@Droopy I mean, they're spending a LOT of money supporting Xbox Series consoles with more games than ever from third parties and making deals and attending and hosting showcase & direct events for a platform they've given up on. Shrug. People are frustrated on the economy being as it is and Microsoft being the company they are doing a lot to control stock & hardware cost productions. It's more expensive than ever to make 5 year old hardware and even more expensive to leave it on shelves and no one likes that (not Microsoft, not brick & mortar stores, and not us gamers). But Xbox is still doing a lot to support their consoles, they're still doing a lot to support even the Xbox One console and its gamers. Xbox is also doing a lot to expand console hardware (the console market) alone, which has become increasingly volatile and expensive without growing much at all in over a decade. In their latest earnings Playstation praised the success of their live service games across platforms and suggested supporting more platforms. They announced "celebrated" 85 million console sales which... if next gen is coming in less than 2 years now that's not a great outlook. They'd need twice as many console sales to finally surpass their PS2 peak. They'd still need like 40 million console sales to surpass PS4 numbers. Microsoft's messaging is clear, they want to succeed as a business and to them fighting over pieces of an increasingly shrinking console market pie isn't how they're going to do that. I don't even think people are angry at Xbox, but rather the wider industry and global economy. And Xbox is just there as the biggest most vulnerable green punching bag. At the end of the day though the gaming industry, and Console market, needs to make changes. This has been an issue for multiple decades now and is just finally really being felt. Exclusives locked up ecosystem and turned off new gamers. Forever games came in and took advantage of a fragmented market. Costs of development and now hardware production keeps skyrocketing. And new gamers would rather go to open ecosystems like PC or play on their phones because why wouldn't they? For gods sake even the big AAA publishers are all bowing out. Activision Blizzard went to Microsoft to get bought, EA got bought by a private equity, and Ubisoft got bailed out by Tencent. Gamers need to stop pretending things are okay and if we just stick to our guns from 20 years ago everything will be okay. The only console left with really good margins and a healthy business is Nintendo and that's only because their fans allow them to sell them overpriced games and hardware despite them not being worth that and their games and hardware costing far less to develop and produce in comparison.
"We believe in generations" 😂 Considering how long the PS4 & Xbox One are still being supported by most games (overall) and many of the most played games period (Minecraft, Fortnite, Roblox, and even yearly COD) the PS5 & Xbox Series consoles will be long supported into next gen. If anything it'll be less like a new generation and more like the PS6 and Next Xbox being the new premium offerings from both companies. We'll likely continue to see native optimized PS5 & Xbox Series versions of games for all new games for at least 5 years and most likely longer. Really this just continues to make the PS5 Pro look more and more like a mistake.
If this is real, it's the best path forward for Xbox: they can truly take advantage of their competitive advantage while building an Xbox ecosystem that's an empire and carrying all that's come before forward. And it's why I continue to see Xbox as the best place to play. Over on Nintendo Switch 2 land it's a door charge to upgrade games and I certainly don't see my Wii or DS library on my switch much less with any cloud saves. Same for Playstation. It feels like Valve and Microsoft are building the future platforms that will carry gaming forward and finally invite in new gamers and I'm excited to see it. I hope Playstation wakes up before it's too late and I've given up hope for Nintendo (especially with how their fans enable their behavior). It's unfortunate to think that there'd be pushback to this. Do we all really want to stay in the cave with the lights off? Do we want to keep the walled gardens that bad? Because we're not even getting subsidies for them anymore. The PS5 Pro costs over $700 as an all digital console and again the Nintendo Switch 2 $450 (that's more than a steam deck, in the price range of the Z1 handhelds, and only $150 cheaper than the base PC Xbox Ally). That's not to mention individual game prices and the rising costs of subscriptions with Playstation and Nintendo still not having free cloud saves. Even if the next Xbox is twice as much as the next Playstation (which is won't, like come on) you'll still get that money back in no time with the insane value one offers over the other. Like really how could anyone even recommend another console at that point? There's no promise a Nintendo and Sony won't nuke libraries again, they offer nothing to protect your saves for free, and they will (in the face of this next Xbox) have less games for higher prices.
Everything comes down to execution, but honestly even if it's just a glorified Xbox Full screen experience that'd make PC the undisputed best place to game. I'm really, REALLY excited. I just wish I could time travel and have it in my hands now.
What's laid out here is a Next Xbox with full backwards compatibility and the ability to play literally everything from any PC storefront or other means. If this is real, it is truly the holy grail to sit in the center of an Xbox empire. I wouldn't mind paying $1000 on a device that could play more Nintendo games than an official Nintendo console. But it also seems like the plan is OEMs at a variety of price and hardware SKUs and cloud solutions and to support Series X|S consoles as long as they have the Xbox One.
@ILuvGames Same. And I'm of a mixed mind because I know they can be glorified popularity contests (like high school prom level superficial popularity contests) or just big marketing ploys where winners are decided with money exchanged; but I do also like seeing developers get something to recognize their efforts. I still want Xbox to make that joke "most valuable NPC" ad with Ryan Reynolds into a real yearly event.
The Xbox Ally seems to have proven very successful for Xbox's first real push on PC, and honestly my biggest question is how it took them this long. Xbox Play Anywhere is a decade old next year, and the Xbox Full screen experience feels like such a natural improvement to windows gaming. Glad to see it though. Even more glad with more games joining Xbox Play Anywhere, and some coming to Xbox consoles for the first time, because of it.
@Coletrain Correct me if I'm wrong but Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo don't ever release console sales numbers do they? IIRC it's all just estimates from insiders. I'm not sure ASUS does, but I know ASUS and OEMs typically aren't chasing high numbers. They might say something like "We sold 300% more Xbox Allys in XYZ time frame than the ROG Ally and we are very pleased." Actually Microsoft already did this saying they saw a big jump in PC users and now have more than ever on the Xbox App and PC store and PC game pass. That's all I expect officially. And then insider sites might gives estimates of anywhere from 1 to 1 million units sold and it being a failure/massive success 😒
I love how Xbox is perpetually dead despite being the loudest they've ever been with the highest frequency of marketing and attendance at events. Honestly good for them. They've really done a great job these past two years (for a while now but really since the first January dev direct in 2023) building a strong cadence of events. And it's crazy now that Xbox is at a place where games can get first announced and release within the same year. Most publishers in general don't have that pipeline or that confidence in their pipeline. No shade. This is a fantastic showing and a major improvement from Xbox. They went from like 5 studios in 2017 and bone dry inconsistent years as recent as 2022 to being one of the most prolific publishers in 2025 and having fantastic third party support with really good events showing them off (seriously kudos to the people that put these together; they're always at least a "B" with a good pace and a nice selection that has a little something for everyone).
@BAMozzy Yeah this is fantastic. Really what you wish to have seen from windows gaming eons ago. Even just the added Xbox play anywhere support and improvements to the Xbox app and game bar we've been getting. Xbox has been on PC for nearly a decade and windows has alway been the biggest gaming platform (in terms of raw games and users); it's far past time that they make these optimizations to gaming on windows.
I'm happy with my Legion Go and don't plan to upgrade now, but I'm really glad to see the big push Microsoft is taking to improve gaming on windows. The next two to three years will be ones to watch in gaming! The big thing about these PC handhelds is that they're PC devices so we should continue to see new models every year (and whether Xbox continues to do partner OEMs or not, The Xbox Full screen experience will surely get updates). And then we also know there's the next Gen Xbox coming around 2027 with increased emphasis on unifying the Xbox ecosystem across Console, PC, and cloud. This device feels like a big first step forward and I'm curious to watch where it leads.
@SalaciousCrumb Exactly. Xbox tried doing a budget console this gen and people got mad at them and told them to copy Sony and just do an all digital model. After the PS5 Pro (the all digital PS5 Pro), I wonder how shocked people are going to be at what future that leads to. It's not Microsoft, a for profit business, job to run a charity and absorb all the costs of the current god awful economy. Especially not when their competitors aren't. And I will say, (a detriment on Microsoft and something Xbox has to deal with) because of shareholders the big bets are going toward "AI" slop and Xbox isn't getting any internal subsidies. Even then Xbox is delivering this year. Ninja Gaiden 4 was announced in January and here it comes 10 months later. They've been non stop at gaming shows, they garnered more third party support than ever, and their moving forward to expand Xbox as a platform and ecosystem. It baffles me what's even going on with the negativity. At this point it's like some kind of magic spell that just makes people act irrational. Realistically, any of the consoles could disappear tomorrow. Nintendo makes less gaming revenue than Sony and Microsoft and Playstation gamers spend most their time in third party games with Sony wasting hundreds of millions failing to steal them away from those. The economy is crazy right now and we've already all grown up with Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft nuking libraries at their whim ("we believe in generations"). I look at Xbox this year and it's the strongest it has ever been and I look at my future in gaming and I have the most confidence in Xbox because they've respected my library (marginally) the most. Everything else is for the future to reveal.
@TrevorP86 What's frustrating to me is that Xbox shouldn't need to "regain trust" or "squash" rumors. This isn't 2022. Or years in the Xbox One era. This year Xbox has been the most visible and transparent probably to date. We've gotten back to back shows and they've had a big physical presence at gaming events world wide. They've made their plans to expand the Xbox ecosystem clear and reiterated multiple times that the next console built by Xbox is also coming. It's not bad that Microsoft is FINALLY utilizing their strengths to both make PC gaming a better experience and grow Xbox (which has now been a native launcher on PC for nearly a decade (Xbox Play Anywhere is 10 years old next year)). There was literally an announcement about next Gen right after the showcase. Like this article says Phil did this same lab around the top secret base for next gen in April. Xbox won't STOP talking about the next generation of hardware from interviews with engineers building it to teases from executives.
People are mad over a $10 price increase to Ultimate (I am too; it's not worth it), but want to pretend like Premium didn't get a big boost in benefits at the same $15 price (premium now is basically what GPU was at launch (actually better) just with day one changed to "within a year", which according to the internet is healthier). Or that Core/Essential now exists as a $10 option with more games on PC and Console and Cloud and cloud gaming for owned games. People are also mad about the price of Game Pass and then want to get mad about rumors of an ad tier.
People are mad at Microsoft for finally doing what they'd begged them to for eons and improve the gaming experience on Windows. People are mad about console prices when prices are crap everywhere in the world right now and have been since covid. But even then people were mad when Xbox launched a budget console at the start of the generation (only $300 for a next gen console; that's cheaper than a PS4 at launch). And then they want to praise Nintendo for the affordable handheld that's $450 (and not nearly worth that price). Like isn't it just insane that the Xbox Ally (a full windows handheld) is only $150 more than a Switch 2??
@PsBoxSwitchOwner Unfortunately, it feels unlikely they'll do something similar to the Series S again with how negative the response was to it online. And sales certainly didn't skyrocket. According to even other comments on other articles on this site the Series S was a mistake and it's been the scapegoat this entire generation (god I will never forget non-developers trying to make a case for why Gotham Knights was worse than Arkham Knight (an Xbox One game) because of the Series S).
