I mean, common sense and industry standards clearly support the assumption that a simultaneous multiplatform launch would have been more profitable overall. That’s why 99% of third-party games have simultaneous multiplatform launches. It’s not some random edge case, it’s the norm.

You keep using “content” in an overly broad manner. We’re specifically talking about exclusive content. Multiplatform content doesn’t provide incentive to buy one console over another. In addition, every console has access to multiplatform content so the idea of a console without any content is void.

Are you talking about Sony or MS? Because MS first-party has way more genre variety than Sony first-party. MS first-party includes racing games, fighting games, strategy games, RPGs, adventure games, shooters, action/adventure games, platformers, etc.

It most definitely won’t go both ways but that doesn’t really matter. Any reduction in exclusivity is good. The value you get from your Xbox shouldn’t depend on content being excluded from other platforms. You can still enjoy the games you bought an Xbox to play.

You can’t even adjust the resolution, so meager and dismissive is this port.

I know that Kotaku did at one point forget that Banishers got delayed into February so maybe they still think it came out last year.

Sure, we can dismiss those examples as being successful despite their genre but the fact remains that they were successful.

You still haven’t given a reason why digital libraries carrying over is any different than expecting backwards compatibility.

Yeah, I was disappointed by how mundane they made the magic. They just took the standard FPS weapons (AR, shotgun, sniper rifle, etc) and made magic equivalents when they could have done much more interesting things. They tried to spice it up by color coding your weapons to specific enemies but that just makes the…

$125m for a game like this is crazy. Should have been $60m max.

Meanwhile, 60 percent of non-LGBTQ players say that playing as an LGBTQ character would make no difference in their decision to buy a game.

Nah, the distinction between digital and physical media is entirely relevant because digital media carries expectations that don’t exist with physical media. iTunes, Google Play, Prime Video, Vudu, etc, have trained consumers that their digital libraries should persist between hardware. That expectation applies to…

Delays are annoying sure, but you would have still bought the game even if it had it been delayed a few more months.

Nah, they lost the console war when they announced that the XBO would cost $100 more because it included the Kinect, had mandatory DRM for both digital and physical games that would disable them if you didn’t authenticate online at least once a day and was marketed primarily as a means of watching television.

The combat is turn-based but I wouldn’t call that JRPG inspired. Lots of CRPGs have turn-based combat. I think the best descriptor for Thaumaturge would probably be “narrative RPG with some turn-based combat.”

Digital distribution and persistent libraries weren’t standard by the time the PS4 launched either so not sure why you’re bringing that up. By the time PS6 launches in 2028 or whatever, both digital distribution and persistent libraries will absolutely be standard. Obviously this is just a prediction but it’s one…

I don’t think the PS3's emulation of PS1/2 was quite equivalent to PS5 inheriting PS4 libraries. In the mid 2000's, digital distribution wasn’t standard and players had no expectations of carrying over their libraries between console generations. As such, the PS3's emulation was seen as more of a bonus than a standard …

P3 is a JRPG which is like the antithesis of a CRPG so I don’t think there’d be much crossover there (or with FF7 Rebirth). Banishers is a third-person action game with RPG elements. King Arthur is a turn-based tactics game while Thaumaturge is more of a narrative RPG.

Form factor is an important part of what makes a console appealing, though. Console players don’t want a big desktop sitting in their living room. So, if you want something that matches that power of a mid-range gaming PC while fitting in a small form factor and costing $500 or less, you’ll need proprietary hardware.

The question isn’t about which console is better. It’s about whether or not Xbox has any unique features or benefits that justify its existence without exclusive games. It demonstrably does. Different features have different value to different people. You prioritize VR, other people couldn’t care less about it.