Kienda

Not die.

Just stay alive.

I know execs can do this, but should they?

From Xbox’s perspective, this isn’t helping them. It’s primarily for her own personal benefit. There may be some things she learns from how they do things, but it will likely just bolster her CV.

From the fanbase/users of Xbox, this doesn’t look good.

Why?

The brand is already struggling. It’s solidly in third (last) place as a platform, it keeps failing to deliver good games, and then cancels some of its most anticipated games, and that’s not to mention the layoffs.

This doesn’t fill me with hope for Xbox that her time is now divided. It either means she has no connection with brand Xbox and is just corporate suit that only needs to be involved with figures and high up decisions (in which case, don’t make her the face of the broadcasts) or it means she will not have as much time to dedicate to her work.

I say this as someone who owns and is in partnership on multiple businesses. Dividing your time has an impact on your focus on each business.

@IOI you missed the * on the last one.

*Unless you are an executive. In which case you can fire everyone else and blame them for your bad decisions before you turn on the gaming community and slander them for not buying your garbage.

It just shows how crappy some of these big companies are.

Oblivion sold well enough to cover all their salaries, yet they still lost their jobs.

The worst part is they are being fired later than others into an already flooded market because of the previous layoffs. So it will be even harder for them to find jobs.

@somnambulance it just might not be your cup of tea, but it is a unique game that does things differently to much of the competition.

Personally, I played it with my two brothers and friend, we all have great rapport when gaming as we have literally played together since we could talk. And so this game was a natural fit for our group.

I personally found I didn’t enjoy it as much without them. Whereas my older brother simply played it non stop whether we were online or not.

We have played a lot of hero shooters together. And they are great fun, and I prefer Overwatch to HD2 personally, but to say Helldivers doesn’t offer anything unique is a bit crazy.

I don’t think I have played a game with the same gameplay loop as HD2 and the unique scenarios we find ourselves in.

In harder difficulties it’s an experience to just survive. The intensity of the battles, the failures, the accidentally killing each other, or getting wrecked by something that takes us by surprise. The feeling of getting out just in time. It’s all unique, imho.

Adding to that the games aesthetic of over the top, bone headed love for capitalism, democracy, and explosions is a winner for many.

@IronMan30 I honestly think the Game Pass mindset has messed with our brains a bit.

I’m a multi platform gamer and have PS Plus and Game Pass. I still buy games though because I enjoy physical collections.

But I have to admit, in recent years I pretty much wait for games to be £30 or under before I buy them.

Helldivers 2 was a no brainer first week purchase on PS5 because of the price and rave reviews. And it didn’t disappoint.

@Weebleman I’m not sure that’s how it works.

Nintendo release full games of their own IPs that are made by third parties and nobody says they are second party games.

I would say that games like Lego Horizon and Mario Rabbids would be 2nd party, but this is more of a first party game.

Either way, it’s good it’s coming to Xbox.

@awp69 well, I clearly struck a nerve. My comment about Sony delivering was tongue in cheek and included a ? So it wasn’t intended to be taken seriously.

Clearly, Sony isn’t delivering for Xbox while Xbox does nothing but this game is a big W for Xbox players that is delivered by Sony and it is at a time when Microsoft have royally ****ed up by cancelling two amazing games and decimating their studios.

I’m not going to ever give Microsoft any credit for doing that. They have to be called out. It’s NOT good for us as players.

Now, are Xbox players getting value. Of license. And Oblivion for me is the best thing Xbox has delivered this year. And that beats this game for me (thanks for the reminder).

But Xbox getting a few good games out isn’t them winning at this industry. There is a good reason why Xbox console sales have tanked. There is a good reason why many Xbox first parties have fallen flat (barring a remaster and CoD).

Microsoft has to do better.

@awp69

Xbox hasn’t “more than delivered,” in my opinion. Game Pass is still great value, that’s for sure, but it’s largely third parties for me that are doing that delivering. This game is a bigger draw for me than any Xbox first party game released this year.

@Kaloudz Xbox and “killing it” kinda go hand in hand when saying they killed off two games this week and a few more studios and games before that.

I love my Xbox (I’m multiplatform to the core). But I cannot forgive some of these decisions. Them ending game production hurts us players. And it sucks big time.

Sony delivering for Xbox users when Microsoft isn’t?

This is a great game and I’m glad Xbox players finally get to enjoy it.

