As for “everything is an Xbox” I think, like so often, it may be the right strategy but AT THE WRONG TIME. (See TV, TV, TV & digital push etc)
Once they are abele to give you you’re entire library anywhere and xcloud is better (see GeForce now) it might work, right now it’s a half baked attempt, don't run before you can walk.
Sarah Bond didn’t go willingly, next business day a “huge report” criticising her both personally and in business is released… timing’s not sus at all /s
Nadella cleaning up like the Godfather. Playbook is predictable and plain as day.
@Fiendish-Beaver we’ve already started to see it the first hit piece on Sarah Bond came out yesterday on a site close to Microsoft The Verge.it doesn’t actually say much, but insinuates plenty.
While the exact events and timeline are unknown the playbook is all pretty predictable.
@Doomcrow those are the actual quotes, and as @BAMozzy said Phil was right. But I understand your frustration it was a badly worded statement that made some fans think Microsoft weren’t focussing on making lots of games, when they were as proven last year. But they weren’t going to change the console race around mid-gen. Taken as single sound bites they don’t sound good but Context is key.
@Doomcrow FWIW he never said that. I realise it's a 2+ year old quote but you are both misquoting him and taking it out of context. If you didn't like his policies or time as CEO, fair enough, I won't argue, but don't put words in his mouth.
His vision of full multiplatform and zero exclusives is, in my opinion, too radical and somewhat utopian. There’s a middle ground to be found.
@fatpunkslim Strongly agree! Exclusives help sell consoles, always have. I wouldn't own a Switch 2 if all their games came to Xbox or PS5 or Steam Deck. But I don't think they can afford to make most games Xbox / PC only + Game Pass.
It will be interesting to see what Sharma does here, but I think Microsoft has enough studios to BOTH be the #1 publisher across platforms AND save some as exclusives. Perhaps they'll start with just 4 games again
@Jeff_D Because Satya didn't like the way Phil's Xbox was panning out financially and wants to shake things up with his own lackey in charge. Gotta hit those 30% margins...
It didn't all go as planned, but I have HUGE respect for Phil Spencer, in part for his work as head of Xbox but mostly as a man. Never heard a bad word said about him even from the opposition, and was always quick to congratulate others in the industry regardless of their affiliation. A good dude, but perhaps a bit too nice to be CEO sadly. Wish him well with future endeavours.
@Gemini53 I agree none of this has ANY bearing on how she plans to steer the brand (see my post above). So why go through this fake charade? (Townscaper literally can't be 1000GS in 30 mins unless you are trying to boost it). But it does show that they are trying to BS gamers, I don't like that and will call it out when I see it. It doesn't make for a good first impression, does it? TRUST is important.
As for constant negativity surrounding Xbox, I think it's mostly all of gaming recently, but for Xbox specifically perhaps they want to stop making massively unpopular decisions like multiple Game Pass price hikes, changing Game Pass tiers so only Ultimate gets Day 1 games on Console, £1000 consoles, layoffs, studio closures, cancelled projects and much more. The negativity is often of their own making, seeing the brand decline. Will be interesting to see if she can change that through actions, not words. I sincerely hope so.
@ILIKECARGAME Of course not it's 100+ hours for 1000GS!
@LogicStrikesAgain THIS! It just all feels forced and inauthentic. I understand wanting to set her out on the right foot, gamers can be brutal, but it's a balance you have to be real whereas this reeks of BS.
Personally I don't think a good Xbox executive needs to be a big gamer, they just need to be good at their job and have good people they trust to advise them on the creative gaming side. I look forward to seeing what actual policies she has over the next few years, but spare us the BS performative theatre.
@Gemini53 For sure, good games and perhaps what a busy person would play! It's just that if you were going to specifically aim to inflate your score quickly these are some of the ones you would legitimately chose short of resorting to AI slop or Avatar the Burning Earth! And these specific games suddenly all in a month... hmmm.
Townscaper is especially sus as it can be done in sub 30 minutes if you are SPECIFICALLY looking to farm GS and 'she' did it in 30 minutes dead. But you have to be following an achievement guide to do it in that time, if you play normally it will take 10x as long. It's not how you would normally play the game at all. I just don't like BS.
and this gamertag was seemingly only set up in January of 2026
10,870 Gamerscore since January 2026??? Is that correct?
She's either been out of work or doing an Elon Musk.
Press X to doubt!
UPDATE: I had a quick look and most of it is from games that are known to be quick ways to get up to 1000GS in 0-3 hours like Townscaper, A Short Hike, Grim Idle, Firewatch & What Remains of Edith Finch etc. almost as if the sole purpose was to artificially inflate the gamer score quickly... plus MS studio games. There are a few others like BallXPit, Vampire Survivors and Minecraft that took a bit longer. But it all feels pretty sus and meaningless to me, why bother?
@Fiendish-Beaver @Millionski Sarah Bond's statement doesn't confirm she knew about any of this, either Phil leaving or her being superseded, only that Sharma had been working with them in some capacity, but we don't know what. It's possible that Sharma was working with Xbox under the guise of some sort of audit of the division only to have the rug pulled out from under them at the eleventh hour and see them both replaced. Most of the chatter from long time reporters all seem to suggest this is far more likely like than some long planned event.
It's important to note that a publicly traded multinational business like Microsoft cannot show weakness of thinking, they can't show that this was a sudden change of plan, they have to present it as a longer term plan else their stock might tank. Markets don't like uncertainty. (Especially when Microsoft's stock has already plummeted over 26% in the last 4 months from a high of $542 a share in late October to $397 today / $3.9 trillion market cap to $2.95 trillion)
Hence why both Phil and Sarah's statements specifically mention this was planned. I'm sure there are threads of truth in there, they are unlikely to outright lie, but reading between the words it does not mean that either Phil or Sarah knew this was happening as they say it went down.
