Gabrie

I'm sick of developers treating some gamers like second-class users.

A year ago I would have bought it, not now, if for them Xbox gamers are not important, for me, a Xbox gamer, their game is not important.

Honestly, at this point, I don't know what Xbox could do to get me excited. The brand is probably at its lowest point in its entire history, at least in the eyes of its most loyal users. I guess announcing many more first-party games from the competition.

In any case, guarantees that the Xbox platform has a future. What I would most like to see is more Xbox marketing, better Xbox Series sales, and fewer games that ignore the platform.

@Llamageddon I would say that at this point, they don't care about market share in Europe, the US, Asia, or anywhere else in the world.

They have to put order, the store is currently in chaos.

If they get serious and force developers to use SmartDelivery, PlayAnywhere, include Xbox achievements... the store will be a much better place.

The problem is that this contrasts with the other big problem of the store: many games don't arrive or arrive very late. If developers already have trouble including the Windows Store in their releases, imposing strict rules may make this worse.

I wouldn't know how to fix this, but something has to be done.

@Kaloudz yep, it's just permadeath, in the first Hellblade it was quite controversial because it wasn't optional xD

I think there are too many questions surrounding Xbox Ally that need to be clarified, especially the reason for calling the device “Xbox.”

I don't know what she contributed to Xbox, but something tells me we wouldn't miss her much either.

Basically yes.

I think this goes by fads, right now driving simulators, which was already a niche genre, are in the doldrums.

But the least expected day, when nobody remembers them anymore, one will appear that will make the genre popular again, as it happened with Flight Simulator.

I played it a while ago and I liked it, forgettable story and protagonist, but playably it's a lot of fun.

I would be replaying it again if it had achievements on PC, but unfortunately what they have put on Gamepass doesn't have any Xbox features

I see it like this: consoles are a device that is placed next to the TV to play games. They are the same as DVD players were a few years ago.

And the question is how many people still have a player next to the TV to watch movies? It's a question they have to be asking themselves at Microsoft, but by the looks of it at Sony as well.

@Weebleman For some of the things that were said during June this Xbox Ally should play the role of a lab for a while.

That is, being a bit pessimistic, I don't think we will see all the major performance improvements on Windows on day one, nor the “Xbox mode” on other devices anytime soon.

And well, I think it makes sense, first it will be released in beta and then it will be improved, something similar to what they have done with Xbox Cloud.

For those who love indie games, Gamepass is paradise.

@DonkeyFantasy Well, the Windows Store has improved quite a bit over the years, I think it's a decent place to start generating a library of games. I'm buying some games there even though they are available on Steam.

For me the Windows Store still has two major problems:

-Many games just don't arrive or arrive very late, this is something they need to fix somehow.

-Games that are released have to use Xbox features, there is no point in making a game available to buy if it then ignores achievements and all the features that define Xbox games as Xbox games.

If they don't even have Xbox achievements, I don't see the point in releasing them in the store. No one is going to buy them there if there's no incentive.

The JRPG genre, and especially turn-based combat, have not been able to reinvent themselves over the years, Expedition 33 has a great combat system, with a great use of parrys, but for years or there have been no great ideas, or has been abandoned by real-time combat.

I hope this studio never disappears, for me it was the best studio in the world in the N64 era, and it is an irreplaceable part of my childhood.

I'm very happy about the huge success of Sea of Thieves, but I think that success has also hijacked Rare a bit, I'd like to see them do more things, and I was really looking forward to see Everwild.

I think Xbox now has more important and serious problems and priorities than these.

They need to improve their platform in general, they are covering a lot (console, PC, cloud...) and they are not competitive anywhere.

It's important to improve marketing, Xbox is a colossal disaster in this.

And games, above all games, if almost everything on Xbox is going to be multi-platform the rest has to do the same, it's imperative that games from the rest of the companies don't skip the Xbox platform, they have to fix that now.

Then, if this is solved, we will talk about limited editions.

It is indisputable that Xbox is doing very well in terms of numbers, Sony or Nintendo would probably give their right arm to have a service where Gamepass is right now.

