StonyKL

This game looks so atmospheric. Have a feeling I'm going to love it.

@TheRealPaperKut I'll give you a clue. They mirror PureXbox comments for anything Sony.

To be honest its this sort of action that makes me not trust anything Phil says. Its all PR BS. If he wants to make games more available to everyone then stopping 100 million+ people getting access isn't the way forward. I really do not trust anything MS or he says as he has proven. And I'd equally not trust anything Jim Ryan says for the same reasons.

And most comments on here (and PS would be same of course) are not the joy of getting games but stopping millions of other people from being able to play games.

Do people behave similarly with Spotify vs Apple Music? If I listen to good music I tell my family/mates so they can listen to it and share the joy? I don't celebrate when I hear all Radiohead music has been taken away from Apple music so only me and my Spotify subscription can listen to it? Seems odd to me?

All this joy from people who used to be able to play Bethesda games but can now play Bethesda games, while millions of people who could play Bethesda game now can't. And that's where the joy comes from?

On topic - not yet excited for Redfall yet. Not sure why, although cannot wait for Starfield. Expecting that to keep me busy for a long time.

In answer to their question:

"All I can say is, we're aiming to get every single title we publish from now on, onto Game Pass. In doing so, we'll secure success for each title, and relieve immense pressure for the devs

But please gamers, continue to explain why it's bad for us"

Getting paid for your games whatever isn't bad for the devs but is bad for the gamers. You are basically telling us you are getting paid for completion and not for sale numbers which sounds like you aren't getting rewarding for your quality but for quantity.

There is a genuine possibility that Game Pass will damage the gaming industry. There are many valid concerns that are mentioned, including on Push Square but unfortunately get shot down because 'only fan boys' have negative thoughts about Game Pass.
Personally I think GP will have a similar affect to the Netflix scenario. Most blockbuster movies only come to Netflix after a long time or not at all - similar to GP. Only Netflix films do, which will be the MS games that do, along with a lot of the 'indie' or less successful films/tv which is what most of GP is populated with. Netflix has been slowly increasing the subscription costs, which will happen with GP over time.

It's interesting how many high profile and respected industry people are against the Netflix model and it's affect on the film industry, and that's in a space where there are a much larger spread of companies while MS are trying to gradually buy as much of the market share as possible. I guess maybe Disney being the closest example buying Lucasfilm, Marvel, 20th Century Fox. I'd argue that 95% of people on this site probably think that's not good for the industry and would complain if they tried to further buy WB and/or NBC. Some people don't realise that non Game Pass or Xbox owners see a similar trend happening in the gaming industry and are concerned. And to some extend the MS strategy feels more extreme compared to the film industry currently, especially with the cost of these merges being larger in size.

Oddly you don't tend to see Disney fans boys (maybe you do?) up in arms when those merges are investigated?

Its interesting how generally one sided Xbox owners are because they only see an opportunity for 'free COD' but never thinking the whole on-going process is designed to, rightly or wrongly, protect gamers.

As an owner of a Series X I view this as say Sony wanting to buy Rockstar and take GTA or EA and take FIFA and the CMA saying it is damaging to gamers to allow such a huge component of the gaming industry being exclusive. I can imagine 95% of PureXbox members would support the CMA in that scenario. Wouldn't they? I know I would.
I seriously do think MS not buying ActiBlizz is better for the industry the way Sony not buying Rockstar or EA would be too.

Don't know much about lies of p but this looks like a complete copy of Bloodborne without the atmosphere or the dodgy frame rate. Not sure what it is but I'm not fully convinced however as it's game pass I'll at least give it a try

Was a game pass machine until I cancelled the subscription. Not enough worth playing left on there. Now I have a very expensive paper weight under the tv! Currently on a year of PS Premium and won't subscribe to that again either. Think I'll be going back to only buying games on deep sale. Much better value to me.

I call BS. Just read on this site the other day that Sony pay to block games going on rival services like gamepass and are an evil corporation so to then have an article suggesting they're putting an exclusive IP onto said rival service is very contradictory? Would that mean people would comment on here how great Sony are for letting their games go on services they subscribe to?

