When booking a cruise I get the option to bundle internet and drink package for the "best value". Maybe that is the the best deal I'm not sure. Just curious, is that Wi-Fi package just Browse or is it the better Browse + Streaming?
What's the only thing everyone is talking about now? Rising costs. The current narrative is console gaming as a hobby isn't going to be realistic for millions of people moving forward.
Sounds to me like there is a VERY big need in the market and Microsoft can choose to be in a unique position to fill that need.
I know they don't want to be a loss leader anymore, I get that they don't want to lose money on hardware moving forward but IMO now is the best time to do exactly that.
If I were Microsoft I'd launch a Series S Refresh next year. This is a new console and it's not called the Series S, it's just the next XBOX, and it's not all that powerful relative to a next gen bump. But with the latest AMD chipsets and FSR implementation you can produce some solid results. So it's not quite Series X powerful but it has the latest tech so it's efficient.
Sell it for $299 with a solid Game Pass promo. Yes Microsoft will lose money on the console hardware but think of the value compared to the competition. While other consoles are sitting at $800+ and out of everyone's price range Microsoft is offering up a $300 system that runs everything and the Game Pass lineup is really solid. So you got a console at a great price and a huge library of games to play, all for far less than a PlayStation, Steam Machine, PC, etc.
I can only speak for myself but I'm getting the vibe from a lot of you guys that you're just kinda planning on holding onto your current systems and not interested in forking over the money for next gen. So basically we are all just not buying anything. That doesn't do the industry any good.
I don't know about you guys but if Microsoft released a new Xbox next year for $299 and it was like a Series S 2.0 I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
Been a dad for a few years now and boy did my gaming hobby take a backseat. I'm sure plenty here know exactly what I mean, but for single fellas basically your free time is sucked into a void and it's really challenging to carve some out for a decent gaming session.
I was bummed about that for awhile but now I'm starting to see it as a huge win. These console prices are getting nuts and next gen will be even worse. I truly feel for those of you that are active gamers. The gamer I used to be, that always had a new console and bought titles upon release. I think it's going to be a rough few years or more for you all.
As for me, I'm looking at a backlog that will last me 5-10 years at my current play rate. All the price hike supply line craziness will pass right by me as I finally get around to the Mass Effect trilogy. Witcher 3, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, etc.
I have a G Cloud for awhile now and it's great. I primarily use Steam Link, no issues. But last week the boys wanted to do some gaming and I wasn't sure how to set it up where I could be in the voice chat.
Normally on my PC we just hop into a Discord chat, and then I load up whatever game through Steam. On the G Cloud I can't figure out the voice chat part. Will Discord run on the G Cloud? Will the voice chat remain active when I minimize the Discord app and then open Steam Link?
Is it only the X lineup (like X3, X4, X5) or do they have other products that can do bullet time mode?
While watching Wolverine gameplay I was like who the heck is that he looks so familiar. Took me awhile then it dawned on me it's Liam McIntyre from Spartacus! Had no idea he was doing the Wolverine game.
Exclusives have been a part of console gaming since day 1. There was a time when heated debates about exclusives was more a discussion about which console was the "best". Mario vs Sonic, Forza vs GT, and many more examples. Generally fun discussions by people that loved the hobby.
The tide has turned so much on the topic and the reason is simple: Money
For a good while now we've seen a lot of "sorta" exclusives. Final Fantasy 7 for example, a title very tied to the PlayStation brand. It has trickled its way onto PC and other console platforms. Halo, about as XBOX a title as it gets, now on PC as well and soon PlayStation. God of War and Spider-Man, true system sellers, also on PC now.
For millions of games a certain combination of systems did the trick so to speak. If you owned an Xbox + PC, or Switch + PlayStation, or PlayStation + Xbox, etc you were generally set on 99% of what you wanted to play.
I wouldn't say we got spoiled, but we did get used to having choices and that's nice and convenient. Now that Sony has decided to double down on exclusives and Microsoft is undecided, the arguments have started to get heated. And it simply comes down to money.
For so many people right now the idea of a next gen console coming in at $800+ just isn't affordable. For those that own a PC it's like hmm, guess I'll just stick to that as long as my rig runs games. Which would have been perfectly fine, but now Sony is done porting games to PC and Microsoft is an unknown. It's strange that as a PC gamer you just enjoyed the 2 most recent GOW games but you aren't getting the next one or the remakes 😞
Owning 2 consoles wasn't too hard to pull off but even the recent price increases on current consoles is making that difficult, so imagine trying to buy them at $800+ each?
So the idea of exclusives now is like damn....it's about to get so expensive to play everything. We were going in the direction of major titles being available on at least 2 platforms that were also affordable. Now it seems that has been snatched away. True exclusives are making a comeback while hardware is more unaffordable than ever?
