What would you count as their first-party output? I’m asking genuinely, because off the top of my head I can’t think of much beyond the same old franchises. Unless you’re counting the publishers they’ve slurped up via mega-buyouts, which I personally wouldn’t.
And as far as Game Pass goes, I’ll stick to buying my games, not renting them. Lord knows I have several hundred titles on Steam I haven’t even touched. 
Well I’ve had time to process everything. They aren’t gonna change their stance no matter how hard I scream into the void so in the whole spirit of welcomes I welcome Sony PlayStation to the franchise.
A few things I have to let you know are as follows:
Have fun and remember we are all a Forza Horizon family here and if you need any help or anything we are here for you and I want to extend that to myself I’ll help when I can.
So welcome to PlayStation and I apologise for not being so welcoming to you all. It’s not what we are here besides you need a great racing franchise as your console is in need of one.
I mean genres like RTS games like Age of Empires and Mythology.
Various types of turn based and action RPG’s like Wasteland and Avowed among others.
Don’t think it’s quite fair to exclude Bethesda and Activision and I don’t want to sit here and just name every game but the variety is there now and is coming in the future with stuff like Fable, Perfect Dark, Blade and many others
Heh, I’ll admit I feel silly for forgetting AoE/AoM. I put a lot of time into AoE II back in the day. But the thing is, while those are absolutely Microsoft first-party titles, I wouldn’t count them as Xbox titles, as like any good RTS they were in the PC realm. It’s definitely an outdated view now in the era of Game Pass and Play Anywhere, but I still think of “Xbox first-party” as something locked to that particular console hardware. Likewise, the thing with the big third-party acquisitions isn’t anything against those franchises themselves, but the fact that they’ve been available on various platforms for decades, and most likely still will be going forward. Nothing against MS, but when I hear Skyrim or DOOM, I’m not exactly thinking “oh hey Xbox titles.”
When it comes down to it, I guess Nintendo is the only one still relying on “true” first-party titles, i.e. franchises they’ve developed for over 30 years that are only available on their hardware.
Bought my niece the switch for Christmas 2023 with Mario Kart 8 deluxe and I have to say it’s an absolute blast of a game. I had such fun with it. Don’t ever think Mario and the gang will be coming Xbox way anytime soon.
Who knew Nintendo would end up being the true first party G.O.A.T lol
Out of curiosity, I wonder if your save/progress carries over from PC/Xbox? And would you need to purchase the expansion pass, car passes, etc. again on PS5 even if you already own them on PC/Xbox?
So my question is will I (Xbox player) be able to play this game if I no longer have gamepass? I own this game, all DLCs & currently have every car except the OPI GT. I want to continue online play but just curious if Gamepass will be required.
If you own it, you should be all good. Up until recently my xbox live gold was off recurrent billing and some months i chose the gamepass option and some months i didnt, and all my progress remained. Just need xbox live gold to do everything.
I agree, IP is more important than hardware and given the mess of the Series consoles, it’s wise for MS to capitalise on their assets and what they do well because they clearly cannot make good decisions about hardware.
I am a believer that platform exclusivity is a bad thing and I do hope that Sony open up some more of their titles because as you say, the more people can play, the better and on the platform of their choice.
For console wars, I wouldn’t even say early-2000’s, the console wars ended in the mid-90’s. They were a product of the 80’s that bled into the 90’s.
I was a Sega kid (Master System and Megadrive) but it was clear to everyone that Nintendo won in the mid-90’s when Sega botched subsequent console launches and Nintendo kept getting wins.
Sony came along and took the serious-gamer market with Microsoft never being able to compete so there was never a war for that generation or beyond.
There was also that leak from a couple of years ago (from the Activision court case IIRC) showing the specs and next xbox being completely disc-less so we will be getting a new xbox at some point. I think the leak suggested late 2024 or late 2025 so there is/was definitely at least one more generation in development
So even if you own it, online multiplayer is not available unless you have live gold? Well that sucks.
