The Official Xbox Series X thread

[Funkmasterr]

It should be blocked. Corporate mergers like this are without exception bad for the consumer. Anyone that says otherwise is a complete fucking moron.

[Winnow]

It should be blocked. Corporate mergers like this are without exception bad for the consumer. Anyone that says otherwise is a complete fucking moron.

Man, that's short sighted and shows your ignorance about corporate mergers. It gives off the same vibe as those "do gooder" far left people that think every cause is a good one without thinking them through.

You know, like those, "someone should do something!" people that like to make themselves feel good just by saying it but don't have a fucking clue what should be done. Preach on!

Sony has more exclusive games than Xbox does, according to Microsoft, which claims that many of its rival's first-party titles "are better quality." Lest you believe Microsoft is dunking on its own game studios for no reason, the company made the assertion in a filing with the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which is conducting an in-depth review of the planned Activision Blizzard acquisition. Although the filing is dated October 31st, Eurogamer notes that the document has just been made publicly available.

"In addition to being the dominant console provider, Sony is also a powerful game publisher," Microsoft wrote in its response to the CMA. "Sony is roughly equivalent in size to Activision and nearly double the size of Microsoft's game publishing business." The company added that "there were over 280 exclusive first- and third-party titles on PlayStation in 2021, nearly five times as many as on Xbox."

Along with Sony's own franchises — such as The Last of Us, Ghost of Tsushima, God of War and Spider-Man — the company signs deals with third-party publishers for exclusive rights to games. Microsoft cites Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Bloodborne, as well as the upcoming Final Fantasy XVI and Silent Hill 2 remake as major titles that aren't or won't be available on Xbox.

Yet Sony whines like a little bitch along with it's blind worshippers like Funk.

[Aslanna]

I'm not against mergers in general when they make sense. But when it comes to any large merger like this I think they are a bad idea no matter who is involved. So if it were Sony wanting to make the purchase (in a hypothetical world where they had the cash) I'd still be against it. Just as I was against the AT&T and Time Warner merger when it was happening. How did that make things better for those two companies? Or for the consumers?

Having said that I think most people would have been fine with it if MS came out and said "Hey, any existing multi-platform IP, even if that involves future games, will remain that way but any new IP we reserve the right to make exclusive to our platform if we want". So things like the next Elder Scrolls (existing IP running on everything) would be everywhere but Redfall (new IP) could/would be MS only.

[Winnow]

Having said that I think most people would have been fine with it if MS came out and said "Hey, any existing multi-platform IP, even if that involves future games, will remain that way but any new IP we reserve the right to make exclusive to our platform if we want". So things like the next Elder Scrolls (existing IP running on everything) would be everywhere but Redfall (new IP) could/would be MS only.

Why should Microsoft do that? Sony is one of the most selfish companies ever when it comes to IPs. Microsoft needs exclusives. Fuck Sony. They are not about what's best for the consumer, they are about what's best about keeping you on their platform, just like everyone else. They've always had horrid policies about cross platform and anything that is not exclusive to Sony. The only time they change is when things get so out of hand that they have to change, otherwise they are all about themselves, not about what's best for you.

The arguments Sony has made opposing the Blizzard acquisition are comical considering their own practices. The "Microsoft has more money" argument is full of shit as well. That's like the people that got upset when the mom and pop stores went out of business due to Walmart and Amazon...too fucking bad. Times change. Or those upset that all the gas stations and diners went out of business because the United States lead by President Eisenhower funded public infrastructure changes that added highways that bypassed those places. Too fucking bad. It's time to quit whining about "the little guy" and realize it's a waste of time. Microsoft hasn't been "the bad guy" for a long long time. I love Japanese culture but they are ruthless bastards and would cut your hand off or give you crab hands if it meant keeping your business. Don't blind yourself by their fancy marketing.

With AI/Stable Diffusion and LLMs requiring assloads of VRAM and power, thankfully I won't be going anywhere near a weak ass console ever again...but hey, Micrsoft's games are also all available on the much much better PC gaming platform so there's that. No need to play your games on 3 or 4 generation old hardware that Sony binds you to while you look forward to their next console that will have outdated hardware before it's even released.

[Aslanna]

Having said that I think most people would have been fine with it if MS came out and said "Hey, any existing multi-platform IP, even if that involves future games, will remain that way but any new IP we reserve the right to make exclusive to our platform if we want". So things like the next Elder Scrolls (existing IP running on everything) would be everywhere but Redfall (new IP) could/would be MS only.

Why should Microsoft do that?

Because they are trying to complete a $70 billion acquisition? It's not complicated.

[Winnow]

After the Federal Trade Commission sued to block Microsoft’s acquisition of popular video game company Activision Blizzard over antitrust concerns, a California judge has given Microsoft the thumbs up to proceed with the $68.7 billion merger Tuesday—the largest purchase in gaming history.

