themightyant

I initially only played the intro, got out the sewers and went straight to the mages guild. I was initially impressed visually, even if there were a few stutters. But reading the amount of bugs some people are getting makes me less likely to go back. Many are quest blocking bugs on top of performance that gets worse the longer you play - an old BGS issue.

What’s really frustrating is many of these bugs have existed for 20 years that they haven’t fixed them… but modders have, it’s not impossible, they just don’t want to put in the effort. That says it all.

Looking forward to this. I have MANY questions. Top of the list is will it natively play Steam, Epic, Amazon, etc. PC games with no hoops to jump through.

@TrollOfWar Hmmm. That's an interesting take I hadn't considered. I wonder what the benefits would be for Microsoft though, it's usually done either when a division is growing fast or failing, neither fit here. And usually the parent company takes a hit (see Ubisoft), I don't see what Microsoft necessarily would gain.

Also Sharma has talked a lot about bringing things together, standardising things, so that pushes against that idea.

But it's not impossible. Interesting idea.

She talks a good talk, now I look forward to seeing what ACTIONS she will put in place to try and turn it around. Wishing her luck.

Hardware down 33% is on top of it being down 3 years in a row. Sales much be a trickle by now. While sales were expected to be down 33% is yet another huge decline YoY.

Satya pulling out “record players”, no wonder Asha said daily players was their new top goal… she probably has performance related bonuses tied to that KPI... likely counting multiplatform players too.

However it does feel like they have turned a corner, I look forward to seeing where it leads, but don’t expect miracles.

Reminding me of Secret of Mana with that ring system too.

Looking absolutely fabulous... except the combat, that looks a bit *****.

Hmmm. I was hoping for a bit more. I like Don't Nod but they are a bit hit and miss.

It's also not the result they needed after Banishers and Lost Records seemingly underperformed.

86-92. Plus points: Japan, graphics and slightly better progression.

Negative points, feels too familiar, few music tracks, grass pop-in.

User scores 5-10+ points lower stating samey-ness to FH3,4,5

It's all very obvious... and yet it's about as open and transparent as I've heard a leader discuss console launch dates this far ahead of time. There's one thing to know it and another to hear them say it. Liking this approach.

That's a very modern day reimagining of the OG Xbox logo.

Fully agree. Consistency is key, it takes time to turn perception around

While the dull "Xbox is dead" mantra some kept parroting boorishly was always hyperbole, so is this idea that Xbox is suddenly transformed and completely revived after just a few PR statements, it just doesn't work like that. But it does feel like the winds of change are happening, that's great, it's been a strong start to a new Era, long may it continue.

If they can keep being clear in their messaging and then, FAR more importantly, follow through with their actions then Xbox will start to be perceived differently given time. If they can keep it up for 12+ months without constantly flip-flopping and without stepping on rakes after every positive announcement they will go into into next gen with some momentum. But for now it's a positive start, nothing more.

If it's a good game, and if I want to replay it yes I'll buy it again.

Additionally there are so many games I missed first time around and a remake or remaster gives a second go at pushing it up your list.

@Fiendish-Beaver Really sorry to hear all that dude, wishing you the best of luck with it all.

@Kaloudz Not bad dude. Life OK. Gaming busy, can't complain. Just hadn't seen you around here for a while and wanted to check you were A-OK.

Excited to see what changes a new era of Xbox might bring. It does feel like fresh winds of change right now, long may that last.

@InfamousOrange that’s if you believe Phil and his team still had their hands on the tiller. Personally I think they did a pretty good job up to ABK, but post-ABK Xbox took a hard right turn and I believe Satya & Amy Hood were steering far too much.

Obviously Phil & Co had to deal with the day to day and individual decisions, but I think they were on a very short leash and being strongly led. It’s clear Asha has a FAR more free reign.

It's a 10 from me! Yes there are some small flaws but these pale in comparison to the joy I had playing it. Wonderful game. Genre and generation defining.

