When COD: BO4 released, without a campaign, it was the worst selling COD in a decade.
It still was the second best selling game of the whole year. And that only because Red Dead Redemption 2 also launched that year, taking the #1 spot. I don't argue that some players do indeed only play the campaign, I myself would play the campaign and never jump online, but we are the minority for this IP.
£6 more per month is now just £72 more a year to play COD, basically the same as buying the game on Xbox, or PlayStation... plus you get the rest of Game Pass.
...if you already own an Xbox, in that case this won't sell that person an Xbox, it will just sell them Game Pass.
My point is not that this game won't sell Game Pass, it's that it won't sell Xbox consoles, not on its own. If I already have a device that can play CoD, it's cheaper for me, even over the long run, to keep playing the games on that device until a generational upgrade is at hand. Even then, only a small percentage might convert due to digital libraries they can't trade.
It's up to actual console exclusives like Fable and Elder Scrolls 6 to sell more Xbox consoles.
I’m in the group of people that was extremely disgusted by Xbox treatment of fans , and there was no way I would had hooked up an always active microphone and camera on my livingroom during the whole NSA spying on citizens fiasco that was going on at the time, so I am in the 99% of dont-haves.
I ended up only starting to look back after BC was announced, Kinect was made optional, xbox one sold without it, and even then didn’t really start playing much until Xbox One X. It took until Series X reveal for me to finally go back full xbox.
Also Game Pass is £10pm, only Ultimate costs £13pm.
Minor nitpic:
GPU is required for anyone that wants to actually play CoD since it’s primarily an online game, so £13 is the correct figure to look at in context.
1 month if GP Console is £8.99
1 month of GP PC is £7.99
If someone already have a PC, they are extremely unlikely to buy an Xbox to play CoD on GP, they will just play it on GP PC.
CoD will sell Game Pass, but Game Pass does not sell Xboxes, it’s the other way around. Xboxes sell Game Pass to an audience that prefers a setup box under their TV instead of a PC or streaming.
At the end of the day, game pass PC is way cheaper than Game Pass Ultimate (if you want to play CoD online you will need that tier.)
Xbox will use other games to sell Xboxes, like Starfield and RedFall🤪. Seriously, though, games like Forza Horizon or Fable will only be on Xbox if you want to play them on a setup box, that’s what MS plans to use to sell Xboxes.
I had (still have) an Elite model and I had the RROD happen once around 2009 or 2010. Had it replaced or fixed (no clue if I got the same one back but it looked the same) and never had the issue again. I decided not to tempt faith and bought a 360 E last year to replace the Elite under my TV. It’s rare that I turn it on but there are still a few games in my backlog I want to play someday and would hate for my Elite to die for good.
@themightyant it's an educated guess based on the timing of the Activision Spider Man games delisting. I think similar happened when Marvel Ultimate Alliance rights were acquired by Nintendo, the remasters vanished.
I dont have ties to game publishing, but do have connection with book publishing, and its very unlikely that anyone would buy the rights to a game in X series without some level of exclusivity.
There are some "wider" nets, like, doubt Marvel will ever again give full Star Wars license to anyone the way they did with EA for a few years, but specific sub-ip branches? That's more likely to get timed exclusivity (that Disney can refuse to renew at any point.)
That aside I meant to mention in my previous post that its always possible that MS could influence Sony to carve a space to re-publish older Spider-Man game anthologies so long they also get ported to PS5, and have some label like "Classic Spider-Man Anthology" or what not. With ABK on their pocket, MS now has a **lot** of bargaining powers.
@themightyant I have said as much plenty of times, but as far as I can tell, Sony does have the rights to exclusively publish games with the headline title Spider-Man.
Anyone could make a Daredevil game, with Spider-Man as a cameo or playable alt character, but I doubt their contract is so weak that anyone else can simply publish another Spider-Man titled game. What leads me to think this? The fact that ABK was forced to delist every single Spider-Man game they had the day Sony got the license.
Sounds like they realize that even if they fix the game, the chances of getting a service game to succeed in the current service game bubble are next to none.
Just compile all the assets and code you have and flip them into a mindless single player dino killing game!
@themightyant The transformers stuff might actually happen just not anytime soon. Hasbro openly expressed interest on having all their video games (at least the ABK ones) on Game Pass back when there was some noise about ABK potentially having lost all the source code (it was clarified the source code has not been lost). Thing is the BC program is for all purposes closed, so the most likely chance is the games get ports or remasters, and that takes time.
The 007 games are a bit harder, I have heard a lot the license is harder to work with these days and the only reason IOI got the rights to make their game is they are not just making a pew-pew-kill-everything game. But we can hope, maybe those are also possible to resurrect.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance is tricky because Nintendo currently holds that license. Wolverine and Spider-Man the same with Sony. X-Men Legends might be realistic.
Hulk Ultimate Destruction is also a possibility, it was published by Vivendi Universal Games that ended up being folded into Activision.
