SodaPop6548

@neoratt Truthfully I hope you are right. I like Xbox, obviously, but they have lost the plot IMHO. I also disagree Gamepass has the value you refer to anymore. At least for me, it’s cheaper to buy the games I’d like to play. I don’t have the time to play enough games to justify the price any longer.

@NeoRatt what is the selling point for Xbox? I don’t think there is one, truth be told. I get that desire to have all games everywhere, I’m not even saying it’s wrong per se, but why on earth would anyone buy an Xbox anymore?

I honestly think this just makes the point that Xbox is dead. I wish it weren’t true, but I need to understand why anyone would buy an Xbox.

This doesn’t surprise me. It effectively proves why Redfall launched the way it did. They didn’t care about the quality of the product.

Everything Microsoft has done in the last couple years has felt half baked and it’s such a damn bummer.

So many reviews lately! Love it!

This just sounds like when Phil waved the white flag on Xbox because of digital libraries.

Rich people are so out of touch it’s insane.

Playing Final Fantasy Tactics and you all should also!

I have a Series X, PS5, and Switch 2. I can’t justify a $1,000 purchase that doesn’t do what those do. I’m sure it’s a great device, but it sounds like the software can be more of a headache that I care for. Also, my PC library isn’t nearly what my console library is. I’m not knocking on the Ally, but this wasn’t meant for me. That’s okay, I can see a world where it is for me. Just not for $1,000.

This is a symptom of Xbox not caring about Xbox. I’m sad about it, but I really wish we’d see the ecosystem as a priority.

@FraserG seems like they don’t have any real long term directions, so I would disregard any previous statements.

I love the studio name. I'll be interested to see what spawns from the corpse of microsoft.

@Cvantez I’m of the opinion that most people know how much they pay for their subscriptions. That is why it’s all over the place when any of them raise their prices. I also think in the times we are living where everything is getting more expensive, especially the necessities, people pay attention to this stuff. So, I strongly disagree with that take. Especially when you get emails where they tell you the price is going up. It’s not lost on anyone when a subscription price goes up by 50%.

@Cvantez this comment comes across as callous given that people are starting to struggle to pay bills for non-videogame stuff. I genuinely think Microsoft overplayed their hand here.

I wonder if fewer companies are going to put their games on GP now. Seems like it’s less of a good bet now.

Question for Phil: is Xbox the best place to play yet?

@TheGameThrifter whether you choose to believe it or not, tariffs have an impact. Even if they aren't in place, a company is trying to make a profit and they are forced to anticipate increased costs. That anticipation, even if the tariffs aren't enacted, cause prices to increase.

@themightyant it’s all connected whether we choose to believe that or not.

The console price increases are absolutely a result of tariffs. I wonder if this GP price increase is also a side effect of tariffs. My thought is Microsoft is still trying to offput cost increases because of the insane taxes being charged on hardware.

@FraserG Because of corporate greed, my friend. Because there is this myth that you can grow your profits infinitely and that causes the already ultra wealthy to make some out of touch decisions.

The epic heel turn Xbox has taken is disappointing. I was really optimistic about it in 2020 and now it's the brand is just riddled with drama and price hikes. I downgraded my sub yesterday and it really bummed me out.

Dropped ultimate and went with essential. The value is gone for ultimate and no amount of 10 year old ubisoft games will change that. I just like to be able to play games with my friends online when we have time and I will just work through my backlog or buy any game I really want. Not like Xbox has had many must haves in the last decade anyway.

I played a huge swath of these games 10 years ago.

Lotta corpo speak in that announcement. Not feeling good about the games industry right now.

All these games are available, but for a significant cost jump. I’m frustrated with Microsoft.

I may have to drop ultimate. A $10 a month jump is epic hubris and I don’t get to play games as much as I used to.

Phil Spencer is a failure in my mind. He’s abandoned the ecosystem and nuked the value of GP.

@EvenStephen7 I guess I didn’t hear about that one. Go figure.

I’ve never been a big CoD fan, but I at least liked the campaigns. Having said that, the best games that have come out in the last several years have been games with fresh ideas, like Expedition 33 or KCD2. At some point, I think people get tired of Assassins Creed and Call of Duty. Those games have nothing that makes them stand out, other than the familiarity of them. Which, to be fair, seems to make them popular enough. So, whatever. Just not for me. I’ll go back to Hollow Knight.

The price is its biggest issue. Yet another “great idea” from Microsoft that will fail because they put greed first.

This is great because I haven't played any of these games and I was thinking of getting MH3 for Xbox if it turns out to be good. Looks like the older games have good reviews. Hoping I can play at least one before 3 launches.

Musical turn based RPG? Never played something like that before, sounds fun. So long as the music doesn’t get stale.

I have this one pre-ordered. Not something I normally do, but man am I excited for this one. I played it on PS1 forever ago and never liked playing on the phone. Can't wait to get back into this.

Hoping this is just a temporary price change related issue. I really hate all this drama on the Xbox side.

Or maybe this is that big announcement Phil Spencer mentioned. The announcement of a the next Xbox, which will just be a picture of a PC.

“Thank you and enjoy the show, we will announce yet another price hike on everything and a new subscription that allows you to use a controller to play games.”

Phil seemed like he was going to really get Xbox on the right track 10 years ago, but today he is just another useless corpo happy to sabotage the brand for a buck.

So, MGS Delta didn’t get a review code for Xbox for a while, this game, and I believe the new Dying Light as well. Feels like Microsoft is abandoning the Xbox ecosystem and it makes me sad, whether that is true or not.

This is because of the Trump taxes AKA tariffs.

This year we’ve gotten so many great games. In September alone we’ve gotten:

Silksong
Borderlands 4
Trails remake
Final Fantasy Tactics (end of the month)
And now this new Dying Light game.

My poor, poor backlog.

This is nice to see, thank you for posting. I was wondering what the frame rates were looking like. Love me some Borderlands, but I do pause with UE5 anymore.

These articles are great, they frequently help me find new games and I love supporting indies.

Small request - can we put the game names under the thumbnail when we click the article? I am not always able to figure it out and I’m always curious. No biggie either way.

Has anyone tried Yooka Replaylee? Pretty interested in that one. Wondering if its frame rate feels like a good 60fps or not. I don’t have time to check it out, unfortunately.

@Decimateh Sometimes, at night, I hear my backlog crying as it only grows. I try to have empathy for it, but I just can't muster it.

Don't throw stones, but I never got around to playing Hollow Knight. Should I play through that one first?

Awesome. I’ve been wanting to play a demo for Yooka Replaylee. I never played the original, but I thought it looked good. Sound like this release fixes a lot of the issues, so count me in.

Played the game a ton on PS5 and I'm glad to see our Xbox friends can jump in. I hope many do because this game is a gem!

I think I got this as a Gold freebie a while back. Does the discount still apply?

@BAMozzy Hard disagree. MS has had too many first party issues with launches and management. This specific subset isn't a Microsoft company, but they were the dev team and MS couldn't manage them, just like they have had trouble with too many times.

The executives are not managing the teams effectively and the development suffers. Seems to be a pretty consistent MS problem.

It’s the executives at Microsoft that should be getting straight up fired. I haven’t felt confident in Xbox since 2012, unfortunately.

@FraserG Thanks for the response. I read them, so I hope they get more traction!

Thanks for the review. How do we get more of them from Pure Xbox? Love the site.

GoW is a classic in my mind. I have gotten every version and had this one sent to me since I owned the other version.