RadioHedgeFund

This reads as someone who has never heard of Nintendo and still remains sore Xbox canned all their exclusives on the One.

Until they patch in offline play it’s a no.

Copy the original games multiplayer code-for-code but add a new campaign. I know that’s not a small amount of work but that has to be the general direction for it.

Of course top brass probably want an ongoing multiplayer/season progression in place to keep the subs rolling in rather than something that it just raw fun.

Microsoft wouldn’t let Square release FFXIV on Xbox.

20% of XV sales were on Xbox.

Sony’s FF exclusivity stems from not burning bridges.

Yea, but only by exploiting cheap one off codes on CDKeys. I only use it for streaming on my iPad so I’m overpaying as it is. If they offered a streaming only sub I’d jump on that.

Which is why their Activision play is less Call of Duty and more Candy Crush. Microsoft sees the amount of money spent on mobile gaming: Genshin Impact made more profit than Sonys entire games division last year alone.

@Zoidpilot4 The Dreamcast was home to a burst of supernova creativity the likes of which haven’t been seen since from anyone.

Microsoft only have themselves to blame. They shut down all their 1st party studios knowing full well people buy consoles to play first party exclusives. The likes of Halo, Fable and PGR were reasons why I and many others picked an Xbox 360 over a PS3.

Sony doubled down on exclusives on the PS4 whilst Microsoft burned all theirs and they lost a lot of ground. It was only initiatives like backwards compatibility and Gamepass that got them through.

Are Microsoft a third behind Sony and Nintendo? Yes, but buying Activision won’t help things.

I honestly don't have high hopes for Starfield. It will be massive in scope and janky as heck at launch because, well Bethesda.

I foresee Forza being the star of the show. We already know it's visually above Gran Turismo 7; we just need to know what gameplay structure is like.

I'd love to see a Fable 2024 release. I just hope it's got an offline solo campaign and open world to play through. I don't mind playing online but sometimes I want that place to myself.

Even more galling knowing Nintendo delayed the release of Zelda for a year to polish it to perfection.

I agree the love service angle needs to stop. It didn't work for Halo and I find it nauseous in Forza Horizon.

So long as Microsoft keep delivering good games people will keep their game pass sub. They don't want to pay just to play the same 3 games over and over.

Stuff due out years down the line is exciting but of no use now. Hi-Fi Rush has been the best suprise of the year because it came out this year.

With that in mind I'd like to see Microsoft rebuild their backwards compatibility program to plug short term holes in the release schedule. There are still loads of older Xbox/360 titles that don't work on the Series S|X that could be added quickly.

Games like JSRF, PGR, Sega GT, Fall of Cybertron, FEAR etc are all welcome.

@S1ayeR74 Ironic given Windows Phone 7 had the best implementation of a gaming brand into the mobile space ever seen in the market.

@Stoned_Patrol Unfortunately this is why they're playing second fiddle to Sony. Don't get me wrong: I love the platform and the 360 is probably my favourite ever home console but as a father looking for a new console his whole family will play the Xbox doesn't sell itself very well.

The XIV situation is annoying. I recall its something to do with Sony letting them process sub fees outside the PlayStation Store. It also doesn't require a PS+ sub. Microsoft won't let them class it as F2P and Square don't want it to require XBL.

All so a few gamers can save £50 a year not buying Call of Duty. From the comments this is all anyone seems to care about.

I doubt Microsoft are looking to revive Zork or Pitfall any time soon. They really should have brought Sega for 5% of the price instead.

@Moonglow There is an intern at Sony paid just to sit with his finger over a giant 'Buy Square Enix' button in case this deal goes through. His arm is getting tired.

To put this another way: the price of Call of Duty becoming 1st party is Final Fantasy (or any of their other JRPGs) never coming to Xbox ever again. The flip side is I could see them continuing to release games on Nintendo platforms because that's where they sell the most.

The money theyre spending would be enough to pay the entirety of Lionhead and Bizarre Creations to reform and build Fable IV and PGR6 from scratch. It's then an additional £5bn to buy Sega and build Outrun 3, Skies of Arcadia 2 and JSR3 and make them all Xbox exclusives forever. And then sofa change to buy Deep Silver and get the actual creators of Goldeneye making Perfect Dark 3. Announce all this and the internet would melt.

But instead it's £60bn on Crash Bandicoot, a company that has massively misread the room on Diablo 4 and the literal definition of generic FPS.

I hope it doesn't go through so they can spend the money on something good.

This needs to be made Series-exclusive so upgraders finally feel a difference at the base level.

Honestly I just wish they would bring back the Xbox 360 Dashboard with the baked in store.

