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Microsoft has Closed the Activision Blizzard King Deal

Roberts

Member
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Quality over quantity clearly isn't a tenant over at MS.
I ran through the list fast and I would say this year GP had around 20 great games, 30 very good ones worth playing and 10 of acquired taste but by no means a pile of dino shit.
 

splattered

Member
Not good for gamers.

And I just have to laugh every time Microsoft posts a “first party” pic of titles they publish. Mates, you ain’t part of any of them. It’s why I can’t take anyone seriously who calls Bethesda or any of these Microsoft “first party”.

Yeah you’re technically right but we all know Microsoft has nothing to do with any of it.

Consolidation of publishers is bad for the industry. Once again, regulators fail at their only job.

Yeah definitely!

Just like Sony doesn't have anything to do with any of their own games because Jim Ryan didn't personally make them.
 

analog_future

Resident Crybaby
Meh, hyperbole and all. Not every single game sucks. But most everything on your list has already been out for awhile or was made by a completely different company and MS paid for a little bit of Gamepass time and will be gone at some point. Just not very impressive to me.

For someone named “VideoGameEnjoyer”, you sure don’t seem to enjoy video games.
 
Well yes? Play them when they arrive or during the one year they’re available, then purchase at a steep discount if you want to keep.

You’re not aware how the service works?
I am, since I just told you how it worked and you just repeated it back to me. Thanks for the info though.

If you want the honest truth, I personally really don't give a single solitary fuck about any games on that list, not enough to play them or seek them out certainly. I played Hi-Fi Rush for an hour when it released, it was fine. Haven't booted up Starfield for weeks after being hyped enough to buy the early access. Nothing else even draws my attention. Obviously I can't speak for everyone on that, and I know some games on that list are well regarded.

I don't think I am alone however, in just generally not being excited to see a bunch of older games available on the service. If I wanted to play those games I would have already. And my time of just browsing random crap seeing if I enjoy a game will never come back, aint nobody got time for that. So yes, one new exciting first party, high quality release does excite and impress me much more than dozens of 'good' games that already came out long ago.
 
That's because you love Sony though? Some people like Gamepass too and that's OK :)

It isn't because I love Sony. It is purely because everything Microsoft make, barring Fable, has no appeal to me. That includes Bethesda and anything under ABK.
You must like a very specific kind of game. Microsoft may not have put out the best games this gen so far, but they have sure put out the best variety of games, and for many of those genres MS games are still extremely good (best in some, like Forza Horizon, HiFi Rush, or Flight Sim)

I like JRPGs, story driven action games, action RPGs and a few other genres like TPS if the story is good.

Microsoft's output for me, since they started Xbox, has always been very unappealing and not at an acceptable standard.

Fable holds my interest.
 

FoxMcChief

Gold Member
Oh, cool. The fun police called for backup! Anyone else’s lives you want to judge while you’re here? Let’s really go out of our way to make people feel like shit about themselves today.

Or, you know… you can also keep it gaming and leave them be. 🤷🏻‍♂️
Hey man. They’ve got to vent somehow. And if they can’t do it here, they likely have no one irl to do it to. Let the haters hate. We can see through their posts and see how much they’re really hurting. And we shouldn’t point and laugh at them either.

Instead we should all be celebrating.

Let’s all watch this announcement again. It’s worth at least a few views. Should put smiles on all our faces. Because when we can all play, we win.

 

Ozriel

M$FT
I don't think I am alone however, in just generally not being excited to see a bunch of older games available on the service. If I wanted to play those games I would have already. And my time of just browsing random crap seeing if I enjoy a game will never come back, aint nobody got time for that.

‘older games’? A significant number of those games were day one on console. Including real gems like Cocoon and Sea of Stars.

So yes, one new exciting first party, high quality release does excite and impress me much more than dozens of 'good' games that already came out long ago.

I can only imagine your surprise to learn that being on GamePass doesn’t block your ability to buy games.
 

graywolf323

Member
How soon will MS starts this one: "Today we announced an our restructuring efforts for our upcoming financial quarter. This will allow all of our teams to realigning their strategy and focus on core business functionality and at the same time become laser focused on releasing quality content by bringing the full capabilities our family of studios to bear. While its always hard to say good bye to team members we will do our best to make sure all of our talent, even the ones who will be leaving, are positioned to do their best work!".
probably by early next year, there’s a LOT of redundancy
Starcraft 2 and Diablo 2 on steam and this whole ordeal was worth it IMO
eh more like a silver lining, doesn’t seem like our purchases will carry over if how Diablo IV coming to Steam is being handled though 😕
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No amount of ‘management skills’ can cover for the sheer lack of first party studios.
and why did they have so few studios? maybe because Phil closed several? 🤔
 
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What on earth are we going to fight about now? 😭
Oh come on now, we still have Digital Foundry comparisons where we can talk about one of the consoles dropping frames 0.009% more than the other one, or lower resolution shadow quality!

