Xbox Series S | X Console Discussion

[Ike]

19 hours ago, Julius said:

More details:

 

My brain somehow read that tweet as "Supports Sonic"??? 

The design is nice. The stills don't show the green ring so I didn't know it was there until I clicked the link and saw the photos.

[Dcubed]

Headset looks legit impressive for the money.  Ironically, the dual wireless functionality would’ve made it an ideal fit for Switch and its dodgy voice chat!

Real shame it doesn’t have a 3.5mm headphone jack...

[Julius]

Fall Guys is also coming over to Xbox this summer! 

Great for them and the community, hopefully numbers pick up and more people have a fun time with it! 

[Dcubed]

From the Bethesda Roundtable today; commemorating the formal absorption of Bethesda into Xbox Game Studios...

https://streamable.com/y2yf4j

Quote

 "I listen to the podcasts and all the questions, so I'm gonna try to be as clear as I can, because that's what I, I just think it's fair. So obviously I can't sit here and say every Bethesda game is exclusive, because we know that's not true. There's contractual obligations that we're going to see through as we always do in every one of these instances. We have games that exist on other platforms, and we're going to go support those games on the platforms they're on. There's communities of players. We love those communities and we'll continue to invest in them. And even in the future, there might be things that have either contractual things or legacy on different platforms that we'll go do. But if you're an Xbox customer, the thing I want you to know is this is about delivering great exclusive games for you that ship on platforms where Game Pass exists, and that's our goal. That's why we're doing this. That's the root of this partnership that we're building, and the creative capability we will be able to bring to market for our Xbox customers is going to be the best it's ever been for Xbox after we're done here."

Hopefully this'll finally bring about acceptance of reality into those still clinging onto hope that future Bethesda games will keep coming to Playstation.

Past games will be supported and contracts will be honoured; but past that? You better pony up for an Xbox Game Pass sub and/or an Xbox console.

Edited March 11, 2021 by Dcubed

[Sheikah]

29 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Hopefully this'll finally bring about acceptance of reality into those still clinging onto hope that future Bethesda games will keep coming to Playstation.Past games will be supported and contracts will be honoured; but past that? You better pony up for an Xbox Game Pass sub and/or an Xbox console

 

See that quote makes it sound like Elder Scrolls will still be on PlayStation (particularly in reference to the existing communities on those platforms).The fact they haven't explicitly stated which series will be exclusive doesn't put anything to bed, in fact keeps the guessing going. If they plan to make all future games exclusive then why not explicitly say so? If that was the plan then surely they'd say it, we are at a point where people are picking their next console and such an announcement could make all the difference in swaying people to go with Xbox.

Edited March 11, 2021 by Sheikah

[Dcubed]

10 minutes ago, Sheikah said:

 

See that quote makes it sound like Elder Scrolls will still be on PlayStation (particularly in reference to the existing communities on those platforms).The fact they haven't explicitly stated which series will be exclusive doesn't put anything to bed, in fact keeps the guessing going. If they plan to make all future games exclusive then why not explicitly say so? If that was the plan then surely they'd say it, we are at a point where people are picking their next console and such an announcement could make all the difference in swaying people to go with Xbox.

This is pretty clear...

Quote

And even in the future, there might be things that have either contractual things or legacy on different platforms that we'll go do

They will honour existing contracts and will keep existing games supported where they are available on other consoles.  Otherwise? It's exclusive to Xbox.  There's no real ambiguity here.

They're not gonna sabotage upcoming games like Deathloop & Ghostwire Tokyo, which Sony bought timed exclusivity for, and they're going to continue supporting them post-launch.  They're also going to honour existing contracts for things like PSNow (which is why Doom 2016 is currently not on Game Pass, despite all the other Doom games being on Gamepass starting from tomorrow; because Sony have the exclusive streaming/subscription rights to it for now).  And they're not gonna block existing Bethesda games from working on PS5 via BC.

But future titles will be exclusive to Xbox and any machine that runs Xbox Game Pass (A not so subtle strongarming of Microsoft & Nintendo to allow Game Pass on their platforms if they want these games...).

Edited March 11, 2021 by Dcubed

[Sheikah]

It feels needlessly verbose to me, as an explanation. In fact his English is a bit broken in his explanation of the Game Pass thing (or rather the sentence is convoluted), which makes it difficult to understand what he's saying:

"But if you're an Xbox customer, the thing I want you to know is this is about delivering great exclusive games for you that ship on platforms where Game Pass exists, and that's our goal."

So if you're an Xbox customer, you're getting exclusive games that ship on platforms where Game Pass exists? If you're not an Xbox customer, does that mean you're getting the games after a year? Who knows. The term "exclusive" is used in the most trivial ways these days.

