I think a fraction of subscribers will downgrade to a tier without day one MS titles. There is probably an internal target at MS for the different tiers. A standard and core GP subscriptions might be more profitable for MS, especially if said subscribers buy one or two 1st party titles a year.
I effectively gave up on collecting physical games a few years back. I will still try to occasionally get physical copies, especially from franchises that are dear to me. However, so many games are incomplete on disc, I don’t see the point in solely buying physical games.
Elden Ring’s bosses are designed to be aggressive with AoE attacks to counteract summons. The overall balance of Elden Ring favours players that use magic and summons.
In titles that lack environments with prominent reflective metallic surfaces you often don’t notice the ray-tracing very much. Most players are going to stare down at puddles and wet surfaces. Ray tracing doesn’t impact immersion as much as some other graphical effects.
Metroid Prime 4 [and Perfect Dark] debuting cool trailers this month has given me a rush of nostalgia.
It can be 7 hrs long without issue, as the game should have co-op, horde and PvP modes.
I think people are being ridiculous. I remember there being similar complaints about Aloy in Horizon 2, but this was due to the character’s face looking different based on expression and camera angles.
Here’s an example and fan “corrected” deepfake
https://www.pushsquare.com/...
I hope the game launches with a good number of unlockable characters. Gears 5, likely to due to PvE classes initially being tied to specific characters, lacked a variety of unlockable characters during its early seasons.
The Coalition was able to co-develop Gears Tactics with Splash Damage while they worked on Gears 5 and Hive Busters. The Coalition might be doing the same approach to development for Gears 6, co-developing one tile while working on the mainline entry.
I saw some people composing the PD reboot doesn’t resemble the original title enough. However, it’s been 24 years since Perfect Dark release. The reboot looks reminds me the newer Deus Ex games, which to me is a good thing, so I am now very excited for the PD reboot.
The giants in the game probably aren’t real, they are a metaphor for natural disasters.
You don’t even notice peach fuzz on most people, unless you look really close.
When Halo 5 came out I could play at mid to high Diamond-level, six years later in Halo Infinite I struggle to maintain platinum level rank. I’m simply not quick enough to keep up. I can still main a KD average of 1.1 to 1.3 in Gears, Halo and COD, but don’t enjoy COD that much anymore due to it being super twitchy. Also how twitchy is XDefiant ?
Xbox’s gaming division seems to still function as 3 semi-autonomous sub-divisions, Xbox Studios, Bethesda and ABK. The three main sub-divisions can seemingly shut down or build studios and set up partnerships independently. This would explain why Bethesda can recently shutdown studios, while ABK spins off one studio, while building a new one. Plus, Toys for Bob could be spun off by ABK, only to immediately re-partner with Microsoft.
Sony just wants to boost its monthly active users.
I lost my drive for collecting physical games due to many discs lacking the whole complete game. Instead, of collecting games I started collected figurines.
I’m enjoying Hellblade 2 so far for what it is. The graphics are amazing, but I feel the gameplay could be deeper and more expansive. I am really excited for what the Coalition will be able to do with UE 5; as Gears 5 will be more expansive than Hellblade 2.
Ironically it’s marketing that is one of things that is notorious for bloating budgets. While Hellblade 2 took 6 or so years to develop, it was made by a smaller team. The game likely had a modest budget, hence the sub AAA price tag. Having a big marketing campaign, would have likely just inflated production costs without a proportional return on investment.
One thing to point out was that all the recently closed studios were under Bethesda. Before being purchased by MS, Bethesda had a slew of poor or under performing titles (Evil Within 2, Prey (2017), Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, Young Blood, and initially Fallout 76 ). I don’t think, Ghost Wire Tokyo, Deathloop, Redfall and sadly even High-Fi: Rush performed well after the buyout.
The first party games were always paywalled, as gamepass isn’t a free service.