TheGameThrifter

@Exerion76 There's many reasons for this. Developers aren't taking chances or risks anymore. Avowed played a lot like an Xbox 360 game and was fairly low budget.
Studios and developers are also tending to cater to a crowd of gamer that is incredibly small and in some cases doesn't even exist.

The thing that sucks as being an Xbox owner and fan is that they delay features for Xbox fans just to build up things so when they release the game on PlayStation it has all these fancy new things that we didn't get because of delays in order to get it on PlayStation in the first place.
Hellblade 2 is the perfect example, they could have done a 60fps patch anytime, but they waited until they launched on PS5 to do so. It sucks to be a Beta Tester for PS5 games....

A.I. doesn't belong in our videogames period.

45% compared to what? Microsoft loves word salad. I guess when you have nothing else trending up, you have to come up with something.

This Play Anywhere stuff is funny. It's been around since 2016 and hasn't caught on. According to all reports, Play Anywhere won't even be a thing next generation because Microsoft is releasing a PC. There probably won't be a console specific version anymore for any of the games for it. Which makes Play Anywhere redundant.
They're just using it as a buzzword to make it seem like a good deal currently.

Are they improving consoles at all? Seems like 100% focus on PC and Cloud.

@RiverGenie DITTO!

@GameOverScreen TRUTH!

It's not a big deal at all, they've had Play Anywhere since 2016 and people on PC play on PC and people on console play on console.
This is just them leaning into buzzwords and trying to make it appear like it's some huge pro consumer thing.
THE PROBLEM is, if the next Xbox can play console and PC games anyway, what's the point of Play Anywhere after this generation?

South Of Midnight was an average game and had a 77 Metacrititc, hardly worthy of a GOTY nod or anything really.
The game reminded me of an Xbox 360 game, and in 2025 that's not exactly a good thing.

I wish I had 4 hands, so I could give that show 4 thumbs down!
F-

How about competition? Exclusive games?
Toxic chat was part of the fun!

Thing is, they should of let people decide what they want in their Game Pass subscription. Personally don't care about Fortnite, Cloud, PC versions, EA Play or Ubisoft. Just want the day one games and to play online. The rest of the stuff is a waste.

@Questionable_Duck Go look side by side at the Ninja Gaiden 4 trailer on YouTube on the Xbox YouTube and PlayStation YouTube.
They literally removed every female from the Xbox version.
It's not grifters, Microsoft has mandates for their own developers to not make women attractive. Phil Spencer is notorious for turning down games that feature attractive women. Look at the recent characters from Xbox first party games, Perfect Dark had Johanna Dark looking like Crimson Chin. I'm not sure WTF that is in Fable, they nerfed Cortana into a full snowsuit.

Cancelled it. Can't spend $360 a year on game rentals that I don't own.

Phil Spencer would never let a game where the women look attractive and actually like women on his platform.

The S was fine at $299 or less, but at $400-$450 it's a complete rip-off.

@Gabrie GTAV is still in the top 10 on NPD for Xbox and PlayStation all this time later. GTA Online is a top 5 played Xbox game as well. They've sold 220 million copies now. Bulk of which are on console.
Certainly Rockstar wouldn't skip PC at launch if that were its biggest platform.

Microsoft is going to delay anything they had scheduled for late 2026 now. I'd guess Fable and Halo Campaign Evolved and they'll likely rush the next COD in early Oct

All of Xbox's big plans for first party releases just got crushed. Nobody messing with Halo CE again when GTA6 is out lol

@Gabrie More people played GTAV on consoles than PC

Sony whipped Xbox in the traditional space, now they're gonna steal Microsoft's lunch with PC and Cloud....lol

This isn't the first time Microsoft has asked about how Xbox fans feel about PlayStation games. They've done this numerous times in surveys.... It doesn't mean they're releasing it on Xbox lol

@BAMozzy NOBODY CARES about these other avenues to play "Xbox". They never have.....
The entire "everything is an Xbox" advertising campaign isn't confusing, we all know and knew already, we just don't care.

This doesn't mean that it's selling well or popular. It just means Microsoft probably didn't have that many to begin with. It should be clearer with the NPD.

@BattleMonkey They're saying $1200-$1400 and basically it's just a PC. That doesn't help push people towards Xbox, it pushes them away.

People get too excited over nothing. I remember when we all thought the Activision Transformers games were coming back and the Deadpool game...
Microsoft hasn't even put much on Game Pass from the Activision library.

The future of Xbox. Windows and Azure...lol
Digital games not working because it's all tied to DRM.
This is why people worry about their digital library when Microsoft exits hardware.

Not once did this man say the word Xbox.
And brought up margins and said that leads to innovation. Innovation takes RISKS, regardless of margins!

@fatpunkslim A lot of AAA devs skip Windows Store. Games have to be developed specifically for a console, which is why those typically have less issues compared to PC games. PC games suffer a lot from bloat due to resources being used for other things.
If the next "Xbox" is Windows in full, it'll have the same bloat. Running Antivirus and everything else.
I like plug and play, not messing with settings and sliders and files. Windows is horrible

This is just a PC, which I have zero interest in.
Sounds like it'll be $1000 or more.
Do they lower Game Pass Ultimate because PC doesn't pay for online?
Are you forced to play in PC multiplayer? Because I turn off crossplay to avoid cheaters.
Will devs support native Xbox versions of games or just say oh well, they can buy our game through the Steam Store?

@Sol4ris Yes, Xbox Series X was the stronger hardware and people ignored it.

Series S was the cheapest hardware and people ignored it.

To believe people will buy an Xbox next gen when it offers ZERO games to differentiate themselves from the competition is insanity. People wouldn't buy a $199 Series S and yet you believe some feature in a $1000+ Xbox/PC thing is going to sell people on one?

