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Forums - Microsoft Discussion - MS: 1st party Xbox games will be cross-gen for "next year, two years"

Mr Puggsly on 14 January 2020
goopy20 said:
Mr Puggsly said:

Do you really feel AC Unity lived up to their vision? Absolutely not. Achieving a vision is not just about the hardware. Its also resources and deadlines.

I dont think the crowds was too much for 8th gen hardware, instead its the optimization wasnt there nor a good use of resources from a gameplay perspective. Later AC games were better optimized in general, still pretty dense with NPCs, but could also spend resources elsewhere.

Developers were arguably more experimental last gen with inferior specs. This gen many played it safe instead pushing visuals and more open world games. It was like gen 7.5 not because limited specs, but because it was safe from a development and sales perspective.

Series X will probably be $499 at best. That's my guess, which also tells me we need Lockhart at $299. I hope that happens, I think it would put MS in good place competitively.

Again, Series X could have fantastic visuals even while sharing a game with X1. A game like Crysis 3 demonstrated that between PC and PS360.

Of course I don't, but that they did a poor job on Unity is besides the point. The point is that they chose to simultaneously release 2 completely different games because their ambitions for Unity wouldn't be possible if they had to port the core game experience to ps3/360 as well. 

What was their ambition? Make a game that plays virtually the same... but with bigger crowds doing nothing?

I am having trouble understanding what the vision truly was. Its also serves as an example that taking advantage of better specs should not be your sole vision.



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yvanjean on 14 January 2020
LudicrousSpeed said:
Radek said:

Right at the start at 3:00 mark John says he's very worried about Jaguar cores and HDD holding back Xbox Series X games...

but some people here will keep arguing otherwise..

His arguments are literally the same thing we’ve all been saying in this thread already, and we don’t even work at DigitalFoundry.

Also why do people keep incorrectly talking about how this is the first two years of XSX? The quote was the next one or two years. It could literally just be launch games, who knows 😆

Look at 18:15 mark that is when Rich & John start talking about Forward compatible and why this cross-gen decision is such a good move by Microsoft and their customers. 

Matt Booty mention that game will come to older consoles up to two years. But, Like Rich says at 8:00 mark the similarity of architecture they can do decent down port To the Xbox one S. While John has valid concern, I'm sure John would have no concern with this if Microsoft confirm that non-launch game were simply downport to Xbox one. 

John closing comment "I'm just playing devil's advocate here, I'm excited about these machines and what they can do! For me selfishly the only reason I'm saying this about not wanting to see this on original Xbox One is because I'm lucky enough to be able to purchase the next console."

The people incorrectly talking about this want you to believe that every game for Xbox Series X will be built with the Xbox One specs in mind. Which is just ludicrous. But, Xbox Series X is going to be a beast they should fear the BEAST.


Last edited by yvanjean - on 14 January 2020

CrazyGamer2017 on 14 January 2020

I can't decide if it's a good or a bad thing. So I'll go with both. There are positive and negative valid arguments in favor and against this decision.

Reminds me of that thing last gen when Microsoft went for backwards compatibility and Sony with remakes/remasters. Both having pros and cons in my opinion.



LudicrousSpeed on 14 January 2020
CrazyGamer2017 said:

I can't decide if it's a good or a bad thing. So I'll go with both. There are positive and negative valid arguments in favor and against this decision.

Reminds me of that thing last gen when Microsoft went for backwards compatibility and Sony with remakes/remasters. Both having pros and cons in my opinion.

True, there are certainly pros and cons. It can help keep current Xbone owners happy with new content but that can also be a con for MS as they might have less reason to upgrade. I don’t mind launch titles being available on older platforms because as even the DF video says, those titles don’t really push hardware anyway. But if were into year two or three and every XSX title is being made cross gen, that’s a problem. 

We won’t know until we see these games and release dates and platforms so I don’t see a point in caring too much right now. The only XSX games we’ve seen are Halo, which looked like Halo, and Hellblade, which looked amazing.



Nu-13 on 14 January 2020
Mr Puggsly said:
goopy20 said:

MAybe they could have but then they wouldn't have been able to make the game according to the vision they had. The huge crowds was obviously a step too far and it didn't really add much to the game, but that had more to do with the limitations of the crappy CPU's in current gen consoles. But it was still something that was supposed to be a core gameplay mechanic, even if it didn't really work out. I'm sure developers have tons of ideas for core gameplay mechanics that will be made possible by this next gen hardware, but that will simply be limited when developers need to keep in mind that they have to deliver a similar gameplay experience on current gen consoles. 

In any case, I just think it's a very bad idea for MS. If the rumors are true and they really will come out with a $700 beast of a console that's 30% more powerful than the ps5, they should immediately showcase it. But as it is, Sony will probably come out swinging with another From ps5 exclusive and a bunch of 1st party games, that will simply look better than any cross gen game MS will have. The masses will think the ps5 is more powerful, has the better exclusives and is probably $200 cheaper to boot. I don't see that working out well for MS. 

