theduckofdeath

I'm good for 2+ years. Regardless, I would not be leaving; the price would have to jump way higher, and they can't hit that level safely.

For the record, I agree that the 50% jump was abrupt and clumsy. Personally, $10 a month is negligible, but a company can't make such a huge jump in a service price without friction and turmoil. Better to split it up "$3, $3, $3" or "$5, $5" over years.

What is sad is that so many of you are still focused on console sales, in 2025, on an Xbox site. "Growth" means increase in total presence. They're apparently making more money and more partnerships in Asia.

They don't make money on console sales; they are likely still losing money on each console sold. Xbox sought out other avenues to sell their games. Why put a $500 barrier at every turn between you and the customer? There's already the cultural barrier in Asia.

I bought it on Steam, not realizing it was Play Anywhere on Xbox.

@SeaDaVie Yeah. For starters, if you examine the APU, the Series X has 16 more Compute units which are full RDNA2. The CPU is a faster version in the same class.

@somnambulance Expedition 33 was about the dangers of grief after tremendous loss. That was conveyed expertly throughout. Even when you know learn the truth, it only deepens your understanding of the despair the family has sunken into. The quest how holds up a mirror to it. The game is the total package and its development has the "underdog team shows up the big dogs", "David vs. Goliath" spirit the media loves, to boot.

The Writers faction is not missing — it simply a smaller budgeted game. We've seen this in plenty of games and even movies & TV. The game is focused on the realm of Lumiere.

As for the gameplay, are we really going to choose now to indict a game on using gameplay elements seen somewhere else before? Every PS game from Uncharted on through Astrobot is using gameplay (and story) elements distinctly seen somewhere else before. That certainly didn't hold them back in the eyes of the media.

Did Nintendo even develop the Mario & Luigi series you mentioned? Sea of Stars also has some similar mechanics, and that game is beloved by many. Similarities were not a held against it. My favorite part of that game was finding and defeating opponents in the "Wheels" board game.

I'll be playing all the games you mentioned at some point this year. Well, except for DS2 and the Nintendo titles. Silksong is excellent; I'm currently playing through on Steam Deck and Xbox. While I bought Hades 2 some time ago (May of last year), I haven't gotten around to starting it.

I use an Elite on PC, and it has not changed for me. Windows is up to date. The Xbox app is up to date (external Delta). Short tap brings up the game bar, long press does nothing, holding down shutdown the controller.

@Lup Ninja Gaiden 2 Black was fantastic. The story in the series doesn't matter much — there are demon lords coming to take over Earth, and Ryu must stop them. I've got to go back and finish OG Ninja Gaiden Black.

@somnambulance Expedition 33 is a fantastic game that nails graphics, story & sentiment, mood, gameplay, presentation, music. I think others have said as much. The game world is in a dire state, and your unlikely team of saviors have a true purpose. It deserves GoTY. Keighley will give it to Donkey Kong. LOL

I thought this happened already...or the auto-redeem became a worse deal than manually redeeming 12000 points for 1-month of G.P.U.

@Sol76 A "couple" means two. Nothing is getting dropped in two or even three years. No platform holder is doing backwards compatibility and game preservation better.

Low-hanging fruit:

• Better organization of inventory
• Beefier weapon reports
• Captain's log (record visited planets & dates, outposts, minerals found)
• Flight stick support

Mid-tier requests:

• Gore system
• New damage decals & events appropriate for the weapon/ammunition
• Shatter visors on headshots/criticals
• Gore
• More animations
• Gore
• New ship components (reposition doors, stairs, brigs)
• New creatures, enemies, factions

Longshots

• VR support for piloting ships
• Rework locations to be more varied and unique
• Supercruise speed for ship travel
• Space hazards (black holes, small, fast-moving debris, radiation)
• Hull breaches
• EVA
• Enemy boarding attempts (get captured?)
• Jailbreaks on ship
• Build space stations
• More danger
• Revamped faces (gussy up some of those NPCs)
• Attempt to remove some loading screens..?

@Fiendish-Beaver Yes, we don't know if the next consoles will support them. There could a faster variant next gen, or the ability to install PC NVMe SSD boards, or both. Ditching the port altogether would save some cost. We'll have to wait and see.

@Fiendish-Beaver There is a 4TB card. it is $430, so not really worth it.

@VeganH Well, it's Windows — you can start multiple games simultaneously, they're applications. The user is expected to be aware and competent. On Series X, they go into hibernation (available in Quick Resume). Maybe that will come over.

The UI stuff I'm not worried about. They're working on it.

@BAMozzy Yes, time is limited between work and life. Many of us have deep backlogs that may never worked through...well, we may never get to play all the games we had interest in when we acquired them. Yet, we don't play games in chronological order. I'm still only a few hours into Elden Ring, despite completing over a dozen games and playing far more since its release.

