That price for that hardware is impossible to justify, just like with any other console. But I think they don't care, they're going to manufacture a very limited number of units and sell them to enthusiastic buyers with high purchasing power.

I'm glad to see they're investing in marketing again, even though there's still so much to do...

What a pain in the neck. I don't know when we started trading events like E3 for this ridiculous guy.

If it's PlayAnywhere, it's not a problem for me

That's a ridiculous price for a video game console.

I would have said the usual thing: for that price, you could build a good PC that’s far superior to any console. But of course, that’s not really true anymore, building a good PC is also ridiculously expensive.

So, I guess we just have to accept that we live in a ridiculous world, where this hobby has become irrationally hostile toward its players.

In Spain, Xbox games haven't been available in stores for quite some time, if you're lucky, you might find a box of old games. If you're lucky enough to find a console for sale (there are hardly any), you have no choice but to buy everything digitally, whether it has a disc drive or not.

Well, I'll play it on PC. These days, all consoles are way behind an RTX 5070Ti, which is what I have in my PC, and there's a world of difference in performance and visual quality.

However, I still prefer to play many games on console despite everything because of the lack of achievements, but PlayAnywhere solves this and offers the best of both worlds.

I'd say that's the price it should have been from the start.

I was pretty disappointed with StarFox. It cost me €50, and honestly, the game only lasted half an afternoon on my console, it’s incredibly short. It’s not a bad game, after all, it’s a remake of a game that was a masterpiece in its day, but by today’s standards, it feels almost like a demo. It has several routes and is somewhat replayable, but it really only lasts an hour or so. To me, the prices Nintendo is charging for some of its games are ridiculous, and this one takes the cake.

That said, if Wild Blue Skies is even remotely decent, for around €14, I’d find it far more recommendable than the Nintendo game.

Unfortunately, I think these layoffs are necessary for Xbox to survive. I imagine the alternative to maintaining such a large workforce would be things like losing more exclusives or raising the price of Game Pass, and I think it’s become clear that this causes enormous damage to the platform.

Ever since I discovered Gamesir, I’ve stopped using these controllers. It’s a Chinese brand, which made me skeptical at first, but they’ve turned out to be really good.

These days, controllers are terrible, no matter the brand, the rubber on the joysticks wears out, they end up having drift, or the USB cable connection fails over time, and the battery life is very short… Especially the Series Elite 2, the PlayStation controllers, and the ones for the first-generation Switch, they’re awful controllers that I’ve come to really hate.

The Gamesir controllers have none of these issues, they just work and stand the test of time. The rubber doesn’t wear out, they’re sturdy, and they even have a USB cable lock, so you can play wired without worrying about wear and tear on the connector. And they’re cheaper, which makes you wonder why these traditional brands are so incompetent.

Obviously, if an account is more than 18 years old, we can assume that its user is as well.

I really wouldn't be surprised if it were better than some Mario Party games, it's a series that has some really good games, but also some pretty weak ones.

But of course, part of the appeal of Mario Party lies in its characters. We’ve had Mario for almost half a century, a franchise that Nintendo has worked hard to make synonymous with fun and charisma, and just stepping into that world is enough to put a smile on your face. For alternative games like this one, it’s hard to compete with that.

This is a little off-topic, but I think what really harms young people is social media, that’s where I can easily see enormous damage to their growing and attention span. It’s not just that I think age restrictions are necessary, I believe practices like endless scrolling should be banned.

However, I don’t think access to adult games or movies has much of an impact on young people. My generation grew up with unrestricted access to works with adult content like Doom, Terminator or GTA, and far from causing any harm, I think it helped build communities and a culture around movies and video games.

Where I do see a problem in video games is in casino-like gameplay mechanics, that’s something I do think should be more strictly regulated, though perhaps not by imposing limits on the user’s side, but rather on the developer’s side, where companies like EA, Tencent, or Ubisoft have no ethics whatsoever.

Small steps, but they're appreciated, we'll have to wait a little longer for the achievement system to be updated...

In a world where Microsoft executives weren't incompetent, the Xbox Series would have sold between 60 and 80 million units, this game would be an exclusive, and it would have easily doubled those sales figures.

