@fatpunkslim I often only play single-player games which makes it more frustrating, the last time was just a few weeks ago with Half on Life 2 so I'm actually very thankful for this update for letting us disable it lol
@fatpunkslim I also avoid using Quick Resume and I'd disable it altogether, on paper its a very nice feature but it has always been broken for me, most of the time when I relied on it games just wouldn't load, had weird bugs or got entirely restarted, even just suspending the Xbox with an open game is unreliable as it often closes the game so I just use it as an old-school console, saving game, exiting to main menu, closing game and turning off the console.
Just terrible, I can’t believe the praise I’ve been reading for this blatant AI Slop, this is Nvidia saying “f*ck artstyles, here’s some slop” and the worst of this is that it’s being endorsed by this companies like Bethesda which only will result in more poor looking games and worse performance since they’ll become reliant on that AI slop filter instead of proper optimization.
Already preordered the physical Deluxe Edition after watching some PS5 Pro gameplay, performance might not be perfect but the game itself just looks crazy fun.
Xbox (2027) — Or whatever year it ends up releasing.
Since it’ll be a PC now I doubt they’ll stick to generations so there’s little sense to have a generation name per se, just stick with the X-box and the release year.
Not from Game Pass but I just recently replayed it for the first time since launch and I enjoyed it waaay more, I’d give it a 9/10, main story and specially Phantom Liberty is amazing, my main criticism are side quests or side jobs, some are very good like Panam’s but most are mid or miss, however it blows my mind how in just 6 years since launch we’re so terrifyingly closer to that distopian future where a few corporations rule the world after a cybernetic war against AIs 😶
Hardware does seems exciting, every console under Jason Ronald has been remarkable and this seems like the ultimate prebuilt PC, plus the way they’re doing backwards compatibility seems the perfect way to do it with an actual preservation path.
Software however is a big concern to me, it’s a given it’s going to run full Windows 11 and it’s been confirmed there’s no “Xbox version” of any next-gen game moving forward, all new games will just be PC games, meaning you’ll have to tinker with the system, games, OS, and launcher to be able to play correctly, deal with driver updates, bugs, and lack of optimization from developers, so even if hardware is a powerhouse some games might end up performing worse than a PS6 or similarly priced PCs with Nvidia GPUs.
As a console player this is all the sort of things I don’t want to deal with hence why I’m still a console player, not a PC one.
@fatpunkslim Agreed with many points but this just isn’t another traditional console, if it ends up having third-party stores the whole business model is upended, as they cannot longer rely on recouping the loss on hardware by people spending on the MS Store because they might not spend their money there.
In my very case if I end up buying this device I would exclusively buy any new games on Steam simply because it’s a better and more solid platform than MS Store (often cheaper too), and this is exactly the kind of audience they’re targeting this device, they know it won’t be sold to the masses but PC enthusiasts who might buy it won’t leave Steam for anything in the world, so then what does Microsoft gains by selling hardware at a loss if they won’t get money from software?
This is the very question I’ve been asking since the beginning alongside how will console games run on PC, hope we get some answers or tips at GDC because those are the most important aspects of this device, however you can’t dismiss the RAM crisis because Microsoft is a huge company, recent reports said Apple, the biggest consumer hardware company in the world with the biggest leverage in the industry, agreed to pay 100% premium for DRAM from Samsung, it’s a huge problem that might even bleed into current-gen consoles.
@Millionski I like what we’ve been hearing from Asha, so far she’s been saying all the good things and I do root for her, as I said before it’s fair to give her a chance and it’s unrealistic to expect that she’ll solve all of Xbox issues in a month, but it’s also imposible for me to feel optimistic until I see clear actions taken instead of fancy statements.
Satya however, I want him as far from Xbox as possible, as successful Microsoft has been with shareholders since he’s been CEO, he just doesn’t understand customer products, or customers at all, it’s why every single product and service from Microsoft has gotten noticeably worse and many like Windows Phone or Skype just ceased to exist, so now to stand by him and claim Xbox is back cause’ he said some nice things is just way too much imo.
@fatpunkslim They are selling $650 consoles from 2020, which are currently subsidized by having a closed ecosystem getting more revenue from people spending on Xbox.
How exactly will Microsoft be able to price this ‘premium’ PC open-ecosystem device for less than $1000 amidst a global RAM crisis when they can’t subsidize it? That device must sell at a profit to make sense and economics simply don’t work below that $1000 threshold, not even for a trillion dollar corporation.
It’s either funny or sad how some still believe or want to believe in this man after all the times he’s straight up lied to our faces, it’s good to still be optimistic but championing this guy’s words? Really?
@BacklogBrad @fatpunkslim Yeah because corporations and specially its CEO always tell the truth right? Such as “only 4 games” being ported right?
And no Xbox is not dead, it is living through an unstoppable spiral of death where it’s bleeding players to other platforms as their own has no incentive at all, no exclusives, high prices with less value, a $30/monthly subscription and so on, which in turn is making many developers to just ignore the Xbox platform altogether, resulting in more players leaving an so on…
I’d like to see if you can dispute this, I warned this would happen ever since the “only 4 games” were announced and I remember you claiming MS was telling the truth, have you learned nothing?
It’s sad how after all these years of MS straight up lying to our faces you still use Nadella’s words to champion “the return of Xbox”, he sees Xbox as a software seller, not as a platform, I don’t even know how you could spin this corpo hollow-talk into “exclusives are back”, it ain’t gonna happen.
And careful with championing Nadella’s statements, he said back in November 2016 they were ‘fully committed’ to Windows Phone, a year later the platform didn’t exist anymore.
I mean, if a $299 Xbox didn’t appeal to the casual masses it’s hard to imagine a ~$1,299 Xbox will.
