Why not just make the Xbox punch you in the goolies if your bank balance gets too low? I can't believe how much execs seem to want to make everything we enjoy miserable.
What a disaster. But no worries, I'm sure Asha will fire a few more thousand minions, grin to the press, up her bonus and it'll fix everything this time!
Microsoft turned more profit in a year than Nintendo and Capcom total value combined, TWICE OVER. Yet they can't get good games out the door. XGS are just absymally managed, from Asha/Phil down.
@ZeD "Lots of people not doing a great deal."; True. And you should see how much Asha and her psychopathic C-title ilk is getting paid to do nothing as well!
I have an even better more radical way to use disks. They could put the game data on the disk, and just let you play that game (installing if nessecary for read speed or decompression). No complex UID, no Xbox server handshake, no risk of a licencee or corp taking access away once it's turned into a digital copy...
Given the Switch 2 is a handheld with build in screen/speakers etc, and (currently) costs less it's squares up to Series S insanely well. The price increases have really made the S a dud product (for newcomers), it's a few quid off the Series X price at launch!
As someone with a (credit card paid) Xbox account for over 20 years attached to a 30 year old MS account, it was boiling my piss they asked. Very glad if this is the case (I haven't had this message)
@RadioHedgeFund I would love to see the "Perfect Dark" (/Goldeneye/Timesplitters) model of shooter expanded on! The mission structure alone was great (not just the added complexity to objectives, but missions like the Villa where you typically drop as a sniper and rescue the negotiator, but on the top Perfect Agent difficulty you start as the negotiator!)
Beyond single player though, the amount of multiplayer options were incredible. All those bots with different "personalities"! I guess it's less popular now local multiplayer is so rare sadly.
I'm surprised to see reviewers say it feels like Halo 1. It's my favourite campaign of the series, but every preview looked like the art style had been butchered, with Infinite-looking assets, overly busy sky boxes, sight lines smothered with unreal assets, and a disregard for the colour palette of the original.
I'd love to hear more on a few things. Is any of that true outside of what we have seen? Does the faster gun play still feel the same or is it a zipper, less spooky experience? Do the new prequel levels break up the flow at all?
I wonder if they get the IP? And if so, do they get any income from on-going sales of games maker under MS? What about games made before MS? I'd like to know how to support them.
Also what's happening with Ninja Theory? Very little news on that front. Worried they are getting treated worse just because they aren't in Asha's timezone tbh.
This list of remaining studios is a bit generous. Turn10 was cut to the bone, they are just support and won't be making another game. Rare also suffered heavy job losses, although unsure how much of the studio is left and if they could make a new game or not. Mojang might as well be outside the Xbox stable, and I think we all know calling Halo Studios a studio is generous, it's an umbrella for freelancers. It's awful how small it looks. Would have been much better not wasting 70 billion on ActiBlizz and just getting their previous massive stable of prestige developers firing on all cylinders (not sure it would even cost, just needed good oversight!)
@NeoRatt give over! If you are unwilling to see that Xbox has been mismanaged to a spectacular degree at this point, you'll be defending the $200-billion-profit-per-annum-corp over the workers and devs 'til the cows come home.
I'm just going to stick to my Evercade and not touch consoles anymore. What the hell is wrong with the leadership of these corporations? Do they enjoy spitting in the faces of customers?
@NeoRatt I didn't say it was (although one could easily argue the scale of job loses at MS is of a different magnitude to all those other companies combined). Besides, two wrongs don't make a right.
I was saying this particular claim Xbox is making doesn't square up. Not reducing investment but closing studios, cancelling games and mass firing again, where is this mythical "investment" going then? Where are the games they are actually making with all the investment they are freeing up?
"We're not reducing our overall investment" so Asha Sharma's wage is going up by the running cost of a few thousand employees? Or is it only by the worth of a few hundred, and the rest is getting shunted to the CoPilot division? Because Xbox appear to have less developers, in less studios, working on less games, so I can't square that circle!
State of Decay, Arkane Lyon and Blade, Double Fine, Compulsion, Ninja Theory were all "safe" the last round of cuts. and most had their games showcased a few weeks ago with a lot of pomp (and swirling comments around the net about how "Xbox is back"). Unless OD is out in the next year or two, it isn't safe yet.
The only way Xbox is back is that it's back to it's Microsoft's scummy business practices. I wish the CMA hadn't been overruled.
Bloody knew it! When the opportunity comes to slash jobs of games maker, Microsoft execs just can't stop themselves. Asha is as morally bankrupt as the rest.
I'm alone in these comments but...she's giving strong souless corporate exec energy to me.
You know, would feed the unwashed masses into a meat grinder if it helped hit quarterly projections, or, apropos of nothing, enjoying the works of the Old Masters with the 1% in a paid gallery top floor, while the rest of us get to look at what AI art slop our ad-tier existence allows beneath.
