Xbox Series S/X: Thread 05

[Neon Ignition]

From my math they're just about to tip below the upper limit you can earn per month being 20,000. Three months ago it was 29,000

The desktop and mobile points are still worth it for the time they take. I'm braced for the Xbox ones being abandonable though

[fishbowlhead]

MS once again failing to understand the console market and the word "fun", they are so desperate to wipe out the competition they have learned nothing from all these years of failure, and they HAVE had the time to get to grips with the market and how it really operates, they seem to think they can big business their way to the top, but entertainment just doesn't work like that. You have to capture the customers imagination with fun things, games are great for this, Nintendo & Sony have built up reputations and images of providing fun for all sorts of people and age brackets, from mario, to labo, to astro bot to sing star, and all the stuff in between.

MS have done that ONCE with Halo ce, but even that wasn't fun for all, it was fun for the hard core, but they have never had that thing that has ever grabbed everyone's attention and got families discussing it, like Nintendo & Sony can and have over the years.

MS points are completely irrelevant to the general user base, and gamepass is as interesting as doing your dishes.

GAMES GAMES GAMES.

[Ouenben]

gamepass is as interesting as doing your dishes.

Gamepass has been quieter on the bigger AA and AAA titles lately but it's been utterly fantastic for indie games and non multi-million-dollar budget games. If you're only in it for the big AAA releases it'll disappoint but if you are happy to try some other titles and give games you wouldn't normally buy a go, it can be very rewarding.

[Lebowski]

I actually think next year is going to be a huge step up in first party output from them than we've seen this year.

Redfall was a very public lesson in jurisdiction and ownership that I'm sure won't be repeated but we did see Hi-Fi Rush, Starfield, Forza and the Age of Empires games dropping.

Next year it is really looking like Hellblade II will finally get released (I'm sick of seeing behind the scenes stuff) as well as Avowed which are two games I'm really excited for. There's obviously others with no firm date but with things backed up so much I would expect at least another 2-3 smaller titles to get out in 2024 as well.

Hellblade always felt like a C grade god of war as the combat sucked if it wasn't for the story and the interesting things it did with its narrative it would not be getting ta sequel. Avowed i'm looking forward to and you never know we could see Stalker 2 in 2024 I've been burnt to many times with this now though so I'm not holding out hope that we will see it until late 2024 early 25 .

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.eurogamer.net/killer-instinct-getting-a-new-anniversary-edition-as-base-game-goes-free-to-play

Killer Instinct is getting a minor update. If you want the old games and soundtrack content you need to buy the DE version before it's removed to make way for this one

[nonny]

Hellblade always felt like a C grade god of war as the combat sucked if it wasn't for the story and the interesting things it did with its narrative it would not be getting ta sequel. Avowed i'm looking forward to and you never know we could see Stalker 2 in 2024 I've been burnt to many times with this now though so I'm not holding out hope that we will see it until late 2024 early 25 .

I actually loved Hellblade. I don't think it mattered one bit that the combat was fairly limited as the whole story and setting was on point.

I played through the whole thing wearing headphones for surround audio and it scared the crap out of me.

The fact they did it with such a small team and budget is impressive. Agree the sequel is going to be a different beast but I'm down for it.

[Lebowski]

so up on reddit is a post about how the on console xbox reward app is retiring soon and everything is moving into the app, no doubt stuff will be dropped with the move, speculation on what’s gonna happen to the weekly streaks. nothing confirmed yet bar the move.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrosoftRewards/s/8tlqRoIImh

[Brad]

Agreed re: Hellblazer. I ended up loving it. Combat was by the numbers but I didn't care.

[Ouenben]

so up on reddit is a post about how the on console xbox reward app is retiring soon and everything is moving into the app, no doubt stuff will be dropped with the move, speculation on what’s gonna happen to the weekly streaks. nothing confirmed yet bar the move.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrosoftRewards/s/8tlqRoIImh

Posted about this a page ago.

Looks like weekly streaks are going.

[Lebowski]

Agreed re: Hellblazer. I ended up loving it. Combat was by the numbers but I didn't care.

i don't know what it was i just couldn't get on "Hellgrazer" satsuma sacrilege i think i got to the burning village bit and was just bored, its like a walking sim with odd bit of combat and some insensate chatter in the background.

[Neon Ignition]

I was fine with the game, it was very good for what it was, it's still the effort being put in to making the game a AAA blockbuster that I don't understand. Such an odd property to try and dial up to that level that kind of goes against the intention of the original. They might do a good job of it but I've incredibly cynical of how much appeal it will have to the masses.

[Lebowski]

I was fine with the game, it was very good for what it was, it's still the effort being put in to making the game a AAA blockbuster that I don't understand. Such an odd property to try and dial up to that level that kind of goes against the intention of the original. They might do a good job of it but I've incredibly cynical of how much appeal it will have to the masses.

what could go wrong scaling it up to 11.

Satsuma 2 psychosis harder.
2 psychosis 2 psychotic
Setsuna First Pychosis part 2

[nonny]

Looks like the daily search rewards are working properly again.

[Neon Ignition]

Ironically, Sony might actually be a good inspiration for what MS needs to do with Xbox. When they launched the PS3 and stumbled out onto the market they didn't proceed by just endlessly continuing down the same road.

They de-emphasised the multimedia aspects, they rebranded the system by dropping the weird black and red branding and switched to the white and blue theming they still use today, they began an aggressive road for feature parity, made a load of smaller projects to test ideas out and build on what paid off and drop what didn't. Over time that built good will and saw the system pick up momentum before leading into the PS4 and that track has helped get them where they are now. Even Nintendo will upend the table when something goes wrong, rebrand and try a new approach. Xbox is like a continuous run. Not a huge amount of image, branding or even content focus varies now to all the way back on the original Xbox. It's stale, which means that if Xbox didn't appeal to you in 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020 why would you pay attention to whether it would change in 2025?

They need to grab peoples attention, look for the failings Sony has and take advantage of being the competition. Your best being 1:1 parity with your rival won't get you anywhere. People are more than willing to spend money for a pointless android tablet, or Switch. MS should begin by answering what is in their control - why should people want to own an Xbox as well as a PS5 rather than just how to make people buy an Xbox instead of a PS5. Build from there because unless you have specific interest/focus on the cost per purchase, timing of launches involved in Game Pass or specific titles then what's the hook?

I don't think that the content concern is as big of one as it has been. The pipeline is improving, it looks set to improve further and is already better than Sony's but no-one is really taking note. The Xbox problem is switching from a content issue to a marketing issue.

[gunrock]

Apparently, it's a bit of a hanky mess. Licensed pap to suck up parent's Christmas dollarbucks.

A hanky mess? One of those kind of games, eh? Ban this sick filth!