Topic: The everything Xbox thread

Lol, were you just arguing against your own imagination?

I really can't imagine what marketing genius came up with "do whatever the other guy does, but less of it, worse, for more money, and charge for things they don't charge for" as a winning pitch.

@BlueOcean Sony embraced cross buy and cross save well before Microsoft did. They were like the first of the major console manufacturers to do so, and it was a major selling point they wanted to push when marketing how the PS Vita interacted with the PS3 and PS4

I get the whole ire around them not supporting cross platform play until very recently, but them not supporting cross buy and cross save is an easily dispelled myth. It also looks like the whole upgrade program thing is actually at the discretion of the developers and not Sony themselves based on the fact Yakuza 7 on PS5 is so far the only major third party title with no cross save functionality, but games like Watch Dogs Legion, AC Valhalla and Marvel's Avengers all do, and it also extends to first party games like Spider-Man Miles Morales and Sackboy.

I still personally think Sony should make it mandatory and enforce a proper program on all developers since they're doing that already with PS4 games released after a certain date in regards to backwards compatibility

@NEStalgia That's the thing. In 2020, you can clearly see the strong points of Microsoft and Nintendo (that you described above) but you can't really see the strong points of Sony except for... Sony's games, I guess. Atypical huge yet weaker clone, no full backwards compatibility, paid remasters, expensive games, no full cross-save, no free cloud-save...

@TheFrenchiestFry I'm not talking about the past.

@BlueOcean Switch has lost the switching mechanic as a major selling point due to the pandemic so it's pretty much you buy a Switch because you want to play the exclusives at this point.

I was waiting for the Switch version of DOOM Eternal but as time goes on that's seeming increasingly pointless as I pretty much just play docked all the time since lockdown occurred in March.

Somehow Sony thinks that because if ps4 you're trapped in their ecosystem and therefore ps5 is a sure bet. They seem to miss that because of how they're doing bc, there's literally no inventive to bring your library to ps5 when it's trapped on ps4 and ps5 offers no real benefit... Might was well buy xbox and keep your old ps4 games on ps4.

@rAlizah also don't forget ps players last year: "xbox has no games, just shooters and racers, i prefer big open world rpgs. Fallout 76 if pretty good. I don't mind mtx in it. A game like that costs a lot to make. It's really a great game!"

Ps players this week: "Bethesda hasnt made good games all generation. I dont care ms has wrpg genre locked up, wrpgs are bloated and boring. Have been for years. I much prefer jrpgs!x

@Grumblevolcano in the us everybody is basically out and about as though there's no pandemic at all, depending on where you are. I never go anywhere but otherwise? The roads and places are as packed as always and nobody would bother not going somewhere so long as they openly wouldn't enforce anything. Worse, federal judges are starting to rule that business closures and stay at home orders were in fact illegal under the constitution..... We actually couldn't lock down again if it got horribly bad again as lockdowns are increasingly being declared unlawful. So switch still has it's main selling point here. And xcloud and luna on phones, same thing. Unfortunately.

That's a huge difference between PS5 and Series X/S. On PS5, PS4 games can run on the PS4 profile, PS4 Pro profile if it's a PS4 Pro game or PS4 Pro Boost Move (PS4 Pro profile for PS4 games). This is according to leaks, of course, because Sony haven't talked much about backwards compatibility so if there are further improvements we don't know but the fact that PS5 has those hardware performance profiles has been confirmed by insiders. Thus, PS4 games wouldn't benefit from PS5 additional power. There is no point in getting a PS5 for PS4 or PS4 Pro games but there's a reason to buy a Series X/S for the available Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One games.

I guess Xbox news has dried up as well going by these comments

@Octane Why? We are comparing systems as we've been doing for years 😄.

All of the YT footage of the XSX framerates and ssd speed have me oddly hyped.

@Grumblevolcano take a read through the Pokemon Go article comments.....I rest my case... There is no disease, never was a disease, and never will be a disease, because disease is too inconvenient to accept and here in America we just man up and face it head on. Boom. No more problem! Besides, who cares about some old people's disease? Everyone else is always fiiiine..... Go catch your imaginary electric mice....get some pneumonia to toughen the bones! A little cardiac arrest never did anyone any harm anyway! Because I see no problem there's no problem to see!

Yep, portable switch is all about portability here still. PSXBox is doomed...... bring on xCloud!

@BlueOcean There keep popping up reports that PS4 games will have a "Boost mode" for PS5 similar to how PS4 Pro boosted PS4 games. But it's a kind of random leak and contradicts the power profiles thing, so we really don't know, and they say nothing ever. Even if it does have such a boost mode though, it's not even close to the level of enhancement XBox is aiming for, and part of that is due to an entire internal team focused on that functionality and including software features to work around older game limitations in the core APIs to override them to run better. PS just included the relevant instruction sets and power states and "whatever works, works."

The main difference is still the company mentality. I'm not sure Sony is really trying to "screw over PS4 customers to make them buy PS5 stuff from scratch" directly. It feels that way because they're being so stupid. But I really am not sure that's their thinking. I think they are stuck in a 20 year outdated mindset still. They still internally think and operate as if console version 4 is a whole separate thing from console version 5, with games that are totally separate and a whole new product line. I think in their world a PS5 replaces a PS4 the same way DVD replaced VHS - you rebuy your library on the new media. Maybe a pedigree of being a media format creator, or maybe a pedigree of early PS where the point of each console generation was to use/push a whole new media format.

