I do not read a lot into this posting. They are currently doing physical media and therefore need people to manage that today. Posting this job today does not mean a next generation commitment for physical media tomorrow.
@fatpunkslim If a game is creative, entertaining, good, and I enjoy it, I really could not care less what was used to create it.
Morally, I only think about physical/mental/environmental harm in creating games or any other product for that matter. NOTE: I think AI data centers need to be responsible with the environment.
I use AI everyday to help with my creativity and productivity. Whether I ask it to come up with ideas on how to build a shed at my house, what colors to paint things, ideas for work presentations, brainstorming, etc. AI is an integral part of my life now. Both from a creativity and productivity perspective. I rely on my own critical and creative thinking to decide what I use and do not use when AI gives me answers to my questions. Just like I would with any other human. Sometimes I throw out everything it gives me, other times I take only parts, and sometimes I think, that is perfect and use it.
My brother-in-law and I started the campaign last night. So far it has been a great experience over the first two acts. This is a back to roots campaign that checks all the boxes in my opinion.
(Although the Active reloads in the middle bottom of the screen is messing with my head right now).
So, I think they knew what to expect. I suspect GamePass gets remodeled as per Sharma's comments in the past and if you want day one exclusives you will have to pay more. I am fine with that.
I think the GamePass model has failed as it is and it needs a total revamp. Personally I look at GamePass for XB first party games and good independent games. I don't care about EA Play, Ubisoft Classics, etc. So, if I could drop some to pay on others it would work. But I expect to that the first party games will not ship day one going forward. And only come after a year to GamePass.
I would also expect that XB will shift to IP engagement as a measure. And that they will include movies, streaming and other stuff in the engagement stats. That is also fine with me.
I really like that they are going to deliver games faster. But, my fear is quality slides. Then, again I look at any game shipping on day one as a beta so maybe that isn't an issue.
@RiverGenie I do agree with your sentiment. But at the same time 80% of the people who game do not game as their sole form of entertainment/competition. They play only a few hours a week and do many other things to keep themselves entertained.
With the success of the Falllout Streaming Series and Minecraft movie, I think MS is realizing that the IP across more then just games is important.
On another note... I went to the Gear E-Day merchandise from XB and it was meh. My brother-in-law and I enjoy playing co-op games together and will often buy t-shirts for a game we really enjoy playing together. I looked at the Gears E-Day shirts and passed this time. So hopefully the products team will get more and better stuff out there.
@BigRedPaper
From a gaming perspective that may be true. But please name for me any other technology company that is still influential today and has been around since Microsoft existed?
Microsoft has had only three CEOs.
1) Bill Gates built the empire.
2) Steve Ballmer. He almost killed the Empire.
3) Satya Nadella. Adapted MS to the new world order and managed to save the empire.
I don't feel that the CEO has all that influential on the gaming business. I think MS had a great idea for gaming in that they wanted to grow gaming as one big community. But there were several failures. 1) Sony and Nintendo did not see it the same way so kept their games exclusive. 2) XB marketing and execution the past few years has been brutal.
We are seeing this now with Asha. She is probably working within the same budget as Phil. But, she is taking a marketing and product approach. Phil was taking a gaming approach. As much as I hate to say it, Asha's approach is more likely to succeed. I think Phil had a great idea, but with the other two console manufacturers not budge on exclusivity and GamePass not growing as anticipated it ended up failing. Think about it, if at least Sony decides to go multiplatform (including their biggest games on XB) as well. And GamePass got more subscribers as all the acquisition and mergers happened into XB, then we are having a totally different conversation today.
I want new Halo games so as long as a new game is in the works I am fine with Halo remakes.
The latest Halo remake was good. Kept the great Halo gameplay in place, but I feel graphically it wasn't as good as it could've been. I would think remakes be built third paty with the current Unreal engine and that net new Halo games would use the IW engine.
I am thinking yearly CoDs are a bit much, so maybe going forward yearly they swap between Halo and CoD games.
@SigmaTheDJ Matthew Ball set the record straoght and it makes sense. PS should have a lot more pre-orders then XB because of its installed base. As long as the pre-orders are lined up properly with the installed base that means XB is holding its own.
Given that Sony hase a marketing and promotional agreement on GTA VI XB should be ecstatic that pre-orders are inline with their installed base. It should be PS that is worried not XB.
