The pinnacle era of gaming, between 360 and PS3 and Wii. We'll never reach such heights again. In fact, I think we're moving further and further away by the day. That I'm busily playing remastered 360 games more than almost anything else says something (well, it says I'm old but it probably says something else too)
@themightyant You're not wrong. I have a small handful of exceptions in mind, and quite a few AA games, but it's exceedingly difficult to play something like a Starfield or a Diablo IV on a handheld, at least for me.
Strangely enough, this kind of extends to Switch/Switch 2 as well (AAA by Nintendo standards anyway) - Pokemon aside, there's no way I'm playing Metroid in handheld mode if my experience with Metroid Prime Remastered was any indication.
@themightyant yeah that’s my biggest issue. Handhelds are great for a lot of things but competitive FPS isn’t one of them, at least that’s been my experience.
It feels like every 4th or 5th CoD is a complete bust on the campaign side. Advanced Warfare anyone? This is what happens when you put unrealistic expectations on teams to deliver an iterative update to the formulaic on a yearly basis – no one has time to innovate whatsoever.
I enjoyed Black-Ops 6 and am still playing it, even with the new Battlefield sitting on my home screen. That said, I'm not excited about the prospect of moving on just yet either.
And in truth, I haven't played through a CoD campaign in about 4-5 years. They're mostly crap anyway. Sounds like this is more of the same.
Forza is just another in a long line of things that MS didn't have enough patience for.
Windows Phone
MS Band (1+2)
Kinect (whether you love it or hate it)
Cortana The list goes on (and on and on). Thing is, they could learn a good lesson here from Sony - GT7 wasn't a massive hit upon release either, nor was the game before it. Phil can throw the word "hiatus" around all he wants but at the end of the day I think we all know what it means. Forza is dead, just like Perfect Dark, Halo Infinite, and many, many other things that died either before their time or were killed before they really saw the light of day.
Bottom line: for as much an Xbox and MS fan as I've been, they've completely lost my trust.
Do I blame Phil? Nope. I truly (maybe even misguidedly) believe he wants to make great games and wants to do right by the Xbox community. I blame Satya and the shareholders.
Funny how Phil and Satya can talk about the war for attention and it’s laughed off as “that’s because you lost” while Reggie says the same thing and it’s wise words. We live in completely different times now compared to the last half dozen console generations. Roblox is eating everyone else’s lunch and there’s not a damn thing any exclusives can really do about it. Sure, you’ll see some Metroid sales this fall, but the era of consoles is over, many of us just haven’t accepted it yet.
@kmtrain83 and that has what to do with what I said? I mean, at one point Titanic was the biggest film in history. Doesn’t make it good. It definitely didn’t make it a great film before it even came out?
Speaking as someone who couldn’t care less about Xbox’s anniversary
...and the shareholders were thrilled that virtually no money was spent making this thing into a true, proper Xbox but gave the gaming division a reason to issue a press release or two.
And now back to the slow, steady decline of the Xbox brand, already in progress.
I would 100% buy this right now except that it isn't a Play Anywhere title. Considering literally 95% of what Square Enix is putting out these days IS Play Anywhere, I don't get why the omission here, but it's definitely keeping it off my Xbox, Ally, Cloud, etc. for the time being.
Does it even have cross-save? Doesn't look like it.
Based on the high percentage of respondents that own the 2TB card (which is WAY more than I expected) I would venture to guess this will be in higher demand than most think. I'll get one. I love having even my old Xbox One and 360 games on one of these whenever possible. Loading screens are for suckers.
Eh, whatever excuse I need to play the originals all over again. I'm here for it. And if bringing in a few million new PS players is a bad thing, then I'm too old to care about petty console wars (and own both anyway so whatever).
@Kaloudz Couldn't agree more. Friday the 13th felt ahead of its time and was a blast to play with friends or even strangers. Every copy of it since has felt contrived or somehow inferior. Even Dead by Daylight is all rather meh in my opinion.