@GuyinPA75 I think knocking £6 a month, almost 30% of Game Pass Ultimate was a pretty big ACTION already under Sharma's reign.

Of course that may have been the trajectory they were always heading on as the COD experiment failed.

• Year 1 they added COD to Game Pass and subscriptions reportedly didn't increase long term and they made less money than they expected.
• Year 2 they added £72 to the price and it reportedly backfired. Anecdotally is seems a lot of people unsubscribed, or lowered their tier. We've heard leaks saying similar.

I think even if Phil was still in charge it might have come down.

@Booloon A big pull of essential is the online play, but this makes no mention of that (other than cloud) so I am wondering if they are making online play free and replacing Essential.

I'm wondering if this will replace Essential and they will just make playing online free. Too many options is confusing for consumers.

It looks really good and is definitely a nod to the past. That said it only works for those that know what it is already. Having the words "Xbox" made it clearer for others. If I showed my sister she's have no idea what it was, it's not ubiquitous like Nike's tick.

As for adding to the dashboard, just make an official background it REALLY shouldn't take that long, and if it does then your processes need fixing and you can add that to the list.

Lots of great game. Really Enjoyed Escape Academy 1 so that's a highlight.

Just caught up. B+. Plenty of games I want to play and most on Game Pass. Chris Charla and his ID@Xbox team are really great at finding, and supporting, great looking games.

Missed it live but LOTS of great looking games there. Most on Game Pass FTW. Keep it up Chris Charla and ID@Xbox

I suspect not a lot will change with regards to exclusivity, perhaps a few more exclusives and more timed exclusivity as I said on the other post. Gears E-Day will be interesting.

I just can’t see them making a profit on most AAA games on Xbox + PC alone, as PC players typically buy different games and PlayStation is around half their sales for many titles.

But they are doing some unexpected things, just imagine if EVERYTHING was made exclusive, if Asha convinces Satya to fund many of the games at a loss for a few years in order to strengthen the brand in the run up to next gen so that when Helix arrives people really have a decision to make. Stranger things have happened.

I just read the whole statement. It sounds great and I’m excited, it feels like a clear blueprint for what to expect. But I also prefer to judge their actions, not words, so I look forward to seeing how they deliver on this. But it’s a strong step. 👏👏👏

@Kaloudz Not seen you in a while. Hope all’s good. Agree the “Xbox will be built to be affordable” is interesting, I wonder how they will achieve this. Helix S, Cloud, cheaper Series X|S?

This is another breath of fresh air, it really does feel like she is listening and turning the brand perception around. Love to see it.

At the same time words mean little, I’m looking forward to seeing more ACTIONS and what all this corporate word salad actually translates to.

E.g. if the next Xbox is going to be affordable how are they going to do that? Lower end Helix S, Cloud or something else?

Combat looks like a really good upgrade, it wasn't great in the original.
Non-failing tailing missions too. All in all looks pretty great. Though personally I will miss the DLC, Freedom Cry.

@Vordus True, but communication is also just ACTION, I put far more weight on what they actually do than any hints and rumours.

We all knew COD entering Game Pass was going to jack up prices whatever Microsoft said to get the deal through - and it did. Thankfully this failed.

What's crazy is you can now get Game Pass Ultimate AND buy COD for £70 and STILL save money on the old pricing, at least in the UK. It's £72 a year less now. Or just save £72 if you don't like COD.

@ILuvGames it’s missing games because developers have to want to publish there not just on Steam or Epic. The good news is they ARE putting a lot of effort into this. At GDC this year they were very strongly pushing their new publishing tools which will enable developers to publish to the Xbox store and others more easily. They were also reportedly offering incentives to devs to do so. Hopefully they take them up and this is better next gen.

@Cakefish Completely agree. As consumers what have we seen on Game Pass for $69 billion? VERY little.

By my reckoning in almost 3 years since the deal completed the only new Day 1 ABK Games have been: Call of Duty BO6&7 & THPS 3+4. And a trickle of older ABK games.

