Rich33

@awp69
Closing down Gamepass wouldn't be immediate (unless MS don't care about the bad feeling it would create), and they would likely reduce the number / cost of games on the service pretty early.

Also, adding a 3rd party game to GP can be arranged pretty near launch, whereas developing a game takes a long time.

I have been wondering just what exactly Xbox meant when they talked about something like unpopular choices, or whatever wording they used...

It always seemed to me like Xbox had these smaller studios to produce games for bulking out their Gamepass catalogue.

With their biggest game (COD) not part of GP any more, and these smaller studios being shuttered/sold, I wonder if they are starting to take the initial steps needed to close down Gamepass.

@wildcat_kickz
I very much agree with you. (From the UK)

As you rightly point out, this is not a very nuanced approach, and maybe goes too far, but I do think it is necessary and that governments are being more or less forced into it.

My opinion is that the tech companies could easily have put in a far more nuanced solution, but they just seem to be allowing things to get worse, without realising their responsibility.

I don't think this is the end of things either - I strongly suspect a LOT of other countries are already planning to do similar, and maybe there will be quite a domino effect. Maybe even the US might enact a ban under its next government.

"The outlet went as far as to ask developer Halo Studios if PS5 Pro is "the best place to play Halo: Campaign Evolved", but as you might expect, they didn't get an answer."

Lol

" "Even Microsoft's Xbox Series X will have a hard time keeping up with the experience on PS5 Pro," Game Informer writes."

In the bulk of comparison testing base PS5 on average just slightly improves on series X.
This doesn't usually apply to Xbox studio games, but that's hardly surprising.
With any serious development team, Series X versions should not be expected to compete with PS5 Pro, so this is a bit of a weird statement from GI.

1) RE Requiem and 2) 007 First light
(No other game comes close enough to these 2 games for me to add a 3rd place etc)

@MrPeanutbutterz @Apemail
I played the 2hr timed demo on base PS5 and found it a complete train wreck from a framerate point of view too.

I understand they have made significant improvements for Pro, but I haven't been able to test on my Pro if they have done enough, as the demo has a time limit, which I don't think resets (ie it is linked to your profile). I don't believe they have done much for base.

I'm sure I read and commented on an article here that gave a roadmap for improvements including performance before the expansion.
I just hope DF etc do a full framerate re-review after the expansion goes live.

@Toot1st
Normally, whether a sequel is going to be available on the same console brand, just isn't a question I would need to think about.

But these are weird times with Xbox; with them flip flopping around the place, seemingly with no real plan.

I fully expect this is part of a last gasp for Xbox as a platform, and they will become a proper multiplatform publisher (shuttering their consoles, and having Helix as just a PC in a box) - but how long this will take is anyone's guess.
Remember, it doesn't matter what Xbox want/plan to do, it's their parent company MS that has to be happy with the money coming in.

But whilst so much uncertainty exists, I intend to try and stay clear of games that aren't standalone, and will definitely approach all their games with scepticism (I certainly don't trust how much effort they will put into PS5/ PRO versions).

I would be very hesitant to buy any game that is part of a series made by Xbox at the moment.
It's not worth the time / money investment if Xbox later turn the series exclusive.

They either need to be properly multiplatform, or not, but they cannot be both where games are, or may be, part of a series.

Beyond that, I would definitely be waiting for reviews (including technical) before buying.

If the phenomenally poorly made Oblivion remake, and average Starfield are anything to go by, I'm not sure Bethesda should make another Elder Scrolls game...

Leave Skyrim as the pinnacle of the series and try something smaller in scope - their smaller dlc's were always the better made even back then.

Plus rushed = even more bugs and issues and good grief that would an 'experience' !

Played the Demo, really enjoyed the gameplay / story / characters / combat / style etc.
Performance (fps) was a car wreck (with poor visuals) so that killed any interest in it.

I did / do easily prefer Insomniac's Spiderman games, but this game was excellent. Technically amazing as the article states - Insomniac are on a different level to most in this area: 80fps, with RT, and great visuals, all on only a base PS5.

I have the platinum, don't really hunt trophies at all, but otherwise do try to 100% games.

Not the busiest month, but a well deserved win for 007.

Currently on my 2nd playthrough, and it is my 2nd place GOTY just marginally behind RE9 - its close between them, but no other game comes close to 007 and RE9 so far this year.

I do have very high expectations for Wolverine to top them all, and Onimusha to be in the mix too.

@rjejr
Insomniac did feature a lot of flashbacks in SM2 (eg the mission set at school/college, and the mission remembering his first meeting with JJJ). They could well be including something similar for this game.

