@Nic-Noc20th-C I really enjoyed veilguard, it was a very solid title. It just wasnt inquisition 2.0, which is what the hardcore fans really wanted.

Well then....this sucks. Ive been playing bioware games for as long as I can remember bioware being around. I loved all of the mass effect games, even the last one people loved to hate on.

I spent well over 100 hours on anthem and still think it was such a wasted potential of a game. (They got the mechanics and forgot the content)

Dragon Age Inquisition was one of my favorite titles of all time.

Needless to say, the closure just further solidifies my plan to exit the new console market after this gen and stick with high end retro gaming.

Wish the best for the devs laid off.

Not sure about this one. I like the idea of having a tech lab and I am pro AI as long as its done well, but I am also not a fan of web based games or anything on a phone.

This path seems to be focused more on the latter.

That said, quality is king and always will be. If you make a good(and appealing) product(or AI does), it will do well. If you make slop, it wont. It was that way in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and still is. My only real concern is that itll be harder to sort through the mess to find the gems.

@BAMozzy Its not as hard as I thought to just cancel. I had xblive and then gpu from day one until earlier this year when I finally said enough is enough. I dont miss the games at all. Infact I feel a bit liberated that I dont have so many games in the collection.

This is definitely the wrong direction. I accept ads in movies because it feels like a commercial. I like product placement in games because it ads to the realism. I do not in any way support disruptive ads in gaming of any type. I dont play any mobile titles because of even the possibility of an ad.

Im torn as to if I will even play games anymore after 40+ years if the direction keeps going the way it is. Sony is trashing things, and ms is aiming to match. Nintendo is all thats left and they are not a saint. Atleast we have retro....

I cancelled gamepass several months ago after having been a subscriber since it launched.(and xbox live prior since it launched)

I love the idea of the service, I just found myself not using it. The value just wasnt there.

For cloud gaming, It is something I would use with my xbox ally x, and for others it essentially brings a large amount of your games to the xbox ally x. It seems like they are trying to shy away from cloud play now and revert to older styles. Maybe I missed it, but is there an option to buy more time if people want to play and are on a road trip or something?

I personally couldnt care less if games have ai generated anything. I dont get the uproar. It either looks good or it looks bad, thats the same regardless of how its made.

Ive seen a lot of ai I prefer over man made. Personally I cant wait for the day that this all blows over and ai becomes the norm, it womt be long.

I think I may be getting old. Ive no interest in any of these updates.

1. I dont do screencaps, videos, or voice chat
2. I guess the achievement filters are always a plus.
3. Ive never lost nor worried about a cloud save.
4. My wishlist has 2 games on it. I tend to just buy what I want at a given time. Having 1000 games is like putting every other game available on the xbox in your wishlist. Whats the point? (Or having every n64 game ever released on your list 3 times)

The biggest win here is that they are releasing new things

Itll never happen, but Mech Assault would be great. Otherwise, pretty much anything that doesnt have a newer version already like blue dragon and lost odyssey.

Love the idea playing older games on the pc, but have a hard time calling it "backward compatibility" as these games were console games and never originally available on pc.

@Jenkinss Was it better though? More content does not mean better. Better is a very subjective thing. I personally dont like mp games, so if the campaign is improved and mp dropped its better to me.

While I like halo as a series and have been playing it since day 1, Halo 1 is by far my least favorite. The backtracking and emptiness of the world just irks me.

Happy to see it scoring high and I know a lot of folks will love it, but Ill be waiting for the halo 2 combat evolved myself.

@JetmanUK

I actually have an active meta* I picked up 8 months ago and forgot about until this week, and I cancelled my gpu sub after years in april. Like you I was thinking this might be a good way to get gp at a discount.

However one big thing to note here is that it does not include online multiplayer in the starter package. I was going to use it for playing forza horizon 6 on my series x online, but no go there. (I play on my xbox ally x mostly anyway, but options are nice)

The industry has become stagnant and prices are increasing exponentially relative to income for the base.

The industry is on its way towards another 80s style crash, which will be good for the industry in the long run. We need more innovation and less remaster/reboot/samey games. Although its a bit ironic that the samey games are driving the reboot/remasters since they hit that nostalgia point.

So...a bunch of fallout garbage and the eternally in development elder scrolls game.

Guessing thats all well see from beth for a long while to come.

Connected franchise was cool, but they needed to make it easier to link up with people of similar skillsets and playstyles.

Maybe I am losing my mind(ok, im almost certainly doing so), but I thought they announced the price of the stand alone as the same as the current xbox ally x. (Which for the record is worth every penny, i love mine, and while I want the x20, buying another $1k+ handheld is a bit much) Gotta factor in those extra costs like the 4-8tb ssd, proper charger, better dock, etc... as well.

@AI-Generation I personally prefer avowed to any games in either the elder scrolls or fallout series. Id hardly call it middling.