It's about time.

Microsoft should start suing Sony for random shit just like Sony does just to fuck with those whiners...or slow those Microsoft cloud servers that Sony depends on. Sony wasted everyone's time.

[Aslanna]

You do know that it wasn't Sony suing them to block the deal, don't you? I guess not.

Either way it's a terrible deal. Any company that can buy another for $70 billion is too large already. The UK was the only regulatory body out there that had any guts but we'll see if they stick to their guns on that or not.

I think the only reason you have no problem with it is because it's your buddy MS. In a hypothetical situation with Nintendo wanting to buy ABK you'd be ok with it? Or Sony? I have my doubts on that.

Regardless, I am glad it's (mostly) over. I was tired of hearing about it every week on the podcasts I listen to.

[Winnow]

I think the only reason you have no problem with it is because it's your buddy MS. In a hypothetical situation with Nintendo wanting to buy ABK you'd be ok with it? Or Sony? I have my doubts on that.

Regardless, I am glad it's (mostly) over. I was tired of hearing about it every week on the podcasts I listen to.

I don't have much of an issue with any company buying another one. I have an issue with the whining about it.

If you do any research on this, you'll see that the lawyers were trying to protect the interests of Sony and not the interests of the actual consumer which benefits from this deal as Call of Duty is actually available on even more platforms after the deal. Sony is whining because the deal might hurt Sony. It actually benefits the consumer which is all that really matters. The FTC isn't supposed to protect companies, it's supposed to protect consumer interests. Their arguments about exclusives were comical since Sony has 4 times more exclusives than Microsoft.

This hold up was all about Sony ALWAYS having high priced lawyers around. Sony has never had your (the consumer) interest in the forefront. They are 100 percent only worried about themselves. They are the absolute worst company when it comes to opening up their platform to cross gaming, improving online gaming, etc. Sony took forever to actually update their crab hand controller. Got their asses handed to them for removing rumble saying no one cared about it to save a few cents. They got their asses handed to them for overreacting when GeoHot hacked the PS3 and had their entire network hacked for a month(s) by Anonymous for being douchebags.

Here is a video that covers what happened (as well as some great background on legendary hacker GeoHot, George Hotz. It wasn't hacked for pirating but to restore linux OS capability on the PS3 that Sony took away after pimping it during sales. He jail broke the PS3 twice before being sued which led to Anonymous going after Sony.

Sony Attacked Anonymous And Immediately Regretted it

The guy really needs a movie made about him. He's still doing interesting things today. He even introduced me into the simulation theory. He's working on self driving cars and making a $16K Server you can use from home for AI. He's a little cocky but has always backed up his abilities with legendary hacks.

Another video that breaks down why Sony was in the wrong on this and that's why the FTC was embarrassed and called out for protecting Sony.

Microsoft Buying Activision Blizzard Changes Gaming Forever

That's actually a pretty balanced view of what happened but does point out why Sony was talking out of their ass trying to stop the sale.

I really do dislike Sony. I'm not sure if you and others just gloss over their faults but it sure seems that way. I'm glad when they are on the losing end. I haven't console gamed in a long long time but do PC game which is the best platform and so anything that allows gaming on that platform is a good thing. I'm glad Microsoft saw the writing on the wall years ago and moved to Cloud Gaming/Streaming/Multiplatform before it's just a matter of time. Maybe Sony will find a way not to use Microsofts servers for their online services. I doubt it. Sony has always been a jerk to Microsoft. I hope Microsoft, behind the scenes, makes every move they can that is anti Sony. They deserve it.

https://youtu.be/z0y7XWCYadk?t=1228

I time stamped the video above where FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan gets roasted. She actually gets roasted even harder before the timestamp but this is regarding Microsoft. All I can think of is that Sony is great at bribing because the FTC has no case and is wasting taxpayer dollars but the FTC is still appealing. Thanks for wasting my (and your) money Sony!

and finally, if you want to see the exact words why the judge denied:

[Show]

i. No Incentive to Foreclose Call of Duty

First, immediately upon the merger's announcement, Microsoft committed to maintain Call of Duty on its existing platforms and even expand its availability. The day after the merger announcement, Microsoft's Satya Nadella and Phil Spencer spoke with Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida to emphasize Microsoft's commitment to enter a new agreement to extend Activision's obligation to ship Call of Duty at parity on PlayStation. (Dkt. No. 283, 6/23/23 Tr. (Spencer) at 418:16-419:16, 443:18-20; RX2172; Dkt. No. 285, 6/28/23 Tr. (Nadella) at 852:23-853:8.) The next day, Sony PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan wrote his mentor about the proposed merger: “It's not an xbox exclusivity play at all. they're thinking bigger than that, and they have the cash to make moves like this. I've spent a fair bit of time with both Phil and Bobby over the past day. I'm pretty sure we will continue to see COD on PS for many years to come.” (RX2064-001.) [redacted]

