Gaming

I wish companies could do genuinely good things like release big games on more platforms, without everyone's response being hand-wringing about what bad things it might mean for their own hardware.

Especially when it's Microsoft, whose Xbox platform already extends into this tiny other thing people might have heard of, called Windows... I think they'll be ok, somehow.

I'm more interested in this being FH5, which is just switching into a kind of maintenance mode, where weekly activity playlists repeat instead of doing new things, and both of those before there's even talk about FH6. Adding significant new players to FH5 now seems an interesting choice.

I always thought games should be accessible to everyone.

In a ideal world absolutely, but there's literally zero chance of Sony reciprocating, as shown by their behaviour during the Bethesda case. Exclusives for me, not for thee.

I'm happy for PlayStation owners but, as someone heavily invested in the Xbox ecosystem since the OG, it feels like a kick in the teeth.

I'm glad that PS5 owners get to play Forza, but overall I don't have a lot of confidence in Microsoft's ability to stay in the hardware market, which is concerning for everyone as I think Sony will leverage that position to raise their prices on their hardware and on PSN.

Xbox has said it will be producing a new console next gen with powerful hardware, but I will probably stay away, despite owning a Series console this gen.

I think this is a great move. For context, I have the Xbox consoles, but play mostly or almost exclusively on PC. I think more people can play the games, its better for the gamer and for the publisher too. Xbox has too many good franchises and games as to hold them hostage on their platform (besides PC). This is one of the best moves of Xbox in my opinion.

However, there is the other side of the coin. Because this means less incentive for gamers to buy a dedicated Xbox machine. Which first doesn't sound bad, because you are not forced into a hardware and eco system you may not want. The implication is, that the Xbox consoles will sell less and Playstation sell more. And its already a huge difference. Sony already show that they can do what they want, publish cheap remasters and sell expensive PS5 Pro and some other stuff I am not mentioning here. This will only get worse, the weaker its competition gets.

My hope is, that Valve will take its place of Xbox and Microsoft publishes for Valve consoles (based on PC technology and software of course). However this can take a decade maybe, we need to see if Valve is interested into a home console like system and what Xbox will do with their next generation. Nintendo is doing Nintendo stuff and Playstation, well we'll see too.

I own Forza 5 on the Xbox, and GT7 on my PS5. Historically, I've preferred the Xbox over the Playstation, but my experience on GT7 with VR on the PS5 basically killed Forza 5 and the Xbox for me.

So if Forza 5 comes to PS5 with VR support, for me, this will be good news. But if it doesn't come with VR support, I won't bother.

And I guess, ultimately, it's bad news either way, because I probably won't be going back to the Xbox whatever they do.

I definitely think Microsoft is going to abandon Xbox because I think the see the writing on the wall in so far as why they are in this market. I think there will always be a place for dedicated gaming hardware like the PS5, but I think it will become more of a niche purchase as time goes on and I think Microsoft does too. I think they don't like the numbers they are predicting for future console sales, but they do like the ones they are predicting for cloud gaming, since, in theory, anything with a screen and an internet connection could be a console these days. I have no clue if it will pay off for them (personally I hope not), but as technology gets better, the more space for people to settle throughout the wide spectrum of compute power. Microsoft I think wants to try to fill as much of the space as possible.

Just as a final note, that is a touch on my more personal opinion. I hope cloud computing is seriously considered as a huge source of the carbon footprint of the world with how much power it consumes.