Xbox: Happy New Year! As we start off the new year, we thought we would take some time to look back at a great 2016 and look forward to what will be an exceptional 2017 for Xbox gamers. We were privileged to celebrate the 15-year anniversary of Xbox in November, but what made 2016 most special was laying out our vision for gaming at E3 2016, delivering a new version of Xbox One along with great new games and services for you to play on the device(s) of your choice and seeing terrific response from gamers worldwide this holiday. In fact, in November and December we saw Xbox Live engagement reach an all-time high of 3.9 billion hours, up 23 percent compared to the prior year. Thank you!
"It took one trailer for your average Joe Shmoe gamer to know the fate of Concord. Meanwhile, Hulst was at the helm of its development thinking it was about to be "the future of PlayStation." The level of disconnect is tremendous. This isn't just a catastrophically expensive mistake from Hulst, it is an embarrassing one that raises serious questions about whether he is fit for the role he had, let alone the role has has been promoted to. Hulst and co. get paid untold millions to make the exact calls that just cost Sony half-a-billion dollars when they could have gotten a better counsel from the YouTube comments section. Suffice to say, Hulst and any other PlayStation leadership involved in this disaster have serious questions to answer.
'It took one trailer for your average Joe Shmoe gamer to know the fate of Concord.'.
I wonder if the author bought up a load of physical copies and themed controllers in advance of the game being pulled, seen as they have such foresight.
Everyone knew from the first trailer and if not definitely the beta that this game was dead on arrival.
Probably the most easily predicted flop in media history given it's horrendous reception. People wouldn't even try the free beta.
A bit exaggerative. Half a billion? First we went from 200 million, then 400 million, and now its 500 million? In 3 days some blogger is going to claim Concord cost 700 million!
Yes, the game was clearly not going to succeed, nearly everyone knew this in advance, but if Hulst learns his lesson, and focuses on quality single player adventures (additional multiplayer modes are fine too!), then we're okay. If he doesn't learn, then he needs to get the boot.
This is a make-or-break moment for us to believe in him, don't screw it up. The rumored upcoming State of Play with some big announcements should help bring things back in order. I hope.
So basically what you're saying is... wait for E3 for new single player games that will magically appear from Sony.
Herman will, from now on, listen to gamers by releasing Fairgames, Marathon and Horizon gaas.
The rumor State of Play will probably just be remasters of old games and more live service games. There's a disconnect between Herman Hulst and the Playstation fans. I'll be surprised if Hulst ain't fired by next year
Man fanboys really are so pathetic aren’t they and to think i was once a PS fanboy. So embarrassing.
Yes this game was in development for 8 years and then it was picked up by Sony half way through when the moron brothers were put in charge Jim Ryan and Herman Hulst. They put money in this thing believing it was the FUTURE of Playstation.. a fucking live service game.. also closing Japanese studios at the same time. Meanwhile one of their Japanese studios just delivered one of the most critically acclaimed and best PS games ever with just 65 people and three years of development.
DO YOU GET IT NOW YOU IDIOTS
Good lord. The Sony defending is ridiculous at this point. People need to realize that defending them is what LEADS to Concord type failures. We NEED to call out stuff like the live service push, stupid PS5 Pro price and bare bones PS5 exclusive line up.
The same stupid defense arguments were made when the reports came out that Sony was doing live service instead of a strong push back from fans and here we are in the thick of it.
The point of the article is the Hulst should have taken one look at the steaming pile of trash and said hell no and moved on, like millions of fans obviously did.
Not pour hundreds of millions into its completion (which could have gone to better PS5 single player exclusives like Astro Bot) or even into a better multiplayer IP like SOCOM, Warhawk, Killzone etc.
He didn't and that's a problem. Playstation leadership is out of touch.
(And please no one reply and say Xbox, they're dead and this point and not even worth comparing to)
Palworld developer Pocketpair has responded to this morning's dramatic decision by Nintendo to file a patent infringement.
Palworld is better, but Nintendo has$$$$ They can fight it all they want, but will absolutely lose. It is a blatant Pokemon rip off. I do wish them luck though.
The character design is NOT the issue here. Pokemon patented bullsht. You can patent "Throwing an item to capture a virtual character and another action to release an item that releases a combat character onto virtual world" but my god that is vague as fuck and shouldnt hold in any court...and the kicker? it was patented AFTER palworld was made.
If this lawsuit goes through that is literally going to work on every single monster capture game,
Like the other guy said, this has nothing to do with any of the designs. This is Nintendo patent trolling. It's like Rockstar suing another game if they have a guy opening the car door and yanking them out to steal the car because that's why you do in GTA so therefore that game is infringing on GTA's "patent". And that's the reason why Pocketpair is fighting this because if they lose this opens the doors to MORE lawsuits of this kind.