I own most ABK stuff that I would like to play, like Prototype, Crash and Spyro. Some of them gifts, some of them i got a long long time ago.
I never bought a CoD game though and I kinda would like to play some of the campaigns so there is that.
Diablo 2 Remake was another one I would like to play but avoided because it came out after the point I decided to boycott anything touched by Kotick, so maybe I finally get around to playing it.
Pie in the sky? Get the rights to re-list the Transformers and 007 games, and make them BC!
Pie in the moon? Every single Marvel ABK game (from Spider-Man to Wolverine and X-Men Legends)
An interesting side effect of the Ubisoft cloud deal is that there is zero chance Ubisoft will be acquired by Microsoft now. There is just no way the CMA will allow such a merger to go through precisely due to this cloud deal.
On the other hand, depending how long the deal is (its 15 years but there might be clauses that prevent MS to unilaterally refuse a renewal) there is a non insignificant change that Ubisoft just became extremely desirable acquisition target for Amazon, as they would own the rights to get CoD on Luna.
@Moonglow I don't expect them to "hand" things over to any other studios. Every one of their studios are busy right now. What I expect is MS injecting additional funds to the Activision side of ABK to increase development bandwidth within the company.
Example: It's easier to double the size of Toys for Bob than its to create a brand new Toys for Bob style studio from scratch.
As far as "handing over", at least under Phill, he seems to be of the philosophy that he does not like to assign work, but instead approve/reject pitches brought forward. There was, though, that whole deal with Playground Studios and Fable, where we have heard that they pitched a fantasy game and he simply suggested if that game could simply use the Fable IP instead of trying to be a brand new IP, so its not like he wont encourage using IPs they already own. Just no assignments.
@BacklogBrad ABK is in an interesting position because their management (ignore Bobby for a bit) is actually extremely efficient but was working with a limited budget that forced CoD prioritization.
With a [potentially] larger budget they can expand teams significantly, much more efficiently and effectively than MS has done trying to build up The Initiative. There are a lot of studios shutting down and downsizing as of late, so there is a lot of talent out there to pick from, provided they have the budget to hire and expand teams.
(bring back the BC program for games that have yet to be release)
ABK was extremely friendly with Xbox back comp program, they were one of the few that didnt just put everything they could on the program but also sold 360 games on green XBO boxes at retail to leverage their games being on the program.
I guess my point is if an ABK game is not in the program its due to licensing or technical limitations.
@swagbag7 my understanding is that From Software owns the Sekiro IP but ABK owns the publishing rights at least to that entry. There is also possibility there is something in the contract that gives ABK first-dibs at publishing any sequels, but that's just conjecture.
I guess it's on a similar realm to Sunset Overdrive, the game was published by MS and still listed but the IP is (now) owned by Sony. Sony cant just request a port for PS, and the logistics of a sequel are not worth it given they have other IP (spider-man) to work with anyways. Similarly, I doubt From Software will be rushing to come back to Sekiro anytime soon when they can revisit Dark Souls again, or Elden Ring, or Armored Core, or any number of games.
Real question is if ABK rights are strong enough to allow them to just add Sekiro to Game Pass.
I never played them, but keep thinking Skylanders could really have a comeback as a F2P gatcha game in the vein of Genshin Impact. It’s cartoony look also mean they could leverage every single Microsoft IP for characters and variants without concerns of canonical repercussions. Doom Guy, Conquer, Master Chief, all could be recreated in a cartoony Skylanders setting.
All the way back to the reveal of the Series S my one complaint was always the smaller memory size, that said I don’t buy the “it’s not a problem on PC”.
Sure, you can demand X amount of ram for your game to run at all as a minimum requirement, but it’s not easy to control how much of that ram is hugged by OS, services and other running apps. And honestly, just changing texture quality settings tends to have a big impact on how much memory the game requires.
Again: complained about to the day it was revealed, but don’t buy that it’s not an issue on some system configurations.
@themightyant there are also the recent Spyro and Crash games, but I own those so I didn’t list them. There is the Tony Hawk remake but I dont care for that. Sekiro might or might not make it, since Activision has the publishing right and they might be able to decide how and where to distribute it.
On the older side there are the Prototype games, King Quest and Geometry wars. I’m not personally interested in the last two and already own Prototype, but GamePass exposure could give the game some life and… dare I dream, chance for a sequel. There is also Skylanders but not sure how playable that is without buying toys off ebay.
On the PC front, there are the war craft and StarCraft RTS games.
Overall, there is not a huge volume of content available out of the gate for players that are not fond of first person shooters or Diablo games.
@themightyant I would love it if MS renewed the Transformer games licenses (including Devastation) and put them all on Game Pass. Same with 007. Own a physical copy but would also love to see Deadpool relisted.