@Jenkinss it’s fine for me on PS5, so I would assume Xbox Series X runs it fine also.

For my family, the good games were few and far between:

That Lego 2 player game stood out, though. My kids will be all over that.

It sounds like he got burned so bad that it destroyed his belief in the industry.

That is very sad.

The article says… “its plans to make a PC a major part of the brand.”

Clearly the a is a typo. But if Microsoft launched a PC/Xbox that had Steam. It would be a winner.

I hope this was a Freudian slip. 😇

So, those dusty leaks were duds then?

Phew.

Good good.

The racism from one of the devs did it for me.

People can try excuse that racism, saying she wasn’t the main lead or whatever, but they still actively worked with her, gave her money, promoted her company. Etc.

If we really stand against racism we have to stamp it out good and proper. That means you disassociate and issue public apologies. You don’t keep working with them and legitimise them.

One bad apple ruins the whole basket. And they didn’t get rid of that bad apple.

@RiverGenie yes, that’s the problem. 😅

I am not completely inept without full data, but for some reason it gives me clarity of mind. And I often will research things into too much detail for no benefit to myself other than peace of mind.

It helps with my job, but it also makes my wife think I have a problem. Haha

@RiverGenie it matters to my sanity.

I’m a researcher. My way of operating comes from knowing information so I can understand the world a bit better.

I can’t just play games and not have some understanding of the industry. Just as I cannot watch a movie and not know its budget and box office figures.

The other day, PushSquare had an article about the ‘Lukewarm’ launch and how the Steam player count was way lower than DOOM: Eternal.

Today, we find out they hit 3 million players ‘seven times faster’ than the previous entry.

And something tells me we aren’t getting the full picture even now because this is ‘Players’ and not ‘sales’.

I just wish things were more open and easy to understand so we didn’t have all these guessing games.

Well, I’d prefer to just see the device revealed by Xbox, thanks.

Some of us don’t prematurely leak-jaculate over all these rumours.

I’m assuming Nintendo paid to have a bit of exclusivity with this title to help shift the Switch 2 at launch (even if it’s just for the build up). And we will either see this on Xbox at the same time or shortly after that.

Anyone complaining that Pure Xbox shouldn’t be covering this needs to understand that the website lives on traffic.

This article has more comments than most of the past few days articles. It’s okay for them to do articles like this to draw people in and get people talking.

Also, most gamers don’t have tunnel vision. We like to compare and talk about the competition a bit (or we are multi platform gamers and like to see what each camp is saying).

I clicked “I got bored” but that isn’t accurate.

I played it a lot at first and enjoyed my time with it, but other games a have taken me away from it and I don’t have enough time for all the games.

Sad news, but best of luck for the future Craig.

I was late to the party with Xbox One.

Ori and Tomb Raider are the only games I played and finished on this list.

The two Ori games might be my favourite of all Xbox One games on the list.

Well done over the last year Pure Xbox team, 3,300 articles is a feat!

Here’s to even more in 2025. 🎉

Happy New Year!

@Eddie_Richtoffen I’ve not played a CoD for years, but that sounds the way I’d like it to be.

As a parent, having limited time skins and FOMO is hard for kids to resist. Thankfully we trained them away from games like Fortnite and onto more meaningful stuff. (Not that I dislike Fortnite) but a few Battle Passes were enough for them in the end.

@Kisrah internet outrage wins again!

Well, I don’t think it’s good that they are offering refunds. Instead they should be honouring their promise.

It’s another reason why digital purchases and digital games are a gray area. They say it will be available forever. Well, one day they’ll shut down the whole game and none of these skins will be available.

Are they telling the truth when they call us “owners” of the skin? 😅

@Arkz yeah, the 30fps means I’ve never touched this game.

I loved the original on PS1 so I’d buy it outright if they just enhanced it to 60fps.

I’m not joking when I say that confirmation of a 60fps mode makes this a Day 1 purchase for me.

Too many people here are not understanding review scores.

Yes, it hurts when a game you want to score well doesn’t hit the mark. But every game has outliers like this.

Each company picks an individual reviewer before anyone has played the game. The review is then the personal opinion of that reviewer (despite it representing the company).

There are many times when IGN or others have given 7s to amazing games and 9s to bad games, or whatever. It doesn’t mean one site is bad and another is not.

Reviews are personal opinions.

