GoldenPants

Cue the job cuts, game cancellations, and price hikes which then lead to more future decreased sales... It's a vicious downward spiral, which execs will get handsomely rewarded for

@OldGamer999 The sales figures are basically confirming what you are saying. Last I saw was xbox was less than 14% market share, in 4th place behind some obscure console I had never heard of... NEX Playground!

The next PCBox is the only thing that makes sense for Microsoft. However, of course only knowing actual pricing will determine if it actually makes sense or something else makes more sense PS5 Pro, PS6, Steam machine, PC...

I can't say I'm thrilled with the "MASSIVE addition from Kojima", I expect more when you charge 50% more for your game pass product. Death stranding feels like getting crumbs at this point, this game is so old it has been given away for free already twice on Epic games, it is also "free" to play on Amazon (many have Amazon Prime accounts & where I already played it) & if you wanted to buy it, you can basically own it anytime for like $15 (official store sales or PC game keys). Plus like others, I found the game to be boring.

Game Pass Ultimate has been hands down unbelievable value for me, still have 1.5yrs stacked. Started with converting old Games with Gold tier to GPU for $1, then converting rewards points to more GPU. You can still buy discount codes that effectively negates recent 50% price hike. At list price that would be CAD$400 for a year of GPU. I hardly doubt I could get value out of that.

@themightyant What I was trying to point out is that when people say 10min/day = 60+hrs/yr & you could have made more money doing some other job (even minimum wage job), the fallacy in that argument is you could never have monetized that time. Sure I could pick up at least an extra 7 shifts at work in 60+hrs, but no one I know has a job that lets them pick up 60+ hours in a year a few minutes at a time.

However, if someone were to say they find collecting rewards points annoying so the reward is not worth it to them, sure I understand that.

@Netret0120 YMMV, but I can get all daily points done in 10 minutes/day. I definitely have some inefficient downtime/gaps in my day that I can use for that & can't monetize. No one is going to pay me for a 10 minute job randomly scattered throughout my day, so there is no opportunity loss.

The main hassle for me is the search timeout on PC, not exactly sure what it is set to (6 seconds?), but for sure 10 seconds per search does it for me. 90 PC points/3 pts per search * 10 seconds = 5 minutes. Everything else is click through without timeouts, even mobile search. So everything is done in less than 10 minutes.

Now that you don't actually have to play a game to earn an achievement the "playing" a Game Pass game is also easier than ever. I just launch solitaire on my PC while doing something else & if I don't actually play a console game, I similarly just launch a console game. So even the play a game pass game for 15 minutes takes actually less than a minute of my time to just launch the game.

@themightyant Also doing the math on electricity cost... electricity use on Xbox Series X is probably using about 150Watts/hr or less as the game is basically idle. 15min of energy use = 37.5Watts. For me electricity is tiered on time of day, but say CAD$0.15/KW, so electricity cost is less than 6cents/day. Add in electricity use for my phone (mobile searches/activities) & Laptop electricity and I am still at only 10 cents/day. So 10cents in electricity use vs earning at least 50cents in rewards points, still makes sense for me.

Also at least for me, for where I live the 10 cents in electricity use is not "wasted", it has dual use, as essentially all electricity use ends up as heat and except for like 3 months of the year, the extra heat in the house is welcome heat.

Get value from my Game Pass Ultimate subscription, still have 1yr+ stacked, collect all the free Epic, Amazon games... Getting ready for the Next Box PC gaming transition, building PC library

@Profchaos Yeah, I stick my hands in my pockets, but at this point hands out in space I guess is even safer... no question as to where your hands are

@Gabrie Exactly!! If it is RTX5090 equivalent and only $1,500 I'm buying immediately. If under $1,000 none of us will get it due to the scalpers getting them first.

Nextbox is a powerful PC & will be priced like one. Anyone, thinking it will be less than $1000 is dreaming. Pricing has to be in line with an RTX 5080 PC (supposedly what it is equivalent to) or PC gamers will just scoop them all up & we will have to deal with pandemic scalping situation all over again. PC gamers won't care that console gamers are crying over the price.

