Topic: Official Push Square Xbox Thread

@InvaderJim "Was was more surprising was that they said Game-pass subscribers are spending 50% more than non subscribers."

GamePass is only interesting to gamers who game a lot, gamers who game a lot buy the most games. I don't really see the surprise here.

Many gamers spend between 50 and 100 euro/dollar/pound each year, which amounts to one game each year. Fifa? Call of Duty? Something like that.

But there's also gamers like me who buy multiple games each month. About 50 euro per month on average. Obviously when I were to get an Xbox Game Pass subscription, I would still need to buy multiple games each year, because not all games I play come on GamePass. Ergo: I spend more than the average non-GamePass gamer even with a subscription.

@InvaderJim That actually doesn't surprise me very much. Non-subscribers most likely don't do much gaming in general or focus on a small number of popular games (FIFA, Fortnite, Minecraft etc).

@R1spam Not sure if gamepass has anything to do with MFS being made or not, I'm sure the game would have been made regardless of the service being in existence. Its not like it is a new IP as I can remember playing it on PC about 20 years ago.

@InvaderJim That is NOT surprising at all. As a Game Pass Subscriber, you can download certain games for 'free', but instead of saving that 'money', you can spend it on another game instead and if you like the GP game, you may also be tempted to buy it with the GP discount as well as maybe spend more on MTX, DLC etc because you didn't have to spend £60+ on it.

Take October as an example - you have FarCry6, BF2042, Back4Blood and Guardians of the Galaxy coming out. If you have enough money for maybe 2 games, you would miss out on 2 that month, I can play B4B on Game Pass, so I could still buy 2 of the others and maybe if I really like B4B, pay for it when fewer games are coming or wait until its about to leave. On top of that, I can still play Forza Horizon 5, Halo: Infinite, the Gunk, Scorn, Flight Sim etc too. Point is, its not stopping me 'buy' games, its enabling me to play more games - some I wouldn't ever get round to buying because there is almost always something new vying for my money as well.

There is this notion that just because Game Pass gives you a reasonable Library and some 'new' games Day and Date, that people 'stop' buying games. However, what seems to be happening is that Game Pass owners are still buying games that aren't on GP day and date, buying discounted games that are on or leaving game pass, buying additional content (MTX, DLC) etc. It maybe a bit like more people are willing to accept and buy MTX in 'Free 2 Play' games and these 'feel' free to play.

I am sure people have their own reasons but for me, I have the same 'budget' to spend on my gaming activities and the fact that I have Game Pass just means that I don't have to factor in certain games to come out of that. If Sony release Horizon: Forbidden West in October, It would be competing with those other '4' games for my cash (although it would win as its my most anticipated Sony game) as well as Halo, FH5, Scorn etc all releasing around the same time (+/- 1month). However, with Game Pass, it would only compete with FC6, BF2042 & GotG and the rest I can still play without missing out or having to wait until I have the money to buy. Game Pass is not stopping me buying H:FW, FC6, GotG or BF2042, if anything, its facilitating me buying more in the long run because I will want to own some of those GP games too but I don't have to buy day 1, meaning I can wait until the Price drops, wait until its about to leave GP and get it then with an additional 20% off whatever price point its at but still play it and enjoy it day 1.

What seems to be happening is that people get to try many more games - some they may of 'dismissed' and then enjoy it, get the chance to buy it discounted and do so. Its like the ultimate 'respect' to the developer for making a great game that you have enjoyed - buying it even though you could keep playing free.

I know I am paying about £11 a month for GPU, but I almost forget about that as coming out of my monthly gaming budget. That means I still have about the same 'free' cash to spend on games a month as I would without GPU and I do still buy games. GPU just enables me to play more games, many of which I wouldn't of bothered with or would of missed out because of other releases

Well, now I'm convinced that Sony's approach with State of Play and not attending E3/Gamescom has been a good idea. Microsoft's Gamescom showcase today was absolutely awful and it was heavily reminiscent of Sony's E3 2018 when everyone was disappointed in them for showing the same games year after year. So they stopped doing that and now they only provide updates when necessary, which is a great approach.

