Joystiq - Gamestop's approach to the Xbox One's nebulous pre-owned game policies – which may include charging players a fee for booting up a used game – involves emphasis on digital adaptation, and letting Microsoft do the talking.
Here is the start date and time for the Xbox Games Summer Showcase 2024 with bundles of exciting leaks and how to watch.
10AM PT/1PM ET/6PM london time.
on June 9th.
this is so odd. we had ps before the summer fest and now xbox after.
Summer Fest and the Sony show were both crap, let's hope Microsoft and Ubisoft shows are decent.
(the way this is going, I'm not asking for good/great shows, simply asking for decent shows...)
I miss E3.
State of Play is a 30 minute sizzle reel. It is not meant to compete with the yearly Xbox showcase.
I'm definitely of the mind that d4 was complete crap at release...but the state of it right this moment is not complete crap. They've simplified a lot which actually helped their overtly stupid itemization.
End game content is still kind of stupid but at least progression and itemization is better.
The rumor is 30 games with a nearly 2 hour show. I hope so I, been saying they need to go balls to the wall with their showcase. That's according to Grubb again. Yeah a huge pinch of salt he's only been wrong or half right about some stuff.
There's also suppose to be a Wu Tang Clan game that's a kungfu action RPG featuring the legendary hip hop group New Yorks own Wu Tang Clan. You read right Wu Tang Clan kungfu action RPG.
Sounds weird, random and quirky but hey I'm down to see it.
State of decay 3 info is leaking on twitter!
Looks good. Personally don’t play horror/ zombie games, but I appreciate it’s a good game so that’s a win for Xbox fans.
Lord knows they need a win at the moment
Appreciate the concern, but I think we'll be just fine. Hope you all enjoy tomorrow's show.
"The rumor is 30 games with a nearly 2 hour show. I hope so I, been saying they need to go balls to the wall with their showcase."
MS had the best showcases in the last few years.
This year, the bar is so low with those last showcases, that imo, MS and Ubisoft doesn´t even need to make much of an effort to beat them.
"That's according to Grubb again. Yeah a huge pinch of salt he's only been wrong or half right about some stuff."
Grubb was right about the last State of Play. Just a few days for the end of the month, he´d continued and insisted that it was going to happen. And he was right! Sony made a last minute announcement for whatever reason, but the guy was spot on.
The presentation is going to be the painful part. There might be some good games though.
You can always make a drinking game out of it for every time they say the words "Made for a modern audience".
The amount of time you invest in hating a company who doesn't even know you exist is hilarious.
Obviously you do. The inane thing is that you think you don't and you really believe you don't but this interaction shows otherwise.
You'd think that every now and then even these dispassionate fools may do a good job...they've disappointed every single year since before release of Xbox one....that's a really long streak of disappointments...lol
For sure. they have the money to put on a top tier show, but I'm afraid it will look like an event where super rich people are noticeably trying to be cheap. And they have this strange smile like they know they are trying o get over on people. It just makes for an awkward and tasteless showing.
I hope it's a good showing knowing most games that will be shown will be multiplats & XB timed exclusives that'll eventually become multi-plats.
It is what it is at this point.
At least the good games will have a chance to be bought, take advantage of the superior DualSense, and *maybe* give those studios a better shot at survival.
They'll also have better shadows, and run with higher dynamic res on the PS5 Pro.
So if they're multiplat would you suddenly like Xbox games?
You never have before you've made that clear several times over.
My point is what I said. You don't like Xbox games, you've said it repeatedly. So would you suddenly like Xbox games if they were available on PS5.
This year holidays, Xbox will pit Indiana jones and Avowed, against Sonys astro-bot.
Although technically those two are bigger and better than Astro bot, they might not be as polished, or as fun as Astro
Next year, they are putting Contraband and fable (maybe) against whatever Sony has cooking. They will probably not be successful in that either
In my opinion, buying those 18 studios is not really doing much (or enough) for them, if anything it has exposed their greed even more than people already thought!
