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VGC: Xbox will confirm Bethesda’s Game Pass future this week

GeorgPrime

Banned
I can’t see them throwing up all the games at once, they will probably drip feed them over the next few months (which is fine by me because I have to many things to play already.)

I dont know why games i already played, finished or dont like will feed me over the next few months. ;)
 
People expecting them to mention Playstation will be seriously dissapointed. They didn't even utter that word when they announced the acquisition. This will be a "welcome bethesda, bla bla... games will be on game pass day 1 .... get excited...." kind of thing. They will not clarify exclusivity because in their mind, they probably don't have to. Everything is Xbox exclusive.... until it isn't. If they want to release a game on PS5, they will quietly mention it at the end of a trailer.

I hope I'm wrong and they will actually answer the burning question though.
 

Fredrik

Member
That’s always the balancing act. Not dissimilar to discussions around Sony releasing their catalog on Steam.

It’s the balancing act of converting people, vs getting something at least out of people that won’t convert, vs diluting own brand long term. The bean counters are calling the shots here.
These scenarios are nothing alike. Sony isn’t releasing their AAA exclusives on Xbox, they’re releasing them on PC, several years later.

What people want to know now is if good guy Phil will release everything on Playstation.
It’s not a balancing act. It’s a stupid idea.

I mean, try to imagine a scenario where Jim would decide to release Horizon Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7, God of War Ragnarök day 1 on Xbox Series X.
As a PS fan, would you like that?

I will play on everything but I want the Xbox platform to grow. And no doubt, Phil has turned the brand around, he should be applauded for that. But he’s so incredibly naive if he can’t see the downsides from spreading out their biggest IPs to the competitor’s platforms.

Honestly, it’s frustrating, the brand get less relevant each year because it lacks exclusives. And now they’re at the point where they finally have a proper exclusive game advantage, games that people are seriously passionate about, games that for real could sell consoles, and then they’ll likely give it all away, to sell Gamepass subs for $1
Angry American Idol GIF
 

Derktron

Banned
People expecting them to mention Playstation will be seriously dissapointed. They didn't even utter that word when they announced the acquisition. This will be a "welcome bethesda, bla bla... games will be on game pass day 1 .... get excited...." kind of thing. They will not clarify exclusivity because in their mind, they probably don't have to. Everything is Xbox exclusive.... until it isn't. If they want to release a game on PS5, they will quietly mention it at the end of a trailer.

I hope I'm wrong and they will actually answer the burning question though.
I can definitely see this happening and that’s what worries me, honestly it worries me because a lot of backlash will come out.
 

Shmunter

Member
These scenarios are nothing alike. Sony isn’t releasing their AAA exclusives on Xbox, they’re releasing them on PC, several years later.

What people want to know now is if good guy Phil will release everything on Playstation.
It’s not a balancing act. It’s a stupid idea.

I mean, try to imagine a scenario where Jim would decide to release Horizon Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7, God of War Ragnarök day 1 on Xbox Series X.
As a PS fan, would you like that?

I will play on everything but I want the Xbox platform to grow. And no doubt, Phil has turned the brand around, he should be applauded for that. But he’s so incredibly naive if he can’t see the downsides from spreading out their biggest IPs to the competitor’s platforms.

Honestly, it’s frustrating, the brand get less relevant each year because it lacks exclusives. And now they’re at the point where they finally have a proper exclusive game advantage, games that people are seriously passionate about, games that for real could sell consoles, and then they’ll likely give it all away, to sell Gamepass subs for $1
Angry American Idol GIF
That’s all ok, if you ignore what MS has been projecting for a long time. Subscription services are the aim & Google and Amazon are the true competition.

Scraping money from Sony devices fits into what has been broadcast.

If MS miscalculated and is back full force on selling console and not services then so be it. But have we seen them flip?

Sony however is an electronics company and PlayStation is their strategy.
 
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Was about to say the same, only you did it better.

Tbh, the Xbox fanboys almost certainly don't have as much emotional investment into it as the PS fanboys do. They know they're getting the best version first at a bare minimum. PS fanboys praying they don't lose significant content.

