Xbox Game Studios Stupidity Hate Thread Game Pass Edition

[Kier Starmer]

When it comes to Obsidian, I would not worry too much as I am sure any good staff ran years ago. New Vegas still is an industry triumph, how that took 18 months is insane and that game is made with love. God that video with the pres of Xbox, JFC totally unaware of the landscape. 2022 saw the release of Elden Ring which honestly is a masterpiece, the combination of open world and really tight combat with a solid leveling system just is *chefs kiss*. 2023 Resi 4 Remake which should be the benchmark in remakes. There have been some great indies too and my main game ff14 is a really solid mmo.

She cannot even frigging list her own companies games because of how poorly they did. How Hi Fi rush took the same dev time as Elden Ring alludes me. It also outside of gamepass sold terribly it took 1442 staff in credits and Elden Ring credited 1642. I know this is a weird comparison because of the games scale but it goes to show how a similar process can be so drastic. I think still its down to lead and passion, though Hi Fi Rush just felt bland, I hated the protag and honestly they could have made it a mockery of corpo culture etc but it did not have the guts.

 

[IDanceonTrannyGraves]

I'll be gutted if obsidian and Inexile get closed down. Wasteland 3 doesn't get enough praise, especially from MS. It was a very, very good game.

I picked it up over the holidays and I'll get around to it eventually.

 

[starborn427614]

honestly they could have made it a mockery of corpo culture etc but it did not have the guts.

Did they not? It was pretty on the nose to me.

 

[Corette]

Everyone keeps talking about Obsidian and Ninja Theory closing, but I'm worried about InExile and never getting Wasteland 4.

Is that even on concept stage?
I thought InExile was working on some time travelling steampunk FPS-thing.

 

[Asian tech support]

Is that even on concept stage?
I thought InExile was working on some time travelling steampunk FPS-thing.

Yup the steampunk poojeet game. Clockwork Revolution. Talk about a forgettable name.

 

[Corette]

Yup the steampunk poojeet game. Clockwork Revolution. Talk about a forgettable name.

That game is going to flop, and hard.

 

[xXx: State of the Union]

Jeff Grubb is backtracking on earlier statements that Perfect Dark and Gears 6 are shit shows, apparently.

Honestly, game journos and leakers going back and forth on if everything is shit or not just cements my opinion that everything is fucking shit.

Also rumors going around about Gamepass price hike. Speculation of a new Gamepass tier with ads.

 

[moocow]

Honestly, game journos and leakers going back and forth on if everything is shit or not just cements my opinion that everything is fucking shit.

Well, game journos and leakers are certainly shit. So your conclusion tracks.

 

[wholetthegodsout]

Jeff Grubb is backtracking on earlier statements that Perfect Dark and Gears 6 are shit shows, apparently.

Honestly, game journos and leakers going back and forth on if everything is shit or not just cements my opinion that everything is fucking shit.

Also rumors going around about Gamepass price hike. Speculation of a new Gamepass tier with ads.

I assume something did go wrong with perfect dark. We got the teaser like 4 years ago and then radio silence. Part of Xbox's extremely deceptive game pass strategy of announcing a dozen games and then forcing the game pass subscriber to wait years for any of them to come out.

 

[ZMOT]

Also rumors going around about Gamepass price hike. Speculation of a new Gamepass tier with ads.

gotta pump those numbers baby

I have not played Hifi Rush but I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's probably no better or worse than say Mameda no Bakeru and that literally nobody would talk about it if it wasn't a temporary microsoft console exclusive.

The fact that it requires a next gen console and a budget so big that it tanked a studio for not performing amazing financially for what is ultimately a slightly flashier GameCube game is very lol.

it was an exclusive tho, quality and success are secondary in that regard. plus microsoft fucked itself by putting it on gamepass day 1 and expecting a sudden increase in numbers, then blaming "lack of revenue" or whatever.

 

[TheHarbinger]

Also rumors going around about Gamepass price hike. Speculation of a new Gamepass tier with ads.

Gamepass with advertisements has been in development for a while now. It was originally that you would be required to watch a certain number of advertisements and then it would unlock Gamepass for a month or whatever. But with nothing materializing it's probably now being retooled to be far more intrusive. Like interrupting gameplay to show an advertisement. Or advertisements that have a captcha system or something horrific.

Likely the price spike for regular Gamepass will coincide with a new ad based tier. Just like the video streaming services have done it.

 

[Prophetic Spirit]

Likely the price spike for regular Gamepass will coincide with a new ad based tier. Just like the video streaming services have done it.

Heh. That's why Twitch with Ublock Origin sometimes i got ads.

 

[xXx: State of the Union]

Gamepass with advertisements has been in development for a while now. It was originally that you would be required to watch a certain number of advertisements and then it would unlock Gamepass for a month or whatever. But with nothing materializing it's probably now being retooled to be far more intrusive. Like interrupting gameplay to show an advertisement. Or advertisements that have a captcha system or something horrific.

"Why don't we just show ads in between the loading screens in Starfield?"

This would go well with my theory that Starfield has more load screens on Gamepass/Xbox, since my mid-range PC seems to not have them outside of the hard coded 1 second "fade out" transition between area transitions.

