Couldn’t disagree more, at least in regards to these 4 titles. Hi-Fi Rush is really no different than Ori was. And it makes a huge amount of sense to port live service games to other platforms. In fact, given Sony’s low profits compared to their growing overall revenue, I fully expect Sony will do the exact same thing with some of its upcoming live service games. It’s a completely different gaming market out there and companies need to adapt or die
If Xbox continues down this path and starts porting over major titles like Gears, Halo, etc…well, that will be a different matter entirely. That I absolutely think will hurt the overall brand. Unlike you, I just don’t see them taking that step.
Exactly the kind of response I expected. Didn’t even name 1 other year that was better overall, let alone multiple. Instead just more nonsense. My work here is done…
Always bad to see outstanding games doing poorly and this was an outstanding game. Probably not the smartest move not to have a physical version, but it is what it is. I am sure as time goes on, the game will eventually become profitable. Maybe this will actually get them to reconsider a physical release.
Never said it was the best gaming year. I said it was one of the best gaming years. There is a difference between those 2 statements. And anyone who can’t see how amazing 2023 was has crap taste in games.
I would love to hear all the years you found to be so superior to 2023. I won’t hold my breath for that response, lol.
Sure, it was more zones than one big open world, but every other aspect of the game just screamed Bethesda and that’s a good thing in my book. Had someone sat me down with that game without knowing a thing about it or who made it, I would have pegged it for a Bethesda game right off the bat. Exploration could be better, but it didn’t bother me too much at all. I was so in love with the game that its faults, which there definitely are some, just didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the game.
Yeah, I loved it. It was basically exactly what I was hoping it would be, a Bethesda game set in space. I would give it a 9 myself. Probably put about 120 hours into it to date. Story wise, it was easily Bethesdas best game to date imo.
Even if many of the games weren’t for you, you have to recognize what an outstanding year for gaming it was. You had Zelda, Spider-Man 2, Alan Wake 2, Street Fighter 6, Jedi Survivor, Hi-Fi Rush, Baldurs Gate 3, Final Fantasy XVI, Lies of P, Resident Evil 4 remake, Dead Space remake, Cocoon, Sea of Stars, Hogwarts Legacy, Starfield, and the list really goes on and on. There was something for everyone last year. Big AAA bangers, great indies, great AA games. It had it all.
And Starfield was definitely still a top tier AAA for me. It had some design choices that a lot of people didn’t like, but it was a Bethesda game through and through and it had the best story for a Bethesda game to date imo. I wasnt bothered too much by some of the stuff other people were. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. And it’s still sitting at an 83 on Metacritic. That’s still considered a great game.
Considering 2023 was one of the best years for gaming I can remember, I am not complaining. It’s very rare you get one banger year after another after another. And this year has plenty of good games on the horizon.
Agreed on the reason why. MS got a good look at what the community thinks about bringing big exclusives over to PS. It’s basically brand suicide to do so at this point. Could they be easing people into the idea by releasing titles like Grounded and Sea of Thieves first and then slowly moving to bigger titles? It’s certainly possible, but I don’t think it’s gonna happen personally. I think at the most, we might see some titles from Bethesda or ABK, simply because they can fall back on the excuse that they said it would be looked at on a title by title basis, but even those I am skeptical about.
Actual big name exclusives for Xbox like Gears, Halo, Forza, etc.? Yeah, I just don’t see it happening. It will only cause long term damage to the Xbox brand itself in exchange for some short term profits. MS is about to leapfrog over Sony in overall gaming revenue soon enough, even without releasing those kinds of games on PS. It just doesn’t make sense to me from a business perspective, especially after seeing the Xbox communities overall response to the idea. Again, it’s basically brand suicide at this point. Wether Xbox can slowly bring people over to the idea by testing a few bigger releases remains to be seen. My guess would be no. IMO, this will remain a thing that Xbox does with live service games or smaller kinds of games like Ori, Hi-Fi Rush, and Pentiment.
There have already been rumors of Xbox losing some 3rd party support. Even if a small percentage of Xbox gamers walked away right now, it could have massive implications on the overall brand itself. MS needs to see growth with Xbox, not people switching to PS. It could very well start a spiral that could literally be the death of the brand. As an overall risk assessment, I just don’t see the short term profits from a few games being worth it. It would be one thing if MS were in desperate need of some short term profits, but as we both know, that is far far from the case.
Yeah, I don’t see that at all. If MS were going to release a Gears collection on PS, I would bet my life it would be after the Xbox release, at least 6-9 months. No way does MS go from releasing games like Grounded and Sea of Thieves to dropping a Gears release day 1 on PS alongside Xbox. Not a chance. Not even with a remastered collection. And no way do they actually delay the Xbox version to make that happen. We clearly have 2 very different ideas on just what this change in policy for Xbox really is. Guess time will tell…
It’s not. There are always differences in different iterations. Not to mention, new releases are much easier to find games for your skill level. The longer a game is out, the more the people sticking around playing it are of a higher skill set. So new players or mediocre players will have a much harder time finding matches with similar skilled players.
I for one am pumped for a new Gears and I’ll also be super pumped for a remastered collection. So it’s a win win for me no matter what the announcement is. Can never get enough of Gears…
A little salty huh? Don’t hate the player, hate the game. MS has more money than Sony and there is absolutely nothing wrong with MS using that advantage to their benefit by buying Bethesda and Activision. Some companies are built from the ground up, some are made successful off of acquisitions. There is no rule book saying it must be done one way or the other.
It only becomes a problem when a monopoly is involved, which was absolutely not the case here. Some of you really just need to come to terms with those deals. They were perfectly legal. And acting like one way is good while the other is bad is comical. It’s just business, plain and simple. And it was Sony’s practice of making so many exclusivity deals that got MS to take action on that front. Kinda funny when you stop and think about it.
“Nope, I'd rather Microsoft did deals and have stated this more than once. The leadership is too inept and opts to consolidate instead.”