Microsoft also contacted its competitor Valve—the company that runs the leading PC game store, Steam. (Dkt. No. 282, 6/22/23 Tr. (Bond) at 172:18-19, 173:16-19.) Xbox sent Valve a signed letter agreement committing to make Call of Duty available on Steam for ten years. (RX1184.) Valve did not sign the deal because they “believe strongly that they should earn the business of their—the developers who put on their platform day in and day out, and so they told us that they had had no need to sign that agreement and that they believed us when we said that we would continue to provide [Call of Duty] on Steam.” (Dkt. No. 282, 6/22/23 Tr. (Bond) at 175:16-20.)

Microsoft even took steps to expand Call of Duty to non-Microsoft platforms. On the day of the merger's announcement, Microsoft called the head of Nintendo North America, Doug Bowser, and Nintendo's lead for partnerships, Steve Singer, to discuss a partnership to bring Call of Duty to the Switch. (Dkt. No. 282, 6/22/23 Tr. (Bond) at 167:24-169:18.) Those discussions led to an inked deal to bring Call of Duty to the Switch. All of this conduct is inconsistent with an intent to foreclose.

Second, the deal plan evaluation model presented to the Microsoft Board of Directors to justify the Activision purchase price relies on PlayStation sales and other non-Microsoft platforms post-acquisition. [redacted] This valuation is also inconsistent with an incentive to foreclose.

Third, the deal plan evaluation model reflects access to mobile content was a critical factor weighing in favor of the deal. [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] Microsoft's keen interest in Activision's mobile content suggests the combined firm is not incentivized to withhold Call of Duty merely to aid the shrinking console market.

Fourth, Microsoft witnesses consistently testified there are no plans to make Call of Duty exclusive to the Xbox. Mr. Nadella testified he would “[a] hundred percent” “commit to continuing to ship Call of Duty on the Sony PlayStation.” (Dkt.No. 285, 6/28/23 Tr. (Nadella) 853:9-11.) Mr. Spencer testified “my commitment is and my testimony is, to use that word, that we will continue to ship Call of -- future versions of Call of Duty on Sony's PlayStation platform.” (Dkt. No. 283, 6/23/23 Tr. (Spencer) at 367:18-24, 368:4-10, 429:21-22, 429:25-430:1.)

Fifth, there are no internal documents, emails, or chats contradicting Microsoft's stated intent not to make Call of Duty exclusive to Xbox consoles. Despite the completion of extensive discovery in the FTC administrative proceeding, including production of nearly 1 million documents and 30 depositions, the FTC has not identified a single document which contradicts Microsoft's publicly-stated commitment to make Call of Duty available on PlayStation (and Nintendo Switch). (RX5056 (Carlton Report at ¶ 127.) The public commitment to keep Call of Duty multiplatform, and the absence of any documents contradicting those words, strongly suggests the combined firm probably will not withhold Call of Duty from PlayStation.

Sixth, Call of Duty's cross-platform play is critical to its financial success. (Dkt. No. 286, 6/29/23 Tr. (Stuart) at 1039 (“Q. And is it also profitable for Xbox to continue to have games like Minecraft be multiplatform and cross platform? A. Absolutely. The strength of a game like Minecraft comes from that cross-network play. If you, you know, removed one of those platforms and one of those big user bases, not only – not only would you have a massive brand impact, you would lose a significant revenue stream that you just couldn't make up for.”); Dkt. No. 285, 6/28/23 Tr. (Kotick) at 715:18-24 (“Well, if you think about like from a business perspective and from a consumer perspective, one of the most important things is building communities of players, especially now that you have the ability to compete and socialize. And so our view has always been that you want to create your content for as many platforms as possible and build your audiences to be as big as possible.”).) Cross-play thus creates an incentive to leave Call of Duty on PlayStation.

