@Fiendish-Beaver I do believe exclusives are something the industry ultimately needs to move beyond, and that consoles should succeed based on their own merits. In that sense, Microsoft’s philosophy makes sense. The problem is that it only works if every major competitor is willing to play by the same rules. If one company releases all of its exclusives on competing platforms while others continue keeping their content locked to their own ecosystems, consumers are naturally going to gravitate toward the platform offering the most content. That completely undermines the strategy.
Unless some form of industry-wide standard or legislation around multiplatform publishing were ever introduced, which would be incredibly difficult to define and enforce given how nuanced these situations are, exclusives will likely remain a necessary evil.
What makes the situation especially unfortunate is that Microsoft actually recovered from its “no worthwhile exclusives” reputation from the 2010s. By the time they finally had exclusives people genuinely wanted to play, they were already launching those games on PC and signaling eventual PS5 releases. At that point, many consumers simply decided to wait instead of investing in Xbox hardware. It’s hard to convince people to buy a new console for games they know they’ll eventually be able to play elsewhere.
I'm in total agreement. I thought Infinite had a solid setup for an interesting new chapter in the Universe. I thought they did a respectable job setting up the new plot while closing off the setup from H4/H5 without completely ignoring that it happened. With a sequel that has moved past the Created plot and into the Banished/Fallen story entirely, I think the potential for a strong sequel is great.
Where I think I butt heads with a lot of the community is I want a much smaller focus on multiplayer and more on the Single Player this time around. I think a setup like we have in the Borderlands games would be a good direction. It keeps a pseudo-open world design, but more easily allows them to branch out into different Biomes and even more to other planets if necessary.
Was never a fan of any of their titles personally, but I can see the effort that went into their games and I understand why people enjoyed what they made. It's always a shame to see a creative and passionate team like this taken down by finances or politics. Hopefully they can pull through or land on their feet quickly.
Absolutely not. This needs to stop. We don't need every studio locked down under a single publisher banner. We need to go back to the days of 2nd and 3rd-party contracts. Allow studios to exist under their own independence and publishers should do what they're supposed to do and just publish.
This would give studios the freedom to develop what they want without intrusive oversight and publishers are free to support the studios they want to foster good relations with without the risk of a studio being mercilessly cut down after their game hits the market. This is the only way we're going to stop seeing studios like Tango punished for doing a good job or Bioware being turned from one of the most talented teams in the industry to a hollow garbage-spewing shadow of its former self.
Hopefully this is the beginning of the end for this flat and boring monochromatic logo BS that every company has gravitated toward this past decade. Such a painfully boring trend, especially after the colorful and creative designs of the 90's and 2000's.
Now lets see what we can do about the flat and generic 'Rows of pictures in boxes' UI design...
The subs they lost at the $20 price point must not have been significant at the time because they obviously thought they could get away a $30 price point not much later. The lost subscriptions at that time were no doubt offset by the price hike in a way that the $30 sub did not manage to recover. Regressing back to the $20 price tag won't bring back all of the subs they lost, but they're hoping it will bring them back to a leveling off point. For $22 a month, I can certainly justify firing my subscription back up.
Removing COD AND dropping the price back down? This is a win-win for fans! I cancelled my sub back in October, but I will more than likely resub sometime in the next couple weeks once I've cleared Pragmata from my playlist.
Definitely looks good on Asha, but people need to remember the shareholders are calling the shots. Phil was done dirty by being forced into a lot of the decisions the brand was forced to make and it seems like they're scapegoating him by giving her more free reign, but I have no doubt they'll do the same thing to Asha in due time.
Honestly the only thing stopping me from going over to Playstation is the controller. If Sony were to release an official controller with Asymmetrical analogs, I think they would see a large surge of players from the Xbox side. Hoping Xbox can get it together before it's too late, but I'm still not overly confident about putting the AI lady in charge in an industry that is notoriously anti-AI.
Sad it doesn't have Play Anywhere support. I would love to see it running on my new Laptop, but if I have to choose between the two, I'm getting the Xbox version.
No idea who most of these reviewers are, but I'm glad to see the game appears to be performing well. I'm curious to see more user reviews, but I' pretty confident this is going to be a Day 1 purchase for me. First Capcom game I've bought since Asura's Wrath in 2012.
Fine with me. Give ABK it's own streaming service like Ubisoft+ and EA Access. Bring GamePass back down to $20 with Day-1 1st-party titles and include all of these 3rd-party services with a higher tier.
1. Native Insignia support forBC-supported Original Xbox games so we can play them online again.
2. The ability to sort and filter Achievement-listed games (Sort by name, Completion Percentage, Filter by DLC, etc...
3. Picture-in-picture support for apps so I can have videos like YouTube or Netflix playing on-screen while I game. Great for walkthroughs or as a distraction during monotonous grind sessions.
Neat. Only other thing I would really like for achievements is to be able to sort my games list based on different criteria. Being able to display games alphabetically, by completion percentage, filtering by games currently installed, etc... would be helpful for finding and completing older titles.
Show was meh, but the game itself was fantastic and I would absolutely love a sequel someday since it didn't exactly response the issue. It would be sad not having Lance Reddick reprise his role, though. RIP.
@Tdx Removing CoD from GamePass would be a perfectly acceptable option, but I think it's as much an issue having EA and Ubisoft services tacked onto the service as well. At the end of the day the only thing most people care about are Day One 1st-party releases. Indie releases and 3rd-party games are tertiary benefits, as well.
I say give Activision their own streaming service a la EA Access, then strip the EA, Ubi, and ABK services away and make them the upper GP tier.
I think it's also time to take the paywall restriction off of Online multiplayer. They want to tie PC and Xbox gaming together so badly, yet it's BS that I can play a game like Sea of Thieves online for free on my computer, but have to pay to access the same service on my Xbox.
