I honestly just want to know if we will continue to have permanent exclusive games. That’s all I ask. I think so and a majority seems to think it will.
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The list of games that are actual permanent exclusives is vanishingly small, if you look far enough into the future. What I mean is, even t he blockbuster exclusives - Resident Evil 4 on GameCube, Grand Theft Auto III on PS2, Sonic Adventure 2 on Dreamcast and, yeah, Spider-man on PS4, are all “exclusives” until they are not, essentially.
MS are realising that they can monetise after the fact and this gives them a good spread of release dates to try out - A 2017 game, a 2020 game, a 2022 game and a 2023 game, of varying scopes and sizes, to see what effect the releases have on the sales.
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A senior designer speaking facts. It’s nice that Microsoft revenue will increase, but I don’t think long term this is going to be good for Xbox owners. We’re going to get more 3rd party games skipping xbox due to console sales might not reach xbox one levels again with this move. I like Microsoft games, but I don’t think gamepass is enough to keep many on xbox next gen because I feel a decent amount of people are okay with waiting 6-12 months for games to hit playstation. Don’t get me wrong, gamepass is a good service, but saving $500 + recurring $15/month charge and having access to more games + MS games is more attractive imo
https://x.com/delilah_hd/status/1760540007645798544?s=46&t=_TtlxHtnhYiqUgYm_uDmJg
https://x.com/delilah_hd/status/1760510828103483529?s=46&t=_TtlxHtnhYiqUgYm_uDmJg
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The more I think about this stuff the more I end up in the same place and from my perspective as a customer it’s that the Xbox team have done a really poor job of communicating this inflection point to their existing customer base. It surprises me that anyone is surprised this is blowing up again as the way these announcements have been communicated was not effectively foreshadowed in the business update we (existing Xbox customers) received.
And if we hadn’t had the leaks the situation would have been a lot worse. We know the “Business update” was originally planned for Spring and we know that the Direct was originally planned for mid February. Which implies that the plan for this was just to drop these announcements and welcome PS and Nintendo players to the party. This is backed up by Phil’s comments about how it was planned to open the scheduled business update on the Acti-Bliz games coming to game pass information and not multi plat. plans (would these even have been mentioned and to what degree? Who knows).
So what’s my problem (I hear you all not asking). And I’ll start with a modifier. Yes I get it that there is no point in making title multiplatform if you then don’t go all out to sell those titles to your new potential customers so obviously I expect the communications around these releases aimed at those new potential customers to be aimed at them and the great things they are getting right now.
But the reality is that yesterday Xbox announced four new releases for PS and Nintendo players. Two in Q1 and 2 in Q2.
In the Developer direct they announced 4 new releases for Xbox players and only gave an actual dated release for 1. So we end up with 1 definitive release date in Q2 and vague promises of 2 titles in the Fall and 1 just in 2024 (which logically would be after Fall). So pardon my cynicism but given Xbox studios track record for delays why would I have any confidence that any of those undated games will make a 2024 release?
Phil even acknowledged that this is a problem in their messaging as recently as early 2023
“I hesitate to get ahead of the launches, because I know there’s rightfully some fatigue in the community about us just saying, ‘just wait until…’ "
"I think it was important for us to show games and show dates.”
To me there is a clear disparity in the messaging there that doesn’t make me feel like a valued customer. Games and dates for our new customers games and no dates for the ones we know we’ve already strung along for too long with the same vague promises.
It’s also crystal clear when you read the Xbox wire post “New Platforms, New Players: …” (and I’ve written enough corporate communications to know) that the entire part from " Last week on The Official Xbox podcast" to “Game Pass this year” was just pasted in at the last minute as some (in the main pretty meaningless) positive bullet points to keep existing customers happy.
“The biggest games in the world will be on Xbox.” Nice tag line but what does it mean well if you listen to the BU then it means that all first party games will continue to come to the Xbox platform and because Xbox have the biggest developer Org in the world all the biggest games from that org will come to Xbox. direct quotes from Matt Booty confirming that Xbox will not release 1st party titles that skip Xbox platforms and Xbox platforms will continue to get games from Xbox 1st party studios that will be “the biggest in the world”. Thanks Guys.