However, you disagreed with the assessment of your tastes in games as "narrow", then you proceeded to list a litany of genres you don't have interest in. Deservingly popular games and genres. Game Pass isn't quite a rental service, more curated offering of games, with new titles added every month (all MS owned releases included), and some third-party titles rotating out.

It won't have every game released available for installation. Anyone subscribing to Game Pass and commenting on it online knows this. So, if you're aware of the service's content model, and you know you possess selective tastes, wouldn't you imagine the majority of months out of each year wouldn't have something for you?

@BAMozzy It sounds like you have a narrow interest in games. Game Pass is putting out great games all year; if you don't have an interest in the vast majority of games (on or off the service) then that is no indictment of the service.

Regarding exclusivity — after everything that has happened in the last two years, it seems as though you are sticking to the "force every game behind the console at all costs" mindset. That's over — these companies can't justify it anymore.

This game is pretty fun. Great on Steam Deck, just sitting down to play while watching TV (or just to pick up and 30 minutes or so).

Is any DLC on Game Pass? Don't be unreasonable (especially for clicks).

Yes, I bought the upgrade pre-release last year, and the DLC is included.

There's going to be another Xbox console because 30+ million people are console customers. All they daily trepidation is absurd and a waste of time. People have fallen prey to a media and YTbers who profit from rumormongering. What's ultimately inside the box (either software or hardware) is largely irrelevant; the worrywarts don't understand the technology either way.

@Fiendish-Beaver Yes, you can download and install PC games from any PC store on the device. It is an upgraded RoG Ally. All modern XB1 --> Series games from Microsoft are Play Anywhere (dual entitlement, cross-save, cross-play). Many third-party games are increasingly featuring Play Anywhere.

• Download and install PC games
• Stream games from console
• Stream games from PC (multiple methods)
• Stream games from XCloud (or any other service e.g. GeForce Now)
• Play Game Pass games

@Spider-Kev These will have lower compute than both, I would imagine. At least when on battery. You can place them in a dock which has HDMI to the TV. If you don't use a dock (the site says the "charger stand" is included), then you would need a USB-C to HDMI cable.

I'm there, day one. Just tell me when preorders will open.

I've completed GoW1 5-6 times. The first one is my favorite, for whatever reasons. Same for Halo CE — multiple playthrough. Snake Eater and Subsistence have also had the distinction of 5-6 playthroughs.

Not really my m.o., though certain games at a certain time in my life were great for replaying. The CoD2 campaign is way up there, too.

@G1lbo I think it was Parris that said (years ago) that the Ascent was too difficult to play solo. I stopped playing for other reasons. One day I hope to return to the game and see how difficult it is. My time playing didn't get too crazy.

@VoidPunk How so? Just play the Windows store version. I do it every day. It's called "Play Anywhere". Are you talking about 360 games?

There is a video explicitly confirming the ODST crossover this morning. Two Helljumper skins, assault rifle and shotgun, first person mode.

The Xbox controllers provide great battery life (so far) either way. I've used Eneloops since the XB1, so I just swap when the current batteries die. The Elite can be plugged in when it gets low.

Steam Deck was my first handheld, period. Outside of those one-game static LCD Nintendo devices from the early eighties. They never appealed to me. The Gameboy was released when I was about 11 and the technology did not impress me.

@EVIL-C I could see it (MAYBE) after Xbox has a couple more highly profitable years.

Pick a small team (e.g. 5 people) to assess what can be salvaged. Select a single leader/producer who is open to new ideas. Use a commercial engine if you weren't already. Map out the base gameplay and a handful of levels before greenlighting the project and ramping up staff (or hiring/assigning a studio).

I picked this up on GMG for $42.

@JayJ It's not that simple.

Proper payment functionality is critical. You can't just put up a web site and start taking people's credit card info and money. There are legal approvals and paperwork that take time. The site switched to a different payment method, so that means a new payment partner (negotiation, rates, contracts), backend coding & testing, etc. Could be MS had a falling out with a previous partner.

I worked at a relatively small SaaS company that built solutions for hotel management and offered a customizable booking engine. We had a small team working on Stripe integration, and that took most of the 12 months I was working there. Microsoft has thousands of engineers, but that doesn't mean they toss more and more at each task. Other changes to the site could have been completed without downtime.

"No reason has been provided for why it was offline all this time"

There was an orange banner across the top of the page the whole time, saying the service was down due to a switch to a different payment system in the backend. You could build/design a controller during the downtime (as I did), you just could not pay for it.

Shinobi demo
Ninja Gaiden: Rage bound
NRFTW
Tony Hawk 3+4
RoboCop
Grounded
Undisputed
UFC 5
Wuchang

@huroma No, the comparisons are year over year. Sales are down could be down a 1/4 (for example) versus the same quarter during the previous year. It's not a half-life.

