Julius

That's 14:00 GMT and a very accessible release time internationally, around the time in the day of a good few E3 conferences of old. Will be surprised if it's not shown at the TGAs Thursday night at some point. More than anything with VI, just not knowing much about what they're actually doing with it, I'm most curious to see how they market this. I think Red Dead II's first trailer was a little over a minute from what I remember, which would seem perfect for this, and looking it up GTA V's was just under a minute and a half – but I wonder if they'll give any thought to short-form video platforms like Instagram Stories, YouTube Shorts and TikTok, and so squeeze this into 60 seconds or less? I guess they could always get special cuts but doing something like that would definitely be along the lines of PlayStation just dropping the PS5 logo on Instagram to make it as shareable as possible. But then it's also seemingly much further along and closer to release than either of those games were when first officially shown off (if those financial projections are anything to go by), so maybe they do shake things up a bit more with a longer trailer (I doubt it for the shareable reasons, but still, I think it's worth considering). Also curious to see if Online gets any attention in this trailer considering just how big it is now, but I think that might be best saved for a deep dive when first shown (and, please, an outrageously good character creator!). Roll on Tuesday

Earlier this week I saw the end of Chapter 4 play out, and then cleared out everything at The Castle, the rest of the Akame Requests, and of course Amon. The Castle was interesting, there's definitely a lot of busy work and running around which was definitely a bit of a pain up until the fast travel around the place unlocked. Generally had an okay time as I was going through, though one or two team events had me grinding things out for certain characters to be of a higher level/bond, and the weird lack of strategy beyond this with characters feels a bit odd – would love future Coliseums to build on this with team outfits or something just so that you can assign/have shared resistances in a very simple way to add a bit more depth, but also to help lessen the currently necessary need to grind. And I say this as someone who likes grinding, it just didn't feel fulfilling because there's little depth added by levelling up The Justice fight seemed pretty dumb up until I changed to Chicken Head and shot him and the others up, very weird that that's the only one I found myself needing to change characters for, but didn't take long once I found the right character to play as Loved the Four Kings stuff story-wise and some of their 1v1 fights, Ugajin was definitely the highlight. I find the fights in these games definitely feel best when it's not just a Square + Triangle mash-fest, but instead goes back to the feel of PS2 bosses, with basic patterns to learn and funny AI to take advantage of. For Ugajin I remember it was to sprint away from his drones until they fell away, mash X to escape his lasso, dodge once to the side while he charges up his attack, then wail on him until his drones have turned back up, and rinse and repeat. It's good stuff and is one of the few times I've found the combat in this game has been really rewarding. As for that final Coliseum fight... Eventually I ended up facing off against Amon, and that is by far the best Amon fight I've experienced in these games (other times I've faced off against an Amon have been in 6, Judgment, and LAD). Once you get what the deal is, again, it feels like an old PS2 boss, and that second phase turning out to be a war of attrition with his ability to gain health on successful hits is just Gave up on the rest of the Stroll 'n Patrol missions once I saw the stupid amount that unlocked later on, turns out I did enough in Chapter 2 to see me through the rest of the level gates the game had to throw my way anyways, thankfully I'll likely finish this up in my next session with the game, and I'm really excited to see how the rest plays out. I say this but knowing how 6 and LAD had me at times towards the end, I'm probably in for an emotional gut punch or two I'd imagine

December 7th! Yeah, I'll probably wait to see what they do about microtransactions and a potential future console release if I'm ever going to get this

First trailer for Furiosa: How was Fury Road already nearly a decade ago?!

Big ol' Patch 5 has been released after a few days of tidbits coming out. And it's a big one (both in number of updates and size)! Physical Xbox edition confirmed to include Patch 5, still TBC for PlayStation from what I can see.

Surprised this didn't already have a thread, but hey, it looks like we might be getting some news soon as it has now been rated by the Australian ratings board. Something big next week at the TGAs, perhaps? Previous trailers Announcement Trailer – The Game Awards 2019 Gameplay Reveal – The Game Awards 2021 Facial Animation Showcase – State of Unreal 2023 The Senua Trailer – Xbox Games Showcase 2023

Essentials for this month, available from 5th December to 1st January: Been curious about all of these at some point or another, so not a bad month

New trailer from today's Level 5 event, also with the news that this has been delayed to 2025:

Trailer from tonight's event (and yes, March 22nd it is!): VOD of the event: The physical edition looks mighty fine too! Hope there's a window at some point next year I can find to dig into this, but if the rest of the year is even only half as stacked as Q1, it'll be hard to see that happening