I'm not sure why they don't just spell out that Elder Scrolls will be an Xbox exclusive for life. That's the main one that everyone cares about. They'd massively sway people over to Xbox in one move by saying that; people love Elder Scrolls. The fact they're not saying that outright is what fuels speculation.

Edited March 11, 2021 by Sheikah

[RedShell]

19 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

which is why Doom 2016 is currently not on Game Pass, despite all the other Doom games being on Gamepass starting from tomorrow; because Sony have the exclusive streaming/subscription rights to it for now

Ah, I wondered what was going on there.

[Dcubed]

1 hour ago, Sheikah said:

It feels needlessly verbose to me, as an explanation. In fact his English is a bit broken in his explanation of the Game Pass thing (or rather the sentence is convoluted), which makes it difficult to understand what he's saying:

"But if you're an Xbox customer, the thing I want you to know is this is about delivering great exclusive games for you that ship on platforms where Game Pass exists, and that's our goal."

So if you're an Xbox customer, you're getting exclusive games that ship on platforms where Game Pass exists? If you're not an Xbox customer, does that mean you're getting the games after a year? Who knows. The term "exclusive" is used in the most trivial ways these days.

I'm not sure why they don't just spell out that Elder Scrolls will be an Xbox exclusive for life. That's the main one that everyone cares about. They'd massively sway people over to Xbox in one move by saying that; people love Elder Scrolls. The fact they're not saying that outright is what fuels speculation.

The thing you have to remember is that they're dealing with a pre-existing publisher that already had godknows how many backroom deals and contracts with all of the various console manufacturers, game retailers etc, that they not only still have to honour; but they also need to abide by the NDAs attached to these contracts (and this very likely also includes upcoming games that Bethesda haven't announced yet too).

If they could freely talk about exactly how their exclusivity is going to work? They probably would.  But they have all of those pre-existing behind the scenes NDAs that will prevent them from discussing things in detail and prevent them from being as transparant as they might otherwise be.

As for the bit about "this is about delivering great exclusive games for you that ship on platforms where Game Pass exists"? It's no big secret that Microsoft want both Nintendo and Playstation to allow Xbox Game Pass on their respective platforms; and they have very clearly been in talks with both console manufacturers about having this happen.  The notion here is clear.  If Nintendo & Sony want to have Bethesda games on their platforms in the future? They need to acquiesce and allow Microsoft to put Xbox Game Pass on their consoles.

Edited March 11, 2021 by Dcubed

[Cube]

3 hours ago, Sheikah said:

 

I'm not sure why they don't just spell out that Elder Scrolls will be an Xbox exclusive for life. That's the main one that everyone cares about. They'd massively sway people over to Xbox in one move by saying that; people love Elder Scrolls. The fact they're not saying that outright is what fuels speculation.

It's all about manipulation. Phil Spencer is great at it. Clever business mind, but easily one of the worst people in the industry, pretending to be friendly to the people he wants to control.

 

Also, with the recent release of Forza Horizon 4 on Steam at full price (along with loads of DLC on top), I think Microsoft's games will become like Nintendo's in terms of never getting decent discounts. Not because of demand, but because they're bigging up Game Pass. The stream release of FH4 was just a Game Pass advert more than anything else.

[Sheikah]

It's all about manipulation. Phil Spencer is great at it. Clever business mind, but easily one of the worst people in the industry, pretending to be friendly to the people he wants to control.
 
Also, with the recent release of Forza Horizon 4 on Steam at full price (along with loads of DLC on top), I think Microsoft's games will become like Nintendo's in terms of never getting decent discounts. Not because of demand, but because they're bigging up Game Pass. The stream release of FH4 was just a Game Pass advert more than anything else.

All about manipulating people...not to get an Xbox because they're not spelling out clearly that Elder Scrolls will be Xbox exclusive? I'm more willing to put this down to the reasons Dcubed is giving on this one, rather than cleverness.

[Ganepark32]

ID@Xbox and Twitch are doing the first indie showcase for Xbox next Friday, March 26th at 9am PST/4pm GMT:

They're saying that they'll have over 100 games to showcase with games like Stalker 2 and The Ascent being shown off with new gameplay footage for both of those. I'd even imagine a release date for The Ascent given it was originally a launch title. Apparently Drinkbox (Guacamelee) will have something new to show so interested to see what that is.

[Ronnie]

Wow 100 games!

Looking forward to see what Drinkbox have been up to.

Also maybe some Tunic? Feels like that was revealed years ago.

[Ronnie]

Smart Delivery, not quite "just a fancy name", as some people suggested.

Xbox Smart Delivery Turned Out To Be A Pretty Big Deal

Quote

Nothing has put the gulf between standard operating procedure for next-gen games and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X/S Smart Delivery feature on display quite like Marvel’s Avengers. The loot RPG’s next-gen version went live yesterday and turned out to be a massive headache for those looking to upgrade from PS4 to PS5. First, they had to make sure both versions of the game were downloaded and updated on the console. Then they had to migrate their save data over. Hours and dozens of GB of data later, they could delete the PS4 version and finally get to playing.