Microsoft is one of the prime causes of the sky-rocketing price of components! It's not happened naturally, like a price El Nino blew in!
This feels like setting up the justification to push streaming again. Pump up prices on "high-end" locally run machines, so they are for the Whales, and the masses make do with Netflix-for-games stream slop. same with the AAA games won't be made by AI comment (is the unspoken implication that the other 75% of "lesser" games will be?)
She has barely been in the industry a few months and is leading the largest but also least successful of the players in the market, a perennial loser brand. Stop thinking "radical" changes and get the basics right!
I was a long-time GP subscriber from it's inception on Xbox One (got an S for it and back-compat, liked the idea so much finally moved on from my aging 360), but that massive increase was the straw that broke the camels back.
The "decreased-increase" came too late. I'd cancelled and moved on; realised that at the rate I could play games through I could buy any games I wanted for that price per month's play, and I could even trade them in after.
(The fact I did that buying on a new PS5 slim while my Xbox Series X lost it's HDMI slot was only partly cynical Game Pass price increase: it was also the repeat late, flop releases, the constant cancellations, the lazy OS/firmware "updates", the relentless exec lying, and the brutal mass firings.)
I get the feeling this is more optics than looking at Xbox unit shifting. Despite what they are saying, picking the odd, frankly not likely to set the world on fire, title to stay exclusive to Xbox (but still be on PC) and making a song and dance about it while saying you are "recommitting to your core" and "returning to Xbox" is just red meat for the hyper-fans.
IMO, they are hoping to stem the bleeding as it were of public opinion and get their vocal base riled up and positive, in the hopes that, via social media and YouTube and such, they get an aura of positive vibes again and end a long run of relentless negative press, without losing too much potential market for their games.
If they were looking to get people onto the machines and locked into the ecosystem for the generation (the old reason for exclusives on any machine), they would be far more brutal with not-sharing any big games, delay the PC releases, and try to keep console prices down a bit. A Gears spin-off and a new IP by Inxile (great as it looks) are not the big ticket draws that Halo, Forza Horizon, Fable and especially COD (although I believe they have legal obligations to keep that multi-platform? But they could do exclusive timed DLC, early "beta" release, ensure it runs best on Xbox...) would be if you wanted to pump up console numbers seriously.
This is why I can't take these yearly trailer fests seriously. They look good and get one's hopes up, but over half the games don't make it out of the MS mines, even if they are supposedly a year or so out from release, and end up canned 6 years later.
"sounds like Microsoft is going to do everything possible to prevent that from happening."
"It's top of my mind" in a tweet.
This is insane levels of reading between the lines by the author. In what way does it sound like they are going to do "everything"? He said he was thinking about it in a tweet. That isn't an action, or a plan of action, and it certainly isn't doing everything possible.
What is it with higher ups at Xbox and lying? Does it just come naturally when you get to a certain circle of Microsoft? Have they spend too long talking to Copilot?
We can see it was last minute Aaron, you forgot to take the logo off the trailer FFS! Nothing particularly wrong with that, decision had to be made at some point in time, but acting like it isn't the case is ridiculous and frankly a bit annoying.
4 without a doubt. Gameplay and graphics peaked, the setting was amazing (I'm from the UK so biased, but it was so varied!). Season's were amazing, and the feature races (the Halo beach run, Vulcan bomber, steam train) and side content (Video game influencer retro arcade inspired races, the Top Gear content...) were the best they've ever been. The car choices were great, the online was super solid. Even the radio was peak. It was just made with so much love, incredible game. Along with Master Chief Collection and Rare Replay, they are the 3 games I've kept my Xbox for!
5 was the first time I felt the series took a sizable step back in quality: bland setting, bland events, flaky online in launch month.
A drop that big in revenue while prices have gone up, would point to any even bigger drop in sales numbers (as revenue is the cash in, doesn't account for increase cost to produce the machines).
That doesn't look too healthy. They will likely hope the GP price drop and recommitment will bring people back (and they could have had bumper sales before the price rise that would lead to a big drop after, but it was quite sudden so I don't think that happened much?)
I'm dubious, has done nothing to undent my sledgehammered flat confidence in Xbox, but there are positive vibes from many so maybe it will.
Too little, too late for me personally. I miss what Xbox was, and as a customer, I feel I need to see a lot more than a reduced price increase on one level of their sub-service. Good exclusive games, effort on the UI/hardware, commitment to projects and developers...
Nah, I've enjoyed Clair Obsura for ages at the cost of a month and a bit of ultimate (or 3 months of premium) for a good while more than that, with no worry it will go anywhere. (On a PS5, but equally could have purchased on Xbox if I hadn't got so annoyed and jumped ship at the rough launches, mass firings, and huge price hikes)
Basically nothing. The last 5 have been utter rubbish: my expectations were modest and they didn't just not meet them, they burrowed to the Earth's core Jules Verne-style to get below them! Price rises, tons of game cancellations, mass firings, shoddy releases, no next gen OS...
