TrollOfWar

Didn't they already have such a team in the past, which got layed off?

Also, I wonder what is "fan feedback" and how will it be received? Via the comments section on PureXbox? Via Twitter/X or Reddit posts of an angry but vocal minority or Youtube videos? How will they differentiate between fans 🪭 and trolls 🧌? And what have they been doing with the feedback from the Xbox Insider Hub app?

@Cakefish Hard to believe that the Xbox Series X released more than half a decade ago. 😅

I honestly cannot tell which aged the best, but I think the original Xbox One (nicknamed VCR) aged the worst. It's huge, clunky, has that big external power supply unit and the Kinect camera which hardly got any support. Navigating the dashboard on the Xbox One is also very slow and unresponsive. EDIT: Xbox One S and One X were much better and paired with an SSD they still hold up well, as consoles, GamePass machines and for watching blu-rays.

Now that I think of it, probably the Xbox 360 S aged the best. It was more reliable than the original console and was a true console where you could play games straight from the disc.

I don't think I ever bought a console at launch. I usually wait half a year to a year to see how the console holds up.

I think I might have bought a Nintendo DS and maybe a Nintendo 3DS near launch.

Great game. Would love to see the series revived, maybe Remedy can work out something with Microsoft like they did with Alan Wake and re-release the first game on all platforms.

@Kraven

The same as last week—and will be for the foreseeable future—Marathon (PS5).

With that said, I’ve actually been in an Xbox mood as of late. I typically play on the PS5 or Switch, but Marathon has me wanting to play online with buddies, and they are Microsoft focused. And yeah … I may have double dipped. You don’t have to judge me, alright; I am judging myself.

Wait, doesn't Marathon support cross-play, so you could have played with them while you're on PS5?

• Metal Slug 2 and Garou: Mark of the Wolves from the Neo Geo Arcade Collection 2
• 40 Winks
• And depending on my available time maybe Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves and/or Copycat

I think this basically show how far indie games have come in the last 20 years. Where previously on XBLA the you would get a bunch of fun small indie games, nowadays you get a large selection of very good and very bad indie games, with some flying under radar.

@themightyant Maybe Trump's son? 😄

@m0m0 Assassin's Creed Unity was definitely ahead of it's time with all the details, crowds, interiors, visual scale and the robust lighting. Unfortunately those launch issues really ruined it's reputation.

@GuyinPA75 I think many fans on all consoles got so carrier away with the "console wars" and exclusive games that they didn't see what live-service games are doing to the industry. I certainly didn't anticipate this.

I admit, I spent 1000+ hours in Sea of Thieves and still play it occasionally. I also spent several hundreds of hours with Call of Duty, Halo Infinite, Gears of War 4. But I can see the problem of how these games prevent me from buying and playing other games.

Now if game platforms like Roblox, Fortnite and Minecraft can offer more free-form sandboxes with endless gameplay variations and places for kids to "hang out" and socialize, then traditional games will have it hard to attract players.

I will write, what I also wrote on PushSquare about this topic:

I don't think it's as "doom and gloom" as most people see it.

Yes, future hardware will be very expensive and much less people are willing to spend more than $1000+ on a new console. Which leaves many players using on lower spec hardware. That's either current gen, last gen, low-to-mid range PCs, portable consoles, mobile and cloud streaming. Who knows, maybe some Chinese console gets released with a PS4/Series S like quality an attractive price.

That will result in developers targeting those devices. Which wouldn't be so bad in my opinion, as most of us are already satisfied with the visual fidelity in the games we see today. And it wouldn't be such a bad thing, if development budgets are kept in check.

Would be a weird case for platform holders (Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft) if they didn't focus on selling new, expensive hardware, but rather making games profitable (available to as many players as possible).

But I fear that games and subscription services will become more expensive and many talented studios will close over the next years. The biggest problem in my opinion are endless live-service games, that will have players locked into their in-game platforms, trying to keep them away from playing something else.

