@themightyant I know its been noted several times through the thread but their Switch Key Card sales are counted as "digital" on their books, and although there is a good argument they may as well be digital, they are still physically transferable (lending/selling) and that is about half the complaints about the whole physical only future. But yea, having 55% of their sales on PC. We have no clue how many of the Switch sales are "physical [key cards] but even if we keep up the ratio, and the sales were even, I think it's safeish to say that at minimum, that 17% physical goes up to 25%. Switch, I think has been noted, has a higher ratio of physical vs digital compared to other consoles, though.
Personally I liked Vallhalla. Never finished all the DLC but plan to. I did 100% the first game (achievement wise) on XSX at launch and loved it. I did play some of the DLC, Siege of Paris added some elements from the series that IMO were missing, giving a bit more focus on city areas than the open valley sections.
I honestly would play it again from scratch (and hope to someday) but first got to do all that DLC (they really went wild with DLC releases for that one!!!)
I just hope it is a very different take because I hate the way platinum trophies work. It's universally "get every launch achievement" in a game, and that always annoyed me.
I wish it was smarter, like "you got every single player mode achievement".
I doubt we will get anything too elaborate, but I can hope for them to leverage data that is out there (like from TrueAchievement's db) that flag various type of achievement categories (story/multiplayer/finished the story, etc)
But chances are they will just award a global generically titled Mastery Achievement for getting every achievement.
@rusty82 They have been around, but they never really sold that well on Japanese consoles until CoD3:MW entirely shifted the FPS world. Yes, enough copies would sell to justify the cost of the port, but it was never the dominant platform for FPS.
@ShadowRJ There might had been a point in between then and now that would have been true, but not sure if at its release it would have been. At that point in time. PS2 base used to really be extremely anti-FPS, and few FPS had any significant success on PS platforms. Even during the early PS3 era, it was generally the perception that First Person games were the realm of PC and Xbox players. I think it that only changed around the release of Call of Duty 3: Modern Warfare.
Today, I think the part that hurt its PS release was that the game is only the campaign minus the service components.
@ShadowRJ It's a remake of a game that already got a remake and it still managed to sell 2x on Xbox than on PS5. It's not that Halo does not carry weight, it's that the PS base does not care for these IPs. It's also not surprising given how Gears Reloaded also received a very poor reception on PS.
PS playerbase seems to care more about service games than campaign games from third parties, hell even first party titles are struggling. Even old cheap ports of 360/PS3 era service games seem to get more momentum than modern single player games.
I guess under that light, I can't entirely resent Sony for their service game push, as much as I won't stop resenting that direction.
(Plus they canceled the one service game I would had been all over, I would love a Spider-Verse gatcha service game...)
At best, Xbox will offer an addon drive likely mostly for backwards compatibility. There is a chance they still offer disks for the Helix gen but they are unlikely to be more than disk-shaped keycards (they already do this) but even that right now would be miles ahead of what Sony is threatening us with.
BTW, you could say I'm an Xbox enthusiast, and was during the 360 gen. I hold zero resentment for Shuhei Yoshida's video. It was in fact what made me abandon Xbox during the One/PS4 generation.
Transparency from the gate about back compat (that Sony refused to acknowledge until the last minute), threats of charging for PS4->PS5 upgrades (vs Xbox promises for free smart delivery releases), quick resume, the eventual implementation of back compat for 360/OG gen games (even if only a subset) and eventual introduction of Play Anywhere, free cloud saves, these where things that got me back into the Xbox ecosystem. GamePass for me was just gravy, never a driver.
Only reason I have cone to resent Shuhei Yoshida's game share video is because they just turned around on it and just told all of us to "bleep off". Their shift to service games and anemic first party release drought during this gen are what drove me away. This physical media shift, for me, is worse than what Xbox attempted to sell under Don Mattrick.
Capcom really has managed to do one hell of a comeback in the last decade.
I hope the Onimusha resurrection attempt works out as well as Resident Evil. Really hope they manage to do the same comeback with Megaman sooner or later. Really feel Legends would be perfect for this era of gaming!
Also sort of hope they resurrect the Lost Planet series (even if truth is I never played them).
Oh and of course, keep the experimental new IPs coming! Pragmata was such a breath of fresh air!
Said it before and say it again: love Shadows, Valhalla and all modern AC but I feel we lost something unique with that shift. I hope this leads to more games like Mirrage and more remakes in between large “RPG” entries.
