The next part of it is super important:
Microsoft shifted the project to a producer who wanted to double down on multiplayer rather than drop it like the other one.
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Kotaku: Microsoft’s new studio acquisitions show how much Xbox has changed
- Thread starter Theorry
- Start date
The next part of it is super important:
Microsoft shifted the project to a producer who wanted to double down on multiplayer rather than drop it like the other one.
You don't think Sony could throw up a ton of old games and then upload their first party catalog to a service and then charge monthly for it? Am I missing something with Gamepass? My understanding is that it requires you to download games within the service and pay a monthly fee to keep them active. This is something Sony likely could do in mere weeks if they wanted yes, just like how MS reacted with their games with gold back then. The only disadvantage Sony would have right now is not having PS3 emulation to run their last gen catalog, but they have plenty of PS4, PS1 and PS2 options to choose from.
MS needs to learn to compete on a unique level, you know, like they did with their most popular system that existed (360)
The X was a brilliant move. It's selling very well and it's a statement.
Xbox won't be pushing underpowered boxes like the One going forward.
Releasing Scarlett a year earlier with no games to support it would have been a mistake.
If it was so easy to set up the infrastructure needed and business model with the 3rd parties, it would have happened already. MS has Azure which is top tier for SaaS and takes lots of time and billions of investment.
Sony and Nintendo will do it and can do it no doubt, but it's not as simple as you make it out to be.
I can't imagine that the Star Wars ip owner would be interested in limiting their royalties to the manufacturer with the smallest userbase.
Well that was something that shouldn't have been left out of the OP then. lol
You should make a thread about it...throw a poll in it too.
literally no.
Their first party output in the last few years has been abysmal. How can you say such a thing so authoritatively with all the obvious evidence suggesting the opposite?
The Mattrick regime ran the Microsoft Game Studios operation into the ground, and the ball won't be fully rolling with them until the next gen as a result. This was, in many ways, a lost generation for the Xbox platform.
For those of you unaware it seems like the hierarchy at Microsoft for their gaming stuff is now:
Satya Nadella - CEO
Phil Spencer - head of xbox
Matt Booty - manages the studios
And then the studios report to Booty. He seems to have a very hands off approach. Only gives them support for stuff like administration, marketing, tech help etc.. If they ask for it.
Certainly not what has been described previously so I am excited to see what happens.
Satya Nadella - CEO
Phil Spencer - head of xbox
Matt Booty - manages the studios
And then the studios report to Booty. He seems to have a very hands off approach. Only gives them support for stuff like administration, marketing, tech help etc.. If they ask for it.
Certainly not what has been described previously so I am excited to see what happens.
Care to educate me on why Azure is needed to run Gamepass effectively? I also have doubts Sony would struggle with license deals considering their the ones getting the marketing, content and outright exclusive deals this gen. What makes Gamepass something too difficult for another company to achieve specifically? I'm trying to get an understanding of what MS brings to the table that no one else can reasonably do in short time.
The best thing for all of us is when all 3 companies were fighting for our dollar using unique content. The original Xbox and 360 were excellent propositions for the customer, creating some quick money making services that can be emulated if desired is not going to keep you in the game forever. I personally don't want MS to go, I want them to revert to pre 2009 360 era.
I'm a Nintendo fan for life, so they're not leaving the first place. But Microsoft buying two of my favorite cRPG studios and forza being so much fun catapulted them straight to the second place among the big three!
This gen can't be saved, but next one will be exciting. I just want Rare to become top tier again... SoT was not what I expected from them.
This gen can't be saved, but next one will be exciting. I just want Rare to become top tier again... SoT was not what I expected from them.
You need to stop thinking about hardware, I know that will make the NPD threads a lot less interesting for a lot on here but I envisage a future where xCloud and Game Pass will be the pillars of Microsoft's gaming division, even above Xbox itself. They'd rather have thirty million Game Pass subscribers than sell eighty million consoles. They will still keep making hardware but you can see the move coming with a lot of the acquisitions they have been making and of course all of the above funnels into Azure.
Lol I remember Mattrick shifting focus away from games for a time to gimmicks like Kinect and "OMG you can watch TV on Xbox!!1".
Dude was a hack.
You know, I hadn't even considered that.
This is all on his shoulders...and I don't even know who this guy is.
Here we are talking about Phil, Phil, Phil...and the changes Satya has made as CEO...but it really is up to Booty to make this happen.
Your's is a great post.
Come on Kotaku, don't say stuff like this without having evidence that this may actually happen. :(
Cloud gaming is not going to replace the monetary impact consoles have soon, especially not this coming generation. The same sort of mentality was stated before when people wanted online only consoles without disc drives, we saw how people reacted to PSPgo and Xbox One before launch. Cloud stuff will be an option but it isn't what the entire world wants. Most game sales seem to happen in the holidays and if you can't even go to the store to buy the content it won't exactly bode well. No one wants to hand little Timmy a gift card under the tree, people want tangible items, that will diminish but it's not going to be soon.