Summary:
I am fine if technology doesn't progress further and developer target current gen and lower hardware, with their budgets kept in check. But I fear that the market is too saturated resulting in more price hikes, studio closures and people being stuck on live-service games.

• Neo Geo Arcade Collection 2 on Evercade: finished Sengoku 2, might start with Garou: Mark of the Wolves now
• Dungeon Minesweeper
• Sea of Thieves
• Hi-Fi Rush

Maybe they can now make a "This is an Xbox" ad, where they only show Xbox consoles playing Xbox games. 😄

@darylb24 In this case it's a bit more harmless, and I understand that such headlines attract more clicks. But still it's a bit unnecessary.

Don't think the dig at Sony and
Nintendo was necessary. The Microsoft published games are also available on other platforms.

@Nakatomi_Uk It was £ 6.24 in the beginning of March. Lowest price was £ 3.74 in September 2025.
Link: https://xbdeals.net/gb-store/game/10883/assassins-creed-unity

I remember actually enjoying both True Crime: Streets of LA and NYC quite a lot despite their janky gameplay mechanics. A shame they aren't backward compatible.

I think the "Xbox Helix" will not have a disc drive included. If a separate will be available is questionable as Microsoft didn't even have one for the Xbox Series S.

Reasons for no disc drive:

1. Reduce the production, licensing costs and the price of the system.
2. Most Xbox players are already used to buying and playing games digitally. With PC storefronts like Steam, Epic Games and GOG, a disc drive will be more redundant.
3. If the "Xbox Helix" is expected to sell less units than a traditional console then the user base will be also smaller, where the costs of publishing a game on a physical medium (like Limited Run Games does) will not be feasible.
4. Big budget AAA games are growing in size, breaking the limits of a blu-ray disc.

An optional disc drive would be nice, but I don't see Microsoft producing one. Oh well, I have my Evercade and retro Nintendo devices for games on physical media.

@ThCajunAsian Apparently Microsoft's new SDK for Xbox makes it easier to develop and release games for both PC and Xbox consoles. Does it not make sense to release a game on Xbox consoles, if it's very low effort/cost to do so, even if the game sells less on Xbox than other platforms?

It looks cool, would love to have it on consoles.

It's interesting that the offer is limited to people on Xbox One (maybe additional conditions apply). As these devices are sold at a loss, probably the Xbox management is trying to get people to buy the hardware who are invested and active in the Xbox ecosystem and are expected to continue buying more Xbox games in the future.

• Neo Geo Arcade Collection 2 on Evercade
• Hi-Fi Rush
• maybe Sea of Thieves (new season)

@Fiendish-Beaver With how development cycles work in software projects, it is highly unlikely that features like the Quick Resume toggle or the custom colors were implemented in just 2 weeks, including internal QA.

I miss demo discs. You had replayable demo versions of a bunch of games at low cost, without any launch drama.

@FraserG Thanks for your reply. I get it that it's good business for the publishers.

I guess it's similar to cases when a game is day 1 on GamePass while players on other platforms pay the full launch price.

I don't get it, why is the dicounted price of FF7 Remake - Intergrade higher on Xbox (£ 23.99) than on PSN (£ 15.19)?

@Fiendish-Beaver I hope you find something good to play with your friend. I used the last days of my GamePass subscription last year to play Call of Duty WWII and Black Ops 7. Both have a "zombies" horde mode Black Ops 7 is such an inconsistent, confusing mess, but the standard multiplayer is still fun if you can ignore the sweaty players.

I have some good memories playing Gears of War 2 horde mode online with friends.

@Fiendish-Beaver Yeah, I also had to look it up again. 😅

"Spec Ops" or "Special Ops" are the "coop" modes in some the "Modern Warfare" games (classic and reboot).

The old MW3 had "Mission Mode" where you had certain objectives to do, "Survival Mode" where you had several waves of increasingly stronger enemies attacking you and "Chaos Mode" which was also wave based but with points to acquire perks and increase combos.