Game ads are inevitable, how they implement them is going to be important, and giving me the ability to buy my way out of ads if I don't want them is also important.
For example this might be a good priviledge for GamePass Ultimate subscribers, to not see in game advertisments.
The fact that two agreements fell through speaks to what publishers think the potential of their next game looks like. If the game was brilliant, I would expect publishers would be jumping at the opportunity. The fact that they are jumping in and dropping it out kind of shows that the game does not look like a significant seller.
I am disappointed. I really like the Hellblade IP, but it looks like it is going in the wrong direction for mass appeal.
I think CoD has a really good FPS engine, it remains to be seen whether it can be adapted to Halo well. I just finished the Halo Campaign Evolved remake yesterday. While it is a graphical improvement over the original, I did not see it as a full modernization of the game and so felt a bit disappointed. The bonus missions were good but not great.
It remains to be seen how well they will do with multi-player, the story, and Halo gameplay though.
I am glad XB is making this an XB published game. Whether they do timed exclusivity or full console exclusivity I really don't care. They have taken an apex development studio and made it an XB/PC first studio.
In order for me to buy a premium addition of a game it must provide additional game content, that will have additional gamerscore.
I am not swayed by early access where 90% of games ship with major flaws. With the price of games on Day One as high as they are I am not interested in paying more to experience the flaws. I will gladly wait until the game becomes reasonably priced, has an ultimate edition, and has worked out its major bugs.
I am also not swayed by in game currency. I never buy any in game currency. Because I am focused mostly on the single player/co-op experience and could not care less if my character gets extra stuff. If that stuff is needed in game or the game has an unreasonable grind, I simply abandon the game. I am not a gerbil, games should not blackmail me to be a gerbil endlessly spinning my wheel or make me pay to get off the wheel.
Finally, I have no idea why skins are valuable. Don't get me wrong, some are very cool and I always customize my character with what I can, but, I am not going to pay for them, especially with the price of real human clothing today. I would rather look good in the real world, then spend money trying to look good in gaming land.
@strzelec I would hope that Fable is not the same as The Witcher and charts its own course. The Witcher is a great game, but Fable can be great for different audiences and different reasons too.
If XB makes the day one first party games exclusive to XB I am ok with them dropping day one exclusive games. Gamers have to recognize that exclusivity is not free. If we want exclusives the price is actually buying the full game.
I do like gamepass having really good independent games on day one though. There are many highly rated independent games i enjoyed on gamepass because they were there on day one.
XBOX pulled off a win here for gamers. We will still get the two new Kojima games and they will be available at least on PC and XBOX day one.
Kojima has is known for going outside the box with his games. Whether you are a big fan or not he has a very loyal following. And whether his new games will be great or not really doesn't matter because that cult following will be there.
This is how XBOX needs to keep going. What you do is important, but the publishers and developers you get into your court are even more important. And getting Kojima as primary to XBOX and PC is a huge win for XBOX.
@Cikajovazmaj
I think this is all about user demographics.
The reality is that 95% of people that game are not playing games 5+ hours per week. The probable average person that plays games is more like 3-5 hours per week. Also, the 3-5 hour per week users are likely to just say, "oh well" when they use up their monthly time.
The people that are above 3-5 hours per week are more hard core gamers (that are more likely to visit this site and prefer console/PC over streaming).
Personally, for me cloud gaming is still niche, I use it when I am up town waiting around lineups or gaps between meeting up with friends and sometimes and don't have access to my ROG Ally X, Console, or PC. But I expect that as part of next generation they improve cloud gaming more and that it starts to move more mainstream. Think about it, if I only play less then 5 hours a week it is hard to justify the probable $800-1,000 USD spend on a console or gaming PC. So I may choose cloud gaming for those few hours per week.
I game about 5 hours per week. But I am fortunate that I have a enough dissposable income that I can afford the premium experience and have a ROG Ally X, multiple Series X, and multiple PCs so cloud gaming will be niche for me for the forseeable future. But I can totally understand people with less disposable income using cloud gaming as their primary platform.
I like the operational changes Asha seems to be making and promoting. But, These are PR and cosmetic in nature mostly so far.
The real changes will be in improving the actual gaming experience and games. To that end I liked the disc-to-digital announcement earlier this week. But there is a lot more for XB to do there.
