The PS5 and Xbox 2 thread - it's happening

[Caim]

The use of a handheld device that streams from your biggest machine is immediately apparent if you have children.

(Hint : the device is not for the children).

Spoiler

As soon as I turn a game on the TV or on the computer, I've got two little creatures gathering next to me, which is not something I want at all times. Also, streaming is now good enough that when everyone is in bed I can play on the TV at 1080p with decent quality with no config hassle or savegame syncing issues.

My Steam Deck is mostly used in remote play mode.

Use the opportunity to teach them about the good old days. Show them the ways of HoMM3 and C&C as early as possible.

 

[911 Jumper]

Looks like the next game from Sony's Bend Studio (makers of Days Gone) is going to be a Triple A Live Service game.

 

[deuxhero]

When is the last "live service" game that didn't fail horribly?

Can't see what a portable Xbox is going to offer that Steam Deck and all the other portables don't already offer. Xbox doesn't even have a compelling library of exclusives to entice people. They can't even shift their home consoles because the software line-up is lacking. Once again this seems to be a symptom of Xbox leadership thinking its main problem is hardware-based.

A UMPC that had an official 360 emulator and Xbone game support would attract some attention. Problem is MS is committed to shutting down the 360 store so that wouldn't work.

 

[911 Jumper]

When is the last "live service" game that didn't fail horribly?

Can't see what a portable Xbox is going to offer that Steam Deck and all the other portables don't already offer. Xbox doesn't even have a compelling library of exclusives to entice people. They can't even shift their home consoles because the software line-up is lacking. Once again this seems to be a symptom of Xbox leadership thinking its main problem is hardware-based.

A UMPC that had an official 360 emulator and Xbone game support would attract some attention. Problem is MS is committed to shutting down the 360 store so that wouldn't work.

Sony rejected the pitch for Days Gone 2 for whatever this is, it seems.

Most of the 360's library is available via Steam. Xbox One has even fewer exclusives – most of it is available elsewhere. Steam Deck 2 will likely be out by the time a portable Xbox hits the market. Can't see lots of people switching over to the Xbox's ecosystem after having abandoned it for the last two gens. If Microsoft kept lots of Xbox games “Only on Xbox”, then I could see why a portable Xbox would be compelling.

 

[deuxhero]

360 still has a decent number of exclusives and 360+PS3 games that never made it to PC. It wouldn't be a primary selling point, but it would give it a point over the other UMPCs.

 

[The Decline]

360 still has a decent number of exclusives and 360+PS3 games that never made it to PC. It wouldn't be a primary selling point, but it would give it a point over the other UMPCs.

But they would never bother making those exclusives available. At best you would get a mix of first party MS crap and a limited selection of only the most popular games.

 

[deuxhero]

That's why I specified the store shutting down.

 

[TedNugent]

Man, I sprung for a shiny PlayStation 5, then they ported everything to Steam like a month afterward. Then I spin the thing up and find out it's literally a PlayStation 4. They play the same games, and it's literally the exact same.

I feel like the coof shortages basically made them use the PS4 and XOne as a fallback so that no one felt left out of "next gen gaming."

It's really interesting hearing about the bullshit they're planning for the next generation console. Basically following the line of the PS4 Pro / Xbox One + or whatever, where they're basically nothing more than a hardware upgrade.

Remember when console generations were exciting as hell, and kids would wake up in their pajamies and shit themselves when they found a console sized box under the tree? Now they're basically just generations of hardware. I guess it's not strictly a bad thing, but I've got to admit, it's still kind of worst of both worlds. Generic as shit console generations that are just hardware upgrades and nothing more. But they're still locked down like an Apple iPro Macbox. I guess on the bright side I can use my PS4 in another room or donate it to an Xbox refugee? At least it's another Blu Ray player. And on the upswing, the last few console generations have been great for AMD's CPU/GPU on a stick development, as well as standardized development, assisting in cross-platform ports.

Why do they still have 1 terabyte of storage space? That's like eight games worth of storage space these days, even if you have disks, since it installs the whole thing to the SSD anyway. Kind of crazy when you consider the virtual Blockbuster buffet that is Gamepass.

I feel like a lot of people are literally not even going to bother when they release the "next generation" consoles. Sony and Microsoft might as well just go the way of SEGA.

 

[Modron]

Looks like the next game from Sony's Bend Studio (makers of Days Gone) is going to be a Triple A Live Service game.

Ah modern game design, studio makes a successful singleplayer game so publishers want them to make their next one a live service game. Sadly applies to asian developers as well.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Looks like the next game from Sony's Bend Studio (makers of Days Gone) is going to be a Triple A Live Service game.

