Questionable_Duck

@LogicStrikesAgain That is a fair point. Though, even if Physint were to come to Xbox (while still being funded by Sony), I imagine it would have been several years later. Also, PlayStation Studios probably wouldn't have published the Xbox version themselves like they did with Helldivers 2.

@LogicStrikesAgain Who said Physint is still going to release on PlayStation? Schreier himself only mentioned Xbox and PC for platforms. Maybe a year or two later, but even then that's just a guess

@Vyse_the_Legend The PS5 version is the only one getting a physical release in Japan, to be specific. I think it's very much possible that the Xbox and Switch 2 versions will get physical releases in the West as well (the latter likely being a game-key card)

@darylb24 You can also cloud stream on PC using the PlayStation Plus PC app, but only PS4 games and only a select, random library of titles that's barely referenced anywhere on the PS websitr

@SleepyNick Rockstar did the same thing with RDR2 and GTA V, yet no one complained

@GirlVersusGame No problem! Yeah Microsoft didn't exactly make the whole thing clear. There's a surprising amount of people with duck-themed usernames like mine. I don't play Battlefield, though, so that person you met probably wasn't me lol.

Also, RIP to Dolly Parton and Tim Curry. Lots of legends are sadly passing away lately

@GirlVersusGame From what I understand, no, the license doesn't get permanently locked to anyone's account. If you give the disc to someone else and they insert it into their console (while signed in to a different account and everything), them you will lose access to the digital license and your friend will get it on their account instead.

Theoretically speaking, if you threw your physical disc in the trash and made sure it will never be used by someone else ever again, then yes, the digital license would technically be indefinite. I don't think anyone would want to do that, though.

The benefit of digitizing your physical library, which no one here has brought up yet, is that it allows people with physical games to take advantage of Xbox Play Anywhere support and Xbox Cloud Gaming.

That's what makes it more interesting, rather than just "you can play your physical games on digital only consoles."

In other words, if you get a physical Xbox copy of a game like Gears of War: E-Day or The Witcher 3, you will receive a digital PC copy for free, as long as you keep the physical game.

Showa was by far the best game shown during the showcase. FF7 and The Witcher 3 Remastered looked cool too, but not that exciting since we had already seen plenty of them before and/or know what the games are.

Way too many gacha games and free-to-play stuff for my liking

@-wc- You're right, I DO have a problem with how Xbox has been handled these last few years.

They shouldn't be publishing singleplayer games on other platforms to begin with. Multiplayer-only titles, I can understand, but even in those cases, Microsoft shouldn't be telling Xbox owners they can get those multiplayer games on PlayStation or Nintendo consoles for the reasons I mentioned above.

I forgot to point this out, but what was especially weird about Microsoft's whole kumbaya phase is that they were explicitly telling people during their own showcases that they could buy third-party games on PlayStation and Nintendo, perhaps in order to stay consistent across the board with logos and whatnot. That made even less sense than what you're describing, because Microsoft doesn't make a penny from copies of, say, Planet of Lana 2 or Super Meat Boy Forever sold on non-Xbox platforms.

Sony and Nintendo have not and will never do something like that, understandably so, because it makes no sense.

@-wc- "then not tell as many people as possible about those versions of the game."

It's as I said before, in what world does it make business sense for Microsoft to tell Xbox players on their own YouTube channel that you can get the game on PlayStation and Nintendo? Their money-making formula isn't impacted in the slightest because, oh no, PlayStation and Nintendo players who watch the Xbox channel (of which there are practically none) won't see the logos of competing platforms there.

You may think it's silly, but the backlash wasn't entirely from "mean Xbox fans", it was also from people who were genuinely concerned for the future of the platform. Saying you're going to focus on Xbox players, while also advertising competing platforms on your own YouTube channel (something that Sony and Nintendo have never done) is just inconsistent messaging and makes people less confident in Xbox as a whole.

Microsoft has burned people so badly in the last decade that some Xbox fans understandably take even an inch of iffy behavior from the company with great concern. And with how Xbox has flip-flopped over the years, you can't completely blame them.

I saw the word "Delta" and I thought for a second they were bringing back the game Delta from the Commodore 64. But it turns out it's Delta Man, a game I've never heard of before.

Either way, the more retro compilations, the better, in my opinion

@kmtrain83 Fair enough, appreciate the convo

@kmtrain83 Look up the Helldivers 2 trailers on the PlayStation YouTube channel. None of them have ever mentioned Xbox even once. Same goes for Lego Horizon and MLB The Show (even though those games are on Nintendo and/or Xbox consoles). Sony has never included Xbox and Nintendo logos in any of the first-party games they've advertised on their YouTube channel, even if they are selling said games on other platforms.

