@Millionski Its been confirmed to be PS5 Pro Enhanced. We dont know what they are but to say its not been confirmed is innacurate

https://www.vice.com/en/article/gta-6-will-be-ps5-pro-enhanced-heres-what-it-means/

Im 50/50 on this one. I absolutely agree xbox needs exclusives. As others have said, Sony would probably do it. The gamble for me is it only works if you make people buy the games. To remove them from GP would likely result in a lot of lost subs, and they cant really take the hit. On the other hand, consoles are so expensive (and likely will get more so), you arent gonna pull in the casual market for more console sales if these are exclusive.

As someone above said, damned if you do, damned if you dont.

@Rimebreaker 'Then turn to Hi-Fi Rush, that one was a great game that just didn’t recoup its budget.'

And hearin lies the concern with what will happen to The Coallition.

@Shinato2024 the irony being that what she is announcing here is basically more AI stuff. That will cause a knock on effect to parts, meaning even less consoles.

The loop of doom if you will.

I will be plunging on the drums for this one when it launches

Id kinda be alright if helix and ps6 were both scrapped for now. The price will be nuts if they release this/next year and if they hold back, its tech will be outdated before its even out. Then again if its scrapped, its more money down the drain.

Damned if they do, damned if they dont

@Banjo- why does everyone critising or showing concern about xbox have to be a Sony fan? Ole beaver up there probably loves xbox more than the bulk of us (even you maybe!), but he is voicing his concerns as well. Most dont want them to die off. While theres no doubt the odd one, nost folks in the comments here want them to see what we all see and make changes for the better.

As I said in another thread, if doing multiplatform or removing day ones keeps xbox healthy, then its a no brainer that they should do it for me. I want them thriving as much as i want sony to thrive (nintendo do their own thing and just do very well from it). When they are both firing on all cylinders we are the ones that benefit as they push each other to be better.

@HonestHick absolutely its profitable, its a great game. I think the current sales for it are over 7 million on xbox and PC, just over half in favour of xbox (51% according to google). Solid, solid numbers. But if it does FH 5 figures on PS, its gonna almost double the amount it made. Plus, if ypu take it off day one GP it would have made even more! When youre trying to get something back into a good position, thats gonna turn heads at a higher level.

Edit: im also a huge dolby vision fan. So so good

@BacklogBrad A continuing new sub is far more lucrative. A one month and done is absolutely not.

@AI-Generation Im the same as you there, in that i feel there is a reason theres now only 3 devs under the Xbox Studios banner. We know more job losses are coming and we know those 3 devs have releases lined up (including E Day in that). Id put my bottom dollar on those ear marked job losses hitting those studios and the remaining folks moved under Activision. Who's games up to now are multiplatform.

CoD will release soon on all platforms and its not included in Gamepass. While gears isn't on the same level in terms of reach, there will be execs watching that cash roll in, especially on Xbox, and question why they aren't putting games on other platforms or holding them all from Gamepass.

Then FH6 will release on PS and those same execs will look at the money it makes compared to Xbox in sales/new subs and it doesnt take a genius to see where this is gonna head.

Next gen will be cross platform for a long time. If both Helix and PS6 cost as much as we think, those that do choose to fork out for them will be very unlikely to do so and switch brands. Simply because why would you pay a fortune to leave every game you own on your old console when you can play them all on your shiny, expensive new one from the second its unboxed.

@John5alive it is but, using the same companies sales estimates, Wolverine made $130 million in three days from 1.9 million sales, despite getting a bit of a kicking. Which company (not customers) will class their game as a success. The one with great reviews or the one that made more money? Its reasonable to think that if the bulk of E Day sales were full price, it would be pulling in the same, if not more.

Existing subscribers are money the company already has in the pot. Sales and new subs are what they want/need. When you can pay far less for a month to play it - i know folks who paid less than £10 just to play gears - its not helping fund the budget of a game like this. If those new subs dont stick around, its a lot of money lost.

A question id ask regular folks in here is, how many of you have GP stacked already? Or how many use rewards to cover/reduce Gamepass prices? Because while its absolutely undeniable value, its not bringing in the money they need.

E Day is superb and would have made a boat load more if there wasn't options to get it at a bare minimum cost. Asha is gonna look at cost and profit regardless of how good it is and make a call on that alone.