@RiverGenie I didn’t know that.

Well, I guess the Series S is the cheapest option for a safety system then.

Maybe S stands for ‘safety.’ 🧐

This reminds me of the story of a kid who was saved in a bicycle accident because he landed on the Jamaican Ginger Cake in his backpack.

Everyone is saying to wear a helmet (agreed). But maybe padded backpacks should also been enforced to save the spine?

@Banjo- man, I can’t believe this competes with Diddy Kong Racing (And thanks for giving me nostalgia from just reading that name).

I’ve got to try this out.

On Console Spyro, on PC StarCraft 2.

@RiverGenie yeah, we all gotta do what we think is best.

I was just pointing out that reselling games is a benefit of physical that you may not have thought about. But it isn’t for everyone.

I know some people who have bought 2,000+ digital games, 90% they have not and will not play, but they are happy with that. Their collection is there to browse and play at their pleasure and download to any machine they log into. Plus it’s not taking up any room on a shelf.

Personally, I like picking up a game and looking at a box, and I wouldn’t have some of my newer games if I hadn’t sold older ones, especially when cash was tighter. It’s each to their own.

@RiverGenie the benefit of physical is all 142 of those games, if physical, would mean you can sell them and make money off the ones you no longer play.

Digital is convenient. Physical gives you flexibility and potentially saves money.

@Millionski unfortunately I’m not betting on any of them to stay physical in the long run.

But I will fight for as long as I can to keep physical alive. Every game I can buy physically I do buy physically.

There is a reason I moved over to PlayStation as my primary console.

My PS4/5 and Switch shelves of physical games look great compared to my almost empty Xbox One/Series shelves. Why? Because Xbox abandoned physical and I moved my money to those who’d honour my desire to collect physical games.

And it’s a real shame because one of the best features of the Series X was putting in an old game and seeing it upgraded to 4K 60fps.

Xbox now is reduced to a Game Pass machine and that has even expired for me now until there is a game worth resubbing for.

This is why people get confused with the way Xbox names things.

• Xbox One was actually the Xbox 3.
• Phil wants everything to be an Xbox without them being an Xbox.
• Now we get an Xbox keyboard and mouse that don’t work on Xbox.

@Wisegamer I know. It’s so pathetic.

And the crazy thing is, one or two bad apples like that spoil the entire thing.

He’s placing his desires and politics over the team. I’m sure not everyone on the dev team shares his political views, but he’s allowed to ruin it for everyone else.

Companies need to start sacking these people.

My Game Pass sub has expired and Avowed is not going to tempt me to resub, unfortunately.

The lack of 60fps was enough for me to lose interest. Then a developer purposely wanting to annoy fans for his political agenda.

Yeah, I’m not giving my money to that dev. Do better, Microsoft.

@Tonmoy I got 10 hours into MGS5 and while I could see it was a great game, it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Death Stranding on the other hand I could spend hours just running around delivering packages and to me it’s a masterpiece.

It’s funny how opinions and preferences work. 😅

Maybe Phil could make my PS5 an Xbox and my kids Switches an Xbox so I can save myself some money and not keep having to buy us all Xboxes… Because then we’d all have Xboxes without having an Xbox, right?

They could have used the time to create a 60fps mode.

Playing old games at 4K 60fps.

It wasn’t the reason I bought the console, but playing through last gen games like Final Fantasy 15 and Assassins Creed: Origins was a wonderful experience for me.

I own the original StarCraft 2 and played the heck out of the multiplayer when it came out but never played the campaign properly.

Now that I’m out of playing online games so much (too little time to get good) I actually am really looking forward to playing the SC2 campaigns.

More than likely I’ll dabble again in multiplayer. But my clicks per second is going to be way down now I’m old.

People may mock, but I’m one of the ones holding off for 60fps.

I have too many games to play anyway, so I can wait a little longer for this game to be in the best state.

I experienced last gen games like AC:Origins and FF15 this gen at 60fps and I wasn’t disappointed.

For me FPS matters.

Cross play has been a game changer for my family.

We have multiple platforms and my kids have friends on all platforms.

Games likes, Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft etc are all regularly played with friends. I just wish some of the older games had cross play as I’d like to enjoy games like Destiny 1 with my son without having to buy another console.

We live in a modern world with interconnectivity. So cross play is (in my opinion) the best way forward.