To be honest whether you are interested in this game or not its the biggest game of the year in my eyes. So much pressure and hype, coming after TotK and BG3 with almost perfect critical acclaim and being a Bethesda game which will highly likely release as a buggy mess..... I can not wait! As a GP subscriber there is no burn or buyers remorse, however will be very disappointed if it doesn't match the hype.
@Trmn8r @ChromeMud Not sure if I can make my thoughts out very clearly as to why I don't like all this (but I'll try). Nothing specific to MS and/or TenCent - but yes, Sony are biggest earners but thats just because they are currently better at what they do. But quick google (difficult to find anything other than revenue, but studio size and employer numbers) shows MS supposedly have 221,000 employers in the gaming industry while Sony have half that at 113,000 (that was in 2020-2021 FY so probably changed - especially as ABK and Zenimax aren't small studios). Suggests to me MS are arguably the biggest publisher in size, but just not in success. I'm sure the success may come in future to the detriment of Nintendo and Sony - thats not really my point, my concern was having companies like MS, Apple, Amazon who are big enough to 'own' so much of the industry is a prospect I don't like (I don't include Sony because I can't see them ever becoming comparably as big). Nothing wrong with you guys being happy with that - but if at any point, PIF or TenCent decide to copy the MS approach of buying up all the studios and 'rent' all the games back to us then I don't like it. It's a lot more realistic than worrying about what Sony are up to. I actually think if MS are too successful to "Spend Sony out of business" as they put it, then some of these huge corporations may end up buying Sony out eventually and may actually be able to complete financially with MS. Hey, I enjoy these discussions on these forums - its sort of the point of them. I went through the death of Blockbusters with streaming 'never to be the future' and x years on I'm in a position of paying £192 a year for netflix + £90 a year for Prime but still unable to watch Ted Lasso or The Mandalorian for example. But thanks for the input. Who knows what the next big gaming 'Shock!' will be - or my next terrible rant 😂
I really want Elden Ring but am waiting on Game Pass - otherwise where's the value in GP if I have to rent AND buy games. I'm pretty convinced it will arrive eventually and there's enough to keep me going til then - especially once Starfield releases
@Martsmall agreed ha! After gaming for 35 years it would be a shame for it to become even less accessible for everyone - but you're right. At my age I should worry more about will I still be able to game in 10 years! Surely arthritis in my wrists and thumbs will have set in by then!
@Martsmall I'm not sure if you understood my post. Yes thats fine for now but as with Netflix, HBO max and so on they don't let you always buy films and thats changing more and more. I'm concerned 10 years in the future this is where things will be at.
@Cashews you said it perfectly. For the meantime... All studios being owned by a handful of major corporations means things will eventually change
@Trmn8r they effectively are the market leader by revenue and spend. They have the power to change how the industry works along with the handful of other major corporations. Bit like how Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE are affectively changing the sports industry without having the best leagues. Man city struggle to sell all their tickets but are one of the biggest changes in the sport with their colossal spending.
@ChromeMud my post wasn't about MS it was about all of them and the dangers these buyouts potentially cause. This article was about TenCent who (I could be wrong) are not MS. I was slightly sarcastic because I was interested in how 99% of this site was pro buyouts when it came to Bethesda and ABK but wondered how pro they are once Chinese and Saudi Arabian companies or governments start owning all the studios. You're attitude is to defend MS at all costs, my attitude is to defend my hobby as much as I can. I currently own the big 3 and don't want any of them to buy all the studios.
The MS dream continues. Lets all celebrate with Tencent taking a section of the industry and when they (and all the others) inevitably starts streaming it back to us for "good value", so we end up subscribing £500 a year to rent Zelda, Last of Us and Halo, the only 3 games we wanted, and we can shout about great value because we are renting 8,000 game we didn't want! The more studios getting bought up the more worrying it gets
I'm not liking this 'get games day 1' but being offered them day 5 or what not. Does that mean the PS+ subscription is all day 1 games, but pay to get it a year early? Technically feels like there's no difference? So no - I won't be paying a subscription of £150 a year with only really Starfield as the big game I'm looking forward to, only to pay £30 to play it. All sounds a bit crazy to me!
We all know that MS are trying to buy their way to a monopoly. They said so themselves. But lets be honest, we don't care because we want more GamePass games! Although if Apple or Google were buying ABK, Zenimax and all the other incoming purchases that were documented, then would it be a problem? Perhaps that will be Saudi Arabia's next business adventure. To buy out all the gaming studios and the FTC and CMA won't be able to stop them. And as Xbox owners we would have to defend their actions against Sony fanboys just like everyone here also defends them for buying the PGA, Boxing, Football.
