Xbox Games Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves, Pentiment, Grounded All Confirmed for PS5, PS4

Grounded is my favorite of the 4. That game rocks.

Colour me shocked. Never saw this coming….

It'll be absolutely wild if Halo Infinite dropped on PlayStation, especially if the multiplayer part was free to play.

It's kinda insane that the info just gets dropped like this outta the blue like this seems like exactly what they should have announced on the podcast thing a week ago! Excited nonetheless! I can't wait to play hi-fi rush!!

Gimme the Master Chief Collection Phil, come on now stop messing about 😀

Yes, looking forward to playing Pentiment on PS5.

@Ico1977 why? This was the rage for over a month now

Bring Starfield over now

@JPEGMakima That's just classic Phil Spencer. The guy talks in riddles and rarely says anything definite. He'd make a great Dungeon Master

@JPEGMakima Pentiment and Grounded were announced in today's Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase so Microsoft had to wait for that to have aired before announcing the 4 games.

Dude along with this it was announced that Pentiment and Hi-Fi Rush would be getting physical editions through Limited Run games. That’s amazing (and also devastating cuz I want to play Hi-Fi Rush asap and the digital edition comes out both during spring break and sooner, but yknow I waited 2 more months for Kena’s physical I’ll be fine)

Nice, will be getting Pentiment tomorrow then. Always happy to support Obsidian.

Sea of Thieves and Grounded are two games I’ve been wanting to play for a while now! Looking forward to both!

Obsidian, you say? 👀

I might end up with Pentiment on the Switch. I'll keep an eye out on the Avowed and Outer Worlds 2 release announcements in future, just in case they need their games to actually sell elsewhere. Elsewhere like, I dont know, PS store 😉

Way to save this great big special announcement for the Studios to say there Phil. Lol.

Everything that dude says is nonsense.

Wonder how long these ports have been in development? I'm guessing we see StarField by the end of the year.

Theses 4 games only the start of Microsoft third party plan .

@AndyKazama it wont, at least for the foreseeable future.

These are the only 4 games for this year that are going to other platforms. Smaller and GaaS games.

Will be getting Hi Fi Rush when it releases, I'm excited for it. I may get Pentiment as well. Seems interesting and I want this initiative to pay off so that MS continues to bring games to PS5/Switch.

Hip Hop Hooray! Waiting for Indiana Jones for PS5 announcement.

Hoping they include platinum trophies. Also it’s pretty cool to see a Rare game release on PlayStation for I think the first time

You'd think one of these games would be Sunset Overdrive. A game Sony technically owns.

I’m so happy right now 🥲

Hi-Fi Rush is the one I'll get for sure. Not really interested in the rest but hey I'm happy.🙂

@Friendly I think if these were all the games for this calendar year, they'd have spread them out more to improve sales. Releasing them during a just over 2 month period gives the impression that more are coming in the 2nd half of the calendar year (Microsoft's fiscal year ends on June 30th).

Matt Booty uses a lot of words to say: " We want more money. "

@Friendly "These are the only 4 games for this year that are going to other platforms. Smaller and GaaS games."

Oh sweet summer child 😂

All I would like is forza

I know I've said it before, but this is just the beginning. I don't care what MS says right now. They've seen the writing on the wall, and they're finally realizing that their master plan to buy up publishers and make their games Xbox exclusive is only going to result in those games selling 30% of what they should and it's going to cause them to hemorrhage money essentially. The only way forward, or eventually out, for MS at this point is to sell as many copies of their games on as many platforms as they can. Game Pass has peaked, and they've already lost the most important gen (when people began to seriously invest in digital ecosystems), so really what else can they do? So yeah, we will at least see a Starfield announcement for PS5, among others, by the end of the year, at minimum.

Sea of Theieves would have maybe interested me if it was single player friendly.

I'll get Pentiment but I'll get it on the Switch. Just seems like a chill game to lay in bed and play.

Kale Vandelay compared with Handsome Jack was almost Palworld compared with Pokemon levels of similarity, almost.

HiFi Rush is a real barrel of laughs and there are great accessibility settings if you couldn’t get the timing down like me, I was getting D & C grade for timing right till the end.

Grounded was a lot of fun and had Valheim vibes, so if you like that, you’ll probably like Grounded. I’m not sure if they added teleporters to Grounded yet but that was one thing that I felt it needed when I played it a year ago.

Ori please, first one especially was brilliant.