I'm all for giving developers a voice and I love finding obscure Indie games, but the one thing I think XBLA did best was sorting it into its own storefront. It was so much more manageable having separate listings for Indies and officially published titles and three things I hate most about the current store is having to shift through mountains of trash to find anything. For every good game that gets published, it seems like their are 50 janky pixelated turds to avoid, not even including the AI slop, quick-buck releases, multiple listings for every version of a game that gets released and those notorious dozen games that are years old and still get highlighted in the new releases section every week.
Y'all had me at Pragmata. Been waiting for this one since the first reveal trailer back in 2020. Don't know what it is since I'm not usually a Capcom fan, but something about Capcom and Sci-Fi just always speaks to me. Reminds me of P.N.03 and Dino Crisis 3.
I have to say I have a pretty impressive knowledge of games on the original Xbox. I've played probably 90% of the games that have released for it, yet I have never even heard of this one. Somehow it has completely missed my radar and I'm now tempted to go and find a copy of the original game just to further complete my collection.
The solution is so simple, too. If they want to add new services, just add them to a Premium Tier. I get they're trying to attract new subscribers, but if you force additional content on people and charge more for it by default, all you do is risk alienating the subscribers you already have.
It never fails to amaze me how little these big corporations care about their existing customers. They're always chasing that potential customer and trying to give them special perks (like Sony's surge pricing debacle) but they always forget how fickle their existing customers are and how easily they can lose what they already have. You would think Microsoft would've already learned this lesson with Xbox One...)
The addition of Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft+ is what caused me to cancel my GamePass subscription 6 months ago. They added exactly zero value to the service for me, yet I was still expected to foot the bill for this addition and if I wanted to maintain my current monthly cost I would lose access to the only content that actually warrants GamePass's existence in the first place, which is the Day 1 1st-party releases.
Give me a $15-$20 tier that brings back Day 1 releases and gets rid of Ubisoft, Fortnite, EA Access, and they can even take away the Call of Duty games and I'll happily come back.
If they price it fairly, I'm honestly okay with a 1st-party only GamePass Tier. That's 90% of what I use GamePass for anyway. They just need to be sure to include Day-1 new releases and keep a fairly consistent roster addition rate, which given the size of Microsoft's existing 1st-party catalog along with ABK and Bethesda as well as their potentially bringing back BC support, they should have a few years of classic content to lean on
I could even see them cycling older games in and out of the roster on a cycle. Drop a game for 3 months, then remove it for 3 months, then bring it back, repeat ad nauseum. I honestly wouldn't take much issue with it as long as they're consistent and transparent on their scheduling.
@Markatron84 Interesting. Their project catalog is really all over the place. Hard to get a bead on what they have really been involved in. They seem to have some pretty impressive stuff on their catalog, though. Be interested to see what else they get into going into the future. Would love to see if they can fill the void left behind by the unfortunate dismantling of Bluepoint Games.
No clue who that is. Really thought they were going to mention Team Sabre or Certain Affinity. The former I wouldn't have been surprised by. The latter I can't see happening since they opted not to include multiplayer.
Been a pretty weak year for me so far. Legacy of Kain Defiance doesn't really count since it's just a remaster and High on Life 2 will be a budget buy once it drops below $25. Still got plenty on my list for the rest of the year starting with Pragmata in April, so I'm not too concerned. This year is gearing up to be the best since 2021 (which is the best since since 2007 IMO.)
Just finished up the single player achievements on Saints Row (2006) and now I'm working on cleaning up Saints Row 2. Will also probably dabble with Legacy of Kain: Defiance and just picked up MGS: Delta, so I'll probably at least get through the opening for that.
@Fiendish-Beaver Their biggest mistake was adjusting the cost of the top tier and adding a mangled middle tier. Day One 1st party games are their bread and butter on the service and it hobbles them removing that from the middle tier. Instead they should've taken external services like EA, Ubisoft, and the Fortnite Crew and added them to a more expensive 3rd tier while keeping the middle tier in line with the original vision for the service at the same cost.
I would be curious to see how many subscribers they would actually gain or lose if they made a tier exclusively for 3rd-party programs.
I onboarded a couple years after the service launched because I already owned everything they had to offer, but I bumped it down to Essential the month after they announced the recent price hike, then dropped it completely a month after that because I don't play online and don't actually need XBL Gold anymore. They haven't added anything of substantial value to justify the service going up in cost since the last price bump. Ubisoft hasn't made a good game in over a decade, nobody gives a damn about some premium Fortnite package, and just because Microsoft wanted to buy a crappy company like ABK (which nobody even wanted to happen) doesn't mean we should have to foot the bill for it.
On average I play 3-4 games on the service per year and end up only actually enjoying 1 or 2 of them. Those numbers do not justify that $30 a month.
That is the best news I've heard all week. Would've been neat if they could've pushed it into March since I have no interest in anyone coming out this month, but I'll take even a week.
@Tasuki CoD is also a very rare exception of a game who's player base lately consists of non-gamers. It's a social phenomenon that became mainstream and attracted a lot of perks to it because of its popularity with athletes, rappers, etc...
These games are trying to court CoD numbers, but they're chasing a demographic that don't visit forums, don't read gaming news, will literally never hear about any other game in existence, and will certainly never play another game that isn't the annual CoD release. CoD, Roblox, and Fortnite are impossible demographics to pursue. They don't exist in the sphere of this industry, yet studios continue to push marketing and spend on development costs like they do. They're reaching for infinite growth in a balloon that can only maintain a certain size given the current population. It's leaking and it's going to pop eventually.
To absolutely nobody's surprise. That's what happens when you try to release a F2P multiplayer game in a market that is already grossly oversaturated and has players locked in to their markets already. It's extremely rare for any game to be a breakout hit, but even more so a multiplayer title in a market competing with Fortnite, PUBG, ROBLOX, or Call of Duty levels of success.
Releasing your first game with a model that strictly depends on a large player base willing to spend copious amounts of money on content that isn't strictly necessary to play in a game that in all likelihood wouldn't have a long-term presence in the market and thus was always at risk of being shut down at any moment and making the purchasing of said content a risky gamble is a terrible idea, especially when it's your first entry as a studio.
