darylb24

I think with Gears of War taking the October spot, I expect Fable between Jan- March 2027, along with Stranger than Heaven (in separate months).

My guess

June/July - Halo

Sept - (Wolverine)

Oct - Gears and maybe Persona 4 Revival (Game Pass)

Nov GTA 6

Dec - No planned launches for most AAA games

Jan - Stranger than Heaven (Game Pass)

Feb- Fable

Mar onwards - Persona 4 Revival if not October

Like with Avowed, XBOX is not afraid to delay a game out of an Autumn slot into an early next year slot if things get too crowded (which they will). I would be super happy if Fable makes 2026, though.

@BacklogBrad "Hurts the bottom line". That is the short-term thinking that has gotten Xbox into a position where it is no longer growing, damaging its brand resonance with sales on PS5 outside of Forza and Oblivion, not even breaking 1 million copies.

Outside of Forza and other live service games, they are better off not wasting dev time and money on ports that only a few hundred thousand people at most will appreciate for the cost of the long-term brand reputation.

Asha's actions are clearly user acquisition strategies (something that has been noted by other high-level execs that she is extremely good at). She also seems not to be under the financial pressure that Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond were under.

She must have convinced Satya that all these new initiatives and hires (which are not cheap, btw) will result in more money to MS and give less to competitors (Which Sony and Nintendo very much are).

She is a long-term thinker, and I do think some single player exclusives " will come back as part of her long-term XBOX user acquisition strategy.

No waiting for the PS5 version, I will play it tonight!

I really enjoyed the game! 9/10 for me.

I think it's reasonable to give this game a 10/10 or a 6/10 depending on your tastes. Any reasonable person should be able to see that. I thought Expedition 33 was overrated by critics but I didn't invalidate anyone's 10/10 as it's all just subjective at that end of the day.

I spend my time focusing on what I enjoy rather than going online trying to invalidate others opinions.

A way to trade in your played games for credit via a digital store would be a great step forward.

Lots of options there, depending on playstyles, which is great

@dePaige22 More to do with someone who paid for it vs someone who did not.

I got the upgrade pack on Loaded for a hefty discount (£39.99), which feels like a more reasonable price alongside Game Pass.

@Banjo- Depends on how you grew up and what you have achieved in adult life. I grew up pretty poor, but now I am self-employed with a significantly higher disposable income and less time to spend it.

So the older we get, the stingier we get? Not surprised lol. I would argue that older people often have a far higher disposable income but less free time (pre-retirement).

The summer showcase will show us if Fable makes this year or gets pushed into early next year. My gut says Jan-Mar 2027.

Forza 6, Coffee Talk Tokyo, Lego Batman, and 007 First Light. I think this is the strongest month for me so far! I will also check out Mixtape on Game Pass.

In some ways, it's good as I think June - Late August is going to be quite barren.

Don't Nod, more like Don't Bother.

@AI-Generation Xbox owners buy mostly digital games, and often have the best console-to-game sales attach rate out of the big 3.

I expect late 2027 to late 2028. A lot will be dependant on availability of SSDs and RAM.

As for the dev kits, the series X/S kits got to many of the larger publisher's in 2020 hence the many cross gen games on both platforms.

The turnaround is pretty quick as the EAs and Ubisofts of this world will cross gen for the next 2-3 years after the new consoles release.

As for 1st party games, they already have the dev kits so native versions of upcoming games will be able to hit a late 2027 or late 2028 date.

So far, we have had some positive messages from Asha and 2 confirmed positive changes (UI Improvements and Game Pass) in 60 days. Asha appears not only to talk about change but also to enact it.

I don't expect overnight change, but I am looking forward to seeing what Asha does over the next couple of years.

She really put a big emphasis on Xbox being affordable, and if that filters down to the next console, then that could have a huge impact on the optical success.

The crazy thing is that Game Pass and Xbox themselves were a financially profitable business before Asha came. 22% of profit came from the 5 billion pounds Game Pass generated alone.

The main issue was the optics. I think Satya realised that while Xbox was making more money than ever, growth was beginning to stagnate, and things could have swung the other way within a couple of years. The old model was a typical Don Matrick style "too fast, too soon". Don Matrick had good ideas, but they were implemented way too early and damaged the brand for years.

I feel Satya probably has a sense of deja vu with Asha's positive news cycle, just as it was with Phil Spencer when he showed up in 2014.

I just hope Asha is allowed to eat some costs now to give Xbox a really positive long-term outlook.

There is a lot of positive news circulating about Xbox at the moment, and while this is one isolated case, this will filter down to casuals, and it could end up having a bigger impact than we expect.

Optics is everything for a brand, and Xbox is slowly rebuilding positive optics after 2-3 years of mostly negative ones.

We won't be hearing "Xbox is dead" from anyone logical, as Asha has made it very clear in her first 60 days as CEO that Xbox is very much alive and here to stay, regardless of what anti-Xbox fanatics want.

She has demonstrated that she will take action over just words. Game Pass and UI improvements are just the start.

Logo looks great! Seeing some salty comments here lol

@Balaam_ I am guessing you aren't the new generation she is talking about lol

I have not yet been to Push Square today... I need to get some popcorn lol

Helix has me very interested. I am curious to learn more about this first-party developed console in the near future.