I'm going to post KILLER INSTINCT in every single one of these articles I see until it happens lol

#PlayKI

@UltimateOtaku91 It's a lot more single player friendly these days. They recently added the "Safer Seas" mode. you can have the entire server to yourself there or bring a friend or two on your boat. You will be playing against all the PVE content and there is a ton. All the "Tall Tales" which are lore driven puzzle/adventures can be played there now. Now some of the "cooler" content is only to be found on the "High Seas" which involves playing against other crews. You can still play here solo.... but this is absolutely hardcore mode. A solo slooper vs a 4 man galleon is quite the challenge. The rewards are higher on the high seas but so are the risks. Many playstation players are going to absolutely love the Sea of Thieves. Just as many will absolutely hate it. It is a shared sandbox world and the amount of content now is staggering.

If this means I'll eventually get to play Avowed and the next Perfect Dark without shelling out for Xbox hardware, I'm all for it.

Pentiment and Hi Fi for me. I want to do my part to tell MS that their good single player games will be warmly received by PS players.

Doubt I’ll have time to play any of them, none of these titles really grab me enough to pull me away from my back catalog

I will definitely buy all of them expect SoT. I’m not into multiplayer and far to busy with two children

Again if you potentially want to see Halo, Gears and maybe Killer Instinct (🤞) in the future you have to show Microsoft that this is going to be worth their time and effort. If all these games sell like crap I'm sure they'll pull the plug immediately and be like "well this was a giant waste of our time"

And with that, one, or should I say four fewer reasons to buy an Xbox. Not that I encourage people to not bother buying an Xbox of course. I mean, I'm a PlayStation fan, but not because I hate Xbox.

The fantastic 4 🤔. I want the new doom to be announced.lots of games to play.the backlog of games is getting bigger.word up son

I expect better. Maybe a good start

I wouldn't mind getting starfield, and bethesda studios games on ps.

"We'll allow the Devs to announce these titles at their own time"

dumps all 4 dates in a soulless press release a week later

What did Phil mean by this

Surely Sea of Thieves is a free game or will Microsoft charge for it?

@Grumblevolcano @intr1n5ic yes, for this year that’s the lineup. They probably did this at the start of the year while there’s not much competition. And immediately after the actiblizz deal to recoup some costs.

And no, I’m not a summer child.

@LordAinsley two games were in the Nintendo Partner Showcase. So they had to remain quiet so they wouldn’t break NDA

I didn’t expect the first four, that Phil was nice enough to tell us would not be Starfield or Indiana Jones, to release so soon. That suggests that the rumor of Starfield being ported after Shattered Space may have been correct.

@ThunderCracker Be careful what you wish for 😅 I bought a series X for that game and after the long delay and all that money, it wasn’t worth it at all. I went around the loop about three times but my God was it boring. An incredibly outdated game all around. I sold my series X soon after. I do hope Xbox port across a few games. But mostly Wolfenstein.

Really hyped for Hi Fi Rush!

Cool. These are coming quicker than expected.

I wouldn't be surprised to see another game jump ship by the end of the year, in time for the holiday period.

🌍🚀👽

Sea of Thieves and Skull and Bones, great time to be a Pirate with a PS5

Didn't they say its not fully ruled out about star field etc also seen couple things saying sony president talking about multi platform too wonder if it's the start of full exclusive been extinct and becoming all timed exclusives Like a year or 2 then coming to other platforms? If so I hope we ratchet and clanks for Xbox please 😍 the one game I'm really gutted I can't play 🤣😭

@eltomo you'll never go back to skull and bones after Sea of thieves.

@Enuo they actually don't own the IP. MS does.

@Nyne11Tyme it sounds like Insomniac, and therefore Sony do own the IP for Sunset Overdrive. However Xbox put a clause into the exclusivity that they get first rights to upto 2 sequels and even any remasters.

So if Playstation released a Sunset Overdrive PS5 version they would have to include a Series X version.

@Friendly "yes, for this year that’s the lineup."

Okay, I'll have a sportsman's bet with you that they port more before the end of the year.

"They probably did this at the start of the year while there’s not much competition".

I'm probably misunderstanding you, but what do you mean by not much competition? From a PlayStation perspective, Pentiment comes out close to FF7 Rebirth. Hi-Fi Rush comes out close to Dragon's Dogma 2, and the last two come out a week either side of Stellar Blade.

If I had interest in any of these ports I know where my money would be going. I don't think they could have picked a worse time to release them.

Skulls and Bones days are are numbered...

I hope we will get Hellblade 2, the first game is already on the PS, it's baffling if we won't get the sequel, I really don't care about Halo or Starfield.

