Microsoft Studios (& Partners) Current and Future Landscape
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Is that really all your going on, thats quite a leap considering SOD2 isn't some AC:O budget so it doesn't need to be $60 (and probably shouldn't.) SOD2 is 100+ devs 4-5 years, has a UE4 license. In terms of world size State of Decay 2 should be a bit bigger than oblivion and Skyrim, SOD2 has three maps each the size of SOD1's map. The maps are also a lot more detailed, each map is also going to be visually different. The original game had around a couple hundred traits, SOD2 has well over a thousand. The original has between 4-5 million sold, this is nothing like Recore. If it is actually £25, then I don't see what the reasons to worry are. The E3 demo behind closed doors had universal positivity, all that matters is if it's a good game. Recent screenshots we have got from the game, show the game progressing along well. Also here is some stuff Dusk Golem posted back at the end of November, the way MS is marketing these games has some people nervous.
"It makes sense, without saying too much I know someone working on the game and this game was delayed to further polish the title (it's in Crunch right now), it got a 6-month extension just to polish/finish it up, plus added this game had extra work from the original due to net-coding (as it can be played single player or 2-4 people online co-op)."
"I also can say this I think, the E3 showing of the game was bad for a few reasons. I can't comment on the final game since, well it's not done and still has several months of crunch ahead of it, but the E3 showing... I'm choosing my words carefully since I don't want to get anyone in trouble, but the studio didn't want to show the game at E3 as it wasn't ready enough but Microsoft wanted them to, so they did. What's shown at E3 is very contained since there was a lot unfinished outside of that area when they showed the trailer, they originally wanted a playable demo at E3 but the game wasn't far enough along to be showed well let alone played by the public at E3 time (to note the E3 demo like all E3 demos started development months before E3, so it was based on an even older build at the time).
The game has come a long way since its E3 showing, but if anyone's worried the E3 showing was what the final game will look like: Don't be. It was more it was too early of a showing.
If anyone from Undead Labs or Microsoft reads this, don't worry I'm not saying anything more than that but I think I didn't say too much. Anyways it's a positive thing, I think many gamers may think the E3 showing was some finalized thing, but it was very much a WIP."
Also the game won't have any micro-transactions, the game will instead like the first have paid DLC. Their current plan is to release two more maps after launch, just like SOD1 be prepared to wait a while for them.
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Fair enough, although it's unusual for literally every outlet to speculate full price only for it to be budget priced in the end.
But the game is on gamepass, like every upcoming Microsoft exclusive, so WHY does the price matter?
Will we argue about Halo's / Gears / Forza's price once they announce them?
Datum: The digital version of SoD2 on Amazon's UK site remains at £49.99 despite the physical copy being £24.99.
Datum: The digital version of SoD2 on GAME's website remains at £49.99 despite the physical copy being £24.99.
Datum: SoD2 is still $59.99 for both physical and digital versions on Amazon's US site.
Datum: Only two retailers in one country have lowered the price of the physical version to £24.99.
Datum: The digital version of SoD2 on GAME's website remains at £49.99 despite the physical copy being £24.99.
Datum: SoD2 is still $59.99 for both physical and digital versions on Amazon's US site.
Datum: Only two retailers in one country have lowered the price of the physical version to £24.99.
Sure, but I think we can cross that bridge (i) if it happens, and (ii) after we know more about the game beyond expectation and speculation.
Lmao
*Oh no I'm afraid because a couple retailers have the game for a low price* *It probably isn't an error* Says guy who knows he's an insider and using purposeful language to indicate this could be something more than it really is.
I'll have a laugh when this turns up to be nothing significant.
*Oh no I'm afraid because a couple retailers have the game for a low price* *It probably isn't an error* Says guy who knows he's an insider and using purposeful language to indicate this could be something more than it really is.
I'll have a laugh when this turns up to be nothing significant.
i've been playing it for a few months already actually it's a good game.
Right now I'd take any news good or bad. Having this widespread markdown of it's retail price come out of leftfield means the void of silence from MS will be filled with negativity and misinformation. This is basic stuff about how you bring your product to market that I learned in year one at Uni. My disappointment is more for Undead Labs than a marketing fuck up if I'm being honest, this is marketing 101 shit.
MS should market Fable Fortune more. I know it's not their game, but it is their IP. The game is good enough to receive the attention.
Honestly, I'm surprised about the lack of info on SoD2 at this point. There should of been some media blitz by now. I feel that MS takes too long to do this sometimes. If there was more info and media, I don't think people would be concerned about the price if it looked good.
Well we should be getting one more screenshot tomorrow, thats your marketing lol.
Man like this sounds good n all but like... man idk. I just look at this list and feel so meh. Ori 2 I do want but idk. Hope the hall thing is good.
Ori and the Will of Wisps is unlikely to be 2018 though. It's certainly possible but March/April 2019 seems more realistic. That said, we do have Ashen and The Last Night launching this year.
