Poll: *** Xbox Series X|S - General Discussion Thread ***

Which will you buy?

  • Series X

    Votes: 538 59.1%

  • Series S

    Votes: 107 11.7%

  • Not interested

    Votes: 242 26.6%

  • Both

    Votes: 24 2.6%
  • Total voters
    911
I’ve used my Xbox lots past couple years more so than my PS5 purely because of a group of friends I have on there as we have a regularly Saturday night gaming sessions the increase has made us question game pass in itself as it helps allot for co op games.

I agree it is now at point that there brand is just well meh there games aren’t theirs when there on everything to me

There just a massive billionaire publisher at this stage
 
Microsoft got it so right with the 360 all them years ago.

How did they get it so wrong so many times.

But I guess you don't need to have game pass if you don't want. Just buy games as and when you want them.
 
Xbox lost the console war, they aren't trying to outsell anyone on consoles.. they care about them but they don't see it as their future

its all about the ecosystem, £22.99 is still palatable for me, like i said earlier i pay £12.99 for no ads with YT premium, £10 more for 400+ games, cloud streaming, 75 day 1 games, rewards etc.. its still an incredible deal
 
terley said:
Xbox lost the console war, they aren't trying to outsell anyone on consoles.. they care about them but they don't see it as their future

its all about the ecosystem, £22.99 is still palatable for me, like i said earlier i pay £12.99 for no ads with YT premium, £10 more for 400+ games, cloud streaming, 75 day 1 games, rewards etc.. its still an incredible deal
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Don’t think it’s even about the ecosystem any more … unless you specifically mean cloud streaming and publishing. The hardware side of things, exclusives, and now Game Pass, are dead in the water. Don’t be fooled by marketing with the “75+ day 1 titles”. Remains to be seen whether they can deliver on that promise on a yearly basis and the majority will certainly not be 1st party AA or AAA games. I’m not even convinced by the notion that cloud streaming is what most consumers want or need at this moment in time. The infrastructure to support a quality experience just isn’t there and it will likely be many years before it is.
 
Yeah cloud gaming isn’t a pull for me even with the good internet I have I find it mostly crap and temperamental. I occasionally try it when they claim it’s improved but always same result so it’s binned off within a minute

It’s not how I want future gaming to be.
 
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terley said:
Xbox lost the console war, they aren't trying to outsell anyone on consoles.. they care about them but they don't see it as their future

its all about the ecosystem, £22.99 is still palatable for me, like i said earlier i pay £12.99 for no ads with YT premium, £10 more for 400+ games, cloud streaming, 75 day 1 games, rewards etc.. its still an incredible deal
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Each to their own. I hardly use my series x, so a 50% bump up in GPU price for the odd day 1 title I'm interested in is not worth it. Probably isn't really worth it for me personally even at current prices, hence why I have been considering cancelling. At new prices I'd be better off saving the money and just buying any exclusive I want seeing as there is likely to be so few that I'm interested in. A lot of the purported 75 day 1 titles are likely to be filler,.much like a lot of the 500+ available titles that include many low budget university project games and games from 25 years ago that are of little interest to most. I'm just not taken in by the marketing I guess. Heard promises before during this gen and MS have not delivered. I have no faith they will deliver this time, so I'm out.

I'd love to be proven wrong, though, and will happily eat my words if I am. But track record suggests I won't need to. Time will tell!

I do wonder if this move is to pay for call of duty. Or at least offset the investment somehow.

From what I read, player numbers haven't been great, and are slightly down on previous year, and there are some sources estimating a $300m hole in Microsoft's revenue because of it. That's before we consider the effect of lagging hardware sales.

Might just be internet speculation, but if it is true and that trend continues then MS have definitely bought a turkey.

Coupled with this price hike for GPU that will push many players to cancel GPU and cut their losses, I don't see things getting better from here.

BEN_UK said:
Maybe they drop some mega halo news later this month to get everyone back on side.
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Halo, much like a lot of the Xbox brand, is trading on nostalgia and past glory. The format is tired, done to death and nothing new. Same as Gears of War. They need to move on, or innovate and refresh the formula for modern day.
 
I pretty much just play FC26 online so I need games pass but the increase for just that when I dont use any other games seems excessive.
 
Halo and gears much like Forza hasn’t been systems sellers for Xbox for so long.

The fact there ditching story of gears as 5 ended on a cliffhanger to return to original cast for a prequel is them to me also out of ideas

Latest Forza motorsport was crap. Horizon series is great but also on PlayStation anyway now.