Oh, don't forget about UK boxed game sales threads!!! Those are always fun for a little warring.

I'm sure we'll think of something........

Kids Laughing GIF
 

xHunter

Member
Hey man. They’ve got to vent somehow. And if they can’t do it here, they likely have no one irl to do it to. Let the haters hate. We can see through their posts and see how much they’re really hurting. And we shouldn’t point and laugh at them either.

Instead we should all be celebrating.

Let’s all watch this announcement again. It’s worth at least a few views. Should put smiles on all our faces. Because when we can all play, we win.


You couldnt play ABK games yesterday?
 

FoxMcChief

Gold Member
If anything, people should be asking Sony why they can’t stream Xbox game pass on the PS5. Sony clearly not for the gamers.

Phones, tablets, computers, refrigerators, tv’s, are all on board and are Xbox products. Sony has it in them to be an Xbox too.

I’d be shocked if game pass doesn’t make its way to the Switch 2.
 

LordCBH

Member
Hey man. They’ve got to vent somehow. And if they can’t do it here, they likely have no one irl to do it to. Let the haters hate. We can see through their posts and see how much they’re really hurting. And we shouldn’t point and laugh at them either.

Instead we should all be celebrating.

Let’s all watch this announcement again. It’s worth at least a few views. Should put smiles on all our faces. Because when we can all play, we win.



You could already play ABK games. The only thing this will do is prevent other people from playing them.
 

graywolf323

Member
…events which happened well before this current management team took over.

But yes, they screwed up in the 360 generation by not building up their in house teams.
Kept waiting to read the part where he was made head of Xbox before 2010 and hence responsible for decisions to close studios.

Cropped that part out?

oh I see you’re still spreading this BS, this isn’t remotely true as I’ve noted in the past, Phil closed 4 studios in the time between him taking fully over in 2014 prior to the buying spree, they only had 5 studios and it was his fault not “well before this current management team took over”

yep in 2014 before the 2017 buying spree they had ~9 studios including Mojang but in large part that was because they closed/spun off a bunch after Phil took over XGS (they were down to ~5 before the buying spree because 4 more were closed/spun off just from 2014-2016)

Aces (original developers of Microsoft Flight Sim) - closed in 2009 (as part of Microsoft cutting 5,000 jobs)
Big Park - purchased in 2009 and absorbed into the company in 2016 when Kinect went fully defunct
Ensemble Studios (original developers of Age of Empires) - announced in 2008 it would close after releasing Halo Wars and shut down in January 2009
Lionhead - bought in 2006 and closed in 2016
Press Play (makers of Max & the Magic Marker) - bought in 2012 & closed in 2016
Twisted Pixel - bought in 2011 and went back to independent in 2015
 
‘older games’? A significant number of those games were day one on console. Including real gems like Cocoon and Sea of Stars.



I can only imagine your surprise to learn that being on GamePass doesn’t block your ability to buy games.
You cut right to it. I did download Sea of Stars on my PS5, it seemed interesting. Never even found the time to boot it up with the half dozen other games I'm trying to get to right now.

Yes I can buy the games I care about, and that's what I do. What I have no time for is the Gamepass model of this 'great value' hidden within hundreds or thousands of different games that might be perfectly fine, but I have no time at all to seek them out and play them.

Obviously I'm being tongue in cheek and not arguing fully in good faith the last hour or so. If you want to completely disregard anything I'm saying because of that, fair enough. But is my larger point really so off base? I have no kids, I have a super chill fiancé, I get plenty of gaming time in. And I don't have near enough time to even keep up with the new AAA releases that I want to play. I have no idea when I am supposed to (or how other people do it) just peruse a list of so many games that may or may not interest me.

Cheeky forum posts aside, time is at an absolute premium these days, and media needs to really blow us away in this modern age in order to to make that time investment worth our while. And Xbox just seems to have gone the complete opposite direction from that, and I'm just not personally a fan. And literally do not have the bandwidth to use their service as it is intended to be used. When I was 13 it'd probably be my favorite thing ever.
 
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