Logically they should've started with a Premium Single Player or PvE experience at a sensible price point so they could've at least had some profit and royalties rolling in to support them during their future projects. Once you have a steady revenue stream, THEN you gamble on the risky F2P model once you have a following.
I truly don't understand the thought process behind "Let's release a console, then give people zero incentive to invest in that console." If they had dishes hardware and sold the Xbox as a brand or as software for other platforms, then I would get it, but having physical hardware with exactly zero reasons to choose it over its competitor makes absolutely no sense.
I hate exclusives as much as the next guy, but you need to have exclusives to add incentive. No exclusives only works if all of the competitors are also willing to give up their exclusives as well. You can't have a console selling A, B, & C when the other console sells A, B, C, D & E at the same or lesser cost.
Unfortunately the only way they're going to bring the Xbox back is to rewind it back to basics and offer the superior service. Free online multiplayer, dashboard with zero ads, invest in 1st party and partnered exclusives, and generally just not screw up on the consumer front. Xbox has always been at a disadvantage with Favoritism and the Xbox tax, but Sony and Nintendo constantly make mistakes. If Xbox could be steadfast and firm in it's decision making and offer strong 1st-party titles, they MIGHT be able to take advantage of those mistakes and turn things around, but it's going to take A LOT of trust building.
Guys, Chat GPT was just promoted to Head of Xbox Studios!
"To the Xbox Community,
Today, I step into the role of Head of Xbox Studios with deep respect for what this brand means to millions of players around the world. Xbox was built on bold ideas, unforgettable worlds, and a simple promise: put players at the center of everything.
That promise has not always felt consistent. I want to acknowledge that directly. Trust is not a marketing campaign. It is earned through action, transparency, and delivering the experiences you were promised.
My commitment is straightforward:
1. Games First. Always. We are aligning every studio under one clear priority: ship exceptional games that are polished, ambitious, and worthy of your time. No filler. No rushed launches. Creative freedom paired with accountability.
2. Clear Communication. If a project changes, you will hear it from us. If something is delayed, we will explain why. Silence breeds frustration. Transparency builds trust.
3. Quality Over Quantity. Our roadmap will focus on fewer, stronger releases rather than spreading our talent thin. Each title should feel like an event, not an obligation.
4. Empowering Our Studios. The teams behind our worlds are our greatest strength. We are restructuring internal greenlighting and milestone reviews to reduce bottlenecks and ensure developers can build boldly without compromising stability or performance.
5. Listening With Intent. Community feedback will not be a checkbox. We are expanding structured player councils, technical preview programs, and post launch support plans so you can see direct influence on the games you love.
Xbox succeeds when players feel proud to be part of it. My goal is not just to launch great games. It is to restore confidence in the direction of this platform.
You deserve consistency. You deserve ambition. You deserve experiences that remind you why you chose Xbox in the first place. The work starts now.
@Banjo- Not even. These AI models are trained off of content on the Internet. She no doubt asked it to write a PR introduction focused on what Xbox fans want most. This and the demand for more 1st-party games are among the highest asked-for requests and are both things she's now promised. I doubt Sharma even knows what a Blade dashboard is. I give it a week and she'll name-drop Perfect Dark and Scalebound as well.
@Banjo- I considered the ROG as an opposing proof to my concern and there may be truth to it still, but I also still don't consider the ROG as an Xbox device. It's a pre-existing device from another company that Microsoft partnered with. It's not Microsoft-built, it has no access to the Xbox marketplace, and all they did was slap some Xbox branding on a PC device and design an app to determine GamePass access. It's essentially no different than buying a Steamdeck or a Samsung phone and pulling up GamePass through the browser.
I'm hopeful it won't be the case and considering Microsoft is the #1 game publisher on the PS5 I hope that's cause enough for Sony to simmer down and let it slide, but Sony has never behaved in a way that could be considered consumer-friendly. There was even a point where they fought Microsoft on releasing games for the PS5 because they didn't want Microsoft having early access to the Dev Kits, which was a huge talking point during the ABK acquisition.
@Banjo- I still have trouble envisioning Xbox adding library access to marketplaces like Steam, GOG, and Epic storefronts, but I am hopeful they will find a way to make it work. More than anything, I want a streamlined console experience to enjoy my PC games and getting PS game access is a bonus, though I wouldn't be surprised if Sony finds a way to block Xbox-brand devices from accessing their games after this happens similar to how they've blocked XCloud streaming on the PS5 browser.
If there's one thing I want to see more than anything, I want to see my full Xbox library become accessible on PC. If the new Xbox does become essentially a streamlined PC, I don't see why they couldn't run it the other way as well (along with other handheld and mobile devices.) It would be the most natural progression of the Play Anywhere program and it would give incentive to keep people buying from the Xbox marketplace as well.
@Banjo- None of their actions hurt us as gamers and I welcome features like Play Anywhere and making the games multiplatform. The problem is we've also been left with no incentive to keep using their platforms going forward. If 100% of all Xbox games come to Playstation, but only 5% of Playstation games come to Xbox, as a gamer why would you want to limit yourself to the Xbox Platform and miss out on so many experiences? Microsoft has made the best moves out of the Big 3 Console makers, but they've made moves that only make sense when the rest of the competition is onboard and cooperating with the new direction as well.
Even the few of us who stick with Xbox and continue to support them in any capacity as encouragement for moving the in the right direction are playing a risky game because most people are understandably self-serving and the loss of business will always come with that chance that Microsoft eventually pulls the plug and leaves us high and dry.
Say what you will about Phil, but the man was a gamer and he can no doubt see the writing on the wall. There is a push to corrupt an already-struggling industry with the use of AI in the worst ways possible (There is a place for AI in game development, but automation of development and the elimination of jobs is not that way) and I doubt Phil wanted to be a part of that corruption. With Microsoft (and every major company) pushing for more and more AI every day I have no doubt it was being pushed on Xbox harder and harder every day. This much is apparent by their promotion of the AI CEO and Phil was no doubt either discreetly removed from his position or threw in the towel knowing it was a losing battle to resist Microsoft's demands. For better or worse, Phil's departure is no doubt a sign of the beginning of the end for our favorite hobby.
