Xbox Series S/X: Thread 03

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-06-09-microsoft-aims-to-release-at-least-one-new-first-party-game-into-xbox-game-pass-every-quarter

Microsoft plans to release at least one first party title on Game Pass every three months (hopefully major titles, not indie scale stuff).

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-06-10-xbox-boss-phil-spencer-issues-thinly-veiled-dig-at-sony-over-its-pc-strategy

Not quite being careful enough about stones in glass houses, Spencer makes a dig toward Sony's recent moves towards bringing some PS4 titles to PC.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-06-10-microsoft-putting-xbox-in-tvs-building-its-own-streaming-devices-for-cloud-gaming-and-exploring-new-game-pass-subscriptions

MS is continuing its efforts to find a way to bring Game Pass to TV's directly and will soon have its data centres around the world updated to Series X's. Spencer also offered up some more vague fluff about GP's performance.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-06-10-microsoft-says-its-already-working-on-new-xbox-consoles-some-of-which-wont-come-to-light-for-years

Finally, Spencer confirmed Microsoft is hard at work on more Xbox consoles which may not release for many years yet though their primary focus moving forward is cloud tech.

[nonny]

It's become a bit of a personal meta-game for me now as to how many free months I can build up of Game Pass before something worth claiming a month is released, just about to bag my sixth month!

Massive nod for hiring Clement for the trailer, he's hugely likeable all the time just like when I see or hear Rhys. He's also hugely at odds with the content which is good for attention, games looks like a bazillion generic fantasy titles for me though so onto month seven!

I'm already paid up for a couple of years so the Meta for me with rewards is buying all the hardware cheap. I'm targeting getting the wireless headset next (£89.99)... I'm nearly halfway.

I'm a sucker for a good co-op game so this fits the bill.

[Neon Ignition]

I've been slowed down last few days because somehow its not properly registering PC searches for me. I don't accrue them anywhere near as fast as some but it's still a great setup

[nonny]

I've been slowed down last few days because somehow its not properly registering PC searches for me. I don't accrue them anywhere near as fast as some but it's still a great setup

I just do the PC searches on my phone through edge flicking to desktop mode. Get them all done in about 2 mins of effort.

It's the rewards app on the console, with its weekly rewards and the game pass monthly and weekly points that rack up fast.

[fishbowlhead]

Apparently you can let your gamepass sub expire, leave it a week or so, buy 3 years of live gold then upgrade that directly into gamepass ultimate for next to nothing. [MENTION=221]nonny[/MENTION] do you know the finer details of that process? if so what have you got to do exactly?

[nonny]

Apparently you can let your gamepass sub expire, leave it a week or so, buy 3 years of live gold then upgrade that directly into gamepass ultimate for next to nothing. [MENTION=221]nonny[/MENTION] do you know the finer details of that process? if so what have you got to do exactly?

I know it can be done but I haven't done it. I converted my 3 years of gold I already had into GP ultimate when they announced it for £1... Since then I have bought an additional 6 months via discount cards for EA Play which used to convert but they closed that down recently.

There's several ways to get it cheap right now though. Just depends how you want to do it. I'd probably check Reddit for the latest.

I just saw apparently (pinch of salt) a leaked release date of June 15th has been seen for Flight Simulator on Series S/X... So at the E3 show basically.

[Neon Ignition]

It'll be interesting to see if there's truth to there being an XBO version too, I can only imagine the cutbacks for that

[nonny]

It'll be interesting to see if there's truth to there being an XBO version too, I can only imagine the cutbacks for that

I still think they offer it through the cloud service now they've got Series X server blades rolling out. So it runs at 1080p60 but performance is better than the actual console can handle...

[Cassius_Smoke]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...-every-quarter
Microsoft plans to release at least one first party title on Game Pass every three months (hopefully major titles, not indie scale stuff).

Let's maybe start with one game a year eh Microsoft, and then go from there.

[Brad]

Let's maybe start with one game a year eh Microsoft, and then go from there.

They plan to “get to the point where”. Why aren’t they at that point? What the actual **** have they been doing? I remember when the hype for new console games used to be a continuous stream. I was always excited for everything that was in the pipeline but now there’s nothing. I thing PS4 and Xbox One probably should have been the last consoles, as some predicted years ago. Also though, ignore me; I’m an old man shouting at clouds.

[nonny]

They plan to “get to the point where”. Why aren’t they at that point? What the actual **** have they been doing? I remember when the hype for new console games used to be a continuous stream. I was always excited for everything that was in the pipeline but now there’s nothing. I thing PS4 and Xbox One probably should have been the last consoles, as some predicted years ago. Also though, ignore me; I’m an old man shouting at clouds.

Honestly I think they had planned to release between 3-5 titles since launch to the end of 2021 but the pandemic scuppered that.

They've been unusually quiet. Outside of monthly Halo drip feeds there's been zero updates on internal houses and only smaller updates on 3rd party titles like the Ascent.

I hope this means that the second half of this year is where some bigger titles release and that the momentum continues into 2022 and simply accelerates gradually rather than returns to a waiting game.

I'm fairly certain this will be the case but a roadmap of release dates would be what I'm hoping for the most.

[dvdx2]

They plan to “get to the point where”. Why aren’t they at that point? What the actual **** have they been doing? I remember when the hype for new console games used to be a continuous stream. I was always excited for everything that was in the pipeline but now there’s nothing. I thing PS4 and Xbox One probably should have been the last consoles, as some predicted years ago. Also though, ignore me; I’m an old man shouting at clouds.

They have realised that you don’t need to spend millions on new games. But hook people on gamepass and improve the framerate of older games....

[fishbowlhead]

They have realised that you don’t need to spend millions on new games. But hook people on gamepass and improve the framerate of older games....

So sell a massive amount less consoles than the competition.

Sell much less titles than the competition (especially 3rd party).

Haemorrhage money from gamepass on a daily basis.

Release virtually no new games to sell new console.

Sounds like winner to me, im sure it’s working well for MS.

[nonny]

So sell a massive amount less consoles than the competition.

Sell much less titles than the competition (especially 3rd party).

Haemorrhage money from gamepass on a daily basis.

Release virtually no new games to sell new console.

Sounds like winner to me, im sure it’s working well for MS.

Remember they're releasing and selling titles on both Console and PC simultaneously. The Series X is still running out of stock pretty much everywhere right now even though it is behind PS5 in sales.

We know they have multiple games in the works and from the looks of things there will be exclusive titles hitting as soon as next Tuesday (flight sim). We will see of course but if their ambition is to release a 1st party title per quarter ongoing and they achieve that (with quality) that argument goes away.

I also don't really understand where you think they're haemorrhaging money from with game pass either. Sure we know they're pushing to get subscribers so the entry fee is cheap but if they're now up towards 25-30 monthly subscribers that's a lot of revenue being generated. I get that they're not divulging numbers but that doesn't mean they're running it at a massive loss.

[Neon Ignition]

It'll be a bit hand in hand. The cost of setting up and running the service, developing their expansion plans relating to it, the deals to get third party titles on there, the money invested in buying studios to supplement it, the budgets to create and market content for it etc. Game Pass is going to be a bit like starting all over again with Xbox, there'll be no profit for years and years to come, it's a long term play to try and become the leader in a field they believe will exist one day.

A fair bit of that was needed to be spent anyway to be fair given the dire support Xbox had in place before this recent push. I still don't believe that market MS is pushing for exists though, they need to pull audiences away from Sony and Nintendo to expand.