Not all of Sony's games have to be winners for them to demonstrate a consistent level of quality. Same with Nintendo.
Same with Microsoft.
Not all of Sony's games have to be winners for them to demonstrate a consistent level of quality. Same with Nintendo.
But they bought Obsidian, they are starting a new studio that should be making a new big franchise and expanding Playground in a bid to have them make a game rumored to be Fable.MS's own Matt Booty said this:
Seems pretty clear. Their already big studios will continue making AAA games, but the new additions are looking at more frequent releases, smaller in scope than AAA but bigger than what we conventionally term "indie".
So basically what you're saying is that Sucker Punch and Bend USE to put out better games but don't anymore. Got it.
Obsidian will put out some great stuff. Ninja Theory and Playground as well. Who knows about the other studios
HOLY CURSE WORSD!
And their first party efforts are still lacking. They need another.They have had major cultural shake ups since 2014 since they got a new CEO.
I don't think you've properly understood the question in the thread title or the OP.
And they're changing that....did you think that the day after Satya became CEO that he was going to hand Phil a blank check and tell him to go wild? It took years to prove to him that Xbox can be a core pillar of MicrosoftAnd their first party efforts are still lacking. They need another.
I'm confident they'll start putting out some great stuff in a few years. They wouldn't invest all this much buying studios for nothing.
A first party turnaround for MS is in no way guaranteed IMO. And if gamepass really takes off and becomes a driving initiative for MS, that changes their incentive structure as far as what kinds of games to make and how much to spend on them. Like, you don't make a single player game comparable to God of War or Horizon in terms of budget and quality if you aren't confident you will sell millions of them at traditional retail prices. Putting them on gamepass is a great deal for the consumer, but it virtually guarantees a poorer return on investment per AAA blockbuster. Again, this is IF gamepass becomes a dominant paradigm and I'm talking several years down the road.
Now, for the consumer who is primarily interested in multiplayer or GaaS style games, if MS does go that way in this hypothetical future, I'm sure that consumer would consider it a positive turn for MS first party.
The list of first party games launching at retail and on gamepass concurrently is still quite short, and I believe (please correct me!) the only AAA ones are Forza 4 and Sea of Thieves (and I'm hesistant to put Sea of Thieves in that category). And Crackdown 3 is nowhere close to modern AAA level. Am I missing a big game? My only exposure to gamepass has been free trials on PC so I'm not fully knowledgeable about the library.While this is true, according to Spencer the first party games they've put on Game Pass has sold better than expected. Now, we don't know their projections, but still.
I'm not confident they made the right acquisitions at all. Not one bit, Obsidian will make a good game, yes but the rest doesn't make a difference to XBOX consumers. Compulsion haven't produced any high quality titles, and now face a battle to prove that they can after the lukewarm reception of We Happy Few, and the same is true for Undead labs.
Playground games makes sense, but doesn't make a difference to XBOX one consumers... it's up in the air whether we see anything good out of The Initiative, and Ninja Theory are hit and miss. 'More games like Hellblade' are what they want to create, and more games like that, really aren't going to make a big impact.
The wildcard really is The Initiative. I think a big new IP from that studio could change consumer attitudes quite significantly, but we'll have to wait and see how that comes along. In any case, it's a long time off.
I think the biggest problem with Xbox division is lack of commitment with anything. They change the course all the time...Not really, at least not in the long term. During the first half of the 360 generation, MS had a studio stable that rivaled Sony's...then Kinect happened. Quite frankly I don't really trust MS not to completely change course for the worst. I also don't trust they'll have the patience to build up studios to get where they need to be.
Guerrilla Games had done nothing of note when Sony bought them. Killzone 2, Killzone 3 are all fantastic games, Horizon Zero Dawn is one of the best games out this generation. So what changed for Guerrilla from when they were making Shelshock: Nam 67, games like Killzone on the Playstation 2 and Killzone: Liberation to their improved output not only last generation, but also this generation?I'm not confident they made the right acquisitions at all. Not one bit, Obsidian will make a good game, yes but the rest doesn't make a difference to XBOX consumers. Compulsion haven't produced any high quality titles, and now face a battle to prove that they can after the lukewarm reception of We Happy Few, and the same is true for Undead labs.
Playground games makes sense, but doesn't make a difference to XBOX one consumers... it's up in the air whether we see anything good out of The Initiative, and Ninja Theory are hit and miss. 'More games like Hellblade' are what they want to create, and more games like that, really aren't going to make a big impact.
The wildcard really is The Initiative. I think a big new IP from that studio could change consumer attitudes quite significantly, but we'll have to wait and see how that comes along. In any case, it's a long time off.
And they're changing that....did you think that the day after Satya became CEO that he was going to hand Phil a blank check and tell him to go wild? It took years to prove to him that Xbox can be a core pillar of Microsoft
Five years is a long time, and yet their first party efforts are worse than they were during the early days of the Xbox 360
The list of first party games launching at retail and on gamepass concurrently is still quite short, and I believe (please correct me!) the only AAA ones are Forza 4 and Sea of Thieves (and I'm hesistant to put Sea of Thieves in that category). And Crackdown 3 is nowhere close to modern AAA level. Am I missing a big game? My only exposure to gamepass has been free trials on PC so I'm not fully knowledgeable about the library.
Also, "better than expected" can mean a lot of things. It could mean they knew the games weren't going to review very highly (like crackdown and sea of thieves) or it could mean they expected lowered sales despite high quality (i.e. Forza 4) because of the game's availability on gamepass.
It's an interested question and I doubt we're ever going to be given the numbers necessary to work it out ourselves, unfortunately.
Stacked with...Halo, Gears, and Forza. There is nothing Microsoft has released recently or that is upcoming that is even in the same ballpark as Nintendo or Sony's top tier efforts.There first party last gen consisted of Halo, Fable and Forza. Gears was made by Epic, Mass Effect by Bioware
This is the first time we've ever seen MS first party studio lineup so stacked.
Rare was 80-110 during all the SoT development. They are 200+ now that are splits in two teams. Not all Sumo digital was making Crackdown 3 campaign, they were and are still working on at least 2 other projects (Sega Racing Game and Dead Island)Both Crackdown 3 and Sea of Thieves were in development for 4-5 years with teams of 200+, hence I really don't think the issue was or is with budgets. To put that into perspective, the new God of War also had a 4 year development cycle with a team of 200+.