No they weren't. That was proven false. And, again since people don't seem to understand, this is not a copyright lawsuit or about stolen content/assets/designs/etc. It's a patent lawsuit. So far all the possible patents I've seen were filed by Nintendo 4 months *after* Palworld released.
The catching mechanic patent was filed even before Arceus was released, I dont know which ones you have been watching because all the ones I’ve seen were before Palword came out
(Though not all have been approved in the US yet, just in Japan)
The patent for the catching mechanic was filed July 2024 and granted August 2024. It was filed on top of a separate, "parent" patent that had been filed in 2021. Nintendo filed new patents and had them expedited just so they could sue Pocket Pair/Palworld.
it's so dumb. if that patent holds any water in court - any monster capture game is done and gone. cnts.
People want Nintendo to lose as a big middle finger to the company, but if Nintendo wins then they set a precedent for others to follow which could be bad for Nintendo themselves if they end up infringing on a patent owned by someone else
The one I'm reminded of is, a few years ago Sony patented something to do with AI controlling a characters moments in a game to "help get past difficult or grindy parts" of a game
Mario kart 8 deluxe had a the auto acceleration and auto steering technology implemented, so potentially if that came back for mario kart 9 could possibly open the door for Sony to sue them if it's close enough
Blizzard mentions: “The notion that you’ve missed four seasons, the only thing you’ve missed is us continuing to learn and iterate”
Agreed. I just put in 50 hours of it because I was told to just push through but I think I’m over it.
A shame because I had so much fun with Diablo 3. I bought it twice. Putting 100 of hours into both.
Diablo 3 on the switch saved me from going crazy on a deployment. Oh well hopefully next Diablo will be better.
As long as I keep my gamepass sub I won’t miss a thing
diablo 4 is actually a pretty good game now, the launch was just terrible, but honestly it was worse for D3 at launch. Farming inferno for 10 hours just to get a bunch of yellows that weren't for your class or 10 levels lower, combined with the rubberbanding and Hydra getting double the bonusses that it should have and the real money auction house. Hardcore was unplayable in D3, in D4 it was fine for me at least. Combined with not being able to log at launch or just getting kicked out. D3 was definitely way worse than D4 at launch, took them 2.5-3 years to turn it around.
If you played D3 once rifts were out, then there was actually some content, but that was YEARS into the game.
Have people just forgotten how terrible D3 was at the start? Real Money Auction House? Absolutely abysmal gear drops with stats that make no sense whatsoever?
Bring back Paladin/Crusader or GTFO. The fans never asked for Spiritborn.
Look at BG3. Great story, online co-op, couch co-op no micro transactions, no unnecessary seasons. Once you've finished the game you can play again and make different choices that will change the story. What happened to diablo?
if you're playing diablo to get branching story paths you're doing something wrong. Completely different game. The replayability in arpgs is the grind for better items and the ultimate chase is the perfect item. Might not be your cup of tea, but millions of people do.
We wouldn't feel like we're missing anything if you made it so people could go back and play through each season rather than miss out on it entirely. But that's not your goal. You want people to feel like they are missing out on things and force them to play when you want them to, regularly each season, rather than just make a game that is more enjoyable to play and with better content.
New titles, Project Scorpio, Xbox live beam streaming intergration, continuos support for top 2016 games and more announces. 2017 will be a fantastic year on Xbox One.
I have a feeling a May reveal is happening for Project Scorpio with a ton of games, followed by actual gameplay at E3. Keeping fingers crossed. Can't wait.
"Forza Horizon 3 became the best-selling, highest-rated racing game in 2016 and the biggest Forza launch to date. The Forza franchise continues to grow and has now seen well over 14 million players on Xbox One and Windows 10."
(Some what of a mention of sales.)
Also, this means FH3 is over a million, the biggest launch for Forza before was Forza 5
Forza 5 fastest-selling racing game in Xbox history
http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...
"Gears of War 4 launched to critical acclaim (Game Informer: 9.25/10, IGN: 9.2/10, Polygon: 9/10) and has had a tremendous reception for its campaign, Horde 3.0 and Versus Multiplayer experiences – all of which are delivered in High Dynamic Range (Xbox One S), 4K (Windows 10) and support cross-play as an Xbox Play Anywhere title. We are seeing incredible engagement on Xbox Live with nearly 23 million Versus Multiplayer and Horde matches played since launch, as well as within the eSports world, where the Gears eSports Pro Circuit has marked the franchise’s dramatic return with a more-than-$1,000,000 prize pool."
(Zero mention of sales.)
It anyone still unconvinced Gears under performed?
Interesting numbers but I was hoping for an update on sales especially after the release of the Xbox One S.