People like to think there is no costs to things but streaming has a cost. XB needs the hardware and data centers to provide streaming. All they are doing is setting this up before it becomes cost issue.
With the console prices expected to be $800-1,000+ in the next generation and if streaming keeps improving, it may become a primary way to game for a lot of people. So, really all they are just ensuring that things are in line to make a profit.
To me, this should've been put in on day one of streaming. It was a miss that they didn't.
@agenttrav My understanding is that 360 game discs are not serializaed so I doubt they will make the feature available. But, yes I would love 360 games to be available too.
If done right this can be really good. If done wrong this can be not so good. XB Cinematic Universe? Most of the games happen at different periods in time. Maybe they could find a way to tie them all together somehow.
@fatpunkslim I really love Halo gameplay, but I felt they could've did more level redesign and improved the graphics a lot more. They say it was a remake, I feel it was more or less a transfer to the Unreal Engine.
Bought and started to play it yesterday as I love Geometry Wars. This game will keep me busy for a while. Really enjoying it. Wish there would be more articles on these types of diamonds in the rough.
I have played some chapters in Halo this weekend. Kind of disappointed in some graphical things (I prefer the more modern graphical style of master chief then this one) but still has the fun gameplay I am used to in Halo games.
@Mr-Cage LOL. Me and my brother in law are playing the game in co-op on insane right now. We like to refer to Cole and Baird as dumber and dumber.
I still enjoy the game though. give me a lancer and turn on the chainsaw any day of the week to enjoy sawing grubs! I would call the game a refresh of the original. It got rid of some issues but introduced its own issues.
Always disappointing when perfectly good people lose their jobs. I understand what they have to do, but that doesn't make it any easier for the people affected.
I think this is perfectly ok for gaming, as long as I am given an option to pay to remove ads (even if I have to pay a small amount). This seems like a good way to get another revenue stream and not overly change the gaming experience which will help with affordability.
"I really don't care what they do around exclusivity to be honest I own an Xbox so I know I can play all the games they will bring out. If games do or don't go to playstation it makes no difference to me at all. I'll let everyone else worry and argue over the politics in gaming while I just enjoy my hobby playing games I enjoy!"
If more people had these thoughts then the gaming world would be a lot better place!
@Fiendish-Beaver
I don't think that unless you have insider information we don''t that you can definitively say that kind of stuff.
Yes, it sucks that people are let go and they have to get a new job in a tough world. Anybody that has gone through this including me agrees.
But, this does not automatically mean the developer cannot deliver just as quickly.... For example, how many side projects were they working on and how many resources were assigned to them? If there were many levels of management did they maybe streamline decision making? With AI tools people may now be more productive. Were there people between projects just sitting around? Are they centralizing marketing more and taking away the distributed nature it was?
Point is you are interpretting one side of what happened but there are many other sides. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle... A lot of the cuts probably were justified, but I am sure there are also some they will regret. Is it as bad as reported? Probably not, is everyone full of sunshine? Probably not as well.
As for 8 years to make a new game that is not unheard of anymore. GTA V was first release in 2013 and here we are in 2026 just awaiting the latest release. When studios were releasing next games every two years gamers pushed back that quality and innovation were falling. Now they talk 8 years and gamers complain it is too long. I think 5-7 years is about right.
Also new games are highly dependent on game engine changes underneath. If you are putting new content to an existing engine and only doing tweaks to the engine you can get games out faster. But with fulll engine re-writes which Doom 2016 was it takes longer. You will notice there was a large gap in the wolfenstein franchise as well. I think it would be safe to say there was a major re-work of idTech. There seems to be a major new idTech version pretty consistently every 5 years since 2011.
@oopsiezz When you get all these senior people, often they become less hands on and they lose their doing skills. Especially, now-a-days with everything changing so quickly using AI. I doubt they got rid of the best people doing the work. I have seen a lot of lay-offs at a lot of companies. They rarely let go of the wrong people.
@MinervaX76 XB will not have anything fully exclusive to XB only until there is only one console vendor at the very least. Game sales on Steam are important to XB and have been traditionally very imporrtant to both ZeniMax and Activision-Blizzard. They will not stop giving these gamers games on the Steam platform. Now, if XB was to be the lone survivor left on console, I would think XB may reconsider the exclusivity thing because then the competition is these other stores only and they would want to differentiate. But, that is a theoretical discussion that does not seem to have any chance of existing for the forseeable future.