It was attacked over and over again, and people online said they should've just copied Sony and done a cheaper all digital model. Yeah, look at the PS5 Pro for how "affordable" the next Gen PS will be in an all digital model. The other problem is that the console market itself just isn't growing. When most people are upgrades what's the point of a budget model that is best positioned for brand new entries into the ecosystem and casuals? I think the best we can hope for is an optimized cloud device. Maybe it'll play Xbox One and older games natively and then stream Series games and next Gen games.
@sixrings The future? My guy mobile gaming is the present. The best selling video game console peaks at around 150 million. Rough estimates put mobile gamers at 2.8 BILLION (and there's only two mobile platforms, so even with like a 20% share of the smartphone market Apple have more GAMERS than any console platform). This isn't unknown and Microsoft has been very vocal about trying to reach the billions of gamers on mobile. That's why there's now a $10 game pass tier with cloud access and an ad supported tier on the way. It's why they wanted to introduce cloud gaming natively to the mobile app AND the storefront. It's why they've even said they wanted to introduce their own mobile app store. They've also been very vocal about how Apple and Google have blocked or impeded most of these aspirations. Mobile is 100% the future because in the present it's already where most gamers are (there's like 3 billion gamers worldwide and over 2.5 billion mobile gamers (that's me being really generous with the math)). Sony and Nintendo both know this and have been putting own mobile games and promising more. Epic knows this and has launched their own (unsanctioned) store on android.
Yeah it generally seems like they're lowering the floor and raising the ceiling to incentivize signing up for higher game pass tiers. It's a really significant point buff IF you're on Game Pass Ultimate (double the points for playing a game is nothing to sneeze at). GPU members can earn 20 X 3 (for playing on PC, Xbox, and Game Pass) + 10 for jewel + 8 for mobile once a day. That's still before weekly and monthly quests. But it looks like you're earning less on lower tiers. For example the "play a PC game" is now 5 + a bonus based on your GP tier (up to 15 for GPU). I like the change as a GPU member for obvious reasons but I'm curious how it's taken generally across Xbox. It does make sense that they'd take the direct and auto renewals out though if they're going to make game pass a "win more" status in Xbox MS Rewards.
@FatalBubbles I'm a bit confused by the wording, but you can build a PS5 comparable PC for less than $1450? Though that's a specific number, is that referring to something specific for you?
Drivers are generally less of an issue these days (I've never had a situation where I didn't just turn my PC on and play a game), but makes sense if you don't want any fuss. Though with optimization and technical problems on consoles and PCs these days I feel like it might be better to have the option of tweaking things on your end. Though again I'm not a PC power user (I've never had a situation where I messed with drivers and such on PC).
If the PS5 would give you personally the most value (or any console), I get that, but with their costs rising I'd at least hold them to free cloud saves next gen. Consoles are looking to be more expensive than ever as time goes on and as a gamer I think you deserve more benefit for that than just "plug and play" especially when the walled garden leads to higher game prices.
It sounds like a great first Windows PC handheld for early adopters willing to put up the money. Not as good for casuals or upgrades. Neat. It does seem like this device is selling as well as Microsoft and ASUS wanted and it's already having an effect on increasing support for Xbox PC, so I think it does its job well. I'll keep waiting for the Z3 or Z4 to be bigger upgrades over my current Z1 Legion Go.
@FatalBubbles I mean, it would be cheapest to just buy games on PC. Deeper sales and all. More so with Nintendo and PS still requiring a subscription for cloud saves, and all three requiring a subscription for paid online. You'd get way more value buying games on PC, it'd cost less, and there's no pressure to buy any subscription.
I opened up the Xbox Mobile app and redeemed my rewards today and might have stumbled onto one reason why this is happening. The reward values have been changed to seemingly give more of a bonus to Xbox Game Pass subscribers (namely ultimate subs). It's a bit of a "win more" situation, but basically there's a lower floor and higher ceiling. For example the 10 points (IIRC) from playing a PC game has turned into a base 5pts + up to 15pts if you're subscribed to Game Pass Ultimate for a potential total of 20pts just for playing a game on PC. It's the same exact way for Console and a Game Pass game. This is all quests too. You can get more for the monthly packs, opening the mobile app, and anything else so long as you are subscribed to GP or GPU (and you'll earn the maximum if you're GPU). It looks like they may have taken away the direct GP reward redeem to offset this.
@kmtrain83 Nintendo gets away with it because they have a built up audience and upgrades make competition a non-issue. The Switch 2 starts at $150 more than the Switch 1, but if you're a switch owner where else can you go? It's either lose all your games or pony up. Not to mention all the nostalgia and brand awareness.
The ASUS handheld is a much less specialized closed ecosystem device in a wider market with more competition. It does have a more difficult challenge, but it's also doing more than fine. Hardware companies control well for production. The Xbox Ally X is already selling out, so the product IS performing as well as Microsoft and ASUS hoped for. That's not going to be as well an established console, but they've also controlled for everything so it works out. My only point was that one of the things they'd have controlled for is costs, and ASUS and Microsoft would've done the analysis to say that charging less for the device wouldn't help them make enough money to justify the decision. Competition is more present in the PC market, so it's harder, but it also means that more creative solutions to gaming problems have to be solved.
Can't say I care. It's felt like a scam waste of reward points since they got rid of the 3 months GPU redemptions with deep discounts. I haven't redeemed GP rewards since then and have made better use of the gift card. A larger concern is that they'd raise redemptions prices for gift cards or do something else following this. For any GP users, CD keys remains a better option. Though I'm also still sitting on over a year from using the conversion method before those values changed.
It's not super complex. Everything comes down to profit. If they thought it'd have been worth it to further subsidize the Xbox Ally then they would have, but with it being the open windows AND the global economy being a mess AND the game industry being even more of one, it probably wouldn't have benefited anyone. Not even traditional walled garden consoles are keeping up with the subsidizing anymore. The fact that the Nintendo Switch 2 costs $450 as a walled garden lower spec hardware with only one storefront (more expensive games) and paid online & cloud saves is INSANE. All console prices right now are crazy. Of course a Windows gaming PC will be expensive. At least it's not the Legion Go 2.
@DennisReynolds I mean, "Xbox" play anywhere. I guess if Nintendo and Sony open up their hardware to third party storefronts and Xbox releases an Xbox App/launcher? Boy, wouldn't that be a day?
These are the type of mainstream games that need to support XPA day one, and hopefully with the Xbox Ally (and overall a stronger commitment to growing on PC with the Xbox Full screen experience) there will be greater interest from developers and publishers in supporting XPA.
@Weebleman Oh I think we're DEFINITELY still in the early adopter phase. This (XBOX Full Screen experience and Xbox branded ROG Ally) are probably the first real step into them starting to move past that. Casuals will need to see a much more consistent experience first, but I don't think sales will disappoint projections at least. Like based on current data the console market has already matured with very few new gamers and PC is still seeing a lot of growth.
Like we can already look at the Lenovo Legion Go 2: at like $1400 hardware sales FAR exceeded what Lenovo projected and now they're having a mess fulfilling orders because they didn't prepare enough inventory. It's a niche market, but growing faster than expected. I think handheld PCs have already been embraced by the enthusiasts and early adopters.
Any comparison to Switch or any console sales make it difficult to judge these devices. The console market focuses on upgrades and has been building respective consumer based for decades. The Nintendo Switch really succeeded in merging the company's handheld & home console offering and pulling gamers back after the failure of the WiiU. But if we just look at the 3ds (75 million sales) + WiiU (13 million) & DSi (150 million sales) + Wii (100 million sales) then the Nintendo Switch really just sits neatly in the middle of a 90 million to 250 million range (of both generations). Nintendo did good to reinvigorate their business by just combining both hardware SKUs, but they were never starting off as a nascent niche market (well any more so than the console market on the whole). That they haven't been that for decades. In comparison these are while the hardware possibilities of handheld PC gaming aren't new, this is the first time they've been accessible and pushed by well known gaming PC companies. They've grown a good amount in the short time since the Steam Deck first launched. And speaking of the Steam Deck, it's more akin to consoles in that there's more or less a single hardware platform (I mean yes, you can install SteamOS on anything, but "Steam Deck" is a specific valve product). These Windows handhelds are run by OEMs who are putting out new hardware every year. I also don't think ASUS is the last partner Microsoft has in this space. Windows is a massive platform and even without the Xbox Full Screen experience (a good gaming user experience on windows), OEMs are doing a lot to further this. The PC market is just really different from the console market and success is measured differently (more of a focus on users; which actually Sony and Xbox have started to move to a focus on user engagement and not as much on hardware sales). Microsoft will be happy as long as engagement overall on windows increases.
@BAMozzy Yeah, this sounds really bad. Oh man, I wonder if the teams at the studio were even surprised when Microsoft shut them down after 7 years of nothing. A vertical slice for a proof of concept was being actively developed in 2025?? I feel like the incredulous tone in my thought 💠bubble isn't coming through. A PROOF OF CONCEPT VERTICAL SLICE WAS BEING DEVELOPED IN 2025!!?
And heck, they could've still scraped everything and started over again. I'm surprised this hasn't been spun into people being mad that The Iniatative wasn't closed sooner. Like heck, those resources could've been gone to other studios.
@TrollOfWar I'd say it's as simple as the studio lacking an identity. Perfect Dark kept getting internally rebooted and went through major staffing changes. The biggest issue was that they couldn't even get the game off the ground and were stuck going back and forth in the design stage for so long.
The iniatative's first project shouldn't have been a AAA or AAAA Perfect Dark Reboot. That's too ambitious of a project for an existing IP that carries weight. They should have made a brand new IP AA game FIRST just to get something out the door and help the studio develop an internally consistent identity. Perfect Dark can still happen, but it was NEVER going to happen (at least successfully) as this studio's first game.
@Weebleman I agree, but talking about the Xbox Ally it IS basically the ROG Ally X 2 and is a modest performance boost for not that much more money (it really shouldn't be more expensive at all, but we do live with tarrifs and a trash economy and the Z2 chip generally costs a lot more to use despite the modest performance bump). Of course assuming the leaked price is correct. In comparison the Legion Go 2 doesn't come with Xbox branding and costs like twice as much as the OG with the same, actually a worse, Z2E chip that doesn't offer that much of a boost over the Z1E.
If a customer is looking to buy into the PC handheld market for the first time and they know they want a windows based handheld with the best chip they can get right now, then the ROG Xbox Ally X is a great choice. Similarly I think if people are looking at the Xbox Ally and Ally X and want something in between both models, then a last year Z1E handheld is a FANTASTIC choice which they could find for a great price now (especially if they catch a sale). I'd also say this niche handheld market probably still most appeals to enthusiasts (I don't expect these to stop being early adopter products until fall 2026 or maybe even 2027), and again those are the types of people with the disposable income who just want the latest hardware. I mean, Lenovo themselves just found out how much enthusiasts are willing to pay for modest upgrades. Lenovo unfortunately didn't prepare the inventory necessary to accommodate them though.