I'm still not sure what makes the SoM combat all that much different from the combat in games like Bayonette, but whatever. Either way, my Game Pass subscription has paid for itself with the latest CoD, Indiana Jones, Avowed, and now SoM. I've never been happier with a subscription. I'd like to think we're just now starting to see the fruits of the labor that all of these studio acquisitions have bought; no reason to think it'll end anytime soon.
I'm over the $1000+ incremental bi-annual graphics card updates for PC and I'm REALLY over the console "wars" at this point. What I want is an Xbox that acts like my ROG Ally: all of my Xbox stuff, Steam stuff, Epic Store stuff, and GOG stuff, all in one box. If it has a portable component to it, great, but I'd love a set top box that does all of the above and I've got $800 or more to throw at it. I don't care if its 5090 level graphics because honestly, I can barely tell the difference between my 3xxx card and my 5080. I want 4K60 and I'm happy.
Right now, Game Pass is still by far the best value in gaming for my household. We have every console + PC and the Xbox still absolutely reigns supreme. My kids shrug at the news of the Switch 2 and haven't touched the PS5 in months, but the 8-10 new GP games every month keep them from getting bored. I'm continually amazed at the sheer diversity of titles we're getting for $20/month here. Yeah, a lot of it is indie stuff, but for whatever reason, that "indie stuff" resonates more with my kids than almost any AAA title. The ONLY game we've bought in the past 9 months was Monster Hunter Wilds, all the rest have been on Game Pass.
The future for Xbox is a lot brighter than the average console warrior seems to grasp. I blame Sega vs Nintendo for that mindset. It's time we all moved on, every other industry has.
@whmchrish What? You didn't want the FFVII outfit for an additional $20? Or the paw-print jammies or whatever? Yeah, this whole idea that every single game needs three editions at three different price points is absurd. This one was one of the bigger offenders.
I love the original Life is Strange and mildly enjoyed the game after it but c'mon, these games are SO similar to one another that whatever uniqueness and originality one might have found in the first is completely lost by the 3rd or 4th game. I distinctly remember rolling my eyes when this was announced, out of sheer fatigue with the whole concept. Just because it was cool once (maybe twice) doesn't mean we need 19 of them. Move on already.
The kids in my house literally have thousands of hours into these games, going all the way back into the 3DS era. I've tried most all of them, starting with a pair of them on PSP to present and the only one that's managed to hook me for any length of time has been Worlds, and even that one only got about a dozen hours out of me. I just don't get it. I really WANT to get it, but I just don't. Something isn't clicking. I'll no doubt try this one too in hopes that this will be the one; I have to buy it for the kiddies anyway.
I'd give it a solid 9/10, if only because the control scheme just feels 'off' to me somehow. Like I can equip a wand in one hand and a spell in the other but when I switch back to a sword I still have a spell equipped that I can't use? Why? And this stops me from blocking? What am I missing? There's been a few irritations like that - all related to the controls. Otherwise I absolutely LOVE this game.
It's an Xbox game, so of course it'll be somewhere in the mid-70s. A like for like PS title would definitely score a 93, win Best Game at the Game Awards and receive a standing ovation from Kojima himself via X/Twitter.
@GrumpyMert I've made a game out of counting the number of "I don't like it because like to buy my games!" replies to all of the Game Pass articles. It's amusing how many people seem to think that's some sort of argument. Like, "that's nice, and? you do you, boo."
Personally I end up trying 20x the games I normally would because Game Pass gives me access to them. I don't see an argument to it being a good thing beyond blatant self-righteousness.
If people want to buy a PS5,67 whatever and pay $69+ for a game, physical or not, cool - there you go.
If people want to buy an Xbox Whatever and pay $19 a month and just use Game Pass, cool, you have that too.
