I keep hearing this, but no one seems to mention at what point they think devs will drop support for the console. So my question to you is what number do you think they’ll start to see Ubisoft, EA, Take Two and the like stop supporting the Xbox console? Because it seems people think they’d drop support really quickly even though there is tens of millions of consoles already out there and sales haven’t been halted by Microsoft.
If Microsoft sold 5 million consoles I still think it would be worth it for a company like Take Two to release games on and same for EA and Ubisoft and I think this would be an extreme drop that will never happen even if they announced no exclusives ever again. Even if half of those users purchased a game that’s 2.5m x $70 or 175m or roughly 122m if you take away the 30% free, do we seriously think a port will cost more than 120m-175m to port?
Sure in that scenario smaller games could skip, but there won’t be a world I think the next Battlefield skips Xbox because it’s user base is too small.
Seems a bizarre thing to do given that Xbox will reveal what’s actually happening within a day or two, surely?
I guess there’s a real hunger for info now and that can be in some way used to benefit these people.
Not wishing to smear these people at all, but it shows how “insiders” “leaking” info are driven to post up random and baseless theories. People want to hear it.
Yeah, it’s a joke. Publishers aren’t going to say an audience of 25m+ isn’t worth the cost of paying Devs to do a port. Porting a game isn’t a giant undertaking.
The only time that sort of thing plays out is when the game genre is historically unpopular and it’s expected the game won’t sell at all. I think there are some Japanese games that never make it to Xbox, but there’s no sign that the audience outside Japan particularly wants them.
No one is saying the biggest games would skip Xbox, even if it only had 10 million consoles sold.
Big companies like EA, Ubisoft etc. likely have a development process that can help streamline the Xbox port, and they’ve already got large QA teams to help test all versions.
We’re talking about the smaller AA and indie games - we don’t all want to play AAA games every single day and not have any variety, it’s the smaller games that can be the surprise hit or provide the quirky “wow I’m glad I played that” feeling.
Japanese, Korean and Chinese developers regularly skip Xbox, and not just because of Sony exclusivity, while smaller developers often have to target the largest platform first (or at least, as their first console platform) in order to get the most sales.
ID@Xbox and Game Pass have both really helped with AA and Indie games reaching Xbox, but still too often you’ll see a really cool game in the PlayStation or Nintendo showcases that isn’t first party, doesn’t appear to be a timed exclusive but just isn’t going to come to Xbox.
Powerwash Simulator, House Flipper, Escape Academy, Call of the Sea, Road 96, Beacon Pines, Unpacking, Lost Words: Beyond the Page, Wreckfest, Moving Out, Firewatch and many other smaller games I’ve found and loved on Xbox, and I’d hate if those kinds of games didn’t reach Xbox in future due to the smaller install base…
People who unironically use the ‘deep as an X, wide as a puddle’ line cannot be taken seriously. The fact that gamers seemed to have latched on to that embarrassing phrase is deeply unsettling. Starfield is quite literally Bethesda’s deepest game to date with the amount of content and systems they crammed into it. From the various faction questlines that are much better than the ones in Skyrim, to the most robust outpost construction system they’ve made to date, and one that improved on their efforts in Fallout 4 and Fallout 76, to an actual working vehicle system (which is something I never thought I would see in a Bethesda game) that’s actually fun to pilot and rich in customization options. Not to mention the voice acting calibre and the characters themselves being miles ahead of their previous games, and the overhauled Creation Engine looking amazing. And I’m supposed to pretend none of that matters because of a few loading screens? The only thing I agree on is that the NPC system needs to be overhauled as there is still that uncanny valley effect. And that I wish the world would react more to your choices. Maybe with ES6. I also think their choice to make Starfield their biggest game to do date was a bold one, even if said design choice meant alienating some old school fans in the process. I think it’s one that works here, but something they shouldn’t continue with in their next game. The vast, open-endedness of space fits the games theme of finding humanity’s place among the stars in a way that wouldn’t make sense in the Elder Scrolls or Fallout universes and they deserve some credit for recognising that.
Honestly the biggest sin with saying its ‘outdated design’ is not relevant either, considering they moved away from their single map staple. If anything its not enough like Fallout or Skyrim for the exact reason they moved into a different direction.
Thats not to say their arent valid criticism their very much is, but the stuck in the past argument doesnt hold water with me when people want more of that old exploration and not the new generated stuff.
You’ve described literally my point though - there’s so much in terms of systems to tinker with and planets to visit, and it looks way better and it’s got a lot going on - but it’s that the world reacts so little to your choices, you have so little agency in many of your choices and the world isn’t particularly immersive in the way many modern games have improved upon.