I think if you have a Z1E handheld (like me) or are looking for the best value for your money, then there's no reason to buy this years Z2E handhelds. However, I think a lot of people don't care about that and just want to jump into this market or upgrade with the best handhelds that are newly released. And if you're comparing the value (price and performance offering) of a ROG Xbox Ally X with a Lenovo Legion Go 2, then it's a really attractive offering.
This is fantastic considering this is people brute forcing an insider preview. Optimized hardware and mode isn't even out yet and we were told 2026 for official rollouts for other handhelds. This is a surface level preview and I imagine more about user experience behavior. Still it's great for people who don't want to fuss with windows and just are looking for a default gaming oriented experience.
The most important thing here is the user experience and pushing this as eventually for all windows gaming PCs. Microsoft doesn't really need to compete with Steam, because Steam supports windows use. Even Valve reports that as of August 2025, 95.6% of Steam users are on Windows (with 60% on Windows 11 and the rest on windows 10 (and some very small number on Windows 7)). In comparison Linux has like less than 3% for Steam users. And this Xbox Full Screen experience will natively improve gaming for all launchers on Windows and works just fine with them. The only difference is that windows is more optimized for gaming with noise turned off and Microsoft is trying to pull together all their gaming platforms, including windows, under one Xbox ecosystem.
@somnambulance Not much of a narrative, I'm saying with Tango that sales were probably "fine" if not "good" for Hi-Fi Rush as a AA game with critical success. They probably hit similar numbers to games like Pentiment and Hellblade 2. But the latter studios all have something else going for them revenue wise. Obsidian is doing fantastic releasing a variety of games (in size and genre) and Ninja Theory is making money off of their high tech facilities (like renting it out). And these studios also are able to support other studios around them and are easier to manage.
Companies are multinational, but supporting such a strategy still requires commiting resources and it has associated costs. I mean we've seen companies like Microsoft push for the return to office work, so clearly remote work tools aren't ideal for them. Xbox has like no management in Japan and barely any brand presence. This is in addition to language barriers and regional barriers. All of these are challenges that can be overcome by committing enough resources and building up the infrastructure, but that's the issue. For Microsoft it cost more to keep Tango running than they were getting out of Tango. That's all I'm saying.
Hi-Fi Rush WAS a critical success (that's not in question), and I don't think they lied about sales being "good". I think the problem is that sales weren't "good enough" for Tango specifically even after a multiplatform launch. Tango was a studio that for whatever reasons, Microsoft decided cost more to support than it was worth to them. We don't know exactly why, but I think based on what's out there it's not a stretch to say that the location added additional costs for Xbox specifically to manage. All other Xbox studios are western studios and many within reasonable traveling distance of one another, so they can support each other. Tango was a very different case. I'm not trying to make up a narrative, because we already know the answer: costs exceeded contributions to profit. I'm just suggesting some reasons why.
@somnambulance On Perfect Dark and Everwild: I 100% agree that Xbox's fault here was in lying about the progress of the game and allowing work on it to continue for as long as it did. Everwild was mostly radio silent, so I'm not sure what was going on behind the scenes there; but Perfect Dark literally never sounded good. There were constant insider reports about the game being internally rebooted and creative directions changing and the like ENTIRE DEV STAFF being replaced. Despite all of that you constantly had Phil and Co saying, "Perfect Dark/Everwild/Whatever else is looking great and we're really excited to show you more later." every single time.
I think it's fair to say that Xbox is still learning how to properly manage studios. After the Xbox One era and all those studio closures they got much better at being supportive managers that try to positively cultivate studios. But they seem scared of being the whip and even more scared of just publicly letting out that games had to get canceled mid development. Part of it was also probably that Xbox only recently got a consistent pipeline, so they felt the need to drop all these games early (trailers) and for a long time they didn't have much but hopium.
Hopefully that's changing now. Xbox's statement with these cancelations was that they had 40 projects ongoing and as a publisher in terms of first party they're massive now. We're seeing games get announced within a year of release now (like Doom, Keeper, and Ninja Gaiden). This is all great. Hopefully they also learn that they need to be a whip sometimes and that managing studios means finding a balance between micromanaging and laissez-faire. I heard Matt Booty described as the "rich uncle" whose willing to support studios with more resources, but isn't good at managing and leading them to release quality games on time. That sure sounds like the exact issue that got Perfect Dark canceled and the studio closed. Had Xbox just said "This isn't working. Let's try something else. How about we shelve this game and you guys make a AA game FIRST to get a product out the door and figure out your game design style." like 2 or 3 years then something could've been salvaged. Heck, they could've even closed the iniatative earlier and moved those resources to other games like Fable or even Everwild (like maybe they could've killed one game earlier and figured out how to make the other work). It's something Xbox does need to learn.
@somnambulance Tango wasn't just shut down from their performance though. They were probably more accurately on the chopping block because Xbox as a video game publisher didn't have the presence in Japan (or the east at all) to make them work. I mean you have to think about all the barriers associated. Xbox leadership is still based in Washington, USA that's a minimum 10 hour flight + a 16 (or 17 based on daylight savings) time difference + a language barrier + no other studios around so Tango can't support other studio projects easily and vice versa + it's not big ENOUGH to be the ONLY small Japanese studio they own + all the different regional challenges that'd come up + whatever else I'm missing cuz I'm not the business room when these decisions are being made. Ultimately the studio was sold to a South Korean publisher, and it's one Xbox has a great relationship with. And Microsoft even sold the IP for Hi-Fi Rush, and the new publisher is super interested in supporting that IP (to the point that they didn't even ask for Evil Within at the risk of it complicating the Hi Fi Rush deal). It is hard to say (we don't know), but Microsoft is a for profit business that will do what is best for its business. As consumers as gamers who enjoy games, we're directly against that. It's not really good or bad, it's just capitalism. Now there are publishers like Embracer who just make straight up bad business decisions and screw their owned studios over, and we just can't control that either. All that's to say, I think studios that don't cost more than they contribute are fine. The initiative contributed nothing and costs a ton, so they were closed. Tango contributed a lot, but just didn't work out for other reasons, and so they were sold to a good partner that could make better use of them.
It's a damn good thing they DIDN'T charge $80 for this. Yikes. Also name dropping the PS5 Pro? Is this really an issue on a $700+ "Pro" mid gen upgrade console?? Good Lord. If I were a PS5 Pro owner I'd be getting the torches and pitchforks. Heck, if I bought any console in the past year with these prices increases and paid for a $70 game (or spent up to like $130 for all dlc) only to literally be DISCOURAGED from playing said game then I'd be... really mad I guess. I'd probably just try to do a refund ASAP. But yeah, I guess at the very least all these problems on even the latest hardware mean that my Series S and X at launch were super good value buys... that's good right? This gen is so bad game optimization wise that five years later the hardware I bought is still being underutilized and people who upgraded to more expensive hardware are suffering from the same problems... yay 😑.
So the official reason Lenovo gave for the issue on their AMA was demand being higher than anticipated and Corden does talk about how handware companies like Lenovo need to do really strict inventory. The problem is that they released an overpriced premium product and GREATLY underestimated how much niche gamers are willing to pay in this market and how much excitement there was for a Legion Go 2. Sure it's not Switch numbers, but it's still pretty high considering this is a niche product within a niche market.
If we look at the Legion Go 2 lead up, Lenovo just didn't prepare for this AT ALL. We had an announcemell8nt of an announcement bagmck in CES. And then it was just leaks. Up until a few a few weeks ago. They practically shadow-dropped the device.
Xbox Ally is up in the air. Microsoft and ASUS have been marketing the heck out of this device, so they expect it to sell. The question is how much demand are they anticipating? ASUS is still an OEM, so they wouldn't want inventory left over. The big issue to me is how these companies are putting out pre-orders at the last minute. Put that stuff up several months in advance, so ya'll can get a fix on who wants one. Only companies like Apple can pull off last minute pre-orders for products like iPhones which have a pretty fixed demand every year. The Xbox Ally will probably be the most sought after gaming OEM to date just from the Xbox collaboration.
Visions of Mana is the standout for me. I nearly bought that one too! Hades is dope because it means that Xbox and Supergiant games are having these conversations. It might take several months again, but when Hades 2 comes to Xbox I wouldn't be surprised if it's day one GP and XPA.
@AverageGamer Yeah, I don't think you explained, my friend. I mean, I think what you're saying is that people are OKAY with spending more for weaker hardware because and the same price, or sometimes more, for games that perform worse... because Nintendo didn't promise parity with "the other console"... what other console?? The Switch 1? So what, if Microsoft just ONLY released the Series S then people would've loved that console to death? Is that what we're going with? Xbox didn't even promise graphical parity. Feature parity yes (and that's being upheld minus like BG3, but even BG3 added split screen) and the Series S is capable of better graphics that aren't being taken advantage of... which is the same for every other console this generation.
It's simple fanboyism and nostalgia. I mean if we're really going with that people are such sheep that they're happier paying more for worse experiences and less value as long as they "aren't promised otherwise", than that's actually way worse than fanboyism and nostalgia. Like man we as consumers are ****ed then. Literally by this logic Microsoft could've released the Series S, charged $500 for it, and that'd have been BETTER as long as there's no Series X to compare it to and no promises of parity with said Series X.
On the legal side, man I wish I could see Nintendo burnt for this. For me it's u forgivable. They didn't go after Palworld designs or copyright because they don't actually about any of that. They used it as a springboard to patent game mechanics themselves and get a true monopoly over a gameplay genre. The latest is just the worst with the now patenting "summoning a creature to fight for you". It's terrible because these are only going through due to how old and out of touch the people handling patents are with gaming. It's been side. Throwing and catching spheres have been changed and so has gliding with pals. People complain so much about WB and the nemesis system patent, but I feel like the industry is sitting by and letting Nintendo win here which is so dangerous.
But yeah, I wonder what 1.0 will look like. The game is already so different. I first got it on Steam (since it got updates faster at first).
@somnambulance Double Fine is fine... Hehe, free pun.
But seriously Double Fine was purchased with Psychonauts 2 in hand and it did fantastically commercially and critically (all with Xbox as the publisher). And now, only four years later, they have another game coming and multiple other projects in the works.
Perfect Dark and Everwild were canceled after more than five years of development with very little progress and constant reboots. The Perfect Dark reboot devs came out and told us the trailer was fake, which isn't even that bad (most video game trailers are "doctored"). But the problem came when said dev was explaining how the team was JUST NOW making firm game design decisions, so they wouldn't be outright lying. That's insane. That was the iniatative's only game coming out (and that studio was started in 2018). If Double Fine goes 7 years without releasing ANYTHING and it looks like it'll take them longer still to get a game out, then yeah, you should be worried about them being closed. I mean yeah, it's always about money, but these studio closures also haven't been like a satanic culling.
