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In This Edition
- Xbox handheld is about more than install base
- IO Interactive talk Bond
- Lots of games announced at Summer Game Fest
We’ve been running around Los Angeles this week checking out all sorts of games, speaking to creators and executives and getting increasingly anxious about our first live event. It’s been a joy.
In today’s Show and Newsletter, we discuss some of the reveals, including the new Xbox handheld that’s been made with Asus (which we played). And we hear from IO Interactive about its new James Bond game.
You can read all the big stories below, or listen to the Show and get our thoughts on all of it, featuring guest host Andy Robinson.
Enjoy!
We played the ROG Xbox Ally X. But who is it for?
I played the Xbox handheld.
The big fancy one. The ROG Xbox Ally X. I played Gears of War Reloaded on it and it ran very well. The machine was comfortable to hold and it felt and looked like an Xbox, only with some of the benefits of it being a Windows device (namely, the fact it works with other stores such as Steam and Battle.net). The Windows operating system has been calibrated in a way that means I don’t need to mess around to get to my games, either. I’m very much on-board with it.
But who is the console for?
That’s not a barbed question. During the presentation of the handhelds that I sat through, Xbox talked about this being a way to get its games into the hands of more players. They kept calling it a console. They have a smaller ‘basic’ model, a bit like the Xbox Series S, which is clearly targeted at a broader audience (we don’t know the pricing just yet). Plus, Xbox announced a partnership with Roblox, the most popular (and mainstream) video game platform in the world, particularly amongst younger gamers. Notably, a hit kids and family game that isn’t available on Nintendo platforms.
So could the Xbox handheld secretly be aiming for Switch customers? Is this a genuine Switch 2 competitor?
I don’t think so. There is a potential that the ROG Xbox Ally might speak to a broader audience, but I doubt that’s the main expectation within the walls of Microsoft. No, these products are really about increasing ‘hours’ rather than users.
Relatively small sales, but still a big impact
The normal, non-Xbox, ROG Ally devices are PC gaming handhelds, akin to the Steam Deck. These handhelds are well-loved products, but they’re not exactly threatening Nintendo. Ampere estimates that there were 5.3 million PC gaming handhelds sold by the end of 2024 (4.1 million of those being the Steam Deck). The analyst firm expects that will reach 7.2 million units by the end of this year, and forecasts the install base to reach 12.9 million by the end of 2028. These estimates pre-date Xbox’s new announcement, but the firm isn’t expecting to revise these figures up significantly.
Nintendo Switch 2 is expected to sell more than that over the next six months alone.
PC gaming handhelds are not huge. Not in terms of install base. But they are still potentially lucrative and a can play a significant role for third-party developers, including Microsoft.
Steam Deck is promoted as an extension of Steam. A means for PC players to continue playing their games when they’re not sitting at their desktop. There will be some gamers that might use the Steam Deck as their primary device, but that’s not been the pitch of these machines, and it shows in the numbers.
Steam Deck and the ROG Ally appeal to some of PC gaming’s most enthusiastic players. The ones that play the most, that play the biggest variety of games and, crucially, spend the most money on games.
Steam Deck has proven to be a successful way to enable the biggest PC gamers to play more, complete more games, buy more games and spend more money on in-game purchases. It may not be a huge audience of players, but it’s a very lucrative one.
It’s possible Xbox’s new partnership with Asus will mean they can reach more players. Whether that’s completely new gamers, or perhaps lapsed users who (like me) don’t quite get as much time to game on the TV these days. But really this is about Xbox’s existing PC and console customers.
If these two handhelds make it possible for existing Xbox (and Windows) players to play more games and engage for longer in Game Pass, then it doesn’t need to sell multiple millions of units to have a strong positive impact on revenue.
I just hope that fancy X model is affordable. Because it’s made my Christmas list.
IO Interactive planning a Hitman-style live-service approach to James Bond
The new James Bond game from IO Interactive will feature challenges and other live-service additions post-release, the Hitman developer has told The Game Business.
