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Ok, I skipped the community bit and the outro. In the hardware segment there was talk about news 'this holiday', which is probably either that leaked new controller or Alexa Series X. They also mention next-gen, so for better or worse there will be a new Xbox at some point. So in that sense, not really a paradigm shift. It doesn't fill me with confidence about investing (I'm starting to hate that term in this context) in the brand, but I'd say it's a better status quo than whatever fantasy was spun last week. The part about the layoffs almost made me vomit though. 'We have to be sustainable' and 'we want you to know you can build a career in games at Xbox'. The audacity of saying that after kicking 2000 people, jesus christ.

For what it's worth that still seems to be a focus for MS going forward. Phil mentioned Windows and how you can, technically, run a lot of ancient stuff on newer OS versions, so between the lines I hope this means that whatever comes after Series XS will be compatible with everything that runs on Series XS at that point in time. Of course how impactful it will still be with digital licenses running out left and right and the next system most likely not having a disc drive remains to be seen, but even with those limitations in mind it's (sadly) still miles ahead of what the competition is doing.

This stuff I can’t agree with more strongly. It’s one of the reasons I switched to Xbox around the One X time of last gen. They seemed to be making a real effort with BC and saying how you’ll have your games going forward. And Phil has basically reinforced that when he says losing last gen was the worst because that’s when people built up their permanent digital libraries - which to me says they’re going to keep your games going with you for as long as there is an Xbox so that’s where I started buying my games. Remember this was when Sony were very ‘we believe in generations’ and seemed like they weren’t doing BC at all - I still don’t think they would have if MS hadn’t pushed it so hard. The fact people are even considering the fact Nintendo may not have BC on Switch 2 is fucking laughable. Times have changed and if they don’t bring your previous Switch library forward they should fail as a company. That would be fucking disgusting. I don’t think it would actually hurt them because people are too willing to bend over for companies these days but it would be such a punch to the face and so anti consumer that it should sink them. Its not like before either, the changes between gens is getting so much smaller and we’re reaching a limit of what’s possible it’s not like games from 15+ years ago feel and look almost unplayable anymore. They’re still like modern games. I wish I could change to PC for more security with this stuff but I just don’t like using them. Bad PC ports seems to be a common issue again over the last 2-3 years too.

Crossplay is a good feature because it mitigates this whole thing of 'sunk cost'. Mary talked about it in his comment, knowing that there's future hardware lessens the worry of 'investing' in it. But crossplay between xbox and PC, meaning your library follows you around, that's just a cool thing to have. When I buy a game on PS5, I think of all the PS1 classics I bought on PS3 that are now useless. The useless PS3 games as well, they will probably be joined by useless PS4 and PS5 games. If they also had crossplay with PC, I might be more inclined to buy on PSN. I just can't stand this nonsense the console holders have of shutting down their old stores. It's becoming more and more normalised and I think people just accept it cause backwards compatibility comes and goes. But it's horseshit

Apparently these are confirmed https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/15/24073691/microsoft-xbox-games-ps5-nintendo-switch-exclusivity Honestly, happy for the dudes at Obsidian to get that game on other platforms. I keep meaning to get into it but man is it an intimidating one, even though I like wordy games.

This is going to end up being a damp squib after all these rumours isn’t it? Just Sea of Thieves, Pentiment and Hi Fi Rush. Basically nothing that matters. With decisions for other games taken in future on case by case basis. Hope so anyway.

Oh, nag. It’s about to be 3 corporate execs sitting down and speaking to a presumably in-house podcast host. They will dribble garbage banter over bad news and corporate speak

On first party, there might be a new Astrobot. Hopefully PSVR (or hybrid vr) cause that platform is looking kinda anemic even by VR standards and its a space which needs some competition (oh, and wrt the above tweet it would be ace if they start doing that with VR games too, porting to other platforms. Though I'm not sure this is really a growth area for Sony anymore)

Yeah, it definitely feels like a complete package here. I've just finished Arcade Quest. I'm playing as Jun who was my favourite player in Tekken 2. I've been listening to the Tekken and Tekken 2 soundtracks in the jukebox too which has hit certain nostalgic parts of me in a very positive way. I've not gone online yet as my Game Pass Ultimate expired last week and I haven't renewed. Great game, goty contender.

I've just kicked my PS5 I'm so angry

I only bought an XSX because Spencer bought all these companies and claimed their games would only be available where there was Xbox game pass. I think it's time to get that £63 out of my savings account and lawyer up.

Played the first hour of this yesterday after some people talked about it and me realising I actually bought it some time ago. It's immediately obvious they put a lot of love into this. I spent an eternity in the room in that very first scene, then continued to run around for a second eternity on the ship just to listen to the banter and the licensed soundtrack, which ticks all the right boxes for me. (Because the question came up: the game does have a 'streamer toggle' in its settings for the music, so that's hopefully something they'll make mandatory when those licenses run out instead of delisting it. Better having a lesser version of the game than not having it at all.) I pretty much only got through the elaborate tutorial area in that first hour but so far it seems good, but not without its flaws. I'm not sure if it's an Xbox problem specifically, but controls are really sluggish, as if there's an extra delay before Quill or the camera starts moving. Might have to do with Performance mode being super unreliable, which is surprising for a cross-gen game. But the visuals really are impressive and I've always preferred these designs to the movie counterparts (Gamora in particular looks so much cooler here). Combat seems a bit meh in the sense that all the cool stuff that happens is the stuff your teammates do, while you only shoot low-hit-feedback bullets at enemies. From what I remember reading about this, that seems to be the case for the entirety of the game, so hopefully I can find a thing or two about these encounters I enjoy and the focus on doing that. I will say though that I already feel somewhat invested in the characters and story, which the movies never really managed to pull off (except maybe G3 with Rocket). I think the differentiating factor is that Drax is played exclusively for comic relief in the movies whereas here he's an oddball, but he's not the permanent 'butt of the joke' kind of character. Rocket, Groot and Quill get trashed just as much as he does, which makes the whole group dynamic a lot better.

Might post the full list this week... If I'm gonna be thrown on the bragging bus I'm gonna go all out! Kinda hoping Tomb Raider and the new dontnod game are included...

He was also one of the key members behind Suikoden at the time. In itself this is tragic news but the timing is just heartbreaking. So close to the game's release and he'll never see how audiences respond to what is essentially the return of a beloved series he made possible, back then and now.

Wasn't that the guy from The Bill?

Tekken 8 (XSX) - Story mode complete Metal Slug (NeoGeo) - complete Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins (Game Boy) - complete