Ah modern game design, studio makes a successful singleplayer game so publishers want them to make their next one a live service game. Sadly applies to asian developers as well.

Days Gone I don’t think was a successful single player game. Unless it’s budget was on the lower side of things, it probably didn’t do all that well.

 

[DemonKing]

When is the last "live service" game that didn't fail horribly?

HellDivers II seems to be doing ok.

 

[yellowcake]

Looks like the next game from Sony's Bend Studio (makers of Days Gone) is going to be a Triple A Live Service game.

Ah modern game design, studio makes a successful singleplayer game so publishers want them to make their next one a live service game. Sadly applies to asian developers as well.

Days Gone I don’t think was a successful single player game. Unless it’s budget was on the lower side of things, it probably didn’t do all that well.

Days gone mechanically is nothing special but it has its unique political charm in that you play as a "Deplorable" among deplorables. Rednecks, Magas etc. I doubt they make anything similar anytime soon.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Xbox Reportedly “Flatlining” in Europe, Publishers Question Support, More PS5 Ports Coming​

While Microsoft has tried to put a happy face on things, the future of Xbox – at least Xbox as a distinct brand with its own hardware and exclusives – has never been more in question. Last month Microsoft tried to calm worries with an Xbox Business Update, in which they revealed several older, smaller-scale games were going multiplatform, but that others, like Starfield, aren’t for now. Furthermore, they vowed to continue working on new hardware which will, apparently, deliver the “largest technical leap ever” (how they plan to deliver on that boast, I don’t know).


That all sounds good, but it may bump up against some rather stark realities Xbox is facing in the console space. According to GameIndustry.biz’s Christopher Dring, who’s proven to be a reliable source of industry new in the past, he’s heard from a “very prominent” publisher and another indie pub that Xbox Series X/S performance is “flatlining” in Europe. It was already not good last year, with some European retailers dropping Xbox Series X/S altogether, but it’s said to be even worse this year, to the point publishers are beginning to question why they’re bothering to support Xbox.

The possibly concerning points don’t end there – per Dring, he’s heard the “majority” of Xbox exclusives will end up on PS5 at some point, and that less focus is being put on Game Pass, which has largely plateaued in terms of popularity. Of course, take this with a grain of salt, but GamesIndustry isn’t known for pushing sensationalist headlines or sketchy rumors.


Microsoft can say they want to keep making hardware all they want, but if publishers stop being interested in putting their software on your platform, that’s where reality comes into play. That’s when things started to get scary for Nintendo during the Gamecube era. That’s what happened to Sega before they were forced to abandon hardware. “PC, PlayStation, and Xbox” being the standard platforms for all third-party games just isn’t something Microsoft can count on forever. With the purchase of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft is now one of the biggest third-party publishers in the world, and it’s going to be hard to escape gravity pulling them further in that direction.


What do you think? Do you see a future where a traditional Xbox platform remains a thing or is the writing on the wall?

Not even Toddfield can save the Kwanbox.

 

[deuxhero]

When is the last "live service" game that didn't fail horribly?

HellDivers II seems to be doing ok.

Is that even a live service game?

 

[TedNugent]

Xbox Reportedly “Flatlining” in Europe, Publishers Question Support, More PS5 Ports Coming​

While Microsoft has tried to put a happy face on things, the future of Xbox – at least Xbox as a distinct brand with its own hardware and exclusives – has never been more in question. Last month Microsoft tried to calm worries with an Xbox Business Update, in which they revealed several older, smaller-scale games were going multiplatform, but that others, like Starfield, aren’t for now. Furthermore, they vowed to continue working on new hardware which will, apparently, deliver the “largest technical leap ever” (how they plan to deliver on that boast, I don’t know).


That all sounds good, but it may bump up against some rather stark realities Xbox is facing in the console space. According to GameIndustry.biz’s Christopher Dring, who’s proven to be a reliable source of industry new in the past, he’s heard from a “very prominent” publisher and another indie pub that Xbox Series X/S performance is “flatlining” in Europe. It was already not good last year, with some European retailers dropping Xbox Series X/S altogether, but it’s said to be even worse this year, to the point publishers are beginning to question why they’re bothering to support Xbox.

The possibly concerning points don’t end there – per Dring, he’s heard the “majority” of Xbox exclusives will end up on PS5 at some point, and that less focus is being put on Game Pass, which has largely plateaued in terms of popularity. Of course, take this with a grain of salt, but GamesIndustry isn’t known for pushing sensationalist headlines or sketchy rumors.