Have you priced out an RTX 5080 PC lately? Even an RTX 5070 PC under $1000 with the amount of memory the nextBox "Magnus" will have is dreaming. I highly doubt AI bubble will burst in the next two years. Plus we haven't even seen the effect of Nvidia reducing GPU production yet. Pricing will get worse.

Either be prepared to pay up $1500+ or enjoy your current setup/backlog.

Is it just me, or did that photo of Sarah, Phil & Matt seen kinda cringe? Like let's all huddle together, smile like we are best friends, but Phil can't actually touch Sarah? Like his right hand is out in space?

I got the memo from Microsoft. I'm ditching consoles as well. I have too many Xboxes, so I sold by Series S after Christmas. Now my Series X & what must be my at least 10 other Xboxes in the house will have to do...

@BacklogBrad This is the right answer, time is money, bills need to get paid, interest on loans/debt is accumulating... Release when ready, don't sit on it... although GTA6 is likely once in a decade event to avoid.

@RBRTMNZ Yeah, also Steam Machine as a benchmark. Devs need to optimize their games, stop telling us that 8GB video ram is not enough & what not... Hopefully RAMaggedon will put an end to the unoptimized bloatware.

We should also consider that number of articles is not a good metric of "Most Covered" (whatever that is supposed to mean).

Just from a week ago... search for full details... "Digital Foundry’s Alex Battaglia revealed that their Xbox-related videos failed to attract a substantial audience. Any Xbox-related content they posted in 2025 got very few views, even for AAA titles."

I mean, I could write a ton of articles on my first PC the Commodore Vic 20, but if the user base has shrunk so much & there are no eye balls on the articles, it is kind of meaningless.

No matter how people want to spin the positives, Xbox is seriously bleeding... console sales crashing, console price hikes, Game Pass price hikes, needing to put "exclusives" on other platforms...

Although I must say, if you knew how to "game" the Xbox system, it has been truly great: $1 Gold to Game Pass Ultimate conversion, Rewards points conversion to GPU

@Sensechat Yup, Microsoft has been clear about Xbox console ecosystem, not even trying with Black Friday sales, not surprising console sales are collapsing. I am only building my PC library while I still have another 1.5yrs of GPU. I got the message loud & clear from Microsoft.

I really don't see what the issue is with using AI. It is a new tool that should be used appropriately (review the output so you don't get 6 fingers and what not...). Sure if you are losing your job or getting less work, you won't like it, but why do things the slow/inefficient/expensive way? If you have a new tool use it. Like unless you are Amish, tell me you want to plow a field with a team of horses or oxen instead of using a tractor??? When I started my undergrad engineering, we were taught to do drafting by hand. Learning that skill aged badly with CAD. Should I get up in arms and complain of loss of engineering jobs because of CAD? Sheet happens, people need to adapt. We can't just say lets do everything by hand to preserve jobs. I also have a slide ruler, anyone want to borrow it to do some math by hand? And no I don't know how to use it, I bought it at a garage sale out of curiosity/novelty. I'm not that old!

I bought a condo, closing this week. 39pages of legal jibberish. I've been e-mailing back and for with questions to my lawyer. Answers typically take a few hours or next day to get answers, let me review I'll get back to you... I decided to upload to ChatGPT. It basically read the whole thing instantly and gives me immediate answers, both more detailed & summarized than my lawyer gave me. Now tell me. Should I use AI or should I stick with the more inefficient/expensive way and be part of the lets preserve lawyer jobs?

Primary couch co-op games the family can play together...
TMNJ: Shredders Revenge, Marvel Cosmic invasion, Brotato, Vampire Survivors, Rayman's Legends, Overcooked 2
For The King (maybe... game takes too long for run through)

Will also try out some games on PC:
Sackboy: A big Adventure
The Jackbox Party Pack (free from EPIC a couple weeks ago)
Amazon prime gaming/Luna also has some GamesNight couch co-op games (phones as controllers) that we'll give a try: Who wants to be a millionaire, Tetris...

Anyone, got any other good recommendations out there for quick couch co-op to play as a family?

No year end review is absolutely insane!!! What happened did they not save the code from last year? Get an intern to change the year of your query from 2024 to 2025... better yet ask AI agent to make the year change.