@Intr1n5ic pentiment and hi-fi rush are smaller AA games. They co-exist on every platform next tot the big blockbuster AAA games. And also take a look at the Switch release window, I think Nintendo’s platform is where most sales will be.

Good sportsmanship. Let’s see if there are more ports this year indeed.

Great news. No surprises yet.

@Friendly "I think Nintendo’s platform is where most sales will be."

I agree. I'll think they'll do extremely well on there.

"Good sportsmanship. Let’s see if there are more ports this year indeed." 👍

I'll nab em all eventually. Grounded is one that my co-op group seem into. Hi-fi is probably at the top for me personally but I don't really know enough about Pentiment aside from it's awesome visuals.

Wow playstation is getting physical copies too lol

@Intr1n5ic with MS sharing games like they said they would do. I see very little reason to whine if they buy another studio in the future as all it does is give MS access to it to put onto GP and then bring over to PS and Nintendo. Seems harmless if this is the way it’s going to go and it will line their pockets full of billions of dollars. Seems smart to me.

With MS gone Nintendo could really go for Sony's neck.

This was pretty much confirmed last week why do we have to keep going over and over this

@tangyzesty you mean like they announced 4 years ago when they bought Bethesda.

Grounded is amazing especially if you have kids for co op it's pure fun, I finished pentiment twice to see different choices n consequences, amazing game with well written story and characters, Obsidian seal of quality!
Hi fi was a surprise game for me like the way they shadow dropped it, I don't like games with multiple combos and very fast pace combat but this game has something special when it combines it with the beat! Pure magic, well level design and boss fights, loved the 3d to 2d transformation the game does in some areas! pure fun.
I guess Starfield will be in the next wave of games they'll release because as they say "where there is smoke there is fire"

It'd be nice if the bards tale trilogy finally came to playstation. It's so niche that I doubt even the Xbox fans would care, but I'd certainly buy one.

@HonestHick This is fundamentally where our opinions differ. I don't think the world's richest company consolidating more of the market will ever be a good thing for the industry. No amount of select titles they decide to release elsewhere is going to change my opinion on that.

I don't think their actions are harmless either, and I'd be willing to bet the 1900 people who just lost their jobs at Activision/Blizzard would agree with that.

@JPEGMakima love the username lol

To me Hi-Fi Rush looks like the sort of game that Playstation has been sorely missing for a while- a mix of Parappa, DMC, and No More Heroes. And it has a variety of colours in it!

Hi Fi Rush is epic. Hope you all enjoy it anyone that hasn't got to play it yet.

Definitely getting HiFi Rush. I'd like to see them put Ori on PS as well.

Probably get HiFi Rush on PS5 and Pentiment on Switch.

@ThunderCracker Yeah we'll get Starfield before the end of the year, and Indiana Jones early 2025.

@Friendly You're kidding yourself if you think they'll only port smaller titles. The Xbox userbase isn't big enough to support big AAA titles, and they now want an ROI. They're merely breaking in Xbox owners with these four games.

@Intr1n5ic the second richest company in the world (Apple) but i get what you mean there. But i think the Apple’s, Microsoft’s googles and amazons of the world are just going to get bigger bigger and more control over our lifetime. Not disagreeing with you that it could be bad. As for the 1900 people that lost their jobs, there has been layoffs in all tech sectors across the world. Mostly due to over hiring during covid. However the MS & ABK layoffs were all but certain as they don’t need 2 people doing a one person job. The good thing is new studios pop up all the time in this industry and those people could get back into something like that and who knows be the next big person at a new studio, or go on to make indie stuff. But the narrative of MS is going to buy Sony out of the market and be greedy with these IP’s is over blown tho i think it’s fair to say that could still happen. We don’t know yet, but signs are pointing to MS being legit on every screen is a Xbox and exclusives are something they would like to see go away. Time will tell 😊

@GeminiReign No one is asking why because no cares why. Is irrelevant to me if Microsoft is not making money from GP so they have to try and make money from PlayStation owners, I'll take whatever road gets me to eventually play Halo and Gears on my PlayStation 🤷

Loved Grounded and Hi-Fi Rush. Keep them coming Microsoft.

Should release Starfield... FORZA with PSVR2 support and I will loose my mind.

Interesting that HiFi Rush is coming to ps4 when it skipped Xbox one. I don’t own a series console yet so it kinda annoyed me. I’ll be interested to see if it gets a port but I’m guessing probably not.

@Juanalf while I agree with others that Starfield and Indy might make the jump to Playstation someday, I just wouldn't get my hopes up about halo, gears or forza. I believe MS won't port those until they are fully committed to 3rd party and accepting the death of their console not to mention the backlash they know they will face from diehard xbots not wanting to share.