Whereas with Xbox, Microsoft has been openly mentioning PlayStation and Nintendo on the Xbox YouTube channel for any of their first-party games that are on rival platforms. This started during the multiplatform push, but I guess it's now come to an end.

If you check the Xbox website, you'll see that the pages for Forza Horizon 6, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, and Halo: Campaign Evolved still mention that the games are available on PlayStation. Though, oddly, the Fable and Minecraft Dungeons II pages don't and (according to the Wayback Machine) they never have. I don't know why that's the case.

Either way, it's not clear yet if Microsoft is scrubbing any mention of PlayStation and Nintendo from the Xbox website. But they are doing so on the Xbox YouTube channel, and given that Sony and Nintendo have always done the same, I don't see any problem with it

@RobN Even though I don't fully agree, this is a take I can stand by. I appreciate that you're consistent with your logic

@kmtrain83 Ask Sony why they do the same exact thing with Helldivers 2, Lego Horizon, and the MLB titles

@-wc- @Hesse @MasterChiefWiggum This concern all seems a bit disingenuous to me, because how many PlayStation and Nintendo players are watching Xbox showcases and looking up trailers on the Xbox YouTube channel versus the PlayStation and Nintendo ones? Realistically speaking, very few, so I don't see how this would impact sales of the games on other platforms in the slightest.

These trailers that they're removing logos from are targeting the Xbox audience first and foremost. I don't know about you, but it seems incredibly stupid for Microsoft to tell Xbox players they can get the game on PlayStation and Nintendo instead and, in the process, make less money.

I didn't hear a single soul on Push Square (or any website, for that matter) criticize Sony for omitting any mentions of the Xbox versions of Helldivers 2 and MLB The Show on the PlayStation YouTube channel. By your logic, then that is also incredibly silly because Sony is "lowering" sales of the game on the Xbox platform.

@JustBusiness This applies to Microsoft as a publisher, meaning you won't be seeing official Circana sales data from games they sell on PlayStation and Nintendo consoles, either

@Gunnerzaurus You do realize that's not how businesses work, right? Each department has its own allocated budget. The marketing budget and the budget used to pay game devs in a completely different department do not overlap.

@Swandivetotheasphalt Maybe honestly, I could see them making games exclusive to the Xbox PC storefront in the future.

But then again, maybe not. Putting games on Steam doesn't hurt the Xbox brand like putting games on PlayStation does

Yeah, I don't think we'll be seeing singleplayer Halo games on PlayStation again anytime soon. Maybe if they do a multiplayer title, sure, but with how people online are trashing Campaign Evolved, I don't think this game will sell that well on PS5. Will probably just give Microsoft more justification to keep Halo exclusive

Losing Japan Studio sucked, but on the bright side as Shuhei Yoshida said, I can now play Slitterhead, Ratatan, gen Design's new game, etc. on Xbox. That certainly wouldn't have happened before

@johncalmc I don't think they will be. But maybe that's just my Xbox fan side speaking

I mean, it's not like they'll have much of a choice either way, at least when it comes to PlayStation physicals. They may still be able to do Xbox and Nintendo physicals post-2027 for the time being, but who knows how long that'll last

@Dubplant Yes I should have been clearer, my apologies

@Dubplant Floppy discs don't work on consoles tho. And you didn't see indie games getting sold on floppy discs at retail en masse. Besides, PC gaming was very niche during the physical-only era. The average consumer did not play games on PC back then; if your indie game was not on a console, chances are no one would play it.

In order for games to be on consoles, you needed to find a publisher to get the game printed on discs for you, as I said before.

Maybe I should have worded this more clearly before, but I'm not denying the fact that indie games existed prior to the rise of digital (although they were largely really niche and not well-known). It's just that the indie game scene, as we know it today, would not exist were it not for digital downloads. Note how, in my original comment, I said "the birth of the indie video game scene" and not indie games in general.

@00_Pablo Honestly voice acting does not really pay well. That's why so many voice actors tackle multiple gigs at once because they are only barely able to make the cash they need. Idk maybe it's different for celebrities in the VA world tho

@MasterChiefWiggum The years that Microsoft started to port all of their games to PS5 are also some of the worst years in Xbox history from a financials standpoint. Coincidence? I think not!

Given that, according to Asha, 80% of the revenue from the Xbox business comes from users on Xbox consoles, I don't think it makes business sense for them to become a publisher

@Dubplant Yeah well no one was buying those indie games. I can't think of a single indie game from the physical-only era that had the same impact as Braid, Palworld, or Stardew Valley

One thing people don't realize is that if there is one benefit to digital media, it's the birth of the indie video game scene. In the past, if you wanted to make a game, you had no choice but to find a publisher who could print physical discs for you, and that's not easy.