@Yor-sama
A third one too - I just went down the remake avenue because I doubt that many would remember the games (I'm very sketchy on some of the details!)

"(with 60fps not even being an option), which is honestly kind of a deal-breaker alone in 2026"

Anything less than more or less locked 60fps is a deal breaker for me.
I have VRR up to 120hz, but I can still tell when a game drops below 60fps even in the VRR window of above 48fps.

@Oram77
That is a game / games they should really think about remaking.

Thinking back to the earlier article about Xbox struggling to make games people want, I'm surprised we haven't seen them yet.

I would be even more pleased to see Sony properly remake Infamous 1 & 2. I am sure that there are a lot like me who have never played the first 2 games.

There needs to be a London section! Fighting bad guys through iconic locations.

The more I hear about this game the more I want to play it. I hope Sony keeps the deep dives until just before launch.

@themightyant
Oh, I should add that I am not sure there aren't some big changes being planned to Gamepass - I have read that transcript a few times where they talk about choices that won't be popular, and to me it sounds like far more than just studio closures (not that studio closures are a 'just' but I think you get what I mean).
I, of course, could be wrong - I am just reading / guessing.

@themightyant
I suspect they have an 'service termination' clause to end Gamepass, but I don't think they would use it unless they also want to end it on PC.
I think they would only have to refund the price paid by customers (pro rata for part years), not full price.

• If I were them, I would start by stopping all new / repeat subscriptions.
• Then I would set an end point for the service based on when a fairly high % of subscriptions are stacked to. Didn't they recently reduce stacking, maybe pre-empting this?
• Then I would reduce the number of games to the minimum promised, bearing in mind this may not be set for future years and could be reduced somewhat while the service 'wraps up'.
• Finally I would reduce costs by fulfilling obligations via cheaper to produce / buy games. I'm sure there are ways to do this like small, cheaper, core games, with extensive dlc's etc, and picking only cheap to add 3rd party games. One of the problems here for subscribers is that their is likely no minimum standard they are required to hit.

GOWL, Wolverine, and probably RE (Code) Veronica.

I'm not convinced 3 weeks BEFORE a big name game launching is too much of a problem. 1 or 2 weeks, maybe.
I think the bigger threat is launching AFTER or WITH big name games launch.

@themightyant
And you are quite right - this is just wild speculation on my part from my experience on a game from 15 years ago! (360 version). It just feels like a similar problem, even if the details are different.

I haven't played a Bethesda game since Skyrim. Part of the problem lies in how as the years go on, they never seem to solve the issue of instability - I would have bought the Oblivion remaster, and possibly this game, in a heartbeat if it wasn't for the problems reported eg Oblivion framerate tanking after a short while playing, crashes, bugs etc.

@themightyant
"I think it is linked to saves"

This is going back a LONG way, but I did notice something about Skyrim, but have no idea how much they have changed this engine since.

When I played Skyrim back in the day, every time an enemy was killed they dropped their weapons. Those weapons would NEVER disappear, and if you ended up with too many in the open world the game would suffer - slowdown / crashes. The same applied to anything you dropped I think.

By picking up every weapon as I went, the game was far more stable. I don't know if something similar is happening here or on other Bethesda games, but it would explain why some have issues others don't.

It was more stable until I found that one of the Elder Scrolls was glitched so that it didn't 'open' correctly - something that I found out was the case from the time I picked it up 200 ****ing hours ago. They had fixed it in a patch, but not so those that had already picked it up had it fixed in their inventory....

@Quintumply
I don't know if these comment sections are monitored so have responded directly.

I have been using these guides for my 2nd playthrough, as on my 1st playthrough I went in 'blind' and missed a few things.

They are very useful, but I have 1 suggestion.

Referring to this 'Intel' section specifically, it would be helpful if this list contained the names as is shown in the in game list (collectibles/intel) as some are quite different. For example in the above list "Dress Box" is listed in the in game menu as "Cressida Bright". The in game list is also not in order of availability as per the above, which makes matching up even more difficult.

This would allow much easier searching through to see exactly which ones you are missing (and where), when you already have most completed.

I think I have worked out the 3 I am missing so this is more for other users.

@MrStark
You really did not read what I said did you?

"True, it wasn't the complete domination we have seen from Sony since, but a lot of people believe Sony won that generation," is what I said.

I said PS3 WASN'T the complete domination we have seen from Sony SINCE ie PS4 /PS5.

