Xbox Series S | X Console Discussion

[Dcubed]

5 hours ago, Helmsly said:

I genuinely wanted that Garfield Xbox...

They couldn't even be bothered to fit his full face on the damn thing lol!

Edited March 24, 2022 by Dcubed

[bob]

It looks like a box of tissues

[Dcubed]

So… err… Redfall and Starfield just got bumped out of 2022 and into next year… meaning that Xbox Game Studios literally don’t have a single game lined up for release in 2022.

As things stand, 2022 will go by without a single retail XBS release on their own console (ironically, PS5 has gotten an XBS game in the form of Ghostwire Tokyo though).  If Xbox do not announce a game coming out in 2022 at not-E3, then this will officially be the worst first party games drought that any platform holder has ever seen in the history of the medium (yes, even worse than the N64 and Wii U droughts).

What a disaster!!

[Sheikah]

13 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

So… err… Redfall and Starfield just got bumped out of 2022 and into next year… meaning that Xbox Game Studios literally don’t have a single game lined up for release in 2022.

As things stand, 2022 will go by without a single retail XBS release on their own console (ironically, PS5 has gotten an XBS game in the form of Ghostwire Tokyo though).  If Xbox do not announce a game coming out in 2022 at not-E3, then this will officially be the worst first party games drought that any platform holder has ever seen in the history of the medium (yes, even worse than the N64 and Wii U droughts).

What a disaster!!

You see, this is how they can release first party games onto Game Pass on day 1. By not having any!

[Cube]

I was thinking that perhaps Microsoft could focus on getting some big games on Xbox day one...but there doesn't seem to be that many 3rd party games they could do it with.

Deathloop is a guarantee for Game Pass already (plus, has been out on other platforms for a while)

Forspoken isn't on Xbox.

Gotham Knights doesn't look great ,but could be a contender. 

A Plague Tale: Requiem is a bit of a smaller title, but possibly.

System Shock could have potential if our this year.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum doesn't look great, but again is a big IP like Gotham Knights

Sonic Frontiers is something I'm looking forward to, but I'm expecting a delay on it. Plus while the game still sell well, it isn't a big an impact. 

Hogwarts Legacy, I'm dubious about how the game will turn out, but it's probably one of the biggest games they could get on Game Pass.

 

Really, getting a great deal with Warner Bros (Gotham Knights, Gollum and Hogwarts Legacy) is probably their best option.

[Hero-of-Time]

I imagine a new Forza game will release before the end of the year. Maybe Hellblade 2?

I think a lot of hopes were pinned of Halo Infinite carrying the load but that has been a bit of a disaster, with 343 scrambling (again) to get it up to standards. They really need to be taken off the franchise at this point.

I'm not sure what else could get a release? I can't see the next Gears being ready and Perfect Dark, Fable and Rare's new game are all stuck in development hell.

You have to wonder, have MS bit off more than they can chew with all of these studios? There were discussions a few months back about how hands off MS were with all of these developers. Maybe it's time for them to get amongst it a little more.

Saying that, I don't think Sony's current future lineup is exactly stacked. Off the top of my head all I can think of is God of War. I suppose they have just launched GT7 and Horizon, so at least that's something.

Nintendo are sitting pretty at the moment. The Switch has been the perfect console for what is going on in the world. Development costs are lower than what's needed for the other two consoles, teams are smaller and parts are cheaper when making a Switch. It's been the perfect storm for them and I imagine they will continue to be successful thanks to a good looking software lineup for the rest of the year.

[Julius]

1 hour ago, Dcubed said:

What a disaster!!

Yeah, it really is. It feels like every year for years now we've been saying "next year is going to be the year!", and every year we're proved wrong. 

Some might point to COVID, but their first true wave of acquisitions were back in 2018, nearly 4 years ago now: Ninja Theory, Playground Games, Undead Labs, Compulsion Games (all announced at E3 2018), Obsidian and inXile (announced November 2018). 

