Official Xbox: Series X | Series S Thread

[GTA3Rockstar]

On 1/16/2022 at 2:19 AM, Tommy "Nightmare" Smith said:

How long is/was the waiting time where you're from for a new xbox or ps5? 

Yesterday I went to a local big-shop to ask, and it would take about 3 months to get it

 

My brother and I got lucky on M$ store day one with our Series X.

 

 

5 hours ago, Mister Pink said:

This is just insane. 

 

Will COD be exclusive now? I just don't see that. 

 

5 hours ago, Zapper said:

I honestly don't see the reason why MS would spend $70 billion to let Activision put CoD on PlayStation. Xbox and PC exclusive CoD launching on Game Pass day 1 will skyrocket the number of subscribers overnight. The only way they're gonna allow it if Sony lets MS put Game Pass in PS ecosystem imo.

 

1 hour ago, Jason said:

The info about some games being exclusive and some not reminds me of the same comments when they acquired Bethesda. I think they probably have contractual obligations to fulfill.

 

Like we all thought Starfield was too far in dev for them to pull the plug on the PS5 version, we all thought Elder Scrolls was way too big to avoid PS5... we were wrong. Now CoD's even bigger than those for sure but I wouldn't put it past them now.

 

If it remains multi plat I imagine they'll push A LOT of incentives out through Games Pass perks, cosmetics, battle pass stuff potentially etc.

Very unlikely it becomes exclusive. CoD makes way too much money to remove it from probably a 1/3 of the market.

 

I definitely see getting more perks or something if you're on Xbox/Game Pass.

 

 

 

 

49 minutes ago, Lemoyne outlaw said:

how greedy can these companies be? 70 billion??!! why cant they donate it to people who really need it? its disgusting. im a proud playstation fan. but i love cod. i should not have to buy an xbox just to play a game i like. i hate console exclusive crap. why cant microsoft be content with the money they already have? its more than enough for them and their families. i cant even fathom what i would do if i had even one billion. these companies are disgusting. this just screams greed to me. and yes i would feel the same way if sony did this too. rant over.

 

It's a business, they're in it to make money.. lol It's not like that money disappears, it's going back down into it's employees

[Jason]

4 minutes ago, GTA3Rockstar said:

Very unlikely it becomes exclusive. CoD makes way too much money to remove it from probably a 1/3 of the market.

 

Yea you'd think, but again, I still think they might.

 

Microsoft are very, very serious about games now and are (if it goes through) gonna have their biggest acquisition ever be a games publisher. They're also Microsoft, they can easily afford to lose the PS income from CoD if it means growing their own platforms. Lose today to win tomorrow, basically.

 

I do wonder if/when we'll see Games Pass increasing in price as well. They have to be careful with jacking it up but surely they're going to put up at least by a dollar or two you'd think?

[Zapper]

20 minutes ago, GTA3Rockstar said:

Very unlikely it becomes exclusive. CoD makes way too much money to remove it from probably a 1/3 of the market.

 

CoD is a monster of a franchise and a legit system seller. MS absolutely wouldn't spend 70 freakin' billion dollars for Acti if at the end they'd let it put on PlayStation anyway.

 

I'm 100% sure their ultimate goal is to push Game Pass into as many platforms as they can so that they can cement themselves as a major player in the market when Amazon, Google, Apple etc. finally gets into the subscription service wars just like we're seeing in movie and TV industry now. PlayStation is not going to get mainline CoDs after the deal is finalized if they don't allow Game Pass in their console.

[Quinn_flower]

yikes ps players got left in the dust. only way is sony buys r* games/take 2 

[Lemoyne outlaw]

2 hours ago, Jason said:

 

Your point about being greedy, giving it to people who need it etc is what it is, I'd say it's idealistic and not how the world works but I do understand the mindset. But complaining about console exclusives while being a proud fan of a platform whose success is built on console exclusivity is a bit odd lol.

i am a fan of playstation and their consoles. that does not mean i support everything they do. i would prefer to not have console exclusives at all. im just saying that this seems like its gonna screw us playstation players. i know microsoft and their fans dont care.