Microsoft can say they want to keep making hardware all they want, but if publishers stop being interested in putting their software on your platform, that’s where reality comes into play. That’s when things started to get scary for Nintendo during the Gamecube era. That’s what happened to Sega before they were forced to abandon hardware. “PC, PlayStation, and Xbox” being the standard platforms for all third-party games just isn’t something Microsoft can count on forever. With the purchase of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft is now one of the biggest third-party publishers in the world, and it’s going to be hard to escape gravity pulling them further in that direction.


What do you think? Do you see a future where a traditional Xbox platform remains a thing or is the writing on the wall?

Not even Toddfield can save the Kwanbox.

Never been more in question? Christ, the Xbox AND the GameCube were both lemons. They sold under 25 million each, whereas the PS2 sold over 150 million consoles, three times both of them put together. The PS2 was the most successful console of all time, even upending the colossal success of the PS1. The Xbox Series S/X are actually closely approaching Xbox lifetime sales in a little over three years. Not a complete disaster for one of the biggest companies in the world with deep pockets.

I scarcely think that the Xbox is suffering in comparison to the complete blowout they experienced with their first console release. By the way, even the 360 was always a shit factory in Europe and especially Japan, but it didn't really when it came to overall sales figures.

Either way, I can't wait to see their new creepy artificial intelligence driven advertising box! Maybe it'll have Bing Chat integration and Cortana can give you helpful ASMR when you're trying to go to sleep (after it learns your circadian rhythm and sleeping habits ofc).

 

[Konjad]

Does it even matter at this point? Consoles already destroyed PC market with complete consolization, even if they are gone all 'modern' designs will stay.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Europe is PlayStation land, and they mostly just seem to play EA soccer video games. Unless you’re trying to sell a soccer video game Europe largely seems to not really matter.

 

[Ash]

Does it even matter at this point? Consoles already destroyed PC market with complete consolization, even if they are gone all 'modern' designs will stay.

Lol that wasn't evil console's scheming, their inferior CPUs, or anything like that. That was your beloved PC developers selling out and abandoning the PC out of greed when it was completely unnecessary to do so, spearheaded by the equally greedy Microsoft. This ruined PC and console gaming both. This exact event. PC developers and manufacturers in their evil greed. Nintendo and Sony and whoever else in the console sphere of influence had fuck all to do with it. Initially at least. At some point they responded to PC devs invasion of the console market and it wasn't pretty for console gaming either. A race to the bottom.

Just look at PC gaming today, going pretty strong in terms of popularity. Consoles on the other hand have dipped somewhat. The xbox and sellout retard games were completely unnecessary. They could have doubled down on PC gaming in 2000, but no, lets just ruin everything out of greed. Fuck em all.

 

[TedNugent]

Europe is PlayStation land, and they mostly just seem to play EA soccer video games. Unless you’re trying to sell a soccer video game Europe largely seems to not really matter.

Ironic considering you could play that shit on a Wii? I would think that sportsballers would tend to the Xbox.

The nice thing about Sony is that they actually had decent first and second party support. God of War, Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted, Gran Turismo. They had some decent teenybopper adventure and kids games. Of course, the amount of software was nuts back during PS2 and PS1 era. The shelves at the gamebox stores were like a fucking ocean of PS2 DVD cases. Most of which was shovelware, but still. If you wanted to fill a dump truck of mediocre games, PS2 got you.

Does it even matter at this point? Consoles already destroyed PC market with complete consolization, even if they are gone all 'modern' designs will stay.

Lol that wasn't evil console's scheming, their inferior CPUs, or anything like that. That was your beloved PC developers selling out and abandoning the PC out of greed when it was completely unnecessary to do so, spearheaded by the equally greedy Microsoft. This ruined PC and console gaming both. This exact event. PC developers and manufacturers in their evil greed. Nintendo and Sony and whoever else in the console sphere of influence had fuck all to do with it. Initially at least. At some point they responded to PC devs invasion of the console market and it wasn't pretty for console gaming either. A race to the bottom.

Just look at PC gaming today, going pretty strong in terms of popularity. Consoles on the other hand have dipped somewhat. The xbox and sellout retard games were completely unnecessary. They could have doubled down on PC gaming in 2000, but no, lets just ruin everything out of greed. Fuck em all.

Modern consoles basically are PCs, just with mediocre specifications. They are using AMD integrated graphics and x86-64 CPU with standard RAM and SSD, nothing stupid or zany.

People forget, the PlayStation 2 didn't have a GPU, and the Playstation 3 was some kind of monstrous hydra with a 7 core in-order processor. Most console processors now have out of order logic processing and standard multi core CPUs. Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony are running the same kind of hardware that runs in a desktop.

