Clubul Xbox Series X

[paul]

Limited Edition Xbox Series X25 - noiembrie 2026:

[sexbobomb91]

Se pare ca si la Xbox s-a terminat era in care renuntau complet la exclusive. A fost o idee draguta, pro-consumer, dar e clar ca nu a dat rezultatele dorite pentru ei. Probabil are legatura si cu stirea asta: Asha Sharma says she wants Xbox to be ‘the number one gaming and entertainment company’ by 2030 | VGC .
Realistic vorbind, nu prea vad cum au putea sa intreaca PlayStation sau Nintendo la numarul de utilizatori in doar 4 ani, dar ma bucura ca macar incearca sa schimbe ceva. Ca sa primim cat mai bune jocuri toate companiile acestea trebuie sa se lupte intre ele pentru banii si atentia noastra.

EDIT: se pare ca nu toate jocurile noi anuntate vor fi exclusive, Senua se va lansa si pe PS5 dar Gears of War: E-Day si Clockwork Revolution sunt console exclusive. Ciudata strategie ...

[Xander RO]

Xbox Showcase 2026 a fost, pentru mine, una dintre cele mai bune conferințe de gaming din ultimii ani. Top notch! Deși suntem cu toții melancolici și avem impresia că acum 10-15 ani a fost epoca de aur a gamingului, dacă punem cap la cap ce au arătat PlayStation, Xbox și ceilalți în ultimele zile, realizăm că trăim probabil cea mai spectaculoasă perioadă în care puteai să fii gamer din istoria industriei.

Pur și simplu am un backlog sufocant, iar ceea ce urmează să se întâmple în 2026-2027 este de-a dreptul amețitor. Sunt mult prea multe titluri bune pe metru pătrat. Și asta după ce eliminăm fără milă tot junk-ul, live service-urile fără suflet și proiectele făcute pe bandă rulantă.

Aparent, cumătra Asha a ințeles ce cer oamenii de atâta vreme: gameplay, gameplay și iar gameplay. Fără CGI-uri interminabile, fără momente moarte. Și, deși nu-mi place să o spun, consider că anul acesta conferința Xbox a fost peste cea de PlayStation. A fost pur și simplu bombă.

Problema este că revenirea la ideea de exclusivități pare să vină mult prea târziu. Too little, too late. După ani întregi în care și-au alienat o parte importantă din core fans prin strategia multiplatform și prin mesajele contradictorii. Mai mult, dacă ne uităm la showcase, practic au prezentat doar două exclusivități importante pentru ecosistemul Xbox: Gears of War: E-Day și Clockwork Revolution. Restul marilor jocuri ajung și pe PlayStation 5. Nici măcar nu știm cât va dura exclusivitatea pentru Gears sau Clockwork, cred ca in maxim 6 luni (1 an?) le vedem si pe PS5.

Personal sunt ultra-hyped pentru Gears of War: E-Day, Fable, Halo, Clockwork Revolution, Metro 2039, Valor Mortis, Magicians: The Devil's Deal și Senua. De fapt, au fost atât de multe jocuri bune aseară încât aș fi putut foarte bine să spun că sunt hyped pentru aproape toate.

PS: Mi se pare totuși amuzant că Xbox nu a avut absolut nici o problemă să afișeze prețuri în lei și să livreze edițiile de colecție în toate țările Uniunii Europene, inclusiv România. Pentru monetizare există România. Pentru încasat bani există România! Prețuri în lei pentru niște produse ale unei platforme pe care, oficial, ei nu o recunosc în România.

[paul]

Probabil are legatura si cu stirea asta: Asha Sharma says she wants Xbox to be ‘the number one gaming and entertainment company’ by 2030 | VGC .

Eu interpretez ca atunci cand spune Xbox se refera la toata structura (redenumita recent de ea) de gaming din Microsoft, nu la divizia consola.

Trebuie sa se decida odata ce vor:
- daca vor sa fie cel mai mare publisher din industria de gaming si sa incaseze cat mai multi bani, atunci renunta la exclusive si Xbox e doar o alternativa in segmentul de console
- daca vor ca Xbox sa intreaca Nintendo si Sony la console, atunci le uram mult succes!

Cine o sa cumpere Series X, aflata in anul 6 de lifecycle, cu un pret marit la $600, fara disc drive, care nici nu se mai gaseste in magazine, in perioada aglomerata de octombrie, ca sa joace un shooter de nisa cum e E-Day? Sunt fan Gears, in 2006 a fost revolutionar si a contat pentru Xbox 360, dar noi acum suntem in 2026 si exista concurenta serioasa pe genul shooter. Clockwork Revolution e ceva nou si e si mai tarziu, in 2027 candva. Astea doua jocuri nu mi se pare ca au mass appeal, nu sunt system sellers.