And this, I assume you are referring to exclusivity deals. It’s not that simple. Exclusivity deals for MS are FAR more expensive than they are for Sony. So MS is at a big disadvantage on that front. That’s not inept leadership. It’s just the reality of the market.
In fact, not making big exclusivity deals in MS’s position is smart leadership. Why play to your weakness by spending significantly more than Sony for exclusivity deals when you can play to your strength of having significantly more cash and just buying studios outright, which gives a steady stream of games to Game Pass without having to worry about exclusivity deals? Makes perfect business sense to me. MS is already making a killing on COD, given how much that IP makes yearly, and is likely seeing nice profits from Fallout recently. It’s a win win owning studios over spending large sums of money for exclusivity on individual titles. If you can’t see that, you don’t have much business sense.
This is very good news. The better MS does, the better Game Pass will be. It has really single handedly reinvigorated my love for gaming. Just can’t imagine going back to gaming without it.
That sucks as I was looking forward to it, but at least I get to replay Fallout 4 tomorrow. After watching the tv show, am all into Fallout atm. Funny how that happens. Been playing Fallout 3, but plan to jump right into Fallout 4 tomorrow.
Yep, just gaslighting, lol. It even has a 94% critic rating on RT. I do love when a divisive topic like this shows up on various movie boards or gaming boards. The people who think WAY too highly of their own opinions, and usually don’t understand subjectivity to save their life, come out of the woodwork.
It wasn’t that, in your opinion. Your opinion is just that, your opinion. This is nothing more than you thinking your subjective opinion superior to others. Not to mention, what someone thinks is a 10 in one genre doesn’t necessarily mean a 10 in another genre. And I know people that aren’t gamers that have absolutely loved it. I mean can’t stop talking about it loved it. To think this show is doing as well as it is just because of being team green is absurd.
It’s got a 94% critic rating on RT and I have seen more people say it’s a 10/10 than any other show in a long time. Again, I would give it a 9.5, so I can absolutely see where people scored it a 10. It doesn’t have to be The Wire to score a 10.
How does giving this show a 10 show a lack of self awareness?? I would give it a 9.5 myself, but I can’t see any fault in giving it a 10. It was that good.
Just because other places, like museums, have done a better job at game preservation doesn’t for a second mean that what MS has done, and continues to do, isn’t game preservation as well. It absolutely and without question is. This isn’t a subjective topic. It’s an objective fact that what MS has done with its BC program falls under the proper use of the term game preservation. So there is absolutely nothing wrong with MS naming their new team the Game Preservation Team, as long as they continue to do the kinds of things they have done in the past.
If you bought a game and the disc is broken, that is between you and the seller of the game. That is not MS’s responsibility. Nothing you can say on this topic will change the simple fact that you are the one responsible for your physical games, not MS. If you bought one that is scratched or broken, take it back or send it back and buy another. And it’s very easy to get scratched discs resurfaced. Many gaming stores have resurfacing machines in house. And if it’s an older pre Blu Ray disc, there are tricks like using certain brands of toothpaste to sand down the plastic that winds up being a problem from a scratch.
And again, what you’re wanting in regards to not having to use your physical discs once you install them on your console is just never gonna happen. The possibility for abuse is WAY too high and WAY too easy. Again, I could go buy a 70 dollar game, install it, and then just sell it immediately if it was no longer required that I actually use the disc. If you want access to a game that doesn’t require you to use a disc each time, buy digital.
Learn what game preservation is all about. What MS has done to date absolutely 100% falls under the term game preservation. The fact that many games have licenses doesn’t change that one single bit. And I suspect this new team will continue on doing things that fall under the proper use of the term game preservation so there is nothing wrong or misleading about MS naming this new team the Game Preservation Team.
As for your disc complaints, as long as you handle them properly, you shouldn’t have any issues. I have been gaming, listening to music, and watching movies/tv shows on various forms of discs since they were first introduced and I have never broken a single disc to date. And the very very few that got scratched were easily resurfaced. It’s not MS’s responsibility to look after your physical media, nor any other company for that matter. If you take care of your physical media properly, they will last a lot longer than you will…
As for your desire to no longer need a disc after using it 1 time, that’s ridiculous. You could just go and sell it, or pass it on to friends. If you buy physical, you need the physical disc each time you use it. If you don’t like that aspect of physical, buy digital. If you honestly don’t understand the reasoning behind why they do that, then I don’t know what to tell you. It’s just pure common sense on why they do it. If they did it how you wanted them to do it, I could go buy a brand new 70 dollar game, install it on my Xbox, then turn around and take it right back to a resale shop like Game Stop and sell it, all the while still being able to play it. Cmon…
I download what I buy or want to play. Size isn’t really an issue. Have a 16TB external HD for Xbox One and Series X/S games and an 4TB external I use for BC games from 360 and OG Xbox. I just transfer games back and forth to the internal SSD as need be.
I had a bunch of gift cards that I haven’t used so I went a bit overboard this year. I got Outer Worlds Spacer Edition, Journey to the Savage Planet, Wolfenstein Alt History Collection, The Devil in Me, Onechanbara, Trepeng2, Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom, Star Wars: Squadrons, Cloudpunk, Ghostrunner 2, and Immortals of Avernum.
Loved this game. Played through it a few times on my 360 and just bought the upgraded version and finished it a couple months back. And as much as I would enjoy adding a physical version of this to my collection, I just don’t have the space for more physical media. I stopped buying physical copies of music, movies/tv, and games a few years back. I’m looking to unload a lot of the physical media I already own, not add more.
Still, a very cool physical release from Limited Run.
“If your game consists of only ideas taken from other games, can you really claim to be the inspiration for other copycat titles?”
Sure, why not? You can combine aspects of other games in a way that is unique, thus creating an entirely different kind of game even if the ideas were taken from other games. Just because a game was inspired or even heavily inspired by other games doesn’t mean it can’t make its own mark, in its own ways. And other developers can ultimately be inspired by what they did.
And considering there are a bunch of games being developed now that are similar to Paleword, clearly the game did inspire other developers.