If they kept their games exclusive to Xbox/PC and kept pricing to max $799 I think this device could’ve had a chance to at least appeal to all of us 35M who already own an Xbox and perhaps more from both the console and PC enthusiasts, still not the masses, but that scenario seems borderline unrealistic at this point, the damage is done releasing every game on competing platforms down to the sacred exclusives from the brand, and the way MS is already squeezing Xbox with $650 consoles and $30 monthly subscription it’s hard to imagine this device (that can’t be subsidized) isn’t $1000+ in this economy, plus the software side on Windows 11 I dare say has never been worst and many of the PC people they’re trying to appeal are flocking to SteamOS and Linux.
The tech behind it intrigues me for sure, but the software is the major hurdle, I really don’t want to deal with Windows 11 at all no matter the price.
We’re back at the Project Scorpio/Scarlett stage lol
At least we got a confirmation that PC is the way they’re moving forward, still not sure how to feel about that but looking forward for the many details that should come out in GDC as I have soooo many questions for this.
@fatpunkslim @TrollOfWar Using that headline as a metric is disingenuous since Helldivers 2 is pretty much the only exception to the rule as it’s the only game that has sold more on PC than PS5 with nearly 2/3 of its total sales being on PC, it’s even stated on the article itself that’s an anomaly due to Helldivers 2.
There’s also Spider-Man 2 that sold +16M on PS5 and 0.7M (700K) on PC, and pretty much every single-player game follows a similar ratio or worse, sales have been a flop even if Sony will never word it that way, again, you don’t like to hear it but you’re coping because you were already assuming and even bragging for something that was never a certainty.
@fatpunkslim Lmao revenue from PC amounts to 2% of their total revenue, it’s absolutely minuscule compared to their console business hence why they’re quickly moving away from it.
The truth you don’t want to hear is that you’re heavily coping as you’ve been already bragging about having PS games on the next Xbox for a while, realistically speaking no one will choose to buy the next Xbox over the PS6 because it has some PS4/PS5 ports that at that point will be more than half a decade old, and that’s even assuming the next Xbox does launch and does fulfill the promise of having third-party stores.
This should be the time to stop talking and actually deliver to the fans, as I said before, it’s fair to give her a chance, but she’s already making the same mistakes trying to build a parasocial relationship with Xbox content creators (same people who have flip-flopped cheering on Xbox exclusives and then cheering on a multiplatform strategy) and making vague promises as “the return to Xbox” when no one even knows what that means, some assume it’s back to exclusives but that’s nearly impossible to revert, so what exactly is her plan? And more importantly, if she doesn’t have it, which is perfectly understandable since she’s been days in the job, maybe stop talking until you do.
It’s waaaay to late to be reversing course at this point, doing so would put Xbox in an even more pathetic position and with little to no difference as damage to the brand is already done.
Not great, not terrible either. As I said on Push Square, I found it too slow and it quickly got boring for my particular taste even if I found it visually impressive, certainly wouldn’t spend $40 in this when many other multiplayer games are just waaaaay more fun.
Sarah Bond’s absence pretty much confirmed The Verge’s report.
I’ve said multiple times I’m particularly not optimistic for Xbox’ future, but I think people are being too brutal with Sharma, yes she’s not a gamer but she doesn't have to be one to be successful in her work, I’m willing to give her a chance and so far she’s been saying all the good things, let’s only hope her actions follow suit.
Can’t they just shut up spitting lies? Their actions the last couple of years have been pretty opposite to their words, so what about just shutting up?
The one guy who least deserved to remain part of Xbox was the one who even got a promotion…
Many people over the years have roasted Phil Spencer for not having a strong first-party lineup, while the main responsible for this is precisely Matt Booty, he was the one responsible to manage Xbox Game Studios since 2018 and later on also Zenimax and Activision Blizzard, and just how many games have been axed, studios closed or games underperformed with players? Almost all of them since he’s in charge.
I can’t point to a single one good thing he’s done for the brand, in fact I just remembered, didn’t he say that MS would “spend Sony out of business” in some leaked emails?
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of today’s news, either she also disagrees with where Microsoft is taking Xbox and decided to leave her name out of it, or Satya gave her expected position to an AI head and she disagreed and left. Interesting that with her leaving there’s no “head of Xbox” anymore, only a CEO and CCO of Microsoft Gaming.
Either way it’s weird as it was very public that she was essentially Phil’s successor, might have not contributed as much as Phil to Xbox but still I also wish her the best of luck.
I really don’t want to say anything mean but her profile is a huge red flag for what is to come.
I’m open to be proven otherwise and I sincerely hope for everything to turn out great but I’d be lying if I said I’m confident for the future of Xbox, what a sad couple of days, as I said yesterday, it’s such a brutal time to be a console fan.
I understand if some people were left with a bad image of Phil, but we just can’t remain oblivious to what he did for the brand:
He literally saved Xbox back in 2014, Satya was just about to close the Xbox division and Phil Spencer convinced him otherwise.
Gave Xbox One a chance by removing all controversial “features” Mattrick pursued including Kinect and price pairing with PS4, otherwise it wouldn’t have sold half of what it did.
Hardware under him was legitimately impressive, One S was a good redesign, One X an amazing console and both Series consoles are excellent hardware-wise.
Brought back backwards compatibility with 360 when it was a dead project at Microsoft (probably my favorite moment of him on stage).
He built multiple partnerships with third-party developers and basically brought indies to Xbox.
Game Pass was such a good deal for a long time until last year, and as customers we were greatly benefited from it for a long time even if now it’s not worth it anymore.
He had the initiative to own studios and produce first-party content, however between the pandemic and Microsoft’s own pressures, it could never get fleshed out the way he wanted.