Seventh, Microsoft anticipates irreparable reputational harm if it forecloses Call of Duty from PlayStation. Mr. Spencer testified: “s pulling Call of Duty from PlayStation in my view would create irreparable harm to the Xbox brand after me in so many public places, including here, talking about and committing to us not pulling Call of Duty from PlayStation.” (Dkt. No. 283, 6/23/23 Tr. (Spencer) at 367:11–15). Activision CEO Bobby Kotick confirmed Microsoft's concerns are not unfounded: “if we were to remove Call of Duty from PlayStation, it would have very serious reputational – it would cause reputational damage to the company.” (Dkt. No. 285, 6/28/23 Tr. (Kotick), at 725:4-7); see also id. at 715:18-24 (“Well, you would alienate” gamers “and you would have a revolt if you were to remove the game from one platform.”); id. at 727:17-22 (explaining if a degraded Call of Duty experience were offered on other platforms “you would have vitriol from gamers that would be well deserved, and ․ that would be very vocal and also cause reputational damage to the company”). “n assessing [Microsoft's] post-merger incentives, the Court must consider the financial and reputational costs to [Microsoft] if it were to breach or water down its firewall policies.” See UnitedHealth Grp., 630 F. Supp. 3d 118; see also AT&T, 916 F.3d at 1040 (D.C. Cir. 2019) (“Turner [Broadcasting] would not be willing to accept the ‘catastrophic’ affiliate fee and advertising losses associated with a long-term blackout.”). Why would Microsoft risk that brand reputational harm? Especially since the video game console market is shrinking—not growing; it is not the future of video gaming. (RX 5055-010.)

Eighth, the FTC has not identified any instance in which an established multiplayer, multi-platform game with cross-play, that is, a game that shares Call of Duty's characteristics, has been withdrawn from millions of gamers and made exclusive. (RX5056 (Carlton Report) at ¶ 15.) To the contrary, Microsoft's 2014 acquisition of Mojang, the developer of the hugely popular Minecraft franchise, exemplifies how a console seller (and Microsoft in particular) behaves when acquiring a hugely popular multiplayer cross-platform game. Minecraft is one of the most successful games of all time, and is Microsoft's largest game by revenue. (Dkt. No. 283, 6/23/23 Tr. (Spencer) at 362:24-25; RX5058-005 (Hood Decl.) at ¶ 11.) It includes a popular multiplayer mode and has produced a large community across platforms. (Dkt. No. 282, 6/22/23 Tr. (Booty) 77:23–78:1.) At the time of the Mojang acquisition, Minecraft was available on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. (Id. at 78:2–7.) While Microsoft had the ability to make Minecraft exclusive, it continued to ship Minecraft on all those same platforms post-acquisition and made subsequent games in the franchise (e.g., Minecraft: Dungeons and Minecraft: Legends) available for Nintendo consoles and even Sony's subscription service, PlayStation Plus. (Id. at 78:11-79:4; 6/23/2023 (Spencer) at 421:8-423:1; RX3156.) Xbox CFO Tim Stuart explained the decision to ship Minecraft on “all platforms” enabled “its mass, mass, mass market” appeal. (Dkt. No. 286, 6/29/23 Tr. (Stuart) at 976:13-977:5.) The decision was dictated by the economics and the desire not to break up existing gamer communities. (Dkt. No. 283, 6/23/23 Tr. (Spencer) at 365:13-15 (“f we were to acquire something that has found customer love, users, business on another platform, we want to nurture and grow that for the games that we're building”); id. at 362:24-363:5 (Minecraft “has reached a financial level of success where it's – it's a significant profit driver for us given that it's shipping on all the platforms. So if you can get a game that's at that level of hit and that level of business, the size of the business, our job is to maintain and grow that.”); RX1137.)

All of the above evidence points to no incentive to foreclose Call of Duty—a 20-year multi-platform franchise—from Sony PlayStation.

[Aslanna]

So many words and none of them saying you were wrong about the actual point I was responding to. But you're good at cherry picking what you choose to respond to.

Microsoft should start suing Sony for random shit just like Sony does just to fuck with those whiners.

Various regulatory agencies asked for input. Sony, as well as other companies, provided it. Call it "whining" if you want but Sony didn't sue MS to stop the acquisition as you wrongly claimed.

[Winnow]

Don't let all the facts I presented get in the way of your one little point! 100 > 1 points

You keep hanging onto that as if it changes the situation though.

Microsoft should start acting like douchebags to Sony for random shit just like Sony does to Microsoft just to fuck with those whiners that had no real argument.

That better?

[Aslanna]

It is quite amusing seeing the absolute meltdown of the hardcore xbox fanboys at the rumors of some (not all!) previously xbox exclusive games coming to Switch and PS5. They (the xbox zealots) are losing their goddamn minds at something that may not even be true and it is rather entertaining. People posting receipts of them having traded in their xbox consoles for a PlayStation. Uh.. Why? It's just a fuckin plastic box. Use whatever one you want.

But I guess maybe being a supporter of a console that has 'lost' every generation can get them feeling a bit defeated at times. That's why you don't tie your identity to a brand. That company doesn't care about you.

As far as Starfield goes I think MS lost their opportunity there. All the PlayStation owners now know it's not that great of a game so there's not all the hype there that would have led to increased sales if it had released on PS at the same time.