@oopsiezz Maybe the studio was trying to do too many projects at once? Maybe there were too many layers of leads/managers/directors that were slowing development down? Maybe there was some people that were impacted by AI changes in game development over the past few years that have not adjusted to the changes yet.
I am sure people lost their jobs that didn't deserve too. But they have stated that the studio is the same size as the team that made Doom in 2016. Which means the team is very capable of delivering yet another great game.
As for game pitches by a studio there are many game pitches that are done with studios. Some never get started, some get started but cancelled through the process, and there is usually one that makes it to the completion and gets released. We have no idea how far any truely were and where they were at in the process before the studio/XB decided not to go forward with them.
@xboxjapanfan Where are the facts to support your DEI statement?
Also, XB has done the best possible scenario here. XB could have kept the IPs, studio names and shut the studios down entirely. Forcing them to restart under different names without their well known IPs. In the press announcement they also stated the studios were provided “runways” for their next games. Which probably means some level of funding. So, all-in-all given the circumstances XB gave these studios the best possible options. They have left their long term success up to their next game. That’s all a studio can really ask for.
Comments 1,052
Re: Blizzard Is Getting Our Hopes Up Again For World Of Warcraft On Xbox
Project Helix console exclusive launch game probable.
Re: Xbox Adds 10 New Features In October 28th Update, Now Available To Download
Nice set of updates!
Re: Xbox Hiring For Role Involving Physical Games, But What About The Future Of Discs?
I do not read a lot into this posting. They are currently doing physical media and therefore need people to manage that today. Posting this job today does not mean a next generation commitment for physical media tomorrow.
Re: Microsoft Employee Shares Their 'Truth' About AI Usage At Xbox & Beyond
@fatpunkslim
If a game is creative, entertaining, good, and I enjoy it, I really could not care less what was used to create it.
Morally, I only think about physical/mental/environmental harm in creating games or any other product for that matter. NOTE: I think AI data centers need to be responsible with the environment.
I use AI everyday to help with my creativity and productivity. Whether I ask it to come up with ideas on how to build a shed at my house, what colors to paint things, ideas for work presentations, brainstorming, etc. AI is an integral part of my life now. Both from a creativity and productivity perspective. I rely on my own critical and creative thinking to decide what I use and do not use when AI gives me answers to my questions. Just like I would with any other human. Sometimes I throw out everything it gives me, other times I take only parts, and sometimes I think, that is perfect and use it.
AI is just a tool.
Re: Asha Sharma Announces Xbox Labs To Turn 'Emerging Ideas' Into New Experiences
New ideas are good and if they result in something beneficial to gamers I am all in.
Re: Poll: So, What Do You Think Of Gears Of War: E-Day?
My brother-in-law and I started the campaign last night. So far it has been a great experience over the first two acts. This is a back to roots campaign that checks all the boxes in my opinion.
(Although the Active reloads in the middle bottom of the screen is messing with my head right now).
Re: Analysis Firm Shares Their Sales Estimates For Gears Of War: E-Day
They have stated that sales for e-day are strong as per this article:
https://www.purexbox.com/news/2026/10/weve-started-to-return-to-growth-asha-sharma-updates-employees-on-xboxs-plans-for-the-future
So, I think they knew what to expect. I suspect GamePass gets remodeled as per Sharma's comments in the past and if you want day one exclusives you will have to pay more. I am fine with that.
I think the GamePass model has failed as it is and it needs a total revamp. Personally I look at GamePass for XB first party games and good independent games. I don't care about EA Play, Ubisoft Classics, etc. So, if I could drop some to pay on others it would work. But I expect to that the first party games will not ship day one going forward. And only come after a year to GamePass.
I would also expect that XB will shift to IP engagement as a measure. And that they will include movies, streaming and other stuff in the engagement stats. That is also fine with me.
I really like that they are going to deliver games faster. But, my fear is quality slides. Then, again I look at any game shipping on day one as a beta so maybe that isn't an issue.
Re: Microsoft Announces New 'Xbox XP' Division With Four Key Focuses
@RiverGenie
I do agree with your sentiment. But at the same time 80% of the people who game do not game as their sole form of entertainment/competition. They play only a few hours a week and do many other things to keep themselves entertained.
With the success of the Falllout Streaming Series and Minecraft movie, I think MS is realizing that the IP across more then just games is important.