If wo go that far-reaching, would be amazing if they managed to get the rights to at least re-list the older Spider-Man games, even if no new games are allowed. Same with Ultimate Alliance and X-Men Legends. Hell... Activision used to make so many licensed games... would be awesome if we could see them all at least re-listed, ideally remastered.
Realistically, though, I'm looking forward to Diablo II, maybe 4 and the CoD back catalog. Would be kind of cool (IMO) to play though the whole series campaign modes on Xbox. According to the wiki, although it seems the very first one (2003) is not on BC.
I am likely going to subscribe to this to play Mirage once i clear Starfield campaign (who knows when will that happen) but thanks to all the UBisoft sales over the years I basically own their entire back catalog, so until more games launch I don’t see much value in staying subscribed unless they start releasing games more regularly. Even releasing smaller games would give us a reason to stay subscribed, like perhaps more rayman 2D games.
Once I’m done with Mirage, Avatar, Prince of Persia and Star Wars Outlaws (assuming they release in a good schedule) I’ll likely unsubscribe.
GamePass is likely the only subscription service I keep running these days even if I’m not playing anything from the service.
Lets cut them, so we can pay the developers more perhaps. Instead of giving us what they promised, they gave us t-shirts for decades old console.
good idea! They can hire a programer to work 5 hours a week for the cost of a T-shirt designer salary.
Would be good to make sure such part-timer does not attempt to use DirectInput to access the data in the hard drive instead of controller input data, though. If he is going to work just 5 hours a week will take them forever to figure out they were supposed to learn DirectStorage APIs instead.
I miss the old AC game style (hope this one also goes back to the old parkour catacombs) but I didnt dislike the last 3 games at all. There are still quite a few achievements I have not earned in Vallhalla, and plan to at some point, but I have zero complaints with how big of a game it was. Still, wanted classic AC back in some form and would love for them to release both style of games. In a perfect world, both game styles would take turns.
I really wanted to jump into this one day one, but I still have not reached a point where I feel I can put Starfield down. I am mid crimson fleet faction quest line and next to zero progress on the main questline. I might just binge the main plot next, finish the story and visit the other factions on NGP, taking a break to play Mirage in between.
I don't think I'm going to buy this one though, but instead plan to subscribe to Ubisoft+ for the month.
Layoffs always suck, but got to admit that is a fantastic severance package. 6 months + accelerated stock options vesting? That’s plenty of time to find a new job, and anyone finding something before the 6 months end up with quite a nice bundle of cash leftover.
@J_Mo_Money it’s also kinda finny: most big games take almost 5 years to develop these days. Whatever wheels Jim set into motion won’t be seen for reals until next year. The year we don’t seem to be having any single player games announced for, unless Wolverine shows up.
Lie to users (we believe in generations bs when all games were multi-gen)
dismantled Japanese game studio development (if it’s not a big triple a, not worth financing in his vision)
terrible handling of ABK acquisition (MS offered every ABK game going multiplat, Jim demanded all Zenimax games too, or he would block, at the end now he only gets Call of Duty)
Games as a service strategy, they claim they won’t pull away from single player games but the only single player game in the horizon is Wolverine. As far as we know, that will be the only single player game first party game next year because everyone else is working on multiplayer games.
Many think I hate PlayStation, when the truth is I just hate what PlayStation has become under him. Bring Kaz back please!!!
This explains why most those environmental element resistances feel entirely meaningless. Survival mode might be interesting, when its added. Would also be nice to see a use for food. As it stands, food make for poor healing items most of the time.
I'm rather sure its not the first time he brings Mech Assault. I know the license for Battletech is a bit odd (same for Shadowrun) but maybe we get to see something sooner or later. They do own the videogame rights.
@BAMozzy One thing I find funny about the whole "no dont buy devs/publishers" is that before the Zenimax acquisition was made public, there were lots of rumors that Sony was trying to buy them. The fact that Sony was willing to pay 4billion for Bungie shows they indeed were likely going for it but got outbid, and the fact that they were buying 1 year timed exclusivity deals for basically all future Bethesda games shows they would have not gone for multi-plat releases either.
It's kinda funny going back to the PushSquare article and seeing quite a few posters muse about the positive impact it would have for Bethesda games being PS exclusive, with no PC releases. That rumor did not get too much wind, but on every discussion I saw at the time, PlayStation fans were drooling at the idea of that. Now, though? Evil evil practice.
@tallythwack This year is already seeing quite a few games delivered on Xbox.
Age of Empires II
Minecraft Legends
Red Fall
Age of Empires IV
Starfield
Forza Motorsport
Yea, Red Fall ended up sucking, but it came out. Not all games are going to be great. And yea, not all of these games will appeal to you, but this is not 2020. MS has delivered games this year.