Also hope we get new DLC for Blackflag, or at least Freedom Cry.
Do hope future remakes add a bit more improvements/content.
I have zero interest currently on GTA6, but I am only playing Blackflag until I get all the achievements. If they add some content that achievements, I’ll likely play it a bit more. Else, I’ll only play for story DLC. Maybe also more legendary ship encounters. I would expect either of those to add achievements, but I would okay them regardless.
It would be kinda cool if they add story DLC content. Resynced Freedom Cry? Maybe add the entire Rogue entry as DLC?
Between the success of this entry and unexpected success of Mirage (Ubisoft keeps touting how well it sold based on expectations), perhaps we will eventually see a revival of the non-open world epic fantasy games.
I still love me new open world entries (Origins/Odyssey/Valhalla and Shadows are all fantastic IMO) but I really miss the more classic entries too and think they could alternate between those two types of games.
In a perfect world, we would get an epic fantasy one every 4-5 years with one or two old-style entries (new or remasters) in between. And DLC for the fantasy ones... still upset there was so little DLC for Shadows... 😢
And the announcement that it will be console exclusive to Xbox coming before long I'm sure.
My expectation as well. Asha seems very determined to shift away from the multi-platform experiment just as Sony is backing away from PC. There will be a lot of screaming about how the titles will sell less because of it, but truth is PC/Steam growth is greatly outpacing consoles and removing a single console is not likely going to have a significant impact because any new single player game will still sell through Xbox PC store with play anywhere and via Steam.
I can understand feeling it’s overpriced given how little they did here, but the way PS players are buying these games AND playing them, all ABK is hearing is they “undercharged”.
@PuppetMaster either that or they will be given a low budget and expected to develop a less radically "innovative" sequel. I do have little expectation of them making the next Quake, but still can see them making a more iterative Doom sequel. Up to now every Doom game has been almost entirely remade from the ground up.
Many would argue that was overkill from a production standpoint, and a lot of players have argued that only one of the entries in the trilogy was enjoyable to them because they are all so different from one another.
Would not be shocked if Asha makes the call for any single player game, including Fallout, to be Xbox/PC exclusive. She has been rather vocal about the multiplatform strategy not paying off the way they expected.
If they don't walk this back, they are giving a lot of ground to Xbox (if they keep disks going, especially if they introduce the rumored digital entitlement feature) OR cementing Nintendo's dominance of the entire gaming industry for the next two generations. Raw horsepower be damned, between ridiculously lower console prices AND physical media, Nintendo whould swallow the industry whole.
Xbox is already selling just empty disks that serve as glorified keycards, but even that would be a gigantic improvement over zero support for physical media that can be traded freely and being forced to retain older hardware just to enjoy one's personal physical catalog.
Anyone that think this outrage is just a small echo chamber is either not paying attention or are themselves inside their own echo chamber.
This thing broke containment. Nearly every online streamer, the ones that have the eyes and ears of the community, have come out against this. Developers, from indies to Hideo Kojima have come out against this. Shawn Layden has come out againt this!!! Politicians have come out against this!
Denial and dismissal of the outrage IS the echo chamber.
@Banjo- Still have to play it but I been told by friends I really have to. Need to make some time one of these days. I do have a feeling by now Perfect Dark is cursed and no one will dare touch it again, though.
@Banjo- Merging the two might not really be that logical. Both seem to be perfectly capable at doing the exact same kind of games (fps) but IW8 is driving one of the most successful game series in the industry.
Most likely, idTech will be told to use IW8 going forward. And honestly, not a terrible idea for them to start doing what Capcom is doing and focus on fewer engines. IW8 possibly should be driving not only CoD but also future Halo, Quake, Doom and Wolfenstein entries.
Forza and Elder Scrolls/Fallout make sense to keep focusing on their more specialized engines. It likely would add too much bloat to try to make IW8 viable to manage open world racing games and immersive rpgs.
@PuppetMaster would not hold my breath on that one. They listed Quake and Doom as two of the core IPs they want to focus on going forward. Despite these closures (very likely due to higherup perceived redundancy on engine maintenance) Xbox seems commited to the studio for its game development if not for it's engine maintenance capabilities.
If idTech is killed, that would be extremely stupid. Xbox should be moving away from Unreal and into their own engines and idTech is litterally the best engine they have for the genre of games they are best at. Although I do guess now they also own ABK and the CoD engine (that is itself an offshot of idTech)... so I might have to take that back... it might be a bit redundant to be maintaining idTech on top of the much more battle tested IW Engine...
