Grumblevolcano

Xbox in general has been rough since April, not just Game Pass. Like big showcases usually act as a beacon of hope for a platform but the Xbox Showcase in June felt very off and the Gamescom lineup also seems off. Makes me think that Microsoft are heavily relying on the Activision acquisition going through sooner rather than later to get a massive quantity of games added to Game Pass in one drop. It wouldn't improve my opinion of Xbox but it would for others.

@Rangers420 Unfortunately Microsoft is too busy buying up everything instead of improving what they already have. I'd absolutely rather have had a situation where Halo Infinite was the best Halo game and MCC didn't have microtransactions than the outcome where Halo is killed off because buying Activision gives Microsoft CoD for example.

@Kaloudz I definitely remember Forge competitions for MCC (Halo 2 Anniversary) and Halo 5 to create maps that would appear in matchmaking. Forge maps also appeared in Reach and 4 but don't know if they were maps created by the community.

@themightyant I think the biggest benefit Forge will give for the general player is more maps. Instead of 2 maps every 6 months we'll likely see a load of player created maps from Forge added into the multiplayer matchmaking rotation. Forge would create other benefits as well but not if there isn't a custom games browser launching alongside it and we've heard nothing about that.

@Royalblues When the Yakuza games came to Xbox, PS+ Extra/Premium didn't exist so SEGA knows that Game Pass helped the franchise be a big success on Xbox. Persona's popularity on Xbox is yet to be seen.

@Royalblues What I think happened was all PS+ Collection games had to be relicensed because of the new tiers (extra/premium) and Microsoft prevented Persona 5 from being relicensed because of the Game Pass deal for Royal to try to show that Xbox players care about JRPGs.

I'm going to guess no because Nintendo haven't given Advance Wars a new release date yet.

Microsoft does exactly the same though like Persona 5 got removed from PS+ Collection a month before Persona 5 Royal was announced for Game Pass and Bethesda games got removed from PS Now after Microsoft acquired them.

@themightyant Nintendo has the best approach:

• February: Focus on February - August, tease a few games that are further out
• June: Focus on June - December, tease a few games that are further out
• September: Focus on September - March, tease a few games that are further out

Further out shouldn't be years away though, stuff like the reveal of Metroid Prime 4 at E3 2017 and Bayonetta 3 at Game Awards 2017 were way too far in advance. Stuff like Bayonetta 3 reappearing in the September 2021 Direct is better fit (the game releases in October 2022) for "further out".

@Markatron84 Almost a decade ago, this was part of Don Mattrick's infamous XB1 vision plan. Series X|S era seems to very much be Don Mattrick's XB1 vision visualized but with a few tweaks.

PS+ Essential is a lot better than Games With Gold and with 360 games ending in October, Games With Gold will be even worse.

As for Game Pass, PS+ Extra and PS+ Premium I'd say PS+ Extra is the best of the bunch currently. Game Pass has been on the weaker side since April meanwhile PS+ Extra has been strong since its start in June.

PS+ Premium is the weakest of the bunch given the classic games collection is very limited and the PS3 games should be native. Also currently (though will be fixed in the future) there's the PAL mess for subscribers in regions like Europe that used to have PAL

While FH5 is a good game (and Hot Wheels is a good expansion), I agree that something felt off about FH5 but I'd say the same about FH4. I think it's down to the live service push, both FH4 and FH5's focus is the Festival Playlist (i.e. complete tasks every week to unlock new collectibles) meanwhile FH3 was centralized around the story campaign.

That live service push is the way a lot of Microsoft's games have turned towards like people don't even play the objective in Halo Infinite because they have challenges to unlock which involves killing with a specific weapon.

Game Pass lineup has looked rough since April, it does feel like Microsoft heavily relied upon Redfall + Starfield + Activision acquisition for this year (the former 2 of which are now 2023).

@uptownsoul There was a massively different tone between the Xbox Showcases in 2021 and 2022. 2021 was "here's an insane amount of games coming to Xbox and Game Pass in the near future including a few highly anticipated 1st party titles" meanwhile 2022 was "everything got delayed to 2023 or later, everyone panic".

I wonder if Microsoft will consider bringing back the backwards compatibility program. The vast majority of backwards compatibility Activision games are CoD (OG Xbox and 360 era Activision was so much more than just CoD unlike nowadays) but perhaps with the acquisition it'll make adding non-CoD easier.

Have another big batch of games including non-CoD Activision games and more non-Activision games alongside it.

