Markatron84

@tho_mi that's the question, isn't it? It's almost like buying up half the industry in the first place and a subscription model that haemorrhages money and game sales weren't the best moves. 😅

If people think Xbox isn't utilising its huge cache of IPs now, just wait; it's only going to get worse.

There's going to be cuts, there's going to be studio closures and there's going to be a focus on the live services and what they perceive as the biggest hitters. If Xbox wants to be "the number one publisher" as Asha claims, then games like Senua, Kiln, South of Midnight and Keeper are going to be a thing of the past. They're going to focus on the money makers.

My prediction is that in the not too distant future, Xbox is going to be Call of Duty, Overwatch, Diablo, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Sea of Thieves, Forza Horizon and Halo. Possibly Gears of War. All studios - the ones that aren't closed or sold off, anyway - will be either leads on those games or support for those games. And that'll be it; all studios pumping out those franchises non-stop.

@Kilamanjaro me too, but mine's broken 🥲

This would be a huge shame. I wasn't a fan of Contrast or We Happy Few, but South of Midnight is one of my favourite games.

@Damo

Xbox owns the IP following its purchase of Activision – an acquisition which brought Toys for Bob into the Xbox family.

Quick FYI: Toys for Bob is no longer owned by Microsoft/Activision. They were released and in May 2024 became independent.

I'd give it an A-. There was no big new first party game wow moment, for me personally. Senua I guess, but I don't like those games.

A really good show overall though. Gears looks great, as do Fable and Clockwork Revolution.

@Elbow It doesn't seem to be, unfortunately. It's going for more of a Super Mario Kart or Mario Kart: Super Circuit sort of thing.

Obviously nobody is going to be into every single game that was announced or shown - there were a lot of things I have no interest in - but if this show was an E or F to you, why the hell were you even watching it in the first place? If your taste is so narrow that so little that was shown was of any interest to you, you probably could've skipped it to be honest because there was no way it was going to please you.

@Skinny-Pete because I prestiged; I hit level 200, at which point you get a "1" next to your level and start again at level 1. So I have a 1 plus level 21.

I've played for 47 hours and 38 minutes. I've prestiged (or whatever Horizon calls it) once and am currently level 21. I have 54 of 57 achievements, with only Played-List, Maxed Out and Historic Effort left to get. I don't remember exactly how many cars but it's over 100.

I'm all for bringing back Skylanders, as I enjoyed those games for what they were... but do it without the toys to life aspect. Nobody in their right mind should be even entertaining the notion of trying to breathe life into that, what with the economy being how it is.

GOALS on XBOX.

Great game. I'd love to replay it someday but who has the time?

@ZeD not all of it though. Legends included 40 of the levels from Origins.

Legends is one of my all-time favourite games. I've bought and played through it on PS4, Vita, Switch and Xbox One and I'm ready to buy and play through it again.

Yes, I'm absolutely a mark and Ubisoft absolutely has my number. But I'll do it. I'll f**king do it. Watch me.

Mark me down as interested.

@RiverGenie "long term time stink" is my favourite typo ever. I pulled something in my back/shoulder the other day and just jerked it when I laughed and now I'm in agony 🤣

@GeeEssEff @FarmDog08 Starfield was at that one too. That took another 15 months to come out.

@Skinny-Pete @FarmDog08 Xbox (edit: sorry, XBOX) has said that exact thing about a showcase in the past.

"Everything we're about to show you will be available within the next 12 months!"

Then they proceeded to show Hollow Knight Silksong, which funnily enough didn't come out within 12 months 🤣

Pinch of salt, people. Pinch of salt.

@ZeD with the XBOX ROG Ally Rube Goldberg X attachment (sold separately).

@Skinny-Pete 🤣🤣🤣 rumbled

@Skinny-Pete And I'm worth every penny.

Can't wait to find out how many arms, legs and/or vital organs this is going to cost.

Customers should be informed about what platforms a game is coming to.

The way Asha and XBOX are pandering to fan(boy)s recently is kind of embarrassing.

@Balaam_ Truly a better time.