[Zello]

I'm fine with this acquisition. I felt weird way back in 2014-15 when Activision started giving playstation COD exclusive stuff COD has always been associated with Xbox to me all those trash talkers on the mic on Xbox live. So now it'll be the opposite and Xbox will get exclusive maps and weapons first again. I still do expect them to be multiplat because COD is just too big to go exclusive.

 

One thing I hope is that they're able to bring back True Crime but that will be a bit tricky as Activision let the trademarks expire. Please Phil bring back True Crime.

[Jason]

54 minutes ago, Lemoyne outlaw said:

i am a fan of playstation and their consoles. that does not mean i support everything they do. i would prefer to not have console exclusives at all. im just saying that this seems like its gonna screw us playstation players. i know microsoft and their fans dont care.

 

Fair enough, and I do agree exclusivity is becoming even more annoying these days, be it on console with the megacorp wars or PC with platforms like EGS trying to brute force market share through buying exclusivity agreements with major releases.

 

I do however think MS at least offer options, Xbox, PC or cloud, all of which get their new games day 1. Sony leave a lot to be desired there, even if they're slowly improving. Based on Phil Spencer's words in the past as well he'd be all for these games on PS5 if Sony allowed Games Pass on their platform, which for now they won't.

 

Get the strong impression Xbox are happy with you playing anywhere as long as you're subscribed to Games Pass, where as Sony really still want you to play on a PS5.

[Quinn_flower]

1 hour ago, Zello said:

I'm fine with this acquisition. I felt weird way back in 2014-15 when Activision started giving playstation COD exclusive stuff COD has always been associated with Xbox to me all those trash talkers on the mic on Xbox live. So now it'll be the opposite and Xbox will get exclusive maps and weapons first again. I still do expect them to be multiplat because COD is just too big to go exclusive.

 

One thing I hope is that they're able to bring back True Crime but that will be a bit tricky as Activision let the trademarks expire. Please Phil bring back True Crime.

square soft owns true crime i think now 

[Zello]

2 minutes ago, Quinn_flower said:

square soft owns true crime i think now 

Square owns Sleeping dogs. But Activision kept the True Crime name. Unfortunately Activision let the rights to True crime expire in 2014 https://www.ign.com/articles/2014/12/30/activison-abandons-true-crime-trademark

 

I hope they find a way to bring it back. Unlikely as it wasn't popular but I still hope it does. I'd buy an Xbox in a heartbeat

Edited January 18 by Zello

[Mister Pink]

In all fairness, I did think Starfield and Skyrim would be exclusive. And I'm pretty sure COD will. 

 

I think you are spot-on Jason. Especially with this bit.. 

 

1 hour ago, Jason said:

I do however think MS at least offer options, Xbox, PC or cloud, all of which get their new games day 1. Sony leave a lot to be desired there, even if they're slowly improving. Based on Phil Spencer's words in the past as well he'd be all for these games on PS5 if Sony allowed Games Pass on their platform, which for now they won't....

Get the strong impression Xbox are happy with you playing anywhere as long as you're subscribed to Games Pass, where as Sony really still want you to play on a PS5.

 

The barrier to entry is lower on Xbox. You have a Series S console that will likely go down to $249 when availability begins again. You have cloud streaming via Game Pass and can play on any device; PC, Tablet, Android and even Apple. 

 

I think it was Sony that really put emphasis on console exclusivity. Spencer wanted things like more cross-play and Sony kept shutting it down. 

Sony really hated PS4 crossplay - The Verge

 

I'm not a COD player. In fact this acquisition doesn't appeal to me as much as the Zenimax one. However, I do hope Spencer sees the value in not overworking COD studios and perhaps releasing titles bi-annually or even give them 3-5 years to develop a title. 

 

Also, Phil Spencer has got a new title now. It's CEO of Microsoft Gaming. Satya Nadella said a while back that Microsoft are "all-in" on gaming. Their target-market isn't just 100m or 50% of PlayStation/Xbox console market. They're going after the 3 billion gamers there are in the world. That's from the casual mom playing Candy Crush to the 20-something male into RPGs. 70b is just shows how serious they are. 

 

I look forward to seeing Project Spartacus working. I'm sure Jim Ryan is going to announce PS exclusives day one in Spartacus. Not now but soon. 

 

Also, a reminder that Sleeping Dogs was it's own game before it was going to be marketed as a True Crime game. It was never originally a True Crime successor. 

