armondo36

This is becoming a non-story, really. Both Sony and Microsoft have transitioned to an age where they release their games on their home console, then to a wider audience. Game Pass is the reason to choose Xbox if you want. If you don't that's fine too, you can simply purchase at full price. It's a win for everyone except for the various console warriors, and to hell with them lol

-Phil will give a short vague speech about how great this year was and thank the fans everywhere for blah blah blah

-an announcement of a game finally coming to Xbox (the game has been available on ps5 and/or Switch for a long time). There is mild excitement, but not as much as if the game had released 1 or 2 years ago.

• CG trailer announcing new game. Looks interesting. No gameplay is shown, nor is a release date given.
  Sarah Bond! She comes out and gives the stats on how many players blah blah blah.
  short sizzle reel

Scene.

@TeiGekiLord who said Sony invented them? Maybe you're not playing, my apologies.

they're designing a next generation console, assumably spending tens of millions of dollars to design, market and produce said console, while actively working to tell absolutely everyone that there is almost no good reason to BUY the console.

Microsoft, ladies and gentlemen.

The sad thing is that you could write this same article about like 5 other games lol

Same answer for the last 10 years.

Games. Good, high-quality games released at a steady pace, in good shape and ON-TIME at launch. No more revealing games 5-6 YEARS before they're done (do you ever think about how ridiculous that is?). Microsoft has a million studios. We want games. It's all we've EVER asked for. Literally none of any of the other nonsense xbox has done did we ever ask for. We just want xbox to produce games.

@MeanBeanEgg um, the ENTIRE POINT of the deal was to exclude xbox. Let's not play dumb.

I'll try it again after a few (dozen?) Patches.

Either there is no one at Microsoft whose job it is to say "this game isn't good enough to release" or whoever they are they're completely incompetent. This game is an absolute MESS. obviously there has to be some grace given considering the conditions the team faced, but I'm not going to pretend this game is better than it is. There's a LOT wrong here.

@freddones you are VASTLY underestimating how much money Sony has. Also this wouldn't likely be a cash sale.

Loved Hellblade 2, BUT Microsoft needs to encourage the studio to add more gameplay variety for part 3. This series could be amazing.

A nice reminder that Microsoft really used to try 😆

@SleeplessKnight their trillion dollars came from somewhere 😆

I don't agree with everything Phil does, but this was the right decision. The Ps4 Pro and One X solved an existing problem (the base consoles struggled to play games at 4k). The PS5 Pro solves a non-problem (now games that already look really good might look really really good if you sit close enough to your screen...maybe!). It's an enthusiast machine which is fine, but it simply isn't essential. Most games that release today don't even tax the base machines.

Microsoft's business going forward will revolve around selling software, which they have always been great at. They own several massive IPs, and selling consoles has never been particularly profitable for any of the major companies. Sony has also started down this road, and that will accelerate as soon as Microsoft starts to regularly reap more profit than they do. There will probably be at least 2 more console generations, but the industry is transitioning.

@pepsilover2008 ....
Like,say, creating a "Pro" version of their current hardware that provides fairly minor upgrades (and not even to every game), but for a ridiculous price?

One of the guys from Digital Foundry compared the moment to moment gameplay to the Chronicles of Riddick, one of my favorite games ever. So if I wasn't in before...

I've always said this: if you think Death Stranding is boring and monotonous, I totally get it. If you think it's incredible....I totally get it. I'm in the latter camp. The idea of the traversal in the game BEING the gameplay ( in most games it's an afterthought) is genius to me. No yellow handholds, quest markers only if YOU put them on your map, having to thoughtfully manage your encumberance (no magic pockets lol). I absolutely love this game, but i understand it's not for everyone 😄

Kojima Productions owns the IP now so yes it will almost certainly come. I would assume 2026 or 2027, no more than 2 years after DS2 releases on PS5.

Lol there games from that initial group of announced titles that STILL haven't come out 😆 😂 !

Certainly not surprising. Microsoft has recognized that services and software was the best source of revenue going forward.

.....and then they refused to greenlight a sequel, and THEN they declined to buy Insomniac.

@Zenszulu i think the point is that they don't care about any of that because LOOK AT ALL THIS MONEY!!!!!

@gollumb82 oh no, they believe it.

@Bigmanfan it would depend on who made it, imo. The success of Astrobot does suggest that fans would support a well-made platformer. If they really want to go for it, "Banjo-Kazooie meet Conker" writes itself.

Someday someone is going to make a comprehensive list of all of the potential hit franchises that Microsoft has abandoned because the first game didn't hit some arbitrary sales figure. Ryse had a ton of potential that would probably have been reached had they been smart enough to greenlight a sequel.

It's made a ton of money for Microsoft, and dumped a bunch of games most of us have already played into game pass. If you care about COD you're probably pretty happy, but most people haven't been affected by the merger at all.

