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

Which will you buy?

  • Series X

    Votes: 535 59.5%

  • Series S

    Votes: 105 11.7%

  • Not interested

    Votes: 234 26.0%

  • Both

    Votes: 25 2.8%
  • Total voters
    899
Personally, I'd rather they dropped Xbox Live Gold's "Games with Gold" and then gave you the DLC for any game that is on Game Pass. e.g. Desperados III I've played on GP but I'd never buy DLC for it as I don't own it. Odd that they gave away Hivebusters with Gears 5 though.
 
ic1male said:
Personally, I'd rather they dropped Xbox Live Gold's "Games with Gold" and then gave you the DLC for any game that is on Game Pass. e.g. Desperados III I've played on GP but I'd never buy DLC for it as I don't own it. Odd that they gave away Hivebusters with Gears 5 though.
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I can understand third parties maybe not including DLC, but their premium package should definitely have all first party DLC.

They are doing a similar trick with the new Skyrim update by withholding content behind a paywall.
 
I admit it has been fairly interesting reading the debate around FH5 and the early access. I know it's not new and has been done before with Forza games (and other games) but obviously Xbox Game Pass has reached a much larger audience now. For me it does slightly erode the value proposition of Game Pass. Although Game Pass was always clearly an extra revenue stream for Microsoft (and other publishers who do subscription services) this tiering of the service is much more obvious now. Arguments over when the actual release date is aside, the reality is that you can't play FH5 and likely Halo Infinite on 'day one' on Game Pass.

I've loved GP to date and definitely enjoyed playing games on the service, as well as having the three years of super cheap subscription but at full price I will think twice when renewal times comes. I don't play multiplayer games, I sometimes struggle with the timings of games rotating off the service and that DLC is rarely included.
 
Timber said:
I admit it has been fairly interesting reading the debate around FH5 and the early access. I know it's not new and has been done before with Forza games (and other games) but obviously Xbox Game Pass has reached a much larger audience now. For me it does slightly erode the value proposition of Game Pass. Although Game Pass was always clearly an extra revenue stream for Microsoft (and other publishers who do subscription services) this tiering of the service is much more obvious now. Arguments over when the actual release date is aside, the reality is that you can't play FH5 and likely Halo Infinite on 'day one' on Game Pass.

I've loved GP to date and definitely enjoyed playing games on the service, as well as having the three years of super cheap subscription but at full price I will think twice when renewal times comes. I don't play multiplayer games, I sometimes struggle with the timings of games rotating off the service and that DLC is rarely included.
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Official release for FH5 is the 9th, I'm not sure I understand where you are coming from, the reality is you can play FH5 and Halo day 1, why are people trying to debate this?

Its just early access, which costs a premium if one wishes to do, that's been like that for ages and not just a thing with game pass. BF2042 is doing it next week as well.

I just don't get why people are making such a big thing of this. If you don't want to pay a premium, don't, play it on the official release date. No one is forcing anyone to purchase premium content for early access, its just an option.
 
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beachBOYken said:
Official release for FH5 is the 9th, I'm not sure I understand where you are coming from, the reality is you can play FH5 and Halo day 1, why are people trying to debate this?

Its just early access, that's been like that for ages and not just a thing with game pass. BF2042 is doing it next week as well.
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We'll probably just disagree, but personally the minute a game is on sale, or servers are active for the general public - it's released in my opinion. The artificial four day delay on the standard version is another form of monetisation. Like MTX, Ultimate versions, pre-order bonuses, Battle Passes and all the rest - very successful too.

I think the reality of 'pay for it early access' is that it does create a fairly unique situation for Game Pass, and hence why it has caused some debate about Microsoft's 'day and date' marketing. I know some publishers like EA and Ubisoft offer 'premium subscriptions' that include everything and early access as well. Game Pass doesn't have that more expensive tier.
 
Timber said:
We'll probably just disagree, but personally the minute a game is on sale, or servers are active for the general public - it's released in my opinion. The artificial four day delay on the standard version is another form of monetisation. Like MTX, Ultimate versions, pre-order bonuses, Battle Passes and all the rest - very successful too.

I think the reality of 'pay for it early access' is that it does create a fairly unique situation for Game Pass, and hence why it has caused some debate about Microsoft's 'day and date' marketing. I know some publishers like EA and Ubisoft offer 'premium subscriptions' that include everything and early access as well. Game Pass doesn't have that more expensive tier.
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I can see your point due to it being exclusive games and on the gamepass service, but I don't see why that doesn't mean Microsoft can't add some premium tiers to some of their games, its just an option at the end of the day for people.
 
beachBOYken said:
I can see your point due to it being exclusive games and on the gamepass service, but I don't see why that doesn't mean Microsoft can't add some premium tiers to some of their games, its just an option at the end of the day for people.
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It's not a consumer friendly option. Although it's preferable to other monetisation strategies, i.e. lootboxes.