Reading between the lines I suspect that Phil told Satya he was thinking of stepping down some time last year and to start planning for that, firmly expecting Sarah Bond to take over. Asha Sharma was probably sent over to work with Phil, Sarah & Xbox in some capacity, probably outwardly to audit Xbox or under some other guise, and then Nadella suddenly said Sharma was taking over, not Bond. At that point it all happened fast with Phil retiring sooner than expected - the very next business day - while still giving him the dignity of saving face, and Sarah leaving immediately, with all this all playing out late on a Friday so as not to disrupt the markets. I'd put fair money on something like that over some long plan. Satya playing the Godfather.
Only time will tell if it’s a good move or not. But you only appoint someone from outside like this if you don’t have faith in the current direction of leadership and want a change of strategy. By putting her in charge Satya is making it clear he wants different results.
@Fiendish-Beaver no worries dude, I wasn’t 100% clear, but as this was an article about Sarah Bond I didn’t specifically mention her by name.
I suspect - and this is again pure speculation but it rings true - that there was a bit of an internal struggle going on at Xbox, whereby Phil has clearly been lining up Sarah Bond as his successor for years and Satya has overruled that at the eleventh hour and bought in his own minion to do it.
At least with Sarah we had a pretty good idea what would happen, she would likely see out Phil’s Xbox masterplan for a while if allowed, whereas with Asha Sharma we have almost NO idea what she will do. Personally I don’t think you make a leadership change like this unless you are going to upset the established order, so I expect changes, possibly drastic ones. But that won’t happen overnight; only time will tell if I am right or wrong and if it’s good or bad for Xbox long term. Will be watching closely. Fingers firmly crossed.
@Fiendish-Beaver I was talking about Sarah Bond specifically above. I believe Phil was planning on stepping down this year and they were planning for that, but I don’t believe they wanted to announce it today in such an odd manner. I suspect whatever went on with Sarah Bond might have sped up their timeline.
Only time will tell if this is a good thing or a bad thing. The fact they are going with Asha not Sarah suggests to me that changes are incoming for good or bad, but that’s not going to happen overnight.
1)I am slow, always, in games. HLTB puts it at 40 hours for the story. But it depends if you are a completionist. I used to be but as discussed specifically aimed NOT to be with this game, but still got a little sidetracked.
2) I also don't think most of the side content is good enough in 2026 to warrant the extra time. If you focus on the main story it should be faster.
As for Zero or Kiwami first... I played Yakuza 1 & 2 on PS2 a few decades ago so don't even really remember much. But i've seen mixed opinions. Some say Zero slightly spoils some of Kiwami as you meet characters early etc. Others say because Yakuza 0 is deemed by many to be the better game start with that.
I can't really corroborate either, but I don't think it spoiled too much. But similar to what we said before i'd say whatever is most likely to make you play is the right decision for you, if it's Kiwami because it's shorter maybe go with that. But I think Zero is meant to be the high bar for story. It was mostly great, though slow to get going.
Good luck and FWIW you helped encourage me to finally get to this too. Thanks.
Just finished Yakuza 0. I enjoyed it but boy is it FAR too long. I only slightly touched the side content and still clocked up 68 hours. There's just too much that isn't very good. Less is more in my book, this is the opposite of that. (HLTB puts it at a dull 144 hours for completionists, and they usually underestimate by quite a bit imo, the gameplay isn't engaging enough for that.)
Yet I was drawn in by the characters, the story and the world. It's a very mixed bag but the humanity shown, despite them all being caricatures, shone through and ultimately made the game worthwhile. However I can't help thinking it would have been better at half the length, it's just so needlessly dragged out. I almost quit midgame.
Combat is fun for the first few chapters, but then becomes a drag, I groaned by midgame every time a mob in the world caught me and i'd have to go through the same rote combat and finishers for the umpteenth time. It gets worse as the game goes on as enemies get tankier and block more without much else changing to keep it fresh.
The business side missions were fun for about 10 minutes but are dragged out like a Far Cry game where after you finish one area you unlock another 4 that are basically the same boring busywork.
At least the sub-stories are quite fun, and thankfully short, often 5 minute vignettes that add flavour to the world. Some made me laugh, some were a bit sick, many were forgettable, but they all helped ground the world. I think I did 40 of 100.
Far too many minigames, literally dozens that each feel weak on their own. Again less is more.
Still overall I enjoyed it, the characters and world were that good and shone through the weaker aspects, plus it had a much better tempo at the end after a glacially slow start and middle and finished on a high.
Thankfully Kiwami 1 & 2 seem much shorter.
@FraserG I tagged you as you were thinking of playing it. TBH others liked it far more than me, so take this with a pinch of salt. But still Cautiously recommended.
@BacklogBrad it’s not just ONE thing it’s lots of little things that just feel off. E.g. if someone is stepping in as new leadership you usually get introduced to them in advance. But they’ve just dropped a new Xbox CEO in randomly on Friday. Additionally her wording implies something is changing at Xbox as if something is wrong and needs fixing, which is at odds with the smooth, long planned transition they suggest. Plenty of other things too. Sarah Bond leaving on the same day seems fishy, if they were trying to project stability, you wouldn’t do it all on the same day but stagger it. Spidey sense is tingling. But perhaps Hanlon's Razor.