Edited January 18 by Mister Pink

[Jason]

10 minutes ago, Mister Pink said:

I'm not a COD player. In fact this acquisition doesn't appeal to me as much as the Zenimax one. However, I do hope Spencer sees the value in not overworking COD studios and perhaps releasing titles bi-annually or even give them 3-5 years to develop a title. 

 

CoD and Candy Crush are the big talking points with this purchase for most, but the real jewel in the purchase is Blizzard. Their IP's are up there with the best of them and while they have fallen hard in recent years due to Activision's increasing strangehold and internal scandals, at one point they were in that same tier as studios like Valve and Rockstar (whether they're still in that tier we'll leave for another thread lol).

 

If MS can untangle them from Activision (which will be done instantly, I imagine), straighten them out internally, give them their creative freedom back and get them back to the level they were at ten or so years ago then they've got one absolutely incredible game studio on their hands. Back before the merger really started to f*ck them everything they put out was pure gold dust, they were the best of the best on PC. Their IP's are legendary, if the acquisition go through MS suddenly have the absolute creme de la creme of RTS and ARPG franchises.

 

Like has been mentioned here and in other threads discussing the news today, the consolidation of the games industry is hard to describe as a good thing for the health of the industry but if there's a silver lining in all this it's the potential of a Blizzard renaissance.

[Shadowfennekin]

This surprised me as I honestly believed Sega would be bought, I sure wasn't expecting them to outright buy freaking Activision! 

 

I don't care, COD's meh. If I had a say, I'd rather see them buy up Ubisoft or Taketwo as I actually play those games and maybe Microsoft would put a bullet in that non f*ckable token nonsense Ubisoft is trying to pull

 

It's funny, Sony spent the last few years desperately throwing money for timed exclusive content while Microsoft didn't bother with that nonsense and outright buys companies up! THIS is preferable, all Sony did was piss me the hell off. I STILL want to stab whoever decided Spider-Man will be exclusive in Avengers, f*ck them! 

[Zello]

5 minutes ago, Shadowfennekin said:

This surprised me as I honestly believed Sega would be bought, I sure wasn't expecting them to outright buy freaking Activision! 

I think when it comes to Japanese companies like Sega it becomes more difficult. I don't think the Japanese government would like American companies buying them all up.

 

I don't play COD or any of Activision's titles but if they brought back True Crime I'd be super excited.

Edited January 18 by Zello

[Failed Again]

Sony has nothing to fear. MS Xbox has no games(exclusives)!!

 

Ha ha ah..OoPs

 

Okay enough. But it's hard to resist, after some many times hearing this.

Now back to our respective platforms

 

And as "TO GREED"

The Gates Foundation has given away 74 billion to date

remember Bill started the okay for Xbox

Edited January 19 by Failed Again

[Zello]

10 minutes ago, Failed Again said:

Sony has nothing to fear. MS Xbox has no games(exclusives)!!

 

Ha ha ah..OoPs

All those years of people saying that pissed off Phil Spencer 

[Mister Pink]

1 hour ago, Zello said:

All those years of people saying that pissed off Phil Spencer

I always respond to console war banter with "I'd like to thank all the Sony fanboys for saying 'Xbox has no games' "  - Can you please kindly now chant "Xbox has no VR" Thanks

 

1 hour ago, Jason said:

CoD and Candy Crush are the big talking points with this purchase for most, but the real jewel in the purchase is Blizzard. Their IP's are up there with the best of them and while they have fallen hard in recent years due to Activision's increasing strangehold and internal scandals, at one point they were in that same tier as studios like Valve and Rockstar (whether they're still in that tier we'll leave for another thread lol).

 

If MS can untangle them from Activision (which will be done instantly, I imagine), straighten them out internally, give them their creative freedom back and get them back to the level they were at ten or so years ago then they've got one absolutely incredible game studio on their hands. Back before the merger really started to f*ck them everything they put out was pure gold dust, they were the best of the best on PC. Their IP's are legendary, if the acquisition go through MS suddenly have the absolute creme de la creme of RTS and ARPG franchises.

 

Like has been mentioned here and in other threads discussing the news today, the consolidation of the games industry is hard to describe as a good thing for the health of the industry but if there's a silver lining in all this it's the potential of a Blizzard renaissance.

