Xbox Series S/X: Thread 03

[Lebowski]

I will quite happily jump in and give it a go but it feels very much like its been done before, its almost a pallet swap of other open world games, if i where to say i used a selection of vehicles and a grappling hook to take down a power plant and rescue some soilders in an openworld shooter, would you say i was taking about Halo, Just Cause or Farcry.

Hate to harp on about it but it really feels like Destiny was where Bungie wanted to go with Halo, they have created this massive sprawling world with a shifting and evolving narrative full of amazing content some of the best feeling guns in a FPS and a game that just keeps sucking you back in, i took a year off it and im right back in their this season catching up on all the stuff Ive missed, enjoying all the story content messing about in raids and PVP and just enjoying being part of the community and world they have created. its still popular as ever 7 years down the line too with a massive growing payer-base with no one being able to de-throne it in the marketplace.

[nonny]

Destiny is a different game to me. The continual grind and RNG of it was just something I have zero interest in personally and it was an utter barebones disaster at launch that could have done with a delay itself.

I think it only managed to recover because of some drastic changes and Destiny 2 bringing some much better content with it... and all at a time when it didn't have much competition.

I know loads of friends who love it, but it's a wildly different prospect than Halo.

[Lebowski]

Destiny is a different game to me. The continual grind and RNG of it was just something I have zero interest in personally and it was an utter barebones disaster at launch that could have done with a delay itself.

I think it only managed to recover because of some drastic changes and Destiny 2 bringing some much better content with it... and all at a time when it didn't have much competition.

I know loads of friends who love it, but it's a wildly different prospect than Halo.

I think that's a misconception, Destiny launched with a decent sized campaign a sprawling open world full of missions, events and secrets, loads of 3 player strikes, A 6 man Raid (which is still held up as a masterstroke of design), and 6v6 pvp with a ton of maps. it was far from Barebones, it's issue was that the playersbase chewed through this content at a crazy rate and where left wanting more. It was unique and something that had never been done before and still hasnt been done better 7 years down the line. for it to retain and keep growing its playerbase they must be doing something right.

Yes rng could be unfair when the game launched but they have done a lot to move the game forward and a lot of the weapons require skill rather than rng to acquire with some weapons being tied to some absolutely fantastic missions its lore and world building is amazing too for those that want to delve into it a bit more.

[randombs]

Well today is that day... Halo Infinite campaign stuff incoming. Looks like 2pm for UK.

I wasn’t aware this would hit but it was streaming live while I was on YouTube earlier. I clicked the video thinking it’s multiplayer and then immediately closed it when I heard Cortana’s voice.

I’m already dead set on playing Infinite so the less I see, the better. Quoting your link is strengthening my resolve

[teddymeow]

What I used to like about Halo was that it was a level based, A to B campaign with progressively harder enemies and more ludicrous weapons.

It's now an UbiSoft open-world-a-thon with a skill tree.

[Cassius_Smoke]

What I used to like about Halo was that it was a level based, A to B campaign with progressively harder enemies and more ludicrous weapons.

It's now an UbiSoft open-world-a-thon with a skill tree.

Halo was born and remained in that Doom style gameplay. It needs a change. Whether this is it remains to be seen

[nonny]

I think that's a misconception, Destiny launched with a decent sized campaign a sprawling open world full of missions, events and secrets, loads of 3 player strikes, A 6 man Raid (which is still held up as a masterstroke of design), and 6v6 pvp with a ton of maps. it was far from Barebones, it's issue was that the playersbase chewed through this content at a crazy rate and where left wanting more. It was unique and something that had never been done before and still hasnt been done better 7 years down the line. for it to retain and keep growing its playerbase they must be doing something right.

Yes rng could be unfair when the game launched but they have done a lot to move the game forward and a lot of the weapons require skill rather than rng to acquire with some weapons being tied to some absolutely fantastic missions its lore and world building is amazing too for those that want to delve into it a bit more.

Wasn't PVP 3on3 and not 6on6? Either way the PVP in Destiny was pretty average at best.

The campaign, if you could call it that was boring as all hell and felt incomplete. Lets not even mention Mr. Dinklage dialing it in but I thought it was one of the worst major FPS releases of recent memory.

The problem is its hard to remember it's original form when it's evolved so much over two games and DLC.

The raids are the highlight but for me its pointless to compare it to Halo because they're such different experiences.

[fishbowlhead]

Halo was born and remained in that Doom style gameplay. It needs a change. Whether this is it remains to be seen

No its definitely nothing like doom.

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/xbox-series-x-s-demand-drives-jump-in-gaming-revenue-for-microsoft/

The Xbox division saw a 16% increase in revenue in its most recent financial quarter. Xbox hardware saw a 166% increase in sales over the same quarter last year which you'd expect as last years quarter didn't have the Xbox Series S/X launch in it yet. The most interesting stat is probably that Xbox Content and Services only saw a 2% increase in the quarter in comparison to the pre-S/X quarter despite the rise in hardware sales. The limited growth is said to be down to a decline in third party game sales.
I assume that continues to paint an interesting picture on the impact of Game Pass.

Overall for the year Xbox remains on course to pip itself up to its best financial year to date and hardware sales are said to be ahead of projections.

[Cassius_Smoke]

So people buying Xboxes but not buying anything for it? I'm confused.

[Neon Ignition]

Sounds like they're buying Xbox's, signing up to Game Pass but not then buying other games. Or they are but not much more than they were at the end of the XBO's life. Bodes well for Game Pass but suggests if you're a third party you're going to be looking to Sony as your priority

[nonny]

The previous year on year quarter comparison is skewed. Last year was already sky high due to covid / lockdown so a 2% increase on that just shows that its maintaining that high watermark.


So really it says nothing about the impact of game pass.

[Yakumo]

So people buying Xboxes but not buying anything for it? I'm confused.

Just like a Nintendo Wii

[Lebowski]

The previous year on year quarter comparison is skewed. Last year was already sky high due to covid / lockdown so a 2% increase on that just shows that its maintaining that high watermark.


So really it says nothing about the impact of game pass.

But we your talking about a time period where Microsoft where not doing great the tail end of xbox one to the launch of its new console, surely a new console should drive games sales and have a software attach rate, unless that is people buying the X and S Are just sticking to Gamepass or picking up Free to play juggernauts like Fortnite. You have to remember that while the PS5 launched with Demon's Souls, spider-man, and Sackboy the series consoles launched with no software of their own.

The lack of software attach rate makes sense though the series consoles killer app is Gamepass that's been what they have marketed and that's been what they wanted to sell alongside thier consoles and they have done this.

[Neon Ignition]

Yep, any COVID related surge should also apply to third party sales. The most likely explanation is people soak up Game Pass offerings to don't spend as much on third party releases, would be interesting if that was the case as it'd be a little bit like the Nintendo effect.