Weebleman

@Questionable_Duck I agree, I just feel they should have not gone so hard down the rabbit hole as it leads to the the opposite

Is it just me or is it feeling like they are trying to hard to confirm the whole 'it was definitely 2 weeks' thing now. It doesn't matter how long it took, they are nice little updates and thats all that matters.

We all know it could have been PR or whatever, but they're out and thats that. It feels like they are tipping into a negative to prove an irrelevant point, just to install faith. I wish they would just ignore the noise sometimes. Drop an update and let folks think whatever. The constant drilling folks to talk about how quick they work now is what makes the noise louder.

@jedinite jesus, if you stretch that logic any further mate it may snap. If i buy a game on steam, they get nothing. Not a bean.

@jedinite not when you buy your games from another ecosystem youre not.

@fatpunkslim you arent staying in the ecosystems though. You are using a frontloader app to play games you purchased very much outside the ecosystem. None of which make xbox money.

PC for the premium, laptop for the lower spec

@themightyant I said the same thing a while back. Far less elegantly though, i will add 😂

@Gemini53 I agree. There are definitely folks who will get the most from Helix and I hope it is everything they want from it.

The new app/interface in April should be all good folks like yourself need.

On a seperate note though, its good to see them doing something different.

@Fiendish-Beaver my bad, I meant for 'next gen' games, not all games in general. That would be a wild decision ha ha.

The slide the other day essentially said this would be the case I believe.

@Gemini53 Yep. Similar to the 'exclusives are an old fashioned approach' crowd, who were quickly stating this is an essential approach when it was acknowledged by asha sharma, despite telling us all we were wrong for wanting that previously.

I said when the ally came out that it would be a matter of time until the app came out everywhere. Sensible move considering the position xbox are in and the inevitable move to PC. As I mentioned previously, the whole xbox experience will just be reduced to an app you can get on any PC, along with back compat for games.

I also mentioned a while back that there would be no need to develop xbox versions of games if the new box plays PC versions. Why sink dev costs into it when you already have a version that will work on the device. I was shot down by some folks but, hey, here we are, looking like the future is exactly that.

If you have a good set up (and from what I recall, you are pretty solid on that front), the helix will likely be completely unnecessary for you as, with the app and the back compat that follows, you will already have a next gen xbox come April essentially.

So they're confirming its essentially an app on a custom built PC.

@carlos82 nail on the head there. Its gonna be a PC with an xbox overlay app and back compatability.

@Gemini53 absolutely agree my friend.

Committed to gaming, yet he seems to avoid the word console. They are moving towards PC and Helix is the first step. Happy to be wrong but nothing im hearing is changing my opinion yet.

@darylb24 must have been a heavy few months to go from 'no not at all' to 'im done' in that amount of time eh.

In that same interview, wasnt he asked if he had plans to retire and gave a flat 'no, not at all'.

@Gemini53 Im keen to learn more about this. It will be interesting to see where it sits capability wise on the PC ladder.

The series S is perfect for that isnt it. I loved mine until it went the way of the dodo. As I said, with work travel, it was so great to have something I could throw in a bag and take to hotels with me with such ease.

@Millionski Just to be clear my man, I didnt call this a failure either.

One thing nobody seems to consider, and i highly doubt it would happen to be clear, is what if the PS6 did the same thing. Then you can play everything on the market game wise. Like I say, I highly doubt it, but it would whip the rug out pretty quickly.

On topic though, this is gonna be a niche, high priced device for existing xbox gamers. It isnt going to pull away the PC crowd as their rig will likely already dwarf this in power. The bulk of PS gamers will stick where they are due to their existing libraries, so MS will charge a high premium that will earn from folks already in their eco system. No doubt it will be a great machine, its just not going to move numbers.

I take performance leading comments with a pinch of salt as there is always marketting spiel when these things are announced, simply because they cant say anything else.

The price will be the key here though. Bringing other storefronts in means that they wont be able to subsidise as much because software is where they pull that back. You wont make a bean if everyone uses steam or epic.

Interesting times though and im looking forward to see what comes of it.

Im not sure i would say next gen is upon us. They basically confirmed a rumour (PC games) and gave a codename, which is the only new bit of info we have.

@Banjo- all this is true, yet they still keep raising the price of existing consoles for the very reasons you have listed.

Best thing to do is just wait and see. The whole ram thing may have settled by the time this launches, so who knows

I dont see this being cheap at all, just look at the ally x and if this thing is going to really push things as a PC, its gonna cost a small fortune. Theres no point playing PC games if they all run on the lowest settings.

Then theres the third party stuff, as someone above mentioned. Ive said before that, if it can run PC games, why make a full fat xbox version when you can save money on dev costs.

Now, when you look at GTA 6, which wont release on PC until a usually (much) later date, it could be a defacto exclusive elsewhere for a period of time.

Im excited to see more but i dont really see this being a console in the traditionalsense. I feel it will just be a PC that plays current/older games via emulation and PC going forward.

I still stand by my PC with an xbox app front loaded theory but im excited to see/hear more

@Gemini53 take your family to an unknown location for a minimum of 6 months 😂

@Gemini53 I hear you. Hence my lack of commenting also.

@Gemini53 aye, i comment there but not as frequent as I do here because, as you highlighted, the blinkered viewpoints are in a majority sometimes it feels. Although, as I said the other day, there are some gems in there. Not to say there arent any here, they just feel outnumbered by good discussion.

My usual haunt is eurogamer. I comment less these days but the comments are always worth a read.

@Gemini53 its a wonderful little machine isnt it. Glad you are enjoying it my friend.

@Gemini53 honestly man, ive learnt its best to just glance and walk past the noise.

