Hey everyone. I wanted to introduce myself & say hi to those I’ve known for years. I’m Bryan, I used to do a podcast/twitter called Sacred Icon for half a decade with a friend of mine. Last Chalice is just me, hoping to bring that passion back again. Its good to see you🤘🏻

I do not like day one games with Game Pass. Gears of War: E-Day is a product I am very much looking forward to. With a reported budget of 400 million dollars and it being only available on platforms that don’t require you to pay for it, the project is guaranteed to never be profitable. I’m not bothered that it’s an exclusive, I have both a gaming PC and an Xbox Series X. While the argument can be made this much shouldn’t be spent on creating a single video game to begin with, it’s certainly not wise to sell E-Day this way. There will be some who claim that I or others “shouldn’t worry about it”, but I think that’s reductive. Not only is it obvious that many of us have a passion for gaming that far exceeds playing them (we enjoy the industry itself) but I also want these products to succeed. I do not mind paying money for the games I play. Wouldn’t we rather pay full price for games we love and/or allow them to be on other platforms if it means the teams behind these projects get to make more and be rewarded handsomely? It’s also an age old rebuttal to say “but no one minds when PlayStation and Nintendo have exclusives” which drags the entire conversation down to the lowest common denominator of console warring. Insanely high budgets aren’t smart for any company, but let’s not pretend they’re in the same position as Xbox. If God of War: Laufey costs $400 million it will sell to an audience of over 100 million PS5 consoles and will not be given away on a subscription service. This is a massive difference. Player’s also spend far more per unit on Sony’s ecosystem than Microsoft’s, leading to additional revenue streams of consequence past the expensive AAA game release. When it comes to Nintendo, their budgets are dramatically cheaper to begin with. Their software will also sell in the tens of millions far more frequently than their competitors. Look, I love Xbox and I love a good deal, but day one AAA Game Pass games haven’t made sense for a long time and I’m not entirely convinced console exclusives do either. I think hardware needs exclusives to sell, but E-Day on an Xbox Series X|S in a time when the consoles are too expensive to produce and a small number of people want to buy them to begin with is not it. Game Pass was a great Hail Mary early on, renewing interest in the brand with an extremely affordable price and budgets that hadn’t ballooned beyond all reason, but those days are long behind us. Countless acquisitions have been made to feed the machine, including Call of Duty which was fought in court for only to be removed from the service within two years after everyone told them it would never work. The Game Pass experiment failed, it’s time to move on.

Halo has been an active part of my life for 22 years. It’s had highs and lows, but it’s never been bad. Games, books, movies, figures, the TV show, Bungie, 343, Halo Studios…all valid reasons to love this franchise. Halo: Campaign Evolved will be another great time.

Link. The Hero of Time. Peak version of the character.

I’ve been a fan of Xbox for over 20 years. I own and enjoy every system. This is not console warring, but truth. I have been watching Xbox fumble, mislead, backtrack, change direction and kill all goodwill so many times that I firmly feel more comfortable keeping my distance from investing in the platform. It brings me no joy to say this, it’s just a simple reality. This past week has been a tale as old as time, there is hype and excitement and it’s almost immediately followed by bad news. It makes the hardware and ecosystem hard to recommend.

You have to admire Nintendo. They make some really odd decisions, arguably ones that are to their detriment, but they march to the beat of their own drum and it pays off more often than not. No chasing failed live service like Sony or giving away exclusives like Xbox.

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis has just as much sauce as your most anticipated game. Lara Croft kicks so much ass.

Xbox morale is the highest it’s been since before the launch of Starfield. - New logo, achievements, rebrand to XBOX, stripped co-pilot - Cheaper Game Pass - Forza Horizon 6 was fire - Gears of War: E-Day looks amazing - Halo: Campaign Evolved looks insane - Fable is a 2027 GOTY contender - Exclusives are back - Xbox honoring 25 years Feeling this good about the brand didn’t seem possible just a few months ago.

Halo. Been talking about the franchise on here for 7 years and I can honestly say this is one of the most positive moments I’ve seen for the franchise across the board. Genuinely happy for Halo Studios, it’s a great beginning to a new era.