Topic: Xbox

[KillieRed]

Anyone else having issues inviting others to parties or games? Several of my gaming friends only have greyed-out options.

[WhereAngelsPlay]

They’ve really been hyping up the Xbox showcase on Sunday. Should be a good watch, worst case we’ll have 30 mins of Starfield.

They'd better be announcing imminent game pass releases, apart from Jedi they've not released much that was decent this year.

[Malaysian Kopite]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGtYn7DCIYo

4K link, kicking off in a bit.

[gerrardisgod]

I’m sure I say this every time there’s one of these events, but why does gaming have to be so serious? There was barely any joy, whimsy…hell even some colour in them games. They all have the same dark look, with similar overbearing serious music.

Only one that stood out for me just for being different was the climbing game. Fable too, I guess, but that was just cinematic.

Them expansion pass segments for live service games, I swear, are the same every year too.

[Armand9]

somewhat leftfield but apart from the Persona offshoot, was every protagonist in narrative driven titles female? can't recall one dude

[Malaysian Kopite]

It was alright, had the same issues as the PS one where there simply wasn't enough gameplay other than Starfield. The Star Wars game, the Capcom game and all the Sega ones look good as well.

[GiorgosCarraGoonies]

I enjoyed that.  Wanted more gameplay and more release dates but it was arguably better than the PS Showcase (which I thought was better than a lot of others seemed to)

[Armand9]

Starfield is the only one im genuinely excited about and didn't feel like a paste and copy game that i've seen a million times and a game i've hoped for probably the majority of my gaming life (from Elite onwards i guess in that regard) but it's Bethseda and i lost confidence in them to deliver many many moons ago

would love to be proved wrong, but i see it ending up being disappointing at best (eg the various intriguing elements will be much shallower than hoped for) and clusterfuck is defo a possibility

if they actually pull if off it'll be a seminal game and i'll be very happy to eat a huge slice of humble pie

[naYoRHa2b]

I'd of rather seen more gameplay for Fable than Ricard Ayoade waffling about vegetables. Avowed wasn't what I was expecting either. Starfield looks to have a lot of depth to the customisation and exploration but i'm not sure I have the energy for skyrim meets no man's sky in 2023.

[ScottScott]

I thought that was one of the best showcases from any of the big 3 in years. Xbox have been lacking these last few years and have dropped the ball a couple of times already in this generation but that was refreshing and showed some really good stuff

Personal highlights for me are Starfield and Forza Motorsport. Both out this year as well. Cities Skylines 2 as well will be played to death. Then you've got Fable and Avowed as the next 2 big hitters alongside Hellblade 2, South of Midnight and Clockwork Revolution all looking really, really promising

Seems there's loads for the JRPG fans as well (a genre that does absolutely nothing for me) and some other interesting titles as well

The main draw is Starfield though, I mean, wow. What they showed in the Starfield direct looks unreal. The scope of this game is like nothing I've ever seen before and I can't wait for it

[Scottymuser]

I thought that was one of the best showcases from any of the big 3 in years. Xbox have been lacking these last few years and have dropped the ball a couple of times already in this generation but that was refreshing and showed some really good stuff

Personal highlights for me are Starfield and Forza Motorsport. Both out this year as well. Cities Skylines 2 as well will be played to death. Then you've got Fable and Avowed as the next 2 big hitters alongside Hellblade 2, South of Midnight and Clockwork Revolution all looking really, really promising

Seems there's loads for the JRPG fans as well (a genre that does absolutely nothing for me) and some other interesting titles as well

The main draw is Starfield though, I mean, wow. What they showed in the Starfield direct looks unreal. The scope of this game is like nothing I've ever seen before and I can't wait for it

That was no better, or worse, than Sony, other than Starfield, which was a "different" (separate) conference.  Avowed looked average ta best (the Phantom Blade 0 on the Sony presser looked way way better), Hellblade 1 was alright (but didn't need a sequel), Racing games are, for me, boring (but better I suppose then the GT movie trailer, which was lol).  There was some JRPG, but less interesting than the Sony ones I thought (the best was the Yakuza one, a previously Sony exclusive series, which will be out on every single platform).