Let's take a look at what these studios have managed since then:

• Ninja Theory first showed off Senua's Saga: Hellblade II at The Game Awards at the end of 2019. We've seen the game a few more times, but no release date is in sight. There's also that experimental mental health horror game, Project: Mara, which we've heard pretty much nothing about. 

• Playground Games is pretty much the exception on this list, but - shocker! - that's likely because of their already strong relationship with Xbox pre-acquisition. Since their acquisition they've shipped Forza Horizon 4 in September 2018, as well as Forza Horizon 5 in November of last year. However, despite being an exception on this list, Fable seems to have got itself stuck in development hell. 

• Undead Labs shipped State of Decay 2 in May 2018, prior to their announced acquisition at E3 of this year, meaning that the only thing new we've really seen from them after the acquisition is a smattering of DLC for State of Decay 2 (which didn't get much fanfare) and the pre-rendered teaser trailer for State of Decay 3 we got at the Xbox Games Showcase in July 2020. Kotaku reported at the end of March that the studio is in disarray with reports of bullying, harassment, and burnout meaning that the game is stuck in pre-production. 

• Compulsion Games shipped We Happy Few in late 2018 after it's early access release in 2016, and since then we've only heard that they're working on a third person narrative driven game, and that their team has doubled in size (we heard this in October of last year). Otherwise, not a peep. 

• Obsidian are another exception on this list in that they've shipped games since being acquired in June 2018. In October 2019 they shipped The Outer Worlds, in July 2020 they released Grounded through early access (which might still be scheduled for a full release this year?), and they've announced Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 as being in development since being acquired. While I think there's rightly some skepticism about how Xbox's slate fits both Obsidian and Bethesda, there have also been reports for months now about Obsidian potentially taking on a sequel to Fallout: New Vegas. 

• inXile announced a few months back that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 was delayed indefinitely due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine: there are much more important things going on outside of games right now. However, even prior to the indefinite delay, it was slated for December 2022 - I wouldn't have been at all surprised if it slipped into 2023 if not delayed for other reasons. 

So, in four years across six teams we have:

• 3 games shipped which were already deep in development at the time of acquisition (Forza Horizon 4, The Outer Worlds, We Happy Few). 

• 9 games have been announced by these teams in the time following these acquisitions (Hellblade II, Project: Mara, Forza Horizon 5, Fable, State of Decay 3, Compulsion's currently untitled and unseen game, Grounded, Avowed, The Outer Worlds 2) and only 2 of these games have launched, being Forza Horizon 5 and the early access release of Grounded. 

• 1 game is delayed indefinitely due to war (again, nothing can really be said about that - they have bigger things going on), and at least 2 games are in some sort of development hell. 

All of this is to say: Xbox aren't doing a good enough job of managing and curating their portfolio of first party titles if in six acquisitions you have two games announced and released during the nearly four year period following these acquisitions. This has long been my concern with their acquisition blitzing of the industry: it's fine buying everyone up, but without a plan and a solid slate which is - again - being curated (for example, you don't want similar games releasing too close to each other), I'm not surprised that we're currently potentially looking at an entire year without a first party release (if we're not counting Grounded potentially shipping). 

There needs to be better oversight, because how on earth you justify letting Bethesda and Todd Howard announce a specific date over a year out when they aren't even showing off gameplay is beyond me. 

1 hour ago, Cube said:

I was thinking that perhaps Microsoft could focus on getting some big games on Xbox day one...but there doesn't seem to be that many 3rd party games they could do it with.

I think that's pretty much the only route they can go -- well, that and continuing their indie push, which is by far and away the only consistent thing about Game Pass that I've seen as an outsider. There's a lot of them, a lot of the critically acclaimed ones being exclusive in some form or another, they've done a great job there; let's hope none of those guys get acquired, lest they never release another game. 

I think A Plague Tale: Requiem has already been announced as being on Game Pass day one (which is a good shout as it's a great get).

