@awp69 bit hypocritical moaning about off topic convos when you dragged studio canal into this discussion. Hookshot has receipts!

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2026/06/sony-will-continue-to-chase-live-service-dream-despite-mostly-disastrous-execution-to-date

@shiny-enzo I know Asha Sharma has said it and therefore you have to toe the line and agree with it but come on this is dumb. Over 10% OF THE WORLD playing an Xbox game every day. 25% of the world don’t even have running water ffs. This would mean they draw in more players than every other platform combined: Steam, GoG, Epic, PlayStation, Nintendo, Luna…everything. This is roughly the equivalent number of every man, woman and child in USA and Europe all playing daily. It would be stupid if any gaming platform made this claim but Xbox in the midst of one of the biggest layoff events in gaming history saying it is just hilarious.

@CallMeDuraSouka They have already monetised the hell out of Minecraft It has an entire marketplace and several types of paid subscriptions which never existed before Mojang was acquired.

An 8th of the worlds population playing an xbox game every day is such a bonkers objective its almost commendable. That puts it close to MS Office daily usage figures. Factor in the 2 billion odd people who don't have an internet connection and she is looking to have 15% of the developed world. The exact kind of arrogant unrealistic nonsense I have come to expect from an Xbox exec.....100mil Gamepass subscribers anyone?

I bought the most 360 games by a long shot and they are either in my parents attic or have been given to charity. I bought maybe 5-10 on Xbox one and my single Series X disk is Forza Horizon 5 which came bundled with my console.

I can see them potentially teaming up with someone to offer a proprietary optional disc drive but I’m not even sure why they would do this outside of backward compatibility. They have been pulling away from physical media for the entirety of this generation to the point where some of their own first party games have physical editions for PS5 and not Series. As much as people here might love a massive f*&k you to Sony it makes zero business sense and would just drive up the cost of the console even more than it’s already going to be.

The fact of the matter is if PS6 isn’t physical, then in all likelihood game disks die with it. Publishers aren’t going to waste resources producing them for a console with a much smaller user base, many of which opt for Gamepass over buying games anyway.

I play Cod every year but usually get bored within a couple of months so it being on gamepass was perfect for me. Like @oopsiezz I am somewhat surprised that everyone kind of just rolled over and accepted this, if not applauded it after years of “Every Xbox game day one” marketing. Unless you love Fortnite and old Ubisoft games GPU is a worse deal now than it was 12 months ago. I appreciate everything is going up in price across every entertainment platform but I am struggling to think of a promise Xbox made during the FTC trial which they have actually kept, day one cod and no degradation of the product or price changes being some of the core ones.

Arkane do fantastic work and this closure would be the biggest blow for me from the growing graveyard. I remember hearing Xbox bought Bethesda to stop Sony tying up 12 month exclusivity deals after Deathloop….well if this closure is true congrats Xbox you succeeded in your mission. Nothing screams winning the console war more than sitting on a bunch of dormant IP you had no hand in creating and won’t do anything with. Creatively bankrupt idiots.

Dunno how the Xbox defence force gets up every morning for another day of mental gymnastics and justification. Must be getting on for a full time job for some of them.

@betterthings as a massive fan of I think you should leave I really enjoyed this 😂

All seems a bit rich complaining about the rising cost of components when parent company Microsoft are one of the biggest spenders on AI centric data centres. The whole thing reeks of hypocrisy.

@Swandivetotheasphalt Amazon gift vouchers seems to be sold out in the UK but you can redeem for Argos, Curry’s, Tesco, Asda, Deliveroo and many more….you should definitely look into it because that’s about £75 worth of vouchers.

Personally I am saving my reward points for whatever comes first out of Clockwork Revolution or Fable. Unless they announce GTA6 will be Play Anywhere for the eventual PC release I will be buying it on PS5.

@FraserG it would be absolutely bonkers although I do wonder if they are planning to position this as a limited edition luxury device aimed only at the type of gamers who have a spare couple of thousand knocking about. Oh well time will tell, have a great weekend mate

@FraserG I read when it was announced that you can only buy this as part of a bundle with the AR glasses which squashed all my interest. Do you know if that’s actually the case? If so there is absolutely no chance it’s coming in at less than a grand.

