Microsoft Xbox Discussion Part II

[The Mars Volchenkov]

Spent about 2 hours with Lego Star Wars. Game is pretty bland and boring, IMO.

 

[93LEAFS]

Sounds also like the FTC is leaning towards approving the deal now.

Nope. Don't know why people thought this, but I guess that's watching gaming coverage of it. The market has been hesitant on this deal for awhile. Could it still go through, absolutely, but the share price wasn't reflective of the investment industry thinking it was a foregone conclusion. This was a PR offensive by MS to get ahead of the announcement.

 

[Jussi]

Nope. Don't know why people thought this, but I guess that's watching gaming coverage of it. The market has been hesitant on this deal for awhile. Could it still go through, absolutely, but the share price wasn't reflective of the investment industry thinking it was a foregone conclusion. This was a PR offensive by MS to get ahead of the announcement.

This story indicated differently at the time of posting: There's Apparently A 'Rift' At The FTC Over Xbox's Activision Blizzard Deal

This is from the WP article on the suit:

Microsoft would have the ability to thwart competitors by withholding these games from competing game systems entirely, or by manipulating pricing and degrading game quality on rival consoles.

Somehow Sony's current deal with Activision, which does exactly that, is not a problem for the FTC...

 

[93LEAFS]

This story indicated differently at the time of posting: There's Apparently A 'Rift' At The FTC Over Xbox's Activision Blizzard Deal

This is from the WP article on the suit:



Somehow Sony's current deal with Activision, which does exactly that, is not a problem for the FTC...

3rd party deals are viewed very differently than buying up publishers from a regulatory standpoint. And, that's gaming news. I pointed specifically that the market looked reluctant on the deal since their was still a $4 dollar spread in the share value, that is a sign institutional investors felt this deal was far from a lock.

 

[Mikeaveli]

Microsoft literally had to bring game consoles to the FTC and explain how they work lol. It doesn't surprise me that they know so little about the situation that they think its a problem

 

[Jussi]

Microsoft literally had to bring game consoles to the FTC and explain how they work lol. It doesn't surprise me that they know so little about the situation that they think its a problem

I have the same doubts about the UK and EU people.

EU regulator accused of having a PlayStation bias

A member of the European Commission says he is working to get Call of Duty on his PlayStation.

www.gamereactor.eu

Now the Commission has come under heavy criticism on social media after one of its members, Ricardo Cardoso, made a statement on Twitter that could be interpreted as him having his own motives for blocking Microsoft.

More specifically, Cardoso writes that they are working to "ensure that you will still be able to play Call of Duty on other consoles (including my Playstation)".

Several notables have condemned the statement, including IGN senior editor Ryan McCaffrey, who writes: "I'm not sure it gets any clearer than the Head of Xbox's public statement on this matter from less than 2 weeks ago. It'll still be on 'your' PlayStation, don't worry."

 

[JimmyApples]

Xbox - Activision will get done, the process will just take longer now, and sour the relationship between Xbox/Sony even more.

Sony is absolutely playing with fire. Microsoft is showing they have no issues spending an insane amount of money on Xbox. Sony can’t compete with that. Xbox can outbid them for EVERYTHING and pretty much destroy their entire business model (and their new subscription service).

 

[aleshemsky83]

I don’t think this is the sure thing some of you do. The FTC just last year killed the Nvidia-ARM deal, and that was only a $40 billion deal. This is a $70 billion deal.

 

[Dolemite]

I don’t think this is the sure thing some of you do. The FTC just last year killed the Nvidia-ARM deal, and that was only a $40 billion deal. This is a $70 billion deal.

The media is saying someone on the FTC is doing it for political grandstanding

 

[WeDislikeEich]

Does anyone know if you can still convert 3 years of Xbox gold to ultimate for $1?

My subscription runs out soon and I want to stack 3 years of gold and convert it to ultimate if that still works. But I don’t want to buy 3 years of gold if it doesn’t.

Anyone know if it still works? Anyone do it recently?

So, just to update this I was able to do the gold to ultimate conversion again. Did it about 4-5 days ago. I had already done it once 3 years ago.

Just make sure you let your game pass subscription run out completely first! Otherwise you don’t get the 1 to 1 conversion from gold.

This time I just had to pay $14.99 for the 1 month of ultimate instead of $1. But it still converted all 3 years of Xbox gold I stacked on my account. So I got Xbox ultimate for 3 years again at the $60/year price.

Actually, this time it didn’t cost me anything. I’ve been doing the daily Microsoft reward point searches for like the last year and a half or 2 years (started some time during the pandemic) and I had enough points to cash in for 3 years of Xbox gold. So I only paid $14.99 out of pocket. Pretty sweet for doing some daily searches and activities that take maybe 5 minutes a day!

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

High on Life is available for full pre-download now.

 

[aleshemsky83]

High on Life is available for full pre-download now.

Love justin roiland and rick and morty (although I haven't watched the last couple seasons) gonna check this out.

 

[JimmyApples]

High on Life has been a lot of fun a few hours in. They need to patch the performance issues, though.

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

Looks like they’ve already got a patch out.

I backed out and mine started updating immediately.

 

[Dolemite]

High on Life is the first great Xbox Console exclusive game of the new generation. This is an awesome game.

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

High on Life is the first great Xbox Console exclusive game of the new generation. This is an awesome game.

? It’s on PC, which I know drives you insane.

 

[93LEAFS]

? It’s on PC, which I know drives you insane.

And X-Box One I believe.

 

[Dolemite]

? It’s on PC, which I know drives you insane.

Console exclusive. I’ve fired up my Xbox for the first time to play an extended session in over a year.

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

I’m enjoying High on Life a lot after about 3 hours, but there’s no way it’s a better game than Forza Horizon 5 or a game like Pentiment that nailed what it was going for.

 

[WeDislikeEich]

I’m also really enjoying high on life so far. There’s been some pretty funny moments, and a few really annoying ones too. But they were annoyingly funny.

There were a couple times where I laughed out loud.

Overall, the game could be a bit more refined, and the graphics are only ok. But it’s still a very fun game so far. Glad something I wanted to play finally hit game pass. I’ve been mostly playing my PS5 lately between horizon forbidden west then god of war ragnarok.

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

The game is a little deeper than I expected with the Metroidvania aspects of it. I didnt expect that part of it all. I’ve finished 3 of the bounties and still having a good time. Ended up in the movie theater watching some shitty movie with Mystery Science Theater 3000 type commentary.

 

[flyersnorth]

Having a blast with High on Life.

Going back and forth between that and Outer Worlds is quite a contrast! Ha!

Both fun for different reasons - but I admit to getting "loot fatigue" with Outer Worlds. Bethesda/Obsidian games are like that in general.

 

[Dolemite]

Anyone sit down and actually watch that shitty 90’s movie in the main characters living room? It’s an actual movie called ‘Tammy and the T-Rex’ with Denise Richards and Paul Walker (yes that Paul Walker)?

 

[flyersnorth]

Anyone sit down and actually watch that shitty 90’s movie in the main characters living room? It’s an actual movie called ‘Tammy and the T-Rex’ with Denise Richards and Paul Walker (yes that Paul Walker)?

I watched like 10 minutes haha, but I do spend a lot of time just listening to ambient conversations around me while moving around.

 

[Jussi]

Ass Creed: Valhalla is free to play this weekend.