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Tom Henderson: "Xbox baffled by the extend of rumors. Sources tell nothing set in stone for xbox ports apart from Hifi Rush and Sea of Thieves"

NEbeast

Member
Yes, I'm quite sure Phil Spencer said...

"We're listening and we hear you. We've been planning a business update event for next week, where we look forward to sharing more details with you about our vision for the future of Xbox"

... about Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves coming to Playstation.
Even if that's true. Why the fuck let their twitter ambassadors push this narrative? They wouldn't say these rumours without hearing 'something'.
Either way, even if xbox was only bringing those two to PS, it is the start. It's clear from all the sales charts that xbox/gamepass isn't doing great.
Letting this drag on, no matter what happens, is a shit show. Typical Xbox.
 

Kilau

Member
Xbros are we back??

Gathering Ian Bohen GIF by Yellowstone
 
Side note: if the unsubstantiated rumors turn out to be false, many will be quick to claim damage control on MS's part. Ironicall,y their confirmation bias will blind them to the fact that it is themselves who is doing the damage control, in defense of the many assetertions they themselves have made.
This is already happening. “We weren’t wrong, they changed it”.

Throughout the whole fiasco there wasn’t one solid source, verifiable piece of information or even really a definitive statement.

Some people (on both sides) should hang their heads in shame, but we all know they can’t even spell shame let alone feel it lol.
 

DJ12

Member
Xbros are we back??
If you believe 2 games needs an entire business update show yeah.

Two things that could've been tweeted with little to no fan fare.

If nothing else comes of this I hope MS no realise these idiots on X are a liability to their business
 

skit_data

Member
Both games are from XGS, so naturally that puts the traditionally multiplatform studios releases into question.
 

Kacho

Gold Member
He came onto the scene during the Xbox One launch, I get the impression he thinks he’s some spokesperson for Xbox fans.
Before that. His whole persona on Twitter was being a Project Natal fanboy. His handle was something like PNF4LYFE. Dude's been at it for over a decade lol

A bit of a phoney imo and if him and others like him are being used to gage the community take on things then it explains a fair bit
He is 100% a phony. He enjoys the social aspect of discussing games more than actually playing them. Someone posted a screenshot of his XBL profile years ago and he had like 2,000 gamerscore which showed that he barely played games on the console he relentlessly shilled. It's so f'n weird.
 
could this being one last attempt from the Xbox side to try to calm all this discourse?
I highly doubt it. There is a caveat here - no game is being released on a platform without a signed release agreement between the platform holder and the game publisher. Do I think every single one of the titles that have been publicly discussed have an appropriately signed agreement with both Sony and Nintendo? Unlikely. You don't have to have a release agreement signed to begin working on a game for a platform, or to even begin planning so. I also don't think that all of the projects that have been discussed as coming are actively being ported and are instead in a sort of planning stage to be ported in the future.

The teams at Xbox are still responsible for the projects they are working on, so its not like they have unlimited resources to do unlimited ports, and it will still require a fair bit of work to get those builds running. Still - I factually know that the amount of ports being worked on, and this includes new game releases that are planned day and date multiplatform, are far more than those 2 games.
 

Woody337

Member
Maybe I’m wrong, but I think it’s as simple as a port for Hi Fi Rush and that’s the end of it. We’ll see when Phil does his speech lol.
Only porting that game would be a complete waste of times and resources. The ROI isnt worth the trouble
 

MarkMe2525

Gold Member
This is already happening. “We weren’t wrong, they changed it”.

Throughout the whole fiasco there wasn’t one solid source, verifiable piece of information or even really a definitive statement.

Some people (on both sides) should hang their heads in shame, but we all know they can’t even spell shame let alone feel it lol.
Well, it's nothing new. Personally, I have stayed away from making any definitive statements regarding the rumors, as Phil already let everyone know that we would have clarity next week. In saying that, the people that would claim that MS changed their agreements with Sony and Nintendo, within the time frame of a week due to backlash, would just lose even more credibility in my eyes. It would be more honorable to just take the L.
 
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JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
I highly doubt it. There is a caveat here - no game is being released on a platform without a signed release agreement between the platform holder and the game publisher. Do I think every single one of the titles that have been publicly discussed have an appropriately signed agreement with both Sony and Nintendo? Unlikely. You don't have to have a release agreement signed to begin working on a game for a platform, or to even begin planning so. I also don't think that all of the projects that have been discussed as coming are actively being ported and are instead in a sort of planning stage to be ported in the future.