I want to see a partnership with Sega. Not necessarily an acquisition, although I think that would work too. The way I see it, it would work one of two ways:
A) MS takes a large stake on Sega (no acquisition) but Sega remains independent. As part of this, Sega gets to sell a re-branded Xbox in Japan, call it Dreamcast S|X if they want. Sega gets to keep all profits (hardware, game sales, GP subs) from the Japanese market but also need to add all their games to Game Pass day one. It's up to Sega if they want to release their games on other platforms or decide to keep some (or all) games exclusive to Xbox|Dreamcast X. Other than shell design, Sega does not get to redesign the hardware or specs.
B) Sega is acquired by Microsoft, they still start selling Sega branded Xbox Series S|X in Japan, but they keep Sega 100% multi-platform. All Sega|Atlus games go to PlayStation, Nintendo and PC. No exceptions.
@Widey85 Xbox is already “winning” this generation according to the FTC case leaks. Sure, they have fewer consoles, but they are bribing in a lot more profit (not revenue). Likely a combination of 75% of the Xbox sold being Series S (that is likely sold at good margins), having all their games on PC day one, Game Pass subscriptions, and large multi-platform games like Minecraft. So much for Xbox model being “unsustainable”.
Sounds like it’s Sonys model (super expensive to-make games that are exclusive to a single device) that is not very sustainable.
Anyways, it’s not about volume it’s about profits at the end. Xbox is already doing very well, and will be unstoppable with CoD revenue once that is part of the Xbox ecosystem.
@PhileasFragg got to say that still sounds like an unnecessary restriction, imo. But this is a step in the right direction that will likely bring a lot more players to the game. Maybe eventually they expand on it and give additional features to the mode while still keeping a strong lure on the PvP servers.
@Kaloudz When a specific game or genre does not sell enough physical copies in the UK to hit the top 10, that is evidence that said game or genre is hated by Xbox owners. It’s just science. 🙃
Honestly, my only issue with the Series X existence from the start was the memory limitations. Smaller, slower ram was going to bite them in the ass. I said it back then very loudly (I mean, as laid as pure Xbox comments can be without being moderated) but was eventually calmed and convinced it could work out for most games. Sadly “most games” wasn’t enough and we have seen that come back to bite Xbox.
I’m not sure they would have been able to make the Series S for only $300 with the same memory as the Series X, though.
Let’s be honest: no one outside a hardcore audience had this game on their top-watch list until the bear scene became a viral sensation. Not saying the game does not earn its positive reviews, but it would had flown under the radar for most people list like the developer other games.
Comments 3,868
Re: Reaction: Seriously, Microsoft Doesn't Care About Using Call Of Duty To Sell Xboxes
@themightyant
It still was the second best selling game of the whole year. And that only because Red Dead Redemption 2 also launched that year, taking the #1 spot. I don't argue that some players do indeed only play the campaign, I myself would play the campaign and never jump online, but we are the minority for this IP.
...if you already own an Xbox, in that case this won't sell that person an Xbox, it will just sell them Game Pass.
My point is not that this game won't sell Game Pass, it's that it won't sell Xbox consoles, not on its own. If I already have a device that can play CoD, it's cheaper for me, even over the long run, to keep playing the games on that device until a generational upgrade is at hand. Even then, only a small percentage might convert due to digital libraries they can't trade.
It's up to actual console exclusives like Fable and Elder Scrolls 6 to sell more Xbox consoles.
Re: Less Than 1% Of Xbox Players Own The Coveted 'Day One' Achievement
I’m in the group of people that was extremely disgusted by Xbox treatment of fans , and there was no way I would had hooked up an always active microphone and camera on my livingroom during the whole NSA spying on citizens fiasco that was going on at the time, so I am in the 99% of dont-haves.
I ended up only starting to look back after BC was announced, Kinect was made optional, xbox one sold without it, and even then didn’t really start playing much until Xbox One X. It took until Series X reveal for me to finally go back full xbox.
Re: Reaction: Seriously, Microsoft Doesn't Care About Using Call Of Duty To Sell Xboxes
@themightyant
Minor nitpic:
GPU is required for anyone that wants to actually play CoD since it’s primarily an online game, so £13 is the correct figure to look at in context.
1 month if GP Console is £8.99
1 month of GP PC is £7.99
If someone already have a PC, they are extremely unlikely to buy an Xbox to play CoD on GP, they will just play it on GP PC.
Re: Thanks To Starfield, UK Xbox Sales Enjoyed A Huge Increase In September
It has been fascinating to see people trying to spin the success of Starfield in a negative light over the last couple of days.
Re: Reaction: Seriously, Microsoft Doesn't Care About Using Call Of Duty To Sell Xboxes
CoD will sell Game Pass, but Game Pass does not sell Xboxes, it’s the other way around. Xboxes sell Game Pass to an audience that prefers a setup box under their TV instead of a PC or streaming.
At the end of the day, game pass PC is way cheaper than Game Pass Ultimate (if you want to play CoD online you will need that tier.)
Xbox will use other games to sell Xboxes, like Starfield and RedFall🤪. Seriously, though, games like Forza Horizon or Fable will only be on Xbox if you want to play them on a setup box, that’s what MS plans to use to sell Xboxes.
