Comments 779

Re: 'It Was A Miss, And I Own It' - Xbox CEO Hints At Removing PS5 & Switch Logos From Showcases

IllusiveMan

Most Xbox ‘content creators’ have become downright insufferable, faking an outrage out of this is so pathetic as last year they were all clapping for “transparency” when Phil started this trend in last years’ showcase.

This parasocial relationship between MS execs and “fans” needs to stop, it’s ok to listen to fans but don’t run the entire brand on that basis.

Re: Epic Games Boss Calls New Xbox Leadership Team 'World Class', Asha Sharma Responds

IllusiveMan

@fatpunkslim I very much agree, lately I’ve seen the wave of Xbox ‘content creators’ (who just a year ago still had Phil Spencer as god and defending the multiplatform pivot) now claiming Asha is the best ever because she changed the logo and wrote XBOX all in caps…

And don’t get me wrong, I like those things, I like having updates on consoles again and the new logo looks cool, but this is not nearly enough to repair the damage they’ve done to themselves, consoles are still not selling, hell they aren’t even being distributed, in my city it’s been since November that we last saw a Xbox Series X or S on shelves, there’s still A LOT of work to do and big decisions to make (specially on the exclusives matter) before claiming that ‘XBOX is back’.

Re: Talking Point: Amidst PS6 Uncertainty, Do You Think Xbox Has Project Helix All Figured Out?

IllusiveMan

@J_Mo_Money What good has Microsoft’s wealth done to Xbox? It didn’t save Xbox from losing players, losing exclusivity, closing studios and firing thousands of people in the last few years.
I’ve been hearing this argument ever since the 360 days “Xbox will be fine because MS has a lot of money” and well just take a look at the brand now, a shell of its former self because of Microsoft’s pressure and insane 30% profit goals, it was getting so bad they were forced to reverse course on several things with Asha.

And I’m not saying other brands are faring better, literally the entire industry is facing unprecedented challenges, but what I’m trying to say is that Xbox isn’t shielded by Microsoft from all the problems that face the gaming industry, we just had Xbox numbers last month and they’re nothing to cheer for.

Re: Talking Point: Amidst PS6 Uncertainty, Do You Think Xbox Has Project Helix All Figured Out?

IllusiveMan

Lol no, I’d even say they don’t know who are they building this device for, the massive casual audiences who buy consoles or the hardcore community who wants a PC? Because you can’t appeal to both.

They talk about Xbox being affordable yet nothing about Helix sounds affordable at all, they floated the idea of third-party stores but now they’re being very vague about that particular concept but it’s understandable because it’d upend the entire console business model. They have A LOT of things to figure out and that’s not even considering getting the components to build the device.

Re: Asha Sharma Comments On Xbox Revenue Loss For Q3 2026

IllusiveMan

@Banjo- Exactly, all this talk about the return of Xbox but there isn’t even an Xbox in most store shelves, I have a friend at retail and he says there’s still some people asking for Xbox consoles even with the price hike but it’s been months since Microsoft last supplied them.

Re: Microsoft CEO Says Xbox Is 'Recommitting To Our Core Fans' As Revenue Falls In FY26 Q3

IllusiveMan

Let it sink in than even after going multiplatform for all games revenue has gone down for 2 quarters in a row with previous minimal growth for over 2 years.

These numbers are inexcusably bad and hence why so many (needed) U-turns at Xbox, yes FH5 might have sold 5 million copies since PS5 launch last year and yet Xbox keeps shrinking more and more and it’s obvious why, they keep stating Xbox has more users than ever, but for all we know even a CoD player on PS5 or a Candy Crush player can be counted as an Xbox user now, however players on the actual Xbox console are either leaving or spending significantly less than before, I myself went from buying all third-party games on Xbox to not a single one since 2024, which is why now the mission is to “recommit” to all of us who actually spent on their platform and a big chunk of their revenue was coming from, it’s been a good start for Asha but at least for me until I see more concrete action I’ll keep holding on investing in Xbox games, subs and hardware.

Re: Asha Sharma Says Xbox Is Investing To Make Series X|S Consoles A 'First-Class Experience Again'

IllusiveMan

@Kaloudz I lost hope for that a while ago, some areas look a bit modernized like the Home Screen, Guide and My Games & Apps but almost everything else is such a mess, some modern UI blended with Windows 8 minimalism and convoluted menus, features like Captures remain virtually unchanged from 2013, even the format to export video captures is really old and heavy, I’ll be very, even extremely surprised if they actually get to work on that after neglecting it for 13+ years.

