See, this is the kind of stuff that's starting to piss me off. Either they're trolling, have bad sources, or they're telling the truth and I'm just left scratching my head asking "How?!? WHY?!?". They've already had teams acquired since 2018, they have exclusives with third-parties they showed last year which looked great yet weren't running on a Series X at the time (Bright Memory Infinite, etc.).
So, are they not only going to not have new gameplay for stuff like BMI running on Series X at the show, but also they don't have a single internal team between the OGs, the 2018 acquired ones and the ones gained through the Zenimax acquisition, that has SOMETHING running in real-time on Series X by this point (COVID or not) that can at least match up with what we've seen coming from Sony since the PS5's launch, let alone from things like yesterday's Horizon Forbidden West SoP (which was excellent, tho there's been some "weird" takes of people trying to downplay it, I have no idea where that is coming from xD)? And people are just supposed to be okay with that and "wait more"?
I get that Microsoft want to more firmly carve out their own identity in the market and that doesn't come from outright copying Nintendo or Sony. Understandable. But for three generations they have always either marketed themselves on power or put out games that competed favorably with Sony's and other massive 3P games visually, in more cases than not. They can't just suddenly decide they don't want to try competing when it comes to pushing the visual fidelity envelope, especially considering they just released one of the best-looking photorealistic games of all time last year in Flight Simulator 2020!!
So yeah, I hope Jez is wrong here, or that they're trolling, or doing some reverse psychology. If he's playing it straight here....I have my bunker ready.
Well yeah.... but this thread and that tweet was talking about this E3.
I expect anything MS puts out thats next gen only to look as good or better. Maybe even something that cross gen.
Some of us have said before so far it seems Sony devs can handle cross gen better than most.
Seems that way; it comes down to smart upper management and knowing how to steer things. Just based on what proof of things we've seen so far there's literally no one who would put Matt Booty above Herman Hulst in this area, but maybe we start to see the fruits of XGS's labors this E3 and that conversation can be had more seriously.
This isn’t a criticism of you when I say this. What the hell has been going on there (Xbox) the last few years? GG released Horizon Zero Dawn in 2017 and their sequel looks close to completion and yet as a Xbox fan I keep reading how we have to wait, how expectations have to be kept in check and stuff like this. I’m really sick of it to be honest.
I feel like I bought a decent console emulator for £500 with Series X .
Exactly, and another thing too: Forbidden West, like Halo Infinite, is also cross-gen and open-world, yet the two look almost a generation apart. I'm referring to the July gameplay for Infinite; the newer screens DO look better but we haven't seen the game in motion since that July.
I'm also fairly confident Forbidden West's budget is a fraction of Halo Infinite's, and while they didn't show it yesterday, it'll have a 60 FPS mode for the PS5 version and probably look about as good as what was shown yesterday. But anyway, I think it's a bit ridiculous some of the insiders are telling Xbox fans to temper expectations; maybe for those who expected Perfect Dark reboot gameplay next month, yeah they deserve to be let down because that was 100% unrealistic to expect right now.
But some gameplay (running on Series X) of 1P and 3P exclusives that are 6-18 months from release, that can at least in one of those game's cases, have visual fidelity and artistry comparable to Forbidden West (which, again, is a cross-gen game and also open-world)? How is that an unrealistic expectation at this point? Why should fans temper their expectations of at least that much?
For me if they could show gameplay of Bright Memory Infinite in real-time on Series X matching or exceeding the demo they showed in May 2020, that would be more than satisfactory on that front because that's still very impressive visually as it was back in May of last year. And that isn't even a 1P game (and seemingly is due for a 2021 release); if Microsoft were doing what they should be in providing as much technical support to the team as possible to ensure the game can have gameplay ready for E3, and ensuring they could meet or exceed that visual target from the May presentation. So let's hope that's what they've been doing for such a game.
I think the immediate focus will be big deals for games on gamepass to buy time for the heavy hitting first party exclusives later down the road. Regardless, I expect xbox to start hitting.
But how are those big deals for games on GamePass going to really shift the narrative in Microsoft's favor considering they've already been getting some big deals into the service? Again, I'm talking about them appealing to people outside of the Xbox ecosystem, because there is growth potential there. Most of the early adopters want things that feel like "next-gen" experiences, that can only be done on that platform or ecosystem.
It's going to remain that way for the next 2 or so years, as well, so how is getting a 3P game Day 1 into GamePass, that can just as easily be played on a competing platform (albeit at a bigger cost) with additional feature support like Dualsense feedback and (possibly) VR support...going to really do them much favors outside of the price-conscious whom the vast majority of early adopters are not comprised of?
Now, if they can get such a game day-and-date on GP and also as a timed console exclusive and it happens to be a major deal, like BF6, then I can see it pulling bigger momentum. But I guess we'll see if Microsoft are willing to take it that far (IMHO they need to, it sends a message).
I appreciate your sentiments on the XSS but I didn't catch where you mentioned that every Xbox game will hit PC. Since all their games will be on PC the XSS isn't the thing that would affect the potential of XSX games, it's the PC seeing how there are millions of PCs that don't even match the XSS in terms of capability. MS wants to sell games to those people too. It's about broadening their audience.
You're right, that was a bit of an oversight on my part, but I also think it's fair to ask just how low will MS go in terms of what range of PC hardware they target. They don't need to cater for literally everything, even what's currently the popular minimum spec. If they can focus on treating their 1P content to just hone on their console(s) and then use additional dev time to scale and config everything for the PC side, I am okay with that.
They get their Day 1 Xbox & PC release and we (in theory) get games that seem/feel like they were developed for their marquee hardware (Series X) at the heart and just happen to work well on PC too. It's basically what Sony's been doing, just without the long staggers between console & PC (also at least for most of those games Sony didn't initially plan PC versions so that has to be taken into account too).
Since MS conceded they will never beat Sony in a unit for unit sales race they have also conceded the idea of fully maximizing their consoles' power. This has positive benefits seeing how the virtualized environment allows the XSX|S to do things with games that come out during this cross generational period that cannot be done on other platforms. It allows their backwards compatibility to be 2nd to none but it will put a bit of a limit on the upper bound on some of their games visual fidelity(Prove me wrong MS).
This is what starts to frustrate me in some ways, because what it means is in practice we may never fully see Series X's potential maximized. Did Microsoft sacrifice too much in terms of current/next-gen ambitions in the design to placate too much for BC and cross-generational support? Guess only time will tell.
The thing too is, we already know Microsoft CAN deliver on amazing visual fidelity, just look at Flight Simulator 2020. On capable PCs that's still the best-looking game (simulator) on the market readily available for consumers. Even when Rachet & Clank and Horizon Forbidden West drop, FS 2020 will be right there with them in terms of best-looking games on the market...at least the PC version. It's coming to Series X supposedly this year, but it's also coming to the XBO, as if that system needs it (it doesn't). We can only hope the Series X version comes within the ballpark of the PC one running on powerful rigs.
Hopefully talent, UE5, ID tech, and the use of their hardware features baked into all Xbox Series consoles will keep their titles looking fantastic for the people who have higher end hardware. The next e3 will answer some of those questions. I'm looking forward to it.
Same, but they really do need to show some banger gameplay running on Series X with visual fidelity at least within ballpark of H:FW.