Cross-platform efforts were commendable to say the least, he pushed Play Anywhere, advocated publicly for cross-play with PC and other competing console (even when they didn’t wanted or wanted to charge for it ahem Sony).
It wasn’t perfect but I’m damn certain that if he hadn’t become head of Xbox back in 2013 we wouldn’t have an Xbox at all nowadays, and if you resent him for launching Xbox games on PS5 that’s simply not on him, it’s on Amy Hood and Satya Nadella, and it’s the way Microsoft is moving forward with the brand whether we like it or not (I don’t).
@Cakefish You either die (leave) as a hero, or live long enough to be the villain.
I have a feeling that whatever slop Microsoft has in store both Phil and Sarah just said they don’t want their name tied to it, I completely understand and respect the decision, you can see his enthusiasm dwindle ever since that “only 4 games” podcast.
I honestly feel this as sad news, and I know I’ve been very critical of Xbox as of late but it’s my understanding that recent pivots and decision making are coming from the very top of Microsoft, not Phil Spencer or anyone at Xbox for the matter.
I do believe that uncle Phil tried his best, and that he actually cared for the brand and its fans, sure he made mistakes of his own along the way (even someone as legendary as Iwata did) but you could feel his enthusiasm specially in the early days, I do wish him the best and thank him for the many good things he did for the brand.
However, with Phil and Sarah gone I think this officially marks the end of the transition period from the Xbox we knew and loved to a fully fledged Microsoft Gaming, I’m not saying that they’ll rebrand, stop making games or anything like that but clearly Microsoft has taken absolute control of the division and we see how their vision is based on AI, subscriptions and cloud instead of empowering its platform with exclusive games and building communities, that vision is truly gone now, and we can only wait to see how Microsoft’s vision for Xbox shapes out, if I’m being honest I personally have no optimism left whatsoever for Nadella’s Microsoft, but he won’t be CEO forever (right?).
What a bafflingly stupid absurd situation, they literally bought to studio to make a live service game no one wanted, cancel it and proceed to close the studio.
Man what a terrible time to be a console fan, it’s disappointment after disappointment.
@Runex2121 So now a $1,200 device is worth that for cloud streaming? LMAO such a disingenuous take, you might as well use your phone and a $50 controller to have the same experience.
So $1,200 for a device that has beta software, can’t run Xbox games, and even has widespread hardware issues, I’ve read multiple reports of people claiming the Rog Xbox Ally died on them, even Asus themselves have said any repair or warranty claim will take longer than usual as they have “high repair volume”.
Just for context you can get BOTH a PS5 Pro and a Switch 2 or Steam Deck for that exact price.
@FraserG Yeah but they now seem to be doing them on a 3-month basis or whenever something major breaks, and I wouldn’t care that much about updating if the OS was actually stable but it’s far from it, literally it felt more reliable and snappy at launch than 5 years later, plus many features they promised they’d overhaul such as captures or achievements just never happened.
Been saying for months that the console OS feels borderline abandoned, my Series X was so smooth at launch but nowadays it lags terribly just by scrolling the dashboard and I’ve had increasingly more bugs and crashes on my console, we used to get monthly updates for bug squashing and performance improvements since the Xbox One days, now it seems no one cares.
The way this is looking the Series X will be the last Xbox I own, at least I’m happy to have gotten the Halo special edition console, one of the best looking consoles Xbox ever did if not the best.
At $30/month it won’t “expand” any time soon, merging PC Game Pass and Premium reeks of removing day one games from the PC tier and to be honest GP Premium is not worth it, I’d even say that the game selection of PS+ Extra is better and I still find it too expensive also, currently I’d only recommend any gaming sub to someone who just got a console and doesn’t have an owned library or the Essential tier if you just want to play online.
That 30% profit target could be the worst decision Microslop has ever made on the gaming side, and that’s a lot considering all that’s happened with the RROD, the Xbox One launch and even the recent multiplatform pivot.
If enforced it will end up killing most studios within Xbox, Bethesda, and Activision as it’s basically unachievable, not even Sony or Nintendo manage to have that profit margin for all of their games having bigger franchises and tighter budgets, expecting that from a game from Double Fine, Compulsion, Obsidian, is just moronic, I could bet not even Gears E-Day or Fable will hit that target, the pivots and bad decisions literally won’t stop from the last couple of years, and yet some still want to think MS is playing some kind of 4D chess.
I would agree on a 2028-2029 timeline, but as many have said it here already, the more time it passes it’s more likely for that device to be canned, the Series X|S are practically abandoned, revenue from Xbox hardware has steadily been dropping ~30% every quarter over the last couple of years, at this point it’s minimal and only shrinking further, it only takes one MS exec to point out how much money it’s being poured into the R&D for this device and compare it to the revenue coming from hardware sales for everything to fall apart, I frankly don’t think we’ll get there when every quarter seems to be a bloodbath for Xbox.
@Millionski Yeah and I find it specially frustrating that this generation Xbox really had a chance to compete just like in the 360 days or even exceed it as Sony has had a weaker PS5 generation compared to any previous one, but they just fumbled it time after time.
If this device ends up being just a fancy PC with all of Windows’ bloatware, which is looking increasingly likely, I will keep my Halo Series X for all my legacy library and just keep using a PS5/ PS6 as my main gaming device, I have zero interest in dealing with everything that comes with PC Gaming and Windows.
@eduscxbox That market already exists with the handheld PCs and those go for around $600-$1000 from different manufacturers, how much you think a high-performance desktop sold at profit would go for? $1,200? $1,500? $2,000?
The economics simply don’t work for that device to be below $1000 no matter the competition between manufacturers, and another aspect of it is actually to convince them to spend R&D into developing a niche device that only a few people will buy.
