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[K' Dash]

Good.

Cook it until it's done to your hearts content.

I'll be waiting.

 

[Lognor]

Just LOL at anyone in here who thinks Microsoft magically has something planned for Jan-May this year. That isn't how things work. Big games don't just shadow drop like that. It's going to be a repeat of last year where you get nothing from them until at least July. Those assuming Redfall is coming this year may want to shut up before it's the next game delayed. We haven't even seen a single frame of in-game footage from it yet but sure automatically assume it's coming this year. Some people never learn.

I also don't know why people in here are acting like Sony had nothing after Ratchet last year. Not true at all. They had the Director's Cuts for both Death Stranding and Ghost last fall and they had secured other big titles as exclusives too such as Deathloop, Kena, Solar Ash, and Five Night's at Freddy's Security Breach. If you think those games weren't big deals then go look at the PlayStation Store sales charts where most of those did very well.

As for the first half of this year we know Sony has Horizon, GT7, Uncharted Remastered, Moss 2, Forspoken, Ghostwire Tokyo (which should be getting a date soon). Then the second half will likely have God of War or something from Naughty Dog plus potentially PSVR 2 and games for it. Final Fantasy 16 is also still a possibility for this fall as we heard it was supposed to launch in 2021. They aren't in Microsoft's position with nothing in the first half and questionable stuff that hasn't even been shown for the second half. We've at least seen in game footage already for God of War.

Simma down now. No one is claiming that MS is going to shadow drop some huge game in the first half of the year. What the hell are you on about? MS can still lock down a huge game for Game Pass as they did last year. Last year we got Outriders (a surprise hit), MLB The Show, and probably many others I'm not recalling off hand. So no need for your concern. I'm sure Game Pass will deliver in the first half of the year, just as it did last year.

No need to get so defensive about Sony's poor output in the second half of last year. Director's Cuts don't really "cut" it. They are the same game essentially that was released before. And those other games you mentioned (Five Nights at Freddy's....lol...really?!) those are not Sony games. Those are paid (timed) exclusives. Not the same thing.

You are so hung up on the first half of the year. Remember, Sony had nothing in the second half of last year. They made it through though! MS will make it through too. No need for your concern!

 

[Papacheeks]

Simma down now. No one is claiming that MS is going to shadow drop some huge game in the first half of the year. What the hell are you on about? MS can still lock down a huge game for Game Pass as they did last year. Last year we got Outriders (a surprise hit), MLB The Show, and probably many others I'm not recalling off hand. So no need for your concern. I'm sure Game Pass will deliver in the first half of the year, just as it did last year.

No need to get so defensive about Sony's poor output in the second half of last year. Director's Cuts don't really "cut" it. They are the same game essentially that was released before. And those other games you mentioned (Five Nights at Freddy's....lol...really?!) those are not Sony games. Those are paid (timed) exclusives. Not the same thing.

You are so hung up on the first half of the year. Remember, Sony had nothing in the second half of last year. They made it through though! MS will make it through too. No need for your concern!

You are not a mod, stop back seat moderating.

People have a right to question a library same as people questioned Playstation's fall lineup compared to MS, same goes for MS in the first half of 2022. We also complain about Nintendo, and their long periods of drought.

 

[remember_spinal]

Yea, I mean what we saw of Stalker 2 was a monumental jump in fidelity just in animation, and in skill. They have beefed up in terms of talent. It sucks that this Unreal 5 delay is fucking a lot of projects. Surprised no one has covered it or has reached out to unreal team at Epic?

You wonder if this was one of the reasons Bend is not on Unreal engine anymore? Also I believe people like Playground Games use their own engine correct? Also have to wonder what else in Microsoft's lineup is being hit by this issue with finalization of the engine being delayed? Hellblade 2, Perfect Dark, Gears, New IP by Coalition could be all impacted. Only good thing is Bethesda uses their own engine so starfield and anything under Zenimax/Bethesda I don't think will be affected.

Really hope Bend is using Decima

 

[Lognor]

You are not a mod, stop back seat moderating.

People have a right to question a library same as people questioned Playstation's fall lineup compared to MS, same goes for MS in the first half of 2022. We also complain about Nintendo, and their long periods of drought.

How was I back seat moderating? By asking him to simma down? LOL. I didn't say anything about him violating TOS or getting banned. Nothing like that.

And also, that's fine if people want to question Microsoft's lineup in the first half. I do find it hilarious though that we have all these people saying the sky is falling because a THIRD PARTY game has been delayed. With or without Stalker 2, Microsoft did not have any games releasing in the first half. I expect them to lock down some bigger content for Game Pass to make up for that. Probably The Show (again), maybe the Tiny Tina game, Elden Ring (lol), etc.


*Actually a very timely post because I just saw the hitman trilogy is day one on Game Pass!!!!!!!! It has begun!

 

[remember_spinal]

How was I back seat moderating? By asking him to simma down? LOL. I didn't say anything about him violating TOS or getting banned. Nothing like that.

And also, that's fine if people want to question Microsoft's lineup in the first half. I do find it hilarious though that we have all these people saying the sky is falling because a THIRD PARTY game has been delayed. With or without Stalker 2, Microsoft did not have any games releasing in the first half. I expect them to lock down some bigger content for Game Pass to make up for that. Probably The Show (again), maybe the Tiny Tina game, Elden Ring (lol), etc.

We’ll always have november

 

[Papacheeks]

How was I back seat moderating? By asking him to simma down? LOL. I didn't say anything about him violating TOS or getting banned. Nothing like that.