Like the Gamescom showcase today showed stuff like a new ship coming to Sea of Thieves, a new map in State of Decay 2, new planes in Microsoft Flight Sim and so on. It's stuff they could easily announce with blog posts, it's not necessary to have a full showcase at Gamescom for these things. Not to mention that they spent 5-10 minutes explaining when the trebuchet was invented and how it works since it's apparently coming to Age of Empires 4 or something. Don't know, don't care, lol.

@LtSarge I think that says more about Gamescom than Xbox. It’s always been a bit rubbish!

@nessisonett Yeah I guess that's true. I mean, Microsoft's E3 was pretty good so I'm guessing they just didn't think it was worth showing anything interesting at Gamescom.

It's kinda weird that they didn't include this in their own show but the Xbox store apparently lists Halo's release date as December 8th now - so it seems likely that they'll announce it tonight on Keighley's show.

Twelve Minutes is the most tactless, sickening piece of trash I’ve played in a long time. I cannot believe anybody signed off on that game, I’ve never been so happy that I’ve played it through Game Pass so that zero money of mine goes to the devs. Imagine creating that and then going ‘yep, that’s a job well done’. And there’s not even any content warnings. It’s just awful on so many levels. Eugh.

@nessisonett yeah pretty much everyone I have heard talk about it has had a negative reaction… apart from Kojima weirdly.

Wow! That's one hell of a negative reaction @nessisonett!

I actually had a little look of some gameplay regarding this and it looked incredibly boring to play (Tbh I didn't even think the voice acting was that hot either (or at least how it was stitched together))

-EDIT-

... Just had a look at the spoilers/plot synopsis for it (cus I ain't bloody bothered) and uhh... What? 😯

Can't say it makes me as angry as yourself. Does come off as tactless though like you say and the conclusion seems rather nonsensical to me personally from the initial premise of the game.

@nessisonett Thanks for the warning. I was already planning on skipping this one, and it seems I made the right call.

@colonelkilgore @Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy @Kidfried

It’s one of those games that you can’t really get the full negative reaction without playing. Like it’s one thing to read the dreadful ‘M Night Shayamalan with unsavoury fetishes’ plot twists, and another to play a game for several hours as it goes through one terrible twist after another. It irritates me because video games really could do with adult stories about flawed characters, but they need to be executed with a level of care and nuance that these devs just absolutely do not have. It just comes across in extremely poor taste, and considering that Boyfriend Dungeon of all games has been piled on for not having sufficient content warnings, this has a whole lot worse content with zero thought at all put into the impact like 90% of the game would have.

Surprise surprise that Halo Series X console is already on ebay for north of 1000 dollars.

Not gonna lie, I like the look of Sable. I had mistakenly assumed it was multiplat but obviously not. So with this and Deaths Door, Xbox has two games I really like the look of. If the trend continues I might well pick up a series s for indie exclusives.

@colonelkilgore By the time you get round to playing them, there is a chance they may come to PS like Cuphead did.

I've personally accepted there are some games I'm gonna miss out on. But that is OK, as I've got loads to play on PS. I've got a Switch which I rarely use, so would feel it would be a bit foolish of me to get another console which would most likely be the same.

@JohnnyShoulder you’re probably right… I felt the same about Ashen last gen and even though it eventually came to PS4 around a year later, I still didn’t actually play it until around 18 months after that.

I guess I just wanted to shine a light on some positives for xbox-ers… as my ‘general’ view is that ‘they got nothing for me’ etc.

@nessisonett I cannot wait to play this game.

@colonelkilgore Well, if you're feeling up for it, you could always give Game Pass Ultimate a go and play Sable through Xbox Cloud Gaming on your web browser, given that you have a good internet connection that is. It's €15 but at least that's cheaper than buying a Series S. You might even find other games you'd like on the service.

@colonelkilgore Think there has always been a few titles which I've been interested in, just not enough to warrant buying another console for. And luckily most of them have eventually come to either Switch (Ori), or both (Cuphead).