Dontnod's next game is Xbox Only

https://www.tellmewhygame.com

Did you like Life is Strange? I did too, but man I'm bummed that Dontnod's next game is not coming to Playstation. Looks great. Apparently it's the first ever trans (woman to man) main character from a major publisher.

First episode of 3 comes out at the end of the month. The release schedule is also really tight, with each episode releasing a week apart.

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I’ll be interested to check it out. LiS 2 didn’t grab me, but I keep meaning to make time to go back to it.

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I’ll be interested to check it out. LiS 2 didn’t grab me, but I keep meaning to make time to go back to it.

LiS 2 ended up as stealth conservatism and completely turned me off in terms of thematics.

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I’ll be interested to check it out. LiS 2 didn’t grab me, but I keep meaning to make time to go back to it.

LiS 2 was stealth conservatism and completely turned me off in terms of thematics.

Maybe it's just me, but with stuff like this (and your absolutely terrible assessment of The Last of Us: Part 2), I'm starting to get the feeling that you might look too much into things with games...

I can't imagine going into a game and scrutinizing if it lined up with my preferred metaphors, pandered to my most edge-case ideals, and made a commentary on the most pertinent social issues that I prioritize today.

I mean, there's definitely a lot in terms of messages and influence that one can take away from any game, but latching onto those things and dragging the experience for not drafting a bill to present to Congress between "Press Start" and "New Game+"... That just seems like you're missing the forest, IMO.

Again, maybe it's just me.

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I can't imagine going into a game and scrutinizing if it lined up with my preferred metaphors, pandered to my most edge-case ideals, and made a commentary on the most pertinent social issues that I prioritize today.

That's why I said 'stealth'. Outwardly it advocates many progressive positions but flounders later with a morality play that is quite traditional.

Like… the game has a message. And just like all art, its message is subject to examination.

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I can't imagine going into a game and scrutinizing if it lined up with my preferred metaphors, pandered to my most edge-case ideals, and made a commentary on the most pertinent social issues that I prioritize today.

That's why I said 'stealth'. Outwardly it advocates many progressive positions but flounders later with a morality play that is quite traditional.

So what you're saying is that the messaging is a little grayer than pitch black and blinding white? Let me guess, you're writing for Polygon under a pen name now?

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I can't imagine going into a game and scrutinizing if it lined up with my preferred metaphors, pandered to my most edge-case ideals, and made a commentary on the most pertinent social issues that I prioritize today.

That's why I said 'stealth'. Outwardly it advocates many progressive positions but flounders later with a morality play that is quite traditional.

So what you're saying is that the messaging is a little grayer than pitch black and blinding white? Let me guess, you're writing for Polygon under a pen name now?

I wouldn't characterize it that way… but a lot of 'grey' morality in art is merely an excuse to avoid introspection or actually having to take a stand one way or another. You can reap the benefits of 'tackling' a sensitive issue without the backlash of actually taking a position. I would (and have repeatedly) characterized Bioshock Infinite this way, but am not entirely sure I would say that about Last of Us 2 (the revenge narrative is not as simplistic as it was at first glance). My problem with TLoU2 is more the misogyny, and the co-opting of trans suffering.

But the article you linked has a very strong point: that often 'grey' morality is used to compare as equal two sides that are not equal at all. As if, in the case of Bioshock Infinite, fighting to oppress is at all equivalent as fighting to free.

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I’d say TLOU2 suffers from that a bit, too. That the world and everyone in it is shitty isn’t really serving a message. It’s not really a part of the story, it’s just the backdrop that allows the violence of the game to take place without really having to examine it. It doesn’t feel like it’s saying anything other than “doesn’t this world suck?”

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I’d say TLOU2 suffers from that a bit, too. That the world and everyone in it is shitty isn’t really serving a message. It’s not really a part of the story, it’s just the backdrop that allows the violence of the game to take place without really having to examine it. It doesn’t feel like it’s saying anything other than “doesn’t this world suck?”

One response I found interesting from a gay person was "We don't want representation in this shitty apocalypse".

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I’ll be interested to check it out. LiS 2 didn’t grab me, but I keep meaning to make time to go back to it.

LiS 2 was stealth conservatism and completely turned me off in terms of thematics.

