theduckofdeath

Hey — Xbox gave Steel Battalion the green light. That was ballsy.

@Rodimusprime13 That's an appropriate username for the subject matter.

@Dimey You get what you pay for...

I still need to go back to Jedi Survivor.

The plan: Black Myth, Elder Scrolls, Starfield, Mafia.

By Sunday night, I'll realize I didn't get to half of those.

@Fiendish-Beaver I believe you needed at least 3000 series for RTX, and 4000 series for frame generation and DLSS noise reduction.

@Bionic-Spencer In this case, Microsoft is the publisher or the owner of the publisher and developer. The has a platform and that is selling at a 2:1 deficit to their nearest rival. The has a game streaming service whose growth is most closely tied to said platform. This is a bad thing for the Xbox and the people that support them for decades.

All I can say if that this is just a snapshot in time. We have to wait and see how things in the industry unfold. Maybe their plot is to engulf the entire gaming industry. Maybe the goal is to reach some optimal distribution of titles across the available hardware. Maybe it is in part to get the regulators off their backs.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner Timed-exclusivity on one of the most anticipated games of the year is "worthless" without actively advertising the fact? OK. BM is doing Palworld numbers on Steam as we speak. The game advertised itself for 4 years.

Deals take many forms; a company could buy an IP, publishing rights, a stake in a studio, fund development (partially or fully), pay for prioritization, or plain stuff wallets. China would have different practices, rules and regulations than the US or UK. All would have different costs attached and not all may be publicized.

@WhiteRabbit "a YouTuber you say?" Yes, and hence my follow up statement of how people find them selectively credible. He didn't say, "I heard a rumor," he quoted the head of Xbox. He named a source, and a prominent one. Microsoft's statement on the Black Myth delay gives his comment great credence.

Something changed late in the game. BM has been hyped up for 3-4 years now. There was no need whatsoever to remove the Xbox platform from the Black Myth website. Plenty of games are delayed and don't scrub mentions of a platform. BG3 was "delayed indefinitely" and did not do this.

Sony's M.O. is leveraging third-parties through paid exclusives, attempting to starve out the competition, and sneakiness. These are the people who fought cross-platform play, and when they finally agreed, charged publishers a penalty 90% of profit from transactions did not come from PS platform. They didn't advertise that loudly; it was reveal in an email leak.

Sony 3rd party deals are not always shouted from the rooftops; they always attempt to kept people in the dark about the duration and specifics. NTM, "moneyhatting" isn't cheap, and they have been busy this year. Hey; at least there's Silent Hill 2 coming.

@WhiteRabbit Sony Playstation are serial "moneyhatters" so why wouldn't they be suspected? You can roll back through each year and revisit how they block popular games from PC and Xbox pathologically. Start with the first half of this year. Sony is sneaky with it and obscures the duration of timed-exclusivity. They are sinister with it and a pestilence.

A YouTuber flat out said Sarah Bond alluded to Sony paying for exclusivity/prioritization on Black Myth. Though, I guess those guys are only credible when it is a negative Xbox rumor they're spouting. Soon after, MS themselves commented on how they "cannot comment on the deals made between their partners and other platform holders." Additionally, all mention of the Xbox version of Black Myth was removed from the game's website. Why would a delay make erasure necessary?

Playing Black Myth on PC. I started late last night and only got through the opening and into the first area. The graphics and presentation are impressive. Performance is pretty good so far.

The 24-hour Steam concurrent player peak is 2,223,179 players.

This would be nice to see.

BTW, Final Fantasy XVI just went up on Steam. Sept. 17 release.

@GuyinPA75 I finished Atomic Heart and really liked it. There were some great boss fights along with puzzle bunkers with great loot.

I will say that I did get stuck in aloop when above ground, killing tons of flying buzzsaw drones. If I spent 30% or more of my playtime killing those things, that would not be surprising. Whack-a-mole can be addicting.

I completed Mafia on PC back when it originally launched. The race mission was tough for a lot of people. Windows-compatible controllers were a toss up back then. I've fired up the remaster on Game Pass and it's fun to play through again.

@TheSimulator There is not much point in speculation as we as not privy to the overwhelming portion of the facts. MS is not going to tell us as the financials and other studio factors.

@Scummbuddy The current Switch may have difficulty running even a stripped down version. HFR is a rhythm game so the framerate has to be consistent.

I will get Black Myth for PC. There are some reservations in my mind. It's been a long wait.

UPDATE: The Benchmark bodes well for my machine.

At 3440x1440 res, super res 75%, DLSS + Frame Gen, DX12

Max settings with ray tracing:
75 FPS avg, 89 max, 64 min, 66 lower 5th percentile

Max settings without ray tracing:
101 FPS avg, 117 max, 29 min, 91 lower 5th percentile

@JayJ Yes. Similar to Redfall. Microsoft got blamed and somehow Arkane Austin and Bethesda took no heat from the media. All MS could have done different is cancel it. Sinking another year of development cost into it with no return would have been wasteful.