"Our first party games will come to Game Pass day one. " Well thanks for committing to something that you committed to Game Pass subscribers in 2019 (and no it’s not a gotcha to claim they only committed to Microsoft Studios titles days one and that some how shouldn’t include Bethesda or Acti Blizz titles 'cause reasons).
“A robust and innovative multi-year hardware roadmap.” Trust me Bro. It will be the biggest leap ever.
"Compatibility with your library is a priority, inclusive of cross-play, cross-save, and robust cloud features. " Just pretty much contradicts the previous commitment to HW.
“Xbox will continue to help game creators find the biggest audience possible.” Good but outside of cross play how does this benefit me? (I don’t play multiplayer games so YMMV here 
)
So I guess Phil is right. I am fatigued with all of the wait and see promises and but look at the long term benefits you’ll eventually get talk when it juxtaposed against immediate short term pay out for their new customer base. I’m fatigued with the press cheerleading games for all platforms but only in one direction, I’m fatigued with people pointing out how this will mean more games can be developed for Xbox customers or sequels to underappreciated games when we now know that they could only ever come once all of the porting work is completed on PS and Nintendo versions and minus the resource needed to support these extra platforms going forward because it’s the same teams doing the work.
Looking at what has been communicated (minus trust in promises that “things will always get better”) being an existing Xbox customer who has invested money in their platform has ominous overtones of being a cash cow that’s being milked to enable their expansion plans by a company under the false assumption that their existing userbase will hang around whatever they do.
Does this mean I’m selling up right now, of course not, but I am taking a more short term view of decisions about where to invest my gaming cash and the immediate value I get from that and that to me now means a trustworthy Xbox roadmap, as a customer of theirs who subscribes to Game Pass for first party titles (in the main), is Hell Blade 2 at end of April and no further.
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I just bought Banishers, and have preordered that Battlefront collection. No concern with investing into third party on Xbox.
Won’t be long until Sony shareholders start asking why PS games aren’t releasing on other consoles anyway, it’s going to all be about maximising revenue - especially with how MS’ first party games are going to heavily outnumber PS first party games over the next few years.
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As I put in my lengthy rant (that I wouldn’t blame people for skipping) this statement has been misinterpreted by Delilah HD and many others. And I can understand why due to the purposefully vague phrasing that has been used in the bullet point.
If you go back and listen to the business update 1st party section Matt Booty clarifies this statement to mean that because Xbox now has the biggest 1st party organisation in the business this means that the biggest games will be on Xbox. i.e. in plain speak this statement can be translated to. The biggest games from Xbox 1st party studios will be on Xbox. He helpfully reiterates earlier in the BU that no 1st party games will skip Xbox platforms.
Although it alludes to it and is designed to mislead (IMO) that bullet is in no way intended to reference 3rd party titles.
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I see it as completely opposite to you. Paying 700$ (CAD) and then having to pay 100$ per game is absurd when I can pay 240$ per year (for ultimate not at discount price) and play hundreds of games a year. All 4 MS games this year covers that cost plus the fact that PS+ or GP Core are necessary to play online anyway means that the 240$ I would be paying a year is more like 180$, so GanePass Ultimate is actually less than the price of 2 games. I’m about to finish Persona 3, just 1 more game and I’ve had my money’s worth.
IMO it’s almost stupid not to take GP, its just too good of a deal to pass up. But good for you if you like to throw away your money on full priced games when the reality is you end up not playing them again anyway or if you do, you can always buy it in 10 years for 5$.
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Yeah here in the UK it’s £60 for one year PS plus, but £40 for game pass core - and with xbox stuff you can potentially ‘region’ it for cheaper which means 2 years of GPU is £80, just a bit more than one Sony first party game.
This was never going to be good for Xbox owner, long or even short term, it’s obvious sales will get impacted, which means less support from smaller third party games or less optimization on the Xbox versions of the games, also first party studios will need to do extra work to port the games unless MS acquires some support studios.