Maybe it's just me, but with stuff like this (and your absolutely terrible assessment of The Last of Us: Part 2), I'm starting to get the feeling that you might look too much into things with games...

I can't imagine going into a game and scrutinizing if it lined up with my preferred metaphors, pandered to my most edge-case ideals, and made a commentary on the most pertinent social issues that I prioritize today.

I mean, there's definitely a lot in terms of messages and influence that one can take away from any game, but latching onto those things and dragging the experience for not drafting a bill to present to Congress between "Press Start" and "New Game+"... That just seems like you're missing the forest, IMO.

Again, maybe it's just me.

Maybe you're looking too much into his assessment?

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https://www.tellmewhygame.com

Did you like Life is Strange? I did too, but man I'm bummed that Dontnod's next game is not coming to Playstation. Looks great. Apparently it's the first ever trans (woman to man) main character from a major publisher.

First episode of 3 comes out at the end of the month. The release schedule is also really tight, with each episode releasing a week apart.

If it's been mostly developed on one (say, XBox) is it horrific to port to others (PS, PC, Switch)? Does it differ? I suppose it depends.

Artificial exclusivity is the bane of this gaming era. I hope there's a better tomorrow.

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https://www.tellmewhygame.com

Did you like Life is Strange? I did too, but man I'm bummed that Dontnod's next game is not coming to Playstation. Looks great. Apparently it's the first ever trans (woman to man) main character from a major publisher.

First episode of 3 comes out at the end of the month. The release schedule is also really tight, with each episode releasing a week apart.

If it's been mostly developed on one (say, XBox) is it horrific to port to others (PS, PC, Switch)? Does it differ? I suppose it depends.

Artificial exclusivity is the bane of this gaming era. I hope there's a better tomorrow.

It's probably more likely that the exclusivity money allowed the game the be developed period. But who knows?

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It isn't artificial. It's a second-party title, like Alan Wake or Sunset Overdrive. Funded by Microsoft.

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It isn't artificial. It's a second-party title, like Alan Wake or Sunset Overdrive. Funded by Microsoft.

That's still artificial… Death Stranding just came out on a Microsoft platform. Sony helped fund it, and it ran on an engine developed by a Sony owned Studio. HZD just came out on PC, and that's entirely Sony.

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It isn't artificial. It's a second-party title, like Alan Wake or Sunset Overdrive. Funded by Microsoft.

That's still artificial… Death Stranding just came out on a Microsoft platform. Sony helped fund it, and it ran on an engine developed by a Sony owned Studio. HZD just came out on PC, and that's entirely Sony.

Horizon Zero Dawn is coming out on PC three and a half years after launch.
Tell Me Why is coming out on Xbox & PC at the same time.

Not even close to the same release strategy going on between the two.

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It isn't artificial. It's a second-party title, like Alan Wake or Sunset Overdrive. Funded by Microsoft.

That's still artificial… Death Stranding just came out on a Microsoft platform. Sony helped fund it, and it ran on an engine developed by a Sony owned Studio. HZD just came out on PC, and that's entirely Sony.

Sony decided it was a good financial decision to release a few of their games on PC. Just as Microsoft has put most of their exclusives on PC. PC/Phones/Switch are kind of their own separate markets. They offer different overall experiences to XB/PS.

Playstation, however, is the Xbox's most direct competition. What sense would it make for Microsoft to put their exclusives on PS? Especially when the public perception is that Xbox lacks exclusives? Should Halo go to PS? Should God of War 5 go to XSX?

For many people, exclusive games can be a deciding factor in what console they'll purchase. The current thinking* is that it is in MS/Sony's best interest to keep exclusives, exclusive.

*It may actually make more money in the long run to just put their games everywhere, but nobody is willing to try it. Never say never though, I mean, a lot of crazy things happened this generation...

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Exclusive games aren’t a blanket bad thing. Would Naughty Dog have been about to hone their craft so well if they were always looking for funding for the next project? I’m sure they still have to justify themselves to Sony, but I’d bet that’s much easier to do than trying to pitch projects to Activision.

Would Guerilla have been given the leeway to jump to a great open world action game in Horizon, coming from a series of mediocre first person shooters if they weren’t first party? Who knows. Maybe they could have. But us difficult for me to argue with the results.