If it had released a few years after Skyrim, I’d have been blown away - but game universes have moved on so much in the last decade and it really feels like Bethesda are missing the immersion that has become a key selling point, instead wishing to chase an insane number of planets and game systems that most people aren’t going to see.
There’s no point having 1,000 planets if I get bored after the first 100 as I quickly spot they’re all just one of a few types with random events on them.
The loading screens would be tolerable if I loved every other aspect of the game, but instead I found myself like in Skyrim avoiding going into certain places just to avoid yet another loading screen - it gets silly when to visit every building in a small town (Akila for example) I might have to endure 50 to 100 loading screens while in Hogwarts Legacy I could visit every shop in Hogsmeade without a single loading screen.
I did like the game, I’ve put over 100 hours into it - but I didn’t love it like I hoped because it just wasn’t as immersive as they’d suggested it would be.
No, but if they damage the attractiveness of the Series consoles now, the resulting market imbalance would make PlayStation ports look a much better RoI than an Xbox one.
And next generation, if less people buy Xbox again, eventually the Series consoles are out-of-date (like the One is now for most new games) and the market imbalance could be worse again.
I want Xbox to be around for the long haul, and that means ensuring they take a good chunk of the market each generation so we get a wide choice of games - not just the big ones, but the smaller games that often are more interesting…
Not really IMO, he says in the tweet that it was recorded before Jon leaked the Starfield rumour (on the 4th February).
At that point Xbox hadnt even confirmed that they would be talking about it.
Because it was recorded for Destin’s channel I imagine it was just exclusive to Patreons for a few days before it was made public, the timing isn’t really his fault.
Simple solution, if you recognise any usernames from over there that engage in that kind of posting just put them on ignore.
Or even better this entire thread, it’s just a doom circle that constantly reposts the worst takes from toxic twitter or people constantly recycling negative takes based on zero evidence.
Maintaining the same sell split as last-gen (2:1) so far when you had an empty launch lineup, a horrible 2022, and a disastrous release of Redfall, while barely doing the bare minimum in marketing, and doing fuckall for your global presence and localization… and then complain that it’s not enough growth there… that’s some insane audacity from whoever at MS that says that. Maintaining last-gen split is impressive if anything with all the little they do to actually grow the console compared to the other console.
Someone made a tweet that at X time Microsoft would announce the direct. To give credit to whoever it was they did announce the direct at that time for a future date .
What GamePass got to do with mobile gaming? . I think most can see that Xbox Cloud isn’t taking off or making any sort of major impact in the sector.
Also, stop twisting what one types. I asked the biggest developers in the world and they market the console and PC for their big-budget games.
Take-Two biggest game is GTA and the sequel is coming out on consoles not phones. SEGA bought Rovio but most of SEGA’s biggest games are coming to PC and console. Sony bought Savage but it is the PS5 that is the focus of its game studios
Looking to mobile hasn’t worked out for Ubisoft even SEGA Japan stepped back a little from its heavy mobile focus a few years ago.
I also don’t get why you highlight mobile phones here when talking about Xbox. Anyone can make mobile phone games and do. Thanks to Microsoft ditching its phone It is Google and Apple that profit the most from games being made on mobile platforms, not Microsoft.
Microsft doesn’t make its own mobile phones and no major mobile phone platform uses Windows for its OS
PSN numbers are up and most developers are making fewer games given the time and effort needed to make AAA games these days. I think it is rather silly to single out SONY for that.
Look at how long it took to make FORZA when Turn 10 used to turn out a new FORZA game every 2 years and most with none of the bugs that have dogged the new FORZA
And speaking of Forza and Mobile. How well did the Forza Mobile phone games do btw?
Pretty much yeah. The only reason he said anything to begin with was because of how dire things were getting. The whole “we hear you” schtick is damage control 101 as it gives the people you’re addressing hope. I’d expect an official Xbox Wire article with a concrete date by the end of today.
I agree that Microsoft selling fewer consoles next generation would be bad. I also want them to continue making consoles - mainly because my games catalogue is tied to their store.
But, I don’t think it’s worth worrying about or talking about - there are plenty of Xboxes out there able to host current gen games, enough that anyone considering making a game would be foolish to not want to sell their game to those people.
I would say that to some degree, you could argue that speculating on bad outcomes has led to the current situation where Microsoft feel compelled to announce what they’re doing with their business, because the speculation has snowballed and has become that they’re leaving their hardware business behind!
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