Xbox needs a "man of the people" head who will actually give gamers what they want and need. Unfortunately, instead we've ended up with a Corporate Yes Man who doesn't have the slightest idea about the gaming world. I can safely say we've reached the end of the Xbox era. Maybe the Playstation era, as well, if Sony keeps dropping the ball like they have been (Then again, people seem to have endless patience and unlimited forgiveness for Sony when they screw up unlike Microsoft who makes a mistake and people turn their noses up to any attempt at making amends and force them into a decade-long spiral of desperation.)
Depends on my backlog by time it launches. 2026 is a pretty busy year for me so far and I have at least 13 games coming out this year on my watchlist so far (High on Life 2, Styx: Blades of Greed, Legacy of Kain: Defiance, Fatal Frame 2, Dead or Alive 6: Last Round, Life is Strange: Reunion, Directive 8020, Death Stranding 2, Fable, Pragmata, Halo: CE, Metal Gear Solid 4, and GTAVI) which is about 11 more than I usually get in a year, so depending on how far behind I am it may end up being a discount purchase or a wait for PC.
Considering GTAV got zero post-launch support, they'll probably do the same to GTAVI and the base game alone is NOT worth the $80 they'll likely charge for it.
How about an Xbox controller for the PS5 instead? The controller design is the main reason why I stick with Xbox and could never switch to the Playstation in a future where Xbox throws in the towel. I can only hope Microsoft continues to produce controllers as a 3rd-party if they ever back out of the console industry.
@Brigurugi Oh damn. You've got me beat. I'm probably about 350,000. I pushed the first 250K and broke that wall pretty quickly, somewhere around 2012, but I stopped pursuing achievements for all but my favorite games and the last 100K happened more slowly and organically. It's been at all all time trickle the last few years since none of the main series I play to completion have been putting out any game.
So happy to have another Halo game this year since I ran out of achievements to unlock in that series after Infinite dropped.
These are still a thing? I thought they eliminated them years ago. Pretty sure I blocked and disabled them along with the Series X/S capture button, Friend Following, and all of that social media BS that was introduced back on the XB1. Honestly hard to tell because my Xbox Live Friends list has had zero people on it since I signed up in 2002.
I'm mostly just disappointed that Death Stranding 2 didn't get an Xbox reveal alongside the Steam version. Hopefully it's just a contractual silence and it will be shadow dropped after the (hopefully) 1-year exclusivity deal I assume was added when Kojima reclaimed the publishing rights from Sony. Alongside Fable, Halo, GTAVI, and a few small surprises like Pragmata and Legacy of Skin, DS2 on Xbox would make this one of my best years in gaming in nearly a decade.
Psyched to finally play MGS4 proper! Shame they're drawing the line with these 3 titles though. Really thought we would at least get Revengeance and Portable Ops running, though I was really hoping to get Twin Snakes and both of the Ac!d games.
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Re: Xbox Founder Invited To Microsoft HQ By Asha Sharma, Says It Was 'Amazing' And 'Bizarre'
@Fiendish-Beaver I do believe exclusives are something the industry ultimately needs to move beyond, and that consoles should succeed based on their own merits. In that sense, Microsoft’s philosophy makes sense. The problem is that it only works if every major competitor is willing to play by the same rules. If one company releases all of its exclusives on competing platforms while others continue keeping their content locked to their own ecosystems, consumers are naturally going to gravitate toward the platform offering the most content. That completely undermines the strategy.
Unless some form of industry-wide standard or legislation around multiplatform publishing were ever introduced, which would be incredibly difficult to define and enforce given how nuanced these situations are, exclusives will likely remain a necessary evil.
What makes the situation especially unfortunate is that Microsoft actually recovered from its “no worthwhile exclusives” reputation from the 2010s. By the time they finally had exclusives people genuinely wanted to play, they were already launching those games on PC and signaling eventual PS5 releases. At that point, many consumers simply decided to wait instead of investing in Xbox hardware. It’s hard to convince people to buy a new console for games they know they’ll eventually be able to play elsewhere.
Re: Talking Point: After Halo: Campaign Evolved, What Do You Want Xbox To Do With The Series?
@Fiendish-Beaver
I'm in total agreement. I thought Infinite had a solid setup for an interesting new chapter in the Universe. I thought they did a respectable job setting up the new plot while closing off the setup from H4/H5 without completely ignoring that it happened. With a sequel that has moved past the Created plot and into the Banished/Fallen story entirely, I think the potential for a strong sequel is great.
Where I think I butt heads with a lot of the community is I want a much smaller focus on multiplayer and more on the Single Player this time around. I think a setup like we have in the Borderlands games would be a good direction. It keeps a pseudo-open world design, but more easily allows them to branch out into different Biomes and even more to other planets if necessary.
Re: Nacon's RPG Studio Seemingly Shutting Down Following Financial Troubles
Was never a fan of any of their titles personally, but I can see the effort that went into their games and I understand why people enjoyed what they made. It's always a shame to see a creative and passionate team like this taken down by finances or politics. Hopefully they can pull through or land on their feet quickly.
Re: It's Been Years Since Xbox Acquired A Studio, But It Sounds Like They're Considering It Again
Absolutely not. This needs to stop. We don't need every studio locked down under a single publisher banner. We need to go back to the days of 2nd and 3rd-party contracts. Allow studios to exist under their own independence and publishers should do what they're supposed to do and just publish.
This would give studios the freedom to develop what they want without intrusive oversight and publishers are free to support the studios they want to foster good relations with without the risk of a studio being mercilessly cut down after their game hits the market. This is the only way we're going to stop seeing studios like Tango punished for doing a good job or Bioware being turned from one of the most talented teams in the industry to a hollow garbage-spewing shadow of its former self.