Hell, would Bungie have been able to make Halo the series it was? Again, maybe. But MS basically but LIVE around what they needed for Halo 2. Is impossible to separate one from the other, and I sincerely doubt that Halo would exist in such a fashion as it did without them being owned and funded by MS.

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For many people, exclusive games can be a deciding factor in what console they'll purchase. The current thinking* is that it is in MS/Sony's best interest to keep exclusives, exclusive.

This isn't true. If it were, MS would not be making these games for PC as well. Why buy an Xbox when you can play it on your computer? In fact, MS doesn't really seem to care too much about the New Xbox's hardware sales.

https://www.techradar.com/news/microsoft-really-doesnt-care-if-you-buy-an-xbox-series-x-heres-why

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This isn't true. If it were, MS would not be making these games for PC as well. Why buy an Xbox when you can play it on your computer? In fact, MS doesn't really seem to care too much about the New Xbox's hardware sales.

PC is still MS-exclusive, if you think about it

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For many people, exclusive games can be a deciding factor in what console they'll purchase. The current thinking* is that it is in MS/Sony's best interest to keep exclusives, exclusive.

This isn't true. If it were, MS would not be making these games for PC as well. Why buy an Xbox when you can play it on your computer? In fact, MS doesn't really seem to care too much about the New Xbox's hardware sales.

https://www.techradar.com/news/microsoft-really-doesnt-care-if-you-buy-an-xbox-series-x-heres-why

It is true. For MS, games on PC are part of the "Xbox Platform" which includes XB360, XB1, XSX, PC, Android, iOS, and even a few Switch games.

With HZD and Death Stranding coming to PC, it would seem Sony is beginning to implement a similar strategy.

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It is true. For MS, games on PC are part of the "Xbox Platform" which includes XB360, XB1, XSX, PC, Android, iOS, and even a few Switch games.

I just want to play games without ads. :-(

That rules out Xbox completely.

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It is true. For MS, games on PC are part of the "Xbox Platform" which includes XB360, XB1, XSX, PC, Android, iOS, and even a few Switch games.

I just want to play games without ads. :-(

That rules out Xbox completely.

What the hell are you talking about?

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It is true. For MS, games on PC are part of the "Xbox Platform" which includes XB360, XB1, XSX, PC, Android, iOS, and even a few Switch games.

I just want to play games without ads. :-(

That rules out Xbox completely.

What the hell are you talking about?

Xbox dashboard has advertisements.

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As does everywhere else...

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Not really.

You can turn them off on PS4. It does have a bunch of tiles for like Playroom and PSNow that you can’t get rid of, but you can stash them in a junk folder.

It’s still a silly thing to not buy a console over, in my opinion. I’m not sure being shown the current sale in the store is something to be up in arms about.

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As does everywhere else...

No Ads on Switch.

No Ads on PS4 or PS3 dashboard.

No Ads when I open a game from GOG. You can even set Steam to never display popups and go straight to your library.

The Xbox is the only place where you have to see Ads. Unless you count the product placement in Death Stranding :-p

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The ads these days on Xbox are not much different. I suspect you're a purist, though. No ads anywhere anyhow. l honestly don't know how you manage all of your absolutist principles.

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As does everywhere else...

No Ads on Switch.

No Ads on PS4 or PS3 dashboard.

No Ads when I open a game from GOG. You can even set Steam to never display popups and go straight to your library.

The Xbox is the only place where you have to see Ads. Unless you count the product placement in Death Stranding :-p

I'm only half joking. I honestly don't think of them as ads at all. Ads to me are annoying things that pop up telling me I should get male enhancement or a new set of clogs while surfing the internet. If I'm on my Xbox to play games and the xbox tells me there is a weekend sale on a game and it shows me what game it is? That's amazing to me. I never would have known otherwise and I have played games that I normally never would have bought and played otherwise.

These sort of notifications (or "ads") I lump up with every other notification that Xbox tells me about. Game finished downloading? Thanks Xbox. Movie clip finishing uploading? Thanks Xbox. A favorited friend is online? Thanks Xbox!

Ads to me are unwanted and usually random companies telling me that I should buy their product for no reason other than my heart is beating. Xbox is a gaming platform that is telling you there are cheap games or brand new games to be bought if you want them.

