@Coletrain Yes.

I think they could add theme options to the Xbox that revisit all the different Xbox generations, while also allowing certified creators to design new ones.

@AI-Generation I hate to break it to you, but there is very little she can do about that; besides being more expensive, the parts needed to manufacture the consoles are in shorter supply due to AI.

It is interesting—and always a good thing—to pursue new technologies and find a place to test them, then share the findings with your studios and the industry as a whole.

@Fiendish-Beaver You can thank Sony and the media for that, because it was one of the things you could have done on the Xbox One as originally planned; however, the media kept harping on a single issue and failed to explain these features to the public. The way it was supposed to work was that you could sell your digital license, and the studio would also receive a share of the sale price. Who knows—maybe Microsoft will bring this plan back in the future.

That guy pulls numbers out of thin air. He doesn't have access to Microsoft or Steam sales data; he makes sales estimates, and—according to leaks—he uses the number of store comments to estimate game sales figures.

Another thing: this guy is someone who didn't like Microsoft's decision not to release certain games on PlayStation, effectively bringing back exclusivity for some titles. He was already predicting poor numbers for Gears even before its launch. Until he reveals his methodology for estimating sales figures and Game Pass player counts, he’s just a fraud getting attention from the media. Even Circana no longer has sales figures for Xbox games.

@Exerion76 But this helps engage the brand by expanding its franchises beyond games to target the casual audience—which is, by far, what keeps PlayStation and Nintendo where they are.

Ashar tidying up the house, which was a mess.

@Mr-Cage I think this should be announced later this year. In fact, they’ve already said there’s news coming about Helix this year.

The Coalition is one of the most badass studios in the industry when it comes to technical prowess. It’s no wonder they serve as a support team for various Xbox studios.

A patent leak revealed that AI would be used to boost the resolution and frame rate of games—essentially acting as an AI-driven remaster running directly on the console.

@TrollOfWar Which studio was shut down? 343? There was no way to keep a studio that only works on a single IP—one that is no longer in their hands. Layoffs are happening across Western game studios due to high salary costs. However, even as layoffs occur, new staff are also being hired.

@AI-Generation Most of these critics barely play the games—or don't play them at all—and to make matters worse, one guy called it an "alien invasion," meaning he had no clue what he was actually playing. Nowadays, critic scores are purely subjective; there’s nothing technical about them—it’s just their personal opinion. In the past, scores were based on technical aspects: you had separate ratings for specific categories like graphics, sound, and story, with each one getting a score before the final average was calculated. I wish it would go back to being like that—a truly technical analysis.

@InfamousOrange Yes.

That’s 3,200 layoffs in total; naturally, all the studios are going to be affected. But they are also hiring new staff—several Xbox studios are opening up job vacancies.

@Fishmasterflex96
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Black Ops 7 was a stopgap game to give MW4 more development time. I don't know where you're getting the idea that MW4 is in trouble—especially since the game hasn't even been released yet and performed very well during the open beta.

@Banjo- Since the acquisition of ABK, Blizzard has been separate from Activision.

@Gabrie 343 has made good Halo games, but they don't know how to manage projects. Halo Infinite suffered a lot of cuts in the final product due to management errors; I liked Halo Infinite, but it’s infuriating to see what was cut from the final project because of poor management.

Ever since Microsoft acquired Activision, many Halo fans have called for the franchise to be handed over to Activision—just as a segment of the fanbase wanted Halo to go to id Software when Zenimax was acquired.

@RTGX And a game with a "Super AAA" budget of $305 million—excluding marketing—but with an AA scope.

@BacklogBrad @BacklogBrad What do you mean, "low profit potential"? This is a new espionage game from Kojima—something fans have been clamoring for ever since he left Konami. It’s a project well worth the investment and exactly what Ashar wants: bigger games. She’s likely already closing more deals like this with other external studios.

@Sol4ris I know—and I’ve said—that it’s a run-of-the-mill, simple game riddled with issues and designed for super-casual players; it’s carried by the Wolverine name, which has been riding a wave of popularity thanks to the movies—especially Logan and the third Deadpool film.

@kanedase7en Even with all the layoffs, the Xbox division still retains around 13,000 to 14,000 employees. Ashar aims to improve the efficiency of these studios, cut costs, and focus on larger projects. While these layoffs are taking place, some studios are already hiring new staff, and several new positions have opened up.

@JustBusiness It’s a very ordinary, simple game that is selling solely because of the Wolverine name. We don’t know the sales figures for Xbox games because Microsoft doesn’t disclose them, and firms like Alinea Analytics don’t have access to the data; instead, they estimate sales based on the number of store reviews.