@eduscxbox One important note, those devs that want to develop for PC are interested in selling on Steam, not the Microsoft Store, I can bet right now that even if the PC Xbox ends up being real many games will only release on Steam, not the MS Store and the ones that do will sell vastly better on Steam, which also poses the question of how will MS profit from that device if most users get their games from other storefronts, unless they price it around $1,500.
Also, it’s just disingenuous to say it doesn’t matter that most devs want to skip Xbox and develop for PC, again, if the next Xbox ends up being real but the games are not optimized for it then it’s going to be a sh*tshow with performance even if the specs are good, and as a console user I’d hate having to tinker with a game just to be able to run it, so yes even if the next console is a PC we still NEED devs to be interested in it and optimize their games for it.
This is exactly the thing I feared ever since the “only 4 games” were announced, it’s a slow spiral of death that becomes unstoppable once developers stop caring about the platform and we’re at that point already, with many games just choosing to skip the platform altogether which will only result in shrinking user base and in turn more games skipping the platform, yet I remember I was insulted incessantly on Xbox forums by warning this and here we are.
@Fiendish-Beaver Agreed with everything you said, I had the same realization since 2024 and I even stopped buying games altogether for Xbox and been using the PS5 Pro as my main console mainly because all this uncertainty, being an ex-user of Windows Phone I know how bad Microslop can manage a brand and they’ve followed every single bad step possible with Xbox.
I completely see a scenario where what you say end up happening, because it has already happened, I remember how Lumia phones were abruptly killed that even engineers from Nokia (merged into MS) found out about the hardware shutdown the same day as the press and the rest of the world, and those sold more units in a more important market back then than Xbox consoles nowadays, with every quarter that goes by without that device being shipped and ready to sell the chances of it never seeing the light of day increases dramatically, it really only takes for Satya or any other AI-crazed suits to see all the money poured into hardware R&D and the abysmal revenue from hardware sales to scrap everything in a snap.
@OldGamer999 Yeah I agree, so much uncertainty around it has pushed me personally to currently buy every game on PS5 Pro, I don’t care about Play Anywhere as I really don’t want to migrate to a full Windows PC experience as I have tried twice and just end up very frustrated with it, which is why I have lots and lots of questions for this Xbox/PC device, if it ends up being just another Windows PC with an Xbox logo and requires the same amount of tinkering as any other PC (just as the Rog Xbox Ally) I’m out, I’d rather keep my Series X for its legacy library same as I did for the 360 or still do with my PS3 than dealing with Windows 11 bloatware.
The only way I’d consider moving into PC would be with steamOS whether in a Steam machine or I build a PC of my own with Linux but for the time being it’s just simpler to keep investing on my PS5 Pro, and I might keep it as my main gaming device, after all it’s currently the only one getting all games (as not even PC will get GTA 6 day one).
@fatpunkslim Lmao how can you say it’s too expensive and recommend waiting for the next Xbox when we don’t even know the price or launch window for NEITHER of them?
We also don’t know the actual features of that Xbox/PC device, how will it run the console library, performance levels, how much of that performance will be eaten up by the bloatware of Windows 11, how much tinkering you’ll have to do to play, the price, if it’ll be available globally or even going to launch at all, at least with Steam you know you’re getting into a solid platform unlike Microslop’s Windows and Xbox PC app.
Honestly, even having a Series X I will get it for PS5 Pro (on disc if possible) as I will for every other MS Gaming titles, even Forza Horizon 6 and Gears E-Day whenever they launch, I have no interest at all in Play Anywhere or Windows PC Gaming nor Game Pass Ultimate at $30/month.
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Re: Xbox Series X|S Is Getting Its First Dashboard Update In Ages, Quick Resume Upgrade Included
@fatpunkslim I often only play single-player games which makes it more frustrating, the last time was just a few weeks ago with Half on Life 2 so I'm actually very thankful for this update for letting us disable it lol
Re: Xbox Series X|S Is Getting Its First Dashboard Update In Ages, Quick Resume Upgrade Included
@fatpunkslim I also avoid using Quick Resume and I'd disable it altogether, on paper its a very nice feature but it has always been broken for me, most of the time when I relied on it games just wouldn't load, had weird bugs or got entirely restarted, even just suspending the Xbox with an open game is unreliable as it often closes the game so I just use it as an old-school console, saving game, exiting to main menu, closing game and turning off the console.
Re: Xbox Series X|S Is Getting Its First Dashboard Update In Ages, Quick Resume Upgrade Included
Finally some updates for the consoles and FINALLY I can choose a color other than their terrible selection lol
I hope they fixed a bug where my Xbox refuses to look for updates and only updates games when I try to play them.
Re: Bethesda Says Starfield Looks 'Amazing' With Nvidia's DLSS 5, But Don't Expect It On Xbox
Just terrible, I can’t believe the praise I’ve been reading for this blatant AI Slop, this is Nvidia saying “f*ck artstyles, here’s some slop” and the worst of this is that it’s being endorsed by this companies like Bethesda which only will result in more poor looking games and worse performance since they’ll become reliant on that AI slop filter instead of proper optimization.
How have you fallen from grace Todd…
Re: Crimson Desert On Xbox: Release Date, Release Times & Potential Download Size
Already preordered the physical Deluxe Edition after watching some PS5 Pro gameplay, performance might not be perfect but the game itself just looks crazy fun.
Re: Talking Point: What Should Xbox Call Its 'Project Helix' Console?
Xbox (2027) — Or whatever year it ends up releasing.
Since it’ll be a PC now I doubt they’ll stick to generations so there’s little sense to have a generation name per se, just stick with the X-box and the release year.
Re: Talking Point: Xbox Game Pass Players, What Do You Think Of Cyberpunk 2077?
