TrueCore

@TheGhostOfHope Covid gave people more time at home than they will ever have again in their lives. Those numbers are not repeatable. Considering that most western societies are getting older, those numbers are more likely to shrink than to grow.

Looking at those 2020 numbers just imagine what Call of Duty did during that time… No wonder the franchise keeps trying to chase that WZ1/MW19 COVID era high with every new game. Unrealistic expectations.

@klobrille @superhys @alineaanalytics The timed exclusivity is smart at first sight, but it would also mean that you would have to do two full blown marketing campaigns.

@superhys @alineaanalytics Look, I'm more of a "common sense" guy rather than the "data" person, but... In what world are these numbers worth all the damage this path does to the Xbox brand and the broader Xbox ecosystem we are seeing today?

Starfield has sold 140K copies on PS5 a week after launch (@alineaanalytics estimates). While these would be decent numbers for many ports, it’s not fantastic for a port of the biggest Bethesda RPG in a decade (although launch-aligned, it's selling faster than other Xbox games that came to Xbox in the past six months, minus CoD). Still, Starfield's lukewarm PS5 sales obviously raise questions about the long-term viability of Xbox's delayed multiplatform releases (Starfield came to PS5 2.5 years after Xbox/Steam). Since Starfield’s PS5 launch and the Free Lanes update on April 7, the Steam version of Starfield also sold an additional 55K copies ($2.3M revenue) at the same $50 price point. This pushed Starfield’s total Steam revenue past the $200M milestone. Starfield had already moved 3.7M copies on Steam before the PS5 port dropped. And even the Xbox version sold over 1M despite Game Pass cannibalising sales (8M folks played it via a sub). The Venn diagram of Starfield prospects on Xbox and those subscribed to Game Pass is almost a big fat circle. That's lost revenue. All in, Starfield has cleared over $300M in revenue across all platforms. That’s hugely successful in a vacuum (ayy). But, as I hinted at the top, in the context of a Bethesda budget and a decade-long development cycle, Starfield has likely barely broken even. Xbox has been gunning for profitability lately. This is at odds with Game Pass’ stagnating subscriber numbers and the subscription model cannibalising premium sales on Xbox consoles. Honestly, part of Starfield’s lower-than-expected performance is because it did more of the same and didn’t really build on the schools of design brought in by Breath of the Wild and Elden Ring and even other spacefaring games. Players loved these games. I actually enjoyed my time with Starfield. It delivered another pretty good Bethesda game. That was enough for me, and it might have cut it 10 years ago, but many players have moved on. This is reflected in our sentiment data. Our data suggests Crimson Desert, which builds on some of the more experimental things Breath of the Wild did, is on track to overtake Starfield’s total lifetime copies sold by the end of the year. Ironically, this wouldn’t be true if Starfield had launched day-and-date on PS5 and had not been on Game Pass on Xbox and PC. While Sharma is promising a return to the renegade past of Xbox, hinting at exclusivity and stuff, that's going to be a tough sell for Microsoft, I reckon. Big deep dive with a lot more data on Substack (link's in my bio).

@gothicthegame @THQNordic @AlkimiaGameDev That's amazing news! I love those games and getting a port for consoles is a dream come true. Already playing Gothic Classic on Xbox. 🥰

The Original Gothic Trilogy is Coming to PlayStation & Xbox Series S/X Gothic Classic – July 28, 2026 Gothic II Complete Classic – September 29, 2026 Gothic III Classic – November 24, 2026 Each title is priced 29.99 € Get Gothic 1 Classic as a digital pre-order bonus for G1R!

@charlieINTEL That's about what everyone should have expected based on device sales. But what's interesting is that a customer on Xbox seems to spend 30% more than a PS5 user. If you're a business that's the guys you really want as customers.

Data from internal Rockstar Games leak shows PS5 has 3x more players in Grand Theft Auto Online compared to Xbox Series X|S

@Wario64 I agree with most of her arguments. But offering a better value equation isn't a solution for many of us. I still have many months left that charge me the old price. But I will cancel after that. More great games I don't have time to play won't change my mind.

The Verge: Xbox chief Asha Sharma says “Game Pass has become too expensive for players” in an internal memo to employees “Short term, Game Pass has become too expensive for players, so we need a better value equation. Long term, we will evolve Game Pass into a more flexible system which will take time to test and learn around.” theverge.com/tech/911182/mi…

@tdawgsmitty October 8th

Everyone predict when MW4 is coming out 👇 I am going September 22nd

@ModernWarzone @JezCorden Raising prices dramatically while removing one of their biggest titles? If that rumor is true it's the best way to lose Game Pass Subscribers and to hurt the staggering CoD even more.

New rumor states that Xbox is considering removing Call of Duty from Day One on Xbox Game Pass this year. via @JezCorden

@asha_shar Good to hear the system is finally getting some attention. There's so much more potential in it.

We stood up a dedicated team to focus on fan feedback. Here are a few Achievements updates rolling out today, more coming soon.