@AI-Generation It was widely reported when Asha took over from Phil that MS were now requiring Xbox to stand on its own two feet (if you will) moving forward. MS were no longer willing to prop the business up as it had in the past.

Phil spent billions and billions on a model that Asha confirmed did not grow xbox. In her words, 'the core business weakend and they brought in more teams, more investment and more time, hoping for a better outcome'.

Consoles are a good source of revenue, regardless of how many they sold, but MS pumped in billions on the promise of massive returns that simply never materialised. PS is reporting their highest profits for years and yet Sony owned games releases are mininal, nevermind all the wasted time and terrible decisions.

For all the money they have, MS will not just throw money away without seeing profit come back in. Which is the reason they are a trillion dollar company.

I also dont think promotion or advertising would have shifted the needle that much as the biggest audience is the casual market. They massively outweigh folks like you and me. They all bought PS4's last gen. Then their mates bought PS4's to play with them. This gen They simply just bought the newer console that allowed them to take their games with them, still play with their mates and the folks they know did the same. As Phil said, they lost the most important gen as folks built a digital library for the first time and they will follow where that library remains accessible.

Xbox can still be profitable but somethings got to give. They need to make what they have work better in a business sense. Things are gonna change and it maybe things we dont like, but it needs to happen and Asha was brought in to make it happen.

@AI-Generation the big distinction is its Microsoft who is the Trillion Dollar company, not Xbox. As we've learned since Asha took over, Xbox is not profitable as an individual entity, which MS is now treating it. As much as Sony literally said they are gonna monetise its existing base, Xbox are doing the same, they just aren't announcing it publicly.

The kicker here is the reason they are more focused on that than growth is because the AI race causing shortages in ram and the cost to make console is quite frankly ridiculous. Which MS has a major hand in causing.

@Fiendish-Beaver Im in agreement with everything you say. While some folks seem to think its doom and gloom and wanting the death of xbox, its actually the opposite. If putting games on other platforms, pulling day ones, etc... keep it alive, then its the right call. Id rather that happen than watch them fade away.

I reckon we will see E Day on PS when the excitement dies down. There's money sat there and if the estimates of 37 mill so far are correct, then it feels like when than if.

@Millionski I play on them all so it wouldn't be so much about switching for me, more the need for competition so they all put effort into being better.

Im still of the mind that E Day is a litmus test as to if they either keep things exclusive or drop day ones from Gamepass. Either of those things will have a big impact on where Xbox will be in the future if (big if) they happen. Early sales predictions for E Day are not looking good. Its a fantastic game but if it doesnt even bring its budget back in, I cant see Xbox being willing to keep taking the hits. I have a funny feeling that E Day will be the game they use to say 'well, we gave you what you want and it isn't feasible, so now we are doing this...'

Plus we know more job losses are coming. The only 3 studios left under Xbox studios have games announced and releasing soon (including E Day). I imagine there may sadly be some trimming on the way as they have reasons to do it if its not a financial success.

@AI-Generation while I know it was a typo, the sexiest people did give me a chuckle

I think its a great start but moving ahead they need to be building on the momentum. The biggest challenge is selling more boxes (or whatever else comes along). Its brilliant they are finally focusing on the faithfull as that seemed lost for a while, but I still have concerns where it will end up if they dont see growth in the areas that matter.

@RTGX as I said elsewhere, E Day reviewed well but took an age to make. If it doesnt sell well then it effectively puts them in the same boat as the studios that fell on the block.

@themightyant I did think this as Sony allow streaming access to games you own. So if you buy GTA 6 on PS, you would assume you would have the option to stream it from your console or the cloud to a portal as well. It all felt a bit odd.

@RTGX I can alo vouch for retroid devices being awesome. Wonderful bits of kit.

@HonestHick while technically true, if it leans more into a PC, personally, I dont need it. I have a decent PC I got my kid to game on and I just want something without all the faff that brings.

Then again, I could be wrong and if i am, they have a sale.

@HonestHick hard to argue the studios that went were not money makers. Im just not sold as yet that what is going on over at xbox is panning out as well as they make it. The big test will be what happens with The Coallition now E Day is out in the wild. We know they have more cuts planned but while E Day is clearly a brilliant game (loving it by the way), if it doesnt bring the money in they wanted then who knows. Take the review scores away and its a studio with an alleged massive budget that took 7 years to make the game. Like you say, if that arrow points down then anythings on the table.