The teams at Xbox are still responsible for the projects they are working on, so its not like they have unlimited resources to do unlimited ports, and it will still require a fair bit of work to get those builds running. Still - I factually know that the amount of ports being worked on, and this includes new game releases that are planned day and date multiplatform, are far more than those 2 games.
I am thoroughly convinced that Microsoft saw the revenue Call of Duty was bringing in and told Phil there is NO WAY that we can make that game exclusive or put it on Gamepass. I guess it doesn't matter since they signed a 10 year agreement with Sony. Call of Dutt will most definitely release on Xbox and PS5 at the same time. There are other games, but MS likely says "this game is our revenue machine" and we ain't fucking with it.
 
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RoboFu

One of the green rats
This?



This does not explain your comment nor does it point to "PS Fanboys" being the source of all the rumors or the energy behind them. You're looking at this though shaded glasses.
Everyone was freaking out.

Sam Beckett is that you? You leaped again!

You would have to be Sam to have missed all the threads posted the past week. lol.


2183700c5c69adaae4ef9c5e1ea400ad.gif
 

Three

Member
I recognize that we still don't have confirmation one way or the other, but these upcoming announcements also impact Sony's and potentially Nintendo's platforms. Is it not reasonable for MS to stay silent on speculation and rumor when it also impacts their partners? Should they have just ruined their cooperative announcement to stay ahead of overzealous forum posters and Twitter users? This holds true regardless of MS's intent to bring a few games, or all of their games to these other platforms.
In what way would

"nothing set in stone for xbox ports apart from Hifi Rush and Sea of Thieves"

Impact partners Sony and Nintendo?
If it was meant to be a suprise announcement at Nintendo direct and they don't seem to fear letting rumours fester like they did, a very simple "we plan to bring two games to more players, stay tuned" would have sufficed. They let it go out of hand until end of day Friday. I suspect because they were analysing the backlash and making decisions with a deadline more than anything.
 

Tfault

Member
The writings on the wall. Rumour's they may be, but based on facts. It may start as a drip feed, but the intention is to be a flood.

From Satya Nadella back in December:

Yeah, obviously, we’re very, very excited about everything that’s going on in gaming, especially with the close of Activision Blizzard King. We think that now, we have the ability to really do what we’ve always set out to do, which is build great games and deliver them to folks across all platforms, right, which is Xbox and consoles, the PCs, and now even including mobile gaming and cloud gaming.
 
I am thoroughly convinced that Microsoft saw the revenue Call of Duty was bringing in and told Phil there is NO WAY that we can make that game exclusive or put it on Gamepass. I guess it doesn't matter since they signed a 10 year agreement with Sony. Call of Dutt will most definitely release on Xbox and PS5 at the same time. There are other games, but MS likely says "this game is our revenue machine" and we ain't fucking with it.

I think it's more than that honestly. I think the stall in GP, Starfield not helping hardware, and hardware dropping all just came together for MS to step in and say enough we have to change strategy here.
 
I am thoroughly convinced that Microsoft saw the revenue Call of Duty was bringing in and told Phil there is NO WAY that we can make that game exclusive or put it on Gamepass. I guess it doesn't matter since they signed a 10 year agreement with Sony. Call of Dutt will most definitely release on Xbox and PS5 at the same time. There are other games, but MS likely says "this game is our revenue machine" and we ain't fucking with it.
I mean, the scope of what we're talking about here goes well beyond CoD though.

I will say this - Microsoft bought not one but 2 additional game publishers right. Publishers who have financial analysts, all of whom have maximized their respective companies profits with their equivalent business/publishing strategy. You'd be a fool if you didn't assume that didn't change their business mentality a bit - or at the very least, pushed them in directions they were already leaning into.
 

Darsxx82

Member
All of this is as funny as it is sad at the same time..... It is incredible that the largest company on the planet right now, with (supposedly) an army of marketing and PR experts, can do things so badly. It's laughable that they could believe that different strategies and business studies cannot be filtered when you have 20,000 people involved....

It doesn't matter how good or bad a job he has done. This generated situation is so serious that I would not understand that there was no resignation or dismissal of P. Spencer as the top person in charge. Same for Matt Botty as head of software. Even more so if this change in strategy means the complete opposite of what they have defended and promised for years and until a couple of months ago.

Also that said, this situation has also served to see people portray themselves. From packs of brainless people (be they lovers of a brand or haters of it), "press" of anything but professional or impartial, people taking advantage to monetize.....


Anyway. Next week is going to be the same shameful show no matter what they have to say...
 