Not sure I could name a top ten of 2023 but I'll try... Okay after looking through the list of releases 2023 I've only played 2: Tears of the Kingdom Humanity Guess I have a lot to look forward to then?
My fear with all this is MS eventually not selling ownership (relative anyway) of the games and making them GamePass only. I get my GP as part of my phone subscription so not bothered (atm) about price rises but as much as GP is the 'best value in gaming' paying over £100 year after year adds up compared to buying a couple of games a year. Currently the way it all is is perfect for me but if MS made it so you could only play their games (which will grow with every acquisition) on GP it would suddenly make gaming a lot more expensive for some people.
Todd and Phil are really hyping this game up again and again. It better be great! I'm looking forward to it but the more it gets hyped the more I'm expecting it to be let down. Hopefully the story will keep me gripped enough to get through it but if it ends up too large without decent story I may struggle (was my biggest problem with No Mans Sky). Also love how they are repeating that they've had Xbox QA's testing the quality. Makes me think they expect perfect performance which is nigh on impossible the bigger and more ambitious the game gets!
@gollumb82 I'm a push square guy and have bought an Xbox too! Or am I a Pure Xbox guy and bought a PS5....I can never tell 🤔 Anyway - Xbox not doing too badly with these figures and as people mention above, they should have a surge once Starfield releases. Looking at those figures its crazy to say PS are market leaders and MS are rock bottom. I'd argue Nintendo are the Man City while Sony and MS are the Palace and Wolves fighting out down in 7th and 8th place!
Oh Bobby - I don't think anyone here will agree to disagree with you. More like tell someone running a company worth $69Billion that he doesn't know what he's talking about.
How can anyone believe this BS? If this were true then MS should buy these studios, put their games on GP day 1 and make them multi format. That way they can protect the industry like their PR team constantly goes on about, but still offer a different option with GP. All I hear from PX and MS is that they don't care for console sales as GP is their business model, yet they use console sales as their classed 'market share' and are obviously trying to limit those games onto their formats.
As MS games are all available on phones and PC's surely MS have the market share in machines capable of playing MS and GP games?
Having all 3 major consoles and visiting PS, PX, NL I do find PX is 90% hypocrisy complaining about exclusives which MS were major players in such behaviour, while complaining about Sony not happy that MS are buying studios to take established franchises away from competitors. I'm pretty sure no-one has done this before - or certainly to this scale at least.
I'd argue Sony buying Bungie is the closest, however they supposedly remain independent while MS have taken away Arkane (Dishonoured), Ninja Theory (arguable? is Hellblade an established IP?), Obsidian, Bethesda (Elder scrolls, fallout), id Software (Doom/Quake/Wolfenstein), Rare (I miss them from the N64 days).
I'm sure there are more from both companies and I'm sure people won't be able to resist telling me I'm wrong.
I reckon 95% of PS readers can't stand Jim but don't really care because they have enough games to make them not care, while on PX 95% hang of every word Phil says (even though they are no different from each other - just one has a much better PR team!) and I have no idea why.
Edit: I'm happy for people to give me other examples btw. I actually started enjoying reminiscing the old games. Like Viva Pinata from Rare. Loved that game on the 360!
@Moonglow I disagree - if you trust google I think MS have 23 studios while Sony have 19, so they are pretty even at the moment. MS not having much market share is more to do with them underperforming currently. Wasn't an issue during the 360 days. Perhaps MS issue is buying the wrong studios? Who knows? But in theory they can increase their fortunes with hard work and decent games without the need to just buy everyone.
Back on topic though, its a bit of a 'if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck" scenario. After saying to spend Sony out of business, buying Zenimax for billions then next buying ABK while having a long list of studios they planned (or still plan) to go after, then once getting caught say "we won't spend Sony out of business". I have a Series X and PS5 and am annoyed by thing Jim says and does and raise concerns on PS when justified, but the stuff coming out of MS at the moment is like they think we're idiots. No one is coming out looking good from this merger (once you take the blinkers off). Just give MS ABK then say that's your lot. If you want to succeed then make some good games instead of just churning out everyone else's games and we can all move on finally - until the next acquisition anyway!
@Moonglow Of course PS owners oppose the deal. Like anyone would if they were having the biggest selling games taken away from them. The issue for Sony is that MS have bought Zenimax and buying ABK so are obviously taking out the competition using their gazillions of $. That is actively monopolising the gaming industry so it would be criminal if Sony didn't fight it. Even if its not for this round, but for when MS try to buy Take Two, EA, Ubisoft they can refer back to the ABK deal and further strengthen their case to stop it happening.