@Titntin
Themightyant posted a quote from Jason Schreier earlier with one. I got to dig but the other was from Jez Corden in social media answering to the same question.
Jason Schreier seems to have confirmed "1,600 jobs will be eliminated today, and then another 1,600 (including the studio divestments) in the next 12 months."
@Titntin According to at least two sources now, it seems the staff of the 4 divested studios is already included in the 3,200 total. Likely why they are calling it "roles are being eliminated" and not just firings: they are roles that by the end of the fiscal year wont be part of the MS payroll.
It sucks either way but if this was mostly sernior staff, that most likely means most of them were in the "14 layers of management" that was covered as being a huge issue across most Xbox studios. I hope as few actual developer/artists/designers lost their jobs as possible.
I have human empathy for anyone losing their jobs, but management layers that literally tend to be the cause of bad choices are precisely the kind of people that should be targeted over the end workforce actually creating the games.
Sony's statement is also now proven to had been extremely misleading. A minority of sales might be physical when you count all sales, but when the game is available physical things change. The Insomniac leak proves that their own first party titles sell anywhere from 50% to 65% in physical form.
Even highly acclaimed (and best selling on Steam) Capcom games like Pragmata ended up entirely selling out on retail at launch. People love physical and they don't only want to keep having that option for bigger productions but also want to make sure their physical back catalog can be inserted and played on a future PS6.
Telling people the only way they can play their back catalog next gen will be by buying the games again is seriuously bleepled up without a very good reason (like shifting to carts over disks).
Croscode is an amazing game. It is one of the best games I discovered through Game Pass and I highly recommend it. I didn't just buy it after playing it in GP, I bought it twice. I own it digitally on Xbox and physically on Switch. I been tempted to buy it again on Steam (it's on sale there right now for 4.99).
Obviously not a game for everyone, but its so good if its your jam!
I do hope there is a sequel to South of Midnight in the books. A sequel could be a lot cheaper to make than trying to jump into a new game that needs new assets from the ground up if they manage it well and do proper reuse of existing art and resources.
It is also nice to hear that not only are they being divested but also getting funding (likely part of that Xbox Game Pass deal we already know has to be in place for Senua).
@Banjo- 100%. Pentiment and even Grounded could had sold less than a million total and likely be fine. Although I might agree that something akin to Pentiment feels "too indie" to devote resources for as a first party studio, it still was not a huge gamble.
But South of Midnight could had perhaps been half it's size, deliver earlier, and require way fewer players to break even. That in turn could even open them up for sequels.
Also not every game needs to be a gigantic open world!
@themightyant I might be biased, because I long for the days of shorter more frequent games, but I still think the current inflated dev cycles are a problem of publisher's own making.
It's a falacy that the more money they throw at a game, the more impressive it will be and the bigger the payout. I also have heavily critisized in the past how even sequels tend to get remade from the ground up instead of reusing assets.
And the thing is, Nintendo seems to be thriving precisely by avoiding that trap. Yea, many love to scream how "their games look like crap", but they are the only publisher not struggling with output OR unsunstainable dev cycles. And their games sell enough to cover the costs.
UPDATE: Jason Schreier seems to have confirmed "1,600 jobs will be eliminated today, and then another 1,600 (including the studio divestments) in the next 12 months."
So... we take Jason Schreier as clarifying that it is indeed an inclusive count? The divestments are counted in the next 1,600 cuts?
edit:
There really are too many games releasing, the market can't support them all.
I would say the market can't support all AAA games releasing. The market can, IMO, support that volume of games IF the games:
1) Don't cost hundreads of millions to make
2) Don't try to monopolize consumer time (finite single player experiences)
There are enough players out there willing to spend their time and money for low-cost games that consume a few hours or days of their time. When so much of the publisher catalog demands millions of units sold at a minimum of 70/80 price tag, though, yea... that is saturated. Even more when we count the multiplayer games with hooks to keep players playing every single day of the week for months uppon months.
@themightyant Thank you for that clarification. Still would love if anyone can point at the 3,200 actually being separate from the divested studio workforce.
Can we get clarification for that 4,800 number? As far as I can read the statement, the 1,600 jobs eliminated today are part of the 3,200. This article seems to be adding them up as if they were two separate figures.