I don't know if the guy holds any ill will, but this is pretty standard professional adult human behavior. At the very least if he wants to badmouth Xbox he'd do so privately, not publicly. Especially not publicly on the social media platform that Microsoft owns. That type of behavior wouldn't be helpful in searching for new job opportunities.
On another note, I thought the studio head at the iniatative changed a few times and the internal staff kept getting "rebooted"? Or was that the creative director?
@Stoned_Patrol What truly baffles me is that Nintendo and PlayStation still don't have free cloud saves. I hope that next gen they figure that out and simultaneously I hope Xbox does full free online play (for free and paid games). Both of those features should be standard on console, not just PC.
@Stoned_Patrol The only way I see Scalebound coming back is if Microsoft owns the IP and gives it to another studio or team. Heck, maybe they could make a team at Blizzard and have them turn it into a console PVE live service. Interestingly enough, Obsidian started Avowed off as a PVE co-op RPG but they had the sense to pivot and reboot as a single player. Maybe that'd be best for Scalebound, just get rid of the multiplayer co-op promises entirely and turn it into a single player open world or open level action RPG. But I don't see why even bother reviving it. It's not like Scalebound was a popular legacy franchise. It was a new IP. They (Xbox, Platinum Games, or Kamiya) could make the same idea of a game (open world action RPG where you control a dragon) at any time under a new name and different studio, if they wanted to. Arguably, Platinum Games did do this with Bayonetta 3 (at least in some ways the gameplay design feels similar).
I bought both the Series X and S at launch. I was going off to university and my thinking was to have one Xbox at home and one in my dorm. Now five years later (which is crazy, I got hyped for this gen senior year of high school, my order came in my first year of university, and yet now it's been a year since I finished undergrad), the Series S has become my main console. I do a lot of traveling for work and don't have stable living, so investing in a big home entertainment setup or even a really good monitor doesn't make sense. And hopping on an airplane is a lot easier with that tiny beast of a machine. And I've only been gaming more with all the releases these years, so I'm glad I can do so with a modest console I can chuck in my tiny behind carryon.
Honestly, I'm probably more disappointed in how gamers (consumers) responded to the Series S than Microsoft is. Xbox released a budget console that was an innovative marvel for only $300 USD. The fact that it didn't sell like hotcakes is shameful for me as a consumer. The fact that it got attacked and people tried turning it into a scapegoat for all the problems this gen is just depressing. Part of it is on Microsoft and their lack of marketing, but a lot of it is just gamers pushing back against everything Xbox to their own detriment. Gamers have been more kind to the $700 mid Gen upgrade and $450 Switch 2 (that's weaker than the Series S; seriously why is it that everytime a Switch 2 port underperforms it gets kudos "that's impressive for such a small machine" when the Series S got clowned on? Games still cost FULL PRICE on the Switch 2 and the Switch 2 costs MORE than the Series S). To me we've just collectively told the market to screw us over in the future. I don't expect Xbox to do such a budget console again.
The Series X|S launch was really magical, and we squandered it. I'll at least always love both consoles. Truly marvels of engineering and design. And boy do I wish Microsoft kept doing FPS boosts.
Microsoft is far too generous with studios when a game isn't working. That's arguably one of their biggest problems. They let games that just aren't working keep being funded and developed until the absolute last minute which makes the fallout worse when they have to cut them off.
Platinum Games has already proven that they could never have made Scalebound the game that was promised. Babylon's Fall tells us that. They got to make the live service they wanted and hyped it up to high water, and it was shut down within what? The same year? The next. Oh and it's funny with they bring up that game and failure less often. I remember when Kamiya had an interview some time ago and said that he and Platinum games didn't know how to do live service back then, but did now, so they could totally finish Scalebound. That was certainly a good laugh.
This was a commissioned second party game, it's not on Xbox to continously work with the studio and figure out why they can't do this game. Especially, not when we know there were issues with the money from the contract being used for other projects at platinum games and miscommunication over the progress of Scalebound. And I'm not a developer that's worked with Japanese publishers and western publishers, but I have worked in Japan and experienced the communication culture in Japan. I find it difficult to believe that Japanese publishers are said to have more open communication, but I also hard disagree and say that doesn't matter. Scalebound was just NEVER going to happen. At most we'd have gotten a Babylon's Fall before Babylon's Fall and Xbox did NOT need that heat back then. They made the right call canceling it.
I desperately hope this isn't just a US thing or a one time time, I'm abroad for about another year. And I have so many points saved just cuz there's so little to use them on outside the US (and I imagine the UK).
@jesse_dylan 90 days is a good amount of time. You could buy the discounted gift cards, wait a month and X days, and then use them up during the Black Friday sales!!
Oh god, I'm back in middle school all over again. Oh well: WATER IS NOT WET!! 😉
I can't say I care too much, I mean both because I'm not a huge GTA player and because either way it's several months out and in next year. I have a WAY more to worry about with the way the world is going (and my life in general) with next year than if GTA VI releases in May or October or some other date. And if nothing else this gen has taught me to roll with the punches. There's so many volatile external factors that affect a game's timeline. For all we know a Danny Phantom Phantom Planet meteor could strike the Earth by next year.
@TrollOfWar Thanks for the write up. Oh, man this generation was way oversold. I mean just the fact that we're five years in and games still are struggling to reach stable performance period, much less 4k60. Like what even is the PS5 Pro? Games still aren't making the most of the PS5 and certainly aren't hitting the promises we were sold on for the system. Purely talking about game content, I love this gen. It's been a great stream of games. And hey, all that glitters isn't gold. I don't need 4k60. It's just that, as you said, we were oversold on this generation.
@Pat_trick As someone whose also not a tech guy, I'd love if someone could break down the thinking behind the Series S holding back a generation. Like realistically, the logic just doesn't make sense to me. People were making this argument for games that were cross gen and while also hyping up the Switch (and now Switch 2) for having more support than Xbox. I'm also looking at how games release, and optimization always comes latter. Devs build their games, from what I understand, on PCs and using dev kits and they build their game first and optimize later. Heck, that's recently been some beef between developers and Epic with the latter blaming the former for not optimizing for more platforms sooner. And then there's PC which has far more variation in hardware, including weaker hardware that modern games still release on. All the games being discussed also have been in development for a long time. And then the problems we've seen with games this generation just don't relate back to restraints on the Series S. As far as I've seen it's as simple as games running worse or turning off features on the Series S, but nothing stops those same features from working on other platforms.
Like there's even the games that DID skip Xbox because it took them more time to optimize for the Series S... and how exactly does that hold back the entire generation when those games just optimize later? Like you could make the argument that Xbox loses games because of the Series S (though you'd have to ignore that Xbox has more support than ever), but that's not what a lot of people are saying. A lot of people are acting like the Series S specifically is to blame for the generation not feeling "next Gen". And I don't get that. I could see complaints for next gen with cross Gen having to start with supporting the Series S, but that's not the case. And again, speaking of cross-gen, we just recently started seeing AAA games on the whole drop last gen consoles (and a non-zero are now supporting the Switch 2 at launch). Like, I just don't get it logically. How do all of these interviews of devs having a hard time "optimizing" for the Series S come back to the Series S "holding back" the generation? The idea of it being a bottleneck would denote that devs START the development process with the Series S, but that's not the case. Most seem to not even think about it until they're near the end of development.
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Re: Sony Exec Suggests PS5 Is Far From Finished, And It's Likely The Same For Xbox Series X|S
@Droopy I mean, they're spending a LOT of money supporting Xbox Series consoles with more games than ever from third parties and making deals and attending and hosting showcase & direct events for a platform they've given up on. Shrug. People are frustrated on the economy being as it is and Microsoft being the company they are doing a lot to control stock & hardware cost productions. It's more expensive than ever to make 5 year old hardware and even more expensive to leave it on shelves and no one likes that (not Microsoft, not brick & mortar stores, and not us gamers). But Xbox is still doing a lot to support their consoles, they're still doing a lot to support even the Xbox One console and its gamers. Xbox is also doing a lot to expand console hardware (the console market) alone, which has become increasingly volatile and expensive without growing much at all in over a decade. In their latest earnings Playstation praised the success of their live service games across platforms and suggested supporting more platforms. They announced "celebrated" 85 million console sales which... if next gen is coming in less than 2 years now that's not a great outlook. They'd need twice as many console sales to finally surpass their PS2 peak. They'd still need like 40 million console sales to surpass PS4 numbers. Microsoft's messaging is clear, they want to succeed as a business and to them fighting over pieces of an increasingly shrinking console market pie isn't how they're going to do that. I don't even think people are angry at Xbox, but rather the wider industry and global economy. And Xbox is just there as the biggest most vulnerable green punching bag. At the end of the day though the gaming industry, and Console market, needs to make changes. This has been an issue for multiple decades now and is just finally really being felt. Exclusives locked up ecosystem and turned off new gamers. Forever games came in and took advantage of a fragmented market. Costs of development and now hardware production keeps skyrocketing. And new gamers would rather go to open ecosystems like PC or play on their phones because why wouldn't they? For gods sake even the big AAA publishers are all bowing out. Activision Blizzard went to Microsoft to get bought, EA got bought by a private equity, and Ubisoft got bailed out by Tencent. Gamers need to stop pretending things are okay and if we just stick to our guns from 20 years ago everything will be okay. The only console left with really good margins and a healthy business is Nintendo and that's only because their fans allow them to sell them overpriced games and hardware despite them not being worth that and their games and hardware costing far less to develop and produce in comparison.
Re: Sony Exec Suggests PS5 Is Far From Finished, And It's Likely The Same For Xbox Series X|S
"We believe in generations" 😂
Considering how long the PS4 & Xbox One are still being supported by most games (overall) and many of the most played games period (Minecraft, Fortnite, Roblox, and even yearly COD) the PS5 & Xbox Series consoles will be long supported into next gen. If anything it'll be less like a new generation and more like the PS6 and Next Xbox being the new premium offerings from both companies. We'll likely continue to see native optimized PS5 & Xbox Series versions of games for all new games for at least 5 years and most likely longer. Really this just continues to make the PS5 Pro look more and more like a mistake.