Not to mention gta6 is going to run best in ps5 pro for 100% definitely
I’d go as far as to say, Microsoft couldn’t have done any worse this gen even if they tried to
i got a ps5 just for astro boy, it shows off all the features of the controller and system that no other game does till date and im expecting more of that plus a better game
There is quite a bit more than avowed and Indy this year. Should get some of those dates tomorrow.
Why do they have to "pit up" against each other? Makes no sense play what you like and stop treating this like it's sports, very weird.
You not wrong MS has gone down hill in most metrics this gen but are going up hill with the games. The fact that I'm seeing PS fans on Twitter saying they can't wait for Xbox to supply them with games is like a fever dream in which the roles have reversed, they can't be doing that bad if that's the case. They came from having no games for 12, 13 years to having most of the games.
That lead right into another article saying that MS has shut down tango and arkane? What?! To pay off their activision hole? How dumb.
Imo this is end of the line make or break for xbox as a whole. Ive personally moved on, got tired of endless promises of must own first party exclusives. But I'd be very interested in a handheld if thats true.
Hoping for some cool announcements here. DMCV and DBZ fighterz got announced at Xbox conferences so it's happened before.
Kinda hoping for Team Ico (Gen Design now) to show their new Epic funded game there.
I think this will be a good show. Microsoft has never really had bad shows, it’s just bad output/quality on release. We are going to start putting the stuff they announced too soon on doorsteps with actual release dates and then they can put more emphasis on Gears, Fable, Perfect Dark etc
I'm hoping we will finally see the rumored spyro 4 and the remasters of oblivion and fallout 3.
By putting Black Ops 6 on Game Pass, Microsoft plans to gauge its growth, pricing, and monetization changes, at the cost of less game sales.
If they have follow up games that are bangers, then this strategy will work. But if it’s Call of Duty followed another dead period then it won’t last.
From MS financial perspective I think it may be the opposite.
A year of GamePass on PC is less than the price of two full price games. For all the people that would have bought COD for $70 but instead started subbing for GP, MS will get an extra $50/year which is good.
However, for each banger that MS puts out, that's lost potential revenue because the GP sub won't need to buy it.
So it only makes sense where the new GP customers would have otherwise not spent more money with MS... Which is the case if MS puts out low quality shovelware.
If you’re looking at the short term you are correct. But if Xbox can have multiple bangers then subscriptions should increase. Which is what they want, recurring revenue.
I think this is more about microtransactions. MS wants to see if the upfront losses will be offset by more people login into the “free” game and buying more microtransactions to justify not selling as much COD games.
I honestly not sure. I feel like everyone who likes COD is already playing/buying it so I’m not sure how much more engagement they can get by putting it on gamepass. On the other hand, I also feel a lot of COD players are casual gamers, and they are the type to click on anything that is “free” ex: mobile gaming style
I don't see it working if Call of Duty makes less money and profits over time from gamepass 🤔
I dont understand why have it on it when we all know it sells with the name alone. Seems stupid to lose so much sales and $ just to have it on game pass. They basically shooting themselves in the foot with a already injured foot from all the other times they shoot themselves in the foot.
@blackblades, that's my exact point, even on xbox where most software sells poorly CoD still sells millions, but the thing is, if you don't put it on GP you kinda shatter the whole idea they've build GP up to be, they've dug this hole themselves.
I think it might tick up subscribers a bit, but warzone is already free and gets millions of players regardless of GP. But where will those extra subs come from? Xbox sales are dropping like a rock, PC gamers are very firmly rooted in Steam and will just buy it there.
@black
If they don't include it on Game Pass, they lose the claim of First-Party Day-One on Game Pass, and thus would begin the slippery slope of what's-ok-to-not-include and the devaluing of the service, and further sinking Microsoft/Xbox's already tarnished reputation.
Stuck between a rock and a hard place and this move buys them time to work out more future-math.
I still expect a price increase in GP to compensate but who knows. With all the factors in play like COD points there are too many variables for someone on the outside to predict what will happen. I assume they have a forecast model where this all looks peachy.
When the game does not hit 1 Billion in revenue in under two weeks they will wonder why and the next thing you know; Season Updates will no longer be free.