Cautiously optimistic. 2017 was probably a huge wake up call for MS, since in that year:
-Scalebound's development collapsed under the weight of its own feature creep (presumably) due to MS wanting a studio known for its single-player games to make a "service" game
-Sony had an unusually good crop of console exclusives, most of which were SP games with no significant online component and many of which were only exclusive to Playstation because the devs didn't think an XBone version would be worth the effort
-Meanwhile, the most critically acclaimed console exclusive MS had was... Cuphead, an indie side-scroller with no online component.
Not saying they aren't going to fuck this up, but I highly doubt that after all that MS bought a bunch of studios known for single player titles so they could have them make microtransaction-infested "service" games.
-Scalebound's development collapsed under the weight of its own feature creep (presumably) due to MS wanting a studio known for its single-player games to make a "service" game
-Sony had an unusually good crop of console exclusives, most of which were SP games with no significant online component and many of which were only exclusive to Playstation because the devs didn't think an XBone version would be worth the effort
-Meanwhile, the most critically acclaimed console exclusive MS had was... Cuphead, an indie side-scroller with no online component.
Not saying they aren't going to fuck this up, but I highly doubt that after all that MS bought a bunch of studios known for single player titles so they could have them make microtransaction-infested "service" games.
No. Its Sonys overall reluctance to move away from a hardware based model to a service based one.
I just feel that Microsoft across the board is doing alot of groundwork that will pay off next generation whereas Sony doesnt seem to be investing in their network and services in the same way.
I think Sony will still remain the console of choice for the casual market globally, but next generation they will lose the hardcore and a healthy chunk of the US market to Microsoft.
if they plan to grow them into AAA then all the better. as for the second part, Obsidian hasnt made a AAA rpg this generation. and the industry has vastly changed since then in terms of AAA production.
all the better. the wording of the article made it sound like they will just have financial security while making the same type of AA games.
Some (former) XBO exclusive games are one steam - Quantum Break, Sunset Overdrive has an entry, etc so it's not out of the realm of possibility.
Windows Store and UWP are both hot garbage and anyone "in the know" already has enough knowledge to stay away, so unless they want to develop games with the possibility of being DoA due to a shit platform (windows store), they might consider it.
I think he meant more in terms of directly competing with them in terms of releasing a box every 6-7 years, instead expanding their user base by building their cloud streaming to fend off Google and Amazon and bolstering their PC support to compete with EA, Ubisoft and Activision/Blizzard and their storefronts.
Digital distribution was shunned upon last generation, people were still buying DVD's and Blu Ray was this big thing.
The way we consume entertainment products has come a long way and that is seen by how game stores are struggling to survive.
They have always stated so many times that they are not going to abandon the console market.
If you're anything familiar on how SaaS offerings work, it needs huge cloud infrastructure to make it happen. How do gamers on almost any device (mobile, console, pc, etc) on any network able to access their content, games, account, etc? It's quite damn complex and on top of that if you have a game across different ecosystems (ie xbox live + nintendo online services) further creates headaches.
You need a super robust and industry leading cloud architecture in order to do that. Azure is near the top when it comes to cloud and it took years to get it where it is now with billions of invested.
Sony / Nintento cannot just 'buy' their way into this. They cannot simply just say buy AWS and make this work, it's not that straight forward. Unless they have been secretly brewing this for years, we won't see their equivalent for awhile.
well, we already know due to the new CEO and their recent business moves that they are in fact investing in network and services. they already have PS Now, and you believe streaming is where the hardcore market is going? im not really following your logic.
They already have this system, PSNow. Its not as smooth already because they are trying to bolt things on to an existing service. Which itself already has baggage from it starting with PS3. I'm guessing a lot of this will get sorted next gen.
Even if they wanted to just redo it, you are missing something. Can't speak to specifics of Gamepass. But we can all see two examples of where things that you imagine to be easy end up not being so. PSN name changes and when Xbox wanted to copy PS+'s instant library.
As we're still seeing with the name change stuff, a lot of backend issues prevented this "simple" request. As far as GWG Microsoft couldn't do temporary game licenses. The work around was giving away the titles away on 360. The store on the One (and Windows) is basically an entire rewrite that enabled temp licenses, allowed stuff like EA access to be offered.
Digital distribution wasn't shunned, people embraced it very happily on 360/Wii/PS3, the issue people had was it being the only option because of the (still currently an issue) forcefully high prices. People who want an all digital future are simply fools and don't know it. Losing all need to compete on price as well as losing the potential right to download your software in the future if the company so desires it. Some are alright with the idea that banning their account can also nuke their entire owned library as well, it doesn't mean we should be. Companies are slowly forcing this on us by shipping us unfinished games and what have you, but that's putting the gun to the head of the consumer who just wants to play.