In a perfect world exclusives wouldn't exist. Seeing as it's not though, and given recent events... I'm dreaming that MS buys up so much content that Sony throws it's hands up and agrees to release its games everywhere if MS will. At which point we can all celebrate by racing giraffes around Talladega while eating snow cones. Don't criticize me. It's my dream.
Everyone knows Microsoft games will be exclusive to Microsoft's platform. Why would Microsoft spend $7.5 billion to release games on their competitors consoles? It doesn't make sense.

Microsoft makes more money on subscriptions and services I.e Microsoft 365, Xbox Game Pass.

Microsoft wants to increase the amount of consumers/gamers on Windows, Xbox, Xcloud etc... Not lose them to PlayStation.
 
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phil_t98

#SonyToo
Always find it funny the talk of MS putting gamepass or games on PS by Sony fanboys, it’s like Microsoft didn’t release new consoles to sell, I mean there is never talk of Sony putting their games on Xbox to make more money is there.
 

Astorian

Member
Why do they even need to comment on this? I think people are smart enough to understand the games you own will be on Game Pass.
 
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Everyone knows Microsoft games will be exclusive to Microsoft's platform. Why would Microsoft spend $7.5 billion to release games on their competitors consoles? It doesn't make sense.

Microsoft makes more money on subscriptions and services I.e Microsoft 365, Xbox Game Pass.

Microsoft wants to increase the amount of consumers/gamers on Windows, Xbox, Xcloud etc... Not lose them to PlayStation.
I don't know why you're replying to me. I didn't say anything counter to what you did.

But seeing as you're looking for a debate, I'll give a protip on the house. Next time it'll cost ya.

You posted 3 paragraphs. When all three of your paragraphs begin with,

•Everyone knows...
•Microsoft makes...
•Microsoft wants...

You're doing it wrong. Two are assumptions, and one is a statement.... which is wrong as well as irrelevant to the topic.
 
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Always find it funny the talk of MS putting gamepass or games on PS by Sony fanboys, it’s like Microsoft didn’t release new consoles to sell, I mean there is never talk of Sony putting their games on Xbox to make more money is there.
Yeah, its kind of pathetic really.

Series S exists for this reason. Would be funny if fanboys would eventually be forced to buy the very thing they spoke out against lol. I expect them to be full exclusives at this point. They lowered the barrier of entry for a reason. Series S is 299$ or 25$ a month with GPU. Might as well leverage your position while the generation is young.
 

Elog

Member
That’s all ok, if you ignore what MS has been projecting for a long time. Subscription services are the aim & Google and Amazon are the true competition.

Scraping money from Sony devices fits into what has been broadcast.

If MS miscalculated and is back full force on selling console and not services then so be it. But have we seen them flip?

Sony however is an electronics company and PlayStation is their strategy.
This. In addition - selling games at full price to Playstation owners and reap the profit and put the same game on Gamepass day 1 would be a really really good look for MS.

If I were an Xbox owner I would be much more interested in whether MS dares to put future big hitters from Zenimax (ES, Starfield etc) as Day 1's on Gamepass rather than obsess that those games need to be exclusive to Xbox.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
People expecting them to mention Playstation will be seriously dissapointed. They didn't even utter that word when they announced the acquisition. This will be a "welcome bethesda, bla bla... games will be on game pass day 1 .... get excited...." kind of thing. They will not clarify exclusivity because in their mind, they probably don't have to. Everything is Xbox exclusive.... until it isn't. If they want to release a game on PS5, they will quietly mention it at the end of a trailer.

I hope I'm wrong and they will actually answer the burning question though.
Agreed. We won't have a definite answer.

But I think it's not because in their mind everything is exclusive. I think it's because they themselves are not sure yet (which is fair). It's an unprecedented move in the industry, and I believe Phil was being honest when he said they will evaluate it on a case-by-case basis. There are a lot of factors involved which will vary for every game.

IMO, they won't announce anything definite because they don't want to commit to that line just yet. They'd like to keep things open at least until they are 100% sure of what's working for them.
 

phil_t98

#SonyToo
Yeah, its kind of pathetic really.