Re: Report: Starfield Was The Best-Selling U.S. Video Game In September
Best selling game of the month despite it also being on Game Pass is beyond impressive. It’s ridiculous.
Re: Talking Point: Did Your Xbox 360 Ever Get The 'Red Ring Of Death'?
I had (still have) an Elite model and I had the RROD happen once around 2009 or 2010. Had it replaced or fixed (no clue if I got the same one back but it looked the same) and never had the issue again. I decided not to tempt faith and bought a 360 E last year to replace the Elite under my TV. It’s rare that I turn it on but there are still a few games in my backlog I want to play someday and would hate for my Elite to die for good.
Re: Talking Point: Which Activision Blizzard Series Do You Want To Play Most On Xbox Game Pass?
@themightyant it's an educated guess based on the timing of the Activision Spider Man games delisting. I think similar happened when Marvel Ultimate Alliance rights were acquired by Nintendo, the remasters vanished.
I dont have ties to game publishing, but do have connection with book publishing, and its very unlikely that anyone would buy the rights to a game in X series without some level of exclusivity.
There are some "wider" nets, like, doubt Marvel will ever again give full Star Wars license to anyone the way they did with EA for a few years, but specific sub-ip branches? That's more likely to get timed exclusivity (that Disney can refuse to renew at any point.)
That aside I meant to mention in my previous post that its always possible that MS could influence Sony to carve a space to re-publish older Spider-Man game anthologies so long they also get ported to PS5, and have some label like "Classic Spider-Man Anthology" or what not. With ABK on their pocket, MS now has a **lot** of bargaining powers.
Re: Talking Point: Which Activision Blizzard Series Do You Want To Play Most On Xbox Game Pass?
@themightyant I have said as much plenty of times, but as far as I can tell, Sony does have the rights to exclusively publish games with the headline title Spider-Man.
Anyone could make a Daredevil game, with Spider-Man as a cameo or playable alt character, but I doubt their contract is so weak that anyone else can simply publish another Spider-Man titled game. What leads me to think this? The fact that ABK was forced to delist every single Spider-Man game they had the day Sony got the license.
Re: Former Xbox Game Pass Title 'Second Extinction' Is Being Permanently Delisted
Sounds like they realize that even if they fix the game, the chances of getting a service game to succeed in the current service game bubble are next to none.
Just compile all the assets and code you have and flip them into a mindless single player dino killing game!
Re: Talking Point: Which Activision Blizzard Series Do You Want To Play Most On Xbox Game Pass?
@themightyant The transformers stuff might actually happen just not anytime soon. Hasbro openly expressed interest on having all their video games (at least the ABK ones) on Game Pass back when there was some noise about ABK potentially having lost all the source code (it was clarified the source code has not been lost). Thing is the BC program is for all purposes closed, so the most likely chance is the games get ports or remasters, and that takes time.
The 007 games are a bit harder, I have heard a lot the license is harder to work with these days and the only reason IOI got the rights to make their game is they are not just making a pew-pew-kill-everything game. But we can hope, maybe those are also possible to resurrect.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance is tricky because Nintendo currently holds that license. Wolverine and Spider-Man the same with Sony. X-Men Legends might be realistic.
Hulk Ultimate Destruction is also a possibility, it was published by Vivendi Universal Games that ended up being folded into Activision.
Re: Talking Point: Which Activision Blizzard Series Do You Want To Play Most On Xbox Game Pass?
I own most ABK stuff that I would like to play, like Prototype, Crash and Spyro. Some of them gifts, some of them i got a long long time ago.
I never bought a CoD game though and I kinda would like to play some of the campaigns so there is that.
Diablo 2 Remake was another one I would like to play but avoided because it came out after the point I decided to boycott anything touched by Kotick, so maybe I finally get around to playing it.
Pie in the sky? Get the rights to re-list the Transformers and 007 games, and make them BC!
Pie in the moon? Every single Marvel ABK game (from Spider-Man to Wolverine and X-Men Legends)
Re: Six Games Are Confirmed For Xbox Game Pass In November So Far
Really been looking forward for Thirsty Suitors!
Re: CMA Criticises 'Tactics Employed By Microsoft' Despite Agreeing To ActiBlizz Deal
An interesting side effect of the Ubisoft cloud deal is that there is zero chance Ubisoft will be acquired by Microsoft now. There is just no way the CMA will allow such a merger to go through precisely due to this cloud deal.
On the other hand, depending how long the deal is (its 15 years but there might be clauses that prevent MS to unilaterally refuse a renewal) there is a non insignificant change that Ubisoft just became extremely desirable acquisition target for Amazon, as they would own the rights to get CoD on Luna.
Re: Xbox Says The 'Work Has Begun' To Bring Activision Blizzard Titles To Game Pass
I hope Phill contacted Hasbro the day they hinted at their desire to get their old Transformer games on Game Pass.
