abe_hikura

@FraserG cool.
It a shame we don't seem to get this level have retroactive support for PA (I get it would be a licencing nightmare)

That's good but I'd care way more if this was Play Anywhere though.

I want to say NG4, I loved playing Ninja Gaiden 1-3 "back in the day" but for some reason the remake of 2 just left me cold. So I'm a little worried that something has shifted amd I'm just not going to enjoy playing 4.

So Outer Worlds 2 for me. I liked the first game in spite of some grievances like the lack of exploration (more like punishing) and the unreactive world spaces, and I have Avowed to thank for that (It did exploration much better than OW1, and the world reacted to some of your actions)

Assuming A)this is true and B) it isn't some truly massive, full-on expansion (I wondered when "Starborn" DLC was first rumoured that it wasn't an expansion to new game plus) I have to ask what the hell took so long?

Starfeild has to be one of the poorest supported major AAA releases in recent memory.

Wonder if we're actually getting an Xbox Showcase at Gamescon? it's been a while.

@brettvsgodzilla They did a collab for Killzone which was (if memory serves) a very close recreation of the helmet and then the armour was "very helldiver" so maybe we could get just the helm

I do really hope they introduce some riff on the ODST design for the Xbox launch (unless this is it, does feel a little more halo than their usual designs)

I love the game, I do wish Bethesda a talky supported it more. Like not even DLC just some nice updates, I'd take the survival eleme to they scrapped I favour if "mainstream appeal" like the ships using fuel. I suspect those untouched worlds and crashed ships make more sense when you need to scavenge fuel

Don't get me wrong, I get they haven't been doing "nothing" since Deathloop (since they had to do the Xbox port later), but it's wild that Dishonoured 1 and 2 had a 4-year gap whilst it's taken them almost as long to start work on Blade.

It really does seem that with Xbox spending 69billion + legal fees, Xbox is in a place that Microsoft couldn't just "let them cook" like before. You don't get to spend that much of "business daddy's" money and not expect to present results ASAP. Which, combined with gestures at the games industry and gestures at the economy as meant Xbox has had to do everything they can to make as much money as fast a possible.

@themightyant Stalling was even more effective they could have dreamed considering the only defense Microsoft could muster was "we're so crap, we've completely lost, the only reasons anyone would buy an Xbox is for Activision games".

They say when you comptiion is making a mistake, let them, and going on what was effectively a world tour telling everyone about how crap your product is... thats a pretty big one.

I do think they should work with FOLON to bring Fallout London to consoles, throw an extra title on there "Tall Tales of the Wasteland" so people know its not canon, it would certainly bridge the gap between now and the first of these new Fallout games.

Whilst I don't know if GP is sustainable, it seems like a leap to blame these layoffs and cancellations on that. Logically, Game Pass NEEDS those games.

Microsoft (reportedly) needing to free up 80 billion to "catch up" in AI would surely be more likely the reason.

@cragis0001 it'd make the most sense to do that after the next gen hits. The important thing for Sony isn't the sale of these games on PS, its the perception that "all games" will come to Xbox. They need people to believe PS is where you need to be to play there games.

So if they wait until after the next gen starts ti start porting old games it just looked like an extention of their PC strategy.

I do feel like that as a genre these racers peaked when graphics reached realism and nailed the physics. Ever since then its had this "if you zoom in you can see its 5% better" or "the suspension is 10% more realistic." Sort of feel. That we're past the point of new entries being transformative.

Which speaking as a fan sucks. Forza Motorsport got me into racing games.

The likes of Forza Horrizon and Need For Speed get to be creative and use that to sell their next entry. There just isn't really anywhere for the core series to go anymore.

There were some good bones under Anthem, buried under some baffling design choices.

Most of these sorts of "gameplay trailers" are some kind of fake, like the Witcher not-4 tech demo being "playable" but the person with the controller didn't actually have any direct control over Ciri

I think when it comes to LS games, it makes a lot of sense for Sony to release them on Xbox down the line, it expands the user base and increases the chances of MTX spending.

I don't expect to ever see their single-player exclusives on Xbox (directly).

@Ricky-Spanish in a game where everything is fantastic the combat being "just okay" makes it seem worse in comparison.

(Assuming they survive the week) I'm looking forward to what they do next.

@Ricky-Spanish my understanding was people who actually played it loved it, it was people who didn't play it that inexplicably hated it.

To be fair "did well on gamepass" is effectively meaningless after Hi-Fi Rush

@Kaloudz so far it seems like the axe is being swung mostly at their big AAA studios, whilst the smaller AA studios don't seem as effected. I'm kinda shocked Compulsion Games survived based on all the negativity around South of Midnight (which I enjoyed)

@Friendly I think he's going to stay as long as he can to protect Arkane, though I suspect at some point MS will give him the option of going or cutting jobs equal to his pay or some such, and he'll go to save some jobs, even though more will go later.

@Kaloudz Honestly do not know, it depends if "much bigger" is within the context of their games or the wider industry.

With how insane budgets are ATM, SoD3 could cost multiple times more than SoD2 and end up costing far less than most AAA titles.

"the Xbox user research team has been hit hard, with nearly half the team affected. It’s a key team that focuses on ensuring quality across Xbox games, the platform, and developer tools."

I'm sure that won't have any negative effects on the next console.

Gotta say, I'm kinda surprised Complustion games apparently came out of this unscathed.

