Elbow

@Kaloudz It's not made by an xbox owned studio, it's basically "second-party" where a third party dev is making it but it's being funded and wholly backed by Xbox.

Second-party isn't a thing but it's the closest thing to a proper term there is for something like this. I'm also very disappointed by this, but not surprised.

@smoreon That is a fair point with FF13. Despite the hype around it, the hallway sim jokes werent wrong. It was actually my first FF game and helped me get into JRPGs entirely, but the same reasons behind how it helped me approach them are also why it was derided.. so I'm in a bit of an awkward place, but I can still see the faults in it.

But my counterpoint is Microsoft's own offerings in the genre: Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, and Infinite Undiscovery (for some reason Square has publishing rights for this one, but everything I've read said Microsoft owns and funded it.) — Microsoft themselves had a huge output of JRPGs.

Not to mention the 360 being the debut of a Tales Of (Vesperia) game on an Xbox console. Or titles like Enchanted Arms, Eternal Sonata, and The Last Remnant. There are still more JRPGs I haven't listed that hit the console and did pretty well, all throughout the lifespan of the console. They kept coming, though my point is not that the 360 had the best list, but it had a healthy supply of games in the genre that were received very well. (Though Last Remnant was mixed, tbf.)

@TrollOfWar You're not wrong, that was just a Japanese thing in general. They were still getting used to HD consoles and what that meant for development. Nintendo infamously went through the same thing with the Wii U when their output slowed dramatically, around the same time actually. Not that it's an excuse, but the jump to HD really did throw off Japanese devs who were very comfortable in their groove.

As someone who still plays Mario Party, I really hope this is a solid contender. There's very little like it.

Garfield Lasagna Party also exists and is on Xbox One/Series consoles, but.. it's about as good as you expect. Poor Garfield.

I still don't know where this claim of "JRPGs became uncool" came from. If you listen to idiots like Phil Fish, sure, but he was a flash in the pan one hit wonder that let it get to his head.

Persona has steadily gained popularity since that same generation, when Persona 5 first released on PS3. JRPG's have never been "not cool", just JRPG devs who seemed ashamed to make them, like Square Enix.

The stipulation about crunch has to be a blessing and a curse. Knowing overtime is looming for a week in advance would be just as bad as going through it IMO, but I'm also catastrophically awful when it comes to dealing with stress.

@GuyinPA75 Not every game needs to be a system-stressing powerhouse. There's plenty of underwhelming AAA games that can't even harness the power properly.

@Fiendish-Beaver Quake 1, 2, and 4 have stories. They're not really groundbreaking, but a plot exists. Quake 1's plot progresses via text on screen after you finish a campaign/beat a boss.

As someone who has played this game, it is VERY fun. It's a turn based tactical game, but think of it more as you're the boss encounter. Each turtle has their own unique kit and abilities- Raph is a close range brawler who can backflip-kick enemies off rooftops, Donnie can throw down traps and push enemies away/into hazards, Mikey is a ranged lunatic with his skateboard able to attack while passing by, and Leo is a whirling katana-swinging powerhouse of death. Each turtles kit perfectly represents their character.

Each turn drops tons of enemies on you, and its up to you to figure out how to wipe them all out in that turn before more swarm you next time around. It's VERY fun, I wholeheartedly recommend it.

The presentation and game is low budget, but don't let that put you off. I LOVE it. I will probably double dip just to support Strange Scaffold.

.. also, I'm one of those hundred reviewers on Steam. You can find my review under the same name as here if you look hard enough.

Still hoping we can get a Casey Jones DLC..

@dreadful while that might help, quakecon is first and foremost about iD games. Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein. Shoving Halo in just because Microsoft owns all of them might not go over well with the audience.

But then again Bethesda has been promoting a ton of their own games with it in recent years so this argument doesn't hold up well. Yeah, they should at least give it a try one year and see if the community is positive to it.

I was REALLY hoping we'd see some more about TMNT: The Last Ronin. It's been awhile since that was announced and that's most definitely my most anticipated game from THQ right now.

Still, that disappointment aside, this had a lot of cool stuff to show. The original Gothic trilogy getting a console port? Did NOT expect that. Darksiders 4 skipping Strife's solo outing is... a choice, but I hope this game is good. I almost picked up Sacred 2 during the Xbox summer sale, so to see this is amusing too..