The sad thing is that these days they're all multiplatform games, and it's more debatable than ever whether they truly represent Xbox :/

That's interesting, where I live, there haven't been any Xbox products in any stores for years. It's kind of funny that there's an official price increase for a product you simply can't buy.

What a disaster, this game was key to Xbox's identity. Making it multiplatform will surely do much more harm to the platform in the long run than it will generate revenue in the short term.

All four are important, but I think the one that really matters is the first one, the platform is in terrible shape, and without the platform, there's no Xbox.

Of course, price is an issue, but at this point, the real problem is the lack of selling points for the console or the ecosystem.

Halo and Fable are key selling points for the Xbox, so why on earth are they multiplatform? They’re doing enormous damage to a platform that’s already in bad shape.

I understand that Asha needs time to understand the business and weigh her decisions. But this ridiculous message they’ve been pushing for years: "you don’t need an Xbox" has to stop now.

First, give players a reason to play on Xbox, and then we’ll talk about the price.

It's a great studio that has produced masterpieces like Broken Age or Psychonauts. But its most recent games, far from being bad, were perhaps overly niche projects. Kiln is very original, but aside from the few who've tried it on Game Pass, I don't think anyone else has taken an interest in it.

The game looks great, although I think I prefer the previous graphics engine, it must have been much more complex to develop, but it had some really wild details. Halo Infinite has maps where the vegetation looks incredible, where the waterfalls are insane... and well, this Halo: Campaign Evolved looks great, but it also looks a little too much like... Unreal Engine.

In terms of gameplay, it feels the same to me, aside from a couple of tweaks to modernize it, I’d say it’s the same game with the new graphics engine on top. And mind you, far from being bad, I think it’s fine. The first Halo still strikes me as one of the best shooters in history in terms of controls and fun. That said, the controls are set up pretty poorly by default; I had to increase the sensitivity and remove the dead zone. I don’t know why it’s set up so poorly, but fortunately you can fix it so it responds the way it should.

And well, overall it’s a good game, but I think the biggest downside is that it’s lost all its identity. This game used to be synonymous with Xbox, and now seeing it turned into a multiplatform title breaks much of that magic. I think this game is one of the biggest mistakes in Xbox history.

Yes, they need to do much better.

But compared to other problems Xbox is facing, I don't think it's that serious. For example, the fact that Fable and Halo, franchises that are central to Xbox's identity, are multiplatform does far more damage to the brand, in my opinion.

After years of use, my Series X makes absolutely no noise at all, it’s just like the consoles of the past that didn’t have any mechanical parts or fans. In this regard, with its silent fan and monolithic design, I think it might be the console with the best cooling system ever, it’s simply perfect.

I think that's really big news

I think the screen is too small to play some “big” games, but for others it can be an interesting experience.

Of course, what he is saying makes a lot of sense, just like music and movies, video games will eventually become independent of the need for dedicated hardware connected to the TV.

However, whenever I've tried cloud gaming, the experience has been noticeably worse. As of now, local hardware is still necessary if you have even modest expectations for image quality, stability, and controller responsiveness.

Remakes and remasters everywhere xD

Well, to me, the rumor about Geoff Keighley seems completely credible xD

If it doesn't go much over the €1,000 mark, I think it will be the most interesting console of its kind on the market.

But something tells me it will go well over €1,000...

I hope it's an overhaul of the achievements system, it's something I really look forward to every time they announce a new update.

This has to happen at some point, it's necessary. And I think it should be released exclusively on Xbox, and later perhaps on Switch 2, which is its second home, but on no other system.

I think this game will get a remake sooner rather than later. If the new Spyro sells well, it might be Toys for Bob's next project.

Obsidian is one of Xbox's most productive studios, it releases multiple games a year, all of which are of very high quality.

I don't think that's true, there might be budget cuts, layoffs, or canceled projects... But I don't think they'll shut down Obsidian, this studio is a powerhouse, and internally, there's no way they don't see that.

It's a shame if Xbox 360 isn't included. I don't have a single physical Xbox Series game, everything I have on that platform is already digital, and I only have 11 on Xbox One. On the Xbox 360, however, I have about 300 games xD

In this area, Xbox is light-years ahead of PlayStation, which right now, given what it’s doing, strikes me as one of the most repugnant companies in the industry.

