Comments 1,717

Re: 'There Are Other Xbox Studios in Trouble': Ominous Reports as Microsoft 'Bloodbath' Looms

MinervaX76

@wildcat_kickz if GP was just breaking even, it would had not been capable to keep low performing studios afloat even before ABK was bought. Back in 2022 they had a 14% margin (I hear that’s actually good performance in the game industry) despite few of their titles being big hits.

I don’t think the model has hurt the industry, at least not from my point of view. By definition, someone that can wait will wait for that or deep sales. If someone really cares about day one, they will buy the games that are not in the service because they are that impulsive. If they can wait, they would regardless if they sub to GO, EA Play or any of the PlayStation tiers.

The thing about GP, at a sensible price point, is most people will sub and keep that active regardless if it’s not used that month. THAT makes the program bring in more money a year than the releases themselves, so long they have enough subscribers that is.

The only way I think subscriptions hurt the industry is if they lock games behind it. See Nintendo’s virtual consoles and to a lesser extent PlayStation with some of their retro offerings not being offered for sale (or at least they did at the start, have not checked recently).

Re: 'There Are Other Xbox Studios in Trouble': Ominous Reports as Microsoft 'Bloodbath' Looms

MinervaX76

@wildcat_kickz no, my argument today relies heavily on the windows central article that was not based on MS but on internal sources. MS, even now, I don’t think will ever admit some games ran at 40% profit margin and others were just running at a negative.

Also note: the point was that GP WAS sustainable before the price hike. It was not after the price hike just made thousands (millions?) to unsubscribe.

I don’t even subscribe to GP (not the ultimate or premium tiers, just the basic let-me-play-online tier).

The way I think it happened?

Natia mandated Phill increased Xbox average profit margin to 30%.

Instead of shutting a studio down, firing people, or cutting their budget (force them to cut projects short and ship smaller scale final products) he decided to hike GP hoping that boost would fix the entire business. They did a terrible job at estimating how many people would unsubscribe due to the 50% price hike (I was one of them and not going back anytime soon).

That in turn demolished the entire financial structure of Xbox, even aside all other economic outlook. THAT, I think, got Phill “the option to retire” and Sarah passed on for promotion. Effectively, both were fired over how they mishandled the already irrational request.

Re: 'There Are Other Xbox Studios in Trouble': Ominous Reports as Microsoft 'Bloodbath' Looms

MinervaX76

@LogicStrikesAgain the post you are replying for was made before I heard of the likely firings coming to Bungie. I didn’t detail it but my expectation/prediction is the Destiny team is getting fired and that sooner or later Marathon too will either shut down or enter maintenance mode. At that point, the remnants of Bungie will be no more.

That aside, I would say Sony did a full reset years ago when they forced nearly every studio to work on service games, killing all studios that would not go through with it. We already heard recently that’s what happened to Shuhei Yoshida.

Re: 'There Are Other Xbox Studios in Trouble': Ominous Reports as Microsoft 'Bloodbath' Looms

MinervaX76

@wildcat_kickz the Windows Central article that went deep on what was profitable and what wasn't stated GP actually was one of the things that was financing everything, so GP was working out until the price hike got too many people to unsubscribe.

CoD was expected to drive crazy subscription gains, but that didn't happen, likely because anyone willing to play CoD via GPU already had GPU. At that point, adding CoD to GP just cost them sales without any benefits (so, just a loss).

Tangentially, some hate the sub model, but Xbox handled it gracefully, IMO. They never forced anyone to subscribe to access a game that could not be accessed otherwise. Honestly, GP is a great model replacement to the old Blockbuster rental model that sadly died with the raise of digital distribution.

Re: New Senua Game Reveal Used as a Way to Sell Ninja Theory to Suitors

MinervaX76

@PSXB PlayStation has shut down 11 studios in the last 10 years:

  • Evolution Studios (2016)
  • Guerrilla Cambridge (2017)
  • Manchester Studio (2020)
  • Japan Studio (2021)
  • Pixelopus (2023)
  • Firewalk Studios (2024)
  • London Studio (2024)
  • Neon Koi - Berlin (2024)
  • Neon Koi - Helsinki (2024)
  • Bluepoint Games (2026)
  • Dark Outlaw Games (2026)

Re: New Senua Game Reveal Used as a Way to Sell Ninja Theory to Suitors

MinervaX76

@awp69

I also love the high horse everyone here is when Sony has actually shut down more studios this gen than MS (including the ones being mentioned in this round).

A lot of the studios that are being mentioned were on the brink of closing when they bought them. So MS actually gave them another shot.

Logical statements like these are frown uppon around these parts.

Re: New Senua Game Reveal Used as a Way to Sell Ninja Theory to Suitors

MinervaX76

I think this explains the whole "why did they make Seuna multiplat if they doing exclusives and it was not previously announced?" thing. They did not want to let us know "case by case" basis in this context meant "because we are not keeping them and want to sell them off".

IF true, that might indeed mean anything that has not been commited to PlayStation might indeed become xbox console exclusive in the future, outside the big service games.

Re: PS5 Fans Think Sony Is Pushing God of War Laufey Harder Than Wolverine

MinervaX76

@Ninerguy1608 I understand it less from my point of view because despite being a GTA fan for decades, I have no interest in 6. I mean, I “get it” , given how big GTA5 is, but last I played any of these games was on a 360 and still think 5 was a step down from 4.

End of the day, I’ll likely be playing lots of indie or discounted games those months. I might hold on Wolverine because I bet they will discount it drastically after GTA6’s launch.

Re: 'AI Can Help Our Team Get to the Right Answers Faster': Tomb Raider PS5's Controversy Explained

MinervaX76

AI can be a useful tool so long it does not replace human labor. Background asset generation is, imo, a fair use of generative AI.

