tho_mi

If the service were doing so great financially, there'd be no need to put the games on PlayStation (as they've been on PC day and date anyway for years now).

"The game's focus on co-op also results in another negative... you can't play the Black Ops 7 campaign offline - you can't even pause it. Yep, even when you enter solo and choose to block people from joining online, pausing doesn't stop the action, which is irritating when you're blasting through a single-player offering."

Oh boy, this is really unnecessary.

So as someone with GPU it costs me 40 instead of 60, right?

@themightyant Microsoft is the third biggest company in the world, for them the cost of dev kits aren't even peanuts (no matter whether it's 500$ or 2000$).

It's really difficult to believe that MS does NOT want people (devs + gamers) to abandon their hardware so they can focus on being a publisher.

@SodaPop6548 GamePass would've gone up in price no matter what. But yes, it might have gone up less if it weren't for tariffs.

Thanks, so I’ve still got some time to avoid the more than doubling in price (I’m currently paying 12,99) if that’s correct.

Looking at the plan picker linked above my statement is correct, GPU more than doubles in price for me.

edit:
To be clear and fair, in the subscription area (where it shows the next billing date) it doesn’t show a new price yet, so let’s see how it and when it’ll affect how much I would have to pay for GPU.

According to the Microsoft website I’m currently paying 12,99€ per month for GPU. If the list above is correct, then I’ll either pay double or get Premium for the same amount.

@fatpunkslim with Ubisoft+ it's probably easier to sell the increase. They don't want an additional tier, they want additional revenue from the increase.

@Jake_homs I've given up hope on that one. There's a reason they haven't done it until now.

@TheGameThrifter given that it's a remaster of a remaster, I doubt Microsoft's expectations were that high. And the way I see it that game is just to introduce PS owners to Gears before the next Game launches next year. I really wonder how long it'll take for Microsoft to launch every game day and date on PS5 as well. Probably not that long since some people at Microsoft mainly see dollar signs.

Let's hope they don't end up being closed down in one of the next rounds of layoffs and studio closures.

I know we will never find out, but it would be super interesting to get an estimate of how much all the cancelled games at and around Microsoft have cost.

"Sure it sucks but from a business standpoint - if targets were being met and the game was healthily on track - this wouldn't have been shuttered."

@Kaloudz, you mean like the FPS game from Romero Games?

No surprise at all. At this point I'm also wondering what is going on with Kojima's game.

@Kaloudz yes and no, will definitely be a cross-gen release.

A few years away which also means a few years for someone to cancel it. Yeah, I really doubt it, but at this point I'd also not bet against that.

Kinda ironic that back then many feared this would mean the end of competition in the gaming landscape because Microsoft would just dominate it. If Sony knew how this would turn out, they probably would've acted differently back then. Who knew that Microsoft would just decide to become a publisher instead of a console manufacturer.

@Fiendish-Beaver, sums it up pretty well imo. GP will see a nice price increase sooner or later. A few years ago it seemed that it could be a nice platform where "niche games" also have a place, but with the latest changes it seems that no one is 100% safe. Devs will probably also try to avoid Microsoft as a partner if it's clear that things might change from one day to the next without any wrongdoings on the devs side. Let's see how it plays out in the next months and years, but I guess next year this time we'll see layoffs again.

Another nice touch to the whole layoffs at Microsoft:
https://www.m9.news/usa-news/microsoft-abusing-h-1b-outrage-over-indian-hirings/

@PsBoxSwitchOwner given that exclusives are a thing of the past for Microsoft, I don't know how much they bother. Especially given the success of Horizon.

You gotta love capitalism. No matter how much a company earns, it's never enough and significant cuts to the workforce are following. Plus, I honestly thought XBox would develop in a different way after the acquisition of ABK. And yeah, was a bit naive in hindsight.

Well, as the article says, the base game is 70$. If you want the "complete package/game" you have to pay quite a bit more anyway.

@MrMagic in hindsight they should not have been allowed to purchase Activision. I was in favor of it back then, but oh boy, I did not expect Microsoft to basically abandon their own ecosystem that quickly. If I had to bet I would have said that the risks of a Microsoft monopoly are much higher than of a Sony one, but here we are.

Awesome situation Sony is in. Whenever they screw up, Microsoft is immediately there to shine the light back on themselves.

Oh and the highlight, "vertical stand sold separately".