At least Zenimax has given us Indiana Jones, Starfield, Doom: The Dark Ages, Hi-Fi Rush, Psychonauts 2, Redfall, ESIV Oblivion Remastered, Heretic + Hexen, Doom 1+2, and a lot more older titles.

Though it's possible I missed something.

With the Game Pass price drop yesterday many more things seem possible imo. I was surprised by the speed from Asha's statement the week earlier that "Game Pass cost too much" to ACTION. Would love to see this, though it could easily become too convoluted. Much harder to do well. Keep it up!

@Cakefish Indeed. Additionally during the ABK takeover Microsoft said they wouldn't increase the price of Game Pass for COD... yet they did, as evidenced by knocking £6 a month off (£72 a year) by just taking just one game off the service annually.

I completely agree

Old leadership should be embarrassed.

I think that's less on old leadership than it was on Satya Nadella & Amy Hood who post ABK tried to steer the Xbox ship and did it unsuccessfully. We saw several huge changes of policy that didn't fit with what had gone before and read about things like studios being squeezed for 30% profit margins. It didn't work.

Instead Satya had a clear out and has put someone in charge he seems to have given full control to turn it around. So while this is good for us I don't think the old leadership is fully to blame as much as heads of Microsoft.

@GeminiX53 Atomfall. I'd love to hear how you get on it's on my backlog, but I buy too many games, on top of game pass etc. and there's never enough time for them all.

I understand we don't see eye-to-eye on Game Pass and the moment I see data that suggests it hurts more than it helps (not just one off isolated cases) i'll agree, but until then I am not going to assume anything. As I said I think there's far more harmful things like F2P and TikTok affecting gaming, you feel differently, that's ok.

Now i'm actually off
Have a good one.

@GeminiX53 Do I buy a lot less? On Xbox probably yes, but then I have a PS5 Pro so that is my lead platform currently.

But even if I only had an Xbox and STILL bought less what does that prove? That you have more money to spend? That you have more free time and play more games? It's not exactly scientific. More a childish **** measuring contest.

I know, across platforms, I spend thousands a year on gaming so all I will say is I am contributing more than enough to this industry. I don't need to compare what I spend v you or anyone else, and doing so certainly doesn't prove whether Game Pass is a blight on the industry.

Have a good evening, i'm off to game. Hope you enjoy whatever you play tonight.

@GeminiX53 Because I just am not convinced Game Pass is the devil you seem to think it is. IF I saw any data that changes that I'll change my opinion, but the charting rank on one game is evidence of nothing. Some games sell better on some platforms. We can all cherry pick data to support an argument, but that helps no one.

It's why the very FIRST thing I did was ask if you had any data to back it up. You said no. And yet you are convinced it's had a detrimental effect. Why? It's a genuine question. What convinces you it's had such an impact with no firm data.

I think the difference is I am willing to accept I might be wrong, if there was data to support it, whereas you are convinced you are right with no solid data. That doesn't work for me, but I respect you feel differently.

@GeminiX53 What are the Pragmata sales numbers? I haven't seen those... do we actually have sales numbers??? And even if we did, it's one game, that may not appeal to the more dude-bro Xbox audience.

I'm not dismissing it completely, it might be true, I just don't think we currently have any data to support that. You are just going on gut feeling. That isn't "clearly" imo, it's "possibly".

I'm willing to be swayed, but I have seen no factual evidence to support it. And as I said there are dozens of other factors for why games and studios are struggling I think Game Pass is pretty minor in the whole scheme of things.

If I had to take an educated guess I would say it's not one size fits all and the Game Pass model is more effective for smaller games, indies and giving failed AA/AAA another chance to find an audience than it is for Day 1 AAA, but I have no data to back this up.

@MinervaX76 I've mostly forgotten about it. I think it was an error, and we all make those, but it was on something pretty insignificant. Aside from that I think she's talked a good talk until now but I always said I would judge her on ACTIONS not words, and THIS is a big one.