Still with such low expectations they probably can't disappoint me! (But I am sure MS Execs and their CoPilot AI will find a way!)
Yeah, I bounced off 5. The setting was a bit odd, don't think of Mexico as a "driving" place, the game's atmosphere felt stilted, and on launch it felt a bit empty and glitchy (the online was flaky). But FH4 was peak for me, the setting, the car selection, the missions, race layouts, even the music! It oozed love and care.
6 is looking very promising so far, hoping it gets it mojo back for this entry!
(Shame about Forza Motorsport too, but playing GT7 and it's great in FM's stead)
Maybe just add a cheat code! Or in game assistant ala Mario Galaxy 2's Cosmic Spirit if that's not your flavour. This seems unnecessarily complex and costly. The AI hammer still seeing every problem as a nail!
So vague, after Microsoft's behaviour for the last decade, I lack the trust to take such limited info at face value, sadly.
Many questions: How will it play Xbox games? Physical? Or only Digital? Will it be some kind of software layer inside a PC? How performant would that be, and could a regular PC user access it?
OS? Will it be a Xbox with a store or a PC that plays Xbox? Will it have a nice interface? If it does can we finally get that interface on PC and handheld PCs, as promised ages ago?
Will it be subsided or have and economy of scale benefits? Will it be upgradable?
Any launch games this time? Any controller updates? Any new features like streaming to an Xbox Party or whatever? Or is this all via the PC aspect?
@Gemini53 bang on! We've heard mood music like this so many times before and then seen Microsoft do anything but what they commited to. Past time to nut up or shut up at Xbox.
I have not a single stray electron of optimism left for Xbox sadly!
They have disappointed consistently, and seem to offer nothing looking ahead in way of a turnaround.
However the bigger issue for me is Microsoft more largely have pivoted to become a pretty rubbish business from every angle, not just gaming. Along with the rest of the AI-obsessed, money-hungry, customer-scorning big tech sector.
I'll remember the Xbox and 360 fondly, but I can't see a revival of Xbox anytime soon, and I've stopped hoping for it.
Phil's tenure hasn't ended well, and I have little hope an AI exec will do much better, sadly. Xbox needs a radical rethink, and to do that needs to be siloed from the bulk of Microsoft.
It would be for the best. Development of games has slowed to a crawl, this generation had a rough start in covid, improvements are getting less noticeable and cross-gen lasting longer and longer. The next gen was already looking expensive; this AI rush would likely make it a flop a launch. Better to wait for a bigger step, get some games ready for the new gen, and let the prices normalise.
It’s Aspyr. They are a low quality porting house, they get code running (usually), do a pass mapping controls, and leave it at that. No effort to refine the look or feel, missing effects or anything. Don’t really fix stuff either (try playing KOTOR on a Switch 2!)
A graphical powerhouse; I think it’s the best looking 360 game and possibly the best looking Halo for its hardware.
Gameplay is ok; campaign was playable but felt rougher than earlier games. Story was all over the shop! Multiplayer had a lot going on, but it was too afraid to be Halo, leaning into CoD tropes of the time.
It’s 343’s best Halo. I think all their work after is worse. But it’s not as good or polished as Bungie Halo overall.
The absolute bull this charlatan pipes out!
“ we give development teams a little more time to avoid putting them under strain.”
You fired them you soulless corporate stooge! That’s not giving time, space and showing off flexibility! It’s somehow worse to me that thy keep spewing these NewSpeak untruths over and over instead of saying times were tough we fired people. Instead it’s all sunny uplands, ignore the tense environment, the random huge firings, the ungodly huge rewards upper management take (despite causing all this!), the falling sales, the over-squeezed customers.
It’s all just a great, happy-clappy flexible working environment, and I reallllllly care about these people actually cos Microsoft is so nice and lovely!!!
I really don’t like it. The art style is completely off. The tones, the vibe, the readability…it feels corporate and bland; technically impressive but devoid of the soul that Halo: CE had.
I’m also a bit miffed by some of the lazy changes. All the weapons looks and animate just like the ones in Infinite, but with UE5 lighting. The building look like Infinite too, as do the foes, and the weapon sounds seem off. Plus the gamplay looks a bit neutered (smaller Assault Rifle clip, less beefy pistol, energy swords added into the mix).
I don’t come away from that thinking Halo CE-Again will be much of a patch on the Original for me. It does looks better than Anniversary graphics; but it has the same issue of taking the shape of the levels and shoving it into a different looking and feeling era of Halo.
I don’t think this is inevitable with high end graphics (FF7 Remake captures the tone and vibe of that game well, or say the System Shock remaster). But, for me personally, the art direction is way off. They would have been better making an original game.
@EvenStephen7 I agree. The colour palette is way off, the visuals look noisy and busy, all the models and animations look ported from Infinite. Devoid of soul. I’ll stick to the OG.