The important thing is that this translates into a platform that satisfies its users, and this is where Xbox has deflated, although services like Gamepass itself are great, losing first-party exclusives without winning those of others has left the platform in a situation of disillusionment and distrust very dangerous for its long-term future.

It's impossible not to notice the steady decline of Xbox hardware. The Xbox Series market position is sad, and honestly, I don't think Xbox Ally will change that. I don't even think we can consider it an Xbox.

However, the overall results look really good for Xbox. Gamepass has approached $5 billion for the first time, and that's a figure that's starting to become very significant.

@theduckofdeath Yes, I'm quite happy with the work they've done unifying achievements on Xbox and Xbox PC.

The problem is that Xbox and its features are limited to games from the Windows Store, and this store, frankly, is a disaster. Many games never arrive or do so very late.

They have to fix this. If they can't get developers to stop ignoring Xbox, developers who release their games on Steam or PlayStation without any problems, the future is complicated for the platform.

If we end up buying a device called Xbox only to end up playing with a Steam profile and Steam achievements because the games don't come anywhere else, then Xbox will be dead, except that they deceive us with the white lie of continuing to call the PC they sell us to play games “Xbox.”

I understand that for many people the achievement system is trivial, but for me, it's one of the things I like most about Xbox, and the idea of having an online profile with a score is one of the best things Microsoft has done in the industry.

@theduckofdeath Yes, Epic, Ubisoft, and maybe some of the other stores, have their own achievement system, although honestly, I think hardly anyone cares about them, really the interesting one here is Steam.

I think that if you call a device “Xbox”, the minimum it should comply is that it uses Xbox features, and one of the most basic is the Xbox achievement system.

For me it is important that they take care of these details when opening the platform so that it does not lose its identity, especially considering that the Windows Store is not very popular and misses many releases.

They still need to raise the stakes for me to be interested in this machine.

I'm particularly interested in how other stores will be integrated into Xbox and the new dashboard. If they simply go their separate ways, without unifying achievements and libraries in some way, then I'm not interested in this machine.

ICO, for me the best game that Sony has ever made, and they have forgotten it so much.

I'm not going to say what I think about this ***** because if I do, I'll probably get banned for using bad language.

I don't know the situation in other countries, but in Spain it is difficult to buy games at the current high prices.

Either you end up buying few games and squeezing them a lot, or you buy more indies, or you end up subscribing to Gamepass, not that we have more alternatives.

@Cakefish Series X is technically more powerful than PS5, if they have made a good port it should work better or at least not be so bad.

Another different story is Series S...

It bothers me a little bit when I play these games right after they're released, needing dozens of attempts to defeat a boss, and then they release a patch that nerfs it.

That's what they did with Elden Ring, and I don't know exactly why, but those constant adjustments ruined the experience for me. So I'll wait a little while, and when I see that the game is stable in this regard, I'll give it a try.

Well, just another day in the video game industry.

I think it's the best feature in years, not because it's absolutely great, but because since the console was released they've barely touched the dash.

I especially like it because it provides visibility to achievements and progress, one of the things I like most about the Xbox ecosystem.

More than being useful is that this should be the norm, it turns my stomach every time some developer wants to charge you again for running a game with more resolution or framerate. On PC it's the equivalent of going to options and changing the visual settings, it's ridiculous that they charge for this on console!

This game is a very long cinematic, it was not so essential to have 60fps, but they are welcome.

I think the big problem with this game is the painful contrast between expectations and reality. It was presented together with Xbox Series X in a spectacular trailer, promising to be one of the great exclusives, AAA and emblems of the new era of Xbox, and has ended up being a small experience, remarkable at best and multiplatform.

@Cakefish Well, I don't know how precious a single tile can be xD But hey, you can probably disable it anyway.

I think in this case it's simply that this game is going largely unnoticed and they are looking to be talked about.

@Cakefish It looks like all those recently played games will be grouped together in one tab, which shouldn't annoy or add too much clutter to what you already have.

It seems to me to be an interesting addition, although not a high priority. I'd rather they used the resources they have to improve other more important things, for example the achievement system has been in need of a renovation for years.

I think it has certainly been a great win-win deal for us users, I've been able to play titles like Dead Space Remake, the Mass Effect trilogy, Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order, It Takes Two... and many others!