I'll take Starfield, idc about Indiana Jones but we MUST have Elder Scrolls 6

@HonestHick Microsoft overtook Apple last month.

"However the MS & ABK layoffs were all but certain as they don’t need 2 people doing a one person job."

I've heard this being touted. I'm not sure I buy the excuse that 1900 positions overlapped but it could be true, either way, had the acquisition not gone through there would have been zero overlapping.

"The good thing is new studios pop up all the time in this industry and those people could get back into something like that and who knows be the next big person at a new studio, or go on to make indie stuff."

Hopefully.

@NattyKing all xbox games are released on pc which is the largest platform apart from mobile.

Microsoft doesn’t need the playstation platform. Apart from established franchises such as call of duty (for now).

@themightyant you haven’t heard anyone credible?

The internet is full of people and organizations saying ‘well, the outcry was for a load of fluff and unnecessary.’

Such as the IGN podcasts
https://youtu.be/AI6qVOvRui8?si=Kx29jDPHLCMwHBLy
https://youtu.be/zCRfBKNziog?si=8YMNJlECi8sa3rWA

Not super exciting as it's games that we pretty much figured would be coming and not any heavy hitters, but I'll still gladly play Hi-Fi Rush on my PS5. Maybe even Pentiment at some point too.

@Intr1n5ic they did but after 1-2 days they redid the numbers and Apple was on top again. Those 2 are so close it goes back and forth almost weekly. MS has the advantage of being a software company as it is high profit netting, and yet Apple is so good with hardware an obviously lower profit margin and yet they still take them out. I love it, Apple is king in my house.

I agree with your take on the 1900, just don’t merge and all if not most are needed and still employed. But we don’t live in a perfect world and we know big money get’s in the way of our livable wage jobs. Sucks really, but google, amazon and many others had massive layoffs as well and didn’t acquire anyone. I’m torn but certainly don’t like to see anyone be out of work.

Last point, i think MS is going to be a maverick in the games industry but more in a good way then bad if they continue to carry out there promises. I’m sorry i have been called everything in the book for liking Xbox a hair better than my PS consoles due to controller preference. But i don’t see the bad in bringing games to more platforms and having an infrastructure that supports it. Imagine buying a Sony Blu-ray player and it only playing Sony studio movies? Game consoles are the last consumer hardware out there supporting disc drives and exclusive content in ways that most physical hardware doesn’t today. I am not sold on saying if it’s good or bad, but i am sold on more players getting to play what they want where they want as a good thing. Exclusivity and gaming is in a slow turn of events right now. It’s the start of something if MS has their way. To be continued……

Already beat hi fi rush when i had it for games pass but starfield not being on the list for ps5 hurts. I guess they wanna end the exclusivity after the dlc is out

I will surely get Hi-fi Rush and maybe put Pentiment on a wishlist.

That said, to have the podcast and not reveal the titles “to leve it to the developers” and then announce them all unceremoniously 1 week later …why?
It really looks bad for them, don’t they realize it?

No interesting stuff here, for me at least.
Maybe they will add more games later though, if they eventually add Forza to PS5 i'll play that.

@adit365 This was my thought.

I've downloaded and played the trial of Skull and Bones and enjoyed it, but from what I see Sea of Thieves is a better game. Especially when the price tag of Skull and Bones is such a bone for contention for me.

So glad to see platforms opening up and porting games across, I really hope this is the beginning of a trend.
Monster Hunter Stories and SMTV from Nintendo and the above from Xbox platforms respectively.

In this day and age I don't see how having an exclusive helps the industry. With production costs rocketing , surely selling to as big an install base as possible is a better way of recovering costs, as opposed to raising the price of the products?

Any information on release times for Pentiment @LiamCroft? It still isn’t showing on the store (UK) 🤔

@AgentCooper Not that I’ve seen, but I’ll post an article once it goes live 🙂

@LiamCroft Ta buddy 👍

@tangyzesty the thing is I think it was the plan all along and it's a very smart move by microsoft.

They have the studios right now than Playstation needs. They can put their games on playstation but keep the moniker 'Xbox is the best place to play' and have the selling point of 'yes you can play our games on PS5 for $70 or you can get them day 1 on game pass'.

The only thing that would signal the writing on the wall for xbox as a console would be if they took game pass to ps5 but that would be a huge mistake and I don't see it happening.

The teams had special stuff planned right?

Then they sh*t out this announcement.

So Phil lied again…classic.

@themightyant ah. You, random poster on this website, are probably more credible than IGN.