I adored South of Midnight (amazing setting, characters, music, environment let down by the most okayist, okay, combat that ever did "eeeeehhhhhh it's..... ffffffiiinnnnee") but all the buzz around it was how it wasn't selling. Maybe being a AA budget title saved it.

@Kaloudz The series exists in that AA space that the industry (particularly the biggest publishers) really need to be paying more attention to. Smaller costs, more games, more innovation, greater chance of profits.

Space Marine 2 was profitable "before 4 million sales," whereas Spider-Man 2 needed something like 10 million sales to break even.

@Millionski Yeah. I don't think it's unreasonable to read events like "before Activision, Microsoft was happy to "let him cook" and seeing how it played out over the next 10 years, but buying Activision just cost too much* and Microsoft wanted returns on that investment ASAP and that lead to the "experiement" with those four games which did so well Microsoft just said "more of that" and Spencer was stuck pivoting to this "hybrid" approach of being a third party publisher who also happens to have hardware".

*both in terms of the sale but also the PR of fighting every court over it on the basis that Xbox was so broken they wasn't going to survive.

@Kaloudz I love SoD, cant wait for 3 (I really must give 2 one final playthrough) but I have to assume they don't cost anywhere near as much as most of Xbox's output, if they can't afford to fund SoD things are real bad.

Honestly, ever since Xbox's multiplatform shift, Spencer seemed different; we saw him far less, rarely heard from him, when we did see him, he seemed more awkward and subdued, and that whole sneaking teasers in his background thing stopped.

It was easy to read it as him either not being happy with the direction itself or being unhappy at being told to do it.

I thank Spencer for turning Xbox around after the X1 launch and supporting most of what he did right up until they bought Activision, everything started unravelling from then.

@UnusedBabyWipes I'm worried about Clockwork too. It's taken a while to dev (and they seem to be punishing that ATM) and I can see some ***** exec going "we already have Outer Worlds and Fallout, do we need this?"

I mean at a certain point if you nuke enough developers, close enough studios and cancel enough games it's affecting the next gen hardware. Sure, they'll still make it but bad first-party support is pretty fatal.

fffuuuu....

Man, the gameplay made such a splash, and Spencer was using it to promote the anniversary at the showcase.

Man at this rate Clockwork will be cancelled alongside ES6

I voted for FBC purely because it the "GP JUNE" title I played the most, though Alters is a much better game.

I am still working my way through Expedition 33 (pretty sure I'm near the end) and just started playing Dredge (though deeply considering buying the complete edition on Switch 2)

@Ricky-Spanish Agreed. Each of the missions is different, which helps a lot.

I do think "this is a co-op game that respects your time and doesn't need you to check in every day" might be cover for it's content being light, unfortunately, those of us who game clicked with just devoured it lol.

"I recognize that these changes come at a time when we have more players, games, and gaming hours than ever before. Our platform, hardware, and game roadmap have never looked stronger."

At least he acknowledges the nonsense.

"The success we're seeing currently is based on tough decisions we've made previously. We must make choices now for continued success"

That sure makes it sound like a shell game. 'we're only successful now because we fired a bunch of people when they finished their work before, so now we can only have success later is to fire more people today"

I voted THPS simply because G2 is Early Acess and it's going to be a little while before it's worth... moving to the front of the queue yet.

I know a lot of people are taking this as a sign of a next gen update or Switch 2 port, which would be great, but surely they'd keep this content back for then? "buy the upgrade and face these new challenges" sort of thing,

Gotta squeeze for that last bit of juice.

@Fiendish-Beaver Gears Tactics 2 seems like such a perfect "fill the gap between mainline releases" title that they just ignored.

Games? I get that Xbox has been on a roll with it's first party and Gamepass and that messes with perception, but the back half of the year feels rather light.

@Isolte I'm sure it's a legal hellscape but retroactively doing it to their games should be doable.

I'll care a lot more about this program when they start going back and making it apply to more games in our existing libraries.

This seems to confirm the old rumour that Ark 2 was intended as a single-player game and the Ark 1 Remaster was supposed to stand in as its multiplayer, and that's why they weren't going to be available separately.

I guess they just don't need to make ARK 2 ATM with them releasing new DLCs for the remastered original

@Ricky-Spanish South of Midnight is the exact sort of game Xbox was championing being on gamepass, something that wouldn't have been made under "normal conditions" and the example of the freedom the subscription model provides

So naturally it'll be that studio that gets taken out and shot, just like Tango and Hi-Fi Rush before it with zero sense of irony.

Oh cool. It's really not my thing but more power to them.

Now, how about getting Fallout London on Xbox, It's the closest thing to a new game we're going to get this decade.

Would have been the perfect time to annouce some of those MS owned VR games coming g to PC gamepass (Skyrim/Fallout VR and the like).

@FraserG I'm not sure exactly but that elite strap is not cheap so I think this might be cheaper than buying it all separately

What I think it needs is one of those mechanics where it shows a map with different levels of enemy activity that change each time you do it. Let the level get to high and theres some modifiers making the mission more rewarding but others harder.

Keep the job list for when you want to play specific missions but add that to help engage us in the fight against the hist.

They haven't had an actual showcase at Gamescon for a while now, not even sure there's been major reveals.

I never quite understood the idea of why MS would team up with them. When it comes to BC the problems seem to be legal, not technical.

As for getting 360 games to work on PC, I'm sure its something MS could do but chooses not to.