@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.

Those UK prices are looking quite favorable for Xbox now if they don't raise prices.

@TrollOfWar I mean Push Square and Nintendo Life do it to Xbox/Nintendo/PlayStation too. It's just a bit of fun and not really that deep.

@Fiendish-Beaver That was 2024 Sony just didn't have a great 2025.

@Balaam_ They were are they both scored and sold well in the respective release years.

I'm guessing Series X will the recommended spec with some tweaks?

I loved Infinite Wealth! A great add for Game Pass.

I hope Xbox makes updates approval quicker for consoles, as games seem to get updates sometimes 2-3 days slower than on PS5, which isn't a great player experience.

Argos and Smyths are actually doing some discounts on Xbox Series consoles through to the end of the month, too.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner It depends on what you are looking for in a game really. I have played around 10 hours and it's got a very MMO style world filled with fetch quest and content to grind gear/skills. If you like that sort of thing then you will love this game.

If you are looking for a more structured single-player game like a KCD 2, RDR 2, or even Dragons Dogma 2, you will be disappointed, as the quest design is very basic, and you repeat a lot of the same tasks, like grinding materials.

It's kind of like Monster Hunter Wilds without any story.

Some people will love it and some people will not, and that's okay.

I got it for PS5 Pro as I have no Idea how it will run on the series X.

I just want a huge sandbox I can mess around in and this game sounds like fun. I don't need this game to be story rich, just fun to play.

As for the puzzles, if I don't figure it out after a while I'll just Google the solution (same for the boss battles).

@Gemini53 Maybe you got some kind of Hookshot shadow ban for Push Square insubordination, haha.

Great stuff, it is good to see Xbox supporting developers and improving the player experience in this way.

I wonder if Fable or Gears of War gets pushed in 2027. Unless GTA 6 gets another delay, then they have August and October to seemingly squeeze 4 games. They have been known to delay games out of the end of the year to let it breathe before (Avowed)

@Gemini53 Well, I think we need to wait and see how it actually operates before we jump the gun and just call it a straight-up PC. Xbox themselves refer to it as a console, and we will find out soon enough what it does and doesn't do.

The PS5 and Series consoles are bascially PC's masqurading as home consoles. It just depends on how well you hide that it is a PC, really.

Damn, a lot of negative energy here. You can just say you don't like Xbox or don't want the next console if it's easier, lol.

All I can say about this console, like with the PS6, is "let's wait and see ".

Also side note, GDC is designed for developers and those in the console business, not info for consumers, so yes, it will sound like jarggon speak to many, but they aren't trying to market anything to gamers here.

@Balaam_ Series X dev kits dropped in March 2020, and the console launched in November 2020. Most 3rd-party games will "spec up" in a cross-gen fashion for the first 2-3 years, as we have seen this gen. After that, you will see the console really pushed.

1st party games out by late 2027 will have more time, but most of the games coming out this year and next will get a "next gen" update.

The same will happen to PS6 when they launch cross-gen games for 1-2 years. It's the reality of game development this decade of diminishing returns, and it doesn't matter how much or little you spend on a console or PC.

All you can really do is pick the hardware that you think will offer you the best experience, or maybe some game exclusives (There aren't many of those left outside Nintendo).

I think gaming is moving to a place where Phil isn't enjoying it as much anymore, and when that happens, it's time to retire, for sure.

I wish him a great retirement for all his hard work, and Asha all the best as she gets to grips with new generations of gamers and their new habits.

@fatpunkslim Yeah another big bonus

@dskatter DF is going to show console footage later this week if you are curious about how the game actually plays on Xbox.

Game looks great! roll on May!

I am going to enjoy this on Series X!

I mean, MS gaming is a consumer-facing brand that makes them profit. Of course, he is going to continue to invest in it.

It's what the next MS CEO decides to do that matters more. Satya won't be around forever.