Jaxx420

@Banjo- Yeah been a load of drama over nothing. Can't help but think it could have been avoided if MS had shut it down from the get go rather than wait for a business update next week. Let it fester a bit too long.

They always said exclusives would be decided on a case by case basis. I don't get all the drama they are just following through on that.

Cross-gen again is a bit of a bummer. I think they could do so much more with it without that. Hopefully final year of it.

Probably has a marketing deal with Playstation. Sony buying Evo they will want marketing deals with all the major fighting game franchises now. This may be part of it.

Definitely wont be paying solely for timed exclusivity of a demo lol even they are not that stupid.

My guess is they have got the rights to the game and paid a pretty penny for it so they can decide where its distributed.

Makes sense and a clever move, MS can if they choose go to Sony and Nintendo and say how much are you willing to pay for a release or keep it Xbox only.

FTC are talking a lot of nonsense and should just give up at this point. Waste of time and resources.

At the same time I dont know how yet again another article related to the acquisition has triggered yet more plastic box tribalism and tit for tat. Is it not getting old yet?

It is a wild guess. But my guess is unless they have purchased the rights to use the license in games as Sony did with Spiderman. Then the decision on platforms lies with the license holder ie Disney and its TBC right now.

Similar how MLB the show has ended up on Xbox.

@OldGamer999 take the sales figures as a whole out of the equation. MS long term vision isnt about market share on hardware. Its about getting Game Pass on machines. Be it PC or other platforms.

Instead the more relevant metric here is of their total hardware sales how many were Series S. Which is around 74% I believe. I would be interested to see how many of those 74% use other platforms and got it as a second machine.

On that basis they definitely had the right idea.

@OldGamer999 the direction MS took was well intentioned though especially with economy issues. Allow gamers a more affordable way to tap into next gen experiences.

Us hardcores can talk about limitations but to the casual joe bloggs the Series S was a reach out to say come and play the best games and not have to drain the wallet.

MS had the right idea.

@Mephisto2869 If Larian can get the parity clause removed for Split Screen. GTA is that much of a money maker Rockstar will get it removed whenever they like.

As for how it would run 460p has got to be sarcasm surely? GTA V across multiple generations proved it was scalable. I would expect at least 1080p with some graphical sacrifices but nothing more. It was incredible that game came out on PS3/360 and still holds up today.

I get the Series S limitation issues but it wont be that bad lol.

@BeerIsAwesome second that.

While the regulators handled this whole saga about as badly as a chav on a night out. Their whole existence is to protect competition it isnt an "agenda against big tech" the point of their existence is to stop monopolies and who are most likely to try and gain a monopoly?....Big tech. And MS werent trying to pull this off to make gamers happy. Its to make money. And make it they will now.

But, ultimately ABK were looking to be bought out anyway and made the first move to be acquired. So the argument it was a monopoly move just fell flat on its backside.

Its essentially - if you want to play it alone. Its a fantastic game and you will have an absolute blast. If you want to play it with friends its a bit messy.

Some of the reviews knocking so much off just for a coop not working so well is a bit harsh. They have all acknowledged as a sonic game played alone its quality as always.

@AlexAtwell I do understand and know the concept. But I cant see MS going back and reviving a dead site. You seem heavily invested in it judging by previous comments. I have played on Royal Games before. Its unfortunate it shut down but it isnt coming back.

While I dont know what MS will and wont do, no one here outside of MS does. Can hazard a guess it will be what makes them money quickly and reviving Royal Games will not do that.

@JayJ I too would love to see a new Spyro but cant help but think dormant IPs will be an afterthought.

This buyout is all about the moneymakers ie mobile and CoD.

Look at Rare and how many dormant IPs they have that have barely been touched since they were acquired.

@AlexAtwell Your obsession with Royal Games is kinda unhealthy.

I would get used to reality. It aint coming back.

@BrilliantBill In his defence IGN posed the question about Series S to him rather than as a dev using a platform to moan about it. He had to answer it.

More a case of journos asking it on purpose to put the answer back out for clicks.

@Titntin Bobby Kotick wont be an employee for long. He will take his multi million payout and be gone within a few weeks to a couple of months, if that.

Kinda want it to go through just for all the drama to finally be over. Lol.

@Dan1283 its not holding them back. The architecture is similar to PC so its the same as having a low to mid spec PC vs buying a higher spec. Games are scaled and optimised for both.

@Sol4ris No need to apologise for the late reply! Thanks for the help. I have Lies of P installed so will see how I get on.

My Series X finally back from repair so finally dipping into Starfield this weekend. Slow start but sticking with it as its typical Bethesda and seen from other reviews it picks up later.

Dipping into a bit more of Crew Motorfest and finishing off The Expanse otherwise.

@Sol4ris I am one of those that found Souls/Elden Ring games too difficult for me. Maybe its my hand eye coordination lol. Not tried Sekiro or Lies of P either have bit less of a learning curve?. I like the aeshetic in Lies of P but not taken a punt yet just in case

Edit: @Kaloudz posing the same question to you too!

Is it a slow news day? I am not sure why anyone thought this would be any different tbh. Only some multiplayer games will stay multiplatform.

My Series X is in for repair this weekend, annoyingly so me continuing Starfield is on ice for a few days.

In the interim on the PS5 and The Crew Motorfest trial, dabbling in a little bit more Hogwarts Legacy trying to finally get it finished and dent the backlog with how busy October is looking for releases right now.