But it’s not all negative, with more sales potential i believe studios can grow faster and same goes for the scoop of their games, also multiplayer games will have a bigger community, which is nice specially for not so popular ones, and finally i guess PS and Switch owners getting access to many more games is also good in the end.
The thing is the ABK acquisition and the fall of Xbox sales during 2023-2024 changed everything, the truth is the Xbox brand is a handicap for MS now, and for it to be really succesful and profitable considering the absurd amount of costs they got now would be by spending crazy amounts of money in marketing and third party deals, to compensate for what the didn’t spend in the last 10-15 years, and it’s understandable MS doesn’t want to do that.
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These tweets ignore that third party support for Xbox has actually been better than it ever has, especially when it comes to Japanese publishers, I get the worry of less sales = third party support because logically that does make perfect sense but people need to stop getting bent outta shape because some random niche games skip Xbox like Gundam and Monster Hunter 3ds spin offs
Things like Genshin are a much bigger miss but again, it’s an eastern game, where Xbox has little to no mindshare, it’s always going to be harder for them, this was also one where they fumbled before launch too
The biggest games thing is just corpo speak anyway, people need to stop reading into it so much
As for GP, in the long run if you plan on playing lots of games you’re better of buying both an Xbox with GP and a PS5 than just a ps5 and buying all third parties and Xbox games there
Personally I have zero interest in jumping into Playstation for games that may not only come later than Xbox but also games that I’ll have to fork over $70 for when I can play them for dirt cheap on a device I already own
If next gen Xbox goes the hybrid route, Day 1 Game Pass library wherever I want to play is simply more appealing than the alternate for me but we will see what happens
Something to consider is well is that MS wants to be the biggest gaming company, period, if they are bringing games everywhere it means acquisitions become easier and the more they buy the less games they have to worry about skipping the platform, I don’t expect them to buy anyone anytime soon but right now they don;t have to
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I think the issue lies with muilti console owners like myself. Next gen I am most likely getting a PS6, so there might not be a need for an xbox console due to games releasing on PS6 and I would be find with waiting due to saving $500USD and $15/month subscription for gamepass . Also, wouldn’t be shocked if they nerf gold to GPU conversion again
It will be interesting to see CoDs impact on GP and gaming in general, if it effects people thought’s on how they want to continue paying for games going forward
Casuals still barely know what GP is
While I agree, the end is in sight for the console market, it still makes little sense that Netflix would send their old content over to their competitors.
Though you can buy Marvel Movies on Youtube and it hasnt slowed Disney+ one bit.
I think everyone would feel better about this if game pass were already over 100m where its already won. Not still struggling to hit 50m.
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You’d be better off on PC. Steam just needs to make a console now and both consoles would be dead.
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While I am afraid of the consequences it could possibly have in the future regarding third party support, I’m not sure the two games from yesterday are an indication of that. With these older games it’s always a wildcard. With a franchise like Monster Hunter I had hoped Xbox was absolutely gonna be part of it, since World and Rise did quite fine, but alas.
I guess it will all depend on how easy, or not easy MS is gonna take it. If by next year around the same time they have dropped some big name titles on PS5 who knows what third party studios might decide. Really hope MS does take it easy. I saw some posts that the money they get from Switch and PS5 copies they can put back in making HFR 2 and fund other games in general, but we are only guessing and speculating. If that happens, that’s good news, but third party support is just as, if not more important.
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I dont think cod on gp will have any meaningful impact. Those xbox and rare tweets yesterday rubbed me the wrong way and i ve decided to abandon xbox and go pc. Still had a bit of hope after that podcast but that was just plain stupid. Its that retarded when we all play we all win marketing bs that made me furious. Does xbox leadership think we r e idiots?
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I think there’s a large amount of Xbox casuals that are subscribed to GP. It’s just that casuals outside of the Xbox ecosystem don’t know about it or don’t care for it.
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I’d really like that. I guess eventually the likes of Take Two would have to bring GTA games day one to that too. I would absolutely be in favor of a Steam console.
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They are just businessmen doing their business. I think PC is also the safest place to invest without fear of missing out on anything, well anything other than Nintendo games.
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Yeh i know but its all so very dissapointing. Oh well steam it is.