In effect feels like next gen you go for PlayStation or perhaps pc/playstation if you still want a consol

Owning an Xbox “box” becoming less of a need as years go on
 
Some very interesting rumours about Microsoft & Xbox have blown up overnight, thought I'd post in-case anyone has missed them.

Hot off the news that Microsoft's CFO Amy Hood that has set very aggressive targets for Microsoft's gaming division and that putting COD on Game Pass lost Microsoft an estimated $300m of sales on PC and Console, a well known leaker called SneakersSO was asked what he thought of the situation on NeoGaf forum. The response included suggestions that Microsoft may have changed strategy on releasing new hardware and some other explosive information, i.e. incoming Job losses in the next few months. [Reddit Link]

Without going into too much detail, not long after the last round of layoffs (next one should be coming in Q1 26 btw - and its going to be just as massive as the last one), some rumblings out of Xbox starting coming out that were a little hard to believe.
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The ramifications of the CoD GP gambit not working out were just starting to get properly measured, but the thing that really stuck out to me was that suddenly, really concrete plans for actual MS Xbox HW went from being definitive, to up in the air, which was really startling given that this thing was meant to be out relatively soon. It was one of those situations where, despite folks being told 'hey, we wanna pull the trigger on this in 2026', the steps you would need to take in the lead up to delivering a new console gen weren't being met.
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Lots of things that were 'sure things' started getting pushed. The Costco retailer pulling Xbox, and apparently they are one of many that we'll learn about soon, told me all I needed to know.
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The Amy Hood part has been reported over the summer consistently, i.e. that she is leading the charge to increase profits (successfully to date) so this kinda fits. SneakersSO was known for being the first (or one of) to leak the news in late 2023 that Microsoft was porting some of it's first-party games to PlayStation and hardware going third-party OEM. However like all people 'in the know' I'm not sure they have been 100% correct on all rumours. Anyway overnight Tom Warren (Editor @The Verge) added this comment to the fire [Reddit Link]

I will say he knows a lot of what goes on internally, I don't think he's a bad source. I think he knows a lot about .. (he got cut off here but I think he was going to say internally again)
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So as with all these things, take with a pinch of salt, however recently the leaks regarding Microsoft; releasing 'just 4' games on PlayStation etc. have often been right. Sometimes scarily so.

The bit I think people have missed if Microsoft doesn't release this new Windows 11 box it doesn't necessarily effect Microsoft's re-focus on Windows 11. I.e. it can still push games on the Xbox App and Windows Store to their Windows 11 users. But it may create problems around licensing of the old console games and how Microsoft can get old Original Xbox and Xbox 360s releases onto any new hardware. And transition those existing Xbox customers over to PC. It also raises questions around what was signed with AMD and why they would they change path on this. However maybe these new chips are more setting the direction for OEMs like ASUS, Lenovo to build into new 'Windows Xbox PCs'.

Sorry for the long post. However I think at this point if you're still spending money on the digital Xbox 'Console' walled garden it may be riskier than ever given there are so many unknowns as to what that future of that library looks like.

EDIT 22:56 - Microsoft responded officially to the rumours: "We are actively investing in our future first-party consoles and devices designed, engineered and built by Xbox. For more details, the community can revisit our agreement announcement with AMD." [Resetera Forum Link]. So obviously gained enough momentum for Microsoft to feel the need to formally respond.
 
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Has anyone else not had any contact from Xbox stating their Game Pass subscription is increasing in price? I had one about all the extra things being added to Ultimate, but there was no mention of a price increase.

My account also shows the recurring amount as being the same. I currently just pay monthly.
 
Maybe it's a ploy to get everyone to rush and pay for an extended game pass to at the previously "high" rate, as now that rate seems cheap compared to the new one, and then in a few weeks they announce that actually u turn, we won't be jumping the price after all.

Also, it should be said, that it is very easy to split the cost of game pass with a friend if just one of you just use your own xbox for your own account and no one else.

Brings the cost down by 50 percent and that can be done today. Let me know if you want me to explain how
 
Not compulsory according to this bit.

While choosing not to verify your age by early 2026 will limit your ability to use social features on Xbox, your previous purchases, entitlements, and gameplay history and achievements will not be affected, and you will still be able to play and purchase games.
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After what happened with Discord I'm a little reluctant to go ahead with this.
 
So long as they never introduce something like this to actually play age rated games on your account, I don't mind. I don't use social functions anyway.
 
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