Why don't Microsoft just sign their own 10 year deal with Activision to bring it's titles to Gamepass? 😅

"Company mucrosoft gave lots of money to and favourable terms agrees with its stance"

Microsoft only have themselves to blame for this whole situation. When Sony were investing in their 1st party studios Microsoft went around closing them.

Now they think they can do a classic Microsoft and just buy their way out of the problem before ditching hardware after 2 generations.

I don't really get the opposition from Xbox gamers. These games are still coming out on Xbox regardless of the decision. Or is it a complaint that they will have to buy them at full price (shock!) instead of getting them 'for free' with Gamepass?

@NEStalgia The 2 biggest games of this year will be Final Fantasy XVI and Zelda. Starfield looks great but its on Gamepass so won't actually 'sell' any copies.

@DNortonX I'd argue the opposite. It looks like Xbox is cementing its library of western RPGs and shooters.

The reason half of these games don't come out on the Xbox is because of the perceived notion that there is no market for them. It goes back generations: Microsoft made a good push for Japanese exclusives on the 360 with games like Blue Dragon and Tales of Vesperia and they fell flat.

Even a game like Hi-Fi Rush seems to have failed to break even (although I don't see how a Gamepass title can when its 'free with the sub') Look at the E3 Conference from last year: shooters, zombie titles and horror games. Nothing aimed at families and precious few JRPGs.

Now it might be that if more games did come out they would sell and that would then continue a positive cycle but it remains that they don't and there isn't.

Microsoft could turn this around: The Series S is a lovely little box. Get some devs on some 6-month ports of older titles like Motorcross Mayhem or Doritos Crash Course and bundle them with the console and 2 controllers for the same $249 price and see if it makes a dent.

@JayJ Even more incredibly was managing to squash it onto the PSP!

@Dezzy70 I don’t think it ever mattered. Dorky peripherals add to the whimsy of a console. I had so much fun at uni playing Eyetoy with my housemates. With the PSVR2 its sheer presence just serves to implant the idea in the mind of the consumer that the PS5 is more futuristic than the Xbox and that’s a gained sale.

What Microsoft are missing is any appeal to families. The last time Microsoft bothered with anything aimed at a family audience was the Kinect (which was a lot of fun!). I watch the E3 streams and all I see are more shooters and more zombies. Yay.

What Sony gets is that whilst the average age of a gamer might be 30, consoles sit in the living room and are played on by people of all ages. The PS5 launched with Sackboy’s Adventure, a game I can play with my youngest son and my nephew, aged 10 and 4 respectively. What does Xbox have for those moments?

If Microsoft want to bump sales they should bring back the old style Avatars, remove the need for every user to have a Microsoft account with local user accounts (like the 360 had), maybe get some quick updates of some top older titles out the door like Motorcross Mayhem and Dorito’s Crash Course and bundle them with the Series S with 2 controllers.

The Xbox 360 was earlier to the party and had a great lineup of Japanese exclusives, from Blue Dragon to Tales of Vesperia and it still didn't help. Would FFXVI coming to the Series X really make much difference?

The software and hardware charts for the last 5 years have been entirely dominated by Nintendo because in the densely populated commuter jungle of Japan, a small home console you can take with you on public transport is a miracle.

@JayJ I can’t agree with that. The 360 pad had easier to nudge the bumpers whilst you grip the triggers and you could tell which player was which with the segmented lights.

The newer pads only have a better d-pad IMO.

I’ve a feeling Microsoft would put Infinity Ward in charge of the next Halo rather than serve up another Call of Duty

It has been apparent for 4 and 5 that Microsoft have been keen to turn it into a live service game for a while now. It was obvious that some IAP for Wheelspins was stripped from 4 at the last minute in response to the backlash against Battlefront 2. The game's constant updates are to keep people paying for Gamepass.

Thus why not do a World Tour? They could do a weekly rotation of maps from previous titles and some new ones with a remaster of the FH1-3 maps. They could also roll in the DLC ones (Storm Island, Blizzard Mountain etc) as part of this too.

The retail release would be a new campaign set on Hokkaido but the online side would be that rotational gameplay.

I wonder if for the sequel they might do a live service world tour sort of thing where they remaster the old maps, add in a Japanese one (that would be the basis of a separate offline single player mode) and have them on weekly rotation.

@Somebody The difference is Nintendo and Nvidia have nothing to lose. They didn't have COD before and it isn't a system seller for Nintendo.

Sony on the other hand will want a clause in place that prevents Call of Duty launching on Gamepass at the same time as the retail release. Microsoft didn't buy Activision to sell more units; they brought it to sell more subs. It doesn't matter if Sony get a bigger cut over the next decade because they know a lot of people buy a PlayStation just to play COD and FIFA.

