Game News 2.0

I'll take the sensible option and reserve judgement until the game comes out.

Any thoughts of Silent Hill: Short Message?

We're listening and we hear you....and we've been busy asking chatgpt to give us an answer that will get us out of this mess.

I think there has been irrepreparable damage. Either the rumours are true or if they are not they're rumours that will always be hanging over the console.

Many people will never but an xbox again, on top of all the gamers they already lost after the xobx one debacle. The question is, do Microsoft really care?

The most telling part of that is COD not coming to game pass because it would not be profitable. Nail in the coffin. I've always been suspicious about the delay in bringing it to GP so far. They said it would take time but we know it doesn't, not this much time anyway.

Next week Phil will announce a console collaboration with Sony, with the new console to be called PlayBox.

Xbox never sounded right in the first place....

At the very least a collaboration would hopefully mean Sony help MS with their console naming scheme.

Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox One X, Xbox Series X/S....

If I'm being honest, I'm probably the ideal PS+ subscriber at this point. there's maybe 2 games i'll ever buy a year and the rest of the time, I'm happy for the cost of another 2 games to have a subscription to try whatever is available on the PS+ catalog. I bought an Xbox one X when they were discounted and got a year of gamepass and I actually really like the console and format, but I'm basically after falling into the playstation ecosystem with zero chance of falling out of it again. So keeping two subscriptions going just didn't make sense (said as a man with a netflix, disney+ and a prime video subscription)

Really the only downside could be a lack of competition for Sony, particularly when it comes to the next console. An arrogant Sony is a bad Sony. Look at the launch of the PS3 for example (and likewise, an arrogant MS had similar with the Xbox One launch).

There's definitely far more good than bad in MS bringing their games to Playstation, but competition is always vital. Nintendo pretty much operate on their own and aren't really rivals to Sony/MS. Steam/PC may become the bigger competitor to Sony given that it's becoming far easier to access PC gaming these days, particularly with the likes of PC handhelds like the Steamdeck and its competitors, but it's competition which has kept Sony in check over the last 15-20 years (and even then Sony haven't had to try match what MS did with gamepass, day one releases etc). If MS ease off with regards their own consoles, Sony may start sticking the boot in.

Expect Sony to hike game prices towards the €100 region and console prices in the upper hundreds . With no competition they can, have and will do as little as possible for as much profit as possible (and Nintendo is not competition, they're in a different universe).

I think Sony set out to destroy Xbox in the PS4 gen and it looks like they have succeeded.

Xbox as a 3rd party is also not guaranteed to succeed. Xbox saying they're bringing games to PS is well and good but what do Sony say about it? Will they play nicely? Or will they not stop until xbox as a brand is utterly destroyed.

I think it was more of a series of poor decisions from MS rather than anything Sony did - Sony merely course corrected after a pretty disastrous previous gen.

MS announced the Xbox one talking about television and Kinect, it was underpowered in comparison to the PS4 and exclusives were pretty much all existing franchises with middling reviews. The big killer as Phil has said himself, was this was the generation that people started their digital libraries, making it very difficult for people to decide to jump to another platform.

And I absolutely expect Sony to be happy enough to have Xbox games on their platform. There’s no real downside to it from their side. They get more revenue and players have less of a reason to get an Xbox. It might pave the way to GamePass on PlayStation at some point.

I think the big issue when it comes to MS success as a third party is really going to be down to the quality of their output - which is an area that they have struggled in since the 360 era.

That's a good point.

The reaction of so-called influencers has been both hilarious and depressing, from denouncing the brand to actually destroying their consoles. Lunacy. Fanboys are simply awful human beings.