Not from Game Pass but I just recently replayed it for the first time since launch and I enjoyed it waaay more, I’d give it a 9/10, main story and specially Phantom Liberty is amazing, my main criticism are side quests or side jobs, some are very good like Panam’s but most are mid or miss, however it blows my mind how in just 6 years since launch we’re so terrifyingly closer to that distopian future where a few corporations rule the world after a cybernetic war against AIs 😶
Re: Microsoft's 'This Is An Xbox' Post Taken Down As Fans Wonder If The Controversial Ad Is No More
Biggest marketing failure since the Xbox One launch imo, complete nonsense from the start.
Re: Xbox Reveals New Details On 'Project Helix' Next-Gen Console, Says Devs Will Get It In 2027
Hardware does seems exciting, every console under Jason Ronald has been remarkable and this seems like the ultimate prebuilt PC, plus the way they’re doing backwards compatibility seems the perfect way to do it with an actual preservation path.
Software however is a big concern to me, it’s a given it’s going to run full Windows 11 and it’s been confirmed there’s no “Xbox version” of any next-gen game moving forward, all new games will just be PC games, meaning you’ll have to tinker with the system, games, OS, and launcher to be able to play correctly, deal with driver updates, bugs, and lack of optimization from developers, so even if hardware is a powerhouse some games might end up performing worse than a PS6 or similarly priced PCs with Nvidia GPUs.
As a console player this is all the sort of things I don’t want to deal with hence why I’m still a console player, not a PC one.
Re: Tech Journalist Predicts A Price Of 'At Least $1,000' For Xbox Project Helix
@fatpunkslim Agreed with many points but this just isn’t another traditional console, if it ends up having third-party stores the whole business model is upended, as they cannot longer rely on recouping the loss on hardware by people spending on the MS Store because they might not spend their money there.
In my very case if I end up buying this device I would exclusively buy any new games on Steam simply because it’s a better and more solid platform than MS Store (often cheaper too), and this is exactly the kind of audience they’re targeting this device, they know it won’t be sold to the masses but PC enthusiasts who might buy it won’t leave Steam for anything in the world, so then what does Microsoft gains by selling hardware at a loss if they won’t get money from software?
This is the very question I’ve been asking since the beginning alongside how will console games run on PC, hope we get some answers or tips at GDC because those are the most important aspects of this device, however you can’t dismiss the RAM crisis because Microsoft is a huge company, recent reports said Apple, the biggest consumer hardware company in the world with the biggest leverage in the industry, agreed to pay 100% premium for DRAM from Samsung, it’s a huge problem that might even bleed into current-gen consoles.
Re: Xbox Must Live Up To Expectations Of Fans Who Have 'Counted On Us', Says Microsoft Boss
@Millionski I like what we’ve been hearing from Asha, so far she’s been saying all the good things and I do root for her, as I said before it’s fair to give her a chance and it’s unrealistic to expect that she’ll solve all of Xbox issues in a month, but it’s also imposible for me to feel optimistic until I see clear actions taken instead of fancy statements.
Satya however, I want him as far from Xbox as possible, as successful Microsoft has been with shareholders since he’s been CEO, he just doesn’t understand customer products, or customers at all, it’s why every single product and service from Microsoft has gotten noticeably worse and many like Windows Phone or Skype just ceased to exist, so now to stand by him and claim Xbox is back cause’ he said some nice things is just way too much imo.
Re: Tech Journalist Predicts A Price Of 'At Least $1,000' For Xbox Project Helix
@fatpunkslim They are selling $650 consoles from 2020, which are currently subsidized by having a closed ecosystem getting more revenue from people spending on Xbox.
How exactly will Microsoft be able to price this ‘premium’ PC open-ecosystem device for less than $1000 amidst a global RAM crisis when they can’t subsidize it? That device must sell at a profit to make sense and economics simply don’t work below that $1000 threshold, not even for a trillion dollar corporation.
Re: Xbox Must Live Up To Expectations Of Fans Who Have 'Counted On Us', Says Microsoft Boss
It’s either funny or sad how some still believe or want to believe in this man after all the times he’s straight up lied to our faces, it’s good to still be optimistic but championing this guy’s words? Really?
Re: Microsoft CEO On Xbox's Future: 'We'll Always Invest In Gaming'
@BacklogBrad @fatpunkslim Yeah because corporations and specially its CEO always tell the truth right? Such as “only 4 games” being ported right?
And no Xbox is not dead, it is living through an unstoppable spiral of death where it’s bleeding players to other platforms as their own has no incentive at all, no exclusives, high prices with less value, a $30/monthly subscription and so on, which in turn is making many developers to just ignore the Xbox platform altogether, resulting in more players leaving an so on…
I’d like to see if you can dispute this, I warned this would happen ever since the “only 4 games” were announced and I remember you claiming MS was telling the truth, have you learned nothing?
It’s sad how after all these years of MS straight up lying to our faces you still use Nadella’s words to champion “the return of Xbox”, he sees Xbox as a software seller, not as a platform, I don’t even know how you could spin this corpo hollow-talk into “exclusives are back”, it ain’t gonna happen.
And careful with championing Nadella’s statements, he said back in November 2016 they were ‘fully committed’ to Windows Phone, a year later the platform didn’t exist anymore.
Re: Talking Point: Will 'Project Helix' Be A Niche Device, Or An Xbox Console For The Masses?
I mean, if a $299 Xbox didn’t appeal to the casual masses it’s hard to imagine a ~$1,299 Xbox will.
If they kept their games exclusive to Xbox/PC and kept pricing to max $799 I think this device could’ve had a chance to at least appeal to all of us 35M who already own an Xbox and perhaps more from both the console and PC enthusiasts, still not the masses, but that scenario seems borderline unrealistic at this point, the damage is done releasing every game on competing platforms down to the sacred exclusives from the brand, and the way MS is already squeezing Xbox with $650 consoles and $30 monthly subscription it’s hard to imagine this device (that can’t be subsidized) isn’t $1000+ in this economy, plus the software side on Windows 11 I dare say has never been worst and many of the PC people they’re trying to appeal are flocking to SteamOS and Linux.
