Sheikah

I think being forced out becomes more and more likely. He hasn't steered Xbox to success and at some point the higher ups will surely want to replace him. He has really squandered his time at the helm of Xbox when he should have been working to kick start development of new big games. Also it wasn't long ago that Spencer was saying in an interview that titles like Elder Scrolls would be exclusive in the sense that they'd only come to platforms with Game Pass. So for them to go traditionally multiplatform is actually a change in strategy, not something they were intending all along.

Completely agree. I think most of it all it shows a lack of care for actually creating games and game development in general. There's very little new they've developed from scratch over the last two generations that has been on a big scale - i.e. not just games released from studios they recently acquired and weren't involved with from the start. They are a company that pretty much subtract and we've seen with their acquisitions that they're actually walling off content and making things worse for people who just want to play previously multiplatform games. Spencer has been at the helm for so long and has ample opportunity to reverse this. The most bizarre thing for me has been to see that he's had supporters over the past decade. I suppose when people see Game Pass, which has been heavily subsidised by Microsoft in terms of the promotional £1 upgrades and subscription stacking, people have attributed that great value to him? The costly subsidising will no doubt have been a decision for Microsoft to sign off on rather than him, just like the decision to (likely) go multiplatform is probably out of his hands, too. The real decisions he's actually been able to make, like starting game developments from scratch, or supervising game development closely - clearly he never made those decisions.

Yep, exactly what I thought. Disguise some other bad news (digital only for both) as some good news while the audience is distracted by the multiplatform announcements.

Did I really say that? I definitely preferred Uncharted 2, that game was legendary. That train set piece, man. Uncharted 3 was not on the same level for sure, and I felt like Uncharted 4 was a great way to showpiece the PS4's capabilities but as a game wasn't very exciting. The gameplay and puzzle solving felt a bit old hat and stale and they were right to end the series at that point. You've played Mass Effect 1, in my opinion Mass Effect 2 and 3 should definitely be high up on your list. Great games and the remasters made them even better.

Alternatively, it could.

Yeah, a week is basically the minimum they feel they need to quickly get their messaging/communication ready after the unplanned leaks. We know then that the leaks are basically true or true enough since he's posted this. Interesting times.

On the one hand, lack of competition would be bad. Sony would be unchecked in this space and could more or less do what they wanted, at least until a competitor comes along. I'd say that this could mean Sony could go all digital next gen without competition, but ultimately Microsoft are going that way already anyway with their new console refreshes. And on the other hand, Microsoft have acquired a bunch of studios and already have started to make their (once multiplatform) games exclusive, so Microsoft becoming platform-agnostic would mean a bunch of titles would be available to me again. So a bit of a mixed bag, this. Either way, I think we can agree that Microsoft are not good at the home console game. They aren't great at managing studios and ultimately have never been able to recover from E3 2013. That really was the start of the end.

If it a hybrid it'll have to be less powerful, and I'm sure it still will be.

Yeah you'd spell FAQ out if talking about it on its own as otherwise nobody would know what you're talking about. But GameFAQs has for a long time been said that way by a lot of the userbase. I'd argue most who are familiar with the site would still know what gaming website was being talking about in context if someone said Game-facks, regardless of how much they dislike it being said that way. [emoji14] I'd also contest that the whole "but you'd say it this way in this other context" doesn't really work in establishing a one-rule. Sometimes abbreviations are said differently depending on the context. The way of pronouncing "OS" (operating system) in MS-DOS versus iOS, for instance.

How would they be competing with Sony though. If they just released a more powerful Switch 2 they still wouldn't compete graphically with PS5 given it's a mobile form factor, so still wouldn't get the third party games. And it'd still be a hybrid machine, unlike the PS5. No way they are ditching the Switch format for their successor. We have seen Nintendo not innovate too much between generations before like DS to 3DS (the main gimmick just being a fairly pointless 3D effect). So it's not like there isn't precedent for Nintendo playing it safe to say they won't do it. I reckon Switch 2 will still get a smattering of third party ports and whatnot, and they'll still sell reasonably well owing to the huge install base they'll get.

Yeah, I always thought it was common knowledge that it was pronounced "Game Facks", and that was generally accepted/understood by the people on there going ages back. The same way people say "FOMO" as a single word rather than "eff oh emm oh". It is somewhat amusing though to see people think they're being astute by essentially saying "hey, the FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions, don't you know?!" You don't say...

The worst thing is when Spencer comes out saying the firings are "painful". Complete tosh, he is probably getting a nice bonus after the firings for making the company more profitable.

Microsoft buying them will lead to (and already has led to) games being walled off from specific console owners. They're the worst American company that could have bought them, out of those who would/could realistically have done it. If Google or Amazon had bought them they'd almost certainly carry on releasing ABK games on all consoles as per usual, seeing as they don't have their own home consoles.