The move follows the firm’s experience with its game Hitman World of Assassination. The World of Assassination is a combination of three Hitman games (2016’s Hitman, 2018’s Hitman 2 and 2021’s Hitman 3), and despite being a single-player experience, has been continually updated with challenges, new modes, special limited missions and more.
IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak said it’s too early to share what post-release support will look like for 007 First Light, but that the firm will be putting its experience with World of Assassination into the new Bond game. Abrak revealed that World of Assassination continues to sell more and more each year due to IO’s approach to supporting the game, and has now sold over 25 million copies and reached more than 80 million players.
“We obviously have tons of experience now from World of Assassination, tons of experience on how to extend a single-player experience, and keep giving desirable free content to players,” he told The Game Business.
“The first objective with 007 First light is to come out with the best and most impactful journey for the players. Again, without going too much detail, you could expect that we'll be applying some of our learnings from World of Assassination to Bond as well.
“The thing with 007 First Light, apart from creating these living social spaces, we have really upped our stealth, we have really evolved our action aspects of our technology and features. Seamless combat, coming in and out of range and melee… for Hitman, it was interlocked animations, but here it is freeform. We saw the driving of the car in the trailer. So there’s driving different exotic cars and whatnot. This all gives us more challenges to play with. In Hitman, you have these live challenges and whatnot. So besides the things that we are able to do in Hitman, we can do more actiony things or more kinetic challenges in Bond.
“Soon we'll be talking about what happens after the campaign.”
007 First Light is one of the big games shown during the Summer Game Fest event. The first trailer debuted at PlayStation’s State of Play event on June 4. A cross-over between James Bond and Hitman was announced during a segment on the Summer Game Fest presentation on June 6. And it even had a standalone moment as part of IO Interactive’s showcase on the same day.
We will have more from our interview with IO Interactive’s Hakan Abrak next week.
Meanwhile…
Xbox’s big showcase took place on Sunday June 8, and featured a slew of new games. The event was a bit of a celebration for developer Obsidian, which announced Grounded 2 (due July 29) and revealed a whole load of details around The Outer Worlds 2, which is out October 29. That means the studio will have released three games this year, having launched Avowed in February.
Other key first-party announcements included Keeper from Double Fine, and there was an extended look at the excellent looking InXile title Clockwork Revolution (but still no release date).
More games announced during the Xbox event included Super Meat Boy 3D from Team Meat, High on Life 2 from Squanch Games, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy from Asobo Studio, Aphelion by Dontnod, There Are No Ghosts at the Grand from Friday Sundae, Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf from Wishfully Studios, Beast of Reincarnation from Pokémon developers Game Freak, Persona 4 Revival from Atlus, Invincible VS from Skybound Games and Aniimo from PawPrint Studios.
Resident Evil 9: Requiem received its first major unveiling at Summer Game Fest on June 9. The horror game returns to a destroyed Raccoon City and features a new playable character. It’s billed as an ambitious reinvention for the series.
Other key game announcements during the Summer Game Fest show was a full reveal for Stranger Than Heaven from Sega’s Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, a new Scott Pilgrim game, Square Enix’s 24-player murder mystery title Killer Inn, a Wu Tang game called Rise of the Deceiver, A Game of Thrones RTS title called War for Westeros from Australian studio PlaySide, horror game ILL from Team Clout, anime action sequel Code Vein II from Bandai Namco, plus a number of release date reveals for titles such as Dying Light: The Beast (August 22).
Away from game reveals, Tencent acquired 15% of Helldivers 2 studio Arrowhead last year, it has been revealed. The $80 million investment values the Swedish developer at $533 million.
Ubisoft's Mark Rubin has announced he is leaving the industry after live service shooter XDefiant went offline. Rubin is best known for his work at Infinity Ward on the early Call of Duty: Modern Warfare titles.
That’s it for our first Summer Game Fest Newsletter and Show. Stay tuned this week as we put out videos from our event The Game Business Live. See you soon.
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