That’s your opinion, i respect that. I just don’t like walking in blind without knowing someone’s intentions in regards to certain queries if am honest on that. Also, i fear this could have genuine harm towards both the library of people as well as Xbox as a true ecosystem.
Then again, you make a solid point in saying we need to see all hands on deck and see what exactly awaits at the end of the line. I hope we get that this year, otherwise many are gonna be right to question things as they currently stand.
To be fair, I was talking about their logic on ‘risk of losing subscribers due to multiplatfrom push’, not Game Pass in general.
I think the reason why Game Pass hasn’t been the hook that some believed is largely due to a lack of well known IP releasing Day One in the service. Apart from Black Ops 6, what titles have Xbox released into Game Pass that were:
Well known beyond the Xbox community
A large enough draw to force someone to buy a console
It’s hard to promote the value of a subscription service when the average consumer isn’t even aware of the content in it.
I think this is where the multiplatform strategy could benefit Game Pass in the future. There are going to be millions of PlayStation and Nintendo gamers who are now going to know and love Forza Horizon, Halo, Gears, Fable, etc. Once you grow these IPs, it’s going to be an easier sell to say “You know all those games you paid $70 a piece for, well they are also available in this service for $20 a month.”
We know that they’re working on next generation hardware. Just need to wait and see if they can pull off what they’re rumored to be working on which is getting Steam/Epic on Xbox.
As for the digital library, this can be eliminated at any given time regardless of what the company does or doesn’t do. With that said, I don’t see this happening any time soon because we already know that a next generation console is coming and the architecture is going to be the same so I don’t see any issues happening.
I simply look at Microsoft wanting to dominate everything everywhere. Imagine when 2025 ends and the best top paid and played games on PlayStation are Microsoft’s games. While also doing great on Xbox and PC as well.
In my mind, what Microsoft is trying to do is simply dominate everywhere and do it their way.
Well, you kinda just me me aware that my library could be dropped at anytime and i just don’t know how to feel about that overall. Now am alot more concern if things don’t pan out well in the end for the brand on hardware. As well as Satya’s constant axing of stuff.
Welcome to console hardware, where no digital (and even some physical) library is safe in a closed ecosystem. You want to secure your library, buy on an open platform like PC, where even in the event of Steam, EGS, GOG, etc. closing, you have ‘options’.
Alternatively you can learn and embrace emulation, FPGA, soft and hard modding consoles, etc.
Could this not happen if Xbox invest in preserving libraries of individuals in PC in the ecosystem between pc and console?! Then what about play anywhere?! I thought that was what they been trying to do for years in case of something bad happening.
That applies to every digital library. If Sony went to Nvidia or someone else except AMD and didn’t have backwards compatibility with PS6, it would be the same thing. Nothing is a sure thing nor should it because even the companies don’t know what it will be in 5, 10+ years from now.
Also, do you even play your older games? I have around 80+ games on Xbox One/Xbox Series X and lost the 30+ games I had on Xbox 360 but I don’t care because I was never ever going to play those 360 games ever again. If you have games that are sitting there for years and years, in my mind, the game isn’t of any importance so if you lose access to it, would it even matter?
This is honestly something I don’t worry about because if the game is years and years old and I haven’t played it, not much difference than me losing access to it because the result is the same - im not playing it.
I do, i play Mass Effect trilogy and Elder Scrolls alongside a dash of Gears of War with a bit of Ace attorney . I may not look like it but i love playing through stuff i owned, heck last year i spend more than 100 hours playing Skyrim one noramlly and one with mods.
Lets looks at Nintendo and Sony, both have done hard resets recently where they completely started over in game libraries. Nintendo from Wii-u to Switch and Sony with PS3 to PS4.
Now lets look at Xbox who took the time money and effort to create BC on Xbox One AFTER launch to allow you to play your old OG and Xbox 360 games. Not only that but they improved these games out of the box.
Also Sarah Bond announced a dedicated team for “forward compatibility”. Does any other platform holder have a dedicated team for that? An entire team dedicated to make sure your old games go forward with you regardless of future hardware changes.
Has ANY other platform holder done this type of thing that costs time and money to preserve your library?
Nintendo will create new consoles so different that BC is not possible and Sony will just remaster and remake games to force you to buy them again and they dropped the ball hard on PS3 BC.
Xbox in the console space is the absolute best place for you to invest in a digital library cause they have shown in the past they will make sure things are BC and with their entire Xbox everywhere push it only works if your games can follow you regardless of hardware.
Sure you can be concerned about digital libraries going away but given the choice of platform owners MS and Xbox are FAR away the most secure choice to ensure you can play your games in the future in the console world. Only PC surpasses Xbox as far as BC goes and with Xbox being closely tied to PC you can go there as well with no issues, heck you can realistically be an Xbox gamer and buy games and play games on multiple pieces of hardware without a console at all.
Xbox is going to become an all encompassing eco system with 3rd party support like normal and the biggest 1st party publisher in gaming. Their plan ONLY works if they allow your digital library to be safe and go where you go.
So I’m not really understanding the huge concern? Why pick out Xbox on this issue when the others have been far far worse respecting your purchases?
Eventually console hardware will go away for every platform holder and Xbox is better positioned then anyone to be an all digital eco system for gaming.
Fair enough. In general, I wouldn’t worry about any of this until Microsoft officially announces that stuff is changing. In this regard, I don’t see them changing anything. If anything, with Play Anywhere, I believe that they will go hard in this direction for their next generation console.
Yea their entire everything is an Xbox campaign 100% depends on your games being able to be played on just about any piece of hardware with a screen on it. That type of diverse feature pretty much ensures your games purchases will be around a long time.
Xbox is trying to emulate the PC model of BC and forward compatibility, and since MS is the one that put work into making Windows BC for the last couple of decades it was also alot of their efforts that allowed PC to become that.
Windows has been the major PC gaming platform since the mid 90’s and MS is the one that made sure of Windows BC with legacy applications and games. Since they have been doing this kind of thing for decades I think I’ll trust them on this one.
Why are people concerned with this issue given MS’s past history and how bad other platform holders have been at this?
But it doesn’t, it’s actually the complete opposite. If the console ends you still have a million different ways to access your game library,
With the other platforms holders so dependent on Consoles that would be the case but not Xbox.
And if you look at the head winds of technology and media consumption the console will “end” eventually for all platform holders, when that happens Xbox is in much better shape then others.
Well, yeah in general but I mean for the individual, if they only care about the console, then it ends unless they play a different way to access their games.