3liteDragon

Member
Unfortunately, this is one of those times where Tom Henderson's reporting is wrong. Doesn't happen often though. Sounds like he's being spun by his sources.
How confident are you on ur info? I'm just confused by all this now, so all their games are getting a multiplat port at some point?
 

MarkMe2525

Gold Member
In what way would

"nothing set in stone for xbox ports apart from Hifi Rush and Sea of Thieves"

Impact partners Sony and Nintendo?
If it was meant to be a suprise announcement at Nintendo direct and they don't seem to fear letting rumours fester like they did, a very simple "we plan to bring two games to more players, stay tuned" would have sufficed. They let it go out of hand until end of day Friday. I suspect because they were analysing the backlash and making decisions with a deadline more than anything.
We can only speculate to the nature of their agreements, but I doubt Sony and Nintendo would have been happy with their partner spilling the beans because of "overzealous forum posters and Twitter users". Obviously, MS wants to leave the door open for future ports, that make sense. It's reasonable that they choose to make a more comprehensive announcement vs being reactive to ever new rumor popping up left and right.

Also, Phil did comment on the rumors, he plainly stated that we would get the corresponding information next week. It sufficed for me, but for the people who are more emotionally invested in this "war", I guess it wasnt enough.
 
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jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
Nothing was set in stone apart from....ok. So that means they were contemplating other games...and still are.

And this changes things....how? Didnt this whole thing start with Hi Fi Rush and SoT...?

As soon as there was a rumour that Hi Fi and sea of thieves were coming to other platforms, there were people everywhere saying "it's over" "MS going full third party"

How were MS supposed to have any chance of predicting how insane these people are?
I do like how some are conveniently overlooking Jez and Co. tweets, articles about other games this past Sunday.
 

Haint

Member
Wanted to slow burn their hardware exit to satisfy outstanding contracts, but were caught off guard by everyone seeing the writing on the wall and abandoning ship immediately.
 
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DeaDPo0L84

Member
Will it be as bad as most are predicting, no. Will it be an absolute nothing burger, no. Truth lies somewhere in the middle. It's fun seeing everyone get riled up and even emotional over this nonsense. While I don't, it's good entertainment.
 

panda-zebra

Member
Maybe I’m wrong, but I think it’s as simple as a port for Hi Fi Rush and that’s the end of it. We’ll see when Phil does his speech lol.
They're holding a "business update event" for the sole purpose of announcing a port of a small game they originally shadow-dropped on their own platform? Might be just a little bit more to it than that.
 
How confident are you on ur info? I'm just confused by all this now, so all their games are getting a multiplat port at some point?
My colleagues are literally working on these games. I don't know why anyone is confused at this point.

I'm not gonna say every single game Xbox has released in the last 20+ years is being ported to other platforms. Maybe that does happen, but I have never heard anything approximating that.

There are a number of titles which have been publicly discussed at this point that I know are coming, I have heard are coming, or are planning to be ported in the future. There are also a number of titles that I know are coming that aren't even publicly known yet.

Based on the change of business logic that led them to approve of these initiatives, though, I imagine they are gonna go for the boiled frog approach for this publishing shift rollout, much how Day 1 publishing on Steam was rolled out; start with a few, increase the scope for some ports and new releases over time, then make all of them day 1 releases.
 

MarkMe2525

Gold Member
No matter what, this is a massive dent to the Xbox brand.
If they are so surprised why the silence? Why not outright throw some water into the fire?
They already announced they they would be speaking more comprehensively about their plans next week, they have not been silent. Their plans involve other companies platforms, they can't release proprietary info regarding other platforms, without the other platform holders concent. I imagine their response would have been different if their plans didn't include the interests of Sony and Nintendo.

I realize I am starting to sound like a broken record so I'm getting off for now.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
I think it's more than that honestly. I think the stall in GP, Starfield not helping hardware, and hardware dropping all just came together for MS to step in and say enough we have to change strategy here.
The big thing is that ABK made Microsoft take more notice of the Xbox division and the bean counters saw money been drained and said this has to start generating revenue. they also likely panicked when $349 consoles didn't move the needle.
 

//DEVIL//

Member
nothing set on stone doesn't mean other ports are not coming and they don't want to announce them yet.

with that being said. i highly doubt any of these clowns on twitter know anything anyway.
 
Yes, I'm quite sure Phil Spencer said...