@Gemini53 I called it my friend. Sad to say but I still see it going that way!

@fatpunkslim Looks like its just the base game after all

Saying they are using the console as a point of reference is very different from saying they will be going back to this.

@Millionski I think the main difference with Sony allegedly pulling away from PC and Xbox exclusives is simply that Sony have, and continue, to sell high numbers of consoles.

Xbox already tried the exclusive route, they tried timed exclusives, they tried day one gamespass and nothing moved the needle. They already sell on pc so if they want to recoup their costs, they are gonna sell on PS.

Yes, holding them back would please long term fans, but they are a business at the end of it all and they wont care.

Asha has said she will look at the lay of the land and reasoning behind the decisions that led here. If she sees that its because finances weren't as projected and pulling from these other consoles will hit her targeted figures, you can bet your bottom dollar they will all continue going over to everywhere.

@fatpunkslim adding the DLC would make sense. Then again, they may just do the base game in the hope of additional DLC sales. Either way, we will likely find out soon.

@BacklogBrad yeah, as someone else said, its already been on plus previously so I imagine this is more for cdpr to stretch money from the game as it heads to the end of its cycle than gamepass getting a coupe.

@Gemini53 my lack of proof reading in that comment will haunt me ha ha. Damn these middle aged thumbs and phone keyboards!

Not my cup of tea at all. The endless loading and just Bethesda jank peaked for me on this one. I wanted to love it but the more I pushed, the more I hated it. Fair play to everyone it landed with though, part of me envies you for it.

@FraserG I tried to tell him tricky was the best one and you just mistyped the entire article, but he was having none of it.

Things like this create new problems. Thats a lot of searches and I imagine very few would look to places and articles like this to clarify. That could be potential lost sales from a large part of the casual market.

You start with 'is xbox closing' and then start seeing 'xbox releasing all games on PS' and then its another sale to Sony.

I really want them to turn this round but im struggling to see any world they do it.

The genie is out of the bottle and its gonna be a nightmare to get back in. Once they start changing direction (again), folks will just stop paying attention as it feels like its all they do these days.

Regarding GTA 6, its highly likely to sell a few xbox's but, more than likely it will sell a boat load of PS5's. Maybe even Pro's if it utilises PSSR 2.0 well to nudge performance a touch better.

Bottom line is, who knows. Everything Asha says at the minute will have been filtered through PR, so we need to wait and see what she does as these words will be designed to get folks on side.

Yet, as always with all these companies, its what they dont say that usually becomes the reality of it all.

@Gemini53 its a great little machine the S. We had one initially but the internal power brick went unfortunately, just outside the guarantee period (typical), so we decided just to get an X to replace it.

However, I loved the S. I travel a bit for work and it was so handy to throw into an overnight bag. Great little piece of kit.

@Gemini53 yeah I read through and new that decent discussion would be hard to find in there ha ha.

Sounds like you have earned a feet up there pal. Im just about to head round to my mother's with the kids while I sort her house insurance. Absolutely edge of the seat stuff there eh!

@Gemini53 no problem. Yeah, they have their share without doubt, although i think they have more visitors so unfortunately it tends to bring a bigger share of, well, what you discovered.

There are some really good folks in there though, once you spot them.

@Gemini53 oooooooh I think ssx tricky just pipped it as best for me. Superb series of games though. I think this and fight night are two series id love to see come back.

Sadly for me I dont see much of a future in it. I think they are far to down the rabbit hole with the direction they took to turn it round. By cancelling out any of things they have done, they will essentially have lied to anyone that bought into that and lose more trust.

Then, similar to all the rumours/whispers/reports about the next console, there are equal amounts of rumours/whispers/reports stating that the new folks have been brought in to sunset the console side of things. We cant say theres no truth in one set of these and then say theres truth in the others as really they are all speculation, but theres usually no smoke without fire.

And thats the problem, uncertainty. Nobody, probably MS included right now, is certain on the direction xbox will go. And while they take time to figure that out, the bulk of folks apart from the small quarter on sites like these are moving to other ecosystems. Theres even some of them turning away.

Its easier to pick the one that feels more certain and hey, you will get all xbox's games there anyway 🤷‍♂️

@Gemini53 My moneys is still on xbox basically becoming an app at this point. Which would fit in with the Ally being new hardware.

@Cakefish I was going to say that. He picked the thing that is absolutely not an xbox to use as an example of new hardware.

Shut it down.

Just a joke folks, just a joke.

@fatpunkslim a very rare time we completley agree on something 😂

The problem is the same problem they had all gen, nobody is buying them. Nothing they have tried has changed that, even before all this everything's an xbox. Doing another change of direction is just going to annoy anybody outside of places like this as it just looks like confusing messages. Everyone else has already ingrained themselves in another eco system, and they wont drop that.

Personally, and im sad to say it, I just see them flapping around for a bit longer, throwing buzzwords out and calling it a day.

@Fiendish-Beaver yeah, im with you there. I simply dont want to stream my games as the technology isnt there to make it feel like a local version. I have a horrible feeling this will be their way though. The ROG ally x is advertised as 'play all your games' and that is technically true, only with streaming though.

The new boss is there to maximise and grow the service. They wont pull in new people by simply having a powerful machine, exclusive games, gamepass, play anywhere, etc... as this has all been tried and didnt work.

The bottom line is people built an existing digital library last gen and they will not walk away from it. The majority of sales are from folks who simply stick where the stuff they bought will be, as has been proven this gen.

So to maximise growth, as ive said all along, you sell your stuff where people are playing. Apps to access a dashboard, multiplatform games and i would bet my left leg on an xbox studio only version of gamepass popping up on PS and Switch within 12 months.

Xbox deserves this.

Ruthless.