Re: Activision Says Xbox Can 'Take Games In The Library And Remake Them' Post-Acquisition
@Moonglow I don't expect them to "hand" things over to any other studios. Every one of their studios are busy right now. What I expect is MS injecting additional funds to the Activision side of ABK to increase development bandwidth within the company.
Example: It's easier to double the size of Toys for Bob than its to create a brand new Toys for Bob style studio from scratch.
As far as "handing over", at least under Phill, he seems to be of the philosophy that he does not like to assign work, but instead approve/reject pitches brought forward. There was, though, that whole deal with Playground Studios and Fable, where we have heard that they pitched a fantasy game and he simply suggested if that game could simply use the Fable IP instead of trying to be a brand new IP, so its not like he wont encourage using IPs they already own. Just no assignments.
Re: Activision Says Xbox Can 'Take Games In The Library And Remake Them' Post-Acquisition
@BacklogBrad ABK is in an interesting position because their management (ignore Bobby for a bit) is actually extremely efficient but was working with a limited budget that forced CoD prioritization.
With a [potentially] larger budget they can expand teams significantly, much more efficiently and effectively than MS has done trying to build up The Initiative. There are a lot of studios shutting down and downsizing as of late, so there is a lot of talent out there to pick from, provided they have the budget to hire and expand teams.
Re: It's Finally Over! Activision Blizzard Is Now Officially Part Of Xbox
@GamingFan4Lyf
ABK was extremely friendly with Xbox back comp program, they were one of the few that didnt just put everything they could on the program but also sold 360 games on green XBO boxes at retail to leverage their games being on the program.
I guess my point is if an ABK game is not in the program its due to licensing or technical limitations.
Re: It's Finally Over! Activision Blizzard Is Now Officially Part Of Xbox
@swagbag7 my understanding is that From Software owns the Sekiro IP but ABK owns the publishing rights at least to that entry. There is also possibility there is something in the contract that gives ABK first-dibs at publishing any sequels, but that's just conjecture.
I guess it's on a similar realm to Sunset Overdrive, the game was published by MS and still listed but the IP is (now) owned by Sony. Sony cant just request a port for PS, and the logistics of a sequel are not worth it given they have other IP (spider-man) to work with anyways. Similarly, I doubt From Software will be rushing to come back to Sekiro anytime soon when they can revisit Dark Souls again, or Elden Ring, or Armored Core, or any number of games.
Real question is if ABK rights are strong enough to allow them to just add Sekiro to Game Pass.
Re: These 50+ Activision Blizzard Games Could Be Heading To Xbox Game Pass
I never played them, but keep thinking Skylanders could really have a comeback as a F2P gatcha game in the vein of Genshin Impact. It’s cartoony look also mean they could leverage every single Microsoft IP for characters and variants without concerns of canonical repercussions. Doom Guy, Conquer, Master Chief, all could be recreated in a cartoony Skylanders setting.
Re: Alan Wake 2 Dev Explains Two Biggest Challenges Of Working With Xbox Series S
All the way back to the reveal of the Series S my one complaint was always the smaller memory size, that said I don’t buy the “it’s not a problem on PC”.
Sure, you can demand X amount of ram for your game to run at all as a minimum requirement, but it’s not easy to control how much of that ram is hugged by OS, services and other running apps. And honestly, just changing texture quality settings tends to have a big impact on how much memory the game requires.
Again: complained about to the day it was revealed, but don’t buy that it’s not an issue on some system configurations.
Re: After Almost Two Years, Next Week Could Be The Finale For Xbox's ActiBlizz Takeover
@themightyant there are also the recent Spyro and Crash games, but I own those so I didn’t list them. There is the Tony Hawk remake but I dont care for that. Sekiro might or might not make it, since Activision has the publishing right and they might be able to decide how and where to distribute it.
On the older side there are the Prototype games, King Quest and Geometry wars. I’m not personally interested in the last two and already own Prototype, but GamePass exposure could give the game some life and… dare I dream, chance for a sequel. There is also Skylanders but not sure how playable that is without buying toys off ebay.
On the PC front, there are the war craft and StarCraft RTS games.
Overall, there is not a huge volume of content available out of the gate for players that are not fond of first person shooters or Diablo games.
Re: Ubisoft Shows Off Gorgeous Assassin's Creed Mirage-Themed Xbox Series X
Personally dont like it much. The art is cool and I would not mind it as a wallpaper or a poster but I dont think it looks well on the console.
The controller, on the other hand, looks fantastic, IMO.
Re: After Almost Two Years, Next Week Could Be The Finale For Xbox's ActiBlizz Takeover
@themightyant I would love it if MS renewed the Transformer games licenses (including Devastation) and put them all on Game Pass. Same with 007. Own a physical copy but would also love to see Deadpool relisted.