The only game I'd add is a weird one, as it's technically already had multiple releases, but I think we could see Final Fantasy VII Remake finally come to Xbox this year (in its Intergrade form), probably as a Game Pass exclusive. Final Fantasy VII Remake seemingly had a one year exclusivity deal for PlayStation, which I think got re-upped with an additional one year exclusivity deal for Intergrade last year, and so now I think Square Enix can take a third truck of money home by sticking it on Game Pass. 

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I imagine a new Forza game will release before the end of the year. Maybe Hellblade 2?

I think a lot of hopes were pinned of Halo Infinite carrying the load but that has been a bit of a disaster, with 343 scrambling (again) to get it up to standards. They really need to be taken off the franchise at this point.

I'm not sure what else could get a release? I can't see the next Gears being ready and Perfect Dark, Fable and Rare's new game are all stuck in development hell.

The only other announced game I'd add is potentially Project: Mara from Ninja Theory, and otherwise your guess is as good as mine, because I have no clue.

You have to imagine they'll announce something to slip into the second half of the year next month at Not-E3, but even then, it'd be strange if it were Forza or Hellblade II for me just because we don't even have a year for them and they'll be leapfrogging everything else. Think it'd be good for them if it happened, don't get me wrong, but it's a weird one where I don't feel like we have any idea of what they're like when it comes to Xbox Game Studios' plans in terms of rollout and release, because we haven't really seen it happen successfully for them yet. 

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

You have to wonder, have MS bit off more than they can chew with all of these studios? There were discussions a few months back about how hands off MS were with all of these developers. Maybe it's time for them to get amongst it a little more.

Yeah, I hate to be a downer, but I think they've naively gone into these acquisitions thinking that just letting these companies do what they do and sticking the end result on Game Pass makes for a great first party experience, and it just doesn't work. 

I think it's undervalued just how great a job PlayStation and - to a much greater degree in my eyes, just in terms of sheer volume of their output - Nintendo do in terms of curating a steady wave of high quality releases. They don't really mess around with early access, and it seems like there's a person or team - as there should be at Xbox; and if there is, it certainly doesn't feel that way at the moment! - meticulously planning every quarter for them (more so for Nintendo right now, feels like PlayStation are taking a breather).

We very, very, very rarely get pre-rendered trailers from those companies these days, and on the rare occasions we do, they feel warranted due to the size of the announcement, and/or are from studios we trust to ship a game (for example, Insomniac with Spider-Man 2 and Wolverine, or Nintendo with how they handled the reveal of Smash Bros. Ultimate). Xbox, on the other hand, seem to keen to do this as soon as the ink dries on a game being signed off for production. 

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Saying that, I don't think Sony's current future lineup is exactly stacked. Off the top of my head all I can think of is God of War. I suppose they have just launched GT7 and Horizon, so at least that's something.

Yeah, agreed, it seems pretty quiet at the moment, and with every delay that gets announced I do get more and more nervous about Ragnarök landing this year.

I'm sure there's more in the works, but we don't really know what they are; from a first party perspective, the only things I think we can speculate on to potentially land this year are a potential title from Bluepoint (depending on what exactly is going on with them - are they only working on their new IP, or have they grown to have a team for the new IP and a remake team? Who knows) and something/s from Naughty Dog (Factions and/or The Last of Us remake, though I think the latter depends on how they're handling marketing for the show and I have no idea if these two end up being one package).

I miss Japan Studio already 

Edited May 12, 2022 by Julius

[Dcubed]

Agreed @Julius.  There’s only so long you can blame XGS’ woes on COVID for.  We’re four years out from the start of Xbox’s acquisition spree, and more than 2 years out from the start of the pandemic.  XBS’ low output can’t be excused by COVID anymore.

I think Microsoft will probably focus on securing day 1 releases for 3rd party games on Gamepass for the rest of the year.  I suspect that they’ll try and secure every single remaining major 3rd party game due to come out this year (including COD and FIFA).  I can’t think of anything else they can realistically do now for the rest of the year to give themselves an advantage over Playstation.

