I have no hard data but I feel like the answer is "fairly often" however it's just as likely to be elsewhere, like or Switch or PC depending on of its suited to handheld or on GoG or something.

If I grab it on Xbox it usually means I picked up some DLC. Disc to digital is helping shift that though. I grabbed JW Evoultion 3 on disc for £25 new because I enjoyed it on GP.

I reckon if Xbox bought the IP they would out source development, much cheaper than funding a whole studio between releases

And this ladies and gents is why we we won't get the blades back, no where to shove ads.

@m0m0, because it's only 20 bucks a year, that's not enough juice for MS.

@themightyant, for existing subs, I wouldn't be surprised if there are "bundles" that get you clumps of features at a "discounted price", and one will be an "all-in" bundle, and our ongoing subs will be converted to that.

I do think there is going to be some mathematical sleight of hand, where we save money by cutting the bits we don't want, but in comparison we're paying more for the bits we pick compared to what it was costing us under the current system.

We know it's not going to come back because they can't fill it with ads.
@JinxFPV I think I'd like it for a handheld, as long as there was a much, much nicer game library page

Nostalgia of the Blades aside, is this what we've got to look forward to now, posting AI videos, but instead of being upfront about that, we just say "Xbox Labs" instead?

@tho_mi, I'm sure the math will benefit them. Like, yes, you're paying less per month just for the bits you actually use, but you're paying more per "bit" than you were in the bundle. So Microsoft saves some money from you not being entitled to as much and is also squeezing more out of you for you what you do use.

@tho_mi I'm sure it's worked out so if you're on ultimate, you'll end up paying more for the same stuff but giving you the option to lop bits off will make it "cheaper"

@eduscxbox ai has many a legit use cases, shame the disgus quoted in the article expliclty mentions generating whole games and not using AI to fix Halo's engine.

Before all of this, the Microsoft employee pointed out that he'd vibe-coded a "bad but improvable" game in just three hours, and that he believes anyone can now build a game. He then pondered how much better it could be if he had "two people helping me over the course of a year".

I

Gotta love him effevtively telling customers to shut up. Gamers have been pretty clear they don't want AI generated games, and certainly not at the existing price points.

I am quite happy to, as he suggests, "move on" from Xbox if they want to vibe code their games, ripping of the work of talented developers, and charge us full RRP for the privilege.

See for me the power of AI developed gaming is that we don't "need" mega publishers. All those AI powered hybrid mods we're seeing shows the first steps where we can go "this game is good enough let's keep adding to that" EA wont make titanfall 3, use AI to turn Titanfall 2 into 3.

@Llamageddon I believe that's the intention of the French law but I don't think it's designed with the idea that one of the richest companies in the world, making insane profits each year would want to just lop of a bit of the company so they can earn 0.00001% more this year.

I too hope this the end of the bad news this year but I was reminded earlier that when they annouced the reset they said X number of job losses and we haven't reached that yet, and if there's one thing we're learned about Xbox is that there isn't a rake they won't step on and witch Christmas coming the headline writes itself.

I'm not expecting anything major, I'm expecting "fan" stuff and probably some more transparent green x25 editions of accessories

@Llamageddon I really hope they are saved, they are one of my favourite studios, and I really need more games from them but it does sound like the discussions to save the studio are just something Microsoft is being forced to do by the French government and is just going through the motions until they can sell off or close the studio.

Considering all the licencing around Blade, I wouldn't be suprised that even if Arkane can become independent or get bought by someone else, Blade can't go with them and unless MS pays them to finish it or gives it to another studio to finish but considering the reports say one of the reasons Arkane is on the block is that Blade has gone over budget and MS thiks they've spent enough already, neither seems likely, and we might be looking at a Scalebound situation.

If memory serves this was one of the "not terrible" tie in games, no where near the tie in legends of Spider-Man 2, Two Towers/Return of the King, and King Kong.

Do them, King Kong remaster would be amazing (and a licence hellscape)

I remember picking this up on sale. I hope they've improved the onboarding process because at first I didn't like it, but then I got into... (ahem) the "swing of things". I started to really enjoy it, but then it did something (it's been some time since I played it), and I couldn't get back into it.

