Glad the expansion cards are finally going open standard, more than 2 years after system architect Jason Ronalds said they would. Unfortunately, Western Digital isn't that much cheaper than Seagate, $180 for 1 TB is still way too expensive, you can buy 1 TB SSD's on PC right now with equivalent speeds to the Series X SSD for around 1/3rd of that price. Hopefully we see some of the cheaper SSD manufacturers decide to make the Xbox expansion cards soon now that the standard is open to them, we need to see cards from Sabrent, Crucial, Adata, PNY, Kingston, Silicon Power, SK Hynix, etc, the more competition, the better, especially if the budget SSD manufacturers decide to make them.

The expansion cards seemed like a clever idea at first, being able to easily transfer your games from say a Series X in your gaming office to a Series S in your living room, or take them to a friend's house on your expansion card like we used to be able to do when we were kids/teens before they required installs for games, but sadly it was a poorly thought out idea by Xbox. They should have learned lessons from all of the proprietary shit that Sony released over the years like memory cards and UMD, Sony learned from it, it's why they went with PC SSD's for expansion on PS5. And because they allowed PC SSD's, there is currently a PS5 approved (faster than Series X) 1 TB SSD available for $80 from Adata. Yes, $100 less than this slower, Western Digital expansion card for Series X.

ADATA 1 TB PS5 rated SSD for $80 on Amazon

Hopefully if Xbox does mid-gen refresh Slim consoles and/or a Pro console, they will have both an Xbox expansion card slot and a PC SSD expansion slot like PS5 has. A whole generation of these high prices for expansion upgrades feels untenable, I'm already getting sick of having to delete and re-install games on my Series X and we are only 2.4 years into the generation, games are going to be getting larger and larger throughout the generation just like they did last gen.

Boring Sunday. Random Question.

You've just been promoted to Head of Gaming and Satya has given you a blank cheque to get whatever series you want on Game Pass, the only catch is that you can only pick one series/IP for each publisher, this includes past, present and future titles, and if they aren't already on Xbox they will all be ported.

Which Series/IP Would You Pick?

• Electronic Arts - ?
• Take-Two Interactive - ?
• Bandai Namco Entertainment - ?
• Square Enix - ?
• Ubisoft - ?
• Konami - ?
• Sega - ?
• Capcom - ?
• Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment - ?
• Embracer Group - ?
• Koei Tecmo - ?
• Marvelous - ?
• Nippon Ichi Software - ?
• Paradox Interactive - ?
• 505 Games - ?
• Team17 - ?
• Annapurna Interactive - ?
• Focus Entertainment - ?
• Devolver Digital - ?

+ Whoever Else.

EA: would have been DICE/Battlefield, probably still is, but their recent output has not been great. 

Take-Two: if I pick rockstar do I get GTA and Red dead? if one or the other then GTA

BamCo: All of their Fromsoft Souls genre games 

Square: Final Fantasy 

Ubisoft: assassins creed 

Konami: Silent Hill 

Sega: Total war 

Capcom: RE 

If I think of the others later I’ll add another post 

EA - Are there any games that arent on Xbox?

Take Two Interactive - same as EA

Bandai Namco - Tales series to re-release older titles in the series

Square Enix - Final Fantasy (all the missing titles I, II, III, IV, V, VI, XIV and XVI - along with FF Crystal Chronicles Remaster, and any other legacy titles

Ubisoft - Same as EA or Take Two....

Konami - Metal Gear series - you can only purchase MGS 5 , Rising Revengance or Peace Walker - would like to get MG1, MG2, MGS1, MGS2, MGS3 and MGS4.

SEGA - SMT series - this includes all the titles in SMT mainline, Persona, Soul Hackers, Devil Survivor, Digital Devil Survivor and Strange Journey (along with whatever else I missed)

Capcom - Breath of Fire - because no one else has them and would love to play 1, 2, 3 , 4 and Dragon Quarter again on modern platforms.

WB - same as EA, Take Two and Ubi

Embracer Group - no idea, not that familiar with them , I know they own Tomb Raider but thats it

Koei Tecmo - All of the Atelier games

Marvelous - Senran Kagura - the only game series I can think from them lol

Nippon Ichi - all of the Disgaea universe games (Disgaea, La Pucelle, Phantom Brave, Makai Kingdom, etc)

Paradox Interactive - same as Ubi, EA, Take Two, WB

505 games - same as all the other western publishers

Team 17 - all of the worm games

Annapurna - same as all the other western publishers

Focus - same as all the other western publishers

Devolver Digital - same as the other western publishers

@BasilZero On Game Pass

EA: Nothing much to do here since EA Play is already a part of GamePass. I guess extend that contract even further

Take Two: I'd give Take-Two whatever they asked for to get GTA VI onto game pass day one

Bandai: I'd get the Tales of series onto game pass

Square Enix: Most of the FF games have been in GamePass at one point or another. Outside of that, I don't see much point in doing any further business with Square Enix tbh.

Ubisoft: Assassins Creed games into game pass

Konami: Metal Gear Solid Games onto game pass

Sega: The Persona games have already been ported, so I would seek the SMT games to be ported next.

Capcom: Resident Evil

Warner Bros: Hogwarts Legacy

Embracer: idc

Koei Tecmo: Atelier games

Marvelous: Rune Factory games

NIS: The Legend of Heroes games

Paradox: idc

505: idc

Team 17: ???

Annapurna: Stray

Focus Entertainment: Nothing

Devolver: Cult of the lamb

MGS2 and 3 are on Xbox (even backwards compatible). Not available digitally, but you can buy a phsycal copy.

Also MGS Peace Walker HD on disc 2 of the MGS Collection.

Today I finished all accolades of FH5: Rally Adventure, now I finally reached the top100 (of 29 million FH5 players)

I know. The games i mentioned by name arent on Game pass and I made my post in terms of both Gamepass and for buying as well.


Also applies to legacy titles, and there's tons that could be placed on Game pass that arent on Gamepass like my example of the earlier FF games.

Well that wont work for me. I have a Series S, not a Series X - which is why I suggested those games. Also I've seen people saying the same thing about wanting MGS games to be available outside the PS3, and I think it would be a good call in the scenario of the topic, to have access to games (if not 4 at least) the rest as it would mean it'll be the only way to play modern versions of MGS1, 2, 3 (and Metal Gear 1 and 2).

I also want to stay away as much from physical purchases and instead want digital purchases (whether its on Playstation, Switch, Xbox or PC).

I only have MGS Peace Walker HD on Xbox, MGS5 on Playstation, Xbox and Steam and the rest of the series on PS3 under the Metal Gear Legacy collection but its stuck on PS3 with no modern platforms unless I emulate it.