Yes. Microsoft has other stuff planned for the next years, that is certain. Most likely the Disney and Marvel stuff will also go elsewhere within a few years. Doesn’t mean that Xbox will release everything on other consoles and that they’re stepping out of the console business as everybody here is hoping for.

Funny how not even a few months ago everybody on here was clamoring doom over consolidation within the console market, yet now using laughing emotes on posts where they make fun of xbox for bringing games to more consoles and people.

This is a genuine question for anyone who has played hi-fi rush. I have no rythym (could never do patapon). Would that be a big stumping block for hi-fi rush?

@ThunderCracker only game I care about lol

I don't care about any of these.

@themightyant I don't think there's anything wrong with exclusives.

It just depends on how they're exclusive.

Sony's first party studios should be exclusive, Xbox first party studios should be exclusive..

Paid exclusivity is pure BS and just harms the industry. As does buying to publishers and making their games exclusive.

Great news! Let this be the beginning of the end of exclusives. Also, I really hope State of Decay 1 and 2 make the leap to PlayStation, I've always wanted to play them.

@Paramahansa first one was great , second was a bit meh in my opinion, I remember playing it the same time as days gone, and the hordes in state of decay looked laughable compared to days gone.

@Friendly Of course it needs Playstation otherwise this wouldn't be happening! Xbox has been a money sink, hence why it's profit figures have been hidden since midway through the 360 era. Now the higher-ups want an ROI, so they have no choice to publish on Playstation and Switch.

@BolkaRover Except GamePass is in decline, and if Xbox games comes to Playstation and Switch, what do you need an Xbox for? Series consoles are already tracking below Xbox One, and it's basically dead in Europe and Asia.

4 crap games no one gives a ***** about. Pass

@themightyant I agree with that.

Sony owning Bungie is fine, as Bungie are still a multiplatform developer and have the freedom to publish wherever they want.

I don't like the paid or timed exclusivity, though. There's no reason why Final Fantasy 16 shouldn't be available on Xbox. There's no reason to lock a DLC or multiplatform game to one platform for a year. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

The biggest issue is what Microsoft have done. They're basically holding lots of multiplatform IP hostage on their system. Games like Starfield and Indiana Jones makes sense because they're new IP and therefore, basically, Microsoft's IP. But games like Doom and Fallout are multiplatform and should remain so.

If Microsoft basically take away those games from Sony then it'll just embitter me against Microsoft and not make me want to buy an Xbox.

I love how the rumour mill has turned a vague 20 minute podcast crammed with management speak into "confirmed: Halo coming to PlayStation". I mean if it is that's a long time away
Presumably they'll drip feed out some games, then release their final console (next gen) and then pull a SEGA and go from hardware to just software.

Nah I'm kidding, that's just an example of the wild, baseless speculation people are resorting to because there's very little interesting real gaming news in 2024. This console generation is pretty dull, as compared to the two before it at this point in their life cycles.

@NattyKing every service has a peak though it doesn’t mean it’s not a viable prospect moving forward. They have a user base now they can use their newly acquired studios and previously acquired studios to start making games for it. I’m sure they didn’t expect to have memberships increasing every year forever 😂 There are only so many people interested. The task is keeping them interested. New subs will come as I say as it will be the place to play new games for €15 a month rather than $70 a game playing it elsewhere.

@BolkaRover MS were targeting 100m subscribers by 2027 - they are miles away from achieving that, and it's been mentioned even by shills like TimDog that the service has the greatest churn of any subscription service in entertainment.

They converted Live members into 'GamePass Core' and still only have 34m subscribers which is why they haven't been giving updates since January 2022.

In terms of new subs coming that is debatable. Some people prefer to buy and own their games they want to play rather than renting from a curated list. GamePass just doesn't make sense for many people, especially if they don't have tons of time to play through lots of games, which I imagine is part of the reason why it's in decline. Not to mention games come down I'm price quite quickly anyway, and GamePass will almost certainly be seeing some price rises if the latest CoD is added day one.

And now we have the news that Xbox is porting games, and it's just a matter of time before Starfield is launched on PS5, and Indiana Jones, Hellblade, Avowed etc will come too. That only helps PlayStation and Switch, while the Series consoles are tracking below even Xbox One and going down last year which is terrible for the platform.

@NattyKing no, it doesn’t need Playstation.

It generates more revenue though, but Microsoft is the richest company in the world. It doesn’t ‘need’ any Playstation sales.

@Friendly You're deluding yourself. Microsofts overall financials as a company does not mean it's willing to keep losing money on Xbox.