[Funkmasterr]

I know, it's wild. That anyone could still feel any kind of loyalty to a corporation, with all the info you could ever need at your fingertips to show you why you shouldn't. Or you could just look around you.

I don't think there's any reality in which Microsoft makes another Xbox console, and I think that's fine. I've seen plenty of people say something to the effect of "Sony will rest on their laurels because there's no competition", but let's be honest, Microsoft hasn't really been competing with Sony or Nintendo on the console front for years now. This generation in particular, there is such a lack of good exclusives on Xbox that even the biggest of fanboys are lamenting it.

If they do get out of the console business and double down on the Game Pass business, I don't know how that goes for them. I've got a three month trial of it that came with my video card, so I've downloaded a few things... But Gears 5 I just bought on Steam because I'd rather have it there, same with pretty much anything else. It just doesn't seem like they're getting much growth there anymore, and I don't know how they can change that in a big way. I won't likely be renewing my sub once my trial is done. I might re-sub in the future if there are games on it that I really want to play and can't play elsewhere, but that just doesn't seem likely at this point.

I played Starfield for maybe 2 hours and I don't know that I'll go back to it. I think if Bethesda doesn't knock it out of the park with their next big release, it's time for MS to put them down.

[Winnow]

I played Starfield for maybe 2 hours and I don't know that I'll go back to it. I think if Bethesda doesn't knock it out of the park with their next big release, it's time for MS to put them down.

Man that's more than I played. I think I managed 1 hour before closing the game. The point where you do your first space flying.

Bethesda seems like they haven't advanced in character design, UI, or anything else. The character creator and character/NPCs look horrible to me, both looks and animations. If that's what Bethesda can bring to the table, I wouldn't be too upset if you're a Sony fanboi that Microsoft bought them.

As fox Xbox vs PS, I'll root for Microsoft as I hate Sony for many reasons. Similar to Apple, they really don't have your best interest in mind and will screw over the consumer any chance they get until they are sued or shamed into doing the right thing. Microsoft does this as well but IMO to a lessor extent.

Microsoft has the right idea in focusing on a streaming game service. Feels like the market will split two ways. Those that want a powerful PC to game on, and those that will stream games on a cheaper device. VR/AR is still lurking as the ultimate gaming experience that will catch on at some point. Sony has made decent attempts at VR but who wants to buy a Sony PS VR headset when a Quest will do everything instead of be limited to PS games. Sony limits itself by its lack of foresight and trying to keep their walled garden (crab hand) customers instead of expanding on the media front. They can't even handle media well having to be bailed out by Marvel in order to make decent Spider-Man movies.

We can see clearly from AI developments how important cloud compute power is. You either pay out your ass for the highest end Nvidia card or use a cloud service to do your AI LLM/Images. There's no in between. The monetary "value" of my RTX 4090 can be debated but it's performance can't. It is amazing with stable diffusion and LLMs etc. Microsoft/Amazon/Google rule the cloud services. Sony has zero chance of competing there and rents space from Microsoft already.

I don't really game anymore as I've been consumed with AI stuff since March 2023. AI is the future. Right now, I can create my own art/photos customized exactly how I want them. In the course of a year (next month) the advancements have been fast and furious. This will expand into videos and ultimately, you will be able to create your own entertainment, example "create a game similar to Skyrim set in Ancient Rome" and the AI will do the rest, creating the entire world, characters etc. It will happen. Artists, Actors, Screenwriters, Movie sets, etc all out of business. Audiobook narrators are already screwed as you can simulate deceased voice actors with emotions etc already. Really no need for audiobook narrators and probably soon voice actors altogether. Large Language Models are improving at breakneck speed. With the models that will fit on my 24GB VRAM, I can already create deep character profiles, plots, scripts, and then use all that created information to write a novel/movie script. Fan fiction is even easier since, for example, all the Game of Throne books are scanned into the LLMs, so they are very familiar with the style of writing of George R.R. Martin. You can easily tell it to write stories set in that world as an example. But even better, soon you can mix formats, text from the GoT novels, Actors from the TV series, then tell the AI to create a graphic novel based on GoT using illustrated versions of the GoT actors.AI isn't quite there yet but the pieces are in place. Easy way to tell that LLMs do know author's styles is tell it to "write a story about a Knight that saves a kitten from being stepped on by a dragon" and then tell it to "write a story about a Knight that saves a kitten from being stepped on by a dragon in the style of George R.R. Martin" and you will see how much better the story is with Martin's name attached to the request. But, just like with artists, you can mix author styles. You can tell it to write the story in style of George R.R. Martin AND Isaac Asimov and you will get a mixing of those two styles. Or "rewrite the Foundation Trilogy in the style of George R.R. Martin".