And also, that's fine if people want to question Microsoft's lineup in the first half. I do find it hilarious though that we have all these people saying the sky is falling because a THIRD PARTY game has been delayed. With or without Stalker 2, Microsoft did not have any games releasing in the first half. I expect them to lock down some bigger content for Game Pass to make up for that. Probably The Show (again), maybe the Tiny Tina game, Elden Ring (lol), etc.


*Actually a very timely post because I just saw the hitman trilogy is day one on Game Pass!!!!!!!! It has begun!

We are specifically talking new games, games that get PR, and promoted via events. As it stands in terms of new titles Microsoft doesn't have anything right now? Unless similar to the rumored February state of play, they have something similar, the next big event isn't until may. Unless their format is changing? Which if it is, usually we would hear about it.

Microsoft all last year specifically for their May/June events concentrated on games that are day one on gamepass like stalker 2, Crossfire X, Scorn, the gunk ect. None of those outside of stalker 2 has as much hype behind it as what currently Sony has when it comes to big games for first half of the year.

Hitman trilogy which most of the games have been dirt cheap, and some able to get for free through Epic, or other services like PS NOW is not something I would tout in selling a console when putting it up against Sony's slate. Forspoken, Forbidden west, GT7 are all in the next couple months.

Thats where stalker 2 was going to help out the most.

 

[Lognor]

We are specifically talking new games, games that get PR, and promoted via events. As it stands in terms of new titles Microsoft doesn't have anything right now? Unless similar to the rumored February state of play, they have something similar, the next big event isn't until may. Unless their format is changing? Which if it is, usually we would hear about it.

Microsoft all last year specifically for their May/June events concentrated on games that are day one on gamepass like stalker 2, Crossfire X, Scorn, the gunk ect. None of those outside of stalker 2 has as much hype behind it as what currently Sony has when it comes to big games for first half of the year.

Hitman trilogy which most of the games have been dirt cheap, and some able to get for free through Epic, or other services like PS NOW is not something I would tout in selling a console when putting it up against Sony's slate. Forspoken, Forbidden west, GT7 are all in the next couple months.

Thats where stalker 2 was going to help out the most.

I'm not going to argue about that; Microsoft does not have any new games coming. They could still lock down Game Pass content, as I said (like they just did with the hitman trilogy!).

But it's similar to Sony in the second half of last year. They had no new games. Director's Cuts are not new games. So Sony got through it, and Microsoft will get through it. At least with MS we know we will get some good content on Game Pass (maybe even exclusive content, if that is to your liking).

And I agree, MS has no content with as much hype as Sony's games for the first half of the year. Now again, Sony had no content to compete with the hype of Microsoft's games in the second half of last year. See? We can go round and round here. MS does not exist in a vacuum. We can, and should, compare them to their biggest competitor.

And hype is subjective, right? I haven't played the hitman games so I am excited to try them. Forspoken I don't think is too hyped after the gameplay they've shown. Extremely janky and seems like it needs another 6-12 months in the oven. All subjective, see?

 

[DaGwaphics]

I'm not going to argue about that; Microsoft does not have any new games coming. They could still lock down Game Pass content, as I said (like they just did with the hitman trilogy!).

Absolutely, whether it is 3rd party day one or even just big name older releases, they can find ways to hold our interest outside of first-party releases.

 

[Papacheeks]

I'm not going to argue about that; Microsoft does not have any new games coming. They could still lock down Game Pass content, as I said (like they just did with the hitman trilogy!).

But it's similar to Sony in the second half of last year. They had no new games. Director's Cuts are not new games. So Sony got through it, and Microsoft will get through it. At least with MS we know we will get some good content on Game Pass (maybe even exclusive content, if that is to your liking).

And I agree, MS has no content with as much hype as Sony's games for the first half of the year. Now again, Sony had no content to compete with the hype of Microsoft's games in the second half of last year. See? We can go round and round here. MS does not exist in a vacuum. We can, and should, compare them to their biggest competitor.

And hype is subjective, right? I haven't played the hitman games so I am excited to try them. Forspoken I don't think is too hyped after the gameplay they've shown. Extremely janky and seems like it needs another 6-12 months in the oven. All subjective, see?

i don't disagree, here's the thing. 2021 for SOny was a fluke because games like GT7 and Forbidden West were pushed to 2022. Now part of that can be debatable if it was more of a decision based on dev time or that they saw how open the first couple months were for content to get its own spotlight? That I don't know and I would have to believe there is some merit in that thinking. Here's the thing, Sony specifically is signing big stuff. Even when it comes to Indie developers. Like Kena was a big hit last year, and so was It takes TWO. Both kind of big style Indie type titles. Sifu is another big indie title. Stray is another one because of how striking the games/gameplay looks and how Sony presents them. Say what you will on what has been shown with Forspoken, but people are talking about it.

No one was talking about the gunk after it's initial reveal, then when it came, it left with a fart in the wind.
What i can tell you is going forward Sony has allocated Billions not just for studio Acquisitions but for exclusive game deals. They spent almost 500 Million for 6 months of exclusivity. And that was for like 3 titles that were not that big. I would have to assume thats also what Microsoft is doing, we saw it today with the Hitman Trilogy announcement which is a great thing for people signed up to the service or new in gamepass. What it doesnt do is have much sway at a store when someone walks into the game section.

