Sony FORCED to admit payout truth! Xbox update!

Why is Hogwarts Legacy getting delayed for the Xbox? Xbox is back at it again with a crazy accessory and Microsoft just scored a huge win for Xbox. Let's discuss. What's up guys and welcome to Xbox Ready, the YouTube channel that works to keep you up to date on all things Xbox. I try to gather some current stories happening in the video game industry related to Xbox so you stay Xbox ready. But I also do unboxings, I also do game reviews sometimes, I also do interviews, I also do little tips and tricks for your Xbox. So if you've been watching for a long time and for whatever reason you're not subscribed, I'd appreciate it if you subscribe now. Or if you like Xbox content presented in a chill conversational manner, I'm your guy. So first off, I wanted to show off my Grogu controller, aka Baby Yoda from The Mandalorian. Like I said the other day, me and Jimmy got to go to the premiere of season three last week and see the first two episodes. And they also sent us these Grogu controllers. I posted about it on my Instagram, you can check it out there if you want. But for all y'all on YouTube who wanna see it, here it is. As you can see, it's kinda got like this pleasing, green, Baby Yoda-ish vibe going on. And on the back you have, bam, The Mandalorian right there, the logo. It also came with this little Baby Yoda controller hoodie. Couple months ago, Xbox started making controller hoodies for whatever reason, I do not know. And they incorporated it into this controller. It's, you know, I get the gimmick, it stays within the theme. It was very cute, very cool at the time, very nice to post on socials. And at first my wife, when she saw this, she was like, oh my God, it's so cute, I'm gonna use this controller hoodie all the time. It's gonna be on there all the time. It's been sitting in a drawer for the past couple of days, guys, I don't know. But this is the controller that's part of the giveaway that they're doing right now on the Xbox Twitter account. So if you wanted the chance to win one for yourself and maybe some of these other cool consoles that they have coming out for The Mandalorian collaboration like the Din Djarin Series X and the Baby Yoda Grogu Series S, head on over to Xbox's Twitter account and retweet their little thing talking about the sweepstakes. Next up, let's talk about Redfall, Arkane Studios' highly anticipated Xbox exclusive set to come out in the first week of May. For those of you who do not know, it is a first-person shooter you can play with up to three other people. And you go to this island called Redfall in New England and you try to free it from the vampire menace that's running about. Now for a long time, this game has been shrouded in mystery. Yes, it comes from Arkane, the makers of Deathloop and Dishonored. But there were some things that were just not adding up about it. They were coming out and they were like, it's our take on the Far Cry series, baby. And we're like, wait, what's going on? But there's gonna be like looter shooter elements like Borderlands, baby. It's gonna be open world. It's gonna have this and this and that. We were like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What's going on with the identity of this game? That identity has become clearer over the past couple of weeks, especially after Developer Direct in January. And a couple of weeks back, Bethesda actually did a pretty interesting Q&A regarding Arkane with the community. And I just got the time to read over it and there's some pretty interesting things hidden in here. So yes, there seems to be some pretty interesting co-op capabilities in terms of the different builds and stuff. But they did come out and say that each build is viable on their own in solo play. I know a lot of people are upset that they have to have a constant, persistent online connection to even play the game solo. But when it comes down to the actual character build, you should have the full experience of playing through Redfall if you choose to do so by yourself. They confirmed the difficulty scaling at first when you are playing solo, you will start with the difficulty level and that will scale as you progress through the story. And then as you add more people, that will also scale the enemies as well. But it's dynamic is what they're saying. They say depending on the size of your party, you'll see changes in the sorts of enemies you encounter, how strong they are compared to solo and the frequency of elite traits. Those aren't blanket changes, however. Some encounters are always gonna be easier or harder than others and some may not change at all. But that's the point. Things should feel more challenging because you have more players, but it isn't a flat multiplayer by any means. They confirmed that during your first playthrough, you're gonna have to pick and choose when you're filling out the skill tree. So you won't be able to fill out everything. There's part of me where I'm like, ah, like I wish I could have all of them. But considering the fact that I'm gonna be playing with friends, I am really excited to have like my own specialized role for it. They also confirmed in this Q&A that there is cross play between people on Steam and on Game Pass. That's not super surprising because I'm pretty sure that was in place for Deathloop, but it is nice to hear. In terms of cross saves between the two platforms, I'm not so sure. But you can link your Steam account and your Xbox account. So I don't see why your progress wouldn't carry over between platforms, but hey, I'm just guessing here. The last line of this Q&A is probably the most interesting to me. They say, if you jump into Redfall and approach it like you would an immersive sim, you're going to find a lot that feels very familiar. There's going to be a lot for you to enjoy. That part of the Q&A was referring to the open world, kind of random encounters, kind of the world outside of the main missions. And it's got me