Xbox Sales Tumble, Fallout 4 Next Gen Update

After riding a high for weeks after the release of Amazon Prime’s Fallout show, it seems like Bethesda’s flagship franchise has hit a bump in the road. The highly anticipated Next Gen update for Fallout 4 is available now wherever you can play the game, but everything is not going according to plan with bringing the 2015 GOTY into 2024.

When you think of a ‘Next Gen Update’, you probably think you are getting upgraded graphics, enhanced features and capabilities to meet the standards of newer games, and some nice bells and whistles along with it, but that’s not what happened. While current gen console players have seen subtle improvements to the game, PC players have experienced a multitude of issues. Here are a few:

• Saved games with mods are completely broken

• No graphical improvements

• Game crashes when using the new Weapon Debris settings

I’m sure the PC modding community and Bethesda will work towards fixing the issues that have popped up after the recent update, but it is funny that a game that was already known for weird glitches and bugs now has more of those after being brought into the NEXT GENERATION.

Xbox has been in a rough spot recently, but last week MS CEO Satya Nadella had some good news for loyal Xbox fans. Xbox Game Studios now has 7 games in the top 25 on the Playstation store charts! That’s good, right? Xbox games selling well on other consoles show that there is a general interest in the titles that they have been developing, but there is one key metric that Nadella left out when discussing 2024. Xbox console sales are down 31%.

31% is about as bad as you can stomach if you are working on the console development side of the Xbox division. If that isn’t bad enough, sales will likely continue to decrease as the year progresses. It’s an all around bad situation for Xbox hardware right now, so if the rumors of a new Xbox are true, sooner rather than later would be the preferred time.

Game Recommendation

This week’s game recommendation is an oldie, but always a goodie, Portal. Portal was one of the first puzzle games that really pulled me in with it’s mind-bending portal physics and fun storyline driven by robot overlord Glados. Even after playing the game at release, I still find it fun to revisit and find weird things you can do with the game. In fact, while I have moved on to other games, some people have continued to play, and break, Portal to a point where speedrunners have been able to finish the entire game in ~10 minutes. Check out the video below to see a Portal speedrunner explain how he breaks the game to the people who actually built the game.

Cheat Code

This week’s cheat code is a life cheat code! It may sound corny, but 10 minutes of meditation a day can really help put your mind at ease and relieve stress that accumulates over time. I was never a huge proponent of meditation until I tried it out myself.

There are tons of great meditation apps out there for those needing a little guidance. I use Calm, but here are some other great free meditation apps you can use:

• Insight Timer

• Smiling Mind

• Oak