Zenszulu

The problem is that it has been so long since a Banjo game came out that many people have no nostalgia for it. When something has been gone that long you would have to release a pretty special game for it get peoples attention. I'm not saying it can't be done but the expectation from the guy expecting it to do Mario kind of numbers wasn't being realistic. Microsoft is sitting on loads of long dormant once popular game series though and they seem reluctant to try and use many.

Personally I can't see any Xbox handheld being anything more than a Gamepass streaming device. I don't see why they would invest it making a device that can play games locally when their main aim now seems to be getting any and all devices that can stream Xbox games to do that. I wouldn't be surprised if an Xbox app comes out on Switch 2 now as they seem to want to have a strong relationship with Nintendo going forward.

In order for it to be a bigger technological leap over what is currently on the market it would have to be considerably more powerful than the PS5 Pro and I can't see that happening at an affordable price not any time soon anyway. Making that kind of claim is pure hyperbole though as there have been some pretty huge leaps in technology from generations to generation and that gap is getting smaller and smaller each time. So they have dug a hole with that claim as it is.

The very fact that you simply want new hardware just because others have released or announced it says more about you expecting them to feel obligated to release things on others schedules than their own. That why Nintendo does things when they want and not what others in the market are doing.

A decade or so ago Microsoft just started buying developers in the hope they would just make amazing games they had done previously and that it would just work out. The problem with that method is you need someone who has a vision of what studios are doing what and not just let them get on with it. Obviously they expected people to flock to buying an Xbox simply on the previous games the studios they were acquiring made and it just didn't work like that.

They pretty much now have no choice with acquiring publishers to make themselves more of a third party publisher themselves. It just doesn't give me much hope that the next Xbox will even be worth investing it as I can imagine by that point a large majority of there games will also be coming to Playstation either the same day or within several months.

I can understand it from someone's point of view that they either do it that way or essentially lose their job because the division you are in charge of will stop existing.

This is Phil essentially admitting defeat as far as consoles go. I am not surprised since as far back as the released of the Kinect they lost any momentum they had managed to build early with the 360 and they have never been able to get it back. Most people could see this coming when they started to realise simply buying large third party publishers wasn't boosting sales as far as consoles go. Those games from the likes of Bethesda and Activision only hold value because they were multi-platform to begin with they weren't valuable as system sellers for the most part.

@RetroMan71 I am relieved at this possibility of playing Forza while my crumpets toast.

I'm confused is my toaster and X-Box or not? Everything seems to be an X-Box except for and actual X-Box it seems.

Does this surprise anyone when they literally advertise that you don't need an Xbox to play Xbox games any more? I get that their early idea was to buy all of these publishers and simply make everyone buy an Xbox because all of the games would be on Gamepass day one. As it turns out a subscription service alone didn't entice people over to the platform much to their surprise. The amount of people who figured those who just played third party games from the likes of Activision and Bethesda grossly overstated their value. If all or most of those games are still coming out on Playstation and that platform has plenty of games that aren't on yours even from third parties most people are still going to choose the one that has more to choose from.

If anything the should make the interface just like the XBox one so it is fully controller friendly for the big screen. At least that is what I would do especially if you want a more living room friendly PC gaming experience. Just like Steams big picture mode is a far better user experience only with a controller.

@armondo36 until these ones stop selling and they have to find another publisher to milk dry then shelf them

Bragging that you had to buy successful franchises comes across as they would rather buy other people's success than create it themselves. Yes they had success with Halo, Gears and Forza but they have completely dried up from a creative standpoint in the past decade or so and even the stuff they have created seems to be a one and done game with moderate success but no attempt to follow up on that.

It's not a great experience for watching streamed content for more than a one off and you would be better off getting a dedicated streaming device that has easy to navigate apps. Not only that but they used a fraction of the power to run and I find consoles consume way too much power to stream on in comparison they may use less than they used to but still more than something like a fire stick or Roku device. The two services you even mention in the article; Triller TV and the NHL both have much more useable experiences on every dedicated streaming device so why you would torture yourself and use a web browser on a console I have no idea.

I will say the visuals and presentation are a bit basic but it's good to have sports games that aren't made by EA and 2K and it will take time to get anywhere near the level of polish those games now have. The only thing for me is it looks dated all around from what I have seen and is playing it fairly safe with all of the options I am not saying it's a bad thing if the game is fun but it is definitely something will benefit from the developers making sequels rather than be a one and done.

While I have a 1GB connection I often find consoles don't ever get anywhere near that speed when downloading so about 50% of that at best and even the biggest games at over 100GB takes around 30 minutes or so. I also find Xbox consoles to download slower than Playstations and that is with both a wired and wireless connection.

@dskatter their games sell massive numbers in the west though no matter what they are released on. A game like this not so much.

@jesse_dylan Honestly I seen it was free on Epic on Thursday to and didn't realise it was a new game so I will be getting it on there.