I realize there is also some electricity cost & I am sure some where in Microsoft data centers there are a few spare cycles to run the job... But, what the heck, not in the budget?!

Everything is an Xbox so it is released on Xbox... You just don't own the right Xbox .

I'll add this game to my steam wish list. With another 1.5yrs GPU, I am only buying games on steep discount.

By the way, I hope you all picked up your free Hogwarts Legacy on Epic, only free for a few more hours. You can enjoy it on your next gen Xbox Magnus..

Definitely GOTY for me! Not surprised it is biggest GP launch of 2025.

@JaffeGaffe I'll probably get it at some point, just not at current prices. Still have another 1.5yrs of GPU so I can't get to the backlog of owned games for a while. Sales need to really be sales.

Made me look, but RDR is a hard pass, at least for me seems like RDR is being priced like an old fine wine... CAD$44.99 for RDR, yet for RDR2 it is now CAD$19.99 or $27.99 for RDR2 Ultimate. Yeah, nope on RDR...

My account is already flagged for unusual searches. Doubling searches would likely get me fully blocked, so nah, I'm not taking advantage of this offer... err I mean punishment.

For example, I can't earn any extra points for the Refer and Earn promotion as my account is already flagged for unusual searches... I just do one starting search & then search whatever Microsoft next puts in the Bing search drop down. So if I have unusual searches it's all Microsoft's fault.

It's what Napoleon said... You can get men to do anything for some trinkets or pieces of ribbon... My gamer score needed an easy boost 😁

@NeoRatt I'll say similar... Although I don't travel much, except to go fishing/camping & I am not gaming then... Being able to play on PC is all about future proofing my purchase. I play on Series X|S, ROG Ally & PC. Plus the writing is on the wall for xbox. I have GPU stacked for another 1.5yrs. That largely takes me to next gen console/PCbox. So content I buy now must take the future into account, it better be playable on PC since I doubt next gen Microsoft console/PCbox is going to be subsidized, it will not be cheap. I might just end up on a gaming PC for next gen.

@Banjo- Your reading of the tea leaves is quite a bit different than my reading, it already looks to me like Microsoft has given up on this generation of consoles, next gen whatever it is will be even worse:
-You would be insane to buy an xbox console now. At least here in Canada I don't see Microsoft even trying anymore. Major retailers don't even sell xbox anymore & I gather that is the same in US & Europe. Plus Xbox is too expensive and there are no sales to speak of. You can now get a PS5 digital edition for the SAME price as a Series S & of course PS5 is way more machine than a Series S. Series X is going to cost like CAD$200/40% more than PS5. So you would be insane to buy either Series X|S consoles over a PS5
-PS5 already massively outsells Series X|S. Throw in price advantage of PS5 & no more exclusives on Xbox, the difference is only going to widen. The next 1-2yrs of this gen until next gen arrives is going to be brutal.
-Not to mention more competition on the PC side with Steam Machine. Windows truly suks. Besides anti-cheat games, gaming on Steam OS is going to be the way to go.
-PC storefronts (Steam, Epic, GOG, etc), & Playstation are going to eat Microsofts lunch. They are all going to be getting their 30% cut of sales and PC game prices are better than anything on Microsoft's shrinking ecosystem. There is no way Microsoft is going to able to subsidize their next gen console/PC. It is just not going to be price competitive, we already see this with Series X|S. There is no reason to think the economics will be any better for the next gen, in fact they will probably be only worse.

I hope I am wrong, because as a consumer, we all win with more competition, but at this point Microsoft/Xbox are already not competitive.

Even if I probably won't buy the Steam Machine I gladly welcome it.

Choice/competition for consumers is always a good thing. Especially when the competition is being driven by a company (Valve) that has a reputation for being pro-consumer. Even if you are not the target audience of the Steam Machine (too low powered) it will be a win for all consumers. One more choice for hardware & operating system, which minimally forces Microsoft to lessen Windows bloatware & improve Windows for all gamers.

No way, South of Midnight deserves GOTY. Combat was so repetitive and tedious. I played through to the end only because I had progressed far enough that I needed to see if it got better at the end, it didn't... Although, perfect GPU rental game... Never want to own it or play it again, so can't be GOTY.