Other than getting ABK games with GP I can't see anything positive about MS buying all these studios. Who knows what it means for those franchises going forwards. Things like CoD are AAAA level games because they sell so many games on PS and Xbox but once they go single platform who knows what happens. For arguments sake if 50% play on PS and stop playing CoD, will MS still put the same budget into those games? Will they remain at the quality people expect? Who knows? Maybe GP numbers go up, but the general consensus is the numbers are plateauing. Will people move from PS to Xbox? Maybe?
@themightyant I feel the value of GP decreases more and more over time while the price is going up.
Perhaps ABK buyout plus the inevitable additional buyouts once this has gone through will help address that, but it feels like a more extreme version of Netflix where once you've seen everything you want on there its not great value paying month after month waiting for new content. I skipped XBone generation and returned with Series X knowing I had a whole generation of Xbox first party games to play but was done with them after a year. Now I'm at that Netflix point where I'm waiting month after month for the games to come in. Its the same issue with PS Plus. On paper I thought GP was a shoe in for the way gaming was going, but now I'm not so sure which way it'll go.
@Zoidpilot4 just rewatched it and it was Big Phil talking about how amazing Fable looks then starts saying a list of games and etc that will be delivered in 2024. It confused me but had assumed it meant Fable was coming in 2024. Sounds like it isn't though.
Loved the trailer and certainly hyped the game for me but just got to hope the actual 'game' parts live up to the trailer. I remember Dead Island trailer vs gameplay! Also bit confused as they said they were showcasing games for the next 12 months. So does that imply they are aiming to have this finished within the next year? And if so (for all of them) why weren't there many gameplay trailers?
Lets be honest 30fps will probably be the least of their problems at launch. In fact if they manage a stable 30fps out of the gate they've outdone themselves. I'm actually not that bothered about the frame rate as we all know performance will be garbage but the game will be good enough that we won't care. Z:TotK is one of the best games I've ever played and doesn't perform perfectly.
Surely Diablo 4 comes to GP once the ABK deal goes through right? No chance I'm buying it if thats a possibility, but looking forward to playing it once it does come to GP
@Zoidpilot4 no worries I didn't take any offense , hence my joke response back but I do get annoyed with the kids not appreciating the classics! Although I get the same problem when getting the kids to watch Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, Goonies! They just don't appreciate real quality 😂😂
@Zoidpilot4 Pretty sure I didn't criticize Xbox. Think I only made a dig at was people blaming children/parents for the mistakes made by Microsoft who acknowledged their errors and vowed to improve themselves? And also nothing wrong with making mistakes and improving which was what I was sort of implying with my last statement.
Edit: I also think parent gamers are the best! We lived the golden generations of gaming with such classics as Wolf 3D, Doom, Half Life, Mario, Sonic, Street Fighter 2 (I could go on of course) and get to bore our kids about how much better gaming was in 'those' days
Loving the automatic defending of MS versus the online safety of children! Guessing not many here will have kids of their own. The amount of effort that most parents actually go through to try and keep gaming safe - its surprisingly tiring work! Having all of the 3 major consoles, so having to have a different passcode for all accounts, setting up age restrictions, time limits then having to block accounts for all of them as punishments, then reactivate etc!! Can't wait for them to be old enough to not bother anymore 🤣
MS probably deserved a bigger 'slap on the legs' than they got - however would imagine they do see safety as a major issue and this hopefully means they are a lot more focussed on getting it right.
This is sort of why I bought a Series X - for the exclusives I can't miss out on. Lets hope it delivers. What a year this could be with Spiderman 2, LOZ:TotK and Starfield....
@Dan1283 I don't understand what the government has to do with anything in this article? Thought this was the CMA blocking the acquisition for fear of MS monopolising the cloud industry and then being able to control and inflate the price of cloud gaming. There is always a chance this could go bad for us punters, once you take of the green tinted spectacles. Fingers crossed it doesn't...
@Widey85 I hope this benefits us on Game Pass, but I'm not so into ABK games and can only imagine what sort of price increase this will lead to. To be honest I get my GPU as a benefit on my phone contract so the higher the price the more value my contract is, however I'd imagine in general the punters will be the ones who suffer the costs long term - which is always the case.
Cannot wait for ToTK! But I doubt Starfield will ever match to the quality Zelda delivers. Bethesda just aren't on the same level, however it still doesn't mean Starfield won't be a great game. Btw all this pressure is good. Should hopefully force them to try and deliver something that isn't broken.
I'm torn between trying it now to experience how bad it is or waiting until its fixed. Tough call considering its free on my £15 a month subscription service. Or is it so broken its unplayable and not worth the time?
