PS5 has the dominant market share because it inherited it from last generation. The PS5's exclusives have been pretty weak compared to the PS4's thus far but the ability for PS4 owners to carry their libraries over to PS5 is a big incentive for them to upgrade to a PS5 instead of a XSX.

As far as I know, Banishers has only launched on PC. PS5 and XSX versions come out later today and this is a console-centric site, so it makes sense that they’d ignore the PC launch.

The problem is that a player’s interactions are constrained in games so developers need to explicitly point out the things that can actually be interacted with. Logically, something might seem climbable but due to the inherent limitations of level design, it can’t actually be climbed. It’s better to make that clear to…

That doesn’t really overcome the hardware hurdle unless you’re suggesting that they continue using lower cost, proprietary hardware. Most PC games (even ones on the MS Store) don’t use UWP because PC gamers have a strong disdain for it due to its numerous limitations. Getting non-UWP PC games to run properly on Xbox…

Odd choice. The Thaumaturge is a completely different game (in both genre and setting) to anything else releasing this month.

Internet console tribalism has produced a mentality where the only thing that matters is exclusivity, even though like 99% of games are multiplatform and the most popular console games (e.g. CoD, Fortnite, Madden, FIFA) are multiplatform.

That’s fair, though it doesn’t really change the arguments being made. Different platforms have different feature sets that are appealing to different people. Arguing that Xbox has no reason to exist without exclusives is silly because it still has unique features that are selling points for many people.

I think you’re underestimating how hard it is to make a low-cost gaming PC that has a form factor that’s convenient for living room use. PC GPUs are bigger and more expensive than ever, which is why consoles use proprietary hardware.

I’m pretty sure the game would have sold even better had all three versions launched simultaneously. The PC version had already been in early access for years so it’s not like delaying the full version a few more months would have made any difference. In addition, the PC version had its fair share of bugs, balance…

It has cross-play so you can still buy the PC version and play with your PS5 friends.

I don’t think so. Quick Resume lets you immediately resume a game even after shutting down your Xbox. PS5 doesn’t allow that. Quick Resume also lets you resume between up to 3 different games while PS5 only lets you resume 1 game at a time. Xbox controller is different from PS5 controller. Sony charges for cloud…

I think the problem is that the MCU formula is getting stale. The movies just all look and feel the same now. That’s one of the downsides of whole the “cinematic universe” concept. Everything needs to be unified and cohesive which also makes everything feel generic.

That’s a good point. While exclusives are certainly effective at user acquisition, they don’t necessarily increase retention. If you’re only interested in specific exclusives and would otherwise prefer to play everything else on a different platform, those exclusives aren’t going to get you to switch ecosystems. I…

How did that pay off in spades for BG3? You don’t think it would have sold more on consoles if all three versions had launched simultaneously?

I’d be surprised too, though it would be a pleasant surprise. Simultaneous launches are better for consumers and better for the success of each game on each platform (see Helldivers 2 outperforming every other Sony PC port despite belonging to a much smaller IP). If you want to maximize revenue and consumer happiness,…

MS literally and repeatedly threatened that you wouldn’t be able to play games in future on Windows unless they were installed via the MS Store.

So you never had issues with other GP games? Or was this the first GP game you’ve tried?

Someone might prefer Xbox-specific features like Quick Resume, the controller, free cloud saves, Play Anywhere, Smart Delivery, the UI, etc. MS also allows dev/pubs to sell keys outside of XBL/MS Store and you can pretty easily earn gift cards via MS Rewards, resulting in cheaper games.

Seems like a win-win for consumers. MS continues making Xboxes for those that prefer it while its first-party games become more accessible to a broader audience.

Not sure if I’d call RE3R fantastic in and of itself (it was a definite step down from RE2R) but it was solid enough. I do wish they had expanded the downtown parts of the game.