On another note... I went to the Gear E-Day merchandise from XB and it was meh. My brother-in-law and I enjoy playing co-op games together and will often buy t-shirts for a game we really enjoy playing together. I looked at the Gears E-Day shirts and passed this time. So hopefully the products team will get more and better stuff out there.
Re: Xbox Boss Suggests Project Helix Won't Be The Only Next-Gen System From Microsoft
Device configuration and form choice is excellent for gamers.
Re: Xbox Pulled Out All The Stops To Deliver A Really Memorable FanFest London Event
Nice to see loyalty building events like these.
Re: Microsoft CEO Discusses His Goals For The Future Of Xbox, Feels 'Fantastic' About The IP Portfolio
@BigRedPaper
From a gaming perspective that may be true. But please name for me any other technology company that is still influential today and has been around since Microsoft existed?
Microsoft has had only three CEOs.
1) Bill Gates built the empire.
2) Steve Ballmer. He almost killed the Empire.
3) Satya Nadella. Adapted MS to the new world order and managed to save the empire.
I don't feel that the CEO has all that influential on the gaming business. I think MS had a great idea for gaming in that they wanted to grow gaming as one big community. But there were several failures. 1) Sony and Nintendo did not see it the same way so kept their games exclusive. 2) XB marketing and execution the past few years has been brutal.
We are seeing this now with Asha. She is probably working within the same budget as Phil. But, she is taking a marketing and product approach. Phil was taking a gaming approach. As much as I hate to say it, Asha's approach is more likely to succeed. I think Phil had a great idea, but with the other two console manufacturers not budge on exclusivity and GamePass not growing as anticipated it ended up failing. Think about it, if at least Sony decides to go multiplatform (including their biggest games on XB) as well. And GamePass got more subscribers as all the acquisition and mergers happened into XB, then we are having a totally different conversation today.
Re: Report: Xbox Studio 'Rare' Working On Various Projects, But Activision Will Decide Their Future
I say rebuild Rare as the keeper of platforming and the Guitar Hero games. Banjo Kazooie, Spyro, Crash, Guitar Hero IPs could all sit in Rare.
Re: Talking Point: What Do You Think The Future Holds For A Potential Halo 2 Remake?
I want new Halo games so as long as a new game is in the works I am fine with Halo remakes.
The latest Halo remake was good. Kept the great Halo gameplay in place, but I feel graphically it wasn't as good as it could've been. I would think remakes be built third paty with the current Unreal engine and that net new Halo games would use the IW engine.
I am thinking yearly CoDs are a bit much, so maybe going forward yearly they swap between Halo and CoD games.
Re: Xbox CSO Issues Response To Report About GTA 6 Sales Being 'Heavily Skewed' Towards PS5
@SigmaTheDJ
Matthew Ball set the record straoght and it makes sense. PS should have a lot more pre-orders then XB because of its installed base. As long as the pre-orders are lined up properly with the installed base that means XB is holding its own.
Given that Sony hase a marketing and promotional agreement on GTA VI XB should be ecstatic that pre-orders are inline with their installed base. It should be PS that is worried not XB.
Re: Microsoft Files Patent Which Could Bring Game-Pausing Ads To Xbox
Game ads are inevitable, how they implement them is going to be important, and giving me the ability to buy my way out of ads if I don't want them is also important.
For example this might be a good priviledge for GamePass Ultimate subscribers, to not see in game advertisments.
Re: Xbox Warns Ninja Theory Could Be Closed As Two Agreements Fall Through
The fact that two agreements fell through speaks to what publishers think the potential of their next game looks like. If the game was brilliant, I would expect publishers would be jumping at the opportunity. The fact that they are jumping in and dropping it out kind of shows that the game does not look like a significant seller.
I am disappointed. I really like the Hellblade IP, but it looks like it is going in the wrong direction for mass appeal.
Re: Xbox Confirms Activision Will Develop The Next Halo Title
I think CoD has a really good FPS engine, it remains to be seen whether it can be adapted to Halo well. I just finished the Halo Campaign Evolved remake yesterday. While it is a graphical improvement over the original, I did not see it as a full modernization of the game and so felt a bit disappointed. The bonus missions were good but not great.
It remains to be seen how well they will do with multi-player, the story, and Halo gameplay though.