But I guess you are a purest so everything that I just said doesn't mean anything to you. So, carry on your merry way.

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Ads to me are unwanted and usually random companies telling me that I should buy their product for no reason other than my heart is beating.

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Ads to me are unwanted and usually random companies telling me that I should buy their product for no reason other than my heart is beating.

I've never, in my entire xbox existence ever seen an ad that wasn't a game ad.
Where did you even get that picture from?

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Ads to me are unwanted and usually random companies telling me that I should buy their product for no reason other than my heart is beating.

I've never, in my entire xbox existence ever seen an ad that wasn't a game ad.
Where did you even get that picture from?

Google.

I don't even want to see game ads. Don't show me games I don't own until I select the store.

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Ads to me are unwanted and usually random companies telling me that I should buy their product for no reason other than my heart is beating.

I've never, in my entire xbox existence ever seen an ad that wasn't a game ad.
Where did you even get that picture from?

Google.

Is that what you base all of your debates on? Googling pictures and believing it's true? Because I'm going to believe my experiences with using my Xbox than googled from the internets.

I don't even want to see game ads. Don't show me games I don't own until I select the store.

How do you even walk outside? I mean, I understand your perspective and your choices, but it just makes me sad and slightly confused. You are asking a company that sells games to not show discounts. It's like telling any store to stop putting up on sale signs except in the location where you buy them. That's just not how this works.

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How do you even walk outside? I mean, I understand your perspective and your choices, but it just makes me sad and slightly confused. You are asking a company that sells games to not show discounts.

Yes exactly. Don't show me anything until I open the game store.

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How do you even walk outside? I mean, I understand your perspective and your choices, but it just makes me sad and slightly confused. You are asking a company that sells games to not show discounts.

Yes exactly. Don't show me anything until I open the game store.

You have every right to your opinion, but that is a bit unreasonable.

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Ads to me are unwanted and usually random companies telling me that I should buy their product for no reason other than my heart is beating.

I've never, in my entire xbox existence ever seen an ad that wasn't a game ad.
Where did you even get that picture from?

Google.

Just want to pause here on the irony of enlisting this name in your argument against supporting companies that are putting ads into your experience…

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Just want to pause here on the irony of enlisting this name in your argument against supporting companies that are putting ads into your experience…

Are you sure about that? There's this invention called an ad blocker. Try one sometime. I whitelist NOTHING.

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I run multiple. Does not change the fact that the entire basis of Google's business is ads, or that the product has no way to turn them off. Anyway my point stands regardless: invoking Google's brand to show the evils of ads shoved into the content you requested is funny.

(I could also run a proxy filter on the edge of my network to block the Game console ads, if we want to start making these sorts of loopholes).

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No ads on Bing. :)

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Of course there’s no ads on Bing. It would be like putting a billboard at the bottom of the ocean.

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Of course there’s no ads on Bing. It would be like putting a billboard at the bottom of the ocean.

Heh, It's a shame really. Bing is way better than Google.

They give you the exact same results, but I personally like the Bing UI much better.

Plus they pay you for using it, I haven't paid for Xbox Gold or Gamepass since 2011 lol, I just get it with Bing rewards points.

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Are you sure? I did a bing search and got results marked "ad" that filled the entire first screen.

I use Duck Duck Go, for the record.

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What’s the best ad block these days? Is it still uBlock?

I use that along with Firefox’s default Facebook killer.

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What’s the best ad block these days? Is it still uBlock?

I use that along with Firefox’s default Facebook killer.

I'm using Ka-Block most of the time. If I'm using a more cooperative browser I also will install privacy badger.

Also, not an ad block, but in the world of content blocking I really like "shut up" which removes comments from news sites, YouTube, and the like. Great for sanity.

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Also, not an ad block, but in the world of content blocking I really like "shut up" which removes comments from news sites, YouTube, and the like. Great for sanity.

If you don’t sign off pissed at the world and hoping for a meteor strike, were you even really on the internet?

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Also, not an ad block, but in the world of content blocking I really like "shut up" which removes comments from news sites, YouTube, and the like. Great for sanity.

If you don’t sign off pissed at the world and hoping for a meteor strike, where you even really on the internet?

