Comments 1,584

Re: New COD Sales 'Estimate' Helps Explain Xbox's Price Hike For Day One Game Pass Releases

Jenkinss

@OldGamer999 The problem is, Nadella was shutting down Xbox (2014, not 2021 when he was about to again. or 2025 when is actually doing it). They (Spencer?) convinced him not to by pitching game pass.

Now, game pass has failed by their own metrics. It should have climbed to 100m users, but it stalled at 25 (or 34 if you want to use MS's fudged numbers that include gold).

Are the people who came up with game pass stupid because it failed? Or were they smart because it gave us 10 more years of Xbox? It's a real question, I know it sounds like I'm defending it but either answer is reasonable to me. The whole situation is just sad.

Edit: I'll also add that the last 10 years of gaming between the insanely subsidized Xbox consoles AND insanely subsidized game pass AND game sharing... I'm just glad I was on board this gravy train while it lasted.

Re: Xbox Game Studios Titles Up For Several Awards At Golden Joysticks 2025

Jenkinss

Why are there 2 different GOTY categories, and E33 isn't on either? Clown shoes.

The only decent awards show was DICE and even that has gone downhill in the past 5 years.

I like Oblivion for remake of the year. Like many games that play like ass on other platforms this gen, it was nearly flawless on XSX with VRR when I played it and I am someone who is sensitive to frame drops.

Re: Xbox Ditches Majority Of Its Game Pass DLC Discounts As Part Of Service Revamp

Jenkinss

Rewards points LOL

The system that mass bans people constantly for zero reason, and you have zero recourse. Take it from me, at one time I had 500,000 points (roughly $500) and was temporarily banned for zero reason. Since then I've just been cashing it out.

Why did I have $500 stockpiled? I thought it would be fun to buy the next Xbox console with rewards points! What a time capsule that is. Assuming there was going to be another Xbox console and assuming I would buy it... it was a different time.

Re: 'Price Increases Are Never Fun For Anybody' Says Xbox Exec Defending Game Pass Changes

Jenkinss

@Fiendish-Beaver But would that game even be on the $15 tier day 1? Who wants to rent a game for $30? The fact that Xbox is the only console I play on and visit Xbox centric websites daily and I don't know... they're not going to appeal to anyone with anything they do now with the current structure and pricing. And you can be sure as hell they're not shelling out for the only game that might temporarily undo the negativity, GTA VI.

When Game Pass first came out, I described it to my friends (who almost all bought in) as the Blockbuster game freedom pass, or Gamefly, but way better.

Now, I would unironically go back to either over game pass but "can't" since 1) Blockbuster doesn't exist and 2) Gamefly just isn't worth it for Xbox as we get so few physical games. This boat is so sunk.

Re: Xbox Game Pass Premium May Be The Best-Value Tier Right Now, With Almost 50 Games Added

Jenkinss

@FraserG There's no way in heck they're paying $10 for ubisoft games per user, but I think it's marketing to get people to swallow the price increase.

My take on this is that they want to remove day 1 games from game pass, as Sony has said very publicly that it's not a sustainable model. I hate Sony, but I believe them on this. The problem is, MS can't remove day 1 games as it has been their entire selling point of the service. So what we have here is a soft removal of day 1 games. Here's what the timeline looks like in my head

Summer 2023: price hike

Summer 2024: price hike and remove day 1 games from standard

End of Summer 2025: insane price hike, making standard cost what ultimate does.

So now, day 1 games aren't really "game pass ultimate" by the traditional sense, are they? GPU was $14.99 for years, and you got day 1 games.

It's easier to think about it without the names (WHICH IS VERY MUCH INTENTIONAL BY THESE ***HOLES):

If you were a $10~ subscriber, you never really got day 1 games (going back to gold)
If you were a $15~ subscriber, they just took away your day 1 games. Mission accomplished
In order to stop the much bigger riot that would have ensued if they removed day 1 games entirely, there's a new subscription tier. $30 will get you day 1 games. This obscene price is sustainable. I bet even Sony would agree to that.

Re: Xbox Game Pass Is Getting A Major Overhaul With New Names, Games & Price Changes

Jenkinss

LOL

My intention was to ride this train until it crashes (which isn't that far out), but I might need to get off and watch this from the sidelines at this point. Microsoft is just comically full mask off anti-consumer now and there's no way I'm giong to pay $30 a month, you know conversion tricks are going to go away with a 50% price increase. Also the PC price going up to $17, rofl. Incredible.