@Kaloudz I'm still not convinced this isn't the beginning of a downward spiral for Xbox consoles. Important to mention too is that Xbox themselves will be fine if they go fully 3rd party, but I've always said that last part too.

Sony can afford to drag their feet on it and let Xbox take the brunt of the reception, which they've done already with console price increases and porting. Depending on what they start out with/how long they drag out porting, they can still have general consensus that their games are exclusive until a big name port bursts that bubble. Because let's face it, no one outside of these circles we're in: (aka, casual/non hardcore gamers) are going to know or believe it until they actually see it happen.

@Questionable_Duck It depends if it sells well or not. If it will, then I think it'll be a safe bet the others will follow.

If it doesn't, well.. it'll be like Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection (skipped Xbox, the prior collections/games didn't sell well on Xbox from what we know.)

There's a lot I'm still eyeballing. I'm on the fence about Terraria, and-- honestly just a lot of smaller games, some BC stuff. It's just about convincing myself that I won't cry if I get this stuff then look at my bank account.

Rage 2 for $8 might finally get me to bite. I wonder if Bethesda discounted any of the Rage 1 DLC? They're usually decent about it (they've put 360 Fallout 3 and Oblivion DLC up for sale recently!) but sometimes these companies decide the base game is enough... (looking at you, 360 Dragon Age games and Mass Effect.)

Edit: Dammit, Rage 1 DLC not on sale. It's rare they mess something like that up.

Visually this is what I've always thought of when I think "fantasy game". Ethereal, colorful. Stuff that can't be replicated (easily) in live action. Very cool.

@Coletrain Well it does prove at least that Forza isn't just "Xbox popular", but popular in general.

That Nintendo Life review made me sad, a game with potential but something clearly went wrong. I hope they manage to patch it up. Maybe a year from now it'll be a great time.

@WWE_Gaymer Even a year ago it was unthinkable Helldivers 2 would come to Xbox. Ever.

And I agree that people should not expect this to immediately mean all of PlayStation games are coming to Xbox, but it is a sign something is changing.

But, yeah, I would not hold my breath on this being proof of God of War/Last of Us/etc is coming, but my mind also won't be blown now if any of those do come to pass.

It is a huge surprise to see. While I'm still skeptical on this actually meaning any of their single player games, I am also genuinely shocked Helldivers is coming. Sony was always more than happy to die on the hill of Xbox spite.

Realistically, I expect just live service games and maybe some smaller single player games they don't care about (though I wonder if this means they'll allow the games they licensed Bandai, to port to Xbox now?)

It's one of those cases where it is very good I was wrong on Sony being a 'never-ever' porter... buuuut I also don't think anyone should get hyped just yet. Until any official announcement at least.

I picked up Achilles Survivors when it first released on Steam, and it's a good time. It's reasonably priced and has loads of content and varying playable characters (varies from a regular sword-carrying warrior to a boulder-rolling giant which is imo hilarious if you really crank up his attack speed). If you like Vampire Survivors and want another game like it, it's definitely one to check.

For 3D platformers, the Spongebob games are about all that exist nowadays outside of Nintendo. They're really decent.

The original PvZ is pretty fun too, though skeptical at $20, even as a remaster.

Pre-orders had to be abysmal. There's no chance Microsoft did this after listening to backlash. This was definitely a panic reaction.

@Lanmanna It was for 18 years. Until it wasn't. Also, I don't have space for physical media. Microsoft shuttering the store doesn't magically change that. I still don't have space. Digital or nothing for me.

Also I do understand physical media is better. It just isn't an option for my apartment.

While not perfect, it's something. Shame about my television library and Paramount/Lionsgate movies. I bought all the Sonic films and TMNT films among other stuff.

And of course it's a when, not if, Microsoft kills the service. Seriously can't get over how much of a shame this is. My library of games AND media is why I stuck with Xbox. It all built in to native Windows devices that carried between console and PC, while having the best stream quality and no ads, made it a no brainer to buy stuff on M&TV.

19/18 years of the service running only to quietly get bumped off on a friday.... what a shame.

For anyone who comes across this in the future, this is a fantastic game. Still purchasable on Xbone or Series consoles via backwards compat. Do you like 2D platformers? Do you like Donkey Kong?
This game takes massive influence from both and like the review says, Juju is VERY happy to proclaim its inspiration and love for Donkey Kong.

Great game. Shockingly so!

Some familiar faces in this list, but still good to see. Thank you for the PSA!