If wo go that far-reaching, would be amazing if they managed to get the rights to at least re-list the older Spider-Man games, even if no new games are allowed. Same with Ultimate Alliance and X-Men Legends. Hell... Activision used to make so many licensed games... would be awesome if we could see them all at least re-listed, ideally remastered.
Realistically, though, I'm looking forward to Diablo II, maybe 4 and the CoD back catalog. Would be kind of cool (IMO) to play though the whole series campaign modes on Xbox. According to the wiki, although it seems the very first one (2003) is not on BC.
Re: All Of These 60+ Games Are Included With Ubisoft Plus On Xbox
I am likely going to subscribe to this to play Mirage once i clear Starfield campaign (who knows when will that happen) but thanks to all the UBisoft sales over the years I basically own their entire back catalog, so until more games launch I don’t see much value in staying subscribed unless they start releasing games more regularly. Even releasing smaller games would give us a reason to stay subscribed, like perhaps more rayman 2D games.
Once I’m done with Mirage, Avatar, Prince of Persia and Star Wars Outlaws (assuming they release in a good schedule) I’ll likely unsubscribe.
GamePass is likely the only subscription service I keep running these days even if I’m not playing anything from the service.
Re: Microsoft Unveils New 'Heritage Collection' Of Xbox 360 Merch
@iplaygamesnstuff
good idea! They can hire a programer to work 5 hours a week for the cost of a T-shirt designer salary.
Would be good to make sure such part-timer does not attempt to use DirectInput to access the data in the hard drive instead of controller input data, though. If he is going to work just 5 hours a week will take them forever to figure out they were supposed to learn DirectStorage APIs instead.
Re: Microsoft Unveils New 'Heritage Collection' Of Xbox 360 Merch
@iplaygamesnstuff yea let’s get those t-shirt designers to write some low level memory streaming assembly code!!!
Re: Review: Assassin's Creed Mirage - A Super Slick Return To The Series' Stealth Roots
I miss the old AC game style (hope this one also goes back to the old parkour catacombs) but I didnt dislike the last 3 games at all. There are still quite a few achievements I have not earned in Vallhalla, and plan to at some point, but I have zero complaints with how big of a game it was. Still, wanted classic AC back in some form and would love for them to release both style of games. In a perfect world, both game styles would take turns.
I really wanted to jump into this one day one, but I still have not reached a point where I feel I can put Starfield down. I am mid crimson fleet faction quest line and next to zero progress on the main questline. I might just binge the main plot next, finish the story and visit the other factions on NGP, taking a break to play Mirage in between.
I don't think I'm going to buy this one though, but instead plan to subscribe to Ubisoft+ for the month.
Re: High On Life Has A Cheap New 'DLC Bundle' For Xbox Game Pass Members
I don’t see deal. The bundle is $50 on the Xbox store. I do see the deal on the web site.
Re: Fortnite Creator Epic Games Laying Off 870 Employees
Layoffs always suck, but got to admit that is a fantastic severance package. 6 months + accelerated stock options vesting? That’s plenty of time to find a new job, and anyone finding something before the 6 months end up with quite a nice bundle of cash leftover.
Re: 10 New Xbox Games To Look Forward To In October 2023
Oh damnit Mirage is around the corner.... I have barely done any progress on Starfield.... damned work!!!!
Re: Phil Spencer Thanks PlayStation Boss For His Contribution To The Video Game Industry
@J_Mo_Money it’s also kinda finny: most big games take almost 5 years to develop these days. Whatever wheels Jim set into motion won’t be seen for reals until next year. The year we don’t seem to be having any single player games announced for, unless Wolverine shows up.
Re: FTC Continues To Challenge Xbox's Takeover Of Activision Blizzard
Sure, Khan, keep setting our tax dollars on fire. We are used to it. 😔
Re: Phil Spencer Thanks PlayStation Boss For His Contribution To The Video Game Industry
@CorugatedZant
Let’s see:
Many think I hate PlayStation, when the truth is I just hate what PlayStation has become under him. Bring Kaz back please!!!
Re: During Development, Bethesda 'Nerfed' How Much Damage Planets Could Cause In Starfield
This explains why most those environmental element resistances feel entirely meaningless. Survival mode might be interesting, when its added. Would also be nice to see a use for food. As it stands, food make for poor healing items most of the time.
Re: Final Warning! Marvel's Avengers Is Being Delisted On Xbox This Week
Bought it a while back, but at this price I might actually go and make sure I own it on Steam and PS5… maybe…
Re: Phil Spencer Reveals Which IP He'd Like To See Revived On Xbox
I'm rather sure its not the first time he brings Mech Assault.
I know the license for Battletech is a bit odd (same for Shadowrun) but maybe we get to see something sooner or later. They do own the videogame rights.
Re: Capcom Would 'Gracefully Decline' Any Acquisition Attempt From Xbox
@BAMozzy One thing I find funny about the whole "no dont buy devs/publishers" is that before the Zenimax acquisition was made public, there were lots of rumors that Sony was trying to buy them. The fact that Sony was willing to pay 4billion for Bungie shows they indeed were likely going for it but got outbid, and the fact that they were buying 1 year timed exclusivity deals for basically all future Bethesda games shows they would have not gone for multi-plat releases either.