Poza: tot ce s-a anuntat in Showcase:

[Papillon_]

Interesanta prezentarea posibil sa fie o schimbare de strategie iar in viitor sa nu mai lanseze anumite jocuri first party pe PS.

Pe PC si telefon au preturi in lei in aplicatia de Xbox iar acum vad ca au site-ul https://eu.shop.xboxgamestudios.com tot cu preturi in lei. Oare o sa lanseze in sfarsit preturi in lei si pe magazinul de pe consola?

[sexbobomb91]

Eu interpretez ca atunci cand spune Xbox se refera la toata structura (redenumita recent de ea) de gaming din Microsoft, nu la divizia consola.

Asa e, nu a definit clar ce inseamna "number one" si au sanse mai mari sa devina #1 publisher decat sa-i intreaca pe restul la vanzari de console, dar nici asta nu ar fi prea usor pentru ca Tencent e #1 in ultimii ani.
Si chiar daca nu au sanse, e bine ca-si doresc lucrul asta. Asa ar trebui sa faca orice companie, sa concureze direct cu ceilalti pentru a oferi clientilor ce-si doresc, si nu doar sa parieze pe live-services cum au facut Sony pana acum.

[paul]

- vor onora jocurile anuntate deja ca fiind multiplatform
- jocurile multiplayer live service in continuare vor fi multiplatform
- pentru celelalte jocuri va fi "case by case"

As part of our focus on the return of XBOX, we also announced that Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution will be XBOX console exclusives. These are not timed exclusives. Games already announced for multiplatform releases will stick to that plan – we're committed to investing in and growing XBOX both on console and beyond.

XBOX Games Showcase 2026 Recap: The Return of Exclusives, World Premieres, and Anniversary Hardware - XBOX Wire

Ramane ca pana acum, nu au nici o directie clara, aceleasi vorbe de ani de zile.

PS: E-Day era gata sa fie lansat pe PS5: inca apare pe pagina PEGI, are cod UPC, avea placeholder de pre-order la Walmart: (franceza) Gears of War: E-Day — ce que l’on sait vraiment sur la version PS5 et le prix | Dealabs Magazine.

[sexbobomb91]

Xbox Plans Significant Layoffs as New CEO Plans Overhaul - Bloomberg

The layoffs, the exact scale of which is not yet clear, are expected shortly after the close of Microsoft’s fiscal year on June 30, according to people familiar with the company’s strategy, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak to the press. Xbox is also planning to significantly slash budgets for marketing and some other areas of the business, the people said.

Dupa un SGF de succes care are sanse mari sa schimbe perceptia publicului fata de brand-ul Xbox, Microsoft le multumeste angajatilor cu ... concedieri.
Bravo lor, nu se vor schimba niciodata .

“Excluding Activision Blizzard King, over the past five years, we have spent over $20 billion on ongoing investments in our content, platform and hardware subsidy, but our annual revenue has declined nearly half a billion during that time,” she wrote. “Going forward, this cannot continue.”

Interesant, nu auzi niciodata ca sefii de sus care au aprobat achizitiile astea sa-si reduca salariile cand fac greseli. Angajatii de jos trebuie sa plateasca pentru incompetenta lor.

“My mandate is not a 30% accountability margin,” she said. “It’s not enterprise software margins. It’s to be the number one gaming and entertainment company.”

Good luck, never gonna happen.

[paul]

Next 100 Days: XBOX Reset:

Team,

Over the first 100 days together, we have started to revive XBOX.

Our platform teams have already shipped more updates in the last 100 days than during the prior year combined. We now have more active partners on XBOX than ever before. Our Game Pass team set to work fixing our offering and after 8+ months of decline, our service has started to grow again. And through Player Voice, we have a 24/7 channel to hear directly from players, creators, and developers.

With the XBOX Games Showcase and the return of FanFest, we brought together hundreds of millions of fans globally. We reintroduced exclusives with Gears of War: E-Day in 2026 and Clockwork Revolution in 2027. Players can continue to expect signature exclusives from us every year. In parallel, Playground Games reminded us that established franchises can achieve incredible new highs.

These results are early, but they demonstrate what is possible when we move faster, stay close to our community, and align behind a shared vision. We have made mistakes, and will continue to make them, but what matters is that we listen, learn, and adjust the course where needed. Remember, our fans are rooting for us.

Now we start the next 100 days. It is important to have both optimism and realism as we work to reset the business.