@GamingFan4Lyf I think the core issue is and I say this about PS5 also. A lot of marketing spin was thrown out there about this gen being able to offer 120fps options for many of their games and so far only a few indie games have offered that option.

FPS isnt the be all and end all but bottom line dont hype it if you dont plan to offer it.

@Kaloudz Ray Tracing isn't all that anyway in terms of the overall experience. S owners even with a 4k tv will still get a looker here.

@Kaloudz As others have said - lack of history. You will appear on the reports as things like lets say gas and electric bill payments are reported on there. But otherwise you have no debt repayment history to drive up the score.

But tbh - the number matters less than whats in the full credit file so dont worry. Small credit ie credit card lenders, loan lenders etc may go by the number. The important stuff like mortgage lenders would look at the full file and ignore the number so I wouldnt be concerned with it.

If you were just take a card out with a small limit. Buy the shopping from Asda every week (or Aldi, Lidl avoid M and S!) Pay it off the next morning eventually that number will creep up a bit.

@Maddie47 As you are in the UK this is more apt but here is another life hack - if they are for suckers better become a sucker if you want a mortgage!

Unfortunately Credit Scoring requires you spending beyond your means then paying it off to show you can manage spending beyond your means then paying it off.

Isn"t Captialism just beautiful.

@Kaloudz the comments I could only sum up as comedy gold lol

@Kaloudz Just read that review myself. Absolutely no punches pulled there eh? Lol.

@Tharsman Cant disagree with the base point. Sony fans have been rather vocal this week.

Im specifying it to Metacritic. Personal view I think its been a useless source for rating a games success for years. But review bombing has been rife there for a long time, long before this gen and across all platforms.

@Tharsman Never thought Id see you dropping the ponie bomb you dont normally engage in the tribal nonsense.

Yeah there will be some Sony fans doing it but I wouldnt generalise it that way. Seen Playstation titles get review bombed in the same way. Last of us 2 springs to mind.

More often than not its trolls who review bomb any game that had a lot of marketing hype just for fun.

@Cashews some of them are more value than others but i dont think any are justifying the sharp increases at all tbh.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner oh aye getting my 50p pocket money and scranning 50 cola bottles from the local newsagents on a Saturday. Those were the days!

@Kaloudz don't we measure inflation here on the price of a Freddo? Remember when they were 10p!

@PsBoxSwitchOwner there is that too. But even over in TV streaming prices are going up. Amazon Prime also added caveats to free delivery. Its all to recoup money for investors. Capitalism as usual is rife.

Queue some obligatory bashing of the other side in 3...2...1...

Jokes aside. Both are going to be squeezing what they can out of playerbases and hide behind "so we can continue our good service"

Roughly translates to "we made some investments and need to recoup money in the short term so our shareholders dont spank our backsides"

@Moonglow feel the same there. Backlog is big enough as it is Starfield is not going to help lol.

@Chaotic_Neutral Tried Outriders? Not booted up my X in a bit due to work but I believe its still on GP and should float your boat for looter shooters.

@BAMozzy He is obsessed with Royal Games in almost every thread relating to the acquisition wouldn't spend much time there lol.

Didnt really get the Stage invaders bigging up GTA 6. Some people just have far too much time on their hands. Lol.

@Moonglow I also think any direct comparison with BG3 and Starfield is a bit skewed. They are vastly different types of RPG.

Starfields scope is much bigger in terms of map size vs an RPG based on mostly dungeons.

So its fair to expect some sparse areas or barren planets as it were.

GOTY will definitely be a tough call this year.

@Sol4ris I normally agree when you spot the fanboys/folks from that other site blowing smoke and call it out but I dont think thats entirely it with this one.

Theres more than a few in this thread who I have seen very pro Xbox expressing concern with this tweak too.

The update seems to be genuinely dividing opinion here.

@Moonglow We are certainly smelling what the Xbox is cooking now.

@Banjo- @S-Bacc I can't offer much current input on this as I haven't played my emulators in a little while but I have dev mode and did experience it on my Series X albeit sporadically.

Can say the switch between dev and retail was vastly reduced on Series X vs One X but still took a little time. Couple of minutes at most.

I ended up giving up and switching back to emulating on PC with an Xbox controller.

Like you say may be worth waiting for someone with a more current experience of dev mode to weigh in on this been at least 6 months or more since I last used it for emulation.

@Jenkinss I dont think Sony can afford to acquire any publishers right now.

Skepticism and conspiracies aside, I think reality is SE games just sold better on other platforms. MS have stepped in and likely offered some finances in order to bring games back to the platform.

Its a smart and wise investment by Phil as there are a lot of Xbox only gamers who love their franchises.

@darkswabber because there is very much a Playstation vs Xbox narrative in threads here and on Push Square at the moment.

Nintendo doesn't enter their heads when one slags off the other.

@Moonglow While I think they are in a much better position to do so now with a better head at the helm. They were a billion dollar division backed by a trillion dollar corp when "All in one Xbox One" launched and they tried to focus on console, TV, set top box, Kinect etc, didnt work out so well and they dialled back to focus on traditional console gaming.

I think they have more capability now, but cant knock people for being a little bit skeptical.

@Moonglow I dont disagree with the context Xbox wasnt at the top of their agenda for a while. But it was certainly funded by them from day one. Bill Gates wouldnt bring The Rock out to show off a product he wasnt funding.

Same old. Thread mentioning the acquisition an argument breaks out almost immediately. Be glad when its done.