Currently Sony is also holding on to a couple big reveals for a couple of collections/Remaster/Remakes 2 of which are possibly releasing this year. The reason i say this, is just like Microsoft plans out its slate, so does Nintendo and SOny, and they do so 12 months or so in advance.
And obviously Covid, logistics can add a screw to the whole situation and make things difficult. SO shuffling stuff around happens which we saw last year and going into this year on all sides. The thing is, though 2022 was and has already been planned in terms of the releases. GT7, FOrbidden west were just mostly added to 2022. So you have to ask what was the original slate for 2022?

Thats the issue Microsoft is going to have consistently as we get further into this year. And with everything hinging on gamepass, unless they are whipping out far stacks like jaffe noted on for something like 6 months of exclusivity for Modern warfare 2 I don't see the growth happening that Microsoft wants.
The rest of their studios are very far behind, from Fable, or Perfect Dark, everwild, state of decay 3. With this unreal news hellblade 2, coalitions new Ip could be pushed out of 2022 since engine wise the issues are out of their hands when it comes to Unreal 5 finalization.

Sony's first party studios are all using their own engines or Decima. So in terms of roadblocks, covid, and logistics are really the only things.

 

[Lognor]

i don't disagree, here's the thing. 2021 for SOny was a fluke because games like GT7 and Forbidden West were pushed to 2022. Now part of that can be debatable if it was more of a decision based on dev time or that they saw how open the first couple months were for content to get its own spotlight? That I don't know and I would have to believe there is some merit in that thinking. Here's the thing, Sony specifically is signing big stuff. Even when it comes to Indie developers. Like Kena was a big hit last year, and so was It takes TWO. Both kind of big style Indie type titles. Sifu is another big indie title. Stray is another one because of how striking the games/gameplay looks and how Sony presents them. Say what you will on what has been shown with Forspoken, but people are talking about it?

No one was talking about the gunk after it's initial reveal, then when it came, it left with a fart in the wind.
What i can tell you is going forward Sony has allocated Billions not just for studio Acquisitions but for exclusive game deals. They spent almost 500 Million for 6 months of exclusivity. And that was for like 3 titles that were not that big. I would have to assume thats also what Microsoft is doing, we saw it today with the Hitman Trilogy announcement which is a great thing for people signed up to the service or new in gamepass. What it doesnt do is have much sway at a store when someone walks into the game section.

Currently Sony is also holding on to a couple big reveals for a couple of collections/Remaster/Remakes 2 of which are possibly releasing this year. The reason i say this, is just like Microsoft plans out its slate, so does Nintendo and SOny, and they do so 12 months or so in advance.
And obviously Covid, logistics can add a screw to the whole situation and make things difficult. SO shuffling stuff around happens which we saw last year and going into this year on all sides. The thing is, though 2022 was and has already been planned in terms of the releases. GT7, FOrbidden west were just mostly added to 2022. So you have to ask what was the original slate for 2022?

Thats the issue Microsoft is going to have consistently as we get further into this year. And with everything hinging on gamepass, unless they are whipping out far stacks like jaffe noted on for something like 6 months of exclusivity for Modern warfare 2 I don't see the growth happening that Microsoft wants.
The rest of their studios are very far behind, from Fable, or Perfect Dark, everwild, state of decay 3. With this unreal news hellblade 2, coalitions new Ip could be pushed out of 2022 since engine wise the issues are out of their hands when it comes to Unreal 5 finalization.

Sony's first party studios are all using their own engines or Decima. So in terms of roadblocks, covid, and logistics are really the only things.

Okay, sure you can use the argument that 2021 was a fluke. If that is the case maybe 2022 is a fluke for Microsoft. Why couldn't that be the case? They were supposed to have a huge exclusive land next month, but it got delayed. Otherwise they would have had it! It's a fluke, nothing more.

Agreed on The Gunk. I have not played it yet, but I was interested because of the developer's former work. They really should have stuck with the Steamworld stuff. If The Gunk had been set in the STeamworld universe it would have garnered a lot more attention. Lesson learned for the dev, I guess. Kena, I felt, kind of came and went without much buzz. And I think the buzz it did get was due to the lack of a big game releasing on the PS5 in that time frame. There wasn't much other new content to play. Maybe if The Gunk hadn't released so close to Forza and Halo Infinte it would have gotten more buzz? Who knows? You mention two upcoming indie titles, but let's hold off and see if they actually deliver. Kena was supposed to be the next coming, but I think it didn't live up to that. It had nice art, but from what I've heard the gameplay wasn't great, and a bit unforgiving.

I don't see what you're saying as an issue. Microsoft has made a ton of acquisitions as you know. With all those studios under them the content will come and come very often. Add to that the third party content that Microsoft locks down, whether through exclusivity or day one on Game Pass and they are set up very nicely for the future. The lack of content in the first half of the year is a blip, much like it was a blip for Sony in the second half of last year. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

And Microsoft is at least set through the end of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023 with Starfield and Stalker releasing in those time frames. And we will have a much better picture of release dates of their upcoming slate by that time. Exciting time to be an Xbox owner!

 

[SLB1904]

£5 this will be push to late 2023

 

[amigastar]

£5 this will be push to late 2023

Yeah, i think so too but i hope not.
I'm just asking myself how could they planned to release it in April 22 when the development still takes so much time.

 

[Papacheeks]

Okay, sure you can use the argument that 2021 was a fluke. If that is the case maybe 2022 is a fluke for Microsoft. Why couldn't that be the case? They were supposed to have a huge exclusive land next month, but it got delayed. Otherwise they would have had it! It's a fluke, nothing more.