There is nothing wrong with this but will people buy a PlayStation to play it when they can instead buy an Xbox (possibly a cheaper S model) and just fork out for one month of sub for the campaign?

Thus if COD launches on Gamepass day one (or even within a few months) Sony know they will lose console sales and unit sales because of it.

I doubt Microsoft are willing to capitulate and offer Sony a deal that gives both platforms parity and stops new COD titles launching on Gamepass within 12 months of launch.

It is this imbalance that the regulators will be looking at.

A full remaster of the original Colorado map please.

The likely explanation is sales of the original were so poor on Xbox platforms that they didn’t bother to even think about releasing it.

It’s a shame but this has been going on since the 360 where titles like Vesperia eventually went multi platform because exclusivity damaged Japanese sales of the game.

The lions share of OT sales were obviously on Switch but to maximise the Japanese market it makes business sense to build OT2 for PlayStation platforms too.

“We really want the big up front wodge for the Gamepass inclusion because we are worried our game won’t sell.”

I do wonder if we’ve become a little entitled as gamers. Perfect Dark, Halo 2 and Call of Duty 4 didn’t have much by way of ongoing post-launch content bar some DLC and are are still very playable. N64 PD launched with so many options you’d struggle to ever get bored of it.

And yet we now demand these constant updates to keep things fresh when actually maybe the problem isn’t the game but us.

@Gloki_junior To be fair videogame prices have largely remained immune to inflation for the last 20 years. I'm not saying every game is worth $70 but I do know that I paid £60 each for Perfect Dark and Majora's Mask on the N64 in 2000.

The danger is escalation. Sony have their finger hovering over the 'buy Square Enix' button as we speak. If the AB deal goes through then nobody can complain about anything costing less.

This is precisely the problem: Xbox needs more original titles or franchise reimagining and not just more of the same. Look at the response to HiFi Rush!

There is nothing wrong with franchises but the difference from, say Twilight Princess to Skyward Sword to Breath of the Wild is startling.

There is literally an intern at Sony whose entire job is to sit over a big red button marked ‘buy Square Enix’ and press it as soon as it does.

Another shooter. Yay.

“We need all the spare cash to buy a company for $40bn so someone had to go”

More of the new campaign structure. The ‘enclosed conflict’ gameplay of Halo works really well in a semi-open world scenario. I wouldn’t mind seeing more options added to think laterally about a conflict.

@Cyberpsycho Despite buying it from a 2nd hand retailer wiped and reset my X1 is still registered to its previous owner for Gamepass purposes. I think they still have it set as their ’home’ console despite their account being nowhere to be seen.

What this had meant is that for the last few years I’ve had Gamepass and Live completely for free! At first I thought it was an error so I rang up MS customer service and they said it was legit.

@Tharsman That I did not know. Still, the companies do have a good working relationship.

@NEStalgia That depends if Sony made up the difference by lowering their cut.

Given that only 20% of FFXV sales were on Xbox One it might be that Square Enix just doesn’t consider it to be financially viable to bother releasing games on the console. Octopath only got released because Microsoft licensed it for Game Pass and SE likely made more money that way than selling it directly.

Sony own a large percentage of Square Enix so will always get preferential treatment. Xbox still massively lags in Japan and that also remains a core market for SE.

The last time Japanese devs went all-in on Xbox with JRPGs (Blue Dragon, Vesperia etc on 360) they got burned.

Suck it up Microsoft. You were the ones who shuttered all your first party studios in the first place. The lack of any 1st party titles is your own damned fault.

You can use the excuse that Sony doubled down on exclusives whilst you are still fighting the damage done by the Xbox One as evidence on why you should buy AB.

It’s like a kid trying to convince his parents he should have more toys because the kid next door does.

We still don’t know the ins and outs of the fine print here. Nintendo had nothing to lose by signing up to whatever terms Microsoft wanted because they don’t even have Call of Duty on Switch. The Sony deal could have locked them out of DLC, made it clear COD was coming to Game Pass day 1 or even cut off cross-platform play.

In the long-term I wonder how much value Call of Duty has as a franchise anyway? Traditionally it sells to a more casual sort of player who tends to buy their annual COD and FIFA releases for whatever console they own. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this.

But Microsoft and Sony are both losing money to these players. There is no way the 30% cut of FUT and COD DLC over a few years makes up for the loss made on selling them a console. Nintendo and Sony both make their profits from quality first party software and Microsoft have never been profitable with the Xbox at all.

Most of the COD money went to Activision but if COD becomes just another GamePass title and the casual players move over to Xbox there is no way they’re making that $70bn back any time soon.

I wonder if that picture of Colorado from FH1 is a clue? I keep dreaming about a remaster of that map using the FH5 engine.....