Re: Physint's Xbox Exclusivity Remains Up In The Air As Kojima Discusses New Partnership
I am glad XB is making this an XB published game. Whether they do timed exclusivity or full console exclusivity I really don't care. They have taken an apex development studio and made it an XB/PC first studio.
Re: Talking Point: So, Are You Getting The Premium Upgrade For Gears Of War: E-Day?
In order for me to buy a premium addition of a game it must provide additional game content, that will have additional gamerscore.
I am not swayed by early access where 90% of games ship with major flaws. With the price of games on Day One as high as they are I am not interested in paying more to experience the flaws. I will gladly wait until the game becomes reasonably priced, has an ultimate edition, and has worked out its major bugs.
I am also not swayed by in game currency. I never buy any in game currency. Because I am focused mostly on the single player/co-op experience and could not care less if my character gets extra stuff. If that stuff is needed in game or the game has an unreasonable grind, I simply abandon the game. I am not a gerbil, games should not blackmail me to be a gerbil endlessly spinning my wheel or make me pay to get off the wheel.
Finally, I have no idea why skins are valuable. Don't get me wrong, some are very cool and I always customize my character with what I can, but, I am not going to pay for them, especially with the price of real human clothing today. I would rather look good in the real world, then spend money trying to look good in gaming land.
Re: Fable Has Survived A Decade Of Development Because It's Seen As 'Vital' By Xbox, Says Director
@strzelec
I would hope that Fable is not the same as The Witcher and charts its own course. The Witcher is a great game, but Fable can be great for different audiences and different reasons too.
Re: Talking Point: What Would Seal The Deal For You With Xbox Project Helix?
I will get Helix pretty much for no reason other then it will be the latest and greatest XB.
Re: Talking Point: How Would You Feel If Xbox Game Pass Actually Dropped Day One Releases?
If XB makes the day one first party games exclusive to XB I am ok with them dropping day one exclusive games. Gamers have to recognize that exclusivity is not free. If we want exclusives the price is actually buying the full game.
I do like gamepass having really good independent games on day one though. There are many highly rated independent games i enjoyed on gamepass because they were there on day one.
Re: Roundup: All The Biggest Reveals From Blizzcon 2026, Including Two Massive Announcements
Nice to see Blizzard is doing well and progressing on new games.
Re: Sony Dropped Kojima's 'PHYSINT' Over Budget, Profits & Timed Exclusivity Concerns, Sources Say
XBOX pulled off a win here for gamers. We will still get the two new Kojima games and they will be available at least on PC and XBOX day one.
Kojima has is known for going outside the box with his games. Whether you are a big fan or not he has a very loyal following. And whether his new games will be great or not really doesn't matter because that cult following will be there.
This is how XBOX needs to keep going. What you do is important, but the publishers and developers you get into your court are even more important. And getting Kojima as primary to XBOX and PC is a huge win for XBOX.
Re: Poll: How Many Hours Of Xbox Cloud Gaming Do You Use Per-Month?
@Cikajovazmaj
I think this is all about user demographics.
The reality is that 95% of people that game are not playing games 5+ hours per week. The probable average person that plays games is more like 3-5 hours per week. Also, the 3-5 hour per week users are likely to just say, "oh well" when they use up their monthly time.
The people that are above 3-5 hours per week are more hard core gamers (that are more likely to visit this site and prefer console/PC over streaming).
Personally, for me cloud gaming is still niche, I use it when I am up town waiting around lineups or gaps between meeting up with friends and sometimes and don't have access to my ROG Ally X, Console, or PC. But I expect that as part of next generation they improve cloud gaming more and that it starts to move more mainstream. Think about it, if I only play less then 5 hours a week it is hard to justify the probable $800-1,000 USD spend on a console or gaming PC. So I may choose cloud gaming for those few hours per week.
I game about 5 hours per week. But I am fortunate that I have a enough dissposable income that I can afford the premium experience and have a ROG Ally X, multiple Series X, and multiple PCs so cloud gaming will be niche for me for the forseeable future. But I can totally understand people with less disposable income using cloud gaming as their primary platform.
Re: 'Your Transparency Is Remarkable' - Xbox Fans Are Loving The New Insight Into Server Outages
I like the operational changes Asha seems to be making and promoting. But, These are PR and cosmetic in nature mostly so far.
The real changes will be in improving the actual gaming experience and games. To that end I liked the disc-to-digital announcement earlier this week. But there is a lot more for XB to do there.