I may be way off base with my judgement, but I’m not alone, looking online several prominent voices who have been reporting on games / Xbox for years are suggesting the same. Greg Miller / Parris Lily / Kinda Funny had an interesting chat about it and thought the same. You can listen to that here
@BacklogBrad maybe, but the timing feels off (just before the 25th anniversary) and if it was a smooth planned exit why is there such a large shake up with Sarah Bond also going? As I said something feels off to me, not everything can be read at face value. Perhaps we will find out more over the coming days.
@swedetrap @BacklogBrad Reading between the lines, and I could be wrong, but I don’t think it was Phil’s choice to retire now, it reads more like he was pushed and allowed to retire respectfully, especially with Sarah Bond on the way out and other management reshuffles. Something doesn’t add up.
As first statements go, it’s not the worst to be fair, although I read point 2 “the return of Xbox” twice and it still reads as nonsense. But as a broad stroke those 3 ideas aren’t bad. Games, console and evolution without AI slop. Can they now walk the walk.
Promoting Matt Booty would be the opposite of what I thought.
Mad respect to Phil, he picked up Xbox were down bad and started them on the track back. He didn’t get it all his way and had to roll with the punches, but not from lack of trying. Enjoy your retirement, you’ve earned it.
Honestly a bit worried about where Microsoft will go under new leadership.
@HonestHick What you have to understand is most of Sony's live service games were from studios they had bought, created or partnered with SPECIFICALLY for that purpose (e.g. Bungie, Firesprite, Haven, Firewalk, San Diego, Team LFG, NCSoft, San Diego, Media Molecule, Arrowhead) or had a long history of multiplayer games (Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Guerrilla). Gamers always conveniently forget that most of these studios games in the last 20 years had multiplayer and incorrectly call them "single player studios".
Outside of those there's no doubt Sony were more likely to green light live service games, and studios would know this, so they were more likely to pitch them and have those pitches accepted. But that's not the same as the platform holder telling them what to make. I'm sure Jason Schreier would have had another exposé if that was the case.
Meanwhile Sony still have plenty of Studios working on single player games too. (Santa Monica, Sucker Punch, Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Guerilla, Team Asobi, Housemarque, etc.) possibly others we don't know about, plus plenty of third party partnerships e.g. Kojima Games, Ember Lab, Square Enix etc.
I think the jump to making their own games, which is what they wanted, didn't work out. It seems they were pitching Sony their ideas and Sony wasn't biting. It's quite a different thing making your own game vs remaking / remastering someone else's.
@ilyn @Coletrain It's true Bluepoint had been in business for 2 decades but almost all on Sony funded Sony projects (except Titanfall and MGS). Would they still have been without that support?
They had said plainly before being acquired that they wanted to work on their own new games, not remasters, so I can only assume that both parties knew that going in and were OK with it. Unfortunately something didn't work out. Very sad to see.
Yet another mad studio closure in a sea of job losses and studio closures, but as you said @Coletrain this one especially hurts.
@HonestHick I don't believe "Sony handed them" anything. Bluepoint will have pitched the live service God of War project, after having worked on Ragnarok, and Sony green-lit it. Sony doesn't tell their studios what to make, the ideas have always been studio/creative led. However Sony likely made it more likely for studios to pitch live service ideas as studios knew these would be more likely to be approved.
@HonestHick @johnedwin It's complicated. Sony may have been happy for them to make new games, but wouldn't sign off on the pitches being shown to them. It's always a big decision to green-light projects that are likely 50 million USD+ and will take circa 5 years you have to feel strongly it's going to make a decent profit at the end.
We've seen all around the industry a lot of difficulty getting new games and new IP green-lit (which I do find understandable) but it means we are getting safer, less interesting games and sequels to endless IP green-lit instead. People don't want to take as big risks with such sums of money on the table.
A sad day. They were literally the best in the business at remake / remasters running both the original engine in the background so it feels like the original game, and their own lightweight engine to run new graphics, sound, physics, lighting pipelines. Best of both worlds!
That said looking from a PURELY business perspective I don't think their games have sold very well recently. Demon's Souls (1-2 million), Shadow of the Colossus remake (< 1 million) considering how much more work goes into these than you're standard remaster. Their last big financial success was probably Uncharted Trilogy remaster a decade ago. They did assist on GoW: Ragnarok too.
I wonder if they couldn't agree on what to make next. Fans seemed to want them making remake / remasters - Bluepoint Bloodborne remake was always shouted very loudly, including by me - whereas they have openly stated they wanted to work on their own games.
Either way it's very sad to see. Talented team, I hope they all land on their feet.
I’ll get it on the Pro, but the game itself doesn’t interest me THAT much, I find Rockstar’s gameplay a bit stale, but the world, the immersion and the scale is an unmissable draw for me. Seeing what is possible in games with a virtually unlimited budget, there’s nothing quite like it.
@Kezelpaso For a second I thought you meant the DLC had early access... then I reread the article more carefully. That makes more sense why it's so high.
Pretty disappointing they don’t optimise for PS5 Pro tbh. Virtually the same presets as base PS5 with a marginally higher resolution. Bare minimum effort.
@TheGameThrifter No, I don’t think it will be “just a pc”, though this will depend on your definition of what a PC and a console is. Bear in mind current consoles all run PC x86 architecture, you could argue that they are also just PCs, wrapped up in a custom OS. I’d disagree but why? What is a console?
For starters fixed hardware that developers can target and optimise for specifically. Secondly consoles offer convenience. I.e. You can boot up a console in seconds, and use a controller for the whole experience (no keyboard necessary), and the operating system is more streamlined towards games than say windows. Consoles are more plug and play. It just works.