Oh man, I stumbled across his E3 2014 speech (I think it was..?) again the other day in my YouTube recommended (couldn't find a short enough clip so here's the tweet, think I posted it around the time of the TLOU Part I leaks actually) and he nearly got me to buy Vib-Ribbon nearly a decade removed I absolutely agree, though. The thing is, when PlayStation do put out first party, single player stuff still? Generally, when I get to it, I love it! But the volume of first party output just isn't there right now and their direction seems so misaligned from what made the PS4 a rousing success with both it's hardware and software. I was actually revisiting some notes I update occasionally with my list of favourite games, and try and I might through the years to get to 10, I've still only landed on a really solid 7 games I'd without hesitation call my favourite of all-time. 2 of those were co-developed by Japan Studio! It just hurts at this point where's that Astro game, damn it! So much of Sony just feels dishonest and such a mess right now now thanks to their lack of/poor communication – look no further than Naughty Dog, though, and I think the problems they've had with Factions could and should have been communicated so much better. Did XIV, or No Man's Sky, or any other game that's turned it around do a poor job of communicating what was going on? Maybe, up until the point they decided to fix the problems and engage with their community. Some might say it's not officially announced but I mean they were bringing concept art up on stage every few years and talking about it in interviews? I really think if that game's going to have any success it needs to be built with the community through early access and the like, yet they refuse to do that. But then Part II Remastered gets the Lost Levels treatment? The messaging is just so jarring! It's crazy to me that we're 3 years into this gen and I'm still playing PS4 games on my PS5 most of the time, even more so if we consider that the PS5 games I do buy often have PS4 versions (I just want the new cases if they released after the PS5 ). There's trying to avoid announcing things too early and then there's only having two upcoming first party games left to show off (Helldivers II and Wolverine). If SIE do continue to go this route, I sincerely hope that third party (as they have been) and the growing industries in China and South Korea pick up the the potential quality single-player slack

Assuming this is going to morph into a Witcher 4 thread, I guess this belongs here: nearly half of CDPR are now working on The Witcher 4, as confirmed in their earnings report released today; per IGN: I've got to imagine they're taking aim at the end of this gen for this, then, what with the UE5 transition they're making with the next game, too?

Sony Interactive Entertainment have today announced a strategic partnership with NCSOFT. If you're not sure who NCSOFT are, they're the South Korean developer and publisher behind games like Lineage and Guild Wars; yep, this is one of those South Korean MMORPG specialist companies. And yep, that's definitely why they've struck up a deal with Sony. If you'll remember, there were rumours around this time last year that NCSOFT were working on a Horizon MMO (original source is in Korean so have linked to IGN for ease), so I guess this is more or less a case of making that partnership and those plans official. I've got to imagine we'll hear something about this sooner rather than later (by the end of next summer, surely?), because this seems to be one of the rare instances where progress is being made on one of their GaaS titles, following the recent announcement during their most recent earnings report where they said that they have delayed half (6 of 12) of their GaaS titles that were in the works. What a weird time it is, I find, to be a PS5 owner waiting on first party projects. We did have the announcement the other day that Stellar Blade dev Shift Up has been made second party, but yeah, I really think PlayStation are being carried hard by third party at this particular moment. Hope that changes soon. And this totally isn't me goading them on to announce something awesome and first party and single player at an upcoming event I thought this was hilarious when I read it the other day like no-one: absolutely no-one: Bloober: DON'T WORRY GUYS IT'S STILL COOKING PLEASE DON'T LOOK IN THE KITCHEN noseriouslyplease

Ahead of tonight's showcase, March 22nd has been further cemented to all but officially be the game's release date, as it has now cropped up on the game's Steam page: Capcom have been typically pretty decent at containing leaks and dates over the last half a decade or so, so I choose to believe that it's Itsuno himself personally updating these pages as he can't contain his excitement