Jumped back into Fallout 76 last week. It’s so much better than it was at launch. Some games just need some extra time in the oven these days. I’m glad I came back to it and gave it another go as it’s a great game now. I own every Fallout game along with all of the DLC and have already played all of them multiple times. Great sales going on atm for those that want to pick some titles up.
IMO, hands down one of the best live service games in history. Love the game and continue to go back and play it off and on. And that’s a HUGELY impressive milestone for the game and obviously those numbers are only going to go up and up. As someone else stated in here, it is always amusing to hear the occasional “Rare has failed under MS” comment. Just one of the many comments thrown out by fanboys that prove intelligence and fanboyism do not go hand in hand..
Just more of what Xbox has been doing since the BC program started. It’s the best BC console on the market and I love that they take that aspect of a console seriously. I play older games all the time. So add more games to the BC program, even if that means working out new licensing contracts for things like music. Keep upgrading older games using things like fps boost and resolution improvements. And on and on and on.
Basically, do what you have been doing just take it to the next level. It’s one of my favorite aspects of Xbox these days.
Great thing about Game Pass, I don’t have to risk my money on buying it. Can just try it out. If I like it, I like it. If I don’t, I don’t. Couldn’t imagine going back to gaming without it.
Popular for who?? If it was just about general popularity, Call of Duty would win every award year after year after year. Most COD games these days don’t even score really high, are almost never nominated for GOTY, and wind up getting a crap ton of criticism online. And it’s been one of the most popular games going for well over a decade.
It’s how popular a game is with reviewers that matters most, not overall popularity. Only a handful of reviewers dictate the overall score a game receives. Most Metacritic scores are compiled from what, 75-100 reviews at most. So 75-100 people working for various gaming sites or publications wind up dictating the overall score a game receives. That score winds up having a huge impact on how a game is generally perceived. And the same goes for selecting what games wind up being chosen for GOTY awards. It’s a small handful of people that dictate such things.
If you think these people are above having biases for companies….well, no offense but thats kinda naive in my book. I’m not saying you’re 100% wrong. In fact, I somewhat agree with you. I think there are biases in the gaming industry for certain genres of games. Where our opinions part ways is that I also think there are biases in the industry that aren’t genre related and are in fact related to what console were talking about. I think it’s a combination of both. Reviewers are not above having personal biases and neither are the people responsible for selecting which games are nominated for awards. I have seen too many things over the years that can’t be explained by just genre bias alone.
And I don’t think it’s a big secret that Xbox hasn’t been the most popular company the last couple generations, for a variety of different reasons. And I for one absolutely think some of that unpopularity has worked its way into the system of reviewing games and choosing which games get selected for various awards.
And if it’s a bias towards certain kinds of games, it follows that any company that makes more of those kinds of games will benefit from that overall bias and companies that don’t will not, friend.
Again, if there is a bias towards those kinds of games and Sony specializes in those kinds of games, there will be a bias with Sonys games wether it’s indirectly or not. The two simply go hand in hand. Wether it’s a bias towards Sony or just the kinds of games Sony makes is pretty much irrelevant. The bias still exists.
Oh please…. Anyone taking what people say in here on these kinds of topics as fact is living in la la land. All anyone is doing in here, on 99% of the articles being put up here, is giving their opinion. The fact that you need to see an IMO in front of what is OBVIOUSLY someone’s opinion is downright comical. It would be annoying as f**k having to read IMO or in my opinion in front of every single opinion posted on this site. It’s just pure common sense to infer that people are giving their opinions when actually giving their opinions….
As for the rest of your post, you have your opinion and I have mine. And trust me, I think yours is just as ridiculous as you think mine is. Once again, gotta love subjectivity.
And you want an example of what I deem to be a clear case of bias against Xbox? Forza Horizon 5 not being a nominee for GOTY in 2021 for The Game Awards. It had a 92 Metacritic rating and was being praised everywhere. Hell, IGN not only nominated it, it actually awarded it GOTY that year. At The Game Awards, it wasn’t even nominated. You’re welcome to disagree with this all you want. My opinion, this is a very CLEAR cut case of bias against Xbox by The Game Awards. Resident Evil Village was nominated but not FH5, lol. It’s beyond comical
And if I really wanted to dig in and invest the time, I could remember and find many more, but I am not getting into a back and forth over a subjective topic. It’s utterly pointless. I have been gaming since Pong, have no specific allegiance to Xbox and in fact have been gaming longer on Nintendo and PS systems. I know what I have seen with my own 2 eyes over the years and you’re not gonna change my mind anymore than I am gonna change yours. Great thing about subjective opinions, beyond there being no right or wrong, is that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and it’s no more right or wrong than any other subjective opinion. That’s why it’s best to just agree to disagree.
“ There's no Nintendo or Sony bias. There's genre bias. Which is why stuff like Breath of the Wild, God of War, and The Last of Us enjoy so much attention, and why Microsoft's few good games struggle to attract similar attention.”
I don’t really agree with this as I absolutely think there is bias against Xbox in todays market, but let’s say for a seconds this is true. Sony is renowned for the very type of games you’re describing so if there is a general bias in the industry for those kinds of games then there would be a bais for Sony as a direct result of that. You can’t have one without the other.
In other words, it would be a bias for the kinds of games being made and not for Sony directly, but the end result would still be the same. An overall bias in favor of Sony simply for the kinds of games they generally make these days. And the same could be said for Nintendo.. if there is a general bias in favor of the types of games Nintendo is making, that will result in a favorable bias for those Nintendo games. And the same could be said for Xbox as well, just the opposite resulting in a negative bias.
So what you’re saying is in fact admitting there is a Sony and Nintendo bias out there. You’re just suggesting it’s due to the kinds of games they are making as opposed to any feelings people have for the companies themselves. Bias is bias and the end result is still the same.
I didn’t prove anything false. It’s a subjective opinion so the entire idea that it can be proven false is a fallacy. And it’s inferred that people are giving opinions in here. That is my opinion and it’s just as valid as anyone else’s, including yours.
