I never played an Elder Scrolls game but I did try Starfield so I probably never will. Hopefully it's good for the fans though after so long waiting.

@HonestHick Do they have the IP though? I mean they own a whole bunch so I'm being slightly facetious here but Gears and Halo were supposedly two of their main IP pillars at the start of this generation. They botched the Halo launch, The Coalition might get shuttered and Starfield came and went. Forza is going strong and Fable might be the start of something but I'm struggling to think of an IP they've successfully launched this whole generation. I could probably say the same for Sony too though this gen. And it sounds like next gen Xbox is going to focus on IP it owns already which is sort of dispiriting. Man it's rough out there!

I have 3 weeks left of GamePass Premium. I’ll play Planet of Lana II because the first one was one of the best things I played on GP and then we’ll be taking a well earned break. Everything seems to be co-op or something else I’m not interested in these days. I’m going to focus on sales instead. Maybe I’ll come back in a year and play Gears and Forza 6.

I like the X a lot but the exclusives have mostly been meh. Now they’re selling off studios so what happens next gen?

@Rimebreaker Amen. It’s called Halo, not Master Chief. They built out all that lore but we have to centre on the same character every time? Seems like a lack of imagination. Halo needs to take some risks or what’s the point? And it should look spectacular. Infinite’s reveal was so underwhelming for a seemingly next-gen machine.

@GamingGod Yup, like Hellblade 2 which they teased in 2019 and came out in 2024. Or Fable which they announced in 2020.

@RTGX Loved Black! Great sound too.

His games probably won’t make a profit for Xbox and hopefully they realise that. This is a big swing at restoring the brand. I’m not sure they could afford not to do this for the (ahem) halo effect they need leading up to Helix. At least we now know one teaser they’ll be showing in their reveal video. God knows what else they can show but I’m betting it’s like X/S’s reveal which got me all excited about Replaced and Perfect Dark but then launched with Medium.

I dropped to Premium when the price hikes happened. I've played some Jurassic World Evolution 3 but that's about it. Been meaning to cancel it completely and look out for sales instead. Turns out I'm too casual/slow/infrequent to make GP worth it when the games are like this.

What are they going to launch with? Cross-gen games? I can’t see Xbox having any exclusives ready for it

The problem feels more like Microsoft than Xbox. Makes it hard to want to invest further. But then I look at Sony and Nintendo, where I’ve been before, and so I think about a Steam Machine in a few years. If I still care.

So if Clockwork Revolution isn’t a big hit… fold the studio?

@TDHorizon I keep wondering what a launch lineup will even look like going forward. Or is that a thing of the past?

That was the best show I've seen in years. And yes the logo debate is kinda irritating but, after 5 or 6 trailers with only Sony logos each time, I did start thirsting for Sony, ngl. Relieved this morning to see that some of them are cross-plat. Wolverine and God of War looked proper current gen though and made me worry for the Xbox show. Praying The Coalition come through hard!

The elephant in the room? Xbox simply hasn't had enough AAA bangers to make exclusives a potent draw. Yet.

They would need more than Forza Horizon and Indiana Jones. Halo isn't what it was. Starfield didn't live up to the hype. They would need a whole bunch of 10/10 games over a consistent period of time. They might be getting there, thanks to Playground, but I suspect they still have a ways to go on that front.

I'd love an original platformer. I remember Banjo and Spyro as being second rate knock-offs at the time but maybe I wasn't young enough?

New Halo would need to be a graphical showstopper to pique my interest. Weather, debris, the fog of war. Blow my socks off.

Having said that, I don’t see how you please the dads who grew up with it AND today’s multiplayer generation who don’t care about Halo.

So where is everyone thinking of moving to next gen? Sony, Nintendo, Steam Machine?

(I’m leaving pure PC out since most here seem to want the simplicity of a console)

Yeah Ultimate got a price cut but it’s still more than it was before the big rise, isn’t it? Just no new COD now. I dunno. I honestly can’t keep up anymore and I stuck with Ultimate with years longer than I probably should have (because the day one exclusives were largely disappointing in hindsight) 🤷‍♂️

I'm less interested in the machine than the games. Series X/S announced a bunch at launch and then spent the whole generation actually making (or cancelling) them. With development taking so long now, will it just be the same again?

Xbox needed Halo to be a 10/10. Same with Starfield. You need a critical mass of certified bangers to even begin to move the dial in the general consciousness. And as much as I love the Series X itself, they've struggled to hit that level of quality in the games. Forza Horizon is probably the closest they've come to impressing Playstation players?

I also agree that Xbox could do with cultivating younger players. I can't think of any potential new mascots they've come up with recently who could help sell the brand in the future. Their lack of marketing hasn't helped either though.

Bit nervous building an Xbox library these days. Having said that, I want my Series X to last another few years at least. It’s a good machine and I don’t need a £1000 upgrade or whatever Helix is gonna cost.

