50°

Inside Google's bid to launch Stadia and transform the entire game industry

Creative engineers Phil Harrison, Jade Raymond, Majd Bakar, and more take you behind the scenes of Google Stadia

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gamesradar.com
60°

20 Best PS1 RPGs of All Time

Cultured Vultures: Where would the PS1 be without RPGs? It’d no doubt still be a massive seller thanks to bandicoots, clones, and halfpipes, but half the cultural institution it is today? We’re not so sure.

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culturedvultures.com
270°

It's Time To Stop Giving Xbox Boss Phil Spencer A Pass

Under his leadership, many have lost their jobs and fewer games have made it out the door.

purple1013h ago

people should call for his resignation, he has literally flushed xbox down the toilet.
another 3 studios closed today, thats it now, get out

Tody_ZA2h ago(Edited 2h ago)

Well purple101 you'd have to convince Observer and the other Xbox faithful that these studio closures and the fallout from the acquisitions is a bad thing and a sign of what's to come, and I don't think you're going to do that.

Nobody has managed that feat.

Redgrave1h ago

Obscure and Zeref have been summoned to the floor to give their account of these proceedings.

VenomUK1h ago

I 100% blame 'nice guy Phil' for the death of Xbox. The thing to realise is the Xbox Series S & X are performing WORST in console sales and game sales than the much criticised Xbox One - how can this be?

His two big mistakes were 1-not developing enough exclusives and 2 - always trying to beat PlayStation. If he made more exclusives over his decade reign and not tried to 'win' then classic Xbox would still be here in a profitable third place. Instead he tried a series of different projects to win and he ended up ultimately destroying Xbox by changing its relationship with its most loyal customers. What did he do?

* Phil spent a decade only release new iterations of Halo, Forza and Gears and not investing in creating new first party studios and IP. He mishandled Scalebound and shutdown Lionhead Studios.

* Phil tried Mixer, a streaming channel that could be used to promote Xbox dominance with free giveaways...

* Phil tried to create a streaming service that he regarded as too superior to consider PlayStation and Nintendo as competitors! But would instead compete with Netflix and Google...

* But his worst mistake was Xbox Game Pass - a multi billion dollar investment that could only work if completely dominated the worldwide gaming market - but it didn't. Instead it changed the culture of Xbox gamers so they resented spending on third party games as they were now trained to expect everything for free. Now all the games Microsoft had invested so much in were not only NOT making money from other platforms, as ever, but they were now NOT EVEN making money from Xbox customers.

If Phil Spencer had just concentrated on making new games and not non-stop gimmicks to beat PlayStation, I genuinely believe the Xbox would be an attractive platform with regular exclusives like Halo but with others too that would give it its distinct identity and maintain a profitable existence. Phil's been in charge for over a decade, the blame lays at his feet.

amazinglover14m ago

Last MS financial results for FY24 Q2 which is the company's sales data through Dec. 31, 2023. According to the earnings, gaming revenue is up 49% year-over-year.

That doesn't sound like he flushing it down the toilet and that also makes very unlikely he loses his job any time soon.

Tacoboto3h ago

Phil needs to go. His time is over. When you oversee layoff after layoff after studio closure after studio closure, it's impossible to keep going forward and have people - employees and fans alike - trust you in any way.

Especially after HiFi Rush hit their metrics. I guess we know what to expect for Ninja Theory next once Hellblade is out, and Machine Games once Indiana's out & Todd Howard focuses back on ES6.

mastershredder2h ago

It's not just Phil (Phil is just the dumb kid taking the money) and Kotaku is NOT the voice to listen to as shi7 sites like Kotaku helped contribute to modern gaming toxicity and disinformation. Kotaku staff = Much like Phil, and yes need to go.

Moegooner2h ago

MS has been posting record profits, you think they give a crap about games and gamers? Think again.

DOMination-2h ago

What a prat.

People gave him and Matt Booty the benefit of the doubt for a few years due to the mess they inherited but a decade on and all they've done is ruin gaming for everyone.

The only success they've had is MS Flight Simulator which was developed by a third party anyway - and Forza Horizon which by pure coincidence went downhill in quality the second Playground were acquired (imo) and that's all I can think of. Everything else they've touched has been ruined.

It's genuinely staggering how either of these two guys are still there.

Hofstaderman2h ago

Phil didnt even inherit a mess, he was equally responsible for it because he sat on the executive so the kinect and XBONE roadmap vision was also on him. Mattrick was the convenient public scapegoat back then but now theres no one to place the blame on.

Tacoboto2h ago

If they're to keep anyone, I'd hope it would be Sarah Bond. She's at least consistent, constantly doing quick tweets with green emojis where she can, repping the brand, saying the next hardware will be the biggest leap ever (whatever that means).

Phil Spencer openly minimizes Xbox by going out of his way to congratulate competitors and talking about how great playing non-Xbox devices are; if only Xbox had someone that could even pretend to like Xbox for being Xbox.

LoveSpuds2h ago

This is the point I always found frustrating, the whitewashing of Spencers reputation when he got promoted. He was involved in the slide into mediocrity of the 360 generation!

Aloymetal1h ago

The worse is yet to come and their fanbase don't know it yet, someone at MS posted and deleted a tweet saying all their main ''exclusives'' Halo, Forza, Gears etc will be heading to PS soon so grab a front seat ticket and some popcorn and enjoy the show;) The crying will be hilarious.