The MW reboot has "Operations" for story-based operations, "Missions" for a more curated experience and "Survival" which the wave based mode. Actually that "Survival" mode was exclusive for 1 year on PlayStation back when the game released in November 2019.

"Xbox Helix" is decent enough, unless Microsoft again adds something like "variant S", "variant X" and "variant Pro Elite".

Or maybe call it "Xbox Gen5" 😉

@Fiendish-Beaver As far as I remember you can play the survivor mode in private sessions online with one other player.

The 2019 released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare had the PlayStation exclusive Spec Ops mode for 1 year.

EDIT: The "Survival" mode of the coop "Special Ops" modes was exclusive to PlayStation for 1 year.

It's crazy how an older, more simple iteration of Call of Duty is more fun than the modern releases which focus on cosmetics and the live service.

The Sword of Ianna, maybe something new on Evercade.
And maybe Sea of Thieves.

@Banjo- I have my "New" Nintendo 3DS XL next to my bed. Unfortunately I'm playing it less nowadays. Last year I started Paper Mario: Sticker Star which felt a bit boring in my opinion and after discovering the Evercade handhelds I'm now spending more time playing Evercade games.

@DennisReynolds

Me i just find it amusing how you guys on here are now suddenly ok with timed/exclusives deals when its MS doing them.

To be honest, I don't see anyone here caring or being happy about any form of exclusivity for this game. Most people here are probably not even aware that a PlayStation release doesn't seem to be planned at the moment. I don't see any reason for people here to be outraged.

There could be many reasons why Square Enix is prioritizing an Xbox release over PlayStation. Maybe combining the PC port and release with Xbox was more efficient, maybe they didn't have any PlayStation porting capacities available in time for this.

Personally I think this game specifically should come to PlayStation as well. There is a big audience for JRPGs there. And I think it will probably arrive at some point on PlayStation.

I think @Gemini53 highlights how outraged some hardcore PlayStation fans on PushSquare feel. Maybe that outrage is valid as the PlayStation community is known to be very emotional about Square Enix games and the company did commit to releasing all their games multi-platform.

I played and finished the original game on the Nintendo 3DS. It's a decent, turn-based JRPG with a beautiful visual art style. But the story drags on for too long...
... You basically need to play through a large part of the story 4 times to get the true ending.

@Gemini53

Bizarrely it strikes me that the thought process behind Helix seems to benefit PC gamers more than it does Xbox gamers.

It does benefit PC gamers more, yes. But I think because Microsoft started to realize that gaming ia becoming more popular on PC with new gamers than on consoles and they are now shifting the focus to PC.

Xbox players will also benefit, as they will get access to 40+ years of PC gaming (which they previously didn't have) and they do not have to worry if a game comes to their system, unless it's fully exclusive to PlayStation or Switch.

@swedetrap You're probably right. I understood it like they won't focus on just those 2 every year.

@somnambulance Not really. Xbox Series X/S development kits (SDK units) began shipping to developers shortly after the E3 in 2020 and the console released in November 2020.

A similar timeframe might be viable here as well.

I do wonder, will the compatibility of Xbox console games (OG, 360, One & Series) be limited to this new Xbox Helix device or something available for every Windows PC? And will it work with all graphics cards (including Nvidia) or just AMD?

@kmtrain83

Yes the release of Helix could coincide with GTA 6 coming to PC, but 4K 60 FPS would take a powerful graphics card...

If the "Xbox Helix" can run Xbox Series X|S games, then technically it will be able to run GTA 6 before the official PC launch. And if the performance of the Xbox Helix is stronger than the Xbox Series X, then I wonder if it could have something like "FPS boost" (maybe via AMD's frame gen) to achieve higher frame rates. I'm speculating of course, but this could be quite exciting.

@Coletrain

Also, would love haptic feedback on the pad. Love that on dualsense but not a fan of the ergonomics

Well, you probably can connect a DualSense controller to the "Xbox Helix" if it's a PC.

@Jayphex

I don’t understand PC gaming, so if this runs PC stuff too would that mean it would have to have a graphics card similar to a current spec one in order to run games at a particular performance?