Edited May 12, 2022 by Dcubed

[Ronnie]

Halo Infinite? Psychonauts 2? Forza Horizon 5?

Those are three GOTY contenders in the last nine months. It sucks that Starfield is being delayed, but every big game is delayed, it was always going to happen. It's obviously not ideal for 2022, but their primary focus, Game Pass, will still continue to be an incredible offering.

What do Playstation have? God of War Ragnarok (IF it makes this year, big if) and then absolutely nothing dated beyond that. Only things announced are Spider-Man 2 for 2023 (in other words probably 2024) and Wolverine (god knows). In the last nine months: Horizon Forbidden West and the shitshow that is GT7.

It's an industry-wide issue.

Edited May 12, 2022 by Ronnie

[Cube]

Psychonauts 2 was great. Halo Infinite is still unfinished and Forza Horizon 5 was a potential good game ruined by live service nonsense. 

[Sheikah]

18 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Halo Infinite? Psychonauts 2? Forza Horizon 5?

Those are three GOTY contenders in the last nine months.

Really? Halo Infinite a GOTY contender? It's been mired in controversy and they still haven't delivered on co-op mode.

[Julius]

18 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Halo Infinite? Psychonauts 2? Forza Horizon 5?

Those are three GOTY contenders in the last nine months.

I mean, more specifically - and bringing it back around to what I was saying about curation - those three games were released within a 4 month window, and that's part of the problem I'm pointing at. If you look at that 4 month window in a vacuum, it looks excellent, but when you take a step back, that's probably one of the most concentrated few months Xbox Game Studios has had for new titles in a very long time, which I genuinely think shows a lack of curation on Xbox's part. 

Yes, COVID has been a factor, and I don't want to mitigate its impact, but the only one of those games without a prolonged development period was Forza Horizon 5: Psychonauts 2 was a 2015 Fig; Halo Infinite was announced back at E3 2018 to be a Series X launch title, which it missed out on by over a year because they had to scrap some two thirds of the game.

As others have pointed out already, Halo Infinite had issues with marketing and gameplay showings before release, many who have played the game have talked about how clear it was that it had issues from the limited number of biomes/lack of diversity (for the record, I haven't and will hold off my own judgement until I do play the game, but listen to a lot of podcasts where people whose opinions I trust have talked about the game at length), and it's multiplayer has tapered off quickly due to some fairly egregious - but unfortunately not totally unexpected - practices, as well as not being updated regularly enough to continue to bring players back. 

For Psychonauts 2, obviously it's production was in place long before the Xbox acquisition, and Double Fine at the time decided to go the crowdfunding route (a smart move before the age of acquisitions we've found ourselves in these last few years for a game which was more of a cult classic than it was a commercial success). It's worth pointing out too that they also shipped a VR game in that time, so I don't want to make it sound like they weren't busy, but it was a holdover from prior to the acquisition and not really a sign of Xbox managing them well. 

Others who have played the game have mentioned Forza Horizon 5, so I won't dig too deep there, but yeah, from what I've heard and seen from others the live service route meant the game tapered off pretty quickly. 

18 hours ago, Ronnie said:

It sucks that Starfield is being delayed, but every big game is delayed, it was always going to happen. It's obviously not ideal for 2022, but their primary focus, Game Pass, will still continue to be an incredible offering.

I think, for me personally, it's letting your biggest acquired studio (at least until Activision-Blizzard goes through) with a history of buggy game launches announce a specific release date well over a year before launch without showing a glimpse of gameplay.

I absolutely get bringing the game back to start ramping up the conversation as it's been in cryogenic slumber since it's teaser at E3 2018 - I think that was absolutely the right move, especially for Xbox after the acquisition - but in hindsight, what they really should have done is show the trailer and have Todd come out and say "we'll have more to share with you next summer", rather than spitting out a date of 11/11/22 for a gimmick release date to coincide with some of their previous big release patterns.