I picked up 007 a few days ago and tbh I’m struggling a bit to get into it. Hopefully it will all click this weekend. Aside from that it will be more FH6, some Crimson Desert and back on Marathon. I am loving the increase in third party Play Anywhere titles this year though. I have bought more on Xbox in the last 3 months than the last three years combined.

@GamingGod Same, I loved tuning into E3 especially on a console announcement year. I genuinely like Geoff Keighley and have nothing against the length of the show it’s more that it feels padded. I may be looking back with rose tinted glasses but E3 used to feel more focused.

SGF for me but I do wish they would cut down on the cheesy fluff and interviews. That show absolutely does not need to be 2 hours long.

It looks cool, I’ll be keeping an eye on this. I’m also very intrigued by what Gavin Raeburn has been cooking up with his new studio.

As someone who lives in a semi rural area which suffers at least 3 full power outages per year this is a terrifying prospect. No FH during storms for me.

@FarmDog08 I would take the 12 month thing with a rather large pinch of salt. They said the exact same thing in the June 2022 showcase. 3 of the 5 first party games were delayed, Stalker 2 took 2 years, Silksong took another 3 and we still don’t have a release date for Ark 2 in 2026.

Edit: notice I’m late to the party and @Markatron84 beat me to it!

The TMR sticks are a very welcome addition and will hopefully set the standard moving forward. Last thing you need on a handheld is stick drift. If the price isn’t too obscene I might be tempted to sell my Steamdeck for this.

There is going to be lots of soaking up the sunshine in the garden with the Steam Deck but when I am indoors I will be on FH6.

It’s a brilliant achievement from Playground, they absolutely deserve all the plaudits they are getting. Every spare minute I can find has been spent on FH6 the last few days….I cannot wait for the weekend to really get stuck in.

@Skinny-Pete Not yet. I was planning on giving it a whirl over the weekend but expect to get fully battered when I do. Have you tried it?

@Skinny-Pete Some series races would be fun. I can’t remember if they have existed in previous Horizon games or not but would definitely be a nice addition. Have a good one!

@Skinny-Pete Yeh I realised this last night. I was mainly focusing on the campaign races to unlock wrist bands but you can use the super cars in the street races which don’t give you campaign points. My mistake

@Titntin I was playing for about 45 minutes before I thought it’s ever so slightly jittery for 60fps and then I looked in the settings to find I was in quality mode…probably the smoothest quality mode I have seen in a game. Insane optimisation and I can confirm it works beautifully in performance as well.

I’d say deffo give it another shot. Apart from the legacy rewards it doesn’t give you ridiculous cars before you’re ready for them unless you get super lucky on a wheel spin. I’m a massive FH fan and this is shaping up to be my favourite so far!

@Titntin It throws the previous Forza gift cars at you early but you can’t use them for races until you have progressed quite a lot of the campaign. They are useful for getting from A to B faster and completing the danger sign/speed camera activities but progression overall is handled way better than 5 where you’re racing in Bugattis after 15 minutes.

I love it so far, it doesn’t reinvent the wheel and the dialogue is still offensively cringe but it’s such a joy to play and there’s so much to do.

I have looked in the account settings mentioned and under personalised Ads the options are to either get them tailored to you or just random ads. It literally says “You will still see ads, but they may be less relevant”…so at least in the UK it appears you can’t fully disable them just choose whether to let MS farm your data or see stuff you don’t care about.

I really want turn off the full screen popups. Earlier I logged into Xbox PC app and I had one suggesting I upgrade my FH6 pre order to the ultimate edition so I can play today. Like I have already bought the game stop with the hard sell Xbox, it comes across as desperate and needy.

I had problems with the home button registering on my Elite Series 2 within 6 months of purchase but it didn't affect games so I didn't mind all that much. The RB button completely stopping working within 2 years was the dealbreaker for me so I definitely won't be buying any more "Elite" controllers from Xbox.