The current Xbox Series consoles and this future "Xbox Helix" devices are/will be using AMD manufacturerd PC components for rhe CPU and the graphics card, but the "Xbox Helix" will have a stronger, next gen graphics card with new features (better ray-tracing, AI upscaling, AI frame generation).

So, based on what Microsoft is saying, this new device will be a PC, with a fixed specification, which can run future PC games, and also Xbox games. Technical compatiblity to Xbox console games is possible since it using more modern AMD components, but currently it is unknown how it will be achieved in Windows.

I wonder if the Xbox Helix will support VR headsets (like the PSVR2)?

@Balaam_

I’m trying to imagine an absolute best case scenario here.

...

This is still a really miniscule window of time to even think about getting something out the door and ready for launch in what would be supposedly the same year, 2027. I don’t see how anything but a low budget, low tech, low scope indie game could see release in the launch window. I fear for another Series X launch fiasco repeat, where yeah the hardware is great but there is literally no ‘next gen’ software at launch and you’re stuck playing last gen content on your shiny new $1K+ investment. That’s not a good look.

Who knows, it might run GTA 6 at 60 fps and 4K. That might be enough for some people. 😉

But seriously, if it's a PC (with a specific Xbox Helix profile target) then any game currently in development for PC, like The Witcher 4, the next Black Myth game, etc. is technically going to run on the that Xbox Helix device.

@Cikajovazmaj

I miss the days (arguably Nintendo is sort of still there) when these announcements were "more games, better, now" instead of all this modern PR newspeak.

Well this case is special, because its from the GDC - Game Developers Conference. The presentation is aimed at an audience of developers who care more about the development capabilities than the sort of games which would run on it. It's up to that audience to develop those future games. 😉

Didn't some Xbox exec last year say that they learned their lessons and will not release Modern Warfare and Black Ops back-to-back? 😄

To be fair, I didn't expect it to change, as these games are planned many years ahead.

I am surprised that Project Gotham Racing 4 is not on the list. I would love to play that game again.

Wow, the user reviews on Metacritic aren't all too positive: https://www.metacritic.com/game/marathon/user-reviews/

The Sword of Ianna on Evercade
And maybe a bit of Sea of Thieves.

@kmtrain83 I could be wrong and Microsoft could create something no one expected. But as of now, when I say the "future of Xbox is on PC", I'm thinking that Microsoft will not separate between Xbox as a console and Windows for PC gaming going forward. Xbox will be the full screen experience for gaming on Windows, kind of like Steam OS (built on Linux) has a full screen mode. Microsoft gaming hardware will have the "Xbox" brand, similar to Lenovo "Legion", Asus "ROG", HP "Omen" or Dell "Alienware", but the "Xbox" full screen app mode will be available for every device running Windows, maybe with features like "quick resume" and "auto HDR" ported to Windows.

As for the games and compatibility to Xbox console games... It's technically doable to get Xbox console games running on Windows PC. There's a small community project called "XWine1" which aims to build a translation layer (not emulation!) which translates Xbox OS system functions into Windows. They got Forza Horizon 2 running in Windows (not perfectly). Now if Microsoft, with all the money and resources they have, would create such an Xbox translation layer for Windows, that would be pretty elegant solution to the problem. In case of games with both console and Pc versions "Smart Delivery" would choose the best option and cloud saves would make sure that you have your most recent save file. The only issue I can think of might be related to licensing, where some publishers might not want players to be able to play a console version on PC, but I guess that's where "Play Anywhere" comes in play.

I could be wrong of course, but for me this makes the most sense. Microsoft wouldn't have to maintain 2 separate OS (Xbox OS and Windows OS) for some weird dual-boot hybrid, the user experience would be seamless and console-like and game developers for future games would only need to focus on building for Windows, which also strengthens the position of Windows OS for gaming on PC and developer support for DirectX. This would come full circle with Microsoft's initial vision of Xbox being a console running Windows. Let's see what the future brings. 😄