Xbox creator Seamus Blackley speaks on the current marketing attempt to push the brand as the "most powerful" console available.
Original Destiny artist Darren Bacon recalls how Bungie reacted to the art style change of Halo 4 by 343 Industries.
Bungie at that time became the most wonderful bunch of hypocrites in the gaming industry. Knowing this now, gosh the entitlement they felt was out of this world.
Nothing like buying yourself from Microsoft because you don't want to be the Halo Studio anymore, and the FIRST THING you do is sign your next IP over to Activision, for a DECADE, while they are in the middle of ousting the heads of Infinity Ward so they can exert even more control over COD while screwing out the devs at IW...
Should've come as no surprise then that Activision gutted the content of Destiny 1 before launch and was a horrible partner through Destiny 2, until history repeated itself and Bungie had to split from Activision only to wind up in the arms of another major conglomerate that also doesn't know how to handle these unmanageable devs.
Tti their credit they praised the technical abilities of 343 and I remember at the time thinking halo 4 was a huge graphical leap above reach everything else was rubbish when I actually got to play it but there was no doubt it looked good for the 360 and is probably the best looking game on the system.
But ultimately I think bungie has always had a leadership problem and going independent ultimately proved this it's only getting worse with studio heads being outed by Sony for abuse allegations seems like all bungies past success has been in spite of management not because of it.
But really I think the bungie we have today is not the same one we had in that Xbox era of Bungie
I liked the artstyle change. For the most part. Something looked worse but most of everything else looked better. Weapons and vehicles for sure. The wraith come to my mind instantly.
And how can they get mad when the bungie changed it with Halo Reach?
I know a lot of people dislike Halo 4’s arts style, but there’s thing about it I like and dislike. Personally, the Halo 4 design of Master Chief’s armour is my favourite depiction of the character’s armour.
An interview with Tymon Smektala (Franchise Director, Dying Light) where I get to ask him as to how Techland was impacted by its DLC story leaks, how the studio has changed after being acquired by Tencent, where he sees the Dying Light franchise going in future, and how he's been able to maintain enthusiasm for the Dying Light franchise since he joined Techland 10-odd years ago. Enjoy!
Alix Wilton Regan chats with TheGamer about the BAFTA Games Awards, AI, and the need for better protection for actors.
It could be helpful only if the results actually show consistently across the board and has undeniable exclusive content to back it up. That hasn’t happened.
What has happened is the weaker platform of the two Xbox has outsold their high-end console allegedly 3:1, which paints the story that most Xbox gamers don’t care about performance. The concern, however, is if they give up the performance crown, then they basically give the battle to PlayStation for the 3rd party market/gamer for free.
They had a $299 console and a $499 console. But would only releasing a $399 Series SX console have worked any better for them, with it being 20% - 30% weaker in GPU performance than the PS5?
I don’t know, but getting off the same cycle as PlayStation like Nintendo did, would probably help Xbox find a healthier balance away from direct competition. Dropping AMD and going full Intel or NVIDIA could help Xbox develop its own software niches that could help them with hardware sales. Going more PC-Console like, will provide Xbox a niche for the family (Game & Work/School). They have a few areas to go hardware wise, the issue is what do they do about software and services now that they’re everywhere.
So many different angles discussed here. The Xbox was marketed back in 2001 as the most powerful console and that was a part of its DNA and maketing approach; even being picked back up with the Xbox One X and was even part of the intial maketing for the Series X. Like Blackley suggested that approach can come back to bite you today as the cost of being the most powerful and the meaningful results are not really aligned. And even if they were, that cost is automatically reducing your potential market capacity. AI assisted tools like Frame Gen and Super Resolution are really going to remove any real utility from being the 'most powerful'.
I think this is really gonna help keep console prices in check going forward.
It's about balance...
It needs Power, but also needs to be accessible in price, not too complex for production volume, the balance between profit/subsidy (incentivizing the purchase of the console) needs to be taken into account over time, etc.
Sony did better job with PS5 balancing all factors.
First Xbox was not only more powerful, but different (Hard Drive, hardware shaders, unified memory, LAN, etc.). The problem was the software, the price and the marketing team full of noobs and overrated people in the industry that thought the Microsoft name was enough to go in demanding of everyone without the slightest bit of humility. Xbox 360, the first 3 years, fixed many things... but 'The past always comes back and hits you harder' (Splinter)
Moving to cloud—resolutions and framerate are subject to internet connection and vary wildly—so unless you have Series X and play local, which is in opposition to their business model right now, then resolution and framerate are going to suffer and should not be a priority to the Gamepass streamer.