Re: 'It Will Lead In Performance' - Xbox's Price Tag For Project Helix Could Be Pretty High
The tech behind it intrigues me for sure, but the software is the major hurdle, I really don’t want to deal with Windows 11 at all no matter the price.
Re: Xbox Announces New 'Project Helix' Console, Says It Will Play PC Games
We’re back at the Project Scorpio/Scarlett stage lol
At least we got a confirmation that PC is the way they’re moving forward, still not sure how to feel about that but looking forward for the many details that should come out in GDC as I have soooo many questions for this.
Re: Microsoft Has Explored Allowing AI & Other Xbox Players To Help Control Your Games
Microslop is really doing everything they can to deserve that nickname…
Re: Next Xbox Console Could Be Affected By PlayStation Pulling Back On PC
@fatpunkslim @TrollOfWar Using that headline as a metric is disingenuous since Helldivers 2 is pretty much the only exception to the rule as it’s the only game that has sold more on PC than PS5 with nearly 2/3 of its total sales being on PC, it’s even stated on the article itself that’s an anomaly due to Helldivers 2.
There’s also Spider-Man 2 that sold +16M on PS5 and 0.7M (700K) on PC, and pretty much every single-player game follows a similar ratio or worse, sales have been a flop even if Sony will never word it that way, again, you don’t like to hear it but you’re coping because you were already assuming and even bragging for something that was never a certainty.
Source for Spider-Man 2 sales:
https://open.substack.com/pub/alineaanalytics/p/our-most-requested-estimates-and?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
Re: Next Xbox Console Could Be Affected By PlayStation Pulling Back On PC
@fatpunkslim Lmao revenue from PC amounts to 2% of their total revenue, it’s absolutely minuscule compared to their console business hence why they’re quickly moving away from it.
The truth you don’t want to hear is that you’re heavily coping as you’ve been already bragging about having PS games on the next Xbox for a while, realistically speaking no one will choose to buy the next Xbox over the PS6 because it has some PS4/PS5 ports that at that point will be more than half a decade old, and that’s even assuming the next Xbox does launch and does fulfill the promise of having third-party stores.
Re: Xbox Head Doubles Down On The Importance Of Console, Says It's A 'Reference Experience'
This should be the time to stop talking and actually deliver to the fans, as I said before, it’s fair to give her a chance, but she’s already making the same mistakes trying to build a parasocial relationship with Xbox content creators (same people who have flip-flopped cheering on Xbox exclusives and then cheering on a multiplatform strategy) and making vague promises as “the return to Xbox” when no one even knows what that means, some assume it’s back to exclusives but that’s nearly impossible to revert, so what exactly is her plan? And more importantly, if she doesn’t have it, which is perfectly understandable since she’s been days in the job, maybe stop talking until you do.
Re: Opinion: Xbox Should Consider Cancelling Halo: Campaign Evolved For PS5
It’s waaaay to late to be reversing course at this point, doing so would put Xbox in an even more pathetic position and with little to no difference as damage to the brand is already done.
Re: Roundup: Here's What The First Reviews / Impressions Say About The Marathon Server Slam
Not great, not terrible either. As I said on Push Square, I found it too slow and it quickly got boring for my particular taste even if I found it visually impressive, certainly wouldn’t spend $40 in this when many other multiplayer games are just waaaaay more fun.
Re: Video: Phil Spencer Introduces New Xbox Leader At Microsoft HQ
Sarah Bond’s absence pretty much confirmed The Verge’s report.
I’ve said multiple times I’m particularly not optimistic for Xbox’ future, but I think people are being too brutal with Sharma, yes she’s not a gamer but she doesn't have to be one to be successful in her work, I’m willing to give her a chance and so far she’s been saying all the good things, let’s only hope her actions follow suit.
Re: Xbox Says 'Hardware Announcements Are Coming Up' As Team Looks Ahead To Next-Gen
Too little, too late. Damage is done and trust is broken, I seriously doubt that anyone takes what they say seriously.
Re: Xbox Won't Back Away From First-Party And Become 'Just A Publisher', Insists EVP Matt Booty
Can’t they just shut up spitting lies? Their actions the last couple of years have been pretty opposite to their words, so what about just shutting up?
Re: 'We Have Good Reasons To Believe In What's Ahead', Insists New Xbox Chief Content Officer
The one guy who least deserved to remain part of Xbox was the one who even got a promotion…
Many people over the years have roasted Phil Spencer for not having a strong first-party lineup, while the main responsible for this is precisely Matt Booty, he was the one responsible to manage Xbox Game Studios since 2018 and later on also Zenimax and Activision Blizzard, and just how many games have been axed, studios closed or games underperformed with players? Almost all of them since he’s in charge.
I can’t point to a single one good thing he’s done for the brand, in fact I just remembered, didn’t he say that MS would “spend Sony out of business” in some leaked emails?
Re: Xbox President Sarah Bond Is Also Leaving The Company, Microsoft Confirms
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of today’s news, either she also disagrees with where Microsoft is taking Xbox and decided to leave her name out of it, or Satya gave her expected position to an AI head and she disagreed and left.
Interesting that with her leaving there’s no “head of Xbox” anymore, only a CEO and CCO of Microsoft Gaming.
Either way it’s weird as it was very public that she was essentially Phil’s successor, might have not contributed as much as Phil to Xbox but still I also wish her the best of luck.
Re: New Xbox Boss Makes Official Statement As She Takes Over From Phil Spencer
I really don’t want to say anything mean but her profile is a huge red flag for what is to come.