This whole idea that you're either in the blu-ray or Netflix, digital or physical, PS or Xbox camp is so dated and stupid. The world changed a long time ago - blame Steam if you want to blame anyone. Xbox's biggest crime to date in my mind was still being a decade too early to the inevitable all-digital future with some of the worst messaging ever, way back in 2013. As I sit here and look at my dust-caked PS5, I think "gosh, I'm glad someone somewhere enjoys using these things but I haven't touched mine in ages, and probably won't until Ghosts of Yotei finally comes out." PS is wonderful for those once-a-year PS single player adventure games but that's like 20ish hours of my gaming year. Hanging my hat entirely on that alone ain't gonna happen.
As for Nintendo, we seem to keep forgetting that they've stumbled before (cough, Wii U, cough) and could again. Switch is great I guess, but to be honest, the sheer amount of shovelware on the thing has relegated it to collecting more dust in my house than the Playstation does at this point. I want to play what's next, not yet another Mario side-scroller. Been there, done that.
@Boogaloo_Jenkins While I don't really care for it, there always seemed to be a LOT of people playing Skull and Bones whenever I tried to play it. Like Star Wars Outlaws, I suspect it's one of those games where the Internet opinions of it didn't match up with reality very much at all. I have a few friends that absolutely love it and have hundreds of hours into it.
@Rodimusprime13 Good sales, sure, but only relative to one another. 20 years on, the entire market is contracting on the console side, despite overall industry growth. The switch has been a big success, no doubt. PlayStation has only been a success measured against Xbox. Failing to improve sales against each of their past console generations is most definitely not something any business would want to hang their hat on. The global population has grown by 25% since PS2 and the gaming portion of that population by an even greater percentage. If anyone thinks Sony is happy to be touting their 2nd Gen console as the best selling when they're 5 generations in, they're crazy. They'll say they are, sure, but that's a PR spin.
Satya is forever bent at the knee for his shareholders, just like every good CEO should be, and much to the detriment of Xbox fans everywhere.
Like your Windows Phone? Too bad, Satya killed it.
Like your Microsoft Band? That's a shame, it's dead.
Enjoy Surface hardware under Panos? Aw shucks, he's out.
Satya will change his tune depending on the direction of the wind at a moment's notice and not give the first damn about you, your investment in their gaming platform, or anything else.
Unfortunately, he's also responsible for taking Microsoft to heights no one thought possible in the 21st century in a post-Gates world.
Let's face it, this console generation sort of sucked. I love my Series X and I tolerate my PS5 for a (very small) handful of exclusives, but everyone utterly failed to demonstrate what made this 'next' generation so much better than the last, and COVID certainly didn't help.
Will it improve in the coming years? Probably not, at least not in terms of dedicated hardware. The whole concept of a gaming box is so rooted in the 90's and earlier that its almost absurd. We don't use DVD players, CD players, etc. anymore, so why are we using gaming consoles? I ask this question myself almost constantly, even though I have all of them - and play about 30% of my games via cloud these days via subscription. Do I care about "ownership?" Not really. I care about playing what I want to play, where and when I want to play it. And I'm not in grammar school anymore so honestly, who cares which stupid plastic box is "better?"
The key to growing Game Pass has virtually nothing to do with console sales and pretty much everything to do with Samsung/LG televisions and Amazon Fire Sticks, etc. As console sales continue to slow for everyone, Xbox will need Game Pass subscribers on other devices in order to have a chance. We keep hearing how amazing it is that the Switch has almost sold as many units as the PS2 but the PS2 was 20 years ago – in other words, a lot of devices have replaced console gaming given the growth in the industry and the increase in the number of people playing games. If Xbox can't find a way to get those people to part with their monthly subscription monies, they're pretty much screwed. Personally I love game pass and I'm glad they kept going but I'm not holding my breath that any of the big 3 are conducting business in 10 years in the same way they are today. The market has just changed too much.
If this breaks out of the norm and actually IS something like a Phantasy Star V, a Panzer Dragoon Saga 2, or OutRun Coast 2 Coast 2 Coast, I'm going to be WAY happier than a simple "hey, here's FF16 you guys. Enjoy!"