Then I gave my view as an Xbox360 owner.

Just because you want to believe it doesn't make it an "iron clad official position". Certainly I don't think anyone could claim a win in to that degree, for either side that gen.

Even though you come off as being quite rude in your responses to myself and many others, I have been at least trying to discuss in good faith (again, as someone who actually owned a 360, but moved to PS).
But I do think I have said enough about PS3/Xbox360 in an article about Xbox's current sad situation.

Astro is a little hero!

I think the article gets the reasoning spot on - new reveal.

Plus, I think it is all about timing.
Sony had to show Wolverine again at the SoP, but the real marketing campaign is yet to come, which I'm sure will involve deep dives, Previews, etc.
Its just a bit too early yet.

I might also argue that whilst I'm sure Wolverine will sell well (and I think it looks amazing), a new God of War game, even a spin off, is just a bigger event.

@MrStark
Thats the point though. PS3 beat 360 in sales, just.
But claiming 360 had better exclusives in response is just untrue.

A LOT of people moved from Xbox to PlayStation at the end of that generation, due to both Xbox's misguided 'vision' of gaming, which in turn led to inferior hardware at the same price, and their comparative exclusives - I know because I was one of those people that moved.

True, it wasn't the complete domination we have seen from Sony since, but a lot of people believe Sony won that generation, including people like myself who were Xbox 360 owners.

@MrStark
I played Gears of war, Halo 3 (at least I think it was 3), and Alan Wake (not Forza because I'm not into Racing games) - I wasn't that impressed (they were OK).
Meanwhile, the games Sony was putting out were games I really wanted to play. I played some of them briefly and was very impressed.

In terms of exclusives, and from my opinion as an Xbox 360 owner, Playstation destroyed Xbox in the PS3 / 360 gen (and have continued to do so each generation since).

It was a big factor in many people like myself moving from 360 to PS4.

@LowDefAl
Yeah. In my opinion it is that part of the options (The day 1 games) that is doing them the most damage - and giving them the biggest accounting headaches if they are seriously underestimating actual costs which have to include lost sales (Xbox studios, not 3rd party on day 1 because they are easy costs to see).

I wonder how the books would balance if they stopped offering Day 1 entirely - though it is quite synonymous with what Gamepass was meant to be.

They may have to scale back how many games they offer on other tiers compared to PS Extra/Premium because of the smaller userbase (I imagine they have to 'pay' separately for Console / PC versions), but Sony seem very clear this type of service can be profitable.

@MrStark
"Exclusives? 360 had the far more popular exclusives."

I had an Xbox 360, and not a PS3 that gen, and I don't remember any exclusives- if there were some, they were not memorable. PS3 on the other hand I remember as having good exclusives.

It was one of the main reasons (along with Xbox's disastrous 'plans' for the Xbox One pre-launch) that I moved to PS4.

By the time we were looking at the launch of PS5 and Series consoles, there was no comparison in my assessment, and so I stayed with PS.

@get2sammyb
While everyone else was saying Gamepass was unsustainable (and clearly it is), how on earth were Xbox / MS still thinking it was sustainable? And clearly still are, if they are still offering Day 1 access to all Xbox studio games.

Surely someone was working out the costs, revenue, and profit/loss, taking into account overheads etc?

Or, were/are they misleading themselves thinking they didn't need to account for / seriously underestimating lost unit sales for games as a result of gamepass (Day 1) in their costs?

"Perhaps this is an experiment Microsoft needs to conduct"

As I have described in more detail before, this could be exactly what this is - an experiment by MS (as the parent company), to see if Xbox is viable as a platform.

If the answer is No, they could go as far as closing the platform, cancelling Helix (or launching it as only a PC), close Gamepass for Xbox consoles, and move Xbox studios to proper multiplatform development.

"Our business isn’t particularly healthy"

Quick! Call a GP!
(Pun 100% intended)

This seems to getting quite regular for Xbox studios - people accuse Sony of trying to force a digital only future, but it seems to me like Xbox are driving much harder, with this method quite a favourite of theirs.

@themightyant
Very good point (#4) - they don't have that defence at all.

I only subscribe to essential.
If any part of this is designed to attract new subscribers, I would say it very marginally would put me off (as to me it would be better to get in one hit, to enable a bigger pool of new games to choose from in one go), but the difference is almost negligible.

I suppose it increases 'New to extra' headlines / notifications, but loses the impact with so few each time.

There should be a difficulty level titled 'Soulslike' lol

Seriously though, it does make sense to give players a wider array of abilities in a demo so players can experience more, but I suppose challenge level will be a casualty of this choice.