Personally I don't care about famous actors. Think about it. I actually don't want to see the same face in a movie, AI creating entirely new faces takes away the distraction of thinking of that same "famous" movie actor in a different role while you're trying to immerse yourself in a new Movie/story. On the flip side, if you do like to see the same face, AI will be able to make (or remake) movies and you can change the actors/faces/voices to whoever you choose. For good (or bad) you will be able to change genders, ethnicity etc...so if you want to see a woke version of Abe Lincoln who is a black female cripple because that's how you want to rewrite history, you can! On the flip side, some people can happily reverse that woke shit and correct these woke versions of history back to reality. No, Cleopatra was not black so I'd be changing that movie back to being historically accurate it it was a good movie otherwise worth watching.

As for music, I can't wait until we are at the point where I can ask AI to "create an album in the style of RUSH based on their style of albums created in the 1980's" AI will get to a point where you can listen to limitless songs the same as you can now create limitless art in the style of your favorite artist and not tell the difference between AI and original art/music. Even better, say you love RUSH but hate Geddy Lee's high pitched vocals. (you can do this now but takes effort), you can take a RUSH song and then have AI "replace Geddy Lee's vocals with Ozzy Osbourne's voice". The main point is, the entertainment/media you consume is going to be highly customizable to exactly what you want.

The ultimate "power" is energy. AI takes energy. Whoever controls the most energy wins, or even better, if AI discovers more efficient power sources, everyone wins. People worry about loss of jobs, but you won't have to work if there is limitless energy. Behind Religion, energy (oil) causes the most conflicts/wars.

[Aslanna]

Well there's a shock... The internet was freaking out about nothing. 4 'old' xbox games coming to Switch and PS5: Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves, and Grounded. That's it. All those xbox fanatics can stop their crying now.

But it was quite entertaining for the past two weeks so I'm sad that is over.

[Funkmasterr]

Interesting. I still think it's only a matter of time before they get out of the console business, but time will tell.

[Aslanna]

Well hey. Xbox/Microsoft sure had a great week of PR. After spending ~$70b to acquire a bunch of studios they are now giving everyone the boot, even at studios (Tango Gameworks in particular) that recently released a successful game albeit it critically but apparently not financially. Well hey that's because your Gamepass subscriptions are down and people on Xbox don't buy games for some unknown reason. Isn't that a shocker!

Everyone who thought the ABK acquisition would be a good thing for the industry are looking like a bunch of dumbos now. Phil Spencer, who I always knew was a phoney baloney, along with the rest of his cronies like Sarah Bond and Matt Booty, should be fired. Satya needs to take over the Xbox division or at least appoint some competent people to run it because the people there now are barely above the Don Mattrick level of ability.

Xbox needs to just get it over with and move to being a publisher like Sega did because they have lost every hardware generation since their inception. Regardless of what they do they will never be the console of choice for any intelligent gamer.

[Funkmasterr]

Yeah, I don't get how people still don't get that major corporate mergers are literally never good for the consumer. I totally agree though - Xbox is kind of a joke at this point. I canceled my Game Pass sub on the PC, didn't seem worth it to me.

[Winnow]

It's really hard to say what Microsoft is thinking. They make a ton of money and even with these huge gaming purchases it seems like a sideshow for them.

Microsoft owns half of OpenAI (49%). If you missed the past few days news, ChatGPT4o is pretty impressive. What's interesting is that it appears Apple may use OpenAI's tech to improve Siri and as the base for their AI in the upcoming Iphone/IOS updates.

Microsoft certainly seems to have its issues figuring out a gaming strategy but they really know how to dig their claws into the competition. Sony using Microsoft's servers and now maybe Apple using OpenAI which also powers Microsoft's CoPilot Ai in Windows.

In the end, Microsoft just keeps on making money no matter what.

The gaming world will change over the next few years. With AI becoming so good at coding and also being able to implement AI into games making the open worlds (even closed worlds) incredibly deep with unique generated voice interactions of NPCs etc.

Even if this huge merger mostly bombs, I'm not so sure any of the big gaming developers will matter as much soon in the traditional sense of creating games. Sony will probably use OpenAI in their games.

While I think OpenAI will be great for a lot of things including gaming, I'm not a fan of Sam Altman. He's looking to regulate and restrict Open Source AI which is mostly what I care about. I don't want to be bound to a cloud service monitoring everything I do. Local Stability Diffusion and local LLMs let me do what I want without censorship or creating black Nazis from over woke companies.

I'm not sure what Sony's future holds. They aren't "big" in the sense of being a player in the huge AI stakes, cloud, etc. as AI progresses, Sony needs to do well with their hardware sales because media will be dominated by AI companies.

My only advice is don't ignore AI. Its impact will be huge and is not being over hyped.