Series S exists for this reason. Would be funny if fanboys would eventually be forced to buy the very thing they spoke out against lol. I expect them to be full exclusives at this point. They lowered the barrier of entry for a reason. Series S is 299$ or 25$ a month with GPU. Might as well leverage your position while the generation is young.

it wouldn’t even shock me if they announced a price cut to the series s at this point just to make it more accessible
 
This. In addition - selling games at full price to Playstation owners and reap the profit and put the same game on Gamepass day 1 would be a really really good look for MS.

If I were an Xbox owner I would be much more interested in whether MS dares to put future big hitters from Zenimax (ES, Starfield etc) as Day 1's on Gamepass rather than obsess that those games need to be exclusive to Xbox.
I could go along with that so long as a few conditions were met.

Xbox release all their exclusives on Playstation via Gamepass App. Gamepass users get MS games something like a 2 week to 1 month early. The rest of the PS5 users can then buy it retail.

My conditions to go along with it?
• MS continues making controllers that work on PS.
• Sony allows MS to run their entire online system. It's still PSN, but it's run by MS.
• Achievements and gamerscore are somehow integrated with trophies. They can be separate so long as I get to keep them.
• This space reserved for stuff I might've forgotten about.

But yeah, then I could live with moving to Playstation exclusively. Of course with Xbox consoles being gone, we'd be stuck with stagnant hardware for 3 gens waiting for Nintendo to pass them up before upgrading.
 
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Fredrik

Member
That’s all ok, if you ignore what MS has been projecting for a long time. Subscription services are the aim & Google and Amazon are the true competition.

Scraping money from Sony devices fits into what has been broadcast.

If MS miscalculated and is back full force on selling console and not services then so be it. But have we seen them flip?

Sony however is an electronics company and PlayStation is their strategy.
Google is gone, Amazon won’t likely do any better. And MS can barely handle Gamepass on two platforms as it is, spreading it out to more wouldn’t be easier.

They could put everything on Xcloud and put that everywhere though, no porting needed, big library of games from day 1.
 

Elog

Member
I could go along with that so long as a few conditions were met.

Xbox release all their exclusives on Playstation via Gamepass App. Gamepass users get MS games something like a 2 week to 1 month early. The rest of the PS5 users can then buy it retail.

My conditions to go along with it?
• MS continues making controllers that work on PS.
• Sony allows MS to run their entire online system. It's still PSN, but it's run by MS.
• Achievements and gamerscore are somehow integrated with trophies. They can be separate so long as I get to keep them.
• This space reserved for stuff I might've forgotten about.

But yeah, then I could live with moving to Playstation exclusively. Of course with Xbox consoles being gone, we'd be stuck with stagnant hardware for 3 gens waiting for Nintendo to pass them up before upgrading.
I honestly have no clue why you wrote all this :)

MS needs to make a business decision, are they primarily a service company (Gamepass) or a hardware provider (Xbox)? We know the answer to that one. Next question is how to distribute the costs and profits for the Zenimax titles. We basically have 3 decision parameters (that the Zenimax back-catalogue will be on Gamepass is something I take for granted):

1) Future Zenimax titles on Gamepass Day 1 - Yes/No
2) Future Zenimax titles available outside Gamepass (e.g. Playstation) Yes/no
3) If yes to question 2: Create limited exclusivities for Gamepass holders (timed/limited content islands etc) Yes/no

That is basically it - and while none of us obviously know my personal opinion is that the answers to these questions will be Yes, Yes, Yes. We will see :)
 
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cireza

Member
Every xbox fan right bow


Please be exclusive
I don't know a single Xbox player who wishes this. We just don't care (I am including myself in this, even though I am not sure that I qualify, and not even sure what a fanboy is anyway). What matters is that we get good games on Xbox, that's it.
 
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Calverz

Member
I hope to hear the famous xbox voice “world exclusive”. Followed by subtitles that read “console exclusive”
 
I would bet that pretty much all games will have a 1 year exclusivity on series x/s/pc

I think you will probably see Nintendo ports before you will see Sony ports
 

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
Hopefully Morrowind goty,oblivion,fallout 3 are on game pass.