Re: Xbox Is Officially Putting Time Limits On Cloud Gaming For Game Pass Members
People like to think there is no costs to things but streaming has a cost. XB needs the hardware and data centers to provide streaming. All they are doing is setting this up before it becomes cost issue.
With the console prices expected to be $800-1,000+ in the next generation and if streaming keeps improving, it may become a primary way to game for a lot of people. So, really all they are just ensuring that things are in line to make a profit.
To me, this should've been put in on day one of streaming. It was a miss that they didn't.
Re: PSA: Some Versions Of The Same Game Aren't Compatible With Xbox Disc To Digital
@themightyant
I doubt that is the problem. My understanding is that unique identifiers were required by all discs in the XBO onward era.
They are still in beta with the feature, if this is also in the general release then you are correct. But for now I would call it a bug or oversight.
Re: PSA: Some Versions Of The Same Game Aren't Compatible With Xbox Disc To Digital
Wow bugs in a pre-release. How can that be?
Re: Xbox Disc To Digital Is Now Live For Some Users, And Here's A First Look
@FreasurePlanten
It is going to be up to publishers. Microsoft cannot give away digital licenses without publishers agreeing..
Re: Xbox Disc To Digital Is Now Live For Some Users, And Here's A First Look
@agenttrav
My understanding is that 360 game discs are not serializaed so I doubt they will make the feature available. But, yes I would love 360 games to be available too.
Re: Xbox Is Reportedly Pitching Multiple Game Adapations To Hollywood In A 'Bulk Studio Deal'
If done right this can be really good. If done wrong this can be not so good. XB Cinematic Universe? Most of the games happen at different periods in time. Maybe they could find a way to tie them all together somehow.
Re: Roundup: All The Biggest Xbox Reveals From Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026
Crazy Taxi looks so fun!
Re: Halo Studios Reveals Five Main Highlights In Campaign Evolved's Next Update
@fatpunkslim
I really love Halo gameplay, but I felt they could've did more level redesign and improved the graphics a lot more. They say it was a remake, I feel it was more or less a transfer to the Unreal Engine.
Re: The Highest-Rated Metacritic Game Of 2026 Is On Xbox, And We've Never Heard Of It
Bought and started to play it yesterday as I love Geometry Wars. This game will keep me busy for a while. Really enjoying it. Wish there would be more articles on these types of diamonds in the rough.
Re: Xbox Announces Four More Console Features, Including Two Highly-Requested Ones
I like that XB is back to improving the console experience. One step forward. Let's not take two steps back as well.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (August 1-2)
I have played some chapters in Halo this weekend. Kind of disappointed in some graphical things (I prefer the more modern graphical style of master chief then this one) but still has the fun gameplay I am used to in Halo games.
Re: Poll: One Year Later, What Do You Think Of Xbox's Most Recent Gears Of War Release?
@Mr-Cage
LOL. Me and my brother in law are playing the game in co-op on insane right now. We like to refer to Cole and Baird as dumber and dumber.
I still enjoy the game though. give me a lancer and turn on the chainsaw any day of the week to enjoy sawing grubs! I would call the game a refresh of the original. It got rid of some issues but introduced its own issues.
Re: Former Xbox Studio Forced To Layoff 23 Employees To Ensure 'Survival Of Our Studio'
Always disappointing when perfectly good people lose their jobs. I understand what they have to do, but that doesn't make it any easier for the people affected.
Re: Halo: Campaign Evolved Legendary Ending Teases A Halo 2 Remake Is On The Way
@Romans12
I hope they add a few additional missions like they have done for the Halo Campaign Evolved Remake.
Re: Talking Point: How Much Noise Do Your Xbox Consoles Make After All These Years?
All my consoles are quiet still.
Re: Xbox Introduces Free Game Streaming With Ads, Outlines Five Principles They'll Adhere To
I think this is perfectly ok for gaming, as long as I am given an option to pay to remove ads (even if I have to pay a small amount). This seems like a good way to get another revenue stream and not overly change the gaming experience which will help with affordability.
Re: Microsoft Is Officially Bringing Achievements To 'Select' Original Xbox Games
Nice to see this feature. I have long wanted to see this for OG XB games.
Re: Xbox CCO Says Not To 'Overly Fixate' On All Single-Player Games Being Exclusives
@Mr-Cage
"I really don't care what they do around exclusivity to be honest I own an Xbox so I know I can play all the games they will bring out.
