u/Commander_Jim1

Honestly, how does Xbox realistically ever climb out of this hole? I just don't see any way it can. It's got so much against it. You've got the bulk of the market now ​embedded in the Playstation ecosystem, that gap just keeps growing every month making it even harder and harder for Xbox. Now it's got hardware shortages because of the memory crisis (something Sony has shielded themselves from for the most part up until now), and in the future they've got the memory crisis making any next gen system exorbitantly expensive and out of reach of the average person and is going to sell peanuts. And you've got a parent company that's made it pretty clear they're unwilling to absorb more losses.

I mean, where to from here?

You're vastly overestimating how many kids cared about the sequels. Those movies had practically zero cultural impact on the younger generation. And in any case, the world has changed, kids no longer get into movies now the same way they did in previous generations. Some tiktoker or youtuber will have a hundred times the popularity with kids than Rey ever did. ​​

Sequel love is coming any day now, just like the Rian Johnson trilogy.

That's the thing though - in movies people actually like those kinds of things are looked past. In movies they don't all the dumb ones things are compounded and just add to the irritation.

Hate always dies down. The apathy will remain. And the damage will never be undone. ​

Affordable OR a fully open PC platform. If it's just another Xbox but expensive, no dice. With the current cost of consoles and living in general next gen I'll be, for the first time since the OG Xbox generation, a single platform guy and if I have to choose one, it will be Playstation. More games in general, more first party exclusives and, maybe most importantly, it's where I started buying most digital games last gen because PS4 versions were usually better so I'm more embedded in that ecosystem.

But give me a console I can play all my Steam, GOG and Epic games on? That would change things.

Are you trying to say that based on these reports, the vast majority of people who have played E-Day are TA members?

I never said 230,00 played it. I said that's what the reported sales were. It's a gamepass game. I would assume that being a big name release most people with gamepass probably played it at least once. But gamepass players playing it doesn't mean the game was a success.

Compare it Forza Horizon 6, the last big Xbox first party game. Also on Gamepass. Sold 7.4 million copies. Even taking away Playstation, it still sold about 5 million copies across PC and Xbox. So it's a bit hard to see how the sales of Gears E Day could be seen as anything less than utterly dismal. Any big budget AAA game that can't reach a million sales (or even come close to half a million) is baaaaad.

Last I read it had sold 230,000 copies across both Steam and Xbox. That's really bad. Even taking into account Gamepass cannibalisation. For the sake of comparison, Wolverine, another big budget AAA first party game released in the same time period, sold 10 million copies. And didn't have the advantage of a PC release.

No AAA game released across console and PC ​selling numbers that low has ever been what the publisher wanted the game to do..

And what a brilliant move by Asha. Making it exclusive did nothing to sell a single console while being an online multiplat game and having access to the massive PS5 player base is would have hugely increased its player base and lifespan.

We're so back!

New logo.

RRoD.

Not that I think they'll use any physical media at all, but there's cheap ways of doing it with a card. They could merely be a magnetic or RFID card the same as the disposable ones hotels and cruise ships use. All it really needs is a way to tell the console the key code for a digital license.

Though I doubt they'll bother. The amount of people who actually care about this are a very tiny vocal minority. I think they'll go full digital.

For it not to be terrible for the first time since the first JW movie would be nice, but I'm expecting too much, aren't I?

GTA7 - coming in 2048.

That's what people don't understand. The entire physical disk medium is collapsing. Sony didn't just randomly decide to end disks in a vacuum to screw gamers over while the rest of the optical disk industry is going along as normal. Anything with a disk drive is starting to get really expensive because the companies that made all the components are shutting up shop. Just look at what a 4K movie player now costs. And its just going to get worse.

Sony has always been very good at forecasting tech changes - the reason they've been able to keep PS5 in stock during the memory crisis is because they saw it coming ​ages ago and secured deals to maintain memory stocks for themselves. No doubt they've also seen what's going to happen with optical media too.

I'm calling it now - they never mention any of this again.

I think they were definitely better at sucking.

No and people are delusional if they think otherwise. Asha was asked point blank and she dodged the question by saying they needed to focus on the next gen console being affordable and efficient and then mentioning Disk to Digital as a way for people to bring their physical library to the next gen. You don't need to be a genius to read between the lines there.

In any case, Xbox is the platform with the least amount of players buying physical. Most stores that sell games don't even bother stocking Xbox games any more. And once Sony stops you'll find that most third party devs will follow Rockstars lead and go fully digital. They aren't continuing to manufacture and distribute physical games just for the tiny portion of Xbox players who actually buy disks.

xbox confirmed that they won't kill physical media

Yeah pretty sure they didn't. And Xbox is the one that's been trying to kill physical media more than anyone else for the last decade. ​

It didn't do a great job though. I like JW, the only one of the new movies I do like, but imo it completely squandered the potential of a JP movie with the park opened. It could have been an epic disaster movie, instead that's basically just reduced to the Pteradons attacking. The rest of the movie is fairly standard "small group of isolated humans vs dinosaurs" stuff we've always gotten.

Imo that's a strength of the originals. It was when movies were still made to be individual movies. Not ridiculous, convoluted "sagas" that only exist for the purpose of being extending how long an IP can be milked for. ​​ I'll take a fully formed film like TLW over some half assed movie like Fallen Kingdom any day.

Not that I'd consider the JW movies to be "cohesive" in any case.

Literally nothing I can think of in all honesty. JW was a fun, well made but lightweight popcorn film. I'd put it on par with JP3. The other three JW films are some of the worst movies I've ever seen. ​

Why on earth did you buy a PS5 Pro if you prefer to play inferior versions of games on Xbox?

Some people just really love throwing money away.

Tbh I wouldnt buy another Xbox without major changes and I say that as someone who has been a fan of the brand ever since being an early adopter of the OG Xbox when everyone else I knew was getting a PS2. I just don't see the point of Xbox anymore.

The one thing that would make me interested is if it was, as it seemed to be heading under Spencer, a fully open PC console that I could play all my Steam and other PC games on. That would have gotten my interest for sure. But if they've backtracked from that under Sharma and its just another Xbox, just really expensive, than no. It just has no point anymore.

I'll likely get a PS6 but wouldn't be prepared to spend more on it than the current retail price of the Pro at the absolute most. If its over $1000 than im just putting that towards upgrading my PC.

I will never understand this obsession some people have with having a little piece of plastic.

So if I'm understanding this strategy correctly - sell more consoles ​by making it more expensive, make more profit by making one of Xbox's few reliable revenue streams free, make Gamepass much worse for the few remaining loyal Xbox players, and aim to beat Steam on PC - a storefront that PC users are so attached to that they'll literally buy a game on it rather than play it free on other storefront like Epic or via Gamepass on the Xbox app..

Yeah I don't think that's going to work..

This is the precursor to layoffs and they don't do it out of the goodness of their hearts. Voluntary redundancies typically pay less than forced. They do a round of voluntary layoffs, hope a heap of people take them up on it. Then they'll do forced layoffs