Yeah I expect paid DLC and season pass in your face, now you are buying for a game you are renting
That's where they're relying on PC and PlayStation gamers to pick up the slack. They know their business model isn't lasting so in order to give it away "free" for Xbox, they're banking on PC and PS5 customers to make up for the sales loss on Xbox, otherwise they wouldn't be able to pull this off like they want to. Xbots don't see it but, it's their gaming brethren that'll keep their console manufacturer afloat a little longer because the service they hold so dear isn't viable anymore. So, it's by the good graces of their fellow gamers they live to fight another day.
Consumers don't understand how Xbox Game Pass really works. It's not about the volume, and maybe Xbox doesn't want them to know. It's not about how many games you play. Developers don't make money by how many people play their game, it's HOW LONG you play. How many hours to put in.
Customers like David Jaffe that only like to sample don't help the service succed. Jaffe is a cheapskate stoner who spends all his money on Diet Coke, Jolly Ranchers, and weed to fry his brains (it's medically proven, sorry to disappoint) but Jaffe wants as much as he can get for as little so, he's not much of an advocate. But he also plays games for a little while and then gives up, it's just his personality, maybe A.D.D. or something, but Game Pass is dependent on how long a gamer sinks hours in. Why do you think Phil Spencer wants Helldivers 2? Because gamers don't put it down. Hellblade II, they'll play the campaign and then be done. Games like that sink to the bottom of the pile, they disappear. Xbox LIKES Games as a Service business models because it sells their service, but that model doesn't work for Sony, Helldivers was a stroke a luck, lightning that won't hit twice because PS fans don't want that. But that's how Xbox keeps it's games at the top of the list and on their service. The longer you play a single game, that's how devs make money
subscribers go up, execs celebrate win, get bonus, price goes up, subscribers go down,
execs dont care, got their bonus,
If it works CEOs and shareholders get a payday and if it doesn't even more studios get closed by MS so CEOs and shareholders get a payday.
It will sell on PC & PS but as long as COD is for rent on Gamepass it will not sell well on the XB platform. Most folks such as myself that like COD just for the campaign would rather rent it for that month instead of paying $70 plus tax for the game.
Your smart.
its 70 for base plus 10 to 20 for a season pass plus another 30 for there better season pass,
...now you are finally getting how to use GP. No commitments, just play what is offered. if you like it so much and want to keep a copy for yourself... you can buy it when you want to. I used to buy games based on if they looked appealing and have been burned many times on things. With this, I can try before I buy. And I have actually bought several games after having rented them in the service. It literally is like the old days of renting only you get the whole store instead of pay per rental.
I've been knowing how to use Gamepass. I sub the service yearly & I play games on the service that I don't have to pay the full price for such as Persona 3:Reload. I mostly play & pay for games on my PS5 but if a game lands on GP that I'm interested in playing & I don't have to buy a copy for the PS5 I'll definitely play it on Gamepass.
And there you have it, it's like you actively want to destroy the industry. Just rent the games and then buy them, knowing that doesn't happen and the actual cost of pushing a rental service is studios closures and firings.
So far MS has done nothing with Bethesda and Activision except limit where they sell, close successful studies, fire thousands and mass industry consolidation. No new games are being made that weren't already coming and some like Tangos future titles that they were working on we will never get to see now because of MS and their greed.
Massive industry consultation benefits only the company doing it, consumers and the workforce always lose out because of it. What MS is doing leads to cuts and a lesser end product. If MS had spent the money on making games instead of taking them away we would have a far healthier industry, instead we have the same games but with restrictions and a service that has cannibalised sales.
How long will it stay? That’s my question, will it be replaced by the next COD or stay on after the next releases or be gone in 3-6 months?
Since Microsoft owns Activision now, it’s technically a first party title and should stay on GP indefinitely
If this is what it takes to make Game Pass work then then the experiment has by and large failed.
The problem here is how many GP accounts are needed to be a successful move... Anyone knows how much they won for every copy of the game sold?($70 I think like 30?) The point I want to try to the table is how many accounts and months for every new GP account start giving them blue numbers.