Re: Xbox Unveils New Logo And Explains How To Make It Your Series X|S Background
Hopefully this is the beginning of the end for this flat and boring monochromatic logo BS that every company has gravitated toward this past decade. Such a painfully boring trend, especially after the colorful and creative designs of the 90's and 2000's.
Now lets see what we can do about the flat and generic 'Rows of pictures in boxes' UI design...
Re: Roundup: Here's What Was Revealed At The ID@Xbox April 2026 Showcase
Nothing for me unfortunately. Going back to Pragmata for a bit. Wake me when something interesting happens.
Re: Xbox Rewards Adds Brand-New 'Birthday Gift' Feature With Special Benefits
@Altaria_97
Same. My birthday was a week ago, so just missed out on the treat. Guess we'll try again in a year...
Re: Xbox Announces Price Reductions For Game Pass Ultimate & PC Game Pass
@Balta666
The subs they lost at the $20 price point must not have been significant at the time because they obviously thought they could get away a $30 price point not much later. The lost subscriptions at that time were no doubt offset by the price hike in a way that the $30 sub did not manage to recover. Regressing back to the $20 price tag won't bring back all of the subs they lost, but they're hoping it will bring them back to a leveling off point. For $22 a month, I can certainly justify firing my subscription back up.
Re: Xbox Announces Price Reductions For Game Pass Ultimate & PC Game Pass
Removing COD AND dropping the price back down? This is a win-win for fans! I cancelled my sub back in October, but I will more than likely resub sometime in the next couple weeks once I've cleared Pragmata from my playlist.
Definitely looks good on Asha, but people need to remember the shareholders are calling the shots. Phil was done dirty by being forced into a lot of the decisions the brand was forced to make and it seems like they're scapegoating him by giving her more free reign, but I have no doubt they'll do the same thing to Asha in due time.
Re: GameSir Unveils Tarantula Pro For Xbox & PC, Described As 'The Best Xbox Controller In Symmetry'
@Sol4ris
Honestly the only thing stopping me from going over to Playstation is the controller. If Sony were to release an official controller with Asymmetrical analogs, I think they would see a large surge of players from the Xbox side. Hoping Xbox can get it together before it's too late, but I'm still not overly confident about putting the AI lady in charge in an industry that is notoriously anti-AI.
Re: Pragmata Release Date, Release Times & Everything You Need To Know On Xbox
Sad it doesn't have Play Anywhere support. I would love to see it running on my new Laptop, but if I have to choose between the two, I'm getting the Xbox version.
Re: GameSir Unveils Tarantula Pro For Xbox & PC, Described As 'The Best Xbox Controller In Symmetry'
I think they made a mistake. The left analog stick is in the wrong place. We're supposed to be moving forward, not backwards.
Re: Roundup: Here's What The Reviews Are Saying About Capcom's Pragmata
No idea who most of these reviewers are, but I'm glad to see the game appears to be performing well. I'm curious to see more user reviews, but I' pretty confident this is going to be a Day 1 purchase for me. First Capcom game I've bought since Asura's Wrath in 2012.
Re: Rumour: Microsoft Might Not Launch Call Of Duty 2026 On Xbox Game Pass
Fine with me. Give ABK it's own streaming service like Ubisoft+ and EA Access. Bring GamePass back down to $20 with Day-1 1st-party titles and include all of these 3rd-party services with a higher tier.
Re: 'What Do You Want Added?' - Xbox Engineer Requests Ideas For New Console Features
1. Native Insignia support forBC-supported Original Xbox games so we can play them online again.
2. The ability to sort and filter Achievement-listed games (Sort by name, Completion Percentage, Filter by DLC, etc...
3. Picture-in-picture support for apps so I can have videos like YouTube or Netflix playing on-screen while I game. Great for walkthroughs or as a distraction during monotonous grind sessions.
Re: Xbox Achievements Are Getting A 'Refresh' With Multiple New Improvements
Neat. Only other thing I would really like for achievements is to be able to sort my games list based on different criteria. Being able to display games alphabetically, by completion percentage, filtering by games currently installed, etc... would be helpful for finding and completing older titles.
Re: Quantum Break Actor Celebrates 10th Anniversary Of The 2016 Xbox Console Exclusive
Show was meh, but the game itself was fantastic and I would absolutely love a sequel someday since it didn't exactly response the issue. It would be sad not having Lance Reddick reprise his role, though. RIP.
Re: With 2025's GOTY Now In The Library, Xbox Game Pass Premium Is Becoming Too Good To Ignore
@Tdx Removing CoD from GamePass would be a perfectly acceptable option, but I think it's as much an issue having EA and Ubisoft services tacked onto the service as well. At the end of the day the only thing most people care about are Day One 1st-party releases. Indie releases and 3rd-party games are tertiary benefits, as well.
I say give Activision their own streaming service a la EA Access, then strip the EA, Ubi, and ABK services away and make them the upper GP tier.
I think it's also time to take the paywall restriction off of Online multiplayer. They want to tie PC and Xbox gaming together so badly, yet it's BS that I can play a game like Sea of Thieves online for free on my computer, but have to pay to access the same service on my Xbox.
Re: Opinion: XBLA Was Amazing, But Xbox's Indie Program Is Better Than Ever Right Now
I'm all for giving developers a voice and I love finding obscure Indie games, but the one thing I think XBLA did best was sorting it into its own storefront. It was so much more manageable having separate listings for Indies and officially published titles and three things I hate most about the current store is having to shift through mountains of trash to find anything. For every good game that gets published, it seems like their are 50 janky pixelated turds to avoid, not even including the AI slop, quick-buck releases, multiple listings for every version of a game that gets released and those notorious dozen games that are years old and still get highlighted in the new releases section every week.