Game Pass Core at a minimum for online play because the consoles are exploitative and require a subscription for online play (this what the Xbox Live Gold thing was for) whereas if you play on PC, it’s free
Offline play would be fine without subscription though
I seriously doubt that progress and ownership would be linked. It isn’t for stream releases although there is no technical reason why saves shouldn’t sync because a MS account would still be required and everything is synced to the cloud
I have my thoughts on why MS blocked save syncing across platforms and it isn’t because it was difficult or impossible to do
be interesting to find out if any bugs disappear in the playstation version
also implies there might be reasonably significant input into the game in general, though more likely it’s “here’s a taste of what you’ll get in horizon 6” (where all the bugs will be squashed and not copied and pasted, honest guv!)
I know the console wars were at their fiercest in the 90s (Sega does what Nintendon’t…which I guess was flunk out of the hardware business?), but widespread Internet adoption helped keep the flames fueled. I remember the “Wii60” movement after Sony’s disastrous announcement of the PS3’s launch price.
I’ve always been an outlier when it comes to the hardware loyalty. I use the games as the basis for console choice. I don’t care who makes the console as long as the games are good.
I always preferred Sega games to Nintendo because Nintendo were traditionally more controlled and ‘family-friendly’ and Sega were more teen/young adult focused.
The same with Xbox, I prefer newer Xbox games to newer Sony games but I’ve owned Sega systems, Nintendo systems, Sony systems and Xbox systems. I’m even older enough to have had an Atari 2600.
I currently have an Xbox One X, PS3 and Nintendo WII (albeit missing the wireless Wii bar for some reason) wired up in the living room. Apparently, my Sega systems are still somewhere at my parents house but they wouldn’t work with my TV because of refresh rates.
I had Sega as a teenager because of the games, I had PS1 because of the games, PS3, the same, a WII because the game were fun and the Xbox One (day one edition) because Motorsport 5 looked interesting and my wife wanted the exclusive Tomb Raider game and we had some issues with Sony around bricking my second-gen PS3
The internet has given the tribalism more energy because it gives those with brand-loyalty/obedience a louder voice when the majority of people use games and price to make purchasing decisions.
With the exception of a few exclusives, most games are on multiple platforms now which makes it less important whose console you use.
There is a good 2019 documentary, if you can find it, about the 80’s and 90’s console wars called “Game Changers: Inside the Video Game Wars” about the Sega/Nintendo rivalry and another good one from 2023 about the rise of Playstation called “The Story of Playstation”
I welcome Sony players to Horizon because as previously mentioned in other comments, Sony desperately need some decent racing games and the more the merrier for the Forza community
Thats ok for Halo & FH5 possibly going to PS5.
Then in return bring GT7 to Xbox.
Id love to be able to play GT7 & FM on Xbox, there’s features in Forza that aren’t in GT7 & vice versa.
Whats wrong with having the best of both worlds on one console.
Im not going to buy a PS5 just to play GT7.
Totally agree, the tribalism and general feeling of entitlement/betrayal that seems common here really surprises me.
FH5 is approaching 4 years old later this year, if releasing on another platform helps carry it another 4 years and keep this community that has poured countless hours into it not only alive but thriving that’s a win.
Generating revenue from the PS5 player base that won’t or can’t own another platform (Xbox) is a win.
I’m glad Microsoft are opening up franchises to other platforms despite me only owning a Series X. As long as FH6 isn’t a day one release on PS5 but a timed exclusive, that’s a win for everybody.
If I was to pick at something that concerns me, controversially I think it’s day one releases on GamePass that really hurt outright sales and revenue. I can’t think membership swells enough around these releases to offset that and we’ve heard about studios being hurt by it but I doubt first party ones would ever speak out about it. And I say all this as a GamePass Ultimate Sub which is also how I play FH5
My gut feeling is Xbox isn’t dead, nor is it dying. It just exists as a platform choice, one of many and likely will for many years to come.
Exactly. This is my main issue with Horizon 5 coming to the PS5. People who own PS5 have all the advantages now while people who only own a Series console get left out. Instead, everyone’s blithering on about “console wars” and “tribalism”, and completely ignoring the real issue. Horizon 5 going to the PS5 is fine. It’s getting nothing in return that makes me feel like I got screwed as a consumer sticking with the Series X. If we ever get Gran Turismo 7 in return, I’ll gladly shut my trap. Until then, I’m going to feel like I got burned, even if it was two years after the fact.