Pastellioli

I would really want to see something related to Rare. I’d love to hear more about Everwild and it being given a release date (or at least an estimated release) since reports were saying that the developers were apparently targeting for a 2024 release despite the rebooted development, but maybe I’m being too hopeful…

I would also love to see something related to their old IPs, but there is probably no way in HECK they would do something new with Rare’s other legacy IP besides merch drops and having their characters appear in other games. There have been rumors of a new Banjo-Kazooie game being in development but I don’t think they’ll show anything related to it if it is actually real, since the rumors said the game was only greenlit recently and was in development for I think 1.5-2 years? The guy who reported on that is fairly reputable, but I’ll still take it with a grain of salt… I have so many hopes and dreams that won’t ever come into fruition lol

Blehhh. I like Game Pass, but why would you increase the price of it because of a single title or something? I don’t have any intention to play CoD and a couple here don’t as well.

As others have said, it would make more sense if this rumored price hike was introduced with separately priced tiers, and maybe there could be a tier with CoD at a higher price, and then a tier without CoD at a lower price. I would prefer them to not increase the price of Game Pass altogether, since not only do I think it would get expensive over time (for consumers), but also because it would definitely upset some Game Pass users. But, I guess this possible price increase is just from a business point of view.

The console I started out with was technically an Xbox 360, but I don’t think I was really into Xbox at the time and the console was originally intended for my mom.

I got a Series S for Christmas a few years ago and what made me really want to swap to an Xbox was the games, namely ones developed by Rare. I remember playing some of Rare’s games for the first time on the Switch in 2021-2022 and had a pleasant experience with the games I played, namely the Donkey Kong Country trilogy and the first Banjo-Kazooie game. I kept hearing about how great their other N64 games were, but I couldn’t play them since they were exclusive to Xbox consoles, which made me want one so much and was my only reason for wanting a Series S. I did get gifted a three month long Game Pass subscription, and while I do know that multiple of Rare’s games are playable on there, I still went ahead and purchased Rare Replay during a sale and a couple of their individual titles since I wanted to play them forever. It’s amazing that my taste in games and my favorite console changed so much just by simply playing four of their games on the Switch! I just love the console so much, and it’s the only one I play now.

While it would not be surprising if this does end up true, why are we following rumors again?

The guy “leaking” this appears to only be guessing and flip flopping back and forth with his statements, saying there is no red line for Xbox games going on PlayStation before seemingly backtracking and going “oh I don’t actually know if there is a red line in place or not.” I already have seen others go with the guy’s guessing and treating as if it is real. I think the best approach to this is waiting until this is actually confirmed, even if multiplatform is the most obvious route Microsoft wants to take after the successes of the four games they ported to other platforms.

@Banjo- Well, you are likely right with the key staff leaving that maybe could have led to this bad decision. I don’t think I ever knew there were possibly disagreements until I read your comment, so thank you for telling me.

However, if there were disagreements that actually happened at the studio (I don’t know if that is true or not since I of course never worked there) I feel that Microsoft still should have maybe attempted to help the studio, since they want to make games that are appealing to Japan and are likely to sell well there. They have made attempts in the past by localizing their own games into Japanese and working with third-party studios in Japan, but if they kept Tango, they could have helped further with that endeavor, as evidenced by how well Hi-Fi Rush did. Maybe Microsoft could have lended help to keep Tango afloat. However; I don’t blame Mikami and the producers, or think their departure caused the studio to close. I think it’s fully on Microsoft for closing Tango, not to mention they sounded very unsympathetic toward the closure of Tango and Bethesda’s three other subsidiaries.

I still find the closure of the studio sad and disappointing, especially since they released games that garnered positive reception and critical acclaim. I hope that the staff at the studio are doing well, and I wish them the best!

I’ll keep saying it: Microsoft closing their first and only Japanese game studio only after three to two years is an awful decision. Doesn’t make sense that Microsoft went on to close Tango while the people at Microsoft said they want to make games appealing to Japanese gamers and also want Xbox to have a presence in Japan.