I’m open to be proven otherwise and I sincerely hope for everything to turn out great but I’d be lying if I said I’m confident for the future of Xbox, what a sad couple of days, as I said yesterday, it’s such a brutal time to be a console fan.
Re: Phil Spencer Announces That He's Retiring From Xbox
I understand if some people were left with a bad image of Phil, but we just can’t remain oblivious to what he did for the brand:
It wasn’t perfect but I’m damn certain that if he hadn’t become head of Xbox back in 2013 we wouldn’t have an Xbox at all nowadays, and if you resent him for launching Xbox games on PS5 that’s simply not on him, it’s on Amy Hood and Satya Nadella, and it’s the way Microsoft is moving forward with the brand whether we like it or not (I don’t).
Re: Phil Spencer Announces That He's Retiring From Xbox
@Cakefish You either die (leave) as a hero, or live long enough to be the villain.
I have a feeling that whatever slop Microsoft has in store both Phil and Sarah just said they don’t want their name tied to it, I completely understand and respect the decision, you can see his enthusiasm dwindle ever since that “only 4 games” podcast.
Re: Phil Spencer Announces That He's Retiring From Xbox
I honestly feel this as sad news, and I know I’ve been very critical of Xbox as of late but it’s my understanding that recent pivots and decision making are coming from the very top of Microsoft, not Phil Spencer or anyone at Xbox for the matter.
I do believe that uncle Phil tried his best, and that he actually cared for the brand and its fans, sure he made mistakes of his own along the way (even someone as legendary as Iwata did) but you could feel his enthusiasm specially in the early days, I do wish him the best and thank him for the many good things he did for the brand.
However, with Phil and Sarah gone I think this officially marks the end of the transition period from the Xbox we knew and loved to a fully fledged Microsoft Gaming, I’m not saying that they’ll rebrand, stop making games or anything like that but clearly Microsoft has taken absolute control of the division and we see how their vision is based on AI, subscriptions and cloud instead of empowering its platform with exclusive games and building communities, that vision is truly gone now, and we can only wait to see how Microsoft’s vision for Xbox shapes out, if I’m being honest I personally have no optimism left whatsoever for Nadella’s Microsoft, but he won’t be CEO forever (right?).
Re: Sony's Bluepoint Games Might Be Gone, But We'll Never Forget Their 'Impossible Port' For Xbox 360
What a bafflingly stupid absurd situation, they literally bought to studio to make a live service game no one wanted, cancel it and proceed to close the studio.
Man what a terrible time to be a console fan, it’s disappointment after disappointment.
Re: ROG Xbox Ally X Gets Its First Price Increase, Limited To One Region For Now
@Runex2121 So now a $1,200 device is worth that for cloud streaming? LMAO such a disingenuous take, you might as well use your phone and a $50 controller to have the same experience.
Re: ROG Xbox Ally X Gets Its First Price Increase, Limited To One Region For Now
@Runex2121 It plays PC games, not Xbox games, or will you be able to play GTA 6 on it at launch?
Re: ROG Xbox Ally X Gets Its First Price Increase, Limited To One Region For Now
So $1,200 for a device that has beta software, can’t run Xbox games, and even has widespread hardware issues, I’ve read multiple reports of people claiming the Rog Xbox Ally died on them, even Asus themselves have said any repair or warranty claim will take longer than usual as they have “high repair volume”.
Just for context you can get BOTH a PS5 Pro and a Switch 2 or Steam Deck for that exact price.
Re: Xbox Signs Out Multiple Players At Once, Seemingly Related To Age Verification Issues
@FraserG Yeah but they now seem to be doing them on a 3-month basis or whenever something major breaks, and I wouldn’t care that much about updating if the OS was actually stable but it’s far from it, literally it felt more reliable and snappy at launch than 5 years later, plus many features they promised they’d overhaul such as captures or achievements just never happened.
Re: Xbox Signs Out Multiple Players At Once, Seemingly Related To Age Verification Issues
Been saying for months that the console OS feels borderline abandoned, my Series X was so smooth at launch but nowadays it lags terribly just by scrolling the dashboard and I’ve had increasingly more bugs and crashes on my console, we used to get monthly updates for bug squashing and performance improvements since the Xbox One days, now it seems no one cares.
Re: Microsoft Apparently 'Expects' The Xbox Series Era To Last, Despite Next-Gen Plans
The way this is looking the Series X will be the last Xbox I own, at least I’m happy to have gotten the Halo special edition console, one of the best looking consoles Xbox ever did if not the best.
Re: Report: Microsoft Is In The Early Stages Of 'Expanding' Xbox Game Pass
At $30/month it won’t “expand” any time soon, merging PC Game Pass and Premium reeks of removing day one games from the PC tier and to be honest GP Premium is not worth it, I’d even say that the game selection of PS+ Extra is better and I still find it too expensive also, currently I’d only recommend any gaming sub to someone who just got a console and doesn’t have an owned library or the Essential tier if you just want to play online.
Re: Obsidian Says Two Of Its 2025 Titles Didn't Meet Sales Targets, Vows To Learn For The Future
That 30% profit target could be the worst decision Microslop has ever made on the gaming side, and that’s a lot considering all that’s happened with the RROD, the Xbox One launch and even the recent multiplatform pivot.
If enforced it will end up killing most studios within Xbox, Bethesda, and Activision as it’s basically unachievable, not even Sony or Nintendo manage to have that profit margin for all of their games having bigger franchises and tighter budgets, expecting that from a game from Double Fine, Compulsion, Obsidian, is just moronic, I could bet not even Gears E-Day or Fable will hit that target, the pivots and bad decisions literally won’t stop from the last couple of years, and yet some still want to think MS is playing some kind of 4D chess.