Keighley did a Q&A livestream a bit over a day ago on the TGAs, and confirmed that the "WORLD PREMIERE" voice over tag we've got so used to will be going away this year. Shame, but weirdly I always thought it felt like an Xbox thing (and in either case I'm not a fan), so...oh well? Curious to see if the minute or two saved from that being torn out shortens the show or– no, who am I kidding, it means time for a few more ads Security will also be tightened following the end to last year's event: And Geoff has a very weak defence for the controversial indie nomination of Dave the Diver, which is notably not indie (being developed and published by Korean company MintRocket, aka a smaller team from Nexon, famous for MapleStory and also a company with offices worldwide and revenue of nearly $2 billion reported in 2021): And lastly, the TGAs have considered new awards for Best Remake and Best Supporting Actor: The idea of Best Remake I'm not a fan of, the term "remake" is already such a murky term which means different things to different people, then there's the question of if they're eligible for GOTY like indies, and that whole mess. I agree with Geoff's point that it's also not a guarantee that we see consistently great remakes released as it is. The idea of Best Supporting Actor, though, I'm totally for. Was thinking about this just the other day and it makes perfect sense, I'm all for having more talent recognised in the industry, especially because there have been so many supporting roles in the last 5 years alone that I think would have warranted the award being a thing. Just a week and a half to go to the show, folks. Anyone planning on tuning in?

Glad to hear you're enjoying it No crouch unfortunately closest thing is perching on the edges of buildings/rails/etc. to perform stealth takedowns, so instead go out there, be the menace JJJ thinks you are, and kick some more people off of buildings

Soooooooo I'm 11 hours in and have only just wrapped up Chapter 2 I've completed Pocket Racer up to challenging Ran, completed all of the Stroll n' Patrol missions available up to this point (50+, so I doubt there's any more?) and all but 8 substories/Akame Requests (those remaining are locked behind story and Coliseum progress). Firstly: don't think I've ever done so poorly in karaoke before, I was laughing my ass off when I got to a ahem certain song Updated Kiryu's style when I got the chance; still wanted the black and white, but a bit more stylish and more suitable sunglasses for an agent, so: My head canon is that this is the first chance he's got to lean into the leather of the 90s he would've seen in magazines while in prison curious that you can't use Kiryu's traditional colours (white jacket, red shirt) but can use Ichiban's, so waiting to see if that unlocks or if it's just a case of "nope, don't do that, he's JORYU now" from the devs. Combat is still pretty meh, rapidly alternating between Square + Triangle in throughout my time with these games has been my go-to tactic, and along with my go-to being to dodge rather than to block (I don't have time for that!) and healing if I do get badly hit, I've been parrying left and right just playing these games the same way I always do. Which is kind of cool, because there's nothing new to learn? But also just means it doesn't add the level of depth for me that I think it might others, and it's a bit grating that every boss and mini-boss wants you to parry them in that way. The level of super armour/blocking in this game like I mentioned before definitely seems to want to be challenging 3, and I'm curious to look up after the game if there's a reason for this other than to stretch out encounters because of it being a shorter game by design. On the other hand though: Agent style is still cool as heck, as are the gadgets, now that I've got them all unlocked having a lot of fun playing around with them and seeing what combos well together. To talk about the substories/main story a bit... Overall, really enjoying the story so far and a lot of the substories/side quests, even if I did end up skipping Akame's preamble for every one of her requests as soon as I realised it kicked you out of the menu/conversation with her after agreeing to each and every one. Not too sure if I'd want to see substories handled in this way in future main games, but for a game of this length, I don't really mind it. Got to mention QoL because it's so rare that RGG do QoL things, but placing a pin down on your map and then having it also appear when choosing which taxi stop you want to go to is EXACTLY what I wanted in LAD with how big Ijincho is. So that's awesome, please don't take that away from me in Infinite Wealth! Hopefully they add that to dungeons in that game too if some are going to be bland and void of a sense of direction (LAD weirdly had the same map key in dungeons as in the main game, meaning it tells you that you can place a pin down in a dungeon...but you can't). Anyways, in Chapter 3 I'll likely head back to the Coliseum to see what I can wrap up there given the chance, seeing as a good few of the Rival Races in Pocket Racer and remaining Akame Requests are locked behind progress there. Still having a fantastic time