Regarding CharGPT4o:

https://youtu.be/6XBtQZK4MIo?si=2g-SnCvPXloGbtaM&t=505

I timestamped that video (8 min 25 seconds if timestamp doesn't work) to show example of ChatGPT4o's ability to tell stories and change it's voice in emotional ways is most impressive. Will be amazing for games etc.

[Aslanna]

It looks like Xbox may be going the way of Sega when it comes to moving over to publishing from the hardware business. PlayStation is outselling Xbox 3:1 (or something like that) and you (MS) have conditioned your customers to not value games enough to purchase them. Thus leading developers to not bother putting games out on your system.

I don't think the ABK merger, and by extension CoD being put on Gamepass, will move the needle all that much when it comes to new hardware purchases or increased Gamepass subscriptions. Putting the games on other platforms may be the only way to get their ~$70b dollars back.

If MS has 34 million Gamepass subscribers (the number as of a few months ago), and they are paying what, $100 a year (I have no idea what it costs) that's $3.4 billion a year, minus whatever you had to pay all your first-party studios as well as any third-party agreements. That means it's at least 20 years just to get your initial investment back. That doesn't seem like a good use of money. MS could have invested that ~$70 billion in CDs and made $3.5 billion in a year at current 5% rates.

Then again I imagine King, and all the mobile shit, will be the bigger money maker for MS. Either way the next year should be interesting in seeing what MS does with the Xbox gaming division.

[Winnow]

Then again I imagine King, and all the mobile shit, will be the bigger money maker for MS. Either way the next year should be interesting in seeing what MS does with the Xbox gaming division.

I think you're right on that. Mobile games make a lot of money. Gatcha games are addicting. I've spent thousands on them compared to almost nothing on regular PC games. "Nickel and Diming" you to death is extremely effective.

Maybe it's finally age setting in but I haven't played PC games for awhile no matter what platform. the AI stuff has definitely filled in for games when it comes to entertainment, plus I use my brain a lot more learning about that and figuring out bleeding edge python based stuff on github.

It's kind of hard to see where the gaming industry is heading. It seems Microsoft is still positioned well if it ends up being based in the cloud with tons of AI support for games to make them extremely interactive.

The Quest 3 is doing very well but VR in general is taking longer than I expected to become mainstream. Ultimately though we're heading for a Ready Player One "Oasis" type environment. This will be fantastic for gaming but also, even for those that like nature, relaxing etc. When the tech gets to the point where nature lovers stuck in the city can pop on the headset and be in nature relaxing by a lake, VR will be used for this just as much as it is for gaming.

I believe Sony's walled garden approach to things will be their eventual downfall. If the "Oasis" ends up being like the Internet where no one owns it, then it will be a situation where you can bounce around and do whatever you want, sort of like popping through portals into various environments. Apple and Sony will do their best to keep you in their walled gardens, screwing you over every chance they get, only relenting after lawsuits or regulation requires them to.

[Aslanna]

In "shocking to nobody" news:

Microsoft is making some big changes to Xbox Game Pass, including raising the price on some tiers while discontinuing others and adding whole new options, turning the once easy-to-understand service—and arguably the best deal in gaming—into a confusing and pricey mess.

...

Xbox has since posted an FAQ on its official support page explaining all the changes and it’s kind of a mess. Here are the highlights:

- Xbox Game Pass Ultimate in the United States will go from $17 a month to $20 a month. This price change starts for new subscribers on July 10 and will kick in for pre-existing members in September.

- Xbox Game Pass for Console, a cheaper alternative to Game Pass Ultimate that didn’t include PC games or EA Play titles, is going away. This plan will be replaced for new users in “the coming months” with Game Pass Standard. This plan will cost $15 a month in the US. Users currently subscribed to Xbox Game Pass for Console will be allowed to stay on the plan with no changes.

- Xbox also confirmed that this new Game Pass Standard tier won’t include new games on day one, which has been standard with Game Pass since its creation. Microsoft says that some day-one Game Pass releases will eventually be made available to Game Pass Standard subscribers at a later date.

- Starting on September 12, 2024, Xbox will no longer let people stack Game Pass for Console pre-paid cards for more than 13 months. People who are already beyond this limit won’t be affected.

- PC Game Pass is getting a price increase, from $10 to $12. PC subscribers will still get day-one games, according to Windows Central.

- Xbox Game Pass Core aka Xbox Live Gold will see its annual price jump from $60 to $75. However, its monthly price of $10 will not change. (Xbox Game Pass Standard includes Core. Yes this is confusing.)

