Yeah me too, as while I feel that trailer was all smoke-and-mirrors… what they were aiming for looks to have been something right up my street. Gutted! 🤬
I was looking forward to PD if only to see what a AAAA game was like, seriously though I remember people talking about this studio like it was the second coming but they seemed to have produced little of substance over the years despite having some industry veterans onboard, although the studio head count wasn’t even close to three figures (according to wiki).
Fingers crossed the people affected land on their feet. Sad to see the state of things....Phil Shirley has to go.
Bankrolling gamepass is obviously expensive. Putting all first party games on there day one and signing expensive deals for third party games I don't think works. Good for the consumer but doesn't make much business sense.
Some say Microsoft have almost a bottomless pit of money, but there are still a business and cuts like this will happen if one part of it has been floundering for years.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
Getting laid off is one thing — and it sucks for those affected, of course — but it must hurt almost as much knowing the project you’ve been working on every day for the past X number of years is never going to see the light of day. Hopefully those affected can get back on their feet pretty soon.
Gamepass definitely seems to be costing Xbox a lot of money because putting all those games day one on the service can’t be cheap and it’s quite clear that a huge reason they’ve gone multiplatform is to recuperate for the lost sales they aren’t getting with Gamepass.
Certainly from my perspective it seemed like things were on the up for Xbox with this transition to becoming a multiplatform entity and getting the monopoly on the industry they so desperately wanted but obviously things aren’t as hunky-dory as they seem.
I’m no corporate expert and I don’t even have any formal business degree… but I don’t think it makes sense to buy studios and production companies and then turn around and close them down or layoff all their staff and shut down the projects they have been working on for years, which projects you presumably really wanted and were willing to spend billions on.
And not to pick on Microsoft only, many of the big corporate entities have been doing versions of this — Sony not excluded (buying Bungie and then laying off people, buying Firewalk and then shutting it down, etc). I know that Tencent and Embracer group have done this too, gobbling up studios and then shutting them down or canceling projects.
Obviously there are market trends that are unpredictable and so I understand mistakes can be made when trying to predict future success, such as the bottom falling out of the live service push with Sony, or the over-reliance of the subscription service model with Microsoft, but aren’t these corporate heads the best in the business at knowing how to strategically plan and account for the market? Isn’t that why they make the big bucks? How come they all seem so incompetent? All of us make mistakes at our jobs, so I wouldn’t expect perfect clarity all the time on what they do, even if the c-suite make more money in one year than most of us will earn in a lifetime… but this is a trend that seems quite out of line with the normal variance of business.
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Genuinely struggling to work this one out. Does this mean children can no longer play games with their friends? Or because they don't have an adult account they don't have to verify, but then, why do adults need to verify, what is it actually changing for anyone, other than being a f***ing pain in the arse for anyone over 18? haha
@JohnnyShoulder I genuinely don't get this one, how is it keeping kids safe 😅 I thought the bill was to stop teens watching naughty videos online, and all of a sudden adults can't use their consoles online without giving up their personal data? Did I miss something 😂
@graymamba
I don’t read or watch Gamespot anymore, I used to when they had decent content. Used to watch that weekly show with Lucy and the other British person, can’t remember his name but he is a big Souls fan.
Anyhoo Lucy especially was constantly going on about how good Gamepass as most the the media was, it used to be quite tiring.
However as I have said in the past competition is good so the demise of Xbox isn’t good for us gamers but the writing was on the wall with the ABK acquisition, I’m surprised the media didn’t see that coming especially people in the financial sector like that well known plum but then he gets everything wrong.
Just watched an IGN video by Ryan McCaffrey and he is finally coming around to what people have been saying for years, day and date is a mistake and Xbox would rather not give it to you so they are pricing you out of the market.
The free fall of Xbox is all very sad to see as competition is good, for both companies.
As someone who doesn't play on console and just uses Game Pass on PC, the price bump deffo sucks, but it could be worse. When I first read the announcement (as everything around this seemed to be delivered so messily and the only place I could source just plain information about what all this means is on their subscription purchase page) I thought PC Game Pass was gone, and Ultimate was your only way to get Day One titles, and for that price bump, it would have invalidated Game Pass' worth to me, but that isn't what is happening. At least right now. It may end up there in the end and at that point we cancel.
Honestly though, COD and Black Friday both in November right? Its the ultimate grift. You put up the price for Cod, the hike is so big, you factor in the lost revenue from the cancellations to keep a profit. Then a month later you say 'we heard you loud and clear, we want to remain competitive, but we realised we got it wrong this time', you reverse the price hike, or offer some kind of shorter term reduction to review later. Community falls for it, celebrates Xbox, calls it a win for the consumer. Its called anchoring or something like that, I watched Destiny do this push pull for YEARS and the community fell for it every single time
It's a sad state of affairs. A brand's popularity is dependent on having a certain appeal. When Xbox came into the gaming industry, it had Halo, Xbox Live and amazing hardware among other things. Nowadays, it has nothing that distinguishes it from other gaming brands. It will continue to freefall.
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