@Friendly No, no I do not. 😂

Satya could fund Compulsion making another game by donating a month of his salary. If we want to talk about layoffs that would really save these companies money…

Loved the demo, but the announcement of Final Fantasy Resonance has had me pause on which HD-3D game I’ll get. Truth be told, I was an early supporter of the style, but I sort of feel like it’s being overdone. Looking forward to see more reviews.

@Friendly Absolutely. Why must we keep watching hundreds laid off while people like Satya get millions of dollars in bonuses a year for their bad decisions?

For the moment, I breathe a sigh of relief for Double Fine. Did not expect the violence so soon.

Well, here’s an appetizer for what will likely be huger news very soon. Brace for impact, unfortunately…

@Fiendish-Beaver I can’t believe Xbox has allowed the nonsense with Elder Scrolls 6, honestly. They announced the game several years before starting it. You’d think Phil would’ve lit some fire under Todd. Use Activision to make Fallout if Bethesda can only manage make a new single player game every 8 years or so, or better yet, have them stop producing reviled content like Elder Scrolls Blades, so they can make more content people actually want to play. Reign in Obsidian too, as they are talented with making RPGs and writing, but their concepts come across as derivative of existing properties. Avowed comes across as an attempt of Elder Scrolls and Outer Worlds as an attempt of Fallout. I mean, these two studios should be working together because their blind spots align perfectly.

But Double Fine has its own problems in that the studio’s been allowed to make totally strange business decisions. While Keeper was a solid game, it’s extremely niche. Outside maybe Pentiment, it’s perhaps the most deliberately niche first party game Xbox has made. I’m not surprised it didn’t sell much and perhaps wasn’t a sound business decision. And I totally understand making art games. I like the art games, but seriously when you make something like that, at least put some fanfare and marketing behind it, so it can have a chance at awards. The game got all the press of a mid tier indie game. And Kiln? Seriously, I’ve never seen a first party game meet such a nothing response. The game didn’t receive praise or distaste, it just came out without a single sound. No one cared. I’m not sure what Xbox was thinking with that one at all. Psychonauts didn’t receive the press it should have, but it was universally praised. All they need to do to rollout interest in the IP is to put it on Switch and make it seem like a big deal. It doesn’t require a new game yet if interest is an issue, but I’d bet that some good PR could help the IP to gain some foothold.

Realistically, I think Xbox needs to have some pride in their IP beyond Halo, Gears, Forza, and Fable. And let’s be real: Fable was ignored for ages. Xbox even seems to minimize that CoD is an Xbox property. It’s odd. Xbox has so many IP now. They should use them! Take a page out of the Nintendo book and keep the fans engaged and Xbox will be in a special place.

Satya saying this is rather rich, considering the fact that Microsoft and Xbox had the “buy success” mentality for quite a long time under his leadership. It wouldn’t be Microsoft without saying one thing after saying the exact opposite before.

@Fiendish-Beaver Hey now, stuff like Psychonauts could be bigger if it was treated as something bigger. I do believe that Xbox doesn’t always know how to use their IP. I mean, look at how Cuphead has grown by becoming a multimedia IP. Getting the kids invested in your platformers shouldn’t be unique to Nintendo. Psychonauts would make a solid cartoon too. Microsoft (and Sony) really aren’t making a framework for future generations. Banjo, Spyro, Crash, Psychonauts… use these IP to get the kids to buy in. That said, unless Double Fine has something of value in production, I think you may be right they may be in trouble because Xbox hasn’t properly managed them. They’ve proven they can develop games quickly, but Keeper and Kiln were such niche titles that I’m not sure what Xbox wanted out of them.

@rockodoodle it’s not just gaming, it’s the entire economy that’s crashing slowly

I finished Mixtap last night and I’m genuinely surprised by how many people got upset that the game reviewed relatively well. The first maybe third of the game was sort of slow, but that’s sort of emulating how being a teenager is. The game gets better the further you get in. It’s not about failsafes or gameplay so much as it’s much as it’s about the characters. They seem unlikeable and self-absorbed at first, but, again, that’s teenagers, isn’t it? It develops into something more bittersweet than I expected it to be from the early portion of the game.

Outside that, I’m honestly sort of burnt out of Crimson Desert, so I’m having a hard time going back to it after taking a break to focus on Mina the Hollower. So I dunno what I’m playing. Lol. There’s some games coming out in the next couple weeks that I want to play, so I might just keep things easy right now and not commit to any big games.

