I made the mistake of starting DS1 remastered and now I don't really know when I'll have time to play something else😁.

Great weekend to all, and good fortune for England fans 👍

@BacklogBrad

Exactly. It’s defies all rationale, and shows that some individuals can only fall upwards. Crazy!

@MrStark

PushSquare needed apocalyptic game industry news to balance (and make their readers feel good about themselves) the undeniable fact that SONY SINGLE HANDEDLY destroyed the physical game industry.
Microsoft in their (stupid) shortsightedness obliged.

@Mr-Cage

you don't join the army if you don't want to go to war and possibly die

It's probably less than 2% of those joining the army do so because they know they might die in a war.
Most people join due to a lack of opportunities elsewhere. I don't think the analogy works for people joining the game industry, neither.

Do people still hang on to hope that Microsoft will be the saviours of physical games after Sony nuked it??

The chance of that happening is zero. And besides, I don't think offering choice is part of Asha's grand Xbox vision.
Her MO is mostly about gutting the gaming division and loosing game studios.

Terrible. Absolutely terrible. They are depriving Xbox of cool, original and experimental gaming experiences. We are back to Gesrs, Halo, Forza and maybe Fable ad nauseum.

Asha and Co must be very proud of their gutting job at XGS.

Only Microsoft can loose 4 game studios, layoff 3200 employees and then have the gumption to dress it up as some sort of truly visionary decision. These f@king suits are really extraordinary scumbags.

I used get enough points to have £5 each month but lately my outo- redeem fails to complete. Perhaps I should do a bit more points hunting. 😁

@johnedwin

Yes, yes. And we Xbox fans are completely devastated that it's Sony who decided to nuke physical media first, rather than Microsoft...

Bit of a token move, but I'm all for if it's a giant middle finger at Sony. I'm still incredulous that Sony are first to go this route.

No, it doesn’t make financial sense for Microsoft to support physical next gen.
Once Sony decided to make it obsolete, players and the industry will just fall in line. In a few weeks no one will talk about it.

I wasn't even aware that Obsidian was in any danger of being shut. This, studio released 4 titles since acquired. Microsoft are really probing new lows of short-sightedness 🤦‍♂️

@NishimaruX

You are very likely right on the masses because once committed to digital on any platform we're kinda locked in.
My point was more about people who look at what the next-gen consoles offer at granular level; - is it a fully closed platform, does it offer any choice on digital store fronts etc.

@themightyant and @Kaloudz

I see, thank you.
Off, would have loved to have the ability of playing my 360 games ( I have a 95 discs collection ) without setting up the Halo Reach edition console. I’m dreading it might give up working after all these years.

@Weebleman

They are going to need at least a week off to get them linked

Let's hope the whole process will be more streamlined, and hassle free to use than some other Microsoft products (cough, Windows).

Not having this option for the 360 and og Xbox would be a real bummer. Come on Microsoft, go all the way, no more almost there solutions. 🤞

@Weebleman

With Xbox, bad news is par for the course. You know that 😉. Jesting aside, I'm pretty certain Helix will be an all digital device. I'm more interested in how it will approach full BC and if it still requires to pay for online play amongst other things.

@nomither6

They’re so far ahead of Xbox now that it’s been free reign for anti-consumerism😂

You must be confused 😉. When Sony makes anti-consumer moves, it's called technological progress.

When someone else is doing it, they should leave the gaming industry, blah, blah etc.
For refrence, see this news and Sony going full steam ahead with AI integration for all PS studios game development and hardware.

@Balaam_

but Xbox has been worse than PS for a long time in this regard anyway

Seriously?!
You throw shades at Microsoft for Sony declaring that they'll go digital-only, before Microsoft?

You Sony Defense Force folks are beyond parody 🤣 😂.

Microsoft will be next, it's basically a certainty.

Having said that, I have to admit, - I didn't expect this to come from Sony first 😅. On the flip side, moves like this should be sobering moments for folks wishing Microsoft to leave the gaming/ Xbox hardware business altogether.

And just like that, Helix* will be a 100% the better option for next-gen compared to PS6. I'm genuinely curious to see how a digital only, closed platform will do at $1000. Maybe Sony are planning to subsidise it by completely get rid of the second hand market and charge between $90-100 for their games. Interesting times ahead.

• Assuming Microsoft stick with the hybrid open platform plan.

@fabio1

Talk about a low hanging Sony Defence Force fruit.🤣

@DennisReynolds

Nobody forced Sony to buy Bungie and then subsequently mismanaged them to the point of needing to layoff 300 people. Or what they have done to BluePoint, etc. Sony are more than capable of being ruthless scumbags all by themselves, they don't need Microsoft for that.

Your takes are way too blinkered even for a Sony fanboy.

@NishimaruX

I personally loved the game. If you can look past the combat system which is it's weakest part, then you'll be in for a treat. The artwork and soundtrack are both sublime. Good story too, I hope you'll enjoy it.

Such a shame Microsoft is planning to close Compulsion. The b*****ds.

I hope IO will find another partner to finish the project which hopefully will turn out to be great than release it on everything except Xbox.

What the h€ll is going on at Microsoft?! What's the thinking behind these decisions?
They keep this up, and pretty soon there will be no XGS studios left.
If Microsoft goes through with all the rumoured closures and layoffs, I'm pretty sure the damage done will be far, far greater within the gaming community and their perception of Xbox than pretty much everything that came before.

This is f@king insane.