Agreed on The Gunk. I have not played it yet, but I was interested because of the developer's former work. They really should have stuck with the Steamworld stuff. If The Gunk had been set in the STeamworld universe it would have garnered a lot more attention. Lesson learned for the dev, I guess. Kena, I felt, kind of came and went without much buzz. And I think the buzz it did get was due to the lack of a big game releasing on the PS5 in that time frame. There wasn't much other new content to play. Maybe if The Gunk hadn't released so close to Forza and Halo Infinte it would have gotten more buzz? Who knows? You mention two upcoming indie titles, but let's hold off and see if they actually deliver. Kena was supposed to be the next coming, but I think it didn't live up to that. It had nice art, but from what I've heard the gameplay wasn't great, and a bit unforgiving.

I don't see what you're saying as an issue. Microsoft has made a ton of acquisitions as you know. With all those studios under them the content will come and come very often. Add to that the third party content that Microsoft locks down, whether through exclusivity or day one on Game Pass and they are set up very nicely for the future. The lack of content in the first half of the year is a blip, much like it was a blip for Sony in the second half of last year. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

And Microsoft is at least set through the end of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023 with Starfield and Stalker releasing in those time frames. And we will have a much better picture of release dates of their upcoming slate by that time. Exciting time to be an Xbox owner!

Microsoft has a history of packing their games into a specific couple months, mainly fall. Sony and Nintendo for the most part consistently have games spread out during a fiscal year. Like 2019,2020 had releases throughout the entire year. Like everybody's golf, days gone, death stranding, concrete genie, blood and truth, mlb: Show all through out a 9 or so month window.

While Microsoft consistently would put out something like gear 5 in September/October and did the same for halo, forza consistently. With Gamepass they have gotten better, and are now kind of forced to spread out their slate because gamepass is a service and everything for their platform is connected to it.

SO now the issue is still they always put their big games all in one basket instead of trying to spread things out, and with a lot of their studios now behind, what are they going to do? They basically have to buy some things to not only filly gamepass for their subscribers but to grow the platform they have to entice new adopters with big games? Where are those big games? And if they continue to put them in the same timeframe then you risk huge competition from third party.

 

[SLB1904]

Yeah, i think so too but i hope not.
I'm just asking myself how could they planned to release it in April 22 when the development still takes so much time.

Not only that, but they didn't have nothing ready when the game got announced don't even know if they had an engine back then

 

[akaFullmetal]

Ouch, that's a big delay, over 6 months. What happened?

 

[Stitch]

When it was announced in 2018 they were still in "design doc phase" and looking for a publisher (=funding)

 

[Lognor]

Microsoft has a history of packing their games into a specific couple months, mainly fall. Sony and Nintendo for the most part consistently have games spread out during a fiscal year. Like 2019,2020 had releases throughout the entire year. Like everybody's golf, days gone, death stranding, concrete genie, blood and truth, mlb: Show all through out a 9 or so month window.

While Microsoft consistently would put out something like gear 5 in September/October and did the same for halo, forza consistently. With Gamepass they have gotten better, and are now kind of forced to spread out their slate because gamepass is a service and everything for their platform is connected to it.

SO now the issue is still they always put their big games all in one basket instead of trying to spread things out, and with a lot of their studios now behind, what are they going to do? They basically have to buy some things to not only filly gamepass for their subscribers but to grow the platform they have to entice new adopters with big games? Where are those big games? And if they continue to put them in the same timeframe then you risk huge competition from third party.

I don't think that is true about Microsoft though? That they pack their games into a couple of months every year. While they didn't have anything for the first half of the year last year, they had huge hitters nearly every month in the second half last year (Flight Simulator in July, Psychonauts in August, AoE IV in October, etc etc etc.) Then if you go back to 2020 it's even more spread out. Ori, Bleeding Edge, Gears Tactics, Minecraft Dungeons, etc. I'm actually surprised at how much content they released through 2020! So no, I don't agree with that assertion that ?Microsoft packs their games into a couple of months every year. Microsoft is releasing content throughout the year, and typically of much higher caliber than things like Concrete Genie and Everybody's Golf. And don't forget, The Show is an Xbox title now so not exclusive.

If you are only focusing on the AAA games like Forza and Halo with Microsoft, shouldn't we do the same for Sony? Everybody's Golf wouldn't count. Neither would Concrete Genir, Blood and Truth (literally never heard of this!), etc. But if you want to focus on all their content, Microsoft is delivering year round.

And you are right, I think, that Microsoft needs to replace these delayed games with other content on Game Pass, which is a good thing! I will happily take additional content. We're still going to get those delayed games, but now maybe we will get other games in addition to them. Microsoft has not disappointed with getting compelling content on Game Pass day one (The Show, Outriders, etc.). Extraction might live up to the quality of those two, but we'll see. And I am sure MS has other bigger titles in the works to get on Game Pass day one. Just be patient!

 

[Mercenary09]

Simma down now. No one is claiming that MS is going to shadow drop some huge game in the first half of the year. What the hell are you on about? MS can still lock down a huge game for Game Pass as they did last year. Last year we got Outriders (a surprise hit), MLB The Show, and probably many others I'm not recalling off hand. So no need for your concern. I'm sure Game Pass will deliver in the first half of the year, just as it did last year.

No need to get so defensive about Sony's poor output in the second half of last year. Director's Cuts don't really "cut" it. They are the same game essentially that was released before. And those other games you mentioned (Five Nights at Freddy's....lol...really?!) those are not Sony games. Those are paid (timed) exclusives. Not the same thing.