Microsoft selling premium versions is something I accept, albeit it would be great if those were included with Game Pass. But there has always been 'premium' versions of games for sale above the standard version on Game Pass. That said I can see why people are annoyed here. I suppose it comes down to how aggressive MS wants to be. Too many walls and as mentioned the service would lose some its appeal for me.
 
Timber said:
It's not a consumer friendly option. Although it's preferable to other monetisation strategies, i.e. lootboxes.

Microsoft selling premium versions is something I accept, albeit it would be great if those were included with Game Pass. But there has always been 'premium' versions of games for sale above the standard version on Game Pass. That said I can see why people are annoyed here. I suppose it comes down to how aggressive MS wants to be. Too many walls and as mentioned the service would lose some its appeal for me.
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What are people annoyed about though? as you said there has always been premium versions of games.
 
I aren’t following why the annoyance over FH5 and game pass. There could be reason to be disgruntled if it were a longer period, say 6+ months before a ms studio game appeared on game pass, but in reality its been a weekend. I think the addition of paid expansions down the line is entirely acceptable, especially for the depth that you usually get with horizon. In the past I’ve just picked them up for a few quid in a sale, excitement got the better of me this time though.
 
beachBOYken said:
What are people annoyed about though? as you said there has always been premium versions of games.
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Microsoft doesn't advertise Game Pass as including all content though. And indeed I don't think people have an issue with the season pass being sold in the premium edition/upgrade. But MS do make a huge thing about day and date, or 'day one' when selling their service. MS could have allowed Premium and Game Pass subscribers in to the early access. But obviously that would have made less revenue for MS.

As mentioned I imagine this is a very successful strategy where you can increasingly monetise GP subscribers. Like other forms of MTX. The growth in the number of Game Pass subscribers is only going to help this strategy. And indeed if Game Pass is plateauing and reaching maturity then that will also increase this sort of strategy.

I don't think it'll be the last time this debate occurs.

Goodie said:
I aren’t following why the annoyance over FH5 and game pass. There could be reason to be disgruntled if it were a longer period, say 6+ months before a ms studio game appeared on game pass, but in reality its been a weekend.
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If the delay was 6 months then the uproar would be immense. I think there's a limit to the duration for paid early access.
 
I've been enjoying playing FH5 since Thursday. They finally fixed the server issues yesterday afternoon, so no more constant disconnect message at the top of screen and your car randomly stopping when it switches you to offline, it was annoying if on a skill streak.

I finished the Week 0 Festival List yesterday (Ends on Thursday i think, only 26 points needed for the Alpine & NSX-R GT). You now need to make note of the car Make/Class/Weather etc.. to complete the Speed Camera's etc.. which makes them more awkward when you haven't got loads of cars at the start.

Cars i used:-

- Speed Camera - Ferrari Pista (S2 class)
- Jump - Ford Puma (S1 class)
- Speed Zone - Audi R8 (S2 class)
- Horizon Tour Co-Op - Audi R8 (S1 class, tune is shared)
- Playground games - loan truck (you just have to complete these rather than win now!)
- Seasonal race - stock BMW M6
- Horizon Open - Ford Bronco

I've shared a A800 all-rounder that drifts well for the Nissan 350 Fairlady requirements. 9 points on drift zones and 500k score.

I've shared a few tunes, paintjobs, logos and challenge cards as usual (GT=Mashed) if anyone wants to give them a go.

There are loads of free cars for doing accolades (i've only bought 2 of the 90+ cars in my garage), check these before buying anything expensive! (the 30 million credit, Shelby Daytona is a reward car)

There are free cars for setting a top 5% times in each rivals class too, i used road racing and the Horizon Mexico Circuit to get them (tunes i used i've also shared - XR2, Toyota 86, S2000, Focus RS, 2020 Corvette, Senna). You get a good chunk of XP for doing this as there are quite a few accolades lower than top 5%.

EDIT: Don't forget to change your console location to New Zealand, if you want to play the standard edition early.
 
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I didn't want to create a new thread for this but I'm hoping someone can give me some advice. I bought a Series X just over a week ago on Xbox All Access from Game. I didn't have a Microsoft account prior to purchasing the Xbox (I use a local account on my PC), so I created one, along with a Gamertag. Since creating the account I've somehow managed to forget the password I created and it's not saved in either Chrome or through FaceID on my iPhone. I've tried the account recovery form and spoken to a completely useless Microsoft adviser, who was really passive aggressive and basically told me if I couldn't get the details right on the account recovery form there was nothing further they could do to help.

