I understand how licensing works but that doesn't change that it's crap. The Offspring, and basically anyone short of The Beetles, should be thankful games like Crazy Taxi, JSR or even GTA feature their music generations later instead of the other way around. The coolest music might help sell a trailer for the newest game but no one is buying a something from one Gen ago, much less decades ago for the music. What, they think we're going to burn it off the PS1 disk with our dual media drive? Maybe I'll hold my taperecorder up to the speakers like it's 1985, or I'll steal it off Napster.
I'm an invested Xbox fan, but it's clear this is their way to abandon the console space without abandoning their huge investment in gaming all while saving face. The price of memory will dictate the specifics but the big strokes are easy to predict. Nintendo will continue on their very successful path. Sony will bank on what will certainly be a massive price discrepancy between the Helix and PS6, which will be a traditional console at a traditional price and appear to be a value through comparison (and probably outsell the PS5, at least at first). MS's aim will be to win the now larger than console PC market, but that will have pitfalls. On paper this sounds great, where Switch excelled by capturing handheld and console customers, Xbox can do the same with TV and PC, except they carry few of the advantages Nintendo did. The Switch wasn't way more expensive than the DS and most users already bought into both Nin machines so the combo actually saved them money. Helix will lose the console only customer, but their perceived cost advantage to dominate the gaming PC space may not matter if they can't offer the #1 advantage of PC's, upgradability. Will this limitations do to PC development what the Series S did to console and hold it back? PC gaming is far more scalable, but it isn't out of the question, especially as the software developed today is for machines years down the road. Thus could work for MS, but just as likely most customers may reject it. Console only players aren't going to pay 1.5 to 2x as much as the PS6 when they wouldn't for a SX that was cheaper than a PS5. At the same time why would a PC gamer buy a machine they can't upgrade? For the Xbox overlay?
You don't need to be a gamer to run the business, but don't fake it. I guess it's not impossible but we're supposed to believe she did all this, 9 games, in one month while taking on a new role as the head of the Microsoft Gaming Division? I put that right next to my inheritance from my long lost cousin in Nigeria.
Most people don't follow game development or release dates, they discover a game at the store (Steam, Gamepass, digital, physical, whatever). The impact of a short delay is miniscule vs the impact of a poor or even middling launch.
@themightyant - except do you really think eliminating the feature is going to make even a decimal point performance difference? No, online social interaction builds communities and that isn't XBox anymore, MS wants to change your perception of them away from "Team XBox" where you wear green t-shirts to the midnight release of Halo into MS Office where you start your Xbox spreadsheet at work and check up on it through your phone at home. It's a different mindset that they think will be profitable, except as CoPilot has proven it only works if people in a like-minded community like your product more. Forums show business after business are pushing CoPilot and their employees are pulling out their phones to use ChatGPT because that's what everyone they know uses - community support.
At the time Fable was more famous for what it wasn't than what it was. Peter Molyneux waaaay overpromised, selling everyone on a premise he couldn't deliver. You were supposed to start as a kid in a huge open world but constantly grow older and evolve over generations. In the final you start as a kid and then time skip to adulthood, but you were supposed to continously age, change, physically evolve based on your actions and develop a reputation and following over a lifetime in the game including growing old and continuing to play as successive generations. NPCs and the world itself would age too with towns expanding and technology advancing, all while the legends of your exploits would be talked about and celebrated in game until they became Fables told to your children's children, in the game. This wasn't an "early concept", it WAS the concept; as core to the premise as shooting in Doom or exploring in Tomb Raider. What we got was a good, basic on-rails action game, but it was like finally firing up GTA6 to find out it wasn't open world or ES6 is suddenly a 2D and turn-based.
MS gaming division has long used their money to do both "throw it against the wall" and "do everything at the same time" as their strategy and it has a fault, conflict. Everyone knows sales plummeted for years as Sony pushed out exclusives and MS gave us a sprinkling of subpar stuff. They bought success with all these studio purchases and while that took time to bear fruit it's finally here... exceptcat the same time another strategy was to move away from exclusive hardware and make Xbox a platform; but it turns out those things are more counter than complimentary. Is Xbox a console, a competitor to PS and Switch? Is Xbox an inexpensive, plug and play PC? Is Xbox a game subscription service, the soon to be dissolved entry vehicle to establish GamePass in the greater gaming market? Any of these are viable and maybe even any 2, but all 3 together without clarity and commitment diminishes consumer confidence. I have a S1, PS5 and Series X, but while I have a PC, I gave up on the expense and headache of PC gaming years and years ago. Make my SX a go to with great exclusives, make it where I can play new PC stuff on my TV, make GamePass my go to for everything gaming... but if I wasn't already bought in I wouldn't based on the state of things right now.
Comments 9
Re: Over 50,000 Votes For 'Xbox Game Preservation' Titles Have Been Added In A Week
I understand how licensing works but that doesn't change that it's crap. The Offspring, and basically anyone short of The Beetles, should be thankful games like Crazy Taxi, JSR or even GTA feature their music generations later instead of the other way around. The coolest music might help sell a trailer for the newest game but no one is buying a something from one Gen ago, much less decades ago for the music. What, they think we're going to burn it off the PS1 disk with our dual media drive? Maybe I'll hold my taperecorder up to the speakers like it's 1985, or I'll steal it off Napster.