Of course, all of this was made somewhat more complicated by how clumsy it can be to actually check which versions of a game you have downloaded on your PS5 and whether they’re updated. Marvel’s Avengers itself was also acting up, with the in-game option to migrate save data not appearing for some players. It took Crystal Dynamics several tweets and a dedicated FAQ on PlayStation’s website to explain the process, which was unintuitive enough to cause many people’s eyes to glaze over after reading the instructions. “Living in the future at Sony over here,” tweeted Forbes writer Paul Tassi.

On Xbox Series X/S, meanwhile, things just worked.

Xbox continues to set the standard with everything that isn't exclusive games.

[Cube]

 

2 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Smart Delivery, not quite "just a fancy name", as some people suggested.

Nah, it's still a dumb marketing buzzword with a name that sounds more a feature that only downloads the content you need (like audio files, single player or multiplayer content, options for using lower graphics settings), which is far, far more important and really should be a priority across all platforms. 

 

Free upgrades are a good thing, they could have just called it that.

[Dcubed]

10 hours ago, Cube said:

 

Nah, it's still a dumb marketing buzzword with a name that sounds more a feature that only downloads the content you need (like audio files, single player or multiplayer content, options for using lower graphics settings), which is far, far more important and really should be a priority across all platforms. 

 

Free upgrades are a good thing, they could have just called it that.

That IS what Smart Delivery does though.  You don't really have seperate Xbox One and Xbox Series SKUs of games (Unlike on PS4/PS5); it's the same SKU, only that it just downloads the assets that are actually used by each respective machine.

That's why save files work seamlessly on Xbox.

[Mr-Paul]

1 hour ago, Dcubed said:

That IS what Smart Delivery does though.  You don't really have seperate Xbox One and Xbox Series SKUs of games (Unlike on PS4/PS5); it's the same SKU, only that it just downloads the assets that are actually used by each respective machine.

That's why save files work seamlessly on Xbox.

But there are exceptions. 

My brother recently got a Series X. FIFA 21 has two versions available to download - the Xbox One version and a Series S/X version. Upgrading isn't seamless, and your full save file doesn't carry over from one version to the next. So he has had to download the One version to continue his progress. 

I don't know if there are any other exceptions/how many there are, and sure, this is EA and EA suck, but just wanted to point out that Xbox having 'Smart Delivery' doesn't guarantee going from one gen to the next is seamless. 

[Dcubed]

4 minutes ago, Mr-Paul said:

But there are exceptions. 

My brother recently got a Series X. FIFA 21 has two versions available to download - the Xbox One version and a Series S/X version. Upgrading isn't seamless, and your full save file doesn't carry over from one version to the next. So he has had to download the One version to continue his progress. 

I don't know if there are any other exceptions/how many there are, and sure, this is EA and EA suck, but just wanted to point out that Xbox having 'Smart Delivery' doesn't guarantee going from one gen to the next is seamless. 

The game has to actually support Smart Delivery for this to work.  EA just (as you rightfully said) suck.

Any game that has the Smart Delivery moniker should just work, as far as moving save files from one machine to the other goes.

Edited March 20, 2021 by Dcubed

[Sheikah]

On 20/03/2021 at 11:00 AM, Cube said:

 

Nah, it's still a dumb marketing buzzword with a name that sounds more a feature that only downloads the content you need (like audio files, single player or multiplayer content, options for using lower graphics settings), which is far, far more important and really should be a priority across all platforms. 

 

Free upgrades are a good thing, they could have just called it that.

I don't think that's fair - it's something that was originally assumed to be a dumb buzzword but is now clearly actually a useful thing, and is being proven game after game to be helpful. There's a lot of multiplatform games that are getting Xbox upgrades very quickly, while the PS5 has to wait for a dedicated version. 

As described by Psyonix when updating Rocket League to enable 120fps on PS5, it "requires a full native port", whereas they said it's just a "minor patch" on Xbox Series X and S. Then you also have this issue with upgrading saves being difficult for some games between PS4 and PS5 versions.

In fairness having two simple words to describe what Microsoft have here makes referring to it easy, albeit a bit buzzword sounding. It's a bit like saying you didn't like the marketing term "HD Ready" back in 2007; but there's no denying it was a helpful term to have exist so that you could look for this slogan on a new TV you might have been purchasing.