...what's a Dreamcast? I jest, of course, but no, unfortunately not being born when I was, my experience with SEGA growing up feels incredibly limited in retrospect to just seeing them transition their focus away from consoles: their console division was virtually dead and buried (everyone and their mother had a PS1 or PS2, a handful of people had a GameCube, and I had only one friend with a well off father with Apple stock - idk, seemed like the type - who had an Xbox), they were leaning on Sonic HARD throughout my childhood (I distinctly remember having fun with the anime; Heroes on PS2 and watching a friend play Shadow the Hedgehog; the McDonald's tie-in Game & Watch style devices for the Olympics; and so on), I think I have memories of having their logo light up my face through an arcade machine or two (which obviously veeeeeeeery quickly were introduced to me and went the way of the dodo from my POV), and maybe - maybe - a trace memory of Crazy Taxi from *somewhere*, but I couldn't tell you where for the life of me. Honestly, for people born around the time I was, I genuinely think the only way you end up with a SEGA console - any of them, never mind a Dreamcast! - in your house living in the UK growing up, or knowing someone who does, is from an older sibling or a parent having picked them up and it being passed on; and I only even say that after meeting someone like that back when I started my current job (his dad has always been big on games so they've got most of the SEGA consoles released over here in decent condition in their house). No shade to SEGA, but I genuinely think that for my generation when it comes to casual gamers/the general public and knowledge of their consoles, they'll think of those "72 games built-in!" types of off-brand mini consoles and playing Flash versions of their games in computer rooms at school But, uh, happy birthday to the Dreamcast I reckon you're right! Definitely looks my cup of tea, and I've heard so many great things over the years about it. So where's that damn remaster, huh, SEGA?!

Ah, that's unfortunate, but I totally get it – I mean, it has been nearly two years () since it launched, which feels like it is a crazy amount of time to wait for the first piece of paid-for DLC to land for a game (even if it does turn out to be rather substantial). For me? I want some Miquella answers, damn it! It's also really interesting how they do things like make us wait nearly two years to see some DLC, and yet I feel like the endgame content for AC VI easily could've been DLC too with how that game handles it's endings and new missions. Honestly, along sort of similar lines, while I'm really excited to see how it eventually shapes up (assuming it releases in our lifetime ), I very much doubt I'll be picking up Persona 6 whenever it arrives just looking back at what Royal did for 5 or what I hear Golden did for 4; as much as I enjoyed 5, it seems bizarre to me that I almost felt penalised for playing that version of the game (even more so because I played it a few years after launch and not wildly long before Royal got confirmed), maybe even more so in that case because Royal content was never made an add-on/DLC though. Makes me really glad that RGG just don't seem all that interested in substantial paid-for DLC. Sure, you get your outfits and your legendary paid-for characters and all the other SEGA nonsense you get with a lot of their games, but I look at Gaiden and compare it a bit to Kaito Files, Majima Saga and some other extra content released they've over the years and just think "well, they tried to go that route, those ideas kept getting bigger, and I'm guessing it didn't really work out or get the traction they've wanted, so they've just decided to make dedicated games instead." I mean they could go and prove me wrong quite easily with Infinite Wealth by releasing a piece of add-on DLC called Dirt Cheap set in South East Asia, but I really don't get the feeling that's the direction they're planning on going. Unless...

Yeah, I'm completely with you there. Ijincho is, I think, already at the absolute top end of how sprawling I'd want to see one of these maps get. Especially with how good the series has got with later games at curating the events meaning you'll be hitting up pretty much every corner of a map during the main story, which just makes substories, side content and the like so much easier to run into and get sidetracked by, you do end up exploring every inch of the map and feel like you know your way around. It makes sense for somewhere like Kamurocho or Sotenbori having played around in these areas so much across so many games at this point, but even with Ijincho in LAD, I played the first 60% of that game last year, took a huge break, and came back still knowing roughly where everything was that I'd already come across, and that speaks to a really good city layout and story curation (which I think might be one of the most overlooked aspects of these games, at least some of the more recent ones). This is definitely the first time where I've been watching the marketing for one of these games and found myself going "hmm, this seems like it could really, really easily be bloated", and to an extent that I genuinely think it would be a concern if it was any series but this one. Because it's not just the bigger map, it's then also the Animal Crossing-style stuff, the Sujimon stuff getting its own thing, we've got so many other new side content types and mini-games being added too. Every single time there's a new trailer for this game it seems to be introducing a piece of side content with the potential to be at least 10 hours long to see it through from beginning to end! I'm not going to let my anticipation of other titles around the release of this game get in the way of my hype for or enjoyment of it - because worst case, eh, it'd suck but the next game I play gets pushed back a little - but man, I really just hope that with everything seemingly ballooning in size, that it continues to feel meaningful. Yakuza/Like A Dragon is so good at building side content and substories which enhance your enjoyment of the main game, whether it be new upgrades or more money or rare items, and while I LOVED LAD, I'm gutted that they didn't come up with a better alternative to grinding in the sewers for a few hours to get to enjoy the challenging end-game content. And I'm someone who doesn't mind a grind! But especially with how two separate times it's handled pretty deftly during the main story in that game ("look, dude, we've opened a grinding spot for you!" – wink wink, nod nod, there's a spike coming up), my biggest hope for this game with it being so much larger in scale and supposedly story length is that it's more akin to Dragon Quest XI, where it's more of a case of there being a third act with engaging content which gets you through to the real ending of the game, beyond what's been advertised. A return to Ijincho, perhaps? Anyways, that got long, but good lord. At this point I've made peace with what I want to play from Jan to March (which is to say: this and Rebirth ), so I'm just on my hands and knees praying that Shadows of the Erdtree doesn't get announced to drop in Feb/March, because then I seriously don't know what I'd do