$20 a month is $240 for the year. Yikes. Do they have an option for yearly Ultimate that would be cheaper than that? I know I don't buy 4 full-priced games in a year these days so I'd be losing money if I went with Game Pass. Sure you get a bunch of other games each month but who has time for all that shit? I suppose kids with oodles of free time but they are usually off playing Fortnite, Minecraft, and Roblox so they aren't playing those other games anyway.

The article also stated "discounting some (tiers)." Of the ones listed I don't see any that are discounted. Unless the new Standard tier is cheaper somehow. But you're also not getting games on day one. At that point you may as well just wait to buy them since they'll probably be on sale by then. Or just pay the $5 more a month and get Ultimate. Standard seems like bad value. (Edit.. I can't read. It was "discontinuing" not "discounting." Point still stands that Standard seems like a tier nobody should be at)

I'm not really calling them out for raising prices since Sony did the same on PS+ awhile ago. Hopefully people who thought it would be a gravy train forever (getting $1 a month subscriptions that stacked) might finally be getting a wakeup call. Games as a subscription service suck and can't be good for the industry despite what MS tries to tell you. They didn't do it to offer people 'cheap games' they did it to try and increase their market share after which they could then jack up the prices even further. However their market share hasn't seemed to have increased all that much so it would be interesting to hear the inside scoop as to whether or not Microsoft thinks they made the right call with introducing Game Pass.

Summary: Game subscriptions are evil. Corporations are not your friends.

[Funkmasterr]

Yeah fuck GamePass. I canceled my Playstation Plus sub when the price increased last year - it helped that I have a PC and have barely turned my PS5 on in the last 6 months, but I likely would have anyhow. Them removing the subscription cards that you could buy from other retailers at a discount so that you always have to pay full price was also a factor. I'm not playing that game with those greedy fucks.

I think Microsoft in particular is still wanting significant growth in GamePass, and if it doesn't start panning out for them I can see MS just becoming a publisher. The only other option would be for them to go away from the sub model and back to having exclusives that people give a shit about, but despite buying up half the fucking video game industry they don't seem to be able to do that.

I had a 3 month sub to GamePass that came with my 4090 (should have been a 3 year sub for a $2k video card) and tried it out a bit. There were very few games on it that I couldn't get on Steam, and I'd rather use Steam for gaming. I canceled it at the end, because I just don't see the value in it. Particularly at the new price, I'm not sure who they are marketing this to... it's too expensive for casual gamers that just play Fortnite and the annual CoD release, and it seems like most others prefer to own their games, have access to them whenever (not lose them when they get pulled from GamePass), etc. I also hope that consumers consider that the developers are getting fucked on that deal, and it isn't a sustainable business model.

[Winnow]

Subscriptions seem to be the way things work theses days.

Music = sub
Movies/TV = Sub

Games = Sub

I pirate everything I possibly can, even things I have subs to to avoid commercials etc


I sub to Amazon Prime which is a rip for me since I only use the shipping and download prime shows even though I could stream them. I don't like them packaging a bunch of crap in subs that I don't use in order for them to justify raising the price.

I sub to Viki because it's a pain to download kdramas that aren't on Netflix/Hulu etc with the subtitles etc.

If Youtube ever figured out how to stop people from downloading channels/playlists etc, I'd maybe sub to them (only if it allowed me to mass download channels etc). Youtube has been at war with adblockers etc recently.

https://github.com/ErrorFlynn/ytdlp-interface (free and easy setup)

Firefox with Ad blocker still stops all ads on Youtube, otherwise I wouldn't watch their videos.

Subs have been the trend for a long time for media. Games were just the next step.

In good news (for me at least!) AT&T Fiber just came to my area so COX immediately made me an offer for $70/month Unlimited data Gigabit internet for 2 years. I took it since I was paying $170/month it will save me $100/month for 2 years and all I really need is bandwidth since I download everything. Those LLM and Diffusion models are big. That $2400 saved will buy me most of a new GPU next time, I'm factoring in $3K though for my next GPU and will be pleasantly surprised if it's less.

[Aslanna]

So many words to not say anything relevant to the topic.

How'd that whole MoviePass service work out? Not everything needs to be a fucking subscription.

[Winnow]

Give it a few years and you'll be able to make your own games using AI, just like you can make your own images today, short videos and songs today, longer videos and songs soon.

You need to have vision when it comes to tech. I wouldn't be too worried about subscriptions since that will die out soon just like all other things from the past. You'll probably still need to subscribe to use cloud based GPUs unless you can afford your own to make the AI stuff though.

Who wants most games today anyway? They're as bad as current music is. All autotuned crap. Most TV series are infested with woke fever.

I'll be happy when AI advances enough where I make my own games/music/movies. It won't take much effort for AI to match the quality of today's media which has gone backwards in the past decade.

Your choice will be AI generated stuff or find something you haven't watched or listened to that was made 10-15 or more years ago.