@Weebleman Better to wash their hands of it than to shut it down though. Under the corporate umbrella, a shut down is more likely whereas being spun off, it’d just need to restructure into a business that actually makes sense rather than be a money sink for Microsoft. A lot of Xbox’s mistakes and successes have been because Xbox can try to use money to solve its problems rather than quality and ingenuity.

@oopsiezz I get what you mean. This happened in every era of gaming, but you didn’t hear about it. It was just a dream of games improving over time continually. Now we know so much more and knowing shatters the illusion.

For what it’s worth, this news is old news. We’ve heard this rumor a few times in the history of Xbox, even decades ago now,

I don’t quite see why this is a problem. LinkedIn is doing quite well for itself and it doesn’t have the same corporate baggage as Xbox does by reporting to the Microsoft suits. I don’t think Xbox has yet gotten successful enough to become its own venture. If Xbox spun off, that’d be a sign of success rather than failure.

@Banjo- Personally, I think they targeted the wrong platform with PlayStation to be where they’re releasing games. I know it’s easier, but a lot of PS fans have purposefully chosen PS over Xbox. A game like Hi Fi Rush or Psychonauts 2 or South of Midnight has far more potential of success on the Nintendo family of consoles. I’m shocked we haven’t seen more Nintendo ports. Maybe those leaked emails from the Activision purchase about Xbox buying Nintendo may have soured a relationship.

With regards to Redfall, the game was troubled, and various members of staff remarked how they didn’t like what they were making. Arkane needed Xbox’s guidance in this case. Even though the technical performance is better now, the game is a 6/10 at best and it’s not always at its best. Xbox should’ve known where this one was at far more than they did. For them to push it as one of the big bangs to start the generation, it’s clear how this generation would be challenge for Xbox.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner They expected it to have a meta score in the mid to high 80’s. It’s baffling. If they actually tried the games they released, how could they not see that Redfall was a huge miss? It brings into question Phil’s taste a little bit lol

@Fiendish-Beaver Loved your story of gaming. It reminds me a lot of my mom’s story with gaming, though she’s a tad bit older. My grandma was an early pioneer in purchasing gaming equipment, so they had that vintage pong machine, an Intellivision (though my mom calls it an Activision 😂), and several Ataris. I wish my grandpa would’ve saved the consoles for me, but he unfortunately disposed of them in the 90’s after my grandma passed.

Saying that though, my grandma had had a heart attack in ‘96 and eventually passed from having a stroke related to that. My family was in the process of actually moving from one end of the US to the other side with the intention of being closer to the grandparents at the time, so it was perhaps an odd twist of fate that she passed while helping us get ready to move. One of her last requests was to find and unpack the NES, and play Dr Mario. That moment is perhaps my most memorable moment with her.

The power of gaming to make our lives a little better in difficult situations is incredible.

I’m glad I get to share it with my kids now. My son wanted to stand in line to get a Switch 2 on launch day. I’m curious what games he’ll one day associate with life changing moments. My wife sometimes makes fun of me because I tie big life events with the games I was playing, but it’s all good fun.

@Fiendish-Beaver I think your conspiracy is accurate. I think they’re tossing Gears out on a limb after the success FH6 has had. Halo or Fable probably would’ve been stronger choices, but it was too late for that. To add to your conspiracy theory, I think Xbox might be ok with some losses on it too because I hate to say it, but Team Green may be also be trying to sucker people into staying in the ecosystem for Helix and exclusives are what the fanbase claims they want. That may be why Clockwork Revolution is exclusive too. It’s like making Outer Worlds an exclusive basically. It’s a mid-tier AAA title that likely wouldn’t sell massive numbers if it was on PS5 anyway, so why not use it as a risk when the fanbase has been responsive towards it? You don’t have that much to lose with it, but if the plan works, it validates exclusives. If it bombs, it’s an excuse (probably after Helix launches) to drop the exclusivity argument.

@Banjo- Yeah, his approach seemed really hands off. You can’t be hands on and be shocked about how something like Redfall turned out. As a “gamer CEO,” for him to have definitely tried the game and deemed it fit for release is really questionable. If they were just getting the game out there because it was now or never, I always thought he should’ve been more honest about it. So far, I do appreciate that Asha’s approach seems to be more hands on.