Just avoid it for things that are meant to add identity like paintings, documents or landmarks and focus it on spitting out… I don’t know… coffee mugs and apples. Do so with the goal of empowering the team to do work faster instead of the goal of replacing them.

Re: Xbox Will 'Try to Do More' Console Exclusives if the Health of Its Business Improves

MinervaX76

What happened is that the “fanfare” behind Starfield on PS5 (and Gears Reloaded) barely made a difference in actual sales.

The way I read this: she notes the platform needs at least a few token exclusives (across multiple profile tiers) because every platform out there has at least some exclusives.

For now, I expect them to try keep at least one or two titles exclusive to their ecosystem. If things improve enough, they are likely to keep increasing the count. Potentially to the point they won’t release any campaign-focused games on other consoles by the launch of Helix.

Personally, I had given up on Xbox for the most part. I shifted most my buying and playing to Steam, even for Xbox games. I got to admit this last month has changed my buying and playing habits. I’m doing most of both on Xbox as of late.

The way I see it, Xbox business will indeed improve and moves like this will help. Will they improve enough, though? That’s a question no one can honestly answer, just make predictions based on bias.

Re: Whoops! Xbox Accidentally Uploads Gears of War PS5 Trailer

MinervaX76

This cancelation was genius, really! Had they just revealed the game and launched it, a few sites would cover it once and be done with it. Game would sell as bad or worse than the Gears reloaded one on PS5.

But now they are not even releasing the game on PS, yet PS outlets are giving the cancelation more press than Xbox could had ever hoped for!!!

Re: Uncertainty Surrounds Rumoured Venom PS5 Game

MinervaX76

I just beat SM2 last week and although not sure I would really want to play as Venom after the small segments I got to play the character, I definitely want more games that continue the narrative and are smaller in scope (like Miles was).

I really hope this is still coming because otherwise the output of Sony Studios games is extremely disappointing this whole generation.

Re: Xbox Is Flip-Flopping on PS5 Again, and It's Truly Getting Tiring

MinervaX76

Too lazy to go looking for the articles but do wonder if this site called the news/rumors of PlayStation stopping the PC ports of single player games as "flip flopping again" and how "tiring" that was...

Anyways, lots of people here wanted Phil gone. New management, new direction. Careful what you wish for?

Re: Rumour: Persona 1 and 2 Re-Release Hinted at by New Merchandise

MinervaX76

Highly doubt I'll get this, but I would love to get remakes that follow the modern calendar-based format that made Persona what it is today. I still would take plain remasters based off the PSP versions.

Persona 1 was one of the first RPGs I jumped into (after FF7 and Suikoden 1+2) on PSX, but it was the most impactful of the bunch. The whole story was so unusually dark and mature for a game that focused on teenager characters in a time where story arcs were a lot more... world domination in focus.

Re: 'The List Is Crazy': Starfield Support and Updates Will Continue Following PS5 Debut

MinervaX76

Personally I enjoyed this game enough to shoot for 100% the achievements (Played it on PC, the Play Anywhere version although also own it on Steam).

I don't regret getting the game, but I was a bit disapointed. It was not a bad game, a lot of people will whine about the RNG content, but my complain is that there is not enough RNG content.

As soon as you bump into a facility and see it from the outside, you will know exactly how the entire map looks inside down to the coffee mug placements. I feel they could had put at least a bit more work at randomizing the dungeon layouts.

As it stands, only ocassionally will you find a variant and that is only based on some mission forcing a single room be accessible or an NPC be there.

Had the game really gone for randomized content, I might had decided worth it to pursue the New Game Plus gimick it tried to sell me on.

I still hope someday, some DLC will make good on that.

Re: Sony Announces Gigantic PS5 Price Increases, Effective from April 2026

MinervaX76

@TrollOfWar Call me crazy but I would take smaller games. Games have been too big the last two gens. I would love to get smaller games that also have faster turnarounds.

Games like Miles Morales and Uncharted Lost Legacy are what IMO triple A games should be aiming for, not insane once in a gen releases that will sink a studio if they don't sell 2 million copies day one.

Re: Opinion: Why Is Sony Scrapping the PSN Name?

MinervaX76

Both MS and Sony are shifting for future-proofing, imo.

I know it's not popular opinion among many gamers but PlayStation and Xbox are no longer "consoles" but "platforms" that encompass more than just the console. You buy a PlayStation game anywhere, you signing in to PlayStation The Platform, not some spinoff product.

Regardless recent news/rumors, Sony is still pushing service games into PC and they don't want people thinking they are connecting to "PlayStation's Network" but to "PlayStation The Platform".

Even in consoles, the Network thing is no longer Optional but part of the overall platform.

The "optional" thing is the Plus subscriptions.

TLDR: it makes sense, honestly.

Re: Sony Sues Tencent Over 'Shameless' Horizon Copycat Coming to PS5

MinervaX76

The marketing material might look like a Horizon ripoff, but the gameplay seems a lot closer to Valheim but with robot animals. Even the blackout screen with text when you go to sleep.

Sure they approached Sony for a license tie-in, so what? It was an obvious IP to try tie in given their robot enemies.

Re: Sony Has Stopped Updating PS Plus' Subscriber Numbers

MinervaX76

Honestly doubt this is about fears of being compared to GamePass subscription numbers, especially since Microsoft rarely gives updates on those figures. I am sure this is due to two back-to-back quarters of subscription declines.

As many that have posted here, I too decided to cancel my account. I never play online on my PS5, and honestly can’t remember when was the last time I played a game I claimed. I was basically paying a yearly fee to keep my save files backed to the cloud, and that fee just got too high to be dismissed.