@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.
27% are in for a major disappointment, I don’t see any way this has a UHD Blu-Ray built in, it’s not part of their business and Microsoft has to pay a license just to use a Blu-Ray drive, best case scenario is they sell an optional drive but I heavily doubt it.
@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.
@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.
Shocking to see Microsoft attempting to sell Xbox hardware, we literally haven’t seen a deal for consoles since 2023, it’s a great first step, next they need to have more units available at different retailers worldwide and expand this deals to everyone in Black Friday.
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.
@PsBoxSwitchOwner And so far it’s been genuinely fun, I’d say if you have an even mild interest in this after watching gameplays just try it out and don’t let the hate mob stop you from forming your own opinions.
@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
@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.
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.
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Re: Sony Announces Major PS5 Price Hikes, Here's How They Compare To Xbox Series X|S
@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: Two Of 2025's Best Games Are Finally Getting Xbox Versions Soon
@Banjo- I wouldn’t say at no extra cost as it’s only coming to Ultimate, one month costs the same as the full game lol
Re: Microsoft Beats Out Sony & Nintendo In Metacritic's 2026 Game Publisher Rankings
It’s really a shame that just when Xbox started to have a consistent output of great games they decided to not make any exclusive…
Re: Talking Point: Do You Think Project Helix Will Support Physical Xbox Games?
27% are in for a major disappointment, I don’t see any way this has a UHD Blu-Ray built in, it’s not part of their business and Microsoft has to pay a license just to use a Blu-Ray drive, best case scenario is they sell an optional drive but I heavily doubt it.
Re: Crimson Desert Patch 1.03 Is Making Major Improvements On Xbox & PC
@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
@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: Xbox Series X Gets Major 'Just For You' Discount On The Microsoft Store
Shocking to see Microsoft attempting to sell Xbox hardware, we literally haven’t seen a deal for consoles since 2023, it’s a great first step, next they need to have more units available at different retailers worldwide and expand this deals to everyone in Black Friday.
Re: Talking Point: What Are Your First Impressions Of Crimson Desert On Xbox?
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: Xbox 'Copilot' Demonstration Hints At How It'll Work On Your Series X|S
@Lup Microsoft has a habit of making optional things VERY obnoxious…
Re: Crimson Desert Comparison Shows Difference Between Xbox Series X And Series S
@PsBoxSwitchOwner And so far it’s been genuinely fun, I’d say if you have an even mild interest in this after watching gameplays just try it out and don’t let the hate mob stop you from forming your own opinions.
Re: 'Keep The Feedback Coming' - Xbox Boss Says New Console Features Were Built Two Weeks Ago
@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
@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: 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.