@themightyant Ninja Theory cancelled Project Mara recently too, so that may be another red flag that it’s them. But realistically we have no idea what the studios do internally beyond releasing their own games. Ninja Theory has a history of sharing tech and expertise, so I may be wrong.

I’m personally worried about Double Fine. Psychonauts 2 is probably my favorite Xbox Game Studios game this generation, but Keeper was such a niche title and Kiln, I can’t imagine that one was anywhere near being the success MS probably wanted it to be. Double Fine being closed though would cause fires in the fanbase.

I think Compulsion may be safe. The game received some awards and having an award winning studio is something you can build into profitable.

I said it elsewhere, but if I was Asha, I’d be asking why Elder Scrolls and Fallout are just sitting around in sluggish development cycles when Starfield wasn’t exactly the hit it could’ve been. Xbox owns some hugely recognizable franchises at this point, but the slow development cycles for popular IP is something Xbox has struggled with this generation.

@Fiendish-Beaver It’s truly a special medium and I’m glad we live in this era. I had broken my foot back in 2019 and jeez… what would I have done without having Read Dead 2 for two months to sink into? To think, 100 years ago, you’d just have to sit there and wait it out, listening to the radio. Maybe read some books, but even those weren’t as accessible as they are today. We’re quite fortunate to have something so wonderful in our unfortunate times. There’s far worse things that people do with their time, that’s for sure.

@themightyant It still may be Ninja Theory. Hellblade 2 seemed to flop for how highly it must’ve been budgeted. Senua might be the last scraps of whatever they’ve got left, and that’d explain why MS didn’t exclusivize that one.

Double Fine and Compulsion worry me, but they’re getting games out there. Obsidian may get the Rare treatment of becoming a live service transition for Grounded because that game did far better than their single player offerings and we’ve already seen Rare turn into a live service husk for Sea of Thieves.

Realistically, which Xbox Game Studio is actually safe is a harder answer than which one it could be, unfortunately. For all we know, Microsoft could fire Todd Howard because he’s taking too long on Elder Scrolls 6.

@Fiendish-Beaver I’m the same way. I totally took the most difficult route many times, but that’s because I wanted to face the challenge. I loved it. When I played the first game, I had experienced a death in my family and the game was honestly the best therapy I could’ve ask for with regards to it. The difficulty was meditative in a way I’d perhaps never experienced before.

Oddly enough, Death Stranding, Red Dead 2, and Cuphead are the three games that immediately stick out to me that have gotten me through hardships mentally. Man, I love and appreciate games.

@Fiendish-Beaver The second one was my personal GotY last year. I really hope you enjoy it. I still prefer the first game because of the story, but there’s some marked gameplay and pacing improvements that make DS2 a more deliberately enjoyable game. I have my suspicions DS1 had intentionally dull or unnecessarily challenging segments for artistic reasons and, as frustrating as that was at the time experiencing that, in retrospect, I really respect and love that.

Hopefully we see this one again at the Game Awards with a late 2027 release date. It’s entirely possible, depending on how much is actually completed at this point.

@Fiendish-Beaver Yeah, that’s the second trailer. We just got an update that they were filming again. The game was announced in 2022 with the cast and then a second trailer in 2025. If they’re doing more mo-cap right now, that could be a late 2027 game, judging by how fast DS2 came together. The nice thing with Kojima is that he’s done enough goofy things marketing wise where he’s sort of outlined more for a layman the process of game development for him than most developers have and he’s been able to stick to his deadlines if he’s had them. People say a lot about Kojima, but he runs his business effectively.

@Fiendish-Beaver we got a second trailer last year, so I’d think it’s progressing well by this point. Kojima developed Death Stranding 1 and 2 in about 4 years a piece, so I’d imagine OD may be a 2027 title. Kojima has said that 2026 is year of focus for him, staying grounded, and taking care of ramping up the scope of his studio. I could see that meaning that he’s past conceptual and into the nitty gritty of it all now. But he’s working on two games we know of, an anime, and at least one movie, so he may just be busy too.

Halo, Spyro, and Fable for me, but seriously I’m mostly waiting for OD and ES6.

Geoff > Xbox = SoP > Direct

Geoff had filler, but the megaton announcements were huge and mostly surprises.