Blizzard have some offices here beside my old job and I worked with some people that worked there and they mostly liked it. But they wanted to work there as they were fans. So, I would see the revere and esteem Blizzard were held in. Heck, one guy used to wear his Blizzard hoodie to work all the time. 

 

However, as a gamer I've never known Blizzard in their golden era other than some friends that had been lost to WoW. Their games never appealed to my old self but as mentioned before, I got more into gaming later.  I don't know now. I'm happy for those that remember the good days and can at least get some hope of a return to form. I'm sure there are still many older employees there that joined because they wanted to work on those titles they loved.  I hope the change in not only Kotick eventually leaving but the work culture, and acquisition will inspired them to do something fresh and for original fans. 

 

I say I'm not a COD player but I've played some of their campaigns and enjoyed them purely when I want a FPS fix or war game fix. What excites me is tech being shared among developers under Microsoft Games. One YouTuber I follow suggested the idea of ID tech for COD. I can only go on what many people say and that ID Tech is good. I've not played Doom but even if I did, I wouldn't have a clue. 

 

I hear a lot of people praise game engines but I honestly don't know how to discern end user quality because of the engine. I only go on people's opinions or when developers say Unreal Engine is easy to developer for. But I can't just play a random game as say "the engine this was built on is great" because I'm not the one having to build on it. But.. I think the idea that some methods of optimization, AI, and developing techniques can be shared by all the developers is exciting. I don't know if these developers are competing with each other. I suppose they are in a creative sense but not in a business sense as they all have the same parent, Microsoft Games.

[Zello]

What do you think is next on Phil Spencers shopping list? 

[Failed Again]

1 minute ago, Zello said:

What do you think is next on Phil Spencers shopping list? 

So#y

[Zello]

4 minutes ago, Failed Again said:

So#y

Something realistic man.

 

I could see WB interactive being sold.

[Jason]

id Tech used for CoD is an interesting idea. It's a very scalable engine that can put games out on Switch all the way to high end PC and is literally designed for shooters, the latest id Tech games (Doom) look fantastic and are known for running great as well, often being used as benchmark game by PC hardware reviewers.

 

A big thing with engines is the team being familar though, lots of devs are familar with Unreal not only because it's designed to be very easy to use by Epic but also because it's used to teach game dev in college/uni's. But id being under the same roof would mean documentation can be shared, support if they need it etc. Could certainly be an interesting idea though.

 

2 minutes ago, Zello said:

What do you think is next on Phil Spencers shopping list? 

 

Rockstar.

 

They both want it, cause why wouldn't they, the problem is it worth buying Take-Two to get them. MS have that f*ck you money to be able to do it, Sony probably not.

 

Realistic acquisitions are probably... Warner Brothers, Sega, Konami, Squeenix and Capcom. The Japanese publishers will be a bit trickier for MS I've heard, but MS acquiring Sega has been rumoured for a few years now and comes with some beloved IP. Beyond that, Ubi would be much more expensive than any of those I imagine but they'd be a very attractive purchase for those looking to bolster a game subscription service, they put out solid if not spectacular games on a very regular schedule.

 

If anyone buys EA I'd be shocked cause f*ck me what an unattractive company that would be to buy. They've got some great IP's in Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Battlefield but their studios that made them all got gutted and are shadows of their former selves. They are also massively reliant on licenses (sports games) and lootboxes, which may get regulated, and both MS and Sony avoid lootboxes or offer alternative paths to avoid having to buy them. They'd also be an absolute fortune.

 

Beyond that I think the only one left outside of Sony and Nintendo is Embracer, Valve and Epic. Embracer is doing what MS is doing except at an indie and AA level so I don't see that happening, Tencent own a stake in Epic so I imagine if Epic became open to that Tencent would gobble them up and Valve... Well no one is buying Valve.

[Zello]

What if they buy out CDPR?

[Failed Again]

12 minutes ago, Zello said:

Something realistic man.

 

I could see WB interactive being sold.

Paradox Interactive

RSI   (####) Roberts Space Industry--because we all what to go into space

 

WB would be great

 

Edited January 19 by Failed Again

[Jason]

CDPR and MS have a good relationship but I dunno with that one my self, CDPR being owned just sorta defeats the point of them so I don't see it happening... but I didn't see MS buying Acti Blizz.