@Healz I'm pretty sure thats when a company has a monopoly and too much power, when a whole country NEEDS them. Without doubt MS are trying to monopolise all they can and are now going for the gaming market. They already own more studios that Sony and adding a tonne more. I really don't understand why MS can't use that money to get us more games. Using that money for ABK and Bethesda games doesn't give us more, but gives us the same as before. Spending that money on new studios / current studios would give us more games. Am I misunderstanding why Xbox owners want this to happen? Choice between 345 new AAA (games at 200 mil a game - I think) on top of current list of games OR same list of games but PS owners don't get ABK games anymore?
seems to show MS true colours with all this whining. Effectively saying "We're buying everyone we can so there is no longer anyone left to compete with us and if you don't let us there will be repercussions". Just a huge corporation trying to bully anyone and everyone to get their way. Not everyone agrees that taking away the biggest publishers (Bethesda and ABK) from competitors is 'great' for the industry. I'll be getting these games alongside my free GamePass subscription so thats good, but in no way is this ever good for the games industry. The best thing for the games industry would be to leave these companies alone and make loads of inhouse awesome original new games instead of spending all that money to churn out the same games over and over just to block X% of the gaming community from enjoying them.
What I really don't understand is how people are happy that MS buying up all the games they can, taking away from people (and even if COD isnt most everything else is) is seen as being good and competitive. I would have though building some studios and making games is how to be competitive and building quality games at that. Wouldn't that make Xbox owners happier? I can't see anything positive in either Sony or MS owning all the studios other than flaming fans wars. Having a series x and ps5 and not liking COD anyway this doesn't bother me much but I just can't see why this deal is good for the gaming industry. And MS track record of handling acquisitions isn't the best so shouldnt be advised. Perhaps the CMA all love COD and we're worried MS would ruin it!?!
@Reaper4993 Pretty sure Xbox had exclusivity with Tomb Raider and that proved a huge mistake as sales weren't worth it. Wonder if they've been burnt by MS exclusivity deals and don't think its worth the cost to develop for both the One, X and S? Only reason I can think of really?
@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.
"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 🤣
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.
Comments 712
Re: Starfield Has Officially Gone Gold, Xbox & PC Preload Dates Revealed
To be honest whether you are interested in this game or not its the biggest game of the year in my eyes. So much pressure and hype, coming after TotK and BG3 with almost perfect critical acclaim and being a Bethesda game which will highly likely release as a buggy mess..... I can not wait! As a GP subscriber there is no burn or buyers remorse, however will be very disappointed if it doesn't match the hype.
Re: Xbox Exclusive Hi-Fi RUSH Has Now Surpassed 3 Million Players
I was one of those players, if it counts playing for 5 minutes before realising its not my bag and deleting?
Re: Tencent Will Soon Become 'Majority Shareholder' Of Dying Light Developer Techland
@Trmn8r @ChromeMud Not sure if I can make my thoughts out very clearly as to why I don't like all this (but I'll try). Nothing specific to MS and/or TenCent - but yes, Sony are biggest earners but thats just because they are currently better at what they do. But quick google (difficult to find anything other than revenue, but studio size and employer numbers) shows MS supposedly have 221,000 employers in the gaming industry while Sony have half that at 113,000 (that was in 2020-2021 FY so probably changed - especially as ABK and Zenimax aren't small studios). Suggests to me MS are arguably the biggest publisher in size, but just not in success. I'm sure the success may come in future to the detriment of Nintendo and Sony - thats not really my point, my concern was having companies like MS, Apple, Amazon who are big enough to 'own' so much of the industry is a prospect I don't like (I don't include Sony because I can't see them ever becoming comparably as big).
Nothing wrong with you guys being happy with that - but if at any point, PIF or TenCent decide to copy the MS approach of buying up all the studios and 'rent' all the games back to us then I don't like it. It's a lot more realistic than worrying about what Sony are up to. I actually think if MS are too successful to "Spend Sony out of business" as they put it, then some of these huge corporations may end up buying Sony out eventually and may actually be able to complete financially with MS.
Hey, I enjoy these discussions on these forums - its sort of the point of them. I went through the death of Blockbusters with streaming 'never to be the future' and x years on I'm in a position of paying £192 a year for netflix + £90 a year for Prime but still unable to watch Ted Lasso or The Mandalorian for example.
But thanks for the input. Who knows what the next big gaming 'Shock!' will be - or my next terrible rant 😂
Re: Xbox Exec Responds To 'Confusion' About Elden Ring And Game Pass
I really want Elden Ring but am waiting on Game Pass - otherwise where's the value in GP if I have to rent AND buy games. I'm pretty convinced it will arrive eventually and there's enough to keep me going til then - especially once Starfield releases
Re: Tencent Will Soon Become 'Majority Shareholder' Of Dying Light Developer Techland
@Martsmall agreed ha! After gaming for 35 years it would be a shame for it to become even less accessible for everyone - but you're right. At my age I should worry more about will I still be able to game in 10 years! Surely arthritis in my wrists and thumbs will have set in by then!