Sorry brother, but there is no right or wrong with subjectivity. It’s all just opinion and people shouldn’t have to put IMO in front of everything they say on boards like this when it should just be understood that’s what people are doing, giving their opinions. None of this is objective fact, and that goes for your opinion that there is no bias as much as my opinion that there is. Again, it’s all just opinion.
I can’t prove it anymore than you can disprove it. Again, welcome to subjectivity.
I’m not going out and hunting down all of the reviews I have read in recent years so I can find clear cut examples of obvious bias against Xbox. I don’t have enough interest to invest that kind of time into it. If you want to think it isn’t happening…well, you’re certainly entitled to that opinion.
There is no way to prove any of it one way or another. Way too much subjectivity involved with what each person finds to be bias or not. A statement I might find obviously bias, you might not find any bias at all. So it goes with subjectivity.
In the current anti-Xbox climate, not a chance. The sheer amount of negative bias present today in regards to Xbox is pretty significant and blatantly obvious in many cases. Given, it’s almost impossible to not have some level of bias so I usually forgive most reviewers or writers when I see it, but it’s reached a new level for Xbox, one that can’t be easily ignored.
It will still get good reviews and will most likely win best sound at the game awards, but that will be about it.
Never had a single doubt the acquisition was gonna go through. The CMA’s case was weak af and amazingly, the FTC’s was even worse. There should have been an investigation into Lina Khan and the connections between her, Sony and the CMA.
Oh well, what’s done is done and it turned out exactly as it should have been.
$70 games aren’t going anywhere. If anything, the price will just drop faster if a lot of people refuse to buy a particular game at that price point. We’re not going to go backwards price wise, not for big AAA titles.
“Also keep in mind — inflation. Games used to cost up to $80 during the 80s and early 90s in 90s money. I think the only sustainability might be lowered development costs for wide-release $30-$50 titles.”
While this is true, the gaming market in general was vastly, and I do mean VASTLY, smaller in size. So while they aren’t making as much per copy today as they did back then, the average game is selling 10-100x more copies. That’s the flip side of the inflation argument.
I wasn’t disagreeing with you. I have no idea how your name got included as one of the people I was replying to. That reply was meant for fiendish beaver alone. Again, not sure how your name got included in that reply. Must have pushed a wrong button or something.
Yeah, I disagree. I don’t think 5 months is enough time to port any of the titles MS brought to PS, except maybe Pentiment. So I just don’t believe Starfield had anything to do with any of it. It’s not a big mystery as to why Starfield didn’t do as well as they hoped. The game was hugely divisive as many people were not happy with the game. That’s not a failure of Xbox, it’s a failure of development by Bethesda.
I think MS bringing certain titles to PS and Switch has FAR FAR more to do with what Spencer said about it being so difficult to get gamers to switch consoles at this point due to people being entrenched with their digital libraries, gamer scores, etc. IMO, they are simply looking for new ways to make money on gamers that will never make the switch to Xbox. I don’t think Starfield and it’s overall performance on Xbox had anything to do with it.
We’ll just have to agree to disagree on this one.
.
Comments 469
Re: Here's What The First PS5 Reviews Are Saying About Sea Of Thieves
@Kooky_Geezer
Couldn’t disagree more, at least in regards to these 4 titles. Hi-Fi Rush is really no different than Ori was. And it makes a huge amount of sense to port live service games to other platforms. In fact, given Sony’s low profits compared to their growing overall revenue, I fully expect Sony will do the exact same thing with some of its upcoming live service games. It’s a completely different gaming market out there and companies need to adapt or die
If Xbox continues down this path and starts porting over major titles like Gears, Halo, etc…well, that will be a different matter entirely. That I absolutely think will hurt the overall brand. Unlike you, I just don’t see them taking that step.
Re: Fallout 4 Comparison Reveals How Similar The Xbox One & Next-Gen Versions Look
@TheSimulator
Exactly the kind of response I expected. Didn’t even name 1 other year that was better overall, let alone multiple. Instead just more nonsense. My work here is done…
Re: Alan Wake 2 Still Hasn't Made Profit Despite Huge Critical Success
Always bad to see outstanding games doing poorly and this was an outstanding game. Probably not the smartest move not to have a physical version, but it is what it is. I am sure as time goes on, the game will eventually become profitable. Maybe this will actually get them to reconsider a physical release.
Re: Fallout 4 Comparison Reveals How Similar The Xbox One & Next-Gen Versions Look
@TheSimulator
Never said it was the best gaming year. I said it was one of the best gaming years. There is a difference between those 2 statements. And anyone who can’t see how amazing 2023 was has crap taste in games.
I would love to hear all the years you found to be so superior to 2023. I won’t hold my breath for that response, lol.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (April 27-28)
Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 for me.
Re: Fallout 4 Comparison Reveals How Similar The Xbox One & Next-Gen Versions Look
@Telin
Sure, it was more zones than one big open world, but every other aspect of the game just screamed Bethesda and that’s a good thing in my book. Had someone sat me down with that game without knowing a thing about it or who made it, I would have pegged it for a Bethesda game right off the bat. Exploration could be better, but it didn’t bother me too much at all. I was so in love with the game that its faults, which there definitely are some, just didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the game.
Re: Fallout 4 Comparison Reveals How Similar The Xbox One & Next-Gen Versions Look
@TheGiraffe
Yeah, I loved it. It was basically exactly what I was hoping it would be, a Bethesda game set in space. I would give it a 9 myself. Probably put about 120 hours into it to date. Story wise, it was easily Bethesdas best game to date imo.
Re: Fallout 4 Comparison Reveals How Similar The Xbox One & Next-Gen Versions Look
@OldGamer999
Even if many of the games weren’t for you, you have to recognize what an outstanding year for gaming it was. You had Zelda, Spider-Man 2, Alan Wake 2, Street Fighter 6, Jedi Survivor, Hi-Fi Rush, Baldurs Gate 3, Final Fantasy XVI, Lies of P, Resident Evil 4 remake, Dead Space remake, Cocoon, Sea of Stars, Hogwarts Legacy, Starfield, and the list really goes on and on. There was something for everyone last year. Big AAA bangers, great indies, great AA games. It had it all.