Re: Over 50,000 Votes For 'Xbox Game Preservation' Titles Have Been Added In A Week
@Decimateh - Dust! Loved that, my Wife and kids all grouped together. If I remember correctly, that was a one man project.
Re: 'It Will Lead In Performance' - Xbox's Price Tag For Project Helix Could Be Pretty High
I'm an invested Xbox fan, but it's clear this is their way to abandon the console space without abandoning their huge investment in gaming all while saving face. The price of memory will dictate the specifics but the big strokes are easy to predict. Nintendo will continue on their very successful path. Sony will bank on what will certainly be a massive price discrepancy between the Helix and PS6, which will be a traditional console at a traditional price and appear to be a value through comparison (and probably outsell the PS5, at least at first). MS's aim will be to win the now larger than console PC market, but that will have pitfalls. On paper this sounds great, where Switch excelled by capturing handheld and console customers, Xbox can do the same with TV and PC, except they carry few of the advantages Nintendo did. The Switch wasn't way more expensive than the DS and most users already bought into both Nin machines so the combo actually saved them money. Helix will lose the console only customer, but their perceived cost advantage to dominate the gaming PC space may not matter if they can't offer the #1 advantage of PC's, upgradability. Will this limitations do to PC development what the Series S did to console and hold it back? PC gaming is far more scalable, but it isn't out of the question, especially as the software developed today is for machines years down the road.
Thus could work for MS, but just as likely most customers may reject it. Console only players aren't going to pay 1.5 to 2x as much as the PS6 when they wouldn't for a SX that was cheaper than a PS5. At the same time why would a PC gamer buy a machine they can't upgrade? For the Xbox overlay?
Re: Xbox CEO Shares Her Three Favourite Games Of All Time, Along With Her Gamertag
You don't need to be a gamer to run the business, but don't fake it. I guess it's not impossible but we're supposed to believe she did all this, 9 games, in one month while taking on a new role as the head of the Microsoft Gaming Division? I put that right next to my inheritance from my long lost cousin in Nigeria.
Re: One Of March's Most-Promising Xbox Game Pass Titles Has Been Delayed
Most people don't follow game development or release dates, they discover a game at the store (Steam, Gamepass, digital, physical, whatever). The impact of a short delay is miniscule vs the impact of a poor or even middling launch.
Re: These 10+ Games Are Coming To Xbox Next Week (February 16-20)
Please please please tell me Liquor Store Simulator leans into the obvious humor in the concept!
Re: Xbox Announces Social Clubs Will Be Removed From Consoles In April 2026
@themightyant - except do you really think eliminating the feature is going to make even a decimal point performance difference? No, online social interaction builds communities and that isn't XBox anymore, MS wants to change your perception of them away from "Team XBox" where you wear green t-shirts to the midnight release of Halo into MS Office where you start your Xbox spreadsheet at work and check up on it through your phone at home. It's a different mindset that they think will be profitable, except as CoPilot has proven it only works if people in a like-minded community like your product more. Forums show business after business are pushing CoPilot and their employees are pulling out their phones to use ChatGPT because that's what everyone they know uses - community support.
Re: I'm Playing Fable 1 For The First Time, And Here Are Five Things That Have Surprised Me
At the time Fable was more famous for what it wasn't than what it was. Peter Molyneux waaaay overpromised, selling everyone on a premise he couldn't deliver. You were supposed to start as a kid in a huge open world but constantly grow older and evolve over generations. In the final you start as a kid and then time skip to adulthood, but you were supposed to continously age, change, physically evolve based on your actions and develop a reputation and following over a lifetime in the game including growing old and continuing to play as successive generations. NPCs and the world itself would age too with towns expanding and technology advancing, all while the legends of your exploits would be talked about and celebrated in game until they became Fables told to your children's children, in the game. This wasn't an "early concept", it WAS the concept; as core to the premise as shooting in Doom or exploring in Tomb Raider. What we got was a good, basic on-rails action game, but it was like finally firing up GTA6 to find out it wasn't open world or ES6 is suddenly a 2D and turn-based.
Re: Xbox's Matt Booty Issues Statement On Layoffs And Game Cancellations
MS gaming division has long used their money to do both "throw it against the wall" and "do everything at the same time" as their strategy and it has a fault, conflict. Everyone knows sales plummeted for years as Sony pushed out exclusives and MS gave us a sprinkling of subpar stuff. They bought success with all these studio purchases and while that took time to bear fruit it's finally here... exceptcat the same time another strategy was to move away from exclusive hardware and make Xbox a platform; but it turns out those things are more counter than complimentary. Is Xbox a console, a competitor to PS and Switch? Is Xbox an inexpensive, plug and play PC? Is Xbox a game subscription service, the soon to be dissolved entry vehicle to establish GamePass in the greater gaming market? Any of these are viable and maybe even any 2, but all 3 together without clarity and commitment diminishes consumer confidence. I have a S1, PS5 and Series X, but while I have a PC, I gave up on the expense and headache of PC gaming years and years ago. Make my SX a go to with great exclusives, make it where I can play new PC stuff on my TV, make GamePass my go to for everything gaming... but if I wasn't already bought in I wouldn't based on the state of things right now.