It's kinda funny going back to the PushSquare article and seeing quite a few posters muse about the positive impact it would have for Bethesda games being PS exclusive, with no PC releases. That rumor did not get too much wind, but on every discussion I saw at the time, PlayStation fans were drooling at the idea of that. Now, though? Evil evil practice.
Re: Capcom Would 'Gracefully Decline' Any Acquisition Attempt From Xbox
@tallythwack This year is already seeing quite a few games delivered on Xbox.
Yea, Red Fall ended up sucking, but it came out. Not all games are going to be great. And yea, not all of these games will appeal to you, but this is not 2020. MS has delivered games this year.
For contrast, Sony 2023:
Re: Capcom Would 'Gracefully Decline' Any Acquisition Attempt From Xbox
I want to see a partnership with Sega. Not necessarily an acquisition, although I think that would work too. The way I see it, it would work one of two ways:
A) MS takes a large stake on Sega (no acquisition) but Sega remains independent. As part of this, Sega gets to sell a re-branded Xbox in Japan, call it Dreamcast S|X if they want. Sega gets to keep all profits (hardware, game sales, GP subs) from the Japanese market but also need to add all their games to Game Pass day one. It's up to Sega if they want to release their games on other platforms or decide to keep some (or all) games exclusive to Xbox|Dreamcast X. Other than shell design, Sega does not get to redesign the hardware or specs.
B) Sega is acquired by Microsoft, they still start selling Sega branded Xbox Series S|X in Japan, but they keep Sega 100% multi-platform. All Sega|Atlus games go to PlayStation, Nintendo and PC. No exceptions.
Re: UK CMA Grants 'Preliminary Approval' Of Microsoft's Activision Blizzard Purchase
@Pikachuuuu btw do you have a link to that update? The article here does not seem to show that update.
Re: UK CMA Grants 'Preliminary Approval' Of Microsoft's Activision Blizzard Purchase
@Pikachuuuu still sets Xbox in a position were half the units sold are likely going out at a decent profit margin.
Re: UK CMA Grants 'Preliminary Approval' Of Microsoft's Activision Blizzard Purchase
@Widey85 Xbox is already “winning” this generation according to the FTC case leaks. Sure, they have fewer consoles, but they are bribing in a lot more profit (not revenue). Likely a combination of 75% of the Xbox sold being Series S (that is likely sold at good margins), having all their games on PC day one, Game Pass subscriptions, and large multi-platform games like Minecraft. So much for Xbox model being “unsustainable”.
Sounds like it’s Sonys model (super expensive to-make games that are exclusive to a single device) that is not very sustainable.
Anyways, it’s not about volume it’s about profits at the end. Xbox is already doing very well, and will be unstoppable with CoD revenue once that is part of the Xbox ecosystem.
Re: Surprise! Sea Of Thieves Is Finally Adding Private PvE Servers
@PhileasFragg got to say that still sounds like an unnecessary restriction, imo. But this is a step in the right direction that will likely bring a lot more players to the game. Maybe eventually they expand on it and give additional features to the mode while still keeping a strong lure on the PvP servers.
Re: Ubisoft Announces 'Tom Clancy's The Division 3' Is In The Works
You know, I bought these games dirt cheap but have never actually sat down to play them.
Re: Rockstar Begins Adding Classic Games To 'GTA+' Service On Xbox
Sounds like Take Two is flirting with their own version of EA Play.
Re: Octopath Traveler 2 Is Officially Coming To Xbox In Early 2024
@Kaloudz When a specific game or genre does not sell enough physical copies in the UK to hit the top 10, that is evidence that said game or genre is hated by Xbox owners. It’s just science. 🙃
Re: Here's Everything That Was Revealed At The Xbox Tokyo Game Show 2023 Event
Disappointed no Shin Megami Tensei port reveals 🙁
Re: As Of Last April, Xbox Series S Accounted For 75% Of Microsoft's Current-Gen Console Sales
Honestly, my only issue with the Series X existence from the start was the memory limitations. Smaller, slower ram was going to bite them in the ass. I said it back then very loudly (I mean, as laid as pure Xbox comments can be without being moderated) but was eventually calmed and convinced it could work out for most games. Sadly “most games” wasn’t enough and we have seen that come back to bite Xbox.
I’m not sure they would have been able to make the Series S for only $300 with the same memory as the Series X, though.
Re: Baldur's Gate 3 Dev Reacts To Suggestion That Xbox 'Misjudged' The Game's Potential
Let’s be honest: no one outside a hardcore audience had this game on their top-watch list until the bear scene became a viral sensation. Not saying the game does not earn its positive reviews, but it would had flown under the radar for most people list like the developer other games.