thinking like, man, maybe I'm thinking about this game all wrong. I just introduced it to you guys as a first person shooter, but there's an immersive sim aspect. There's an open world aspect. There's a co-op aspect. Hopefully all of these blend together into a really fun game. I wasn't really impressed with the trailer that they showed off at Developer Direct. It looked fine, but it didn't look like, oh my God, I got to get this game. But I'm hoping to having my mind change. And honestly, I'm hoping that this game is good because like I said, it's Arkane's first Xbox exclusive. And you know how these things go. If it comes out and it's like, you know, even an okay game, people are gonna be like, oh, Xbox sucks, Microsoft sucks. They should never have acquired Bethesda, boo Xbox. And if it's good, they'll be like, well, it was in development like way before it was being acquired by Xbox and Microsoft, blah, blah, blah. Can't wait to continue learning more about this game. Next up, I got bad news for Xbox One fans yet again. Hogwarts Legacy has received another delay for its Xbox One and PS4 versions. And it's not a terrible delay, okay? So at first it was supposed to come out in April, 2023. And now it's being pushed back into May, the same week that Redfall is supposed to be coming to Xbox consoles. Avalanche Software released a statement saying, we're overwhelmed with gratitude for the response to Hogwarts Legacy from fans around the globe. The team is working hard to deliver the best possible experience on all platforms and we need more time to do this. Hogwarts Legacy will launch on PS4 and Xbox One on May 5th, 2023, Cinco de Mayo, baby. But honestly, guys, seeing how Hogwarts Legacy runs, I've played a little bit. My wife has played like a lot of it. I'm having trouble. I'm kind of like, I don't know how it's gonna be running, especially on like base Xbox One and PS4. It might have a better time on Xbox One X, PS4 Pro. Because not only is the world pretty detailed, it's also pretty vast. And I don't know how the processing power of an Xbox One can keep up with like, hop on your hippogriff and you're flying across the freaking world. How's it really gonna look? They're still targeting the same release date for the Nintendo Switch, but if they're delaying it for the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4, there's no way that the Switch version is not gonna get delayed as well. This is kind of a tough year if you are still rocking with the Xbox One because most of the first party is moving on to next gen only. Forza Motorsport, Starfield. I'm pretty sure Redfall is listed on the store right now as a Series X and S title only. We're seeing a lot of third party studios abandon the last gen as well. Gotham Knights controversially did so. So I hate to say this, but if you want to keep up with all of that stuff, it might be time to upgrade or explore cloud gaming. Streaming at least the first party games to your Xbox One console rather than natively. It's always a tough situation, man, because like, I don't wanna tell you how to spend your money and everyone has a different financial situation. I got my Series S for $240 and that's been a pretty nice solution to have. And I do firmly believe that cloud gaming, I know not everyone is totally on board with it yet, but I feel like it's getting better. It's not at like the finish line yet as like a standalone product, but I feel like it's gotten a lot better for anyone who is interested in trying it out on their Xbox One. But yeah, Hogwarts Legacy, if you were waiting for that last gen version, I know many of you are. Hugely popular game, over 12 million copies sold, and it's only been out for like a month. That is crazy. Next up, let's talk about Xbox's new hardware and no, it is not what you want or probably think. Images have begun to surface online about a Series S toaster, a toaster. Yes, you heard that right. Video Games Chronicle in their write-up says, according to the French site Xbox Squad, the licensed appliance will release this year and it's planning to sell the device itself with pre-orders open right now. So this is a little bit different because it's not Xbox themselves making it. Yes, in the past they have come out and sold some pretty strange accessories, I will say. They have like Xbox camping gear. And then we just talked about the controller hoodie earlier. These are licensed products, so it seems to be that like they gave them the okay to make not only a Series S toaster, but an Xbox like ramen bowl it looks like, RGB mouse pads and storage boxes, pen holders, and more. I see a lot of people comparing this to the Series X fridge, which was yes, another like kind of unnecessary Xbox accessory, which I bought, by the way. Pretty much every video that I shoot with Jimmy, it shows up in those videos. What I feel like the difference is, is that at the time when the Series X came out, Xbox is a brand that people have varying opinions of and they have varying opinions of their games, but the actual console itself, people are like, yes, this is a good console. So when the Series X fridge came out, a product related to a universally loved console, people were like, hell yeah, let's do it. But with the Series S, Series S is like, much more controversial. I feel like every other week something's popping up, people are blaming it for holding the gaming industry back. We just talked about that last week with the whole Baldur's Gate 3 scenario. So I really wonder what people's response to the Series S toaster is gonna be. Is it gonna sell very well? Honestly, guys, I don't have a toaster at all, I'm just realizing. If I was to get a toaster, maybe I should get an Xbox toaster, a Series S toaster as an Xbox guy, I don't know. But when it comes to accessories and when it comes to hardware, this is probably not what Xbox fans were wanting. The priority seemed to be, at least when it comes to hardware, accessories for Xbox fans, and you can correct me if