Xbox in general is now a shell of its past and outside of horizon, they have nothing left of value. I waited in line overnight for both the og xbox and the 360, imported my xb1 at 2x the msrp so I could get it on day 1, day 1 series x and s preorders, subbed xblive and gpu from launch until feb of this year, and have spent thousands flying to game shows for xbox over the years dating from launch era E3 to TGS. I never gave up hope until this year when I see no future. Xbox grew stale and overpriced, now they gut the talent and put an ai focused anti gamer in charge. I dont give xbox 5 years before it collapses, and with it the gaming industry as a whole.

@Krzzystuff I personally think fallout games are trash(as is the tv show), but get why others want them I guess.

That aside, any player would be better than what were getting. Id be happy with a lower specced physical media console in the $300 range for kids or mass market consumers. The days of me dropping 10k+ in a launch year are done, just not worth it anymore. It used to be have a hobby and travel the world with the fam, its becoming an "or" proposition now and gaming isnt worth more than experiences.

I am liking Asha less and less. I am an avowed fan, no interest in anything fallout though. These decisions feel like they are just chasing the biggest name and not looking for actual quality. Its a short sighted strategy meant for quick Wins in a long term industry. I'm actually kinda hoping Ms pulls out of gaming all together at this point. We need a new player in the mix. The industry has become stale.

Im not really a fan of satellla or sharma, they are both more focused on money than the product. If a product males money its therefore better, despite all the issues with that statement.

CSR is apparently long dead in this world. Its all about the green. (Or whatever color other territories money is)

And yes, Im well aware of a businesses core responsibility, I just think its a very negative thing to focus solely on profit.

Msft would benefit from a nice crash in value and revolt from customers.

Since deciding not to renew gpu Ive fallen from 10-15k a month to about 1k a month for passive playing. I also transitioned back to chrome from edge and bing so that impacted things a lot.(edge had a super annoying bug which locked up my web page on iphone forcing me to close out and restart 20x times a day.)

So really, its kinda meh for me now as I slowly exit the ms ecosystem.

@Nicekix Right now both sony and msft are looking pretty negative in the console space. If you think people in mass will spend 1k+ on a console you're sorely mistaken.

Youll get the avid fans and early adopters, but the bulk of sales are not those groups. Console gaming is about to tank. Writing is on the wall, its just gotten too expensive for little billy to have as a toy.

This isnt really all that bad when compared to what could have been.

We have 0 closures, 4 studios essentially transitioning to other forms of mgmt, 3200 jobs stings but how many of those are counted as losses to msft but not losses overall? (Ie were part of the 4 studios)

Arcane is still in review, my guess is they will spin off or be sold rather than close completely. And did msft factor in those jobs in the 3200 as well?

All said and done, we didnt lose any major studios and actual losses of jobs is far lower than expected.

I chalk this one up as a win.

I have no interest in PC gaming, but, owning an xbox ally x has made me change my view on pc gaming as a whole.

So while youll never see me playing with a mouse and keyboard(or on a tower pc with a monitor), I do absolutely love the dual entitlement xbpa gives us. So much so that if a game is xbpa compatible, I will always buy the xbox version, otherwise I will either buy the switch 2 or ps5 pro versions.(or in many cases just not buy the title altogether)

I wish more companies would offer it, make it spread across consoles as well.

@Romans12 I got my ps5 pro at launch too, replaced the ssd with a 4tb and got the disc drive and edge controller. It was overpriced then, but its insane now.

That said, I know it went up a lot already, but Im saying itll go up again. Probably over $999 for the pro. The base will match the series x and the digital will go to the current ps5 price.

First the youth was priced out of essentials like housing, now their hobbies are at risk with gaming.

Honestly, Im not young nor income strapped, but will not be replacing my consoles after this gen at this rate.

At this point I feel like another 80s style collapse is inevitable. How long until sony follows suit? Nintendo primed for another one too?

Its unsustainable for consumers and producers.

@NishimaruX I stopped buying physical when they removed the instruction manuals. I miss the good old days of manuals like you had with snes and genesis.

Helix will cost more, but I think they will also push the helix out to 2030-2032. This will give time for incomes to catch up to inflation and hopefully lessen the component crisis.

So well probably see a $1200-$1500 console in 5-7 years. Honestly at this time, the consoles are fine. There isnt a need to release new ones.

He lost me at "Ill pay for HBO because of the content"

I was given HBO For free and I didn't even bother downloading the app. Nothing but trash on it.

As for Gamepass, Id disagree on the quality, if anything there were too many games on it to play. I found myself not wanting to start anything because I wanted to play everything, then when it went up to $30 I dropped it altogether and honestly I don't miss it. I play a lot more now and more importantly enjoy them more, and many of the games are on gamepass still.