Xbox had a few good surprises, but I don’t like Gears and after watching the Clockwork Revolution trailer a few more times, I can skip it. Realistically, it was mostly ok though. A few hits and a few surprises.

SoP had fewer surprises than Xbox, but it was a slideshow of release dates for games that I’ve been waiting for. Also, I don’t care for Wolverine or GoW.

The Direct re-announced a line-up that it announced on Nintendo Today. I like the first party line up more than Sony or Microsoft right now, but there were no surprises. And the third party stuff? It was really meh to me. I didn’t see a single game that I hadn’t seen before that I’m 100% ready to buy and that’s a big problem.

Multiplayer games are multiplatform. State of Decay is multiplayer. Maybe there’s a multiplayer element to Senua? Maybe it’s a strand game.

I don’t know. I’m still baffled that Hellblade is a franchise now.

The exclusivity mess is very present here. If they wanted to go full exclusive with State of Decay and Senua, that’d be one thing, but it’s sort of clear there’s no distinct plan right now. FH6 sold some consoles, so the execs feel some confidence that maybe now Gears and Clockwork Revolution will too, but honestly the way they went about doing this made it look like Asha’s taking direct ideas from influencers and Twitter rather than being a good partner in business by pulling a game that was planned for Sony platforms. There was likely a contract that Xbox pulled out of, so it’s an interesting move. PlayStation owners should brace themselves for Xbox pulling CoD and dealing with whatever fines they receive because I can see that experiment coming with a delayed release.

I say this as someone that realistically only wants Halo and Fable out of the release slate from either Microsoft or Sony right now.

That said, I am really curious how many Xboxes Clockwork Revolution sells. My wife was scathing towards it and said it was the worst looking game of the showcase because it was memorably unlikable, sort of like Borderlands. I wonder how it’s perceived outside the dedicated fanbase.

I’m down for the Godzilla game

As much as I haven’t used my Series S in over a year now, I’m saving it for OD or any exclusives that may get announced, just in case. No way I’m missing out on Elder Scrolls or Fallout, you know?

That’s a bummer. Mara looked like something I wanted to try. It looked new.

Hellblade had novelty in one game, but it’s an odd game to have become a franchise to me.

We’ve got enough Marvel games from Sony this year.

Besides, Blade was a cinematic trailer, so I’m sure that’s a maybe next year announcement. It was probably barely in development when it was announced.

Maybe a C or B. Spyro’s the big wow game for me. I’m really happy that’s coming. Outside that, Vivarium is not my typical genre, but it emulates an art style from an era I love. Glad to see vintage anime having a comeback after how prevalent the styles from the early 2000’s have been for so long. Crazy Taxi was a pleasant surprise too. Halo, Fable, Castlevania, and Clockwork Revolution look great too. Maybe half the showcase hit for me.

In the State of Play, the plug for Marathon felt unnecessary, but in this one, we got Sea of Thieves and Fallout 76, which surprised they qualify for showcase time. Also, really have zero interest in Gears or CoD, so there’s that. Personally, don’t think anyone’s going to flocking to Xbox for Clockwork Revolution, but I think Halo and Fable might’ve sold consoles as exclusives, so there’s that too. I’m not a Persona guy, but I’ll bet that’s going to be the biggest thing anyone takes away from this showcase.

I’m starting to wonder where Witchbrook is.

Surprised Yooka Laylee Kart didn’t get SGF coverage at the main stage and was instead a Day of the Devs game.

After barreling through Mina the Hollower this past week and a half, I’d completed it around 20 hours or so. I’ll say that I really liked it, but also that it wasn’t quite as good as I thought it would be for me. But that’s a me thing since I found gameplay sections to get a little too frustrating at times. I know that’s a Souls inspired thing, and I’m not really a Souls guy. To contrast with another massive indie, I never quite felt that way with Silksong. It could be because I got frustrated by the platforming though. Loved the narrative and aesthetic.

I’m sort of feeling like I need to go back and actually finish Mixtape too and then outside that, Crimson Desert’s my only other game from this year to work through.

I gave it a B. It was a hour too long maybe for me, but it’s still Geoff’s best showcase yet. The front half of it was incredible. Resident Evil, Alien, Cuphead, Gen Atlas, Last Ronin, Gundam… I mean, it was a 10/10 showcase for a decent while. After that, things cooled down, but I was still largely entertained. Virtua Fighter looked interesting. And Final Fantasy VII Revelation is now my new most anticipated game now. Fantastic ending.