Rather than microconsoles or more Duke controllers is various colors, I'd like to see AA budget development of some of the classic franchises:
Midtown Madness
Project Gotham Racing
Amped
Crimson Skies
Banjo and What's His Name (not my thing but everyone else seems to love these games)
None of these games need $200,000,000 budgets - just smaller teams that love the source material and want to do right by it. They don't need to be open world, or live service elements, or anything else - just give us the 2005 experience in sequel form with 40k60 and some updated gameplay. We'll get Fable and Perfect Dark for the big stuff.
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Re: Silent Hill 2 Remake Is Rolling Out Now On Xbox, And It's Discounted By 50% At Launch
@Banjo- ohhhh. Got it. Thanks!
Re: Silent Hill 2 Remake Is Rolling Out Now On Xbox, And It's Discounted By 50% At Launch
I can’t seem to buy it in the US store, at least not from the link above. Searching doesn’t turn anything up.
Re: Roundup: All The Reveals From 2025's Xbox Partner Preview Showcase
Loved it. One of the best showcases of the year from any platform. Full stop
Re: Deals: Xbox Black Friday Sale 2025 Now Live, 2000+ Games Discounted
Remember when we were all sitting around waiting for ANY word on whether or not Alan Wake 2 was even coming? And here it is, discounted.
Re: Seven Things We Miss About The Xbox 360 Era In 2025
The pinnacle era of gaming, between 360 and PS3 and Wii. We'll never reach such heights again. In fact, I think we're moving further and further away by the day. That I'm busily playing remastered 360 games more than almost anything else says something (well, it says I'm old but it probably says something else too)
Re: Hands On: Black Ops 7 Is Amazing On The ROG Xbox Ally X, As Long As You're Not Offline
@themightyant You're not wrong. I have a small handful of exceptions in mind, and quite a few AA games, but it's exceedingly difficult to play something like a Starfield or a Diablo IV on a handheld, at least for me.
Strangely enough, this kind of extends to Switch/Switch 2 as well (AAA by Nintendo standards anyway) - Pokemon aside, there's no way I'm playing Metroid in handheld mode if my experience with Metroid Prime Remastered was any indication.
Re: Hands On: Black Ops 7 Is Amazing On The ROG Xbox Ally X, As Long As You're Not Offline
@themightyant yeah that’s my biggest issue. Handhelds are great for a lot of things but competitive FPS isn’t one of them, at least that’s been my experience.
Re: Five Games Are Leaving Xbox Game Pass In Late November 2025
Bought Octopaths 1 and 2 anyway. Worth the price! Such great games.
Re: Stalker 2 Team Shares Parting Message Ahead Of Xbox Game Pass Departure
I’ve enjoyed my time with it enough to go ahead and buy it.
Re: Two Games Are Confirmed For Xbox Game Pass In December 2025 So Far
Was completely unaware of Routine. Now I’m stoked for it. WOW.
Re: Talking Point: Xbox Is 24 Years Old Today, What Do You Expect From Next Year's 25th Birthday?
What do I expect? I except Xbox to share their birthday with Sony and Nintendo, rather than keeping it exclusive to Xbox.
Re: Black Ops 7 Campaign Review (Xbox): Black Ops Pedigree Can't Save This Mess Of A COD Campaign
It feels like every 4th or 5th CoD is a complete bust on the campaign side. Advanced Warfare anyone? This is what happens when you put unrealistic expectations on teams to deliver an iterative update to the formulaic on a yearly basis – no one has time to innovate whatsoever.
I enjoyed Black-Ops 6 and am still playing it, even with the new Battlefield sitting on my home screen. That said, I'm not excited about the prospect of moving on just yet either.
And in truth, I haven't played through a CoD campaign in about 4-5 years. They're mostly crap anyway. Sounds like this is more of the same.
Re: Reaction: As Gran Turismo 7 Gets A Major 2025 Expansion, Forza Motorsport Deserved More
Forza is just another in a long line of things that MS didn't have enough patience for.