Re: Xbox Boss Declares Game Pass Is 'Too Expensive' And Needs A 'Better Value Equation'

IllusiveMan

A $20 Ultimate tier with day one games but Fortnite crew removed and no Call of Duty at launch would be good enough imo.

Also they need to drop the requirement for online play and make the service attractive even on the cheapest tiers, like the rumor of having a tier of only first-party games would be nice to substitute current Essential tier, that way both the platform and the service become immediately more attractive.

Re: 'What Do You Want Added?' - Xbox Engineer Requests Ideas For New Console Features

IllusiveMan

Remove ads from dashboard, allow us to install Xbox One X versions instead of Series X to save SSD space, and revamp entirely the captures system so that we can record for more than 1 minute in a modern format, what we have currently is virtually unchanged from 2013, and overall just modernize many features and the UI as some areas still try to look like Windows 8 from 2012.

Re: Talking Point: Which Xbox Console Do You Think Has Aged The Best?

IllusiveMan

Xbox One X by a long shot.

It was the first genuinely impressive hardware from Xbox since the very first one (love the 360 but hardware and performance-wise it was a mess), it felt like the first console from the Phil Spencer era, had 4K Blu-Ray playblack when not even the PS4 Pro had it, plays most optimized games for it at native 4K, has backwards compatibility with every generation of Xbox, some Xbox and 360 games were even upscaled to 4K for free, all while still is able to play most modern games quite well and stablished the base for the Series X which is still an impressive piece of hardware.

Re: Xbox Series X Is Even Better Than PS5 Pro For Assassin's Creed Unity, Suggests Report

IllusiveMan

@fatpunkslim The PS5 Pro is a scam because XSX can run last gen games better? That was already the case with the base PS5 as backwards compatibility is just better built on Xbox.

If you actually had the console the main or perhaps only reason is to play newer games as best as possible without jumping to PC, the list of PS5 Pro optimized games is not big but as an owner of both a PS5 Pro and Series X the difference in those optimized games is pretty dramatic specially with the latest PSSR update, there’s now better looking games in performance mode than on base PS5/XSX at quality mode, I’m currently playing Crimson Desert on the Pro and for that alone it was worth the price I paid for it, but nowadays at $899 it’s impossible to recommend.

Re: Xbox Series X Is Even Better Than PS5 Pro For Assassin's Creed Unity, Suggests Report

IllusiveMan

@FraserG That’s because Xbox implemented VRR way sooner, since the Xbox One S if I’m not mistaken, so on top that the feature itself is better built it just has been officially supported and optimized for way longer, which is bearing fruit as many backward compatible games do run better on Xbox than PS5.

I remember back at launch PS5 didn’t even have a VRR and it arrived months later with an update with lots of bugs and still isn’t entirely fixed.

Re: Microsoft Issues Statement On Why 'This Is An Xbox' Campaign Has Been Retired

IllusiveMan

@shiny-enzo It was a success but in my conservative opinion Forza should’ve never launched on PlayStation, neither Halo or Gears (which sold poorly on PS5) and it’s the same equation as for Sony, while you might get more immediate revenue from porting games elsewhere you also lose relevance and revenue from your own platform, that’s what happening with Xbox, even with Forza’s success their revenue didn’t grow by that much in the quarter it released and it’s shrunk a couple of quarters since, so sales from porting games might be getting offset by less engagement and spending from Xbox users, or even losing users altogether.

Re: Microsoft Issues Statement On Why 'This Is An Xbox' Campaign Has Been Retired

IllusiveMan

@fatpunkslim I actually agree, so far she’s been taking all the right decisions, the most important thing in my opinion is the return of exclusives for Xbox/PC, maybe Switch 2 but no PlayStation publishing, if Sony is doing a 180° I think Microsoft can and must do it too, but should be very clear and transparent about it, I would do away with timed exclusives entirely, because most games releasing months or years later almost never sell as well, either release it everywhere day one or be clear about a permanent exclusivity.

I’d keep all Xbox Game Studios titles exclusives and release most if not all Activision and Bethesda game on every platform, but again, messaging is key and it’s not about shutting out PS players but having more competition which is desperately needed in this market amongst today news from Sony.