Sea of Thieves looks fun, and it was enjoyable to play, like I had a bunch of fun, but I can't really justify buying it.
I'm so sick of zombie games man. I'm so sick of zombie everything. At least give me a unique twist on them.
I don't know why but I just have zero excitement for Crackdown 3. Maybe I'll play it and it will just totally grab me. I hope so. But idk nothing about it looks seriously fun for me. The art maybe? I don't know.
Forza Horizon 1 was great. Forza Horizon 2 was good but not near as good. It lacked the atmosphere and personality 1 had. The map was also huge and less focused. Bigger but then less detailed. Forza Horizon 1 was my first and only 1500G game. Love it to death. One of the most enjoyable runs to 100% I've ever managed. 2 wasn't very fun to 100% at all. I was so burnt out from it I couldn't even get excited for Forza horizon 3. The world looks just as empty. Just as full of filler content. The same races over and over. Idk. I haven't got it yet, but I hope it's got a good variety and keeps it fresh like 1 did.
So when it comes to another one....I haven't even played 3 so the concept of 4 coming out just seems exhausting. Japan would definitely help me get excited tho.
343 has gotten me to the point of halo where I just don't care. Of course, when they announce something, in like eyy I gotta play this. But then I play it and I'm like :|
So right now I'm not excited. Completely and utterly unexcited. When they announce it I'll get excited unless it's a card game or something. Then when I get it I'll be disappointed again probably. Hope not I guess.
Ori 2 sounds great. 1 was good. I actually haven't talked about how I was kind of disappointed by 1. Kind of a long post. I like it enough to buy whatever 2 is.
Game pass I have no interest in and cannot afford not care to deal with the hassle of. I play games at eratic paces. I don't want to buy a month and then feel forced to play what's in it.
Overall though the biggest thing in all of these. Just kind of tldr. I'm tired of it all. I really like Microsoft games historically. But there's just nothing new here to get excited about. Sea of Thieves is no longer new. I have experienced just about everything there in a weekend. Really fun for that weekend but I can't care about it any more. Sick of zombies. Crackdown is an old IP. Forza Horizon will be the fourth entry. More 343 halo. Another piece of Ori content.
Like it's just none of it excites me. It's just old stuff or stuff that gets old really quick. Idk.
I think gamepass might appeal to more and more devs of AA studios and AAA games that didn't sell to many copies intially.
I Wouldn't be too surprised if THQNordic teams up with games pass for its games.
I Wouldn't be too surprised if THQNordic teams up with games pass for its games.
Maybe you should just consider getting another console platform then really. If this list doesn't excite you at all I doubt anything Xbox offers in future will.
This is why you just pay $10 monthly for Game Pass to play Sea of Thieves instead of $60.
Im most excited about Crackdown 3, but it's development have me worrying. Forza Horizon and mystery Halo games I don't count cause they are not announced. Ori 2 will be awesome, but is most likely a 2018 title.
State of Decay 2 will be bought unless it contains the same eurojank as the first game.
But if you will only play SoT from the game pass and sub to it longer than 6 months, it'll cost more.
State of Decay 2 will be bought unless it contains the same eurojank as the first game.
But if you will only play SoT from the game pass and sub to it longer than 6 months, it'll cost more.
Forza Horizon should be counted because that's literally a bi-annual game. Next year will be Motorsport 8. Forza is literally an annual franchise. It's no different than assuming there will be another Madden and COD this year. I still think Ori 2 is early 2019 but... *shrug*
Some games that haven't sold well should get onboard with MS now before it becomes so popular that they won't get a good deal with them. Once XGP gets more popular, MS will have the upper hand in negotiations depending on who the developer is obviously. I think Capcom may start putting their games on there seeing as they are pretty adventurous with MS stuff recently with RE7 being XPA and now MvC:I being XPA. I wouldn't be surprised if both games go to gamepass to sell that DLC.
Dead rising would be a decent game for gamespass, it hasnt really sold great; But I'm also thinking about the more experimental games. THis could give more flexibility to studious down the road. Hey, Games pass lowered the Risk Assessment on a new IP so ya'll have X now to do a new IP
That's exactly what Phil was talking about for Single Player games by them and how Game Pass allows that to happen. It's the same thing with riskier games by 3rd parties. This is MS' future, it's clear as day.
Really? That's good then. I didn't read any impressions during E3. So what did they say?
The year started off nicely when it comes to news for Xbox but now this negavitiy, I don't like that. Hopefully they properly start the marketing for this game soon. We waited long enough. Whether it's a budget priced title or not, it's time to see what's new, what's it gonna look like and the improvements over the first one.