And Starfield was definitely still a top tier AAA for me. It had some design choices that a lot of people didn’t like, but it was a Bethesda game through and through and it had the best story for a Bethesda game to date imo. I wasnt bothered too much by some of the stuff other people were. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. And it’s still sitting at an 83 on Metacritic. That’s still considered a great game.
Re: Fallout 4 Comparison Reveals How Similar The Xbox One & Next-Gen Versions Look
@OldGamer999
Considering 2023 was one of the best years for gaming I can remember, I am not complaining. It’s very rare you get one banger year after another after another. And this year has plenty of good games on the horizon.
Re: Gears Of War Voice Actor Reckons We're Due A 'Gears 6' Announcement In June
@Fiendish-Beaver
Agreed on the reason why. MS got a good look at what the community thinks about bringing big exclusives over to PS. It’s basically brand suicide to do so at this point. Could they be easing people into the idea by releasing titles like Grounded and Sea of Thieves first and then slowly moving to bigger titles? It’s certainly possible, but I don’t think it’s gonna happen personally. I think at the most, we might see some titles from Bethesda or ABK, simply because they can fall back on the excuse that they said it would be looked at on a title by title basis, but even those I am skeptical about.
Actual big name exclusives for Xbox like Gears, Halo, Forza, etc.? Yeah, I just don’t see it happening. It will only cause long term damage to the Xbox brand itself in exchange for some short term profits. MS is about to leapfrog over Sony in overall gaming revenue soon enough, even without releasing those kinds of games on PS. It just doesn’t make sense to me from a business perspective, especially after seeing the Xbox communities overall response to the idea. Again, it’s basically brand suicide at this point. Wether Xbox can slowly bring people over to the idea by testing a few bigger releases remains to be seen. My guess would be no. IMO, this will remain a thing that Xbox does with live service games or smaller kinds of games like Ori, Hi-Fi Rush, and Pentiment.
There have already been rumors of Xbox losing some 3rd party support. Even if a small percentage of Xbox gamers walked away right now, it could have massive implications on the overall brand itself. MS needs to see growth with Xbox, not people switching to PS. It could very well start a spiral that could literally be the death of the brand. As an overall risk assessment, I just don’t see the short term profits from a few games being worth it. It would be one thing if MS were in desperate need of some short term profits, but as we both know, that is far far from the case.
Again, time will tell…
Re: Gears Of War Voice Actor Reckons We're Due A 'Gears 6' Announcement In June
@Fiendish-Beaver
Yeah, I don’t see that at all. If MS were going to release a Gears collection on PS, I would bet my life it would be after the Xbox release, at least 6-9 months. No way does MS go from releasing games like Grounded and Sea of Thieves to dropping a Gears release day 1 on PS alongside Xbox. Not a chance. Not even with a remastered collection. And no way do they actually delay the Xbox version to make that happen. We clearly have 2 very different ideas on just what this change in policy for Xbox really is. Guess time will tell…
Re: Gears Of War Voice Actor Reckons We're Due A 'Gears 6' Announcement In June
@GamingFan4Lyf
It’s not. There are always differences in different iterations. Not to mention, new releases are much easier to find games for your skill level. The longer a game is out, the more the people sticking around playing it are of a higher skill set. So new players or mediocre players will have a much harder time finding matches with similar skilled players.
Re: Gears Of War Voice Actor Reckons We're Due A 'Gears 6' Announcement In June
I for one am pumped for a new Gears and I’ll also be super pumped for a remastered collection. So it’s a win win for me no matter what the announcement is. Can never get enough of Gears…
Re: Three Games Are Available Today With Xbox Game Pass (April 25)
@Martsmall
Huh, I’m not seeing it.
Nevermind. I found it. I know what I am doing for the rest of the day…
Re: Three Games Are Available Today With Xbox Game Pass (April 25)
Damn good day for Game Pass!!
Re: Fallout Continues To Dominate On Xbox As Bethesda Reveals Incredible Player Numbers
I jumped back into Fallout 76, but I’ll be jumping back into Fallout 4 come tomorrow. Yep, I am one of the people swept up in Fallout mania atm.
Re: Xbox Games Are Enjoying A 'Positive Upward Trend' On PS5, Suggests New Analysis
@ShadowofTwilight
A little salty huh? Don’t hate the player, hate the game. MS has more money than Sony and there is absolutely nothing wrong with MS using that advantage to their benefit by buying Bethesda and Activision. Some companies are built from the ground up, some are made successful off of acquisitions. There is no rule book saying it must be done one way or the other.
It only becomes a problem when a monopoly is involved, which was absolutely not the case here. Some of you really just need to come to terms with those deals. They were perfectly legal. And acting like one way is good while the other is bad is comical. It’s just business, plain and simple. And it was Sony’s practice of making so many exclusivity deals that got MS to take action on that front. Kinda funny when you stop and think about it.
“Nope, I'd rather Microsoft did deals and have stated this more than once. The leadership is too inept and opts to consolidate instead.”
And this, I assume you are referring to exclusivity deals. It’s not that simple. Exclusivity deals for MS are FAR more expensive than they are for Sony. So MS is at a big disadvantage on that front. That’s not inept leadership. It’s just the reality of the market.
In fact, not making big exclusivity deals in MS’s position is smart leadership. Why play to your weakness by spending significantly more than Sony for exclusivity deals when you can play to your strength of having significantly more cash and just buying studios outright, which gives a steady stream of games to Game Pass without having to worry about exclusivity deals? Makes perfect business sense to me. MS is already making a killing on COD, given how much that IP makes yearly, and is likely seeing nice profits from Fallout recently. It’s a win win owning studios over spending large sums of money for exclusivity on individual titles. If you can’t see that, you don’t have much business sense.