Re: Huge Xbox Report Details 'Ambitious' Next-Gen Console With Free Online Play
If this is real, it's the best path forward for Xbox: they can truly take advantage of their competitive advantage while building an Xbox ecosystem that's an empire and carrying all that's come before forward. And it's why I continue to see Xbox as the best place to play. Over on Nintendo Switch 2 land it's a door charge to upgrade games and I certainly don't see my Wii or DS library on my switch much less with any cloud saves. Same for Playstation. It feels like Valve and Microsoft are building the future platforms that will carry gaming forward and finally invite in new gamers and I'm excited to see it. I hope Playstation wakes up before it's too late and I've given up hope for Nintendo (especially with how their fans enable their behavior). It's unfortunate to think that there'd be pushback to this. Do we all really want to stay in the cave with the lights off? Do we want to keep the walled gardens that bad? Because we're not even getting subsidies for them anymore. The PS5 Pro costs over $700 as an all digital console and again the Nintendo Switch 2 $450 (that's more than a steam deck, in the price range of the Z1 handhelds, and only $150 cheaper than the base PC Xbox Ally). That's not to mention individual game prices and the rising costs of subscriptions with Playstation and Nintendo still not having free cloud saves. Even if the next Xbox is twice as much as the next Playstation (which is won't, like come on) you'll still get that money back in no time with the insane value one offers over the other. Like really how could anyone even recommend another console at that point? There's no promise a Nintendo and Sony won't nuke libraries again, they offer nothing to protect your saves for free, and they will (in the face of this next Xbox) have less games for higher prices.
Everything comes down to execution, but honestly even if it's just a glorified Xbox Full screen experience that'd make PC the undisputed best place to game. I'm really, REALLY excited. I just wish I could time travel and have it in my hands now.
Re: Huge Xbox Report Details 'Ambitious' Next-Gen Console With Free Online Play
What's laid out here is a Next Xbox with full backwards compatibility and the ability to play literally everything from any PC storefront or other means. If this is real, it is truly the holy grail to sit in the center of an Xbox empire. I wouldn't mind paying $1000 on a device that could play more Nintendo games than an official Nintendo console. But it also seems like the plan is OEMs at a variety of price and hardware SKUs and cloud solutions and to support Series X|S consoles as long as they have the Xbox One.
It is truly evolve or die time in the gaming industry. We're seeing the biggest AAA western publishers bail out or get bailed out. Console gaming has a particularly precarious future with the overall market not having grown in well over a decade. As is consoles are coasting on the fact that the same core users are spending more on games, Microtransactions, subscriptions, and hardware. Nintendo and Xbox exist in the same reality, the biggest differences are that a) yes, Xbox is in third place making it more vulnerable to the reality of the market and b) Nintendo has the clout to charge $450 for a Switch 2 (that is like last gen hardware in terms of tech) and $80 for Mario Kart or $70 for Pokémon (neither of which cost as much to make as other AAA games). Playstation exists in the same reality but is kinda just pretending everything is fine as their bread and butter (expensive high quality exclusives) turn into oil and fire on a wooden ship of gamers mostly stuck on fortnite, COD, and Minecraft.
Re: Xbox Gets One Nomination For 'Ultimate Game Of The Year' At Golden Joysticks 2025
@ILuvGames Same. And I'm of a mixed mind because I know they can be glorified popularity contests (like high school prom level superficial popularity contests) or just big marketing ploys where winners are decided with money exchanged; but I do also like seeing developers get something to recognize their efforts. I still want Xbox to make that joke "most valuable NPC" ad with Ryan Reynolds into a real yearly event.
Re: ROG Xbox Ally X Continues To Prove Popular As Stock Issues Persist In Some Countries
The Xbox Ally seems to have proven very successful for Xbox's first real push on PC, and honestly my biggest question is how it took them this long. Xbox Play Anywhere is a decade old next year, and the Xbox Full screen experience feels like such a natural improvement to windows gaming. Glad to see it though. Even more glad with more games joining Xbox Play Anywhere, and some coming to Xbox consoles for the first time, because of it.
Re: ROG Xbox Ally X Continues To Prove Popular As Stock Issues Persist In Some Countries
@Coletrain Correct me if I'm wrong but Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo don't ever release console sales numbers do they? IIRC it's all just estimates from insiders. I'm not sure ASUS does, but I know ASUS and OEMs typically aren't chasing high numbers. They might say something like "We sold 300% more Xbox Allys in XYZ time frame than the ROG Ally and we are very pleased." Actually Microsoft already did this saying they saw a big jump in PC users and now have more than ever on the Xbox App and PC store and PC game pass. That's all I expect officially. And then insider sites might gives estimates of anywhere from 1 to 1 million units sold and it being a failure/massive success 😒
Re: PSA: The Next Few Months Could Be Very Busy With Xbox-Related Showcases
I love how Xbox is perpetually dead despite being the loudest they've ever been with the highest frequency of marketing and attendance at events. Honestly good for them. They've really done a great job these past two years (for a while now but really since the first January dev direct in 2023) building a strong cadence of events. And it's crazy now that Xbox is at a place where games can get first announced and release within the same year. Most publishers in general don't have that pipeline or that confidence in their pipeline. No shade. This is a fantastic showing and a major improvement from Xbox. They went from like 5 studios in 2017 and bone dry inconsistent years as recent as 2022 to being one of the most prolific publishers in 2025 and having fantastic third party support with really good events showing them off (seriously kudos to the people that put these together; they're always at least a "B" with a good pace and a nice selection that has a little something for everyone).
Re: Microsoft Debuts ROG Xbox Ally At Gamescom Asia With Impressive Hands-On Booth
Definitely feels like this device has the most opportunity in Asia with how popular PC is there and how poorly known Xbox is.
Re: 61 Games Discounted To Less Than $1 In New Xbox Play Anywhere Sale
I'm definitely going for Vambrace; I had a bit of fun with it on game pass.
Re: Mulitple Games Are Suddenly Getting Updated With ROG Xbox Ally Optimisations
@BAMozzy Yeah this is fantastic. Really what you wish to have seen from windows gaming eons ago. Even just the added Xbox play anywhere support and improvements to the Xbox app and game bar we've been getting. Xbox has been on PC for nearly a decade and windows has alway been the biggest gaming platform (in terms of raw games and users); it's far past time that they make these optimizations to gaming on windows.
Re: Review: ROG Xbox Ally X - An Amazing Handheld PC With Plenty Of Console-Like Potential
I'm happy with my Legion Go and don't plan to upgrade now, but I'm really glad to see the big push Microsoft is taking to improve gaming on windows. The next two to three years will be ones to watch in gaming! The big thing about these PC handhelds is that they're PC devices so we should continue to see new models every year (and whether Xbox continues to do partner OEMs or not, The Xbox Full screen experience will surely get updates). And then we also know there's the next Gen Xbox coming around 2027 with increased emphasis on unifying the Xbox ecosystem across Console, PC, and cloud. This device feels like a big first step forward and I'm curious to watch where it leads.
Re: Sarah Bond Shows Off Where Microsoft Is 'Prototyping For The Next Generation Of Xbox'
@SalaciousCrumb Exactly. Xbox tried doing a budget console this gen and people got mad at them and told them to copy Sony and just do an all digital model. After the PS5 Pro (the all digital PS5 Pro), I wonder how shocked people are going to be at what future that leads to. It's not Microsoft, a for profit business, job to run a charity and absorb all the costs of the current god awful economy. Especially not when their competitors aren't. And I will say, (a detriment on Microsoft and something Xbox has to deal with) because of shareholders the big bets are going toward "AI" slop and Xbox isn't getting any internal subsidies. Even then Xbox is delivering this year. Ninja Gaiden 4 was announced in January and here it comes 10 months later. They've been non stop at gaming shows, they garnered more third party support than ever, and their moving forward to expand Xbox as a platform and ecosystem. It baffles me what's even going on with the negativity. At this point it's like some kind of magic spell that just makes people act irrational. Realistically, any of the consoles could disappear tomorrow. Nintendo makes less gaming revenue than Sony and Microsoft and Playstation gamers spend most their time in third party games with Sony wasting hundreds of millions failing to steal them away from those. The economy is crazy right now and we've already all grown up with Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft nuking libraries at their whim ("we believe in generations"). I look at Xbox this year and it's the strongest it has ever been and I look at my future in gaming and I have the most confidence in Xbox because they've respected my library (marginally) the most. Everything else is for the future to reveal.
Re: Sarah Bond Shows Off Where Microsoft Is 'Prototyping For The Next Generation Of Xbox'
@TrevorP86 What's frustrating to me is that Xbox shouldn't need to "regain trust" or "squash" rumors. This isn't 2022. Or years in the Xbox One era. This year Xbox has been the most visible and transparent probably to date. We've gotten back to back shows and they've had a big physical presence at gaming events world wide. They've made their plans to expand the Xbox ecosystem clear and reiterated multiple times that the next console built by Xbox is also coming. It's not bad that Microsoft is FINALLY utilizing their strengths to both make PC gaming a better experience and grow Xbox (which has now been a native launcher on PC for nearly a decade (Xbox Play Anywhere is 10 years old next year)). There was literally an announcement about next Gen right after the showcase. Like this article says Phil did this same lab around the top secret base for next gen in April. Xbox won't STOP talking about the next generation of hardware from interviews with engineers building it to teases from executives.
People are mad over a $10 price increase to Ultimate (I am too; it's not worth it), but want to pretend like Premium didn't get a big boost in benefits at the same $15 price (premium now is basically what GPU was at launch (actually better) just with day one changed to "within a year", which according to the internet is healthier). Or that Core/Essential now exists as a $10 option with more games on PC and Console and Cloud and cloud gaming for owned games. People are also mad about the price of Game Pass and then want to get mad about rumors of an ad tier.
People are mad at Microsoft for finally doing what they'd begged them to for eons and improve the gaming experience on Windows. People are mad about console prices when prices are crap everywhere in the world right now and have been since covid. But even then people were mad when Xbox launched a budget console at the start of the generation (only $300 for a next gen console; that's cheaper than a PS4 at launch). And then they want to praise Nintendo for the affordable handheld that's $450 (and not nearly worth that price). Like isn't it just insane that the Xbox Ally (a full windows handheld) is only $150 more than a Switch 2??
Re: Sarah Bond Shows Off Where Microsoft Is 'Prototyping For The Next Generation Of Xbox'
@PsBoxSwitchOwner Unfortunately, it feels unlikely they'll do something similar to the Series S again with how negative the response was to it online. And sales certainly didn't skyrocket. According to even other comments on other articles on this site the Series S was a mistake and it's been the scapegoat this entire generation (god I will never forget non-developers trying to make a case for why Gotham Knights was worse than Arkham Knight (an Xbox One game) because of the Series S).
It was attacked over and over again, and people online said they should've just copied Sony and done a cheaper all digital model. Yeah, look at the PS5 Pro for how "affordable" the next Gen PS will be in an all digital model. The other problem is that the console market itself just isn't growing. When most people are upgrades what's the point of a budget model that is best positioned for brand new entries into the ecosystem and casuals? I think the best we can hope for is an optimized cloud device. Maybe it'll play Xbox One and older games natively and then stream Series games and next Gen games.