Here are the realities that we need to navigate:

#1: Over 1 billion players choose to play XBOX and our games each year, for a total of 72 billion hours across Console, PC, Mobile, and Streaming (excluding much of China and a few other properties). Our franchises are also among the largest and most beloved globally and are now breaking records in TV and film. Going forward, our competition is attention. There are more great games, TV series, franchises, creators, content formats, apps, etc., than ever before.

#2: We will end this fiscal year at about a 3% accountability margin, down year-over-year. Excluding Activision Blizzard King, over the past five years, we have spent over $20 billion on ongoing investments in our content, platform, and hardware subsidy, but our annual revenue has declined nearly half a billion during that time. Going forward, this cannot continue.

#3: We are in a hardware component crisis. When I joined as CEO in February, the price we paid for console storage components was over 2x as high as we paid last fall. These costs have since doubled again. And as we plan for the 2027 holiday season, we expect another significant increase, taking us over 5x the prices we paid only two years earlier. Memory costs have followed a broadly similar trajectory. While the entire industry is facing a components crisis, we believe we have been impacted more greatly than many of our peers due to the choices we made over the last half decade. We are currently unable to make as many consoles as players want to buy, and we need a new business model and partnerships for hardware as we remain committed to Helix.

#4: We expanded our studio system when we needed a pipeline of content to meet multiple strategies across subscription, streaming, and devices. In the process, we have found ourselves over extended as we executed on changing strategies in a landscape of more readily available content. We are the fortunate stewards of industry-defining franchises that have enormous potential and player demand, but we have not adequately funded them to compete and win. At the same time, as we saw this past weekend at Showcase, a reliable pipeline of first- and third-party exclusives and new IP are critical to our success. We need to reassess the balance between these and our investment priorities for the next 5 years.

#5: Our current platform infrastructure is not built for the battle ahead. Our systems are overly complex, spanning hundreds of dependencies, which hinders our ability to move fast. We’ve become too reliant on vendors to operate our systems and must become more self-reliant as an engineering culture to build for the future. We must increase the value we ship to players while decreasing the time it takes to do so. Going forward, we’ll evolve and rebuild our stack and look at capabilities across all of XBOX and potential M&A to help us win in hardware, PC, mobile, and streaming.

For some of you, these realities will be surprising and even frustrating to discover. We won’t succeed by hiding hard truths, nor will we succeed by doing the same thing and expecting different results. Like the ‘everyday wins’ mentality from the first 100 days, we will sprint to make progress against hardware, content, experience, and services together.

XBOX is one of the few places where people come not just to play, but to connect with others to create memories. With console at the center of how our showcase experiences are defined, Windows as one of the largest gaming platforms in the world, and incredible games under our roof as one of the largest publishers in the world, we have the foundation in place.

Let’s reset for a stronger XBOX and build the #1 gaming and entertainment company.

Asha and Matt

[paul]

Craig Duncan, head of Xbox Game Studios, si Louise O’Connor, Xbox Game Studios chief of staff, pleaca din functii: Xbox Game Studios boss Craig Duncan steps down - The Game Business.

Schreier spune ca mai multe studiouri risca sa fie inchise. Printre ele, Double Fine, Compulsion Games si Ninja Theory: Studios in Microsoft’s Xbox Division Brace for Closures - Bloomberg.

Kotaku spun despre Compulsion Games ca au fost anuntati ca vor fi inchisi daca nu gasesc un cumparator: Xbox Is Planning To Shutter Peabody Award-Winning Compulsion Games.

Warren spune ca ieri Ninja Theory au fost anuntati ca vor fi inchisi daca nu gasesc un cumparator: Xbox is closing down Hellblade creator Ninja Theory | The Verge.

[Espiritus]

Buna rau schimbarea asta de strategie in care se axează mai mult pe jocuri bune și exclusive. Long live playstation!

[sexbobomb91]

Ninja Theory?
Doar ce au anuntat un joc, si astia vor sa-i inchida.
Mare cancer sunt Xbox si Microsoft ...

[Papillon_]

Microsoft e ca EA cumpara studiouri ca sa le inchida.
Niste idioti au aruncat cu bani ca sa cumpere studiouri plus banii pompati in GamePass ca apoi sa se puna pe taieri masive.

Pentru managamentul prost de la Xbox si Microsoft platesc acum angajatii. Asa se intampla deobicei in majoritatea firmelor.