CoD sells like 20 millions units every year and they are happy with that big 20. Now to be honest like 80% of the new GP accounts are going to play 1/2 month to check out the game and leave... On the other hand, suits are gonna get the bonus anyways but I would love to check the numbers.
COD, Indiana Jones, Avowed and STALKER 2 will be on Gamepass this fall. If that can't move the needle at all, then it's over.
To be honest I think it's more concerning for what the Quality of the games moving forward will be like if they're going to be Gamepass games that likely means the in game market is about to become even more aggressive with its pricing on top of that there are rumors that Blops 6 is going to be treated like a DLC much like MW3 with the game essentially almost being F2P entirely on all fronts since Warzone and Mobile are free that means the price shifts and changes will seem justified.
Don't know what to think really, sounds like a bad idea though in the short term, maybe it's long term thinking that will make it beneficial.
Halo infinite part 2, making it free means this will have more bundles than Fortnite, more pay to win.
Seems to be lose lose because if it doesn't increase gamepass subs substantially Phil's strategy fails but if it does Microsoft will complain about sales and closes studio's.
In my perceiption, all these exclusives coming to Xbox this year carry tremendous expectations on their shoulders already.
Not just within their fans. But in MS's offices, too.
Maybe with the exception that's CoD. It to me feels like the rest needs to draw high, universal criticial acclaim to finally get the word of mouth moving that GP IS inevitable.
Just Imagine:
How the story would have went if Starfield had already drawn unanonimous, universal criticial acclaim. With a 92, 94 or even a 96 on meta- and opencritic.
I am talking the realms of impact like GTA, RDR2, Elden Ring, BG3, TloU, God of War did.
A space and exploration game that's hitting the highs of a 92 or even above. It would have been CRAZY.
But we all know it wasn't. That's why the steam settled so quickly again.
If Indiana Jones and all the other games, like Hellblade 2 recently, won't get into that mighty, universally acclaimed 90's rating, nothing will change.
Microsoft needs some of these high hitters finally.
Additionally: Let's see what's coming in their Showcase this Sunday.
I dont think so. Microsoft has already fired up a freight train, you know how hard it is to stop one of those? Xbox having pretty much announced they're going multiplatform, it's time to finally embrace it, I totally disagree with this article, bad research
Just expect Microsoft to have a spin news story to try and shine a positive light on it. Despite the fact COD is on a big downtrend for players. That is a fact they can't deny. It is a tired franchise and I suspect Activision knew that and that is why they wanted to be bought out. Microsoft have a wonderful track record of buying things 10 years too late and 10 times too much.
Microsoft doesn't seem to understand the general contempt the public has for subscription services. It works for video streaming, but even then people very begrudgingly sub to multiple.
At the end of the day, people are going to treat Game Pass like any other sub: get it when something's interesting, finish it, and drop it until it's worth getting again. Black Ops 6 has potential in that people will literally just play CoD and maybe 2 other games for a whole year until the next one drops...But surely, they must know that people would much rather just buy the game if they just play a few titles.
I'm sure the point of the acquisitions was to keep releasing a steady stream of titles for Game Pass (and hoard IPs), but they keep building on a house with a poor foundation.
Personally, I don't think this moves the needle in any meaningful way for the service.
The Xbox brand has done a lot of good over the years, but their various blunders are pretty wild to look back on in their magnitude.
Ironically number 9 can save them at this point (releasing games on multiple platforms)
By “save them” you mean make more profit for Microsoft. Xbox will still be a dying hardware platform.
You could add the naming scheme for the consoles, it just confuses customers. I know they wanted to avoid traditional numbering bc it would always be lower than their competitor, but this whole 360 then One then Series thing is confusing af. Imagine a Soccer Mom trying to figure this stuff out. I still mistakenly call the Series X the One from time to time on accident.
Don't forget about the Xbox One, Xbox One X and Xbox Series X! Good luck to Soccer moms around the world.
They did that on purpose to confuse and direct attention away from the generational numbering.
MS doesn’t like reminding people that they joined the industry after others had already been involved in gaming.