Yep Series X got me back to Xbox after PS4 then 360 before it. Xbone One was just terrible, hence the PS4. But I did find that I personally prefer the PS4 exclusives a lot more than Xbox ones so also bought a PS5.
Main draw for coming back was GamePass, however I do feel like it is a little overrated, a bit like Netflix. Both amazing until you've gone through the majority of whats on offer and not a lot of decent new stuff coming in. Therefore my current plan is to alternate between PS Extra/Premium and GP.
I like the £100 a year cost for PS side so have that for a year then will move onto GP monthly until I've gone through Starfield and Redfall (plus anything else new on there at that time) for next years exclusives.

Loving their response a lot more than the controller. Looks very 80's or like a mishmash of awful football kits from the 90's but was worth it just for this come back 🤣

In other news, head of Netflix enjoys watching Stranger Things and think Season 4 is the best one yet 😂

MW2 is probably my favourite CoD and probably where it started going downhill for me. Will love to get back to it with the remake, especially as part of GP.

Not rocket science. Game pass is good for short periods because it focus' more on quantity rather than quality, same with Netflix. Once you have gone through the quality you manage to get through the quantity rather quickly.
I've just stopped my subscription and will wait for about a year or more until I go back. WIll give the PS+ one a go for a year and get through their list before swapping over again.
I do find it amusing I'll have this £450 paper weight for a year gathering dust as I have nothing really to show for the £100 I spent the last 18 months or so.
Whether this service model will work long term, only time will tell.

I'm pleasantly surprised with what's on offer so far. Been wanting Death Stranding, Valhalla, Returnal and Demons Soul and the prices just haven't been coming down anywhere near enough to buy them.
Obviously this article was written purely for click bait purpose to have people shoot it down but my take from this and GP is that I'll probably subscribe to each one separately. Not really any point to having Game Pass this year as nothing really being added to make it value for money while PS+ will give me a year of new stuff. Hopefully once I'm through these games I'll jump back onto GP with some new stuff to play there. Could work a treat for people who don't cut their nose to spite their face by picking sides.

"While we understand that the financial aspect of launching AAA games onto a service can't be understated, Microsoft is continually proving that the model works, at least for Xbox."

Yep, just like Man City proving that spending unlimited amounts of money on players, their wages and their agents works and all Man City fans criticise other clubs for not doing the same 🤣

@Medic_Alert Played the first and thought it was excellent - and definitely a change of pace. Looking forward to trying this one out too. Hopefully lives up to my first experience.

Was just about to complain about how awful this sale is (as they generally all are!) and noticed Time Splitters 2 for £2.51. Don't mind if I do!

Life is Strange would be great - the others I won't touch.

I say screw it - Sign Halo off as finished and use the studio to work on something new? Or possibly Halo Infinite plus 1 so they can get the next one out in good time?

@RevGaming Lets be honest, GOTY is between Elden Ring, Elden Ring and Elden Ring. I haven't even played it yet and know this is true 😂

The only way my mind will be blown is if
1 - if they actually release the game this year without delaying to next year
2 - they release to a quality standard above what they've ever released in their previous history

Game wise I'm sure it'll be a great game but when I think of Starfield I expect delays and bugs ahead of what the actual gameplay will be like. No reason to think otherwise based on history and after Cyberpunk felt like the final straw I don't think MS will let Starfield release to Bethesda's usual low quality standard, hence my expectation of delays.

@Royalblues holy $%^&! Thats probably even more terrifying!! expect Sony Cars to just start randomly drifting! Hopefully an early leaked April fools joke!

@Royalblues Are you saying MS are wanting to make cars? Now that would be terrifying!

Think its not really rocket science. MS releasing day 1 is sustainable for them so they do it. Sony realising day 1 isn't so they don't. PS owners state its not sustainable without infinite funds, Xbox owners state it is.

I do sort of expect the quality to go down if the aim becomes quantity over quality which most of these subscription services end up doing. Thinking Netflix and Prime where there is a lot of content but not too much quality for their own content. I guess time will tell on the gaming future if that happens.

@Kooky_Daisuke completely agree. That was my plan but takes a better person than me to resist when games like Elden Ring come along! Too much FOMO!

@Kooky_Daisuke I personally think GP saving money is a fallacy for the most part. If you were to buy all GP games then it's incredible saving but in truth a lot of people buy GP and then still buy most of the non GP games they would anyway.

For example this year the main games Id buy are Hogwarts, Elden ring, dying light 2, Gotham Knights and Starfield . With GP I'd be paying similar amount plus £150 for GP on top.
I certainly am getting value for money but definitely not saving money in the process!