If games do or don't go to playstation it makes no difference to me at all.
I'll let everyone else worry and argue over the politics in gaming while I just enjoy my hobby playing games I enjoy!"
If more people had these thoughts then the gaming world would be a lot better place!
Re: DOOM Director Elaborates On The State Of The Studio Going Forward
@Fiendish-Beaver
I don't think that unless you have insider information we don''t that you can definitively say that kind of stuff.
Yes, it sucks that people are let go and they have to get a new job in a tough world. Anybody that has gone through this including me agrees.
But, this does not automatically mean the developer cannot deliver just as quickly.... For example, how many side projects were they working on and how many resources were assigned to them? If there were many levels of management did they maybe streamline decision making? With AI tools people may now be more productive. Were there people between projects just sitting around? Are they centralizing marketing more and taking away the distributed nature it was?
Point is you are interpretting one side of what happened but there are many other sides. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle... A lot of the cuts probably were justified, but I am sure there are also some they will regret. Is it as bad as reported? Probably not, is everyone full of sunshine? Probably not as well.
As for 8 years to make a new game that is not unheard of anymore. GTA V was first release in 2013 and here we are in 2026 just awaiting the latest release. When studios were releasing next games every two years gamers pushed back that quality and innovation were falling. Now they talk 8 years and gamers complain it is too long. I think 5-7 years is about right.
Also new games are highly dependent on game engine changes underneath. If you are putting new content to an existing engine and only doing tweaks to the engine you can get games out faster. But with fulll engine re-writes which Doom 2016 was it takes longer. You will notice there was a large gap in the wolfenstein franchise as well. I think it would be safe to say there was a major re-work of idTech. There seems to be a major new idTech version pretty consistently every 5 years since 2011.
Re: Former Xbox Dev Compulsion Games Shares Open Letter To 'Studios Across The Industry'
Sounds to me like this is an effort to work with other struggling independents to pool resources/technologies because they can't go it alone.
Nothing wrong with that. They are getting creative to solve their problems and become profitable.
Re: DOOM Developer Addresses Concerned Fans With Message About Xbox Layoffs
@oopsiezz
When you get all these senior people, often they become less hands on and they lose their doing skills. Especially, now-a-days with everything changing so quickly using AI. I doubt they got rid of the best people doing the work. I have seen a lot of lay-offs at a lot of companies. They rarely let go of the wrong people.
Re: Forza Horizon 6 Reportedly Tops The List Of Steam Releases For Gross Revenue In 2026
@MinervaX76
XB will not have anything fully exclusive to XB only until there is only one console vendor at the very least. Game sales on Steam are important to XB and have been traditionally very imporrtant to both ZeniMax and Activision-Blizzard. They will not stop giving these gamers games on the Steam platform. Now, if XB was to be the lone survivor left on console, I would think XB may reconsider the exclusivity thing because then the competition is these other stores only and they would want to differentiate. But, that is a theoretical discussion that does not seem to have any chance of existing for the forseeable future.
Re: DOOM Developer Addresses Concerned Fans With Message About Xbox Layoffs
@oopsiezz
Maybe the studio was trying to do too many projects at once? Maybe there were too many layers of leads/managers/directors that were slowing development down? Maybe there was some people that were impacted by AI changes in game development over the past few years that have not adjusted to the changes yet.
I am sure people lost their jobs that didn't deserve too. But they have stated that the studio is the same size as the team that made Doom in 2016. Which means the team is very capable of delivering yet another great game.
As for game pitches by a studio there are many game pitches that are done with studios. Some never get started, some get started but cancelled through the process, and there is usually one that makes it to the completion and gets released. We have no idea how far any truely were and where they were at in the process before the studio/XB decided not to go forward with them.
Re: Compulsion Games, Double Fine & Undead Labs Issue Xbox Departure Statements
@xboxjapanfan
Where are the facts to support your DEI statement?
Also, XB has done the best possible scenario here. XB could have kept the IPs, studio names and shut the studios down entirely. Forcing them to restart under different names without their well known IPs. In the press announcement they also stated the studios were provided “runways” for their next games. Which probably means some level of funding. So, all-in-all given the circumstances XB gave these studios the best possible options. They have left their long term success up to their next game. That’s all a studio can really ask for.