NishimaruX

@themightyant

It's true that there are simply too many games being released given the time and cost of development for every title to see a healthy return.

I cant keep up with it. I've a whole bunch of games on my various wishlists that won't garner my attention for some time, if at all
I'm currently playing KCD 2 and Dragons Dogma 2, both of which are huge time sinks. Not to mention titles I've bought and yet to begin, along with a bunch of smaller titles I'm still enjoying in between the bigger titles mentioned above.

It's not for lack of trying, though!

@kuu_nousee

They need the right people in charge and creating the games

Unfortunately the wrong people are in charge and they only care about the shareholders. Until that changes then this crash course will continue.

@Skinny-Pete

I think I'm just dead to it now and don't care no more

I can appreciate that. It's like UK politics. Now in my 50s, (combined with the absolute state of the UK thanks to the previous Tory government and the current, cretinous Labour one), I'm so dead to it now that I've simply stopped caring.

As for gaming? Well I love gaming, always have over 50+ years, but would very much like to see it improve and change direction in a positive way - and gamers themselves have as much a part to play in that endeavour as the industry itself.

Like many I've a marvellous back catalogue to keep me entertained while the industry gets its act together, but if I see a good game and the developer/publisher is worth supporting, (which is rare these days!), then I'll put my money down.

Ray Kroc of McDonald's once said: "Look after the customer and the business will take care of itself".

@Skinny-Pete

Companies used to go under year's ago but it wasn't the huge thing it is now every single time!

The reason it's primary news now is because the games industry is facing a huge paradigm shift.

There's so much uncertainty surrounding the games industry right now, what with rising costs of development, hardware and component prices skyrocketing, subscription models that hold too much sway at a time when consumer dollars are needed more than ever and a worldwide economic crisis where luxury items are raking a back seat for the vast majority, that the future of gaming isn't looking to rosey.

So no, contrary to what you might think this isn't just reporting closures etc for the sheer sake of it, it's a wider insight to an industry that is buckling under its own weight.

It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

Personally, though, I see it as a good thing. The games industry, particularly AAA, has been drunk on its own hubris for far too long and needs a good kick in the backside. Sometimes you have to burn down the forest too save the trees.

@Kaloudz

This is gunna be a hit no matter where it lands

Popular no doubt, but a hit? I believe Fable will be a day one GP title so on the sales front it'll tank and in the current climate that's not encouraging because for all the mental gymnastics on display sales do matter, as we're clearly seeing.

Even though few are willing to accept it AAA titles dropping on Game Pass day one has been and continues to be a big chunk of Xbox's problem.

@IllusiveMan

I am here because I own an Xbox and that gives the right to share my opinion or voice my concerns doesn’t it?

Only if you're doing the Xbox happy dance while burying one's head in the sand, apparently.

Still, this comment section has been entertaining if nothing else.

"The plan is the plan until it is not the plan" is going to haunt Sharma.

Honestly, I've seen some pretty impressive death rattles in my 50 years of gaming, but Xbox is something else.
Sure it's a shame, but the reality of the situation is Xbox as we know it is done. To use an old idiom "denial is not just a river in Egypt".
Helix won't save the brand and neither will all this empty corporate talk - which is all this amounts to: talk.

I'm not what you might consider pro-AI/GenAI, but I think we have to be realistic. If AI can reduce the cost and time it takes to develop a game then perhaps, maybe, some of these studios could have been saved.

What this basically reveals is Microsoft don't know or have ever known how to compete in a market where they do not dominate - ie Windows. Every product they've launched into a highly competitive market, mobile phones, media players etc, they've completely fudged in the end and walked away. Xbox had a much better run for sure, but once again it's a market they do not or have ever dominated in and so Microsoft will do what they have always done in these instances and walk away. To everyone outside of the faithfully blind it's pretty obvious at this point.

They're not turning this around. 12-18 months time the only talk you'll see regarding Xbox will be in the same vein as Windows Phone and Zune.

@themightyant

"The emoji officially means "nervous laughter".

Exactly. Not sure why people are trying to conjure up some kind of mystery around it. Hardly requires the deduction skills of Sherlock Holmes. 🤷

EA spent years buying up and then shutting down studios.

Microsoft in a "hold my beer..." moment.

You have to be some kind of mentally challenged sycophant to still cheerlead for this awful company. 🙄

Make no mistake that behind the scenes Nadella has given an ultimatum: "Prove to me that in 12 months time you can turn this ship around. If not, I'm pulling the plug"

Face it, the writing is on the wall for Xbox.

Looks like Fable, seemingly plays like Fable. No bad thing, but not a day one for me. Still got Crimson Desert to pick up and Warhorse are working on a LotR game. Then there's GTA 6. They all take priority.

Another open world racer...difficult to contain my excitement.

Driver: San Francisco was bloody awful. The "gimmick" of floating around in a coma induced dream state, snapping in and out of any given vehicle, was an awful idea that totally broke up the flow of the game.