We've seen a lot of delays due to COVID, and again, I don't want to dismiss the impact that would have, but we are talking about BGS, and I'm still firmly of the opinion that during this (still ongoing) pandemic, announcing a specific release date so far out is asking for trouble. 

But yeah, like I said before: Game Pass is still a great deal for those that are already in the Xbox ecosystem, and I think indies have been the strongest point of the service so far. But as someone who owns a Switch and PlayStation 5, indie games and legacy Xbox titles aren't enough to bring me in personally, and that's why it's so important that Xbox start to churn out quality first party content consistently, as they'll then have the attention of people like myself who don't care to play on PC. 

18 hours ago, Ronnie said:

What do Playstation have? God of War Ragnarok (IF it makes this year, big if) and then absolutely nothing dated beyond that. Only things announced are Spider-Man 2 for 2023 (in other words probably 2024) and Wolverine (god knows). In the last nine months: Horizon Forbidden West and the shitshow that is GT7.

I mean, in fairness, as has been mentioned in the game's own thread, Christopher Judge was out of action due to what sounds like a very serious injury/back problem in the middle of the game's development:

I certainly think it makes the original "2021" announcement prior to the release of the PS5 more egregious in hindsight (I definitely get the feeling that that announcement was a PlayStation publisher decision vs a Sony Santa Monica developer decision). Again, I think in hindsight, they should have announced the game without a release window, but making the announcement as early as they did made business sense (we all knew a sequel was in the works, but putting a name out there months before the PS5 dropped is just smart business). 

As for Insomniac, let's be honest, Spider-Man 2 probably isn't getting delayed, as far as I can remember since Spider-Man (2018) they haven't actually announced a delay (maybe I'm forgetting something about R&C, but: pandemic). Spider-Man didn't have a release window in its E3 2016 trailer, got a 2018 window at E3 2017, and then in 2018 we got specifics on a release date. Miles Morales was also put out in a timely manner. They've been one of only a handful of first party studios outside of Nintendo that has been consistently churning out quality AAA experiences, they've likely up-sized since their acquisition, and they're always on time. 

And, I mean, you aren't the only one who is feeling the lack of first party titles from PlayStation - as myself and others have stated recently, our PS5s at this point are mostly used to get the best experiences for PS4 titles - but I think a key difference between them and Xbox right now is that the number of deals they strike up for AAA games with third party publishers, as well as the almost guaranteed high quality AAA output of their first party studios, which we consistently know are coming; this is where looking back at last generation inspires confidence because once the generation really got going, so did PlayStation, whereas Xbox fell off a cliff and basically faked their own death.

Comparatively, we still know so little Xbox Game Studios as a publisher/overseer/curator because they have yet to consistently put titles out before we even start thinking about them consistently putting out critically acclaimed titles on a regular basis. I think that's the big question mark in everyone's minds right now, and I think it's a fair one to have. 

Also, regarding GT7, as someone who has put a lot of time into the game I do need to speak up and say: the game itself is fantastic, and recent patches have made it so that you can earn ~2.5 million credits per hour with the right car settings and event, which is pretty standard considering that grinding has always been a part of these games. I still absolutely think the microtransaction practices in the game and how they're presented (and especially how it was handled in marketing before release and how it was presented at launch) are nothing short of disgusting, though; going off what @Cube said about Forza, sounds like both are quality AAA racing games with unfortunate problems brought about by greedy execs (focus on live service/lottery system vs microtransactions up in your face 24/7). 

[Ronnie]

For the record, I haven't played any of the three games I mentioned, but they all reviewed extremely well and the outlets I was tuned into were all talking about how they were GOTY contenders, Psychonauts and Forza Horizon 5 in particular. I think the latter even won IGN's vote.

And I totally agree that pacing wise it's obviously really poor, I'm definitely not excusing going an entire year without a first party game, it's shocking, but I feel that no credit was being given to three quality titles released very recently. But yeah, spacing out the releases might have helped. Maybe Forza could have been pushed.