The rumour is the next Xbox will be a hybrid between a Pc and a console, taking the convenience and fixed nature of the hardware but also allowing you to do more if you want to. We can see the beginning of that paradigm shift with the ROG Xbox Ally X… it’s far from perfect but it’s a step in that direction. Only time will tell if they can deliver on this promise.
@EdgarTheBug Ideally they want you using Edge as your browser, Bing as your search engine etc. they harvest and sell all that data, it also gives them better metrics to report up the chain.
@fatpunkslim I'll be 100% real with you. I can respect people having a different view, no problem, we all see the world differently. What I can't respect is constantly bringing up PlayStation in negative ways in almost every article, especially when it's got nothing to do with them. It's not only childish but it also constantly derails the comments.
E.g. This article is about KONAMI delisting MGS2 and yet you had to turn it into yet another console war by bringing up PlayStation and how they are (in your mind) so much worse than Xbox in this regard. The article has nothing to do with Sony. Nada. Zip. Why bring them up? Why flame the fires?
If it was the first time I probably wouldn't have said a word, but it's again and again and again, frankly you seem incapable of not disparaging PlayStation at every possible opportunity. This isn't Twitter, most of us don't want that here, we just want to discuss games and not devolve into petty console wars. Play where you like, they all have pros/cons.
If you are tired of people constantly pushing back against you perhaps... just consider... not making almost everything Xbox v PlayStation here. But you do you.
@Kiltedhaggis @GeeEssEff I don't have a complete list but on top of Halo 1-4, ODST & Reach Microsoft also delisted Halo Wars, Halo Spartan Assault, Forza Street, Forza Motorsport 5, 6 & 7, Gears POP!, Hexic, Fable Fortune, Pinball FX2, Age of Empires: Castle Siege, A World of Keflings and more. Those are the ones I know about, there's probably many more.
@fatpunkslim No one here has suggested PlayStation doesn't do this too, they are simply pointing out the Microsoft does it plenty too. But as usual you can only see one side of it and have to try, unsuccessfully, to parade your heavily skewed opinion as fact with nothing to back it up. The sheer irony of you calling anyone a fanboy is astounding. It's less about "Playstation defenders" and more that people don't like being told utter nonsense over and over again.
Comments 8,253
Re: Xbox's 'Pivot Away From Console' Had Been Failing And Questioned At Microsoft, Claims Report
@Gemini53 It's a little TOO convenient don't you think? All of a sudden it's all Sarah Bond's fault. Press X to doubt. #fallgal
Re: Forza Horizon 6 Dev Explains Campaign Progression & How You Can 'Deliver Food As A Side Hustle'
Saying a lot of the right things. Hopefully this pulls me back to the series.
Re: Xbox's 'Pivot Away From Console' Had Been Failing And Questioned At Microsoft, Claims Report
As for “everything is an Xbox” I think, like so often, it may be the right strategy but AT THE WRONG TIME. (See TV, TV, TV & digital push etc)
Once they are abele to give you you’re entire library anywhere and xcloud is better (see GeForce now) it might work, right now it’s a half baked attempt, don't run before you can walk.
Re: Xbox's 'Pivot Away From Console' Had Been Failing And Questioned At Microsoft, Claims Report
Sarah Bond didn’t go willingly, next business day a “huge report” criticising her both personally and in business is released… timing’s not sus at all /s
Nadella cleaning up like the Godfather. Playbook is predictable and plain as day.
Re: Who Is Asha Sharma? A Look Back At The Career Of The New Xbox Boss
@Fiendish-Beaver we’ve already started to see it the first hit piece on Sarah Bond came out yesterday on a site close to Microsoft The Verge.it doesn’t actually say much, but insinuates plenty.
While the exact events and timeline are unknown the playbook is all pretty predictable.
Re: Phil Spencer Responds As Industry Legends Celebrate His Xbox Career
@Doomcrow those are the actual quotes, and as @BAMozzy said Phil was right. But I understand your frustration it was a badly worded statement that made some fans think Microsoft weren’t focussing on making lots of games, when they were as proven last year. But they weren’t going to change the console race around mid-gen. Taken as single sound bites they don’t sound good but Context is key.
Re: Xbox Creator Reveals His Two Tips For The New Microsoft Gaming CEO
Always interesting to hear from Seamus because he speaks his mind unfiltered, which was rare then, and almost unheard of now.
But he also speaks a lot of nonsense, a lot of this would fall into that camp in my book.
Re: Phil Spencer Responds As Industry Legends Celebrate His Xbox Career
@Doomcrow FWIW he never said that. I realise it's a 2+ year old quote but you are both misquoting him and taking it out of context. If you didn't like his policies or time as CEO, fair enough, I won't argue, but don't put words in his mouth.
@fatpunkslim Strongly agree! Exclusives help sell consoles, always have. I wouldn't own a Switch 2 if all their games came to Xbox or PS5 or Steam Deck. But I don't think they can afford to make most games Xbox / PC only + Game Pass.
It will be interesting to see what Sharma does here, but I think Microsoft has enough studios to BOTH be the #1 publisher across platforms AND save some as exclusives. Perhaps they'll start with just 4 games again
Re: Phil Spencer Responds As Industry Legends Celebrate His Xbox Career
@Jeff_D Because Satya didn't like the way Phil's Xbox was panning out financially and wants to shake things up with his own lackey in charge. Gotta hit those 30% margins...
Re: Xbox CEO Shares Her Three Favourite Games Of All Time, Along With Her Gamertag
@Neither_scene ^^^ THIS!! 👏👏👏
@Gemini53 What he said. Saved me from replying. Trust is important.