Patrick Gibson was excellent as Bond, but there were also other excellent voice actors / portrayals in this game.

Of Particular note were those of M, Q, Greenway, Nicholas Webb, Damian Webb, and Moneypenny (in that order).
And that is not to say others are bad.

I really thought the game benefited from an overall high standard.

@DennisReynolds
I understand that, but the system toggle updates the version being used to PSSR2 (from whatever version was there originally). Hence why the system toggle is included at all - in case this update to v2 causes any unintentional issues due to v2 interacting badly with another system, when compared to the version originally used.

With the system toggle on, the version of PSSR the game launched under is immaterial.

The RTGI may be interacting badly (still) with PSSR2 and just updating PSSR to v2 natively is unlikely to make much, if any, difference, at least based on the evidence we have seen of how close native is to system upgraded.
It would be necessary to make changes to the RTGI in order to fix the issue - hopefully Capcom realise this needs work, and are able to do this.

(I have no idea if the RTGI interacted badly with the original PSSR the game launched under as well as PSSR2, or whether it is something caused by the update to PSSR2.)

@DennisReynolds
Ah, I didn't realise there were problems with the RTGI. In which case it probably needs the RTGI to be altered slightly to fit in with PSSR2.

@RoomWithaMoose
Sony are probably planning to do some cut price PS5 sales around September and November, like they have done in the past - in fact, it wouldn't surprise me if we didn't see £100 price drops to 'mop up' all those holding off because of price rises.

Sony will likely have set the new prices taking into account their love of deep sales in the last few years, and that they will want to repeat this around the launches of Wolverine etc, and GTA6.

@Reyzore
In regards your comment number 37, and regarding 1 specific point.

Remember that in RE Requiems case Sony and Capcom partnered to release PSSR2 early with this game. Taking the unusual step to add the new version via the game code, before the system level upgrade took place - a couple of weeks later I think off memory. This must have needed technical collaboration between the two.

This was an excellent marketing strategy for both Sony for the Pro, and Capcom, and news headlines were everywhere.

There is an anecdotal piece of evidence here too. The performance mode on Pro does not use PSSR at all, which is unusual, allowing Pro users to see just how big a difference the upscaling tech makes.
Usually both modes would include PSSR, with in this case, RT / no RT but uncapping fps, being the difference.

EDIT: NB the performance mode on Pro is identical to the base PS5 visuals just at a significantly higher framerate.

@DennisReynolds
Pretty sure it used PSSR so the system upgrade to PSSR2 will work.

I understand native support might yield slightly better results, but all evidence points to the difference between PSSR1 upgraded to v2 via system level, and native PSSR2, being pretty small indeed.
If there had been a big difference, I would have expected at least Sony to upgrade some of their games, but all they did was whitelist them for system level upgrade.

I can't remember the internal res of the game, but it may be possible to now drop this on Pro because of PSSR2's capability, in order to free up processing - something Capcom have toyed with in the past.

Interested in how big the 'performance improvements' are coming End of August. If this all comes together, I might pick this up when the expansion arrives - though it is going to have some stiff opposition from games releasing Sept/Oct.

Capcom have been on a roll this year, and from a technical point of view seem to have made big improvements in their recent games - it just depends on how willing Capcom is to spend time on this game with everything else they are doing.

@Matroska
Fair enough. Odd that they would return to the original title now, but I suppose it does depend on where you live.

All I know is that, despite not watching any of the He-man series etc since the 90's, that is the first thing myself (and partner) thought of reading this title. With all the recent works (I know they exist and regularly pop up on Netflix, and that there is a new film out), its bound to cause confusion for some.

@Matroska
There was a live action film in 1987, and a 'sequel / soft reboot' animated series in 1990 - one thing I remember about this was that the transformation trigger changed from "By the power of Grayskull" to "By the power of Eternia".

I was presuming from what he said that @PuppetMaster was referring to a Copyright issue forcing the change - though I would expect that still to be in place with the recent animated series's and the new film this year.

@PuppetMaster
I suppose a copyright may have lapsed (or never been filed) - sounds unlikely though. But thank you for the history - i was genuinely bemused when I read the article.

@ShogunRok
It won't be beaten, but it might be flogged by some - by supporters of the game - I'm talking about the headline of course...

I thought this was a He-man game...

Hopefully they see what an amazing job IOI did, and just let them make the sequel in peace.
They have got to know / fear that if they interfere, they could ruin a potentially very profitable and long running series of games.