Microsoft will have to double down on having the option of.selling Helix with 2-3 year contracts, and with GamePass bundled in. Perhaps even make the GamePass purchases mandatory as part of the sale.

I know they tried with Xbox All Access already, but for Helix they really need to go all out if they want it to be successful.

I've read over the weekend that the BoM for the PS6 will be $1000 or just under. That's an amount I'll never pay for a closed platform so they can monetise the c**p out of me
Helix better stick with their open platform hybrid vision.

As far as news go, I find the ones reporting that the BoM for the PS6 virtually being $1000, to be far more interesting and likely to have a much greater impact on us all than whatever preorder numbers GTA6 is doing on Xbox.

@Banjo-
With the word "bloodbath" in the headline and a bloody PS logo, surely

Good heavens! Perish the thought 🤣🤣.

Offf. It's such a shame this is happening, these folks are clearly very talented and poured so much into making South of Midnight. Shameless of Microsoft for doing this.

I wonder what the thinking behind this is? They cannot just pump out sequels in their big IP only, when it takes more than half a decade per game. Smaller AA games are needed to fill that huge void..

I'm sure this news will get about 15 articles on Pushsquare, just like when news broke of Microsoft's potentially devastating layoffs. Yep, definitely.

@Quaali

Why do you want physical to go away?

I don't particularly, (ok, maybe a bit)
But with a generally much greater carbon footprint compared to digital, the advent of the vast majority of games requiring patches post release to work as intended, no full game on disc, etc , etc. It looks to me like physical has an uphill battle to stay relevant.
I guess I'm just too indiferent towards physical in 2026 to care too much about it. 👍

@BaldB3lper78

All heading towards digital and cloud. Thats what Microsoft and Nvidia want

Yet GTA6 being a digital only release has absolutely zero to do with Nvidia or Microsoft.

And just to add, I'm sure Sony are in total panic over getting their full 30% share, (since this has killed the second hand market) for every single GTA6 game ever sold on their enormous console base. The digital push/transition is far from being just a Microsoft or Nvidia thing..

@Banjo-

Mahler is so blinded by his Microsoft hatred , that he probably forgot his studio's best work is on GamePass 😁.

This game will do more for digital adoption rates (not a bad thing imo) than the rest of the industry combined. And I'm not terribly bothered by it because I can't remember when I last bought a physical game for my Series X 🙃.

Not much to say here. The time has come again for Mahler to fill his quota of Xbox/GamePass/Microsoft bashing.
He’s likely still very upset because the relationship between his studio and Microsoft soured. I just hope he stoped being an abusing d#k towards his staff…

A lot of flak is being sent Xbox's way for this, but we're assuming it's more of a PlayStation decision than anything... or perhaps some kind of weird quirk with the way Xbox accounts function on PS5

This looks like a mighty storm in a tea cup. Apparently GOW Reloaded can be played in co-op without the PlayStation community going into hyperventilation over it.
The question is what's different and who's not playing nice this time, is it Microsoft or Sony?

The money this game would have made on PS and Nintendo would have saved several of the studios Microsoft is now planning to close.
But yay for exclusivity...

Tragic! Absolutely tragic and horrendous to see all these developers getting devastated because a 3 trillion dollar corporation has to balance the books, so that it can invest even more in the black hole that is AI. Oh lest we forget the top brass at Microsoft probably get paid more in a year than any savings the shuttering of these studios will bring/make.

Edited: Oh yes, let’s bring back exclusives so we can have another round of culling next year 🤦

I love South of Midnight, and bought it too. Only Microsoft can be shortsighted enough to shut down its AA production studios and still think they can grow GamePass at the same time. Variety is the lifeblood of any subscription service, but it’s Microsoft we are talking about here…

This is both a sobering and really grim reading. I'm really worried about the consequences for Xbox Game Studios.
How on Earth could no one at Microsoft foresee the RAM crisis especially when they were bedfellows with Open AI. One of the companies gobbling up any available RAM and storage stock. It beggars belief.

Look, I think that we are the number 2 publisher in the world, and when you do that, you want your games to be everywhere. You're stronger when the world plays with you

Precisely. So what’s the point of having Gears and Clockwork as permanent exclusives then? This strategy won’t work, all it will do is damage the sales potential of the two games mentioned when finally released on PS and Nintendo.
They had a pivot, and that was to move beyond the traditional console game gatekeeping, and have an open gaming platform with the backing of one of the biggest publishers in the world. But yeah, two steps forward one step back.

@Skinny-Pete

Microsoft clearly don't do themselves any favours with their actions and the manner in which is communicated. But the PS reactions are hilarious, hence why I've noted the cognitive dissonance 😁.
To wrap up, I still stand behind Spencer's vision on meeting players wherever they are.

@8th_Observer

Xbox Defense Force 😅. Would that be the equivalent of The Sony Defense Force?
... and the sky is also green according to some people. Cognitive dissonance in those articles / comments is palatable😅.

@8th_Observer

Yeah but where would Pushsquare get it's dozens of articles with 100+ angry comments from, if Microsoft did that 😅😅?

What an absolute mess!
Microsoft puts out a fantastic showcase, then proceeds to do everything in it's power spoil it.
It comes across as incompetence, I don't envy those pushed out to explain all this.

Simply put, this is becoming embarrassing. Spencer had a plan:

• allow people to play wherever they want
• grow exponentially the Play Anywhere compatible titles
• unparalleled value to GamePass
• make next-gen hardware the most awesome and radical it can be.
  Going back to Sony's and Nintendo's model it's f@kng mistake. That model died with the X1 reveal, we've been here before.