@themightyant there are some worrying rumours swirling.not sure I’m 100% convinced on all of them but they are all hinting at very large cuts

It would be a shame. I thoroughly enjoyed SoD2.

But there’s too many rumours now all pointing in the same direction coming from multiple sources for the majority not to be true unfortunately. - especially if it’s coming down from Microsoft higher ups.

I think there could be cuts across even solid studios, as labour costs are easy to reduce.

@Llamageddon thanks!

@Weebleman thanks for that I’ve not been on EG much since the changes

@Weebleman do you have any links? I’d love to read

Little bit silly that an ign poll is getting so much attention.

It might be 90% ps players on there to 10% xbox

@Katiecooh2313 reviews will drop before release and I can just pre order then.

Why do I need to order 6 months in advance for something that won’t sell out?

And you know doesn’t matter who releases a game there is a chance it can be below par.

I’m not preordering. Because it’s not like digital copies will run out.

I’ll decide closer to the time. Probably after reviews drop.

£180 for Series S.

@Weebleman I kinda agree with this, their last rise was only in April. It would be madness for them to need to increase it again so soon.

Especially as sales dropped off a cliff, they expect to sell a lot less and probably have a decent amount stored up you would imagine from not selling any

@oopsiezz yeah I remember the uproar (tbh I did myself expect it to be cheaper) mad that it’s looking the best option.

@Schonks and now this one makes Xbox just as much more expensive as Sonys was.

@Millionski I think January. As it’s not really that long since the price update and sales tanked.

I imagine they are sat on quite a few consoles.

@BacklogBrad it also pushes more people to PS5/Pro for gta (assuming Sony don’t raise prices again)

@shiny-enzo so is that why it’s more expensive for a series X than a ps5?

Good to see Sony and MS trying to outdo themselves today!

And people were getting their hopes up when fh6 sold a few more boxes.

I guess neither of them want to sell more consoles!

Sony have absolutely fcked up this acquisition. Their own fault for staying hands off and pushing live service too hard.

Hopefully for those affected they find another job quickly and it’s a small amount that go.

£1000/$1200 is my guess.

We have already been told that it is premium. The big question will be if Xbox can subsidise the cost any. If not it may be even more expensive.

We all know the steam box isn’t subsidised

GP is great for the consumer. Absolutely no denying that. Has it been great for MS? No. Has it helped them for the future? No. Is there some crap filler on there? Yes (just like with any sub gaming and non gaming)

£40 for the 2 would have perhaps made sense

@Commander91_YT so the series S version will be as good as the X with no differences?

Fine on the X, quite a big downgrade on the S compared to it

A lot of rumours starting to surface that Zenimax are looking at cuts too. And Doom devs have just finished their dlc.

But it’s funny seeing people turn on Phil when he was the best because he’s a ‘gamer’ and ‘cares’ but now it’s all his fault and Asha is perfect. Almost as many 180s as the MS leadership.

I’m looking forward to this (if and when it releases) I enjoyed the second one, even playing it solo

@fatpunkslim I agree it’s most likely the 360 versions. But surely to stop any (more) rumours swirling - just come out and say what Xbox will have. It has to be far more simple.

@themightyant agreed I don’t think it will go, but I think it will change in January. MS already promised 75+ day 1 games this year.

I think next year it will be 50+ and some AA will miss out but some big games ala P6 will be included.

@Schonks yes I have a series S thanks for asking.

Yes I’m well aware. However many have GP stacked for upto 3years. And did so at an extremely low price. (Even cheaper than via 3rd party sellers) These will run out and conversion has got worse during this period too.

So it will be interesting once people have to pay more.

MS can use 3rd party sellers, Sony do their discounts themselves and honestly between the two you end up with similar deals.

@McKeownPlayz the biggest test to GP is when people can no longer stack it. Even the die hards aren’t paying full price.

The casuals balked at $30 and it lost millions of subs.

@MinervaX76 you can add more to the list with things like 100m GP subscribers by 2030 (even though subscription had levelled off.

Trying to charge $80 for games … and especially a more niche title.

Or expecting redfall to be double digits higher.

The Execs are just out of touch of what is realistic, and they are finding out that their consumers are pushing back and what their limits are.

@themightyant I’d like to see Sony give them a chance to make a single player shooting game. But I doubt they will do.

Surprised a GP deal would lead to the closure. Usually it’s enough to keep them financed. I guess it sold poor elsewhere

@somnambulance @themightyant it’s only been 25years, you would think we would know what they are by now!

It’s a strange one for me. Makes sense to show the studio off.

But on the other hand -

It said day 1 GP - is that going to be insisted as part of the sale? Are MS going to pay the new company for it going on GP? What if there’s no buyer and the game ends up not being made?

@McKeownPlayz you do know people can like something and still be critical when it is deserved. That is a thing.

@HonestHick PC huh. That place where games have been available and according to MS underperforming?

So yeah that PC platform? The one where PC owners have NOT flocked to Xbox?

Sorry for the reality check.

Jeez may be worse than we thought. I hope not. But there has to be some squeaky bum time in some of these studios.

@Froggyman1 again I don’t think all day 1 should end. But we can make a reasonable guess that all day 1 doesn’t work or else they wouldn’t have removed CoD - the biggest game out there. One would imagine outside of GTA this would be the game to drive growth.