Re: Phil Spencer Responds As Industry Legends Celebrate His Xbox Career
It didn't all go as planned, but I have HUGE respect for Phil Spencer, in part for his work as head of Xbox but mostly as a man. Never heard a bad word said about him even from the opposition, and was always quick to congratulate others in the industry regardless of their affiliation. A good dude, but perhaps a bit too nice to be CEO sadly. Wish him well with future endeavours.
Re: Xbox CEO Shares Her Three Favourite Games Of All Time, Along With Her Gamertag
@Gemini53 I agree none of this has ANY bearing on how she plans to steer the brand (see my post above). So why go through this fake charade? (Townscaper literally can't be 1000GS in 30 mins unless you are trying to boost it). But it does show that they are trying to BS gamers, I don't like that and will call it out when I see it. It doesn't make for a good first impression, does it? TRUST is important.
As for constant negativity surrounding Xbox, I think it's mostly all of gaming recently, but for Xbox specifically perhaps they want to stop making massively unpopular decisions like multiple Game Pass price hikes, changing Game Pass tiers so only Ultimate gets Day 1 games on Console, £1000 consoles, layoffs, studio closures, cancelled projects and much more. The negativity is often of their own making, seeing the brand decline. Will be interesting to see if she can change that through actions, not words. I sincerely hope so.
@ILIKECARGAME Of course not it's 100+ hours for 1000GS!
Re: Xbox CEO Shares Her Three Favourite Games Of All Time, Along With Her Gamertag
@LogicStrikesAgain THIS! It just all feels forced and inauthentic. I understand wanting to set her out on the right foot, gamers can be brutal, but it's a balance you have to be real whereas this reeks of BS.
Personally I don't think a good Xbox executive needs to be a big gamer, they just need to be good at their job and have good people they trust to advise them on the creative gaming side. I look forward to seeing what actual policies she has over the next few years, but spare us the BS performative theatre.
Re: Xbox CEO Shares Her Three Favourite Games Of All Time, Along With Her Gamertag
@Gemini53 For sure, good games and perhaps what a busy person would play! It's just that if you were going to specifically aim to inflate your score quickly these are some of the ones you would legitimately chose short of resorting to AI slop or Avatar the Burning Earth! And these specific games suddenly all in a month... hmmm.
Townscaper is especially sus as it can be done in sub 30 minutes if you are SPECIFICALLY looking to farm GS and 'she' did it in 30 minutes dead. But you have to be following an achievement guide to do it in that time, if you play normally it will take 10x as long. It's not how you would normally play the game at all. I just don't like BS.
Re: Xbox CEO Shares Her Three Favourite Games Of All Time, Along With Her Gamertag
10,870 Gamerscore since January 2026??? Is that correct?
She's either been out of work or doing an Elon Musk.
Press X to doubt!
UPDATE: I had a quick look and most of it is from games that are known to be quick ways to get up to 1000GS in 0-3 hours like Townscaper, A Short Hike, Grim Idle, Firewatch & What Remains of Edith Finch etc. almost as if the sole purpose was to artificially inflate the gamer score quickly... plus MS studio games. There are a few others like BallXPit, Vampire Survivors and Minecraft that took a bit longer. But it all feels pretty sus and meaningless to me, why bother?
Re: Talking Point: What Are The Best 'Hidden Gem' Xbox Games You've Played In Recent Years?
Define a hidden gem. There's plenty that are talked about a lot but I still don't think get enough praise:
Then there's the more niche titles:
Lastly the games that I think are flawed in some way but I love all or part of them, enough they stick with me:
Re: Who Is Asha Sharma? A Look Back At The Career Of The New Xbox Boss
@Fiendish-Beaver @Millionski Sarah Bond's statement doesn't confirm she knew about any of this, either Phil leaving or her being superseded, only that Sharma had been working with them in some capacity, but we don't know what. It's possible that Sharma was working with Xbox under the guise of some sort of audit of the division only to have the rug pulled out from under them at the eleventh hour and see them both replaced. Most of the chatter from long time reporters all seem to suggest this is far more likely like than some long planned event.
It's important to note that a publicly traded multinational business like Microsoft cannot show weakness of thinking, they can't show that this was a sudden change of plan, they have to present it as a longer term plan else their stock might tank. Markets don't like uncertainty. (Especially when Microsoft's stock has already plummeted over 26% in the last 4 months from a high of $542 a share in late October to $397 today / $3.9 trillion market cap to $2.95 trillion)
Hence why both Phil and Sarah's statements specifically mention this was planned. I'm sure there are threads of truth in there, they are unlikely to outright lie, but reading between the words it does not mean that either Phil or Sarah knew this was happening as they say it went down.
Reading between the lines I suspect that Phil told Satya he was thinking of stepping down some time last year and to start planning for that, firmly expecting Sarah Bond to take over. Asha Sharma was probably sent over to work with Phil, Sarah & Xbox in some capacity, probably outwardly to audit Xbox or under some other guise, and then Nadella suddenly said Sharma was taking over, not Bond. At that point it all happened fast with Phil retiring sooner than expected - the very next business day - while still giving him the dignity of saving face, and Sarah leaving immediately, with all this all playing out late on a Friday so as not to disrupt the markets. I'd put fair money on something like that over some long plan. Satya playing the Godfather.
Re: Who Is Asha Sharma? A Look Back At The Career Of The New Xbox Boss
Only time will tell if it’s a good move or not. But you only appoint someone from outside like this if you don’t have faith in the current direction of leadership and want a change of strategy. By putting her in charge Satya is making it clear he wants different results.