For instance, they called the xbox “360” to combat PlayStation “3” because they wanted to seem like “more” than “3”, so instead of xbox 2, they opted for xbox 360. Also this had the additional benefit of selling consoles to uninformed parents who might purchase a “360” instead of a “3” by mistake, or because they thought 360 was more than 3. Kind of a disingenuous move.
They have been continuing with their confusing naming patterns for pretty much the same reasons. Frankly, it fits with who and what they are as a brand.
I can understand their reasoning, but whoever came up with that naming scheme should be fired, bad naming schemes have killed consoles (I'm pretty sure it was the major reason for the downfall of the WiiU). They should have had unqiue names like Nintendo and Sega have had for their consoles, far less confusing for the consumer.
@FinalFantasyFanatic "They should have had unqiue names like Nintendo..."
lol, you mean:
NES, SNES
GameBoy, GameBoy Advanced, GameBoy Colour, GameBoy SP
DS, DSi, DSXL
3DS, 3DS XL, New 3DS, New 3DS XL
Wii, Wii U
Switch, Switch OLED
Phil Spencer is the worst that has happened to Xbox.
They built a respectable brand up to Xbox one. Then this guy took over and things became a joke
I didn't like either person, both people damaged their respective brands and produced worse outcomes, but Phil did save the Xbox brand from being retired by Microsoft. Although in hindsight, he should have just let it die, rather than languish in limbo like it is now.
Phil Spencer was also on the team back when 360 was around, alongside Shane Kim, Peter Moore etc. I think the damage that did the most harm was the Don Mattrick "Always Online" console (ahead of its time basically). They handed Sony and Nintendo a free-pass when that was revealed. It went downhill from there. Then the corporate machine went into full swing to try and recover. They have to a degree as a games company for the masses, and less so for the core gamer. Outside USA, the Xbox brand does not sell as well as Japanese based consoles (citation needed).
Want a decision maker. The always online and TV plans was a disaster yes, but they caught up by announcing 1st party games that gamers actually kept the hype going.. until this moron took over and introduced the PC day one release.. e all know where that ended..
I dont think they were ever a respectable brand, not since the beginning, when their goal was never to be involved and share in the gaming space. I think the OG xbox was an exception because MS as a brand was still getting its foot in and so the people behind that were people of the gaming industry.
The 360 was the brand in its prime though, everything went downhill towards the end of that generation. Its staple games like Halo, Forza and Gears are what kept the console relevant and afloat for so long.
Really good video.
I remember the days with RRoD was big news on here, N4G.
Microsoft had it turbulence number of years.
Looking at the success of Sea of Thieves despite being 6 years old, time to release Halo, Forza horizon 4 & 5 on PS5. It'll help their revenue
2 of the 4 games they did already sold really well. So it's definitely going down. Idk about halo or forza but I feel those studios they've bought in the last 5 years, their coming
I found this video painful to watch. Can someone list them out?
Top 10 for me from are:
1. 2013 reveal presentation
2. Bundling Kinect 2 with Xbox One
3. RRoD or why rushing to market with hardware is always a bad idea.
4. Buying studios only to close them.
5. Ads on the Home Screen
6. Letting Halo die.
7. Letting Geard of War die.
8. Every console name
9. Charging for Xbox Live on Xbox 360 when Sony let PS3 players play online for free.
10. Cancelling release of OG Xbox games after the Xbox 360 launched.
It's only a 20 minute video. they aren't going deep enough. The mistakes have been catastrophic.
I wonder if the same author will do a "Crazy good things Xbox did that they want you to remember" video?
1. Xbox Live service on OG Xbox was ground-breaking for console market despite Dreamcast from SEGA offering online capabilities
2. the introduction of key gaming series like Halo, Forza, Gears, Fable etc.
3. The massive marketing campaigns like Zero Hour for the 360 launch, Peter Moore with GTA IV fake tats
4. Innovative ideas like Kinect
5. The acceptance of past mistakes with RROD and the ability to try and fix that (willingly or otherwise).
6. A continued "attempt" at bringing Japanese games like Blue Dragon, Lost Odessey to NA/Euro market outside of PS dominance (despite failing)
7. Streaming Xbox games without the need for a console
8. Gamepass for those on tight budgets
I expect a lot of downvotes for this but I like the banter. Would be good to see similar articles for Playstation and Nintendo, someone.