For those reading my tweets, I've heard from multiple places that State of Decay 2 isn't a "full price $60 title," and that the prices listed by GAME UK and Amazon are not errors. Trying to get definitive proof of that or confirmation from Microsoft, but it seems likely that they weren't ready to discuss the game's price just yet. I trust the sources of this info, but as always, stand by for confirmation from an official source. Sorry for the vagueness for those who care.
talkin about 4? god no it sucks
id hate for it to be the BIG NAME of some month
What if 1st party games from Ms being cheaper is party of the strategy?
By putting all new games on Gamepass they sure hope the revenue from these games come mostly from the subscription rather than sales. But then you make them so cheap so anyone that doesn't sub also buys your game.
That way you achieve a insanely high player base, and since most of the revenue came from the subscription the extra sales are just that, extra sales/revenue.
It would be a extremely aggressive strategy, but I think it would work.
By putting all new games on Gamepass they sure hope the revenue from these games come mostly from the subscription rather than sales. But then you make them so cheap so anyone that doesn't sub also buys your game.
That way you achieve a insanely high player base, and since most of the revenue came from the subscription the extra sales are just that, extra sales/revenue.
It would be a extremely aggressive strategy, but I think it would work.
Doubt it
Microsoft dropped several franchises and partnerships for not being profitable enough. Selling games cheap doesnt seem like something they would do
I think the simplest answer is State of Decay 2 was priced accordingly by Microsoft relative to it's budget and the marketplace. That's it.
Thanks, fingers crossed that it's true. Having to pay less is always a good thing.
Crossed my mind as well. With the Game Pass announcement it's obvious that direct sales revenue is not all they're after.
Not about 4, instead about the continuation of the franchise
Additionally, I saw State of Decay 2 behind closed doors at E3 and have spoken to people who worked on the game. There's confidence about the title from Microsoft, and it has been described as "AAA," to me by multiple people, although their idea of what "AAA" is might differ from the general community's. I was told by Jeff Strain that Undead Labs is doubling down on the simulation elements from the first game, and there are richer dynamic narrative systems that create a story based on the emergent things that happen during play. I'm quite excited to see what emerges from the labs personally, as a fan of the original, full price or not.
So while still being a full fledged triple A title they would actually cut the price in half? Not only Game Pass people would greatly benefit from that but also the ones that just buy the games from the store. I'd be more than ok with that strategy. Hopefully that's the case and not actually the game being much smaller in content and everything else, like MS thinking it's just not full price worthy.
If this is their strat going forward then all they are doing is devaluing their IP's and software. Game Pass I agree is the future for distribution going forward. But I feel MS's approach could bite them in the ass if the subs are not there, and if the subs are not there then you have only sales from PC/xbox at a lower price that may not drive revenue and margin.
Thing is they are being so aggressive on GAME PASS because their other efforts for the software have not done so well, and they think if their titles are not strong enough for individual sales then putting them on a service is a better way to get exposure for those games.
It just seems weird that they are going in so hard on this, when really they just need games to be good and presented well. I find it weird that no one else is really rushing into this even EA access I believe has a grace period for big titles on their service. If someone can chime in, do big games like Battlefront 2, battflefield 1 launch on the same day on the service?
If not why is MS doing this for their big exclusives, unless they don;t have faith in them being strong enough to garner enough attention in growing the player base.
I find it odd that we havn't heard anything from Nintendo pre Switch for a 3DS type service for new releases, same with Sony.
I guess we will see if this pays off for them or if it damages their revenue intake if they don't get enough subs.
Good game is good game. Fuck price...and as I told you on twitter: "Don't care. GamePass"
Thanks Jez. Even if "AAA" in this case means a $40 title, I'm looking forward to it.
So guys, just an update: I just talked to Undead in the Discord on behalf of all of us and we AREN'T getting info this week.
I said "You said info is coming in February" and Nicole basically said "Yes and your February info is the two new screenshots we gave you."
RIP.
I said "You said info is coming in February" and Nicole basically said "Yes and your February info is the two new screenshots we gave you."
RIP.
I have no idea. If I had to guess, probably after Sea of Thieves is out there. Microsoft's marketing team tends to focus on one thing at a time, in my experience. I'm surprised we haven't seen gameplay already, considering the E3 build I saw seemed pretty fleshed out. Might be that they took feedback from those previews to make changes, which is effectively what happened with Crackdown 3.
State of Decay 1 launched June 5th 2013. If they launched it June 5th 2018 (tuesday), it would make perfect sense for a 5th anniversary of the franchise. It also is before Summer starts.
That would also make it 2/3 months of marketing on SoD2 if they started right after Sea of Thieves.
That would also make it 2/3 months of marketing on SoD2 if they started right after Sea of Thieves.
But that's kinda the point, the revenue now won't come from selling games, it will come from subscription. At that point it makes sense to make the games super cheap because if someone doesn't sub it will have a higher chance of purchase. Which also pleases the retail market, as cheap items would sell more.
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