So I'll probably jump on this free upgrade to "Monke Simulator"

Gut feeling? I don't think it will help.
1) social media has proven a useful tool at damaginga games reputation, having these games as exclusives won't help sell consoles if everyone else thinks they are crap.
2) with how console prices are and how little money people have, even if the buzz around a game is good it probably isn't "worth" them forking out for a new device.
3) it's also on PC, if your forking over that mich cash for Fallout/Elder Scrolls/ Minecraft you might aswell consider PC which is where their modding community is strongest.

Again gut feeling, if they want to sell more consoles an xbox console has to be the ONLY place.

As much as I'd like more Marcus and Dom, I'll take a Gear 6 and a Gears Tactics 2 (or at least see more of those characters) Next.

Do the 360 ubisoft thing, make your big game, then use that as a base for a couple more games (ala the AC2 sequels, the Farcry spinoffs) before doing another big game.

so build gear 6 and a spin off (kinda like Hivebusters) off E-Day's frame then do a E-Day follow up.

I probably wouldn't have announced this near Epic's move to AI-first development for that Star Wars/Marvel crossover shooter, which might be why she didn't mention AI, despite all those things referenced being AI-powered.

I'm not really sure what the endgame benefit to Xbox is here (based on the things she's referring to) because "AI make game faster" doesn't seem to be a winning gamers over.
Cheaper porting to other platforms? Something she's moving away from.
The ability to turn a PC game into an Xbox native game? Cool, but you'd have to buy the game from someone else.
A universal system? log into you PSN/Nintendo account and the systems will convert it to work on Xbox... I'm sure that will go down well.

I think the safest thing might be "game remixing": if you can mash Mario into Halo, then you can mash CoD gunplay into Starfield, Fallout 3 into Fallout 4's engine, bring all the CoD maps into your preferred CoD, etc. Pitch it as "Buy an Xbox and extend your games for as long as you like"

@dwayne91 Even if that was the case, you can't do "More games more often", "leverage big franchises", and "create new franchises" with less manpower than you had before. Plus, as you said, studios that "haven't had success" get put on the chopping block; making a new IP will put an Xbox studio at risk.

I don't see how you can purge that many studios and developers but also expect

• more games, faster
• build on the biggest franchises
• create new franchises.

Doing all three might have been possible before but heybthey chose to purge instead of managing the studios properly.

Dont get me wrong Dict to Digital is fantastic, I love it and its increased the amount of discs I buy but at the same time, I'm just not optimistic about Xbox's future. All this talk of focusing on their biggest franchises feels very "Early Xbox One" and relies on all of these games being huge, consistent hits, and as we've seen for most of its existence, Xbox has struggled with quality consistency and release cadence.

I'll be happy to be proved wrong here but this still feels meh, it doesn't feel as deathspirally as things was before but still meh.

@Banjo- yep, poo to them all. Though I can use my 8bitdo pads wirelessly on Switch, I can't on Xbox. So an extra poo to them.

Don't get me wrong, this sounds amazing, much better than the Elite 1 to 2 jump but we really should have hall effects on the standard pad now. If 8BitDo can do it, Microsoft can.

My second thought after "oh that's a cool solution" was "I don't see why this couldn't also be used on the Series X"

My third thought was, "This is reminiscent of the end of the 360 generation, where big games got around the disc drive not being fast enough by having you install some of the game to the HDD and using them together to run the game (Blacklists 'optional' HD Textures and GTA V)."

I was hoping licecing wouldn't be a problem but I expected it to be. Largely because almost every single great consumer-focused feature ends up kneecapped. (get the legal and technical reasons)

Backwards compatibility, FPS Boost, Play Anywhere, Smart delivery, Stream Your Own Games, and Disc to Digital. None of it "just works" as part of the platform, so everything needs permission, and we end up with a huge pile of unsupported stuff.

@Mr-Cagecant agree more I managed to pick up both Plague Tales physical copies for a reasonable price when the Disc-to-Digital beta went live, will have to pick up Resonance on disc too too

I suspect this is for Helix, which almost certainly has some sort of FrameGen. Which, whilst not as good as real frames, would at least be done at the system level and not need developer/publisher sign-off, which has been the downfall of all these great programs on Xbox.(BC, FPS Boost, Play Anywhere, Stream your own games, Disc to Digital)

@Balaam_ I had a similar thought: they will never sell Xbox, but there's plenty of parts to strip and sell off.

Well, poop. Alien Isolation might be my only physical Sega game on Xbox.

Dynasty, Gears, Dogma, possibly Castlevania.

Plus any PC/Switch and physical deals I spot.

