LOL

words: we are going to save xbox

actions: we are actively trying our best to kill xbox

also: we made a new startup animation and capitalized XBOX so please believe us

I really liked the most recent one (can't really call it the first one) for about 30 hours and then I felt like it dragged on. To make matters worse, it's definitely in the trash bag of games with the worst endings of all time - that is to say, games with no ending at all. Imagine playing a game for 50 hours and then getting a short text scroll. FML

I didn't play the game after the big co-op update. If they carry that forward to this game on launch, I will give it a go with friends.

VERY interested in Dark Arisen 2 but nothing else here so I'll wait for a recap.

I mean I just skimmed but I'm pretty sure it's already been said repeatedly.

$1050 gets you a steam machine that is weaker than a Series X.
How could MS possibly release Helix cheaper? Release a console weaker than the one you released 6-8 years prior? Math doesn't math, this thing is going to be very expensive unless the component shortages (and make no mistake, there are multiple, not just RAM) are miraculously resolved.

Remember when they made a movie about Battleship? The board game where you guess where the other person's ships are?

It's kind of on that level.

I love game pass and its library, I've saved boat loads of money while playing lots of games I never would have.

That said, I can't argue with him, because the results speak for themselves. Capped out at 20 million and then declined (the last 10 million are a f***ing joke that was just gold members who got converted)

Easily the biggest must play of the generation, surpassing Elden Ring hype. Why not preorder, what could possibly happen to make you regret it? It's a Rockstar game. It won't just be good, it will feel an entire generation ahead of anything else on the market.

The Coalition is the most talented developer with the Unreal Engine on the planet. MS owns some real wizards between TC with unreal and id obviously with idtech.

@BacklogBrad man, the image of this cracked me up. All the studios in a room, Asha handing out the new XBOX business cards. Ninja Theory and Compulsion reach in, Asha pulls the cards back - "sorry, not you guys"

@Nightcrawler71 same

Pretty sure they screwed physical owners of RDR too but I could misremembering.

Remember when the word BLOODBATH was thrown around... In internal MS emails regarding what would happen regarding layoffs if they purchased ABK and it didn't go well? The ones we saw from discovery during the FTC trial?

Yeah, I memba.

Edit to add a quote from the email, march 19 2021 to Phil Spencer from Jean Emilie-Elien:

I’m just super worried about the moat you’ve built, that the winds will change and we have a bloodbath a few years down the road.

The winds did indeed change

In response Phil blew her off saying MS never closed a studio over P&L. Lol.

I think it was safe to assume a massive decision like this wasn't made in the 3 days after the reveal.

Of course Aaron Greenberg will show up shortly to tell us that we are wrong and MS absolutely decided this after the show.

I'm excited for this auction, hopefully when the trailers are shown the bidders for the studios are present in the audience.

100% right and I really like this guy, No Rest for the Wicked has the most well thought out, considerate co-op system in any video game I've ever seen - and I've been gaming for many decades and I primarily play co-op games. Very, very excited.

"They need to find the Miyamotos, Tezukas, Sakurais, etc. within their own ecosystem

They had these and they chased them all out. Names that are more polarizing on the internet than Miyamoto, sure. But they had some of the most passionate rockstar devs of all time under their umbrella, and many years later MS is still trying to ride off their creations - just look at the Gears and Fable sequels we've got incoming.

Not great, but I have too much to play as it is. On the game pass front I haven't even started Kingdom Come yet, nevermind its sequel, the two of which are going to take me 6 months.

Is this like when Aaron Greenberg squashed the rumor that they pulled the Gears PS5 version at the last minute? Or when Phil said they acquired Bethesda to put high quality exclusives on Xbox? Or when Phil said they were just porting 4 old games?

They could be telling the truth, but there's no reason to take their word for it. We'll wait and we'll see.

@McKeownPlayz dontnod makes ESG slop why would I care that they're closing?

