Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

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Medicine Man
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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Medicine Man » Tue Jun 09, 2020 1:55 pm

https://www.mcvuk.com/business-news/xbo ... the-party/
Xbox has just quietly announced a major change in how games are bundled with consoles, with a new system called Digital Direct.

The new technology effectively removes pack-in codes from official console bundles. So instead of an Xbox One bundle coming with say 2 games, plus a month of Xbox Live Gold and a month of Xbox Game Pass, all those games and add-ons are instead assigned to the console and available to install from the dashboard on setup.

For Microsoft it means new owners are more likely to take up and try the trial period offers in the box, increasing the number of sign ups to such services. For the industry more generally, it means that unwanted bundled games cannot be sold on to others, cutting down on such trade and their impact on sales – which in turn makes bundling such games more attractive and less risky.

The content bundled with the Xbox will be assigned instead to the first user profile setup on the Xbox. Consumers can choose to redeem offers and software later if desired.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Alan » Tue Jun 09, 2020 2:30 pm

Revolutionary? I don’t remember needing a code for Alex Kidd on the master system!
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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Medicine Man » Tue Jun 09, 2020 2:47 pm

:lol:

I had Hang-On and Safari Hunt. Oh and of course the snail maze game with the banging soundtrack.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by DjchunKfunK » Thu Jul 16, 2020 1:46 pm

xCloud is launching in September as part of Game Pass, you will need to be subscribed to the Platinum tier to get access to it. They haven't said if there will be a stand-alone subscription service launching alongside.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Raid » Thu Jul 16, 2020 2:08 pm

The "platinum tier" as you put it is Gamepass Ultimate, which is just the one that comes with the PC and XBox versions of Gamepass as well as an XBox Live sub. A lot of people including myself will have that already.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by DjchunKfunK » Thu Jul 16, 2020 2:20 pm

I'm not sure why I wrote Platinum, meant to say Ultimate.

Apparently Xbox Gold yearly subscriptions have disappeared from the Microsoft site so Gold might be going away or also being rolled into Game Pass.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Raid » Thu Jul 16, 2020 3:20 pm

I am glad they've gone with bundling xCloud in with their other subscription rather than creating a new one, because I don't think these streaming services really make sense yet. Stadia has, by every account I've seen, been a complete flop, likely because there's barely any value proposition to it. At least Microsoft's offering puts it in peoples hands without having to spend £150 (controller, service and a game if you don't like Destiny), and with a decent software library for no added cost. I was honestly quite surprised that Stadia turned out not to be a Netflix-esque subscription service for games, because if you need to buy individual titles, is it really a big deal to download and install them for most people?

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by DjchunKfunK » Thu Jul 16, 2020 3:56 pm

I guess Game Pass Ultimate will technically be Netflix for games come September as you get access to the Game Pass games and a way to stream them if you don't have a device that can run them.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Achtung Englander » Thu Jul 16, 2020 9:06 pm

fucking brilliant news.
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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Raid » Thu Jul 23, 2020 5:08 pm



Can't say I was massively enthused by that. There's a new Halo and it's probably open world (or at least more so than the series has been in the past), and at least they were playing the game, but other than that there was precious little actual gameplay on show again. Lots of probably-in-engine trailers, so it wasn't just pre-rendered stuff like the third-party one from a month or two back, but as we're now three or four months away from launch, I think we should be expecting more.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Mantis » Thu Jul 23, 2020 6:51 pm

The whole thing was so underwhelming that I got incredibly bored and quit half way through. Halo looks pretty standard, not exactly a mind blowing reveal but then 343 haven't really been able to capture the magic of the original story since they took over.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Raid » Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:05 pm

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised really. I'm not planning on getting a Series X, and I'm not that excited about next gen gaming as a general rule (it's a long time since a new generation did anything truly new). Marginally shinier visuals just aren't a big draw for me.

I'm still fairly invested in the ecosystem because of the benefits of Gamepass, and if Microsoft continue the trend of giving you all of their first party stuff as part of that then I'll be glad... But as I've been saying for months, there just isn't any reason for me to be interested in their new hardware, and so if I'm going to buy a next gen console it'll be a PS5.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by DjchunKfunK » Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:07 pm

I thought there was a lot more interesting stuff than at the Sony event. Everwild looked beautiful, a new Vermintide set in the 40K universe sounds ace, Stalker 2 is interesting, The Gunk was intriguing (Imagine and Form are a great developer), a new PSO game and Psychonauts 2 looked a lot better than the last time I saw it. Destiny 2 on Game Pass is a big get as well.

There wasn't anything that will get me to go buy an Xbox Series X and that's not what I was really expecting from the show, as with the PS5 I don't think there is going to be much that will get me excited to buy a console, with so much being on PC now a console is much less of a priority for me.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by Raid » Fri Jul 24, 2020 9:34 am

In retrospect, there was more in the XBox showcase that I'm at least intrigued by than in the Playstation one.

Everwild bore a striking visual similarity to The Last Airbender franchise, and while I absolutely loved the art style, there just wasn't anything in the trailer that gave a hint as to what I'd be doing if I picked it up.

Stalker and Darktide have promise, as does The Medium (although that's not something I'd typically be interested in), and I'll keep my eyes on Fable. I'll likely play the new Halo, but I can't say I'm particularly excited for it. I did actually play a little of Combat Evolved in the MCC a few days ago and it left me bored and frustrated - I think the new Doom games have really spoiled most first person shooters for me, but I can't help but think Infinite has been inspired by it with the new grappling hook ability.

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Re: Xbox & Microsoft News/Discussion

Post by DjchunKfunK » Fri Jul 24, 2020 9:52 am

I played some of Halo 3 last week in coop and it's still a lot of fun so I'll definitely play Infinite in coop. I'm not sure anyone should be getting excited by STALKER 2, turns out the trailer is a target render, not even in-engine which makes the game sound like it will continue to be vapourware.

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