RGG have just announced that Honolulu, the main area in Infinite Wealth, will be 3x larger than Ijincho...which was already 3x larger than Kamurocho. Yeah, I can understand why the game is going be noticeably longer than LAD now just really hope this has a sizeable post-game (or third, post-game act, something like Dragon Quest XI?) which gets you to those higher levels, as I think that's the thing LAD was really lacking: you basically only had the choice of grinding out 30 to 40 levels (not to even mention Job Ranks!) to reach max level before taking on the toughest challenges in the game. In that way, LAD actually really reminds me of Pokémon Gold/Silver, it's poor lead-up to Red demanding a grind, and... This game is going to be dangerously long. Honestly, the more we hear about it, the more I question if I'll be able to get it out of the way before VII Rebirth arrives. That being said: I'm so ready

I personally really enjoyed it, but I also think it's probably the most fan service we've had in these live-action Disney+ shows to date, so, I mean, I can understand it. Outside of a few characters (returning and/or with an entire animated series to depend on for characterisation) I also think it has the general Mandoverse issue of some stilted acting and bland lines. Have you watched Andor yet H-o-T? I think it is by far and away the best written, acted, directed, and overall executed live-action Star Wars show so far, and I think probably my favourite (/the best) live-action Star Wars anything since Rogue One and parts of The Last Jedi. Oh yeah, absolutely. I still think it's crazy that they haven't been using opening crawls more to set up the time periods of these live-action shows by referring to the films, and I find it really funny that the one time they have used any sort of reference on-screen, it was in a show which is a prequel to a film that the protagonist dies in. For something as lore-heavy as Star Wars can be, I think they've really dropped the ball on this and, purposely or not, have gone the MCU direction of releasing a lot of content without having said content during their runtime make clear for newcomers/more casual fans when what they're watching is going on. And when you remember that George always used to say that franchise is for children...I don't know, I think it speaks to a bit of a wider issue with the franchise since Disney took over that when and where possible, why shouldn't these stories be made more easily accessible to children, newcomers, and more casual fans?

Been listening to this song a whole lot over the last month amongst all of the NBT listening (yes, it's another Nothing But Thieves post ), one line in particular: what a freaking line