I am still sceptical about Starfield with it being Bethesda - I hope I am wrong, but I fully expect it to be a buggy mess on launch.

As for "best in a number of years" - that is laughable - just 2 years ago, Sony had GOW Ragnarok, Insomniacs Wolverine, Spiderman 2 announcement, KOTOR remake, Stray, Deathloop, a bunch of remasters of PS3/PS4 games (Uncharted, Last of us) coming to PC, Gran Turismo 7 as well as a bunch of other indies and multiplats - I'd argue that was a stronger conference, albeit not "massively".  Or  Sony's 2020 (pandemic) showcase had the full unvealing of the PS5, then details around Spiderman Miles Morales, H:Forbidden West, Resident 8 revealed for the first time, Yakuza Like a Dragon, Ratchet and Clank, Demon's Souls remake, Sackboy, Returnal, Astro's playroom, Bugsnax, Kena Bridge of Spirits, a teaster announcement on Stray (which was then expanded in the 2021 one), a bunch of big multi plats (like Hitman 3, Ghostwire Tokyo, Godfall, a new Oddworld game), a few indies.  To compare this MS to that one is laughable IMO, that sony one blew *everyone* away.

[Scottymuser]

I'd of rather seen more gameplay for Fable than Ricard Ayoade waffling about vegetables. Avowed wasn't what I was expecting either. Starfield looks to have a lot of depth to the customisation and exploration but i'm not sure I have the energy for skyrim meets no man's sky in 2023.

Fable they probably have little actual game play yet - I know some people are saying Q4 next year (mainly as the last Fable game came out in October), but I think that could be a little ambitious (I do think if they were aiming for that, we'd have seen "2024") so it would not surprise me in the least if it does slip to 2025.  I think with games getting bigger, it is getting harder to do a small vertical slice to show off game play 15-18+ months in advance, so we are seeing more games with little gameplay in general unless it is a sequel or whatnot to something they can borrow the engine/assets from

[ScottScott]

The FTC has lost it's case against the Microsoft ABK deal. The CMA have backtracked as well. This will be done by Friday I'd imagine (or early next week at the latest)

[AndyMuller]

The FTC has lost it's case against the Microsoft ABK deal. The CMA have backtracked as well. This will be done by Friday I'd imagine (or early next week at the latest)

A bit of optimistic thinking on your behalf, no?

The FTC are putting an appeal in and the CMA have said they will work with Microsoft for solutions but it is far from done.

[ScottScott]

The FTC have no chance. They've fucked whatever chance they had and that was miniscule anyway. They weren't arguing about the deal being bad for the consumer (because they couldn't), they were arguing the deal was bad for Sony, the current market leader

And the CMA have already come crawling down from their initial position. I think they would have expected the EU and FTC to block it and now they're the only one who has, they'll come down and accept some minor concessions which will do nothing. They'll close the deal over the CMA IMO

[Flaccido Dongingo]

A bit of optimistic thinking on your behalf, no?

The FTC are putting an appeal in and the CMA have said they will work with Microsoft for solutions but it is far from done.

Little Lord PlayStation has entered the chat.

[naYoRHa2b]

I mean the CMA are open to remedies with the concerns around cloud gaming. The FTC rarely win cases but at worst all an appeal does in delay the process.

On top of that if the deal fails to close in a week, then MS pay Activision 3 billion either way. What MS could do is split the subsidiaries up so Call of duty doesn't operate in the UK or on Gamepass.

Ultimately If you are simping for a 2 trillion dollar company then more fool you
It's nobody elses fault but their own why they've failed to lead the market despite heavy investment. Poor mismanagement top to bottom

[Skeeve]

A bit of optimistic thinking on your behalf, no?

The FTC are putting an appeal in and the CMA have said they will work with Microsoft for solutions but it is far from done.

In order for an appeal to even be granted, don't they have to produce an entirely new reason after their first was thrown out, albeit that could be a blessing in disguise for them since they will have to diverge from the 'aaww, won't somebody think of the poor, market-leading corporation' argument they lost with this time?