These games are frequently as cheap as a pound or two; on a sales month you could get all the one you wanted for less than a GamePass sub. There’s no spinning this “change” to GPU, it’s the latest in a seemingly unending string of anti-customer decisions from some staggeringly out-of-touch executives.
It's not just GamePass: The hardware prices are insane next to PlayStation now (in the US the Series S costs as much as a more powerful, more storage inside PS5 Digital edition, the Series X costs as much as the PS5 Pro, despite matching the base model). The developer firings and mess ups don't strike much confidence they can even get a single great game out each year, never mind enough hits to make a GP subscription worth it.
The attitude of MS around callous firings, franchises (like look what happened to Halo, or the state of Forza MS, or the gutting of Rare and dust-gathering of it's IP, or Lionhead, or new Perfect Dark, or Hi-Fi Rush...), the lack of effort in UI or performance, the up-and-down messaging, the lacklustre releases like Redfall...
My main regret is the investment I have in the post-360 Xbox eco-system that makes it tough to leave. Game saves, digital games, friend playing on Xbox etc. I makes it hard to truly bin off Xbox this gen, but now it exists in my house for what I have on it for single player only and that is it. I will be getting a PS5 next time I get a good bit of time off work to play on it I think; and the Series X will go back into it's box and into the cupboard.
Record revenue, but they still slashed the dev teams and now are massively hiking the price (50%!?)
"so we’re evolving Game Pass to offer more flexibility, choice, and value to all players" more value? At a much higher price? It's not evolving, it's not a pokemon. It's a callous price rise on a sub-service for a frankly failing console business.
Microsoft were offered an open-goal this gen and they proceed to score multiple own goals instead. What a disaster.
I've cancelled GamePass as £280 is plenty of games (that I can trade into CeX!). However as I need some level of GamePass to play online at all..I'm just switching to PC until the PS6 arrives I think. Done with Microsoft's puppeteering of the ragged remains of a brand that I loved to bits 20ish years ago.
Comments 130
Re: Microsoft Files Patent Which Could Bring Game-Pausing Ads To Xbox
Why not just make the Xbox punch you in the goolies if your bank balance gets too low? I can't believe how much execs seem to want to make everything we enjoy miserable.
Re: Xbox Game Studios Suddenly Looks Very Different In New Fan-Made Infographic
What a disaster. But no worries, I'm sure Asha will fire a few more thousand minions, grin to the press, up her bonus and it'll fix everything this time!
Microsoft turned more profit in a year than Nintendo and Capcom total value combined, TWICE OVER. Yet they can't get good games out the door. XGS are just absymally managed, from Asha/Phil down.
Re: Report: Xbox Layoffs On The Way This Week, Multiple Studios To Be 'Consolidated'
@ZeD "Lots of people not doing a great deal."; True. And you should see how much Asha and her psychopathic C-title ilk is getting paid to do nothing as well!
Re: Xbox Disc To Digital FAQ - Five Of The Most Common Questions We're Seeing So Far
I have an even better more radical way to use disks. They could put the game data on the disk, and just let you play that game (installing if nessecary for read speed or decompression). No complex UID, no Xbox server handshake, no risk of a licencee or corp taking access away once it's turned into a digital copy...
Re: Xbox Series S Compared To Nintendo Switch 2 In Oblivion Remastered Analysis
Given the Switch 2 is a handheld with build in screen/speakers etc, and (currently) costs less it's squares up to Series S insanely well. The price increases have really made the S a dud product (for newcomers), it's a few quid off the Series X price at launch!
Re: Xbox Suddenly Tells Loads Of People They Don't Need To Verify Their Age Anymore
As someone with a (credit card paid) Xbox account for over 20 years attached to a 30 year old MS account, it was boiling my piss they asked. Very glad if this is the case (I haven't had this message)
Re: Xbox Boss Reveals Brief Thoughts On Elder Scrolls 6 After Seeing A 'Live Playthrough'
Can't wait to here how half of the Devs get fired around release like she did to id.
(Worth looking into the podcast with Chris Hay from id to hear from someone still at id how horribly she's treated that incredible team)
Re: Review: Halo: Campaign Evolved (Xbox) - A Stunning Remake That Becomes The Definitive Master Chief Campaign
@RadioHedgeFund I would love to see the "Perfect Dark" (/Goldeneye/Timesplitters) model of shooter expanded on! The mission structure alone was great (not just the added complexity to objectives, but missions like the Villa where you typically drop as a sniper and rescue the negotiator, but on the top Perfect Agent difficulty you start as the negotiator!)
Beyond single player though, the amount of multiplayer options were incredible. All those bots with different "personalities"! I guess it's less popular now local multiplayer is so rare sadly.
Re: Review: Halo: Campaign Evolved (Xbox) - A Stunning Remake That Becomes The Definitive Master Chief Campaign
I'm surprised to see reviewers say it feels like Halo 1. It's my favourite campaign of the series, but every preview looked like the art style had been butchered, with Infinite-looking assets, overly busy sky boxes, sight lines smothered with unreal assets, and a disregard for the colour palette of the original.