@fatpunkslim Laughing at any company shuttering jobs is in bad taste. And I can only find information on two studios being shut down in the last year by Sony, whereas Microsoft has shuttered 5 since last May, with way more laid off (which is a bad thing no matter who does it).

The difference is that Xbox is rapidly shifting towards third party with a token effort next-gen console as a last hurrah, while stripping away all the benefits of being an Xbox user.

@TryToBeHopeful I don't have space for physical media, the Xbox video store (just using that term for simplicity) closing doesn't magically change that. Pretty small apartment, unfortunately. I don't know the situation with Sony because I don't follow them much, but they haven't been on a studio closing spree in tandem with stuff like this.

This is another sign of Xbox winding down. I have tons of movies and TV shows in my library, mostly because it had been around for so long that shows I bought back in 2008 (!) were still viewable, and carried from my Xbox 360 to my Xbox One AND PC.

And now that's gone. That's genuinely a huge shame. Just another item ticked off the list for Xbox winding down any reason to have console.

"The business is not growing." - success is never the goal. The goal is more, always more. That's why you cannot succeed as a giant Corp like this, unless you plan ahead to intentionally have bad years to reset the scale.

It sucks. It's awful. A gaming crash can't come soon enough with strategies like this.

We are getting at least one more console. I can't see it faring well because of their current strategy, but the curtains haven't closed just yet.

One concern is if they make online play free.. that will mean the 360 servers are on the chopping block. I think that's what has kept them around longer than normal.

This really hasn't done anything for me. There's nothing about it that says wow this will be FUN. And it took 4 years to make this..?

Maybe it'll be the best game released this decade and I'll look like an idiot- I actually hope that's the case, but I'm not holding my breath.

The headline reads like an Onion article... man times are real weird.

My concern is that Sea of Thieves just went from a big fish in a small pond to a medium fish in an ocean. Will Microsoft-Activision look at it after a few years and be unsatisfied if they compare it to CoD?

@IronCrow86 I've noticed that too. I'm thinking, because whenever you talk to customer service for movies/TV related content, it always goes through Xbox, they're one of the teams that got cut/downsized/etc. It's definitely got less attention on it now. Maybe it wasn't performing well, either.. which is a shame because this is a service built-in to Windows (and Xbox!) and should be a slam dunk for them to advertise/really showcase, especially the strengths of it in comparison to Netflix/streaming apps. (You don't want to know how much I've spent on it...)

And that's a shame, I check it a few times a week. Dexter: Original Sin was on sale for $10 a few weeks back.. last good deal I found.

@BigRedPaper You have some genuine bias and keep harping on the dev of Weird West, seems the only reason for that is because he's being critical of Microsoft. It's very apparent you're slanted towards the big corporation.

So, I'm pretty confident this CAN happen, but here's the caveat: The budget has to be small. Miniscule. Something so low they can easily recoup what they spent on it. That's my bet. If a studio can't stick to a miniscule budget and pull it off, Banjo ain't coming back in an official capacity.

They should just sell it to Nintendo. He belongs back home, anyways.

I don't think this game really had many fans... which sounds harsh but I really didn't hear any excitement for the game at any point. Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places, but Scalebound had way more support post-cancellation.

The general consensus around Perfect Dark's cancellation is more "another Phil Spencer blunder, who saw that coming?"

I'm sure he meant well and was even coming at this from a compassionate angle, but like that "read the room" comment said... not the right time or place for it.

I'm surprised this is happening. I would have confidently said that Sony would die on the hill of not releasing anything on Xbox if they can help it.

I guess live service games being a delayed exception makes sense. It'd be nice if their other games came over, but don't hold your breath on that one.

This stings a bit. Even if it wasn't Xbox related, Romero is a creative guy. All the games he helms have something unique to them.. yes, even Daikatana.

Gaming just seems miserable lately unless you stick with indies, huh?

Phil's got a company to bring down, he can't retire until everything is smoldering ash-- while getting those big bonuses!

(Half sarcasm, half just angry at the blundering leadership. Don't take this too serious.)

Jesus. With this kind of mismanagement, how can Phil Spencer justify his position? It's been steady streams of blunders, under delivering and cancelations during his time as the head honcho.

@-taco I bought one of these games once without realizing it was a game made just to have achievement/trophy boosts. It was called Kitten Island, and I just wanted something low-stress that looked like it would kill an afternoon while being stupid cheap (I think it was 75 cents or something very close to that).