@Xbox So finally I can show off my completed @GearsofWar games. Need to speed up on completing Gears 5. Reloaded is nearly done. 😁

Your achievements are getting an update: ✨New animations and icons 🤫Hide games from your Achievement list 💯Highlight your 100% completed games Starting with Xbox Insiders today and rolling out to everyone over time. Check out the full details 👇 xbx.lv/41VWOuC

@GeoEpoche 3, weil es die Zeit gut repräsentiert und auch inhaltlich den Titel aufgreift.

DER PELOPONNESISCHE KRIEG ist das Thema unserer nächsten Ausgabe. Welches Titelbild gefällt Ihnen am besten? Wie immer verlosen wir unter allen, die diese Frage in den Kommentaren zu den entsprechenden Social-Media-Posts beantworten, je ein Exemplar der neuen Ausgabe.

@klobrille I hope that's just the first step to improve the achievements experience. The system has so much potential, but is handled so poorly. Remember how important it was on Xbox 360?

Xbox announces Xbox Achievements refresh. • Achievements Get a Visual Refresh • Hide Games from Your Achievement List • Highlight Your 100% Completed Games Available for Xbox Insiders first; rolling out to everyone later. news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/04/…

@thomasmahler also limited by the other platforms.

@thomasmahler if I were Microsoft and gatekeeping could help my business I might think otherwise. New devices like controllers are a nice idea. But in the past only a few multiplatform titles made use of such devices. And if you want to bring games to multiple platforms on your own you are

Of course. What does a developer gain from being exclusive to a particular console? What does the gaming community at large gain from that? Nothing, really. You just ensure that only a fraction of your potential audience can now play your game. I understand that tricks like that make a lot of sense if you're trying to sell hardware, since you're gatekeeping good content and so you essentially force people into buying your hardware. But my argument would still be... if that's what you have to do to get people to buy your hardware, maybe your hardware isn't unique / interesting enough by itself? For example, I pitched a controller concept to Microsoft a while ago that'd allow people to play FPS games in a much more intuitive way than the current thing of using the right analog stick to aim, which is historically a pretty bad way to aim. I mean, mouse aim still beats that way of input even though a mouse was never designed for FPS games in the first place, so that should tell us something. So if you'd get something like that, like: "If I buy this box as a fan of FPS games, they'd control way more intuitively than on any of these other boxes!", that'd make me purchase that box instead of another. I think on the hardware side we need to see more of that. More of a 'Oh, I'll buy that box, cause it plays my games better and the games are more fun on it!' instead of 'Oh, I'll buy that box cause it's the only box that allows me to play X or Y game.' That's why Nintendo used to completely design their consoles around the new input device they came up with, cause they historically understood that the controller design is arguably even more important than the box itself since it defines how you interact with the games on the platform in the first place. Point being: If gatekeeping is the only way you see to sell your hardware, your hardware simply isn't enticing enough.

@AdelDemento @gothicthegame Oh come on. 10 $ more for the console version of new releases is quite the standard. That's nothing special. No one has to like it, but it's the normal situation for years maybe even decades now.

@TrueTrueCore @gothicthegame You said that console has Classic at no additional cost, the thing that console has 10 dollars more than PC is not true. A lot of game ha done price tag on all platform. I just went into elaborating further

Pre-Order for Gothic 1 Remake Begins! The PC version is available for €49.99 with a special bonus: the official soundtrack. On consoles, Gothic 1 Remake is priced at €59.99 and includes Gothic Classic as a free bonus. Gothic 1 Remake is launching June 5th, 2026.

@AdelDemento @gothicthegame You started the conversation with a complaint about 10 € extra for console versions. I said it's not that bad as you get Classic on top. Your newest answer has nothing to do with that. 😅

@TrueTrueCore @gothicthegame Gothic classic is at $20 on Steam, It is very often on 90% discount (once a months, check the price chart) so you can grab it for less than $2. Overall, PC price wins in all cases, if you want only the remake or both.

@tja_ris @KPGAMER22 @JohnCon97098021 @chelsssseeeea But these seem to be too good to be true. Especially when you compare them to the ones released by NASA today.

@KPGAMER22 @JohnCon97098021 @TrueTrueCore @chelsssseeeea warning, there is no actual way to detect ai images. it flags real ones too

Quadruple NASAs budget immediately!

@podcir @DoesItPlay1 @gothicthegame Will give it a try later. Thx

@TrueTrueCore @DoesItPlay1 @gothicthegame It actually works, lol

@podcir @DoesItPlay1 @gothicthegame According to some guys on some different platforms you can already download and play Gothic Classic on Xbox when you preorder the Remake. So our theory is, that 28.07. might be the standalone release date.

@TrueTrueCore @DoesItPlay1 @gothicthegame Xbox app also has all the achievements already

@podcir @DoesItPlay1 @gothicthegame @Podcir But it's weird in this case as the official message by THQ on Discord says immediately. So either they didn't update the information in the database to the real release date in time or they planned to release it now but something went wrong and they had to delay it. 🤷‍♂️

@podcir @DoesItPlay1 @gothicthegame I saw that happen before for some other information on other games as well. My guess is that Microsoft when introduced the store to the app (not so long ago) connected it directly to the database and forgot/messed up the functionality that publishes information at a certain date.