I'd love to hear more on a few things. Is any of that true outside of what we have seen? Does the faster gun play still feel the same or is it a zipper, less spooky experience? Do the new prequel levels break up the flow at all?
Re: Compulsion Games, Double Fine & Undead Labs Issue Xbox Departure Statements
I wonder if they get the IP? And if so, do they get any income from on-going sales of games maker under MS? What about games made before MS? I'd like to know how to support them.
Also what's happening with Ninja Theory? Very little news on that front. Worried they are getting treated worse just because they aren't in Asha's timezone tbh.
Re: Here's The New Lineup Of Xbox Game Studios For July 2026 Onwards
This list of remaining studios is a bit generous. Turn10 was cut to the bone, they are just support and won't be making another game. Rare also suffered heavy job losses, although unsure how much of the studio is left and if they could make a new game or not.
Mojang might as well be outside the Xbox stable, and I think we all know calling Halo Studios a studio is generous, it's an umbrella for freelancers.
It's awful how small it looks. Would have been much better not wasting 70 billion on ActiBlizz and just getting their previous massive stable of prestige developers firing on all cylinders (not sure it would even cost, just needed good oversight!)
Re: Xbox Issues Statement After Pulling Out Of Project Fantasy
@NeoRatt give over! If you are unwilling to see that Xbox has been mismanaged to a spectacular degree at this point, you'll be defending the $200-billion-profit-per-annum-corp over the workers and devs 'til the cows come home.
Re: As PlayStation Announces The End Of Disc-Based Releases, Will Xbox Follow Suit?
I'm just going to stick to my Evercade and not touch consoles anymore. What the hell is wrong with the leadership of these corporations? Do they enjoy spitting in the faces of customers?
Re: Xbox Issues Statement After Pulling Out Of Project Fantasy
@NeoRatt I didn't say it was (although one could easily argue the scale of job loses at MS is of a different magnitude to all those other companies combined). Besides, two wrongs don't make a right.
I was saying this particular claim Xbox is making doesn't square up. Not reducing investment but closing studios, cancelling games and mass firing again, where is this mythical "investment" going then? Where are the games they are actually making with all the investment they are freeing up?
Re: Xbox Issues Statement After Pulling Out Of Project Fantasy
"We're not reducing our overall investment" so Asha Sharma's wage is going up by the running cost of a few thousand employees? Or is it only by the worth of a few hundred, and the rest is getting shunted to the CoPilot division? Because Xbox appear to have less developers, in less studios, working on less games, so I can't square that circle!
Re: Report: Hideo Kojima's Xbox Exclusive 'OD' Is Safe From Cancellation At Microsoft
State of Decay, Arkane Lyon and Blade, Double Fine, Compulsion, Ninja Theory were all "safe" the last round of cuts. and most had their games showcased a few weeks ago with a lot of pomp (and swirling comments around the net about how "Xbox is back"). Unless OD is out in the next year or two, it isn't safe yet.
The only way Xbox is back is that it's back to it's Microsoft's scummy business practices. I wish the CMA hadn't been overruled.
Re: Report: Xbox Set For Major Job Cuts, Studio Closure Or 'Lineup Changes' Could Be Involved
Bloody knew it! When the opportunity comes to slash jobs of games maker, Microsoft execs just can't stop themselves. Asha is as morally bankrupt as the rest.
Re: Xbox CEO Asha Sharma "Doesn't Believe" GenAI World Models Will Replace AAA Games
I'm alone in these comments but...she's giving strong souless corporate exec energy to me.
You know, would feed the unwashed masses into a meat grinder if it helped hit quarterly projections, or, apropos of nothing, enjoying the works of the Old Masters with the 1% in a paid gallery top floor, while the rest of us get to look at what AI art slop our ad-tier existence allows beneath.
Re: 'We'll Start To See Radically Different Business Models' - Xbox Boss Talks Future Of Consoles
Microsoft is one of the prime causes of the sky-rocketing price of components! It's not happened naturally, like a price El Nino blew in!
This feels like setting up the justification to push streaming again. Pump up prices on "high-end" locally run machines, so they are for the Whales, and the masses make do with Netflix-for-games stream slop. same with the AAA games won't be made by AI comment (is the unspoken implication that the other 75% of "lesser" games will be?)
She has barely been in the industry a few months and is leading the largest but also least successful of the players in the market, a perennial loser brand. Stop thinking "radical" changes and get the basics right!
Re: Xbox Game Pass Lost 'Millions' Of Subscribers Following October 2025 Price Increase
I was a long-time GP subscriber from it's inception on Xbox One (got an S for it and back-compat, liked the idea so much finally moved on from my aging 360), but that massive increase was the straw that broke the camels back.