Theres already tiers to GP? There’s 3 of them. And the games are underperforming? How would an ad tier of GP stop a game from underperforming? Some more may sign up - but some will just drop to the cheaper tier.

We now know that gamers are reaching their ceiling for subscription (due to the fact millions dropped it at $30). So that can’t just raise prices to increase revenue.

MS believed at this point that GP would be what double the amount of subscribers it currently has? ( can’t remember the exact figures but there was some insane numbers quoted).

I’m Not anti Gamepass at all. I’m subbed to premium and pay the full amount monthly. ( I used Ultimate to try out fh6, but changed back to premium) - I’m just not nieve enough to bury my head in the sand and say all is ok when everything is pointing in the opposite direction with evidence.

@Froggyman1 im not making any assumptions. Im hearing what the evidence is proving to us.

All the games underperforming are recent. It’s not one or two. It’s a succession of underperforming games with one or two outliers. And the fact of the matter be it Sony or MS attachment rates to first party only hover at 5-10%. So a smaller install base hampers this. They also aren’t selling on PC in overall - we know this as they are underperforming.

They can’t just make these big massive games all of a sudden. The majority are releasing in the year before Helix. That means the next big entries are going to be multiple years into the next gen.

How many games need to underperform to make it an issue? If Day 1 was working for Gamepass why did it have to raise 50% then have to remove the biggest day 1 and drop the price?

Theres a place for day 1. Should it be every first party game? Probably not imo. There needs to be a balance.

But it’s fine. You stick your head in the sand. What MS are currently doing isn’t working. That’s borne directly out of what the people at the top are publicly saying. It wouldn’t benefit the business. It’s not assumption.

@Froggyman1 but people aren’t buying Xbox games. Be it on Xbox pc or PS. We know this because MS has basically said they underperformed. GPU (before the big price rise) was stagnant (so was PSPlus) and now GP has shed millions of subs with the price rise.

We also know exclusivity will sell less simply because Xbox has 40m or so consoles sold and it’s generally 5-10% that buy a first party game.

Right now they are stuck. I don’t believe GP will change this year due to the fact they told people at the start of the year there would be 75+ day 1 games this year and they’ve already removed CoD. But something has to give somewhere.

We have all said for years that Xbox has MS backing and money thrown at it. But that won’t last forever. The 3% Xbox is making can quickly be made elsewhere. How are we even having the discussion of a business that’s been around 25years and has the backing of a massive company still trying to find its way?

@AI-Generation put that 12% uptick into proper context. Sales had fallen off a cliff. Like completely 30%+ YoY. Realistically that 12% is nothing.

Sony with their price rises will indeed now follow MS with sales falling off a cliff

@HonestHick yet they are spending $20bn and revenue dropping. They would have to pay a huge huge premium to gatekeep (big games)

So where are they making this money back? The install base is low (comparatively speaking)

@Banjo- I think fable will be interesting to see when it’s a day 1 release of a big franchise. (Can’t remember if there’s a bigger day 1 before then) I personally think some of the other games may have sold better (not necessarily in bucket loads) had they not been released months later

@somnambulance iirc didn’t they expect Redfall to be double digits higher too? As it keeps showing MS execs are out of touch.

Though I do remember plenty of Xbox fans defending redfall even with all the videos of the issues. Some just won’t accept that sometimes things suck!

@Sol4ris there’s a trend showing here that Xbox/ms executives don’t seem to be living in reality.

Gamepass price hike, they thought people would pay it, instead as by their own admission it cost millions of subscribers.

Now there’s RAM where MS are using a huge chunk of it, but yet didn’t prepare Xbox? (Whereas Sony at least tried to stock some in advance)

Both of these problems everyone else knew were going to happen, but execs didn’t seem to? That’s worrying.

The saddest thing? They will keep their jobs and others will take the brunt. Let’s hope the job losses aren’t too bad.

@Fiendish-Beaver my logic is we gave you a ‘big’ exclusive but targets weren’t met so we are going to look at multiplatform again.

Hopefully the lay offs are small.

But again it’s mixed messages coming from the top. Lost millions of GP subscribers, spending billions and revenue is decreasing- yet they cancel a (basically) finished game going onto PS.

All the die hard fans are Xbox are in a great position now and looks good for helix and so on - yet the financials consistently tell everyone otherwise.

@themightyant as you was saying about layoffs (may not be true obviously)-

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-10/xbox-plans-significant-layoffs-as-it-transforms-under-new-ceo-asha-sharma?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc4MTEyNDkwOCwiZXhwIjoxNzgxNzI5NzA4LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUR0ZPUU5LSVAzUlYwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJCMUVBQkI5NjQ2QUM0REZFQTJBRkI4MjI1MzgyQTJFQSJ9.cjHY4m0BuOULFpdYUKt2jmNBt-PDLWE6Vy-JsYLWvwI&leadSource=uverify%20wall

If it’s true 3% margin… how on earth were they looking to
Hit 30%

@Weebleman im kinda curious how the exclusive strategy is going to turn the business around into being healthy.

They’ve shed a couple of million subscribers from GP, console sales are stale (both Xbox and Sony)

The games are dropping day 1 into GP, so they already had that revenue coming in. And as we know from before the multiplatform push there wasn’t much growth in subscription services across the board.