Re: Tencent Will Soon Become 'Majority Shareholder' Of Dying Light Developer Techland
@Martsmall I'm not sure if you understood my post. Yes thats fine for now but as with Netflix, HBO max and so on they don't let you always buy films and thats changing more and more. I'm concerned 10 years in the future this is where things will be at.
@Cashews you said it perfectly. For the meantime... All studios being owned by a handful of major corporations means things will eventually change
@Trmn8r they effectively are the market leader by revenue and spend. They have the power to change how the industry works along with the handful of other major corporations. Bit like how Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE are affectively changing the sports industry without having the best leagues. Man city struggle to sell all their tickets but are one of the biggest changes in the sport with their colossal spending.
@ChromeMud my post wasn't about MS it was about all of them and the dangers these buyouts potentially cause. This article was about TenCent who (I could be wrong) are not MS. I was slightly sarcastic because I was interested in how 99% of this site was pro buyouts when it came to Bethesda and ABK but wondered how pro they are once Chinese and Saudi Arabian companies or governments start owning all the studios. You're attitude is to defend MS at all costs, my attitude is to defend my hobby as much as I can. I currently own the big 3 and don't want any of them to buy all the studios.
@Sifi Thanks you for backing my concerns up
Re: Tencent Will Soon Become 'Majority Shareholder' Of Dying Light Developer Techland
The MS dream continues. Lets all celebrate with Tencent taking a section of the industry and when they (and all the others) inevitably starts streaming it back to us for "good value", so we end up subscribing £500 a year to rent Zelda, Last of Us and Halo, the only 3 games we wanted, and we can shout about great value because we are renting 8,000 game we didn't want!
The more studios getting bought up the more worrying it gets
Re: Poll: Are You Buying The 'Early Access Upgrade' For Starfield?
I'm not liking this 'get games day 1' but being offered them day 5 or what not. Does that mean the PS+ subscription is all day 1 games, but pay to get it a year early? Technically feels like there's no difference?
So no - I won't be paying a subscription of £150 a year with only really Starfield as the big game I'm looking forward to, only to pay £30 to play it. All sounds a bit crazy to me!
Re: FTC Appeals Court's Ruling Permitting Microsoft's Acquisition Of Activision Blizzard
We all know that MS are trying to buy their way to a monopoly. They said so themselves. But lets be honest, we don't care because we want more GamePass games!
Although if Apple or Google were buying ABK, Zenimax and all the other incoming purchases that were documented, then would it be a problem?
Perhaps that will be Saudi Arabia's next business adventure. To buy out all the gaming studios and the FTC and CMA won't be able to stop them. And as Xbox owners we would have to defend their actions against Sony fanboys just like everyone here also defends them for buying the PGA, Boxing, Football.
But in the meantime give my my Diablo 4 and CoD!
Re: Talking Point: Are These The Top Xbox Games Of 2023 So Far?
Not sure I could name a top ten of 2023 but I'll try...
Okay after looking through the list of releases 2023 I've only played 2:
Tears of the Kingdom
Humanity
Guess I have a lot to look forward to then?
Re: Xbox Game Pass Is Now Officially More Expensive In Most Countries
My fear with all this is MS eventually not selling ownership (relative anyway) of the games and making them GamePass only. I get my GP as part of my phone subscription so not bothered (atm) about price rises but as much as GP is the 'best value in gaming' paying over £100 year after year adds up compared to buying a couple of games a year. Currently the way it all is is perfect for me but if MS made it so you could only play their games (which will grow with every acquisition) on GP it would suddenly make gaming a lot more expensive for some people.
Re: Todd Howard Says Xbox's Support On Starfield Has Been 'Incredible'
Todd and Phil are really hyping this game up again and again. It better be great! I'm looking forward to it but the more it gets hyped the more I'm expecting it to be let down. Hopefully the story will keep me gripped enough to get through it but if it ends up too large without decent story I may struggle (was my biggest problem with No Mans Sky).
Also love how they are repeating that they've had Xbox QA's testing the quality. Makes me think they expect perfect performance which is nigh on impossible the bigger and more ambitious the game gets!
Re: Xbox Series X|S Consoles Have Reportedly Passed 21 Million Sales Worldwide
@gollumb82 I'm a push square guy and have bought an Xbox too! Or am I a Pure Xbox guy and bought a PS5....I can never tell 🤔
Anyway - Xbox not doing too badly with these figures and as people mention above, they should have a surge once Starfield releases. Looking at those figures its crazy to say PS are market leaders and MS are rock bottom. I'd argue Nintendo are the Man City while Sony and MS are the Palace and Wolves fighting out down in 7th and 8th place!
