Jaxx420

@Moonglow Xbox may have been an independent division operationally but it has always been owned and funded by Microsoft to my knowledge. Source?

Not quite my earliest but my best early memory. Halo specifically Silent Cartographer level. Having warthog races with my mate in co op around the island.

Or in single player morbidly watching marines man the warthog with me not realising I was going to drive it off one of the cliffs jump out, tag with a plasma grenade and watch it fly.

@NEStalgia @Tharsman Elon Musk is a genius and by that I mean your typical genius type you would see on a TV show or a Movie. His brain is so overactive and his eccentricity that he moves into the space of making decisions that on paper seem bordering on being insane.

For every success he has there will be many failures. And those failures will fail really really hard

I have about as much artistic flair as Tyson Fury has hair. But to me the Xbox one looks better by a mile.

@RazputinAquato Microsoft have also paid to keep games off other platforms. They are all at it in one way or another.

This whole acquisition has just brought Sonys antics out into the open a little more is all.

@BowsersBuddy There is certainly more ability now to fix things post release. Driveclub and Cyberpunk 2077 are good examples where that has been successful.

Publishers did get hammered for that in the old days but development tools themselves back then were not what they were now. Releasing games unfinished early to make money is a far more common and worse trend now than it was back then.

@BowsersBuddy agree it happens more often than not these days. Most of the time it is the problem issue of publishers rushing a game out before release, sadly.

Sometimes it is a dev genuinely investing time after disks are being produced to further refining and testing. But in the minority unfortunately.

@BowsersBuddy having worked in development before albeit briefly like @Kaloudz alluded to, day one patches are often developed a few weeks before release sometimes after a game "goes gold" but are not deployed until the day of release hence the day one term.

May have been locked behind a pay wall unlike the others in the early days but it was far more simple and reliable. Xbox Live set the bar for where all the services are at now.

Bottom line - its a move designed in part to incentivise people to move to Game Pass Ultimate.

MS are a business at the end of the day any opportunity to push users toward the more expensive tier they will take it.

Paying for early access bothers me. Bothers me even more with Game Pass. Such a huge emphasis on being able to play first party releases day one should come with the fee not pay even more to access a few days before. Sad road the market is going down.

Looking forward to this. Like a previous comment been a while since GT be cool to check out another sim racer.

@Joabra01Swe Console will always be behind PC in that respect. Comes down to affordability and convenience with console. Former especially. Lots cant afford a gaming PC sadly.

@Total_Weirdo Oh I know may have misunderstood wasnt disputing it just find it odd Sony keep the stiffs in the public eye so much and their avid gamers just to twitter.

@Moonglow to you and me. It causes no confusion at all.

To the casual out there, the parents who got an Xbox for their kids. There is inevitably those who will see GP console priced higher and automatically think "must be better" realise after. No online play.

Taking it down to the 3 would negate that issue. Its easy for us to sit here avid gamers frequenting gaming sites and know our shiz - gotta consider the ones who arent and dont.

@Total_Weirdo Nope. Mark Cerny and Shu are massive gamers but kept out of the public eye. Strange really.

@Moonglow it could be more simple. Confusion isnt the change with XBL gold. Its the fact that Game Pass lowest tier costs more with no online MP. That is what is confusing some.

Better option as someone said earlier is restructuring to have Core PC and Ultimate as GP models which is what they will probably do soon, just made more sense to do it simultaneously.

I am willing to bet it wasn't Jim Ryan's decision to sign this and someone above him has decided enough is enough. Bit late but was bound to happen.

@Kaloudz there was definitely venom with Sega vs Nintendo. Was a bit atrocious but you hit the nail on the head lack of social media and widespread internet didnt see it as much.

This was always going to go through and FTC losing the appeal was no surprise as their arguments to date have been almost baseless.

The interesting bit is what comes next and what this going through triggers.

Short term it just adds a tonne more content to the Xbox portfolio and creates some interesting competition. Long term - no clue.

Geez, 72 comments in and there has already been bickering and drama.

@Banjo- I dont disagree with the Sony zealots and good ol' JR associating it with the end of days but wouldnt you rather not see his name bandied around all the time? Gets old after a bit.

@Tharsman That is very true.

@HairyRope term used these days is "console exclusive" for that reason.

@Tharsman Nope. I dont think it would be covered the other way around either. Wouldnt make sense.

Gex! That takes me back. Cant wait.

@Banjo- it may be the semi open world style was a bit jarring for me. Used to classic survival horror being all about cramped rooms and narrow corridors nowhere to run and all that jazz.

@AlwaysPlaying feel your pain. I might get through mine by 2040. Maybe.

Im only about 2 hours in to Hi Fi Rush and I already have an urge to go back and play Jet Set Radio.