Re: Sarah Bond Shows Off Where Microsoft Is 'Prototyping For The Next Generation Of Xbox'
@sixrings The future? My guy mobile gaming is the present. The best selling video game console peaks at around 150 million. Rough estimates put mobile gamers at 2.8 BILLION (and there's only two mobile platforms, so even with like a 20% share of the smartphone market Apple have more GAMERS than any console platform). This isn't unknown and Microsoft has been very vocal about trying to reach the billions of gamers on mobile. That's why there's now a $10 game pass tier with cloud access and an ad supported tier on the way. It's why they wanted to introduce cloud gaming natively to the mobile app AND the storefront. It's why they've even said they wanted to introduce their own mobile app store. They've also been very vocal about how Apple and Google have blocked or impeded most of these aspirations. Mobile is 100% the future because in the present it's already where most gamers are (there's like 3 billion gamers worldwide and over 2.5 billion mobile gamers (that's me being really generous with the math)). Sony and Nintendo both know this and have been putting own mobile games and promising more. Epic knows this and has launched their own (unsanctioned) store on android.
Re: Xbox Rewards Is Buffing Its Points In Some Cases, And Nerfing Them In Others
Yeah it generally seems like they're lowering the floor and raising the ceiling to incentivize signing up for higher game pass tiers. It's a really significant point buff IF you're on Game Pass Ultimate (double the points for playing a game is nothing to sneeze at). GPU members can earn 20 X 3 (for playing on PC, Xbox, and Game Pass) + 10 for jewel + 8 for mobile once a day. That's still before weekly and monthly quests. But it looks like you're earning less on lower tiers. For example the "play a PC game" is now 5 + a bonus based on your GP tier (up to 15 for GPU). I like the change as a GPU member for obvious reasons but I'm curious how it's taken generally across Xbox. It does make sense that they'd take the direct and auto renewals out though if they're going to make game pass a "win more" status in Xbox MS Rewards.
Re: Microsoft Rewards Set To Remove 'Direct' Xbox Game Pass Redemptions From October 1st
@FatalBubbles I'm a bit confused by the wording, but you can build a PS5 comparable PC for less than $1450? Though that's a specific number, is that referring to something specific for you?
Drivers are generally less of an issue these days (I've never had a situation where I didn't just turn my PC on and play a game), but makes sense if you don't want any fuss. Though with optimization and technical problems on consoles and PCs these days I feel like it might be better to have the option of tweaking things on your end. Though again I'm not a PC power user (I've never had a situation where I messed with drivers and such on PC).
If the PS5 would give you personally the most value (or any console), I get that, but with their costs rising I'd at least hold them to free cloud saves next gen. Consoles are looking to be more expensive than ever as time goes on and as a gamer I think you deserve more benefit for that than just "plug and play" especially when the walled garden leads to higher game prices.
Re: ROG Xbox Ally X Owner Shares Their 'Quick Review' After Receiving It Two Weeks Early
It sounds like a great first Windows PC handheld for early adopters willing to put up the money. Not as good for casuals or upgrades. Neat. It does seem like this device is selling as well as Microsoft and ASUS wanted and it's already having an effect on increasing support for Xbox PC, so I think it does its job well. I'll keep waiting for the Z3 or Z4 to be bigger upgrades over my current Z1 Legion Go.
Re: Microsoft Rewards Set To Remove 'Direct' Xbox Game Pass Redemptions From October 1st
@FatalBubbles I mean, it would be cheapest to just buy games on PC. Deeper sales and all. More so with Nintendo and PS still requiring a subscription for cloud saves, and all three requiring a subscription for paid online. You'd get way more value buying games on PC, it'd cost less, and there's no pressure to buy any subscription.
Re: Microsoft Rewards Set To Remove 'Direct' Xbox Game Pass Redemptions From October 1st
I opened up the Xbox Mobile app and redeemed my rewards today and might have stumbled onto one reason why this is happening. The reward values have been changed to seemingly give more of a bonus to Xbox Game Pass subscribers (namely ultimate subs). It's a bit of a "win more" situation, but basically there's a lower floor and higher ceiling. For example the 10 points (IIRC) from playing a PC game has turned into a base 5pts + up to 15pts if you're subscribed to Game Pass Ultimate for a potential total of 20pts just for playing a game on PC. It's the same exact way for Console and a Game Pass game. This is all quests too. You can get more for the monthly packs, opening the mobile app, and anything else so long as you are subscribed to GP or GPU (and you'll earn the maximum if you're GPU). It looks like they may have taken away the direct GP reward redeem to offset this.
Re: Rumour: Microsoft & ASUS Wanted To 'Further Subsidise' The Price Of The ROG Xbox Ally
@kmtrain83 Nintendo gets away with it because they have a built up audience and upgrades make competition a non-issue. The Switch 2 starts at $150 more than the Switch 1, but if you're a switch owner where else can you go? It's either lose all your games or pony up. Not to mention all the nostalgia and brand awareness.
The ASUS handheld is a much less specialized closed ecosystem device in a wider market with more competition. It does have a more difficult challenge, but it's also doing more than fine. Hardware companies control well for production. The Xbox Ally X is already selling out, so the product IS performing as well as Microsoft and ASUS hoped for. That's not going to be as well an established console, but they've also controlled for everything so it works out. My only point was that one of the things they'd have controlled for is costs, and ASUS and Microsoft would've done the analysis to say that charging less for the device wouldn't help them make enough money to justify the decision. Competition is more present in the PC market, so it's harder, but it also means that more creative solutions to gaming problems have to be solved.
Re: Microsoft Rewards Set To Remove 'Direct' Xbox Game Pass Redemptions From October 1st
Can't say I care. It's felt like a scam waste of reward points since they got rid of the 3 months GPU redemptions with deep discounts. I haven't redeemed GP rewards since then and have made better use of the gift card. A larger concern is that they'd raise redemptions prices for gift cards or do something else following this. For any GP users, CD keys remains a better option. Though I'm also still sitting on over a year from using the conversion method before those values changed.
Re: Report: AAA The Lord Of The Rings Game In Development With Third-Person Gameplay
I wish Monolith were still around ðŸ˜
Re: Rumour: Microsoft & ASUS Wanted To 'Further Subsidise' The Price Of The ROG Xbox Ally
It's not super complex. Everything comes down to profit. If they thought it'd have been worth it to further subsidize the Xbox Ally then they would have, but with it being the open windows AND the global economy being a mess AND the game industry being even more of one, it probably wouldn't have benefited anyone. Not even traditional walled garden consoles are keeping up with the subsidizing anymore. The fact that the Nintendo Switch 2 costs $450 as a walled garden lower spec hardware with only one storefront (more expensive games) and paid online & cloud saves is INSANE. All console prices right now are crazy. Of course a Windows gaming PC will be expensive. At least it's not the Legion Go 2.
Re: Hogwarts Legacy Gets Surprise Xbox Play Anywhere Support, Over Two Years Since Release
@DennisReynolds I mean, "Xbox" play anywhere. I guess if Nintendo and Sony open up their hardware to third party storefronts and Xbox releases an Xbox App/launcher? Boy, wouldn't that be a day?
Re: Hogwarts Legacy Gets Surprise Xbox Play Anywhere Support, Over Two Years Since Release
These are the type of mainstream games that need to support XPA day one, and hopefully with the Xbox Ally (and overall a stronger commitment to growing on PC with the Xbox Full screen experience) there will be greater interest from developers and publishers in supporting XPA.
Re: Xbox's New Handheld UI Has Become Available, And It's Giving FPS & Battery Improvements
@Weebleman Oh I think we're DEFINITELY still in the early adopter phase. This (XBOX Full Screen experience and Xbox branded ROG Ally) are probably the first real step into them starting to move past that. Casuals will need to see a much more consistent experience first, but I don't think sales will disappoint projections at least. Like based on current data the console market has already matured with very few new gamers and PC is still seeing a lot of growth.
Like we can already look at the Lenovo Legion Go 2: at like $1400 hardware sales FAR exceeded what Lenovo projected and now they're having a mess fulfilling orders because they didn't prepare enough inventory. It's a niche market, but growing faster than expected. I think handheld PCs have already been embraced by the enthusiasts and early adopters.
Any comparison to Switch or any console sales make it difficult to judge these devices. The console market focuses on upgrades and has been building respective consumer based for decades. The Nintendo Switch really succeeded in merging the company's handheld & home console offering and pulling gamers back after the failure of the WiiU. But if we just look at the 3ds (75 million sales) + WiiU (13 million) & DSi (150 million sales) + Wii (100 million sales) then the Nintendo Switch really just sits neatly in the middle of a 90 million to 250 million range (of both generations). Nintendo did good to reinvigorate their business by just combining both hardware SKUs, but they were never starting off as a nascent niche market (well any more so than the console market on the whole). That they haven't been that for decades. In comparison these are while the hardware possibilities of handheld PC gaming aren't new, this is the first time they've been accessible and pushed by well known gaming PC companies. They've grown a good amount in the short time since the Steam Deck first launched. And speaking of the Steam Deck, it's more akin to consoles in that there's more or less a single hardware platform (I mean yes, you can install SteamOS on anything, but "Steam Deck" is a specific valve product). These Windows handhelds are run by OEMs who are putting out new hardware every year. I also don't think ASUS is the last partner Microsoft has in this space. Windows is a massive platform and even without the Xbox Full Screen experience (a good gaming user experience on windows), OEMs are doing a lot to further this. The PC market is just really different from the console market and success is measured differently (more of a focus on users; which actually Sony and Xbox have started to move to a focus on user engagement and not as much on hardware sales). Microsoft will be happy as long as engagement overall on windows increases.
Re: New Leak Reveals Fresh Details & Concept Art For Xbox's Cancelled Perfect Dark Reboot
@BAMozzy Yeah, this sounds really bad. Oh man, I wonder if the teams at the studio were even surprised when Microsoft shut them down after 7 years of nothing. A vertical slice for a proof of concept was being actively developed in 2025?? I feel like the incredulous tone in my thought 💠bubble isn't coming through. A PROOF OF CONCEPT VERTICAL SLICE WAS BEING DEVELOPED IN 2025!!?
And heck, they could've still scraped everything and started over again. I'm surprised this hasn't been spun into people being mad that The Iniatative wasn't closed sooner. Like heck, those resources could've been gone to other studios.
Re: New Leak Reveals Fresh Details & Concept Art For Xbox's Cancelled Perfect Dark Reboot
@TrollOfWar I'd say it's as simple as the studio lacking an identity. Perfect Dark kept getting internally rebooted and went through major staffing changes. The biggest issue was that they couldn't even get the game off the ground and were stuck going back and forth in the design stage for so long.
The iniatative's first project shouldn't have been a AAA or AAAA Perfect Dark Reboot. That's too ambitious of a project for an existing IP that carries weight. They should have made a brand new IP AA game FIRST just to get something out the door and help the studio develop an internally consistent identity. Perfect Dark can still happen, but it was NEVER going to happen (at least successfully) as this studio's first game.