You're god damn right I voted with my wallet when I didn't buy that crap.

@HonestHick man this is f***ing savage but true. The same goes for Compulsion. Xbox is to blame for buying them in the first place, but thats totally irrelevant.

Sony makes 3rd person cinematic action adventure games. They cultivated that audience. Now they CATER to that audience. Xbox cultivated an audience of bro gamers. At some point they decided to stop catering to that audience and chase a bunch of other groups, some which don't exist, and some which have completely ignored Xbox. At the same time, the bros that they took for granted have abandoned them. It's been a total disaster. It goes well beyond their acquisitions, most of what they add to game pass month after month is a reflection of the same losing strategy.

I hate Sony with the heat of a thousand suns but at least they sort of give a ***** about the people who got them there. And when they acquired a studio that makes games that their core doesn't want (Firewall), they axed them and moved on.

imagine my disappointment to click this and not see Aaron Greenberg's name.

easily the most expendible studio and I've been saying this would happen since the game released. they've only made bombs.

@dreadful the fabled modern audience only shows up to get loud on the internet, they disappear at the cash register, every time.

Dude, just worry about selling them. Not in any sort of position to worry about who is buying them.

Some real bangers on this list. I will 100% be playing (in personal order of hype):
The Expanse
Clockwork Revolution
Fable
State of Decay 3
Join Us

My wife played a good amount of Palworld when it first launched into early access. I think she'll go back for this 1.0 release.

Xbox needs a massive investment if it is going to be resuscitated and this suggests the exact opposite. This is right on track for the trajectory they've been in since just 4 games imo (which is the end of Xbox). I haven't been distracted at all by the new boss and stuff like new backgrounds or whatever other "big changes" people are comically fawning over.

I go back to my comments in 2024 during the turmoil like this one and everything that's happened has done nothing but made me more confident in my predictions, which is to say, the worst is still to come.
https://www.purexbox.com/features/reaction-microsofts-constant-tweaking-of-xbox-game-pass-is-becoming-exhausting#comment8194872

Obligatory PSA: the We Were Here series is the best 2 player co-op ever.

*By design not couch co-op, if you could see the other person's screen it would defeat the entire purpose of the game which is solving a series of puzzles through communicating.

@Tasuki Agreed, it's so abstract and stupid. If you're going to change it from days to hours, why stop there? Why not display how many total seconds you've played?

Compulsion probably gone as I've been predicting for a while, Ninja Theory was the other one but now that they've got Senua coming up I think they're safe for the moment.

All your numbers are so hilariously wrong. First of all

Additionally 82% of sales were on PlayStation for BO6.

Uh, no? According to your link, 82% of CONSOLE sales. According to "newzoo" or "circana" or whatever nonsense gamesindustry cites in their articles. We know from the FTC trial (you know, actual data submitted to a federal court) that console sales combined make up less than the PC market (which altogether make up less than the mobile market).

Back to your original statement:

ABK was only reportedly worth what’s it’s worth because between reportedly 42% - 45% of the players are on PlayStation.

45% of ABK players are on playstation? So Candy Crush, Warcraft, Hearthstone, CoD on other platforms, etc, all combined make up only 55%? No let's give you the benefit of the doubt and make the correction for you. 55% of CoD players are on playstation? This is comedy, even after your goalpost move. More people play CoD on PC than all consoles combined.

oh? again...

Does not compute. Everything you've said is nonsense, and then you're moving goalposts. PS CoD players are a drop in the bucket of ABK's value. CoD is only a part of it, and PS is only 16% of that.

@themightyant your numbers aren't even remotely close. Google the slide from the FTC trial. Playstation is 16%. CoD is primarily a mobile franchise, with PC a distant second.

ABK was with what is worth for their mobile stable, led by Candy Crush and CoD.

Buying ABK was to break into mobile. They since lost their lawsuit against apple and the entire initiative seems to be dead, I haven't heard a peep about their store which would compete on ios and android for a VERY long time. It's a given they regret the purchase now. It would be like buying a cow, then finding out you aren't allowed to buy a farm.