 

[Peaches the Wonder Cat]

Gamepass with advertisements has been in development for a while now. It was originally that you would be required to watch a certain number of advertisements and then it would unlock Gamepass for a month or whatever. But with nothing materializing it's probably now being retooled to be far more intrusive. Like interrupting gameplay to show an advertisement. Or advertisements that have a captcha system or something horrific.

Likely the price spike for regular Gamepass will coincide with a new ad based tier. Just like the video streaming services have done it.

There was a stink about Microsoft employees losing their Gamepass "benefit" last year, after which MS reversed course: https://www.pcmag.com/news/microsoft-employees-must-pay-for-xbox-game-pass-ultimate-from-january

I wonder if employees will be stuck with the version with ads.

 

[xXx: State of the Union]

microsoft fucked itself by putting it on gamepass day 1 and expecting a sudden increase in numbers, then blaming "lack of revenue" or whatever.

People keep screaming that Microsoft said it was a "success" but I'm convinced this is some weird number fuckery bullshit (if it isn't just an outright lie, which it probably is) and not based on actual sales since I can't fucking believe that mass amounts of people bought it on Xbox when it was on Gamepass right fucking there, and everything seems to indicate on Steam that it didn't really sell that much. (I think it has a peak player count of like 6k, with an average of like 500 to 800 a day).

Gamepass is a fucking disaster and they need to heavily re stucture it at the very least. (since they'll never just out and out drop it unless they kill off the Xbox brand entirely).

It's all just so bewildering. I don't understand how a company can fuck up so much and just keep digging the pit deeper.

 

[TVB]

People keep screaming that Microsoft said it was a "success" but I'm convinced this is some weird number fuckery bullshit (if it isn't just an outright lie, which it probably is) and not based on actual sales since I can't fucking believe that mass amounts of people bought it on Xbox when it was on Gamepass right fucking there, and everything seems to indicate on Steam that it didn't really sell that much. (I think it has a peak player count of like 6k, with an average of like 500 to 800 a day).

Gamepass is a fucking disaster and they need to heavily re stucture it at the very least. (since they'll never just out and out drop it unless they kill off the Xbox brand entirely).

It's all just so bewildering. I don't understand how a company can fuck up so much and just keep digging the pit deeper.

This makes me ponder, did Microsoft even note in more informal way of how much of a failure Gamepass was in any of their focus group meetings? Because whatever Micro did, they have been very shit at explaining its failure and how they're going about by restructuring the gaming business

 

[Pepe Cortisona]

There was a stink about Microsoft employees losing their Gamepass "benefit" last year, after which MS reversed course

One of my friends still works for one of those weird Microsoft departments, and he can still get us like 5 years worth of GamePass for about $50.

 

[TheHarbinger]

This makes me ponder, did Microsoft even note in more informal way of how much of a failure Gamepass was in any of their focus group meetings?

It's the opposite. At investment seminars or board meetings they have had people give presentations praising the incredible success and long term vision for Gamepass in the industry. One of the ways that Microsoft would boost its subscription numbers before those meetings was to offer free Gamepass subscriptions to all Microsoft employees, their direct families, and then large groups of people in the gaming industry like third party developers or journalists or even social media influence idiots.

This would make Gamepass look like it had millions of more subscribers than it actually did. The hard data of how many were actually paying. And how many were even using the service was of course not provided. But the numbers have to be abysmal for Microsoft to keep them so secret. The streaming numbers for literally all video streaming companies are just insane with the losses. NBC's Peakcock lost $640 million last quarter and $825 million the quarter before that. Paramount Global loses around $2 billion annually from its streaming service alone. Gamepass has to be doing just as poorly if not worse.

Because whatever Micro did, they have been very shit at explaining its failure and how they're going about by restructuring the gaming business

They don't want to accept or acknowledge that Gamepass is a failure when their entire future business model hinges on its success. Their entire reason for buying every franchise and studio was to own their back catalogs. To put them slowly onto a subscription service. Not to make new games. The entire streaming media model makes zero money in television, music, film, and games.

 

[DocAwe]

It always seemed to me that as a customer gamepass was an awesome deal.
As the provider it was bound to fail unless everything you were offering to play was over at least year old.

 

[The Last Stand]

This would make Gamepass look like it had millions of more subscribers than it actually did. The hard data of how many were actually paying. And how many were even using the service was of course not provided. But the numbers have to be abysmal for Microsoft to keep them so secret. The streaming numbers for literally all video streaming companies are just insane with the losses. NBC's Peakcock lost $640 million last quarter and $825 million the quarter before that. Paramount Global loses around $2 billion annually from its streaming service alone. Gamepass has to be doing just as poorly if not worse.

This reminds me of how Netflix & Hulu were highly successful as streaming platforms back in the day. They were alternatives without companies competing in that market to oversaturate the consumer with several options. Now, EVERY network provider has a subscription service with gatekeeping content because of licensing restrictions. If Game Pass goes up in price, those numbers will dwindle further. Interestingly enough, the figures don't mention WHICH tier of Game Pass their customers have.

Gamepass with advertisements has been in development for a while now. It was originally that you would be required to watch a certain number of advertisements and then it would unlock Gamepass for a month or whatever.

Despite paying for Game Pass, I still get ads on my dashboard.