Re: Xbox's New Handheld UI Has Become Available, And It's Giving FPS & Battery Improvements
@Weebleman I agree, but talking about the Xbox Ally it IS basically the ROG Ally X 2 and is a modest performance boost for not that much more money (it really shouldn't be more expensive at all, but we do live with tarrifs and a trash economy and the Z2 chip generally costs a lot more to use despite the modest performance bump). Of course assuming the leaked price is correct. In comparison the Legion Go 2 doesn't come with Xbox branding and costs like twice as much as the OG with the same, actually a worse, Z2E chip that doesn't offer that much of a boost over the Z1E.
If a customer is looking to buy into the PC handheld market for the first time and they know they want a windows based handheld with the best chip they can get right now, then the ROG Xbox Ally X is a great choice. Similarly I think if people are looking at the Xbox Ally and Ally X and want something in between both models, then a last year Z1E handheld is a FANTASTIC choice which they could find for a great price now (especially if they catch a sale). I'd also say this niche handheld market probably still most appeals to enthusiasts (I don't expect these to stop being early adopter products until fall 2026 or maybe even 2027), and again those are the types of people with the disposable income who just want the latest hardware. I mean, Lenovo themselves just found out how much enthusiasts are willing to pay for modest upgrades. Lenovo unfortunately didn't prepare the inventory necessary to accommodate them though.
I think if you have a Z1E handheld (like me) or are looking for the best value for your money, then there's no reason to buy this years Z2E handhelds. However, I think a lot of people don't care about that and just want to jump into this market or upgrade with the best handhelds that are newly released. And if you're comparing the value (price and performance offering) of a ROG Xbox Ally X with a Lenovo Legion Go 2, then it's a really attractive offering.
Re: Xbox's New Handheld UI Has Become Available, And It's Giving FPS & Battery Improvements
This is fantastic considering this is people brute forcing an insider preview. Optimized hardware and mode isn't even out yet and we were told 2026 for official rollouts for other handhelds. This is a surface level preview and I imagine more about user experience behavior. Still it's great for people who don't want to fuss with windows and just are looking for a default gaming oriented experience.
The most important thing here is the user experience and pushing this as eventually for all windows gaming PCs. Microsoft doesn't really need to compete with Steam, because Steam supports windows use. Even Valve reports that as of August 2025, 95.6% of Steam users are on Windows (with 60% on Windows 11 and the rest on windows 10 (and some very small number on Windows 7)). In comparison Linux has like less than 3% for Steam users. And this Xbox Full Screen experience will natively improve gaming for all launchers on Windows and works just fine with them. The only difference is that windows is more optimized for gaming with noise turned off and Microsoft is trying to pull together all their gaming platforms, including windows, under one Xbox ecosystem.
Re: Perfect Dark Studio Head Issues Final Statement As He Leaves Team Xbox
@somnambulance Not much of a narrative, I'm saying with Tango that sales were probably "fine" if not "good" for Hi-Fi Rush as a AA game with critical success. They probably hit similar numbers to games like Pentiment and Hellblade 2. But the latter studios all have something else going for them revenue wise. Obsidian is doing fantastic releasing a variety of games (in size and genre) and Ninja Theory is making money off of their high tech facilities (like renting it out). And these studios also are able to support other studios around them and are easier to manage.
Companies are multinational, but supporting such a strategy still requires commiting resources and it has associated costs. I mean we've seen companies like Microsoft push for the return to office work, so clearly remote work tools aren't ideal for them. Xbox has like no management in Japan and barely any brand presence. This is in addition to language barriers and regional barriers. All of these are challenges that can be overcome by committing enough resources and building up the infrastructure, but that's the issue. For Microsoft it cost more to keep Tango running than they were getting out of Tango. That's all I'm saying.
Hi-Fi Rush WAS a critical success (that's not in question), and I don't think they lied about sales being "good". I think the problem is that sales weren't "good enough" for Tango specifically even after a multiplatform launch. Tango was a studio that for whatever reasons, Microsoft decided cost more to support than it was worth to them. We don't know exactly why, but I think based on what's out there it's not a stretch to say that the location added additional costs for Xbox specifically to manage. All other Xbox studios are western studios and many within reasonable traveling distance of one another, so they can support each other. Tango was a very different case. I'm not trying to make up a narrative, because we already know the answer: costs exceeded contributions to profit. I'm just suggesting some reasons why.
Re: Perfect Dark Studio Head Issues Final Statement As He Leaves Team Xbox
@somnambulance On Perfect Dark and Everwild: I 100% agree that Xbox's fault here was in lying about the progress of the game and allowing work on it to continue for as long as it did. Everwild was mostly radio silent, so I'm not sure what was going on behind the scenes there; but Perfect Dark literally never sounded good. There were constant insider reports about the game being internally rebooted and creative directions changing and the like ENTIRE DEV STAFF being replaced. Despite all of that you constantly had Phil and Co saying, "Perfect Dark/Everwild/Whatever else is looking great and we're really excited to show you more later." every single time.
I think it's fair to say that Xbox is still learning how to properly manage studios. After the Xbox One era and all those studio closures they got much better at being supportive managers that try to positively cultivate studios. But they seem scared of being the whip and even more scared of just publicly letting out that games had to get canceled mid development. Part of it was also probably that Xbox only recently got a consistent pipeline, so they felt the need to drop all these games early (trailers) and for a long time they didn't have much but hopium.
Hopefully that's changing now. Xbox's statement with these cancelations was that they had 40 projects ongoing and as a publisher in terms of first party they're massive now. We're seeing games get announced within a year of release now (like Doom, Keeper, and Ninja Gaiden). This is all great. Hopefully they also learn that they need to be a whip sometimes and that managing studios means finding a balance between micromanaging and laissez-faire. I heard Matt Booty described as the "rich uncle" whose willing to support studios with more resources, but isn't good at managing and leading them to release quality games on time. That sure sounds like the exact issue that got Perfect Dark canceled and the studio closed. Had Xbox just said "This isn't working. Let's try something else. How about we shelve this game and you guys make a AA game FIRST to get a product out the door and figure out your game design style." like 2 or 3 years then something could've been salvaged. Heck, they could've even closed the iniatative earlier and moved those resources to other games like Fable or even Everwild (like maybe they could've killed one game earlier and figured out how to make the other work). It's something Xbox does need to learn.
Re: Perfect Dark Studio Head Issues Final Statement As He Leaves Team Xbox
@somnambulance Tango wasn't just shut down from their performance though. They were probably more accurately on the chopping block because Xbox as a video game publisher didn't have the presence in Japan (or the east at all) to make them work. I mean you have to think about all the barriers associated. Xbox leadership is still based in Washington, USA that's a minimum 10 hour flight + a 16 (or 17 based on daylight savings) time difference + a language barrier + no other studios around so Tango can't support other studio projects easily and vice versa + it's not big ENOUGH to be the ONLY small Japanese studio they own + all the different regional challenges that'd come up + whatever else I'm missing cuz I'm not the business room when these decisions are being made. Ultimately the studio was sold to a South Korean publisher, and it's one Xbox has a great relationship with. And Microsoft even sold the IP for Hi-Fi Rush, and the new publisher is super interested in supporting that IP (to the point that they didn't even ask for Evil Within at the risk of it complicating the Hi Fi Rush deal). It is hard to say (we don't know), but Microsoft is a for profit business that will do what is best for its business. As consumers as gamers who enjoy games, we're directly against that. It's not really good or bad, it's just capitalism. Now there are publishers like Embracer who just make straight up bad business decisions and screw their owned studios over, and we just can't control that either. All that's to say, I think studios that don't cost more than they contribute are fine. The initiative contributed nothing and costs a ton, so they were closed. Tango contributed a lot, but just didn't work out for other reasons, and so they were sold to a good partner that could make better use of them.
Re: Borderlands 4 Performance Degrades On Xbox The Longer You Play, Dev Suggests Workaround
It's a damn good thing they DIDN'T charge $80 for this. Yikes. Also name dropping the PS5 Pro? Is this really an issue on a $700+ "Pro" mid gen upgrade console?? Good Lord. If I were a PS5 Pro owner I'd be getting the torches and pitchforks. Heck, if I bought any console in the past year with these prices increases and paid for a $70 game (or spent up to like $130 for all dlc) only to literally be DISCOURAGED from playing said game then I'd be... really mad I guess. I'd probably just try to do a refund ASAP. But yeah, I guess at the very least all these problems on even the latest hardware mean that my Series S and X at launch were super good value buys... that's good right? This gen is so bad game optimization wise that five years later the hardware I bought is still being underutilized and people who upgraded to more expensive hardware are suffering from the same problems... yay 😑.
Re: Lenovo Legion Go 2 Pre-Order Problems Cast Doubt On ROG Xbox Ally Release
So the official reason Lenovo gave for the issue on their AMA was demand being higher than anticipated and Corden does talk about how handware companies like Lenovo need to do really strict inventory. The problem is that they released an overpriced premium product and GREATLY underestimated how much niche gamers are willing to pay in this market and how much excitement there was for a Legion Go 2. Sure it's not Switch numbers, but it's still pretty high considering this is a niche product within a niche market.
If we look at the Legion Go 2 lead up, Lenovo just didn't prepare for this AT ALL. We had an announcemell8nt of an announcement bagmck in CES. And then it was just leaks. Up until a few a few weeks ago. They practically shadow-dropped the device.
Xbox Ally is up in the air. Microsoft and ASUS have been marketing the heck out of this device, so they expect it to sell. The question is how much demand are they anticipating? ASUS is still an OEM, so they wouldn't want inventory left over. The big issue to me is how these companies are putting out pre-orders at the last minute. Put that stuff up several months in advance, so ya'll can get a fix on who wants one. Only companies like Apple can pull off last minute pre-orders for products like iPhones which have a pretty fixed demand every year. The Xbox Ally will probably be the most sought after gaming OEM to date just from the Xbox collaboration.
Re: These 13 Games Are Coming To Xbox Game Pass (September 17 - October 7)
Visions of Mana is the standout for me. I nearly bought that one too! Hades is dope because it means that Xbox and Supergiant games are having these conversations. It might take several months again, but when Hades 2 comes to Xbox I wouldn't be surprised if it's day one GP and XPA.
Re: Opinion: The Value Proposition Of Xbox Series S Is Better Than Ever In 2025
@AverageGamer Yeah, I don't think you explained, my friend. I mean, I think what you're saying is that people are OKAY with spending more for weaker hardware because and the same price, or sometimes more, for games that perform worse... because Nintendo didn't promise parity with "the other console"... what other console?? The Switch 1? So what, if Microsoft just ONLY released the Series S then people would've loved that console to death? Is that what we're going with? Xbox didn't even promise graphical parity. Feature parity yes (and that's being upheld minus like BG3, but even BG3 added split screen) and the Series S is capable of better graphics that aren't being taken advantage of... which is the same for every other console this generation.