Hey, going from memory and rounding a bit, I wasn't too far off I knew I'd seen a different number not too long ago for the Xbox One, though, so what's most interesting to me about that particular post is that, after looking around to see where I got that idea from, we actually got much a more solid number for the Xbox One that very same day (29th June 2023) courtesy of Microsoft themselves during the ID@Xbox presentation at BIG Festival in Brazil: The 79+ million combined Xbox One and Series X|S sales minus the 21+ million Series X|S sales leaves us with roughly 58 million Xbox One units sold in total (it's give or take, but somewhere within the range of between 57m to 59m, so I'm going to say 58m for simplicity's sake). So, that's: Regardless of where the actual numbers end up lying, my point was only ever to highlight that the numbers have either stabilised or ever so slightly increased between the PS3/360 and PS4/XBO gens, and take issue with the claim that the non-Nintendo console market has shown evidence of shrinking, and much less to a degree that it's (currently) worth worrying about. The continued advancement of cloud tech and the increased pivot by both companies towards subscription services is I think far, far more damning to the hardware future if this industry than any current signs of shifting unit sales of hardware between generations. Again, I think it's very difficult to say because the COVID situation adds so much nuance here compared to other generational launches. It's something I've talked about before, so I'm going to quote myself from over in the PS5 thread from a good while back now, talking about the initial projected sales of the PS5 vs the reality (due to COVID): I feel like the instinct here is to go "oh, well, PlayStation should have sold the difference in the time since then now that they have stock!", but I think that's an incredibly naïve takeaway and outlook on this; we all know that there is much more nuance to rebounding from a sales shortage than that. Back to your original point, though, either way, I think it's clearly then less a case of the market shrinking and simply a case of Xbox falling by the wayside after having not delivered consistent system-selling games in the way that both PlayStation and Nintendo have and continue to do. I'm damn sure that if Xbox delivered premiere content which was ambitious and ran best on Xbox consistently then I also think this idea of PlayStation "not picking up the slack" isn't the right way to look at this: they have no fiduciary duty towards either this industry or Microsoft/Xbox in keeping the line of sales sold between the two companies taut while Xbox sales continue to either decline or stabilise at okay-at-best generational sales figures. Their fiduciary duty is only unto themselves, and the way they'd be looking at the numbers going from PS3 to PS4? They're grinning evil and greed-filled smiles up in their boardrooms with their gold-lined desks. The question here for me, really, is whether the PS5 and Series consoles both manage to outsell their predecessor, and honestly I have no idea. I could see the PS5 doing 100m+ and the Xbox Series consoles coming in at around the same figure as the One consoles, but that's if they don't kill their chances off completely by coming to other platforms – which we both agree is clearly what they're trying to do! But can the PS5 outsell the PS4? Between the incredibly poor pace of first party releases - despite their continued quality - up to this point in the generation and the decision to not come out with a cheaper Slim model but instead increase/maintain the price of the original model with a more cost effective production approach makes me think not. I think the next two years in particular are going to be gigantic for not only deciding the sales of the PS5, but of PlayStation as a whole: will their GaaS plans payoff (I doubt it)? Who do they acquire? Who don't they acquire? How hard are they leaning into PS+ and subscription models? Is that number growing or not? And so on. Xbox is already in a transition period towards Game Pass as their primary product, and I'll be shocked if Nintendo change too much with their next console beyond it conceptually being similar to the Switch. But PlayStation? I think we get a PS6 - for the record, I also think we might get one final Xbox console next gen - but the direction they go with and beyond that I think is still very much up in the air. Reading this part of your post makes me think I might be misinterpreting some of your statements about the console market "shrinking" and more that it is contracting around a certain demographic - to which I'd probably agree. As someone who is still (currently) a part of that demographic, though, I think it's going to be really interesting to see what happens in the long-term with this current demo of 10-25 year-olds, because, not to be all doom and gloom or pull out the masculinity machine gun (I do not subscribe to the ideas of Andrew Tate or any of those other, uh, shamans of idiocy, if you will): the future is looking real rough right now. Between ever-increasing stats worldwide on the number of people with mental health struggles; a new WW3-level chaos-fuelled threat every year that is beyond the reach of the layman; more and more young men worldwide struggling to get into (and then continue with) further education, and many, many other things; I think these young men - and then the men who slide into older demographics as the years go on - will look to either lose themselves to blame and toxic ideology (incel ideas and the like) or to escapism, of which I'd argue gaming is the ultimate form. The future is always uncertain, but to bring this back to the discussion of the industry, I think that's unfortunately how new demographics will be found and targeted: as a result of more people in a wider range of demographics. Honestly, I don't think that it's too dissimilar to how Japan is renowned for having an incredibly aged society, to the point that many politicians will chase their votes over younger adults (which is also because younger adults rarely seem to vote, but I think you catch my drift). Anyways, to bring it back to Xbox in particular, I agree with you: Xbox going all-in on Game Pass is the only logical choice they have at this point. Personally, I think it's a huge shame, because a lack of competition breeds a lack of ambition and complacency, for the industry and advancement of gaming as a whole, and I also already feel like PlayStation have made a few decisions this generation that they wouldn't have last generation when they felt they had a true fight on their hands. And then Nintendo are just...there, killing it this gen, and likely next, too. I'm much less worried about them than the other two simply because they always seem to have the ambition to squeeze the most out of whatever hardware they find themselves on and deliver great games around that.