You are so hung up on the first half of the year. Remember, Sony had nothing in the second half of last year. They made it through though! MS will make it through too. No need for your concern!

Um we were talking about how STALKER 2 got delayed and Microsoft had no exclusives for the first half of 2022 now. STALKER 2 isn't from Microsoft but it still counts so that's why I mentioned Deathloop, Kena, and FNAF as they count just as much as STALKER 2. Same goes for FF16, Ghostwire, and Forspoken. Those Director's Cuts count as much as any other game. Xbox fans love to count stuff like Gears Ultimate Edition, Halo MCC, and others so they count too. Fact of the matter is Sony had exclusives (first or third party doesn't matter) all year last year and they have them all year this year again where Microsoft has nothing for the entire first half of the year AGAIN.

Also just LOL at the HUGE Game Pass game. Outriders wasn't huge and neither was Back 4 Blood. Both of those games were games no one was going to buy and so that's why they got them on Game Pass. When I see a HUGE third party game that was going to sell anyway like a Elden Ring, Assassin's Creed, Battlefield, etc or something similar show up on Game Pass on Day 1 I'll give them credit. Not games that were going to be dead on arrival.

 

[captainnapalm]

Seven months is creeping into slightly worrying Cyberpunk-type territory. It's not so much 'we need a little more time' as 'we have way more shit to do than we thought'.

 

[JTCx]

And also, that's fine if people want to question Microsoft's lineup in the first half.

Hilarious lol

 

[MatrixReloaded101]

Seven months is creeping into slightly worrying Cyberpunk-type territory. It's not so much 'we need a little more time' as 'we have way more shit to do than we thought'.

They are lucky this is a game pass game because it will be forgotten by Dec because of all of the games coming out this year.

Not only is a lot of new games coming but also remakes and upgrades that will take up peoples time like GTA 5 next gen, Witcher 3 next gen , etc.

I would not be surprised if this gets pushed to 2023

 

[NickFire]

I would not be surprised if this gets pushed to 2023

I would take it one step further and assume it is a 2023 game now because of the post-Black Friday target date / competitive holiday season. I know Halo's hard launch was in December last year, but Halo is so popular it could release anytime IMO without losing many sales.

 

[Lognor]

Um we were talking about how STALKER 2 got delayed and Microsoft had no exclusives for the first half of 2022 now. STALKER 2 isn't from Microsoft but it still counts so that's why I mentioned Deathloop, Kena, and FNAF as they count just as much as STALKER 2. Same goes for FF16, Ghostwire, and Forspoken. Those Director's Cuts count as much as any other game. Xbox fans love to count stuff like Gears Ultimate Edition, Halo MCC, and others so they count too. Fact of the matter is Sony had exclusives (first or third party doesn't matter) all year last year and they have them all year this year again where Microsoft has nothing for the entire first half of the year AGAIN.

Also just LOL at the HUGE Game Pass game. Outriders wasn't huge and neither was Back 4 Blood. Both of those games were games no one was going to buy and so that's why they got them on Game Pass. When I see a HUGE third party game that was going to sell anyway like a Elden Ring, Assassin's Creed, Battlefield, etc or something similar show up on Game Pass on Day 1 I'll give them credit. Not games that were going to be dead on arrival.

It still counts? Still counts for what? Are we doing list wars? Is that what is happening? Counts! What are you talking about? Counts! LOL

You really are moving the goal posts on what "counts" and what doesn't "count." Sony had in the second half of last year if we only want to count games they developed and discount remasters. They had nothing. Not many will argue that they had a strong lineup in the second half. Hopefully that will be rectified this year.

And again, while MS didn't have anything last year or this year in the first half of the year they more than made up for it with the day one content they snagged for Game Pass (The Show, Outriders, etc.). I expect them to do the same thing this year. And you look at last year, and as soon as we got in the second half of the year MS was releasing a game every month! There is a reason they were publisher of the year last year.

Outriders WAS huge, whether you want to admit that or not! LOL. It was absolutely massive. SE said it was a hit and their "next big franchise." Are you doubting SE?! Nope. It was huge! A huge AAA game released day one on Game Pass. No one mentioned Back 4 Blood, but okay...

MS delivered huge day one content in the first half of the year least year (THe Show, Outriders, etc) and I expect the same this year! It's a great time to be an Xbox owner!!!!

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

It still counts? Still counts for what? Are we doing list wars? Is that what is happening? Counts! What are you talking about? Counts! LOL

You really are moving the goal posts on what "counts" and what doesn't "count." Sony had in the second half of last year if we only want to count games they developed and discount remasters. They had nothing. Not many will argue that they had a strong lineup in the second half. Hopefully that will be rectified this year.

And again, while MS didn't have anything last year or this year in the first half of the year they more than made up for it with the day one content they snagged for Game Pass (The Show, Outriders, etc.). I expect them to do the same thing this year. And you look at last year, and as soon as we got in the second half of the year MS was releasing a game every month! There is a reason they were publisher of the year last year.

Outriders WAS huge, whether you want to admit that or not! LOL. It was absolutely massive. SE said it was a hit and their "next big franchise." Are you doubting SE?! Nope. It was huge! A huge AAA game released day one on Game Pass. No one mentioned Back 4 Blood, but okay...

MS delivered huge day one content in the first half of the year least year (THe Show, Outriders, etc) and I expect the same this year! It's a great time to be an Xbox owner!!!!