Welp, looks like they ARE going on a closing spree likely... What a bad decision.

Wow… I was not expecting that to happen…

They used so much money to buy Bethesda and got their first and only Japanese video game studio from the deal. Said Japanese studio developed a critically acclaimed game that everyone was saying was their GOTY, with the studio potentially helping Microsoft build a presence in Japan, and now they’re already closing it for whatever reason now?

Shocking and disappointing. It doesn’t make sense that they would close FOUR studios after spending so much money on acquiring Bethesda, not to mention some people are going to unfortunately be losing their jobs thanks to this very poor decision. That internal email they sent really doesn’t show any empathy to those affected. Now we have to hope they don’t go on a closing spree for their other studios…

With all this progress and how long they have built up their portfolio of game studios, it’s not hard to get pretty excited!

What I’m hoping they show is updates on already announced games that have gone radio silent for a while, alongside announcements for some new games. Just imagining what they could have under the wraps waiting to get announced just fuels my enthusiasm.

That would be pretty cool! If an Xbox handheld did exist, I’d love to try it out. The possibilities of taking your game library on the go sounds really fun.

I think the best thing they could do is release both a new console and a handheld together in the same console generation, sort of like what Nintendo did with releasing the WiiU in close proximity with the 3DS and 2DS. If Microsoft did that, I believe both console gamers and handheld gamers would be equally satisfied!

I plan on playing Rise of the Tomb Raider. I am apart of the Pure Xbox Game Club and that is the game they selected for this month, so I repurchased a Game Pass subscription. I have never played a Tomb Raider game, so I thought I’d try it out soon! I really hope I don’t suck at it… I usually don’t play triple-A games.

Huh! If that release window is true, that’s pretty fast in my opinion! Sort of seemed like a 2026 release to me.

This just makes me sad… I swear that almost every month I hear about game studios being shut down by its parent company or a majority of their staff suffering from layoffs imposed by the higher-ups and them not bothering to find alternative solutions to help them. It seems to also keep happening to movie studios as well. Embracer Group was the absolute WORST when it came to this; had a bunch of game studios on hand, blew billions of dollars, and then repeatedly shut down their studios and let go of several of their employees and yet still failed to retain money.

It just makes me feel bad for the people there losing their jobs and needing to find new ones…

@Kooky_Geezer I might also add to what others are saying is that Microsoft also started a new game preservation team (which I am sure you already know) so it is possible that they can work to get the rights to some 360 titles that are about to be lost or obsolete and making them backwards compatible on newer hardware, thus saving them.

Still doesn’t make the store closing happy and I do agree that the decision is disappointing, but it might make everyone feel better knowing Microsoft are likely going to resume making titles backwards compatible after they halted it a few years ago.

@NEStalgia I can definitely agree. I do remember that after all the “leakers” kept spouting about “rumors” of Xbox going third-party, Tom Henderson from Insider Gaming I believe expressed how he felt about it, and he said something along the lines of “it seems like people are making stuff up just to capitalize on hysteria,” and I feel what he said was true. In fact, I think a couple of “leakers” retracted from their statements shortly after!

Around the time those rumors spread like a wildfire, I think there weren’t any notable or significant “leaks,” or if there were, they didn’t gain much attention, and it is a possibility that “leakers” and others saw a chance for marketing and short-lived internet fame once rumors (that turned out true) said that Microsoft was porting Pentiment, Hi-Fi Rush, Grounded, and Sea of Thieves to other platforms. Some people who don’t game on Xbox consoles could have also contributed as well, possibly because of that pointless “console wars” narrative they push for and believe in.

It isn’t surprising they’d do that though, given that Microsoft has seemed to always land in third place behind Sony and Nintendo when it comes to video game consoles, and I would say that they have made mistakes that, rather unfortunately, given them bad press (e.g. that notorious Xbox One reveal from 10 years ago) and have cemented those negative and toxic views in these “console war advocates.” I am not trying to be that person who defends billion dollar companies. It’s fine to criticize companies to let them know what to improve the next time; heck, I’ve also criticized Microsoft as well! However, most of what these “console war” followers say is just to cause toxicity and start fighting among people.