Re: 'We Have Good Reasons To Believe In What's Ahead', Insists New Xbox Chief Content Officer
This doesn’t happen overnight, so how long do we give them 12 months? I’d wager they will break this one pretty fast. But only time we’ll tell.
Re: Xbox President Sarah Bond Is Also Leaving The Company, Microsoft Confirms
@Fiendish-Beaver no worries dude, I wasn’t 100% clear, but as this was an article about Sarah Bond I didn’t specifically mention her by name.
I suspect - and this is again pure speculation but it rings true - that there was a bit of an internal struggle going on at Xbox, whereby Phil has clearly been lining up Sarah Bond as his successor for years and Satya has overruled that at the eleventh hour and bought in his own minion to do it.
At least with Sarah we had a pretty good idea what would happen, she would likely see out Phil’s Xbox masterplan for a while if allowed, whereas with Asha Sharma we have almost NO idea what she will do. Personally I don’t think you make a leadership change like this unless you are going to upset the established order, so I expect changes, possibly drastic ones. But that won’t happen overnight; only time will tell if I am right or wrong and if it’s good or bad for Xbox long term. Will be watching closely. Fingers firmly crossed.
Re: Xbox President Sarah Bond Is Also Leaving The Company, Microsoft Confirms
@Fiendish-Beaver I was talking about Sarah Bond specifically above. I believe Phil was planning on stepping down this year and they were planning for that, but I don’t believe they wanted to announce it today in such an odd manner. I suspect whatever went on with Sarah Bond might have sped up their timeline.
Re: New Xbox Head Suggests Bringing Back The Blades Dashboard In First Social Media Posts
For the Xbox360 YES (at least as an option). Now they have stripped back most of the UI on 360 it could return to blades.
On XSX, please NO!
Re: Microsoft CEO Shares His Thoughts On The Major Leadership Changes At Xbox
Only time will tell if this is a good thing or a bad thing. The fact they are going with Asha not Sarah suggests to me that changes are incoming for good or bad, but that’s not going to happen overnight.
Speculation online is WILD!
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 21-22)
@FraserG I would caveat it with:
1)I am slow, always, in games. HLTB puts it at 40 hours for the story. But it depends if you are a completionist. I used to be but as discussed specifically aimed NOT to be with this game, but still got a little sidetracked.
2) I also don't think most of the side content is good enough in 2026 to warrant the extra time. If you focus on the main story it should be faster.
As for Zero or Kiwami first... I played Yakuza 1 & 2 on PS2 a few decades ago so don't even really remember much. But i've seen mixed opinions. Some say Zero slightly spoils some of Kiwami as you meet characters early etc. Others say because Yakuza 0 is deemed by many to be the better game start with that.
I can't really corroborate either, but I don't think it spoiled too much. But similar to what we said before i'd say whatever is most likely to make you play is the right decision for you, if it's Kiwami because it's shorter maybe go with that. But I think Zero is meant to be the high bar for story. It was mostly great, though slow to get going.
Good luck and FWIW you helped encourage me to finally get to this too. Thanks.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 21-22)
Just finished Yakuza 0. I enjoyed it but boy is it FAR too long. I only slightly touched the side content and still clocked up 68 hours. There's just too much that isn't very good. Less is more in my book, this is the opposite of that. (HLTB puts it at a dull 144 hours for completionists, and they usually underestimate by quite a bit imo, the gameplay isn't engaging enough for that.)
Yet I was drawn in by the characters, the story and the world. It's a very mixed bag but the humanity shown, despite them all being caricatures, shone through and ultimately made the game worthwhile. However I can't help thinking it would have been better at half the length, it's just so needlessly dragged out. I almost quit midgame.
Combat is fun for the first few chapters, but then becomes a drag, I groaned by midgame every time a mob in the world caught me and i'd have to go through the same rote combat and finishers for the umpteenth time. It gets worse as the game goes on as enemies get tankier and block more without much else changing to keep it fresh.
The business side missions were fun for about 10 minutes but are dragged out like a Far Cry game where after you finish one area you unlock another 4 that are basically the same boring busywork.
At least the sub-stories are quite fun, and thankfully short, often 5 minute vignettes that add flavour to the world. Some made me laugh, some were a bit sick, many were forgettable, but they all helped ground the world. I think I did 40 of 100.
Far too many minigames, literally dozens that each feel weak on their own. Again less is more.
Still overall I enjoyed it, the characters and world were that good and shone through the weaker aspects, plus it had a much better tempo at the end after a glacially slow start and middle and finished on a high.
Thankfully Kiwami 1 & 2 seem much shorter.
@FraserG I tagged you as you were thinking of playing it. TBH others liked it far more than me, so take this with a pinch of salt. But still Cautiously recommended.
Returnal next I think.
Re: Xbox President Sarah Bond Is Also Leaving The Company, Microsoft Confirms
It’s pretty clear this was not a long planned exit. Would have loved to be a fly on the wall to know what went down at Xbox to cause all this.
Re: New Xbox Boss Makes Official Statement As She Takes Over From Phil Spencer
@BacklogBrad it’s not just ONE thing it’s lots of little things that just feel off. E.g. if someone is stepping in as new leadership you usually get introduced to them in advance. But they’ve just dropped a new Xbox CEO in randomly on Friday. Additionally her wording implies something is changing at Xbox as if something is wrong and needs fixing, which is at odds with the smooth, long planned transition they suggest. Plenty of other things too. Sarah Bond leaving on the same day seems fishy, if they were trying to project stability, you wouldn’t do it all on the same day but stagger it. Spidey sense is tingling. But perhaps Hanlon's Razor.