Edit: I think I see the error here: the anouncement clearly states of the 3,200 jobs cut, 1,600 are effective today and the other 1,600 will be phased out throughout the fiscal year. This article is misrepresenting the total number by a very large number. /endedit
Also about the "The layoffs are calculated separately to the studios being spun off." statement, would love to see a statement that clarifies that because so far I at least after asking Jez from Windows Central he sees to think they are included in the role elimination.
Was just talking about this in another article. My social media is entirely focused on movies, politics and social stuff. I rarely see game or tech related stuff on my feed. The last 48 hours, however, it’s been nearly entirely backlash about PlayStation. He’ll, I had no clue I was mutuals with so many gamers!
This here is why I don’t trust Sony with an all digital future.
Xbox was not perfect with their 360 closure, but at least they tried to move ownership and future purchase options to the modern Xbox store.
If Sony wanted to do right by digital consumers, they would integrate the SKUs into their PS4/5/6 store so they can continue to be bought that way. EVEN if the game ends only playable on a Vita.
Voted “yes I’ll buy less” but that’s specific for Sony and Nintendo (if they go down that path too).
Most my purchases in an all digital future will go to Valve, and perhaps Xbox because they did a good job at keeping my games accessible when they closed the 360 store + Play Anywhere.
Already got two PCs that mop the flor with my PS5Pro, I did wanted one for convenience but I will just keep rolling with the bulky desktop hooked to the TV.
@Msw7089 Because the back compat versions of these still sell relatively well on Xbox even without zero changes. And when they hit those 50% deal windows, they tend to top the sales charts.
They know these games will sell, even if budget concious gamers dont bother with them.
@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).
@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.
@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.
Comments 1,762
Re: With Digital Game Sales at 90%, Capcom Appears Unfazed By Sony's Disc-Free Future
@themightyant I know its been noted several times through the thread but their Switch Key Card sales are counted as "digital" on their books, and although there is a good argument they may as well be digital, they are still physically transferable (lending/selling) and that is about half the complaints about the whole physical only future. But yea, having 55% of their sales on PC. We have no clue how many of the Switch sales are "physical [key cards] but even if we keep up the ratio, and the sales were even, I think it's safeish to say that at minimum, that 17% physical goes up to 25%. Switch, I think has been noted, has a higher ratio of physical vs digital compared to other consoles, though.
Re: Phantom Blade Zero's State of Play Seemingly Cancelled as Dev Teases Its Own PS5 Gameplay Showing
Sounds like they don't want to be as closely associated with PS this time around, given how well the previous entry did so well on PC.
Re: The Whole Assassin's Creed Series Is Now Spearheaded by Valhalla's Director
Personally I liked Vallhalla. Never finished all the DLC but plan to. I did 100% the first game (achievement wise) on XSX at launch and loved it. I did play some of the DLC, Siege of Paris added some elements from the series that IMO were missing, giving a bit more focus on city areas than the open valley sections.
I honestly would play it again from scratch (and hope to someday) but first got to do all that DLC (they really went wild with DLC releases for that one!!!)
Re: Xbox Will Copy PlayStation's Platinum Trophy Later This Year
I just hope it is a very different take because I hate the way platinum trophies work. It's universally "get every launch achievement" in a game, and that always annoyed me.
I wish it was smarter, like "you got every single player mode achievement".
I doubt we will get anything too elaborate, but I can hope for them to leverage data that is out there (like from TrueAchievement's db) that flag various type of achievement categories (story/multiplayer/finished the story, etc)
But chances are they will just award a global generically titled Mastery Achievement for getting every achievement.
Re: Halo's No Match for Activision's Barebones Digital-Only Black Ops PS5 Ports
@rusty82 They have been around, but they never really sold that well on Japanese consoles until CoD3:MW entirely shifted the FPS world. Yes, enough copies would sell to justify the cost of the port, but it was never the dominant platform for FPS.
Re: Halo's No Match for Activision's Barebones Digital-Only Black Ops PS5 Ports
@ShadowRJ There might had been a point in between then and now that would have been true, but not sure if at its release it would have been. At that point in time. PS2 base used to really be extremely anti-FPS, and few FPS had any significant success on PS platforms. Even during the early PS3 era, it was generally the perception that First Person games were the realm of PC and Xbox players. I think it that only changed around the release of Call of Duty 3: Modern Warfare.
Today, I think the part that hurt its PS release was that the game is only the campaign minus the service components.