Meteor Strike is coincidentally the Baba is You level I had the most trouble with. (Other than The Return of Scenic Pond which I literally don't know how I solved).

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It’s from an old dashboard that doesn’t exist anymore, and probably on some subpage that you never see anyway.

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I’m reasonably sure that is an xbox360 desktop. in addition to the eye-searing background colors, which are not the default anymore, the shown GUI elements do not use that particular appearance on the modern systems. Also the other cell looks like it’s for xbox live gold with old style logos.

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Ads to me are unwanted and usually random companies telling me that I should buy their product for no reason other than my heart is beating.

I've never, in my entire xbox existence ever seen an ad that wasn't a game ad.
Where did you even get that picture from?

Heh - my immediate reaction was "is that shopped?"

I have also never seen an ad like that on my Xbox(es).

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As does everywhere else...

No Ads on Switch.

No Ads on PS4 or PS3 dashboard.

No Ads when I open a game from GOG. You can even set Steam to never display popups and go straight to your library.

The Xbox is the only place where you have to see Ads. Unless you count the product placement in Death Stranding :-p

I'm only half joking. I honestly don't think of them as ads at all. Ads to me are annoying things that pop up telling me I should get male enhancement or a new set of clogs while surfing the internet. If I'm on my Xbox to play games and the xbox tells me there is a weekend sale on a game and it shows me what game it is? That's amazing to me. I never would have known otherwise and I have played games that I normally never would have bought and played otherwise.

These sort of notifications (or "ads") I lump up with every other notification that Xbox tells me about. Game finished downloading? Thanks Xbox. Movie clip finishing uploading? Thanks Xbox. A favorited friend is online? Thanks Xbox!

Ads to me are unwanted and usually random companies telling me that I should buy their product for no reason other than my heart is beating. Xbox is a gaming platform that is telling you there are cheap games or brand new games to be bought if you want them.

But I guess you are a purest so everything that I just said doesn't mean anything to you. So, carry on your merry way.

Something does not cease to be an ad because you personally find it interesting, and that way lies the defense of every modern tech company that takes your privacy away and sells it to the highest bidder while claiming they are doing you a favor by making ads "more relevant."

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As does everywhere else...

No Ads on Switch.

No Ads on PS4 or PS3 dashboard.

No Ads when I open a game from GOG. You can even set Steam to never display popups and go straight to your library.

The Xbox is the only place where you have to see Ads. Unless you count the product placement in Death Stranding :-p

I'm only half joking. I honestly don't think of them as ads at all. Ads to me are annoying things that pop up telling me I should get male enhancement or a new set of clogs while surfing the internet. If I'm on my Xbox to play games and the xbox tells me there is a weekend sale on a game and it shows me what game it is? That's amazing to me. I never would have known otherwise and I have played games that I normally never would have bought and played otherwise.

These sort of notifications (or "ads") I lump up with every other notification that Xbox tells me about. Game finished downloading? Thanks Xbox. Movie clip finishing uploading? Thanks Xbox. A favorited friend is online? Thanks Xbox!

Ads to me are unwanted and usually random companies telling me that I should buy their product for no reason other than my heart is beating. Xbox is a gaming platform that is telling you there are cheap games or brand new games to be bought if you want them.

But I guess you are a purest so everything that I just said doesn't mean anything to you. So, carry on your merry way.

Something does not cease to be an ad because you personally find it interesting, and that way lies the defense of every modern tech company that takes your privacy away and sells it to the highest bidder while claiming they are doing you a favor by making ads "more relevant."

Yeah, but there are a heck of a lot advertisements out in the world and I'm not even talking about the electronic or billboard version. People are walking advertisements, and I don't even mean what is on their clothing, I mean how they wear their clothing is advertising their body. That is just one example. Advertisements don't have to be something that sells you something. If I could "ad block" half the women on the street with their *** hanging out I would. Is that a violation of my privacy? No, I chose to walk outside. Yeah, yeah, I know independent people vs corporations.

I guess to get off my tangent, I treat everything on a scale because nothing is black and white in the world. Ads either help me or annoy me, that is my personally opinion. I choose to label "ads" as things that annoy me. I was specifically talking to Cody to say that there are many "ads" on the Xbox, but most of the time, personally, they are notifications to me because I am glad that Xbox told me there is a sale on or a game just came out.

