from such decisions leading to more investment in studios and Game Pass is one that makes sense, and will help to boost Xbox further, but we need to start seeing evidence of this over time.

Quite simply, if Xbox fail to provide better value for Xbox users, stop day one releases on game pass, or release day and date on other platforms then that's when I have to think about my future with the Xbox brand

@Coletrain 100%

@Coletrain This is the approach I would like to see, as it's a win-win for consumers. I would hope that, if exclusive games do go multi-plat, that the Xbox release still has a period of exclusivity. If FH6 is announced this summer and released EoY or early '26, I would hope that it takes 2-3 years to come to other platforms

@DeanyBabyy I play primarilly racing games but for those wanting to play jus them, you'd be silly to not have a PC instead. Ultimately, Xbox players will have just as much as PS players with the exception of what, Gran Turismo? In return, they get games, like Forza Horizon, day and date on Game Pass, as opposed to having to pay x amount for every release

@OldGamer999 Jez Corden is reporting that Halo MCC is coming sooner rather than later as well

I felt numb when I saw this news. I knew it would come eventually, and I completely understand why this is a thing but it doesn't sit quite right with me. When rumours of MS porting games started, I predicted that FH5 would be one of the first and was right (despite being told it would never happen by some!). The original FH was the first game I ever played from start to finish and made me fall in love with not just Forza, but Xbox as a whole, and I will, in all likelihood stick with Xbox as long as they provide 1st party games on GP Day 1, but this certainly feels like a small part of the Xbox brand has died with this news. And I know the game is on PC, but this feels different. Hopefully, MS' plans prove to be right and the value for money offered by Xbox will help improve GamePass and console sales, and bring a brighter future.

I get that people are annoyed with the price increase but Game Pass is still great value. Do I like COD? No, but that doesn't mean that I can't appreciate the extra value it provides to the service. Plus, being realistic, we expect more Activision games to come to the service, not just BO6 so the increase for that, along with general inflation, is fair. You can still stack up on the subs, and buy codes at the cheaper price now and use them as and when it makes sense for you as well. I've got just over a year left on my sub and will be doing just that.