I think it takes owning GP to realise it. Or the alternative is to miss out on quality games and just stick to GP games which I don't like doing.

Started playing this when part of GamePass but it was taken off before I could complete it. Think I was about 75% through. Enjoyable game but felt a bit empty compared to some modern open world games. Hoping this latest version will improve that.

Often feel like GP, as good as it is, is a little over rated to the point I was probably going to not maintain my subscription. Then boom! GOTG comes in and reiterates why I subscribe to GP and why I'll never buy a game on the Xbox ever again!!

Sorry to say this FINJI but think this game may struggle. I'll wait for GP and I guess that so will the majority of people. The Elden Ring sales figures are giving out some suggestions that low figures on the Xbox are because large numbers aren't buying because they have GP. Of course I could very easily be proven wrong.

Can sort of understand the online side as that's where halo usually shines but I found the single player extremely boring and couldn't be bothered finishing it. Signals a terrible year for gaming to me.

Edit: haven't played returnal but people saying it's niche and a difficult game - does that mean Elden Ring can't win goty this year? I'm still on the fence for both returnal and Elden ring because of the difficulty.

I may be wrong saying this but I thought PS Now was first so technically GP is MS's answer to PS Now. Also I'm sure I've had day 1 games from Sony on PS Plus before, even before GP was a thing? And with PS Plus the game is yours forever (so long as you subscribe of course). Didn't seem worthy of writing an article about but here I am, reading about something I'm sure has happened many times before?

@Quaali 'fraid so. I distinctly remember the store guy trying to stop me from buying it because he was adamant it was a terrible game. Crazy days they were. The thought of buying a game new from a store!

@Snake_V5 yep. Was torn between this and Immortals: Fenyx Rising (or whatever its called). Went with the latter and pleasantly surprised so far. Still feel like there is more fixes to come with Cyberpunk and still think it will come down in price more once those fixes have released.

Going to be the idiot in the room and say I enjoyed this when I got it day 1. Was very chilled and peaceful game which now has too many moving parts for me to be able to get back into. But I can't fault the work that has gone into this project. Imagine all games getting this much support after release.

Thinking of that launch window when we were told the S was the X just at HD and not 4K. I didn't trust it at the time and very glad I went X instead. Just a shame they couldn't squeeze all that X into the body of an S

Looks very 'last gen' but potentially fun - especially if its a cross between wolf & doom as it sounds. Assuming its GamePass as well so will look forward to trying this.

@Martsmall wonder if the majority of gamers don't have the knowledge of buggy games. I frequent this site daily but didn't realise this was released or that it was buggy (I should pay more attention!). I agree it would be great to an extent for all gamers to work together and not buy games day 1 but wait until they are fixed and cheaper - however I can only see that damaging the industry as companies getting less money would spend less on games.
Maybe we just have to appreciate those gamers who buy day 1 and the rest of us just wait until they are fixed and half the price.

Wonder if this is no different to the licence deals for music on GTA (as an example). They aren't allowed to use certain soundtracks because the licence ran out? Wonder if the licence only was for the first specific Halo or for all Halo games and now it is being used for non game related entertainment?
Who knows - and imagine no one outside of the court case will actually know but will give their opinion anyway.
I say give them a lifetime GP subscription and let it be!
Edit: Ooh I have a conspiracy theory. Sony planned to buy Bungie on 2020 and realised Bungie own the licence so want to use it in their next exclusive! 😂

@Dezzy70 To be fair with so much coming out on PS5 this year I'll probably let my GP subscription expire for 2022, play PS then jump back on GP for 2023 - or once Starfield releases. It's the best positive spin I can put on it really.
It's how I watch TV as well. Will subscribe to one or two then move between them once enough new stuff has built up. Feel like GP will be the same for a lot of people.

@Banjo- had the same question - although cross platform play suggests other platforms. Just not sure which platforms they refer to

Sounds like everyone wins. COD players can still buy that one game a year on their PS COD machine. Paying 2-3 times the amount a year to then not own it afterwards probably isn't their consumption method and not in their best interest.