I found out about most of these “leaks” on a gaming forum dedicated to rumored game projects and hardware, and out of all the “Xbox is going to become third-party” posts and non-Xbox posts, the former was the one to get all the likes and comments out of them all.

A couple of individuals online hungry for likes and views might mindlessly follow these “rumors” or try acting as if they’re knowledgeable to gain traction; of course, on social media apps and similar websites, following or adding onto trends and popular topics is likely to get you popularity. However, when their “leaks” are debunked, they delete their presence off the internet and run away, or say nothing afterwards, having already gotten their 15 minutes of online fame, or they just wait patiently for the next time a similar moment happens so it can repeat again.

@FarmDog08 Really, I don’t know why a bunch of people are expecting Microsoft to quit making games and consoles.

I’m sure that idea crossed people’s minds after people piled onto the “Xbox is going entirely third-party rumors” once they said four of their games were going multiplatform. However, I don’t see them leaving when they have a bunch of game developers and spent a lot of money on Xbox and gaming. There is absolutely no way they would quit right now, especially with all this progress they have been making for two decades. I think some are also forgetting they said a few months ago that they were working on the next console succeeding the Series X and S.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but it feels like that whenever a negative “leak” or “rumor” regarding Xbox comes out, everyone just believes it without taking a grain of salt and adds onto it.

So exciting! I need it to be June already…I just love the feel it brings regarding gaming; just tons of excitement for new game reveals!

I can’t wait to see what they show there! I’m hoping for some updates on already announced games that have gone radio silent for a few years, like Everwild! Hasn’t it been 4 or nearly 5 years since they announced it with a small trailer? I’ve been reading reports on how the game has been coming along, but I’d love to hear an official update instead.

You are right… it does sound like a ringtone! It isn’t bad and if they went with this sound, I don’t think I would be bothered about it, but I prefer the one they chose over the rejected version.

In my opinion, the one they went with makes the rare achievement feel “special,” and I think why I feel that way is because the rare achievement sound is different than the one you hear when unlocking an ordinary achievement, whereas the rejected sound uses bits from the non-rare achievement with some new added sound to differentiate it, though they are not entirely disimilar.

@Banjo- That’s also a good point! I did like the Nintendo Switch, and I’ve pretty much played Nintendo’s consoles for almost my entire life. Years ago (and still now) I never had an issue with having a ton of game consoles around, and they rarely collected dust, but I do know some might prefer not to buy more consoles and having them sit around.

Even though I don’t play the Switch anymore, I’d still say that I like it and it had plenty of great exclusives like Xbox! I made the switch to Xbox because of my preference for Rare’s games, and, although the Switch does have a couple of their games on there, they cannot be purchased separately and can only be accessed via an online subscription, not to mention that the current libraries on that service lack some of their other well-known games; but, from what I have seen, they are gradually building them up, which I’d say is pretty good.

@GrandValkyrie While it of course could be to personal preference (which is what @PrinceOfPorgs98 said when replying to you) some people cannot buy another console for money reasons and have to stick to the ones they have in their hands already. Obviously, consoles are expensive, and, thanks to the influx of inflation nowadays, some people have to save up money and put it towards necessities and can’t afford to buy more consoles.

I actually prefer how the game performs rather than the visuals. I tend to play older games, so I don’t exactly mind how the visuals look. If the FPS drops maybe a few times I don’t mind it, but if it does constantly, that’s where I start having issues.

I have a Series S, so I have played games in 120 FPS before on a high-quality TV. However, because of where the TV is located, I play it on a smaller TV that lacks 120 FPS support, but it doesn’t really affect game performance, at least for me. Xbox One games, as well as 360 games, run smoothly on the Series S, even when I’m not using a high-quality TV.