Or maybe just copying Nintendo, though not really. Nintendo usually puts a lot of thought into BC including multiple shaped cartridge slots in handhelds, and Wii and WiiU had BC before PSXBox did. Switch doesn't but it's a total architecture switch, can't load CDs, and old handheld cartridges would actually be too fat to include without compromising the build, so there was no real option there (and they still sell the old handheld line that plays both old gens, so it really is a "third pillar" more or less.) In this, Nintendo is doing "cross gen" way better than Sony, and has been doing so for decades.

MS on the other hand is just carrying Windows into console. They think platform, not generation. XBox One, and XBox Series, and XBox 360 aren't three whole "formats" or "product lines" to them - XBox is Xbox, and XBox games are played on XBoxes or XBox services..... It's less about nickel and diming, technically, and more about the mentality of the company toward the product. For Microsoft "any XBox is an XBox to play XBox games on." for Sony a PS4 is a unique product that has a unique software lineup which doesn't extend outside PS4....the new product replaces it. Their thinking is bad and archaic...but I do think the mindset is the root problem compared to what XBox or PC gamers expect from an x86 box and modern AAA published games (which are, inherently, PC games, not "PS4 games." )

But, yeah, it's really irksome. I still have some great Sony exclusives to play (Tsushima haven't bought yet, and can't because I don't know if they're going to upgrade it for more money or not....really annoying.), GoW, HzD - I haven't played through them yet and was looking forward to them being better on the new hardware....but no, they aren't going to be better on the new hardware. (Faster load times though, that's at least something!)

XSeX is exciting. I have 300+ games that will all be made better than they were just by buying it. Tons I haven't played yet will be better in 42 days than they are today. PS5? It'll be exactly like the box I already have, except maybe quieter....and not at all different as I play the backlog. Which I have to do before I can play the big 2021 games since they're sequels to those! And since you know my opinion on Souls.... My launch will be Sackboy and Spiderman....I may kick the extra $20 into Ultimate since I haven't played much of the original yet and at "only" $20 if you're getting MM anyway it may be silly not to upgrade it. UGH! XB? Oh boy, I have 2 Assassin's Creeds, FFXV still, and more things than I can count. Even MCC I have yet to finish again.

Although I want to buy something to commemorate the launch as a "next gen except not really" game. Looking at the list there's not much to pick from for XB - Yakuza Like a Dragon, AC: Viking (I guess it looks ok?), WD: Legion..... I'll have to pick one of them.

Or just play great first party games.....like Elder Scrolls Online, Fallout 4, or Doom Eternal?

@Octane Other way around. We have YT videos of actual benchmarks from the likes of DF of actual games running on actual hardware on actual people's desks. We don't have a need to spend pages and pages speculating about how the console may or may not suck. We already have proof to see and analyze it's totally awesome, matches our expectations or surpasses them, and we know how most of the features work and how Day 1 will function....so there's not much to talk about other than the games we're playing and other consoles while we wait to plug ours in

Sony's relying on the "even negative press is good press!" trope I guess? There's a lot more talk about PS5, but most of it, even on pushsquare, is negative, and has the mods subtlety threatening people to stop being negative and pretend Everything is Aweseome.

So the XBox talk is kind of passive....we know what we need to know, we can see how it runs....we're content...we're just idly waiting now without any pitchforks or torches. It gets dark here. The PS threads are illuminated what with all the book burning and torching of hay stacks and silos.

@NEStalgia Grab Yakuza. Xbros need to support the hell out of the Japanese games hitting the console like PC gamers do on Steam. Your Assassins Creed Online Eternal stuff will hit the console regardless.

@NEStalgia All I know is that I'll be playing the only worthy next gen game when these consoles launch: Astro's Playroom.

@Ralizah Well I already own ESO, and it'll beo on Game Pass with the latest packs....so it's free vs pay, and I like the game (I don't do MMO, which makes me sad because FFXIV, but ESO is a better Elder Scrolls than Skyrim.....there, I said it. Even playing solo. )

But yeah, AC and WD look great, but Yakuza is intriguing, and it would just be hilarious to start out a Playstation with Spiderman and XBox with Yakuza. It's worth it just for the lulz.

does this Yakuza strike you as "gritty" vs the "insane" regular series (that I have entirely on PS so far......) though?

@NEStalgia The new Yakuza looks wackier than ever. You can even play the Yakuza equivalent of Mario Kart

So I finally sold my Xbox One S on ebay, along with all of my physical games.

I got £170 for the console alone and then like another £130 for all of the games. So that covers the £250 Series S and then £50 left over to buy digital games to play on it. Might spend that on Cyberpunk, or might buy a handful of cheaper digital games.

Pretty cool to get a new console on launch without spending any money!

@Dezzy You literally had to trade in a part of your soul. But you do you..!

@Octane LOL. XBox has Doom and Fallout. Sony has Astrobot's Playroom. Where's Jack Tretton with a mic to drop again?

@Ralizah LOL ok, that made me laugh. Why is it I can't help but feel that this is Sega's way of trying to finally make up for 1994? The trailers make it look like a serious, gritty, mob noire rather than total nucking futs acid tripping action. I didn't want my "hey I got a new console yaaaay!" game to be a dark gritty pipe-cutter-to-fingers crime noire while my PS5 has Sackboy and Spiderman.

@Dezzy Nice! ....I'm not sure "I just sold all my games to buy the best backward compatible console" is the way I'd have gone...that feels so....so....Playstation? But considering the Series S has no disc drive and you had physical games.....getting BC working might have been kind of time consuming....

Yakuza: Like a Mario Kart, @Ralizah ....? I like the look of that! Really got to try Kiwami soon, since I got it in Steam sales & haven't yet