"Stealing privacy" is another bag of worms we could get into but that's a larger issue that wasn't my original point.

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No Ads on Switch.

[image]

No Ads on PS4 or PS3 dashboard.

[image]

No Ads when I open a game from GOG. You can even set Steam to never display popups and go straight to your library.

Well here is the default user experience.
[image]

The Xbox is the only place where you have to see Ads. Unless you count the product placement in Death Stranding :-p

[image]

Well well, would you look at that. Not only do they all have ads, Xbox has the least ad space of all!

So again, what the hell are you on about?

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So again, what the hell are you on about?

Xbox is literally the only platform you cannot turn them off on. I have not seen an ad on a game console since I played Halo 5 many years ago. Is that so hard to understand?

I'd much prefer no ads as default, but if I can turn it off I'm fine with it I guess. You cannot turn them off on Xbox.

I would not have a switch if it looked like that when I turned it on. Here's what I see:

Two quick links to the news page, and the eshop respectively. Neither of those are themselves ads (but clicking them will take you to ads for sure).

PS4:

Oh look only games I own.

Steam… honestly it had a "here's games you haven't tried section", which is why I use GOG.

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Xbox is literally the only platform you cannot turn them off on. I have not seen an ad on a game console since I played Halo 5 many years ago. Is that so hard to understand?

Yes it's actually very hard to wrap my head around. The fact that two little squares on the dashboard is enough to make you swear off the entire console.

It's so weird and dumb that I've decided to invent a new word to mark the occasion.

Absurdiculudicrous.

I'd much prefer no ads as default, but if I can turn it off I'm fine with it I guess. You cannot turn them off on Xbox.

I quickly checked my Switch and PS4 and couldn't figure out how to disable any of them. Granted, I'm not willing to put too much effort into it, since I couldn't care less about a few squares that I can easily ignore.

I would not have a switch if it looked like that when I turned it on. Here's what I see:

This is the same as the pic I linked.

Two quick links to the news page, and the eshop respectively. Neither of those are themselves ads (but clicking them will take you to ads for sure).

An ad for an ad. Okay. You got me.

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This is the same as the pic I linked.

Not even remotely.

The News and eShop are, for lack of a better term, 'apps' on the switch. I'm sure some people may value reading the news from Nintendo (I don't really), and I know a lot of people use the eShop to get their games digitally. So… it's showing programs that are on your system.

The pic you linked is 3 annoying ass advertisements.

You cannot possibly say in good faith those pics are 'the same'.

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The News and eShop are, for lack of a better term, 'apps' on the switch. I'm sure some people may value reading the news from Nintendo (I don't really), and I know a lot of people use the eShop to get their games digitally. So… it's showing programs that are on your system.

Some people may value an ad for an exciting new game or movie...

The pic you linked is 3 annoying ass advertisements.

You cannot possibly say in good faith those pics are 'the same'.

After some research, it would seem that a phobia of advertising is a real thing and you may be suffering from it. If that's the case then I sincerely apologize. However, I ask you to try and understand that this is something that very few people care about at all, and it seems very strange to someone not aware of your condition.

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After some research, it would seem that a phobia of advertising is a real thing and you may be suffering from it. If that's the case then I sincerely apologize. However, I ask you to try and understand that this is something that very few people care about at all, and it seems very strange to someone not aware of your condition.

I'm not asking you to care… I never said anyone who doesn't care is wrong. I simply value it more than you, or most people apparently.

If I had a phobia I'd never be able to drive anywhere in Los Angeles (billboards).

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I’m with you in principle. I hate ads. I want to live in a world where we aren’t bombarded with them 24/7. Billboards should be fucking illegal.

We don’t live in that world, and no amount of not buying an Xbox will make it a reality.

I applaud your dedication, though.

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I’m with you in principle. I hate ads. I want to live in a world where we aren’t bombarded with them 24/7. Billboards should be fucking illegal.

We don’t live in that world, and no amount of not buying an Xbox will make it a reality.

There are places where billboard ARE illegal. There's 4 states that ban them. It's a world we could live in someday. Some people already do.