This thread is about the STALKER 2 delay.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Not only that, but they didn't have nothing ready when the game got announced don't even know if they had an engine back then

Yeah, they announced it when it was still in pre-development, in the hopes of attracting financing or publishing partners.

That said, you know, a 3.5 year development cycle isn't crazy or anything, especially for an Unreal game that has a solid technical foundation out of the gate, but obviously Covid changed some of that calculus.

 

[Dave_at_Home]

Every once in a while I gawk at the preloading for STALKER 2 on Game Pass. Now I'm sad. Oh well. Wouldn't be a STALKER game without a delay. See you in the zone in December STALKERS.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Every once in a while I gawk at the preloading for STALKER 2 on Game Pass. Now I'm sad. Oh well. Wouldn't be a STALKER game without a delay. See you in the zone in December STALKERS.

Good point, the first game spent like 7 years in development.

 

[Mercenary09]

It still counts? Still counts for what? Are we doing list wars? Is that what is happening? Counts! What are you talking about? Counts! LOL

You really are moving the goal posts on what "counts" and what doesn't "count." Sony had in the second half of last year if we only want to count games they developed and discount remasters. They had nothing. Not many will argue that they had a strong lineup in the second half. Hopefully that will be rectified this year.

And again, while MS didn't have anything last year or this year in the first half of the year they more than made up for it with the day one content they snagged for Game Pass (The Show, Outriders, etc.). I expect them to do the same thing this year. And you look at last year, and as soon as we got in the second half of the year MS was releasing a game every month! There is a reason they were publisher of the year last year.

Outriders WAS huge, whether you want to admit that or not! LOL. It was absolutely massive. SE said it was a hit and their "next big franchise." Are you doubting SE?! Nope. It was huge! A huge AAA game released day one on Game Pass. No one mentioned Back 4 Blood, but okay...

MS delivered huge day one content in the first half of the year least year (THe Show, Outriders, etc) and I expect the same this year! It's a great time to be an Xbox owner!!!!

You're a first class idiot. So PS5 exclusives not made by Sony don't count but insignificant games on Game Pass do for Microsoft? I'm the one moving goal posts? LMAO. My point from the start was what does each have for exclusives to please their audience. I never said a game had to be from Sony or Microsoft to count, only that it had to be exclusive. You're the one going around discounting things to try and make Microsoft sound better. And no sorry Outriders wasn't a big deal and everyone knows it. That game came and went and without Game Pass no one would've been playing it which is why it launched on there in the first place. Square saw the pre-order numbers and knew they were in trouble. People played that game for a couple days and forgot all about it for the rest of last year. No one still even acts like that game exists. There hasn't been a single noteworthy third party game to launch on Game Pass yet. The only things that do are games no one cares about like Dungeons and Dragons, Outriders, and Back 4 Blood. Let me know when they actually get a third party to launch day 1 that something other than a tiny niche audience cares about. And don't try to say Rainbow Six Extraction either because no one cares about that shit either hence why there has been no chatter and Ubisoft cut the price from what they were originally going to launch it at.

 

[Lognor]

You're a first class idiot. So PS5 exclusives not made by Sony don't count but insignificant games on Game Pass do for Microsoft? I'm the one moving goal posts? LMAO. My point from the start was what does each have for exclusives to please their audience. I never said a game had to be from Sony or Microsoft to count, only that it had to be exclusive. You're the one going around discounting things to try and make Microsoft sound better. And no sorry Outriders wasn't a big deal and everyone knows it. That game came and went and without Game Pass no one would've been playing it which is why it launched on there in the first place. Square saw the pre-order numbers and knew they were in trouble. People played that game for a couple days and forgot all about it for the rest of last year. No one still even acts like that game exists. There hasn't been a single noteworthy third party game to launch on Game Pass yet. The only things that do are games no one cares about like Dungeons and Dragons, Outriders, and Back 4 Blood. Let me know when they actually get a third party to launch day 1 that something other than a tiny niche audience cares about. And don't try to say Rainbow Six Extraction either because no one cares about that shit either hence why there has been no chatter and Ubisoft cut the price from what they were originally going to launch it at.

S0ULZB0URNE said it best:

This thread is about the STALKER 2 delay.

Not sure what you're talking about Dungeons and Dragons for? LOL. Dude, take a breath. Resorting to name calling? Yikes. You truly are triggered.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

S0ULZB0URNE said it best:


Not sure what you're talking about Dungeons and Dragons for? LOL. Dude, take a breath. Resorting to name calling? Yikes. You truly are triggered.

This thread isn't about the PS5 lineup.

 

[adamsapple]

Every once in a while I gawk at the preloading for STALKER 2 on Game Pass. Now I'm sad. Oh well. Wouldn't be a STALKER game without a delay. See you in the zone in December STALKERS.

That Coming Soon banner is gonna make me sad for an extra half year now

Ouch, that's a big delay, over 6 months. What happened?

They BARELY showed the game, who knows, maybe it's nowhere near complete when they set the release date.

 

[Snowdonhoffen]

Could this game get delayed indefinitely?
Because of you know... what's happening right now

 

[samjaza]

Yeah, its probably getting cancelled, but as long as the GSC guys can get out (If they want) I can live with it.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Both GSC Game World (STALKER) and 4A Games (Metro) are based in Kyiv. It's not clear what will happen to both of these studios.

 

[samjaza]

Both GSC Game World (STALKER) and 4A Games (Metro) are based in Kyiv. It's not clear what will happen to both of these studios.