It'd be really weird if they wasn't skewed heavily to PS5

Considering Obsidian had all it's non Grounded projects wiped out during the last wave of layoffs and seemingly forced onto Fallout, I wouldn't expect there to be "reduction to Ob's independence" now its part of Bethesda since it's already had it's wings clipped.

@Rimebreaker Showcasing achievements would be great, makes more sense than the badges.

I'm sure others are going to go nuts for this, I kinda don't care at least indirectly. Too many games use their achievements to pad out play time and/or force you into playing a game in a way you just dont want to do.

E.g. I dont want to replay Fallout 3 constantly having to make sure my karma is kept in neutral to get the achievement. Sure there are workarounds, but that's then just busywork, and I'm not really achieving anything.

Nah, I think I'd drop Xbox hard if they did this to console users. I have no problem spending my money at places that aren't going to PAUSE MY GAME to show me a damn ad.

Tin foil hat time. This is to mess with what's included with gamepass.

xbox game studio titles are on gamepass day 1, Bethesda titles come later and are exclusive, Activision titles are multiformat

Whilst I'm sure it'll be... efficient... Obsidian becoming a Bethesda studio signals that its era of original work is over (specifically its bigger projects like Avowed and Outer Worlds)

I'm a little confused by the Rare news, considering all the talk of there being too many "layers of management" and thats one of the reasons for the company's struggles moving Rare to Activision seems like adding another one.

Merging the gutted Turn 10 and Playground makes total sense; kinda weird they didn't do this when Turn 10 was gutted and became basically the forza-tech studio.

@johnedwin, we must always be ready for the rake

@ValentineMeikin According to Digital Foundry, PS discs do have some identification on the disc, but it's not precise enough to do something similar.

I think they said the ID stops at the batch, and so they can't tell your copy of X from my copy, so they couldn't "take" the licence from us if someone else claimed our disc's digital copy.

Imagine if the X1 launched with the pitch of today's disc-to-digital, instead of the always-on DRM thing? Then again, MS did a horrible job of even explaining the benefits of the original system (like family sharing), so I'd imagine they just wouldn't have mentioned anything good about the DtD system.

It is... interesting... that all these rumours are about slicing off bits of GP to resell them back but lopping of EA, Ubi (that partial version) or the Fortnite stuff isn't mentioned.
.

It would be a huge blow to me; one of the primary reasons for me having GP was it included the Xbox titles and I could try games I wouldn't normally buy or I'm unsure on. What will happen is that I will likely go down to whatever tier gives me online and no ads, and the difference will be spent on games, but as I am a multiplatform gamer, there is a very good chance it won't be on Xbox and I am far less likely to try those unknown quantity games.

I enjoyed it, I just didn't like it as much as Eternal.

That would be a weird response to the "There are too many tiers" and "the features don't justify the price" feedback they got.

"You know what, MOAR TIERS and LESS FEATURES!" is hardly the PR win, but I suppose with all the stuff Sony is trying to pull ATM, now is the time to do it, as this won't seem as crappy in comparison

Without any day one releases I don't really see me staying and paying anywhere near as much as I do; I'd probably go to the cheapest option for me and the kid to have online. And frankly, those newly available funds I can't guarantee will go to Xbox like my current sub dose, i have other platforms and other hobbies.

Until we get the 360 one, I'll probably stick to the default.

@mac_da_man Don't get me wrong if this was Xbox opting for another "new" Kojima game that would probably happen but Sony seems to have already put money in, so should be much easier to break even with this than say OD.

Dont get me wrong, Yay but this is starting to feel like X1BC/Play Anywhere/Smart delivery again.

I get the why, but the need to get publishers on board seems to be a consistent weakness of these Xbox initiatives, it never "just works" and having the disc isn't enough, some tie puppeting a human has to sign off. Just miss when jabbing in any last-gen disc in the current gen system just let you play the game.

The not letting other platforms see it is weird.

Sony canceling this feels like when Activision scrapped anything that couldn't be released annually (resulting in Brutal Legend, Ghostbusters, Sleeping Dogs finding new homes), and I suspect is like Ubisoft trying to turn everything into a live service game.

Kojima is known to be... let's say "spendy" designer, and with Sony sinking obscene money on LS games that didn't launch and still doing it, it makes sense They might decide Kojima might not be it be "worth the squeeze". It'd be dumb but it fits.