 

Paradox are one of those that really need to stay outside of this type of stuff, they're AA and fill niches, especially in the strategy genre, with their games being very PC focused and not at all console friendly.

 

Anyone who buys RSI might as well throw a few hundred mil down the drain lmao.

[Zello]

11 minutes ago, Jason said:

The Japanese publishers will be a bit trickier for MS I've heard, but MS acquiring Sega has been rumoured for a few years now and comes with some beloved IP. 

When it comes to the Japanese Publishers can't they like just buy out the American and European Subsidiaries?

[Failed Again]

5 hours ago, Jason said:

CDPR and MS have a good relationship but I dunno with that one my self, CDPR being owned just sorta defeats the point of them so I don't see it happening... but I didn't see MS buying Acti Blizz.

 

Paradox are one of those that really need to stay outside of this type of stuff, they're AA and fill niches, especially in the strategy genre, with their games being very PC focused and not at all console friendly.

 

Anyone who buys RSI might as well throw a few hundred mil down the drain lmao.

 RSI was Joking..

 

Paradox

Yet Stellaris, and Crusader Kings are on Xbox..and with more KB& M 

it could be good..

AoE4 from MS is rumored to come to Xbox, Strategy games while maybe not the most popular within this community. They are pretty active.

 

And Frost Punk on Xbox.

Wasteland3/ maybe more RPG than strat.but playable with controller

 

And With Xbox(consoles) in Future development, I believe improved ways to interact with games will happen

 

and look here

Best Strategy Games On Xbox Game Pass (gamerant.com)

Wait/wait..

Hello/PC Game Pass Hold my controller..lol

 

# As a side note. I love Strategy games and respect your views too.

Edited January 19 by Failed Again

[Zello]

How many studios could they manage? Imagine if they bought Ubisoft and it's 40+ studios. Bruh 

[Jason]

4 hours ago, Failed Again said:

 Paradox

Yet Stellaris, and Crusader Kings are on Xbox..and with more KB& M 

it could be good..

AoE4 from MS is rumored to come to Xbox, Strategy games while maybe not the most popular within this community. They are pretty active.

 

Yea there's stuff like Cities Skylines as well, but in my experience none of them feel great to play on a controller.

 

The Steam controller was a good attempt to solve it, it'd have been nice to see MS or Sony try and innovate their controllers in the same way to help ease the input issues that games are running into but instead MS did really nothing with their pad (likely due for BC reasons) and Sony went with resistance triggers. Probably my main disappointment with this gen tbh.

 

There's PC games like Escape From Tarkov that would just be nasty on a controller due to the lack of buttons so they'd have to resort to having shift buttons which gets messy real quick.

[trip]

Sure sure sure...this news drops a couple of days after I released my version of the 1982 classic Activision game ,Pitfall, to the MS store.  Now people are saying Activision is going to re-release their old classics...like Pitfall.  Argh!!!!  And in just a few days it has already been my best seller.

 

I was already surprised it passed certification.  I wonder how long until they tell me to take it down.

[Failed Again]

2 hours ago, trip said:

Sure sure sure...this news drops a couple of days after I released my version of the 1982 classic Activision game ,Pitfall, to the MS store.  Now people are saying Activision is going to re-release their old classics...like Pitfall.  Argh!!!!  And in just a few days it has already been my best seller.

 

I was already surprised it passed certification.  I wonder how long until they tell me to take it down.

Be careful..you might get acquired by MS,,,

 

btw: Save the Puppies... ,is fun.

Love the sound too

[Jason]

Yea I see why Rainbow Six Extraction got it's price slashed, buddy passes and then thrown on Games Pass.

 

It's a complete mess of a game that just... aint enjoyable. It's a real shame too because the potential for a great Rainbow Six co-op game is absolutely insane, as proven by games like Ready Or Not and Rainbow's own co-op success in the past, so I really, really don't understand how this is what we got for a Rainbow co-op game.

 

It's messy, convoluted, unintuitive and one of those awkward 3 player co-op games. Stick to World War Z and Back 4 Blood if you want Games Pass co-op goodness me thinks.