I'm genuinely interested, those games have been out for years, been on sale where they have practically given them away, but all of a sudden you hope they come to Game Pass - which is fine get that - I'm just trying to understand have you waited 10+ years for them to be on a subscription service for a reason?
 
I don't know a single Xbox player who wishes this. We just don't care (I am including myself in this, even though I am not sure that I qualify, and not even sure what a fanboy is anyway). What matters is that we get good games on Xbox, that's it.
This kind of thinking is stupid. Publishers are already swayed pretty easily and ignore Xbox for cash simply because the userbase is smaller than PS. Release your heavy hitters on PS and the console base will shrink even further which will lead to less ports.

Hoping games are exclusive has nothing to do with being a fanboy. I always buy every console over the course of the generation simply because of exclusives.

I hope they don't waste their time and resources porting games to PS5. Just polish the games even further.
 
I'm genuinely interested, those games have been out for years, been on sale where they have practically given them away, but all of a sudden you hope they come to Game Pass - which is fine get that - I'm just trying to understand have you waited 10+ years for them to be on a subscription service for a reason?
No I had them before and Beat them but I never did 100 percent of What the games has to offer so I would like to jump back into them.
 

Chukhopops

Member
As always, my money is on one year of exclusivity for PC/Xbox then release on other platforms.

Only thing I’m not sure is if Steam will be launching day 1 or not.

And I’m completely fine with this.
 

Shmunter

Member
This kind of thinking is stupid. Publishers are already swayed pretty easily and ignore Xbox for cash simply because the userbase is smaller than PS. Release your heavy hitters on PS and the console base will shrink even further which will lead to less ports.

Hoping games are exclusive has nothing to do with being a fanboy. I always buy every console over the course of the generation simply because of exclusives.

I hope they don't waste their time and resources porting games to PS5. Just polish the games even further.
Xbox can still differentiate itself by offering all those games and many 3rd party as the Netflix all you can eat model vs needing to buy the dvds and box sets outside of that.

Yes, content can still be had elsewhere, but the value proposition is unique.
 

Fredrik

Member
I don't know a single Xbox player who wishes this. We just don't care (I am including myself in this, even though I am not sure that I qualify, and not even sure what a fanboy is anyway). What matters is that we get good games on Xbox, that's it.
I want them exclusive.
Simply because that’s the only way I know could grow the platform. As multiplats nothing would change, that’s how it already was before the acquisition.

Microsoft needs games which console gamers on all platforms are passionate about, games that gets people excited ”Okay that’s it, OMG I need a Xbox!”

Their current 1st party IPs obviously aren’t doing the job. From the perspective of a PS/Switch fan Halo Infinite is nothing but a Craig meme at this point. Gears is considered too samey. Forza Horizon is a racing game and they don’t matter. Perfect Dark is yet another first person shooter/adventure. Flight Simulator is barely even a game. Sea of Thieves is a multiplayer game. Everwild is unknown as a game ever for the dev. Hellblade was never good anyway. Etc etc

In short the platform needs games that get people excited enough so they cave in and buy a Xbox. Going by the talk Bethesda’s games could possibly get them to that point. Therefore it’s worth trying it. They can always change their mind later if it didn’t work out.
 

phil_t98

#SonyToo
This. In addition - selling games at full price to Playstation owners and reap the profit and put the same game on Gamepass day 1 would be a really really good look for MS.

If I were an Xbox owner I would be much more interested in whether MS dares to put future big hitters from Zenimax (ES, Starfield etc) as Day 1's on Gamepass rather than obsess that those games need to be exclusive to Xbox.

But putting the games on PlayStation does not help sell Xbox’s and they want to sell as many of them as possible

i had to buy a PlayStation because i wanted to play Spider-Man so that’s kinda how it works
 
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cireza

Member
This kind of thinking is stupid. Publishers are already swayed pretty easily and ignore Xbox for cash simply because the userbase is smaller than PS. Release your heavy hitters on PS and the console base will shrink even further which will lead to less ports.

Hoping games are exclusive has nothing to do with being a fanboy. I always buy every console over the course of the generation simply because of exclusives.