@FraserG Just so you know, you have the blurb for Women-Led Games where the Access-Ability blurb should be 🙂

We all saw it coming; interest in Fable seems to be pretty high, but releasing it close to Grand Theft Auto VI and Modern Warfare 4 (#Modern4fare) wouldn't do it any favours.

To be honest I'm not too bothered. There's always something to play - be it backlog or new releases - and presumably the extra few months will be spent on polish. If a delay means we get a better version of Fable, I can't complain.

@FraserG You could've at least tried it on for size when you replied to me.

XBOX.

I feel like you're not even trying 😝

@FraserG Shouldn't you be typing "XBOX" and not "Xbox"? 👀

You'd have more luck with the North Korean government publishing your game at this point than you would Amazon. Just like Google and Netflix, they keep trying to get into games and keep dropping the ball spectacularly.

Fingers crossed Maverick's game not only gets across the finish line (ha!) but also proves to be at least a competent arcade racer; we don't get nearly enough of those anymore.

@Coletrain It's payday for me on Friday. So seeing as Mina is only $20 (so £15-18 probably), I'm going to snap it up.

Jeez, I was expecting Mina to go down well but to be the highest rated game of the year is impressive. I'm even more excited to dig into it now.

Mina the Hollower, let's bloody go! I've been eagerly anticipating that game for what seems like forever; even more so since playing the demo around a year ago.

Hopefully it's not the s**tshow that UE5 has been.

@BacklogBrad If Sony has its way, we'll all be playing The Last of Us remasters, remakes of those remasters and remasters of those remakes of remasters until we're dead.

"Ditch age verification". Chuckle.

I've only played three games that released this year: Mario Tennis Fever, Mixtape and Forza Horizon 6.

Out of those three, FH6 is my favourite by quite some margin.

However, if you include games that didn't release in 2026, then South of Midnight is my favourite game of the year.

Edit: Actually, I've also played Pokémon Champions and Mewgenics this year. As much as I love Mewgenics, I think Horizon just about tops it as my favourite 2026 release so far.

I'm playing (gasp) Forza Horizon 6. Got my gold wristband last night. As expected, the game's great; it's Forza Horizon in a different setting, which was all I was after really.

I'll also be on Pokémon Champions. I'm yet to reach Champion rank (top 300 on the leaderboard); I'm currently ranked at around 36,000. Will this season be the one?

No.

@IronMan30 Brute Force 2 confirmed.

@GuyinPA75 That game was tragically ahead of its time. If it had released five or six years later I think it would have done gangbusters.

It's been all ups and downs with Destiny from day one. Bungie fundamentally had a good game on its hands but just couldn't nail the ongoing support part. Destiny 2 really should have ended after The Final Shape instead of limping on with no real direction. With the amount of layoffs Bungie has been subject to over the last few years, do they even have the manpower to support Marathon and the other things they have in development, let alone Destiny 3?

@Lanmanna I shouldn't say. I can already feel a breeze from the ban hammer swooshing above my head again.

@Sol4ris @Banjo- I heard he's getting a Pulitzer for that piece.

I really like the key art for Forza Horizon 6. The cars and surrounding details really pop against the white.

@Kezelpaso I'll write it for you:

Drive faster than everyone else.

Done. 😁

I don't buy many games day one anymore, nor am I really a car guy. But I always have such a good time with these games, so I'm making an exception for Forza Horizon 6.

(laughs in Time Lord)

xBoX

bEcAuSe I'm CoOl.

@Banjo- Reason 23,691 to not take notice of anything he says, ever.

Forza Horizon: the ol' faithful of AAA games.

@InterceptorAlpha Fair enough 🙂

Mine doesn't have a disc drive, as I'm not a big film/TV person and I haven't owned a PC game on disc since about 1998 😅

I can see why some people wouldn't like Mixtape and I can see why some people would love it.

I'm somewhere in the middle. I liked it - as I do like a good "narrative focused walking sim non-game" - but its characters and themes didn't resonate with me as much as they seemed to with a lot of people.

@InterceptorAlpha

Even the gaming PC I built in the last year has a disc drive lol.

I have to ask: why? (I'm not having a pop or anything; I'm just curious)

@Benjamin I haven't played Vexx. Since Acclaim published it, I assume it was arse.

@eduscxbox I'll take some of that!