@oliverp Krafton shuttered Striking Distance after The Callisto Protocol did not perform at retail, so these guys as are not about running a non-profit, either.

@GuyinPA75 OK, so right off the bat, you are losing 4 days in transit on any game. Twenty-three dollars a month for two games at a time...and that is a total of two movies or games, correct?

"Indie Pass," as you call it, offers hundreds of Xbox games SIMULTANEOUSLY on console, PC, and cloud. You can play a new game as fast as you can download (or stream). Twenty-dollars a month for Ultimate and you get access to everything. That includes additional savings on all game purchases and other perks.

Payment options are incomparable. Xbox Live could be converted to Game Pass Ultimate, up to three years at a time. Personally, I've been on XBL nonstop for 22 years, so converting to GPU at the same price only added value. MS Rewards points allow you to extend that further. My membership has continued past the 3-year expiration in June 2023. The current expiration date is 12/26/2026.

The only advantage of SlowFly that you can rent any game (provided the title and a copy is available) for any console. A $5 discount when buying their dirty, booger smeared used games, is not worth it. At least when Blockbuster was around, you could use a similar mailer service and return the movies/games to the store. They scan them as returned and the mailers act as coupons for in-store rentals. Meanwhile, the next items in your queue were shipped.

@GuyinPA75 I would imagine you are in the extreme minority there. How much does your GameFly tier cost per month? How are the games delivered? Through the post office mail? What's the travel time, to & fro? How many titles can you hold at once?

@OldGamer999 Maybe it is a sale on PS? At different points in time, certain titles are better deals on one console or the other.

@OldGamer999 "Then again COD sells loads more on PC and PlayStation, so it might not hurt to much."

There's that, along with Xbox people who will still purchase the game, those that will purchase the $30 upgrade, and those that'll buy battle passes and other MTX for CoD games.

Launching into Game Pass wouldn't be sensible for Take Two. Certainly not for GTA or NBA2K. This is an odd question to ask Zelnick.

@Aniscape That's not happening. Even cable TV has ads.

This is a very classic PC game and if I had more time, I would give it a shot. Unfortunately, I'm old.

@datamonkey My bad — I meant to write $1.4 trillion, not billion.

@BacklogBrad Similar situation here. I walked away prior to Advanced Warfare, though not due to some CoD-hatred. I had tried MWII during the demo/beta period and had a lot of fun with randos in MP & DMZ. So, I had been considering returning to CoD for a couple years (holding off for the inevitable Game Pass drop).

A couple days ago I beat the MWIII campaign on Game Pass. Interestingly, only 4% of players have completed the campaign, and only 0.20% completed the campaign on Veteran.

@Feffster Quake III Arena? That game came out my first year out of college! I'm 47. Then again, they did put out Quake I and II remasters recently.

@NEStalgia I don't agree with that assessment. While I walked away from CoD years ago, I've always played a wide variety of games. I've played on multiple devices (consoles, computers/PC) all my life. The same reasons pushed me away from CoD and Assassin's Creed — life and series annualization. Destiny had to be abandoned due to the time commitment.

Right now, the MWIII campaign is in my rotation and I'm having a great time. I plan to jump into MP, too. I played the demo period of the previous CoD and that helped to reignite interest.

I will give these a try at least. I was 17 when PS1 launched and never really cared for Crash outside of mascot/commercial duties.

@datamonkey You guys DO realize that Microsoft's market cap went up $1.4 trillion during the duration of the ABK trial...right? That's 14 Sony's added to their 20 Sony's at the start (to provide some perspective).

The points are cents and fractions of cents that add up over time. It is meant to save you a few bucks, "organically." You get points for playing games, you don't play games to get points. Many of us approach it as the latter. The rewards should be just that, and an additional "little push" to get Xbox and Game Pass players to play daily.

@Ooccoo_Jr Selling on rival platforms is not some cure-all. They could have done that 20+ years ago. You have far more competition to contend with, for one. Third party titles now include all those that were blocked from Xbox.

You're entering a hostile environment and some users may see your titles as pariah. Dev teams would need to expand to develop more titles for Sony (and soon Nintendo). More foreign dev kits would be needed. Returns would at best be 70% of the sales price of each unit. Perhaps worst of all you may become beholden or coupled to the rival.

@JoakimZ I'm about 3-5 hours into AWII, fifteen minutes into BG3, and I'm haven't started Armored Core 6, yet. All of which I bought at or near launch. That's just for starters.

@OldGamer999 "Xbox needs their GOWR, Uncharted 4, BOTW and Mario Odyssey and not good average games."