The "decreased-increase" came too late. I'd cancelled and moved on; realised that at the rate I could play games through I could buy any games I wanted for that price per month's play, and I could even trade them in after.
(The fact I did that buying on a new PS5 slim while my Xbox Series X lost it's HDMI slot was only partly cynical Game Pass price increase: it was also the repeat late, flop releases, the constant cancellations, the lazy OS/firmware "updates", the relentless exec lying, and the brutal mass firings.)
Re: 'It Doesn't End With Gears & Clockwork' - Xbox Reporter Teases More Console Exclusives
I get the feeling this is more optics than looking at Xbox unit shifting. Despite what they are saying, picking the odd, frankly not likely to set the world on fire, title to stay exclusive to Xbox (but still be on PC) and making a song and dance about it while saying you are "recommitting to your core" and "returning to Xbox" is just red meat for the hyper-fans.
IMO, they are hoping to stem the bleeding as it were of public opinion and get their vocal base riled up and positive, in the hopes that, via social media and YouTube and such, they get an aura of positive vibes again and end a long run of relentless negative press, without losing too much potential market for their games.
If they were looking to get people onto the machines and locked into the ecosystem for the generation (the old reason for exclusives on any machine), they would be far more brutal with not-sharing any big games, delay the PC releases, and try to keep console prices down a bit. A Gears spin-off and a new IP by Inxile (great as it looks) are not the big ticket draws that Halo, Forza Horizon, Fable and especially COD (although I believe they have legal obligations to keep that multi-platform? But they could do exclusive timed DLC, early "beta" release, ensure it runs best on Xbox...) would be if you wanted to pump up console numbers seriously.
Re: Xbox Studio Ninja Theory Confirms 'Project: Mara' Has Been Cancelled
This is why I can't take these yearly trailer fests seriously. They look good and get one's hopes up, but over half the games don't make it out of the MS mines, even if they are supposedly a year or so out from release, and end up canned 6 years later.
Re: Microsoft Aims To Ensure Scalpers Don't Ruin Xbox Series X25 Release
"sounds like Microsoft is going to do everything possible to prevent that from happening."
"It's top of my mind" in a tweet.
This is insane levels of reading between the lines by the author. In what way does it sound like they are going to do "everything"? He said he was thinking about it in a tweet. That isn't an action, or a plan of action, and it certainly isn't doing everything possible.
Re: Xbox Employee Responds To New Trailer Showing PS5 Logo For Gears Of War E-Day
What is it with higher ups at Xbox and lying? Does it just come naturally when you get to a certain circle of Microsoft? Have they spend too long talking to Copilot?
We can see it was last minute Aaron, you forgot to take the logo off the trailer FFS! Nothing particularly wrong with that, decision had to be made at some point in time, but acting like it isn't the case is ridiculous and frankly a bit annoying.
Re: Xbox Is Gaining Momentum With US Gamers, As Highlighted In New YouGov Report
Executive waffle and branding work won't cut it at this point; only a reliable slew of great exclusive titles will. Nut up or shut up, Xbox.
Re: Poll: Which Is Your Favourite Forza Horizon Game To Date?
4 without a doubt. Gameplay and graphics peaked, the setting was amazing (I'm from the UK so biased, but it was so varied!). Season's were amazing, and the feature races (the Halo beach run, Vulcan bomber, steam train) and side content (Video game influencer retro arcade inspired races, the Top Gear content...) were the best they've ever been. The car choices were great, the online was super solid. Even the radio was peak. It was just made with so much love, incredible game. Along with Master Chief Collection and Rare Replay, they are the 3 games I've kept my Xbox for!
5 was the first time I felt the series took a sizable step back in quality: bland setting, bland events, flaky online in launch month.
Re: These Are The Top 10 Xbox Backwards Compatibility Requests After 350,000 Votes
That none franchise list looks far more likely than the licence-hell of the actual top 10s!
Re: Microsoft CEO Says Xbox Is 'Recommitting To Our Core Fans' As Revenue Falls In FY26 Q3
A drop that big in revenue while prices have gone up, would point to any even bigger drop in sales numbers (as revenue is the cash in, doesn't account for increase cost to produce the machines).
That doesn't look too healthy. They will likely hope the GP price drop and recommitment will bring people back (and they could have had bumper sales before the price rise that would lead to a big drop after, but it was quite sudden so I don't think that happened much?)
I'm dubious, has done nothing to undent my sledgehammered flat confidence in Xbox, but there are positive vibes from many so maybe it will.
Re: Xbox Unveils New Logo And Explains How To Make It Your Series X|S Background
It's slightly different. Be still my beating heart...
Re: Xbox Announces Price Reductions For Game Pass Ultimate & PC Game Pass
Too little, too late for me personally. I miss what Xbox was, and as a customer, I feel I need to see a lot more than a reduced price increase on one level of their sub-service. Good exclusive games, effort on the UI/hardware, commitment to projects and developers...
