Official Xbox: Series X | Series S Thread

[Jason]

Playground started an entirely new studio to develop Fable, it's possible that their Horizon development went at least partially unhindered. I'd be surprised if the 23rd comes and goes with new Forza news tho, be it Motorsport or Horizon, I feel like they'll 100% have something Forza out for launch.

[Mister Pink]

Microsoft is apparently interested in buying Warner Bros Interactive. I'm not sure Microsoft will go for it but of the other companies interested, Microsoft are probably the most capable and consumer friendly company to buy it. Other parties interested are Activision-Blizzard, EA, and Take Two. It's reportedly going for 4 billion. 

 

https://www.techradar.com/news/microsoft-eyeing-off-purchase-of-wb-interactive-to-develop-xbox-exclusives

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2020/07/07/microsofts-xbox-armed-with-rocksteady-and-netherrealm-would-be-a-force-of-nature/

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/microsoft-expresses-interest-in-acquiring-warner-game-unit

 

 

[Jason]

3 minutes ago, Mister Pink said:

Microsoft are probably the most capable and consumer friendly company to buy it.

What a time to be alive when that is the truth lol.

[Mister Pink]

7 minutes ago, Jason said:

What a time to be alive when that is the truth lol.

Not quite sure what mean by that.   

 

But, if it's what I think you mean, Microsoft have been making very customer-centric moves since Mattrick's reign ended back in 2014/2015. EA, Activision and Take Two have been pretty sh*tty for years now. Especially EA and Activision. 

 

But when you consider Microsoft's commitment to; backwards compatibility and enhancing visuals of BC games, as well as performance of those games, bringing multi-generational libraries forward, development of Game Pass (bringing first party titles there day one), cross-device play, smart delivery, offering refunds on digital downloads  etc. They've been pretty good and being customer focussed and getting better. Now they're focussing on their most criticized point. So, yeah, I don't think it's entirely strange that MS would be the most consumer friendly company to buy WB Interactive. But we'll see!

 

You never can tell what's going to happen. 

[Jason]

Yea the fact it's true is why it's so strange. Take-Two are all over the place right now, Activision are just plain useless and EA, while probably being the 2nd best option, don't have a great history in handling beloved IP's.

 

We could see some cool stuff if MS bought it whatwith their Games Pass approach to some of their games now. Could see some experimental, smaller scale DC projects from lesser known characters which would be cool.

[Mister Pink]

I get you now. EA is like that abusive boyfriend and I'm the woman that sticks with him   I keep thinking they'll change and they have good IPs but just lack some self-awareness to do anything. It's just this corporate money hole model. I've stopped buying their titles new back in 2017. I got too pissed off with FIFA and them trying to gouge money. I uninstalled it. Never wasa huge football fan but I enjoyed every couple of years to play a football game. Haven't bought one since. I got gifted the The Last Jedi at Christmas but haven't played it yet. I heard that was in improvement. Was dying to play that game, not sure why I haven't installed it. 

 

I'm not a huge superhero fan guy but I do like Batman and loved the Arkham Asylum, so it would be interesting for me but I don't mind either way. And yeah, some smaller scale projects from lesser known characters might be nice. If it works, it could grow into something bigger. 

 

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Other news...

 

Microsoft is reportedly telling developers not to charge people to upgrade games and to go with Smart Delivery. If this is true, it's ballsy and consumer friendly. It's interesting because the idea of DRM back at Xbox One launch, (apparently) and it wasn't obvious to me at the time, was because publishers and devs didn't see any money on the lucrative used game market. By creating a DRM system MS thought that developers would fock to MS as it would be more profitable for them as it would cut out the likes of Game Stop making profit on selling used games. But this would entice developers to their platform. But DRM would work well in theory only Sony did the same thing. There would have to be an agreement. Anyway, we like buying used games so it wasn't consumer-friendly but I can kind of empathize or be a little forgiving with the idea, even if it was a bad idea. 

 

Now, MS are encouraging/forcing devs to make decisions and will ultimately benefit us. And who knows, it might just benefit devs in the long run. Happy customers might be inclined more to buy more DLC if their game is getting a second life for no extra cost. 

 

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-07-08-microsoft-reportedly-blocking-publishers-from-charging-for-xbox-series-x-upgrades

 

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Cyberpunk 2077 has been rumoured to be coming to Game Pass. Some sources claim it's confirmed but I can't find official info yet. 

Edited July 9, 2020 by Mister Pink

[GTA3Rockstar]

On 7/9/2020 at 4:25 AM, Mister Pink said:

 

Cyberpunk 2077 has been rumoured to be coming to Game Pass. Some sources claim it's confirmed but I can't find official info yet. 