Otherwise the big Game Pass drop after the acquisition is going to be like 20 CoD games and 6 non-CoD games which wouldn't be a good look on Xbox.

Still don't care about Activision games but the idea of backwards compatibility possibly returning is exciting.

Series X load up is currently sluggish compared to the Switch so the update is appreciated.

With backwards compatibility games for GWG ending in October, I think having some games from the November 2021 batch for August and September would be a nice send off.

I'd have to give it to FH3 Hot Wheels, FH5 Hot Wheels felt too short in comparison and I liked both Hot Wheels expansions more than the other FH expansions I had played.

Between the Xbox deal and the Playstation deal, it seems like Discord will be used as the solution for crossplay voice chat. Don't see Discord coming to Switch though as Nintendo did that NSO mobile app solution to voice chat.

@Bleachedsmiles Given 1st party is the only thing Microsoft can truly control, Phil Spencer is likely referring to the 1st party lineup in that comment. Their original schedule was probably similar structure to last year, something like:

• 1st half of 2022 - Goldeneye
• July - As Dusk Falls
• August - Redfall
• September - Grounded (leaving early access), Deathloop
• October - Pentiment, Forza Motorsport
• November - Starfield

@Rmg0731 Game Pass and PS+ Extra/Premium being essentially trials for their own subscription service which is coming to PS and Xbox later this year.

From the stream mission replay looks exactly how I'd hope it would be, looking forward to getting the rest of the skulls whenever the update goes live.

If that is the reason, it likely won't appear until Nintendo gives Advance Wars a new release date.

@shamirqushairi Insomniac for Sony, Monolith Soft for Nintendo and Playground Games for Microsoft.

@darkswabber This article is about 2023, not 2022.

@BAMozzy For Nintendo, the 1st party lineup for the same time period (E3 2021 to what would've been E3 2022) was:

• Game Builder Garage (June 11th 2021)
• Mario Golf Super Rush (June 25th 2021)
• Skyward Sword HD (July 16th 2021)
• WarioWare Get It Together (September 10th 2021)
• Metroid Dread (October 8th 2021)
• Mario Party Superstars (October 29th 2021)
• Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl (November 19th 2021)
• Big Brain Academy Brain vs. Brain (December 3rd 2021)
• Pokemon Legends Arceus (January 28th 2022)
• Kirby and the Forgotten Land (March 25th 2022)
• Switch Sports (April 29th 2022)
• Mario Strikers Battle League (June 10th 2022)

With 3rd party exclusives such as Shin Megami Tensei V and Triangle Strategy supporting it.

Switch definitely has the much more consistent 1st party lineup of the three by far and this has been the case for most of its lifespan. But if you want to play 3rd party multiplatform games, you're better off with PS5, Series X or PC/Steam Deck as a lot of 3rd party stuff skips the Switch so it balances out.

@uptownsoul That's what happens when there's no evidence. Microsoft has been very much smoke and mirrors since 2017 so trust is probably wearing thin with plenty of people.

I feel the best route for Battlefield at this point is taking a long break from new games and do remasters instead (especially the 2 Bad Company games and Battlefield 3).

@Royalblues We already know about a live service Naughty Dog game, a standalone TLoU 2 Factions game which started off as a multiplayer mode for TLoU 2 but scope expanded such that it became standalone. But yeah, going deep into live service territory was the whole point of the Bungie acquisition.

@Royalblues Jim Ryan's made it clear that live service is the future he plans to take PS. For example 12 live service games for 2022 - 2024 is a lot (only 1 has happened so far (MLB The Show 22), for some reason he doesn't count GT7 as live service when it clearly is).

I'd guess stuff like GoW Ragnarok, Spider-Man 2 and Wolverine are games that were greenlighted before Jim Ryan took over and the big AAA blockbusters PS is loved for will eventually disappear.

The future of Xbox looks increasingly ugly, seems to be the case of everything you loved about Xbox is being killed off.

@Cherip-the-Ripper Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo both have 1 year exclusivity but the absence of both in the showcase makes it seem like Microsoft can't talk about Xbox version until the exclusivity is over (September 14th 2022 and March 25th 2023 respectively) so there'll probably be a bit of a gap between the exclusivity ending and the Xbox release (I'd guess October 2022 for Deathloop for example).

Very weird that the 2nd half of June Game Pass games haven't been announced yet.

Hot Wheels DLC for sure, the expansion itself looks fantastic and I'm also really looking forward to what the community is able to create.