Re: Sony Announces Major PS5 Price Hikes, Here's How They Compare To Xbox Series X|S

IllusiveMan

@Globo Yeah on that I do remember how many fanboys were celebrating Xbox’ demise just last year and so far this year has been as brutal for PlayStation, 2 studios closed, more games getting cancelled and a severe price hike in less than a couple of months, you can bet they’re not gloating now, which is why I wouldn’t gloat about this, things for both can always get worse.

But as a console fan, owner of a Series X, PS5 Pro and Switch 2 I’m very worried for the sustainability of this whole market, it really feels we’re already living through a crash and it’s bound to get worse, they’re pricing out younger generations from gaming altogether and the industry cannot be sustained by the same players with no growth, next generation will look absurd with a $999 PS6 and a $1299 Xbox (being optimistic).

Re: Sony Announces Major PS5 Price Hikes, Here's How They Compare To Xbox Series X|S

IllusiveMan

@Globo You better not gloat on it as MS might just increase prices again for all that’s worth.

I don’t see the “funny” at all here, it’s not like because Sony increased prices now it’s fine Xbox did so as well, they’ll both get deservedly crucified for it as they’re pricing out people from gaming, it’s such a grim outlook for both brands and I’m feeling Nintendo is next with a Switch 2 price bump.

Re: Crimson Desert Patch 1.03 Is Making Major Improvements On Xbox & PC

IllusiveMan

@shiny-enzo Most complaints from crashes come from people using the Xbox PC app, and sorry but that app is subpar to both the Xbox console experience and Steam, you can find comments saying everything works fine but can also find tons and tons of comments of weird bugs, glitches, crashes and features missing from the Xbox PC app, I wish it’d allow to change a games’ language instead of having to change it for the whole PC, and the worst bug I’ve experienced is when I had my Rog Ally (the first one) it refused to start any game from the Xbox app, I literally had to reinstall Windows, that just cannot happen on the premium PC/console ‘Helix’ device, if the Xbox PC app will essentially become the core of Xbox it MUST get substantially better.

And no they still haven’t released the update for Xbox, Epic and Mac, only Steam and PlayStation currently, that’s because updates overall are generally slower on Xbox (both PC app and console) simply because the process of submitting it and getting approved is slower than both Steam’s and Sony’s, it always happens when updates are released ASAP and not timed to match every platform, you can check out tons of developers complaining about the more strict process Microsoft has for submitting updates, which again, should be looked into to further improve the Xbox PC app experience.

Re: Crimson Desert Patch 1.03 Is Making Major Improvements On Xbox & PC

IllusiveMan

@fatpunkslim Saw an article on Windows Central on how the Xbox PC version is particularly broken right now, and it’s baffling since both the Xbox console and Steam versions have no crashing issues.

It’s not the first time a game runs worse on the Xbox PC app than Steam, also pushing updates is way slower than both Steam and PS5, Microsoft really needs to focus on making their launcher substantially better because otherwise it’s going to be a poor experience with the Xbox Helix since all new games will be PC games.

Re: Talking Point: What Are Your First Impressions Of Crimson Desert On Xbox?

IllusiveMan

Impossible to put a grade on it just yet but so far it’s been genuinely fun, even as I kept reading the first 8-10 hours were bad I’ve been enjoying it a lot and it does feel like the game is just opening up, this is definitely among the feels of exploring BoTW or Death Stranding with a slow-paced world waiting to be explored, and of course it ain’t perfect, controls are definitely a learning curve and story so far is bizarre but in a silly fun way.

Re: 'Keep The Feedback Coming' - Xbox Boss Says New Console Features Were Built Two Weeks Ago

IllusiveMan

@Fiendish-Beaver Could be, but that’d also mean that those features and updates were just sitting there for a while until someone cared to push then forward and the credit still goes to Asha.

Whatever the case may be I see this as a good move and a good start for Asha as we had gone months without any update on the console side, remembering they have a console is the first step lol

Re: Xbox Series X|S Is Getting Its First Dashboard Update In Ages, Quick Resume Upgrade Included

IllusiveMan

@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: Bethesda Says Starfield Looks 'Amazing' With Nvidia's DLSS 5, But Don't Expect It On Xbox

IllusiveMan

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: Talking Point: Xbox Game Pass Players, What Do You Think Of Cyberpunk 2077?

IllusiveMan

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 😶