The list goes on (and on and on). Thing is, they could learn a good lesson here from Sony - GT7 wasn't a massive hit upon release either, nor was the game before it. Phil can throw the word "hiatus" around all he wants but at the end of the day I think we all know what it means. Forza is dead, just like Perfect Dark, Halo Infinite, and many, many other things that died either before their time or were killed before they really saw the light of day.
Bottom line: for as much an Xbox and MS fan as I've been, they've completely lost my trust.
Do I blame Phil? Nope. I truly (maybe even misguidedly) believe he wants to make great games and wants to do right by the Xbox community. I blame Satya and the shareholders.
Re: 20+ Games Are Already Confirmed For Xbox Game Pass In 2026
Fable in a year? Yeah right
Re: Hit PS5 Exclusive Stellar Blade May Be On The Way To Xbox In The Near Future
@Kieduss This. 100%.
And yeah, it’s a mediocre game for sure. I bought it day one and regretted it 20 minutes later.
Re: Ex-Nintendo Boss: Xbox Isn't 'Directly' Competing Anymore, But There'll Always Be A War
Funny how Phil and Satya can talk about the war for attention and it’s laughed off as “that’s because you lost” while Reggie says the same thing and it’s wise words. We live in completely different times now compared to the last half dozen console generations. Roblox is eating everyone else’s lunch and there’s not a damn thing any exclusives can really do about it. Sure, you’ll see some Metroid sales this fall, but the era of consoles is over, many of us just haven’t accepted it yet.
Re: Poll: Now That The Dust Has Settled, Which Xbox Game Pass Tier Are You Subscribed To?
Eh, kept Ultimate and dropped Disney+. Easy choice.
Re: Five Years On, Xbox Series S Is Still A Fantastic Place For Current-Gen Gaming
My kids still use Series S consoles and love them more than any other consoles they have, and we’ve got PS5’s and Switch 1&2. Go figure.
Re: The Timing Of Xbox's 25th Anniversary Just Got A Lot More Awkward
@kmtrain83 and that has what to do with what I said? I mean, at one point Titanic was the biggest film in history. Doesn’t make it good. It definitely didn’t make it a great film before it even came out?
Speaking as someone who couldn’t care less about Xbox’s anniversary
Re: Marvel 1943: Rise Of Hydra Has Been Delayed Again By Skydance Games
Can’t wait for another game from the Marvel Disappointment Universe!
Re: Rumour: Ex-Obsidian Dev Suggests Avowed 2 Is On The Cards, But 'No Plans' For Outer Worlds 3
Gosh, no sequel news for a game that’s barely a week old? You don’t say!
But definitely sign me up for Avowed 2. Day one.
Re: The Timing Of Xbox's 25th Anniversary Just Got A Lot More Awkward
I’m so tired of hearing how GTA6 will be the biggest game ever that I’m not even looking forward to it anymore.
I get that it’s a big franchise but please, calling it the biggest video game ever is hyperbolic and premature.
Re: Xbox President Explains Why Microsoft Ditched Its First-Party Handheld
...and the shareholders were thrilled that virtually no money was spent making this thing into a true, proper Xbox but gave the gaming division a reason to issue a press release or two.
And now back to the slow, steady decline of the Xbox brand, already in progress.
Re: Sarah Bond: Our Next-Gen Console Will Be 'Very Premium' & Informed By ROG Xbox Ally
If this is a bad ass gaming PC with a forward/backward compatible Xbox 'layer' then I don't really care what it costs. I'm in regardless.
Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles Is Getting Amazing Reviews So Far
I would 100% buy this right now except that it isn't a Play Anywhere title. Considering literally 95% of what Square Enix is putting out these days IS Play Anywhere, I don't get why the omission here, but it's definitely keeping it off my Xbox, Ally, Cloud, etc. for the time being.
Does it even have cross-save? Doesn't look like it.