There's also an official blog post (https://blog.playstation.com/2024/09/10/welcome-playstation-5-pro-the-most-visually-impressive-way-to-play-games-on-playstation/). Only improved GPU is mentioned, no word about the CPU or the storage. No disc drive and a nice price tag. As some people already mentioned, funnily enough most games they showed were cross-gen, so far from being optimized for current gen. Seems like a pure waste of money...

edit:
Actually it's 2 TB instead of 1, so my original comment isn't fully correct.

@FraserG to be fair, Microsoft's usage of "day one" in combination with XBox is pretty flexible these days anyway...

I wonder if it's a coincidence that we read more often about this now than in the past or not... but definitely not a good look.

@BacklogBrad at this point it’s bold to assume all those games will remain exclusive and not get a superior version on Sony‘s hardware.

Guess we have to get used to the biggest XBox announcements being about PS and not their own ecosystem (which at this point is basically a dead man walking).

Welcome to Microsoft.

@GhanaViking or just wait a few months and get the games for cheap. Plus, as we now the day 1 stuff will only apply to GPU in the future...

As already mentioned, if that happens then 1. XBox releases better games on PS5 in 2024 than on their own hardware and 2. XBox helps Sony big time filling the drought of their own studios.

If it were Forza Horizon 5 (which I doubt), then Xbox would release better games for PS5 than for their own hardware this year.

Just XBox doing XBox things, nothing new to see here.

Still trying to play the older games online in coop. Anyone else having issues connecting to other people? A year ago it sometimes didn't work, but trying again a few days later did the job. Since earlier this year it just doesn't work anymore (tbh I stopped trying 2-3 months ago or so).

Is the industry-leading game development technology the reason why it seems to be easier to develop for PlayStation?

@NEStalgia, first it will be interesting to see how the GPU numbers will develop in the next 1-2 years as I assume quite a few people got the subscription much cheaper a while ago and stacked it up for quite some time. E.g. in a few months it'll be the first time I will/would have to pay for GPU on a monthly basis and I'm sure that's the case for a lot of other people as well.

Given how quickly the decision-makers over at Microsoft/XBox change their minds, you'd even have to take this with a big grain of salt if Microsoft confirmed it themselves. A lot can happen until then and they are definitely not doing much to make people feel "safe" about the future of the ecosystem.

Given how little Microsoft wants to sell their consoles these days I’m just waiting for them to increase the prices in the west right for the holiday season.

Actions speak louder than words, no matter what they officially say.

But investors aren't necessarily gamers, so they might not be able to tell the difference.

If they only cared to put a small part of the budget for this cloud stuff into the advertisement of their consoles…

Someone should tell Microsoft to come up with a special GP tier that includes games the developers originally didn't want to bring to XBox.

@jumpin_jeeps, similar here. I also wonder how many people still have GPU because they stacked it up for cheap back then. Would be interesting to know how many will renew or not renew afterwards once it becomes something you actually spend money on a monthly basis.

@BAMozzy, sorry, but that's just a bad excuse. Of course the world is changing and yet many companies manage to be consistent. How is it that Nintendo and Sony don't have these issues? Microsoft is among the biggest companies in the world, much bigger than Nintendo and Sony. And yet it seems they are led by a lot of less than capable people who change their minds on a regular basis. The very fact that they keep saying "case by case basis" underlines that basically everything can happen. In other words, as a consumer it is simply not clear what you are buying into.

Besides, the Core tier was introduced less than a year ago, nothing substantial has changed in the meantime. Yes, the ABK acquisition is through, but that was to be expected a year ago as well. But I don't see how that affects the question marks around standard and core anyway.

@BAMozzy, but nothing of that is news. Microsoft knew that when they introduced the core tier. It just shows how clueless they act, not being able to think a step ahead and only doing what seems ok in the very moment. It seems like it makes zero sense to keep up with the news, because soon it will change again anyway.

Other companies don't even manage this mess when they try to have messy communication on purpose. It's fascinating how Microsoft doesn't get their sh*t together (and at this point I don't expect this to change).

@MrGawain, not really, because you would have to buy those three games day one. If you are a bit patient you get much more than that for 180 bucks.

I already see the responsible execs being super surprised when this doesn't help to increase revenue either.

Honestly, with this leadership it's really difficult to see a (good) future for XBox.