abe_hikura

@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.

I get the idea, I understand why you'd want the option to load the hub or the game but why the poop would you make A open the hub instead of X.

On Xbox A has always been the "do the thing" button, the left click if you will, suddenly making it the context (aka right click) now is weird.

I forgot about that... Wonder if box will put the VR games on it (or just on PC gamepass)

Probably would have been a more interesting thing if conceived now with Xbox's multi device approach.

Dragons Dogma 2 DLC would be nice, maybe that rumoured (but definitely not happening) co-op mode?

I would love to see a new Dino Crisis that plays like RE6 (that was a bad RE game but could make a cool DC)

I reckon they should have the other Turtles but each one is from a different version of the franchise.

I'm really enjoying it. Reminds me of playing Left 4 Dead 1 on the 360.

Don't get me wrong, it's insane that they decided to shove 100% of the narrative information in documents on load screens on a generation of consoles that tout rapid loading as feature.

@Kaloudz Yes, Yes it is. It may also be one of your friends inside it being puppeted by said post its.

Having access to Steam/GOG/Epic would be massive, but at the same time it will surely jack up the price of the console. Consoles are sold at la oss, making money from games instead.

A game on the new Xbox bought from Steam wouldn't earn any money from it.

Don't get me wrong, fantastic news. I do hope it expands it would be great to see if this leads to us at least being able to play the "missing" 360/Xb games via discs (i get digital is a legal web of annoyance).

I mean Xbox kinda has to support BC, you can't champion it for two gens and then not, and when you have a lot of people questioning the point in buying an Xbox you can't turn to your existing owners. the people who do pay, and say "BTW your library is starting over" because the weight of those libraries is certainly keeping some people on Xbox and a "clean start" is just opening the door for them to leave.

I'm enjoying this a lot. Don't get me wrong, it's not really a "remedy" game like I haven't really incounted any lore besides some coms chatter, but if you go into it with the same sort of mentality as Left 4 Dead (1 in particular), it's a lot of fun with friends to be had.

based on some rumours, this is going to be done via hardware and not some cool software layer for Windows which would at least "forever proof" our libraries but this is a good sign.