I'm wrong. Number one, I would definitely say work on getting some competition in the expandable storage card racket. As we all know, Seagate has the proprietary license to make the expandable storage cards and prices remain pretty dang high. And then I go on Jimmy's channel, PSerati, and he's always talking about these SSDs that are constantly going on sale that you can put into your PS5 and you can get all sorts of storage and then even if you change your mind, you can take it out and use a new computer. It's like, dude, that's awesome. We need some of that. We need other manufacturers for these SD cards. And I want some more news about the Elite Series 3. There were rumors about it buzzing around late last year. And then we got to the Elite Series 2 Core, the white version of the Series 2, which I like, I use this controller every day. But with the release of the DualSense Edge, I'm itching for more news about the Elite Series 3. Next up, it is time for your weekly Activision Blizzard update. Now, I'm sure you've heard at this point if you're an Xbox fan. Now, when it comes to this acquisition, it's been over a year of back and forth with this new cycle. And up until this point, it's been more bad news than good news. Microsoft getting sued by the FTC to block this deal. The CMA coming out and opposing it in the UK, saying, mostly appearing that they're just not about this deal at all. People coming out and saying that if this deal doesn't close that Xbox is gonna be sold by Microsoft, which I think is BS. Yes, the deal has already been approved in a number of countries, but the big headlines have been largely negative when it comes to this acquisition in Microsoft. Well, Microsoft and Xbox may have finally caught a break when it comes to this acquisition. I was hoping to get more solid information about this over the weekend, a more definitive answer. But last week, Reuters did come out with a report saying that it's very likely, highly likely that the European Union is going to approve this deal in their market. This report also says that despite being previously mentioned, the support of this deal would not be conditional on some sort of asset split where they'd have to spin off Blizzard or Call of Duty itself. We talked about that in a previous Xbox Ready video, but there were reports saying that these commissions were coming at Microsoft and being like, yeah, we'll approve the deal if you sell Call of Duty to someone else, which yeah, it's totally whack, but I guess it's not the case when it comes to the European Commission. This is obviously a huge deal in and of itself because the three major players that Microsoft really has to win over in order to get this deal done is the FTC in America, the CMA in the UK, and the European Union. Now the European Union seems to be on their side. The FTC, they're still suing Microsoft, but it's going a little better. Like there's reports of some members of the committee saying that they think this deal should go through. And on top of that, the FTC is giving Microsoft access to a ton of documents from Sony. Earlier last week, Microsoft subpoenaed Sony in order to get some of those documents, and the FTC was like, yeah, Sony, you gotta fork them over. According to Forbes, while the date range of those documents has been limited, an FTC judge says that Sony does have to turn over a large number of documents, including perhaps some highly sensitive information that may show how much Sony has paid to third-party publishers to specifically keep their games off Game Pass, as Microsoft has accused them of paying these blocking fees in the past. It seems like so long ago that Microsoft, we learned that they came out and said that, hey, Sony pays third-party developers to keep their games off Game Pass. It was still when the review was under investigation in Brazil, because Brazil was just releasing all these documents for everyone to see. Now, what does that mean? Yes, they probably do pay third-party developers to not put their games on Game Pass, or to give them more incentive to put their games on PS Plus, or their platforms instead. But this whole time, through this whole process, Sony has been saying that, oh, once Microsoft holds the reins to Activision Blizzard's IPs and catalogs, they will not only make it exclusive to their consoles, but also to their subscription services, to Game Pass. And, you know, we're trying to make our own subscription service, PS Plus, and Nintendo has their own, so what about those guys? Now, so far, the CMA, the FTC, the EU, they seem pretty sympathetic to what Sony says about the situation. Sony will say one thing, and then one of these regulatory commissions will come out and say something very similar, or like the same, almost. So if Microsoft can come up with some concrete evidence, painting them as, hey, they're saying this, but they're doing exactly what they're trying to accuse us of, combined with these deals that they just signed with Nintendo with GeForce Now and Video, they can maybe sway people's opinions, the FTC, maybe the CMA, and make some progress on this deal. Good news if you want this deal to go through, bad news, I guess, if you do not want this deal to go through. And while, yes, this is very good news for Xbox and for Microsoft, but as of right now, they're still getting sued, so they gotta do all that legal stuff. The CMA, the UK boys over the pond over there, they just seem like totally not about this deal, man. They are just like, nope, nope, nope, to everything that Xbox is trying to do. So it seems they still got an uphill battle in the UK, but again, it's a pretty decent progress, a pretty decent news for Microsoft. Hopefully we'll get an official word on an official actual approval by the European Union. As of right now, I'm filming this on a Monday. Haven't heard anything definitive as of yet. Anyways, guys, that's all the news I have for today. Thanks so much for watching, and we'll see you in the next one.