Re: With 2025's GOTY Now In The Library, Xbox Game Pass Premium Is Becoming Too Good To Ignore
Nah, I've enjoyed Clair Obsura for ages at the cost of a month and a bit of ultimate (or 3 months of premium) for a good while more than that, with no worry it will go anywhere. (On a PS5, but equally could have purchased on Xbox if I hadn't got so annoyed and jumped ship at the rough launches, mass firings, and huge price hikes)
Re: Talking Point: What Do You 'Expect' From Xbox Over The Next Five Years?
Basically nothing. The last 5 have been utter rubbish: my expectations were modest and they didn't just not meet them, they burrowed to the Earth's core Jules Verne-style to get below them! Price rises, tons of game cancellations, mass firings, shoddy releases, no next gen OS...
Still with such low expectations they probably can't disappoint me! (But I am sure MS Execs and their CoPilot AI will find a way!)
Re: Forza Horizon 6 Dev Wants A 'Rich' Tokyo, Japan As Team Admits FH5 Map Didn't Resonate
Yeah, I bounced off 5. The setting was a bit odd, don't think of Mexico as a "driving" place, the game's atmosphere felt stilted, and on launch it felt a bit empty and glitchy (the online was flaky). But FH4 was peak for me, the setting, the car selection, the missions, race layouts, even the music! It oozed love and care.
6 is looking very promising so far, hoping it gets it mojo back for this entry!
(Shame about Forza Motorsport too, but playing GT7 and it's great in FM's stead)
Re: Talking Point: Are You Happy With Xbox Game Pass Ultimate In 2026?
My sub ran out last year when they near doubled the price, and I got a PS5 slim on offer at Argos right after.
Re: Microsoft Has Explored Allowing AI & Other Xbox Players To Help Control Your Games
Maybe just add a cheat code! Or in game assistant ala Mario Galaxy 2's Cosmic Spirit if that's not your flavour.
This seems unnecessarily complex and costly. The AI hammer still seeing every problem as a nail!
Re: Xbox Announces New 'Project Helix' Console, Says It Will Play PC Games
So vague, after Microsoft's behaviour for the last decade, I lack the trust to take such limited info at face value, sadly.
Many questions: How will it play Xbox games? Physical? Or only Digital? Will it be some kind of software layer inside a PC? How performant would that be, and could a regular PC user access it?
OS? Will it be a Xbox with a store or a PC that plays Xbox? Will it have a nice interface? If it does can we finally get that interface on PC and handheld PCs, as promised ages ago?
Will it be subsided or have and economy of scale benefits? Will it be upgradable?
Any launch games this time? Any controller updates? Any new features like streaming to an Xbox Party or whatever? Or is this all via the PC aspect?
Re: Xbox Head Doubles Down On The Importance Of Console, Says It's A 'Reference Experience'
@Gemini53 bang on! We've heard mood music like this so many times before and then seen Microsoft do anything but what they commited to.
Past time to nut up or shut up at Xbox.
Re: Poll: How Optimistic Are You Feeling About The Future Of Xbox?
I have not a single stray electron of optimism left for Xbox sadly!
They have disappointed consistently, and seem to offer nothing looking ahead in way of a turnaround.
However the bigger issue for me is Microsoft more largely have pivoted to become a pretty rubbish business from every angle, not just gaming. Along with the rest of the AI-obsessed, money-hungry, customer-scorning big tech sector.
I'll remember the Xbox and 360 fondly, but I can't see a revival of Xbox anytime soon, and I've stopped hoping for it.
Re: Phil Spencer Announces That He's Retiring From Xbox
Phil's tenure hasn't ended well, and I have little hope an AI exec will do much better, sadly. Xbox needs a radical rethink, and to do that needs to be siloed from the bulk of Microsoft.
Re: Report: Xbox & PlayStation Could Delay Next-Gen Consoles Due To RAM Price Increases
It would be for the best. Development of games has slowed to a crawl, this generation had a rough start in covid, improvements are getting less noticeable and cross-gen lasting longer and longer. The next gen was already looking expensive; this AI rush would likely make it a flop a launch. Better to wait for a bigger step, get some games ready for the new gen, and let the prices normalise.
Re: Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition On Switch 2 Is 'Cut Back' Even From The Xbox 360 Version
It’s Aspyr. They are a low quality porting house, they get code running (usually), do a pass mapping controls, and leave it at that. No effort to refine the look or feel, missing effects or anything. Don’t really fix stuff either (try playing KOTOR on a Switch 2!)
Re: Talking Point: Exactly 13 Years Later, How Are You Feeling About Halo 4 These Days?
A graphical powerhouse; I think it’s the best looking 360 game and possibly the best looking Halo for its hardware.
Gameplay is ok; campaign was playable but felt rougher than earlier games. Story was all over the shop! Multiplayer had a lot going on, but it was too afraid to be Halo, leaning into CoD tropes of the time.