I can see the intention here, which is to stop putting day 1 games out for the majority of game pass users. Users that want them have to pay the exorbitant $30/mo, and everyone else should switch to standard which is getting 200 more games. The problem is we all got used to ultimate, for many years at $15. The optics on this are horrific and honestly, F these people.

Re: Roundup: All The Xbox Reveals From The PC Gaming Show Tokyo Direct 2025

Jenkinss

I just want to say that Outward 1 and its definitive edition were on Xbox and it's a really special game for a very particular kind of gamer (me). It's way too slow and difficult for most gamers, and the graphics are bad, and that's okay, it's not trying to be for everyone. Niche games are great, and this happens to be my niche. Outward 2 got a new trailer at this show, and right now it's PC only, but the devs have beat around the bush about it coming to console. Just like the first game I think we'll see it on Xbox eventually.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKSH4d-iN-k

Re: Here's A Look At The Updated Xbox Game Studios Roadmap From September 2025

Jenkinss

@JayJ They confirmed FH6 is going to PS but not at launch, and they're all multiplat games now, brother :/

I'm looking forward to most of whats there - FH6, Gears, Clockwork, ES VI, Keeper, SoD 3... but that list is incredibly sparse compared to what it looked like a couple years ago. Klobrille's roadmap from June 2024 had 20 upcoming games. This one has 12. It's not just because games are coming out and none are being announced, 5 of these were cancelled. Not sure what the future of game pass is, I always thought tons of 3rd party contracts were for a "ramping up" period while they bought their stable of studios and let them go wild cranking out smaller games. They've clearly reversed on that.

The June 2024 roadmap i referenced:

Untitled

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (September 27-28)

Jenkinss

Helldivers 2 has consumed my limited gaming time, everything single player is on hold, I'm up to level 36ish and have done Helldiver difficulty (9) but most comfortable around Extreme (6), the lowest difficulty that has super samples on the map. Haven't tried Super Helldive yet.

Illuminates are a pain in the *** but I'm adapting.

Re: ROG Xbox Ally Prices Finally Revealed, Pre-Orders Now Live

Jenkinss

IOI wrote:

Also, didn’t Phil complained that $1000 consoles wouldn’t grow the market just last year after Sony revealed the PS5 Pro?

Let me preempt my response to this by saying I have no interest in this product for a multitude of reasons. With that out of the way:

This is not a console. It has nothing to do with consoles. Microsoft is doing what Microsoft does best, confusing consumers either through incompetence of by design with awful product names. This is just a PC, full stop. This is no more a console than a Lenovo Legion Go, or honestly, your Windows PC. They're putting the word Xbox on absolutely everything in order to obfuscate the fact that Xbox, the console, is dead. They killed it, but don't worry, because just buy a $1000 Asus handheld or a $1400 PC with a 5070 and bam you've got a brand new "Xbox!"

Re: Forza Horizon 6 Heads To Japan In 2026, Day One On Xbox Game Pass

Jenkinss

Gentlemen, start your waifu paint jobs.

My friends and I played FH5 weekly for a LONG time after we moved on from Gears 5. From launch until a few months after the 2nd expansion. Great times. One week we roped in a bunch more friends and did that super long off-road race The Titan all in Peels, legendary good time.

Re: Talking Point: What Are Your Plans For Tokyo Game Show Next Week?

Jenkinss

That'd be waking up an hour early, doable but I'll pass. I'll watch the highlights after I drop the kids off at school and get back to my desk. Besides getting my normal sleep, the other major perk is getting to skip through all the anime, which is probably going to be every game - including Forza if you consider half the people's liveries.

Re: Helldivers 2 Xbox Launch Provided 'Substantial Uplift' In Revenue, Data Shows

Jenkinss

@Fiendish-Beaver it's not a good game solo, the magic is the coop chaos. This isnt something like Remnant 1/2 which shine in co-op but are still very good solo. More like Vermintide or something like that but even more skewed to coop imo.

That said, I never play co-op games outside my friend group, but this game really got me and I'm needing to play it when they're not on. I've been playing with randoms and the community is really great and welcoming.

Re: Microsoft Announces New Price Increases For Xbox Series X|S In The US

Jenkinss

1) Microsoft threw in the towel

2) imagine blaming tariffs for this, the console should have gone down $200 before Trump was even elected. MS gave up, all but stopped producing these, and is just squeezing a few bucks out of poor saps replacing their broken units.

3) the series s I got from Verizon for $150 is looking like my fastest appreciating asset, nevermind my 2 launch series x.