I would just create a new email address and Gamertag, but Game Pass Ultimate has tied to the account I created. Game were also useless, they said that the Game Pass Ultimate code is preinstalled on the console and they aren't able to issue a new one. I didn't buy any games with the Xbox because I thought Game Pass Ultimate would offer me plenty of games to get going, so now I'm left with nothing to play and no way to access the Game Pass Ultimate service, paying £29 a month for a console I basically can't use. What are my options here? I appreciate it's my fault for not noting down the password, but all of this just for forgetting a password seems ridiculous.
 
It won't let me, on the Xbox it says 'there's a problem with your Microsoft account, fix this on a web browser', then when I click reset password on a web browser it takes me straight to the account recovery form, which has an automated response and you can only unsuccessfully complete twice in 24 hours.
 
spaceman said:
I've been enjoying playing FH5 since Thursday. They finally fixed the server issues yesterday afternoon, so no more constant disconnect message at the top of screen and your car randomly stopping when it switches you to offline, it was annoying if on a skill streak.

I finished the Week 0 Festival List yesterday (Ends on Thursday i think, only 26 points needed for the Alpine & NSX-R GT). You now need to make note of the car Make/Class/Weather etc.. to complete the Speed Camera's etc.. which makes them more awkward when you haven't got loads of cars at the start.

Cars i used:-

- Speed Camera - Ferrari Pista (S2 class)
- Jump - Ford Puma (S1 class)
- Speed Zone - Audi R8 (S2 class)
- Horizon Tour Co-Op - Audi R8 (S1 class, tune is shared)
- Playground games - loan truck (you just have to complete these rather than win now!)
- Seasonal race - stock BMW M6
- Horizon Open - Ford Bronco

I've shared a A800 all-rounder that drifts well for the Nissan 350 Fairlady requirements. 9 points on drift zones and 500k score.

I've shared a few tunes, paintjobs, logos and challenge cards as usual (GT=Mashed) if anyone wants to give them a go.

There are loads of free cars for doing accolades (i've only bought 2 of the 90+ cars in my garage), check these before buying anything expensive! (the 30 million credit, Shelby Daytona is a reward car)

There are free cars for setting a top 5% times in each rivals class too, i used road racing and the Horizon Mexico Circuit to get them (tunes i used i've also shared - XR2, Toyota 86, S2000, Focus RS, 2020 Corvette, Senna). You get a good chunk of XP for doing this as there are quite a few accolades lower than top 5%.

EDIT: Don't forget to change your console location to New Zealand, if you want to play the standard edition early.
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Yeah servers improved, but it seems online players are still vanishing randomly from the map at times.
 
spaceman said:
I've been enjoying playing FH5 since Thursday. They finally fixed the server issues yesterday afternoon, so no more constant disconnect message at the top of screen and your car randomly stopping when it switches you to offline, it was annoying if on a skill streak.

I finished the Week 0 Festival List yesterday (Ends on Thursday i think, only 26 points needed for the Alpine & NSX-R GT). You now need to make note of the car Make/Class/Weather etc.. to complete the Speed Camera's etc.. which makes them more awkward when you haven't got loads of cars at the start.

Cars i used:-

- Speed Camera - Ferrari Pista (S2 class)
- Jump - Ford Puma (S1 class)
- Speed Zone - Audi R8 (S2 class)
- Horizon Tour Co-Op - Audi R8 (S1 class, tune is shared)
- Playground games - loan truck (you just have to complete these rather than win now!)
- Seasonal race - stock BMW M6
- Horizon Open - Ford Bronco

I've shared a A800 all-rounder that drifts well for the Nissan 350 Fairlady requirements. 9 points on drift zones and 500k score.

I've shared a few tunes, paintjobs, logos and challenge cards as usual (GT=Mashed) if anyone wants to give them a go.

There are loads of free cars for doing accolades (i've only bought 2 of the 90+ cars in my garage), check these before buying anything expensive! (the 30 million credit, Shelby Daytona is a reward car)

There are free cars for setting a top 5% times in each rivals class too, i used road racing and the Horizon Mexico Circuit to get them (tunes i used i've also shared - XR2, Toyota 86, S2000, Focus RS, 2020 Corvette, Senna). You get a good chunk of XP for doing this as there are quite a few accolades lower than top 5%.

EDIT: Don't forget to change your console location to New Zealand, if you want to play the standard edition early.
Click to expand...
There's a Ford XR2 in it?
 
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