Marketing is considered a good thing?
Fixing RROD is something they had to do. It wasn’t a good thing it was mandatory or they would have been sued to hell.
Streaming is horrible - it’s part of their plan to kill off console.
Online was done elsewhere and I’ve played on every major online console (except last 2 Xbox’s) and the differences are unnoticeable. This is just a talking point from Xbox fans.
GamePass has ruined them and their newest acquisitions.price will go only go higher over time and quality will go down.
I don't think you can spin a some of those as good things.
Key gaming series - These kept them afloat, but they became too reliant on those franchises, and said franchises became stale, I don't think anyone is going to fondly talk about Halo 5 or Infinite, 5,10 years from now like they have of the first few games.
Marketing - I don't even remember these.
Kinect - It was kinda cool, but they made a mistake trying to force it on people during the Xone era, but that was one of the few things they came up with, can't think of anything else really.
RROD - that was so bad, it inflated sales numbers, and they refused to talk about failure rates, even now, we have wild estimates between 33% and 60%, all we know is, it was really high.
Gamepass - providing cheap gaming at the expense of your own survival and that of the developers who jumped onboard? This is one of their biggest reasons for failure, I don't think Sony should have followed suit with their own equivalent either.
Just 10? But no, seriously, they messed up big time after the 360, never really had an Xbox console, other than the original but I didn't have it for long as I just didn't use it as much as my PS2 but I always enjoyed playing them when I went round to a mates house, too many hours to count on Halo, loved viva piñata, gears of war, Forza and really thought they could do something, they had the talent but since the 360 it's just been absolutely abysmal.
I'm glad games like sea of thieves, hi fi rush and hopefully more are coming to playstation, that's probably the best thing for me that has come out of this but that's it, other than that, it's been a complete mismanagement.
I loved the Halo Lan parties, despite owner a 360, I was never a fan of the console, but those parties were great fun.
My feeling is their biggest mistake is not understanding what is the heart of gaming...the games. They have been in video games now at least 23 years. That is way more than enough time to build internally and organically their own IPs. Halo was brilliant and they hit the road running with Halo being so good out of the gate. Forza and Gears are fantastic too, but they have been inconsistent to non-existent after that. There is absolutely no excuse for this. They have had plenty of time to develope more original IPs even if some failed, keep trying, but they didn't do that now they have no true exclusives beyond Halo, Forza and Gears really. Yes they have a few others, but those 3 are defining and synonymous with the Xbox brand. Now they are going multi plat. They are not a true video game entity like Nintendo and Sony if you ask me. Microsoft had failed. They contribute in other ways to push the industry, but it isn't where it truly matters. Games.
Microsoft actually needs to sit down and truly think on what they want to do and how to run Xbox. Right now as it stands and as it shows they don't know WTF they are doing. Except dragging the Xbox brand nose first deeper into the ground. I mean its true there are barely any exclusives that make me say hey I should buy the machine. Locking the Coalition and 343 to just certain franchises I think has to be very boring on their end. If Microsoft doesn't turn shit around before or if they do drop a next gen Xbox. People are just going to bypass the XBox as a whole.
All fair points, although the chonkyness of the OG Xbox has its own charm, even though we made of Xbox controllers and their users who preferred it. Really surprised Game Pass wasn't mentioned, considering that was a huge financial sinkhole for Xbox, because people could game on the cheap and not buy physical/digital copies of games.
I also feel that the Activision/Blizzard acquisition is going to be one of the final nails in the coffin for Xbox as a hardware company.
Gamestop sounds just as clueless as MS.
Yeah. We know they do. For a price... >_>
I wonder what Gamefly has to say about this stuff. This will really hurt their business.
Of course they do, because when they trade it in to a place like Gamestop Microsoft knows they're getting an extra $60.
what a back stap from MS. Reaching Gamestop before the conference and lying to them about used games!
I'm expecting Gamestop to promote PS4 like crazy.