[Ganepark32]

New Drinkbox game has been announced during the ID@Xbox indie stream (which has so far been awful because of the format they've chosen, Twitch streamers interviewing select devs, lots of talking and very little time spent on the games, also its a 4 hour stream apparently so something they might want to figure out for next time):

Looks great. Different to Guacamelee but you can still see similarities here and there. Coming to Game Pass on launch which is a big one. Can't wait as I loved the original Guacamelee, the sequel was good but had the misfortune of coming out in the same year as Hollow Knight and just wasn't as good as the first. Do still need to play Severed at some point.

Edit: Another highlight from the stream so far is The Wild At Heart which is releasing May 20th and looks fantastic. Very Don't Starve meets Pikmin with a Knights and Bikes visual style. One to keep an eye on.

 

Edited March 26, 2021 by Ganepark32

[Ronnie]

Game Pass keeps winning!

Awesome news, day 1 for anything Drinkbox puts out for me.

[Nicktendo]

I just joined the Game Pass party!

Picked up a Series S on a whim this morning for around £280, which is pretty cheap for here, don't know the U.K RRP. Was hoping to upgrade my GFX card to a 3080 this year for my PC, but I don't think prices are going to normalise any time soon, so I took the plunge with MS. That's coupled with the fact that 1st party games are super expensive on Steam. Singed straight up to Game Pass and I'm currently downloading Rare Replay (FINALLY!!), Forza Horizon and some other stuff. Amazed by how small it is! HDD size is a massive concern though, already filling up fast. Hopefully it'll give me a nice little boost over my current PC set-up anyway in the mean time and it means easier couch / bedroom gaming without pissing about with wires and switching monitors. Impressed with the OS, it's silky smooth - all positive so far. First non-tendo system since 2009! 

Had to make a new Gamertag because my Microsoft Account is tied to an unsupported region. 

Add me at NicktendoLV.

[Happenstance]

Rumours going around at the moment that Kojima is gonna be working with Microsoft for his next game.

[Julius]

7 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

Rumours going around at the moment that Kojima is gonna be working with Microsoft for his next game.

Yeah was reading about this earlier, and it does have me curious about what's happening (if there is any truth to this, let's not forgets Kojima was also supposed to be spearheading a revival of Silent Hills less than a year ago). Key to this I think is the rumour isn't that Kojima Productions is being bought by Xbox, so we can hopefully not have conversations come up about moneyhatting.

If anything, we know PlayStation thought that Death Stranding underperformed from that earnings report a year or so ago, so I imagine it's down to one of a few options:

- Kojima needed a huge backing which PlayStation wasn't ready to provide and Xbox could.

- PlayStation weren't interested in backing Kojima again just based on the apparent poor performance of Death Stranding (I mean, I imagine the truth lies somewhere here, as we've seen them go hard in on becoming less risk averse over the last few months in particular).

- Kojima had an idea he wanted to bring to Game Pass in particular. 

The last option has me particularly excited, and honestly, I'd hope if there's truth to this rumour that this is the reasoning behind it. Both P.T. and Death Stranding counted on the efforts of its audience to a degree for carrying the game, whether it be figuring out how to actually get to the end of the former, or how collaboration could help massively in the latter. Game Pass would provide Kojima with immediate access to a massive audience to focus on some form of collaboration in a way that releasing a demo or game in a traditional sense wouldn't necessarily. 

Bigger question for me is the engine they'd use. There's no way it'd be Decima, right, just because that's Sony property? So perhaps Unreal Engine 4/5? I feel like that would make the most sense for Kojima Productions moving forwards as an independent studio anyways, it just gives them more options. 

Yeah, I'd be gutted personally if his next project was Xbox exclusive, but I've still got a few games of Kojima's to get through anyways at this point. Who knows, by the time this potentially comes around, I might have picked up an Xbox anyways! 

[Kaepora_Gaebora]

On 30/03/2021 at 1:36 PM, Nicktendo said:

I just joined the Game Pass party!

Picked up a Series S on a whim this morning for around £280, which is pretty cheap for here, don't know the U.K RRP. Was hoping to upgrade my GFX card to a 3080 this year for my PC, but I don't think prices are going to normalise any time soon, so I took the plunge with MS. That's coupled with the fact that 1st party games are super expensive on Steam. Singed straight up to Game Pass and I'm currently downloading Rare Replay (FINALLY!!), Forza Horizon and some other stuff. Amazed by how small it is! HDD size is a massive concern though, already filling up fast. Hopefully it'll give me a nice little boost over my current PC set-up anyway in the mean time and it means easier couch / bedroom gaming without pissing about with wires and switching monitors. Impressed with the OS, it's silky smooth - all positive so far. First non-tendo system since 2009! 

Had to make a new Gamertag because my Microsoft Account is tied to an unsupported region. 

Add me at NicktendoLV.

Done and done! How you getting on with the Series S? 

I really want to hold out for the X, but money 🤷‍♂️ so I'd be interested to know how the S hold up!