It’s 343’s best Halo. I think all their work after is worse. But it’s not as good or polished as Bungie Halo overall.
Re: Xbox Boss Says Forza Motorsport Isn't Dead Despite 'Scaling Back' At Turn 10 Studios
The absolute bull this charlatan pipes out!
“ we give development teams a little more time to avoid putting them under strain.”
You fired them you soulless corporate stooge! That’s not giving time, space and showing off flexibility! It’s somehow worse to me that thy keep spewing these NewSpeak untruths over and over instead of saying times were tough we fired people. Instead it’s all sunny uplands, ignore the tense environment, the random huge firings, the ungodly huge rewards upper management take (despite causing all this!), the falling sales, the over-squeezed customers.
It’s all just a great, happy-clappy flexible working environment, and I reallllllly care about these people actually cos Microsoft is so nice and lovely!!!
[throws up in mouth]
Re: Here's A Full Walkthrough Of 'The Silent Cartographer' Level In Halo: Campaign Evolved
I really don’t like it. The art style is completely off. The tones, the vibe, the readability…it feels corporate and bland; technically impressive but devoid of the soul that Halo: CE had.
I’m also a bit miffed by some of the lazy changes. All the weapons looks and animate just like the ones in Infinite, but with UE5 lighting. The building look like Infinite too, as do the foes, and the weapon sounds seem off. Plus the gamplay looks a bit neutered (smaller Assault Rifle clip, less beefy pistol, energy swords added into the mix).
I don’t come away from that thinking Halo CE-Again will be much of a patch on the Original for me. It does looks better than Anniversary graphics; but it has the same issue of taking the shape of the levels and shoving it into a different looking and feeling era of Halo.
I don’t think this is inevitable with high end graphics (FF7 Remake captures the tone and vibe of that game well, or say the System Shock remaster). But, for me personally, the art direction is way off. They would have been better making an original game.
Re: Halo: Campaign Evolved Officially Announced, Coming To Xbox In 2026
@EvenStephen7 I agree. The colour palette is way off, the visuals look noisy and busy, all the models and animations look ported from Infinite.
Devoid of soul. I’ll stick to the OG.
Re: 20+ Games Are Reduced By 90-95% In This Year's Xbox Shocktober Sale
These are some good discounts…but is Back for Blood: Ultimate Edition really £100 RRP!?? That’s bonkers!
Re: Xbox Issues Statement Denying Rumour That Next-Gen Console Could Be Cancelled
Believe it when I see it. If you lie to your customers over and over like Xbox execs have; we need to take any claim with a bucketload of salt.
I went out and got a PS5 this weekend. I’m done with Microsoft going forward.
Re: Talking Point: How Do You Feel About Ubisoft+ Classics Being Added To Game Pass Ultimate?
These games are frequently as cheap as a pound or two; on a sales month you could get all the one you wanted for less than a GamePass sub.
There’s no spinning this “change” to GPU, it’s the latest in a seemingly unending string of anti-customer decisions from some staggeringly out-of-touch executives.
Re: Poll: What Are Your Plans For Xbox Game Pass After This Week's News?
It's not just GamePass: The hardware prices are insane next to PlayStation now (in the US the Series S costs as much as a more powerful, more storage inside PS5 Digital edition, the Series X costs as much as the PS5 Pro, despite matching the base model). The developer firings and mess ups don't strike much confidence they can even get a single great game out each year, never mind enough hits to make a GP subscription worth it.
The attitude of MS around callous firings, franchises (like look what happened to Halo, or the state of Forza MS, or the gutting of Rare and dust-gathering of it's IP, or Lionhead, or new Perfect Dark, or Hi-Fi Rush...), the lack of effort in UI or performance, the up-and-down messaging, the lacklustre releases like Redfall...
My main regret is the investment I have in the post-360 Xbox eco-system that makes it tough to leave. Game saves, digital games, friend playing on Xbox etc. I makes it hard to truly bin off Xbox this gen, but now it exists in my house for what I have on it for single player only and that is it. I will be getting a PS5 next time I get a good bit of time off work to play on it I think; and the Series X will go back into it's box and into the cupboard.
Re: Xbox Game Pass Is Getting A Major Overhaul With New Names, Games & Price Changes
Record revenue, but they still slashed the dev teams and now are massively hiking the price (50%!?)
"so we’re evolving Game Pass to offer more flexibility, choice, and value to all players" more value? At a much higher price? It's not evolving, it's not a pokemon. It's a callous price rise on a sub-service for a frankly failing console business.
Microsoft were offered an open-goal this gen and they proceed to score multiple own goals instead. What a disaster.
I've cancelled GamePass as £280 is plenty of games (that I can trade into CeX!). However as I need some level of GamePass to play online at all..I'm just switching to PC until the PS6 arrives I think. Done with Microsoft's puppeteering of the ragged remains of a brand that I loved to bits 20ish years ago.