I may be way off base with my judgement, but I’m not alone, looking online several prominent voices who have been reporting on games / Xbox for years are suggesting the same. Greg Miller / Parris Lily / Kinda Funny had an interesting chat about it and thought the same. You can listen to that here
Re: New Xbox Boss Makes Official Statement As She Takes Over From Phil Spencer
@BacklogBrad maybe, but the timing feels off (just before the 25th anniversary) and if it was a smooth planned exit why is there such a large shake up with Sarah Bond also going? As I said something feels off to me, not everything can be read at face value. Perhaps we will find out more over the coming days.
Re: New Xbox Boss Makes Official Statement As She Takes Over From Phil Spencer
@swedetrap @BacklogBrad Reading between the lines, and I could be wrong, but I don’t think it was Phil’s choice to retire now, it reads more like he was pushed and allowed to retire respectfully, especially with Sarah Bond on the way out and other management reshuffles. Something doesn’t add up.
Re: New Xbox Boss Makes Official Statement As She Takes Over From Phil Spencer
As first statements go, it’s not the worst to be fair, although I read point 2 “the return of Xbox” twice and it still reads as nonsense. But as a broad stroke those 3 ideas aren’t bad. Games, console and evolution without AI slop. Can they now walk the walk.
Promoting Matt Booty would be the opposite of what I thought.
Re: Phil Spencer Announces That He's Retiring From Xbox
Mad respect to Phil, he picked up Xbox were down bad and started them on the track back. He didn’t get it all his way and had to roll with the punches, but not from lack of trying. Enjoy your retirement, you’ve earned it.
Honestly a bit worried about where Microsoft will go under new leadership.
Re: Sony's Bluepoint Games Might Be Gone, But We'll Never Forget Their 'Impossible Port' For Xbox 360
@HonestHick What you have to understand is most of Sony's live service games were from studios they had bought, created or partnered with SPECIFICALLY for that purpose (e.g. Bungie, Firesprite, Haven, Firewalk, San Diego, Team LFG, NCSoft, San Diego, Media Molecule, Arrowhead) or had a long history of multiplayer games (Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Guerrilla). Gamers always conveniently forget that most of these studios games in the last 20 years had multiplayer and incorrectly call them "single player studios".
Outside of those there's no doubt Sony were more likely to green light live service games, and studios would know this, so they were more likely to pitch them and have those pitches accepted. But that's not the same as the platform holder telling them what to make. I'm sure Jason Schreier would have had another exposé if that was the case.
Meanwhile Sony still have plenty of Studios working on single player games too. (Santa Monica, Sucker Punch, Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Guerilla, Team Asobi, Housemarque, etc.) possibly others we don't know about, plus plenty of third party partnerships e.g. Kojima Games, Ember Lab, Square Enix etc.
Re: Sony's Bluepoint Games Might Be Gone, But We'll Never Forget Their 'Impossible Port' For Xbox 360
@Coletrain Of that you can be assured sadly
I think the jump to making their own games, which is what they wanted, didn't work out. It seems they were pitching Sony their ideas and Sony wasn't biting. It's quite a different thing making your own game vs remaking / remastering someone else's.
Re: God Of War Creator Suggests Xbox Should Get Involved In Bluepoint Games Situation
Would love to see it, but VERY unlikely.
I also wonder if the Bluepoint engine tech that they use for remaster/remakes (they run 2 engines side by side) is property of Sony now.
Re: Sony's Bluepoint Games Might Be Gone, But We'll Never Forget Their 'Impossible Port' For Xbox 360
@ilyn @Coletrain It's true Bluepoint had been in business for 2 decades but almost all on Sony funded Sony projects (except Titanfall and MGS). Would they still have been without that support?
They had said plainly before being acquired that they wanted to work on their own new games, not remasters, so I can only assume that both parties knew that going in and were OK with it. Unfortunately something didn't work out. Very sad to see.
Yet another mad studio closure in a sea of job losses and studio closures, but as you said @Coletrain this one especially hurts.
Re: Sony's Bluepoint Games Might Be Gone, But We'll Never Forget Their 'Impossible Port' For Xbox 360
@HonestHick I don't believe "Sony handed them" anything. Bluepoint will have pitched the live service God of War project, after having worked on Ragnarok, and Sony green-lit it. Sony doesn't tell their studios what to make, the ideas have always been studio/creative led. However Sony likely made it more likely for studios to pitch live service ideas as studios knew these would be more likely to be approved.
Re: Sony's Bluepoint Games Might Be Gone, But We'll Never Forget Their 'Impossible Port' For Xbox 360
@HonestHick @johnedwin It's complicated. Sony may have been happy for them to make new games, but wouldn't sign off on the pitches being shown to them. It's always a big decision to green-light projects that are likely 50 million USD+ and will take circa 5 years you have to feel strongly it's going to make a decent profit at the end.
We've seen all around the industry a lot of difficulty getting new games and new IP green-lit (which I do find understandable) but it means we are getting safer, less interesting games and sequels to endless IP green-lit instead. People don't want to take as big risks with such sums of money on the table.
Re: Sony's Bluepoint Games Might Be Gone, But We'll Never Forget Their 'Impossible Port' For Xbox 360
A sad day. They were literally the best in the business at remake / remasters running both the original engine in the background so it feels like the original game, and their own lightweight engine to run new graphics, sound, physics, lighting pipelines. Best of both worlds!