Re: Halo's No Match for Activision's Barebones Digital-Only Black Ops PS5 Ports
@ShadowRJ It's a remake of a game that already got a remake and it still managed to sell 2x on Xbox than on PS5. It's not that Halo does not carry weight, it's that the PS base does not care for these IPs. It's also not surprising given how Gears Reloaded also received a very poor reception on PS.
Re: Halo's No Match for Activision's Barebones Digital-Only Black Ops PS5 Ports
PS playerbase seems to care more about service games than campaign games from third parties, hell even first party titles are struggling. Even old cheap ports of 360/PS3 era service games seem to get more momentum than modern single player games.
I guess under that light, I can't entirely resent Sony for their service game push, as much as I won't stop resenting that direction.
(Plus they canceled the one service game I would had been all over, I would love a Spider-Verse gatcha service game...)
Re: Could Xbox Get Its Revenge on PS6 by Supporting Physical Games?
At best, Xbox will offer an addon drive likely mostly for backwards compatibility. There is a chance they still offer disks for the Helix gen but they are unlikely to be more than disk-shaped keycards (they already do this) but even that right now would be miles ahead of what Sony is threatening us with.
BTW, you could say I'm an Xbox enthusiast, and was during the 360 gen. I hold zero resentment for Shuhei Yoshida's video. It was in fact what made me abandon Xbox during the One/PS4 generation.
Transparency from the gate about back compat (that Sony refused to acknowledge until the last minute), threats of charging for PS4->PS5 upgrades (vs Xbox promises for free smart delivery releases), quick resume, the eventual implementation of back compat for 360/OG gen games (even if only a subset) and eventual introduction of Play Anywhere, free cloud saves, these where things that got me back into the Xbox ecosystem. GamePass for me was just gravy, never a driver.
Only reason I have cone to resent Shuhei Yoshida's game share video is because they just turned around on it and just told all of us to "bleep off". Their shift to service games and anemic first party release drought during this gen are what drove me away. This physical media shift, for me, is worse than what Xbox attempted to sell under Don Mattrick.
Re: Resident Evil Requiem, Pragmata Get Updated Sales Figures as Capcom Stays Winning
Capcom really has managed to do one hell of a comeback in the last decade.
I hope the Onimusha resurrection attempt works out as well as Resident Evil. Really hope they manage to do the same comeback with Megaman sooner or later. Really feel Legends would be perfect for this era of gaming!
Also sort of hope they resurrect the Lost Planet series (even if truth is I never played them).
Oh and of course, keep the experimental new IPs coming! Pragmata was such a breath of fresh air!
Re: PSN Down for 4+ Hours, Sony 'Working to Resolve Issues'
Got to love this all digital future! Everyone gets hiccups but really feel Sony gets more than anyone one else even if we ignore the hacks.
Re: AC Black Flag Resynced Already Outsold Ubisoft's Entire Yearly Expectations
Said it before and say it again: love Shadows, Valhalla and all modern AC but I feel we lost something unique with that shift. I hope this leads to more games like Mirrage and more remakes in between large “RPG” entries.
Also hope we get new DLC for Blackflag, or at least Freedom Cry.
Do hope future remakes add a bit more improvements/content.
Re: 'Please Play When GTA 6 Comes Out': AC Black Flag Resynced Will Add New Features to Keep You Aboard
I have zero interest currently on GTA6, but I am only playing Blackflag until I get all the achievements. If they add some content that achievements, I’ll likely play it a bit more. Else, I’ll only play for story DLC. Maybe also more legendary ship encounters. I would expect either of those to add achievements, but I would okay them regardless.
It would be kinda cool if they add story DLC content. Resynced Freedom Cry? Maybe add the entire Rogue entry as DLC?
Re: AC Black Flag: Resynced Keeps on Selling, Now at 3 Million Units
Between the success of this entry and unexpected success of Mirage (Ubisoft keeps touting how well it sold based on expectations), perhaps we will eventually see a revival of the non-open world epic fantasy games.
I still love me new open world entries (Origins/Odyssey/Valhalla and Shadows are all fantastic IMO) but I really miss the more classic entries too and think they could alternate between those two types of games.
