Idas Said:

Car in Starfield sounds nice, now someone make a Creation Club mod for a Warthog skin (or Bethesda can release it).

If you plan on playing Genshin don't bother with the preorder pack. All the items are useless.

Haven’t posted here in a while

I am a little sad and disappointed by the current state of Xbox and I think I am probably just going to migrate off the platform permanently and move to PC full time now.

I think internally at Microsoft a decision has already been made to pull the plug on the console, and there won’t be a 10th gen console from Xbox when that rolls around. It seems clear to me the slim refreshes have already been cancelled, and so has the controller revision. They have also completely given up on exclusivity of any kind and seem to be waiving the white flag in all markets now.

It’s over. The Series X|S will be the last console Microsoft produces, and I also think that given the console market has been stagnant or declining for 3 generations in a row now there probably won’t be a third manufacturer in the console space ever again. MS will just be a big third party publisher.

This will probably serve as a good lesson going forward: all things end. Nintendo and PlayStation will also end too, we don’t know when, but it is unavoidable and inevitable. Always enjoy what you have while you have it, you never know when it will be gone.

I had so many good memories with the original Xbox and the Xbox 360, I am thankful I got to experience those as a child.

I mean, Xbox as a publisher will still be around, Lol. As it stands I think it's easily arguable that they're one of the most interesting major publishers right now with Xbox Game Studios, Zenimax and Activision-Blizzard so even if you move away from Xbox console into PC, that isn't going anywhere, you're only changing one hardware for another hardware.

That's why I'm saying I wish people would move into the acceptance phase already and make whatever decision they think is best for them instead of being in a constant state of negativity so that we can actually go back to talking about the things that matter most which is the videogames because their multiplatform approach isn't going to stop.

I'm not as negative as most, ONL was packed with Xbox content, Xbox support is still strong and improving with things like Genshin Impact finally coming, their 1st party is still incredibly exciting and a lot to look forward to, people will complain about Wukong being delayed on Xbox but ignore that they had Palworld at the start of the year, Lol. Xbox relationship with publishers continues to improve, Game Pass is still great, etc.

I do not share the sentiment that Xbox Series X/S will be the last Xbox hardware, they've been heavily hiring in the hardware department literally in the past 1-3 months, they've been heavily hinting at making a Xbox handheld, it has been heavily hinted that their next Xbox hardware is 2026. If they cancelled hardware, it would have been leaked already and they'd have been hit with layoffs in that area.

Satya continues to make Surface devices, despite their market share being even worse than Xbox's versus their competition and he's on record as saying that he regrets exiting the phone market despite the fact that Windows Phone had a pathetic market share, Lol. I think people need to reframe their minds that only a 60m+ console can be successful.

Most Game Pass subs are on Xbox, it's arguable that millions are likely locked into the Xbox ecosystem at this point and won't change no matter what due to their libraries, Game Pass, etc. That's millions of people spending $ on Game Pass, Xbox Live and 3rd Party Content (30% cut) which even at 30m consoles sold would amount to billions of $ in revenue.

They're not going to dump all of that overnight which is what stopping at Series X/S would be.

I don't buy the paranoia that even Xbox as fully multiplatform would crater to less than 10m sold, not when 3rd parties are the biggest movers of consoles nowadays, not when millions are locked into ecosystems and have years worth of content, not if they can make the consoles more enticing either via power, price, etc. The biggest push of Series S since launch has been from College Football 25, a multiplatform title.

The next big console pusher will be GTA 6, not Indiana Jones, not Avowed, etc. And if the next hardware is a PC/Xbox hybrid then support won't be an issue but you can achieve support of a platform even at 30m consoles sold or whatever, as Xbox Series is demonstrating right now by having far better support than Xbox One but if you don't buy that then yeah, move to PC and you'll be happier and we can talk games again.

Speaking of College Football 25.

Phil Spencer said:

They learned from the first 4 games.
They run a business and player numbers on Xbox are higher than ever.
The industry is under pressure and it will be change for all of us. pic.twitter.com/qc2tGZQzSS

— Knoebel (@Knoebelbroet) August 21, 2024

"We run a business, it is definitely true inside of Microsoft that the bar is high for us in terms of the delivery we have to give back to the company."

Multiplatform approach is being pushed through as a necessity to hit MS financial/performance targets sounds like.

Next to do that will be GTA 6 since everything else is still on fucking last gen, Lol.

Black Ops 6 should have been next gen only, that would have provided a big boost to both Xbox and PS too.

College Football 25 is a fucking juggernaut showing that these multiplatform titles don't need last gen.