---------- Post added 16-06-2026 at 12:00 ----------

Xbox Layoffs Just the Beginning of a Publisher-Wide Catastrophe; Arkane, Bethesda, id, BioWare, and PlayStation Studios Are Also at Risk https://wccftech.com/xbox-layoffs-pu...e-catastrophe/

---------- Post added 16-06-2026 at 12:01 ----------

"However, according to French journalist Sylvain Trinel from BFM TV, this may well be the beginning of a publisher-wide catastrophe. He namedropped a lot of studios that might soon be affected by either studio closures or layoffs, and they were a mix of studios notoriously in financial difficulty and a few unsuspecting ones:

Arkane Lyon
Bethesda Game Studios
id Software
BioWare
Don't Nod
Quantic Dream
PlayStation Studios"

[Xander RO]

Eu v-am zis in calitate de fost mare fan al lor, eu n-am vazut in viata mea o tentativa de suicid atat de consecventa a vreunei entitati sociale/fizice/economice niciodata in toata viata mea si am prins deja destule primaveri.

N-ai cum sa faci totul prost si dean'doaselea si cu toate astea tu sa insisti ca faci bine. Stiu ca vi se pare si voua haios dar voi nu va puteti da seama cum s-a simtit toata umilinta asta in calitate de mare fan Xbox, nu neaparat de catre un consumer neutru...

Este atat de lunga lista de nenorociri facute de compania asta incat mi-e ca pana si eu, care am fost personal afectat rau de tot de-a lungul anilor, uit sau am uitat cateva. Este incredibil ca inca exista!

[cosmin1088]

Microsoft e ca EA cumpara studiouri ca sa le inchida.
Niste idioti au aruncat cu bani ca sa cumpere studiouri plus banii pompati in GamePass ca apoi sa se puna pe taieri masive.

Pentru managamentul prost de la Xbox si Microsoft platesc acum angajatii. Asa se intampla deobicei in majoritatea firmelor.

---------- Post added 16-06-2026 at 12:00 ----------

Xbox Layoffs Just the Beginning of a Publisher-Wide Catastrophe; Arkane, Bethesda, id, BioWare, and PlayStation Studios Are Also at Risk https://wccftech.com/xbox-layoffs-pu...e-catastrophe/

---------- Post added 16-06-2026 at 12:01 ----------

"However, according to French journalist Sylvain Trinel from BFM TV, this may well be the beginning of a publisher-wide catastrophe. He namedropped a lot of studios that might soon be affected by either studio closures or layoffs, and they were a mix of studios notoriously in financial difficulty and a few unsuspecting ones:

Arkane Lyon
Bethesda Game Studios
id Software
BioWare
Don't Nod
Quantic Dream
PlayStation Studios"

Industria asta e pe cale sa se duca in cap daca nu accelereaza development time-ul.
Nu poti sa lasi ditamai studio-ul Naughty Dog sa toace bani si sa nu-ti scoata un joc nou timp de 6 ani.
In cazul Sony se adauga si anii/banii pierduti pe proiectele Games as a Service, de care s-a ales praful. Nu m-ar mira ca urmatorul studio pe faras sa fie Bungie, looking at you, Marathon...
Capcom si Insomniac au dovedit ca pot avea lansari constante si de calitate, fara bugete astronomice.

In era asta de rahat a AI-ului si automatizarii, chiar nu mai ai scuze sa taraganezi atat de mult un proiect.
Doar cei care se pot adapta vor supravietui.

[lucicleric]

Spune-le asta tuturor fanilor hardcore si miscarilor antiAI.....au fost in stare sa le ia premii meritate pentru ca aveau assets AI si alte nebunii....daca dorim jocuri cu dev time scurt, v-a trebui sa o lasam mai moale cu plansetele cu AI. Also, nu sunt de acord sa se faca switch masiv pe AA games....au fost 2-3 care au rupt dar in rest.

[cosmin1088]

Spune-le asta tuturor fanilor hardcore si miscarilor antiAI.....au fost in stare sa le ia premii meritate pentru ca aveau assets AI si alte nebunii....daca dorim jocuri cu dev time scurt, v-a trebui sa o lasam mai moale cu plansetele cu AI

Hai sa fim seriosi, nu mai scapam de AI, orice ar fi. Se foloseste deja, doar ca poate fi integrat mai putin in creativitate, daca tot sar unii ca arsi.
Se poate folosi pt automatizare, coding etc. Iar pretty soon si pe parte creativa n-o sa-si mai dea nimeni seama daca e AI sau nu. Oricat de mizerabil ar suna, there's no turning back, lumea nu va mai fi niciodata la fel.
Iar daca asta ar putea salva studio-urile de la inchidere, so be it.

[lucicleric]

Eu nu sunt impotriva lui, dar probabil vor fi niste reglementari sooner or later. Besides, pe vremuri procesul creativ nu era presat de timp( vezi in anii 2000 in industria muzicii....legendele scoteau albume foarte rar si nu plangea nimeni) din pacate lumea nu mai are rabdare si shareholderii vor scurtaturi spre milioanele alea multe