I would say that is false narrative that has perpetuated. The Sony games focus heavily on narrative and cinematic presentation far beyond gameplay. Nintendo is games are the default safe games for children and are exalted by some nostalgic adults. As for the next Doom, had it been Xbox exclusive, it would have been knocked for it.

@themightyant

Thanks. I never heard of NSO.

"Game Pass prices will not increase as a result of the Merger,.."

The price was always going to go up. The merger took two years to complete and the FTC is still being a nuisance. It may happen again in as much time. Game Pass is a lot more than CoD or ABK games.

"...and certainly will not increase to a point that offsets the substantial benefits of Activision titles coming to Game Pass on a day and date basis"

That section is true. It is actually a clarification of the first part of the sentence. Essentially, "The price probably won't go up as a direct result of the merger and any price increase will not exceed the value added by the ABK catalog." I already own D4 on PC, though I am having fun with MWIII now.

We are talking about a $2-$3 increase. Skip fast food for lunch one day a month, and that just about covers the price of Game Pass Ultimate. The increase only affect new customers and people who pay month-to-month.

There are also MS Rewards points, which renders the hardship argument largely moot. I was on Xbox Live uninterrupted since 2002s so converting to 3 years of GPU was a steal. My membership has been fueled by rewards points since and is good to 2027 and counting.

@somnambulance What is "NSO"?

@themightyant You can't expect it to be "to the letter" an exact experience in every way. The FTC can't hold Microsoft or any company to the absurd questions. They were just asking a bunch of unreasonable questions in an attempt to scrape together a case.

I beat the original on PC so long ago. That was a great era for PC. This could be fun to check out. Now I've got a controller for that racing mission. 😄

I uninstalled MK1 a couple months ago because of the size and lack of playtime. Ideally, I'd like to keep all fighting games installed. Capacity meant it was time to make some cuts. I have the 1 TB cards and some SSDs. If the 2 TB card ever goes on sale for under $200, I might consider a purchase.

They start you in that Battle Pass sector map, so it took me a few minutes to find the menu with the campaign. The tile was also all the way to the right, with the MP tiles on the left (which was odd). I already had the launcher install, though I handed played at all on console since the CoD before this one.

I don't particularly like the names or the naming convention when considered in total. However, I don't have much confidence in anyone who would be "confused" by them. Cars have models that are close and people have phone numbers that are close. If you can't differentiate than god help you.

@Kevw2006 Yeah, I think it comes down to a few biases that do not allow the reviewers to evaluate the game itself:

1. MS won and acquired ABK 😢
2. "Consolidation is bad!" fearmongering
3. Call of Duty is "too popular"
4. Call of Duty is "too successful"
5. Bobby Kotick "won"
6. The campaign is not the normal fleshed out standard
7. "I'd rather be playing Mario or Zelda"-anything types

These sites thought the game or ABK needed to be punished. The reviews were their version of review bombing. An attempt to "send a message." It didn't work. No reasonable person would think MWIII was actually a 4/10.

@InterceptorAlpha The FTC scenario wasn't that simple. Their lawyer asked a series of questions that were unreasonable, until the judge stopped them. They were trying to block the acquisition for glory, not protect consumers.

Many people here are ignoring the facts of the matter. A lawyer's question can't handcuff a company to never change a service or increase prices. When Game Pass console was announced, it was widely ridiculed for being "pointless." Now everyone desperately wants to keep it?

@IOI The FTC are just lawyers and all they care about is winning a case against big tech here. Their argument remains poor, and they are misrepresenting the facts to slap something together. This isn't water, electric, or housing — it's videogames. VIDEOGAMES. Even worse, they chose to focus on one.

The scenario (1a) they presented was that MS would make ABK games exclusive to Xbox "harm" Sony. The next hypothetical (1b) was a huge price increase for Call of Duty, Game Pass and XCloud to "extort" people. This would be highly effective because as we all know, humans need CoD to live. They also asked if MS would do several things that Sony has done for a decade regarding the Call of Duty.

The ABK deal will have been closed for 12 months by the time the next Call of Duty arrives. Starfield, Forza, and STALKER will be in the service with Avowed and Indy's arrivals imminent. The service was always going to undergo a price increase (ABK or no ABK) and restructuring.

@GeeEssEff Whether you personally "don't like those games" or think they arrived in the service too late is of no relevance. It has no bearing on whether or not MS should be clear to acquire ABK. That has nothing to do with "protecting the consumer." Any game in the service is for sale outside of Game Pass, an optional service.

@x3King84 "Let’s be honest, most rumours have been right."

I wouldn't say that — the media and general internet denizens are manufacturing rumors incessantly. Some of them have to be true.

@EvenStephen7 I agree, for the most part. Twisted Metal was pretty dumb. Watchable, but dumb. It was something I put on and didn't bother to sit in front of the TV the whole time. It belongs in the Halo bucket, not with the other two.

The way things are going, the FTC better pad their resumes before October. Why don't these guys go after cable companies?