In a perfect world, we would get an epic fantasy one every 4-5 years with one or two old-style entries (new or remasters) in between. And DLC for the fantasy ones... still upset there was so little DLC for Shadows... 😢
Re: Obsidian Is Officially Making a New Fallout Game
@DaveScoffin
My expectation as well. Asha seems very determined to shift away from the multi-platform experiment just as Sony is backing away from PC. There will be a lot of screaming about how the titles will sell less because of it, but truth is PC/Steam growth is greatly outpacing consoles and removing a single console is not likely going to have a significant impact because any new single player game will still sell through Xbox PC store with play anywhere and via Steam.
Re: Sony's FlexStrike PS5 Fight Stick Delayed Indefinitely, Now Launches After Marvel Tokon
It’s too physical for an all digital world. 🤭
Re: Mini Review: Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (PS5) - Overcharged for a Multiplayer Classic
I can understand feeling it’s overpriced given how little they did here, but the way PS players are buying these games AND playing them, all ABK is hearing is they “undercharged”.
Re: 136 Jobs Lost at Legendary Dev id Software After Xbox Layoffs
@PuppetMaster either that or they will be given a low budget and expected to develop a less radically "innovative" sequel. I do have little expectation of them making the next Quake, but still can see them making a more iterative Doom sequel. Up to now every Doom game has been almost entirely remade from the ground up.
Many would argue that was overkill from a production standpoint, and a lot of players have argued that only one of the entries in the trilogy was enjoyable to them because they are all so different from one another.
Re: Rumour: New Fallout Game from Obsidian in the Works, But Has to Cancel Avowed Sequel
Would not be shocked if Asha makes the call for any single player game, including Fallout, to be Xbox/PC exclusive. She has been rather vocal about the multiplatform strategy not paying off the way they expected.
Re: 'No Disc, No Buy': Even Metal Gear Solid's Snake Is Mad at Sony's Physical Games Decision
But some will insist people complaining are living in an echo chamber and no one actually cares.
Re: 'They Wait for This Storm to Pass': No Chance of Sony Walking Back Its Decision to Kill Discs, Warns Analyst
If they don't walk this back, they are giving a lot of ground to Xbox (if they keep disks going, especially if they introduce the rumored digital entitlement feature) OR cementing Nintendo's dominance of the entire gaming industry for the next two generations. Raw horsepower be damned, between ridiculously lower console prices AND physical media, Nintendo whould swallow the industry whole.
Re: Rumour: Xbox Still Weighing Up Physical Disc Support for Project Helix After Sony Bombshell
Xbox is already selling just empty disks that serve as glorified keycards, but even that would be a gigantic improvement over zero support for physical media that can be traded freely and being forced to retain older hardware just to enjoy one's personal physical catalog.
Re: PlayStation's First Post Since Physical Games Debacle Draws Over 65k Replies
Anyone that think this outrage is just a small echo chamber is either not paying attention or are themselves inside their own echo chamber.
This thing broke containment. Nearly every online streamer, the ones that have the eyes and ears of the community, have come out against this. Developers, from indies to Hideo Kojima have come out against this. Shawn Layden has come out againt this!!! Politicians have come out against this!
Denial and dismissal of the outrage IS the echo chamber.
Re: Legendary Dev id Software Allegedly Hit Extremely Hard by Xbox Layoffs
@Banjo- Still have to play it but I been told by friends I really have to. Need to make some time one of these days. I do have a feeling by now Perfect Dark is cursed and no one will dare touch it again, though.
Re: Legendary Dev id Software Allegedly Hit Extremely Hard by Xbox Layoffs
@cainhurst94 for what it's worth: CoD's IW8 engine is a fork of idTech 3. One that had way more money sunk into its development than idTech ever was.
I just wish these people had been given a chance to transfer into IW8 development instead of being fired.
Re: Legendary Dev id Software Allegedly Hit Extremely Hard by Xbox Layoffs
@Banjo- I have a feeling we wont be getting another Indiana Jones. Machinegames is likelly being told "no more licensing, get back to Wolfenstein".
Re: Legendary Dev id Software Allegedly Hit Extremely Hard by Xbox Layoffs
@Banjo- Merging the two might not really be that logical. Both seem to be perfectly capable at doing the exact same kind of games (fps) but IW8 is driving one of the most successful game series in the industry.
Most likely, idTech will be told to use IW8 going forward. And honestly, not a terrible idea for them to start doing what Capcom is doing and focus on fewer engines. IW8 possibly should be driving not only CoD but also future Halo, Quake, Doom and Wolfenstein entries.
Forza and Elder Scrolls/Fallout make sense to keep focusing on their more specialized engines. It likely would add too much bloat to try to make IW8 viable to manage open world racing games and immersive rpgs.