I think the point here is that GP hasn't been good for indie games on the whole. There's a stat on the number of indie games on GP versus the number of Indies games available and it's miniscule (not sure if it's part of this original article or somewhere else). I'm sure it's great for that tiny group that are benefiting but not for the bulk.
This article snippet seems to focus on Indie games not making sales because people prefer to stick with games in GP. I'm certainty part of that group. General consensus is how great a value GP is but if you then spend money on other games outside of GP then there is no value.

Perhaps it's similar to people that no longer buy/rent films as much because they get their fill with Netflix and others.

Still think Film and music industry are going through similar questions but are perhaps ahead in the process.

@BAMozzy not thought too much on it but could they do individual Xbox accounts that play it? I always have to log in to an account to play. This is one of my most anticipated Xbox games along with Hellblade 2. No pressure on them then. Needs to be most played game AND worthy of my expectation!!

Also have to say again - I've never known a CEO to be so public so constantly. He seems to talk to media on a daily basis. Does he not have a job to get on with?!? His diary must be: Monday - speak with X about how great GP is, Tuesday - speak to Y about how this game is the best ever, Wednesday - speak to Z about how much of a gamer I am and I'm here to save gaming by buying every company I can 😁
And does PureXbox have a similar diary? Monday - write about Phil Spencer saying how great GP is, etc!

@Medic_Alert This is a good point. GP has made games disposable. I played Halo for a few hours. Thought it was okay, deleted it and moved on. If I had spent £50 on it I wouldn't have given up so easily. Even last gen some of my favourite games I had to persevere with but GP there's no real need to.
In fact the biggest struggle I have is with the bigger RPG style games. Unless I'm gripped constantly I'll just move onto the next game. Don't need to try and understand the levelling up system or trek from point A to point B as game #126 is ready for me to try out immediately.

Couldn't get into any of the Forza games I've played. Always end up buying Gran Turismo when it comes down to about £15 but usually get bored of it after about 20 hours or so. An inevitably I'll play F7 on GP and hate it and buy GT7 cheap and get bored of it. Still trying to live out those glory days on the PS1.
What's the definition of insanity again?

Hope this doesn't go through and same happens to Sony with Bungie. Then I can laugh at all you salty Xbox/Sony fans when you realise you can still play all those games like you did before but have to live with the indignation of having your mates ALSO able to play all those games too!!

Feel the two moments in question are completely different and comparing them is odd. The Sony p take was because MS tried to block the second hand market and everyone, including Xbox owners, were against it. It also made MS go back on the idea and it was a win win for every body in the end.

Buying the company that make the biggest selling games that are sold on the PS, especially after some will have bought a PS5 and now won't get the games they planned - so are financially put out by this is not a win win scenario.

Feels like saying people upset by being allowed 2nd hand games on Xbox One is equivalent to people being upset by not having access to games they have invested time/money. Its just not the same for me.

So Xbox division brought in about $50 billion in the year. Obviously this article will rave about everything Xbox and that Phil is the second coming but I'd love to know how much they spend the other way. The Activision deal was $70 billion. Partly sounds a decent purchase to sacrifice a years revenue on that but if they spend $100 billion without this then it doesn't sound very sustainable.
On the other side Sony's reason for not doing Game Pass is it wouldn't sustain the $200 million AAA blockbuster games they create but if they are bringing in $50 billion a year as well then those prices don't seem so big either?

Starting to sound desperate. Are the chips the same between X and S? Could MS recall them and use parts for selling more X's?

I get the general vibe from the comments that most people care more about how much profit MS shareholders make over Sony's than what will happen to the gaming industry. MS holding too much power is nothing to be happy about. And Sony being acquired by a Disney or Google that is being talked about here would be just as bad for the industry.
I just shudder to think what PS would look like with Disney in control.

@Alduin Sony make incredible high quality exclusives because they can make the money back due to having such a large install base - but if that disappears then they won't be able to fund these high quality games which is my concern. At no point in this announcement do I feel like I will be getting more games but it feels like more potential to be losing games.
And I would expect the price of GP to go up for obvious reasons. And when I don't play activision games that price rise will be for no direct gain for me so generally feel like this is a lose lose situation.
Of course there will be a lot of happy people who buy GP & COD games so may potentially save a little money over all.

@Alduin this is what worries me. I enjoy many of the games Xbox provides but they are only a third of console gaming out there. Say this did end Nintendo/Sony as most people here would love. To me that 2/3rds of gaming lost and one of my hobbies weaker for it.