I hope they don't waste their time and resources porting games to PS5. Just polish the games even further.
Games don't need to be exclusive to be well polished. It may make things easier, but it is not even guaranteed. Microsoft game studios are used to making versions for various Xbox consoles and PC as well. Nintendo making only exclusive games still manages to deliver disappointing games on a technical side on Switch (Yoshi, Zelda LA, Wii U ports etc...). You can find many Xbox exclusives that were really rough on release while being exclusive to Xbox (MCC, Recore for example).

It is not about being exclusive, it is about taking the time and money to make things right.
 
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MonarchJT

Banned
i
This kind of thinking is stupid. Publishers are already swayed pretty easily and ignore Xbox for cash simply because the userbase is smaller than PS. Release your heavy hitters on PS and the console base will shrink even further which will lead to less ports.

Hoping games are exclusive has nothing to do with being a fanboy. I always buy every console over the course of the generation simply because of exclusives.

I hope they don't waste their time and resources porting games to PS5. Just polish the games even further.

I completely agree. This is genuinely a unique opportunity to raise the Xbox brand value, with that portfolio of IP's Ms it could finally return to dominate as far as the exclusive numbers and varieties. But I understand that Gamepass is already a great advantage over the competition, $ 9.99 vs $ 70 or $ 80 is no small thing. It will almost certainly be a mix of both. Anyway let's not forget that Bethesda is not the only recent acquisition that Ms did, we forgetting Obsidian,inxile,Ninja theory, undead labs, compulsion and also the new studio The Initiative. Added to the old studios I don't think Xbox will have any kind of problem with the amount of exclusives. It remains only to confirm the quality now.
 

phil_t98

#SonyToo
Games don't need to be exclusive to be well polished. It may make things easier, but it is not even guaranteed. Microsoft game studios are used to making versions for various Xbox consoles and PC as well. Nintendo making only exclusive games still manages to deliver disappointing games on a technical side on Switch (Yoshi, Zelda LA, Wii U ports etc...). You can find many Xbox exclusives that were really rough on release while being exclusive to Xbox (MCC, Recore for example).

It is not about being exclusive, it is about taking the time and money to make things right.

One thing i will say about the argument on publisher ignoring xbox is that even though the install base is 2-1 it doesn’t mean that’s how the games sell so this imaginary ignoring the xbox is stupid argument. Not everybody likes the same games, if you look around here all the sony fans claim to not like multiplayer games they prefer single player third person games that sony offer so why would a publisher make mulitplayer games for a fan base that claims that?

End of the day they dont ignore any console as they can sell a shit ton on either console and it isn’t that hard to port from one to the other these days
 

Riky

$MSFT
I don't know a single Xbox player who wishes this. We just don't care (I am including myself in this, even though I am not sure that I qualify, and not even sure what a fanboy is anyway). What matters is that we get good games on Xbox, that's it.

There will be meltdowns and gloating whatever happens, but you're right. I won't have to pay £60 at launch for the games is the part that directly affects me as I have Gamepass Ultimate.
I don't even think MS will mention exclusivity if it truly is a case by case basis, they will announce that per game and each game could have several factors that decide that.
I hope that like the Gears 5 DLC that Gamepass owners get all the expansion packs etc included in the subscription on top as that would be a pretty good deal for the likes of Elder Scrolls and Fallout.
 

Warablo

Member
7.5 billion dollars for 1 year of console exclusives, you guys are nuts.

Only way these games end up on Playstation is if Game Pass is on there.
 
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Stuart360

Gold Member
I wouldnt be surprised if they dont announce their excusivity plans anytime soon. If they DO plan for future games to be Xbox console exclusive, its going to create a ton of negativity when they announce that. So i wouldnt be surprised if they say nothing, and once we get stuff like Starfield officially revealed, it says something like 'PC and Xbox console exclusive'.
 

Fredrik

Member
Given the recent turn of events, Phil Spencer should ask himself: "What would Jim Ryan do?" 🤔 And then do the exact opposite.
Jim Ryan is a strange man but so far he’s still better at making the platform he’s in control over seem relevant.

