#my point stands!!! most people are gonna see the Xbox and PS5 boxes though. when it comes to physical editions

[quinn-of-aebradore]

You know what, I’ll say it. I kinda resent that the main BG3 box art/promo art has Mizora on it and not Karlach. Like, well aware that it was made before Karlach was added as an origin character, but surely there was enough time to get an updated piece made between her addition and launch. Get it together, Larian.

[musingsofonehuman]

Shall we talk Xbox? Unless you wanna talk about Ubisoft but I’d rather not, I already feel ill as it is.

So, Xbox had their Xbox Games Showcase yesterday, an hour long video showing off all manner of video games for their Xbox Series X and Xbox Game Pass, overall, I would say it was very good, a nice plethora of games, some we already knew about and others we didn’t, plus it’s nice to know games will be getting updated to use the new hardware. I do have one big criticism though, more gameplay was needed.

We saw in the Sony showcase that gameplay helps with understanding the game, with being able to make a judgment on whether this is a game you’ll enjoy, and we hardly saw any in the Xbox showcase, yes there was a nice chunk of Halo Infinite gameplay, but apart from that, it was all scattered between cutscenes and cinematics. I get wanting to use cinematic trailers when you’re announcing games, probably because the game is not in a state where it’s ready to be shown yet, but after that, you need to be using gameplay trailers at the minimum, preferably chunks of gameplay, even just a minute or two, just to get a feel for the game. I think back to Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, a two minute trailer, a few cinematics, but a solid chunk of gameplay that I could digest, that helped understand the game so much more than a flashy trailer, developers need to be more confident in showing off their games, just show them, and if it gets a negative reaction, learn from it, use that feedback and make the game better, that’s what feedback is for.

But like I was saying, it was really good, but nothing never really stood out for me, there was no game that I saw as a must have, I’ve never been a Halo fan and while Forza, Everwild and Tetris Effect looked really good, nothing grabbed my attention, and I think that was deliberate.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Xbox is purposefully making mediocre games, that developers are making games that are meh, of course developers are going to put their all into it to try and make the best game possible. However, you have to remember the strategy that Xbox is now going for, you have to remember one key thing throughout all this, Xbox Game Pass (XGP). For those that don’t know, XGP is basically their version of Netflix, for a payment each month, you can get access to a range of games that you download and play, currently there’s over 100 games on the service, available across Xbox consoles and Windows PCs, there’s an Ultimate version where you get XGP for console and PC as well as Xbox Live Gold, their online service.

For Xbox, XGP is a big deal right now, it currently has over 10 million subscribers, and has become a huge revenue source for Xbox, and they’re pushing it hard for the next generation, all first party games will be available on XGP on day one, and all the games shown in the showcase will be available on XGP on day one or free to play. XGP has revitalised Xbox and set them on a whole different path from Sony, whereas Sony are pushing to make the PS5 the next big thing, Xbox have decided to take another route, yes they’re still making consoles, and powerful ones by the sound of it, but instead of making people come to Xbox, they’re taking Xbox to the people. One of their big initiatives over the past few years has been xCloud, their streaming service, and in September, XGP Ultimate members are gonna be able to use xCloud as part of their subscription.

That’s the point, over the past number of years, we’ve seen a transition away from buying physical games, to downloading digitally, and this is the next step, streaming them over the internet, Xbox doesn’t need to tie its games to a platform when they can be streamed to a phone or tablet. You don’t have to buy the big box to play all the next gen games, simply pay the subscription fee, grab your phone and away you go, it makes gaming affordable for so many people, a past time that has always been quite expensive is now just a subscription fee away. Mind you, it is worth keeping in mind that the technology may not be ready for use yet, we’ve seen Google Stadia come and fall flat on its arse, whose to say xCloud won’t go the same way.

All of that brings me back to the Showcase. Was it a deliberate choice to show mediocre games? No, but it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if the games are mediocre or not, if the games are meh, because they’re all on XGP, you can just try it, it doesn’t cost anything extra, and that’s the key point. It doesn’t have to be mind grabbing because it doesn’t cost anything to try, again, Netflix, you watch a decent movie, it was ok, but you don’t feel ripped off because you didn’t pay extra, it’s part of the service, so long as you’re paying for the service, they don’t care what you watch, what you play, it’s about getting you onto the service and keeping you there. That’s why we’re seeing all these different types of games from Xbox Game Studios, games like Bleeding Edge, Grounded, because they don’t need to be sold at a premium, they’ve already got an audience, the people who have XGP. Bang! It pops up, you download it and try it, don’t like it? Uninstall it, you haven’t spent anything. I have XGP and I tried Gears 5 when it came out, never played Gears before, not a shooter fan, but I was pleasantly surprised, not interested in the multiplayer, but the single player was enjoyable.

I think back to a gamesindustry.biz article I read, and a quote from Tim Schafer talking about how he felt like he now had the freedom to try all different types of projects, and the reason he can do that is because there’s already an established audience, so it doesn’t matter if the games aren’t of the highest quality, because you haven’t paid for the game outright, therefore developers can make niche games that most likely wouldn’t sell on their own, but they will as part of a subscription. Sony on the other hand has to make out-of-the-park hitters as they’re still selling their games at a premium, so they have to justify the price of the game by making them standout blockbusters.

"It does make me think about some of the crazy game ideas we've had, and some of them you're just like... I can never pitch this to any publisher. I would never get this signed. But I am now opening up that folder of documents again, and going 'oh I really love this idea, I bet I could do that now'."

To that end, there was also something else I noticed about the Xbox Showcase, some of their long standing IPs seemed to be getting refreshed in a way, think about it. It wasn’t Halo 6, Forza Motorsport 8, or Fable 4, instead it was Halo Infinite, Forza Motorsport and Fable. It seemed like games were getting refreshed and rebooted for a new era, for a new generation, but not console generation. I think Xbox IPs are getting refreshed for the transition to xCloud. For Xbox, the next generation is not just about the Xbox Series X for them, but it’s also about their streaming service, it’s all about XGP, getting people to sign up to XGP, and perhaps, by refreshing their current IP, they may be able to bring in a new audience of players. This is all just pure thought, but it was interesting to see some of their biggest IP not getting numbered sequels, I do wonder if the next Gears game will be Gears 6 or if it will be called something else, just a thought to consider.

I suppose all of this is why I viewed the Xbox Games Showcase as very good and not mind blowing, because the games don’t need to be mind blowing, they’re not selling the games, they’re trying to sell XGP, and yet, we’ve all watched these conferences for years, waiting for some game to come across and steal the headlines, Xbox doesn’t need to do that anymore, they just need to give you a reason to subscribe to XGP. If anything, the Xbox Games Showcase is a misleading title, it should have been called the Xbox Game Pass Showcase, showcasing all the games you can try on Xbox Game Pass. They’ve mentioned they’re doing another showcase later this year, so it’s gonna be interesting to see how that one unfurls. In the meantime though, let’s talk about Ubis-hurls out of window-.........on second thought, let’s not.