Re: Activision Boss Admits He'll Have To 'Agree To Disagree' With Microsoft Over Xbox Game Pass
Oh Bobby - I don't think anyone here will agree to disagree with you. More like tell someone running a company worth $69Billion that he doesn't know what he's talking about.
Re: Microsoft's CEO Isn't A Fan Of Console Exclusives, Blames Sony
How can anyone believe this BS? If this were true then MS should buy these studios, put their games on GP day 1 and make them multi format. That way they can protect the industry like their PR team constantly goes on about, but still offer a different option with GP. All I hear from PX and MS is that they don't care for console sales as GP is their business model, yet they use console sales as their classed 'market share' and are obviously trying to limit those games onto their formats.
As MS games are all available on phones and PC's surely MS have the market share in machines capable of playing MS and GP games?
Having all 3 major consoles and visiting PS, PX, NL I do find PX is 90% hypocrisy complaining about exclusives which MS were major players in such behaviour, while complaining about Sony not happy that MS are buying studios to take established franchises away from competitors. I'm pretty sure no-one has done this before - or certainly to this scale at least.
I'd argue Sony buying Bungie is the closest, however they supposedly remain independent while MS have taken away Arkane (Dishonoured), Ninja Theory (arguable? is Hellblade an established IP?), Obsidian, Bethesda (Elder scrolls, fallout), id Software (Doom/Quake/Wolfenstein), Rare (I miss them from the N64 days).
I'm sure there are more from both companies and I'm sure people won't be able to resist telling me I'm wrong.
I reckon 95% of PS readers can't stand Jim but don't really care because they have enough games to make them not care, while on PX 95% hang of every word Phil says (even though they are no different from each other - just one has a much better PR team!) and I have no idea why.
Edit: I'm happy for people to give me other examples btw. I actually started enjoying reminiscing the old games. Like Viva Pinata from Rare. Loved that game on the 360!
Re: Microsoft Responds To Old Xbox Comment About 'Spending Sony Out Of Business'
@Moonglow I disagree - if you trust google I think MS have 23 studios while Sony have 19, so they are pretty even at the moment. MS not having much market share is more to do with them underperforming currently. Wasn't an issue during the 360 days. Perhaps MS issue is buying the wrong studios? Who knows? But in theory they can increase their fortunes with hard work and decent games without the need to just buy everyone.
Back on topic though, its a bit of a 'if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck" scenario.
After saying to spend Sony out of business, buying Zenimax for billions then next buying ABK while having a long list of studios they planned (or still plan) to go after, then once getting caught say "we won't spend Sony out of business". I have a Series X and PS5 and am annoyed by thing Jim says and does and raise concerns on PS when justified, but the stuff coming out of MS at the moment is like they think we're idiots. No one is coming out looking good from this merger (once you take the blinkers off).
Just give MS ABK then say that's your lot. If you want to succeed then make some good games instead of just churning out everyone else's games and we can all move on finally - until the next acquisition anyway!
Re: Bethesda's Indiana Jones Game Confirmed As An Xbox Exclusive
@Moonglow Of course PS owners oppose the deal. Like anyone would if they were having the biggest selling games taken away from them. The issue for Sony is that MS have bought Zenimax and buying ABK so are obviously taking out the competition using their gazillions of $. That is actively monopolising the gaming industry so it would be criminal if Sony didn't fight it. Even if its not for this round, but for when MS try to buy Take Two, EA, Ubisoft they can refer back to the ABK deal and further strengthen their case to stop it happening.
Other than getting ABK games with GP I can't see anything positive about MS buying all these studios. Who knows what it means for those franchises going forwards. Things like CoD are AAAA level games because they sell so many games on PS and Xbox but once they go single platform who knows what happens. For arguments sake if 50% play on PS and stop playing CoD, will MS still put the same budget into those games? Will they remain at the quality people expect? Who knows? Maybe GP numbers go up, but the general consensus is the numbers are plateauing. Will people move from PS to Xbox? Maybe?
Re: Microsoft Announces Price Increases For Xbox Series X And Xbox Game Pass
@themightyant I feel the value of GP decreases more and more over time while the price is going up.
Perhaps ABK buyout plus the inevitable additional buyouts once this has gone through will help address that, but it feels like a more extreme version of Netflix where once you've seen everything you want on there its not great value paying month after month waiting for new content. I skipped XBone generation and returned with Series X knowing I had a whole generation of Xbox first party games to play but was done with them after a year. Now I'm at that Netflix point where I'm waiting month after month for the games to come in. Its the same issue with PS Plus. On paper I thought GP was a shoe in for the way gaming was going, but now I'm not so sure which way it'll go.