My question is if they're going to just put what few homegrown exclusives they have on playstation, why bother making another xbox console? Who is going to choose to buy that when they can buy a PS6 and choose from pretty much every game that releases? Xbox needs a unified plan so badly lol

I remember having a feeling of dread when I heard "1000 planets". I'd thought and hoped that Bethesda was making a game around ONE planet (remember, planets are BIG) with maybe the surrounding moons and the space between. Imagine every city in the game being on one planet. DLCs could have eventually added more planets maybe. This ended up being the best example ever of a game being spread too thin. The campaign was pretty good actually (although I hated the lazily-designed temples), but this just wasn't a great game overall.

Is anyone else sick to death of "iS tHiS gAmE CoMiNg tO xBoX?" Articles?

How does Phil still have his job????

I like Phil. He seems like a good person.

It's well past time he was fired. Satya needs to figure out what he wants Xbox to be, then find someone capable of creating a singular vision and then actually execute it. When he was hired, most people simply wanted Microsoft to do a better job of creating compelling games more consistently. That was it. We never asked for Game Pass. We certainly never asked for 57 tiers of Game Pass. We asked for better games designed around Xbox hardware. Games to release on time. New franchises beyond Halo/Gears/ Forza. He hasn't accomplished ANY of these things. 10 years later almost every game is delayed. Most finally release to mediocre scores. The best new franchise Xbox has had in 20 years saw the studio shut down right after the game released. Phil himself ADMITS that he has made a lot of dumb decisions. I don't like calling for anyone's job, but the first sign that Microsoft is serious about Xbox will be when they part company with Phil and his staff.

The answer is and has always been install base. Microsoft has struggled MIGHTILY to give gamers a compelling reason to choose xbox, and making games is expensive so developers lean towards platforms that are likely to yield a profit.

@BAMozzy the story is great, the gameplay isn't particularly enjoyable and puzzles are repeated too often. Variety in gameplay is good.

No review codes ahead of launch....

....probably a GOOD sign, right?

The frustrating thing about Hellblade as a franchise is that if they would just work on the gameplay, give it just a little actual combat beyond the barebones system it has now, something more fleshed out, Xbox would have God of War with a better story. I loved it anyway, but better gameplay and replace those annoying puzzles.

@themightyant the only thing I would say is that both Microsoft and Sony probably know what the approximate specs of their next consoles are going to be. The next year or two will most be about figuring out who the manufacturers will be (Sony recently announced who'll be making the chips for the PS6) and what the machines will look like etc. I'm guessing the next generation Xbox will launch in 2027 as well.

@Tyrant_T103 I would LOVE to see them let id or even Activision have a crack at Halo. 343 just doesn't have the storytelling ability. The ideas they've come up with have all been great, but the execution has always missed the mark.

It sounds like exactly the clusterf@ck everyone thought it was.

Microsoft continues to run xbox like it's nothing but a business.

How's that going?

Not a surprise. Microsoft doesn't care about xbox anymore anyway. Their gaming revenue will be coming from the companies they've acquired. They're nearly ENCOURAGING everyone to play elsewhere. The next Xbox will probably be the last one.

You almost can't even blame Phil (I don't think he's really been in charge for at least 6 mos.). Satya doesn't give a damn about gaming or Xbox. He's doing whatever he can to squeeze every penny out of Microsoft gaming that he can. I wouldn't be surprised if the next box didn't have "xbox" on it at all and was just called the "Microsoft Whatever". The plan seems to change daily, I'm sure the fans are tired 😆

Lol how funny would it be if Microsoft announced a new software-based supersampling technique that works on existing hardware? And it was free?

@Romans12 if you have physical games.

I think this is Sony trying to feel out how this thing sells. If it does well, expect this to be the starting price of the ps6 and Xboxwhatever.

Microsoft knows better lol. Sony doesn't have the library this Gen to justify this behemoth, so you KNOW Microsoft doesn't lol

$700, plus $75 for disk drive, plus tax.

For slightly nicer hair and shiny stuff.

They're on drugs 😆

@StonyKL the temple sections were TERRIBLE. Who thought that would be fun?! Every temple should have been it's own puzzle/dungeon. That was just lazy.

@fbnaulin you sure? Because they announced it 5 years ago, all we've seen is 1 trailer that MIGHT have been gameplay and nothing close to a solid release date.

Tbh I was generally quite disappointed. I actually enjoyed the main campaign, but the moment they announced "1000 planets" I had a feeling that the game was going to be exactly what it was: a big-for-no-reason, mostly empty hull of a game. Bethesda games are known for their density of things to do, and this game was devoid of that. Most of the outposts look exactly the same, too many quests went nowhere. I STILL dont understand why there would be inhabitable planets with one city on them. I could go on but this was one of the most disappointing games I've played in a long time, considering who made it.

@themightyant I'm saying this developer is making a huge whiny fuss over a game that doesn't exactly look like it's going to set the world on fire.

@themightyant Nintendo usually does this perfectly. Most of the time, big games are announced less than a year before release. Microsoft seems to announce their games right after the pitch meeting 😆