 

Doesn't look like it

 

https://www.pcgamer.com/cyberpunk-2077-will-not-be-on-xbox-game-pass-in-case-you-were-wondering/

[Mister Pink]

 

60 new game demos for a limited time during the week of July 21st. They're trying to give us a sample of the playable demos that would be on the E3 floor.  The demos will be early builds, so definitely wont expect much from them. Some of them wont be released for years! Bit risky as people will judge them as alpha builds like the current demos on XBL. Far from it! But it's exciting we'll get a nice taste of what to expect. Think they will mostly be indie games anyway. 

[GTA3Rockstar]

One more week!

[Mister Pink]

More good news.. 

 

xCloud is coming to Game Pass Ultimate at no extra cost. That means GPU will allow you to access Game Pass from your PC/Xbox and of course now xCloud, any device capable of streaming. That's a pretty good deal for 15 per month. 

 

They have info on xCloud here. For testing, they are looking for people with 10mbs/5G mobile. 

https://www.xbox.com/en-IE/xbox-game-streaming/project-xcloud

 

Personally, I don't think I'll use streaming. I like to game in my room. I can't really concentrate on what I'm doing if I'm travelling or where I might mobile game. But I do know many people like the idea. 

[Punkd]

i could see them announce rdr2 for series x / ps5 on thursday

[trip]

Yeah, I still don't know if they really want to use xcloud as "game anywhere".  My little conspiracy head likes to think they are just testing for the future.

 

I will say it has gotten a lot smoother since launch.  Just the other day I played using a sh*tty free Comcast/xfinity hotspot and it was near flawless.  Not one slowdown... but I did have 2 solid disconnects(which can be blamed on comcast).

 

When my wife is dominating the TV I may xcloud via the tablet.  State of Decay2,  Destiny 2, and Forza H are my go to games.

[Jason]

I think they'll go slow with xCloud, I remember listening to interviews with Spencer where he mentioned that they're aware that it's niche right now and not viable for a lot of people so they're not gonna try and do a Stadia and sell it as the next big thing. I imagine they'll roll it out as an optional/niche way to play and ramp it up as the tech and infrastructure develops over the years.

[Mister Pink]

23 hours ago, trip said:

When my wife is dominating the TV I may xcloud via the tablet.

Ah.. yes. That's a pretty good use-case scenario, I never thought about. 

 

The big day is tomorrow! Finally. 

Xbox Series X Stream Start Times

• 9 AM PT
• 12 PM ET
• 5 PM BST
• 2 AM AET (Friday)

 

Edited July 22, 2020 by Mister Pink

[Punkd]

clock is set, cant wait for this!

[Jason]

Basically a lot of filler inbetween major 1st party announcements without dates. They clearly wanted to show that they've got some big stuff in the cooker but CG trailer announcements are sh*t. Fable and Avowed are both like two years away I'm guessing. Everything (but that Crossfire SP) being on Games Pass is a nice touch, even stuff that looks mildly interesting being playable cause of that makes you more interested in everything being shown.

 

Halo looked like Halo, visually it didn't impress at all though, looks fun but nothing to blow me away. Overall it was no worse than what Sony showed tbh but the new console launches are going to be as expected when it comes to new games, light on big exclusives.

[Turan]

Avowed and Fable look like the type of games I'd buy an Xbox for. But they look far off. Looks like it will be a while before I get an Xbox.

[TheSantader25]

Halo looked bad. Even by current gen standards. WTF was up with those graphics? 

[Electric_Spectral]

Halo Infinite looks like a Xbox 360 game

[Grichka Bogdanoff]

So Halo is going the same route GTAO and Rainbow Six followed and are still following.

Not only it looks really, really bland and uninspired, but it'll also release with barely any content most likely.

 

It's incredibly disappointing. I'm not a nostalgiafag so Chief reminding the original boxart in Infinite's doesn't really make me want to play the game. And the open world formula is nothing new, so that's another step in a bad direction.

 

a Hideo Kojima post.

[Electric_Spectral]

Looking forward to Stalker 2 and Avowed though they look freaking awesome!

[Kris194]

 

That looks good No way it would work on Xbox One.

 

Stalker 2 also looks nice

 

 

Edited July 23, 2020 by Kris194

[Failed Again]

State of Decay3. Hope that comes out soon.

 

I love Xbox..

 

please Xbox, Don't Decay

 

Edited July 23, 2020 by Failed Again

[Mister Pink]

I didn't see any issue with Halo graphics.  It's a launch title. What are people expecting? It's a not a linear-story driven title. I swear it's the same every generation, there are those that expect a huge leap in graphics. There's a nice leap for me. It's running 4K 60fps. There's a nice diverse selection of enemies and a grapple hook which is new and interesting. Nice to see another game that isn't Just Cause using this feature. I wonder what other ways we can use it 

 

 

Avowed and Fable look amazing. And these are the types of first-party games I want to play. Big open-world and RPG games. I'm glad Microsoft are putting focus in these places. 

 

And State of Decay 3! Man, that looks great. I knew when Microsoft bought Undead Labs that SOD would go more AAA than AA/Indie like it was before. 