I predict a bunch of CG trailers at launch, promising games that will take at least 5 years or will end up being cancelled.
That and cross-gen titles.
I just can’t imagine a launch lineup being ready that would actually shift units.

Ultimate only?

@FraserG Hopefully Playground didn’t water down the British humour. Guessing they just haven’t shown that yet

Let’s hope they started developing launch titles before the X/S came out then. Ugh.

Guess I’ll play it a year later on Premium because of their grim price hike, timed right before the good stuff finally comes out. Thanks MS

Dropped to Premium this month and feel a bit salty that Replaced and Fable won’t be day one for me after such a long wait. As a casual, I’m thinking I might just go back to buying the odd game in sales. I’m not sure I’ll stay with Xbox next gen but with prices going nuts I want this machine to last as long as possible to maximise value. Overall, Gamepass was a nice idea but I do feel like they pulled the rug out from under me and it’s tainted my opinion of Xbox. To be fair though, I’ve had similar feelings about Sony and Nintendo over the years and bounced between platforms as a result.

Replaced was the game I picked up the system for initially and bought into GP. Downgraded to GP Premium today and will feel pretty salty if it’s not on there day 1 after giving MS so much money already

Feels a bit rubbish now seeing Replaced on the horizon. It was the game that sold me on Gamepass Ultimate back in the day but I will be on the lower tier by the time it drops (and Fable). The sense of disappointment lingers on.

Will Hogwarts be on Premium tier GP? I'm probably going to downgrade from Ultimate in Dec when my sub runs out. Just spent over a month playing only AC Valhalla so Ultimate's not really making sense for me anymore

Won’t they need a launch line-up for next gen? Seems a waste to throw it all away but I guess it just wasn’t coming together at all.

Thought it was just me. I feel seen!

@Gooseuk Nice! Thanks v much - will give it a try

I kept getting motion sickness and had to quit. Not sure why that was.

Kinda summed up this Xbox gen for me. Hoped for a AAA banger but came away disappointed.

Started out kinda fun. But soon bounced off after helping a random scientist with some tree problem in an outdoor shopping arcade I was made to walk around 6000 times before getting back on the loading-screen-train. Did go to a few planets though. Walked some more. Saw nothing. Left.

I never really understood why the launch lineup was so sparse. Or why Halo wasn’t ready. They knew they had a console coming years in advance so why weren’t they ready? And why did they have to pad out their presentations with games that barely existed beyond a vague hope? Maybe Microsoft will ditch the whole idea of a launch lineup for their next hardware, or just put out a few next-gen versions of old games for it. Either way, I’m feeling that erosion of trust.

@LaurenceJ1987 Agreed. Seems like a scam to sell your console with games that then never appear and were just an ambition.

@The-Chosen-one I don’t think they really knew either at that stage but MS needed to show some sort of slate. With dev time being so long nowadays, they will have needed to start work on their next launch line-up as soon as X/S came out, if not sooner!

It just felt so last gen.

Replaced meets Batman. Side-scrolling, crazy vehicles, lots of moody visuals. Not too Metroidvania though. Maybe that could happen before the Arkham retread which won't come out until next gen.

@Ricky-Spanish Calling this an article is pretty generous.

Love the machines. But why even launch a new console if you don’t have the software lined up? PlayStation could be accused of the same thing I guess. Maybe they both should have waited a couple of years. I would probably upgrade to next gen much later next time.

Was really enjoying MW3's campaign and then it just... ended. So I looked for another one to play and... nada. Bummer.

This doesn't look like the Xbox Uncharted I was hoping for. The 1st person punching looks annoying. The only wow moment has been the reveal of Harrison Ford's likeness in the first trailer. But I enjoy Wolfenstein games and it looks like a breezy, quick game so I'll play it and probably like it enough. It's just wild to me that Xbox STILL doesn't have a system selling game 4 years into this cycle.

Maybe I’ll wait 5 years into the cycle when the games arrive.

I don't mind switching back to Sony for the next generation, but I keep peering over the fence and don't see much there either. There are wider issues for the console space in general.

Also, Microsoft launched X/S without bangers though and we're STILL waiting. There is still lots to play (I'm currently playing Jedi Survivor on GP and loving it) but mindshare is vital.

@Dimey Same! I just wanted to play the campaign. Can’t even remember if I enjoyed it - I just remember the pain of trying to launch it. Was really hoping they were going to fix this for GP. Guess not.

When I spend a month or two playing a long game I own I start worrying about the money I’m spending on the Gamepass I’m paying for in the background. Kinda takes the shine off.

@shoeses YES! I've been playing a game I actually own for a couple of months now and it's been bothering me that I paid for GamePass during this time. If games were shorter I wouldn't care but so much seems like a long slog these days. And now with the price hike I'm sure this feeling will only increase.

If Robocop was £20 I would jump on it.