Just want to say that was a great post to start a discussion @Hero-of-Time, it's something I've been mulling over the last couple of days since you posted Absolutely - in fact, I think they've already lost, acknowledged that they did so a long time ago, and have since pivoted. If you want the best experience of current generation first party PlayStation or Nintendo offerings at launch, you have to buy their consoles. There is no exception to this. Because Xbox - by design - has always been closer in hardware to PCs in architecture than the other consoles, which benefitted them quite a bit early on and then especially so with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3's Cell processor gaffe making Xbox 360 arguably the place to experience most third party games as (generally) performance was better on the console; nowadays, however, because the vast majority of their first party offerings have been landing on PC day and date since some point last gen, anyone who actually wants to have the best experience with Xbox games is better off investing in their PC than in a dedicated console. It's the mid-tier way to experience their games (which I would argue has created a lack of ambition when compared to PlayStation and Nintendo simply because the game needs to run on their Xbox consoles to a degree which is acceptable, but it means they can't squeeze everything out of the consoles that they can, because there's a need for scaling up and down on PC), whereas PlayStation and Nintendo still deliver the experiences to console as a premiere experience, and despite PlayStation taking steps over the last few years to move more games to PC, they take their sweet time with it and are very inconsistent when it comes to PC port quality; for now, it remains an afterthought for them. Honestly? No, I really don't think they do. As you say, I think they've buried so many of their first party offerings through depending so heavily on them that they became stale, and didn't really take a chance on true new AAA IPs/revivals last gen, which is really biting them in the ass now. Of their AAA pick-ups, Bethesda should be a crown jewel - but they've been on the slide since Skyrim, and I don't think are seen as the premiere developer they once were; likewise, Activision/Blizzard is also just sort of stagnating, and let's be honest, it's not like any of these companies would've been up for grabs had they not been in a messy state. I've said in the past that the only reason I'd personally take a chance on Xbox is to experience older games of theirs and to use Forza as an alternative to FIFA (i.e. a game I can just play pretty mindlessly), but otherwise, I don't really see the point. When was the last time that Xbox released a truly exceptional, can't-miss game, one worth buying a console for? And even more so, one that wasn't also on PC at launch or almost immediately after? Between PlayStation and Nintendo first party stuff, a handful of third parties, and then indie games, I think Xbox have been squeezed out pretty forcefully - the hangers-on at this point are, I think, mostly existing Xbox users already in the ecosystem or the more casual FIFA/CoD/etc. players. I would be very interested in seeing the split on Xbox Series for people new to the ecosystem vs existing users. Don't even get me started on their acquisitions strategy, (so far) evidently poor ROI on those acquisitions (talking output here), and the absolutely abysmal curation job they've done over there - because I feel like that's all I ever talk about with Xbox when they have these conversations, unfortunately, which I feel like we've had countless times over the last 5 years. I struggle to see them changing and thriving without even more of a shake-up and even more targeted purchases; I genuinely think they'd need to cripple Japan's gaming industry by at least acquiring Konami, SEGA, and Square Enix to really start competing with PlayStation this gen. Only then do you find an Xbox with a worldwide appeal in the same way Nintendo and PlayStation have, developers with a history of delivering phenomenal games consistently, and well, Konami is just there to revive dead franchises and win out with nostalgia. I agree with @Dcubed on this one - it's where Microsoft have been going with all of their other services, and is where their gaming services are inevitably going to end up, to. Considering there were whispers of Xbox coming out at GDC years ago now (2019 or 2020?) with Nintendo to unveil Game Pass coming to Switch, I'm surprised we've not yet seen that come to fruition, but I think the Switch's successor and the horsepower it could bring to the table will be vital in delivering on that potential. While Game Pass numbers are indeed climbing, the rate at which it is doing so has already been noted as slowing down. Coming to Switch or Switch 2 and potentially PlayStation at some point will definitely lead to a bump in numbers - but between the offerings already on those consoles, and seeing how an overabundance of programming has resulted in even Netflix needing to cut corners to try to show change and growth to shareholders, so long as Xbox is beholden to Microsoft and is beholden to shareholders? Inevitable price bumps in Game Pass as they inch closer to their saturation point are inevitable, and I think the indie scene and AA space is most likely to be impacted here: if a game isn't on NSO/PS+, but is on Game Pass, you download it through Game Pass but then the developer is missing out on a potential sale through the other platforms? These indie deals are either going to get a lot more lucrative or the space is going to experience its first real collapse once Game Pass arrives on other platforms. What I find funny about all of this is that Xbox's biggest misstep is not taking a page out of the Wii's book when it comes to their Game Pass approach: they 1000% need to adopt the blue ocean approach in order to even attempt to not reach saturation after arriving on other platforms. I mean, imagine if the Wii was a cloud gaming device and multimedia device, where all you needed was the Wiimote and the app downloaded to your TV in order to play Wii Sports and the other incredibly well-designed Wii games made to