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Those ads on the PS4 he showed are literally impossible to get rid of. They’re just behind the sub menu for TV (and PSNow, and the the other tiles you can’t delete). Sure, you can ignore them, but they’re still there. It’s basically the same situation.

Also I’m pretty sure those Switch tiles on the left rotate. As far as I know you can’t force it to stop showing you featured games or whatever there, other than having it not connected to the internet.

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Those ads on the PS4 he showed are literally impossible to get rid of. They’re just behind the sub menu for TV (and PSNow, and the the other tiles you can’t delete). Sure, you can ignore them, but they’re still there. It’s basically the same situation.

I don't see icons for TV or PSNow…

Ok I found them. You are not correct. You can delete PSNow. You can't delete TV, but you can move it into a folder somewhere. Even so… you just don't use the TV app. Never see them. Xbox serves you ads no matter what you're doing and you can't tuck it away.

You can prevent ads from being displayed on other platforms.

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Those ads on the PS4 he showed are literally impossible to get rid of. They’re just behind the sub menu for TV (and PSNow, and the the other tiles you can’t delete). Sure, you can ignore them, but they’re still there. It’s basically the same situation.

I don't see icons for TV or PSNow…

Ok I found them. You are not correct. You can delete PSNow. You can't delete TV, but you can move it into a folder somewhere. Even so… you just don't use the TV app. Never see them. Xbox serves you ads no matter what you're doing and you can't tuck it away.

You can prevent ads from being displayed on other platforms.

You're a strange bird, Cody. Sky dive, take risks, challenge yourself. Uh oh, something I don't like is appearing momentarily in the corner of my screen. I must deprive myself of anything associated with such impurities!

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Probably the dashboard ads.

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If the Xbox isn't online, it doesn't display ads.

Also, by that statement you completely disregarded what was said...?

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If the Xbox isn't online, it doesn't display ads.

If it isn't online, I also couldn't play multiplayer games…

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Well, sure, but that's not how the word "completely" works

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Artificial exclusivity is the bane of this gaming era.

Nah, it can have benefits.

If you know your game is only coming out on one platform, you can optimize it and completely utilize all the features of the target hardware. But this game… doesn't look like that…

Believe it or not my old Mac Pro from 2010 meets the minimum specs (it actually ran Destiny 2 better than a PS4 did). So maybe I'll just boot into windows here.

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If it's been mostly developed on one (say, XBox) is it horrific to port to others (PS, PC, Switch)? Does it differ? I suppose it depends.

It entirely depends. It's likely that if a game were mostly developed for XBox and/or PC it's dependent on DirectX for graphics which doesn't exist on other platforms. In that case at a minimum the game would need a new adapter written to replace the DirectX implementation. Worst case it might require a complete rewrite to pull out the DirectX bits of code and put in an abstraction to let them write adapters to make it work on different platforms. There are lots of apis that could tie a game very tightly to a specific platform. Even if the game isn't tightly coupled to a platform's specific APIs moving to a new platform could cause performance problems which might require platform-specific optimizations (due to differences in the OS and/or hardware).

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This is true. There are also two trends that has made this less of an issue over time.

One is that hardware has become more similar--like the change from PS3's RISC architecture to PS4's x86-64 architecture, which both Xbox and PCs use. Apple has used x86 for a while but I believe they recently announced a change in architecture (not sure of the details on that).

At the same time, there have been multiple software development kits with an eye towards multiplatform support. (Monogame is one such example.).

That being said, sometimes there are just weird quirks, like how during OG Destiny development the PS4 consistently had frame hiccups when playing video like the intro cinematic which none of the other platforms had.

None of this is to negate that multi-platform development is harder than single platform; it just happens to be less hard now than it was in the past.

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Apple has used x86 for a while but I believe they recently announced a change in architecture (not sure of the details on that).

Apple is, starting this year, transitioning all of their Macs to their own chips that are ARM based. This will happen over about 2 years. They've said they'll support x86 for some time, but after the transition is done all Macs will use Apple's own ARM chips.

So uh, don't buy that new iMac right now.

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This is true. There are also two trends that has made this less of an issue over time.

One is that hardware has become more similar--like the change from PS3's RISC architecture to PS4's x86-64 architecture, which both Xbox and PCs use. Apple has used x86 for a while but I believe they recently announced a change in architecture (not sure of the details on that).