I am looking for a route into PC gaming, so this has more appeal to me than a closed-off PS6 at the moment.

Great stuff, glad to see they are listening to feedback.

@FishDude, if you have it stacked, you probably got a cheaper key online. Not sure why you would stack full price when 3/6/ and 12-month keys are readily available for up to 30% offf?

Hope we get a release date for There Are No Ghosts At The Grand.

@LeonR You have contradicted yourself beyond further discussion. @VOODOO85 hit the nail on the head with thier comment.

@LeonR You aren't privy to the numbers either, though? The only thing we know factually about the Game Pass is that it turns a net profit (as released by Microsoft). Apart from that, we do not know anything else.

@Nakatomi_Uk The Series S 1TB is £350 in the UK and you can get the Series X for £470 - £480 so not far off your prices!

With how expensive the PS5 has become? I would say the current UK prices aren't too bad.

If MS wanted to be really aggressive, they could adjust the RRP down to launch prices, but with RAM/SSD costs, I don't know if that will happen outside of Black Friday.

The Series S and X are great consoles and can deliver great performance vs their cost.

I would not recommend the Series S for gamers who are on this site or big into gaming, but for casuals, the Series S is a great budget machine that runs games the Switch 2 just can't because of its weaker CPU.

My plan would be:

Push Fable to timed exc (1 year)

Push Halo yo timed exc (1 year)

Push Forza 6 to May 2027 (1 year)

Make Gears E-Day, Clockwork Revolution, and State of Decay 3 Exclusive

Keep live service (excluding Racing/Flight Sims) multiplat day one

Keep COD muliplat as contractually agreed

Activision games are either timed or full exclusives, depending on licensing

Bethesda games timed exclusive (1 year) (TES6, Marvel's Blade, Fallout)

As Helix pushes the Xbox PC ecosystem harder, also add timed exclusives to Steam so they wait 6 months or a year after Xbox on PC. (They need to do this to grow their PC market share eventually.

Soon enough, we will see what they do (or don't do). They could change everything, noting or something in between. Right now, everything is on the table with the new leadership.

I would much rather have rechargeable batteries in an Xbox controller than non-replaceable ones, like in a PS5 or Switch controller.

@Fiendish-Beaver It means bringing Bethesda, Activision, and XGS studios together in a more streamlined way rather than having 3 publishing arms. Also, getting Xbox and PC more aligned for players and developers. Also, improving and updating UI and discoverability features, like updating that awful Xbox website.

This is for people who don't spend much on thier Xbox, unlike me lol

@Questionable_Duck I just think they don't like Xbox lol.

I want to check this one out on Game Pass. It looks interesting.

After Avowed got delayed (late 2024 to early 2025), I 100% think Fable will get delayed into early 2027 to avoid all the congestion of Wolverine (September), Gears, COD, GTA 6 (November), and any other AAA games.

I have to admit I prefer 4 over 5. I found 5's map kind of boring and heard a lot of players actually dropped 5 to go back to 4's online modes.

The chips are down for Xbox, time to call in Fries.

@SMJ As you probably know, the vocal minority is here online, and the silent majority is just enjoying their Xbox games on PC and consoles.

I really enjoyed playing this on PS4 when it first came out. It can be a little grindy, but still pretty fun! I am curious to see how the second installment shapes up.

@Coletrain I play most games at 30fps on the Series X as I prefer the higher graphical fidelity. I guess all the years of 30fps gaming since childhood means I have just naturally adjusted my reaction times to that FPS. I am able comfortably switch between 30 and 60 with a few minutes break between each game.

Honestly, these early trailers don't really bother me at all. Like with Sony, when something is shown, it's usually years away, so I just park the excitement until closer to the time and focus on what's coming in the near future.

It's video games at the end of the day, not a life-changing promise.

@Grumblevolcano Would not be surprised if Fable gets delayed into 2027 tbh.

Great to see them making improvements for the Xbox versions. Having quick resume also saves on those long start up times haha.

Some are easily fooled lol

curious to see if Fable makes this year or not

@Grumblevolcano Yeah, I think either Gears or Fable will be pushed to early 2027. My gut says Fable.

How are they going to fit Fable, Gears, COD, and Halo with Wolverine in Sept and GTA 6 taking up Mid Nov - Dec? I feel like Fable or Gears will get a delay to early 2027. Right now, it looks like Fable won't hit that Autumn date, with October the only month they could slot that in, and I don't see Gears coming out in August.

Expecting Stranger than Heaven to get an early 2027 slot to avoid the GTA 6 storm.

@TheGameThrifter Depends on the strategy, they could build a set number of consoles and use them to push products like Copoilt for gaming. We shall see what they will do, but nothing is that predictable with Xbox anymore, now we have a new leadership that seems to be pivoting into a new and yet unknown direction.

@TheGameThrifter One thing MS has an advantage of over it's competitors is it's huge access to RAM stockpiles due to being part owners of Open AI.

The more you have or can get of each component will drive the cost down and customised software could reduce resource drain. We will see what they decide to do soon enough.