"We're listening and we hear you. We've been planning a business update event for next week, where we look forward to sharing more details with you about our vision for the future of Xbox"

... about Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves coming to Playstation.
well, while unlikely this isn't actually impossible, imo. spencer's been falling back on the whole word salad thing for a while now, & if you do that long enough, it eventually gets to the point where you can't stop yourself from doing it. so, yeah, this actually might be just some ludicrously opaque word salad embellishment of something relatively simple...
 

ByWatterson

Member
Yes, I'm quite sure Phil Spencer said...

"We're listening and we hear you. We've been planning a business update event for next week, where we look forward to sharing more details with you about our vision for the future of Xbox"

... about Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves coming to Playstation.

"Honey, I've been preparing a relationship update event for next week. I look forward to sharing details about my vision for the future of my marriage."


And we're like getting breakfast or something.
 

SHA

Member
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Baby, I'm preying on you tonight
Hunt you down, eat you alive
Just like animals, animals, like animals, —mals
Maybe you think that you can hide
I can smell your scent from miles
Just like animals, animals, like animals, —mals
Baby, I'm... (Hey)

So what you trying to do to me? (Hey)
It's like we can't stop, we're enemies (Hey)
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But I get so high when I'm inside you

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But you can't stay away from me
I can still hear you making that sound (Hey)
Taking me down, rolling on the ground (Hey)
You can pretend that it was me, but no, oh (Hey)

Baby, I'm preying on you tonight
Hunt you down, eat you alive
Just like animals, animals, like animals, —mals
Maybe you think that you can hide
I can smell your scent from miles
Just like animals, animals, like animals, —mals
Baby, I'm... (Hey)

So if I run, it's not enough (Hey)
You're still in my head, forever stuck (Hey)
So you can do what you wanna do, yeah (Hey)
I love your lies, I'll eat 'em up (Hey)
But don't deny the animal (Hey)
That comes alive when I'm inside you

Yeah, you can start over, you can run free (Hey)
You can find other fish in the sea (Hey)
You can pretend it's meant to be
But you can't stay away from me
I can still hear you making that sound (Hey)
Taking me down, rolling on the ground (Hey)
You can pretend that it was me, but no, oh (Hey)

Baby, I'm preying on you tonight
Hunt you down, eat you alive
Just like animals, animals, like animals, —mals
Maybe you think that you can hide
I can smell your scent from miles
Just like animals, animals, like animals, —mals
Baby, I'm

Don't tell no lie, lie, lie, lie
You can't deny, —ny, —ny, —ny
The beast inside, si—, si—, side
Yeah, yeah, yeah
No girl don't lie, lie, lie, lie (No, no, don't lie)
You can't deny, —ny, —ny, —ny (You can't deny)
The beast inside, si—, si—, side
Yeah, yeah, yeah

Yo-oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Just like animals, animals, like animals, —mals (Hey, hey)
Just like animals, animals, like animals, —mals, ow!
(Yeah, yeah, yeah)

Baby, I'm preying on you tonight
Hunt you down, eat you alive
Just like animals, animals, like animals, —mals
Maybe you think that you can hide
I can smell your scent from miles
Just like animals, animals, like animals, —mals
Baby, I'm

Don't tell no lie, lie, lie, lie
You can't deny, —ny, —ny, —ny
The beast inside, si—, si—, side
Yeah, yeah, yeah
No girl don't lie, lie, lie, lie (No, no, don't lie)
You can't deny, —ny, —ny, —ny (You can't deny)
The beast inside, si—, si—, side
Yeah, yeah, yeah
 

Three

Member
We can only speculate to the nature of their agreements, but I doubt Sony and Nintendo would have been happy with their partner spilling the beans because of "overzealous forum posters and Twitter users". Obviously, MS wants to leave the door open for future ports, that make sense. It's reasonable that they choose to make a more comprehensive announcement vs being reactive to ever new rumor popping up left and right.

Also, Phil did comment on the rumors, he plainly stated that we would get the corresponding information next week. It sufficed for me, but for the people who are more emotionally invested in this "war", I guess it wasnt enough.
But those two statements wouldn't have closed the door for future ports in any way unless they were indeed also trying to appease the overzealous forum posters and twitter users at the same time which I suspect they would do anyway. They clearly wanted their cake and to eat it too. I don't think Sony and Nintendo care about any spilled beans. "We don't have any current plans to bring starfield to other platforms" would have worked without spilling anything at all. I'm not sure why that would upset overzealous people or why they should even care about those overzealous twitter trolls in the first place like you say. They cannot have it both ways, if next week they say that there are no plans what would be the difference? Have they not somehow "upset their partners" if that's announced next week rather than two days ago? Why? Only way that makes sense is if they were making the decision with partners in that week.
 
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