Time will tell I guess. Hope you and yours are keeping well my man.

@awp69 Great. I'll be playing GTA 6 Day one on my atari linx 3.5 inch back lit LCD screen with my pro signal 80's headphones

@FraserG Windows Central just updated their article to say that Asha Sharma was using a chart referring specifically to first party growth, i.e. games that Xbox owns and publishes.

This whole thing is just buzzwords, catchphrases and nonsensical claims about getting a billion players. If you had to fire folks and close studios to return to growth then its hardly the same as turning poor sales around.

Where the world plays for 30 minutes a month

Its just gonna be a PC with an app isn't it.

@fatpunkslim sadly I think the bells already been rung pal.

Sad to hear. Ninja theory made somenof my favourite games back in the day. Hope everyone affected lands on their feet.

It does still leave a bitter taste in regard to the way xbox put Senua and other games in their showcase knowing they would all be sold off

@themightyant 😂😂 I feel like every day im going into accessibility settings to make that on screen text just a touch bigger.

Corrected the tag and thanking you kindly

@RTGX between Sony bringing QSSR to base PS5's and this technology, its exactly why these companies need competition. It breeds innovation which in turn, makes things better for us.

Excellent work this. If they can get more games running on it like eday, then there is definitely no rush for new consoles to be released.

@Shmoo MS is hoarding components but it sure as hell ain't for helix.

@themightyant This is always the catch isn't it and, I imagine, MS will be hoping it pulls in more subs for GP. Then its a case of will the subs continue or is it just a cheap month to play it.

Hopefully it does enough to see the coalition in a good place as it would seem they did a stellar job on this.

@fatpunkslim which is great news but it does have the caveat of how many it sold in total (rumour was around 120k on steam pre ordered) and it is only in comparison to whats being sold against it right now in the charts (if that makes sense). You would expect a big release to chart high at launch. Then its how it holds up week on week.

Fingers crossed it keeps the momentum and meets whatever targets MS/Xbox set for it as it looks like a banger.

Can't wait to play this one

The big test will be sales and subs. Game looks awesome but if either of those things aren't where they need to be, well, never say never eh.

@AI-Generation 6th for me. Looking forward to it

@AI-Generation maybe laying out about grand to do so isn't an option for them right now dude.

@RTGX absolutely not. All feels very thankless these days.

Looking forward to playing through this, lovely review as well. Appreciate the work you guys do.

On a flip note, I read the interview Eurogamer put up with one of the Devs. Sheesh, it must be grim working with that sword hanging over you.

@Gaymer90 I imagine they will pop up tomorrow. From the previews folks did, id be shocked if it didnt score well.

@2-bit im 100% with you on this. I would also add that there is a strong whiff of xbox studios as a group being dismantled. The only studios under that banner all have games due soon. InXile is the standout 'why are they there' that makes me think this likely.

Once they're released i imagin they will be shuffled under a different banner and thats the end of xbox studios.

@dreadful the games the company made far outweighed their costs with the money they pulled in. This whole 'devs spending MS's money while doing nothing' narrative absolutely does not apply here. It barely applies anywhere.

And how does that fit with the kojima game they just picked up that checks notes... is behind schedule, constantly over budget and taking to long to make.

Well this flies in the face of all the folks saying 'x' studio deserves to be shut or didnt do enough to justify being under MS. The Coallition have made the next huge game for MS. The game that signalled the return of exclusives. The game that was gonna turn everything around. Yet they just got hit with the same axe as every other one of those studios. Whats gonna be the reasoning folks come up with to justify this one?

And theres more coming. A lot more. I hate to say it but with the transition to 'it plays PC games' being sold as a bonus, xbox as we know it is done. I said a long time ago that if it plays PC games, there are no need for xbox games, and that bell is still ringing true for me.

Still over 1000 to go Craig unfortunately. Absolutely grim.

Id put my bottom dollar on everything outside the xbox game studios bracket being multiplatform.

Well, just another 1000 odd jobs left to go. While the studios they put together make sense, I imagine that number lingering in the background does not make people feel safe.

Thoughts to all those affected and I hope they land on their feet.

I just expect it to turn into call of Halo which, for me, I do not want. I hope they keep the feel of Halo and dont just repaint COD.

Arcane is protected a little more by Fench employment rights. Sadly though, i fear this just means it takes a little longer to arrive at the inevitable.