Re: Xbox Games Are Enjoying A 'Positive Upward Trend' On PS5, Suggests New Analysis
This is very good news. The better MS does, the better Game Pass will be. It has really single handedly reinvigorated my love for gaming. Just can’t imagine going back to gaming without it.
Re: Fallout: London Suffers Delay, Dev Wasn't Told About Fallout 4 Update
That sucks as I was looking forward to it, but at least I get to replay Fallout 4 tomorrow. After watching the tv show, am all into Fallout atm. Funny how that happens. Been playing Fallout 3, but plan to jump right into Fallout 4 tomorrow.
Re: Poll: What Do You Think Of The Fallout TV Show's First Season?
@MrMagic
And for a video game adaptation, many people think this is a masterpiece. It’s that simple. Nothing you say can discredit those opinions.
Re: Poll: What Do You Think Of The Fallout TV Show's First Season?
Removed
Re: Poll: What Do You Think Of The Fallout TV Show's First Season?
@MrMagic
Yep, just gaslighting, lol. It even has a 94% critic rating on RT. I do love when a divisive topic like this shows up on various movie boards or gaming boards. The people who think WAY too highly of their own opinions, and usually don’t understand subjectivity to save their life, come out of the woodwork.
Re: Poll: What Do You Think Of The Fallout TV Show's First Season?
@GrumpyDev
It wasn’t that, in your opinion. Your opinion is just that, your opinion. This is nothing more than you thinking your subjective opinion superior to others. Not to mention, what someone thinks is a 10 in one genre doesn’t necessarily mean a 10 in another genre. And I know people that aren’t gamers that have absolutely loved it. I mean can’t stop talking about it loved it. To think this show is doing as well as it is just because of being team green is absurd.
It’s got a 94% critic rating on RT and I have seen more people say it’s a 10/10 than any other show in a long time. Again, I would give it a 9.5, so I can absolutely see where people scored it a 10. It doesn’t have to be The Wire to score a 10.
Re: Poll: What Do You Think Of The Fallout TV Show's First Season?
@GrumpyDev
How does giving this show a 10 show a lack of self awareness?? I would give it a 9.5 myself, but I can’t see any fault in giving it a 10. It was that good.
Re: Poll: What Do You Think Of The Fallout TV Show's First Season?
One word, amazing. Arguably the best video game adaptation to date.
Re: Talking Point: What Do You Want To See From Xbox's New 'Game Preservation' Team?
@SuntannedDuck2
Just because other places, like museums, have done a better job at game preservation doesn’t for a second mean that what MS has done, and continues to do, isn’t game preservation as well. It absolutely and without question is. This isn’t a subjective topic. It’s an objective fact that what MS has done with its BC program falls under the proper use of the term game preservation. So there is absolutely nothing wrong with MS naming their new team the Game Preservation Team, as long as they continue to do the kinds of things they have done in the past.
If you bought a game and the disc is broken, that is between you and the seller of the game. That is not MS’s responsibility. Nothing you can say on this topic will change the simple fact that you are the one responsible for your physical games, not MS. If you bought one that is scratched or broken, take it back or send it back and buy another. And it’s very easy to get scratched discs resurfaced. Many gaming stores have resurfacing machines in house. And if it’s an older pre Blu Ray disc, there are tricks like using certain brands of toothpaste to sand down the plastic that winds up being a problem from a scratch.
And again, what you’re wanting in regards to not having to use your physical discs once you install them on your console is just never gonna happen. The possibility for abuse is WAY too high and WAY too easy. Again, I could go buy a 70 dollar game, install it, and then just sell it immediately if it was no longer required that I actually use the disc. If you want access to a game that doesn’t require you to use a disc each time, buy digital.
Re: Talking Point: What Do You Want To See From Xbox's New 'Game Preservation' Team?
@SuntannedDuck2
Learn what game preservation is all about. What MS has done to date absolutely 100% falls under the term game preservation. The fact that many games have licenses doesn’t change that one single bit. And I suspect this new team will continue on doing things that fall under the proper use of the term game preservation so there is nothing wrong or misleading about MS naming this new team the Game Preservation Team.
As for your disc complaints, as long as you handle them properly, you shouldn’t have any issues. I have been gaming, listening to music, and watching movies/tv shows on various forms of discs since they were first introduced and I have never broken a single disc to date. And the very very few that got scratched were easily resurfaced. It’s not MS’s responsibility to look after your physical media, nor any other company for that matter. If you take care of your physical media properly, they will last a lot longer than you will…
As for your desire to no longer need a disc after using it 1 time, that’s ridiculous. You could just go and sell it, or pass it on to friends. If you buy physical, you need the physical disc each time you use it. If you don’t like that aspect of physical, buy digital. If you honestly don’t understand the reasoning behind why they do that, then I don’t know what to tell you. It’s just pure common sense on why they do it. If they did it how you wanted them to do it, I could go buy a brand new 70 dollar game, install it on my Xbox, then turn around and take it right back to a resale shop like Game Stop and sell it, all the while still being able to play it. Cmon…
Re: Talking Point: Do You Actively Avoid Xbox Games With Massive Download Sizes?
I download what I buy or want to play. Size isn’t really an issue. Have a 16TB external HD for Xbox One and Series X/S games and an 4TB external I use for BC games from 360 and OG Xbox. I just transfer games back and forth to the internal SSD as need be.
Re: Talking Point: What Have You Bought In The Xbox Spring Sale 2024?
I had a bunch of gift cards that I haven’t used so I went a bit overboard this year. I got Outer Worlds Spacer Edition, Journey to the Savage Planet, Wolfenstein Alt History Collection, The Devil in Me, Onechanbara, Trepeng2, Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom, Star Wars: Squadrons, Cloudpunk, Ghostrunner 2, and Immortals of Avernum.
Re: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon's Limited Run Xbox Releases Go Live This Week
Loved this game. Played through it a few times on my 360 and just bought the upgraded version and finished it a couple months back. And as much as I would enjoy adding a physical version of this to my collection, I just don’t have the space for more physical media. I stopped buying physical copies of music, movies/tv, and games a few years back. I’m looking to unload a lot of the physical media I already own, not add more.