expand the market; I could really see something like that working, and working damn well. It was a device filled with casual and approachable games across the board, but compare this to Game Pass, which I think is a splendid deal for what it is, but relies so much on already having gaming knowledge with almost all of its games that I think a casual newcomer to the space would be completely overwhelmed by the amount of games on offer, input variety across games on Game Pass, etc., that they'd rather buy a dedicated gaming device if it's not done well. Basically: one day, Game Pass is going to need to be curated for and have games designed around the calibre and entry-level nature that Nintendo achieved with the Wii. That was lightning in a bottle built off the back of some of the greatest minds in the industry and with Iwata as a leader; I don't think Xbox has the minds at the top (no offence, Phil) to pull off that lightning in a bottle situation for themselves. Because, let's be honest: 20+ years in the industry, and they've never managed to do that, have they? They haven't had a Wii or a DS or a PS1 or PS2 or PS4, heck, their best-selling console sold a few million more than the PSP and still managed to get overtaken by the PS3 despite PlayStation shooting themselves in the foot with a shotgun. I genuinely think the Series consoles are, at this point, here to tide people over and buy Microsoft time until cloud gaming is where it needs to be for them to truly deliver on Game Pass in the way they want to; problem is, I think they're probably at least 5 years or so out from getting to this point, but they have to keep Xbox alive as a brand in the meantime while that tech isn't there in the same way that Google released the Stadia just to say they did it. While more successful than the Wii U with both the One and Series lines, Xbox, I feel, are in this weird middle ground similar to the last few years of the Wii U where they're just trying to get to the next thing. While technically true if we go purely by the numbers and without context, the fact that PS5 hit 40 million units sold this year and is tracking only slightly behind the PS4 (which took 2 months fewer to get to 40 million units) with the context of COVID and a mass components shortage leading up to launch makes this seem like a bit of a disingenuous take. Even more so when you consider that this is the first year we've really seen them shake off the cross-gen release rust, because before Spider-Man 2, while there were some quality AAA first party experiences to have on PS5, the big-hitter sequels like Ragnarok and Forbidden West have all found themselves being cross-gen, so the actual need to buy the console for consumers already with a PS4 has been minimal. (I also think that it was just a smart decision to do this, because why leave 120+ million or whatever PS4s behind? That would be pretty dumb, right? Right, Xbox, with your understandable but also kind of stupid exclusive Starfield release? ) This is a pretty specific statement, and I think I'm going to have to hit you with another one of these: Off the top of my head, both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 sold around 85 million units each, so that's 170 million units sold in the 360/PS3 gen for non-Nintendo consoles. Still off the top of my head, PS4 sold around 120 million units, and the Xbox One sold around (just a bit under, I think) 60 million units...so that's 180 million units sold during the One/PS4 gen for non-Nintendo consoles. So unless we're counting portables like the PSP and Vita and/or peripherals like Kinect and Move...huh? (and if we are including these - why? The motion control market died a quick death and smartphones have wiped out the dedicated portable market) For Microsoft, I'd say it's more a calculated (but still risky) case of moving their audience to Game Pass, but yes, also a case of people moving to PC or replacing their Xbox with a PlayStation as their primary console. For Sony? I'm a bit confused by this statement. Who's dying and dwindling? 100m PS1s to 155m PS2s to 85m PS3s to 120m PS4s, with the PS5 at 40m+ units and tracking only a few months behind the PS4 despite everything else I've mentioned, if anything to me it looks like they've grown (out of the PS3 shell of themselves) and stabilised. There's totally a conversation to be had about their output this gen, but I'm seriously confused about them "failing to bring in new audiences to replace dying and dwindling customers." Am I crazy here or is that not just a case of maximising profits on multi-hundred-million dollar investments, which is why - so far - it has been limited to their AAA offerings? The PC market is massive, PlayStation would be out on the streets if they didn't capitalise on opportunities like that. I've not really got much to add here beyond my blue ocean stuff from before where I think they need to chase non-gamers in a Wii-type way in the long-term after it does land on other platforms, but I do find it really interesting that Netflix and the like have started to have their own gaming sections on their platforms and are sometimes publishing indie games (for example, Storyteller which I mentioned the other day is available through Netflix and published by them on mobile!). I think it becomes an interesting race to value-add from this point, which I think Sony is starting to prep for between Crunchyroll and Funimation...but I'm curious what Xbox's planned value-add is here? A month of Game Pass with Office 365? They're not exactly a huge name in the entertainment industry outside of Xbox, so I see team-ups or more acquisitions (urgh) in their future. I think it is a bit of a poisoned chalice at this point, yes. Xbox have a huge branding problem, and have for while now because of how stupidly they've named consoles for the last 10 years: the One, because it's one place to do everything? One X/S? Series X|S? There's a reason so many journalists were referring to the X|S mistakenly as the Xbox One Series X|S early on, it's such a stupid name. However, it's also a bit of a double-edged sword: do you use a new name for the brand as a whole now, or stick to the name of the brand you've spent over two decades investing in?