On ps, needing 2 paying accounts to play offline coop is crazy.

Do the 2 msft accounts need to be paying accounts or can we just use the standard free accounts to play offline coop.

Can you see this without being on the console? Ie from the app or browser?

So some point on June 18? Itll be fun to try out. Wonder if they will ever make it xb play anywhere. I refuse to buy it another time to play it on my xbox ally x without gpu.

Very torn on this one. As a business, they need to make money and games like those compulsion makes just dont do that at a level a company like ms will require.

On the other hand, games that do make that kind of money are shooters and sports games, and we have plenty of those to go around.

So I understand why shutting them down makes sense, but for gaming as a whole I think its a bad thing that will only expedite the next gaming industry collapse.

I wish they would though. Have an artist make a few character models and a thematic picture for a background and let gen ai build. Save money and time. I Know as long as its fun Ill be there, and if its cheaper, even better.

The way I looked at the increase, they were basically trying to force me into buying a fortnite add on if I wanted CoD and other tier 1 benefits.

I dont play games online, and fortnite is no exception, so I found it more beneficial to just cancel and buy things adhoc.

Ive still not resubbed and probably wont for a while as Ive come to learn I just didnt use it all that much.

Couldnt care less about the use of AI, so long as the game is good, and this looks good.

My only concern is what will the music be like? The original used a great offspring set of tracks, which were a perfect fit for the game. The future console releases lost the rights I assume and the game just wasnt the same.

Im not saying they need to put offspring in again, but they need to find music that matches the game or this type of game will fail.

Edit: I watched it in mute first, offspring is back, ignore the bulk of my comment

Ill still be able to play most on my ally xbox x so all is well. (I guess I could buy then for the ps5 pro but 3rd party exclusives irk me)

Being able to play it on my xbox ally x and series x seamlessly vs just my ps5pro for 48 extra hours? Thats a no brainer.

Honestly Play anywhere is a default buy for the platform if I am going to buy a game that is multiplat.

Just over 200 cars, level 147, and chugging along exploring the world.

I have an xbox ally x, absolutely love it, and am excited to see this direction. They really did look at areas people asked for and updated. Mind you there is nothing wrong with the current design, but oled is just taking it up a notch.

That said, will it be a mandatory bundle with the glasses? That would be a mistake in marketing. Either way id expect this out the door for $1400 for just the unit, 2k for the combo.

@Tasuki Yeah, its gotten to a point where I just cant justify it as a hobby expense anymore. I can take the family on a vacation for the price of a steamdeck.

I feel bad for those who lost their progress. Im not worried about it though, despite having plugged in 50+ hours Id be ok with losing it all just because I truly enjoy just driving around in different cars. The progression is an added bonus, but resetting wouldnt make me want to play less. Also, I love quick resume, though it can be wonky for online games.(Thankfully Im not a fan of online games)

I honestly don't even think about it. It doesn't matter to me if there is a logo or not.

I can see the value in it for some though

Mina has had my interest for a while and I am very happy to see its rocking it with the critics.

That said, I do think we should look at reviews and scores by category rather than overall.

I say this because while mina is near the top of my list, its not really comparable to games like horizon 6. Lumping them together in a "top score" does a disservice to both.

Id be happy with an indie and a non-indie category.

But I digress. Cant wait to get my hands on this one.

@Millionski Steam console will basically be like a $1000 version of those $200 chinese knock off consoles with a better os. Itll get some initial sales, but then itll die like that little pc console released like 10 or so years ago. (I forget the name, ouya or something maybe)

@Tasuki I always buy all consoles, but Ive already decided to pair back next gen and not get a PS6. The next nintendo console is also on the block and if helix comes out at $1500 ill be perfectly happy keeping my series x, switch 2, ps5 pro, and xbox ally x until I die. Plenty of backlog items.

Its gotten crazy enough that its no longer sensible to be a multiplatform gamer even if one can afford it.

@Fiendish-Beaver I personally dont care about exclusives at all. All they do from a consumer perspective is force people to pay for multiple little boxes under their tv if they want to play certain games.

Having done this for 40 years now, Im done. (The worst gen was the 90s when I had a tg16, neo geo, 3do, snes, gen, 32x, saturn, etc... since I get them all)

The helix pc route means I wont be buying a ps6 or anything other than a helix and whatever nintendo puts out. Thankfully I dont like sony exclusives all that much so the ps5 pro will be the last for me unless something crazy happens.

All this to say, exclusives dont benefit anyone other than the manufacturers and I dont believe in trickle down benefits as a consumer. People should demand a unified platform and make all companies publishers.

And worth every penny. That said, the game does have one glaring flaw. Asakusa Tower(Tokyo Skytree) has been written out of existence. Not only is it not in the game, the game cites facts about tokyo tower that are no longer true as if Asakusa Tower never was. What does playground have against that poor tower?