[ScottScott]

Little Lord PlayStation has entered the chat.

 

[AndyMuller]

Xbox nerds slapping each others arses in here over the acquisition haha.

[Skeeve]

Xbox nerds slapping each others arses in here over the acquisition haha.

Seems more like they are mocking a troll.

[AndyMuller]

Seems more like they are mocking a troll.

Bore off Skeeve.

[ScouserAtHeart]

Leaked documents from Microsoft show they're planning for a 2024 refresh of the current gen consoles

Looks like even the Series X will be all-digital. I haven't bought a physical game in a while but I'm sure there are people who prefer buying them who aren't gonna like this

[Hedley Lamarr]

CMA are set to approve the Activision Blizzard deal after the revised deal addressed it's concerns.

[ScottScott]

Microsoft have confirmed the purchase of Activision Blizzard King. It's finally over, thank god

Games should be being added to Game Pass over the coming months with the latest big releases such as Diablo IV and MW3 coming some time next year

Looking forward to having the likes of Crash, Spyro, Tony Hawk on GP

[Flaccido Dongingo]

Microsoft have confirmed the purchase of Activision Blizzard King. It's finally over, thank god

Games should be being added to Game Pass over the coming months with the latest big releases such as Diablo IV and MW3 coming some time next year

Looking forward to having the likes of Crash, Spyro, Tony Hawk on GP

I'm slightly ambivalent long term about this, Call of Duty will be exclusive in the future, there'll be Xbox exclusivity for Call of Duty content etc, no matter what way you look at it, it's still the biggest game franchise in the business.

Short term I'm happy, simply because it will bring more games to Gamepass, but what studios/publishers are they going to go after next, Ubisoft?, EA?, in ten years you could be looking at Microsoft and Tencent, then Nintendo behind them.

My PS5 is basically mothballed at this point, and the price rise to PS Plus just makes it harder for me to start using the system again, whereas Gamepass just gets better value all the time.

[ScottScott]

Developer Direct was last night. Showed 5 games: Hellblade 2, Avowed, Ara: History Untold, Visions of Mana and Indiana Jones. All releasing this year

Hellblade looks phenomenal, a true showcase of what these new consoles can deliver. Avowed looks much better than the last time it was shown and despite it not being the type of game I usually go for it looks like people should have a great game there. Indy looks great as well. Was curious to see how they'd do it and 1st person with 3rd person for cutscenes and traversal looks like a good way to get the best of what Machine Games is best at and being able to see what everyone wants and that's Indiana Jones

Last year was a great year for games and it looks like 2024 will be the same

[Zlen]

I've never owned an Xbox prior to this gen, but after few years now with my Series S - got to say, prefer the Xbox ecosystem much more to Playstations I owned before. First of all, Series S is an inredibly well designed console that delivers a lot of power for such small price and format. PS5 is the ugliest thing designed by man, it should be studied for generations in schools for it's sheer disgusting factor. Controllers are great, even the basic one is good - the Elite series I have is godly. The Gamepass is good value, though I haven't played a single game on it becaus I'm a dinosaur that only feels comfortable playing games I own for some reason. Game sales - great, plenty really good offers.

If I figure out where to put it, I'll probably upgrade to Series X later.

[AndyMuller]

Closing down a couple of studios they bought through the Bethesda acquisition.

The studio that made Hi-Fi Rush and Prey being the major one.

[Ed-Zeppelin]

Real shame, some talented people being thrown out of the company. Can’t really understand the Tango one especially after Hi-Fi Rush.

Can only assume that the stagnant Gamepass numbers means they’re focusing more and more on the big franchises, but I’m not sure that’ll help and part of the attraction of Gamepass is variety, which this won’t help.

I’ve hardly touched my Xbox in the last few months and have really only used Gamepass for some kids games for my 6 year old. I was waiting for the big Starfield update to start that but it can wait. I’ve paused it for the time being as there seems little point paying for it while I’m working through a PS5 backlog!

This will make the launch and reception of Hellblade 2 interesting too, if it’s not a big hit there is bound to be questions over their future and I’m not sure it’s got mass appeal.