CoD on consoles was always an afterthought. They were quick to give away any exclusivity because they didn't care, that's not what they were after. Besides, consoles are by far the smallest platforms for CoD.

I would pay extra to remove those Halo skins from the game

@BacklogBrad they could make Bleeding Edge 2

2 favorite moments were Dragons Dogma 2 at Nintendo and the 20 minute Exodus gameplay at the PC Game show. Favorite show overall was probably Xbox led by Gears. SGF was also good. Really spread out the love for me this year.

Sounds like streaming which isnt anything new. MS has been a leader in the "You'll own nothing and be happy" movement from the beginning.

DRAGON'S DOGMA 2 EXPANSION, IT'S HAPPENING!!!!!!

Well this is my E3 moment of the year easily, I'd seen a few vague rumors here and there but what a huge surprise. Dark Arisen was fantastic, having a Dark Arisen 2 for my 2024 GOTY, absolutely pumped to go back. Purexbox's 10/10 review by @PJOReilly was spot on.

1. How safe are Ninja Theory and Compulsion games from being shuttered? (MS would never answer this truthfully, see Lyin' Aaron Greenberg's constant stream of BS including on Tango Gameworks)

2. Is the dream of a game pass family plan dead?

3. Is there anything being done to counter the constant stream of playstation exclusives, timed or otherwise, due to the small Xbox install base which itself tends to not buy games? Is the answer just ride it out until Helix so we get "all the games?"

4. When Xbox was actually competing, they had aggressive sales, famously $350 with Diablo over holiday 2023. Will see see a return to that as a show that MS hasn't given up on the platform? And for the 3rd question, State of Decay might be a live service, and Senua exclusivity would be an automatic death sentence for Ninja Theory which is likely already on life support after Bleeding Edge and the commercial flop Hellblade 2.

For the initial questions, as far as BC goes I don't really care about digital BC, all my old games are on disc. I would be interested if anything will ever come about of a disc to digital program.

Why didn't all those people buy Series X's for $350 with Diablo thrown in? I don't think some of you guys understand how abysmal Xbox sales have been for years. You need to add 4 years in a row of -30% sales to start to understand how bad it is. They couldn't give the thing away so they threw in the towel. The idea that suddenly people are going to flock to it for $600 is braindead.

@Deshalu Just clarifying, can Sony fire Aaron Greenberg?

A company that lays off people by the tens of thousands and somehow Aaron Greenberg is still employed.

@TheGameThrifter Halo is as much a service game as CoD, arguably moreso since it's F2P. They've already decoupled single player and multiplayer Halo as 2 different products in Infinite. It's possible they make the next multiplayer Halo multiplat and make campaign exclusive.

The reason Senua isn't exclusive is because Ninja Theory has released 2 bombs in a row, Bleeding Edge and Hellblade 2. They're on the chopping block and making their next game exclusive would be a death sentence.

Jennifer Lawrence yeah ok .gif

We were debating if they were producing consoles AT ALL not long ago. "THEY'RE SELLING LIKE HOTCAKES!!!!". They couldn't give them away for $350 with Diablo IV thrown in.

Not a ton here for me but any Owlcat RPG is an immediate buy, and the Star Trek game might be good.

Never played the first but I really enjoyed the second one. Hope this turns out great and with a more thought out co-op system.

Is day a solid workmanlike C. A+ start that got a little boring later, Clockwork Revolution looks amazing but then just one more thing call of duty brought it right back down.

Join Us looks amazing, didn't realize it is coming to game pass, great news.

I appreciate this if it's just the start, but in practice it needs to be paired with a hardware price drop otherwise it accomplishes nothing except tanking their own game sales.

Yes this gets me excited but I can't be the target here; I already have 3 series consoles and don't need a 4th

Exodus continues to blow me away.