Notellin1h ago

Yeah he is absolutely responsible for the abysmal state of Xbox. I can't tell Mattrick and Spencer apart at this point. Both have been horrible executives for the Xbox brand.

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150°

Diablo IV is Available on PlayStation Cloud Gaming - Beats Xbox to the Punch

Diablo IV is now available to play via PlayStation Cloud Gaming! Still not available to Play on Xbox Cloud Gaming.

We ran our script again and found 15 other PS5 games (a lot of popular ones!) that got PS5 Cloud Gaming support within the last month as well.

Read Full Story >>
clouddosage.com
Hugodastrevas1d 7h ago

Not for me, I'm 100% physical media all of the time.

jwillj2k41d ago

I hate that I have to keep calling this out, but your physical disks mean nothing if the game code attempts to connect to a server prior to playing.

Hugodastrevas1d ago

And that happens when? I'm playing completely offline here, stellar Blade to be more precise.
I'm sorry but I've never run into that imaginary problem you're talking about, I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but it has never happened to me.

jwillj2k41d ago

You not running into the problem yet has no bearing on my argument. You’re acting like the medium is the shield for you being able to always play your games when it effectively is not. The game code itself can try to connect to a server or the console you’re playing on may receive an update that requires that game to connect to a server. Just because you haven’t ran into it doesn’t mean anything lol you don’t own your games no matter how you try.

Hugodastrevas22h ago

So I have never run into the problem you're talking about and your answer is an hypothetical? Look I can play any game of my library offline right now without issue.
That issue is in your mouth and alone.

Crows9018h ago

Actually...there's an easy way...don't connect. If it doesn't require a connection and you don't connect...the code can't update...obviously....confused why you don't get what he's saying.

outsider162418h ago

Hold on..lets say i dnt have an online connection, can i atleast play the game offline though. Was thinking of getting this

jwillj2k413h ago

None of you use your brains.

OK, let’s explore this playing offline. not talking about Diablo specifically just gaming in general.

Are you going to buy two PlayStations? One offline one online? If not, moment you want to play something that requires a connection you’re cooked.

Does game experience you love so much stay the same offline?

Is the game even playable offline?

The whole point of my argument is that we don’t hold the keys anymore. The gatekeepers are the developers and console makers regardless of whether it’s digital or physical. You altering your play style for a lesser experience is not a workaround, it doesn’t solve the overall problem.

None of this matters since the move to the cloud is inevitable.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 13h ago
spicelicka1d 3h ago

So you have to buy the game and can only stream to the PS5 devices using PS plus premium? What is the point of that. Much more useful when you can stream to other devices.

MrNinosan1d 3h ago

Works great on my Portal while at work 👍

spicelicka1d 1h ago

That's streaming off your PS5, not from the cloud. This is specifically referring to cloud gaming.

CrimsonWing691d 3h ago

Can’t you, uh, do this on your phone?

Tacoboto1d 2h ago

Sony doesn't yet have a web or app-based solution to stream games off their cloud service, the closest you may be able to get would be Remote Play if they allow cloud streaming during a Remote session.

And yes this applies to the Portal too.

Einhander19727h ago(Edited 7h ago)

Tacoboto

Please stop talking about PlayStation Streaming, you don't know what you're talking about.

I just explained this to you the other day where you were telling people that remote play was their only cloud solution, because apparently you didn't understand how PlayStation Premium works even though PS Now was a thing since shortly after the launch PS4..

You can stream to PC and Mac, and they had mobile clients for it in the past but probably for the same reason Microsoft is fighting Apple and Google PS Now wasn't allowed on App stores. Which is why it's not on iPhone and Android still.

And to be honest, I am glad they are trying to keep it on the console, all their moves away from the console seem like a step in the wrong direction, which isn't working so great for Microsoft...

anast1d 2h ago

Blizzard is shoving this game everywhere. Diablo 4 is going to take an even bigger hit soon. Path of exile 2 is coming out and it looks insane.

Crows9018h ago

Well they're about to release the next season...I think that might be way they're pushing the game again.

anast5h ago

I mean I get what you are saying, but D4 isn't doing that well either.

UnbreakableAlex1d 1h ago (Edited 1d 1h ago )

I completed it on gamepass. Thanks God I dint pay it full price. It plays like a lazy mobile game. I am not a pro diablo gamer (Diablo 1 was the only one I completed) but D4 has no atmosphere, no creepy feeling and soundtrack like the first one and its so easy, I managed to not buy any weapon and had 4 Million Credits on level 55. I always used the same 4 attacks from the beginning and died maybe 10-15 times. It's so easy, wtf. I remember D1 to be pretty hard.
WTF happened? Is Diablo 3 also that bad?

jwillj2k41d ago

Diablo 3 was my first Diablo game. I had to use the mailbox cheats to keep it interesting.

Crows9018h ago(Edited 18h ago)

Diablo 3 was really hard at launch....then they made it easy.

They love scaling difficulty though.

anast5h ago

D2 is the pinnacle. I still fire it up from time to time.

GrmpyolGamer 16h ago

Considering that the PS cloud steaming is garbage compared to XCloud and is limited to certain devices this isn't something to brag about. Wake me up when Diablo is on PS plus