Totally understand not feeling secure with Xbox though, they have a long way to go to rebuild that sort of trust. Fingers crossed. If Asha can go a year without the usual flip-flopping and stepping on rakes Xbox has had for the last 5 years I think we'll be feeling a lot better and Xbox would have much better momentum going into next gen. Would love to see it, Fingers crossed!

The amount of times over the years since it launched I've seen subscribers across numerous gaming outlets staring they won't touch/play [insert game] if it's not on GP sounds pretty entitled to me.

@GeminiX53 Or they didn't want to play the game that much anyway and would have waited for it to be in bargain sale at £5 - £10. Some games we want to play day 1 whatever the cost, others we only want to play when the price is right. That's normal.

@GeminiX53 I'm not so sure. Do I buy less? Sure... but I also sub to Game pass at an RRP of around £200 a year, that offsets some of it. I still spend thousands a year on gaming annually, but then I'm an enthusiast.

I know some THINK Game Pass is the reason for falling sales, but I am not convinced it's the main offender. It could also be that there's far more games released every year and that money is being spread more thinly. It could be that F2P and forever games are taking far too much of the pie both in gaming time and income (this is undoubtedly true). It could be that people are spending far more time on other screens e.g. TikTok and YouTube and less time, and crucially money, on gaming (also true). It could be the state of the world, cost of living and people don't have the money to spend on $70 games. It could be a dozen other reasons, and with game development costs going up but gamers not wanting price hikes that means more games fail to make a profit.

I guess my point is that even if Game Pass didn't exist this would still be a problem. I think out of all the issues in the industry Game Pass is the least of them. In fact I suspect with all the cost of living issues Game Pass is probably keeping some people in gaming when they couldn't afford it otherwise..

@Sol4ris Me neither. I was going to buy a gaming PC last year (mostly for work... ahem), but the £2k PC build I had specced is now £3k... no thanks. I will wait to see what Helix offers and see if I can use that instead of a gaming PC and just get a more modest PC for work if this one dies.

Totally agree. I have been pretty critical of them for the last few years, basically since ABK, but it definitely feels like the tide is turning for Xbox. Long may they keep it up.

Re: PS5 Pro price. I initially had sticker shock and wasn't going to buy one, £699 seemed very expensive (less so now!). But there was a 20% off trick with Very here in the UK and after I sold my launch PS5 it was only around £260 net difference and came with 1.4TB more usable storage. As an enthusiast I was fine with that.

The only problem I have is when a game comes to Game Pass and it has a great PS5 Pro version, do I buy it on Pro or play it on GP? It's a nice problem to have.

@carlos82 Game Pass is month by month not annual (I wish they offered a cheaper annual sub) so if @StylesT has subbed in advance with codes, like me, he's likely already paid at a much lower rate already, I know I have.

I always try and stay 3 years in advance which mitigates price hikes for a while. Some of my sub is still on 2023 code pricing i.e. less than £9.99 a month which when it was £22.99 a month was quite the difference. Last year I paid £10.50 a month for 6 months and have been topping it up with MS rewards since.

@GeminiX53 Do we ACTUALLY have any solid evidence to support that. I know it's what some think, but do we have any actual data to back it up?

Saving £6 a month in the UK with this change, £72 a year, you can literally buy COD for £70, have Game Pass Ultimate and save £2.

More crucially for those of us who don't want COD we can just save £6 a month / £72 a year.

@GeminiX53 Different people want different things and have different finances. Virtually EVERY subscription service has tiers and for good reason, one size fits all doesn't please everyone. CHOICE is good.

@MinervaX76 Fully agree on all points. Sadly I don't think Satya had much faith in Phil & Co post ABK hence he had his hands on the tiller. Whereas he has handpicked Asha to turn Xbox around, he HAS to give her freedom to make the changes she sees fit. I was dubious at first, what with her AI background and her obviously boosted Gamerscore, but she's doing all the right things.

@GeminiX53 There is a tier without Day 1 first-party games "Game Pass Premium".