Re: All New Games Coming To Xbox In April 2026
Y'all had me at Pragmata. Been waiting for this one since the first reveal trailer back in 2020. Don't know what it is since I'm not usually a Capcom fan, but something about Capcom and Sci-Fi just always speaks to me. Reminds me of P.N.03 and Dino Crisis 3.
Re: Remember 2004's 'Ghostmaster' On The OG Xbox? It's Just Received A Remake For Series X|S
I have to say I have a pretty impressive knowledge of games on the original Xbox. I've played probably 90% of the games that have released for it, yet I have never even heard of this one. Somehow it has completely missed my radar and I'm now tempted to go and find a copy of the original game just to further complete my collection.
Re: Talking Point: Xbox GPU Members, What Do You Think Of 'Ubisoft+ Classics' So Far?
@Sol-idsnake
The solution is so simple, too. If they want to add new services, just add them to a Premium Tier. I get they're trying to attract new subscribers, but if you force additional content on people and charge more for it by default, all you do is risk alienating the subscribers you already have.
It never fails to amaze me how little these big corporations care about their existing customers. They're always chasing that potential customer and trying to give them special perks (like Sony's surge pricing debacle) but they always forget how fickle their existing customers are and how easily they can lose what they already have. You would think Microsoft would've already learned this lesson with Xbox One...)
Re: Talking Point: Xbox GPU Members, What Do You Think Of 'Ubisoft+ Classics' So Far?
The addition of Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft+ is what caused me to cancel my GamePass subscription 6 months ago. They added exactly zero value to the service for me, yet I was still expected to foot the bill for this addition and if I wanted to maintain my current monthly cost I would lose access to the only content that actually warrants GamePass's existence in the first place, which is the Day 1 1st-party releases.
Give me a $15-$20 tier that brings back Day 1 releases and gets rid of Ubisoft, Fortnite, EA Access, and they can even take away the Call of Duty games and I'll happily come back.
Re: Xbox Fan Claims To Have Spotted New Game Pass Codename Featuring Older First-Party Titles
If they price it fairly, I'm honestly okay with a 1st-party only GamePass Tier. That's 90% of what I use GamePass for anyway. They just need to be sure to include Day-1 new releases and keep a fairly consistent roster addition rate, which given the size of Microsoft's existing 1st-party catalog along with ABK and Bethesda as well as their potentially bringing back BC support, they should have a few years of classic content to lean on
I could even see them cycling older games in and out of the roster on a cycle. Drop a game for 3 months, then remove it for 3 months, then bring it back, repeat ad nauseum. I honestly wouldn't take much issue with it as long as they're consistent and transparent on their scheduling.
Re: Report: Halo Studios Is Working With MCC Co-Developer On Halo: Campaign Evolved
@Markatron84 Interesting. Their project catalog is really all over the place. Hard to get a bead on what they have really been involved in. They seem to have some pretty impressive stuff on their catalog, though. Be interested to see what else they get into going into the future. Would love to see if they can fill the void left behind by the unfortunate dismantling of Bluepoint Games.
Re: Report: Halo Studios Is Working With MCC Co-Developer On Halo: Campaign Evolved
No clue who that is. Really thought they were going to mention Team Sabre or Certain Affinity. The former I wouldn't have been surprised by. The latter I can't see happening since they opted not to include multiplayer.
Re: Over 50,000 Votes For 'Xbox Game Preservation' Titles Have Been Added In A Week
@QuantumNinja
Agreed! Give us Riddick, Burnout 3, JSRF, and the MechAssault games and I would pretty much be content.
Re: According To Metacritic, These Are The 10 Best Xbox Games Of 2026 So Far
Been a pretty weak year for me so far. Legacy of Kain Defiance doesn't really count since it's just a remaster and High on Life 2 will be a budget buy once it drops below $25. Still got plenty on my list for the rest of the year starting with Pragmata in April, so I'm not too concerned. This year is gearing up to be the best since 2021 (which is the best since since 2007 IMO.)
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (March 14-15)
Just finished up the single player achievements on Saints Row (2006) and now I'm working on cleaning up Saints Row 2. Will also probably dabble with Legacy of Kain: Defiance and just picked up MGS: Delta, so I'll probably at least get through the opening for that.
Re: Fortnite Price Hikes Are Coming, And They'll Affect Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
@Fiendish-Beaver Their biggest mistake was adjusting the cost of the top tier and adding a mangled middle tier. Day One 1st party games are their bread and butter on the service and it hobbles them removing that from the middle tier. Instead they should've taken external services like EA, Ubisoft, and the Fortnite Crew and added them to a more expensive 3rd tier while keeping the middle tier in line with the original vision for the service at the same cost.
I would be curious to see how many subscribers they would actually gain or lose if they made a tier exclusively for 3rd-party programs.
Re: Talking Point: Are You Happy With Xbox Game Pass Ultimate In 2026?
I onboarded a couple years after the service launched because I already owned everything they had to offer, but I bumped it down to Essential the month after they announced the recent price hike, then dropped it completely a month after that because I don't play online and don't actually need XBL Gold anymore. They haven't added anything of substantial value to justify the service going up in cost since the last price bump. Ubisoft hasn't made a good game in over a decade, nobody gives a damn about some premium Fortnite package, and just because Microsoft wanted to buy a crappy company like ABK (which nobody even wanted to happen) doesn't mean we should have to foot the bill for it.
On average I play 3-4 games on the service per year and end up only actually enjoying 1 or 2 of them. Those numbers do not justify that $30 a month.
Re: Capcom Is Ready To Unleash Pragmata Early As Release Date Gets Brought Forward
That is the best news I've heard all week. Would've been neat if they could've pushed it into March since I have no interest in anyone coming out this month, but I'll take even a week.
Re: Highguard Goes Offline Next Week As Failed Online Shooter Officially Shuts Down
@BAMozzy
A world where F2P and online multiplayer games don't exist? Sounds like a dream come true to me! Bring on the single player revolution!