At the same time, there have been multiple software development kits with an eye towards multiplatform support. (Monogame is one such example.).

That being said, sometimes there are just weird quirks, like how during OG Destiny development the PS4 consistently had frame hiccups when playing video like the intro cinematic which none of the other platforms had.

None of this is to negate that multi-platform development is harder than single platform; it just happens to be less hard now than it was in the past.

Just speculate: if a AAA game costs 1 unit to develop (let's call it 50 people full time for 3 years, whatever, 150 man-years), is it like a 10% effort to do what you (and BlackTiger) have described? Like, 1 unit to make on XBox, 1.05 units to port to PC, 1.15 units to port to PS, 1.20 units to port to switch).

I want a future in which people choose platforms by preference (i.e. which controller, which games service, where friends are, etc) rather than exclusives. I know exclusives help get games funded, but I feel like exclusivity - while beneficial in some narrow scopes - has had an adverse impact on gaming in general.

For example, Spider-Man being an exclusive on PS for the new Avengers game because Sony owns the right to Spider-Man. I know why it is the way it is - I just wish it weren't so.

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As far as I know, Sony only owns the film rights to Spider-man. They made a separate deal with the publisher to make him exclusive to PlayStation, and I bet it’s in large part to keep the Spider-man=Sony connection in people’s minds, even when it’s not strictly true.

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I want a future in which people choose platforms by preference (i.e. which controller, which games service, where friends are, etc) rather than exclusives. I know exclusives help get games funded, but I feel like exclusivity - while beneficial in some narrow scopes - has had an adverse impact on gaming in general.

The only bit of exclusivity I've seen hurt gaming has come through Destiny:

1. Exclusive content on one of the game's platforms despite no technical reason for this.
2. No interoperability of multiplayer between platforms.

But the irony is, neither of these would have been an issue if Destiny had say, been a PS4 exclusive in the first place.

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The only bit of exclusivity I've seen hurt gaming has come through Destiny:

I can't think of a single "partial exclusivity" deal that wasn't terrible for players.

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The only bit of exclusivity I've seen hurt gaming has come through Destiny:

I can't think of a single "partial exclusivity" deal that wasn't terrible for players.

I'm just not really that familiar with other partial exclusivity deals.

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The only bit of exclusivity I've seen hurt gaming has come through Destiny:

I can't think of a single "partial exclusivity" deal that wasn't terrible for players.

I'm just not really that familiar with other partial exclusivity deals.

Well, tell me if any of this sounds good for players.

Timed exclusive DLC. (Map packs for Call of Duty)

Timed exclusive in-game content. (Guns and missions in Destiny)

Timed exclusive games. (Tomb Raider on XB1, Yakuza on Series X, FF7R on PS4)

Permanent exclusive in game content. (Missions in Assassin's Creed)

There are probably more examples I can't think of right now, but my point should be clear with that much.

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There are probably more examples I can't think of right now, but my point should be clear with that much.

Yes none of that is good, but these examples would go away if their respective games were simply exclusives forever. I don't really see the problem with traditional exclusives (Last of Us 2 is only on PS4 for example).

I'm bummed Tell Me Why isn't on Playstation, but not bummed enough to go buy an Xbox.

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Just speculate: if a AAA game costs 1 unit to develop (let's call it 50 people full time for 3 years, whatever, 150 man-years), is it like a 10% effort to do what you (and BlackTiger) have described? Like, 1 unit to make on XBox, 1.05 units to port to PC, 1.15 units to port to PS, 1.20 units to port to switch).

Just some napkin math here, but a quick google indicates the development cost of Destiny was around $140M. If it’s 5% more to port a game to another platform that’s $7M! In reality though, the cost to port to another platform isn’t that simple to calculate. Depending on the game, relying on platform-specific features might significantly speed up development time and it’s much more likely to have a big impact on smaller games than it does on larger games. Maybe it’s like 5% more for a AAA game, but for an indie it might be 25%-50% for example. Something like Unreal engine can smooth out the cross-platform differences but it requires a engine-specific knowledge rather than general programming knowledge and making the engine do what your game needs to do might be more difficult than just writing your own engine code depending on the game.

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