Re: Legendary Dev id Software Allegedly Hit Extremely Hard by Xbox Layoffs
@PuppetMaster would not hold my breath on that one. They listed Quake and Doom as two of the core IPs they want to focus on going forward. Despite these closures (very likely due to higherup perceived redundancy on engine maintenance) Xbox seems commited to the studio for its game development if not for it's engine maintenance capabilities.
Re: Legendary Dev id Software Allegedly Hit Extremely Hard by Xbox Layoffs
If idTech is killed, that would be extremely stupid. Xbox should be moving away from Unreal and into their own engines and idTech is litterally the best engine they have for the genre of games they are best at. Although I do guess now they also own ABK and the CoD engine (that is itself an offshot of idTech)... so I might have to take that back... it might be a bit redundant to be maintaining idTech on top of the much more battle tested IW Engine...
Re: 'I Know This Is Painful': Xbox Confirms 3,200 Job Losses in Industry Bloodbath
@Titntin
Themightyant posted a quote from Jason Schreier earlier with one. I got to dig but the other was from Jez Corden in social media answering to the same question.
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2026/07/i-know-this-is-painful-xbox-confirms-3200-job-losses-in-industry-bloodbath#comment9239083
Re: 'I Know This Is Painful': Xbox Confirms 3,200 Job Losses in Industry Bloodbath
@Titntin According to at least two sources now, it seems the staff of the 4 divested studios is already included in the 3,200 total. Likely why they are calling it "roles are being eliminated" and not just firings: they are roles that by the end of the fiscal year wont be part of the MS payroll.
Re: Gigantic Xbox Layoffs See The Outer Worlds Dev Obsidian Lose 25% of Workforce
It sucks either way but if this was mostly sernior staff, that most likely means most of them were in the "14 layers of management" that was covered as being a huge issue across most Xbox studios. I hope as few actual developer/artists/designers lost their jobs as possible.
I have human empathy for anyone losing their jobs, but management layers that literally tend to be the cause of bad choices are precisely the kind of people that should be targeted over the end workforce actually creating the games.
Re: Practically Every Comment on PlayStation's YouTube Is Now About Physical Discs
Sony's statement is also now proven to had been extremely misleading. A minority of sales might be physical when you count all sales, but when the game is available physical things change. The Insomniac leak proves that their own first party titles sell anywhere from 50% to 65% in physical form.
Even highly acclaimed (and best selling on Steam) Capcom games like Pragmata ended up entirely selling out on retail at launch. People love physical and they don't only want to keep having that option for bigger productions but also want to make sure their physical back catalog can be inserted and played on a future PS6.
Telling people the only way they can play their back catalog next gen will be by buying the games again is seriuously bleepled up without a very good reason (like shifting to carts over disks).
Re: July 2026 PS Plus Essential Games Available to Download Now
Croscode is an amazing game. It is one of the best games I discovered through Game Pass and I highly recommend it. I didn't just buy it after playing it in GP, I bought it twice. I own it digitally on Xbox and physically on Switch. I been tempted to buy it again on Steam (it's on sale there right now for 4.99).
Obviously not a game for everyone, but its so good if its your jam!
Re: Newly Independent Devs Thank Xbox and Keep IP Rights to Their Games
I do hope there is a sequel to South of Midnight in the books. A sequel could be a lot cheaper to make than trying to jump into a new game that needs new assets from the ground up if they manage it well and do proper reuse of existing art and resources.
It is also nice to hear that not only are they being divested but also getting funding (likely part of that Xbox Game Pass deal we already know has to be in place for Senua).
Re: 'I Know This Is Painful': Xbox Confirms 3,200 Job Losses in Industry Bloodbath
@Banjo- 100%. Pentiment and even Grounded could had sold less than a million total and likely be fine. Although I might agree that something akin to Pentiment feels "too indie" to devote resources for as a first party studio, it still was not a huge gamble.
But South of Midnight could had perhaps been half it's size, deliver earlier, and require way fewer players to break even. That in turn could even open them up for sequels.
Also not every game needs to be a gigantic open world!
Re: 'I Know This Is Painful': Xbox Confirms 3,200 Job Losses in Industry Bloodbath
@themightyant I might be biased, because I long for the days of shorter more frequent games, but I still think the current inflated dev cycles are a problem of publisher's own making.