Re: This Week's New 'Fable' Trailer Was Captured On An Xbox Series X
@Zoidpilot4 just rewatched it and it was Big Phil talking about how amazing Fable looks then starts saying a list of games and etc that will be delivered in 2024. It confused me but had assumed it meant Fable was coming in 2024. Sounds like it isn't though.
Re: Starfield Will Run At 4K / 30FPS On Xbox Series X, 1440p / 30FPS On Series S
They will patch a performance mode eventually. Just whether you can be bothered to wait or not.
Re: This Week's New 'Fable' Trailer Was Captured On An Xbox Series X
Loved the trailer and certainly hyped the game for me but just got to hope the actual 'game' parts live up to the trailer. I remember Dead Island trailer vs gameplay!
Also bit confused as they said they were showcasing games for the next 12 months. So does that imply they are aiming to have this finished within the next year? And if so (for all of them) why weren't there many gameplay trailers?
Re: Starfield At 30FPS Is A Creative Decision, Says Xbox's Phil Spencer
Lets be honest 30fps will probably be the least of their problems at launch. In fact if they manage a stable 30fps out of the gate they've outdone themselves.
I'm actually not that bothered about the frame rate as we all know performance will be garbage but the game will be good enough that we won't care. Z:TotK is one of the best games I've ever played and doesn't perform perfectly.
Re: 'Still Wakes The Deep' Brings Its Narrative Horror To Xbox Game Pass In 2024
Interested in only 3 games displayed at the showcase and this is one of them. Just hope Jessica Curry will be doing the score for this 🤞
Re: Talking Point: Are You Picking Up Either Of These AAA Juggernauts On Xbox This Month?
Surely Diablo 4 comes to GP once the ABK deal goes through right? No chance I'm buying it if thats a possibility, but looking forward to playing it once it does come to GP
Re: Xbox Issues Lengthy Statement Following $20 Million Fine For Privacy Violation
@Zoidpilot4 no worries I didn't take any offense , hence my joke response back but I do get annoyed with the kids not appreciating the classics! Although I get the same problem when getting the kids to watch Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, Goonies! They just don't appreciate real quality 😂😂
Re: Xbox Issues Lengthy Statement Following $20 Million Fine For Privacy Violation
@Zoidpilot4 Pretty sure I didn't criticize Xbox. Think I only made a dig at was people blaming children/parents for the mistakes made by Microsoft who acknowledged their errors and vowed to improve themselves? And also nothing wrong with making mistakes and improving which was what I was sort of implying with my last statement.
Edit: I also think parent gamers are the best! We lived the golden generations of gaming with such classics as Wolf 3D, Doom, Half Life, Mario, Sonic, Street Fighter 2 (I could go on of course) and get to bore our kids about how much better gaming was in 'those' days
Re: Xbox Issues Lengthy Statement Following $20 Million Fine For Privacy Violation
Loving the automatic defending of MS versus the online safety of children!
Guessing not many here will have kids of their own. The amount of effort that most parents actually go through to try and keep gaming safe - its surprisingly tiring work!
Having all of the 3 major consoles, so having to have a different passcode for all accounts, setting up age restrictions, time limits then having to block accounts for all of them as punishments, then reactivate etc!! Can't wait for them to be old enough to not bother anymore 🤣
MS probably deserved a bigger 'slap on the legs' than they got - however would imagine they do see safety as a major issue and this hopefully means they are a lot more focussed on getting it right.
Re: Starfield Fans Advised To 'Bring An Extra Pair Of Underwear' For This Week's Xbox Event
This is sort of why I bought a Series X - for the exclusives I can't miss out on. Lets hope it delivers. What a year this could be with Spiderman 2, LOZ:TotK and Starfield....
Re: UK CMA Issues Official Response To EU's Activision Blizzard Verdict
@Dan1283 I don't understand what the government has to do with anything in this article? Thought this was the CMA blocking the acquisition for fear of MS monopolising the cloud industry and then being able to control and inflate the price of cloud gaming. There is always a chance this could go bad for us punters, once you take of the green tinted spectacles. Fingers crossed it doesn't...
Re: Xbox's Activision Blizzard Deal Officially Approved In Europe
@Widey85 I hope this benefits us on Game Pass, but I'm not so into ABK games and can only imagine what sort of price increase this will lead to. To be honest I get my GPU as a benefit on my phone contract so the higher the price the more value my contract is, however I'd imagine in general the punters will be the ones who suffer the costs long term - which is always the case.