Didn't 4a Games move to Malta?

 

[Snowdonhoffen]

Man, the world sucks. As much as I wanted to play this I just hope they manage to get out of there.

 

[sinnergy]

Barbarism , nice to see we as human kind learned so much over the centuries man, am I ashamed .

 

[Shits_McGiggles]

So when is Xbox going to announce they acquired a PMC for STALKER 2 development?

 

[Hobbygaming]

Both GSC Game World (STALKER) and 4A Games (Metro) are based in Kyiv. It's not clear what will happen to both of these studios.

I didn't know they were that close

 

[CamHostage]

Yea, I mean what we saw of Stalker 2 was a monumental jump in fidelity just in animation, and in skill. They have beefed up in terms of talent. It sucks that this Unreal 5 delay is fucking a lot of projects. Surprised no one has covered it or has reached out to unreal team at Epic?

I'm sorry, backing up... what "Unreal 5 delay" are you talking about?

I've not seen a timeline laid out by Epic beyond the milestones they've more or less met (albeit Fortnite on UE5 was promised a little earlier than its Dec rollout, and somewhere it was mentioned a "full release in late 2021" but I'm not seeing that sourced; it's now in production-ready Preview mode, so that's late but not extraordinarily so.) I've also not heard of developers complaining that UE5 was hampering their project in a major way. If anything, the transition method from UE4 to UE5 has been smooth and encouraging, with Nanite being a no-brainer improvement for usage on applicable assets (while more experimental and transformative systems like Lumen being more a case of test-and-choose use in varying ways.)

A new development suite engine is not like a new console, there's not a drop-dead date where everything needs to be done. You can't be assured of everything working for your project on time if you're relying on an external tool, especially revolutionary tech like what UE5 is adding. It takes as long as it takes, and game developers have never been able to rely on a 3rd Party engine launching in time for their launch, and smart producers look towards the future where they can take a good gamble but don't over-commit when it's not their base infrastructure they're relying on. (You wouldn't want to bet big and come up short in a Too Human/Frame City Killers situation...) UE5 is the best it's ever been as far as timing (there are already "games" you can get on Steam using UE5, and it's not even out of Early access yet,) but still, you know when making a game on something like this that Epic has to finish before you can commit to finishing.

If anything, it seems like we may have some type of "UE 4.5" type of projects, where the games use core functions of UE5 (some of which are already in UE 4.26 and before) and build with an eye towards UE5 as its base since it's already stable and testable, but still working in a UE4 sense of not using World Partition or replacing their own GI solution with Lumen (contractually they might be bound to Enlighten or something like that anyway) or some of its other novel, experimental, less compatible features. Anything they can't fall back from (Nanite is literally a setting toggle per object, for instance,) they wouldn't use yet, because it's not officially done for even Epic to use. Developers have known since UE5 EA launched in May of 2021 what it was capable of, what was stable and what was experimental, and what the general timeline would be. I've not heard anything like the nervousness you are saying over it taking too long to launch, but I'm willing to be proven wrong if you know otherwise.

...And as far as Stalker 2, there's no way they planned the original April release date assuming UE5 was going to be in perfect shape for their release. Stalker 2 will ultimately be a "Unreal Engine 5 game", but it's been made most of this time as a UE4 project, with UE5 just part of getting to the finish line. We saw Stalker 2 showcased in July of 2020, and even if that wasn't realtime (unknown, albeit it looks quite similar,) we then saw the gameplay trailer in January of 2021. Jan of 2021 was just a couple months after The Coalition got its super-early builds of UE5 (before Early Access even), and The Coalition is Microsoft's strike team for Xbox integration of UE5. Coalition would have been one of the very first, and they got it in November. (Even as late as October 2020, The Coalition was prototyping in UE4 to prepare to get its hands on a workable build of UE5.) GSC would not have had UE5 access any earlier than that. Maybe they knew what Epic was building towards (maybe even Ninja Theory knew way back when it built the original Hellblade 2 trailer in 2019,) but nobody had it to use to make a game that early. Basically, everything we have seen of the game (including the E3 showcase video 8 months ago) has been their advanced work of pushing UE4 hard, and UE5 has come in late as an exciting new prospect to potentially add to their repertoire (where compatible and stable,) but I would be very surprised if GSC ever said that UE5 was a major factor in the project delay.

 

[Craig of War]

So when is Xbox going to announce they acquired a PMC for STALKER 2 development?

Nobody knows

 

[Warablo]

Take as much time as you need, especially if its gonna be a true open world like the first.

 

[SantaC]

Take as much time as you need, especially if its gonna be a true open world like the first.

I think priorities have changed you know. There is a war in kiev now.

 

[Denton]

If I was MS I'd be buying GSC right now and flying the team out of there asap.

 

[Yoboman]

If I was MS I'd be buying GSC right now and flying the team out of there asap.

The fuck?

 

[skit_data]

I think it will be a long time (if ever) before we see this game due to recent events.

 

[The_Mike]

What's next on Game Pass?

• FAR: Changing Tides (Console) – March 1
• Shredders (Console and PC) – March 17
• A Memoir Blue (Console and PC) – March 24
• Crusader Kings 3 (Console) – March 29
• Weird West (Console) – March 31

 

[Papacheeks]

I'm sorry, backing up... what "Unreal 5 delay" are you talking about?

