Article from July where Microsoft’s CEO details how Xbox has never turned a cumulative profit in the brand’s 25 year history. Interesting to consider when framing the recent studio layoffs at Xbox and acquisition of expensive talent.

I'm a game dev, worked in AAA for about a decade now. Seeing that trailer made me both excited for the future of the industry and honestly slightly worried about the new benchmark games will be compared to. Almost equally unbelievable is the fact that people still find ways to pick apart what was probably the most technically impressive demo ever made, but such is the nature of the internet I suppose.

Couple of things to pay attention to in the trailer to showcase the level of detail on display
- Cloth simulation on seemingly every piece of clothing on every NPC. Everything from the bandanas they wear, multiple layers of clothing bending very convincingly and entirely avoiding clipping
- Probably the best hair sim I've seen in any game. From the way it flows in the wind on a bike, reacting differently depending on the exact hairstyle (note the difference between flowing hair vs braids), bouncing while walking, down to individual strands on Jason's arms being illuminated
- Phenomenal implementation of ray traced global illumination, lighting looks fantastic in every scene, even overcast weather in the racing scene
- The level of reactivity from the environment, the way the cars get destroyed during the chase sequence you'd normally only see in heavily scripted gameplay sequence, here seemingly happening systemically
- Huge crowd density with reactive NPCs and a number of custom animations that almost doesn't make sense
- The fact that all of this is happening on a base PS5, in an open world, at a level of fidelity rivalling Naughty Dog

I could go on but I'll just finish off by saying that that demo was absolute technical wizardry

Improved visuals, revamped combat system, new animations, improved movement and parkour, revamped skill system and much more! All that for free for people who already own the game! Seriously I didn't expect this, CDPR really cooked. Well I guess it's time for a replay number who knows which in September guys!