I tried Diddy Kong Racing for the first time a few days ago and I would say I am enjoying it so far, though I’m not far into it yet. I’ll probably play a little bit of it this weekend, and I am on the first boss race, but it’s so difficult keeping up with the opponent. The game gets harder later on from what I heard, so I’m not sure if I’ll actually complete it. I’ve heard the final race in the game is terrible though…

Like I said in my previous answer, I’ll also probably play Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage! alongside that. Compared to the game above, I’ve been playing this game for almost two years and I enjoy it, but because it’s a rhythm game it’s sometimes hard to play, and it has some slight issues not related to the core gameplay.

I remember playing Pikuniku last year and having a blast with it. It was short (I finished it the same day I started it) but it was so fun and silly.

@PrinceOfPorgs98 I can definitely remember how negative tons of people were initially acting when a bunch of unsubstantiated rumors said each and every one of Xbox’s exclusives were to go multi platform, when I think that in reality, they probably would do that only for a handful of their games. Some were even saying that they were going to stop selling hardware altogether! Didn’t Microsoft say a few months ago that they were already planning out the next Xbox console?

The issue I have with leaks and rumors is that they often don’t have their validity questioned and are passed off as “real news” when most of the time they go unconfirmed. Everyone took that “Xbox is going entirely third-party” “news” as if it was real and started acting all negative about it, when I think it was just a bunch of “leakers” piling on some of the fake claims for attention and to make people all worked up and spout negativity. Even if a couple of info does come from “credible” sources or individuals, it should still be taken with a grain of salt. There are also some “leakers” that tease or claim stuff before a gaming presentation or event by going something like “this game is in development and is going to be revealed tomorrow, trust me bro” and I can’t tell you how many people I have seen online treat info like that as if it is real. Sometimes they either get disappointed or upset in the end because of how they believed it was real without checking how valid the “leaker” was, similar to this situation.

I still do think Microsoft is going to release some more of their games on other consoles as a result of the positive reception Pentiment, Hi-Fi Rush and Grounded have yielded, not to mention Sea of Thieves got a ton of pre-orders on PlayStation and I have seen a lot of people excited for that port. Despite saying that, I can’t see them doing it for all of their IP, especially with their big and flagship franchises like Halo.

Plus, I can imagine the dozens of game studios Microsoft’s owns, as well as their affiliates, have lots of newer games in development, both unrevealed and known already, and I am pretty excited to see what they have in store for the future! I am sure we will see a little bit more in their upcoming June showcase. I’m looking forward to that one!

@nomither6 I only really did it so it would be easier to read and to highlight important parts, since I write really large walls of text, but I don’t know why I have such a long response… I deleted my initial reply since it’s too long and sounds negative, plus it sorta sounds like I’m blaming Directs on why physical game shows are dead or losing popularity. I still do like Nintendo, and I think I should have worded it better. I’m sorry if I gave off the wrong intentions. I really don’t wanna be a negative Nancy on here!

I’m just really excited for the June showcase. I know it’s just a few months away, but I can’t help but get excited about it! All these talks of which games could potentially show up just fuels my excitement even more.

I really hope Microsoft reveals a few new projects and give a couple of updates on some games that were revealed a few years ago and then went radio silent. I feel like that all I’ve been hearing from reports are bad things coming about with their currently in-development games (most notably the Perfect Dark reboot and Everwild) but I’m hopeful that they will turn out well in the end!

@GamingFan4Lyf You nailed it right on the head! I know that it would seem like buying other consoles to play one specific exclusive is a no brainer for some, but consoles are pretty expensive. Given the time that we live in now where prices on almost everything are taking an increase, some can’t buy other consoles and have to stick to the ones they already have in their possession. Of course, there are some that are able to, but some cannot.

It’s good to see PlayStation users enjoying some titles from Microsoft’s game library! I can’t imagine how well Sea of Thieves is going to perform on there, evidenced by the amount of pre-orders it got!

It’s just my opinion, but why are we now arguing and getting worked up about which version of the game has better shadows and extra details? I feel that it’s just a very minuscule part of the game and shouldn’t affect a person’s mood or enjoyment. Digital Foundry is just doing its job; analyzing big and small details in hardware and video games. Just play and enjoy the game!