@NEStalgia I am not saying it makes sense in the general way but in the fact that it seems like the only logical way they have went about it for some reason. The whole thing just makes them look bad for costing people jobs from a studio that they went on to sell not to long after. Even if it is an internal dispute it makes no one involved look good in how it was handled. Phil saying it is not about PR was only saying that because he knew it made him look bad and this actually makes him look worse.

@NEStalgia They probably shut them down and then sold off the assets so they could stop paying anyone that was let go while they found a buyer. which would be a pretty scummy thing to do as it seems no one at the studio was aware they were going to sell the Studio and all the IPs after. I can't think of anything else that would make sense in this instance. I can't really imagine after closing the studio they suddenly decided "we might as well sell them" since it's still so soon after they had to have planned to do it that way.

@NEStalgia it was a tongue in cheek comment I wasn't being serious

They have had pringles adds in the past that I noticed that wanted you to watch the add so you were in with a chance of winning something like £5 store credit or something so it's hardly the first time they have had ads for things like that on the dashboard. I would be more concerned that the person still has Christmas ornaments under their TV in August.

@Runex2121 I am not disagreeing it wouldn't surprise me if they are loosing a lot of potential money through free subscribers although I would be interested in finding out just how many people actually don't pay for Gamepass as a result of rewards because they made it way too easy for people to stack up huge amounts of points at one stage. They have caused themselves to devalue their own subscription service though by having it be given away for free for way too long not only through rewards but at one point they were doing promotions with way too many other things giving 3 month subscriptions away now they find themselves in a situation where they have had little to no growth for some time despite the expectation that customers would flock to them upon buying Activision-Blizzard.

It seems like they are slowly nerfing it now so it will be near enough impossible at one point to get the highest tier of Gamepass each month with points. I can actually understand why if that's the case as I imagine there many who have years stacked up for free. I myself had two years worth at one point before I finally let it expire last month more because I realised how little I was using the service any more and it was just a subscription ticking down and since I still have over 300,000 points and I worked it out that now with all the nerfs I would be able to save up more points by not using it to auto renew every month then I may as well do that until I am ready to use the points again.

If you are relying on sales of a remaster of a game to keep your studio going then that is really on them for not trying to come up with something new. People aren't simply going to buy a game that has very little changed except for some new levels no matter how much critics still praise it. That is more on you for assuming people want to buy the same game again the blaming the platforms it's been released on as the answer accept that you misjudged the demand for an updated version of the game.

How can investors believe that the consoles are being focused on when they aren't even advertising them to increase sales? That to me would sound like you have decided to give up for yet another generation and start again on the next one which seems like how they regularly do things.

Well when they openly and proudly advertise you don't need a console anymore to play their games is it any wonder consumers are confused by what little marketing they do? They are also putting everything on a subscription service that hasn't shown any real growth in some time and hoping that Samsung TV users as well as people that own a fire stick suddenly decide they want to game on those devices and that would be a tiny minority as most people that want to play games on a TV would probably get a dedicated device more suited to the task.

@Ricky-Spanish How are they freeloaders if they pay for a subscription service?

When did they start marketing it? It's barely been marketed in most countries anyway last time I recall seeing an Xbox add was when Starfield launched last year. Unless their marketing is mainly on gaming specific platforms that gamers are already watching anyway then that is probably why the vast majority of the public doesn't notice it. As far as I can tell they have only been promoting their products to the people that more than likely already are interested in it rather than to a wider audience.

Timing wise my subscription ended yesterday I had returned to Xbox after years away and skipping the Xbox One generation. As of now I have little motivation to renew as the whole appeal of Gamepass was day one exclusives included in the price now you actually have to pay extra for those. In all honesty I expected it sooner rather than later but the fact they claimed only several months ago that this exact case wouldn't happen then it really shows they really over estimated the growth they would get by including all Bethesda and Activision-Blizzard games at that same price point. Eventually all of the developments of those games will be costing more than the revenue that Gamepass brings in if they don't already. They don't seem to have had a long term business plan on this other than hope they some how get millions of more subscribers just because they have all of the games.

@Dimey A £5 card at it's non reduced value is 6,250 points and at level 2 is 5,935. A £25 card is 31,250 points not reduced but 29,685 at level 2. Still and odd 10 points more but your two values aren't for the same reduction level.

If the digital Series X came with 2TB storage option I feel it would have been a better option since it would have made more sense. As it is it feels like they are flooding the market with too many slightly confusing variations for most people while also keeping the older models on the market at the same time. Most people will go for the cheapest model of each and just delete games to make way for newer ones.

I'm kind of tired of football games or sports games that put all the emphasis on the live service modes where you have to essentially play constantly or you fall behind. I'd just like one that purely focuses on a single player career mode that is challenging but fair. All the fun seems to get sucked out of games that push you towards competitive modes that suck the enjoyment out of games.

@demian then you misunderstood I didn't say they were releasing everything and my whole point was about the existing stuff that was already established by Activision-Blizzard so yes my entire comment was about existing stuff by then and if Toys for Bob made a Crash/Spyro game it would be multiplatform but an original game stands more chance of being exclusive.