It's interesting because what we see as a rip off might actually be sufficiently different to pass. I'm reminded of whenever I go into ALDI, there's tonnes of stuff that is very blatantly meant to look like known brand products, yet clearly they've made products differently enough to avoid legal issues. I'm thinking things like this:

Yeah this is basically what I was suggesting. @Dcubed I'm not suggesting that they would pre-emptively change anything now, I'm saying that if they were actually sued in some way purely on the basis of specific reuse of models then they could technically switch out the models later and the product wouldn't be infringing on anything. Assuming they still had money left after being sued...to be honest I don't really know how it would work, but you'd think they could release a product again if it doesn't infringe on anything, right?

They could just say they're alternate appearances or whatever they want, or simply not make it known that they're working on them. Or they could have even made the alternatives prior to launch for the ones most like Pokemon and have them ready as "prototypes" they already developed. Bear in mind they would only ever switch them in after the point of a successful legal challenge, so no legal ramifications here (in fact it would be to address a legal issue).

To be honest the case is sounding weaker by the minute. Like you say, the only thing that really could be an issue is the 'mon models looking similar and nothing else (i.e. nothing relating to gameplay that could completely take down the game if they had directly copied). You can imagine even if Nintendo could prove some of the models were directly stolen/too similar, the devs would be able to sufficiently redesign any of the 'mon in question to overcome the issue.

Digimon will cope.

On the one hand you say it's difficult to prove and they need to gather evidence, but on the other you say it's "blatant" theft. My guess? It's not blatant at all if Game Freak/Nintendo have to really dig to make a case, blatant is what the Pokemon mod was which was immediately shut down. The game has probably been designed carefully and with legal consultation to be just the right amount of mimicry without actually amounting to theft. This whole conversation actually reminds me of the Digimon vs Pokemon conversation of the 90s. Either way, interesting to see how this goes. Pokemon as a franchise will be fine and continue to sell like gangbusters regardless of what happens with this.

"Your precious Sony". Tell me you cringed at least a little while typing that. Just a little! Let's see how any potential legal case progresses before we jump to conclusions. If they really have stolen assets and it can be proven then that's one thing, but taking very heavy inspiration without actually lifting files is another thing entirely, even if looks like a ripoff. One thing never changes though - Nintendo fans have exactly zero chill. There's no reason that Pokemon needs to become this, having a full size open world game could become a side series just like Pokemon is often known to do with its various spin offs. Not with guns, obviously, but certainly there could be different flavours of game (like Monster Hunter and Zelda have done by having both handheld and main console versions of their games). At the very least, Game Freak could up their game on their main titles. Certainly this is something a lot of people have been wanting for a long, long time.

Like I said, if legally it's found to be plagiarism then it'll be taken down. If it isn't, it won't be. You're describing basically a miscarriage of justice in which apparently it's already determined to be plagiarism but for whatever reason it isn't taken down and/or the developers won't be sued. This situation hasn't happened so...what's the commotion? Also I really disagree that Game Freak learn nothing. This game has sold millions - other Pokemon "clones" haven't, or have for whatever reason been taken down quicker (perhaps suggesting that this game actually is sufficiently different after all). This game is doing a lot of things that Pokemon games aren't but people want them to, and people are lapping it up.

I think you are jumping the gun a bit here. Either one of two things will likely happen: Either it's plagiarism and it will be taken down/the developers sued, but the message of what people want should have gotten through to Game Freak. Or it's not actually going to legally be considered plagiarism (they seem pretty confident they were legally shored up, and it got this far), and millions get to carry on playing a game they seem to be enjoying. Game Freak learn something either way. If you step back and take the emotion/morality out of the situation I think it's very interesting. I'm not someone who is going to play it either way, just someone frustrated with how lazy a job Game Freak have done in the past years and interested to see how this plays out.

Close? That's what I was outright saying. [emoji14] Won't somebody think of the multi billion dollar corporation? Really though, if anything this shows them how hungry people are for a big 3D open world that actually makes use of the hardware somewhat. Basically what people have been asking for for ages (minus the guns). Perhaps them seeing these ridiculous sales figures is a more effective message.

Absolutely, early access is basically a scam that allows people to charge for their game while avoiding the usual responsibilities of making sure the game is relatively glitch free and functional. There's no condition that they even have to go on to fix it or do a full release, either. Glad consoles (mostly) don't seem to do it. Regarding Palworld specifically though, I'm actually kind of glad it's happened. Game Freak have run Pokemon into the ground and do a poor job of actually investing some of that ridiculous capital into making the best games they can. I mean, their games look like ass. Something like this couldn't ruffle the feathers of a more deserving chicken.

Nah. That's some smelly chat.