To complain, we didn’t need a Fortnite plug. If there’s one thing that really irked me though, it was the Sonic 35 trailer. Sega teased that it had big plans for Sonic this year… and they clearly don’t. That was the only genuinely underwhelming moment. There was some filler, but, I mean, it’s Geoff.

Honestly, I overall liked it more than the State of Play, even though there was more filler here and there. State of Play didn’t have the element of surprise this showcase had. But I’m also more biased towards Japanese style games. RE, Gen Atlus, and Revelation are exactly what I want from the industry. Let’s see what Xbox cooks up on Sunday and see if there’s any truth to that Nintendo Direct next week before I make a schedule for what I’m playing the rest of the year. Hopefully Castlevania shows up somewhere!

I wish we were getting another Ori game instead. I wish Moon Studios success, given how much I liked Ori, but No Rest for the Wicked isn’t for me no matter the console it’s on. Not the first time Series S was an issue for Xbox getting games out.

Can’t believe Toxic Crusaders still isn’t out. The game’s been delayed so many times now that I keep forgetting about it.

The Lost Wild looks better than most of the games in the SoP for me. Hope that one lives up to what I saw in that first trailer. Xbox is getting a lot of good stuff from the SoP though, so there’s plenty to eat coming.

@Titntin Lol, I miss the days when my wife was deep into Skyrim just like me!

@Titntin that makes sense. My family really doesn’t let me play games as much as I want. Lol. I’m lucky if I get to play games an hour a day. It’s easy to forget how gaming felt in “the old days.” Lol. I don’t believe playtime was tracked on the 360, but I’m sure I’d find some entertainment in seeing how much I played the Halo series and just how deep into Bethesda games I got. Nowadays I almost feel like I have to rush if I want to complete games. Crimson Desert was sort of nice for slowing down time rather than speeding it up. I’ll be back to it some day.

To hit 255 hours so quick… The most hours I have in any game this year is 40 with Crimson Desert and that felt like a lot of time. The only games I have clocked at 255+ hours on any of my consoles are Animal Crossing New Horizons and Skyrim and I play games a lot (ironically too, I have maybe personally only played 1-2 hours of ACNH because my family hijacked the game early on). Where do people find the time? Lol

I hope this is a showcase season to remember for the right reasons

I wouldn’t be surprised if Halo’s a shadow drop. There’s practically a blank release slate outside a few heavy hitters in September the second half of the year and we’re already in June. Gotta get those games out ASAP if GTA is legitimately releasing in November.

Mina the Hollower

@Banjo- Yeah, I totally understand. Fable’s just the game that I’ve been looking forward to for years now and I’m just bummed that the most exciting game first party Xbox has this year for me is another remake of Halo 1 now. I’d take Fable over GTA. I’m maybe feeling burn out over GTA and it’s not even out yet. I hope it’s worth the hype and the emptied release schedule.

The one Xbox game I was sure to buy this year too. Honestly, this delay really hurts how much I like the first party slate this year. Can’t be Xbox without saying, “But next year…” about something. With they would’ve delayed CoD and Gears instead. 😂

That said, I hope this means that GTA 6 is definitely releasing this year and that we’ll see it next week. I’m sort of tired of the whole industry making space for it, even if it’s saving me money.

Honestly that line-up makes me sort of interested in resubbing if we get a good time table for their release dates.

I plan on watching it at a slightly delayed time, so I can skip stuff if I’m not interested in a specific game. I’ve found that watching these showcases a half hour late usually saves me a half hour of stuff I don’t care to see, but I still get that surprise factor where the internet isn’t ruining what I do want to see. Hopefully this year the 30 minutes I don’t want to see though is just the Gears stuff. Sorry, but I can’t stand Gears. Wish that time was saved for Fable or Halo.

I hope not. It’s too soon for me. The generation is finally starting to get original content. I’d sort of like to let this generation cook, let development times decrease a bit more, you know? Let’s get to sustainable development before pushing for a further unsustainable future.

Oh, yes, because it’s so much better for a company to scan and collect my face and fingerprint. Sorry, but I’m tired of the world being more and more invasive every day.

Surprised “make Gamepass a modular service” isn’t higher. I’d be down for that.