Do you not get it? Spencer has been reined in. Almost certainly it's Nadella and Stuart who are forcing multiplatform status because Xbox can't survive on its tiny userbase.

Now Xbox needs Playstation and Switch because MS wants an ROI which Xbox on its own can't provide.

"If this means I'll eventually get to play Avowed and the next Perfect Dark without shelling out for Xbox hardware, I'm all for it."

@MFTWrecks You can already do that with PC tho.

@NattyKing That makes no sense. Microsoft has just recently released their financials. Xbox made more money than Windows.

@eduscxbox Revenue is not the same as profit...what you wrote doesn't make sense.

@NattyKing well I can’t argue with those points regarding available time and price decreases. I’m 40 and don’t have time to play that often so it might even be better for me to just buy games. That said…I think Xbox turning into the new SEGA will not be good for gaming as a whole. Nintendo are separate. Sony needs someone pushing them.

@Kiefer-Sutherland i hope you have friends to play with cuz Sea of Thieves is not that fun solo.

@nookie_egg I played them on Switch. I'm pretty sure MS dumped the developer after some harassment claims. Not sure if they own the IP or not.

@NattyKing they made profit in 2022. Microsoft definitely doesn’t need Playstation revenue. Also because Microsoft uses the gaming studios for other thing besides gaming, such as enhancing mobile, cloud, meta-businesses. But Playstation revenue helps Microsoft to grow more, so why wouldn’t they do it?

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/93375/xbox-profits-revealed-in-new-ftc-leak/index.html

@eduscxbox Yeah not the same as profit as the other guy said. phil said they need to bring more people over to Xbox if they want to remain competitive. They just spent like 100 billion dollars on acquisitions in the past few years

@Friendly Where are Xbox's profit figures for 2022?

Why wouldn't they do it? Because it weakens Xbox and strengthens Playstation and Switch. There's literally no need for an Xbox now because you know their games are coming to other consoles and PC.

As for cloud gaming, it's in its infancy and is years and years away from becoming mainstream. Even GeForce Now which is much better than xCloud.

Xbox is doing this because it has to, not because it wants to. Remember it was regulators that forced them to publish CoD on the other consoles. Matt Booty's email said it all, they wanted to blow Sony out of the games industry. They wanted to buy Nintendo. Now neither is going to happen, and Xbox's dwindling marketshare is only going to reduce further.

Why did Phil refuse to name these 4 games during their staged podcast, only to announce them a couple of days later? He said something along the lines of not wanting to steal the thunder of their announcements, but honestly, does this count as thunder? Idk that whole podcast thing was just so odd and wishy washy. I've been critical of Xbox a lot lately, and I don't mean to constantly bash them because I do want them to thrive, but the way that company is run is just baffling to me. They really do not seem to know what the hell they're doing.

@Friendly Phil himself said they need to find a way to bring more people to Xbox. You act like making a profit is good enough for these big mega corporations. It's all about infinite growth. It's why Microsoft has laid off 12000 employees in the last year alone. And Amazon laid off 29,000 despite making like 200+ billion in profit last year

@eduscxbox Not everyone has a PC capable of playing the latest and greatest titles, mate. Never assume...

@mvhess Sure, profit is not the same as revenue. But Xbox division just made 7 billion for Microsoft, that's not small money, and I'm sure they profited from it.

I don't think we should be worried about a division making billions of dollars.

They are just trying to grow xbox more, it's not like they are in need or something.

@NattyKing you, sir, should read more than just headlines.

1) the mail from Matt Booty said the following: ‘We (Microsoft) are in a very unique position to be able to go spend Sony out of business’.

That doesn’t mean he wanted to or that they were going to try to. It’s just a statement. A possibility that he’s discussing over the email.

2) the mail about Nintendo you’re referring to comes from Phil Spencer in which he states: ‘At some point, getting Nintendo would be a career moment and I honestly believe a good move for both companies’. Again. A personal opinion, not something the company is going for or is able to do at the moment for all we know.

The earnings from xbox are in the link I attached to my previous comment. And I said ‘cloud’, not just ‘cloud gaming’. Microsoft is a software business. They have tons of other parts in the company benefitting from what has been achieved within the gaming divisions. They learn from each other, cross-pollination as it were. Just as Sony is doing with their entertainment division (their hardware, such as their headphones). I’d advice you to start thinking outside of the plastic box beneath your television.

Microsoft absolutely doesn’t ‘need’ Playstation.

@MFTWrecks I'm not assuming anything, just saying it is possible. Also, you don't need a powerful PC, with Xbox Cloud Gaming you just need a browser.