Halo on PlayStation is like that age old thing in the 90s saying you would never see a Sonic game on a Nintendo console and vice virca. Well we will wait and see but will definitely show where Microsoft is heading if it turns out to be true.

I stopped visiting Game once my local one went into a Sports Direct and is crammed in the very top corner with more toys and merch on display than anything else. I can imagine they won't be doing this either as hardly anyone is probably buying a new Xbox this way now.

I kind of like the last three kind of wishful thinking picks but I would also be concerned that if any of them did get announced they wouldn't even have started development yet and they would end up in a situation like Perfect Dark where there is no direction on the projects. If anything id like that to be shown off before any announcements of other potential revivals get made.

I remember rushing out to get the smaller controller when it came out as I always found the original way too large and uncomfortable for extended play. Even crazier since it was designed presumably at the same since it launched in Japan with the system. I can't really think of too many people even with larger hands that actually preferred the duke, well unless you had freakishly large hands I suppose and were in fact a giant. I would consider picking this up if it was wireless though or if it was compatible with the OG Xbox but it is neither.

@demian That is so far and none of them are exactly from the recent ActivisionBlizzard purchase. Not sure why people think they have brought one of the largest third party publishers to keep the big sellers to themselves that is the whole reason they were put under scrutiny to begin with because people didn't want them doing that. So as I have said previously unless it's original games that aren't attached to existing ips then there is a chance they will remain exclusive but they haven't purchased ActivisionBlizzard so they can get to work on new original games it was for existing ips.

@RIghteousNixon It's not simply my stance though it is there own words and the fact they have been releasing games on other platforms and based on recent developments they will keep doing so. They won't suddenly change that new direction and keep all these expensive new ips to themselves in the hope they sell consoles. They have came to the realisation that unless there is a huge shift they will be behind their competitors. Trust me I would love a world where each platform had loads of exclusives still that made you want to get the system I don't think buying a huge publisher and then keep all their stuff to yourself if the way to do it though. That has to be done by making your own original stuff or having developers and publisher just want to make a game for your system because they want to because they feel it will sell well and get noticed.

@RIghteousNixon Just because they can make them exclusives doesn't mean they will. Since games that were third party only held value because they sold a lot over multiple systems. Suddenly keeping them exclusive on your system that will sell less the the competitors will decrease that value as the games themselves are not systems sellers. That has been proven with any of the Zenimax games that have been exclusive up until this point their games aren't system sellers but have more value like they were when originally purchased in being on as many platforms as possible.

As much as anyone wants to think it will happen Microsoft won't be keeping any of these games exclusive anymore. It would be nice if they did will all of these extra studios at their disposal and make a load of great new exclusives but the fact seems to be they only purchased these publishers for the stuff they already know that will make them money by continuing to publish them the same way they used to.

@RIghteousNixon You have named games that were original ones not owned by someone else prior Crash and Spyro being part of what was one of the largest third party publishers all but guarantees they will remain multiplatform as a result. It isn't so much the developer but the game they are working on. If it is an original one which I doubt but then it may have an exclusivity period however if it is something to do with Crash, Spyro or even both which given their recent development history it will be then much like Call of Duty it will remain on as many systems as possible.

@RIghteousNixon but seeing as it was part of ActivisionBlizzard to begin with and those games were already multiplatform they will more than likely stay that way. They also don't seem to want anything to be exclusive these days anyway.

@RIghteousNixon it's more than likely going to be a third party game to do with either Crash or Spyro still. The studio themselves actually gain more from this since they don't risk getting shut down by them in the future I can't see whatever game it is being exclusive from a studio they recently let go.

It is still worth doing it all if you want to essentially get gamepass free for a month since you are more than likely playing daily anyway at that point. I know people complained that the amount per month has reduced by half but if I am correct it has been opened up to way more countries now so that same pot of money they were using is now potentially available to a larger audience and they didn't increase it.

Well it's my Series X by default as it is still working. My OG Xbox stopped working as it would overheat after extended play and cause graphical glitches. I then went through three 360's and by the time the third one died I didn't go back to an Xbox console until this generation as I had nothing but bad experiences with the hardware and the lack of games last generation kind of put me off even considering it for a long time.

Well back when the first Xbox came out I wanted to own all three systems because they all had exclusive games that made me want to own each one. I got an early 360 too because of the generational leap it offered at the time however by the end of the generation after three failed on me I kind of gave up with Xbox completely and skipped the Xbox one and only re-joined at the start of this gen but even now I am hardly using it and it is mainly just for gamepass when a game I want to play comes out.

It is fairly obvious that even used the demand for PS5 is high as if you go to somewhere like CEX the price is much lower for a used Series X than a PS5. The further we get into this generation the more it repeats the previous one.

I played it to get reward points one time because it was one of the games you had to play at the time to earn them, does that count?

@abe_hikura they have been in a transition period since they lost momentum with the 360

Well when they say they still want to make smaller games that win them awards and then close down the one studio that actually manages that then apparently no it's not enough.

It would have been better to let them go independent or see if there was another publisher who wanted to buy them rather just shut them down and let the games they made just sit there to die forever.