It's simple fanboyism and nostalgia. I mean if we're really going with that people are such sheep that they're happier paying more for worse experiences and less value as long as they "aren't promised otherwise", than that's actually way worse than fanboyism and nostalgia. Like man we as consumers are ****ed then. Literally by this logic Microsoft could've released the Series S, charged $500 for it, and that'd have been BETTER as long as there's no Series X to compare it to and no promises of parity with said Series X.
Re: Xbox Game Pass Hit Palworld To Exit Early Access In 2026
That's great to here. Palworld is a fun game. The Pokémon comparison is a bit of a double edged sword, because I don't think people are as aware of how much of a sandbox it is and all the survival mechanics.
On the legal side, man I wish I could see Nintendo burnt for this. For me it's u forgivable. They didn't go after Palworld designs or copyright because they don't actually about any of that. They used it as a springboard to patent game mechanics themselves and get a true monopoly over a gameplay genre. The latest is just the worst with the now patenting "summoning a creature to fight for you". It's terrible because these are only going through due to how old and out of touch the people handling patents are with gaming. It's been side. Throwing and catching spheres have been changed and so has gliding with pals. People complain so much about WB and the nemesis system patent, but I feel like the industry is sitting by and letting Nintendo win here which is so dangerous.
But yeah, I wonder what 1.0 will look like. The game is already so different. I first got it on Steam (since it got updates faster at first).
Re: Perfect Dark Studio Head Issues Final Statement As He Leaves Team Xbox
@somnambulance Double Fine is fine... Hehe, free pun.
But seriously Double Fine was purchased with Psychonauts 2 in hand and it did fantastically commercially and critically (all with Xbox as the publisher). And now, only four years later, they have another game coming and multiple other projects in the works.
Perfect Dark and Everwild were canceled after more than five years of development with very little progress and constant reboots. The Perfect Dark reboot devs came out and told us the trailer was fake, which isn't even that bad (most video game trailers are "doctored"). But the problem came when said dev was explaining how the team was JUST NOW making firm game design decisions, so they wouldn't be outright lying. That's insane. That was the iniatative's only game coming out (and that studio was started in 2018). If Double Fine goes 7 years without releasing ANYTHING and it looks like it'll take them longer still to get a game out, then yeah, you should be worried about them being closed. I mean yeah, it's always about money, but these studio closures also haven't been like a satanic culling.
Re: Perfect Dark Studio Head Issues Final Statement As He Leaves Team Xbox
I don't know if the guy holds any ill will, but this is pretty standard professional adult human behavior. At the very least if he wants to badmouth Xbox he'd do so privately, not publicly. Especially not publicly on the social media platform that Microsoft owns. That type of behavior wouldn't be helpful in searching for new job opportunities.
On another note, I thought the studio head at the iniatative changed a few times and the internal staff kept getting "rebooted"? Or was that the creative director?
Re: Opinion: The Value Proposition Of Xbox Series S Is Better Than Ever In 2025
@Stoned_Patrol What truly baffles me is that Nintendo and PlayStation still don't have free cloud saves. I hope that next gen they figure that out and simultaneously I hope Xbox does full free online play (for free and paid games). Both of those features should be standard on console, not just PC.
Re: Ex-PlatinumGames Boss Takes Blame For The 'Failure' Of Xbox Exclusive Scalebound
@Stoned_Patrol The only way I see Scalebound coming back is if Microsoft owns the IP and gives it to another studio or team. Heck, maybe they could make a team at Blizzard and have them turn it into a console PVE live service. Interestingly enough, Obsidian started Avowed off as a PVE co-op RPG but they had the sense to pivot and reboot as a single player. Maybe that'd be best for Scalebound, just get rid of the multiplayer co-op promises entirely and turn it into a single player open world or open level action RPG. But I don't see why even bother reviving it. It's not like Scalebound was a popular legacy franchise. It was a new IP. They (Xbox, Platinum Games, or Kamiya) could make the same idea of a game (open world action RPG where you control a dragon) at any time under a new name and different studio, if they wanted to. Arguably, Platinum Games did do this with Bayonetta 3 (at least in some ways the gameplay design feels similar).
Re: Opinion: The Value Proposition Of Xbox Series S Is Better Than Ever In 2025
I bought both the Series X and S at launch. I was going off to university and my thinking was to have one Xbox at home and one in my dorm. Now five years later (which is crazy, I got hyped for this gen senior year of high school, my order came in my first year of university, and yet now it's been a year since I finished undergrad), the Series S has become my main console. I do a lot of traveling for work and don't have stable living, so investing in a big home entertainment setup or even a really good monitor doesn't make sense. And hopping on an airplane is a lot easier with that tiny beast of a machine. And I've only been gaming more with all the releases these years, so I'm glad I can do so with a modest console I can chuck in my tiny behind carryon.
Honestly, I'm probably more disappointed in how gamers (consumers) responded to the Series S than Microsoft is. Xbox released a budget console that was an innovative marvel for only $300 USD. The fact that it didn't sell like hotcakes is shameful for me as a consumer. The fact that it got attacked and people tried turning it into a scapegoat for all the problems this gen is just depressing. Part of it is on Microsoft and their lack of marketing, but a lot of it is just gamers pushing back against everything Xbox to their own detriment. Gamers have been more kind to the $700 mid Gen upgrade and $450 Switch 2 (that's weaker than the Series S; seriously why is it that everytime a Switch 2 port underperforms it gets kudos "that's impressive for such a small machine" when the Series S got clowned on? Games still cost FULL PRICE on the Switch 2 and the Switch 2 costs MORE than the Series S). To me we've just collectively told the market to screw us over in the future. I don't expect Xbox to do such a budget console again.
The Series X|S launch was really magical, and we squandered it. I'll at least always love both consoles. Truly marvels of engineering and design. And boy do I wish Microsoft kept doing FPS boosts.
Re: Ex-PlatinumGames Boss Takes Blame For The 'Failure' Of Xbox Exclusive Scalebound
Microsoft is far too generous with studios when a game isn't working. That's arguably one of their biggest problems. They let games that just aren't working keep being funded and developed until the absolute last minute which makes the fallout worse when they have to cut them off.
Platinum Games has already proven that they could never have made Scalebound the game that was promised. Babylon's Fall tells us that. They got to make the live service they wanted and hyped it up to high water, and it was shut down within what? The same year? The next. Oh and it's funny with they bring up that game and failure less often. I remember when Kamiya had an interview some time ago and said that he and Platinum games didn't know how to do live service back then, but did now, so they could totally finish Scalebound. That was certainly a good laugh.
This was a commissioned second party game, it's not on Xbox to continously work with the studio and figure out why they can't do this game. Especially, not when we know there were issues with the money from the contract being used for other projects at platinum games and miscommunication over the progress of Scalebound. And I'm not a developer that's worked with Japanese publishers and western publishers, but I have worked in Japan and experienced the communication culture in Japan. I find it difficult to believe that Japanese publishers are said to have more open communication, but I also hard disagree and say that doesn't matter. Scalebound was just NEVER going to happen. At most we'd have gotten a Babylon's Fall before Babylon's Fall and Xbox did NOT need that heat back then. They made the right call canceling it.
Ninja Gaiden 4 is going great because Platinum Games is working on their bread and butter (single player action game). Scalebound was like asking a child to make a dish that involved Flambé. Xbox's mistake was ever funding the project at all.
Re: Xbox Gift Cards To Be Included In October 2025 Microsoft Rewards Sale
I desperately hope this isn't just a US thing or a one time time, I'm abroad for about another year. And I have so many points saved just cuz there's so little to use them on outside the US (and I imagine the UK).
@jesse_dylan 90 days is a good amount of time. You could buy the discounted gift cards, wait a month and X days, and then use them up during the Black Friday sales!!
Re: Rumour: Journalist Suggests GTA 6 Release Date Could Be Delayed To October 2026
Oh god, I'm back in middle school all over again. Oh well: WATER IS NOT WET!! 😉
I can't say I care too much, I mean both because I'm not a huge GTA player and because either way it's several months out and in next year. I have a WAY more to worry about with the way the world is going (and my life in general) with next year than if GTA VI releases in May or October or some other date. And if nothing else this gen has taught me to roll with the punches. There's so many volatile external factors that affect a game's timeline. For all we know a Danny Phantom Phantom Planet meteor could strike the Earth by next year.
Re: Battlefield 6 Dev Says Working On Xbox Series S Improved The Entire Game
@TrollOfWar Thanks for the write up. Oh, man this generation was way oversold. I mean just the fact that we're five years in and games still are struggling to reach stable performance period, much less 4k60. Like what even is the PS5 Pro? Games still aren't making the most of the PS5 and certainly aren't hitting the promises we were sold on for the system. Purely talking about game content, I love this gen. It's been a great stream of games. And hey, all that glitters isn't gold. I don't need 4k60. It's just that, as you said, we were oversold on this generation.
Re: Battlefield 6 Dev Says Working On Xbox Series S Improved The Entire Game
@Pat_trick As someone whose also not a tech guy, I'd love if someone could break down the thinking behind the Series S holding back a generation. Like realistically, the logic just doesn't make sense to me. People were making this argument for games that were cross gen and while also hyping up the Switch (and now Switch 2) for having more support than Xbox. I'm also looking at how games release, and optimization always comes latter. Devs build their games, from what I understand, on PCs and using dev kits and they build their game first and optimize later. Heck, that's recently been some beef between developers and Epic with the latter blaming the former for not optimizing for more platforms sooner. And then there's PC which has far more variation in hardware, including weaker hardware that modern games still release on. All the games being discussed also have been in development for a long time. And then the problems we've seen with games this generation just don't relate back to restraints on the Series S. As far as I've seen it's as simple as games running worse or turning off features on the Series S, but nothing stops those same features from working on other platforms.
Like there's even the games that DID skip Xbox because it took them more time to optimize for the Series S... and how exactly does that hold back the entire generation when those games just optimize later? Like you could make the argument that Xbox loses games because of the Series S (though you'd have to ignore that Xbox has more support than ever), but that's not what a lot of people are saying. A lot of people are acting like the Series S specifically is to blame for the generation not feeling "next Gen". And I don't get that. I could see complaints for next gen with cross Gen having to start with supporting the Series S, but that's not the case. And again, speaking of cross-gen, we just recently started seeing AAA games on the whole drop last gen consoles (and a non-zero are now supporting the Switch 2 at launch). Like, I just don't get it logically. How do all of these interviews of devs having a hard time "optimizing" for the Series S come back to the Series S "holding back" the generation? The idea of it being a bottleneck would denote that devs START the development process with the Series S, but that's not the case. Most seem to not even think about it until they're near the end of development.