The PC performance and price of the ultimate edition were definitely why I didn't pick it up at launch despite being a huge Forza Horizon fan. I would not be surprised if the poor performance was bad emough to affect sales for 3 and then for 4. A lot of people don't bother to say "well hey maybe they fixed it this time," unless they're already interested.
Didn't Sony have a major "E3 winning moment" by announcing they essentially acquired Kojima and whatever shenanigans he'll ever come up with? Years later and we still know jackshit about his upcoming game, too. I don't see anything odd with announcing that certain renowned studios are now working on improving your console's game portfolio.
Jackshit other that it's name, what it looks like, what engine it's running on, that he hopes to have it out before the Tokyo olympics in summer 2020 and even snippets of gameplay.
I wouldn't call it flaunting, it's was there to address to their customers that they are fixing a problem, that they now have the investment and focus to do that. It's more of a messaging and overall move to try and change perception, I don't know why it would creep you out though they aren't doing it in a ostentatious way.
At first I thought this was a compliment. That you like how they tell the audience directly about new studios instead of only to investors and leaving the actual buyers in the dark.
You think way too complicated.
... they're showing their commitment to first party because that same audience is worried about the future, and Microsoft doesn't have those games to show yet.
Would it? This E3, we only knew about Playground. Undead Labs, Compulsion Games, The Iniative and (especially) Ninja Theory were all surprises.
You weren't following the old MS OT.
Developers getting in with a publisher/console manufacturer to shore up their financial future makes a lot of sense. It's far less "fucking /weird/" than a major entertainment brand purchasing the the entertainment sector of another major brand. If it was Microsoft buying EA, Take2, etc. I would probably agree.
The initiative they could obviously keep a secret because it barely existed, a lot of us also guessed that Darrel would announce a new studio at E3. Undead Labs, Compulsion games and Ninja Theory as Phil said all luckily lined up for them to do the announce at E3 in their letter of intent phase. Media outlets like Waypoint knew about some of the acquisitions before the conference, now that MS has clearly put forward that they intend to expand more, media outlets like Kotaku and Polygon will be on the lookout for them. It would still be artificially limiting them, you can't keep a deal like that secret for long enough that you keep E3 for acquisition announcements.
I would say Obsidian fits perfectly to his description.
They did? I thought KojiPro was still an independent 3rd party studio simply working on an exclusive project. Like Insomniac.
This sounds good. I think growing these studios will work much better than flat out trying to create a AAA studio from the ground up. I think iteration is key in game development, and smaller studios with smaller projects can iterate faster and grow into AAA studios with much more robust workflows.
They’re flaunting it because it’s what gamers who’ve invested in Microsoft’s ecosystem have been asking for.
Obsidian fits into that category perfectly actually, but currently they are tied up with T2 (Private Division) on a mid tier project.
Bummer.
Yeah the "triple AAA blockbusters" Matt is talking about are games like Anthem or Halo Infinite with 800+ and 500+ working on them. Between that and indie is the old definition of AAA (100-200+), it's also not the focus they just want to diversify their lineup. We are seeing the likes of EA now also focusing on that, for a similar reason as MS to pump out more content for their subscription.
There are actually plenty, from 4A to Obsidian etc. Neither studio breaks the 200 mark, being around the 150 mark. But even smaller there are studios like Gunfire games and more.
This quote seems to give us an idea on what studios Microsoft may look into acquiring:
I’m not sure. Perhaps they are looking for some Japanese studios at this point to have more of a global presence?
Yeah they must be looking for japanese studio if you look at this quote : "There is value in having studios in different parts of the world as those teams bring unique points of view and unique talents to game development. "
Who's going to be the brave soul to create a thread about this?
Remedy ship has sailed now they are a IPO also. MS had the chance to get them for years and never did. Resulting in Remedy changing their company abit to be relevant in the future.
Take-Two has too a program for games like that, but they haven't any subscription. Ubisoft too publish some small games.
It's Take Two, not 2K. Their new mid-tier division is publishing Obsidian's new game.
I don't think it really matters if outlets know or don't know about this stuff, as this kinda thing is always prone to leaking. Still, they were pretty good at keeping the acquisitions a secret.
It's honestly weird that you find it creepy. How is announcing that their investing in studios ro make more games for their platform a bad thing for Xbox owners?
I know it's Private division, but too many 2's and too many K's lol
T2 is more than likely due to the fact they haven't had any real success outside of their core IP recently (Battleborn, Evolve etc), also not releasing much outside of those core IP's. Being a medium publisher, at least in comparison to EA, Activison even Ubisoft. They probably want a more sustainable way to grow, Ubisoft does it because thats more their ethos as a company. EA and MS seems to be making it far more of a focus, with both clearly gunning for the subscription market. But yeah there is definitely a realisation in the industry that as these big tentpoles become fewer and fewer, these mid tier games are far more sustainable and pad out their quarters.
Interesting, sounds like there will be more new studios built from the ground up like The Initiative, in addition to more acquisitions.