2 hours ago, Julius said:

I mean, in fairness, as has been mentioned in the game's own thread, Christopher Judge was out of action due to what sounds like a very serious injury/back problem in the middle of the game's development:

I'd forgotten about that, thanks for the reminder! And fair enough about how Insomniac are good with release dates! I've just gotten used to literally every single big game being pushed these days, it's almost laughable. I'm not complaining by the way, games being rushed to market broken is far worse. I just roll my eyes at release dates being pretty meaningless. 

And yeah fair enough about XGS having a lot more to prove compared to PlayStation Studios. Although tbh the latter's extremely-safe and cookie cutter third person action games are starting to get a little boring if I'm honest, for me at least. And it's one of my favourite genres! I was hoping Horizon might do something different and push the genre forward, but nope. And what's on the horizon for PS5 first party? Another third person action game in God of War (but the first was fantastic so can't complain), and then a couple more, with added (overdone?) superhero flavour. I guess it'll be a few years yet before this gen really takes off, for both Xbox and Sony.

Oh and btw my earlier post wasn't directed at/arguing with your previous post specifically @Julius, in case it needed clarifying.

[Sheikah]

46 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

Although tbh the latter's extremely-safe and cookie cutter third person action games are starting to get a little boring if I'm honest, for me at least. And it's one of my favourite genres! I was hoping Horizon might do something different and push the genre forward, but nope. And what's on the horizon for PS5 first party? Another third person action game in God of War (but the first was fantastic so can't complain), and then a couple more, with added (overdone?) superhero flavour. I guess it'll be a few years yet before this gen really takes off, for both Xbox and Sony.

Oh and btw my earlier post wasn't directed at/arguing with your previous post specifically @Julius, in case it needed clarifying.

I think that's unfair - they had games like Returnal (roguelike) and Ratchel and Clank which won BAFTAs this year, that were not your typical third person narrative-driven games like God of War or TLOU2. If all it needs to be considered "the same" is for it to be third person then that doesn't really make any sense, since the majority of games are third person.

Heck, virtually everything Nintendo put out is third person. And let's be honest, Spider-man looks and plays completely differently to God of War. Not the same type of game at all.

Edited May 13, 2022 by Sheikah

[Ronnie]

4 hours ago, Sheikah said:

I think that's unfair - they had games like Returnal (roguelike) and Ratchel and Clank which won BAFTAs this year, that were not your typical third person narrative-driven games like God of War or TLOU2. If all it needs to be considered "the same" is for it to be third person then that doesn't really make any sense, since the majority of games are third person.

Heck, virtually everything Nintendo put out is third person. And let's be honest, Spider-man looks and plays completely differently to God of War. Not the same type of game at all.

Obviously they're not releasing identical games, but I do think their AAA output plays things extremely safe a lot of the time. Not only are most of their blockbusters quite samey mechanically but they don't seem to push the genre forward much, it's often times just highly polished perfecting of a well worn formula. Maybe it was more noticeable because I went from Ghost of Tsushima to Horizon Forbidden West in short order, both perfect examples of that.

But yeah, Returnal is a fair example of something different from them.

[Sheikah]

Obviously they're not releasing identical games, but I do think their AAA output plays things extremely safe a lot of the time. Not only are most of their blockbusters quite samey mechanically but they don't seem to push the genre forward much, it's often times just highly polished perfecting of a well worn formula. Maybe it was more noticeable because I went from Ghost of Tsushima to Horizon Forbidden West in short order, both perfect examples of that.
But yeah, Returnal is a fair example of something different from them.

But would you not also say Gran Turismo is AAA? Certainly has the big budget. And it's nothing like a narrative third person game. And what about Deathloop? That was a PS5 exclusive, which was an FPS with a time loop mechanic. We've also had Ghostwire Tokyo (first person) and Destruction All Stars (where you're in a vehicle). If you count those on top of Returnal, Ratchet and Clank and Demon's Souls, you'll see that on PS5 at least the "narrative driven third person" game type is very much in the minority. If anything, they need more of them!