Nowadays, anyone - even solo devs - can make games, without having to worry about finding a way to get them printed on discs.

If digital downloads didn't exist, and physical media was still the only way to access video games, then many of the best indies of all time in the last decade or so probably wouldn't even exist either. So have some respect for the smaller indie devs

@MidnightDragonDX They never said they were coming to PS5... Could be Xbox exclusive for all we know. Depends on what Asha plans to do with Xbox

@Shirtpotatoes75 Same! As a male, I have absolutely no problem playing as a female character in a video game. In fact, I actually think it's kind of cool that Santa Monica Studio is making a God of War game featuring a different protagonist. Deborah Ann Wool is a great actress too.

My problem with this game is that there is a talking cube in it. It feels very out of place compared to the characters in prior God of War games.

I am what some may consider a cubist, a person with a strong prejudice against sentient cubes. The less of a presence that speaking blob of jello has in the game, the better

@Dogbreath On a somewhat related topic, I think it's a bit absurd to claim that you're going to stop playing new games entirely or only focus on retro titles, just because you don't permanently own these games and have to use a different format to play them.

It would be like a self-proclaimed cinephile refusing to watch amazing movies in theaters because they can't own a copy of said movies physically.

@gordonps Balaam is known for taking trophies a bit too seriously...

@Oram77 Apparently according to the rumors, iD wasn't working on any new game just yet. They were still in the pitching phase, just like what Tango was doing prior to (almost) being shut down by Microsoft.

So, I guess Microsoft is thinking, if they're not working on any games, then we don't need a lot of staff to work here for the time being.

@rat-paradise Can you stop crying about us crying about you crying?

Jk

@11001100110zero Interesting... You may have a point

@Gr8VngnzN4esAngr While you're right about Nintendo, Sony themselves have always viewed and continue to view Xbox as their biggest competitor, regardless of what you think on the matter. To quote Shuhei Yoshida:

"[Sony] see Microsoft being the competition because Xbox is very similar – performance, hardware. Like a high-end console, mature games and Nintendo is very, very different. Nintendo is family-friendly, games for everyone, and not about technology, it’s more about having fun with friends and family and always have multiple controllers, bundled with the hardware.

Inside Sony, even when they do a business analysis, Nintendo doesn't show up, so there's a competition market share between PlayStation and Xbox, and they don't include Nintendo. Not that they're ignoring Nintendo, but that they do not necessarily feel Nintendo is competition because Nintendo is covering a different audience."

Source: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2025/06/shuhei-yoshida-says-sony-doesnt-really-consider-nintendo-as-competition

If Sony didn't view Xbox as competition, they wouldn't have changed PS Plus to be more like Game Pass with Project Spartacus. They also wouldn't be signing exclusivity deals left and right to keep games off Xbox specifically, like with Where Winds Meet or Phantom Blade Zero.

And, I'm sorry, but I think I'll take Yoshida's words over a random commentor on Push Square like ourselves.

@Banjo- Yeah, Jason Schreier has said that this is not true and that Obsidian is safe for the time being

I'm very afraid what those other studios could be

@chatbot I mean, they already confirmed it will play PC games, that's not a rumor. Same with it being backwards compatible with previous Xbox consoles.

You can build a PC sure, and that may be the better option for those who have no interest in the Xbox ecosystem, but if you already own Xbox games, then Project Helix makes sense based off what they confirmed about it so far. It all depends on the price.

@chatbot Isn't the next Xbox gonna have an open ecosystem rather than a closed one? I mean, it's basically going to be a PC that plays Xbox console games. That is, unless Asha Sharma changes something about Helix

@Oram77 Is that not better than having no physicals at all? That's basically like game-key cards. At least you can still resell the game disc/cartridge when you don't want it anymore.

When it comes to Xbox physicals in general tho, only Microsoft first-party games are like that for the most part. A large portion of third-party games are complete on disc

@McSavage Yeah sadly, with the news that Sony's stock has risen after the death of physical announcement, I don't think this will change much

@Zuljaras Maybe not the right site to post this on but I think you should support Xbox physicals as well while you still can

I know you don't like Xbox but this is why it would be best not to put all your eggs in one basket when it comes to physical collections. At least, that's what I wouldn't do if I could afford it

@ShadowRJ I straight-up do not have the room to buy all the games I want physically. Even if every game I was interested in had a physical release on my preferred platform, I would still choose digital in most cases simply because I can't store 1000+ discs in my room.

I own more than a thousand games digitally, I can't imagine owning them all physically. If I was rich and had a giant room to live in, then sure, I'd buy physical. But that's not really an option for me.

@Balaam_ Okay bro... Talk about a dramatic speech