It's a falacy that the more money they throw at a game, the more impressive it will be and the bigger the payout. I also have heavily critisized in the past how even sequels tend to get remade from the ground up instead of reusing assets.
And the thing is, Nintendo seems to be thriving precisely by avoiding that trap. Yea, many love to scream how "their games look like crap", but they are the only publisher not struggling with output OR unsunstainable dev cycles. And their games sell enough to cover the costs.
Re: 'I Know This Is Painful': Xbox Confirms 3,200 Job Losses in Industry Bloodbath
@themightyant
So... we take Jason Schreier as clarifying that it is indeed an inclusive count? The divestments are counted in the next 1,600 cuts?
edit:
I would say the market can't support all AAA games releasing. The market can, IMO, support that volume of games IF the games:
1) Don't cost hundreads of millions to make
2) Don't try to monopolize consumer time (finite single player experiences)
There are enough players out there willing to spend their time and money for low-cost games that consume a few hours or days of their time. When so much of the publisher catalog demands millions of units sold at a minimum of 70/80 price tag, though, yea... that is saturated. Even more when we count the multiplayer games with hooks to keep players playing every single day of the week for months uppon months.
Re: 'I Know This Is Painful': Xbox Confirms 3,200 Job Losses in Industry Bloodbath
@themightyant Thank you for that clarification. Still would love if anyone can point at the 3,200 actually being separate from the divested studio workforce.
Re: 'I Know This Is Painful': Xbox Confirms 3,200 Job Losses in Industry Bloodbath
@get2sammyb
Can we get clarification for that 4,800 number? As far as I can read the statement, the 1,600 jobs eliminated today are part of the 3,200. This article seems to be adding them up as if they were two separate figures.
Edit: I think I see the error here: the anouncement clearly states of the 3,200 jobs cut, 1,600 are effective today and the other 1,600 will be phased out throughout the fiscal year. This article is misrepresenting the total number by a very large number. /endedit
Also about the "The layoffs are calculated separately to the studios being spun off." statement, would love to see a statement that clarifies that because so far I at least after asking Jez from Windows Central he sees to think they are included in the role elimination.
Re: PS5 Disc Drives Limited to One Per Order, Sony Acknowledges High Demand
High demand? I thought only 15% of sales are physical… it’s almost like a bigger percentage is the reality when digital only indies are excluded.
Re: Even Politicians Are Commenting on Sony's Decision to Stop Making Physical Games
Was just talking about this in another article. My social media is entirely focused on movies, politics and social stuff. I rarely see game or tech related stuff on my feed. The last 48 hours, however, it’s been nearly entirely backlash about PlayStation. He’ll, I had no clue I was mutuals with so many gamers!
Re: Reaction: PlayStation's Burned Through the Last Remaining Goodwill of Its Fans
My social media accounts have never been about gaming. My feeds are entirely focused on movies, politics and other social focused stuff.
Despite this, for the first time ever, my feeds have been taken over by anger against PlayStation.
Point being: this news broke containment and has upset casual gamers big time.
Re: PS3, PS Vita Digital Stores to Close Starting Later This Year
This here is why I don’t trust Sony with an all digital future.
Xbox was not perfect with their 360 closure, but at least they tried to move ownership and future purchase options to the modern Xbox store.
If Sony wanted to do right by digital consumers, they would integrate the SKUs into their PS4/5/6 store so they can continue to be bought that way. EVEN if the game ends only playable on a Vita.
Re: PlayStation Consoles to Stop Getting Disc-Based Physical Releases in 2028
Voted “yes I’ll buy less” but that’s specific for Sony and Nintendo (if they go down that path too).
Most my purchases in an all digital future will go to Valve, and perhaps Xbox because they did a good job at keeping my games accessible when they closed the 360 store + Play Anywhere.
Re: Valve's New Steam Machine Costs Almost Twice as Much as a PS5
Already got two PCs that mop the flor with my PS5Pro, I did wanted one for convenience but I will just keep rolling with the bulky desktop hooked to the TV.
Re: The Call of Duty: Black Ops PS5 Ports Might Be $40 Each without Any DLC
@Msw7089 Because the back compat versions of these still sell relatively well on Xbox even without zero changes. And when they hit those 50% deal windows, they tend to top the sales charts.
They know these games will sell, even if budget concious gamers dont bother with them.
Re: 'There Are Other Xbox Studios in Trouble': Ominous Reports as Microsoft 'Bloodbath' Looms
@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
@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
@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.