[Ronnie]

14 minutes ago, Sheikah said:

But would you not also say Gran Turismo is AAA? Certainly has the big budget. And it's nothing like a narrative third person game. And what about Deathloop? That was a PS5 exclusive, which was an FPS with a time loop mechanic. We've also had Ghostwire Tokyo (first person) and Destruction All Stars (where you're in a vehicle). If you count those on top of Returnal, Ratchet and Clank and Demon's Souls, you'll see that on PS5 at least the "narrative driven third person" game type is very much in the minority.

Deathloop, Ghostwire Tokyo and Destruction All Stars aren't PlayStation Studios?

14 minutes ago, Sheikah said:

If anything, they need more of them!

After God of War, The Last of Us, Days Gone, Horizon, Infamous, Ghost of Tsushima and Uncharted ... I think we're set in that regard  Throw in a third Spider-Man game in five years, another openworld superhero game in Wolverine and yeah...

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed/loved most of those games, but I don't think it's controversial to suggest that PS Studios play things pretty safe these days. Both in terms of genre, and the actual gameplay within the games themselves. 

Edited May 13, 2022 by Ronnie

[Sheikah]

 

All those games you mentioned apart from God of War are PS4 games (some with PS5 versions), not PS5. So on PS5 they don't have an abundance of them, and I wouldn't count count Spiderman as that's completely different to say Uncharted or TLOU. There's also a big distinction between open world games (e.g. Horizon) and Uncharted. I don't think anyone playing both of those would come away feeling they'd played even remotely similar games.

 

Also not sure what the relevance is of pointing out whether games are PlayStation Studios or not. Sony are still striking deals to get those exclusives to increase the diversity of games on their console. I don't think it makes sense to exclude them seeing as they're companies getting Sony money just like the first party studios.

 

Also bear in mind "PlayStation studios" is a relatively new branding so it doesn't reveal the true picture of how much Sony is involved in each of those games.

[bob]

Uncharted is a 3rd person shooter. It has some platforming elements, but it's pretty linear. (or the first 2 are).

[Ronnie]

3 hours ago, Sheikah said:

Also not sure what the relevance is of pointing out whether games are PlayStation Studios or not.

Because that's literally what my point is about. The discussion was about Xbox Game Studios, and I brought up Playstation Studios as a point of comparison, saying this:

18 hours ago, Ronnie said:

And yeah fair enough about XGS having a lot more to prove compared to PlayStation Studios. Although tbh the latter's extremely-safe and cookie cutter third person action games are starting to get a little boring if I'm honest, for me at least.

[Sheikah]

But if Sony are securing (or even commissioning) exclusives that aren't those types of games then what does it matter whether they have the "PlayStation Studios" brand or not? Destruction AllStars is also published by Sony so Sony have involvement there. It looks like the kind of game that Sony would have been on board from the beginning, perhaps even requesting it.

My point is, what does it matter? Feels like you're cherry picking to make a fairly irrelevant point. Whether developed by a "PlayStation Studio" or not, Sony are the ones choosing which games to have as exclusives on their platform.

[Ronnie]

The whole discussion on this page is about cherry picking and discussing in-house, first party game development. Anyway, I'll leave it there.

[Julius]

More of a cool piece of trivia than it is a sign of Xbox truly overtaking PlayStation, but the Series S singlehandedly outsold the PS5 last week (due to a shortage of PS5 availability):

Interestingly, it looks like Xbox are seemingly getting there in terms of moving past the shortages? Series X has been in stock consistently for a little while now on Amazon. 

Edited May 19, 2022 by Julius

[Hero-of-Time]

Xbox outsold PlayStation in Japan? Hell has officially frozen over.  

[Julius]

17 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Xbox outsold PlayStation in Japan? Hell has officially frozen over.  

You might even say Ragnarök is coming 

(but yeah it's nuts)