Re: Xbox Quietly Releases New 4TB Expansion Card For Series X|S
Based on the high percentage of respondents that own the 2TB card (which is WAY more than I expected) I would venture to guess this will be in higher demand than most think. I'll get one. I love having even my old Xbox One and 360 games on one of these whenever possible. Loading screens are for suckers.
Re: Clockwork Revolution Debuts First-Person RPG Gameplay Ahead Of Xbox Game Pass Release
I had zero interest in this based on the earlier teaser but holy crap did this drop it in first place on my want list. Wow.
Re: Xbox Handheld Is Called 'ROG Xbox Ally', Releases Holiday 2025
Day one buy for me. My Ally is already my favorite gaming device - deeper xbox integration just makes it better I would think.
Re: Reaction: Gears Of War: Reloaded Makes Perfect Sense For Microsoft, But Not For Xbox Fans
Eh, whatever excuse I need to play the originals all over again. I'm here for it. And if bringing in a few million new PS players is a bad thing, then I'm too old to care about petty console wars (and own both anyway so whatever).
Re: Evil Dead: The Game Gets Delisted Across Multiple Storefronts, Xbox To Follow
@Kaloudz Yeah, some kind of licensing thing that I never fully understood. Such a bummer.
Re: Evil Dead: The Game Gets Delisted Across Multiple Storefronts, Xbox To Follow
@Kaloudz Couldn't agree more. Friday the 13th felt ahead of its time and was a blast to play with friends or even strangers. Every copy of it since has felt contrived or somehow inferior. Even Dead by Daylight is all rather meh in my opinion.
Re: Opinion: South Of Midnight Dev Could Become An Xbox Game Studios Gem
I'm still not sure what makes the SoM combat all that much different from the combat in games like Bayonette, but whatever. Either way, my Game Pass subscription has paid for itself with the latest CoD, Indiana Jones, Avowed, and now SoM. I've never been happier with a subscription. I'd like to think we're just now starting to see the fruits of the labor that all of these studio acquisitions have bought; no reason to think it'll end anytime soon.
Re: Xbox's Next-Gen Vision Could Transform How We Look At Consoles In The Future
I'm over the $1000+ incremental bi-annual graphics card updates for PC and I'm REALLY over the console "wars" at this point. What I want is an Xbox that acts like my ROG Ally: all of my Xbox stuff, Steam stuff, Epic Store stuff, and GOG stuff, all in one box. If it has a portable component to it, great, but I'd love a set top box that does all of the above and I've got $800 or more to throw at it. I don't care if its 5090 level graphics because honestly, I can barely tell the difference between my 3xxx card and my 5080. I want 4K60 and I'm happy.
Right now, Game Pass is still by far the best value in gaming for my household. We have every console + PC and the Xbox still absolutely reigns supreme. My kids shrug at the news of the Switch 2 and haven't touched the PS5 in months, but the 8-10 new GP games every month keep them from getting bored. I'm continually amazed at the sheer diversity of titles we're getting for $20/month here. Yeah, a lot of it is indie stuff, but for whatever reason, that "indie stuff" resonates more with my kids than almost any AAA title. The ONLY game we've bought in the past 9 months was Monster Hunter Wilds, all the rest have been on Game Pass.
The future for Xbox is a lot brighter than the average console warrior seems to grasp. I blame Sega vs Nintendo for that mindset. It's time we all moved on, every other industry has.
Re: Square Enix Seemingly Suffered 'Large Losses' With Life Is Strange: Double Exposure
@whmchrish What? You didn't want the FFVII outfit for an additional $20? Or the paw-print jammies or whatever? Yeah, this whole idea that every single game needs three editions at three different price points is absurd. This one was one of the bigger offenders.
Re: Square Enix Seemingly Suffered 'Large Losses' With Life Is Strange: Double Exposure
I love the original Life is Strange and mildly enjoyed the game after it but c'mon, these games are SO similar to one another that whatever uniqueness and originality one might have found in the first is completely lost by the 3rd or 4th game. I distinctly remember rolling my eyes when this was announced, out of sheer fatigue with the whole concept. Just because it was cool once (maybe twice) doesn't mean we need 19 of them. Move on already.