I've not seen a timeline laid out by Epic beyond the milestones they've more or less met (albeit Fortnite on UE5 was promised a little earlier than its Dec rollout, and somewhere it was mentioned a "full release in late 2021" but I'm not seeing that sourced; it's now in production-ready Preview mode, so that's late but not extraordinarily so.) I've also not heard of developers complaining that UE5 was hampering their project in a major way. If anything, the transition method from UE4 to UE5 has been smooth and encouraging, with Nanite being a no-brainer improvement for usage on applicable assets (while more experimental and transformative systems like Lumen being more a case of test-and-choose use in varying ways.)

A new development suite engine is not like a new console, there's not a drop-dead date where everything needs to be done. You can't be assured of everything working for your project on time if you're relying on an external tool, especially revolutionary tech like what UE5 is adding. It takes as long as it takes, and game developers have never been able to rely on a 3rd Party engine launching in time for their launch, and smart producers look towards the future where they can take a good gamble but don't over-commit when it's not their base infrastructure they're relying on. (You wouldn't want to bet big and come up short in a Too Human/Frame City Killers situation...) UE5 is the best it's ever been as far as timing (there are already "games" you can get on Steam using UE5, and it's not even out of Early access yet,) but still, you know when making a game on something like this that Epic has to finish before you can commit to finishing.

If anything, it seems like we may have some type of "UE 4.5" type of projects, where the games use core functions of UE5 (some of which are already in UE 4.26 and before) and build with an eye towards UE5 as its base since it's already stable and testable, but still working in a UE4 sense of not using World Partition or replacing their own GI solution with Lumen (contractually they might be bound to Enlighten or something like that anyway) or some of its other novel, experimental, less compatible features. Anything they can't fall back from (Nanite is literally a setting toggle per object, for instance,) they wouldn't use yet, because it's not officially done for even Epic to use. Developers have known since UE5 EA launched in May of 2021 what it was capable of, what was stable and what was experimental, and what the general timeline would be. I've not heard anything like the nervousness you are saying over it taking too long to launch, but I'm willing to be proven wrong if you know otherwise.

...And as far as Stalker 2, there's no way they planned the original April release date assuming UE5 was going to be in perfect shape for their release. Stalker 2 will ultimately be a "Unreal Engine 5 game", but it's been made most of this time as a UE4 project, with UE5 just part of getting to the finish line. We saw Stalker 2 showcased in July of 2020, and even if that wasn't realtime (unknown, albeit it looks quite similar,) we then saw the gameplay trailer in January of 2021. Jan of 2021 was just a couple months after The Coalition got its super-early builds of UE5 (before Early Access even), and The Coalition is Microsoft's strike team for Xbox integration of UE5. Coalition would have been one of the very first, and they got it in November. (Even as late as October 2020, The Coalition was prototyping in UE4 to prepare to get its hands on a workable build of UE5.) GSC would not have had UE5 access any earlier than that. Maybe they knew what Epic was building towards (maybe even Ninja Theory knew way back when it built the original Hellblade 2 trailer in 2019,) but nobody had it to use to make a game that early. Basically, everything we have seen of the game (including the E3 showcase video 8 months ago) has been their advanced work of pushing UE4 hard, and UE5 has come in late as an exciting new prospect to potentially add to their repertoire (where compatible and stable,) but I would be very surprised if GSC ever said that UE5 was a major factor in the project delay.

Unreal Engine 5 is now available in Preview!

This release builds upon the features exposed in last year’s Early Access offering, with improvements to performance, quality, and feature-completeness across the board.

www.unrealengine.com

If you’ve been eagerly awaiting a production-ready release of Unreal Engine 5 since we offered Early Access last year, you’ll be pleased to know that we’ve reached the next milestone: Unreal Engine 5 is now in Preview!

Since we released Early Access, Fortnite is now built on Unreal Engine 5, and we also created our technical demo The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience with the code. These internal efforts were designed to make Unreal Engine 5 more production-ready, stable, and optimized.

We are currently working towards the final shipping version, with all features that we intend to include now ready for testing. In addition to many improvements to previously exposed tools like Nanite, Lumen, One File Per Actor, World Partition, and MetaSounds, you’ll find some exciting new animation tools, groundwork support for Large World Coordinates, and much more. We’ll get into a bit more detail later on in this post.

We should stress that Preview releases will still have instabilities and other issues, and should not be used for production. We suggest making a copy of existing projects if you wish to use them to experiment with the new tools and workflows. However, we’d love for you to put them through their paces to help us identify any remaining glitches, so that we can get them fixed for the final release. Please log any issues you encounter on our bug reporting page.

Unreal Engine 5 Early Access was focused on exposing new features for next-gen game development. With this Preview release, we invite creators from all industries to take it for a test-drive. One caveat, though: while you should be able work in UE5 much the same way as you have been able to do in UE4, with your existing workflows supported, some of the major new features such as Lumen and Nanite have not yet been validated with non-games workflows.

When your not in final release it makes it hard to finalize a game using that enngine. Hellblade 2 was another title affected by this, since they moved over to UR5 last year. People are building their games in Unreal 5, but now any release is tied to finalization of Unreal Engine 5 which was suppose to be final retail/production by 2021. So they themselves are behind, which makes any project using Unreal 5 at the mercy of when the engine gets Finalized.

Hence why mostly all Sony developers are not using Unreal mostly. They all are using their own studios in-house engine like Insomniac or they are using Decima.


Stalker 2 is just one of many games affected by Epic's delay in getting Unreal 5 in final retail/Production.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

I think it will be a long time (if ever) before we see this game due to recent events.

It is vital we take Kiev before comrade Putin's birthday!