Markatron84

@themightyant it sure does sound like this interview treads the same old ground as past interviews pertaining to the history of Xbox.

£86.27?!?! That's ridiculous.

I still want one, though.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner no chance. They'll release it right at the tail end of the PS5/Series X generation, so when the next consoles come around they can sell it to us again.

What about not on Xbox Game Pass?

Look:

I know we've been here before. I know I'm not the only person who has (on more than one occasion) pointed out Pure Xbox's rampant and aggressive SEO... ness that consistently and messily gunks up every headline on the website. I even know that you're probably sick of hearing it (although I have a specific answer to anyone who ever has reason to say that to me)...

But come on. Assassin's Creed Mirage Gets Massive Xbox Game Pass Update? What is that? Are you saying that Mirage is only getting an update on Game Pass? What about for non-subscribers? Or owners of the game on other platforms? It's a misleading and not entirely informative headline.

How about Assassin's Creed Mirage (Available on Game Pass) Gets Massive Update? That way, you get a headline that isn't misleading and fills the SEO keyword quota. Everybody wins.

I'll spare everyone the indignity of me going through the content of the article itself; I have several issues with that as well, though.

Is Andrew Wilson OK? Has anyone checked his temperature?

@Tasuki all executives are corporate puppets. No company is going to pay somebody that high up to not tow the company line.

@Medic_alert I agree. I haven't played it, but everything I've seen of it looks absolutely stunning.

@EdgarTheBug They could always raise the price of Game Pass Ultimate again and have the gameplay of anyone with a lower tier be interrupted by unskippable ads every 15 minutes. That'd be rad.

• Halo: Campaign Evolved will be pretty wonky.
• Gears E-Day will be good but ultimately forgotten about within a few months.
• Fable will be delayed into 2027 or cancelled entirely.
• Forza Horizon 6 will be banging; more of the same, but banging.
• Game Pass prices will go up again.
• A new dynamic background for your Xbox Series X and/or S! Happy 25th anniversary!
• Use your reward points for a chance to win a non-functioning and likely very ugly extremely limited edition console! Happy 25th anniversary!!!!
• Another controller design? Why not?! HAPPY 25TH ANNIVERSARY!!!!
• "We couldn't have got this far without you, the players." It's not our fault you are where you are, Phil.

@darkswabber English Wikipedia says 22nd. Get on Wikipedia NL and get editing!

@fatpunkslim

It’s funny, if Phil Spencer had come out with this kind of phrases—nonsensical and full of bad faith—some people would have laughed in his face.

That's a moot point though. Phil Spencer would never say that because Xbox isn't succeeding enough at anything worth copying. 👀

This is the worst thing I've ever seen. And I've seen Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

Neato! 👍

Just ditch the campaign. Hardly anyone plays them, even fewer people finish them, and I've never played a COD campaign that left me feeling fulfilled.

And make the COD multilayer and Zombies free to play. It's not like it's not already microtransactioned to f**k.

Five years into any other generation and you could pick up a then current-gen console for like £150-200 below the launch RRP. We're in wild times.

@Tyrant_T103 I'll accept "new gen" for the first year or so but yeah if it's out it's current gen. And let's face it, Series S was stretching the definition to begin with.

Can we all agree that if a console has hit its fifth birthday, calling it next-gen is slap worthy?

Price permitting, getting the Steam Machine will be a no-brainer for my household.

They're lucky they're Bungie; Sony probably would have shut down most other studios with a track record this bad a long time ago.

"If we can't sell them GTA VI yet, maybe we can sell them GTA V Shark Cards..."- Strauss Zelnick

Twitter banners are the new Phil Spencer t-shirts.

@Balaam_ not the best of omens, is it?

Small indie developer Rockstar must be struggling right now, trying to develop a game and engage in union busting at the same time. 🙄

Markatron84's super accurate (terms and conditions apply) Xbox 2026 release schedule is as follows:

Gears of War: E-Day - May 2026
obligatory Elder Scrolls Online expansion - June 2026
Forza Horizon 6 - September 2026
Call of Duty - October 2026
Halo: Campaign Evolved -15th November 2026
Fable - ????? 2026/2027
State of Decay 3 - ????????????

@TrollOfWar they could do that, but I imagine it'll go the same way for them as it did for other publishers who, for example, released games with a 12 month exclusivity window on Epic; the majority of players said "ew, Epic?" and snubbed the game until it released on Steam. There's a reason Ubisoft came crawling back to Steam.

Sony needs to cotton on quick that if it's going to continue to release its games on PC, it's going to have to bend to the whims of the audience, not the other way around. This isn't a closed ecosystem that Sony owns and can dictate where and how people play. Again, PC players won't stand for it.