Do you really feel AC Unity lived up to their vision? Absolutely not. Achieving a vision is not just about the hardware. Its also resources and deadlines.

I dont think the crowds was too much for 8th gen hardware, instead its the optimization wasnt there nor a good use of resources from a gameplay perspective. Later AC games were better optimized in general, still pretty dense with NPCs, but could also spend resources elsewhere.

Developers were arguably more experimental last gen with inferior specs. This gen many played it safe instead pushing visuals and more open world games. It was like gen 7.5 not because limited specs, but because it was safe from a development and sales perspective.

Series X will probably be $499 at best. That's my guess, which also tells me we need Lockhart at $299. I hope that happens, I think it would put MS in good place competitively.

Again, Series X could have fantastic visuals even while sharing a game with X1. A game like Crysis 3 demonstrated that between PC and PS360.

As I said before, Lockhart doesn't exist until MS officially says so. But speaking of this hypothetical sku, if it's purpose is to run the same games in 1080p, it would still require the same cpu; equal/a little less ram and only the gpu would be significantly weaker (and cheaper). Under those conditions, how could it possibly cost $200 less? Only $100 less is more realistic. And if there is a lot less ram and weaker cpu to the point where $200 less is possible, it would be a completely different system. If games aren't made for it and scaled up on series x, it would require downporting from series x instead.

Yeah, the only option that makes some sense is a $100 cheaper version that doesn't need devs porting games to it and sells to those that don't want/care for 4k.

Last edited by Nu-13 - on 15 January 2020

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EricHiggin on 14 January 2020
yvanjean said:
LudicrousSpeed said:

His arguments are literally the same thing we’ve all been saying in this thread already, and we don’t even work at DigitalFoundry.

Also why do people keep incorrectly talking about how this is the first two years of XSX? The quote was the next one or two years. It could literally just be launch games, who knows 😆

Look at 18:15 mark that is when Rich & John start talking about Forward compatible and why this cross-gen decision is such a good move by Microsoft and their customers. 

Matt Booty mention that game will come to older consoles up to two years. But, Like Rich says at 8:00 mark the similarity of architecture they can do decent down port To the Xbox one S. While John has valid concern, I'm sure John would have no concern with this if Microsoft confirm that non-launch game were simply downport to Xbox one. 

John closing comment "I'm just playing devil's advocate here, I'm excited about these machines and what they can do! For me selfishly the only reason I'm saying this about not wanting to see this on original Xbox One is because I'm lucky enough to be able to purchase the next console."

The people incorrectly talking about this want you to believe that every game for Xbox Series X will be built with the Xbox One specs in mind. Which is just ludicrous. But, Xbox Series X is going to be a beast they should fear the BEAST.

Not sure why John would use the word selfish. There is basically nothing selfish about being able to afford a next gen console, just like there's no reason to feel selfish because you can slam dunk and others can't. If someone can't afford the next console iteration, to their benefit, it's not like there's no more games to play on the prior gen console, not to mention any new third party titles that will almost certainly cross over.

Just because MS is trying to change the generation rules, doesn't mean the rules don't still apply.



chakkra on 14 January 2020
Radek said:

Right at the start at 3:00 mark John says he's very worried about Jaguar cores and HDD holding back Xbox Series X games...

but some people here will keep arguing otherwise..

Well, I think he is wrong. But there is no point in arguing about it now, as everybody have already their minds set. I guess we're just gonna have to wait and see.



Azzanation on 14 January 2020
Kyuu said:
I don't know what the hell Microsoft is thinking. They keep giving the traditional console crowd less and less reasons to get their systems. Despite the many dumb decisions, at least Xbox 1 was originally intended as a traditional console with true exclusives that weren't available on PC, let alone a terribly outdated last gen system.

If Sony launches the PS5 as a traditional console with actual exclusives not in any way, shape, or form held back by old technology, the visual gap between their and MS's 1st party games could be immediately noticable coz MS is seemingly handling Series X as another X1X for around 2 years. I doubt they'll stick to that plan when PS5 sales blow it out of the water.

Destiny X360 to Destiny X1 kind of gap will not entice enough consumers to upgrade.

Graphics arent everything.



EricHiggin on 14 January 2020
Azzanation said:
Kyuu said:
I don't know what the hell Microsoft is thinking. They keep giving the traditional console crowd less and less reasons to get their systems. Despite the many dumb decisions, at least Xbox 1 was originally intended as a traditional console with true exclusives that weren't available on PC, let alone a terribly outdated last gen system.

If Sony launches the PS5 as a traditional console with actual exclusives not in any way, shape, or form held back by old technology, the visual gap between their and MS's 1st party games could be immediately noticable coz MS is seemingly handling Series X as another X1X for around 2 years. I doubt they'll stick to that plan when PS5 sales blow it out of the water.

Destiny X360 to Destiny X1 kind of gap will not entice enough consumers to upgrade.

Graphics arent everything.



Azzanation on 15 January 2020
EricHiggin said:
Azzanation said:

Graphics arent everything.

Made on WiiU, Became Game of the generation.