This is the result you get after trying to make a billion dollar deal with a bigwig investment company and having it blow up in your face. It was such a bad decision for Embracer to purchase all those different companies and properties and then proceeding to layoff employees and shutting down the studios they worked at in a failed attempt to save face and keep money to themselves.

Even if it does seem like Microsoft goes on endless shopping sprees to purchase a ton of video game companies, at least they aren’t on the same level as Embracer; the company who wasted billions of dollars in an attempt to make more, took its failure out on the companies they own by making people lose their jobs as a result of greed, and is now going to split into three as a result of their failure in escaping their financial situation. It is a good thing I’m not interested in any of their games or products, cuz you know full well I’ll never be supporting them EVER for how badly they managed this situation and for laying off tons of people undeserving of it.

Also, I like how in that quote they add gamers and employees into “for the benefit of all employees, gamers and shareholders” in an attempt to make it seem like their splitting is positive and to quell any negative attention they’ve gotten over the months. “For the benefit of all shareholders” would be a more fitting statement for a company that reeks of corporate greed and is run by money-hungry people who absolutely don’t care about video games and only want to get richer.

EDIT: Well, my comment mentioning Microsoft did age poorly, didn’t it? They just announced today on May 7 that they are closing four studios they acquired via the Bethesda acquisition, and sent an internal email that seemed to have little empathy towards closing the studios and the people affected… Nevermind, both are equally terrible when it comes to acquiring new game studios and closing them shortly after.

That’s pretty cool! I like it when games are playable to all. Shared games for everyone!

If I recall, somewhere around 60 OG Xbox games are playable on the One and Series X and S, and a couple of 360 games are not backwards compatible, so hopefully they can get across some legal hurdles and have a couple older games join the backwards compatible library!

I absolutely love playing retro/old games, so I am very glad they are making a comeback to game preservation and backwards compatibility after what they said a few years ago. I wish a couple more studios and companies did the same too!

I share my Series S with someone else and the console now has a BUNCH of games with big install sizes, so yeah, I do avoid downloading 100+ GB games (since there isn’t enough space now), not to mention a lot of modern releases don’t interest me, at least not yet. Sometimes games that aren’t even 100+ GB take long to download, and it was even like that before a ton of bigger games were installed on my console. Most of the games I own are only 1+ GB, but I can’t exactly download them now…

I mean, I can understand what he means and the whole reasoning behind it… But the thing is, video games are becoming pricier by the minute and most popular and triple-AAA releases are now at $70, which adds onto the price of the console. But it’s not just gaming that has been getting pricier.

Living necessities and rent are becoming increasingly expensive and harder to pay for, so I feel that tipping upon completion of a game would start to add on to that. I’m not trying to be rude to the guy recommending the idea, but I just feel it would not be feasible budget-wise for some, and people here are making points that paying full price (which is usually more than tipping) is already showing a lot of support, which I can definitely see.

However, I am moreso saying that to bigger billion-dollar companies that just want more money and nothing else. Tipping, if went toward people that put real work and effort into making games, as well as smaller companies and individuals in the industry, like an indie studio, make more sense to me, compared to a company like Activision, which has made lots of money already by littering their games with anti-consumer practices and have business leads that don’t care about creativity or effort anymore.

It is nice when it comes to the organization of the games, but them littering the remaining spaces with ads for games and a bunch of non-game services is so terrible. Maybe one or two ads would have been fine, but why fill almost all the rows with them? It’s a game console, not an advertising console.

On a non-Xbox console, I’ve been playing Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage! on my phone like I always do. The game can be difficult to play, but I still like playing small sessions and I absolutely love the music, so I’ll 100% be playing it over the weekend.

I might use my Xbox, but I’m unsure about what I’ll play on there, though I think I’ll probably play Rare Replay. There’s still a bunch of games on there I haven’t even started or completed since I only use it to play Conker’s Bad Fur Day lol