@swedetrap Alan Wake 2 is on my wish list, but I don't think I am buying any more content on Xbox. Every game that I would want is always cheaper on PC & seeing that Microsoft is going that way anyhow, I don't want to have content locked to a platform that is going away.

@InterceptorAlpha Crazy! 😦

@CallMeDuraSouka Agreed. Microsoft is cooked. Steam is eating Microsoft's lunch. I'm using my next 1.5 years of GPU to collect PC Games on sale.

We have reached the point of diminishing returns. There is not a huge immediate need for a Next Gen console. Series X/PS5 are effectively good enough for what most would need/notice. Case in point, Steam machine that arrives 5yrs after current gen & is projected to be slightly weaker than PS5/Series X. Current tech is not anywhere near obsolete.

Welcome to 2020... With the steam machine being weaker than both PS5 & Series X, it does not appeal to me. Seems like a step backwards. Although it does seem like it validates Microsoft NextBox strategy.

You can't separate the hardware from the software/content. Game Pass Ultimate has made Series X|S (own both) an absurdly great gaming platform & value for me.

Years of Gold level conversion for $1 to Game Pass Ultimate & reward points earned for more free GPU, has been an absurdly great gaming value. Sure on the surface I don't like the recent GPU price increase & that I can't directly convert reward points to free GPU, but it has still been an absurdly great gaming value. I almost feel guilty!

I haven't gamed seriously since the 80s when I was in high school, life got in the way... university, career, kids... Now all these years of almost free GPU has allowed me to build my gaming library with cheap sales. I still have 1.5 yrs of GPU stacked after which it will be time to catch up on the gaming library backlog. I will be gaming on Series X|S for many years to come.

Unless the current AI/datacenter buildouts suddenly stop, the crazy implication is PS5 & Series X|S are probably approaching appreciating asset status. Current technology has reached diminishing returns, they are good enough. Current gen consoles can be used for many years to come. Same goes with phones, it used to be if you upgraded every 2yrs you could notice a big difference, now there is barely a difference.

If recent memory & SSD price increases continue. PS6/NextBox are going to be crazy expensive for a difference that certainly casual gamers won't really notice a difference.

Well it really does seem Microsoft is serious about the Tik Tok threat. In that in order to compete Microsoft is moving to free video game playing that is ad supported, not too different of a model than tik tok or youtube. Of course it is still to be seen how much ads you have to watch vs how much gaming you get.

@fatpunkslim The thing is the the Xbox ROG Ally is literally (not figuratively) advertised as play all your games. If you didn't know that you can't actually play all your games, it would be a little more than misleading that you can only play your Play Anywhere games.

But I think I am getting on board with Microsoft/Xbox new direction. We probably don't need a next gen console, unless you're really up at the premium end, which is what Sarah Bond is hinting at.

Heck I just logged into Amazon Prime Gaming, and I see that this is now fully branded as Luna. They have a decent selection of games, considering it is likely free for most (well included "free" for about 250million subscribers). Saw that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was there, so I tried gaming on non-gaming laptop via streaming & was very pleasantly surprised. With streaming games like Nvidia's Gforce Now, Luna, GamePass, streaming to SmartTV's, etc, it does seem like it is less and less necessary to have next gen console.

@soundsonic We have reached the point of diminishing returns in so many things. No need to worry that consoles could get too expensive, unless it's broken just keep your current gen console. You will probably not notice unless you compare side by side. I have both a Series S & X, after like 10 seconds of gaming on the series S, I forget that I thought the X looked better.

Also consider other diminishing returns:
-Netflix 4K: I am trying a science experiment, I upgraded the family Netflix account to highest tier 4K for a month. So far no one has noticed & said anything... It's diminishing returns as I thought.
-Spotify lossless: my daughter & boyfriend did blind hearing test on each other, they can't really tell the difference.
-Just got Airpods Pro 3 vs my 2yr old Anker life P3 ear buds that cost 1/3 the price. I'm honestly disappointed that I really can't tell which sounds better, except that the Pro's noise cancelling is better, but for music & my non audiophile ears I honestly struggle to tell the difference.
-Phones: do I really need to say anything here? New models are barely indistinguishable from the older models.

Sure new tech is better, but it's really getting to the point of diminishing returns and struggling to tell the difference.