Re: Reaction: Zelda Reviews & Redfall Woes Put The Pressure On Xbox Exclusive Starfield
Cannot wait for ToTK! But I doubt Starfield will ever match to the quality Zelda delivers. Bethesda just aren't on the same level, however it still doesn't mean Starfield won't be a great game.
Btw all this pressure is good. Should hopefully force them to try and deliver something that isn't broken.
Re: Talking Point: What Do You Think Of Redfall So Far?
@Vacuumator thanks I might give it a go. With such low expectations and seeing most of the bugs online already I may not find it disappointing
Re: Talking Point: What Do You Think Of Redfall So Far?
I'm torn between trying it now to experience how bad it is or waiting until its fixed. Tough call considering its free on my £15 a month subscription service. Or is it so broken its unplayable and not worth the time?
Re: Microsoft President Makes Headline News With 'Furious' Response To UK ActiBlizz Verdict
@Healz I'm pretty sure thats when a company has a monopoly and too much power, when a whole country NEEDS them. Without doubt MS are trying to monopolise all they can and are now going for the gaming market. They already own more studios that Sony and adding a tonne more. I really don't understand why MS can't use that money to get us more games. Using that money for ABK and Bethesda games doesn't give us more, but gives us the same as before. Spending that money on new studios / current studios would give us more games.
Am I misunderstanding why Xbox owners want this to happen? Choice between 345 new AAA (games at 200 mil a game - I think) on top of current list of games OR same list of games but PS owners don't get ABK games anymore?
Re: Microsoft President Makes Headline News With 'Furious' Response To UK ActiBlizz Verdict
seems to show MS true colours with all this whining.
Effectively saying "We're buying everyone we can so there is no longer anyone left to compete with us and if you don't let us there will be repercussions". Just a huge corporation trying to bully anyone and everyone to get their way.
Not everyone agrees that taking away the biggest publishers (Bethesda and ABK) from competitors is 'great' for the industry.
I'll be getting these games alongside my free GamePass subscription so thats good, but in no way is this ever good for the games industry.
The best thing for the games industry would be to leave these companies alone and make loads of inhouse awesome original new games instead of spending all that money to churn out the same games over and over just to block X% of the gaming community from enjoying them.
Re: Microsoft Will Appeal UK Decision To Block Activision Blizzard Purchase
What I really don't understand is how people are happy that MS buying up all the games they can, taking away from people (and even if COD isnt most everything else is) is seen as being good and competitive.
I would have though building some studios and making games is how to be competitive and building quality games at that. Wouldn't that make Xbox owners happier? I can't see anything positive in either Sony or MS owning all the studios other than flaming fans wars.
Having a series x and ps5 and not liking COD anyway this doesn't bother me much but I just can't see why this deal is good for the gaming industry. And MS track record of handling acquisitions isn't the best so shouldnt be advised.
Perhaps the CMA all love COD and we're worried MS would ruin it!?!
Re: Xbox Misses Out On Yet Another Upcoming Square Enix Release
@Reaper4993 Pretty sure Xbox had exclusivity with Tomb Raider and that proved a huge mistake as sales weren't worth it. Wonder if they've been burnt by MS exclusivity deals and don't think its worth the cost to develop for both the One, X and S? Only reason I can think of really?
Re: Hellblade 2's New Facial Animation Trailer Is Absolutely Jaw-Dropping
This game looks so atmospheric. Have a feeling I'm going to love it.
Re: Report: Redfall Was 'Immediately Cancelled' For PS5 Following Xbox Takeover
@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.
Re: Xbox Game Pass Launches Enable 'Secure Success', Says Indie Publisher
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.
Re: Xbox Game Pass Launches Enable 'Secure Success', Says Indie Publisher
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?
Re: UK Authority Proposes Excluding Call Of Duty From Xbox Activision Blizzard Deal
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.
Re: 'Lies Of P' Gameplay Trailer Shows Upcoming Xbox Game Pass RPG Running In 8K, On PC
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
Re: Poll: How Many Xbox Games Have You Actually Bought This Year?
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.
Re: Rumour: Xbox Could Be Teasing Death Stranding For PC Game Pass
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?
Re: Talking Point: Did The Series X|S Bring You Back To Xbox? If So, How Come?
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.
Re: Xbox Destroys Haters In Response To Pride Controller Criticism
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 🤣
Re: Xbox Boss Phil Spencer 'Really Enjoying' Trek To Yomi On Xbox Game Pass
In other news, head of Netflix enjoys watching Stranger Things and think Season 4 is the best one yet 😂
Re: Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Gets Official October Release Date
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.
Re: Xbox Throws Major Shade At Claims Of 'Game Pass Burnout'
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.