Still, a very cool physical release from Limited Run.
Re: Pocketpair CEO On Devs Copying Palworld: 'These Are Incredible Times'
@Broosh
“If your game consists of only ideas taken from other games, can you really claim to be the inspiration for other copycat titles?”
Sure, why not? You can combine aspects of other games in a way that is unique, thus creating an entirely different kind of game even if the ideas were taken from other games. Just because a game was inspired or even heavily inspired by other games doesn’t mean it can’t make its own mark, in its own ways. And other developers can ultimately be inspired by what they did.
And considering there are a bunch of games being developed now that are similar to Paleword, clearly the game did inspire other developers.
Re: Multiple Fallout Games Are Topping The Xbox 'Paid' Charts This Week
Jumped back into Fallout 76 last week. It’s so much better than it was at launch. Some games just need some extra time in the oven these days. I’m glad I came back to it and gave it another go as it’s a great game now. I own every Fallout game along with all of the DLC and have already played all of them multiple times. Great sales going on atm for those that want to pick some titles up.
Re: Xbox's Sea Of Thieves Reaches 40 Million Players Prior To PS5 Launch
IMO, hands down one of the best live service games in history. Love the game and continue to go back and play it off and on. And that’s a HUGELY impressive milestone for the game and obviously those numbers are only going to go up and up. As someone else stated in here, it is always amusing to hear the occasional “Rare has failed under MS” comment. Just one of the many comments thrown out by fanboys that prove intelligence and fanboyism do not go hand in hand..
Re: Talking Point: What Do You Want To See From Xbox's New 'Game Preservation' Team?
Just more of what Xbox has been doing since the BC program started. It’s the best BC console on the market and I love that they take that aspect of a console seriously. I play older games all the time. So add more games to the BC program, even if that means working out new licensing contracts for things like music. Keep upgrading older games using things like fps boost and resolution improvements. And on and on and on.
Basically, do what you have been doing just take it to the next level. It’s one of my favorite aspects of Xbox these days.
Re: Former Xbox Exec Likes The Idea Of 'Tipping' Developers After Beating Their Games
No, just straight up no.
Re: Review: Harold Halibut (Xbox) - A Heartfelt & Handcrafted Narrative Adventure
Great thing about Game Pass, I don’t have to risk my money on buying it. Can just try it out. If I like it, I like it. If I don’t, I don’t. Couldn’t imagine going back to gaming without it.
Re: Talking Point: Will Hellblade 2 Be A Genuine Game Of The Year Contender This Year?
Popular for who?? If it was just about general popularity, Call of Duty would win every award year after year after year. Most COD games these days don’t even score really high, are almost never nominated for GOTY, and wind up getting a crap ton of criticism online. And it’s been one of the most popular games going for well over a decade.
It’s how popular a game is with reviewers that matters most, not overall popularity. Only a handful of reviewers dictate the overall score a game receives. Most Metacritic scores are compiled from what, 75-100 reviews at most. So 75-100 people working for various gaming sites or publications wind up dictating the overall score a game receives. That score winds up having a huge impact on how a game is generally perceived. And the same goes for selecting what games wind up being chosen for GOTY awards. It’s a small handful of people that dictate such things.
If you think these people are above having biases for companies….well, no offense but thats kinda naive in my book. I’m not saying you’re 100% wrong. In fact, I somewhat agree with you. I think there are biases in the gaming industry for certain genres of games. Where our opinions part ways is that I also think there are biases in the industry that aren’t genre related and are in fact related to what console were talking about. I think it’s a combination of both. Reviewers are not above having personal biases and neither are the people responsible for selecting which games are nominated for awards. I have seen too many things over the years that can’t be explained by just genre bias alone.
And I don’t think it’s a big secret that Xbox hasn’t been the most popular company the last couple generations, for a variety of different reasons. And I for one absolutely think some of that unpopularity has worked its way into the system of reviewing games and choosing which games get selected for various awards.
Re: Talking Point: Will Hellblade 2 Be A Genuine Game Of The Year Contender This Year?
@Ralizah
And if it’s a bias towards certain kinds of games, it follows that any company that makes more of those kinds of games will benefit from that overall bias and companies that don’t will not, friend.
Again, if there is a bias towards those kinds of games and Sony specializes in those kinds of games, there will be a bias with Sonys games wether it’s indirectly or not. The two simply go hand in hand. Wether it’s a bias towards Sony or just the kinds of games Sony makes is pretty much irrelevant. The bias still exists.
Re: Talking Point: Will Hellblade 2 Be A Genuine Game Of The Year Contender This Year?
Oh please…. Anyone taking what people say in here on these kinds of topics as fact is living in la la land. All anyone is doing in here, on 99% of the articles being put up here, is giving their opinion. The fact that you need to see an IMO in front of what is OBVIOUSLY someone’s opinion is downright comical. It would be annoying as f**k having to read IMO or in my opinion in front of every single opinion posted on this site. It’s just pure common sense to infer that people are giving their opinions when actually giving their opinions….
As for the rest of your post, you have your opinion and I have mine. And trust me, I think yours is just as ridiculous as you think mine is. Once again, gotta love subjectivity.
And you want an example of what I deem to be a clear case of bias against Xbox? Forza Horizon 5 not being a nominee for GOTY in 2021 for The Game Awards. It had a 92 Metacritic rating and was being praised everywhere. Hell, IGN not only nominated it, it actually awarded it GOTY that year. At The Game Awards, it wasn’t even nominated. You’re welcome to disagree with this all you want. My opinion, this is a very CLEAR cut case of bias against Xbox by The Game Awards. Resident Evil Village was nominated but not FH5, lol. It’s beyond comical
And if I really wanted to dig in and invest the time, I could remember and find many more, but I am not getting into a back and forth over a subjective topic. It’s utterly pointless. I have been gaming since Pong, have no specific allegiance to Xbox and in fact have been gaming longer on Nintendo and PS systems. I know what I have seen with my own 2 eyes over the years and you’re not gonna change my mind anymore than I am gonna change yours. Great thing about subjective opinions, beyond there being no right or wrong, is that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and it’s no more right or wrong than any other subjective opinion. That’s why it’s best to just agree to disagree.