Phil Spencer is a nice bloke, no doubt, but I think he’s too focused at luring people into Gamepass instead of luring people to Xbox. If he could I think he would gladly put Gamepass and Halo Infinite, Fable, Forza Horizon 5, Hellblade 2 on PS5. After all, it dosen’t matter to MS where we play their games as long as we’re playing them, right? And maybe that’s what we all should hope for, no need to buy Xbox anymore, PC+PS5+Switch would get you everything.
 

Wizz-Art

Member
This has been mentioned before. Why buy a publisher for 7.500.000.000 dollars and keep the games also releasing on PS when they did that already for free?

Use some common sense people. The new games will be Xbox and PC to attract Bethesda fans that don't own a Xbox into the Xbox ecosystem, be it by buying a XSS/XSX and Game Pass, subscribe to Game Pass on PC or even on mobile through Xcloud. That's what you do to grow your platform, not release it on other platforms that don't grow your ecosystem. Kinda like it has been done since the inception of home-consoles.
 

martino

Member
Except that this situation is not a false dilemma ;)
It is because they can choose both and never let one down if both perform well (or only the one not performing well)
There are no business rule forcing them to decide to go full force only one of the two. All strategies and combinaison are possible even if you act like they doesn't exist or are impossible
 
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MonarchJT

Banned
I wouldnt be surprised if they dont announce their excusivity plans anytime soon. If they DO plan for future games to be Xbox console exclusive, its going to create a ton of negativity when they announce that. So i wouldnt be surprised if they say nothing, and once we get stuff like Starfield officially revealed, it says something like 'PC and Xbox console exclusive'.
I mean this is so obvious. I don't think anyone in their right mind expects Phil sayig "and now everything is going to be exclusive". As you say, he will say nothing about it also because there really isn't any need. At the end of the trailers you will find the available platforms and the norm will be Xbox + PC + xcloud . But one thing is certain, after the first games where agreements had already been made we will talk , for games that will not be exclusive, a minimum of one year of timed exclusivity and obviously a substantial price difference let's remember gamepass 9.99 vs 70/80. From any angle you look at it, it's just a big win for anyone invested in the xbox platform
 
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MonarchJT

Banned
Jim Ryan is a strange man but so far he’s still better at making the platform he’s in control over seem relevant.

Phil Spencer is a nice bloke, no doubt, but I think he’s too focused at luring people into Gamepass instead of luring people to Xbox. If he could I think he would gladly put Gamepass and Halo Infinite, Fable, Forza Horizon 5, Hellblade 2 on PS5. After all, it dosen’t matter to MS where we play their games as long as we’re playing them, right? And maybe that’s what we all should hope for, no need to buy Xbox anymore, PC+PS5+Switch would get you everything.
if you ask sony to have 100/120 millions 15 € subs at year and stop producing hardware. You would see them immediately close the PlayStation hardware division and sign the contract. ..believe me.
 

kraspkibble

Permabanned.
put them all on gamepass. all future games including Starfield, ESVI, etc put them on day 1.

if MS want to put future games out on PS5 then fine. That'll be $60, thanks!

.....or you could buy an Xbox/build a PC and for your $60 you get 6 months of gamepass to play those games and hundreds of other games.
 

FranXico

Member
In a perfect world exclusives wouldn't exist. Seeing as it's not though, and given recent events... I'm dreaming that MS buys up so much content that Sony throws it's hands up and agrees to release its games everywhere if MS will. At which point we can all celebrate by racing giraffes around Talladega while eating snow cones. Don't criticize me. It's my dream.

It's a very naive dream. Microsoft are not putting pressure on the industry for humanitarian reasons.
 

Fredrik

Member
If they DO plan for future games to be Xbox console exclusive, its going to create a ton of negativity when they announce that. So i wouldnt be surprised if they say nothing
Is it better to wait until the consoles are available on the shelves and people has already bought a PS5 since nothing big was announced that could be a reason to buy XSX?

They need to talk. Now. And they need to be direct about it, no vagueness.

If they go exclusive the negativity and anger and cries would honestly be a good thing, that means the games can’t easily be ignored, that’s the type of games they haven’t had since maybe og Halo.
 
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