What’s new here? From the start, the company spoke of laying off 3,200 employees; the first wave involved 1,600, and the remaining 1,600 are set to be let go by the end of the 2027 fiscal year. So, anyone treating this as breaking news either doesn't follow the news or has a selective memory.

@Jenerossi I forgot about the taxi. I use it so rarely that I forgot. Just like the carriages in Red Dead 2.

@FurtherDread Phil Spencer giving the green light to that Halo series—the one that wasn't faithful to the games and books—was a mistake.

They should have started with a movie adapting the creation of the Spartans and the events of the first game and book, and only then moved on to a series starting with Halo 2.

@asdfghjklz What makes GTA take so long is the lack of fast travel, whereas Fable has had it since the very first game.

I had just managed to get it using Rewards—what a steal. At least I got the most complete version.

A Halo movie would be awesome, but it has to stay true to the books and games—unlike that ridiculous series.

All the other franchises here would make good movies or series, but they would have to be faithful to the original, involving people who played or developed the games.

@oopsiezz It seems like you have no idea who is working on the narrative side of Fable. You should look it up; even though Fable is being developed by Playground, the team working on it has almost nothing to do with the Forza Horizon team. The combat director, for instance, is ex-CD Projekt Red, and the people handling the narrative and character creation have also worked on major RPGs.

@BanthaPooDoo No. The implication is that a group of hackers managed to get their hands on a test version of GTA 6 from a build dating back to last year.

Double Fine didn't capitalize on the chance to make bigger games; they focused solely on tiny titles with no commercial appeal. They could have made those small games while simultaneously developing and announcing a larger project, but they just focused on what they wanted to do. When they were acquired, I thought they’d work on Rare IPs like Banjo and Conker—which fit the studio perfectly—but Tim made it very clear they had no interest in those franchises. It’s a shame; they missed a huge opportunity.

As for Compulsion Games, it was a lost cause; it took them years to release a game, and when they finally did, it was a reasonably fun AA-level title—but with a AAA budget of $100 million.

@BacklogBrad Right? They’re going to change the game for the worse just to appease a noisy anti-AI minority.

When is this nonsense against AI going to stop? It’s just noisy, baseless complaining—the kind that shouldn't even be given the time of day; these guys are simply against progress. AI is a tool that should be used. Complaining about it in a small studio is even more ridiculous.

@Chaotic_Goat I turn it off in any game that offers the option.

@Dodoo @Dodoo Just so you know, Starfield was the least buggy game Bethesda has released in the 3D era to date.
Buggy games are an industry-wide problem affecting every company these days. I’m curious to see if GTA 6 will launch without issues. I’ve already said that, regarding bugs, AI could really help with development by running various tests and flagging problems for the developers.

@Kilamanjaro I thought Starfield was awesome—and a lot of other people did too; I’ve got over 500 hours in it and counting. However, Starfield is a more grounded space game, just as Bethesda always promised, but there are some folks who were expecting something like Mass Effect—which was never promised.

The Unreal Engine wizards working their technical magic.

@IllusiveMan So, for you, 90% of the big-budget gaming industry is incompetent? Because the performance issues you pointed out in Halo are common in most releases. I could list several games where the media turned a blind eye to technical flaws and gave very high scores—titles like Elden Ring, Hogwarts Legacy, Baldur’s Gate 3, Black Myth: Wukong, and many others. I mention these because they were highly hyped; they were all patched over time, though some still have issues to this day. This is an area where I think AI could help in the future—by running various performance tests on games and flagging issues for developers.

@InterceptorAlpha The layoffs are not related to the game's success. Ashar is cutting 3,200 employees by next year; all studios will lose staff, regardless of whether the game performs well or not.

@somnambulance The entire gaming industry in the West is like this. Developer salaries—the most expensive part of making a game—are very high. Consequently, companies are downsizing their teams and opting to use outsourced studios to assist their staff.

Now I want a remake of 2 and 3; there's no need for one from 4 onwards—they still look beautiful today.

This remake turned out amazing—graphics, sound, and gameplay. It deserves every bit of success. Halo Studios did a great job in a short amount of time.

BlizzCon is in October.

That 25th-anniversary edition turned out awesome.

@trev666 The fourth one is still beautiful to this day. And it has the most emotional story in the franchise.

Finally, Halo.

It is striking how much effort the media puts into influencing Xbox game scores. You only have to read the reviews to see them criticizing games for features they don't have—and never promised to include—while also docking points for frame rate issues in a way they don't with other games. That’s why you need to choose reliable reviewers instead of relying on scores from Metacritic and other aggregators.

It would be great if this helped improve download speeds while you're playing a game on the console.