Porting original Xbox and Xbox 360 games to PC should be relatively straightforward, compatibility between DirectX libraries should allow these games to run natively, just as the Xbox One and Xbox Series do with Xbox 360 games.

If it hasn't been done before, I suppose it's simply because no one was working on it.

@Tasuki I'm one of those people who has always been very skeptical of Sharma, but somehow, I actually think that to save Xbox, all of this is... necessary.

I think this game is almost impossible to play with a controller, and I don't think it could pass the certification process without one.

On current-generation consoles, I think it's going to be inevitable: either 30 fps or a significant sacrifice in visual quality.

I think that, just like with GTA V when it was released on the X360 and PS3, it will be quite limited, and it won't be until it comes to PC or new hardware that we'll be able to see what it's truly capable of.

Game Pass is one of the few appealing things Xbox has left, I think it’s completely safe.

But what’s clear is that things can’t continue as they have been, with a platform that’s on its last legs and has lost almost all of its exclusives and reasons to attract users. They need to change their approach, and that will likely mean Game Pass stops eating up the entire Xbox budget. Day-one games on a subscription service are a treat, but not at the expense of undermining everything else: they absolutely must bring in strong exclusives, reignite excitement for the platform, and get their marketing back on track...

Looking on the bright side, this affects all companies that manufacture consoles, which can be seen as an opportunity.

In other words, Xbox desperately needs something disruptive to break the brand’s losing streak, if everything continued as it always has, it would be almost inevitable that Nintendo and PlayStation would once again bury Xbox commercially.

I doubt they’ll do that, but if Microsoft were to bet big from the start, heavily subsidize the hardware, and innovate by finding new ways to cover the costs of RAM and storage (by sharing orders with data centers or something similar), there’s a chance it could shine against competitors who aren’t capable of releasing anything decent for less than $1,000.

@themightyant I think perception depends a lot on the country. Where I live (Spain), Xbox disappeared over a year ago, and now only Nintendo and PlayStation have a presence in stores and online communities. That’s why I’m here, there’s no one left talking about Xbox in my country :' )

I imagine that in the U.S. or other regions, it’s possible to have a more optimistic view of the Xbox Series.

@themightyant Yes, you're right, the timing is terrible for launching a hardware upgrade. But aside from the brand's most loyal fans (who, at this point, I imagine are very few), I don't think anyone is interested in this model. The Xbox Series X project itself feels like a failure after the terrible decisions of the last few years. I think the Xbox’s 25th anniversary deserved something much more ambitious.

For example, the Xbox Ally X20 seems a bit more decent to me, with the new OLED screen and some minor hardware improvements. Although it’ll probably come at an absurd price, they’ll make very few of them, and you might not even be able to buy one outside of that nonsense with the Asus glasses.

I think what might have sparked a little interest is releasing a more powerful model, this model is nothing more than a skin for a machine that's been around for a long time, and I don't think there's much demand for it.

For me, it's one of the best features of Xbox. I built a PC a little over a year ago with an RTX 5070 Ti, and the difference in performance and graphics compared to any console is HUGE.

Since then, I’ve found it really hard to even consider going back to playing console versions. However, I love the achievements system and have been unlocking achievements on Xbox for years. Xbox PlayAnywhere lets me continue enjoying my profile, library, and achievements that I’ve always had on the console, but with PC performance, and I love it.

The downside is that there are still many games and developers that ignore this feature, such as EA and Ubisoft.

It's unbelievable how slow these things move at Microsoft, it's like when they decided to show game time in days instead of hours, and it's been that way for years. I find it hard to believe the development team hasn't realized this yet.

I think they must have a bureaucracy that works so poorly that every time someone reports something, it probably sits in a ticket for months, going through reviews, approvals, and prioritization by a thousand executives before anyone actually does anything about it.

I hope the long-awaited update to the achievements system comes someday, although I think that, if it does happen, it won't be until at least the arrival of Xbox Helix.

Of these improvements, my favorite is the game hub for X360 games.

I get the feeling that console sales are almost always the same, in this regard, they could learn a lot from Steam.

It depends on what each person expects, but I don't think this game will be playable under ideal conditions until it's released on PC or new consoles.