AverageGamer

@Cashews “ likely still tied to requiring either Game Pass Ultimate or Game Pass Core given the core game is actually a paid game, not F2P”

I’m assuming this will get changed as I don’t think you even need PS+ to play FF14 on PlayStation

They need to hurry up and release this as there is no decent modern way to play it unless you choose to emulate or own an Xbox.

@GADG3Tx87 What you’re seeing isn’t just the gaming industry. The technology industry is going through the same thing. These companies made record profit during Covid, and hired a bunch off people. Now consumers aren’t spending as much, so it time for layoffs and restructuring.

@anon_pel222 I remember reading something forever ago that the government of Singapore, where the main development studio making the game is based, is providing "generous subsidies". So Ubisoft can't cancel the game, so they are forced to release it.

@KaijuKaiser Really? Shovel ware? Embracer Group owns some of the best IPs on the market. The fact that you're turning around and calling IP like Metro shovel ware. LMAO

Who cares if they stay 3rd party or not. What Embracer Group is doing is no worse than what Microsoft is doing. All it takes a flip of a switch, and they could go from 3rd party to 1st party. Companies like Google wanted to offer stuff like Stadia as a white-label product which could have easily allowed any companies like Embracer Group a way to launch their own streaming/game subscription service.

Not to mention that owning that many IP and studios gives them too much leverage against platform holders like Sony, who can use them to get a better deal like 90/10 or even full 100% of the profits. Just like ABK was using Cod to get an 80/20 from Sony.

"wait and see when your only option will be GamePass at 20 plus a month to play games"

Who says that EA or Ubisoft couldn't do this?

@Fiendish-Beaver Yep. The biggest company at fault for consolidation of the gaming industry is Embracer Group... Who alone have purchased 76 studios since 2017, and who had purchased 3 publishers before Microsoft ever even purchased one. But nah, its Microsoft fault for everything.

@Fiendish-Beaver This is why I generally don’t pay attention to professional critics. The issue is that a lot professional reviews are done by people who don’t/didn’t want to review the game in the first place, and was just handed the project by their supervisors.

With High on Life having a humor style and a particularly artistic that lot of people don’t like. That could lead to poor reviews if not reviewed by some who enjoy it. As the actual moment to moment gameplay isn’t all that.

@ColdHandGee Lucky, I’ve been trying to grow my hair for 3 years, and barely got enough for twist much less dreads.

@JAMes-BroWWWn PuBG?

Of course Square Enix is satisfied with this. They’re always are satisfied with the sales of their Japanese games. It was only the western games they were never satisfied with.

@Ken_Kaniff That depends on if the game doesn’t add any meaningful content or the developers don’t take player feedback seriously.

@Bez87 This is actually the second game. Forspoken used Direct storage.

@Petto Horizon forbidden west , GT7 and God of War Ragnarok are all PS4 games… Ratchet and Clank was the last true PS5 exclusive beside TLOUS

This is day one buy for real if true. Was big fan of the Lego soccer sets and Soccer Mania growing up.

@Rmg0731 Sony acquiring bungie wasn’t a normal studio purchase. It why Bungie costed Sony 2 billion. Bungie wasn’t signing any deals unless they could stay multiplatform, and forced Sony to pay way more than they’re worth to insure that talent stays on board after the purchase.

It no different to Microsoft’s Minecraft purchase. Zenimax and ABK could easily multi platform if they wanted to, but they don’t and aren’t going to force Microsoft to let them… The shareholders only care about lining their pockets with Microsoft’s cash.

@Trousersnake The suit is mainly for VR support. But the VR market isn’t big enough for this type of to be successful, so they have also support flat games

@ATaco I would rather them try live service with a new IP. Instead tainting an established IP, and having to hear for the next several years from their fan base about how they ruin the IP.

@Luvstagrind Warframe does require an id… It how all these games handle cross play/cross save

I’m having a blast with this but I enjoy live service/GaaS games more than I do single player games. It basically a Hero Shooter gambit with dinosaurs

@NotSoCryptic Don’t know what China has to do with my comment about Embracer Group.

@StrawberryTurtle “ do find it kinda cringe that people go nuts for a sex scene in a videogame like we don't have acess to thousands of sex scenes for free on the internet.”

That cause video games are a bit more freaky with their sex stuff. Good luck finding videos with bear or blue aliens 👽 unless you wanna look at anime stuff.

@StrawberryTurtle I’m not talking about Tencent. I’m talking about embracer group who have bought how many publishers now? Along with massive IP like Middle-earth Enterprises.

@Areus And I’m not surprised that they are being crushed under the weight of it. TBH I don’t know where they are getting the capital to buy everything they have… We can at see where Microsoft is getting the money. Windows and those Military contracts bring in a lot of money.

@StrawberryTurtle Thank you Microsoft? This was happening before Microsoft when embracer group came out of no were and bought up 100ish odd developers.

Just let the deal go through. The faster y'all do that. The faster I can be playing Diablo 4 through steam, and be done with Battle.net

@z0d15g0d The issue is that comic book sales are dying. The only way companies are making money off these characters are through the films, cartoons, videos games and merchandise. Returning these characters back to only comics book would mean the death of them.

@Jacko11 Origins, Odyssey or Valhalla are vastly too bloated. Rouge was mix, Unity was broken, no one even mentions Syndicate, AC3 was a mess, AC2 and Bloodline was dope, Revelations was just a good send off. I don't really know where AC1 fit into this. To keep things simple, I'm not counting the mobile, handheld, or 2D games... But was Black Flag is definitely the best if not in the top 3

This is literally the best game and Assassin Creed games that Ubisoft has ever made. The fact it has not received the GT5 or Skyrim treatment is surprising.