@Alexface The problem is that graphics are diminishing returns currently. Xbox Series X was the most powerful and people largely ignored it. Not to mention developers optimize better for the PS5 because that's the console that is more popular, so power didn't really get used, and in fact the weaker PS5 came out on top in a lot of games by comparison.

@NeoRatt Seriously? Xbox Series sales are under 30 million currently. They are being outsold month to month by the first Switch, which is so weird. Xbox is selling Wii U numbers currently.
If they come out with some weird PC thing next gen and it's over $1000, you honestly expect 35 million people to buy one? They couldn't get 35 million people to buy a Series S and it was often on sale for $199!

Competition is great for the industry. Look back to the PS3/360 era. Xbox 360 had a lower price and it forced Sony to drop prices. Sony added games to PS+ and that forced Microsoft to add Games With Gold. Xbox 360 had Gears and Halo and Sony countered with Uncharted and Killzone 2. Having companies compete for our money is beneficial for everyone, it breeds innovation.

@fatpunkslim This is not true at all. The reason some games haven't launched day and date on PlayStation is because they were already too far in development for just Xbox. Everything in the future will launch at the same time. Microsoft isn't steering anyone towards Xbox at this point.

@BAMozzy Majority didn't stop playing Xbox to play on a tablet or phone or whatever. Xbox's games lost mystique. Once they went other places the games stopped being designed specifically for the console and console gamer. And it was honestly mostly for nothing.
What Xbox games have done well on PC? Starfield and Sea Of Thieves.
What games have tanked completely on PC? Probably too many to list, but I'll try.
Gears 5, Gears Reloaded, Forza Horizon 5, Hi-Fi Rush, Halo Infinite, Pentiment, Grounded, Avowed, Indiana Jones, Doom The Dark Ages, Quantum Break, Crackdown 3, South Of Midnight, Keeper, Ninja Gaiden 4, Psychonaughts 2 and the list goes on and on of failed PC ports.

The only thing it did was kill the perception of Xbox in general.

Xbox were the ones who brought Netflix and a ton of other apps to the Xbox in the first place. Nobody is going to not play games to spend 10 hours on TikTok. I think these executives think everyone is stupid or something.
If people didn't care about their consoles or exclusives, Microsoft wouldn't have had to do an emergency show last Feb to tell people "it's just 4 games".

@FuzzieGinge88 They can't sell consoles because they keep telling people not to buy their consoles. They've been saying people don't need an Xbox since 2016...

@Sol4ris Comparing mobile phones isn't even close to apples to apples. Maybe a streaming service like Netflix would be better? If Netflix put all their original shows on Disney, who would subscribe to Netflix? On Disney you'd get all the Disney and Netflix shows, and on Netflix you'd only get Netflix shows.

Not to mention the lack of competition in the console space.
Xbox started to tank in sales drastically last Feb when they held that "just 4 games" meeting. They knew then that they weren't going to have exclusives, but they chose to lie to everyone anyway.

@BAMozzy Xbox Series consoles haven't even hit 30 million, where as Xbox One was almost 60 million. The console that tried to steal gamers rights did better than the console that eats monsters for breakfast.

Someone like me, who would normally buy all my games, microtransactions and services through the Xbox store, moving to PlayStation will cost them money. They might get me to buy an Xbox game or two a year, but that's a far cry from the THOUSANDS I would normally spend in their own store.

@BacklogBrad The 360 got 3 year warranties for free. People didn't leave Xbox because of the 360. They started leaving Xbox in 2016 when they started putting everything on PC and telling people they didn't need an Xbox.

@BacklogBrad You think competition is a bad thing? Going back to the best era in gaming which was Xbox 360/PS3, we got better prices, better deals, better games because Microsoft and Sony were competing for our money. Even streaming services have exclusives. Xbox just killed itself.

@BAMozzy Do you not see the need for proper competition in the console space? Xbox sales have flatlined to the point that the original Switch is still outselling Xbox every month, despite Switch 2 being out now.
Xbox consoles sell less per month than the Wii U did. How long will Microsoft keep at hardware?

Halo was Xbox, it's clear Microsoft lied to everyone last Feb. They continue to lie and say things like people don't care about exclusives or aren't attached to their consoles. If they weren't into exclusives or their consoles, Microsoft wouldn't have had to damage control last Feb to say "it's only 4 games".

If you sell hardware you need to have something special to offer the people who buy it. What's the point of Xbox at all currently? PlayStation gets all Xbox and PlayStation games and Xbox only gets Xbox games and less 3rd party support in general.

If every Xbox game is going to PlayStation, what's the point of buying an Xbox?

@fatpunkslim Putting 2 different sets of hardware inside would be super expensive, and we know Microsoft won't take a loss on the hardware, so that would bump up the cost to $1100 or more IMO.

The PS3 fat had the PS2 hardware in it, and that was $600 back in 2006. It was super expensive to do and Sony eventually stopped doing that. If the news is true that Microsoft demands 30% profit margins, then they wont subsidize the cost at all for consumers. Obviously if they offer other stores they wouldn't subsidize it anyway, and they'll probably have to make online gaming free because PC players don't pay to play online.

Xbox is cooked.
Companies do this to stress test to see if they can stand on their own. If they can, maybe they'll reinvest some money, but if not, they'll likely spin it off or tank it completely.

Microsoft never advertises anymore. Phil Spencer has been in charge over a decade with nothing to really show for it.

@fatpunkslim The problem is you can't emulate games and sell them in a store. You have to get licenses, which is why the backwards compatibility program ended in the first place. So, it'd be impossible to do backwards compatibility unless they put 2 sets of hardware in the device, which would probably end up costing $1200 at that point.

They scrap something that could play Xbox console games for a $1000 handheld PC in a bloated handheld PC market.....brilliant!