Re: Review: Monster Hunter Wilds (Xbox) - Is It Bigger And Better Than The Rest?
The kids in my house literally have thousands of hours into these games, going all the way back into the 3DS era. I've tried most all of them, starting with a pair of them on PSP to present and the only one that's managed to hook me for any length of time has been Worlds, and even that one only got about a dozen hours out of me. I just don't get it. I really WANT to get it, but I just don't. Something isn't clicking. I'll no doubt try this one too in hopes that this will be the one; I have to buy it for the kiddies anyway.
Re: Xbox Has Officially Delayed Fable Into 2026
Removed
Re: Poll: Xbox Fans, What Review Score Would You Give Avowed So Far?
I'd give it a solid 9/10, if only because the control scheme just feels 'off' to me somehow. Like I can equip a wand in one hand and a spell in the other but when I switch back to a sword I still have a spell equipped that I can't use? Why? And this stops me from blocking? What am I missing? There's been a few irritations like that - all related to the controls. Otherwise I absolutely LOVE this game.
Re: Poll: What Kind Of Review Scores Are You Predicting For Avowed?
@Prestige-worldwide Is your sarcasm meter broken or did you just not have one to begin with?
Re: Poll: What Kind Of Review Scores Are You Predicting For Avowed?
It's an Xbox game, so of course it'll be somewhere in the mid-70s. A like for like PS title would definitely score a 93, win Best Game at the Game Awards and receive a standing ovation from Kojima himself via X/Twitter.
Re: Citizen Sleeper Dev Says Xbox Game Pass Is 'Keeping A Lot Of Indie Studios Going'
@GrumpyMert I've made a game out of counting the number of "I don't like it because like to buy my games!" replies to all of the Game Pass articles. It's amusing how many people seem to think that's some sort of argument. Like, "that's nice, and? you do you, boo."
Personally I end up trying 20x the games I normally would because Game Pass gives me access to them. I don't see an argument to it being a good thing beyond blatant self-righteousness.
Re: Former PlayStation Exec Says 'The Game Is Changing' As Xbox Goes Multiplatform
If people want to buy a PS5,67 whatever and pay $69+ for a game, physical or not, cool - there you go.
If people want to buy an Xbox Whatever and pay $19 a month and just use Game Pass, cool, you have that too.
This whole idea that you're either in the blu-ray or Netflix, digital or physical, PS or Xbox camp is so dated and stupid. The world changed a long time ago - blame Steam if you want to blame anyone. Xbox's biggest crime to date in my mind was still being a decade too early to the inevitable all-digital future with some of the worst messaging ever, way back in 2013. As I sit here and look at my dust-caked PS5, I think "gosh, I'm glad someone somewhere enjoys using these things but I haven't touched mine in ages, and probably won't until Ghosts of Yotei finally comes out." PS is wonderful for those once-a-year PS single player adventure games but that's like 20ish hours of my gaming year. Hanging my hat entirely on that alone ain't gonna happen.
As for Nintendo, we seem to keep forgetting that they've stumbled before (cough, Wii U, cough) and could again. Switch is great I guess, but to be honest, the sheer amount of shovelware on the thing has relegated it to collecting more dust in my house than the Playstation does at this point. I want to play what's next, not yet another Mario side-scroller. Been there, done that.
Re: Xbox Unveils The 'Excellence Awards' And Reveals All The 2024 Winners
@Boogaloo_Jenkins While I don't really care for it, there always seemed to be a LOT of people playing Skull and Bones whenever I tried to play it. Like Star Wars Outlaws, I suspect it's one of those games where the Internet opinions of it didn't match up with reality very much at all. I have a few friends that absolutely love it and have hundreds of hours into it.