The Series consoles will be 5 years old in November, and the next gen is coming 1-2 years from that point.

@MonsterMike I'm pretty sure it was more common about 15 years ago for PC, back when there was still some physical presence in stores.

@Gabrie I wouldn't buy into the rhetoric. The internet has no shortage of negative Nancys, opportunists, and the fearful attempting to disparage Xbox. MS has a vested interest in their own stores and their own platform & services. There is a clear, daily profit motive for many, whether they are PS sites & channels or claim to be Xbox-focused.

@Gabrie Well, the Xbox games (Windows and console) have unified an achievement system. There are a few instances where you could double dip, otherwise, you can trip an achievement from console or app.

As far as the exterior stores, isn't the major plus found in having access to them? The implication being that following this handheld effort, legacy Xbox console games may come to PC and these outside stores may come to the console? Linking outside achievements to the Xbox system seems trivial in comparison.

Exterior store & platform integration is cool (GoG has been doing it for a while). The Windows Xbox app is using the list icons instead of larger tile icons, so they're blown up and as a result, blurry. A cosmetic flaw, but MS needs to fix that soon, regardless.

@Gabrie You want all the stores to have unified achievements? That is of course possible, but a lot of unnecessary coordination. Steam store has their own achievements. I don't play enough games or frequently enough on Epic or GoG to know/remember if they support any form of achievements. UPlay/UbiConnect has something similar. I'm not sure about EA Play.

This is not a realistic scenario. As long as we are fantasizing, make it at least version 5.6 and the entire studio along with the industry are well-versed in it. This would have made development go smoother (and quicker). The bigger issue was an inability to get new maps and content out, along with network issues making some matches frustrating.

@Kraven OK. I get that the "pop" or however you would describe it could feel like an extra reward for finding something, clearing a puzzle, or beating a boss. The in-game and post-game acknowledgements and weapons unlocks in CoD and Battlefield, for example.

In my case, I don't take much stock in achievements/trophies beyond the natural encounters with them. I play every game on the hardest difficulty level (except for permadeath most times) and play through once, with rare exceptions. Some achievements are predictable (10 headshots, 10 stealth kills), and besides, I naturally will search around a map for secret items or encounters.

I don't ever use guides, google solutions, or look up the achievement list. My approach is to just play and whatever happens, happens.

Looking up where to find each item and then taking the time to collect them is just not something I'm going to do. Discovering stuff on my own is fun and more fulfilling. The achievement side of it holds like relevance for me.

I guess that's why I've only found about 5-6 skulls in the entire Halo series.

What kind of question is that? The point is that the advantages of Smart Delivery are transparent.

@Kraven What is it you like about Trophies? Or Achievements, for that matter?

I still buy a ton of games on Xbox, Steam, and other PC stores; new & old. Probably, too many games. Yesterday, it was a few Castlevania games on Xbox. If a game is Play Anywhere and not on Game Pass, then I will buy it from the Xbox store.

Titles like SoM and STALKER 2 were purchased, regardless. Hell, I bought STALKER 2 Ultimate Edition on Steam and Xbox, despite being a member of GP Ultimate.

The only purchase I remember making from the Xbox movie store was the Candyman remake. Maybe I have some movie or TV show that was gifted. All my digital TV & movie purchases/rentals are from Prime and VUDU.

Rumor has it the Everwild team could not lockdown the gameplay loop. The title was given several years to be completed, and a cancellation leads one to believe the game was not just a year out.

Consider how many games either "borrow" or are "inspired" by an existing popular game's mechanics or decide to adopt them during development. Shadow of Mordor with Arkham combat, Uncharted with Gears of War combat (then Uncharted to TLoU), etc. My impression is that the Everwild team couldn't settle on something new or proven that fit their world design and lost time there.

Similarly, Perfect Dark development was painted with rumors of infighting and lack of a cohesive team or direction. Design time ran long and cut into dev time, apparently. Neither game truly materialized, so I'm more inclined to believe some of the hearsay.

@somnambulance They sell electronic products. If it entertains you or provides utility at an affordable price, you buy it. I don't know what the layoffs of $80 billion (earmarked at the start of year by Satya, not spent) for AI has anything to do with a product. A myriad of companies are experiencing layoffs (in and out of tech).

Tony Hawk 3+4 and finishing up Clair Obscur.

I am a fan of the game who stepped away to...play other games. My playtime was about 20 days (game save, little fluff). There are many vocal detractors many of whom never played the game and who are sour, disingenuous people.

Keeping expectations grounded, I would like to see the next update come with game mechanic additions and tweaks. There are some low-hanging fruit that could be tackled. We have grown accustomed to CoD and Destiny head-pop and "reward sounds." Starfield could do with more graphic violence.

Ninja Gaiden Black, Breakdown, SFIII.

I am also playing through Dead to Rights again (don't judge me).