@Solidchief @Banjo Evil Within was brilliant. Classic survival horror cant beat it. I wasnt as enamoured with the sequel as much but cant put my finger on why.

Game Pass benefits indies big style. The funding they will get from it can almost make or break getting it out for release.

I can understand bigger publishers only dipping into it as it were but its massive for the indie development community.

I long for the day when anything positive about Game Pass doesn't immediately follow by mentions of Jim Ryan. Its constant. Lol.

If this site was a twitter he would be the top trending term at this point.

A snake is better off left in its pit and forgotten about.

They will likely lose it, but not surprised they have done it. Got to be seen as making efforts, political agendas and all that.

@Moonglow ABK are bigger than EA for revenue albeit marginally. MS and ABK together? Different beast.

It could go the way of TV streaming and there will remain room for many big players. Time will tell. The industry is big enough just depends how aggressive all the major companies will now get in buying others up.

@Moonglow PC Market is bigger but industry consolidation impacts that market the least as save for Nintendo, the others release their games on PC at various points anyway. It impacts the console market the most.

We are far away from it on paper but I expect it to accelerate over the next 2-3 years now. Reality is Xbox is a fraction of Microsofts overall profit base. Playstation is a vast majority of Sonys so they will react now and then Microsoft will react again in kind, it will speed up.

What happens after that remains to be seen. Competition creates quality so as long as the quality isnt impacted, things will probably be okay. But no one knows if that will end up being the case.

@Banjo- I give it days, weeks at most after it closes before Bobby goes. He should have been shafted years ago.

Just a shame he will go with a big fat pay packet.

@Moonglow it is positive for Xbox owners worry is what its going to spark now. An acquisition arms race does the industry no good.

Hard to distinguish between the Sony defenders and those genuinely concerned though. That "other place" certainly has a fair few of the former.

@Ep_13 EG went to the dogs years ago mate. I do frequent it for Digital Foundry as that team do some interesting stuff but other than that its a fanboyfest.

@RareFan I want to disagree with this as a massive Crash fan but I cant lol. This buyout is all about the money makers and mobile. I do hope they will continue with some of the more fun IPs but it is a worry.

@Gamer83 I dont like where it could lead either. I always expected this to go through and grew tired of the drama owning both anyway but I just hope it doesnt become the start of industry consolidation.

MS wont stop at ABK and Sony wont stop at Bungie either.

Loved the first two. Hated the third. Still think another one would be great under the right dev with the right direction.

If ABK deal goes through I would let Toys for Bob have a crack at it.

@BeerIsAwesome if like me you like martial arts films the whole setting of Sleeping Dogs was just perfect. I think it was a little bit different to GTA with the combat focus, played much differently for me.

@Markatron84 You misunderstood me I think.

I said it was dominating the gaming media at the moment which is a shame. I said they do right reporting it so those here can see the gist of what is going on I didnt say it was right to be in nearly every single article.

I too hate that as it just fills comments threads with fanboy nonsense both on here and the other site, which it appears to have done in this thread yet again sadly.

@BBB getting tiresome isnt it? Cant fault the site its dominated gaming news over the last two weeks in general. Its a shame but they do right reporting it.

@WallyWest Ok have to disagree there.

Was Halo their biggest system seller at the time? Did it help them get a foothold in the market? Absolutely.

But they had other new IPs that set them apart at launch and some time after. With the money side of things included MS would have been successful enough without Halo.

What is foolish is his idea of Sony being the only one moneyhatting exclusives to disrupt competitors. He forgets the 360 era, forgets Tomb Raider, forgets they moneyhatted getting timed exclusives on a next gen upgrade (Yakuza Like a Dragon for example)

He is pot calling kettle, but so is Jim Ryan. Honestly cant pick a side in this whole saga both have come off in a really bad light here.

Its been a sad few months that gaming news has been dominated by this bs.

@WallyWest He wont recognise anything in the industry before Xbox existed. Jim Ryan is the same both are execs spouting bs without a clue.

@Kaloudz the funniest part is COD has been at the forefront of all of this yet its them gaining Kyng that was probably the biggest draw for the acquisition bid.

People are too obsessed with Call of Duty.

Drama at this point. The bottom line in this whole saga has to be, if this goes through is it going to trigger industry consolidation ie Sony acquire Square Enix, MS then acquire another and so on so forth.

If the answer is yes, this shouldnt go through, if its no then its fine.

The real problem is you cant know the answer without it going through to find out and that should be a concern for gamers, those on both sides and the neutrals.

Industry consolidation will hurt gaming.

Maaan. I get this court hearing is technically very relevant to gaming right now but the amount of articles on both sites that are clearly just going to stoke vile fanboyism in comment threads is mind numbing at this point. Lol.

@SplooshDmg gone to the dogs. The toxicity is on both sites now sadly.