And it is also possible to play through streaming on any device you already own such as mobile phone or even direct on a TV, no Xbox console required.

And no, you don't need a super fast internet to play Xbox Cloud Gaming, it plays just fine even with mobile data.

@mvhess i hate big mega corporates for that reason, you are correct. All the money goes to only a few. But Sony is a big mega corporation too that lays off talent (Japan studios) and divisions for the sole reason of infinite growth (the head of sony stated that he’s ‘addicted to growth’).

The only thing that would help us consumers is cross-country lawmaking to curb the infinite growth these companies are striving for. But with the divided world as we know it now I don’t see that happening anytime soon, so we just seem to have to live with it as best as we can for now.

I’m just saying that Microsoft or Xbox don’t ‘need’ playstation to exist.

@Friendly
From the article:
"According to our findings, Xbox gaming had a 12% accountability margin (AM) for 9 month period in FY22. However, in the aforementioned testimony, Spencer says that "the Xbox business today runs at a single-digit profit margin."

Comparing this number with the other Big 3 players isn't exactly straightforward. The accountability methods may be different and we're not entirely sure how Microsoft calculates its accountability margin, but it appears to be some sort of value target that the Xbox games division is trying to deliver on a specific profit basis."

That pretty much limits the usefulness of it, though according to Spencer they run at profit numbers, so could be 1%.

And I'm sure Booty was just talking possibilities, and blowing $68bn on Activision and trying to take CoD away from Playstation reflects that 😄.

Xbox sales have cratered, and GamePass subs are in decline. That is why Xbox needs Playstation and Switch and is going to be publishing all it's games on them (while Playstation and Switch will keep their exclusives) - it's a dying platform.

@NattyKing you’re just repeating the same statement over and over again without giving extra information.

They make profit. Yet somehow it’s a dying platform or whatever. They give first party games to other platforms and there’s a 10 year deal with all major platform holders that they’re bringing CoD on par day on date to those platforms, yet somehow they’re taking away CoD from playstation all of a sudden.

If that’s the echo chamber you want to discuss in, be my guest. But you’re making zero sense.

@BolkaRover I see your point about GP opposed to spending $60-70, but that would only apply to the very small percentage of people who own both consoles. For someone looking to buy their first console though, why on Earth would anyone choose an Xbox, sure you got GP but you're missing a TON of excellent Sony exclusives, when you could get a PS5 and have access to everything? It almost becomes like an idiot test at that point IMO.

@mvhess fair enough, didn't know that.

@Friendly Saying they make profit is meaningless. You have no numbers comparable to what Sony and Nintendo give at every earnings call because Xbox profit numbers are hidden out of embarassment.

And you've totally missed the point regarding CoD. They wanted to take it away from Playstation but regulators forced them to publish CoD on other consoles. Let me guess, you think they're doing it out of the kindness of their hearts 😄.

Their userbase just isn't big enough to sustain their first-party games and it's because they're in third place getting handily beaten by their competitors. That's why Xbox's future is multiplatform. They simply can't continue as things stand and need the extra revenue. Microsoft's overall net worth is irrelevant.

@tangyzesty if it gets to that stage then yes you’re right but at the moment it’s 4 games. We will see. If all the games end up going to PS5 then certainly there would be no point going with Xbox unless you are someone who’s gonna get through tons of game pass games and plays all day.

@BolkaRover I mean we've seen Tom Warren say they are internally debating whether to launch Indiana Jones on PS5.

I personally think they will keep something like a six month exclusivity window. For now anyway.

There is a poster on NeoGaf who works in the industry and has friends at Zenimax who says a whole host of games are currently being ported to PS5, and even unannounced games are being planned with PS5 in mind. He's been right on a number of things up to now too.

@NattyKing do you have proof for any of your claims?

@Friendly You're asking for proof, but also the one talking about Xbox being profitable with no numbers to back it up.

As for CoD, did you follow the Activision Blizzard acquisition and subsequent approval process? The regulators forced MS into signing a ten year deal. Initially when pressured they offered Sony three years 😭.

As far as hardware sales it's been widely reported that Series consoles are tracking below Xbox One.

I'm not being funny but I feel like some of this has gone over your head.

@NattyKing i gave you proof that xbox is profitable on its own.