Re: Rumour: New Xbox Console Won't Release Until At Least Late 2027, Could Be Delayed Further
I would agree on a 2028-2029 timeline, but as many have said it here already, the more time it passes it’s more likely for that device to be canned, the Series X|S are practically abandoned, revenue from Xbox hardware has steadily been dropping ~30% every quarter over the last couple of years, at this point it’s minimal and only shrinking further, it only takes one MS exec to point out how much money it’s being poured into the R&D for this device and compare it to the revenue coming from hardware sales for everything to fall apart, I frankly don’t think we’ll get there when every quarter seems to be a bloodbath for Xbox.
Re: Xbox Series X|S Ranked 5th In List Of Platforms Developers Are Most Interested In
@Millionski Yeah and I find it specially frustrating that this generation Xbox really had a chance to compete just like in the 360 days or even exceed it as Sony has had a weaker PS5 generation compared to any previous one, but they just fumbled it time after time.
If this device ends up being just a fancy PC with all of Windows’ bloatware, which is looking increasingly likely, I will keep my Halo Series X for all my legacy library and just keep using a PS5/ PS6 as my main gaming device, I have zero interest in dealing with everything that comes with PC Gaming and Windows.
Re: Xbox Series X|S Ranked 5th In List Of Platforms Developers Are Most Interested In
@eduscxbox That market already exists with the handheld PCs and those go for around $600-$1000 from different manufacturers, how much you think a high-performance desktop sold at profit would go for? $1,200? $1,500? $2,000?
The economics simply don’t work for that device to be below $1000 no matter the competition between manufacturers, and another aspect of it is actually to convince them to spend R&D into developing a niche device that only a few people will buy.
Re: Xbox Series X|S Ranked 5th In List Of Platforms Developers Are Most Interested In
@eduscxbox One important note, those devs that want to develop for PC are interested in selling on Steam, not the Microsoft Store, I can bet right now that even if the PC Xbox ends up being real many games will only release on Steam, not the MS Store and the ones that do will sell vastly better on Steam, which also poses the question of how will MS profit from that device if most users get their games from other storefronts, unless they price it around $1,500.
Also, it’s just disingenuous to say it doesn’t matter that most devs want to skip Xbox and develop for PC, again, if the next Xbox ends up being real but the games are not optimized for it then it’s going to be a sh*tshow with performance even if the specs are good, and as a console user I’d hate having to tinker with a game just to be able to run it, so yes even if the next console is a PC we still NEED devs to be interested in it and optimize their games for it.
Re: Xbox Series X|S Ranked 5th In List Of Platforms Developers Are Most Interested In
This is exactly the thing I feared ever since the “only 4 games” were announced, it’s a slow spiral of death that becomes unstoppable once developers stop caring about the platform and we’re at that point already, with many games just choosing to skip the platform altogether which will only result in shrinking user base and in turn more games skipping the platform, yet I remember I was insulted incessantly on Xbox forums by warning this and here we are.
Re: Talking Point: Will The Next Xbox Console Be Revealed In 2026?
@Fiendish-Beaver Agreed with everything you said, I had the same realization since 2024 and I even stopped buying games altogether for Xbox and been using the PS5 Pro as my main console mainly because all this uncertainty, being an ex-user of Windows Phone I know how bad Microslop can manage a brand and they’ve followed every single bad step possible with Xbox.
I completely see a scenario where what you say end up happening, because it has already happened, I remember how Lumia phones were abruptly killed that even engineers from Nokia (merged into MS) found out about the hardware shutdown the same day as the press and the rest of the world, and those sold more units in a more important market back then than Xbox consoles nowadays, with every quarter that goes by without that device being shipped and ready to sell the chances of it never seeing the light of day increases dramatically, it really only takes for Satya or any other AI-crazed suits to see all the money poured into hardware R&D and the abysmal revenue from hardware sales to scrap everything in a snap.
Re: Talking Point: Will The Next Xbox Console Be Revealed In 2026?
@OldGamer999 Yeah I agree, so much uncertainty around it has pushed me personally to currently buy every game on PS5 Pro, I don’t care about Play Anywhere as I really don’t want to migrate to a full Windows PC experience as I have tried twice and just end up very frustrated with it, which is why I have lots and lots of questions for this Xbox/PC device, if it ends up being just another Windows PC with an Xbox logo and requires the same amount of tinkering as any other PC (just as the Rog Xbox Ally) I’m out, I’d rather keep my Series X for its legacy library same as I did for the 360 or still do with my PS3 than dealing with Windows 11 bloatware.
The only way I’d consider moving into PC would be with steamOS whether in a Steam machine or I build a PC of my own with Linux but for the time being it’s just simpler to keep investing on my PS5 Pro, and I might keep it as my main gaming device, after all it’s currently the only one getting all games (as not even PC will get GTA 6 day one).
Re: Talking Point: Will The Next Xbox Console Be Revealed In 2026?
@fatpunkslim Lmao how can you say it’s too expensive and recommend waiting for the next Xbox when we don’t even know the price or launch window for NEITHER of them?
We also don’t know the actual features of that Xbox/PC device, how will it run the console library, performance levels, how much of that performance will be eaten up by the bloatware of Windows 11, how much tinkering you’ll have to do to play, the price, if it’ll be available globally or even going to launch at all, at least with Steam you know you’re getting into a solid platform unlike Microslop’s Windows and Xbox PC app.
Re: Fable Likely To Be A Huge Hit On PS5 As Sony-Hosted Trailer Hits 1 Million Views
Honestly, even having a Series X I will get it for PS5 Pro (on disc if possible) as I will for every other MS Gaming titles, even Forza Horizon 6 and Gears E-Day whenever they launch, I have no interest at all in Play Anywhere or Windows PC Gaming nor Game Pass Ultimate at $30/month.