If MS launched next gen with a cloud service and Sony with a traditional PS5 console, then MS as a competitor would become a distant memory, i'd pay money to see the forum reaction to that alone.
The initial project concept when MS went to Obsidian was an online RPG.
Basically what happened is MS wanted this grand online game, with huge raids. Obsidian went for it but then over time Obsidian started to just want to make a regular RPG because they weren't going to hit X1 launch.
Then MS cut it.
From my perspective it was a case of MS asking a lot but it was more Obsidian promising something it couldn't deliver on.
I know, obviously they're doubling down next gen with two consoles, what I meant was not just focusing on Sony, but looking at other parts of the market (PC, cloud streaming).
Sonys approach to services is trying to sell you more subscriptions to non-gaming type stuff. Vue, Spotify, Crunchroll, Video unlimted, Netflix etc. Great for a casual audience, but not hardcore facing. PSnow is a half hearted initative that has had la whole generation to find its niche and still hasnt.
Microsoft is pushing Gamepass, EA access, Mixer, Discord :- Specfic services related to hardcore gaming. They have bought Havok to ensure they have fingers in the middleware pie.
Like I said, I dont consider Sony "doomed" by any stretch of the imagination. But they seem ok with ceding more of the Hardcore ground to Microsoft. Thats fine at the end of this generation, but unless Sony have some massive surprises instore, the start of Next gen Microsoft is gonna be off to a running start and Sony will have a hard time building the same momentum they did this gen.
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I was quite happy to see Matt Booty announcing the acquisition of Obsidian and inXile.
Phil is great, but he picked Matt to fulfil his old role for a reason, and everything Matt has said in terms of his approach to first party games and acquisitions sounds great.
I hope to see more of Matt more often, I feel very confident MGS are in good hands under his leadership.
Exciting times for the Xbox, for sure. These acquisitions combined with GamePass make me more interested in and hopeful for the Xbox brand than I have been in nearly a decade.
1. On one of his interviews after E3, Phil Spencer said that they are investing on a framework to try and deliver games to as many devices as possible. If it is outside PC and console e.g. phone, tablet or streaming device, it will be digital.
2. Digital distribution and consumption of entertainment through this medium continues to grow. People that love better quality music or uncompressed audio get music CD's or Blu Ray discs. Most simply do not care because they are not that interested in a drop in quality that has to be pointed to them. It is not hard to see why the Ubisoft CEO said that it will be one generation and then everyone will be streaming. I do not think we will get to that after the next generation, but we might see an environment where majority of people are embracing a fully digital gaming environment.
3. Stop fear mongering. How many people have built a collection on steam? How many have lost their entire collection? How many are trading keys? There is a lot that is working well on the PC ecosystem that the console space has not caught up to and may never catch up to. You will also not see companies banning buyers and discouraging potential consumers. It won't happen.
They have the infrastructure to do all of that. It would be silly for them to leave money on the table especially with ever increasing internet speeds and reach.
Too soon to tell in my opinion. If all those studios stay open for the next 3 years, then i will believe there was a change.
So you beliefe hardcore gamers in the USA will not buy a PS5 when games like GoW 2, Horizon 2, or the next Sider Man game is coming ?
Or when games like Tlou2, GoT, Death Stranding etc are cross gen, hardcore gamers will have no interest because of some Xbox services ?
I doubt that.
Microsoft has always been on the the cutting edge of game ideas. I don't have an Xbox, but the only thing that seems to have changed is their PC support. They had many studios before but didn't really release all that much that appealed to me back in 2010.
They seem to be in the same place they were before and still lack the same thing, which are attractive first party games.
But they've always been the place that had the superior versions of games. I bought the Xbox original just to play a better looking gta with custom soundtrack :o
They seem to be in the same place they were before and still lack the same thing, which are attractive first party games.
But they've always been the place that had the superior versions of games. I bought the Xbox original just to play a better looking gta with custom soundtrack :o
It's nice and all to have these studios working for them but I'll wait until I see the games before I pass judgment.
Steam is pretty great, but digitally on Xbox/Nintendo/Sony consoles are way too controlled by their platform holders because no one keeps them in check. If Steam went all nazi on the users the nature of the platform itself would come and eat them alive. Sony bans your account and purchases though? Good luck dealing with that. It's a legitimate concern.
If you think the battle is still about how many boxes you can sell, you haven't been paying attention at all.
No one will be banning your purchases. Can you imagine the class action law suit that would follow? Stop the fear mongering.
No one is losing hundreds of millions, possibly billions by being that silly.