Cool.

Unless, of course, Sony brings out its own PC launcher and makes all of its games exclusive to it. Are the PlayStation higher-ups that stupid? Time will tell. But what I can already tell you is that if they are that stupid, PC players won't stand for it.

I'll admit that I didn't know Viva La Dirt League had a YouTube channel; I've only ever seen them on Facebook reels. As I work in retail, I'm more a fan of their Techtown sketches. Can't say Nice Day for Fishing appeals to me, though I hope it's done well for them.

@RiverGenie yeah, I'd much rather see someone take another stab at something similar to The Simpsons Game, from 2007. That game was so close to being good. It nailed the writing, the humour, the animation... It was just horrible to play. A new game like that (but fun) would be cool.

I Hate This Place

I don't recall making a game 🤔

@Lup you've just reminded me Vampire Survivors got an update. More importantly, you've just reminded me I'm now missing achievements in Vampire Survivors.

I'm doing my part to liberate the Terminid hive world in Helldivers 2 and diving deep into Jurassic World Evolution 3. The step up in terraforming and building customisation over JWE2 is both sizable and overwhelming but I'm getting to grips with it.

@InterceptorAlpha I also respectfully disagree with their usage of "mid-range" there. 🤣

Experience seamless PC gaming on the go with the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X.

Not what I've heard.

Not even Microsoft is stupid enough to try charging for online play on a PC. Good to know they're not a completely lost cause.

@Fiendish-Beaver Infinite's multiplayer is free-to-play; only the campaign needs to be paid for.

I'm just going to say that Halo Studios has a history of:

1. launching games that are half-baked and not feature complete.
2. saying things and not delivering.

Don't get swept up in what's being said or treat it as gospel.

@BAMozzy

I do think they'll bring a Halo MP mode to PS to grow their Online community and user base. Maybe that's why its not been mentioned with Halo: CE because Halo MP will be a F2P game on all devices soon.

I certainly wouldn't bet against that. I would also hope that Halo Studios have learned a lesson or two from Infinite; namely, how to adequately and consistently support a F2P live-service game.

We all knew it would happen and soon. If not this, then most definitely the next Halo game to feature multiplayer. I don't have a horse in this race, so on a personal level I don't care. From a business and playerbase standpoint, Halo being on PlayStation will only benefit it.

I hope "no multiplayer" doesn't extend to co-op.

Edit: ok, so there'll be co-op; 2-player local and 4-player online. Push Square, of all places, had the info. Come on now, PX 🙄

@EdgarTheBug my bidet doesn't have a port of Skyrim yet. Maybe they could look into that?

Shut up Todd. You announced Elder Scrolls VI when it was likely not yet even in pre-production. That was back in 2018. Don't tease more stuff that's probably nearly a decade away.

This is an Xbox: as stupid now as it was a year ago. 👍

How are Xbox studios supposed to increase profits by 30% when Microsoft has a subscription service that actively discourages people from buying games and has a seeming aversion to adequately or succinctly marketing - let alone selling - any hardware that says Xbox on it?

How, for example, is Double Fine supposed to increase profits by 30% with Keeper, when it's a single player game with no extra monetisation that's only available on certain platforms and that Microsoft encourages users to not pay for? Ridiculous.

@Retron Microsoft's foot must just be a bloody stump at this point.

@Exerion76 your PC was an Xbox already. Everything is an Xbox, remember?

@somnambulance

Also, I’ll be making a habit of showing off that I was on TV yesterday! Lol.

I thought it was you I saw on Crimewatch recently!

@OldGamer999 Oooh enjoy! Lost Crown is phenomenally good.

More Vampire Survivors and I've jumped back into Helldivers 2 because I don't want to start anything new that I won't finish before Tuesday, when I drop everything for Jurassic World Evolution 3.

Bloodlines 2 is this generation's Duke Nukem Forever.

@Lrapsody

Push Square hate everything haha.

Especially unbiased and/or objective news reporting.

Pity Microsoft couldn't keep on the tens of thousands of people they've laid off, and pay them in "time spent playing on the platform".

Success in business is revenue, and this is exactly the kind of bullspit corporate bollocks a division that isn't financially successful would say

Well somebody had to miss Kinect, I suppose.

@BAMozzy Alongside Midtown Madness 3, Rainbow Six 3 and Unreal Championship, Rallisport Challenge 2 was one of the games I spent a ton of time playing online on original Xbox. Such an amazing game, with a ton of different stuff to do, like you say. We don't get 'em like that any more.