@Cherip-the-Ripper I think it's probably connected to the FFVII 25th anniversary stream. If June goes by without FFVII Remake then Xbox is probably never getting it.

I ranked it C, saw the warning saying everything was revealed in Sunday's showcase and then they surprise give an update on a few games not in Sunday's showcase. I do feel that the main thing that prevented it from being better is the fact that Sunday's showcase was very disappointing.

It's rather odd seeing all these Halo crossovers but not much happening with Halo Infinite. Like at the Xbox Showcase, the Halo content wasn't some announcement for Infinite but rather the Pelican for Flight Sim.

I feel Microsoft still haven't gotten the balance quite right but they're getting there. If you took out Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 the pacing would've been better.

I think Nintendo's going to announce it in a Direct, June's NSO Expansion Pack game ends up being the already announced Pokemon Snap (the last NSO Expansion Pack game that was revealed in September 2021) and then the next batch of games includes Goldeneye, Banjo-Tooie, Perfect Dark, etc.

My favourite announcement, FH3's Hot Wheels DLC was the best part of Forza and this has potential to be even better judging by the trailer and the blogpost.

I ranked it "D". The next 12 months is looking rather grim and the only exciting announcements in that showcase were:

• Silksong
• FH5 Hot Wheels DLC
• Persona no longer PS exclusive

The upside though is the absence of Goldeneye means there may actually be a Nintendo Direct in the next few days.

@NEStalgia We actually currently know more for upcoming Playstation Studios games than Xbox Game Studios when it comes to games with release windows. Only looking at official announcements (no rumours):

Xbox

• As Dusk Falls - 2022
• Grounded 1.0 - 2022
• Redfall - 1st half of 2023
• Starfield - 1st half of 2023

PS

• Spider-Man Remastered (PC) - August 12th 2022
• TLoU Part 1 - September 2nd 2022
• Spider-Man Miles Morales (PC) - Fall 2022
• Uncharted Legacy of Thieves Collection (PC) - 2022
• God of War Ragnarok - 2022
• TLoU Factions 2 - 2023
• Spider-Man 2 - 2023

You may wonder why I didn't include Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo, well 1 year timed PS exclusivity doesn't guarantee that Xbox release will be straight after the exclusivity ends. Also I included PC ports because Microsoft included AoE 4 in all those 2021 XGS lists even though it's not on console.

Anyway you'd hope things would be clearer on the future of Xbox after today's showcase.

Rare Replay for PC perhaps with the 360 games included in the collection rather than the Xbox approach of loading up the 360 games? Rare Replay and Halo 5 are the only non-Kinect XB1 games that aren't on PC and are still purchasable on XB1.

If true, this makes the July 2020 Xbox Showcase even more questionable. Microsoft really should've used the Nintendo 2020 approach back then and had:

• Close 1st party content be shadow drop announcements (Tell Me Why, Outer Worlds DLC, Grounded)
• Psychonauts 2 trailer be saved for 2021
• The 3rd party games be in Microsoft's variant of "Partner Showcase"
• The 1st party games with no release window saved for initial reveal in the 2022 Xbox Showcase (Forza Motorsport, Everwild, State of Decay 3, Avowed, Fable)
• Halo Infinite delayed to holiday 2022 and gameplay reveal appear at the 2022 Xbox Showcase

It would be a shame if it isn't real, the 360 games have big issues with the multiplayer. Matches that aren't only bots are filled with hackers.

@themightyant As Dusk Falls is still under the Xbox Game Studios branding though so it's probably counted.

As Dusk Falls, Forza Motorsport, Redfall, Starfield, Gears collection

@Daniel1221 Hot Wheels was a separate map from the main Australia area in FH3 so maybe you get taken to the same island?

@Daniel1221 @pip_muzz You could also interpret it that the crazier expansion launches in Spring/Summer and the normal expansion launches in Winter.

FH2 Fast and Furious - March 2015
FH3 Hot Wheels - May 2017
FH4 Lego - June 2019

FH1 Rally - December 2012
FH2 Storm Island - December 2014
FH3 Blizzard Mountain - December 2016
FH4 Fortune Island - December 2018

I do wonder though with FH4 probably being delisted in September 2018 due to 4 year licensing if expansion 2 ends up being Lego in Summer 2023 instead of a normal expansion.

The Hot Wheels DLC in FH3 is my favourite part of the Forza franchise so this would be fantastic.