That's also been kind of a godsend because I remember before the PS4 and Xbox One were announced, AMD was sitting around 3 dollars a share, and now they're nearly at 200 dollars a share, mostly because they have pretty much exclusively been manufacturing console graphics. Same with the Steam Deck, the Asus ROG Ally, and the MSI handheld. It's all AMD hardware. That's been a big deal considering that Intel and Nvidia were kicking the shit out of AMD for like a decade in the desktop market. It was one of the few things keeping their only competitor in the game with an ample cashflow, and they even have an advantage over Intel in that their integrated GPUs have been significantly faster even when they lag in raw CPU performance compared to the top end Intel chips.

That standardized hardware has also made consoles less of walled gardens and made it much easier to do things like....porting the entire Uncharted series, Ratchet and Clank, God of War, Last of Us, Halo, etc etc to the PC. It's made console and PC porting back and forth as well as cross platform development much less hellish. That's why, frankly, Microsoft could easily transition to being a software publisher and not lose much....if they end up sinking in the hardware market, oh well, they literally own Bethesda and Activision.

Microsoft has also been a pretty decent steward in the sense that they allowed Steam to thrive, Microsoft games generally play nice on Windows, and they don't seem to be bothered by PC gaming in parallel with Xbox, even encouraging it with GamePass. Also, the original Xbox basically was a PC, it had a Pentium 3 and an Nvidia GPU (hence why Half Life 2 and Doom 3 ported so easily, despite the relatively shitty hardware specs). I absolutely loathe Microsoft as a company, and I refuse to run Windows these days or buy an Xbox, but I don't recall them ever getting in the way of my gaming. It is, after all, the reason why 95% of Windows lemmings will never switch to MacOS or Linux, and Microsoft knows this...

 

[lycanwarrior]

Xbox Boss Wants Epic, Other Stores on Console, Dropping Exclusivity Partly for Gen Z Appeal​

https://wccftech.com/xbox-spencer-epic-games-store-console-dropping-exclusivity-gen-z-appeal/

Interestingly, in his effort to upend the console business, Spencer is even willing to take aim at the core financial model that makes them possible. Basically, companies sell consoles at a narrow profit or even a loss, but make up for it by having a monopoly on the games sold on that console. Spencer, meanwhile, would be willing to let storefronts like the Epic Games Store, Itch.io, and others on Xbox (Polygon’s article doesn’t mention Steam for whatever reason).

 

[tritosine2k]

Give KB + M

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Xbox Boss Wants Epic, Other Stores on Console, Dropping Exclusivity Partly for Gen Z Appeal​

https://wccftech.com/xbox-spencer-epic-games-store-console-dropping-exclusivity-gen-z-appeal/

Interestingly, in his effort to upend the console business, Spencer is even willing to take aim at the core financial model that makes them possible. Basically, companies sell consoles at a narrow profit or even a loss, but make up for it by having a monopoly on the games sold on that console. Spencer, meanwhile, would be willing to let storefronts like the Epic Games Store, Itch.io, and others on Xbox (Polygon’s article doesn’t mention Steam for whatever reason).

I wonder if this actually has more to do with the recent lawsuit the DOJ is bring against Apple for the iPhone being a closed system than it does any Gen Z bullshit. Apple having a “monopoly” over their phone as far as I can tell isn’t any different from how consoles have been doing things since before the iPhone was a thing...and Microsoft is in a distance third places as far as console sales go. It’s possible they see the DOJ case with Apple as a way of finally getting Xbox Game Pass (their real new business) on the other consoles.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Europe is PlayStation land, and they mostly just seem to play EA soccer video games. Unless you’re trying to sell a soccer video game Europe largely seems to not really matter.

Ironic considering you could play that shit on a Wii? I would think that sportsballers would tend to the Xbox.

The nice thing about Sony is that they actually had decent first and second party support. God of War, Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted, Gran Turismo. They had some decent teenybopper adventure and kids games. Of course, the amount of software was nuts back during PS2 and PS1 era. The shelves at the gamebox stores were like a fucking ocean of PS2 DVD cases. Most of which was shovelware, but still. If you wanted to fill a dump truck of mediocre games, PS2 got you.

Does it even matter at this point? Consoles already destroyed PC market with complete consolization, even if they are gone all 'modern' designs will stay.

Lol that wasn't evil console's scheming, their inferior CPUs, or anything like that. That was your beloved PC developers selling out and abandoning the PC out of greed when it was completely unnecessary to do so, spearheaded by the equally greedy Microsoft. This ruined PC and console gaming both. This exact event. PC developers and manufacturers in their evil greed. Nintendo and Sony and whoever else in the console sphere of influence had fuck all to do with it. Initially at least. At some point they responded to PC devs invasion of the console market and it wasn't pretty for console gaming either. A race to the bottom.