@PressR2 Don't worry you are not really missing anything. So I did finish this game & have to say no doubt this is visually creative, but at the same time at no point did I feel like I was having fun playing this game, but more that I needed to see the end because of the hours already played... even through to the end it feels like a "walking" simulator, you are just going through the motions, just going through the map, no skill is required to play this game, you can't even die if you tried, "puzzles" are easy... I would have been upset if I bought this, glad it was a rental game on GPU...

I also completed Keeper. I would have to say my review is somewhat mixed. There is no question this "game" is 5star in terms of visual creativity, but otherwise flawed as a game... The game feels like a "walking" simulator ("walking" not to spoil anything...), there is zero skill required, you can't die, "puzzles" are very easy. This is the so called perfect rental game, there is no way I ever see myself playing this again. If this was not on GPU I would wait until it is 80-90% off before recommending anyone purchase this.

@PressR2 Honestly I can see why you uninstalled. I'm 2 hours into this walking simulator, there is no skill required, "puzzles" are not puzzling, no challenges. I'm trying to think of something positive to say... Ok, it is visually creative, designers must have been on hallucinogenics... It's a "good" game pass game, zero replay ability, there is no way I can see myself playing through again (if I do finish this...), so a perfect rental game, no need to own... Maybe this was a game meant for 5yr olds? I mean I immediately get it if I pickup Paw Patrol, but maybe the marketing needs to highlight how low skill this game is.

@Cvantez Exactly. Despite like half the people struggling with cost of living, there are also tons of people out there that are essentially looking for things to do/buy to spend their excess money on. To many these thousand dollar consoles is a small purchase they don't think much about.

Actual console sales is the reason rumors are believable. This gen, PS5 significantly outsells Xbox & the difference in sales is growing. There is a network effect with this, if all your friends are on PS5, why would you buy an Xbox? Not to mention you can buy Xbox titles on PS5.

It's obvious retailers will drop Xbox (eg Costco), or drop store space/visibility as sales continue to dwindle. The next Xbox being a PCXbox, is the only thing that makes sense at this point. I'm building PC library at this point.

Costco still has 6mo codes that work out to just under CAD$21/mo, which is much more appealing than $34/mo. Sitting in the fence at this point on stacking more GPU even at $21/mo. I think it might be best for me to selectively Subscribe when I really want GPU. I anyhow have two hobbies, fishing/kayaking during warmer months and gaming during the winter. At most I feel like I should only subscribe to GPU 4 months/yr.

I hate to say it, but with EA private equity buy out, they are going to be hiking prices & en$hitification will ramp up. The squeeze on prices is only going to get worse from all sides.

There is no question that the higher monthly fee is going to alienate many. It reaches the point that why not wait a bit & buy your games at a discount & own "forever". Heck, ok so for example they added Hogwarts Legacy to GPU, but I can buy that on CD keys for like half the cost of the new monthly GPU subscription fee. So essentially I can buy like 1-2 vintage Hogwarts Legacy type games/mo for the cost of a monthly GPU sub. Plus I'm obviously going to be selective in what I buy & buy games I like. Sure there is a huge volume of games available on GPU, but at the same time there are also a huge number of games I would not want to play on GPU.

Although I must say that I should not complain... 2yrs of Gold tier to GPU conversion for $1, then years of rewards for free GPU. So I can't complain, but if you are paying face value, GPU really does not seem like good value.

@SaltySpitoon957 Exactly my thoughts. Pricing is insane. Also double insane as a Canadian CAD$1,300?!?! It looks like we're paying the Trump tax as well. As I already have a ROG Ally, it's not like I was in the market to upgrade, but definitely a big no from me at these prices.

I am both surprised, but also not surprised that Costco Canada, basically has no Xbox hardware for sale. No consoles or controllers. Only a wireless gaming headset & gift cards available. Lots of PS5 hardware.

So like has Microsoft given up?

I have both series X and series S. X is on main family TV, S is in the basement. When I hop between them, sure the X initially seems shaper, but after a few seconds of playing I really don't notice the difference. The main thing I notice is less storage on the S, i need to be selective in what I install.

Buying used S is a fantastic deal. With no moving parts, little risk in buying used.