Weekend Gamer: News of the Bleak

Everyone watching the gaming industry knew that the big Xbox Reset was coming… and today (July 6), Xbox announced they were eliminating 3,200 jobs, with already 1,600 Xbox employees dismissed today. The news oddly came in a form of an internal message from Xbox leader Asha Sharma. That is just so weird to publish this news as internal correspondent, rather than a formal press release.

Details from xbox.com:

You might remember that last year, Microsoft laid off a total of 15,000 employees. Anyway, analysts blame Covid-19 pandemic and A.I., but I disagree. I feel it is the Activision Blizzard acquisition for $69 billion. Think about it, even at 0.01% interest, Xbox has to come up with $6.9 million. Let’s be generous, I estimate that MicroSoft has to pay 1 million on just the interest alone.

So, with the three price hikes for Xbox Series S/X, charging $80 for new games, raising Game Pass to $30 (and ultimately back down when gamers revolted), it just sounds like all this price raising is to pay off the interest.

Whoever was in charge of the Blizzard acquisition made a very bad deal, in my opinion. They overpaid. For what? Call of Duty? Diablo? Look I love Blizzard, but they haven’t made a great game since Diablo II and Starcraft. I wouldn’t pay $69 billion for them. A more reasonable price is $7.5 billion to buy ZeniMax Media (Bethesda). That company made some great games like my personal favorite Fallout and Skyrim. I think they got a good deal with Bethesda, as suddenly Fallout 5 is inching closer to reality.

P.S. I think we all know that the next Xbox Project Helix probably is all-digital, but Xbox is looking into offering gamers a license to the old game – if the user owns the game disc. I’ve been told that each disc that Xbox manufacture comes with its own unique identification number. So, if you put the disc in an old Xbox, it will give you digital access to that game, via their “Disc2Digital” program. I have a lot of questions, like what if you convert the game to your account, but then lend it to a friend or sell it to Gamestop? I guess we’ll find out when Helix is released. Based on the market trend, I probably can’t afford the next Xbox (or PlayStation).

In light of the recent PlayStation going to a digital-only future by discontinuing physical discs, people are bringing up Sony’s Terms of Service and highlighting that they can just delete your account after 36 months of inactivity.

Of course, I freaked out. I haven’t used my PlayStation 4 in over two years, at the very least. I immediately logged into my PlayStation account on my browser to see if it’s still there. I have two Sony accounts, the one with all the 160 digital purchased games are on an old account. I must’ve created the other account because I had forgotten my password and/or it was a Sony account that got merged with PlayStation. Either way, both accounts were logged in and up-to-date.

Please note that the 36-month termination verbiage does not appear on the United States’ Terms of Service (at least as of this writing).

XBox has similar terms, however, Xbox’s policy is to not delete your account if you have made a purchase. Nintendo doesn’t seem to have a policy regarding inactive accounts. I am assuming they will not delete your account.

Still, can you see why the all-digital future is a problem? If you have physical discs, it doesn’t matter if they delete your account, you can create a new account and play your discs, they can’t take that away from you. If your entire account is digital, you could lose it all if Sony delete your account.

I have been seriously thinking about getting a PlayStation 5, as I am assuming my 160 games that I purchased on PS3 and PS4 will play on the PS5. I know some games might require an additional $10 “upgrade” to play on the new system. I feel like that should be free, but Sony will nickel and dime you every chance they can get.

If you break down recent PS5 game digital vs physical (data courtesy of vice.com), sure, there’s more digital sold. However, I will also break down (current) prices of digital vs physical.

Note: There is an extra $10 increase in the PS5’s games, if you want to play on PS4. The true price of the PlayStation games should actually be $80. And, as you can see, PlayStation does not have any sales. Amazon would knock off a few dollars, while Steam is currently having a sale on Resident Evil. It’s not an amazing sale, but saving a few dollars is better than none. And who is to say that in 2028, PlayStation will raise all their prices to $90 standard pricing.

Sony already said they are removing all their single-player games from the PC (they currently do not offer their single-player games on Xbox), so they can completely control the prices. If they are going to charge $100 for the new PS6 games, where else are you going to go. Fans will pay that price, because, if you’ll excuse the saying, PlayStation is the only game in town.

Like I previously mentioned, all this digital-only plan is laying the grounds for the upcoming PlayStation 6. Based on the 2028 cut-off date, you can guess that the PS6 will be set for a November 2027 release. With the Steam Machine costing $1,100 (with controller), you can expect the PS6 to cost at least $1,500. Anything above $1k, is a “no thanks” from me, so I don’t have a horse in the race, but the digital-only thing sets a bad tone for the rest of the industry. You know Xbox and Nintendo will follow this trend.

For more Steam vs PlayStation, I will break it down further: Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition and Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition costs $60 each, while Steam offer both of those “complete” games for $30 each (on sale). You can argue that the Steam prices are temporary, but I’m telling you that they frequently have sales. I’ve seen the first Horizon game for as low as $15, so I’m telling you, from experience, that it’s often much, much cheaper on Steam.

Anyway, all this PlayStation talk reminds me that I still have my PS4 that I should power it up and see what’s going on. I may end up just buying the new Horizon game because it’s on sale on Steam.

On brighter news, every Season, Steam has a game sale. Usually the big sale takes place in the Fall (around Black Friday)… but if you can’t wait for the Fall, the Summer Sale is undergoing right now. Sale ends on July 9th, so you have a few days to consider some games. I’ve already spent about $100, and I’m contemplating on adding a few more.

So far, I’ve purchased a ton of FX Pinball and Zaccaria tables (DLC). The new games I’ve purchased is Witchfire, Achilles: Legends Untold (not great), Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms (haven’t tried it yet), Raiden Legacy (it’s a shoot ‘em up), and Dark Devotion (haven’t played it yet).

You can see I buy a lot of games on sale, but I won’t necessarily play them right away. That Witchfire game looks amazing, but there seems to be a bug in the game, where I can’t seem to go forward (the final boss does not appear). I’ll have to restart the game to see if that fixes the problem.

If you’re looking for more current/modern games, like God of War Ragnarok, Kingdom Come Deliverance II, and Baldurs Gate III, are all on sale. I do want to try out Ragnarok, as I love the first God of War games that I own on the PS4 (on disc). I bought it again on Steam… thinking I could re-live the magic. But I could never bring myself to re-playing it again. I feel like if I get Ragnarok, I would not be interested in playing it.

I have until July 9th to decide.

P.S. Regarding July 9th, that is the date that Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced (a remastered version of Black Flag) is coming out. What that means is that usually those Assassin’s Creed games are going to go on sale (if not already on sale thanks to the Steam summer sale). I did look it up, but Assassin’s Creed Shadows (the controversial game) is on sale for about $30.

Yours,

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