I love Hitman but lukewarm on Bond. I will see how it reviews and then decide but being play anywhere would make it an Xbox purchase if I do pull the trigger

Yess glad it turned out well. Not that I had any doubts Playground would deliver but still wanted confirmation before pre ordering. Bring on Tuesday!

@Nexozi Yep I’m more than happy with the standard edition. I don’t need early access and don’t want to pay up front for mystery DLC. I’m sorry I’m really confused about the overall point you’re making here. If you’re happy paying for the upgrade then you do you it’s just not my cup of tea.

@Nexozi I mean that’s literally what I said I am doing in my first comment?

@Nexozi If it’s the only game I want to play then yep it is tough!

Paying £60 upfront and then a further £11-£17 each month I want to play a game is such a wild concept to me but fair enough if it works for some people. I will be buying the standard edition with my saved up reward points. Can’t wait.

Considering Microsoft have played their own massive part in the component crisis you would think they are better placed to make predictions on where things will be in the next 18 months but I still very much doubt they have a concrete plan in place. Even if they can account for components they can’t predict the whims of Donald.

@Jenkinss Opposite for me. I hoping for contextual unwanted ads. If I’m on my phone I’m out and about so more likely to be tempted by a McDonalds drive through but sat at home I just feel I’m more likely to make a massive £40,000 splurge on a whim which is where my Ford ads become super useful.

@somnambulance This, in a nutshell is why Microsoft love subscription services. I was horrified recently to find out my Dad has being paying about £70 per year for the best part of a decade just to use Word and Outlook. They bury the one time purchase options so deep in the store pages he didn't realise he could get the whole shebang for £120. Pretty much any Microsoft created or acquired product from PowerBI to Github will have some sort of associated subscription service, usually with premium features locked behind it.

Its been so long since I turned my Series X on I can't remember if this is actually that much different. Looking forward to FH6 changing that.

Well I own a Switch because I cant play Mario, Donkey Kong and Zelda games anywhere else and I own an Xbox because I thought Bethesda games wouldn't be on PS5 after 2021. Exclusives might not sell millions of consoles but they certainly shift a reasonable amount of units.

@Skinny-Pete Nah course we ain’t enemies we just disagree on stuff sometimes.

@Skinny-Pete Well make sure you don’t have that rare. Enjoy your weekend

@Skinny-Pete lovely. Rare? Medium? Well done?

@Skinny-Pete Nah it’s not that deep just my opinion. Sorry if I’ve caused offence. Enjoy your steak dinner. ✌️

@Skinny-Pete well I’m not an Xbox shareholder so I would worry more acquisitions would result in restructures, job losses, degradation of quality and further price hikes. But on the plus side at least Ricky Spanish, sorry Globo, sorry Skinny Pete would be happy that a trillion dollar company has pointlessly acquired yet another asset they don’t need 🥳

If it ain’t broke….errr acquire it?!

@Skinny-Pete yep I’m not sure who it would be nice for exactly but you’re entitled to your opinion no matter how baseless it is. Have a great Friday!

@Skinny-Pete oh I know I’m not owed an explanation I was just interested behind the reasons because this is a comment section that breeds discussion. I just assumed there would be some underlying genius level logic behind it…my mistake. Anyway sorry if I’ve offended you, it’s not that deep, just my opinion ✌️ ✌️ ✌️ ✌️

@Skinny-Pete as always I am not offended I am just questioning your logic which was a mistake on my behalf because as usual there doesn’t seem to be any! ✌️

@Skinny-Pete ok so how does Xbox owning them benefit you as a customer, the employees of Asobo and the general quality of their work?

@Coletrain I remember it being a thing that you needed to restart on the Ally but I was hoping they had made it more of a toggle by the time they rolled it out to desktops. Ahhh well not the end of the world I will probably use it when I know I am going to be playing solidly for a few hours and turn it off for for the rest of the time. You are bang on though an option on boot up to choose between modes would be the next logical step.

Thanks for all the info!