Just look at PC gaming today, going pretty strong in terms of popularity. Consoles on the other hand have dipped somewhat. The xbox and sellout retard games were completely unnecessary. They could have doubled down on PC gaming in 2000, but no, lets just ruin everything out of greed. Fuck em all.

Modern consoles basically are PCs, just with mediocre specifications. They are using AMD integrated graphics and x86-64 CPU with standard RAM and SSD, nothing stupid or zany.

People forget, the PlayStation 2 didn't have a GPU, and the Playstation 3 was some kind of monstrous hydra with a 7 core in-order processor. Most console processors now have out of order logic processing and standard multi core CPUs. Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony are running the same kind of hardware that runs in a desktop.

That's also been kind of a godsend because I remember before the PS4 and Xbox One were announced, AMD was sitting around 3 dollars a share, and now they're nearly at 200 dollars a share, mostly because they have pretty much exclusively been manufacturing console graphics. Same with the Steam Deck, the Asus ROG Ally, and the MSI handheld. It's all AMD hardware. That's been a big deal considering that Intel and Nvidia were kicking the shit out of AMD for like a decade in the desktop market. It was one of the few things keeping their only competitor in the game with an ample cashflow, and they even have an advantage over Intel in that their integrated GPUs have been significantly faster even when they lag in raw CPU performance compared to the top end Intel chips.

That standardized hardware has also made consoles less of walled gardens and made it much easier to do things like....porting the entire Uncharted series, Ratchet and Clank, God of War, Last of Us, Halo, etc etc to the PC. It's made console and PC porting back and forth as well as cross platform development much less hellish. That's why, frankly, Microsoft could easily transition to being a software publisher and not lose much....if they end up sinking in the hardware market, oh well, they literally own Bethesda and Activision.

Microsoft has also been a pretty decent steward in the sense that they allowed Steam to thrive, Microsoft games generally play nice on Windows, and they don't seem to be bothered by PC gaming in parallel with Xbox, even encouraging it with GamePass. Also, the original Xbox basically was a PC, it had a Pentium 3 and an Nvidia GPU (hence why Half Life 2 and Doom 3 ported so easily, despite the relatively shitty hardware specs). I absolutely loathe Microsoft as a company, and I refuse to run Windows these days or buy an Xbox, but I don't recall them ever getting in the way of my gaming. It is, after all, the reason why 95% of Windows lemmings will never switch to MacOS or Linux, and Microsoft knows this...

Microsoft has to play nice now. If Don Mattrick hadn’t fucked up Microsoft’s lead going into the Xbox One, and the Xbox One had continued the lead they had with the 360, I’m gonna guess Microsoft wouldn’t have spent the last decade being as nice and open has they have been. They probably

I wouldn’t say Microsoft allowed Steam to thrive. Steam sucks, but Steam was allowed to thrive because Games for Windows fucking sucked, and for whatever reason Microsoft gave up their dominance of the indie scene in 2012. It’s like Steam Greenlight happened and Microsoft just stopped carrying about that stuff going into 2013. Like Steam had been a storefront with third party titles for years before, but Steam didn’t really come into their own until Microsoft just gave up the indie market to them (and to a lesser degree Sony) in 2013.

 

[Ezekiel]

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-...t-inclusion-actions/help-customers-feel-seen/

Questions to Consider​

• Are you telling new stories or sharing new perspectives within the product experience?
• Do all of your characters/player depictions look the same?
• What steps have you taken to ensure characters are represented respectfully and authentically?
• How have you validated assumptions you have made about your audience to check for blind spots or unintended stereotypes?
• Would you feel proud to show a member of a community how their culture/character is depicted within your experience?
• How are the wide range of customers depicted within your products, content portfolio and communications?
• What process have you used to validate how different groups of people or cultures are represented in your experience?
• Are you reinforcing any negative gender stereotypes?
  • Are you unnecessarily introducing gender & gender barriers into your code or design?
  • Are you creating playable female characters that are equal in skill and ability to their male peers. Are your female characters equipped with clothing and armor that fits their tasks? Do they have exaggerated body proportions?
  • When the story allows, do you show male characters who display a full range of emotions, including joy, sadness, and vulnerability?
• What % of screen time (on screen presence, speaking lines, heroes) is held by different gender/racial identities?
• Do you have a process to review key decisions with the lens of Helping Customers Feel Seen?

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Just fucking die already Microsoft.