That said looking from a PURELY business perspective I don't think their games have sold very well recently. Demon's Souls (1-2 million), Shadow of the Colossus remake (< 1 million) considering how much more work goes into these than you're standard remaster. Their last big financial success was probably Uncharted Trilogy remaster a decade ago. They did assist on GoW: Ragnarok too.
I wonder if they couldn't agree on what to make next. Fans seemed to want them making remake / remasters - Bluepoint Bloodborne remake was always shouted very loudly, including by me - whereas they have openly stated they wanted to work on their own games.
Either way it's very sad to see. Talented team, I hope they all land on their feet.
Re: Poll: As Things Stand, Will You Be Buying GTA 6 On Xbox This November?
I’ll get it on the Pro, but the game itself doesn’t interest me THAT much, I find Rockstar’s gameplay a bit stale, but the world, the immersion and the scale is an unmissable draw for me. Seeing what is possible in games with a virtually unlimited budget, there’s nothing quite like it.
Re: Popular Xbox Games Drop To Their 'Lowest Price Ever' In New ID@Xbox Multiplayer Sale
@Elbow Thank you, it's had been on my radar and I forgot about it!
Re: Deals: DOOM: The Dark Ages Premium Upgrade DLC Has An Incredible Xbox Offer Right Now
@Kezelpaso For a second I thought you meant the DLC had early access... then I reread the article more carefully. That makes more sense why it's so high.
Re: Digital Foundry Delivers Its Verdict On Avowed For PS5, And How It Compares To Xbox Series X|S
Pretty disappointing they don’t optimise for PS5 Pro tbh. Virtually the same presets as base PS5 with a marginally higher resolution. Bare minimum effort.
Re: Deals: DOOM: The Dark Ages Premium Upgrade DLC Has An Incredible Xbox Offer Right Now
Thanks for the heads up. Will consider it, but don’t usually go back for DLC later.
Also I really don’t like Xbox’s new pricing models £35 (before the sale) seems hella steep for DLC.
Re: Insomniac Shares Cold-Hearted Response To The Chances Of Spider-Man 2 Coming To Xbox
@TheGameThrifter No, I don’t think it will be “just a pc”, though this will depend on your definition of what a PC and a console is. Bear in mind current consoles all run PC x86 architecture, you could argue that they are also just PCs, wrapped up in a custom OS. I’d disagree but why? What is a console?
For starters fixed hardware that developers can target and optimise for specifically. Secondly consoles offer convenience. I.e. You can boot up a console in seconds, and use a controller for the whole experience (no keyboard necessary), and the operating system is more streamlined towards games than say windows. Consoles are more plug and play. It just works.
The rumour is the next Xbox will be a hybrid between a Pc and a console, taking the convenience and fixed nature of the hardware but also allowing you to do more if you want to. We can see the beginning of that paradigm shift with the ROG Xbox Ally X… it’s far from perfect but it’s a step in that direction. Only time will tell if they can deliver on this promise.
Re: Avowed Xbox Anniversary Update Now Live, Here's Everything Included In Patch 2.0
Nice. Look forward to jumping in and giving it a fair shot, free of too many lofty expectations.
Re: Microsoft Rewards Quietly Increases Its Prices For Xbox Gift Cards
@EdgarTheBug Ideally they want you using Edge as your browser, Bing as your search engine etc. they harvest and sell all that data, it also gives them better metrics to report up the chain.
Re: Konami Delists Backwards Compatible MGS Title Ahead Of Master Collection Vol. 2 On Xbox
@fatpunkslim ...and nobody was surprised! I give up.
Re: Konami Delists Backwards Compatible MGS Title Ahead Of Master Collection Vol. 2 On Xbox
@fatpunkslim I'll be 100% real with you. I can respect people having a different view, no problem, we all see the world differently. What I can't respect is constantly bringing up PlayStation in negative ways in almost every article, especially when it's got nothing to do with them. It's not only childish but it also constantly derails the comments.
E.g. This article is about KONAMI delisting MGS2 and yet you had to turn it into yet another console war by bringing up PlayStation and how they are (in your mind) so much worse than Xbox in this regard. The article has nothing to do with Sony. Nada. Zip. Why bring them up? Why flame the fires?
If it was the first time I probably wouldn't have said a word, but it's again and again and again, frankly you seem incapable of not disparaging PlayStation at every possible opportunity. This isn't Twitter, most of us don't want that here, we just want to discuss games and not devolve into petty console wars. Play where you like, they all have pros/cons.
If you are tired of people constantly pushing back against you perhaps... just consider... not making almost everything Xbox v PlayStation here. But you do you.
Re: Microsoft Rewards Quietly Increases Its Prices For Xbox Gift Cards
Yet another Rewards nerf! 😓
Re: Konami Delists Backwards Compatible MGS Title Ahead Of Master Collection Vol. 2 On Xbox
@Kiltedhaggis @GeeEssEff I don't have a complete list but on top of Halo 1-4, ODST & Reach Microsoft also delisted Halo Wars, Halo Spartan Assault, Forza Street, Forza Motorsport 5, 6 & 7, Gears POP!, Hexic, Fable Fortune, Pinball FX2, Age of Empires: Castle Siege, A World of Keflings and more. Those are the ones I know about, there's probably many more.
@fatpunkslim No one here has suggested PlayStation doesn't do this too, they are simply pointing out the Microsoft does it plenty too. But as usual you can only see one side of it and have to try, unsuccessfully, to parade your heavily skewed opinion as fact with nothing to back it up. The sheer irony of you calling anyone a fanboy is astounding. It's less about "Playstation defenders" and more that people don't like being told utter nonsense over and over again.