Re: Xbox Reveals Ninja Gaiden 4, Coming Day One To Game Pass In Fall 2025
Ridiculously excited for this one.
Re: Rumour: Microsoft Reportedly Chose Buying Studios Over 'Winding Down' Xbox In 2021
@Rodimusprime13 Good sales, sure, but only relative to one another. 20 years on, the entire market is contracting on the console side, despite overall industry growth. The switch has been a big success, no doubt. PlayStation has only been a success measured against Xbox. Failing to improve sales against each of their past console generations is most definitely not something any business would want to hang their hat on. The global population has grown by 25% since PS2 and the gaming portion of that population by an even greater percentage. If anyone thinks Sony is happy to be touting their 2nd Gen console as the best selling when they're 5 generations in, they're crazy. They'll say they are, sure, but that's a PR spin.
Re: Microsoft's 'VP Of Next-Gen' Seems To Think That Xbox Console Hardware Isn't Under Threat
Satya is forever bent at the knee for his shareholders, just like every good CEO should be, and much to the detriment of Xbox fans everywhere.
Like your Windows Phone? Too bad, Satya killed it.
Like your Microsoft Band? That's a shame, it's dead.
Enjoy Surface hardware under Panos? Aw shucks, he's out.
Satya will change his tune depending on the direction of the wind at a moment's notice and not give the first damn about you, your investment in their gaming platform, or anything else.
Unfortunately, he's also responsible for taking Microsoft to heights no one thought possible in the 21st century in a post-Gates world.
Re: Xbox Series X|S Console Sales In Europe Dropped By Almost 50% In 2024
Let's face it, this console generation sort of sucked. I love my Series X and I tolerate my PS5 for a (very small) handful of exclusives, but everyone utterly failed to demonstrate what made this 'next' generation so much better than the last, and COVID certainly didn't help.
Will it improve in the coming years? Probably not, at least not in terms of dedicated hardware. The whole concept of a gaming box is so rooted in the 90's and earlier that its almost absurd. We don't use DVD players, CD players, etc. anymore, so why are we using gaming consoles? I ask this question myself almost constantly, even though I have all of them - and play about 30% of my games via cloud these days via subscription. Do I care about "ownership?" Not really. I care about playing what I want to play, where and when I want to play it. And I'm not in grammar school anymore so honestly, who cares which stupid plastic box is "better?"
Re: Rumour: Microsoft Reportedly Chose Buying Studios Over 'Winding Down' Xbox In 2021
The key to growing Game Pass has virtually nothing to do with console sales and pretty much everything to do with Samsung/LG televisions and Amazon Fire Sticks, etc. As console sales continue to slow for everyone, Xbox will need Game Pass subscribers on other devices in order to have a chance. We keep hearing how amazing it is that the Switch has almost sold as many units as the PS2 but the PS2 was 20 years ago – in other words, a lot of devices have replaced console gaming given the growth in the industry and the increase in the number of people playing games. If Xbox can't find a way to get those people to part with their monthly subscription monies, they're pretty much screwed. Personally I love game pass and I'm glad they kept going but I'm not holding my breath that any of the big 3 are conducting business in 10 years in the same way they are today. The market has just changed too much.
Re: Xbox's Big Surprise For Developer Direct Is Reportedly A Legendary Japanese IP
If this breaks out of the norm and actually IS something like a Phantasy Star V, a Panzer Dragoon Saga 2, or OutRun Coast 2 Coast 2 Coast, I'm going to be WAY happier than a simple "hey, here's FF16 you guys. Enjoy!"
Re: Soapbox: Xbox Should Start Embracing Its Past A Whole Lot More
Rather than microconsoles or more Duke controllers is various colors, I'd like to see AA budget development of some of the classic franchises:
None of these games need $200,000,000 budgets - just smaller teams that love the source material and want to do right by it. They don't need to be open world, or live service elements, or anything else - just give us the 2005 experience in sequel form with 40k60 and some updated gameplay. We'll get Fable and Perfect Dark for the big stuff.