 

The best part is that all these 22 exclusive games including Halo and Fable are coming to Game Pass day one.  So games that look interesting like As Dusk Falls, that I would be less inclined to pay for, will get a play from me because if it's on Game Pass anyway, why not?  As Dusk Falls seems pretty dark and interesting. I really enjoyed Life Is Strange and As Dusk Falls and Tell Me Why seem to share that same space. So, I'll try them out. 

 

I prefer more realistic games but this just looks beautiful. 

 

 

Also, we know backwards compatible games are going to be optimized and enhanced for Series X but I'm just so glad they brought it up. Forza Horizon 4 on Series X, will probably run at minimum 60fps maybe 120fps. It's on Game Pass anyway, so it's just nice what we'll get games that are on there, with graphical upgrades and performance upgrades for no extra cost. Series X generation might just be the best generation ever, on paper. Can't wait to see how RDR2 runs on it. 

[Failed Again]

Medium

 

There's Nothing medium about that one.

Looks scary good

 

 

Psychonauts 

Nurse, I'll have what He's Taking- Stat

 

Edited July 23, 2020 by Failed Again

[Kris194]

1 hour ago, Mister Pink said:

I prefer more realistic games but this just looks beautiful. 

Indeed. At the very beginning I thought, that Microsoft wants to have their own Zelda.

[Mister Pink]

7 minutes ago, Kris194 said:

Indeed. At the very beginning I thought, that Microsoft wants to have their own Zelda.

Yes, exactly. I thought that too. 

 

With exclusives there seems to be a trend in more open-worlds or environments and some leanings on RPGs. This is nice. This certainly breaks the Forza, Halo, Gears mould. Of course, I can forgive Microsoft for not splashing out on exclusives given the disastrous start. If there are only 50 million or less reach, it's very risky to release big-budget AAA game, especially since a low percentage of the userbase will buy them. Uncharted 4 has sold about 16 million copies. That's not even 1 fifth of the userbase. It's still mighty impressive, don't get me wrong. I'm just trying to think of the conversations in the boardroom when they greenlight these projects. With Xbox having a 40 million or so user base back in 2014, even if Spencer is in charge now, it's going to be hard to green-light exclusives when if very successful, it might only appeal to a fifth of the userbase.  So what do you do? You make Game Pass. And it's the best thing to happen to gaming in a long time, IMO. 

 

I can understand why Spencer is now saying he's impressed by the diversity of games. We have AAA RPG's covered out the wazoo for the next gen between Xbox exclusives (Fable, Avowed - two fantasy RPGs to counterweight space RPGs like Starfield and will most likely be out before the next Elder Scrolls) and 3rd party. We have story-driven AAA that is Hellblade 2, The Medium and we have car racing and multiplayer AAA(Forza), we have a AAA space sci-fi shooter (Halo: Infinite). Then for animated style we have Everwild and more Zombie action-adventure State of Decay 3. 

 

Some time exclusives like S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Crossfire and Darktide, should be interesting. Next gen looking good. 

 

We still don't know what The Initiative are working on!  That's definitely an ace up their sleeve. 

[pingli]

Some games that caught my attention;

 

Avowed  - I got super high hopes for this one, I'll be real disappointed if it turns out bland. 

 

Psychonauts 2 - Looks amazing, can't wait to play it and yet still no release date, 4 years after initial announcement. 

 

State of Decay 3 - I didn't expected that scream. I don't know what to expect from this one, SoD II was meh and kinda fun, main problem IMO with it it was kinda dumbed down survival like game and it had that Unreal Engine generic glare all over it. 

 

Grounded - I like this, co op survival game with a story, something similar like how The forest plays, I can see myself trying this one out with my friends.

[DexMacLeod]

State of Decay 3 was a pretty big surprise considering how much they've been talking lately about all the stuff they're working on for 2 still. I know it was a very brief tease and that it's hard to cover what makes State of Decay different than other Zombie games but what little they showed didn't really feel like State of Decay to me. 

 

Also looking forward to Grounded but we didn't really get anything new from that.

[Jason]

2 hours ago, Mister Pink said:

I didn't see any issue with Halo graphics.  It's a launch title. What are people expecting? It's a not a linear-story driven title. I swear it's the same every generation, there are those that expect a huge leap in graphics

The problem is that for a game that, in their words, is built up to take advantage of the next-gen hardware it looks worse than many games on current gen.

 

Seriously, what the f*ck is this?

 

 

LoD's also look like a complete disaster:

 

 

If you told me that was a 360 or early current gen game I wouldn't disbelieve you. Poor shadows, poor lighting, texture work looks shoddy in areas, LoD issues. Compare that to something like RDR2, Ghosts of Tsushima, open world games which are typically the most demanding, and it looks embarrassing from a visual point of view.

 

To make it even more confusing, they released a campaign trailer that appears to have completely different lighting, so something funky is going on.