CoD, they weren’t ‘forced’. They also said that it wouldn’t make sense business wide to not put CoD on Playstation. But Jim Ryan made those claims, or that Microsoft would somehow sabotage or whatever. Xbox was like ‘fine, we put it in writing’, because that’s what jurisdiction is about. There was absolutely no ligit claim that Xbox WOULD sabotage or not put CoD on Playstation. All unfounded. It’s just what the Sony community was made afraid about. https://www.mirror.co.uk/gaming/sony-right-worried-call-duty-29448287.amp

Hardware sales being behind xbox one is irrelevant.

You are in your own echo chamber, probably convincing yourself that you’ve ‘made the right choice’ or something that you’re supporting Playstation. Just know that if xbox goes out of the gaming business that you as a consumer are paying the price.

Just be happy you get some extra games to play from Microsoft. They’re not making the anti-consumer decisions that Sony is the last few years. Such as hefty raising subscription prices. Investing mainly in GaaS to squeeze every penny out of consumers. And making big exclusive 3d party release or exclusive content deals.

@nattyking bottom line: Microsoft is the richest company in the world. They absolutely don’t need any other company to keep a specific business afloat. They know what they’re doing and are in the game to earn as much money as possible from wherever they can. Also from Playstation and Nintendo gamers.

@Friendly You a solutelt didn't provide proof. You sent a link to some numbers relating to "Accountability Margin". Here's what people in the know say about that:

"Accountability margin is not any metric used in any kind of formal accounting and it is more suggests its an internal metric used my MS as a management metric. Not anything that would ever be used to truly realIze profitability In an externally facing way.

And frankly all of this analysis is comparing apples to oranges to the point that whilê its interesting MS uses this as a metric to measure success of an internal business unit. It does nothing for counting the money coming in and out. And no one should be drawing any hard conclusions from all of this."

Accountability is not profit, Xbox does provide profit numbers like Somy and Nintendo do.

Even people who have posted those numbers don't understand what it means:

https://twitter.com/DeekeTweak/status/1704614819855294520?t=Di2XcSPX2xaTGO_hIjpX1g&s=19

And here's the same individual posting that Sony's gross margin and absolute profit is double Xbox's:

https://twitter.com/DeekeTweak/status/1704920405213843533?t=aYr8bGHI0uul6iGilxT5dQ&s=19

@NattyKing good for them.

Means xbox makes profit. Because regarding absolute profit otherwise 2x zero would be zero. Or 2x loss would be even worse.

So xbox is fine. You found your source and explanation yourself now.

Hardware sales relate to software sales and subscription numbers. Suggesting they are irrelevant is incredibly short-sighted. And Xbox One did really poorly compared to PS4 and Switch. Xbox Series is a disaster.

Nobody is saying Xbox is going out of business, but in the last years sales have dropped significantly. Also I have a PC so I have access to all these games regardless.

You sound very bitter towards Sony though. Fact is they have been putting out great games, same as Nintendo. Microsoft has been putting out a lot of mediocre AAA games like Redfall and Starfield. That's why Xbox NEEDS Playstation.

And I've already debunked the richest company line. The Xbox division needs to stand on its own two feet, that's why Nadella and Stuart have been talking about taking Xbox games to other platforms. They're not interested in carrying it any longer.

@NattyKing which is all nothing more than your two cents. They absolutely do not need playstation.

Enjoy yourself in your echo chamber that everything is doom and gloom for xbox. Without hard proof to back it up. Don’t know why you find it so comforting in there.

As if you’re wishing for it to be so.

@BolkaRover you make a good point, we really won't know for sure until we see how many games make the transition to Sony/Nintendo consoles

@Friendly Nonsense. They need Playstation which is why they are porting games, and porting them so quickly. Four confirmed already, a fifth on the way (As Dusk Falls).

Nothing to do with me wishing anything. Xbox sales in Europe and Asia are in the toilet. An in America Sony is comfortably outselling them.

I'm bringing numbers, but you're getting in your feelings over the fact that Xbox needs Playstation and these other platforms to survive.

@NattyKing echo.

You’re just providing your ‘idea’. No numbers, just the idea that a multibillion company ‘needs’ a few extra million somewhere.

Don’t confuse that with that Microsoft ‘wants’ a few extra million.

And now I’m fed up with your continuous same same comments.

@Friendly No numbers - what even though I've stated GamePass figures, estimated console sales, and debunked your "accountability margin'" numbers that you apparently didn't understand.

You're not so much fed up as triggered it seems.

@eduscxbox They are trying to make game pass the Netflix of gaming. That's the obvious goal and one that's been stated. They are shooting for Netflix numbers...200-250 million people. I don't want to be in a gaming future where it's all subscription based. Microsoft only wanting to pay 5 mill for BG3, a game whose budget was well north of 50 million says a lot about what that future could look like.