@Uncharted2007 "Why not use those resources to work on the main projects to get them done quicker"

What do you think they are doing? The renewed focus means that they are focused on getting those other games out quicker. That is why they offload STWOR to a 3rd party company and moving staff over to those games. If they didn't have renewed focus. They would just keep the game in house and have team continue to work on said title. Unfortunately, not all the staff can be move due to the fact you can't have duplicate of some positions and those other team already have those positions filled.

@Bez87 The thing is that CoD probably don't actually make it money from people buying the game. They make their money through skins, battle passes, and stuff. So yes, they could potentially lose out on people buying the game for $70 every year but that doesn't matter if you have more people to sell battle passes to. Plus, Warzone is what matters, not the $70 games.

@JAMes-BroWWWn A lot of the game budget is also marketing. Remember that Sony was putting up life size statue in cities across the globe for Forbidden west. This is why you don't see Microsoft and Nintendo doing crazy marketing for their games.

@NotSoCryptic Believe it or not, Xbox is probably a better place for niche games like this to market. Xbox isn’t over crowded with multiple games fighting for marketing space. Which allows games to actually stand out cause they’re more likely to grab people’s attention due to the limited amount of games coming to the platform. People was actually listing this as a major reason to pick up a Series X. Lmao.

Microsoft also can’t picky and choosy with games, so they far more likely to fund development and handle marketing vs Sony who would have far better games to pick from.

Microsoft buying Sega would be interesting given the wealth of Strategy Game franchises and companies Sega own. CA is need in order to make a Halo Wars 3. Sega also just bought Rovio Entertainment.

@HonestHick Another game “causing” overheating issues… If the PS5 overheating, it not the game. It people having their system shoved in a dusty cramp entertainment center without ventilation.

@Gaia093 The issues with just buying exclusivity for this one game is that the return guarantee isn’t there. It also opens the gate of Microsoft getting in a bidding war over exclusivity for other Bethesda/Zenimax titles since publishers are always going to offer Sony a better deal. Better to just say f it, and buy the company out right.

@daveofduncan There is actually no guarantee that FFXVI will end up on Xbox. The six months exclusively only pertains to the PC version.

@Enuo Not even Microsoft would spend money on this. At least it will be day one on Uplay +

@Kevw2006 They may not watch the stream, but they’ll browse through YouTube and see that Xbox dropped trailers, and not PlayStation/Nintendo (they still don’t have trailers dropped on their channels, and the Altus West channel still only mentions Xbox and PC in their release videos)

@UltimateOtaku91 It not about rushing out to buy consoles in 48 hours… These people may never buy the console at all. But it make the Xbox brand look like it gets more “exclusive” games then it does. Which may sway them to buy it in the future. Why do you think PlayStation paid so much money for marketing rights for stuff like Destiny and CoD. It make the game looks exclusive to their platform.

@UltimateOtaku91 It not a waste of money. There plenty of people that pay so little attention to gaming that 1 trailer can easily sway them into thinking a game is exclusive to a single platform. For these kinds of people, the first few days of a game announcement is very crucial as most of them won’t do any further research until a month before the game comes out.

@UltimateOtaku91 Most don’t come to Gamepass cause publishers would rather put it on their subscription service first.

@Green-Bandit A full PS5 port would be interesting simply due to the fact it gives them reason to port to PC.

@Triumph741 Not many. They released one game on 360 most likely due to the simplicity of porting PC games to the platform. But consoles are clearly an after thought after the PC versions. Hell, they had announced a MacOS version of Baldurs Gate 3 prior to even thinking about a console version. Console versions should have been announced day 1 even if they teased it for next gen only. PC platforms are clearly their priority.

@Triumph741 The purchase of nixxes is from the prospective of buying a support/tech studio, not buying a game development studio. As they’ve done more than just port games to PC… They’ve have assisted on multiple game projects like Killzone Shadow fall.

@Gamerintent55 “ Obsidian's output now seems to be moving away from their staple isometric rpg's which were fantastic and moving to the 1st person efforts mess that Avowed looks”

I don’t know where you’re getting that their staple is isometric rpgs? Literally Obsidian biggest game have been stuff like Fallout new Vegas and Outer Worlds. Avowed is right up their alley

@Sil_Am Yeah… Not happening. They’re not a match for Sony at all. Way too PC focus and enjoy releasing early access games

@KaijuKaiser "Without big daddy Windows I don't think they'd even be around today or for the past decade."

RRoD would have killed the brand without Microsoft money

@Marquez Yeah. The amount of content is crazy. I was worried that there wasn't going to be enough content to keep me entertain since I'm not an endgame player.

@TheArt Even tho I’m American since I put $ instead of £… I can still easily tell you that isn’t true as Jedi Survivor was 70, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 was 70… The list goes on. Yes something like Dead island 2 was 60. But most game especially next gen only game are pushing that 70 price tag.

@naruball I mean… No one watches an Apple event for games. I’m still surprised that Death Stranding is coming to Mac.

@TheArt I sure had Elden Ring released this year and was next gen only. It would have been a $70 game as even ToTk is $70...

Losing Rod Fergusson as the studio head for The Coalition was a massive loss for Microsoft. The guy can clearly lead a team/studio.

Anyway, I am absolutely hooked on Diablo 4. None of the past 3 games was able to grab me in such a way that this one has. If It wasn't for the fact that i still have to eat, sleep, and go to work... I would never leave my computer screen.