Lets talk: Trainz and Xbox (or on consoles in general)

[wreeder]

I don't really know what to make of this news. On one hand, any increase is sales is good for the survival of N3V Games in today's market where game developers are disappearing every week. But the XBox market is very different from the PC game market. Console games are very much oriented around online multiplayer games where team play and smack talk is common. There are exceptions of course but that type of game dominates the top games. Also, the key to high revenue is to be part of the Game Pass system where users pay a monthly fee to have access to a library of games which they can choose. Lower tier is mostly old games, mid tier is a few newer games that have been out for a while and the top tier is the newest releases. Fees can be as high as $30 a month I believe. How well will a train sim do in that setting?

Then there is the overall health of the XBox market. Lots of stories out there of sales being down compared to Sony's Playstation 5. It seems like the Xbox division is struggling to retain market share and attract the top game releases to their platform. But who knows. Maybe this is a good move.

 

[pware]

One just hopes that it does not end up like Auran's move into role playing games with their offering of Fury. That sank like a "furry stone" and took Auran with it. The company was resurrected as N3V which has stuck with the Railroad Sim/Game model ever since. Because the planned XBox version is also in the same "game" genre (apologies to the "its not a game, it is a real world sim" crowd), I suspect that it is unlikely to bring about the demise of N3V. But, as you say, if it increases sales and brings more attention to the real sim (i.e. the PC version) then well and good.

I will watch with interest and high hopes.

 

[grazlash]

It will be interesting to see if it plays well on the One X on cloud play, most other high end games do.

 

[wreeder]

It will be interesting to see if it plays well on the One X on cloud play, most other high end games do.

I have wondered if that was the real goal of MPS. To have a version that could be played entirely online.

 

[PhilChorusch01]

I have wondered if that was the real goal of MPS. To have a version that could be played entirely online.

It would be awesome if that's the case!

I have played multiplayer on the Bairnsdale to Orbost route in TRS22 and the gameplay was pretty good

 

[rwk]

My male cousin and a guy at my church has an Xbox X. My cousin is 50 like me, and the guy at my church is maybe in his 40's. How many retired old guys are on here who play Trainz? There must be a lot. There are adults who own gaming systems, maybe they bought them for their kids but my cousin and his son played football games together he told me.

 

[HiBaller]

My male cousin and a guy at my church has an Xbox X. My cousin is 50 like me, and the guy at my church is maybe in his 40's. How many retired old guys are on here who play Trainz? There must be a lot. There are adults who own gaming systems, maybe they bought them for their kids but my cousin and his son played football games together he told me.

I'm 82 and I've been running Trainz for over 20 years. Not on an X-Box. All of my computers have been desktops with big screens. Loved it when LCD screens came along.

Bill

 

[rwk]

I'm looking forward to Planet Coaster 2 coming out on Nov. 6, I already preordered it but I need Win 10 or 11, I'm on Win 8.1, and an newer gen processor like an i7 10th gen, I have an i7 8th gen, and a 6 or 8 gb graphics card preferably an RTX 2070 for ray tracing. I plan on getting a cheap one on ebay used this month or next month. I'll keep my current computer which is several years old and has Trainz on it. Planet Coaster 2 is an improved version with water park stuff and I'm sure there will be free and paid add ons down the road. I hate though when new games force you to buy new hardware to play them. Planet Coaster 2 will also be on Xbox S/X and PS5 but I don't have those systems, I sold my Xbox S months ago and I have 2 PS3's, Xbox 360, Japanese and US PS2 slims, and older systems including a Sega Saturn. Console versions of this amusement park building game sequel will have a building limit where you can only build so much per park unlike the Windows version. I had Theme Park for PS1 and RCT 1-3 on Windows, and there is a game called Parkitect but I lost it and RCT3 and Planet Coaster 1 when I had an issue with Steam and I uninstalled it and reinstalled it and now the window won't appear when I load it, but it runs in the background. I'll have to install it on the other computer when I get it. Steam stopped supporting Win 8.1 at the beginning of this year but it continued to run for me until a couple weeks ago. I'll have to install both Planet Coasters 1 and 2 on the new computer and rebuy RCT3 for $19, maybe I will rebuy Parkitect later. My Steam account was hacked earlier this year and I created a new account and rebought Planet Coaster.

 

[pware]

Loved it when LCD screens came along.

At least those old CRT screens kept you warm on cold winter nights.

 

[ricomon35]

At least those old CRT screens kept you warm on cold winter nights.

LCD screens emit alot of heat too, since they have backlights. LED screens don't really emit much noticeable heat since they have very good heat dissipation systems

 

[JCitron]

At least those old CRT screens kept you warm on cold winter nights.

Back in the day, my cats would vouch for that. They kept themselves warm on top of my old NEC Multi-sync monitors with the large flat case surrounding the very warm CRTs.

 

[Barnetta07]

Hello,
is there something new with Trainz on xbox? There was an email, last month, where you could register, but no more information.

 

[wreeder]

Hello,
is there something new with Trainz on xbox? There was an email, last month, where you could register, but no more information.

None that I have seen or heard. There is a good chance that the people chosen as testers had to sign a NDA.

 

[hiawathamr]

Yesterday N3V released their Xbox trailer

Cheers

 

[wreeder]

Interesting that Microsoft is now running commercials highlighting the new XBox app for PCs and handhelds. Anyway, I hope the console version does well for N3V. I'm really tired of seeing so many game developers go under.

 

[AFdude06]

Yesterday N3V released their Xbox trailer

Cheers

I watched it today. If the gameplay in the trailer was actually from a Series X/S, it's quite impressive considering how hard Trainz hits hardware at high graphics. I will say the frame rate is most likely locked to 30 though, unless N3V did some serious work optimizing the game when they re-coded it for Xbox. I wonder if it will have a 4K native resolution option?

Cheers

 

[Forester1]

The graphics definitely appear better than my 22PE.

 

[ricomon35]

@AFdude06 - Do you have another link for the video? Or, the video title?
The link you provided reads "Private", so inaccessible.

Searching for Xbox Trainz Trailer brings up nothing.

 

[wreeder]

I think we can assume that it was made public by mistake since there is no formal announcement yet.

 

[AFdude06]

@AFdude06 - Do you have another link for the video? Or, the video title?
The link you provided reads "Private", so inaccessible.

Searching for Xbox Trainz Trailer brings up nothing.

I think we can assume that it was made public by mistake since there is no formal announcement yet.

The link in my post was actually from quoting @hiawathamr, so I do not have the source. I saw the video because I received a Trainz Newsletter email with link to the video.

Cheers