Topic: The everything Xbox thread

Lols, @redd214 .... I thought you liked it for XBox games, so that's all I meant with it not being a Switch I'm hoping to try that out eventually, if I get better internet & everything

Absolutely. Now that all Kingdom Hearts games are coming to Xbox, the only reason I have to keep my PS4 is Wipeout Omega Collection, which is one of my favourite racing games. xCloud is going to be great indeed. That and Play Anywhere basically lets you play Xbox games anywhere for one single price (either a digital licence or a subscription). That's awesome. I mean, seriously awesome. More options, platforms and cheaper than anything else.

@NEStalgia I am thinking about keeping my old laptop a bit longer and get the Surface Duo next year as a new phone and tablet. It seems to have the best phone camera ever, too. I know that you hate smartphones but this is more than a smartphone!

I still haven't had a change to watch the second half of the presentation Darn real life! Darn it to heck!

Anyone know what the pricing for xCloud will be like (and if it will work on PCs and XBoxen, or is it just Android/iOS only?)

@BlueOcean Oh, I don't hate smartphones. I hate telephones in general, but as a pocket PC I love smartphones - Samsung Note fan, myself - the stylii make navigating things meant for PC, admin consoles and so on much easier! Before smartphones I was a fan of iPaq's, but ended up always buying Palm devices instead since the iPaq software was never quite "there" like Palm was.... Feels like a different life.

Surface Duo looks interesting. I'm attached to Note (and I have too much software in the ecosystem to move) but yeah that definitely seems like a really nice machine. For me, it wouldn't replace Surface Pro. It's an ARM/Android device, not a Win10/Intel device, so it's more a "really souped up phone/tablet with keyboard hybrid" more than a "Surface replacement." to me. Surface is all about the Windows software for my uses, and being basically the only WIntel tablet that actually works right is what makes it special

@BlueOcean that new RARE game I think it's a totally brand new idea . I was reading on gamesradar about it , it's called "everwild" . Doesn't say much about how it plays, has a picture of people outside in the wild. Looks like an open world game, maybe. I'll keep my fingers crossed , if it's any good. I'll just wait for the new battletoads game ( it looks great)

@Ninfan Yep Everwild looks great. I applaud Rare for making new and nice IPs, they did that often on N64, 360 and Xbox One. I just wish they did something with Banjo-Kazooie, too.

@NEStalgia Sure, I will need a new laptop eventually but that Surface Duo looks great as a camera, foldable tablet and smartphone. It runs on Android like my current phone but I still would be able to use Office and xCloud. I don't know the price of xCloud (you asked) but I guess that we will be able to try for free or upgrade for peanuts. I upgraded to Ultimate even though I don't have a gaming PC because it was just too cheap.

That's an interesting move, to Android, @BlueOcean .... Does it mean they're giving up on Windows phones? Mostly, they were just too late starting those! Even now, you can't get half the games that are on iOS & Android
It's a shame, I'd like there to be a 3rd serious alternative smartphone system

@BruceCM they gave up on windows phones a few years ago. I used to love my WinMo phones years ago before switching to Android.

@BlueOcean xcloud is free now in the preview(beta) if you can get in. I believe they said it's going to be part of Ultimate as well when it fully releases.

Oh, cool, @redd214 .... I'm pretty invested in Android, tbh, so I don't really keep track of the others Can't help hearing about iphones, obviously but I don't want to swap over now

@BruceCM Yes, Surface Duo, a foldable tablet-smartphone, runs Android but obviously it will get the good Microsoft stuff like the Office apps.

@redd214 If xCloud is part of Ultimate then that's incredibly good value.

Sure, that'd be the advantage, @BlueOcean .... If you use those enough for that to be worth it, which you presumably do

@BruceCM I got Ultimate because I upgraded Gold and now Ultimate also includes xCloud?

@BruceCM WinMo phones couldn't be given up upon because they never really got started..... It was, honestly the best OS of any of the mobile OSes, but, sadly, without a significant app ecosystem it was iPaq all over again.

@redd214 I wasn't entirely clear about what they meant with xCloud and Ultimate, but yeah, I gathered maybe it's part of it, which would be cool! (I watched the rest last night, finally.) I still have a year or so of separate Live Gold and Pass....I'm not sure the best way going forward to pay for the services though. Ultimate seems to only come in 3-moth packages, and if you buy direct from MS I guess it just goes to full price auto-renew after those "cheap" promos are done. Amazon seems to not discount Ultimate they way they do Live Gold at times, so once the current services expire in either Spring or next Fall, I'm not sure what way I'll keep trying to renew (cheaply) going forward.

Cool, so I'll have xcloud, too, then. .. @BlueOcean! Whenever it rolls around to everyone

@NEStalgia these services go on sale literally all the time all year round. I don't think I've ever paid full price for Plus or Live/Game Pass. I'm sure there will be deals around once your subs expire.

@redd214 Cool! Yeah I see your discount posts often, but I've always thought those were the official "valid on new memberships only" (like the $1 for Ultimate thing.) Do you usually buy from MS then cancel to get the next deal, or are most of those deals not through MS?

These offers tend to be valid for people who haven't been subscribed in X amount of time, not just all-new accounts.

Cancelling the automatic renewal immediately after buying a subscription seems to do the trick every time. It seems Microsoft counts that as you completely cancelling the sub, as far as these offers are concerned.

@NEStalgia as @Eel I definitely recommend turning off the auto renew as I too have noticed that makes a difference when trying to get the next deal. Also and this is extremely YMMV, some places will actually price match the Microsoft promos from my experience. Of course that's highly dependent on where/who you're dealing with but I've gotten it a couple times. Saving money on gaming is like a game in itself for me lol

@Eel Huh, that's interesting!

@redd214 Haha, yeah it seems like it's own mini-game. I wish Ultimate and Pass weren't in 3-month increments. That makes it a bit harder to deal-grab than the 1-year subs for Live alone. I think they introduced 1 year Pass subs at one point, but only digitally through MS. I'll have to keep my eyes open. Gaming the 3-month expiration I feel is something I'll fail at more often than succeed with

Yeah, seems as though $350 with either Gears 5 or NBA 2K20 is the cheapest the Xbox One X bundle will get during this year's Black Friday. With Xbox Scarlett less than a year away I can't justify spending that much on a dying platform. It's fair to assume that the X will go on clearance at some point in 2020. MS can't possibly hold the X at this price point for an entire year.

@Magician The X is quite expensive to manufacture because of the advanced cooling system, etc. I don't know how cheaper it can get but it's been a while and the big discounts are always applied on S consoles.