Re: Highguard Goes Offline Next Week As Failed Online Shooter Officially Shuts Down
@Tasuki CoD is also a very rare exception of a game who's player base lately consists of non-gamers. It's a social phenomenon that became mainstream and attracted a lot of perks to it because of its popularity with athletes, rappers, etc...
These games are trying to court CoD numbers, but they're chasing a demographic that don't visit forums, don't read gaming news, will literally never hear about any other game in existence, and will certainly never play another game that isn't the annual CoD release. CoD, Roblox, and Fortnite are impossible demographics to pursue. They don't exist in the sphere of this industry, yet studios continue to push marketing and spend on development costs like they do. They're reaching for infinite growth in a balloon that can only maintain a certain size given the current population. It's leaking and it's going to pop eventually.
Re: Highguard Goes Offline Next Week As Failed Online Shooter Officially Shuts Down
To absolutely nobody's surprise. That's what happens when you try to release a F2P multiplayer game in a market that is already grossly oversaturated and has players locked in to their markets already. It's extremely rare for any game to be a breakout hit, but even more so a multiplayer title in a market competing with Fortnite, PUBG, ROBLOX, or Call of Duty levels of success.
Releasing your first game with a model that strictly depends on a large player base willing to spend copious amounts of money on content that isn't strictly necessary to play in a game that in all likelihood wouldn't have a long-term presence in the market and thus was always at risk of being shut down at any moment and making the purchasing of said content a risky gamble is a terrible idea, especially when it's your first entry as a studio.
Logically they should've started with a Premium Single Player or PvE experience at a sensible price point so they could've at least had some profit and royalties rolling in to support them during their future projects. Once you have a steady revenue stream, THEN you gamble on the risky F2P model once you have a following.
Re: Xbox's 'Pivot Away From Console' Had Been Failing And Questioned At Microsoft, Claims Report
I truly don't understand the thought process behind "Let's release a console, then give people zero incentive to invest in that console." If they had dishes hardware and sold the Xbox as a brand or as software for other platforms, then I would get it, but having physical hardware with exactly zero reasons to choose it over its competitor makes absolutely no sense.
I hate exclusives as much as the next guy, but you need to have exclusives to add incentive. No exclusives only works if all of the competitors are also willing to give up their exclusives as well. You can't have a console selling A, B, & C when the other console sells A, B, C, D & E at the same or lesser cost.
Unfortunately the only way they're going to bring the Xbox back is to rewind it back to basics and offer the superior service. Free online multiplayer, dashboard with zero ads, invest in 1st party and partnered exclusives, and generally just not screw up on the consumer front. Xbox has always been at a disadvantage with Favoritism and the Xbox tax, but Sony and Nintendo constantly make mistakes. If Xbox could be steadfast and firm in it's decision making and offer strong 1st-party titles, they MIGHT be able to take advantage of those mistakes and turn things around, but it's going to take A LOT of trust building.
Re: 'We Have Good Reasons To Believe In What's Ahead', Insists New Xbox Chief Content Officer
Definitely a better promotion than Shrwarma. I'll always trust a man named Matt.
Re: New Xbox Head Suggests Bringing Back The Blades Dashboard In First Social Media Posts
Guys, Chat GPT was just promoted to Head of Xbox Studios!
"To the Xbox Community,
Today, I step into the role of Head of Xbox Studios with deep respect for what this brand means to millions of players around the world. Xbox was built on bold ideas, unforgettable worlds, and a simple promise: put players at the center of everything.
That promise has not always felt consistent. I want to acknowledge that directly. Trust is not a marketing campaign. It is earned through action, transparency, and delivering the experiences you were promised.
My commitment is straightforward:
1. Games First. Always.
We are aligning every studio under one clear priority: ship exceptional games that are polished, ambitious, and worthy of your time. No filler. No rushed launches. Creative freedom paired with accountability.
2. Clear Communication.
If a project changes, you will hear it from us. If something is delayed, we will explain why. Silence breeds frustration. Transparency builds trust.
3. Quality Over Quantity.
Our roadmap will focus on fewer, stronger releases rather than spreading our talent thin. Each title should feel like an event, not an obligation.
4. Empowering Our Studios.
The teams behind our worlds are our greatest strength. We are restructuring internal greenlighting and milestone reviews to reduce bottlenecks and ensure developers can build boldly without compromising stability or performance.
5. Listening With Intent.
Community feedback will not be a checkbox. We are expanding structured player councils, technical preview programs, and post launch support plans so you can see direct influence on the games you love.
Xbox succeeds when players feel proud to be part of it. My goal is not just to launch great games. It is to restore confidence in the direction of this platform.
You deserve consistency. You deserve ambition. You deserve experiences that remind you why you chose Xbox in the first place.
The work starts now.
See you online!"
Re: New Xbox Head Suggests Bringing Back The Blades Dashboard In First Social Media Posts
@Banjo- Not even. These AI models are trained off of content on the Internet. She no doubt asked it to write a PR introduction focused on what Xbox fans want most. This and the demand for more 1st-party games are among the highest asked-for requests and are both things she's now promised. I doubt Sharma even knows what a Blade dashboard is. I give it a week and she'll name-drop Perfect Dark and Scalebound as well.
Re: New Xbox Boss Makes Official Statement As She Takes Over From Phil Spencer
@Banjo- I considered the ROG as an opposing proof to my concern and there may be truth to it still, but I also still don't consider the ROG as an Xbox device. It's a pre-existing device from another company that Microsoft partnered with. It's not Microsoft-built, it has no access to the Xbox marketplace, and all they did was slap some Xbox branding on a PC device and design an app to determine GamePass access. It's essentially no different than buying a Steamdeck or a Samsung phone and pulling up GamePass through the browser.
I'm hopeful it won't be the case and considering Microsoft is the #1 game publisher on the PS5 I hope that's cause enough for Sony to simmer down and let it slide, but Sony has never behaved in a way that could be considered consumer-friendly. There was even a point where they fought Microsoft on releasing games for the PS5 because they didn't want Microsoft having early access to the Dev Kits, which was a huge talking point during the ABK acquisition.