And it did give me that low-stress "turn brain off and just hit buttons" vibe I wanted-- plus I like cats-- but it also drowned me in achievements I didn't expect.

Sometimes people might buy these just because they're dumb cheap and it's a new game to play while REALLY bored one afternoon.... although I realize that's not going to be the majority of people.

Does anyone remember an old flash game that was about throwing sticky grenades at a warthog with a fairly accurate-to-Halo physics system watching it bounce around and flip?

If they announced that getting an official endorsement/port like the Survivors game, that'd be sick. Embrace community weirdness and have fun in the interim of whatever they're working on.

Although I really hope that this is not a PlayStation announcement...

@Dodoo Running theory is they were running out of money and HAD to push it out as a hail Mary to get some money coming in. Unfortunately it was clearly not ready for prime time and this is the result..

Good it's getting improvements, a shame the ones in charge permanently harmed the reputation of the game/studio by forcing it out before ready.

@Nic-Noc20th-C Tango was a shining diamond and it was thoughtlessly tossed in the trash at the first opportunity. Microsoft does not care about quality, they care about $$$. Compulsion is unfortunately worthless in their eyes unless they make hand over fist in moolah.

Fortunately, based on some comments above, they won't be shuttered but will be "released" to be independent. So there's a silver lining.

I have three potential hopes:

Wolfenstein 3D
DOOM 3
Quake 4

Luckily this means I have something to look forward to every year at these events... and if they're in Nightdive's hands then they're sure to be done well. Wolf 3D still holds up as a very basic arcade shooter, if you've never given it a go. Still can be very fun! And having all the expansions bundled into one package would make it extra enticing. These remasters are essentially QOL plug & plays for these older games, which is a godsend for lazy people like me.

Oh cool, I did not see this. Thank you for the heads up!

Microsoft's own games need to come to it. I cannot believe Minecraft Dungeons and Legends are not part of this. Why not?

Where is Quantum Break? If they can get Disney to agree to a Play Anywhere release with some of those Disney/land games Microsoft published years back, why can they not get their own studios to do it? I seriously don't understand. I'm sure it's not as simple as just "snap your fingers and they're suddenly Play Anywhere!" but there's gotta be something more. If they really want to show dedication and goodwill, they need to add titles like Fallout 4 and Skyrim to Play Anywhere. Put money where their mouth is. Even Fallout 76.

There's just so many older games that are now part of Xbox itself, that should be Play Anywhere. It would increase goodwill for their side SO much, and easily. If Black Ops 6 was Play Anywhere from the jump, I would've played it on console as well as PC. I'm not double dipping and I don't sub to gamepass outside of rare one-offs every couple of years.

I really like Play Anywhere and I have for years. It's why-- well before their renewed push-- I've double dipped on certain games I own on Steam; I bought Back 4 Blood on my Xbox even after playing it to death on Steam just for the convenience of save data carrying between Xbox/PC app, but they say one thing and continue to not even do the bare minimum of making sure their own catalog is fully represented.

And, I'm sure there are some legal snags for newer games and/or maybe pushback internally for some games to be added... (I'm sure Activision would fight against any CODs being added to Play Anywhere) and while it would be nice for them to at least publicly acknowledge that being an issue, it really feels like they're not wholly committed. Am I crazy to think they should at least have their own internal library be included in this?

Wasteland 1 & 2 are Play Anywhere — 3 is not, although that might be due to it being published by a different, uh, publisher. Understandable if that's the case. Why can't Minecraft Dungeons & Legends, Quantum Break, Sunset Overdrive, Ryse, or Recore get the treatment? They still own publishing rights to these. Am I crazy to think they should at least include their first party games wholly/as many as they reasonably can? And explain why others couldn't be? Is there no attempt or a stall on Bethesda games being added to this list? Redfall is Play Anywhere, but can they really not add the Wolfenstein games? The old-school DOOM's and Quake remasters are all Play Anywhere, but are Doom 2016 and Eternal
off limits?

I want to reiterate: I love Play Anywhere, am genuinely a big fan of it, and seeing more games get added to it is a win in general. It's also why I buy certain games I've already finished/even played during the rare times I've had a gamepass sub. It still feels messy and like a half-step, however. Though it is still growing, so there's a chance for these to be added... but these not being a priority is confusing. (Then again, potential legal snags, so I'll be talking in circles forever if I keep this up. I just hope they are not ignoring older games.)