For me the only downside is that EA hardly works on the PC versions that are released on Gamepass, they don't even have achievements, it's something they've been doing wrong all these years and they should improve.

I hope they don't forget to fix the current game... I'm still stuck with my broken Indiana Jones save waiting for an update to fix it.

I think it's a very overrated game, if it wasn't for the marketing campaign it had I don't think it would have made much noise.

Don't get me wrong, it's a good game, with an original proposal and exquisite animations, but it's also a short game, somewhat repetitive and with a very seen narrative.

I installed it, saw that DLSS is broken and uninstalled it.

I won't play it until it's fixed

I think that consoles are no longer going to be squeezed to the limit, nowadays all games are developed for PC with graphics engines open to all platforms.

The exception will be Switch 2, which still has Nintendo behind it developing exclusive and specific games for it.

@Kaloudz Xbox PC always has the best versions of games with the highest settings available, as long as the hardware underneath supports them.

Console versions only have console-specific settings, which even on the most powerful consoles (Series X and PS5 Pro) are no more than equivalent to a mid/low-end PC.

@Friendly I think it's easily expected that Xbox Ally X will have much better performance than Switch 2 and Steam Deck.

It's going to be much more powerful hardware with the Z2 Extreme, and Windows looks like it will experience a really significant improvement in efficiency.

We'll have to see the result as the machine receives updates, but on Xbox Ally X you'll probably be able to play titles like GTA VI, Fable or Elder Scroll VI, games that I don't think would be viable on Switch 2 or Steam Deck.

@Friendly You can't compare these machines with Switch 2, Nintendo offers you an inexpensive, closed hardware with moderate specs, which they will try to squeeze the most out of by publishing specifically developed games.

Xbox Ally X is open hardware, very powerful, at an enthusiast price, that will run the entire PC catalog and virtually every game out there, with none designed specifically for it.

They are two very different products for very different audiences, obviously Xbox Ally will sell a lot less, it is a much more spectacular piece of technology, but also much more expensive, and more complicated, after all it will use Windows.

Microsoft and Asus will expect about 2-3 million Xbox Ally over its lifetime to consider it a success, much like Steam Deck. Nothing to do with the 100-150 million Nintendo will expect from Switch 2.

Honestly, I expected it to be quite a bit more expensive, especially the Xbox Ally X model.

If it ends up being confirmed, it will be one of the most interesting consoles of its kind.

If Gamepass has been with us for so many years, it is because it works financially. Believe me, if it didn't Microsoft would have shut it down a long time ago.

I think there are going to be Series S games that simply can't be ported to Switch 2, it's true that DLSS evens things out, but it's still a little trick to render at low resolution and then rescale with AI, which also comes at a cost. On paper the specs are what they are, and Series S has significantly better hardware.

An interesting port will be the latest COD, which we know have to arrive by contract to Switch 2, and must run at 60fps, let's see how they solve that, especially in portable mode.

I think Toys for Bob is working on a new Spyro, and if that one does well in sales I think they will be the ones to take on a new Banjo.

Series S has much more power and specs, you would expect games to run significantly better on Xbox, however Switch 2 has the DLSS gimmick, which of these types of technologies, is by far the best.

I've always thought they did an awesome job with Series S in their power/price/size ratio. So much so that seeing a portable Series S I think would have been a no brainer.

I hope they get it, I do not think it is fair to pay the expensive price of a game today so that in an undetermined time you can not even access the campaign.

For example it already happened with The Crew, Ubisoft's racing game that closed its servers and made the game useless for all those who had bought it. And in a few months the same thing will happen with Anthem.

Keep in mind that on the Xbox Ally it will be possible to play Uncharted, or God of War, or any game that has been published on Steam, without Sony being able to avoid it (and I don't think it's in their interest to avoid it), and on the next desktop Xbox it will almost certainly be possible to do so as well.

At that point it shouldn't make much sense for Sony to exclude the Xbox Store from its releases.

As I said in other news, I think that in a few years technology will make it unnecessary to have a device next to the TV to play, so I think consoles have an expiration date. I think these companies know it and they are moving based on it.