Re: Talking Point: Will Hellblade 2 Be A Genuine Game Of The Year Contender This Year?
@Ralizah
“ There's no Nintendo or Sony bias. There's genre bias. Which is why stuff like Breath of the Wild, God of War, and The Last of Us enjoy so much attention, and why Microsoft's few good games struggle to attract similar attention.”
I don’t really agree with this as I absolutely think there is bias against Xbox in todays market, but let’s say for a seconds this is true. Sony is renowned for the very type of games you’re describing so if there is a general bias in the industry for those kinds of games then there would be a bais for Sony as a direct result of that. You can’t have one without the other.
In other words, it would be a bias for the kinds of games being made and not for Sony directly, but the end result would still be the same. An overall bias in favor of Sony simply for the kinds of games they generally make these days. And the same could be said for Nintendo.. if there is a general bias in favor of the types of games Nintendo is making, that will result in a favorable bias for those Nintendo games. And the same could be said for Xbox as well, just the opposite resulting in a negative bias.
So what you’re saying is in fact admitting there is a Sony and Nintendo bias out there. You’re just suggesting it’s due to the kinds of games they are making as opposed to any feelings people have for the companies themselves. Bias is bias and the end result is still the same.
Re: Talking Point: Will Hellblade 2 Be A Genuine Game Of The Year Contender This Year?
@GeeEssEff
I didn’t prove anything false. It’s a subjective opinion so the entire idea that it can be proven false is a fallacy. And it’s inferred that people are giving opinions in here. That is my opinion and it’s just as valid as anyone else’s, including yours.
Sorry brother, but there is no right or wrong with subjectivity. It’s all just opinion and people shouldn’t have to put IMO in front of everything they say on boards like this when it should just be understood that’s what people are doing, giving their opinions. None of this is objective fact, and that goes for your opinion that there is no bias as much as my opinion that there is. Again, it’s all just opinion.
I can’t prove it anymore than you can disprove it. Again, welcome to subjectivity.
Re: Talking Point: Will Hellblade 2 Be A Genuine Game Of The Year Contender This Year?
@GeeEssEff
I’m not going out and hunting down all of the reviews I have read in recent years so I can find clear cut examples of obvious bias against Xbox. I don’t have enough interest to invest that kind of time into it. If you want to think it isn’t happening…well, you’re certainly entitled to that opinion.
There is no way to prove any of it one way or another. Way too much subjectivity involved with what each person finds to be bias or not. A statement I might find obviously bias, you might not find any bias at all. So it goes with subjectivity.
Re: Talking Point: Will Hellblade 2 Be A Genuine Game Of The Year Contender This Year?
In the current anti-Xbox climate, not a chance. The sheer amount of negative bias present today in regards to Xbox is pretty significant and blatantly obvious in many cases. Given, it’s almost impossible to not have some level of bias so I usually forgive most reviewers or writers when I see it, but it’s reached a new level for Xbox, one that can’t be easily ignored.
It will still get good reviews and will most likely win best sound at the game awards, but that will be about it.
Re: It's Been 12 Months Since Xbox Faced A Major Activision Blizzard Crisis
Never had a single doubt the acquisition was gonna go through. The CMA’s case was weak af and amazingly, the FTC’s was even worse. There should have been an investigation into Lina Khan and the connections between her, Sony and the CMA.
Oh well, what’s done is done and it turned out exactly as it should have been.
Re: Rumour: Destiny 3 Is In Development At Bungie Under The Codename 'Payback'
@Savage_Joe
What’s only for PlayStation? This game will be multi-platform.
Re: Rumour: Destiny 3 Is In Development At Bungie Under The Codename 'Payback'
Guess my interest in Bungie will remain at absolute zero.
Re: Saber Interactive CEO Reckons $70 Game Prices Will Go Away
$70 games aren’t going anywhere. If anything, the price will just drop faster if a lot of people refuse to buy a particular game at that price point. We’re not going to go backwards price wise, not for big AAA titles.
Re: Saber Interactive CEO Reckons $70 Game Prices Will Go Away
@Whybox
“Also keep in mind — inflation. Games used to cost up to $80 during the 80s and early 90s in 90s money. I think the only sustainability might be lowered development costs for wide-release $30-$50 titles.”
While this is true, the gaming market in general was vastly, and I do mean VASTLY, smaller in size. So while they aren’t making as much per copy today as they did back then, the average game is selling 10-100x more copies. That’s the flip side of the inflation argument.
Re: Xbox Reportedly Testing The Waters With Sea Of Thieves PS5 Release
@Phil-Spencer-Gate
I wasn’t disagreeing with you. I have no idea how your name got included as one of the people I was replying to. That reply was meant for fiendish beaver alone. Again, not sure how your name got included in that reply. Must have pushed a wrong button or something.
Re: Xbox Reportedly Testing The Waters With Sea Of Thieves PS5 Release
@Fiendish-Beaver @Phil-Spencer-Gate
Yeah, I disagree. I don’t think 5 months is enough time to port any of the titles MS brought to PS, except maybe Pentiment. So I just don’t believe Starfield had anything to do with any of it. It’s not a big mystery as to why Starfield didn’t do as well as they hoped. The game was hugely divisive as many people were not happy with the game. That’s not a failure of Xbox, it’s a failure of development by Bethesda.
I think MS bringing certain titles to PS and Switch has FAR FAR more to do with what Spencer said about it being so difficult to get gamers to switch consoles at this point due to people being entrenched with their digital libraries, gamer scores, etc. IMO, they are simply looking for new ways to make money on gamers that will never make the switch to Xbox. I don’t think Starfield and it’s overall performance on Xbox had anything to do with it.
We’ll just have to agree to disagree on this one.
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