Re: New Xbox Boss Makes Official Statement As She Takes Over From Phil Spencer
@Banjo- I still have trouble envisioning Xbox adding library access to marketplaces like Steam, GOG, and Epic storefronts, but I am hopeful they will find a way to make it work. More than anything, I want a streamlined console experience to enjoy my PC games and getting PS game access is a bonus, though I wouldn't be surprised if Sony finds a way to block Xbox-brand devices from accessing their games after this happens similar to how they've blocked XCloud streaming on the PS5 browser.
If there's one thing I want to see more than anything, I want to see my full Xbox library become accessible on PC. If the new Xbox does become essentially a streamlined PC, I don't see why they couldn't run it the other way as well (along with other handheld and mobile devices.) It would be the most natural progression of the Play Anywhere program and it would give incentive to keep people buying from the Xbox marketplace as well.
Re: New Xbox Boss Makes Official Statement As She Takes Over From Phil Spencer
@Banjo- None of their actions hurt us as gamers and I welcome features like Play Anywhere and making the games multiplatform. The problem is we've also been left with no incentive to keep using their platforms going forward. If 100% of all Xbox games come to Playstation, but only 5% of Playstation games come to Xbox, as a gamer why would you want to limit yourself to the Xbox Platform and miss out on so many experiences? Microsoft has made the best moves out of the Big 3 Console makers, but they've made moves that only make sense when the rest of the competition is onboard and cooperating with the new direction as well.
Even the few of us who stick with Xbox and continue to support them in any capacity as encouragement for moving the in the right direction are playing a risky game because most people are understandably self-serving and the loss of business will always come with that chance that Microsoft eventually pulls the plug and leaves us high and dry.
Re: Xbox President Sarah Bond Is Also Leaving The Company, Microsoft Confirms
Say what you will about Phil, but the man was a gamer and he can no doubt see the writing on the wall. There is a push to corrupt an already-struggling industry with the use of AI in the worst ways possible (There is a place for AI in game development, but automation of development and the elimination of jobs is not that way) and I doubt Phil wanted to be a part of that corruption. With Microsoft (and every major company) pushing for more and more AI every day I have no doubt it was being pushed on Xbox harder and harder every day. This much is apparent by their promotion of the AI CEO and Phil was no doubt either discreetly removed from his position or threw in the towel knowing it was a losing battle to resist Microsoft's demands. For better or worse, Phil's departure is no doubt a sign of the beginning of the end for our favorite hobby.
Re: New Xbox Boss Makes Official Statement As She Takes Over From Phil Spencer
Xbox needs a "man of the people" head who will actually give gamers what they want and need. Unfortunately, instead we've ended up with a Corporate Yes Man who doesn't have the slightest idea about the gaming world. I can safely say we've reached the end of the Xbox era. Maybe the Playstation era, as well, if Sony keeps dropping the ball like they have been (Then again, people seem to have endless patience and unlimited forgiveness for Sony when they screw up unlike Microsoft who makes a mistake and people turn their noses up to any attempt at making amends and force them into a decade-long spiral of desperation.)
Re: Poll: As Things Stand, Will You Be Buying GTA 6 On Xbox This November?
Depends on my backlog by time it launches. 2026 is a pretty busy year for me so far and I have at least 13 games coming out this year on my watchlist so far (High on Life 2, Styx: Blades of Greed, Legacy of Kain: Defiance, Fatal Frame 2, Dead or Alive 6: Last Round, Life is Strange: Reunion, Directive 8020, Death Stranding 2, Fable, Pragmata, Halo: CE, Metal Gear Solid 4, and GTAVI) which is about 11 more than I usually get in a year, so depending on how far behind I am it may end up being a discount purchase or a wait for PC.
Considering GTAV got zero post-launch support, they'll probably do the same to GTAVI and the base game alone is NOT worth the $80 they'll likely charge for it.
Re: Review: Want A PS5 Controller For Xbox? Hyperkin's 'The Competitor' Is Good And Affordable
How about an Xbox controller for the PS5 instead? The controller design is the main reason why I stick with Xbox and could never switch to the Playstation in a future where Xbox throws in the towel. I can only hope Microsoft continues to produce controllers as a 3rd-party if they ever back out of the console industry.
Re: Xbox Announces Social Clubs Will Be Removed From Consoles In April 2026
@Brigurugi Oh damn. You've got me beat. I'm probably about 350,000. I pushed the first 250K and broke that wall pretty quickly, somewhere around 2012, but I stopped pursuing achievements for all but my favorite games and the last 100K happened more slowly and organically. It's been at all all time trickle the last few years since none of the main series I play to completion have been putting out any game.
So happy to have another Halo game this year since I ran out of achievements to unlock in that series after Infinite dropped.
Re: Xbox Announces Social Clubs Will Be Removed From Consoles In April 2026
These are still a thing? I thought they eliminated them years ago. Pretty sure I blocked and disabled them along with the Series X/S capture button, Friend Following, and all of that social media BS that was introduced back on the XB1. Honestly hard to tell because my Xbox Live Friends list has had zero people on it since I signed up in 2002.
Re: Silent Hill: Townfall Not Coming To Xbox At Launch, Along With A Few Other State Of Play Titles
I'm mostly just disappointed that Death Stranding 2 didn't get an Xbox reveal alongside the Steam version. Hopefully it's just a contractual silence and it will be shadow dropped after the (hopefully) 1-year exclusivity deal I assume was added when Kojima reclaimed the publishing rights from Sony. Alongside Fable, Halo, GTAVI, and a few small surprises like Pragmata and Legacy of Skin, DS2 on Xbox would make this one of my best years in gaming in nearly a decade.
Re: MGS4 To Make Its Xbox Debut In Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 This August
Psyched to finally play MGS4 proper! Shame they're drawing the line with these 3 titles though. Really thought we would at least get Revengeance and Portable Ops running, though I was really hoping to get Twin Snakes and both of the Ac!d games.